Lead Stories

Trump says he’ll decide whether US will directly attack Iran within 2 weeks

President Donald Trump said Thursday he will decide within two weeks whether the U.S. military will get directly involved in the conflict between Israel and Iran given the “substantial chance” for renewed negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear program, as the two sides attacked one another for a seventh day. Trump has been weighing whether to attack Iran by striking its well-defended Fordo uranium enrichment facility, which is buried under a mountain and widely considered to be out of reach of all but America’s “bunker-buster” bombs. His statement was read out by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. Earlier in the day, Israel’s defense minister threatened Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei after Iranian missiles crashed into a major hospital in southern Israel and hit residential buildings near Tel Aviv, wounding at least 240 people. Israel’s military “has been instructed and knows that in order to achieve all of its goals, this man absolutely should not continue to exist,” Defense Minister Israel Katz said.

As rescuers wheeled patients out of the smoldering hospital, Israeli warplanes launched their latest attack on Iran’s nuclear program. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he trusted that Trump would “do what’s best for America.” Speaking from the rubble and shattered glass around the Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba, he added: “I can tell you that they’re already helping a lot.” A new diplomatic initiative appeared to be underway as Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi prepared to travel Friday to Geneva for meetings with the European Union’s top diplomat and counterparts from the United Kingdom, France and Germany. Britain’s foreign secretary said he met at the White House with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and envoy Steve Witkoff, to discuss the potential for a deal that could cool the conflict. “A window now exists within the next two weeks to achieve a diplomatic solution,” Britain’s David Lammy said in a social media post after Thursday’s meeting.

Read this article at Associated Press - Subscribers Only

Hancock resigns to join the Comptroller's office

State Sen. Kelly Hancock has resigned from his post in the Texas Legislature to become the next Texas comptroller, according to a press release Thursday. Hancock, a Republican from North Richland Hills whose district includes portions of Fort Worth and Arlington, is replacing current comptroller Glenn Hegar, who is stepping down from the position to become chancellor of the Texas A&M University System, the system announced in March. On June 18, Hancock resigned from his position in the Legislature, according to the Texas Senate website. He will begin his role as comptroller on July 1. Hegar swore Hancock in as chief clerk on Thursday morning at the comptroller office in Austin.

“The comptroller’s office exists to serve every Texas taxpayer,” Hancock said in a press release. “Whether it’s safeguarding your tax dollars, ensuring transparency or implementing forward-thinking initiatives like education savings accounts and broadband expansion, this office plays a vital role in driving Texas’ continued economic success.” Hancock will serve out the remainder of Hegar’s term as comptroller, which is up election in November 2026. Shortly after being sworn in Thursday, Hancock launched his campaign for comptroller in a video posted on his social media pages. “For over a decade, I’ve fought for Texas taxpayers in the legislature and I am ready to do the same as the chief financial officer of Texas,” Hancock wrote on Facebook. See his announcement video, here. Gov. Greg Abbott released a statement Thursday endorsing Hancock for Texas comptroller. Among the “many reasons” to endorse Hancock, Abbott listed the North Texan’s experience in business and education, along with one more thing. “I endorse Kelly Hancock because I want a candidate who will actually win the election, not someone who has already lost an election to a Democrat,” Abbott said in a statement.

Read this article at Fort Worth Star-Telegram - Subscribers Only

Trump's economic 'golden age' meets Fed's brass tacks

President Donald Trump's inauguration promise in January that "the golden age of America begins right now" remains unfulfilled in the outlook of Federal Reserve officials who so far see his policies slowing the economy, raising unemployment and inflation, and clouding the horizon with a still-unresolved tariff debate that could deliver a fresh shock in coming weeks. The U.S. central bank's response has been to put planned interest rate cuts on hold until perhaps the fall while the debates over tariffs and other administration priorities unfold, and to project a slower eventual pace of rate cuts to a higher stopping point. Effectively it embeds steeper borrowing costs into Fed policymakers' outlook to insure against inflation they now see as higher in coming months than they did before Trump took office for a second time.

That isn't welcome news for Trump, who has called Fed Chair Jerome Powell "stupid" for not slashing rates immediately. It is no more welcome for U.S. consumers and homebuyers hoping for lower financing costs. And it puts the Fed somewhat out of step with other central banks that continue to lower rates. But it does highlight how much Trump's early policy moves, particularly on tariffs, have reshaped the short-term outlook for the world's largest economy, which at the end of last year was seen on track for continued above-trend growth, full employment and inflation steadily falling to the Fed's 2% target. The steady series of rate cuts policymakers anticipated just six months ago has been replaced with a more tentative path as they wait for Trump's final decisions on tariffs and watch how the job market, consumer spending and inflation evolve.

Read this article at Reuters - Subscribers Only

Dan Crenshaw pushes 'counter-insurgency' strategy against Mexican cartels

Seven years after Mexico declared a cease fire in their war against the drug cartels, Congress is weighing spending billions of dollars to help a new administration in Mexico renew the fight against organized crime. At the center is Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Houston, who is heading a new House cartel task force and pushing a counter-insurgency strategy that would not only send U.S. military equipment and training to Mexico but also use the expertise of agencies like the FBI and CIA to help strengthen the country's law enforcement and intelligence networks. With new Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum signaling she plans to abandon the laissez-faire approach of former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador and with President Donald Trump trying to halt the flow of fentanyl and other drugs into the United States, now is the time to go after the cartels, Crenshaw said in an interview this week. "We are fighting a counterinsurgency war alongside our Mexican partners, and we need to resource it and strategize," he said. "There's a lot of opportunities now that did not exist a year ago."

The push by Crenshaw, a former Navy Seal who says he's been studying Mexico's drug trade for the past two years, comes at a time the cartels have amassed incredible power within Mexico. Their reach extends beyond the trafficking routes they use to move drugs and people, to business, law enforcement and the government itself, said Tony Payan, executive director of the Center for the U.S. and Mexico at Rice University. Last year a U.S. judge sentenced Genaro Garcia Luna, the former secretary of public security in Mexico, to more than 38 years in prison after he was found guilty of helping the Sinaloa Cartel smuggle cocaine into the U.S. for decades. And Sinaloa Gov. Rubén Rocha, a member of Sheinbaum's Morena party, has come under scrutiny over alleged ties to the cartel there, which he has denied. And with many other Mexican politicians suspected of coordinating with the cartels, giving them more military resources and sharing intelligence could backfire, Payan said. "It's been tried before. I don't see the novelty in the proposal," he said, explaining the George W. Bush administration employed a similar strategy to uproot the cartels, with mixed results. "Today more than ever, the links between government officials, governors, mayors, secretaries of state, politicians, party leaders and and organized are evident."

Read this article at Houston Chronicle - Subscribers Only

State Stories

Beto O'Rourke is using his platform and town halls to recruit midterm candidates

Beto O’Rourke isn’t sure if he’s going to run for office again. But the Democrat told me in an interview that’s not entirely the point of why he’s traveling the state holding rallies this year in a way that's similar to what he did during his campaigns for governor and the U.S. Senate. He has another series of town halls kicking off at 6:30 p.m. on June 27 at Stable Hall in San Antonio. While he wants to give the public a platform to speak out, he also sees an opportunity to use the events to recruit people to run for office themselves, which he said would improve the prospects of whoever runs for U.S. Senate. “One of the big reasons we got so close to beating Ted Cruz and a big reason you saw so many transformational changes that year was because of the candidates who were running in different positions on the ballot,” O’Rourke said about his 2018 campaign, when he came within three percentage points of ousting Cruz.

He said while he tried to run the best campaign he could, he benefited greatly from the energy down the ballot, which included races for the Texas Legislature, county commissions and even for local judgeships. That year, Democrats flipped two Republican-held congressional districts, 12 state legislative districts and key county judges races like in Harris County. “We know that when we have that [energy], not only do we win some of these races that we weren’t supposed to win, but it sends votes to the top of the ticket,” O’Rourke said. He said there’s a professional, political world out there that tries to convince people it is harder to run for office than they think. O’Rourke himself was just a small businessman in El Paso when he decided in 2005 to run for the city council. “It’s as simple as just meeting the people you want to fight for in person and having conversations with them,” he said. “And that’s what these town halls are for.” At a rally in Humble two weeks ago, O’Rourke once again said he hasn’t ruled out running again for office, maybe for U.S. Senate. Republican John Cornyn is up for re-election in 2026, and several Democrats are already eyeing the race. He told the crowd of about 1,500 people that his aim was to “do what is right and best for Texas.”

Read this article at Houston Chronicle - Subscribers Only

The scheme that broke the Texas Lottery

When a “purchasing group” won a ninety-five-million-dollar jackpot, the victory caused a scandal in a state where opposition to legal gambling remains widespread. Illustration by George Wylesol On Wednesday, April 19, 2023, the Lotto Texas jackpot was seventy-three million dollars. There was no winner that night—there hadn’t been a winner for the past ninety-one drawings—and so the pool of money rolled over. By the next drawing, that Saturday, it had reached ninety-five million. Dawn Nettles started getting worried. For the jackpot to have grown so quickly, sales volume must have been ten times what Nettles thought was normal. “I knew right then,” she told me. “Somebody was buying all the combinations.” Nettles is seventy-four, with cropped copper hair and the bearing of a gently exasperated elementary-school teacher. She lives in Garland, a suburb of Dallas, with her husband, a flight instructor, and she devotes her days to the Lotto Report, a publication closely tracking the Texas Lottery. In the three decades since she started the Report, Nettles has evolved from being an enthusiast of the lottery to perhaps its most biting critic.

There are plenty of Texans who oppose the lottery for moral reasons. Nettles is not one of them. Nettles came to feel that the Texas Lottery was being badly run, and was perhaps even corrupt. The Lotto Report became something of a watchdog publication, railing against rule changes and the lottery commission’s wasteful spending. The website version launched in 1998, and its look hasn’t changed much in the intervening decades. Its aesthetic could be summed up as “crank-adjacent”: there is an overwhelming amount of erratically capitalized and bolded text, punctuated with exclamations like “Unreal!” and “Unbelievable!” and “If you have high blood pressure, don’t read any further!” In 2014, Nettles told the Texas Tribune that she was spending fourteen to sixteen hours a day keeping tabs on the lottery. She showed up at commission meetings, made public-records requests, and scrutinized the director’s spending. She lobbied against a rule revision that allowed winners to remain anonymous and accused the commission of not paying winners their full share. (After an internal investigation, the lottery commission concluded that it had followed policy.) At one point, she says, the lottery removed her from its media list, so she no longer got official results via fax. “I thought, Fine, I’ll show you. So I got me a satellite feed so I could watch the drawings in real time,” she said. Rob Kohler, a former employee of the Texas Lottery, told me that, early in his career, he’d planned a conference for the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries. He got word that a group of protesters had shown up. “I was, like, Good Lord, who could be protesting this conference?” he said. “And there was Dawn Nettles.”

Read this article at New Yorker - Subscribers Only

San Antonio swears in younger, more partisan City Council

San Antonio swore in a new batch of city leaders on Wednesday — one that’s both younger and more partisan than the members they replace. Gina Ortiz Jones, a 44-year-old former Air Force Under Secretary who ran for Congress twice as a Democrat, took the dais for the first time amid cheers from supporters sporting “Madame Mayor” T-shirts — a nod to the optimism Democrats were feeling last year about their prospects of a first female U.S. president. By her side was a City Council with four new members who are also no stranger to the political arena: Former City Hall staffer Edward Mungia in District 4, 24-year-old progressive organizer Ric Galvan in District 6, political dynasty daughter Ivalis Meza Gonzalez in District 8, and longtime Republican activist Misty Spears in District 9.

Together they take the place of a generation of leaders who for years sought to avoid partisan labels — on a dais dominated by socially liberal, pro-business and pro-law enforcement views. The entire City Council elected this year will serve through 2029 before they must seek reelection. As the new and returning members stood together for their first press conference on Wednesday, Jones acknowledged the changing council, but said its members bring passion and a shared desire to see the city thrive. “I couldn’t be more pleased honestly, with the makeup of this council, the expertise, the leadership,” said Jones, who pointed to Galvan and Mungia’s past work at City Hall, as well as other members’ private sector backgrounds. “If you’ve heard any of them on the campaign trail, [you’ve heard] their true commitment to service … their willingness to fight hard and go to the mat and the things that matter,” Jones said. “It’s a very exciting time, and I know that I speak for my entire team when I say, ‘We’re ready to get to work.'” So far, Jones has hired a chief of staff: her former campaign manager Jordan Abelson, age 27.

Read this article at San Antonio Report - Subscribers Only

Arrest made in mass shooting threat against S.A. Jewish center

Authorities have taken into custody a man suspected of threatening to carry out a mass shooting at San Antonio's Barshop Jewish Community Center, city officials said. The threat prompted the center to abruptly cancel programs and services Thursday morning, including a summer camp and a swim practice for children, and it led the San Antonio Police Department to step up security at Jewish institutions across the city. On Thursday afternoon, city officials said the FBI had informed Police Chief William McManus that a suspect was under arrest. "This development significantly mitigates any further danger related to the threat. SAPD will continue to monitor the situation closely and maintain open communication with local Jewish organizations," city officials said in a statement.

The FBI said the suspect was in custody outside Texas. Authorities did not identify the suspect or the state where he was being held. "Based on our investigation, we don’t believe there is an imminent threat targeting the Jewish community in the San Antonio area," said a spokeswoman for the FBI's San Antonio field office. The drama began overnight, when the FBI said it received a tip indicating that someone was planning a mass casualty attack on "a Jewish Cultural Enrichment Center." The bureau's preliminary investigation led agents to believe the target was in San Antonio. The Barshop Jewish Community Center on the Northwest Side is a hub of cultural, educational, recreational and youth activities for the Jewish community. It is also the site of the Holocaust Memorial Museum of San Antonio. The FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force "began working with the San Antonio Police Department to investigate the potential threat," the FBI spokeswoman said.

Read this article at San Antonio Express-News - Subscribers Only

A time for choosing: Should House Dems break with collaborationism?

In the leadup to Texas’ 89th legislative session, the Republican leadership apparatus was under siege and the party in open warfare as the sitting House Speaker Dade Phelan decided not to seek another term with the gavel. This power vacuum created unbridled chaos among the GOP ranks, largely divided between those who aligned with Phelan and more mainstream House Republicans, and those right-wingers, including many who had just won their seats by ousting incumbents, who were seeking a total upheaval of the status quo. In the middle were 62 Democrats. Ever since Republican Speaker Tom Craddick was dethroned in January 2009, the Democratic caucus has delivered the decisive votes to choose the speaker. First for the more moderate Joe Straus, then Dennis Bonnen, and then Phelan.

At a high level, this has allowed Democrats to negotiate some concessions and horsetrading on legislation, to kill some very bad bills and make others better. But as the GOP has grown ever brasher in its pursuit of a radical conservative agenda, the fruits of that inside strategy have become ever-less bountiful. In late 2024, in the midst of the all-out speaker battle, Democrats found themselves with a chance to play things differently. They could stand by and watch the fractured Republican ranks duke it out, withholding their support until a speaker candidate met their demands—or otherwise they’d simply cast their votes for a Democratic speaker. For a moment, it looked like that’s what they might actually do. Then came the stampede. A couple dozen Democrats, many of whom had been a part of Team Phelan, lined up behind Dustin Burrows, a top lieutenant for the prior two speakers—and then came a dozen or so more. Burrows was perhaps an odd choice for Dems to rally around. The Lubbock Republican had carried the “death star” legislation to gut local control the previous session, and he was a staunch supporter of school vouchers. The case made by the so-called Burrowcrats was that he was the lesser evil—or, at least, the devil they knew—while his challenger and the GOP caucus choice, David Cook, was a more unknown commodity that the party’s far-right faction had latched onto

Read this article at Texas Observer - Subscribers Only

DOJ targets in-state tuition for noncitizens in Kentucky as Texas students fight back

Undocumented students and immigrant advocacy organizations are still reeling after Texas, earlier this month, swiftly sided with a U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit against its policy of permitting in-state tuition for undocumented students. The two-decade-old law, which Republican state lawmakers had recently tried and failed to quash, was dismantled within a matter of hours in a move some critics called collusive. Now the DOJ is employing the same strategy all over again—this time in Kentucky. The department filed a complaint in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky on Tuesday challenging the in-state tuition policy for undocumented students. The lawsuit, which names Democratic governor Andy Beshear, Commissioner of Education Robbie Fletcher and the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education, takes issue with a policy that allows graduates of Kentucky high schools who live in the state, regardless of citizenship, to access in-state tuition benefits.

“No state can be allowed to treat Americans like second-class citizens in their own country by offering financial benefits to illegal aliens,” U.S. attorney general Pamela Bondi said in a statement. “The Department of Justice just won on this exact issue in Texas, and we look forward to fighting in Kentucky to protect the rights of American citizens.” Beshear is trying to distance himself from the legal battle. Crystal Staley, communications director for the governor’s office, said in a statement that the office hasn’t been served with a lawsuit, nor did it receive advance notice or hold prior conversations with the department about the regulation. She emphasized that the in-state tuition policy was established by the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education more than a decade ago. “Under Kentucky law, CPE is independent, has sole authority to determine student residency requirements for the purposes of in-state tuition, and controls its own regulations,” Staley wrote. “The Governor has no authority to alter CPE’s regulations and should not be a party to the lawsuit.” The Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education also only became aware of the lawsuit Wednesday morning and reported that afternoon that it had not yet been served legal documents.

Read this article at Inside Higher Ed - Subscribers Only

CenterPoint, cities agree to $3.2B plan to make upgrades to the Houston-area power grid

CenterPoint Energy has reached a settlement agreement with various Houston-area cities to spend $3.2 billion to fortify its local power grid infrastructure against extreme weather and other hazards from 2026 to 2028. That money would go towards installing more storm-resilient utility poles, burying more power lines and stepping up tree trimming, among other improvements, as part of what’s known as CenterPoint’s “resiliency plan.” Once completed, the improvements would prevent nearly a billion minutes of power outages for Houston-area homes and businesses by 2029, according to a Friday announcement. “Taken together, we believe that these resiliency actions will help create a future with fewer outages that impact smaller clusters of customers, coupled with faster restoration times for our Greater Houston communities,” CenterPoint CEO Jason Wells said.

The upgrades, however, wouldn’t come free: CenterPoint said its resiliency plan would add approximately $1.40 per month for the average household each year from 2026 through 2028. Another 60 cents would be added in 2030 “to help lessen bill impacts in previous years,” according to the company’s statement. The $3.2 billion resiliency plan would also be lucrative for CenterPoint and its shareholders. Most of the agreed-to spending is for big capital projects such as new utility poles and other grid equipment, for which the company can earn a 9.65% return, essentially profit. The settlement agreement still has to be approved by the Public Utility Commission of Texas, the state agency that regulates Texas electric utilities, before taking effect. CenterPoint faced a rocky path to settling with Houston-area cities on its resiliency plan. Texas lawmakers first empowered the state’s electricity delivery utilities to file such spending requests in House Bill 2555, which became law in 2023. Utilities said that resiliency plans would help them better prepare for extreme weather by allowing them to secure approval for their desired spending up front. For other types of rate hikes, electricity delivery utilities are only allowed to recover costs that they’ve already incurred.

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Coin toss to decide tied Pasadena City Council race after runoff ends in deadlock

A coin toss will determine who will win a seat on the Pasadena City Council. The June 7 runoff election for the District B seat on the City Council ended with both incumbent Bianca Valerio and her challenger, Bruce Leamon, receiving 272 votes. “Please remember how important local elections are,” District C council member Emmanuel Guerrero said at Tuesday's council meeting. “A good example is currently in District B. There is a tie — very interesting circumstances. The same amount of voters came out and voted. One of y’all here could’ve made the difference.”

According to the Secretary of State's website, "if two or more candidates for the same office tie for the number of votes required to be elected, a second election to fill the office shall be held." The state's election code also states that the "tying candidates may agree to cast lots to resolve the tie." Additionally, a "written statement of withdrawal signed and acknowledged by the candidate," ends the tie. A statement from the city confirmed a coin flip at 11 a.m. at City Hall will decide the election on June 30. Valerio made history in 2021 as the first Hispanic woman elected to the City of Pasadena’s council. In 2023, residents re-elected her for a second term to serve District B. While Valerio’s future on the council remains unknown, Mayor Jeff Wagner, Councilmen Ornaldo Ybarra and Ruben Villarreal’s time has come to an end. Election results from the Harris County Clerk’s Office show Carlos Heredia Sr. received nearly 52% of the vote, while Villarreal only had 48% — 220 votes and 204 votes, respectively. For District G, Johnny Fusilier Jr. came out on top with 62% compared with his challenger, Amy Hinojosa, who had 38% — 603 votes and 376 votes, respectively.

Read this article at Houston Chronicle - Subscribers Only

Inside Joe Biden’s visit to Galveston’s historic Reedy Chapel to celebrate Juneteenth

Former President Joe Biden celebrated Juneteenth on Thursday at Galveston’s Reedy Chapel, reflecting on the importance of the holiday that he signed into law by visiting the city where Juneteenth was born. “It's an honor to be here in a city where freedom rang out 160 years ago,” Biden said. “Juneteenth is a day of liberation, a day of remembrance and a day of celebration.” Reedy Chapel is one of the sites where, in 1865, General Gordon Granger announced the Emancipation Proclamation signed two years earlier, effectively ending slavery in Texas. And while Juneteenth has been celebrated in Galveston ever since, it was not officially recognized on a national level until 2021, when Biden signed a law written by the late U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee designating it a federal holiday.

Biden's scheduled appearance in Galveston had been causing a stir since Wednesday, when local officials confirmed he would be attending Reedy Chapel's celebration at the invitation of the church. "I cannot even describe the feeling that he accepted our invitation to come," said Reedy Chapel Pastor Lernette Patterson. "It means a lot to us, especially since Reedy Chapel was one of the first documented places of celebration and where the emancipation announcement was posted on the door, so it means everything that he would want to come and celebrate with us." Patterson was a busy woman on Thursday afternoon preparing for the former president's arrival, hustling around the church grounds to distribute credentials to the lucky few who would be permitted inside for the evening service. She took some time, however, to bust a quick move on the dance floor of the sun-soaked parking lot next door, unbothered by the 87-degree heat bearing down on the festival. The DJ paused the music to encourage party-goers to take a tour of the historic chapel, just to change his tune a few seconds later. "The Secret Service is actually sweeping the church right now, so there won't be any tours at the moment," he informed the crowd.

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Texas A&M Chancellor John Sharp awarded U.S. Army's Meritorious Public Service Medal

Texas A&M University System Chancellor John Sharp received the U.S. Army's Meritorious Public Service Medal on Wednesday, ending his tenure by earning one of the military's highest civilian honors. Sharp will retire from the network of public universities and state agencies on June 30, after 14 years at the helm. He is credited with a major expansion of the system, including adding the RELLIS research campus and its George H.W. Bush Combat Development Complex, a testing facility created in partnership with the Army Futures Command. The service medal was awarded "for significantly advancing national defense capabilities" through the partnership.

"Chancellor Sharp’s extraordinary performance, professionalism, and dedication to duty are in keeping with the finest traditions of public service and reflect great credit upon himself, the Texas A&M University System, the United States Army Futures Command, and the United States Army," according to the Army's citation. Gen. James E. Rainey, commanding general of the Army Futures Command, gave Sharp the award at a Wednesday retirement reception. Sharp and Rainey both recalled their first meeting, where the chancellor answered "yes" to Rainey before he knew what he was asking, Texas A&M University System officials said in a news release. “One of the great traditions of Texas A&M is preparing soldiers, airmen and sailors to serve the United States,” Sharp said. “Our university system is built on patriotism and dedication to this country, and it is our great honor to do whatever the Army Futures Command asks of us.”

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Hundreds gather in Fort Worth for annual Juneteenth walk

While Opal Lee was sorely missed at her annual Juneteenth walk, her spirit was felt in the hundreds of people that participated in the annual Fort Worth event. Lee watched the walk from home on Thursday at the advice of her doctor, her granddaughter Dione Sims said. This comes after Lee was hospitalized last month in Ohio, where she was honored with the International Freedom Conductor Award at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. The original plan was for Lee to ride in her son’s truck ahead of the group, but Sims said she got a call early Thursday saying that the “Grandmother of Juneteenth” was staying home. Sims said that Lee was in good spirits and felt fine, but the reality is that she is 98 years old.

“I knew this day would come, but I’ve not wanted it to come,” Sims said. “I was talking to [Lee] Monday and she told me, ‘You got it. Just keep it going’.” The walk, which started in 2016, was held to lobby for having Juneteenth recognized as a national holiday. Since it became a holiday in 2021, the mission has shifted to educating people nationally about Juneteenth and its focus on freedom. This year’s walk began at 9 a.m. on Foch Street next to Farrington Field’s parking lot. Hundreds of people gathered in white and purple shirts, carrying signs and cheering each other on during the 2.5 mile walk. The distance of the walk symbolizes the two and a half years it took for enslaved people in Texas to realize they had been freed. On Juneteenth in 2020, Lee, a social activist and retired teacher, walked 2.5 miles from the Fort Worth Convention Center down Lancaster to the Will Rogers Auditorium. While it was bittersweet to not have Lee at Thursday’s walk, Sims said she’s grateful to those who showed up on this day of freedom. “I wondered if you guys would come out without her being here,” Sims said fighting back tears. “You showed out.”

Read this article at Fort Worth Star-Telegram - Subscribers Only

How a confessed child sex predator was deported, not prosecuted, after Travis County DA missed deadline

(Editor’s note: This story contains descriptions of sexual violence.) Last fall, a 54-year-old man sat in a white-walled Austin police interrogation room and admitted to an investigator that he had repeatedly sexually abused a young girl. Veteran detective Darrel Lambert had been taking confessions from child predators for years, but the level of detail that Mario Mata provided, including the dates and locations of the graphic acts, surprised him. “He acknowledged numerous incidents of sexual contact,” Lambert recalled. Soon after, police arrested Mata, the final step in an investigation that also included a physical exam of the 7-year-old girl and her statements to a counselor. Mata’s fate was now in the hands of the Travis County District Attorney’s office. But despite the weight of that evidence, prosecutors waited for months to secure an indictment against the man, a Mexican national in the United States illegally.

The office claims to have done so on the same day as a 90-day deadline that prosecutors must meet or else defendants are eligible for release. A judge disagreed, ruling that the clock had run out. The lapse established a path to freedom for Mata. Rather than facing prison, he would be transferred from county custody to federal immigration agents, who then deported him to his home country. The case demonstrates another consequence of prosecutors missing a legal deadline to indict jailed suspects: People in the country illegally face expulsion rather than being held accountable for crimes committed here, an outcome that advocates say denies justice to victims and poses continued danger. The American-Statesman and KVUE identified at least five suspects, including Mata, believed to be in the U.S. illegally who were transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in recent months after Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza’s office failed to secure a timely indictment. Among them was another man accused of sexually assaulting a child, 54-year-old Jorge Rodriguez-Hernandez, whom ICE had flagged for deportation if released on local charges. Both he and Mata have since been deported back to Mexico.

Read this article at Austin American-Statesman - Subscribers Only

National Stories

Trump rips into ‘too late’ Jerome Powell after Fed holds rates steady

President Donald Trump ripped into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Thursday, calling him “destructive,” after the central bank kept interest rates steady on Wednesday. Trump said “Too Late” Powell is costing the United States “hundreds of billions of dollars” by not cutting rates, leveling a familiar criticism against the Fed chair who has repeatedly ignored Trump’s pressure campaign to cut rates. “We should be 2.5 Points lower, and save $BILLIONS on all of Biden’s Short Term Debt,” Trump wrote Thursday on Truth Social. Trump also criticized Powell late Wednesday, calling him a “real dummy” in a near-midnight Truth Social post. Powell, whose term ends in May of 2026, said Wednesday that, “for the time being, we are well positioned to wait to learn more about the likely course of the economy before considering any adjustments to our policies.”

Trump’s remarks were in response to the Federal Open Market Committee keeping its borrowing rate targeted in a range between 4.25%-4.5%, which is on par with where it’s been since December. The criticisms were not surprising, as the president has long slammed Powell for not lowering interest rates. As recently as Wednesday morning, hours before the Fed was set to release its decision on interest rates, Trump said: “So we have a stupid person. Frankly, you probably won’t cut today.” “Europe had 10 cuts, and we had none. And I guess he’s a political guy, I don’t know. He’s a political guy who’s not a smart person, but he’s costing the country a fortune,” he said outside the White House. Trump even mused about appointing himself to lead the Federal Reserve, saying, “I’d do a much better job than these people.” Trump has said that he intends to announce his pick for the next chair of the Federal Reserve “very soon.”

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The frenzied pursuit of Wall Street’s low-profile all-stars

Billionaire Steve Cohen doesn’t like losing out on superstars. In December, the New York Mets owner made headlines for paying $765 million to sign phenom outfielder Juan Soto, beating out the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. Around the same time, Cohen and his investment firm Point72 were facing off against rival hedge-fund giants to poach a young stock picker who had become one of Wall Street’s hottest free agents. The price tag to land Kevin Liu escalated so quickly that one person familiar with the process likened it to an art auction at Christie’s or Sotheby’s. Citadel, Millennium Management and Balyasny Asset Management all tried to hire Liu away from Marshall Wace, where he had posted big gains trading tech stocks. With a five-year deal worth tens of millions of dollars, Cohen won out. The world’s most influential hedge funds are in a battle for recruits and they are fighting with escalating volleys of money.

Elite portfolio managers at hedge-fund firms can command pay packages of more than $100 million over several years, putting them in league with some of Wall Street’s best-paid executives despite being relatively unknown even within the industry. Capital has flooded into “multimanager” hedge funds, sprawling enterprises made up of semiautonomous teams that each deploy huge amounts of money. Perhaps the firms’ biggest challenge is finding enough traders with the skills to deploy it all. If profitably running a $1 billion book was table stakes a few years ago, top talent might now be asked to run $5 billion while raking in nine-figure investment profits. Big-name fund founders get involved to help close deals with sought-after new hires. Dmitry Balyasny, for instance, has been known to take candidates that his eponymous firm is courting on mountain-bike rides or to Central Park to play pickleball. At Point72, Cohen had dinner with Liu, who is in his early 30s, and offered to mentor him personally. Cohen traditionally prioritized developing prospects in house over splurging on stars. But he was willing to pay up for Liu, who signed with Point72 early this year.

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Juneteenth goes uncelebrated at White House as Trump complains about ‘too many’ holidays

Juneteenth, the holiday that marks the end of slavery in the United States, has been celebrated at the White House each June 19 since it was enshrined into law four years ago. But on Thursday, it went unmarked by the president — except for a post on social media in which he said he would get rid of some “non-working holidays.” “Soon we’ll end up having a holiday for every once working day of the year,” Mr. Trump said in mangled syntax, not mentioning Juneteenth by name nor acknowledging that Thursday was a federal holiday. “It must change if we are going to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, indicated to reporters earlier in the day that she was not aware of any plans by Mr. Trump to sign a holiday proclamation. In the past week alone, he’d issued proclamations commemorating Father’s Day, Flag Day and National Flag Week, and the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill — none of which are among the 11 annual federal holidays.

In response to a reporter’s question about Juneteenth, Ms. Leavitt acknowledged that Thursday was “a federal holiday,” but noted that White House staff had shown up to work during a briefing that focused primarily on the matter of whether Mr. Trump would order strikes on Iran. Mr. Trump, who has often used holidays as an occasion to advance his political causes and insult critics and opponents on social media, chose the occasion of Juneteenth instead to float the idea of reducing the number of federal holidays, claiming that they are costing businesses billions of dollars. While most federal employees get those holidays off, private businesses have the choice to close or remain open. Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, the day when a Union general arrived in Galveston, Texas, nearly two and a half years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, to finally inform enslaved African Americans there that the Civil War had ended and that all enslaved people had been freed. Months later, the 13th Amendment was ratified, abolishing slavery in the final four border states that had not been subjected to Lincoln’s order.

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Appeals court lets Trump keep control of California National Guard in L.A.

A federal appeals court on Thursday cleared the way for President Trump to keep using the National Guard to respond to immigration protests in Los Angeles, declaring that a judge in San Francisco erred last week when he ordered Mr. Trump to return control of the troops to Gov. Gavin Newsom of California. In a unanimous, 38-page ruling, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that the conditions in Los Angeles were sufficient for Mr. Trump to decide that he needed to take federal control of California’s National Guard and deploy it to ensure that federal immigration laws would be enforced. A lower-court judge had concluded that the protests were not severe enough for Mr. Trump to use a rarely-triggered law to federalize the National Guard over Mr. Newsom’s objections. But the panel, which included two appointees of Mr. Trump and one of former President Joseph R. Biden Jr., disagreed with the lower court.

“Affording appropriate deference to the president’s determination, we conclude that he likely acted within his authority in federalizing the National Guard,” the court wrote, in an unsigned opinion on behalf of the entire panel. The ruling was not a surprise. During a 65-minute hearing on Tuesday, the panel’s questions and statements had telegraphed that all three judges — Mark J. Bennett, Eric D. Miller and Jennifer Sung — were inclined to let Mr. Trump keep controlling the Guard for now, while litigation continues to play out over California’s challenge to his move. Mr. Trump praised the decision, saying in a Truth Social post late Thursday that it supported his argument to use the National Guard “all over the United States” if local law enforcement can’t “get the job done.” Mr. Newsom, in a response on Thursday, focused on how the appeals court had rejected the Trump administration’s argument that a president’s decision to federalize the National Guard could not be reviewed by a judge. “The president is not a king and is not above the law,” Mr. Newsom said in a statement. “We will press forward with our challenge to President Trump’s authoritarian use of U.S. military soldiers against citizens.”

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So, has anything actually gotten more expensive because of Trump’s tariffs?

Predictions from mainstream economists were dire after President Donald Trump launched his tariff campaign just a couple weeks after he began his second term in office: Prices would rise — sharply — they said, reigniting an inflation crisis that tens of millions of Americans had elected him to solve. But that massive, tariff-induced inflation spike hasn’t materialized. Not even close. Not yet, anyway. Consumer prices rose just 2.4%, annually, last month, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That was less than economists had expected, and only slightly higher than the 2.3% rate in April, which was the US economy’s lowest inflation since February 2021.

According to the Personal Consumption Expenditures price index most closely followed by the Federal Reserve, core inflation — which strips out volatile items like food and gas prices — fell to 2.5% in April. That was the lowest reading since March 2021. That’s a far cry from what economists and consumers have predicted. Month after month, inflation has fallen short of Wall Street’s expectations, as American businesses said they would be forced to hike prices as a result of historically high tariffs. America’s effective tariff rate is now 14.1%, according to Fitch Ratings, up from 2.3% last year. That means Trump raised taxes on imported goods by nearly 12 percentage points in 2025. Economists expected substantial inflation increases as a result. So what happened? Are economists just really bad at their jobs?

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Democrats raise war powers concerns as Trump mulls Iran strike

Senate Democrats are increasingly concerned that President Donald Trump is considering striking Iran without seeking authorization from Congress — or even filling them in on his plans. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Virginia) is mounting a last-ditch push to force a vote as soon as next week to restrain Trump from attacking Iran without Congress’s approval. Other Senate Democrats say the White House has not briefed them on its plans for a potential strike. And some are warning that the situation reminds them of President George W. Bush’s push to invade Iraq more than two decades ago. “If this president wants to completely ignore the intelligence community, we are playing [on] dangerous ground,” Sen. Mark R. Warner (Virginia), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, told reporters. “This is exactly the way we got ourselves into Iraq.”

The discontent comes as Trump has mused openly about aiding Israel in its conflict with Iran to prevent Tehran from building a nuclear weapon — potentially by striking the Fordow nuclear facility, which is buried in a mountain that Israeli bombs cannot penetrate. “Nobody knows what I’m going to do,” Trump said Wednesday. The pushback follows Trump’s encroachment on just about every congressional prerogative since launching his second term — from taking swift control of the power of the purse to threatening punishing tariffs on other nations. Lawmakers and the courts, however, have traditionally shown more deference to the executive branch on foreign policy. And while some Democrats are supporting Kaine’s effort, only one Republican — Rep. Thomas Massie (Kentucky), who has opposed Trump on spending issues — has so far publicly backed a similar effort in the House. Outside of Congress, a roiling debate is occurring among the president’s base over the United States potentially intervening in a foreign conflict. But inside it, the Republican opposition appears more muted. The administration is expected to brief lawmakers on the Israel-Iran situation, probably early next week — but Warner and other Senate Democrats said they are frustrated that it’s taking so long. “I have no idea what our policy is right now towards Iran other than chaos, and I’m the vice chairman of the Intelligence Committee,” Warner said.

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European ministers to press Iran to curtail nuclear activities

European foreign ministers are slated to meet with Iranian officials in Geneva on Friday to press them to de-escalate and to offer a rollback of Tehran's nuclear activities. The meeting comes after President Trump said he will decide on whether to strike Iran "within two weeks," according to the White House. The president told senior aides late Tuesday that he approved of attack plans for Iran, but was waiting to see if Tehran would abandon its nuclear program, people familiar with the deliberations said. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Thursday with his U.K. counterpart to discuss the conflict, agreeing that "Iran can never develop or acquire a nuclear weapon," according to the State Department. Meanwhile, as the conflict enters its second week, Israel and Iran are continuing to exchange fire. Israel said it hit missile-manufacturing sites in Iran overnight.

The U.S. has been beefing up its forces in the region. A third U.S. Navy destroyer entered the eastern Mediterranean Sea and a second U.S. carrier strike group is heading toward the Arabian Sea. The Pentagon says the moves are defensive. Iran's foreign minister said his country won't meet with the U.S. for nuclear talks until the Israeli strikes end. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia would react “very negatively” if Israel were to assassinate Iran’s supreme leader with U.S. assistance. Speaking in an interview with British broadcaster Sky News, Peskov said regime change in Iran was “unimaginable.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called a hospital strike by Iran the work of “terrorist tyrants,” adding Israel is advancing “step by step” toward eliminating Iran’s nuclear program and ballistic missiles.

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Lead Stories

Katy man says he feels set up for threat investigation against lawmakers at 'No Kings' protest

The Katy-area man at the center of a threat investigation involving lawmakers at the Texas capitol is sharing his side of the story with ABC13. Robert Leroy Bowers was arrested near La Grange, as he and his wife were driving to the "No Kings" Protest in Austin on Saturday. He was booked into the Fayette County Jail and then released after a 48-hour hold, records show. The 45-year-old is now speaking out, claiming he was falsely accused and wants the incident investigated further. "My life is upside down," Bowers said. "I don't have a telephone. I'm scared of going back and forth to work. Is some vigilante going to say, 'They did nothing, so I'll do something.'"

Bowers says he was on State Highway 71 when he was pulled over. He says a DPS trooper stopped him for driving 81 in a 75 mph zone, then informed him he was under arrest for not having a front license plate. The roadside ordeal lasted more than three hours, he says, and it became clear it was not only about traffic violations. "The trooper, he asked me, "Do you know anybody who would make claims that you made threats against other people?' And I was like, 'No.' I thought he was joking," he said. According to the arrest affidavit, several factors raised red flags: his attire-work boots and pants with knee pads - and a legally owned firearm, which he disclosed immediately. The affidavit also mentioned messages to a friend that were "interpreted as wishing to inflict harm to state elected officials and politicians in Austin." DPS deemed the threat credible and closed the capitol as a precaution. "I was just trying to exercise my rights to go peacefully protest," he said. No criminal charges were filed related to the threat. Bowers was released with time served for the license plate violation, and his firearm was returned to him. "The sheer insanity and audacity of everything that's going on," is what he said he sees in his expression in his mug shot. Despite the ordeal, Bowers said he harbors no resentment toward the authorities involved. Still, he wants answers and accountability for what he believes was a targeted effort to discredit him. "I know I've said nothing," he said. "Somebody had a vendetta against me and tried to bury an ax or stick a knife in my back." In a statement, the DPS said the investigation is ongoing, and Bowers stated that he will cooperate fully.

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Director of Texas funeral commission fired after he alleged widespread 'rot' in the agency

The Texas Funeral Service Commission — the state agency responsible for overseeing deathcare — fired its executive director, demanding he immediately vacate this office after the unanimous vote on Wednesday afternoon. “I don’t lose, Texas loses,” the former director, Scott Bingaman, told the Chronicle just hours after his firing. “Because things are gonna come to a grinding halt without direction. A listless ship. It’s a shame.” Bingaman refused to go without putting up some fight against the “rot” he alleged in a Tuesday letter obtained by the Houston Chronicle through a public records request. “You are not firing me today, I am standing by my word,” Bingaman said shortly after his termination.

The commission approved his firing, along with orders to “vacate his office immediately after surrendering his keys, badge, phone.” Bingaman walked out of the room, trailed by commission staffers. “Shame on you,” one staff member told the commission. Another called: “Find a new staff!” His firing came hours after he sent a letter to the commission alleging that the members are to blame for widespread failures at the agency. "They have failed our licensees, the public, our staff, and the legislature. This needs to end," Bingaman wrote in the letter. Pointedly, he also noted what he considered numerous conflicts of interest in actions by commission chair, Kristin Tips. Tips did not respond to a request for comment. "The rot in the Commission extends beyond Tips," he said in the letter.

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Fort Bend County Judge KP George switches from Democrat to Republican amid money laundering charges

Fort Bend County Judge KP George has made the switch from Democrat to Republican as he faces felony charges of money laundering. George stated that he is joining the Republican Party because, “The Democratic Party has embraced a corrupt and radical ideology” and “its positions no longer reflect the values of Fort Bend County families, small businesses also hardworking residents.” The Republican party, he said at a news conference Wednesday, is more aligned with his values of “faith, family and freedom.” “I realized the Republican Party that champions these values,” he said. “I chose a side, and it turned out to be the wrong place, and I’m fixing that.” George says that he plans to run for re-election in 2026 as a Republican.

Jared Woodfill, one of George’s attorneys, said that George has always been a conservative at his core. Woodfill also argued that the money laundering charges against George are an effort by Fort Bend County District Attorney Brian Middleton, a Democrat, to “take out” George. “(George) has seen a Democratic Party that has left him; left his values,” Woodfill said. George, the county's top elected official, is accused of money laundering between $30,000 and $150,000 in the form of campaign finance fraud that took place between Jan. 12, 2019 and April 22, 2019. George took office as county judge on Jan. 1 of that year. George was also accused last year of trying to injure the reputation of Trever Nehls, George's Republican opponent in his 2022 re-election bid, by collaborating with his former chief of staff, Taral Patel to create fake profiles to attack Nehls and his supporters. Patel in a plea deal with the district attorney’s office on April 15 admitted that he committed online misrepresentation with George in order to sway the election in George's favor. George narrowly won with 51% of votes.

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Federal Reserve Fed holds key rate steady, still sees two more cuts this year

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday kept interest rates steady amid expectations of higher inflation and lower economic growth ahead, and still pointed to two reductions later this year. With markets expecting no chance of a central bank move this week, the Federal Open Market Committee kept its key borrowing rate targeted in a range between 4.25%-4.5%, where it has been since December. Along with the rate decision, the committee indicated, through its closely watched “dot plot,” that two cuts by the end of 2025 are still on the table. However, it lopped off one reduction for both 2026 and 2027, putting the expected future rate cuts at four, or a full percentage point.

The plot indicated continued uncertainty from Fed officials about the future of rates. Each dot represents one official’s expectations for rates. There was a wide dispersion on the matrix, with an outlook pointing to a fed funds rate around 3.4% in 2027. Seven of the 19 participants indicated they wanted no cuts this year, up from four in March. However, the committee approved the policy statement unanimously. Economic projections from meeting participants pointed to further stagflationary pressures, with participants seeing the gross domestic product advancing at a 1.4% pace in 2025 and inflation hitting 3%. The revised forecasts from the last update in March represented a decrease of 0.3 percentage point for GDP and an increase of the same amount for the personal consumption expenditures price index. Core PCE, which eliminates food and energy prices, was projected at 3.1%, also 0.3 percentage point higher. The unemployment outlook saw a small revision, up to 4.5%, or 0.1 percentage point higher than March and 0.3 percentage point above the current level.

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State Stories

Texas district urges Gov. Abbott to help abolish STAAR testing in special session

On the same day that Texas' top education department released its latest test scores, one North Texas school district called on Gov. Greg Abbott to push to abolish the state-mandated exams altogether. The State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness exams, taken each year by students in grades three through eight and in certain high school courses, is designed to measure how well a "student has learned and is able to apply the defined knowledge and skills in the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills," according to the Texas Education Agency. State lawmakers in both chambers authored bills to scrap the exam for the first time since 2012 this legislative session but ultimately failed to reach a compromise before a key deadline. Northwest ISD — a Fort Worth-area district that serves more than 30,000 students — penned a statement to Abbott Tuesday requesting him to revive the bills in a special session.

The district joins a growing number of school systems that have called to abolish the STAAR in favor of more holistic accountability systems across the state in recent years. "Northwest ISD calls on Governor Greg Abbott to address the Senate’s failure to support educators and parents by convening a special session to finally end outdated testing standards that do not benefit students," the district said in a statement. Standardized tests that measure student progress are required under federal law and are designed to hold public schools more accountable for the academic results of their students. The test score results are used to create Texas' A-F accountability ratings for public schools. Proponents say the tests help gauge key metrics, including early literacy or future postsecondary success, and hold school districts to a rigorous standard to ensure that students across the state are receiving an equitable education. Opponents say the tests don't accurately capture classroom learning, create unnecessary stress for students and teachers and create a "teach to the test" mentality.

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Former President Joe Biden will be attending Galveston Juneteenth celebrations

Former President Joe Biden will be visiting Galveston Thursday to participate in Juneteenth celebrations on the island. Galveston County Sheriff Jimmy Fullen confirmed Biden's visit Wednesday morning. "We had a request from the Galveston Police Department for manpower to assist them with some dignitaries who were coming in for the Juneteenth celebration which included former president Joe Biden," he said. The preparation and security is being handled by the Galveston Police Department, he said, but his office will provide additional resources including the sheriff office's crowd control team. Additionally, the city of Galveston has announced road closures on Thursday impacting Broadway/Avenue J from 19th to 25th streets for a planned march and service at Reedy Chapel-AME Church in the evening.

"Beginning on Thursday at 3 p.m., Broadway will be closed between 19th and 25th streets for a Juneteenth event at Reedy Chapel. The road will be closed until approximately 10 p.m.," according to a statement on the city's website. Reedy Chapel-AME Church is at 2015 Broadway and 20th in Galveston. All vehicle traffic will also be closed on 20th, 21st and 22nd, 23rd streets from Avenue K to Avenue H. Broadway will be closed in both directions, and Sealy Avenue will be closed from 19th to 23rd streets, according to the information. Measures will be taken to redirect traffic to alternate routes. In 2021 while in office, Biden made Juneteenth — which originated in Galveston — a federal holiday.

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Austin ISD reduces central office staff by 20% to save $9.6M

Austin ISD officials have reduced central office staff by 20%, a move that will save $9.6 million and is the latest effort in an ongoing slog to reduce the district's $93 million deficit, according to a Wednesday announcement from Superintendent Matias Segura. The change has "impacted" more than 170 positions with layoffs, salary reductions or other disruptions, though district officials didn't specify in the announcement or clarify in a follow-up question how many of the employees specifically had their jobs eliminated. Segura originally announced central office cuts in a May 23 letter. In the Wednesday announcement, Segura said the move was difficult but "necessary to align our administrative functions and reduce administrative costs while acknowledging the size of our district and our current needs."

The announcement didn’t specify the number of employees working at the central office. Officials have cut approximately $63 million in costs this year by reducing central office positions, freezing spending and lowering reliance on contractors. The district started the calendar year with a $110 million budget deficit but has since slashed spending to bring the overages to $93 million. "I recognize this is a very challenging time for our community and I encourage every student, staff and family member within Austin ISD to navigate this with empathy," Segura said. "This restructuring is only one step in a series of difficult conversations and decisions that must be made to ensure our district remains stable and we can maintain our ability to offer the highest quality education." During the 2024-25 school year, officials also slashed $29 million from the budget, which included eliminating 60 full-time positions from the central office and operations facilities. Many of those positions were vacant or were held by workers who were leaving.

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U.S. Supreme Court ruling angers Texas parents of transgender children

Wednesday's U.S. Supreme Court 6-3 opinion that backed a Tennessee ban on gender-affirming for minors angered but didn't surprise families who have raised children who are transgender in Texas. It further cements the Texas ban on gender-affirming care for minors that began two years ago. Heather Crawford, whose child Cass received care at Dell Children's Medical Center beginning at age 13, said she has "been marinating in anger since I read about the opinion. I don't understand why the part of the government that is supposed to uphold my rights wants the right to kill my child." She said that if Cass, who is now 18 and has graduated high school, had not received gender-affirming care, "they would have died. They would have continued making suicide attempts until they were successful."

The family left Texas in 2022 to move to Minnesota after a letter from Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton allowed children to be removed from their families if they were known to be receiving gender-affirming care. Then in May 2023, Paxton sent letters to Dell Children's and later Texas Children's Hospital prohibiting that care and asking the hospital to release information about who was receiving that care. Those letters effectively closed down the clinic for adolescents that provided that kind of care. Dell Children's and Texas Children's did not respond to requests to talk about the Supreme Court ruling Wednesday. Because of the Texas ban, Susan, a woman the Statesman profiled in 2023, moved her family to Seattle to protect her then first-grader twins, one of whom is transfemale. "Being here, a weight has lifted," she said. "There is a lot less stress about my daughter being able to get her medical needs met." This ruling and what has happened in Texas, "it's not OK," she said.

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Tech SpaceX’s Starship explodes during routine test in Texas

A SpaceX Starship rocket on Wednesday exploded at the Starbase facility in Texas during routine testing in preparation for a launch flight, according to local authorities and live stream footage. The rocket “experienced a major anomaly while on a test stand at Starbase” at 11 p.m. local time, SpaceX said on social media, noting “a safety clear area around the site was maintained throughout the operation and all personnel are safe and accounted for.” Local authorities said that Starship “suffered a catastrophic failure and exploded,” with no injuries reported at the time of writing and an investigation is now underway. Live stream footage of Starbase showed the rocket burst into flame, shooting a large fireball into the sky. Another Starship launch was expected to take place by the end of this month.

It’s been a tempestuous ride for Elon Musk’s mammoth Starship, after three flight launch attempts devolved in fiery glory and air-traffic stopping debris this year to date. Notably, the rocket model has taken off successfully in previous instances, but its vast scale — standing 120 meters (394 feet) tall when factoring in the Super Heavy booster — has raised concerns over its overall reliability and requirements for orbital refueling once in flight. Yet Musk has clinched his hopes on Starship as the key vehicle for both NASA’s third and fourth Artemis missions — part of a broader plan to return humans to the Moon — due to take place over 2027-2028. The rocket is also set to play a role in launching the Starlab private space station in the transition to commercial space orbiting labs once the International Space Station retires after 2030. Critically, Starship is also central to Musk’s — and former ally U.S. President Donald Trump’s — broader ambitions to colonize Mars. The rocket is set to ferry Optimus robots to the red planet by the end of 2026, with Musk in March saying, “If those landings go well, then human landings may start as soon as 2029, although 2031 is more likely.”

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Ted Cruz absolutely explodes in MAGA civil war gotcha moment

Tucker Carlson grilled Senator Ted Cruz in an explosive on-screen row that exposes the massive faultline ripping through MAGA world. In a preview of Wednesday’s Tucker Carlson Show, the pair have a heated argument over U.S. involvement in the Iran-Israel conflict and start shouting over each other. Carlson asks Cruz, “How many people live in Iran by the way?” Cruz responds, “I don’t know the population.” “You don’t know the population of the country you seek to topple?,” Carlson insists? Cruz shot back, “I don’t sit around memorizing population tables.” Carlson stated, “Well, it’s kinda relevant because you’re calling for the overthrow of the Government.” The two men then argue about the “ethnic mix” of Iran, which leads to Cruz shouting, “I am not the Tucker Carlson expert on Iran!” Carlson retorts, “No you’re a senator who is calling to overthrow the country and you don’t know anything about the country!”

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Gov. Greg Abbott signs $20B plan to fix Texas' water shortages. Here's what that means for voters.

Gov. Greg Abbott signed two bills into law Wednesday to launch a multi-year, $20 billion investment in water infrastructure to prevent widespread shortages as Texas’ population and industrial demands keep rising. Voters still have to approve the funding in November. If a majority supports the effort, $1 billion in state sales tax revenue will be set aside for water projects each year beginning in 2027. A separate, one-time allocation of $2.5 billion for the Texas Water Fund will be secured regardless of the ballot outcome. "This session, Texas confronted a crisis," Abbott said at the signing table in Lubbock. "Compounding a problem of inadequate sources of water, we lose about 88 billion gallons of water a year because of broken, busted and aged pipes."

The governor's vocal support for the plan came as no surprise, after he named the generational water investment an "emergency item" for the legislative session that ended in early June. The funds would be spent on repairing aging water systems and developing new supplies. "Some of our water supplies are drying up. Many communities have leaking and broken water lines. Agriculture producers in the Rio Grande Valley and West Texas do not have enough water to grow their crops," Abbott said in his February state-of-the-state address. The two legislators Abbott tapped to get it done had a shared interest in increasing the state's water supply, but diverging proposals for how to make that happen. State Sen. Charles Perry championed a version that would require 80% of the investment to go to new water sources, like piping in reserves from other states or desalinating seawater. His counterpart in the House, state Rep. Cody Harris, wanted to allow total flexibility so that more funding could flow to the backlog of repairs faced by the state's current systems. Houston city officials pleaded their own case for repair funding in Austin hearings last fall. Their water system is facing a $4.93 billion price tag for repairs, and currently loses 30 billion gallons of water every year to leaking pipes.

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El Paso tops US in migrant encounters in May

El Paso continues to lead the nation when it comes to detaining people coming over from Mexico illegally. The El Paso Sector of the U.S. Border Patrol recorded 2,014 illegal entries in May, followed by Tucson, Arizona, with 1,588 and the Rio Grande Valley Sector of Texas with 1,439. It’s the fourth consecutive month the region stretching from Hudspeth County, Texas, to the New Mexico-Arizona state line reports the most migrant encounters on the Southwestern border.

Most detainees — nationwide as well as in El Paso — involve Mexican citizens. A total of 309 Guatemalan migrants were apprehended in the sector in May, compared with 1,441 Mexican migrants. The remaining 1 percent came from other countries, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data. This comes at a time federal authorities report a 93 percent year-to-year decrease in migrant traffic at the Mexican border, with a total of 8,725 apprehensions in May. But smugglers are still active on both sides of the Rio Grande. “It is true migration has decreased in terms (we don’t see) caravans of people coming in trains,” said Chihuahua Public Safety Director Gilberto Loya. “But it is a phenomenon we continue to see, and we continue to address.” Chihuahua police recently freed dozens of migrants from Juarez stash houses where smugglers would not let them leave until their relatives paid more money than was agreed upon to take them to the U.S. “We continue to see migrants held captive. In the past four weeks, we have had three rescues of numerous groups of migrants: One in Juarez, one in the Juarez valley and a last one near the Santa Teresa border crossing,” Loya said at a news conference this week.

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From Hall of Fame to hiding: The rise and fall of Texas Lottery boss Gary Grief

Good grief, Gary Grief. You are the former executive director of the Texas Lottery, and when you retired last year, you left your beloved lottery ensnared in scandal. You have a fitting name, Gary Grief. To take the Peanuts analogy a step further, you are Lucy holding the football, which represents the winners of the greatest heist in Texas history, an almost $100 million jackpot before taxes. Just as individuals tried to buy $1 Lotto Texas tickets and kick that football — and unknowingly compete with a global betting syndicate that bought $26 million in game tickets — you yanked the football away.

Good grief, Gary Grief. You are at the center of the scandal, but only rarely does your name come up. You’ve fled the scene of the crime. But Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick took care of that in a recent lottery-related webinar hosted by the Houston Chronicle. Speaking about a Texas Rangers investigation into lottery rigging allegations, Patrick called you “the mastermind” and said the Rangers have not been able to find you. “He’s out there hiding somewhere,” Patrick said, as he upgraded this story to mystery thriller status. “Hopefully, he’s alive. I say I hope he wasn’t taken out by someone,” Patrick said. “The Rangers will finally track him down.” Patrick concluded, “Great mystery here. This would make a good movie.” Grief, both you and your lawyer declined to comment for this story.

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John Cornyn leads Senate Republican probe of former President Joe Biden’s mental fitness

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said Wednesday Republican lawmakers and federal investigators will continue digging into questions about former President Joe Biden’s mental faculties while he was in office Cornyn also highlighted allegations that those around Biden covered up his cognitive decline and said the ongoing probes could result in criminal prosecutions. “People who engage in this sort of malfeasance need to know that there are consequences associated with it,” Cornyn told reporters following a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing he helped lead on the topic. Republicans played clips during the hearing in which Biden administration officials and Democratic lawmakers, asked by journalists about Biden’s fitness, vouched for his physical stamina and mental acuity.

“As we now know, there was a conspiracy to hide the president’s true condition by his family, by his staff, by the media and many elected officials,” Cornyn said. Democrats boycotted most of the hearing. The panel’s ranking member U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill, delivered an opening statement criticizing what he described as a “political adventure” by Republicans. Committee Republicans have avoided oversight hearings on President Donald Trump’s policies such as mass deportation and instead were engaged in “armchair diagnosing” of Biden, Durbin said. He played clips of head-scratching Trump statements that “the windmills are driving the whales crazy,” immigrants are “eating the dogs” and the idea of injecting disinfectants as a cure for COVID-19. “Do any of these statements raise a question of cognitive ability?” Durbin asked rhetorically. “You be the judge.” Republicans played footage of Biden from his debate last summer against Trump in which the incumbent’s hoarse-voiced, halting performance prompted Democrats to push him off their ticket and replace him with Vice President Kamala Harris.

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Texas’ GOP and Democratic state senators join to condemn political violence

Every member of the Texas Senate condemned political violence in a joint statement late Tuesday, days after a gunman shot Democratic state lawmakers in Minnesota. Former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, were fatally shot Saturday. State Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, were wounded. The suspect, 57-year-old Vance Boelter, is charged with two counts each of murder, using a firearm and stalking using interstate facilities. Boelter attended Christ For The Nations Institute in Dallas. “As members of the Texas Senate, we come together — united across party lines — to unequivocally condemn political violence in all forms,” the chamber’s 20 Republicans and 11 Democrats wrote. “We grieve with their families and stand in solidarity to reject hatred, extremism, and acts of violence.”

While the tragedy struck Minnesota, fears of political violence extended into Texas. U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, said U.S. Capitol Police told her Sunday that she was on the suspect’s target list. A day earlier, the Texas Department of Public Safety evacuated the state Capitol and its grounds to investigate a credible allegation that a man who planned to harm lawmakers was on his way to a protest there. In their letter, Texas senators thanked law enforcement for keeping lawmakers and the public safe. “Political disagreement is a hallmark of democracy, but resorting to violence must never be tolerated as a justifiable response,” they wrote. “What happened in Minnesota was a deliberate and depraved act of violence — an attack on the institutions of democracy and the very fabric of a civil society. We continue to pray for the Hortman and Hoffman families and for the future of our great nation.” Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, also thanked local law enforcement and denounced political violence, writing in a social media post Saturday that “acts or threats of violence against elected officials over political differences have no place in our society and will be met with zero tolerance.”

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The US plans to open a fly factory in Texas as part of its fight against a flesh-eating parasite

The U.S. government plans to open what amounts to a fly factory by the end of the year, announcing its intent Wednesday to breed millions of the insects in Texas near the border with Mexico as part of an effort to keep a flesh-eating parasite from infesting American cattle. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said sterile male New World screwworm flies bred at the $8.5 million facility would be released into the wild to mate with females and prevent them from laying the eggs in wounds that become flesh-eating larva. It would be only the second facility for breeding such flies in the Western Hemisphere, joining one in Panama that had largely kept the flies from migrating further north until last year. The fly’s appearance in southern Mexico late last year has worried agriculture and cattle industry officials and veterinarians’ groups, and the U.S. last month suspended imports of live cattle, horses and bison from Mexico.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture also plans to spend $21 million to convert a facility for breeding fruit flies near Mexico’s southernmost border with Guatemala into one for breeding sterile New World screwworm flies, but it won’t be ready for 18 months. The U.S. bred and released sterile New World screwworm flies into the wild decades ago, and it was largely banished from the country in the 1960s. Previously, it had been an annual scourge for cattle ranchers and dairy farmers, particularly in the Southeast. “The United States has defeated NWS before, and we will do it again,” Rollins said. She held a news conference at Moore Air Base with Texas and cattle industry officials. Mexican Agriculture Secretary Julio Berdegué said in a post Wednesday on X that Rollins’ plan “seems to us a positive step in different aspects, it will strengthen the joint Mexico-US work.”

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San Antonio vigil honors flood victims; New mayor promises answers

San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones, sworn in just hours earlier, expressed condolences and pledged action during a vigil Wednesday night for the 13 people killed in flash flooding last week. Speaking to a crowd of more than 100 on the Northwest Side, Jones acknowledged their grief and pledged action. “Your community stands with you… to make sure this doesn’t ever happen again,” she said, though she cautioned the answers may be painful: “They might not be good answers.” Loved ones placed flowers and photos on an altar; some knelt or sat on the pavement in tears.

Bexar County officials have identified 12 of the 13 victims: Derwin Anderson, 43; Roseann Cobb, 41; Martha De La Torre Rangel, 55; her son Josue Pina De La Torre, 28; Victor Manuel Macias Castro, 28; Rudy Garza, 61; Cristine Gonzalez, 29; Stevie Richards, 42; Andrew Sanchez, 60; Matthew Tufono, 51; Brett Riley, 63; and Carlos Valdez III, 67. The Medical Examiner has identified the 13th victim, but police are notifying next-of-kin, a Bexar County official told the Express-News. One of the victims was homeless when she died, her family told the San Antonio Express-News.

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National Stories

Trump’s intel chief Tulsi Gabbard is ‘off-message’ and out of favor, sources tell CNN

Aboard Air Force One late Monday night, having hastily left the G7 meeting in Canada, President Donald Trump took questions from reporters about the escalating Israel-Iran conflict. In the back and forth, Trump was asked about Tulsi Gabbard, his director of national intelligence, who testified to Congress in March that Iran was not actively pursuing a nuclear weapon — a direct contradiction of Israel’s claims that Iran was racing toward a bomb. “I don’t care what she said,” Trump replied. “I think they were very close to having it.” Trump’s terse rebuke of his top intelligence official set off a firestorm among the MAGA faithful on right-wing media, long divided over the issue of Iran. It also raised serious questions about Gabbard’s standing in the administration.

Just a month ago, White House officials insisted that the president not only liked Gabbard but enjoyed her company. Even as some in the administration believed that she was out of her depth, officials insisted that Trump and his team were giving Gabbard leeway to learn the ropes of her new job. But that tone has shifted, as multiple people inside the West Wing have grown disillusioned with Gabbard’s performance, sources say. Though she’s been among the most visible voices for the president’s national security policy, behind the scenes Gabbard has struggled to carve out her own place in the Trump White House. Recently, Trump has come to see her as “off message” when it comes to the conflict in the Middle East, according to one senior White House adviser. Trump’s annoyance with Gabbard peaked earlier this month, this person said, when she posted a 3-minute video warning that the world is “closer to the brink of nuclear annihilation than ever before,” and blaming “political elite and warmongers” for stoking fear and tensions between nuclear powers.”

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Trump privately approved of attack plans for Iran but has withheld final order

President Trump told senior aides late Tuesday that he approved of attack plans for Iran, but was holding off to see if Tehran would abandon its nuclear program, people familiar with the deliberations said. In the Middle East, Israel and Iran continued to exchange fire as the conflict entered a seventh day. An Israeli hospital was hit by an Iranian missile, while Israel said it struck Iran’s heavy-water reactor in Arak and a site in Natanz that it said was being used for nuclear-weapons development. Asked if he had decided whether to strike at Iran’s nuclear facilities, Trump said, “I may do it, I may not do it.” And he repeated his insistence on Iran’s unconditional surrender: “The next week is going to be very big, maybe less than a week.”

The U.S. has built up military forces in the region in recent days. A third U.S. Navy destroyer entered the eastern Mediterranean Sea and a second U.S. carrier strike group is heading toward the Arabian Sea. While the Pentagon said the buildup is defensive, it better positions the U.S. should Trump decide to join Israeli attacks on Iran. It could also be a tactic to pressure Iran to capitulate or make concessions. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said his country wouldn’t surrender and warned any U.S. military intervention would bring irreparable consequences. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called an Iranian strike on a hospital the work of “terrorist tyrants” and said Israel is advancing “step by step” toward eliminating Iran’s nuclear program and ballistic missiles. The U.N.’s atomic agency said there was no radioactive spill from Iran’s Khondab heavy-water research reactor, formerly known as Arak, after an Israeli strike on the facility. The U.S. Embassy in Israel is arranging evacuation flights for American citizens seeking to leave the country, said Mike Huckabee, the U.S. ambassador to Israel. The death toll in Iran rose above 639 people, according to a human-rights group. In Israel, 24 people have died as a result of Iranian strikes.

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Images of handcuffed Democrats start to pile up in Trump’s Crackdown

A United States senator forced to the floor and handcuffed by federal agents for interrupting a news conference. A mayor taken into custody by masked officials in military-style fatigues. A political candidate pushed against a wall and handcuffed in a dispute at an immigration courthouse. With tensions rising over President Trump’s mass deportation policies, the government crackdown is extending to the political opposition. As Democrats struggle to push back against the administration, federal agents have arrested or clashed with a growing number of the party’s elected officials. The scenes of chaos reflect the tinderbox nature of this political moment, and the expanding national battles over due process, the rule of law and the system of checks and balances. “This is executive authority, especially in the Department of Homeland Security, running out of control,” said Senator Tina Smith, a Minnesota Democrat. “Do the members of Congress need security details to defend themselves from the executive branch? God, I hope not.”

The most recent instance came on Tuesday, when Brad Lander, the New York City comptroller and a mayoral candidate, was arrested at an immigration courthouse in Lower Manhattan as he tried to escort a migrant whom agents were seeking to arrest. The Department of Homeland Security suggested that Mr. Lander, who has trailed in polls of the mayoral race, was seeking to “undermine law enforcement safety to get a viral moment,” and said that he had assaulted law enforcement, claims he denied after his release later Tuesday. Certainly, plenty of politicians over the years have gotten themselves arrested in an effort to draw attention to themselves or their cause. Many elected Democrats have rushed to show how fiercely they are opposing Mr. Trump’s administration, and have been rewarded for doing so by the party’s base. Accusations of grandstanding flowed in quickly from Republicans on Tuesday. “Stop using this as a means of self promotion in an effort to make yourself relevant in advance of an election,” Representative Mike Lawler, a New York Republican, wrote on social media. But to many Democrats, the images of the suit-and-tie-clad Mr. Lander being manhandled showed a chilling turn in the country’s politics.

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Shipping insurance costs spike in the Middle East as Israel-Iran conflict rages

Israel and Iran’s escalating conflict has significantly driven up the cost of insurance for ships sailing through the Red Sea and Persian Gulf. Marine insurers are now charging 0.2% of the value of a ship for journeys into the Gulf, according to data from the world’s largest insurance broker Marsh McLennan, up from 0.125% prior to Israel’s surprise attack on Iran last week. There has also been an uptick in war risk insurance rates for the Red Sea, Marsh said, while cover relating to ports in Israel has more than tripled to 0.7%. The length of time quotes are valid for has been cut to 24 hours from most leaders, Marsh said, down from 48 hours previously. The scramble to reassess shipping insurance costs reflects the deteriorating security environment in the Middle East, with Israel and Iran continuing to exchange fresh air attacks over recent days.

The conflict between the two powers has ratcheted up concerns of a broader conflict, with many closely monitoring the prospect of U.S. intervention. “Given that the situation is currently contained within the region, risks are still being placed to enable cargo to flow through these areas,” Marcus Baker, global head of marine, cargo and logistics at Marsh, told CNBC by email. Some shipowners have recently opted to steer clear of the strategically important Strait of Hormuz, reaffirming a sense of industry unease amid the conflict. Jakob Larsen, head of security at Bimco, which represents global shipowners, said earlier this week that the escalating conflict was causing concerns in the shipowner community and prompting a “modest drop” in the number of ships sailing through the area. Situated between Iran and Oman, the Strait of Hormuz is a narrow waterway that connects the Persian Gulf to the Arabian Sea. It is recognized as one of the world’s most important oil chokepoints. The inability of oil to traverse through the Strait of Hormuz, even temporarily, can ratchet up global energy prices, raise shipping costs and create significant supply delays.

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Social Security fund could run dry ahead of earlier forecast, trustees say

The trust funds for Social Security and Medicare will run out of money in less than a decade, according to a report released Wednesday, as the programs’ trustees warned that the funds’ depletion date is significantly closer than predicted a year ago. If Congress does not overhaul the programs’ financing, automatic cuts will slash Social Security benefits by 23 percent and Medicare hospital benefits by 11 percent in 2033, the report said. Here’s what to know about the current state of Social Security. For today, yes. But in last year’s annual report, the trustees projected that Social Security would become insolvent by 2035 and Medicare in 2036. They now predict that Social Security’s fund will run out of money in 2033, or in 2034 if Congress changes the law to combine the separate funds for old-age benefits and for disability insurance. They also now forecast that Medicare’s hospital insurance fund will run out in 2033.

The Social Security and Medicare trust funds are separate from the federal budget and funded by a dedicated payroll tax paid by employers and employees, with each side kicking in 6.2 percent of gross wages up to a certain threshold, currently $176,100 per year. Any wages exceeding that amount are exempt from Social Security taxation. Medicare collects an additional 1.45 percent of gross wages, bringing total deductions to 7.65 percent per worker. For years, the programs have been spending more money than they take in, as an aging workforce means more retirees are receiving benefits and fewer workers are paying taxes into the system. If the trust funds dry up, retirees will still receive benefits as long as workers are paying the payroll taxes. But the amount will drop. In Wednesday’s annual report, the four trustees — Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer and Social Security Commissioner Frank Bisignano — called for prompt legislative action to address the looming insolvency. (Two positions on the board of trustees that are appointed directly by the president have not been filled for a decade.)

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‘He’s right there!’: How the Minnesota attacks and manhunt unfolded

Wendy Thomas and her neighbors in Green Isle, Minnesota, had been asked to remain vigilant on Sunday as law enforcement officers, aided by drones and a state police helicopter, combed the area. They were looking for her neighbor, Vance Boelter — a man Thomas had once invited to her home for a hog roast. She said she had been stunned to learn that he was wanted in connection with two shootings at the homes of state lawmakers. So when she paid a quick visit to another neighbor’s house and saw something out of the corner of her eye while driving away, she was on high alert. “Dad, there’s a person,” she recalled telling her father on the phone. To her left was a man she said appeared to be wearing all black and was covered in mud. He seemed to sense her looking at him, Thomas said, and he quickly moved toward a patch of tall grass, squatting low near a culvert as if trying to hide.

Thomas, 43, couldn’t tell, but she said she felt in her gut that it was Boelter, the man authorities were searching for in connection to the attacks that had killed state Rep. Melissa Hortman (D) and her husband, and critically injured state Sen. John Hoffman (D) and his wife. No one else was around. The officers who had been searching the area were miles to the east. Thomas tried not to panic. The decision to make that short drive to her neighbor’s house put her at the center of what was described as the state’s largest manhunt. As questions mount over what led to the shootings, which officials said were politically motivated, harrowing details have emerged about the days leading up to the attacks and the more than 40-hour search for the suspect that followed. This account is based on interviews with witnesses, victims’ friends and people who know the suspect, along with court records. Thomas sped up after seeing the man crouching in the grass, then suddenly saw an officer driving toward her. She began waving her arms out the window, and the officer pulled to a stop. “He’s right there!” Thomas said she shouted, pointing back toward her neighbor’s land.

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Lead Stories

HISD STAAR scores for elementary, middle schools show growth, outpacing most statewide gains

Students made gains in most State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness tests from the prior year, with steady improvements within Houston ISD that prompted leaders to tout a "Houston Comeback." STAAR results released for third- through eighth-graders Tuesday show that students lost ground on math and social studies exam. End-of-course high school exam results were released last week, showing steady gains in Houston that outpaced more mixed results statewide. More students are "approaching grade level," or passing, in most subjects when compared to the year prior, with near-universal growth in Houston ISD. Still, students across Texas remain below 2023 performance levels in most tested subjects.

Houston ISD must have no multiyear failing schools within the TEA's annual accountability ratings to exit the state takeover, in which state-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles has overhauled 130 of the district's 274 campuses under his controversial New Education System. On June 2, the Texas Education Agency announced that the takeover would continue for at least two more years as the district attempts to improve scores at around 40 campuses that earned D or F scores last year. STAAR scores are a key component to the accountability rating formula, particularly for elementary and middle school campuses. "I want to really emphasize our kids. They have stepped up, and their teachers have stepped up," Miles said in a press conference Thursday. "This doesn't happen by accident. This happens because teachers and kids are engaged in the work and are wanting to learn." Students are considered passing if they meet "approaching grade level," one of four performance measures used by the TEA. Each student receives both a raw and scale score on their tests, and students are sorted into four performance levels ranging from "did not meet grade level" to "approaching grade level," "meets grade level" and "mastered grade level."

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With only 8% built, Texas quietly defunds state border wall program

Four years after Gov. Greg Abbott announced Texas would be the first state to build its own border wall, lawmakers have quietly stopped funding the project, leaving only scattered segments covering a small fraction of the border. That decision, made in the waning hours of this year’s legislative session, leaves the future of the state wall unclear. Just 8% of the 805 miles the state identified for construction is complete, which has cost taxpayers more than $3 billion to date. The Texas Tribune reported last year that the wall is full of gaps that migrants and smugglers can easily walk around and mostly concentrated on sprawling ranches in rural areas, where illegal border crossings are less likely to occur. State leaders suggested the federal government could pick up the effort. However, during President Donald Trump’s first term, when wall building was his top priority, his administration completed just 21 miles in Texas — about a third of what the state was able to build over the past four years. The Tribune reported last year that the state’s wall program would take around 30 years and more than $20 billion to complete.

In early June, lawmakers finalized the state budget, approving $3.4 billion for ongoing border security efforts. State Sen. Joan Huffman, the state’s lead budget writer, confirmed to The Texas Tribune on Thursday that none of that money will go toward the wall. Instead, the funds will flow largely to the Department of Public Safety and Texas National Guard, the agencies tasked with apprehending migrants under Abbott’s Operation Lone Star. “It’s not that we don’t think it’s an ongoing need to secure the border,” said Huffman, R-Houston. “It should have always been a function of the federal government, in my opinion, and that wasn’t really being done.” Andrew Mahaleris, Abbott’s spokesman, said in a statement that the Trump administration’s work to secure the southern border have allowed the state to adjust its own efforts. He did not specifically comment on the border wall program, but said the military and public safety departments would carry on their border-related missions.

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The biggest companies across America are cutting their workforces

Corporate America is convinced: Fewer employees means faster growth. U.S. public companies have reduced their white-collar workforces by a collective 3.5% over the past three years, according to employment data-provider Live Data Technologies. Over the past decade, one in five companies in the S&P 500 have shrunk. The cuts go beyond typical cost-trimming and speak to a broader shift in philosophy. Adding talent, once a sign of surging sales and confidence in the future, now means leaders must be doing something wrong. New technologies like generative artificial intelligence are allowing companies to do more with less. But there’s more to this movement. From Amazon in Seattle to Bank of America in Charlotte, N.C., and at companies big and small everywhere in between, there’s a growing belief that having too many employees is itself an impediment. The message from many bosses: Anyone still on the payroll could be working harder.

In a note to employees on Tuesday, Amazon Chief Executive Andy Jassy wrote that the “once-in-a-lifetime” rise of AI will eliminate the need for certain jobs in the next few years. And earlier this year, he told his staff that not every new project requires 50 people to do it. The best leaders, he added in his annual letter to shareholders, “get the most done with the least number of resources required to do the job.” Procter & Gamble said this month that it would cut 7,000 jobs—or 15% of its nonmanufacturing workforce—to create “broader roles and smaller teams.” Estée Lauder and dating-app operator Match Group recently said they had each jettisoned around 20% of their managers. “Flatter is faster,” Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s finance chief, Marie Myers, told investors this month as she discussed recent staff cuts. With fewer than 59,000 employees, HPE is at its smallest size since it became an independent company a decade ago, she pointed out. All of the shrinking turns on its head the usual cycle of hiring and firing. Companies often let go of workers in recessions, then staff up when the economy picks up. Yet the workforce cuts in recent years coincide with a surge in sales and profits, heralding a more fundamental shift in the way leaders evaluate their workforces. U.S. corporate profits rose to a record high at the end of last year, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

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Retail sales fell 0.9% in May, worse than expected, as consumers pulled back

Consumer spending pulled back sharply in May, weighed down by declining gas sales and looming unease over where the economy is headed, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday. Retail sales declined 0.9%, even more than the 0.6% drop expected from the Dow Jones consensus, according to numbers adjusted for seasonality but not inflation. The decline followed a 0.1% loss in April and came at a time of unease over tariffs and geopolitical tensions. Sales rose 3.3% from a year ago. Excluding autos, sales fell 0.3%, also worse than the estimate for a gain of 0.1%. However, excluding a series of items such as auto dealers, building materials suppliers, gas stations and others, sales increased 0.4%. That reading, known as the control group, is what the department uses when calculating gross domestic product.

Sales have been generally slow through the year, though spending peaked in March as consumers sought to get ahead of President Donald Trump’s April “liberation day” tariff announcement. Building materials and garden stores saw sales fall 2.7%, while sliding energy prices pushed gasoline station receipts down 2%. Motor vehicles and parts retailers were off 3.5%, while bars and restaurants saw sales decline 0.9%. On the plus side, miscellaneous retailers gained 2.9%, while online sales rose 0.9% and furniture stores increased sales by 1.2%. Stock market futures held negative after the release while Treasury yields also fell. “Americans bought cars in March ahead of tariffs and stayed away from car dealerships in May. Families are wary of higher prices and are being a lot more selective with where they spend their money,” said Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union. “People are hunting for deals and aren’t eager to buy unless they see a good one.” The pullback in retail sales came despite surveys showing that consumer sentiment actually improved in May, though compared with levels that had been falling through the year. The ongoing trade war ignited by President Trump’s tariffs had dented consumer and business optimism, though an easing in some of the rhetoric amid a 90-day negotiating period has led to better readings. GDP declined at a 0.2% annualized pace in the first quarter but is projected to rebound. Second-quarter growth heading into the retail sales release was pegged at 3.8%, according to the Atlanta Federal Reserve’s GDPNow tracker of rolling data. The gauge will be updated later Tuesday. In other economic news Tuesday, import prices were flat against a forecast for a 0.1% decline, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Export prices fell 0.9%.

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State Stories

Texas Republicans back President Trump as he considers striking Iran over nuclear program

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, on Tuesday defended President Donald Trump’s authority to order a limited strike against Iran without first seeking permission from Congress. “A single bombing run, historically, has not been understood to require congressional authorization,” Cruz told reporters at the U.S. Capitol. “To engage in sustained hostility, to engage in continued warfare does require congressional authorization.” The president’s authority to order a strike against Iran, as well as the wisdom of such action, are pressing questions after Trump returned from the G7 summit early this week to consider joining Israel in its military campaign to stop Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons. Cruz said Israel has done an “extraordinary job” of eliminating Iran’s senior military leadership and nuclear scientists since launching its campaign last week, while decimating many of its nuclear facilities.

A key facility in Fordo, where much of Iran’s nuclear weapons research occurs, was built into the base of a mountain and designed to withstand aerial bombardment. Taking out the Fordo facility would require massive “bunker buster” bombs. Israel reportedly has neither those bombs nor the type of bombers needed to deliver them. The United States has both. Cruz has been a longtime, vocal supporter of Israel, advocating for the U.S. to share the bunker buster bombs with it. He said Tuesday a strike to eliminate the Fordo facility is no doubt being discussed by Trump administration officials and Israel. “I don’t know what the president is going to decide on that front,” Cruz said. “Taking out Fordo would make America much safer and what Israel is doing right now is an enormous favor to the United States.” Asked about the situation with Israel, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said “they ought to finish the job” and declined to answer further questions on the topic. “You’ve got my answer,” Cornyn said. The U.S. House is on recess this week, with many of its members on official overseas travel. Some Texas Republicans said they are putting their faith in Trump to navigate the fraught situation successfully.

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State audit finds major lapses in Texas jail oversight system

The state agency responsible for overseeing county jails across Texas failed to consistently investigate prisoner complaints, maintain accurate records or complete all inspections required by law, according to a new audit by the Texas State Auditor's Office. The audit, covering October 2022 to December 2024, raised concerns about the Texas Commission on Jail Standards' ability to protect the safety and rights of people in local jails, calling some failures "high risk." As the state's sole jail oversight agency, the TCJS is responsible for handling complaints, conducting inspections and enforcing compliance at the 242 jails under its watch. Among the most serious findings: Commission staff failed to properly investigate nearly all prisoner complaints reviewed, which could cover issues ranging from guard interactions to medical access. In 95% of cases, there was no record of assigning a severity level — which dictates how quickly jails must be contacted — and in nearly half, there was no evidence the agency contacted the jail at all. In some cases, the commission didn't notify those who filed complaints or even start an investigation, leaving some complaints unresolved for more than two years.

"These weaknesses increase the risk that the Commission will not identify a jail in violation of minimum standards, which could affect the safety and well-being of inmates," auditors wrote. Between October 2022 and December 2024, the commission received more than 9,700 complaints. But in 13% of complaints still listed as "open," there was no evidence they had been assigned to an investigator at all. Beyond complaints, the audit found issues with the commission's inspection system. Five counties, including Bexar and Travis, missed required limited inspections — a key factor in determining how often higher-risk jails are inspected. The audit also found issues with the agency's inspection scheduling tool, which helps determine how often jails are inspected. In December 2024, the tool miscalculated risk scores for over 75% of jails reviewed. This left 10 facilities with insufficient oversight, according to auditors. The audit found that enforcement practices — including follow-up inspections, remedial orders and technical assistance — were generally handled appropriately. From 2023 through 2024, the commission issued 149 notices of noncompliance and referred the Harris County Jail to the Texas Attorney General's Office earlier this year after repeated violations. TCJS officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday, but in a written response included in the audit, the agency agreed with the findings and said it plans to implement fixes by Aug. 1.

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Former DA Kim Ogg named partner at Houston white-collar defense firm

Former Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg has been made a partner at Gregor Wynne Arney, PLLC, according to a Tuesday news release from the firm. The firm specializes in commercial litigation and white collar criminal defense, according to their website. It's a familiar field for Ogg, who as DA prioritized prosecuting allegations of public corruption — including several high-profile accusations levied against county officials such as Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, which were ultimately dismissed. "It's actually not much of a pivot. It's just the other side of a lot of issues that I'm familiar with," Ogg told the Houston Chronicle. "You generally need to know one side to understand the other. So, I wouldn't describe it as a pivot. I'd say it's more of the same. I'm just handling the other side of these cases now."

The firm's specialties include defending clients accused of elections interference, violations of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which prohibits racial discrimination in voting, and the "KKK Act," a late 19th century law that aimed to protect Black Americans from paramilitary violence carried out by the Ku Klux Klan. As Harris County DA, Ogg spearheaded an investigation into allegations of Democratic interference in the 2022 midterm elections. The investigation culminated in one employee being accused of wage theft for allegedly lying on his time card, which a representative from the DA's office characterized at the time as "intentional fraud," but officials found no evidence of election tampering. The firm's release highlighted Ogg's criticism of bail reform efforts in Harris County, as well as her role spearheading the county's mental health diversion program, which provides pre-trial alternatives to incarceration for individuals with mental illnesses. Ogg's hiring came several months after she departed the DA's office following her defeat in the Democratic primaries to challenger Sean Teare, who assumed office January 2025. The blowout primary defeat, which saw Teare take nearly three times the number of votes cast for Ogg, came roughly one year after rising tensions between her office and other Democratic officials culminated in the Harris County Democratic Party voting to formally admonish Ogg.

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Houston Housing Authority cited over a dozen cases in a legal brief. Almost none of the quotes exist.

In a lawsuit over whether a woman should have lost her housing subsidy, the Houston Housing Authority’s lawyer asked a judge not to force the agency to prevent the woman’s eviction while the case was being decided. The brief, submitted by a law firm that frequently represents cities and agencies in the Houston area, cited over a dozen cases in support of its argument. The only problem? Almost none of the quotes actually exist, a Chronicle analysis shows. Kevin Fulton, managing attorney of Fulton Law Group, said in an email that because the court required the brief to be filed within a short timeframe, the quick turnaround “prevented our usual multi-attorney review.” As a result, he said, “case arguments were quoted directly instead of paraphrased.” He said the cases still supported “the legal argument that the court cannot compel the housing authority to make payments to a landlord who is not participating in the voucher program on behalf of a tenant who is no longer enrolled.”

But he did not address why 11 of the 13 cases directly quoted did not actually contain those quotes or why many did not seem related to what his firm had quoted them as saying. He also did not respond when asked if artificial intelligence, which is known to “hallucinate,” or say things that are not true, had been used to draft the brief. The AI detection software GPTZero gave the brief a 73% probability of being AI-generated. “Since your initial inquiry, we have conducted our own internal review,” said the authority in an emailed statement. The statement said the brief was not routed through the housing authority’s own legal team for review, as is their standard policy. “For that reason, we cannot confirm whether AI was used; however, we acknowledge that quotations in the brief were not properly verified.” The Houston Housing Authority said in an email that the outside counsel’s hourly rate is $280 and that it had spent $1,400 so far on court costs.

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The signs come down — Cavazos erased; Fort Hood’s back, just not that Hood

The rebranding of Fort Cavazos in Central Texas has begun. The words "Fort Cavazos" are being removed, letter by letter, from signage at the armored infantry base near Killeen. In place of Cavazos, the post is getting a new-old name: Fort Hood. President Donald Trump last week ordered the Army to restore the original names of Fort Cavazos and six other installations that had been rechristened under the Biden administration to purge the names of Confederate generals. An act of Congress that took effect in 2021, shortly after Trump's first term as president, forbids naming any U.S. military facility after someone who voluntarily served the Confederacy. In keeping with that law, Fort Hood in 2023 was renamed for the late Gen. Richard E. Cavazos, a native Texan, a Medal of Honor winner and the nation's first Hispanic four-star general.

The post's original namesake was Confederate Gen. John Bell Hood. To get around the prohibition on honoring Confederates, the Trump administration says it is renaming the post after a different Hood: a little-known World War I officer, Col. Robert B. Hood, who received a Distinguished Service Cross for heroism. On Tuesday, workers for the Army Corps of Engineers could be seen removing "Fort Cavazos" from a sign at the Bernie Beck gate on T.J. Mills Boulevard. They were scheduled to do the same to a sign at the Santa Fe Gate between T.J. Mills Boulevard and Clear Creek Road. Also targeted for removal Tuesday was a "Welcome to Fort Cavazos" sign on Sadowski Field, near the headquarters of the 3d Armored Corps. The post has six entry gates in all. As to when the remaining signage would be changed, "we don't know the times for sure," said Monty Campbell, a spokesman for the base. As "Fort Cavazos" is erased, “we'll repaint and install the Fort Hood lettering on these signs," Campbell said. The revised signs will be covered until a renaming ceremony is held or the post receives direction from the Army "to unveil those signs," he said. The relabeling extended to the base's digital presence. On Tuesday, the web page for its public information office bore the heading "U.S. Army Fort Hood Media Center."

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A threat was recorded. Will it count in court? A civil district judge will decide.

A civil judge must decide if a recording of an alleged courthouse threat is allowed in court. Ronald Lamar Allen, 47, is charged with making a terroristic threat against a public servant. A police report states that Allen, who is in a custody dispute with his ex-wife, made a concerning comment while speaking with his attorney, Charles Michael Ireland, on April 21. Allen was booked in the Bexar County jail the next day on $100,000 bail. Allen said he was “tired of always having the same judges and things staying the same” and that if things don’t change, “history would be made and there would be dead bodies everywhere,” according to the police report.

Ireland had been Allen’s attorney for two weeks, according to police. Mark Medley, the attorney representing Allen’s wife in the custody case, told Civil District Judge Christine Hortick via Zoom that he is unsure of the admissibility of Ireland’s recording, as it may violate attorney-client privilege. “I understand (Mr. Ireland) is in a pickle,” Medley said. “I don’t know what the solution is.” If attorney-client privilege is broken, it could result in disciplinary action by the Texas Bar Association. An attorney representing Ireland recommended that information about the threat be subpoenaed from law enforcement directly to preserve Allen’s legal privilege and Ireland’s professional duty. After Allen was arrested, his ex-wife requested a protective order forbidding Allen from having contact with her and their 8-year-old child. During Tuesday’s hearing, Margot Gallegos, an attorney representing Allen, only asked the judge to dismiss the protective order. “He’s in jail, there’s no clear immediate danger,” Gallegos said. “We believe they are using this as a vessel to keep him away from his child.” Hortick will determine if the recording will be admissible in court in relation to the protective order filed by Allen’s ex-wife.

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Alex Jones allegedly hid money from Sandy Hook families, new lawsuits say

Alex Jones, along with his family, are being sued over $5 million in cash and real estate the conspiracy theorist allegedly moved in “sham transactions” to his wife and father to shield the assets from Sandy Hook families. According to three suits filed Friday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston, Jones and his family allegedly “went to extraordinary lengths” to keep cars, cash and real estate away from his bankruptcy estate. The suits were filed by Chapter 7 Trustee Christopher Murray, the federal official appointed to liquidate Jones’ assets to pay more than $1 billion in damages to the families of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. “Before filing his personal Bankruptcy Case, (Jones) engaged in an intentional and planned asset protection scheme to transfer cash, cars, and real estate to insiders, including his wife and father, in order to shield those assets from his creditors,” the complaints say.

They allege that Jones along with his wife, Erika Wulff Jones, and father, David R. Jones, took part in a “series of textbook fraudulent transfers” ahead of filing for bankruptcy. Specifically, the suits allege, Jones transferred about $2 million to his wife and father and $1.47 million to a trust in which Jones has 90% ownership. They also say Jones transferred a $300,000 ranch to his father, an $825,000 Austin condominium to a trust and that he failed to disclose ownership of a second condominium worth about $767,000. The filings say Jones backdated and made harried transfers to shield his assets from the Sandy Hook families. “This mad dash to transfer property out of his name to statutory insiders in such close proximity to (Jones’ personal bankruptcy filing) is indicative of (Jones’) actual intent to hinder, delay, and defraud his creditors when he transferred that property,” the trustee says. Murray wants U.S. Judge Christopher Lopez to order Jones to turn over the $5 million so it can be distributed among the Sandy Hook families.

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Austin ISD eliminating jobs at its central office to reduce budget deficit

Austin ISD is trying to slash up to $10 million in spending by restructuring its central administrative office. Staff will learn the future of their positions Wednesday. “The process will include eliminating positions, reassignments, new reporting structures and pay scales,” district officials told KUT News in an email. The changes at the central office, which will take effect on Aug. 1, are part of an ongoing effort to reduce Austin ISD’s budget deficit, which currently totals about $93 million. District officials proposed the reorganization as the school board prepares to approve the 2025-26 budget this month. It’s not yet clear how many employees will be affected. “We are closely reviewing Central Office positions to identify opportunities for savings while minimizing the impact on staff and maintaining our commitment to supporting schools and students,” Austin ISD officials said. “At this point, we do not have a target number of employees.” Superintendent Matias Segura told employees in late May the reorganization would happen in phases, beginning with assistant director-level roles and above. But, about two weeks later, he told employees the changes were all going to happen at once.

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Abbott touts Fort Worth as economic ‘linchpin’ in signing blizzard of pro-business bills

Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday signed several bills intended to solidify Texas’ growing reputation as a powerhouse of business and economic growth. Technically, Abbott had signed some of the bills late last week, but the ceremonial public event ? occurring several days before the end of Texas’ designated legislative signing period ? also doubled as a celebration of the area’s ongoing economic success. Against a backdrop of a Downtown Fort Worth hotel ballroom, where 100 or more local business and civic leaders dined on baked chicken and spinach salads, Abbott affixed his signature to measures aimed at reducing red tape for small businesses and veteran-owned establishments and extending research and development tax credits. “The Texas economy is more than $2.6 trillion a year. That’s the size of the Texas economy and it does nothing but continue to grow,” Abbott said Tuesday.

He also spoke at length about North Texas and Fort Worth, referring to Tarrant County’s largest city as “a linchpin” that “attracts so many of these Fortune 500 companies to this region.” “And you’ve seen more and more of them saying, ‘the right place for us is Fort Worth,’” he continued. “You have all the ingredients that provide that. You’re one of the best cities to start a business.” The governor’s frenetic 10-day bill signing blitz, during which Abbott is reviewing more than 1,200 bills passed by the legislature, lasts through Sunday. “He literally goes through all of them,” said Andrew Mahaleris, the governor’s press secretary. Following the ceremony Mattie Parker, Fort Worth’s third-term mayor, told The Dallas Morning News that she credited the city’s relatively new economic development partnership (EDP). “When we started EDP — now it’s been over three years ago — this was our vision. …To put economic leaders in the room that really understand what it looks like to put Fort Worth on the map.” The first bill Abbott signed was House Bill 346, an effort to expedite business record searches and speed up filings with the Texas Secretary of State’s office. The bill also makes permanent an existing tax exemption for veterans who start small businesses.

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$20M in public health funding restored to Harris County, after judge rules against US government

A district judge restored about $20 million in public health funding to Harris County and a coalition of local governments after ruling in their favor in a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Harris County Attorney Christian D. Menefee announced Tuesday. Harris County was set to lose funding for disease surveillance, immunization outreach and community health worker programs. Cuts also jeopardized mobile vaccination clinics and the county's capacity to track more than 80 infectious diseases, including measles, mpox, zika and tuberculosis. The court ruled the department overstepped its authority by cutting $11 billion in total funding Congress had already appropriated and local governments had already begun to implement, a news release from Menefee read.

"This ruling is a win for Harris County residents and public health departments across the country," Menefee wrote in the release. "The federal government cannot simply ignore Congress and pull the plug on essential services that communities rely on. Today's decision ensures we can keep doing the work that protects our residents — from tracking disease outbreaks to providing vaccinations and supporting vulnerable families." In April, the Trump administration announced the abrupt cancellation of a federal grant program started during COVID-19, pulling back $42 millions in funding for public health. The lawsuit was filed in April with officials from Nashville; Columbus, Ohio; Kansas City, Missouri.; the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees; the Public Rights Project; and Forward. "Local governments can't plan or protect residents when federal agencies pull the rug out from under them without legal authority," Menefee wrote. "This decision restores stability for our public health system and reaffirms that Congress, not unelected bureaucrats, decides how public dollars are spent."

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Texas AG Ken Paxton requests new execution date for Robert Roberson

Attorney General Ken Paxton is requesting a new execution date for Robert Roberson, months after state lawmakers used an eleventh-hour tactic to stall his initial execution. Roberson would be the first person put to death for a murder conviction tied to shaken baby syndrome. In an unusual move, Paxton recently took over prosecution of the case from a local district attorney, and this week asked an Anderson County Judge to set a new execution date for Oct. 16 — even as Roberson’s legal team is pressing for newly elected members of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to review fresh evidence in his case.

The third-term Republican, who recently launched a U.S. Senate bid, has aggressively pushed back on Roberson’s claims of innocence and efforts by lawmakers to delay his execution. Gretchen Sween, Roberson’s attorney, said she has never heard of the attorney general taking over a death penalty case from a local prosecutor. “Odder still is the decision to then immediately move to seek an execution date when an appeal is currently pending,” Sween said in a statement to Hearst Newspapers. Paxton’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Roberson, 58, was condemned for the 2002 killing of his 2-year-old daughter, Nikki Curtis, in the East Texas city of Palestine. Only the Court of Criminal Appeals can overturn his conviction, and it has so far refused to review Roberson’s innocence claims. Paxton’s office argued in filings that the court’s past denial is enough to set a date for his execution. “Because the CCA has denied Roberson’s initial state habeas proceeding, the criteria for setting an execution have been met,” it wrote. The appeals court has been radically reshaped since it last denied Roberson’s request to review his case. Three of the judges that voted with the majority in the 5-4 decision dismissing Roberson’s most recent legal petition were replaced in the last election. Only one of the new judges needs to feel differently to tip the balance in his favor. Roberson’s legal team is trying to convince the new court to reconsider. His attorneys have argued that his initial defense team failed to point out holes in the prosecution’s case — namely that Nikki had been a sick child with other medical conditions that could also explain her death and that the science behind the “shaken baby” explanation has since been contested.

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AG Paxton investigates whether undocumented immigrants in Texas voted in 2024 election

Texas officials are investigating allegations that 33 potential noncitizens illegally voted in last year’s general election, Attorney General Ken Paxton said Tuesday. Secretary of State Jane Nelson referred the individuals to Paxton’s office for investigation earlier this month after the Trump administration provided access to a federal database used to verify immigration status and citizenship. In a statement, Paxton vowed to “use the full weight” of his agency to investigate potential voter fraud. “Noncitizens must not be allowed to influence American elections,” Paxton said. “In order to be able to trust the integrity of our elections, the results must be determined by our own citizens — not foreign nationals breaking the law to illegally vote.”

Critics say noncitizen voting is a non-issue that Texas officials often use to suppress turnout among Hispanic voters and play to the state’s conservative base of voters. President Donald Trump in March issued an executive order directing the Department of Homeland Security to provide states free access to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service database. Texas had sought access to such data dating back to former President Joe Biden’s administration. In August, Abbott announced state officials purged more than 1 million people from the voter rolls over the past three years, including more than 6,500 potential noncitizens — people whose records were flagged for follow-up over citizenship status but got no response. At Paxton’s urging, Nelson asked federal officials in September to provide citizenship data to help verify whether registered Texas voters are eligible to cast ballots. Paxton also requested the citizenship data in October. “These potential instances of unlawful voting will be thoroughly investigated,” Paxton said in the statement, “and I will continue to stand with President Trump in fighting to ensure that our state’s elections are safe and secure.” Texas voters will decide in November whether to add an amendment to the state’s constitution clarifying that “persons who are not citizens of the United States” cannot vote in the state’s elections.

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Dallas-based Christ for the Nations, where suspect in Minnesota shooting attended, denounces ‘hateful actions’

In the Buick sedan Vance Boelter left on a rural road outside Minneapolis, law enforcement found a letter addressed to the FBI identifying himself as “the shooter at large in Minnesota.” Police have also found a Ford SUV belonging to Boelter, filled with weapons, notebooks full of website names and other resources suggesting he stalked his victims, and a list of some 70 politicians that authorities say he also targeted. But nowhere have they found an explanation for why Boelter allegedly killed state lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband and wounded two others, according to federal charges brought by the Department of Justice Monday (June 16). While some, including Utah Sen. Mike Lee, have tried to tie the killings to radical left elements (“This is what happens When Marxists don’t get their way,” Lee posted on social media), others have portrayed Boelter as a Christian nationalist.

There are hints in the 57-year-old Boelter’s resume to suggest he might have been motivated by radical opposition to abortion and a distorted belief in violence as an extension of spiritual warfare. An ordained minister who has preached at an evangelical Christian church in Congo, Boelter inveighed against abortion and claimed that “the enemy” caused people to switch genders. Matthew Taylor, author of “The Violent Take It by Force: The Christian Movement That Is Threatening Our Democracy,” said he had listened to some of Boelter’s sermons from overseas and said he did not hear any calls for violence but did hear influences of the New Apostolic Reformation, a movement of independent charismatic apostles and prophets that seeks to have Christians dominate all elements of society, including the government. Taylor said opposition to abortion — which is common in NAR and other charismatic Christian circles — has spiritual overtones, with abortion often depicted as a kind of child sacrifice. “I think it is significant that he has apparently spent most of his life in and around communities and channels through which pretty radical ideas are flowing,” he said. The search for a motive has put a spotlight on Christ for the Nations Institute, an influential Dallas-based Bible college for nondenominational charismatic Christians, where Boelter graduated in 1990.

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Texas Railroad Commission shuts down defiant Houston oil field operator after third earthquake

The Texas Railroad Commission voted Tuesday to immediately suspend a permit that allowed a defiant Houston operator to inject oil field wastewater deep underground in an area of West Texas plagued by earthquakes. The vote is the latest milestone in a yearlong legal battle over whether Blackbuck Resources could be causing a string of earthquakes, including one of record strength last month that triggered the commission to issue an emergency order. The earlier order compelled Blackbuck to stop operating for at least 15 days. Blackbuck has not resumed operations, the commission said in a statement. The order approved Tuesday shuts down Blackbuck’s disposal well permanently. The company could still appeal the decision in district court.

Three strong earthquakes have rattled the region so far this year. A magnitude 5.0 temblor rattled the Culberson-Reeves area in February. Four days later, a second earthquake in the area reached magnitude 4.7. Last month’s quake reached a magnitude of 5.4 — tied for the largest of its kind in Texas history. Blackbuck, which was allowed to operate while its case was under review, was the only company still injecting into deep underground formations after the commission banned the practice in the area of increased seismic activity in December 2023. In May 2024, the company challenged the commission’s decision to suspend its permit, arguing its disposal well was geologically isolated and could not be contributing to the rash of earthquakes. The commission’s staff disagrees, said Arden Elliot, technical examiner with the commission’s hearings division. “Staff asserts that the (saltwater disposal well) is contributing to the seismicity,” Elliot said Tuesday during the meeting.

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Tarrant County Commissioners Court meeting canceled due to lack of quorum

The Tarrant County commissioners meeting was canceled Tuesday because three members of the five-member court were absent. Commissioners Roderick Miles, Matt Krause and Manny Ramirez were not present. Their staffs did not immediately respond to the Star-Telegram’s question about why they were missing. Crystal Betts said she drove from Saginaw to raise her sign for the commissioners to see. Betts was disappointed three of the commissioners weren’t present, but at least County Judge Tim O’Hare read her “We will vote you out” sign, she said.

“It’s their job. They make a lot of money to be here, and they can’t show up,” Betts said. “I guess they had something better to do. I don’t know. It’s unfortunate. You know, people do take time off of their jobs, and they take time out of their lives to come out here.” The county was scheduled to decide on a $250,000 contract for Public Interest Legal Foundation to represent the county, the commissioners court and O’Hare in a lawsuit over the redistricting. The court was also set to hear a briefing about the operational impact of the redistricting and a briefing about the LGBTQ historical marker that O’Hare blocked from being placed in Fort Worth. O’Hare said the next meeting will be on Tuesday, July 1.

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National Stories

Hospitals stunned by Senate GOP’s Medicaid plan

One of the most powerful lobbies in Washington is redoubling its efforts to avoid a cut to Medicaid payments in the GOP’s megabill. Hospital executives weren’t happy last month when the House included a provision in its version of the bill freezing a loophole states have used to boost payments to hospitals serving the low-income patients enrolled in Medicaid. Hospitals have long enjoyed deference from lawmakers — since they both care for and employ their constituents. But they were infuriated when Senate Republicans on the Finance Committee released their version of the bill on Monday. Their proposal went even further than the House measure in curtailing the ability of states to impose taxes on providers. States have used those taxes to gain a larger federal Medicaid contribution, which they have then directed back to hospitals with higher reimbursements.

The Senate’s proposal would lower the amount the 40 states that have expanded Medicaid under Obamacare can levy in provider taxes from 6 percent to 3.5 percent. It has hospital lobbyists painting a bleak picture of their financial prospects in a last-ditch effort to change senators’ minds. “No senator wants to be the reason their local hospital shutters its doors, and now is their opportunity to stop that from happening,” said a source familiar with hospital industry thinking granted anonymity to speak freely on strategy. More than 250 hospital leaders flew into Washington on Tuesday to urge senators to preserve Medicaid as part of an American Hospital Association lobbying campaign. The association spent almost $8.5 million on lobbying in the first quarter of the year, a high water mark dating back almost two decades. “There are aggressive conversations ongoing…to make sure that all senators recognize the vulnerability that it is going to potentially put all of our hospitals in,” said one stakeholder granted anonymity to speak on strategy, adding that the lobbying push will continue in the states later this week after senators depart Washington for the Juneteenth holiday.

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Americans pull back from restaurants by most since 2023

Spending at restaurants and bars slumped in May by the most in more than two years, underscoring how tariffs and geopolitical tensions are making consumers nervous about their finances. Sales fell 0.9% last month, the most since February 2023, Commerce Department data showed Tuesday. It was part of the biggest retreat in retail sales since the start of the year. President Donald Trump’s tariffs haven’t yet led to higher US inflation, but they’ve prompted many Americans to rethink their spending. Some restaurants, particularly those that attract lower-income diners such as McDonald’s Corp., have warned that consumer sentiment is shaky. Household finances have also worsened because of high interest rates and a persistent rise in the cost of living.

Consumers regained some of their faith in the economy in May given modest inflation relief, but sentiment remains “fragile,” according to Abigail Gilmartin, a retail analyst with Bloomberg Intelligence. Red Lobster Chief Executive Officer Damola Adamolekun highlighted the concerns in an interview Monday, before the retail sales figures were released. “If sentiment drops, will it affect the restaurant business? Absolutely,” he said. There’s some optimism that potential tax cuts, which are part of a bill winding its way through Congress, could lift restaurant sales in the second half, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.

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Iran’s Supreme Leader says country won’t surrender

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that his country won’t surrender and warned that any U.S. military intervention would bring irreparable consequences. His comments come after President Trump, who administration officials said is considering a range of options—including a potential U.S. strike against Iran—said on social media that the U.S. knew the location of Iran’s leader but was choosing not to take any action, and then said, “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!” Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke by telephone on Tuesday, a White House official said. The U.S. military has built up forces in the region in recent days. A third U.S. Navy destroyer entered the eastern Mediterranean Sea and a second U.S. carrier strike group is heading toward the Arabian Sea. While the Pentagon says the military buildup is purely defensive, it puts the U.S. on a firmer footing to join Israeli attacks on Iran should Trump decide to do that. Alternatively, it could be a tactic to pressure Iran to capitulate or make concessions.

Israel and Iran have continued to exchange fire, and the death toll in Iran rose above 450, according to a human-rights group. In Israel, 24 people have died as a result of Iranian strikes. The U.N. atomic agency said an Israeli strike directly hit the underground halls at Iran’s largest enrichment facility, Natanz. The Israeli military said its air force struck a plant that manufactures centrifuges in Tehran. Israel is running low on defensive Arrow interceptors, according to a U.S. official, raising concern about its ability to counter long-range ballistic missiles if the conflict isn’t resolved soon. Germany’s chancellor said Israel was doing the “dirty work” for other countries by striking Iran’s nuclear sites.

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NYC mayoral candidate Brad Lander released after arrest by ICE

New York City Comptroller and Democratic mayoral candidate Brad Lander was released from custody Tuesday afternoon, about four hours after he was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at the city’s main immigration court. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul called Lander’s arrest “total bulls---” in a post on X. “When elected officials are being detained without cause, we have to ask: what the hell is happening to our country?” Hochul wrote. “This federal overreach cannot go unchecked.” Lander’s wife, Meg Barnette, wrote on X earlier Tuesday: “While escorting a defendant out of immigration court at 26 Federal Plaza, Brad was taken by masked agents and detained by ICE.” Video of the incident posted online showed Lander outside a courtroom being approached by officers, including some wearing masks.

Lander repeatedly asked the officers to show him a judicial warrant before he was handcuffed, according to the video posted by Barnette. The Department of Homeland Security said Lander was arrested for “assaulting law enforcement and impeding a federal officer.” Federal prosecutors said Tuesday that they were “continuing to investigate the actions involving” Lander. As of 5 p.m. ET, Lander had not been charged with a crime. Lander, a candidate in next week’s Democratic primary for New York City mayor, was in court observing immigration case proceedings, which he has done at least two other times, Barnette said. The incident comes days after police handcuffed Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., after he was forcibly removed from a press conference that Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was holding in Los Angeles. “If that is what the administration is going to do to a United States senator for having the authority to simply ask a question, imagine what they will do to any American who dares to speak up,” Padilla said during remarks on the Senate floor Tuesday.

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Trump Mobile faces steep odds, skepticism with plans for US-made smartphones

The Trump family’s new mobile phone venture promises to build its golden smartphones in the U.S., an endeavor that experts warn will be nearly impossible in the current manufacturing environment. Trump Mobile’s T1 Phone will instead likely be forced to grapple with international supply chains that rely heavily on China and have been complicated by President Trump’s own tariff regime. “It is exceptionally difficult to see how a smartphone like the T1 device would be truly made in the U.S.,” said Leo Gebbie, an industry analyst with CSS Insight. “[For] anyone who digs beneath the surface, it will be incredibly clear that this simply is not a realistic claim and ultimately devices cannot be made in the U.S. because of the strength of the Asia supply chain, which is so far advanced and significantly further ahead of anything that exists in the U.S. at this moment in time,” he added.

The Trump Organization, currently helmed by the president’s sons, announced it would be launching a mobile phone business Monday — the anniversary of Trump’s descent down the golden escalator at Trump Tower, which marked his entrance into politics. Trump Mobile plans to offer a $47 phone plan, an homage to Trump’s tenure as the 47th president, as well as the golden smartphones. The T1 Phone is meant to go on sale in August for $499. “You can build these phones in the United States,” Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, told podcaster Benny Johnson. “We can do it cheaper. We can do it better. And eventually, all the phones can be built in the United States of America. We have to bring manufacturing back here.” Trump Jr.’s focus on reshoring manufacturing largely lines up with the efforts by his father’s administration, which has repeatedly cited an expansion of U.S. manufacturing capabilities as the driving factor behind its wide-ranging tariff regime. However, experts have cautioned that bringing smartphone manufacturing back to the U.S. is largely unrealistic, requiring billions of dollars of investment over decades.

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Israel is running low on defensive interceptors, official says

Israel is running low on defensive Arrow interceptors, according to a U.S. official, raising concern about the country’s ability to counter long-range ballistic missiles from Iran if the conflict isn’t resolved soon. The U.S. has been aware of the capacity problems for months, the official said, and Washington has been augmenting Israel’s defenses with systems on the ground, at sea and in the air. Since the conflict escalated in June, the Pentagon has sent more missile defense assets into the region, and now there is concern about the U.S. burning through interceptors as well. “Neither the U.S. nor the Israelis can continue to sit and intercept missiles all day,” said Tom Karako, director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “The Israelis and their friends need to move with all deliberate haste to do whatever needs to be done, because we cannot afford to sit and play catch.” Israel Aerospace Industries, the company that makes Arrow interceptors, didn’t respond to requests for comment. The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement: “The IDF is prepared and ready to handle any scenario. Unfortunately, we are unable to comment on matters related to munitions.”

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Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem transported to DC-area hospital after allergic reaction, DHS says

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was transported by ambulance on Tuesday to a hospital in Washington, DC, after an allergic reaction, the Department of Homeland Security said. “Secretary Noem had an allergic reaction today. She was transported to the hospital out of an abundance of caution. She is alert and recovering,” said DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin. CNN observed several Secret Service agents posted at several entrances outside the emergency room at the hospital where the secretary was admitted. Noem, 53, who previously served as the governor of South Dakota and represented the state in Congress, was tapped to serve as President Donald Trump’s Homeland Security secretary just days after he was elected for a second term, positioning her as a critical member of his cabinet after he made immigration a major part of his campaign. She was confirmed for the role by the Senate in late January.

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Lead Stories

An armed man at Texas Capitol made threats against lawmaker, Gov. Abbott says

Gov. Greg Abbott said a man with a gun on the state Capitol grounds prompted an evacuation of the site Saturday ahead of a “No Kings” protest in Austin. Abbott spoke about the threat during a bill-signing event in Denton County on Monday. Later that afternoon, U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, shared on social media that she was one of several lawmakers named by the suspect in the fatal shooting of a Minnesota state legislator and her husband over the weekend. The governor’s comments are the first indication that the person involved in the Texas threat was at the Capitol when state police learned of the threat. “What I understand was the fact, and that is, there was a person on the Capitol grounds with a gun who seemingly had the intent to do harm to a legislator,” Abbott said during Monday’s event.

Police arrested one man in connection with the threat in La Grange, about 40 miles east of Austin. Authorities have not identified the suspect. Abbott’s comments came as lawmakers are increasingly concerned about their security in the wake of the Minnesota shootings that left one lawmaker and her husband dead Saturday. Another lawmaker was also injured in a related attack, according to Minnesota authorities. “All of these instances are reminders that right-wing extremism has a foothold on our country,” Escobar wrote in a statement on social media. “Politically motivated violence, and violence of any kind, have no place in our democracy and we all have a role to play in moving our country toward healing.” The suspect in the Minnesota shooting, Vance Boelter, attended Christ For The Nations Institute in Dallas, an institute spokesperson confirmed Monday.

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Trump struggles to press deportations without damaging the economy

When federal agents raided Glenn Valley Foods in Omaha, Neb., last Tuesday, they arrested about 75 of the meat processor’s workers, roughly half of the production line. The following day, the plant was operating at about 15% of capacity, and a skeleton crew strained to fill orders. Chief Executive Gary Rohwer can’t see a future that doesn’t include immigrant workers. “Without them, there wouldn’t be an industry,” he said. President Trump’s aggressive deportation push has slammed into an economic reality: Key industries in the U.S. rely heavily on workers living in the U.S. illegally, many of them for decades. That presents a major challenge for the administration unfolding in real time, with business leaders urging a softer approach while anti-immigration hard-liners demand more deportations. The conflict could be difficult to untangle—and public signs are emerging of a clash within the administration.

The Department of Homeland Security late last week directed immigration officers to pause arrests at farms, restaurants and hotels, stressing that sweeps should focus on people in the U.S. illegally who have criminal backgrounds. “Severe disruptions to our food supply would harm Americans,” wrote Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins on X Sunday. “It took us decades to get into this mess and we are prioritizing deportations in a way that will get us out.” At the same time, DHS appeared to walk back its own directive from last week. In a letter to Immigration and Customs Enforcement leadership over the weekend, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem doubled down on the administration’s efforts to deport millions of people living in the country illegally. “[W]e must dramatically intensify arrest and removal operations nationwide,” she wrote in the letter, which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. “This is a nonnegotiable national priority.” ICE agents will be judged “every day by how many arrests you, your teammates and your office are able to effectuate,” she wrote, adding, “Failure is not an option.”

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Gov. Abbott signs bills to cut Texas property taxes — but voters must still weigh in

Gov. Greg Abbott signed a package of bills Monday that aim to slash property taxes for Texas homeowners. Surrounded by state legislators, local officials and residents of Robson Ranch, a luxury senior community in Denton County, Abbott called the Texas property tax cuts unprecedented in the U.S. “No state in the history of America has devoted such a large percentage of its budget to tax relief,” Abbott said to cheers. “And as far as I’m concerned, we’re not done yet.” The bills approve two constitutional amendments, which voters must still approve in November. One would raise the homestead exemption from $100,000 to $140,000; the other would raise the exemption to $200,000 for state residents with disabilities or those 65 and older.

More than half of seniors would pay no property taxes at all, Abbott said. Long pushed by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the increased property tax exemptions won overwhelming bipartisan support in the Texas House and Senate during the recently concluded legislative session. Under the amendments, the average homeowner would save about $500 in taxes per year when combined with the lower school district taxes in the state budget, said Sen. Paul Bettencourt-R, Houston, the bills’ author, along with state Rep. Morgan Meyer, a University Park Republican. Texans over 65 or disabled would save an average of $950 per year. The additional exemptions will cost the state’s general revenue fund about $3 billion. Another $3.5 billion will pay for reduced school district taxes. House Speaker Dustin Burrows, sitting beside Abbott, said the measures would bring much-needed relief to all Texas taxpayers, adding that Texas is poised to become a “retirement destination” for seniors thanks to such policies. “No country, state, city or county can tax their way to prosperity,” Burrows said. “That is why it is so important we make sure we have a low tax state.” The exemptions are only for homesteads — homes in which the owner lives — so they won’t apply to renters or business properties if the legislation is ultimately approved.

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GOP budget bill faces nearly 2-to-1 opposition with many unaware: Poll

As Senate Republicans race to pass President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a plurality of Americans oppose the sweeping tax-and-spending legislation, with mixed opinions on specific provisions and concerns about its impact on the national debt and Medicaid, according to a Washington Post-Ipsos poll conducted earlier this month. Overall, 42 percent of Americans oppose the budget bill “changing tax, spending and Medicaid policies” that narrowly passed in May by the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives, compared with 23 percent of Americans who support the bill, and 34 percent who say they have no opinion. Support among Republicans is higher, with 49 percent who say they support the bill compared to 13 percent who oppose, and 38 percent who say they have no opinion. Democrats strongly oppose the bill, with about three-quarters of Democrats against it. Independents also oppose it 40 percent to 17 percent, while about 4 in 10 independents have no opinion on the bill.

Since the House narrowly passed its version of the bill, Senate Republicans have scrambled to emphasize the bill’s economic benefits to voters and pass their version of it by Trump’s deadline of the Fourth of July. But most people are not very aware of the legislation, and among those who have heard about the bill, it’s unpopular. About two-thirds of the public says they have heard either little or nothing about the budget bill. Those who have heard a great deal or a good amount about it oppose it by a roughly 2-to-1 margin, 64 percent to 33 percent, with nearly half strongly in opposition. Opinions on specific aspects of the bill — which includes tax cuts, increased spending on border security, cuts to spending on social safety net programs such as Medicaid, and rollbacks on spending to curb climate change — however are nuanced, ranging from very popular to very unpopular. A clear majority of Americans support increasing the child tax credit from $2,000 to $2,500 — 72 percent — and 65 percent support eliminating taxes on earnings from tips. But 66 percent of Americans broadly oppose cutting federal funding for food assistance to low-income households compared to 23 percent who support this, while 61 percent oppose spending $45 billion on migrant detention centers compared to 24 percent. Another 51 percent oppose ending tax breaks for producing solar, wind and geothermal energy compared to 31 percent who support it; and 52 percent are against spending roughly $50 billion to complete a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border compared to 36 percent. Other recent polls have found higher support for a border wall without a price tag.

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State Stories

Former DA Kim Ogg calls for Republican takeover of Harris County in 2026

Former Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg—speaking at a local Republican event—issued a blistering rebuke of Democratic leadership and urged Republicans to reclaim the county in 2026. "The motto used to be—'Y'all can go to hell. I'm going to Texas.' Ogg said during fiery remarks at a June meeting of the Log Cabin Republicans of Houston. "Over the last eight years, we've had hell in Texas, here in Harris County." During her nearly 45-minute-long address, Ogg spoke about the over-encroachment of the "liberal" government of the Democratic Party, her increasingly conservative tendencies over her two terms and future plans, including a potential nomination to serve as a U.S. Attorney.

"Every position by 2018 in Harris County was blue. Now understand that follows 25 years of every position in Harris County having been red until my year, 2016," Ogg said. "My dad, who was a conservative Democrat, used to say the best government is a split government. I don't know that I would say that now. Now, what I would tell you is the Republicans need to carry Harris County in 2026." Despite the critiques she fired at her then-Democratic counterparts, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, Commissioner Rodney Ellis and late Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner (among others), Ogg was quick to extend her support to former Houston Mayor Annise Parker's bid for county judge. Ogg noted that while she had Parker's back, the more left-leaning voter pool may not view her support as a good thing. "They will turn the machine that Rodney Ellis has built using the Democratic Party as the central focus and all the precinct chairs—they will turn that part of the party against Annise unless she kisses the ring," Ogg said. "Most importantly, if Lina Hidalgo runs for a third term, already the 'progressives,' I call them the 'socialists,' are suggesting that [Parker's] friendship with me and her friendship with Mayor Whitmire is some sort of satanic pack (which Ogg told Chron was a joke) and that we're all gonna go to gay hell or something."

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Congressman Joaquin Castro says he was on Minnesota assassin's target list

U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro said he was on a target list drawn up by alleged political assassin Vance Boelter in Minnesota. U.S. Capitol Police, which is responsible for protecting members of Congress, told the seven-term representative's chief of staff early Sunday that his boss's name was on the list found in a vehicle abandoned by Boelter, according to the San Antonio Democrat. Castro, 50, said the San Antonio Police Department stationed a patrol car outside his Northwest Side home, where he lives with wife Anna Flores and their three children, most of Sunday. At the time, Boelter, 57, was still on the loose after allegedly gunning down Minnesota state representative Melissa Hortman, a former Democratic House speaker, and her husband, Mark, in a northern Minneapolis suburb early Saturday.

Authorities say Boelter also shot and wounded Sen. John Hoffman, a Democrat, and his wife, Yvette, at their home in a nearby neighborhood. Police arrested Boelter late Sunday near his home in Green Isle, Minn., after a nearly two-day manhunt. He's facing murder charges and is being held in the county lock-up in Minneapolis. Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson in Minneapolis said a list of about 45 names of Minnesota state and federal elected officials were found in writings recovered from a fake police vehicle left at the crime scene — some names appearing more than once. Authorities also have said the list included community leaders, along with abortion-rights advocates and information about health care facilities, according to the officials. "There were at least a few other members of Congress on that list," Castro told the San Antonio Express-News. Elected officials in at least three other states said law enforcement officials have told them they were among Boelter’s targets, as well. They include Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin and Democratic U.S. Rep. Greg Landsman of Ohio. In Michigan, Democratic U.S. Reps. Hillary Scholten and Debbie Dingell confirmed they were on Boelter’s lists of targets, and Scholten postponed a Monday evening town hall.

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Texas Funeral Service Commission may fire its executive director, according to online meeting agenda

The Texas Funeral Service Commission — the state agency responsible for overseeing deathcare — has called a meeting for Wednesday with an agenda item indicating they may consider firing the executive director. The commissioners intend to “deliberate the employment, evaluation, duties, discipline, or dismissal of the Executive Director,” according to the posted public agenda for the meeting. Scott Bingaman, the executive director, has held the position for less than a year. He was hired in September 2024, according to his LinkedIn profile. Bingaman declined to comment on the upcoming meeting. The commission is made up of seven gubernatorial appointments. The commission chair, Kristin Tips, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Texas Funeral Service Commission licenses funeral providers, inspects funeral establishments and investigates complaints from the public. The commission also oversees donations of bodies for medical studies and research, a task previously handled by the now-defunct State Anatomical Board of Texas. Over the past decade, public records and reports show the commission has struggled with staffing, turnover and keeping up with complaints. Salaries weren’t competitive enough to attract people to live in the increasingly expensive state capital of Austin, the agency wrote in its funding request to legislators this past session. Inspections and investigations also fell behind during the coronavirus pandemic shutdown. A 2023 state audit found that in August 2022, the commission “halted all tracking of complaints” and was not performing any investigations after the entire enforcement division left. As of November 2022, when the commission hired a new investigator, at least 39 complaints had gone unlogged, per the same audit. The staff attorney position — an integral component of the complaint resolution process, according the agency’s own reports — remained vacant for a year before being filled in July 2023, per the agency’s legislative funding requests for the past session. Houston has seen several high-profile cases involving funeral homes. Most recently, the commission began investigating Richardson Mortuary after a viral video allegedly showed bodies laid out in the open without air conditioning. Richardson representatives told the commission their lease had been terminated, according to a late April news release from the commission. That same release said Richardson “is now considered closed with no plans to reopen.”

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How Trump’s plans to boost catch limits could hurt Gulf fishermen

When President Donald Trump signed an executive order in April ordering an increase in fishing limits to restore “American seafood competitiveness,” fishermen from Texas and other coastal areas cheered him on. But behind the scenes, many were concerned. The limits, set up by Congress 50 years ago to manage how much fisherman could catch, helped critical species like red snapper in the Gulf of Mexico rebound after overfishing through much of the 20th century. And Trump was proposing to raise them while cutting fisheries staff at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is charged with conducting the fish counts that determine catch limits, at a time when some fisherman say they’re suddenly seeing less stock in the sea.

“We support measured and reasonable increases when the stocks can handle them,” said Eric Brazer Jr., deputy director of Gulf of America Reef Fish Shareholders’ Alliance, which represents commercial fishermen. “You want there to be enough fish in the ocean to run your business 30, 40 years, so you can pass this business on to your children. Conserve a few more fish today to have more fish down the road.” The Gulf fishing industry is relatively small by the standard of those along the Pacific and Atlantic coasts, but it’s a not insignificant part of the Texas economy, with commercial and recreational fishing generating billions of dollars a year. How exactly Trump plans to go about raising catch limits remains unclear. In his executive order, Trump described existing catch limits as overly “restrictive.” At the same time, he called for the U.S. Commerce Department, which oversees NOAA, to “modernize data collection and analytical practices” toward a better understanding of “real-time ocean conditions.” But Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency has laid off thousands of workers in NOAA’s fisheries division, with some regional offices losing up to 25% of their staff, said Gib Brogan, fisheries campaign director at the environmental group Oceana. And in a budget proposal earlier this year, the White House called for a 24% cut to NOAA’s more than $6 billion budget.

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El Paso Film Festival named among top 50 to attend

The El Paso Film Festival, now in its eighth year, has been named one of the top 50 film festivals worth attending. The festival, which will be held Sept. 25-27 in Downtown El Paso, was recognized by MovieMaker Magazine for the second straight year, the film festival said in a news release. The film festival was recognized as one of the top 50 around the world worth paying the entry fee for in 2024 and again this year, according to the film festival. The annual list is curated with the help and feedback from a panel of professionals and filmmakers who have had recent successful festival runs with their films, the news release said. “Three days of fun, smart, spirited films in a borderland city packed with the stories of three cultures: Texas, Mexico, and the fascinating places where they intersect,” Tim Molloy, editor of MovieMaker Magazine, said. “Those who get in will find themselves quickly embraced by a film scene that emphasizes cheering everyone on and raising all boats.”

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Lt. Gov Dan Patrick brings Texas' conservative Christianity to D.C.

On Monday, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick led the first gathering of President Donald Trump's Religious Liberty Commission. The group, made up of 12 conservative Christians and one Orthodox rabbi, is tasked with advising the White House on what they deem threats to religious freedom. "The Declaration of Independence is consistent with the Bible, and the Bible is consistent with the Declaration of Independence," Patrick, the commission's chair, said during the meeting held at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. He later added, "We want to let America know, you have a great inheritance of religious liberty and this commission over this time will free you to be free to pray where and when you want." Attorney General Pam Bondi also made an appearance at the meeting. In her brief statement, she echoed Patrick's Christian rhetoric and condemned former President Joe Biden for declaring Easter 2024 to be Transgender Day of Visibility.

"Elections have consequences and this president and this administration are fully committed to restoring religious liberty for all Americans. The religious liberty commission will be the tip of the spear," Bondi said, per a recording of the meeting streamed on the Department of Justice website. "Together, we will return America to the vision of our founders: a nation where faith merely isn't tolerated but is embraced and celebrated." "I can assure you the DOJ will use every legal and constitutional tool available to ensure Americans can live out their faith freely without fear," Bondi continued. Since Trump was re-elected to the presidency, his conservative Christian supporters have exercised their power to infuse their beliefs into politics. In February, Trump announced that he wanted to root out "anti-Christian bias" in the U.S., revealing that he’d formed a task force led by Bondi to investigate the alleged "targeting" of Christians. That same month, he announced the creation of a White House faith office led by Paula White-Cain, a longtime pastor in the charismatic Christian space.

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Houston-area group homes for people with disabilities shutter as industry faces ‘crisis’

A major Houston-area provider of group homes for people with disabilities is shutting down and laying off more than a hundred workers, a harbinger of what advocates say will become more frequent after the state only slightly raised reimbursement rates in the latest legislative session. “This was not what we wanted to do,” Texana Center CEO Shena Ureste said about the closures. “This was not a choice we wanted to make. The state gave us no other choice.” The center, which serves people with intellectual and developmental disabilities across six counties west of Houston, is shuttering its 14 group homes over the next several months, displacing roughly 50 clients. The decision comes as the state Legislature hasn't met advocates' calls to significantly raise pay for the staff who support the roughly 15,000 people statewide who live in small residential settings supported by a Medicaid waiver program.

State lawmakers agreed to increase the wages from $10.60 to $13 an hour in the session that ended earlier this month. But advocates say it’s still not enough for providers to recruit and retain staff, especially when fast-food restaurants and retail stores are paying significantly more for work that is often less demanding. “There are so many other opportunities out there,” Ureste said. “I go to Buc-ee’s every morning to get iced tea. They're paying $18, $20, $22 an hour.” Texas invests in group homes and their staffing so people with disabilities can live in their own communities, as opposed to being housed in one of 13 state-run centers that are larger and more expensive to operate. The state does not collect data on group home closures, making the scope of the industry’s problems difficult to quantify. But a survey by three statewide provider associations last year found that 229 group homes closed between early 2023 and 2024, and 126 more were anticipated.

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Texas judge temporarily blocks rule requiring prosecutors to turn over data to attorney general

A Travis County Judge temporarily blocked the enforcement of a new rule requiring prosecutors in counties with 400,000 or more residents to turn over data on active and closed criminal cases to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Paxton announced on March 31 that he would adopt a new rule requiring district and county attorneys to provide specific performance reports, and access to detailed report information upon request, according to a release by the attorney general. Paxton said the rule is meant to "assist citizens in determining whether their local elected officials are inadequately prosecuting certain categories of crime, releasing dangerous criminals back into the community, engaging in selective prosecution, or otherwise failing to uphold their obligations."

However, Harris County Attorney Christian D. Menefee called the ruling for the policy that took effect in April "nothing more than a power grab for the attorney." "Paxton is trying to intimidate locally elected prosecutors and use his office to score political points," Menefee said in a written statement. The ruling from the Travis County judge comes after a lawsuit filed by Menefee on behalf of Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare, alongside several other Texas counties and district attorneys. "We’re not going to let that happen in Harris County," Menefee said. A representative with Paxton could not be immediately reached for comment. In a written statement on March 31, Paxton said "District and County Attorneys have a duty to protect the communities they serve by upholding the law and vigorously prosecuting dangerous criminals. In many major counties, the people responsible for safeguarding millions of Texans have instead endangered lives by refusing to prosecute criminals and allowing violent offenders to terrorize law-abiding Texans. This rule will enable citizens to hold rogue DA's accountable."

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West Houston group seeks to create home-rule school district in Houston ISD

A small West Houston group wants to create its own charter-governed district within the state's largest school district, Houston ISD, as a way to return autonomy to the community. The idea, spearheaded by about 20 people, would take advantage of a state law that allows for a "home-rule school district." The group believes it would allow HISD's Westside High School feeder pattern in the Energy Corridor to choose curriculum and learning methods outside of state-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles' mandates. They also said it would help area schools keep qualified teachers through "alternative, locally determined methods," according to a June 8 statement from the West Houston Independence Movement.

The idea arises amid stringent reforms and classroom teaching methods enforced by Houston ISD's state-appointed leadership. Such methods include the heavy use of timers in classrooms and district-determined curriculum with material generated by artificial intelligence. The district's more than 270 schools have varying levels of autonomy to choose how instruction occurs. Parents at West Briar Middle School, in the Westside feeder pattern, previously signed a petition to protest staff departures and culture at the school. That petition was followed by a protest in April. Anna Heinzelmann, a Westside High School parent, said a home-rule school district would give the area more autonomy. They do not want to break away from HISD or change its boundaries, she said. "Because we are pretty far from literally any other facilities in HISD. The next Sunrise Center (district-backed resource center) is about 20 to 30 minutes, depending where you are in the westside panhandle," she said. "And we want more local control over staffing, funding, programming, facilities, so that maybe we can actually improve the HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) systems and have that on during the day when most of them are breaking."

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Texas university presidents weigh risks as Trump administration mounts pressure on higher ed

When more than 650 U.S. college and university presidents penned a letter opposing “unprecedented government overreach,” only one Texas name was among them: Montserrat Fuentes of St. Edward’s University, a small, private Catholic school in Austin. To some faculty, the general absence of Texas administrators was a glaring example of a doubly challenging moment for the state's higher education systems. Past years had shown college presidents how state legislators could leverage funding to reach their aims, and the U.S. government is now following a similar playbook as it places federally funded research, international student populations and university endowments in the crossfire of its attacks on DEI and its efforts to address alleged antisemitism. The decision to leave public pronouncements to faculty and outside advocacy groups has frustrated some who say that the independence of their universities is at stake, both in and outside of Texas. But with millions of dollars also at risk and the public's confidence in the field at an all-time low, experts on academia say that it is less risky and possibly more effective to work behind the scenes to convince lawmakers that higher education is worth it.

“That's kind of your only solution,” said Michael Harris, a professor of higher education at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. “Presidents in this state have figured out — why are you going to make yourself a target over a letter that's, in a few weeks, likely to be forgotten?” Federal attacks on higher education institutions have only amplified since the letter circulated in late April. The Trump administration has questioned Columbia University's accreditation status over allegations it violated anti-discrimination laws, even though the Ivy League school ceded to a list of demands or lose $400 million in federal funds, stemming from the same allegations. The government's relations with Harvard University deteriorated further after the school sued over research cuts to the institution. Threats to Harvard's status as a tax-exempt institution and its ability to enroll international students came next, and Harvard sued a second time over the international student ban. Many institutions have relied on the elite peer to be the torch-bearer for higher education, said Todd Wolfson, president of the American Association of University Professors. As a representative of tens thousands of faculty across the country, he is in the group of people who believe that one university's voice is not enough.

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Jocelyn Nungaray was killed 1 year ago. Here's what to know about where the case stands now.

A year ago Monday, Jocelyn Nungaray’s body was found in a shallow bayou. The grim discovery set off a police manhunt for her killer, and captured national attention because of its brutality and the usage of the case by politicians to attack immigration. The 12-year-old had been sexually assaulted before being strangled, according to authorities. Her body was bound before it was cast aside. Within days of her death, two men — Franklin Peña and Johan Martinez-Rangel — had been arrested and charged with her murder. Peña and Martinez-Rangel are both Venezuelan nationals, a fact that pushed discussions about Jocelyn’s murder into the national debate about immigration. Then candidate Donald Trump invoked Jocelyn during his presidential campaign and, after his victory, hosted Jocelyn’s mother at his address to Congress in March. A year after her death, it’s still unclear when her accused killers will stand trial, as court proceedings are still in early stages.

As of Monday, no trial had been scheduled for Peña or Martinez-Rangel. That’s not unusual. In Harris County, it can take years for a capital murder case to reach trial Both Peña and Martinez-Rangel are being held in custody at the Harris County Jail with bail set at $10 million. Court records show that prosecutors have sought records from federal immigration authorities, including Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, in connection to the case. Prosecutors have said they intend to try Peña and Martinez-Rangel separately. In December, former district attorney Kim Ogg announced that her office would seek the death penalty against Peña and Martinez-Rangel. The decision, just months after the men's arrest, was made quickly compared to other capital murder cases. The men are accused of sexually assaulting Jocelyn during the alleged attack. That piece of the accusation is important. In Texas, a murder committed in the midst of a sexual assault can be punished with the death penalty. The crime the men were originally charged with – murder of a person between the age of 10 and 15 years old – is not eligible for the death penalty without there being another aggravating factor.

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Collin County voters will now use hand-marked paper ballots

Collin County is switching to hand-marked paper ballots for future elections. Commissioners recently voted unanimously to change the county's voting method from electronic voting machines to hand-marked paper ballots that are machine counted. Election fraud claims about the 2020 election have repeatedly been discredited. But members of the Collin County chapter of Citizens Defending Freedom, many of whom are also active in the local Republican Party, have spoken about election integrity concerns at Collin County commissioners’ court meetings for years. The Texas Secretary of State’s Office has said Collin County’s elections are secure in its audit of the 2020 general election. The audit called Collin County “the model of how to run elections in Texas.”

County Judge Chris Hill proposed switching the county’s voting method last year ahead of the 2024 November election. Commissioners heard hours of public testimony urging them to make the change at that meeting, but it failed to pass due to concerns about time and budget. Instead, the commissioners directed staff to look into using paper ballots in the future. Fletcher said at a meeting last week meeting that waiting until this year to move to paper ballots was the right call. "I think this direction really is going to be the right direction, looking at a smaller election so we can work out those kinks, anything with this new style of voting and education of the voters as well as those that are administering the election," she said. Staff estimated last year it would cost the county between $3.3 million to $4.2 million and take at least a year to implement. Kaleb Breaux, the Collin County elections administrator, said the cost to do it this year is lower. Breaux said voters could see paper ballots at the polls as early as November. "It's gonna be tight, but I believe that myself and my staff will answer the call to hold a November election," he said.

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National Stories

‘I’m an American, bro!’: Latinos report raids in which U.S. citizenship is questioned

They swept into the Southern California car lot last Thursday at 4:32 p.m. — masked and armed Border Patrol agents in an unmarked white S.U.V. One agent soon twisted Jason Brian Gavidia’s arm and pressed him against a black metal fence outside the lot where he runs an auto body shop in Montebello, a working-class suburb east of the Los Angeles city limits. Another officer then asked him an unusual question to prove whether he was a U.S. citizen or an undocumented immigrant. “What hospital were you born at?” the Border Patrol agent asked. Mr. Gavidia, 29, was born only a short drive from where they were standing, in East Los Angeles. He did not know the hospital’s name. “I was born here,” he shouted at the agent, adding, “I’m an American, bro!”

Mr. Gavidia was eventually released as he stood on the sidewalk. But another U.S. citizen, Javier Ramirez, 32 — Mr. Gavidia’s friend and co-worker — had been forced facedown to the ground by two agents in the car lot. Mr. Ramirez was put inside a van and driven to a federal detention center, where he remains in custody. Mr. Ramirez’s lawyer said that officials at the detention center had denied his request to speak to his client. “I know enough to know this is not right at all,” Mr. Gavidia said in an interview. “Latinos in general are getting attacked. We’re all getting attacked.” The episode on Thursday was captured on video by Mr. Gavidia’s friend and the car lot’s security cameras, and described in interviews with Mr. Gavidia, Mr. Ramirez’s lawyer and another man who was at the shop during the raid. It has stirred fears in Montebello and other majority-Hispanic areas in and around Los Angeles that the agents involved in the Trump administration’s immigration raids are questioning the legal status of Americans who happen to be Latino.

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Feds from IRS agents to refugee officers are deploying to assist ICE conduct raids

As the Trump administration ramps up its efforts to detain and deport undocumented immigrants across the country, it is increasingly relying on federal employees to take on new roles to supplement those enforcement efforts. Those efforts are spearheaded by Immigration and Customs Enforcement within the Homeland Security Department, but agencies within and outside DHS are soliciting employees to help ramp up the renewed crackdown. The initiative has led to raids at worksites, farms, nightclubs, residential areas and federal buildings where immigrants report for court hearings or check-ins. The efforts have led to widespread protests and, according to administration officials, increased violence against federal officers and agents. Within DHS, many components are providing support to ICE in different roles. In a new partnership, the Transportation Security Administration is offering 100 Federal Air Marshals to the agency. The vast majority of those employees volunteered for the assignment.

On flights organized by ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations division, the marshals will conduct in-flight security functions using ICE’s authorities and protocols. That will include taking detainees to the flight line or airport terminal, escorting the detainees onto the aircraft, providing armed and unarmed in-flight security, escorting detainees when they deplane and transferring custody upon arrival. The TSA agents will serve on 60-day assignments for their initial details. “TSA’s Federal Air Marshals are proud to support our ICE colleagues by providing in-flight security functions for select ERO flights,” an agency spokesperson said. “This new initiative is part of the interagency effort to support the President’s declared national emergency at the southern border.” U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services employees have also received a push to sign up for ICE deployments, as it did in 2019. DHS commonly asks employees at components like USCIS to deploy to assist in disaster response or at times to provide assistance at the border. ICE details are rarer, but did occur in Trump’s first term in 2019. USCIS has in recent weeks sent hundreds of its employees to support immigration enforcement. A USCIS employee working on refugee operations in the Refugee, Asylum and International Operations Directorate said management there encouraged staff to sign up for the details to demonstrate their "adaptability" and to “justify our continued employment.” Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office freezing refugee resettlement, which is currently tied up in legal battles.

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These preppers have ‘go bags,’ guns and a fear of global disaster. They’re also left-wing

The day after President Donald Trump was elected in 2016, Eric Shonkwiler looked at his hiking bag to figure out what supplies he had. “I began to look at that as a resource for escape, should that need to happen,” he said. He didn’t have the terminology for it at the time, but this backpack was his “bug-out bag” — essential supplies for short-term survival. It marked the start of his journey into prepping. In his Ohio home, which he shares with his wife and a Pomeranian dog, Rosemary, he now has a six-month supply of food and water, a couple of firearms and a brood of chickens. “Resources to bridge the gap across a disaster,” he said. Margaret Killjoy’s entry point was a bleak warning in 2016 from a scientist friend, who told her climate change was pushing the global food system closer than ever to collapse.

Killjoy started collecting food, water and generators. She bought a gun and learned how to use it. She started a prepping podcast, Live Like the World is Dying, and grew a community. Prepping has long been dominated by those on the political right. The classic stereotype, albeit not always accurate, is of the lone wolf with a basement full of Spam, a wall full of guns, and a mind full of conspiracy theories. Shonkwiler and Killjoy belong to a much smaller part of the subculture: They are left-wing preppers. This group is also preparing for a doom-filled future, and many also have guns, but they say their prepping emphasizes community and mutual aid over bunkers and isolationism. In an era of barreling crises — from wars to climate change — some say prepping is becoming increasingly appealing to those on the left. The roots of modern-day prepping in the United States go back to the 1950s, when fears of nuclear war reached a fever pitch.

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Jury finds MyPillow founder defamed former employee for a leading voting equipment company

A federal jury in Colorado on Monday found that one of the nation’s most prominent election conspiracy theorists, MyPillow founder Mike Lindell, defamed a former employee for a leading voting equipment company after the 2020 presidential election. The jury found that two of Lindell’s statements about Eric Coomer, the former security and product strategy director at Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems, including calling him a traitor, were defamatory. It ordered Lindell and his online media platform, formerly known as Frankspeech, to pay Coomer $2.3 million in damages, far less than the $62.7 million Coomer had asked for to help send a message to discourage attacks on election workers. “This is hurting democracy. This is misinformation. It’s not been vetted and it needs to stop,” Charles Cain, one of Coomer’s attorneys, told jurors in closing arguments Friday.

Lindell said he would appeal the financial award, saying Coomer’s lawyers did not prove Coomer had been harmed. He also said he would continue to speak out about election security, including criticizing the makers of election equipment like Dominion. “I will not stop talking until we don’t have voting machines in this country,” said Lindell, who backs paper ballots counted by hand. Lindell stuck by his false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen during the trial, but did not call any experts to present evidence of his claims. Cain faulted Lindell for being “all hat and no cattle.” Even though the damage award was smaller than he had asked for, Cain said he thought it would still send a message that people who work behind the scenes of elections should not be attacked. But he said Coomer, who has recevied death threats, is “still going to be looking over his shoulder.” Dominion’s voting machines became the target of elaborate conspiracy theories among allies of President Donald Trump, who continues to falsely claim that his loss to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020 was due to widespread fraud.

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Trump leaves G-7 meeting early to deal with Mideast; signs group statement

President Donald Trump left the Group of Seven summit a day early to attend to the conflict between Israel and Iran, the White House announced Monday, after he called for “a broader de-escalation of hostilities” in the Middle East in a statement with other global leaders. Trump initially declined to sign the G-7’s statement, but reversed his position following discussions with other leaders in the group and changes to the initial draft, according to a U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the sensitive conversations. The official declined to say what changes secured Trump’s sign-off, but the statement omitted language that called for both Iran and Israel “to show restraint,” which appeared in an earlier draft of the agreement viewed by The Washington Post. The published statement affirmed Israel’s right to defend itself and called Iran “the principal source of regional instability and terror.” It also reiterated that Iran cannot possess a nuclear weapon.

“We urge that the resolution of the Iranian crisis leads to a broader de-escalation of hostilities in the Middle East, including a ceasefire in Gaza,” the statement said. The statement was released shortly before Trump departed for Washington after a dinner with other attendees of the summit. Trump displayed some policy divisions with other G-7 leaders earlier in the day, and his reversal on the statement was a rare showing of cooperation with other presidents and prime ministers at the forum. “I have to be back,” Trump told reporters Monday night while posing for photos. “You probably see what I see, and I have to be back as soon as I can.” Trump had earlier posted a statement on his Truth Social platform declaring that “everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!” — referring to Iran’s capital, which has a population of almost 10 million. “AMERICA FIRST means many GREAT things, including the fact that, IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!” he wrote in a separate post. Trump had been scheduled to meet Tuesday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum.

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Shooting suspect went from youthful evangelizer to far-right zealot

Vance Boelter grew up in a sports-loving Lutheran family in a small Minnesota town where nobody locked their doors — a background that gave little hint of the zealotry to come or the deadly violence of which he is now accused. At 17, he had a religious conversion. As he recalled decades later during a passionate sermon overseas, what happened next shook his life. Waving a Bible and thundering from the podium, he spoke about meeting the holy spirit and running off pamphlets about Jesus to give to everyone he knew. “So often in the world today, everyone wants an excuse for not doing the right thing. We want to blame someone else,” he preached from the Democratic Republic of Congo, as seen in a video posted online. “God doesn’t say ‘Oh, your parents messed up, I know you came into this world all troubled.’ … You have a choice, you have a decision.”

Friends and neighbors of the 57-year-old Boelter say they are struggling to understand what drove him to masquerade as a police officer and allegedly shoot two state legislators and their spouses in predawn hours Saturday — leaving state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband dead and the other couple seriously injured. Some point to his teenage conversion and the startling change that followed, one that became very public in Sleepy Eye, a burg of about 3,500 about two hours southwest of Minneapolis. Through much of high school, Boelter was like every other teen, according to his lifelong friend David Carlson. But after Boelter declared himself a born-again Christian, he began preaching in the local park — even living there in a tent, Carlson said. “Everything in his life — he just changed,” Carlson said Sunday. “People were saying, ‘Yeah, Vance is in the park preaching.’ He was just trying to spread the word about Jesus.” Boelter grew up one of five siblings in a family that was locally famous for baseball — his father, Donald, was the high school coach and later selected for the Minnesota State High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame. They lived in a turreted, two-story house on a corner lot in a neighborhood where American flags fly today from porches and flagpoles.

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Lead Stories

Inside Trump’s extraordinary turnaround on immigration raids

On Wednesday morning, President Trump took a call from Brooke Rollins, his secretary of agriculture, who relayed a growing sense of alarm from the heartland. Farmers and agriculture groups, she said, were increasingly uneasy about his immigration crackdown. Federal agents had begun to aggressively target work sites in recent weeks, with the goal of sharply bolstering the number of arrests and deportations of undocumented immigrants. Farmers rely on immigrants to work long hours, Ms. Rollins said. She told the president that farm groups had been warning her that their employees would stop showing up to work out of fear, potentially crippling the agricultural industry. She wasn’t the first person to try to get this message through to the president, nor was it the first time she had spoken to him about it. But the president was persuaded.

The next morning, he posted a message on his social media platform, Truth Social, that took an uncharacteristically softer tone toward the very immigrants he has spent much of his political career demonizing. Immigrants in the farming and hospitality industries are “very good, long time workers,” he said. “Changes are coming.” Some influential Trump donors who learned about the post began reaching out to people in the White House, urging Mr. Trump to include the restaurant sector in any directive to spare undocumented workers from enforcement. Inside the West Wing, top White House officials were caught off guard — and furious at Ms. Rollins. Many of Mr. Trump’s top aides, particularly Stephen Miller, his deputy chief of staff, have urged a hard-line approach, targeting all immigrants without legal status to fulfill the president’s promise of the biggest deportation campaign in American history. But the decision had been made. Later on Thursday, a senior official with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Tatum King, sent an email to regional leaders at the agency informing them of new guidance. Agents were to “hold on all work site enforcement investigations/operations on agriculture (including aquaculture and meat packing plants), restaurants and operating hotels.”

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Police: Katy man arrested in connection to Texas lawmaker threat before protest

Two law enforcement sources confirm to KXAN investigators the man arrested Saturday in connection to threats made against Texas state lawmakers is Robert Leroy Bowers, 45, of Katy. The Texas Department of Public Safety has not yet released the name of a suspect it said a trooper arrested in La Grange following Saturday’s closure and evacuation of the State Capitol building and grounds. The agency said there was a credible threat made against lawmakers planning to attend a “No Kings” protest against President Trump in Austin later that day. The law enforcement sources tell KXAN Bowers’ vehicle was flagged by a regional intelligence alert. Booking records show Bowers is being held in the Fayette County Jail, charged with operating a motor vehicle with one plate — a misdemeanor. No bail is set.

Officials with the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office also confirmed Bowers’ booking and charge, adding that he was the person connected to threats against state lawmakers. Lawmakers also received an internal warning about the threat Saturday, referencing the overnight shootings of two Minnesota lawmakers and their spouses. The message said, in part, “We’re always concerned about copycats and those who this attack might inspire.” Law enforcement sources tell KXAN, during the traffic stop, it was discovered Bowers had a gun in his vehicle. DPS has said there is no longer an active threat but that the investigation is ongoing. KXAN has reached out to other law enforcement officials for additional details, along with contacts associated with Bowers’ listed address in Katy, and will update this story as more information is available.

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Trump directs ICE to expand deportations in Democratic-run cities, undeterred by protests

President Donald Trump on Sunday directed federal immigration officials to prioritize deportations from Democratic-run cities, a move that comes after large protests erupted in Los Angeles and other major cities against the Trump administration’s immigration policies. Trump in a social media posting called on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials “to do all in their power to achieve the very important goal of delivering the single largest Mass Deportation Program in History.” He added that to reach the goal officials ”must expand efforts to detain and deport Illegal Aliens in America’s largest Cities, such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, where Millions upon Millions of Illegal Aliens reside.”

Trump's declaration comes after weeks of increased enforcement, and after Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff and main architect of Trump’s immigration policies, said ICE officers would target at least 3,000 arrests a day, up from about 650 a day during the first five months of Trump’s second term. At the same time, the Trump administration has directed immigration officers to pause arrests at farms, restaurants and hotels, after Trump expressed alarm about the impact aggressive enforcement is having on those industries, according to a U.S. official familiar with the matter who spoke only on condition of anonymity. Opponents of Trump's immigration policies took to the streets as part of the “no kings” demonstrations Saturday that came as Trump held a massive parade in Washington for the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army. Saturday's protests were mostly peaceful. But police in Los Angeles used tear gas and crowd-control munitions to clear out protesters after the event ended. Officers in Portland, Oregon, also fired tear gas and projectiles to disperse a crowd that protested in front of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building well into the evening. Trump made the call for stepped up enforcement in Democratic-controlled cities on social media as he was making his way to the Group of Seven economic summit in Alberta, Canada.

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The man suspected of shooting 2 Minnesota lawmakers is in custody after surrendering to the police

The man suspected of killing a Minnesota lawmaker and wounding another crawled to officers in surrender Sunday after they located him in the woods near his home, bringing an end to a massive, nearly two-day search that put the entire state on edge. Vance Boelter was arrested and charged with two counts of murder and two of attempted murder. He is accused of posing as a police officer and fatally shooting former Democratic House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, in their home early Saturday in the northern Minneapolis suburbs. Authorities say he also shot Sen. John Hoffman, a Democrat, and his wife, Yvette. They were injured at their residence about 9 miles (about 15 kilometers) away.

“One man’s unthinkable actions have altered the state of Minnesota,” Democratic Gov. Tim Walz said at a news conference after Boelter’s arrest. The search for Boelter was the “largest manhunt in the state’s history,” Brooklyn Park Police Chief Mark Bruley said. It began when Brooklyn Park officers went to check on Hortman’s home and saw her husband gunned down before the shooter fled. Authorities on Sunday located a vehicle Boelter was using abandoned in rural Sibley County, where he lived, and a police officer reported that he believed he saw Boelter running into the woods, Bruley said. Police set up a large perimeter and called in 20 different tactical teams, divvying up the area and searching for him. During the search, police said they received information confirming someone was in the woods and searched for hours, using a helicopter and officers on foot, until they found Boelter. He surrendered to police, crawling out to officers in the woods before he was handcuffed and taken into custody in a field, authorities said. Jail records show Boelter was booked into the Hennepin County Jail at 1:02 a.m. Central Time Monday and include two mug shots, one from the front and one from the side, of Boelter wearing an orange prison shirt.

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State Stories

Texas Democrats seek answers after threat to lawmakers in Austin ‘No Kings’ protest

Texas House Democrats have questions after authorities arrested a person Saturday suspected of making a “credible threat” against lawmakers involved in the “No Kings” rally in Austin. In a letter to Gov. Greg Abbott and Texas Department of Public Safety Director Freeman Martin, more than 40 Democratic lawmakers are urging state leaders to outline the steps being taken to protect elected officials across Texas. The request comes after separate shootings Saturday left one Minnesota lawmaker and her husband dead in what authorities described as an “act of targeted political violence.” Another Minnesota lawmaker and his wife were wounded in a separate attack. The letter also requests information on how the state tracks political extremism and online threats directed at public officials.

“Politically motivated extremists have proven they are willing to murder to achieve political aims, and in light of the threat on those attending today’s protest, we have every reason to believe Texas officials could be targeted next,” the letter reads. The Capitol grounds in Austin were evacuated and temporarily closed Saturday afternoon as authorities investigated the threat. A few hours later, DPS announced the person suspected of making the threat was arrested in a traffic stop in La Grange, a town between Austin and Houston. DPS has not publicly identified the person, nor what charges they could face. Calls and messages seeking additional information on Sunday were not returned. The “No Kings” rally held in Austin — along with demonstrations in Dallas, Fort Worth and other Texas cities — was part of a nationwide demonstration opposing President Donald Trump’s policies. The crowd in Dallas peaked at about 10,000 people, police said.

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With the grid under pressure, Texas moves to regulate big energy users

The answer to the data center question hanging over state lawmakers’ heads came in the form of Senate Bill 6. Now on Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk, the bill is the Legislature’s solution to keeping Texas “open for business” to power-hungry data centers without stressing the grid or saddling regular ratepayers with an unfair share of infrastructure costs. The priority bill, authored by Republican Sen. Phil King from Weatherford, is wide-reaching and grid-focused. The bill creates new governing requirements over how big loads — mainly data centers, bitcoin miners and big manufacturers — plan, operate and connect to the Texas grid. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas estimates that demand for power will grow 75% by the end of the decade, reaching nearly 150 gigawatts. Currently, the grid’s demand peaks at 85.5 gigawatts. A lot of that demand surge is from data centers opting for Texas to house new sprawling data centers fueled by the ongoing AI arms race.

“We’ve got the space; we’ve got the investment dollars available here; and we have the regulatory environment, the legislative environment, that’s really supportive of building here,” ERCOT President and CEO Pablo Vegas said during a recent energy panel. “After this legislative session … I think the doors are more open for economic growth with data centers.” The spirit of SB6 largely remained intact as it worked its way through amendments in both the House and Senate before passing both floors. Mainly, the bill adds a level of the certainty big power users crave as they work with financiers and investors to pitch and plan costly projects. The bill, which was first pitched a minimum transmission fee, now tasks the state’s Public Utility Commission with figuring out how best to ensure large loads are paying their share of infrastructure costs. Big-time energy users not only need the power supply to operate, but also the miles of power lines to deliver that juice. That anticipated growth already has influenced state regulators at the PUC, who recently approved stepping up the voltage of newly constructed lines so that can move more power than the standard lines the state has been using. Currently, ERCOT calculates transmission costs by setting four peak-use days from a period that starts in June and ends in September. It allocates costs based on how much power big users — 75 megawatts or more — use ercotduring 15-minute increments on those designated days.

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Immigrants thankful for those who protest in Austin, but worry arrests overshadow purpose

Geovanna sat at home Monday night watching her brother Jordy’s stream on Facebook Live from a protest in downtown Austin. She was proud of him, but also worried. Jordy was one of the hundreds of people who marched from the Texas Capitol down Congress Avenue in solidarity with protests in Los Angeles against immigration raids. Jordy is a U.S. citizen. Geovanna is not. She’s in the country without legal immigration status, and she doesn’t feel safe going out to protests. KUT News is using only their first names because of concern for their family’s safety. Geovanna said she’s been to protests before, but now, she doesn’t feel safe attending. “I love Austin, because I feel that it's a city that protects their people,” she said. “Since the new president came in, I feel that our community is under attack — our Latin community, our immigrant community — and I just no longer feel safe in it.”

Meanwhile, Jordy said he feels a sense of duty to speak up. Out of four siblings, he’s one of two who were born in the U.S. At the protest, he said, he felt less alone. “I saw a lot of signs of people saying, ‘I’m doing this for my parents, I’m doing this for my family,’ and that’s something I was doing as well,” he said. Rosario is a family friend who was also watching the Facebook Live. She entered the country without a visa and has been in Austin for more than 20 years now. KUT is using her first name only because of safety concerns. Rosario said she has seen her community affected by the Trump administration's immigration enforcement: kids are afraid to go to school; people don’t want to leave their homes. Even celebrations, such as weddings, are being canceled for fear of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid. Last month 47 people were detained during a birthday party near Dripping Springs. “Those who are going out to protests are giving it their all,” Rosario said in Spanish. While she’s thankful people are standing up for immigrants' rights, she’s also worried scenes of vandalism and arrests might make the community look bad — even though it’s not just immigrants who are out on the street.

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Despite lawsuits, funding questions, Austin Light Rail project moving forward

After overcoming legislative challenges that sought to derail it, a plan to build a light rail line in Austin is moving forward — despite more potential roadblocks that could delay or halt construction of the system. Leaders of the Austin Transit Partnership — the governmental organization responsible for implementing the light rail project — are choosing to focus on forward progress, starting the process of selecting contractors to design and build the project. The Austin Light Rail system is the largest part of the Project Connect transit plan voters approved in 2020. The more than $7 billion plan includes an ongoing 20% increase to local property taxes to fund the train and other smaller transportation projects in the city. Initial plans included 27 miles of track, but the project has since been scaled back to fewer than 10 miles without a corresponding reduction in cost.

The light rail project aims to connect Austin’s northern and eastern neighborhoods with the city center, with rail lines extending from 38th Street in the north and Oltorf to the south. An eastern branch would stretch from near Lady Bird Lake to just inside State Highway 71 near Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. Potential future extensions would bring rail out to ABIA’s terminal to the east and up to Crestview in the north. Trains will run every five to 10 minutes, according to the current plans. ATP officials say the railway will ease traffic congestion, improve air quality and give transit users an easier and more dependable way to get from point A to point B, creating thousands of jobs, affordable housing and significant economic returns in the process. “Large infrastructure projects are complex, but the upside is huge,” ATP CEO Greg Canally said in an interview. “It has a payback for the community, whether using the train or not using the train, because it creates a choice and options.” If all goes smoothly, ATP expects to break ground on the rail line in 2027 and wrap up construction in 2033. Before construction starts, contractors will work on finalizing designs and technical specs, securing permits and acquiring the land needed for the project.

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Ana Flores: Why I still believe Texas can be better

(Ana Karen Flores is a first-generation Latina communications strategist with a focus on storytelling, narrative change, and government affairs. She is a Public Voices Fellow of The OpEd Project, the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice, and the Every Page Foundation.) When I was in college, I had to drive 35 miles from San Marcos to Austin to visit Planned Parenthood. The first time I drove there in 2016, I didn’t know the way and the traffic on Interstate 35 overwhelmed me. For someone like me, young, uninsured, and terrified of driving in a big city, the short trip felt like crossing a continent. So obtaining basic reproductive health care seemed virtually impossible. But I had no choice. I had no insurance. I needed care and answers. It wasn’t the first time I’d been to a Planned Parenthood clinic. When I was 10, I remember sitting in the waiting room while my mom received care at the Planned Parenthood in the Rio Grande Valley. She tried to hide her nervousness, but I sensed it in the hum of the TV, the quiet whispers, and the weight of the moment. I didn’t fully understand what was happening, but I understood enough that this place mattered. It helped women like my mom. And one day, it would help me too.

Unfortunately, that is no longer as true. Last month, a panel of the U.S. House of Representatives advanced a measure that would block Medicaid funding from Planned Parenthood nationwide, though even the Congressional Budget Office has warned this cut wouldn’t save money. Instead, this move would cost taxpayers $300 million. It will also strip essential care from millions who already have too few options. The places in Texas where low-income women could obtain basic care without fear or shame are disappearing. For me, this cut feels personal. I learned early as a Texan that our state doesn’t always fight for its people. Especially if you’re Latina. Especially if you’re undocumented. Especially if you’re young, brown, or poor. In 2007, when I was just a girl, Texas had around 80 Planned Parenthood clinics. Then came budget cuts. The political attacks. And more defunding. By 2011, about a third of those clinics had closed. In 2025, only 39 remain—and none of them can provide abortion care. Even before Texas banned abortion entirely, 96 percent of our counties already didn’t have a provider. Let’s be clear: This issue isn’t about budgets. It’s about control. When politicians take away clinics, birth control, abortion access, and trusted community providers, they’re not saving lives. They’re putting people in danger. And disproportionately, they’re endangering Latinas. In Texas, nearly half of Latinas live in medically underserved areas. Nearly one in four of us who are of reproductive age lack health insurance.

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Lawsuit over McKinney airport continues years of environmental concerns in Fairview

Expansion at the McKinney National Airport has long been a contentious issue, but a recent lawsuit in federal court over a study of its environmental effects is reigniting community concerns over potential traffic, pollution and noise from the project, which includes plans to add a passenger terminal with commercial service as early as next year. A group called the North Texas Conservation Association has asked a federal court to review the state’s finding that further airport development won’t significantly harm the environment. The association hosted a community town hall Wednesday in Fairview, just south of McKinney and its airport, for residents to learn more about its petition to the court to review the environmental assessment. Steven Ross, the association’s legal counsel, said McKinney failed to adequately consider neighboring land by assessing a very narrowly defined area in the environmental study, leading to “flaws and irregularities” in the report. He said Wednesday the city may have rushed the airport’s expansion through the process.

“I think there were some I’s that weren’t dotted, and there were some T’s that weren’t crossed,” Ross said at the town hall. In a statement, the city of McKinney called the claims brought by the conservation group unsubstantiated. “The City will vigorously defend the findings in the environmental assessment and seek to have the lawsuit dismissed,” the statement reads. The airport expansion has faced pushback for years. In 2023, McKinney residents rejected a $200 million bond to fund improvements and projects at the airport that included a commercial air service terminal building. In 2015, voters decided against a $50 million bond to fund expansion. Ross said he moved to McKinney to be farther from Dallas Love Field. He is disappointed that the airport has continued to expand and concerned how traffic, pollution and noise might affect neighbors. The study states no noise mitigation is needed for the expanded airport, and that by 2031 the areas of sound increases will include land north of the airport through mostly farm land and land south of the airport — into the Heritage Ranch area in Fairview. “They’re basically saying, ‘tough luck,’” Ross told attendees.

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Will a Colin Allred, Beto O’Rourke Senate primary showdown energize or hurt Democrats?

Attorney General Ken Paxton’s Republican primary race against U.S. Sen. John Cornyn could profoundly affect the direction of the Texas Democratic Party. The prospect of Paxton winning the GOP’s Senate nomination has several big-name Democrats positioning themselves for Senate campaigns. They see the often-embattled Paxton, who leads in the polls, as a weaker general election candidate than Cornyn. Enter former U.S. Reps. Colin Allred of Dallas and Beto O’Rourke of El Paso. Both Democrats are considering Senate campaigns, and a primary contest featuring two of the biggest names in Texas Democratic politics would be a barnburner. They have contrasting styles. O’Rourke is a prolific organizer and powerful orator who loves the campaign trail and interacting with voters. Allred is data-driven, measured and more cautious. Both are formidable fundraisers and they each lost a high-profile Senate race to Republican Ted Cruz — O’Rourke in 2018 and Allred in 2024.

O’Rourke’s 2018 campaign helped Democrats flip 12 seats in the Texas House. They also won two congressional seats, including one captured by Allred. Allred’s 2024 Senate race was affected by President Donald Trump’s Texas rout of former Vice President Kamala Harris, but he did show crossover strength. In an era where Democrats are trying to find a winning statewide formula, an Allred-O’Rourke primary fight would test what the party’s win-starved voters want from their candidates. “Whichever candidate we have, it’s got to be the one that energizes not only the base, but a whole new generation of voters and people who have felt the need to participate to vote like their lives depend on it,” said Julie Ross, a disabilities rights advocate who has supported both candidates in previous elections. “To appeal to this moment, we can’t have either Beto or Colin run the same campaigns that they have run before. I don’t think that’s winning for right now.” Democratic Party leaders are considering the possibility Allred and O’Rourke will clash in a family fight.

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PennyLynn Webb: East Texas and the hedge fund giant

(PennyLynn Webb is a journalist at the Palestine Herald.) Sitting in a Town Hall meeting over the pending billionaire hedge fund manager water grab in East Texas at the Anderson County Courthouse on Thursday night, I heard naysayers share defeatist propaganda of an inability to win. I also heard believers tell those present to take to their knees and pray. If you have not heard, Pine Bliss LLC has applied for a groundwater production permit application seeking to drill 22 high-capacity wells in Henderson County. The project would authorize the extraction of more than 5.16 billion gallons of groundwater a year from the Queen City Sand, Wilcox Group and Carrizo/Reklaw Formation aquifers – the same water source that supplies water to all residents within the county. This well set would be located just north of Frankston in Coffee City, pulling from the Anderson and Henderson county water supply sources. The notice for the application of the permits was run by the Neches and Trinity Valleys Groundwater District, which serves Anderson, Cherokee and Henderson counties in the May 20 issue of the Athens Daily Review.

Another permit has been applied for by Redtown Ranch Holding LLC seeking to drill 21 high-capacity wells in Anderson and Houston counties. The project would authorize the extraction of more than 10 billion gallons of groundwater a year from the Carrizo and Wilcox aquifers – the same water source that supplies water to all residents of both counties. The notice for the application of the permits was run by the NTVGCD in the May 20 issue of the Palestine Herald-Press. Redtown Ranch is a 7,250-acre property on the Trinity River with portions that lie in both Anderson and Houston counties. While it's not clear exactly who owns the ranch, hedge fund manager Kyle Bass is associated with the property through Conservation Equity Management, of which he is CEO. Pine Bliss is owned by 24th Parallel Holdings LP, which is also associated with Conservation Equity Management Partners. There are 20 listed municipal water user groups in Cherokee County and 19 listed municipal water user groups in Anderson County, including the Texas Department of Criminal Justice supplies for Coffield and the Beto Gurney & Powledge Units that these wells could affect. Not to mention the countless other residents and businesses across East Texas that rely on these aquifers for water.

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Tarrant County jail death bills had an impact, even without becoming law, activists say

Some Tarrant County lawmakers aimed to strengthen jail death investigations this legislative session. Although their bills didn’t pass, their efforts still made change, advocates said. Rep. Nicole Collier, a Fort Worth Democrat, and Rep. David Lowe, a North Richland Hills Republican, filed their reform bills in response to outcry over the dozens of deaths in Tarrant County Jail custody under Republican Sheriff Bill Waybourn, they told the Fort Worth Report. The level of attention surprised Krish Gundu, co-founder of the statewide advocacy group Texas Jail Project. "I didn't expect all the bills that we managed to get filed on the custody death issue,” she said. “Really, Tarrant County was driving that conversation." Collier’s bill would have required the state’s jail regulating agency, the Texas Commission on Jail Standards, to assign outside law enforcement agencies to investigate deaths in jail custody — something advocates say the commission was already supposed to be doing under current law.

For years, the jail commission allowed sheriff’s offices to pick their own outside investigating agencies. Collier filed her bill after reporting from Bolts magazine revealed the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office had assigned more than two dozen deaths to the Fort Worth Police Department, which never actually did any investigating. Fort Worth police just reviewed the sheriff’s own investigation reports, they confirmed to KERA News and the Fort Worth Report. The jail commission has started making death investigation assignments, even though Collier’s bill didn’t pass. Gundu commended the jail commission for making the change. Sometimes a bill can succeed even if it doesn’t become law, she said. "A large majority of the asks that were being made in Rep. Collier's bill are being done by the jail commission,” Gundu said. “They started doing it in the middle of the session. I think that in itself was a huge win.” There’s now a link on the front page of the commission’s website that leads to a list of death investigations that shows which agency is leading it, the date the commission made the assignment and the status of the investigation. Lowe, a former jailer in Collin County, filed a bill that would have created a state advisory committee to review jail deaths and make recommendations on how to prevent them. Gundu called Lowe’s measure her “fantasy bill” and one she hopes comes back in a future session. Bills often take more than one session to become law, she said. A statewide advisory group would help Texas jails learn from each other, Nan Terry said. She’s a local activist who helps lead the Justice Network of Tarrant County’s criminal justice team.

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One transit agency for all of North Texas? Leaders discuss future of transportation

Some local elected officials say they want to see a regional authority that can manage transit across North Texas’ most populated counties. During a meeting of the Regional Transportation Council (RTC) on Thursday, leaders discussed a proposal by transportation director Michael Morris that’s meant to bring together transit agencies, city officials and other stakeholders, including the general public, to "lay out a path forward." “Where the RTC takes a leadership position, tries to pull together a new vision for transit, probably expansion of boundaries," Morris said. Morris’ recommendation, called Policy 25-01, comes after a “heated” months-long process at the state legislature over funding for Dallas Area Rapid Transit that left cities divided on the best path forward for public transportation in North Texas.

Policy 25-01 proposes a comprehensive process ahead of the next legislative session for reviewing how to best deliver transit to North Texans over the next 25 years, potentially pulling in state funding to do so. It asks local cities and counties to implement findings from Transit 2.0, a study by the RTC that includes recommendations and a final report on what the region needs to keep up with rapid population growth. "The [RTC] needs expansion of existing Transit Authority boundaries or creation of new Authorities to reduce future roadway congestion, improve safety, develop alternative mobility solutions through contiguous transit coverage and drive more sustainable development," the proposal reads. Morris said the process will address "equity issues we've heard to date." DART board chair Gary Slagel told the council he supports the proposal, calling it a “good way forward.” Dallas city council member Cara Mendelsohn said she’s in favor of “dismantling” the region’s three separate transit agencies – DART, Trinity Metro and DCTA – and creating a single authority. Morris responded that his proposal is meant to open a dialogue that could lead to the “option” of creating a transit agency for the region. But Mendelsohn said she's only on board if there’s a change in the sales tax structure. A sticking point for the proposal is the cost of transit services for potential new member cities. She said she wouldn’t sign on to a proposal that would ask cities to pay a full cent for each sales tax dollar, like DART member cities currently pay.

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Dallas County Jail crowding an 'urgent, all hands on deck' situation

Dallas County jail is nearing its 7,119 inmate maximum capacity, based on limits by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards. At 95 percent full, it's not quite overcrowded, but is pushing close to it with 6,750 people in detainment as of June 13. It had been at 98 percent capacity the day after Memorial Day. Commissioner John Wiley Price made reducing the jail population a priority discussion during commissioner court regular meeting on June 3. "For the last two weeks, we've been at critical mass," he said. "We've been at 6,900 — 6,952 to be exact — and we're only authorized for 7,100." Jail and legal teams have been directed to expedite releases of eligible inmate. Crime typically increases during summer.

But exactly one year ago, the Dallas County jail population was 6,445. Price attributed much of the crowding to holding people who have not yet had a case filed against them. "We've got people that have been in jail, cases not filed, 270 days," he said. "Damn it, you got a case or you don't. "These...are cases that have not been filed. And we got people sitting there for hundreds of days," Price said. "Ain't nobody else got no jurisdiction. They're sitting there." Administrators have asked jail and court staff to adjudicate or release eligible inmates. County Administrator Darryl Martin says cities and the district attorneys office can help. "When we get together with everybody we need to walk through what's going on with these cases," he said. "[Dallas Police Department] you got 400, Irving you got 200. Richardson, you got a hundred. What are we going to do? What are you guys going to do? Get the judges in the room, get the DA in the room, get the PD in the room. Let's have those conversations." Police departments are not the only law enforcement agencies depositing suspected offenders into the Dallas County jail.

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A Houston VC firm's portfolio company went public. Why that's important for the space industry.

Meagan Crawford co-founded venture capital firm SpaceFund in 2018 with a simple thesis: Space companies can make money. That thesis proved true this week. One of the Houston investor’s portfolio companies started trading on the New York Stock Exchange, positioning SpaceFund to distribute money to investors for the first time. Denver-based Voyager Technologies, a defense and space technology company, went public Wednesday at $31 a share, raising more than $382 million. The shares skyrocketed to trade as high as $73.95 before closing at $56.48. Voyager Technologies is developing a commercial space station and a variety of other technologies for solid fuel propulsion, communications, astronaut health and more.

SpaceFund invested in the company as part of its first and second funds. Its proceeds from the IPO are to be determined, but Crawford expects to return most of Fund 1, which invested $1.1 million into 14 companies, and provide significant returns to Fund 2, which invested $14 million in 15 companies, when SpaceFund can sell its Voyager shares in six months.

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National Stories

Who benefits from Republicans' 'big, beautiful' bill depends largely on income. Children are no exception

House reconciliation legislation, also known as the One Big Beautiful Act, includes changes aimed at helping to boost family’s finances. Those proposals — including $1,000 investment “Trump Accounts” for newborns and an enhanced maximum $2,500 child tax credit — would help support eligible parents. Proposed tax cuts in the bill may also provide up to $13,300 more in take-home pay for the average family with two children, House Republicans estimate. “What we’re trying to do is help hardworking Americans who are trying to provide for their families and make ends meet,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said during a June 8 interview with ABC News’ “This Week.”

Yet the proposed changes, which emphasize work requirements, may reduce aid for children in low-income families when it comes to certain tax credits, health coverage and food assistance. Households in the lowest decile of the income distribution would lose about $1,600 per year, or about 3.9% of their income, from 2026 through 2034, according to a June 12 letter from the Congressional Budget Office. That loss is mainly due to “reductions in in-kind transfers,” it notes — particularly Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, formerly known as food stamps. House Republicans have proposed increasing the maximum child tax credit to $2,500 per child, up from $2,000, a change that would go into effect starting with tax year 2025 and expire after 2028. The change would increase the number of low-income children who are locked out of the child tax credit because their parents’ income is too low, according to Adam Ruben, director of advocacy organization Economic Security Project Action. The tax credit is not refundable, meaning filers can’t claim it if they don’t have a tax obligation. Today, there are 17 million children who either receive no credit or a partial credit because their family’s income is too low, Ruben said. Under the House Republicans’ plan, that would increase by 3 million children. Consequently, 20 million children would be left out of the full child tax credit because their families earn too little, he said. “It is raising the credit for wealthier families while excluding those vulnerable families from the credit,” Ruben said. “And that’s not a pro-family policy.”

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How Trump went from opposing Israel's strikes on Iran to reluctant support

President Donald Trump had opposed Israeli military action against Iran, favoring negotiations over bombing. But in the days before the strikes began, he became convinced that Israel’s heightened anxiety over Iran’s nuclear enrichment capabilities was warranted. After a pivotal briefing from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, on Israel’s plans and U.S. options for supporting its operation, he gave tacit approval to Israel to have at it and decided to provide limited U.S. backing. When Caine briefed him on June 8, Trump was increasingly frustrated with Iran for not responding to the latest proposal for a nuclear deal. He still remained hopeful that his Middle East peace negotiator, Steve Witkoff, who had been scheduled to conduct another round of peace talks in the region Sunday, could soon get an agreement over the line.

Trump was also facing private pressure from longtime allies who advocate more isolationist policies and wanted him to stop Israel from taking military action or at least withhold U.S. support for any such operation. This account of Trump’s thinking leading up to the Israeli operation is based on interviews with five current U.S. officials and two Middle Eastern officials, as well as two people with knowledge of the deliberations, two former U.S officials familiar with the deliberations and a Trump ally. The White House didn’t immediately comment, and the Defense Department didn’t respond to a request for comment. In recent weeks, Israel grew more convinced that the threat posed by Tehran was getting increasingly serious and urgent. And while he had already decided not to stand in Israel’s way, on Thursday, only hours before the strikes began, Trump remained at least publicly hopeful that diplomacy would win the day. “I don’t want them going in, because I think it would blow it — might help it actually, but it also could blow it, but we’ve had very good discussions with Iran,” Trump told reporters at a bill signing ceremony. “I prefer the more friendly path.” Behind the scenes, the Israelis had already laid much of the groundwork for Trump’s measured change. Trump had hoped Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could be persuaded not to mount an attack. But over the past week, he came to accept that Israel was determined to neutralize Iran’s nuclear capabilities and that the United States would have to lend some military support for defensive purposes, as well as some intelligence support.

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Trump administration considers adding 36 countries to travel ban list

The United States is considering restricting entry to citizens of an additional 36 countries in what would be a significant expansion of the travel ban announced by the Trump administration early this month, according to a State Department memo reviewed by The Washington Post. Among the new list of countries that could face visa bans or other restrictions are 25 African nations, including significant U.S. partners such as Egypt and Djibouti, plus countries in the Caribbean, Central Asia and several Pacific Island nations. A State Department spokesperson said the agency would not comment on internal deliberations or communications. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Such a move would mark another escalation in the Trump administration’s aggressive crackdown on immigration. The memo, which was signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and sent Saturday to U.S. diplomats who work with the countries, said the governments of listed nations were being given 60 days to meet new benchmarks and requirements established by the State Department. It set a deadline of 8 a.m. Wednesday for them to provide an initial action plan for meeting the requirements.

The memo identified varied benchmarks that, in the administration’s estimation, these countries were failing to meet. Some countries had “no competent or cooperative central government authority to produce reliable identity documents or other civil documents,” or they suffered from “widespread government fraud.” Others had large numbers of citizens who overstayed their visas in the United States, the memo said. Other reasons included the availability of citizenship by monetary investment without a requirement of residency and claims of “antisemitic and anti-American activity in the United States” by people from those countries. The memo also stated that if a country was willing to accept third-country nationals who were removed from the United States or enter a “safe third country” agreement, it could mitigate other concerns. It was not immediately clear when the proposed travel restrictions would be enforced if the demands were not met. The countries facing scrutiny in the memo: Angola; Antigua and Barbuda; Benin; Bhutan; Burkina Faso; Cabo Verde; Cambodia; Cameroon; Democratic Republic of Congo; Djibouti; Dominica; Ethiopia; Egypt; Gabon; Gambia; Ghana; Ivory Coast; Kyrgyzstan; Liberia; Malawi; Mauritania; Niger; Nigeria; Saint Kitts and Nevis; Saint Lucia; Sao Tome and Principe; Senegal; South Sudan; Syria; Tanzania; Tonga; Tuvalu; Uganda; Vanuatu; Zambia; and Zimbabwe.

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Late DFL leader Melissa Hortman remembered as ‘shining light,’ consensus builder

Melissa Hortman, the top Democrat in the Minnesota House, was killed along with her husband, Mark, in their Brooklyn Park home early Saturday in what Gov. Tim Walz called a “politically motivated shooting.” Her death stunned Democrats. “She was a bright shining light of a human being,” said Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon. “Minnesotans lost a really important and impactful leader.” Hortman, 55, served as Speaker of the Minnesota House from 2019 through 2025. Over the last six months, Hortman stepped aside and agreed to serve as speaker emerita after Democrats lost the House majority in November. She helped negotiate a budget deal with Walz and Republican Speaker of the House Lisa Demuth that was passed earlier this week.

During her two decades in elected office, Hortman positioned herself as a consensus builder who was willing to work with both political parties. But she was also responsible for ushering in key Democratic initiatives including abortion rights, universal lunch for students and gun restrictions. “Everybody liked her and respected her on both sides of the aisle,” said former Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a Republican. “She had more than one gear. She could be easy going and funny. When it came to her policy views, she could be very strong and decisive and a tough negotiator.” Minneapolis DFL Rep. Sydney Jordan sat next to former Leader Hortman on the House floor during legislative sessions. She told MPR News that Hortman offered support to her when she was a newly elected representative coming to the Capitol after a special election. “I had a meeting with Melissa Hortman, where she said, Look, this is going to be hard, but I'm here for you. The caucus is here for you,” Jordan said. “She met with me, she gave me personal tours, and she introduced me and made sure that I had the best staff support I could possibly have.”

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Republican enthusiasm for Musk cools after his feud with Trump, a new AP-NORC poll finds

Tech billionaire Elon Musk has lost some of his luster with Republicans since his messy public falling-out with President Donald Trump last week, a new survey finds. Fewer Republicans view Trump’s onetime government efficiency bulldog “very favorably” compared with April, according to the poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Though most Republicans continue to hold a positive view of Musk, their diminished fervor suggests his vocal opposition to Trump’s signature spending and tax cut legislation — and Musk’s subsequent online political and personal taunts — may have cost him some enthusiasm within the party. “Some things have happened lately that have changed how I feel about him a little,” said Alabama Republican Katye Long, whose feelings for Musk have cooled to “somewhat favorable.”

“I liked what he was doing when he was helping. But now I feel like he’s kind of hurting,” said the 34-year-old automotive component factory employee and mother of three from Woodstock, Alabama. “I also don’t feel like he matters that much. He’s not actually part of the government. He’s just a rich guy who pushes his opinions.” Musk’s overall popularity hasn’t shifted, the poll found, and most of the shift among Democrats and Republicans was between “very” and “somewhat” strong opinions. Americans are less likely to view him favorably than his electric vehicle company, Tesla. That said, about half of Americans have a negative opinion of Tesla, highlighting another challenge for Musk when the company has dropped in value and been the target of protests in the U.S. and Europe. About one-third have a favorable view of Tesla, while about 2 in 10 don’t know enough to say. Even a subtle shift in the intensity of Republicans’ feelings about Musk could be important as the electric car and aerospace mogul weighs a second political act after spending about $200 million in service of Trump’s 2024 election effort. After decrying the GOP’s massive tax and budget policy bill as “a disgusting abomination,” Musk wrote on X, his social media platform, “In November next year, we fire all politicians who betrayed the American people.” The poll suggests the messy feud with Trump may have rubbed some Republicans the wrong way, as the share of Republicans viewing Musk as “very favorable” has dropped from 38% in April to 26% now. At the same time, antipathy toward Musk among Democrats has waned a little. About two-thirds, 65%, of Democrats have a very negative view of Musk, down slightly from about three-quarters, 74%, in April.

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Lead Stories

Texas DPS arrests man in connection with threat against lawmakers at 'No Kings' protest

Texas officials arrested a man Saturday evening in connection with a "credible threat" against state lawmakers attending the Democratic-led "No Kings" protest at the state Capitol. There is no additional active threat, the Department of Public Safety said in a statement just after 5 p.m. A state trooper with the Department of Public Safety detained the man after a traffic stop in La Grange, around 65 miles southeast of Austin. The suspect's motive for threatening lawmakers was not immediately clear. On Saturday night, a spokesperson for the agency said preliminary information suggested the man was politically “far left-leaning" and sought to harm those with whom he disagreed politically. Initially, DPS said the man targeted lawmakers who were planning to attend the “No Kings” protest, all of whom are Democrats. An investigation is ongoing.

Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows, a Lubbock Republican, condemned the planned attack on Saturday night. "Acts or threats of violence against elected officials over political differences have no place in our society and will be met with zero tolerance," Burrows wrote in a statement on X, responding to a report that the suspect was left-leaning. "We are grateful to DPS for their unwavering commitment to protecting lawmakers, staff, and all Texans." The threats had roiled the capital city, leading the state's Department of Public Safety to evacuate the Capitol building and surrounding grounds “out of an abundance of caution" around 1 p.m. DPS reopened the grounds around 4:40 p.m., per a memo addressed to lawmakers and staff. The man is now in custody and an investigation is active and ongoing, DPS said in a statement, pledging to "protect individuals exercising their constitutional rights to assemble and free speech."

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U.S. could lose more immigrants than it gains for first time in 50 years

For the first time in at least half a century, more people may leave the United States than arrive this year, an abrupt shift in immigration patterns with potentially significant implications for the U.S. economy. Economists at two Washington think tanks expect President Donald Trump’s immigration policies to drive this reversal: from the near-total shutdown of the southern border to threats to international students and the loss of legal status for many new arrivals, according to a forthcoming paper. A rise in deportations — the aim of recent workplace raids that triggered protests in Los Angeles and other cities — also plays a role. A net outflow of immigrants could stoke inflation, a risk economists already expect from Trump’s tariff policies. It also could renew the type of labor shortages the country experienced during the pandemic. Longer term, it could even have implications for fiscal policy, with fewer immigrants paying taxes and supporting entitlement programs such as Social Security, said one of the economists, Wendy Edelberg.

“For the year as a whole, we think it’s likely [immigration] will be negative,” Edelberg said. “It certainly would be the first time in more than 50 years.” Edelberg and her colleague Tara Watson at the center-left Brookings Institution are working with Stan Veuger of the conservative American Enterprise Institute on the paper, which is due out later this month. Their projections point to an increased likelihood of negative immigration in 2025, compared with the economists’ last projections published in December. The White House did not respond to requests for comment, but spokesperson Abigail Jackson told The Washington Post last week: “If you are present in the United States illegally, you will be deported. This is the promise President Trump made to the American people and the Administration is committed to keeping it.” On the campaign trail, Trump and Vice President JD Vance pointed to mass deportations as a solution for reducing competition for jobs and housing. Economists across the political spectrum expect the United States this year will experience the lowest immigration levels in decades, and some agree there’s a real possibility that migrant outflows will eclipse inflows. Migration levels last reached a longtime low during the 2008 financial crisis, which sparked a mass departure of Mexican immigrants. “It’s not about deportations so much,” Veuger said. “It’s really just that inflows are down so much; not just at the southern border, but also through various legal programs.” Already, the foreign-born workforce has shrunk by more than 1 million people since March, Labor Department data shows. (The figures are not adjusted for seasonal trends.)

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Trump celebrates US military might amid tensions at home and abroad

President Donald Trump on Saturday celebrated his birthday at the massive military parade he’s dreamed of for eight years. It was a fête befitting of the approach Trump has taken as commander-in-chief, using military iconography to telegraph strength to opponents, foreign and domestic. “Time and again America’s enemies have learned that if you threaten the American people, our soldiers are coming for you,” Trump said. “Your defeat will be certain. Your demise will be final, and your downfall will be total and complete.” His speech, which focused on lauding the Army’s history, was a more disciplined and marked departure from the more campaign rally-like events Trump presided over in recent weeks at Fort Bragg and West Point. Still, across the nation, hundreds of thousands saw Saturday’s events in the nation’s capital in a more ominous light, marching in “No Kings” protests aimed at highlighting the ways in which demonstrators argue Trump has acted more like a dictator than a president.

But in Washington it was mostly calm. At the parade, people in MAGA gear and Army veteran garb looked on as soldiers in modern-day and historical uniforms, tanks, drones and other military vehicles — even a robotic dog — paraded down Constitution Avenue. Trump and other top officials, including Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, were stationed at a viewing stand near the end of the parade route. Attack helicopters and historic military planes soared overhead at points during the parade. Still, Trump has moved the country away from its decadeslong role of global policeman. But recent incidents are testing whether that approach can hold, with Israel and Iran trading strikes since Thursday night — and no clear plan for a ceasefire to the war between Russia and Ukraine. “Tonight, we affirm with unwavering certainty that in the years ahead ... the American soldier will be there,” Trump said, without mentioning any ongoing conflicts. “No matter the risk, no matter the obstacles, our warriors will charge into battle.” The president’s remarks capped a daylong celebration of the Army’s 250th birthday — which also included the parade and a fireworks show. Saturday also happened to be Trump’s 79th birthday — with attendees at one point singing him “Happy Birthday” along the parade route. It was the display of military might Trump has long wanted — especially after he accompanied French President Emmanuel Macron to a 2017 Bastille Day parade where troops marched down the Champs-Élysées and military jets left trails of red, white, and blue smoke. Though officials looked into the possibility during his first term, aides advised him against following through on those plans.

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In swingy Texas House District 118, Carranza and Lujan prepare for a rematch

Democrat Kristian Carranza, who raised big money but lost narrowly to state Rep. John Lujan (R-San Antonio) in 2024, will run again in 2026. Carranza announced her plans on Wednesday and held a campaign launch party on the South Side with the City Council’s progressives at Aquaduck Beer Garden. Hours after her press release went out, Lujan also announced reelection plans — amid speculation that he might instead run for the Texas Senate. In gerrymandered Texas, House District 118 is one of just a few competitive state legislative seats, drawing millions of dollars in campaign spending in 2024. Lujan won 51.8% of the vote to Carranza’s 48.2% in an altogether good year for Republicans last year. Now headed into the first midterm of President Donald Trump’s administration — typically a good year for the party out of power — Carranza told supporters Wednesday she’s ready to finish the job.

“It’s the most competitive district that we have in Texas, and we came within inches of flipping [it],” Carranza said. “We know that we can do it. It just takes a lot of work.” Carranza said her campaign knocked on 100,000 doors in that race. She also received $1.2 million from a national PAC aligned with gun safety activist David Hogg, helping her keep pace with national conservatives, tort reform groups and business PACs pouring in resources for Lujan. “We raised more money than any other first time state rep candidate in Texas — ever,” she said Wednesday. “But this is never been about just one election. This is about fighting for our future, because if we don’t do it, then no one else will.” In a sign of Democratic enthusiasm, she was joined Wednesday by roughly 100 supporters, including civil rights leader Rosie Castro, former Councilwoman Melissa Cabello Havrda (D6), Councilmen Jalen McKee-Rodriguez (D2) and Edward Mungia (D4).

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Manhunt continues for suspect in shootings of Minnesota legislators

A manhunt continued Sunday for the man suspected in the targeted fatal shootings of Minnesota House DFL leader Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, early Saturday at their home in Brooklyn Park. That suspect — 57-year-old Vance Luther Boelter — is also believed to have shot and wounded Democratic state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, at their home in Champlin. The FBI was offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Boelter — and said it’s using “every available resource” to find him. Boelter is considered armed and dangerous. Authorities said he allegedly impersonated a police officer when he went to the lawmakers’ homes, and drove an SUV that looked like a law enforcement vehicle.

That vehicle was abandoned following the shooting at the Hortmans’ home when Boelter was confronted by police, with authorities saying he apparently fled the scene on foot. A shelter-in-place order was issued for much of Brooklyn Park on Saturday morning as hundreds of law enforcement officers searched for Boelter. It was lifted later in the day, with authorities saying they believed he had left the area. Officials said he was seen in business surveillance video later Saturday wearing a light-colored cowboy hat, dark-colored, long-sleeved, collared shirt or jacket, light pants and dark bag. Boelter lived in Green Isle — southwest of the Twin Cities — but also rented a room at a home in north Minneapolis. KARE 11 reported that one of Boelter’s roommates at that home and a longtime friend, David Carlson, reported receiving a text message from Boelter early Saturday. Boelter allegedly told his friend that he would be gone for a while, and “may be dead shortly.”

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State Stories

Chris Tomlinson: Texas medical marijuana companies spent big on Republican lobbyists to push THC ban

Gov. Greg Abbott has a choice when it comes to banning hemp-derived delta-8 and delta-9 THC products: listen to hundreds of thousands of Texans who enjoy them or a handful of powerful Republican lobbyists working for marijuana investors. Abbott is in the crossfire of a cannabis civil war. Medical marijuana and retail hemp companies are fighting over who can legally get people high. The standoff is typical Texas politics, with the medical marijuana companies hiring former aides to Abbott and Lt. Gov Dan Patrick to lobby for them, and the hemp industry relying on public pressure. The Texas Legislature authorized medical marijuana in 2017 for a tiny number of patients. Three medical cannabis companies have spent millions complying with the Texas Compassionate Use Program to legally sell products with THC, the ingredient in marijuana that makes you high. They expected exclusivity. Since then, lawmakers have steadily

In 2021, cannabis-focused venture capital firm AFI Capital Partners led a $21 million Series B investment in Texas Original Compassionate Cultivation. The company supplied 77% of the medical cannabis consumed in 2022, the latest full-year data available in an annual Texas Department of Public Safety TCUP analysis. The investment had horrible timing. In 2019, federal and state lawmakers legalized hemp, a type of cannabis with low levels of THC. Hemp entrepreneurs figured out how to concentrate the THC, and today, the hemp industry sells many products containing enough THC to get you stoned. Demand for medical cannabis dropped by half in 2021, DPS records show. Given a choice between getting a prescription from a doctor and finding a dispensary, most medical cannabis users switched to delta-8, delta-9 or THCA available from the corner store.

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Abbott headed to Denton for property tax relief bill signing

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott will be in Denton on Monday to sign a property tax relief bill alongside state and local officials. Key property tax proposals passed this legislative session include measures increasing the homestead exemption on school property taxes. Senate Bill 4 increases the exemption by $40,000 to $140,000. Senate Bill 23 raises the exemption to $200,000 for homeowners who are disabled or 65 or older. The increases would still need to be approved by Texas voters in the November constitutional amendment election. Voters overwhelmingly approved a similar measure increasing the school property tax homestead exemption in a November 2023 election. Houston Republican Sen. Paul Bettencourt, University Park Republican Rep. Morgan Meyer and Denton County Commissioner Dianne Edmondson will be a few of the officials at the 3 p.m. bill signing.

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Group aiming to recall Mayor John Whitmire have set timeline for gathering signatures

The group aiming to oust Mayor John Whitmire has set a timeline for its efforts to petition for a recall election. Recall For Houston announced it is eyeing to begin collecting signatures in the fall. In the meantime, the group will work to generate awareness and assemble volunteers as it moves forward on its mission to remove the mayor from office through a recall vote.

The group, made up of Houstonians, hopes to collect the 64,000 signatures needed to initiate a recall process. The petition will require 63,000 signatures collected in a 30-day period. Recall for Houston formed more a year ago and posted on Reddit about its goals to oust Whitmire. In the group’s initial mission statement, it cited “halted federally funded projects” by his administration and claimed the city’s residents’ needs were not being met as they related to public safety, flooding and infrastructure. The groups also claimed the mayor doesn’t work in collaboration with council members or the county judge, and cited a bungled firefighter contract deal. Whitmire was elected in a runoff against the late Representative Sheila Jackson Lee in December 2023. Whitmire told the Chronicle via email, "I am accountable to Houston — all of it — and I welcome any review of my work. It makes me a better mayor."

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New law makes Texas easier for corporations to fend off disputes

Business lawyers — dealmakers and litigators alike — have a lot to digest from legislation enacted during the 2025 session to make Texas an attractive state for incorporations and to expand the jurisdiction of the specialized business courts. Senate Bill 29, which went into effect last month, is designed to make it more difficult for a small group of shareholders to challenge business decisions. The law allows a corporation to waive jury trials and state in its bylaws an ownership requirement for a shareholder to bring a derivative claim for alleged wrongdoing that has harmed the corporation. In the waning hours of the biennial session, the House and Senate agreed on language for expanding the jurisdiction of the Texas Business Court, a system of 10 judges in five urban areas established in 2023 to handle complex business-to-business litigation. Lawmakers did not expand the system to six rural regions but kept the door open for those courts in the future should the Legislature decide to fund them.

During deliberations on House Bill 40, members considered and rejected a proposal to remove a two-year term limit for business court judges, who are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate, a departure from the state’s system of elected judges. If signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott this month, the bill would reduce the amount-in-controversy requirement from $10 million to $5 million for filing a lawsuit in or transferring a case to the business court. It would also expand the court’s subject matter jurisdiction to certain intellectual property claims and actions to enforce arbitration agreements. The bill would allow a company to designate the Business Court as the exclusive venue for resolving litigation relating to its internal affairs. Taken together, the legislation supports efforts to make Texas the preferred destination for corporate relocation and reincorporation. “HB 40 and SB 29 represent a coordinated legislative effort to elevate the Texas Business Court into a premier venue for resolving sophisticated commercial disputes. Both bills signal Texas’s ambition to rival Delaware as the nation’s corporate law capital,” said Rafe Schaefer, a Norton Rose Fulbright partner and one of the few lawyers to have a Business Court case pending at the Fifteenth Court of Appeals. Lee Parsley, president and general counsel of Texans for Lawsuit Reform, said the two pieces of legislation will work together to “unleash the full potential of the Texas Business Court and entice more businesses to relocate and operate in Texas.”

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Joaquin Castro: Gutting the Texas Dream Act was misguided

The Texas Dream Act has been a pillar of our state for nearly a quarter of a century. In simple terms, it allows public colleges and universities to offer a lower tuition rate to undocumented students who were brought to this country at a young age. And it’s changed the course of so many lives. Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Justice sued Texas over the long-established state law that allows Dreamers to receive in-state tuition. The lawsuit was meritless and cruel and received widespread criticism from folks across the political spectrum — me included. Within six hours, Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton joined the Trump administration’s lawsuit, and just like that, the law was gutted. It is shocking for any state to work that closely with the federal government and use the courts as a mechanism to overturn a state law that the Legislature allowed to stand.

But Abbott’s and Paxton’s maneuver is especially shocking for Texas, where most folks want to limit the federal government’s role. When confronted with the lawsuit, Abbott and Paxton conveniently threw up their hands without a fight. But there’s a reason for this: backdoor legislating and collusion. Their actions were not only pre-orchestrated, but they also were meant to short-circuit the authority of the Legislature. This sets the precedent for the governor to do this again with another longstanding law. This was a choreographed surrender to destroy a law that has only been a strategic investment in our state. The party of “pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps” just cut the ladder. It’s important to put into context the real and enduring impact this law has had on our state. The Texas Dream Act passed the Legislature with strong bipartisan support almost 24 years ago. It was subsequently signed into law by then-Gov. Rick Perry. Republicans in Texas overwhelmingly supported this program to establish parity so that all tax-paying folks, regardless of status, could receive the same benefits. Increasing access to higher education is a win for everyone — each additional college graduate generates thousands more in economic activity per year and gives young folks a fighting chance at achieving their dreams. The Texas Dream Act has invested in Texas students, and it’s paid off. Their participation in sectors such as health care, tech, energy and more has enabled the Texas economy to boom. Studies have shown that immigrants are more likely to start businesses, create jobs and even file patents.

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Thousands gather for ‘No Kings’ demonstrations against Trump administration in downtown San Antonio

Multiple “No Kings” protests popped up around the nation on Saturday to coincide with a military parade in Washington, D.C., celebrating the Army’s 250th anniversary. At least two demonstrations against President Donald Trump and immigration raids brought in thousands of people downtown San Antonio on Saturday evening. Two organizers, Women’s March and 50501, started a demonstration at Travis Park that led to a two-mile-plus march through downtown streets.

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San Antonio flood death toll reaches 13; more victims identified

The death toll from flash floods that swept San Antonio early Thursday morning has reached 13, and all of those reported missing have been accounted for, authorities said Saturday. Eleven of the victims were found near Northeast Loop 410 and Perrin Beitel Road on the Northeast Side, the San Antonio Fire Department said. Their vehicles were swept into Beitel Creek by a wall of floodwater. A 12th was found several miles north of the primary search area.

The body of the 13th person killed in the flooding was recovered in the Leon Creek area at U.S. 90 and Callaghan Road on the West Side, SAFD spokesman Joe Arrington said. On Saturday, the Bexar County Medical Examiner's Office positively identified additional victims of the disaster, which was triggered by the heaviest downpour in the city in 12 years. In all, authorities have identified 10 of the 13 people who perished. They are: Martha De La Torre Rangel, 55; her son, Josue Pina De La Torre, 28; Victor Manuel Macias Castro, 28; Matthew Tufono, 51; Cristine Gonzalez, 29; Rudy Garza, 61; Andrew Sanchez, 60; Carlos Valdez 3d, 67; Brett Riley, 63; and Stevie Richards, 42. The ME's office said it was working to confirm the identities of the three remaining victims and notify their next-of-kin. Rangel and her son were on their way to a doctor's appointment for Rangel when floodwaters engulfed their vehicle, according to a GoFundMe seeking donations for funeral costs. “Martha and Josue were deeply loved,” family members wrote. “Their loss has left a hole in the hearts of all who knew them."

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10,000 march in "No Kings" protest in Dallas, with thousands more joining in across North Texas

Protests happened across the country, including in many North Texas cities, on Saturday during what organizers are calling the “No Kings” Day of Defiance. The "No Kings" protests Saturday were organized to coincide with a military parade in Washington for the 250th anniversary of the Army, and President Donald Trump's birthday, as the Associated Press reported. They were organized by progressive activist organization Indivisible and the 50501 movement, a national movement whose leaders say advocates for democracy and against authoritarianism. The movement's name stands for 50 states, 50 protests, one movement. The protests Saturday came after anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles and nationwide have garnered national attention, and one in solidarity with those protests in Dallas that ended with one person arrested. In North Texas, there were about a dozen protests planned, including in Dallas, Fort Worth, Arlington, Burleson, Frisco, Denton, McKinney, Greenville and more.

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Joy Sewing: Juneteenth may be more subdued this year, but Houston is still grappling with the questions it raises

The mood of the nation is different now than it was when Juneteenth became our newest federal holiday in 2021. Even with the cheeky Walmart products and other commercial exploits of the holiday, it seemed that there was an openness, at least, for more people to learn what this freedom day meant for America. Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, when the last enslaved Americans, who were mostly in Texas, were notified of their freedom two years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. Liberation didn't come neatly in one day. The news traveled slowly and was often met with violent resistance. Today, most people know something about Juneteenth, and it's largely seen as a day with parades and festivities, barbecues and pageants.

This year, the holiday may look and feel unlike previous years. With the movement to eradicate diversity, equity, and inclusion at the federal and state levels, and particularly in higher education, it'll likely be more subdued in many places. Some companies and organizations are even pulling back out of fear that any support for the holiday will alienate certain people, impact their bottom line or possibly put their federal funding at risk. "Some supporters that we had in the past have scaled back their support or elected to pause in light of the political climate," said Ramon Manning, board chair of Emancipation Park Conservancy. "I think it's unfortunate because this is when you show up. This is not just is not just African American history, it's American history." Manning said thankfully key supporters, such as the Kinder Foundation, H-E-B, Texas Southern University, University of Houston and multiple healthcare institutions, have not waivered in their support of the park's Juneteenth plans. At Emancipation Park, the city's oldest park where the first Juneteenth celebration was held, celebratory activities for the holiday's 160-anniversary year have a reflective message. Manning said the board was intent on paying homage to the late U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, who with U.S. Sen. John Cornyn championed the effort to make Juneteenth a federal holiday, and the late state Rep. Al Edwards, who led the way to make Texas the first state to recognize Juneteenth as a state holiday in 1979.

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Houston police's high-profile raids at after-hours bars net low-level arrests. Are they worth it?

The Houston Police Department’s social media team captured video this weekend of Mayor John Whitmire on the scene of a raid on an after-hours bar in north Houston, police lights flashing in the background as he stands talking with officers. The effort netted nine arrests, with mostly low-level charges. The raid is the latest for the agency’s renewed focus on the establishments, which experts say operate in a gray area of the law and often become havens for more serious types of crime. Whitmire and Chief Noe Diaz have hosted news conferences and highlighted the raids, but officers have mostly arrested people on charges such as selling alcohol without a permit and driving while intoxicated.

“We need to put police in a position where they can do the most good against the most serious types of crimes,” said Jay Coons, an assistant professor at Sam Houston State University who retired as a captain at the Harris County Sheriff’s Office in 2018. “… Is this the best usage of the limited staffing the police department has?” Officials with the police department declined to provide details about the task force, saying they were part of ongoing operations aimed at combating the problem. The raids and arrests have come via a newly formed after-hours bar task force, which Whitmire and Diaz have touted. Through May 10, the initiative had completed six raids and made 45 arrests, according to data from the Houston Police Department. The most common charge to emerge out of those raids was selling alcohol without a license and selling liquor during prohibited hours. One person was charged with felon in possession of a weapon during a raid. Local law enforcement leaders, including Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez, District Attorney Sean Teare and Chief Diaz, have singled out after-hours bars because of the more serious types of crime they can attract. In recent months, police have investigated several fatal shootings stemming from after-hours bars, among other issues.

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No Kings protest in downtown Houston draws more than 15,000 people, Mayor Whitmire says

Thousands of protesters gathered at Houston City Hall on Saturday to join forces with others across the nation in a No Kings protest, a show of opposition to President Donald Trump's multimillion-dollar military parade marking the U.S. Army's 250th anniversary. Nearly two dozen mounted Houston police officers overlooked the protest from horseback as a succession of speakers rallied the crowd against Trump and reminded protesters to stay peaceful. The Houston demonstration is one of several planned in the region throughout the day, and organizers said they've been working with law enforcement to ensure everyone's safety.

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National Stories

An old Capitol Hill troublemaker is trying to clinch a megabill deal

It’s a scene jarringly familiar to many Republicans on Capitol Hill: a high-stakes piece of legislation, a tense standoff between GOP leaders and conservative hard-liners — and Mark Meadows in the middle of it all. The former North Carolina congressman and Donald Trump chief of staff has been lying low in recent years. But he’s re-emerged as a behind-the-scenes sounding board for Republican hard-liners, who view him as an informal conduit with the White House as they try to shape the president’s “big, beautiful bill.” It’s just the latest turn for Meadows, who played a central role in ousting John Boehner as speaker, then served as conservative gadfly in Paul Ryan’s House GOP before leaving for the White House. He was at Trump’s side through 2020 until the ignominious end of his first term.

His most recent headlines have concerned his role in the “stop the steal” efforts that followed the 2020 election and his interactions with Trump during the Jan. 6 Capitol riots. Reports of an immunity deal and his testimony to a federal grand jury made him persona non grata in some MAGA circles. But Meadows, who declined to comment for this story, has maintained a foothold on the hard right as a senior partner at the Conservative Partnership Institute — a conservative think tank in Washington headed by former South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint. It’s where the current iteration of the House Freedom Caucus, which Meadows once led, huddles for its weekly meetings, and he keeps in frequent touch with the group’s members. Those conversations have heated up in recent weeks as the GOP megabill has moved to the top of the Capitol Hill agenda. This past Tuesday evening, for instance, Meadows ventured into the Capitol complex to meet with a small cadre of hard-liners from both chambers: GOP Sens. Rick Scott of Florida, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Mike Lee of Utah, as well as Reps. Chip Roy of Texas and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania.

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Gulf markets fall as Israel-Iran conflict escalates

Stock markets across the Gulf fell on Sunday morning after Israel and Iran launched fresh attacks on each other overnight, sparking fears of a widening conflict in the Middle East. Israel said it had targeted Iran's nuclear facilities, ballistic missile factories and military commanders in strikes that started on Friday and continued over the following days, in what it warned would be a prolonged operation to prevent Tehran from building an atomic weapon.

Iran responded by launching attacks on Israel and calling off Sunday's nuclear talks that the United States said were the only way to halt Israel's bombing. The Qatari stock market index (.QSI), opens new tab slid 2.9% by around 0815 GMT, with almost all constituents in negative territory. Among them, Qatar Gas Transport Nakilat (QGTS.QA), opens new tab extended losses and was down 3.1%, while Qatar Electricity and Water Company (QEWC.QA), opens new tab was down 1.7%. Qatar National Bank (QNBK.QA), opens new tab, the Gulf's biggest lender, retreated 3.3%. Israel late on Saturday attacked Iranian energy infrastructure, including an offshore installation on the South Pars gas field, which Iran shares with Qatar, and is the source of most of the gas produced in Iran, stoking fears of potential disruption to the region's energy exports.

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Israel ‘not pausing for a moment’ as fresh blasts rock Tehran

More explosions hit the Iranian capital as the Iran-Israel conflict intensified following Israeli strikes on energy and defense infrastructure. Israel’s military said “we don’t stop striking for one moment.” At least 13 people are confirmed dead in Israel in the hostilities. Visiting the scene of a strike which killed four people, Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu said “think what would happen if Iran had atomic weapons.” A stated goal of the Israeli operation is to stop Iran developing a nuclear bomb.

Some Tehran residents have been escaping north to safer rural areas while others have been stockpiling essentials. The metro system is opening around the clock to allow people to shelter. Scores of people have been reported killed but no official figure has been given. Israel’s operation against Iran is expected to take “weeks, not days” and is moving forward with implicit US approval, according to White House and Israeli officials. US President Donald Trump said his country “had nothing to do with” the Israeli attacks overnight but warned Iran not to hit US targets.

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At Chicago baseball stadium, Pope Leo makes his first pitch to America

Thousands of Chicagoans – mostly Catholics – filled the seats of the White Sox’s stadium Saturday for a reverential three-hour tribute to Pope Leo, including a video message from the new pope calling on people to pay attention to longings for a “true meaning” and to find it in God, service and community. Priests, bishops and nuns lined the emerald infield of the stadium as Leo’s message, his first address to an U.S. audience, played on large-scale screens in the outfield. The historic election of the first American pope – especially a hometown boy – to some was badly needed cheer and joy at a time when, they said, global turmoil fills the news. “The timing [of Leo becoming pope] is divine, with all that’s going on in the world. It’s a nice, positive thing in what’s really a tumultuous time in the United States,” said Hannah Barger, 27, a physicians’ assistant student – and non-Catholic — who lives in Chicago and attended with a childhood friend who just became Catholic. Barger showed up without tickets but was able to find someone who had extras.

The event, organized by the Chicago Archdiocese, was billed as a celebration of Leo and his hometown, and included a performance by a local Catholic schoolboys’ choir currently on “America’s Got Talent.” Chicago Bulls announcer Chuck Swirsky served as emcee. In his 7-½ minute message, Leo said he wanted to reach young people, noting that they had lived through the pandemic and “times of isolation, of great difficulty, sometimes even difficulties in your families,” and in the world today. “Young people,” he said, “you are the promise of hope for so many of us.” Pay attention to a desire to search for meaning and consider that the answer may lay in a combination of God, community and service, he said. “How important it is for each one of us to pay attention to the presence of God in our own hearts, to that longing for love in our lives, for searching — a true searching, for finding the ways we may be able to do something with our own lives to serve others,” Leo said. “And in that service to others we may find that coming together in friendship, building up community, we too can find true meaning in our lives.” More than 30,000 tickets were claimed for the event held under a cloudless blue sky. For hours they listened quietly as people took the stage — some appearing on large screens — to talk about Leo, known as Bob to friends in Chicago. Bob the graduate student. Bob the fellow seminarian. Bob the White Sox fan.

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‘Not who we are,’ says Mayor Mendenhall after shooting at SLC No Kings protest

Salt Lake City police say they have three individuals in custody as they investigate a shooting downtown. The shots were heard during the “No Kings” protest, where an estimated 10,000 people were marching from Pioneer Park to the Wallace F. Bennett Federal building. The motive and events surrounding the shooting are still under investigation. Officials have confirmed that one person is critically injured as a result of the shooting. They have been transported to the hospital. Kelly Ferrone had come upon the protest while on a bike ride. He joined in and “felt the vibe,” he said. Then he heard shots. “I started thinking, I'm like, oh no, those are gunshots.” At that point, “everyone just started screaming and running,” he said.

As reports of shots spread in the crowd, police were heard saying, “there is a weapon drawn, nobody do anything.” Demonstrators were then told to disperse. People have reported sheltering in churches, restaurants and parking garages in the area. According to police, the gunshots were heard near 151 South State Street shortly before 8:00 p.m. Authorities believe the incident involved four people. The person found shot at the scene is at the hospital with what are considered life-threatening injuries. Witnesses provided information that led police to another individual who was found with a gunshot wound. He is hospitalized and under police watch. Two other individuals were also taken into custody, according to police. At a press conference following the shooting, Salt Lake City Police Chief Brian Redd praised the otherwise peaceful nature of the march. “The event organizers worked closely with us at the Salt Lake City Department, Salt Lake here at Salt Lake City, and up until the point of the shooting, there was no indication of any problems,” he said. Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall called the violence “horrific, and it is not who we are.”

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The National Weather Service issues Alaska's first ever heat advisory

For the first time ever, parts of Alaska will be under a heat advisory — but you can put an asterisk at the end of that term. It’s not the first instance of unusually high temperatures in what many consider the nation’s coldest state, but the National Weather Service only recently allowed for heat advisories to be issued there. Information on similarly warm weather conditions previously came in the form of “special weather statements.” Using the heat advisory label could help people better understand the weather’s severity and potential danger, something a nondescript “special weather statement” didn’t convey. The first advisory is for Sunday in Fairbanks, where temperatures are expected to top 85 degrees Fahrenheit (29 degrees Celsius). Fairbanks has has been warmer in the past, but this is unusual for June, officials said.

The National Weather Service’s switch from special weather statements to advisories was meant to change how the public views the information. “This is an important statement, and the public needs to know that there will be increasing temperatures, and they could be dangerous because Alaska is not used to high temperatures like these,” said Alekya Srinivasan, a Fairbanks-based meteorologist. “We want to make sure that we have the correct wording and the correct communication when we’re telling people that it will be really hot this weekend,” she said. The change doesn’t reflect unprecedented temperatures, with Fairbanks having reached 90 degrees twice in 2024, Srinivasan said. It’s purely an administrative change by the weather service. “It’s not that the heat in the interior that prompted Fairbanks to issue this is record heat or anything like that. It’s just now there’s a product to issue,” said Rich Thoman, a climate specialist at the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy. Thoman also clarified that the term swap doesn’t have anything to do with climate change. “I think some of it is related to the recognition that hot weather does have an impact on Alaska, and in the interior especially,” Thoman said.

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What US adults think about Pope Leo XIV, according to a new AP-NORC poll

Just over a month after Pope Leo XIV became the first U.S.-born pontiff in the history of the Catholic Church, a new poll shows that American Catholics are feeling excited about their new religious leader. About two-thirds of American Catholics have a “very” or “somewhat” favorable view of Pope Leo, according to the new survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, while about 3 in 10 don’t know enough to have an opinion. Very few Catholics — less than 1 in 10 — view him unfavorably. Among Americans overall, plenty of people are still making up their minds about Pope Leo. But among those who do have an opinion, feelings about the first U.S.-born pope are overwhelmingly positive. The survey found that 44% of U.S. adults have a “somewhat” or “very” favorable view of Pope Leo XIV. A similar percentage say they don’t know enough to have an opinion, and only about 1 in 10 see him unfavorably.

As he promises to work for unity in a polarized church, Americans with very different views about the future of the church are feeling optimistic about his pontificate. Terry Barber, a 50-year-old Catholic from Sacramento, California, hopes Leo will seek a “more progressive and modern church” that is more accepting of all. “I’m optimistic. Certainly, the first pope from the United States is significant,” said Barber, who identifies as a Democrat. “Since he worked under the previous pope, I’m sure he has similar ideas, but certainly some that are original, of his own. I’m looking forward to seeing what, if any changes, come about under his leadership.” About half of Democrats have a favorable view of the new pope, as do about 4 in 10 Republicans and independents. Republicans are a little more likely than Democrats to be reserving judgment. About half of Republicans say they don’t know enough to have an opinion about the pope, compared to about 4 in 10 Democrats. Republicans, notably, are no more likely than Democrats to have an unfavorable opinion of the pope. About 1 in 10 in each group view Pope Leo unfavorably.

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Lead Stories

Houston ISD unanimously approves $2.1 billion budget with new board members, 5-year contract extension for Miles

Houston ISD's state-appointed board unanimously approved a $2.1 billion budget for the 2025-26 school year that will continue funding Superintendent Mike Miles' highly debated reforms. Four new board members — Edgar Colón, Marty Goossen, Lauren Gore and Marcos Rosales — greenlit the budget just two weeks after their appointment to the board by the state's education commissioner. Commissioner Mike Morath removed board Vice President Audrey Momanaee, Cassandra Auzenne Bandy, Rolando Martinez and Adam Rivon, who served on the district’s nine-member appointed school board since June 2023. Of those removed, three had voted against the 2024-25 budget last year: Martinez, Rivon, and Auzenne Bandy, alongside Michelle Cruz Arnold. It had been the board's largest public rebuke of any proposal by Miles, who largely sees unanimous approval from the board.

With no public discussion, Houston ISD's Board of Managers on Thursday approved a five-year contract extension for Superintendent Mike Miles. The five-year term will ensure that Houston ISD "can continue its transformation for the duration of the state intervention, while allowing for continuity and a smooth transition when the District returns to local control," board president Ric Campo said in a statement shortly after the meeting. While official contract documentation and pay were not disclosed, Campo said the new contract "maintains rigorous evaluation criteria and compensation" that aligns the position with comparable districts in Texas. The vote comes after state-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles touted earlier that day improvements in state exam preliminary scores for the third through eighth grade, with increases on nearly every exam. The state recently extended its takeover of Texas' largest school district for two more years to sustain these academic achievements, the state education commissioner said at the time of the announcement. Miles and Chief Financial Officer Jim Terry presented on the budget for about 25 minutes. Some elected trustees, who do not hold decision-making power under state-appointed leadership, said they are concerned because those removed members were the ones who asked questions and pushed back. Trustee Plácido Gómez said he had hoped that the Texas Education Agency would end the state takeover at the beginning of this month. "The four board members TEA ousted happened to be the ones who gave the most pushback to the superintendent," Gómez wrote in a Thursday letter. "The Commissioner said in an interview that this criticism was not at all related to his decision to remove them, but I find it impossible to believe that this was just a coincidence. For TEA to replace them is disrespectful—not just to the now-former board members, but to the entire HISD community who had the same concerns." He added, "I’m left to wonder what TEA believes is the purpose of having an appointed board—is it to represent the vision and values of the community, or those of the Commissioner?"

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Democrats focus on 2026 elections after tough legislative session

Firmly in the minority and stripped of committee chairperson posts, Democrats were powerless to stop the onslaught of conservative legislation that ran counter to their agenda. Democrats were mostly on the defensive, with the goal of blocking or mitigating the impact of what they felt were bad bills. A bright spot, they say, is local Democrats managed to get individual wins for their districts. With Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dustin Burrows largely unified, Republicans were able to pass almost everything on their legislative wish list, including a private school voucher plan that Democrats and rural Republicans blocked for decades.

As they heal from the 140-day Austin beatdown, Democrats are preparing to trek the 2026 campaign trail, where their goal is to make gains in the Legislature and mount credible challenges to Abbott, Patrick and other statewide Republican candidates. They’ll use the 89th session as a battle hymn for the 2026 elections and the legislative politics that will follow. Anyway you slice it, making Lone Star gains will be tough for Democrats. “What Democrats spent most of our time doing is just defending against the truly horrific crap that Republicans have filed,” said state Rep. Gene Wu, D-Houston and leader of the House Democratic Caucus. “We were somewhat successful in pushing back on some items. We fought the good fight, and we tried to do what the people wanted on vouchers, on a lot of other things. This has been a really rough session.” Wu said many Texans were feeling the same frustration as Democrats.

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Israel launches major attack on Iran, striking nuclear sites and killing top commanders

The Israeli military launched a massive attack on Iran on Friday in a dramatic escalation of their long-running conflict that drew early retaliation from Tehran and raised the risk of another war in the Middle East. The strikes, which killed senior Iranian scientists and top military officials, involved more than 200 fighter jets. They were aimed at Iran’s main enrichment facility and targets associated with the country’s ballistic missile program, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei swiftly vowed retaliation. Soon after the strikes, Iran launched more than 100 drones towards Israel, Israeli Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said. Iran has long denied it is seeking to develop nuclear weapons. The United States, which had been publicly urging Israel to hold off on such an attack as the Trump administration continues talks with Iran on its rapidly advancing nuclear program, said it was not involved and was not providing assistance.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, said Iranian authorities had confirmed Natanz, Iran’s largest nuclear site in the central Isfahan province, had been struck but that there was no increase in radiation levels observed there. It said three other nuclear sites — the Fordow, Isfahan, and Bushehr sites — had not been impacted. Other targets appeared to be residential compounds for top military officials. A main building for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), founded in the aftermath of the 1979 Islamic Revolution to defend the regime against internal and external threats, also appeared to have been attacked and could be seen burning on state television. Among those killed was Mohammadhossein Bagheri, Iran’s most senior military official, multiple Iranian state news outlets reported. Bagheri, who was chief of staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, had a status equivalent to that of Qassem Suleimani, the commander of Iran’s secretive Quds Force who was assasinated by the U.S. in a drone strike in Baghdad in January 2020.

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Aaron Reitz, a former Trump DOJ official and Paxton aide, joins the race for Texas AG

Aaron Reitz announced Thursday he will run for Texas attorney general in 2026, a bid to replace his former boss Ken Paxton after serving a short stint in the Trump administration's justice department. Reitz in a statement said he is well-positioned to take over for Paxton, who will not run for reelection in 2026 and instead pursue a GOP primary challenge against U.S. Sen. John Cornyn. “We are in a fight for the soul of Texas, our nation, and Western civilization itself,” Reitz said in a statement. “I’ve spent my entire career in the trenches with the toughest conservatives in America. I’ve taken enemy fire from the Left in the courtroom, at the negotiating table, and in the political arena — because if we lose Texas, we lose the Republic.”

The announcement comes after Reitz on Wednesday stepped down from his job at the U.S. Department of Justice as assistant attorney general over the Office of Legal Policy to make “historic strides … on a new front” and “return home to Texas.” He’d been appointed by President Donald Trump and confirmed to the D.C. role as recently as late March. If elected the state's top lawyer, Reitz said he planned to partner with the Trump Administration on mass deportations and enhanced border security, stop election fraud, challenge Big Tech and Big Pharma, defend the Second Amendment and support law enforcement. He said he already has waged those types of legal fights while working as chief of staff to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and before that as a top aide to Paxton, specifically highlighting his work on the state agency's bid to challenge the 2020 presidential election result. “As Attorney General Paxton’s ‘offensive coordinator,’ I led the fight on virtually every major legal campaign that Texans care about,” Reitz said. “Now I’m ready to take command of the next fight as Texas Attorney General.” Reitz joins state Sen. Mayes Middleton, a Galveston Republican who jumped into the race in April. Trump, in announcing Reitz’ DOJ nomination in December, called him a “true MAGA attorney” and “warrior for our Constitution.”

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State Stories

Colin Allred says he’d ‘run differently’ if he entered Senate race again

Democrat Colin Allred said he would be a more liberated and relaxed candidate in a second campaign for Senate, this time for the seat held by Republican Sen. John Cornyn. “I’d run differently,” Allred said during a segment for Sunday’s edition of Lone Star Politics, a political television show produced by KXAS (NBC 5) and The Dallas Morning News. “I feel different. I feel much more relaxed about it.” Allred, a Dallas Democrat, said his responsibilities in Congress didn’t allow him to campaign against Republican Sen. Ted Cruz as he was accustomed, including his 2018 breakthrough effort, when he beat Republican Rep. Pete Sessions to flip a longstanding Dallas-area district.

He’s been criticized by some Democrats for not being visible enough during his Senate run. “I was able to dig in and hear people’s stories and take those stories and use them to talk about what we wanted to do,” Allred said of his congressional races. “I look forward and excited about the opportunity that if I did run again, that I’d be here full time, and could do that differently.” In March, Allred told The News he was “seriously considering” running in 2026 for the Senate seat held by Cornyn. In previous years, most Democrats would have been discouraged from taking on Cornyn. Polls show Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton leading Cornyn in next March’s GOP Senate primary. Democrats hope Paxton, who has survived legal controversies and a 2023 impeachment, would be an easier draw. Allred said he isn’t considering running for Senate because there’s a theory Paxton will beat Cornyn in the primary. “I’m not a political prognosticator,” Allred said. “I always think that some of these things are a little bit overblown, and that regardless of who it is, it’s an incredibly tough race.” He said both Republican candidates are flawed. “I’ve been looking at the Senate race because of my experience at the federal level,” Allred said. “I see somebody, Ken Paxton, who I think is historically corrupt and was impeached by a Republican legislature because of that. And I see John Cornyn, who I don’t really recognize, as somebody who I think has lost any semblance of independence.” Texas Republican Party Chairman Abraham George said Allred would lose against the GOP Senate nominee, no matter how much he changed his campaign tactics. “He doesn’t have any chance running as a Democrat in Texas,” George said. “It doesn’t matter what he tries to fix.” Allred, a former NFL linebacker, says he’ll make a decision in July. As he deliberates, Allred says he’s trying to learn from his mistakes and build on what he did right against Cruz. The race against Cornyn, Paxton or someone else could be an even tougher battle.

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Dallas approves $1 billion loan for Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center project

The Dallas City Council approved a $1 billion loan to move forward with the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center project. Officials want the money now to quickly pay vendors and begin purchasing materials to ready a portion of the convention ahead of next year’s FIFA World Cup. The center was selected as the international broadcasting center for the World Cup and to host hundreds of journalists from around the world. During its Wednesday meeting, the Dallas City Council voted 13-1 to approve the loan. Council member Cara Mendelsohn voted against, and Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson was absent.

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Dallas developer Ruel Hamilton found not guilty on City Hall-related bribery charges

Developer Ruel Hamilton, who was convicted in 2021 for paying two Dallas City Council members to advance his housing projects, was acquitted on all federal counts Thursday. Hamilton was originally found guilty in 2021 by a Dallas jury and sentenced to eight years in federal prison. His case underwent an appeal, and the retrial began earlier this month. Senior U.S. District Judge Barbara Lynn, who oversaw Hamilton’s 2021 trial, also presided over the retrial. “I believed in the system and the fairness of our jury. My family and I are grateful to our family, friends and lawyers who stuck with us to the end,” Hamilton said in a statement to The Dallas Morning News.

When Hamilton was found guilty during the first trial in 2021, prosecutors argued the developer paid former council members Carolyn Davis and Dwaine Caraway for their support while they served on the council. AmeriSouth Realty Group, his company, built apartment complexes in southern neighborhoods of the city. Hamilton’s conviction served as a political earthquake in Dallas politics as it involved a white businessman accused of bribery. Corruption trials in Dallas historically targeted Black politicians and have often raised concerns from community members about racial bias in the prosecutions. Hamilton was found guilty in June 2021 on two counts of bribery and one count of conspiracy to commit bribery, but he was granted extra time to report to prison due to ongoing health issues. Hamilton never served his time because, in August 2022, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals threw out the original conviction, stating that the jury was not properly instructed on the correct requirements of the bribery law. The appeals court ruled that the jury was misinformed that Hamilton’s act was under “quid pro quo,” meaning one may receive some benefit in exchange for money. In the court’s opinion, the money Hamilton gave to city council members should have been categorized as “gratuity” and did not include any “quid pro quo” activities as required by the bribery law. Though the bribery law explicitly criminalizes “quid pro quo” activities, it does not directly criminalize acts of gratuity. The U.S. Supreme Court made this ruling in June 2024.

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Voyager Technologies rises in debut, signaling improving IPO market

Shares of space- and defense-technology company Voyager Technologies climbed in their New York Stock Exchange debut, another sign of an improving market for initial public offerings. Voyager said Tuesday that it was selling 12.35 million Class A shares priced at $31 each. It had expected to sell 11 million shares at a price of $26 to $29 each. Voyager is working with companies including Airbus, Mitsubishi Corp., MDA Space and Palantir on the Starlab space station planned for low-Earth orbit. It intends to operate Starlab through a Voyager-led and majority-owned joint venture. Starlab is intended to be the successor to the International Space Station. Voyager stock ended Wednesday’s regular session at $56.48 and was up 7.1% after hours, to $60.50. As an additional marker of the IPO environment, fintech Chime Financial’s initial offering priced above its expected range after hours Wednesday. The 32 million-share offering priced at $27 each, compared with an expected range of $24 to $26 a share.

After a stock selloff linked to tariff concerns earlier this year, The Wall Street Journal reported April 4 that ticketing marketplace StubHub and buy-now-pay-later company Klarna were postponing IPO roadshows. Since then, there have been recent signs of IPO success, including a blockbuster debut for crypto firm Circle Internet Group, and upsized offerings from Aspen Insurance, trading platform eToro Group and multiple special-purpose acquisition companies. Circle Internet Group closed up 11%, at $117.20, on Wednesday, compared with its $31 IPO price. EToro’s IPO priced at $52 and the stock closed down 6%, at $62.96. Meanwhile, Aspen Insurance rose 1.3%, to $32.25, compared with its $30 IPO price. IPOs in recent weeks include virtual physical-therapy company Hinge Health, whose shares closed down 3.9%, to $35.16, compared with a $32 IPO price. MNTN, a software platform for connected TV advertising, declined 5.9%, to $19.97, Wednesday, after its May IPO priced at $16.

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Dilshad D. Ali: In Texas' pushback against a Muslim planned community, a retread of old fears

(Dilshad D. Ali is a freelance journalist.) In their plans to create a neighborhood of 1,000 homes, a K-12 faith-based school, apartments, shops, a community college and a mosque, the developers of a 400-acre planned Muslim community near Dallas made one crucial misstep: They advertised their intentions. “Welcome to the future of living. Welcome to EPIC City,” said the voice-over on a marketing video. “EPIC City is more than just a neighborhood. It’s a way of life. A meticulously designed community that brings Islam to the forefront.” That caught the attention of Gov. Greg Abbott and Texas lawmakers, who fired up fierce criticism and Islamophobic tropes about the plan. Texas state Rep. Jeff Leach, a Republican from Allen, also near Dallas, wrote a letter in February about how “this large-scale real estate development may seek to incorporate elements of Sharia law into its operations. We must ensure that no entity attempts to circumvent state law under the guise of cultural or religious accommodation.”

All it took was the word “Sharia” for Abbott to enter the fray, saying on X in February that “Sharia law is not allowed in Texas. Nor are Sharia cities.” Since then, Texas has launched five investigations into EPIC City, an initiative of the East Plano Islamic Center that would be developed northeast of Dallas near the town of Josephine. The Islamic center and the Community Capital Partners investment group, a separate entity that is heading the project, also are being investigated. U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said in May that, in addition, the U.S. Department of Justice had launched a federal civil rights investigation, citing concerns that EPIC City could discriminate against Christians and Jews. Housing communities, planned or organically grown around a faith community, are nothing new in the United States. Williamsburg, a neighborhood in New York’s Brooklyn borough, has long had a significant concentration of Hasidic Jews and is one of the largest Orthodox Jewish communities in the U.S. The Englewood area of Indianapolis enjoys a large concentration of Christian neighborhoods around Englewood Christian Church. Dearborn, Michigan, has several clusters of predominantly Muslim neighborhoods adjacent to local mosques. These communities often grow over time, with congregants of a particular house of worship enticing fellow worshippers to buy homes or build in adjoining neighborhoods. It’s not rare for such places to arise from a planned effort of a particular house of worship or faith group.

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Ex-Harris County DA Kim Ogg faces possible contempt hearing over Jocelyn Nungaray TV interview

The Harris County District Attorney’s Office on Thursday said it was not opposed to a holding a criminal contempt hearing against former District Attorney Kim Ogg. The announcement increased the likelihood that Ogg could be called to court, and potentially punished, for comments she made in a local news interview about one of the men accused of killing 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray. Judge Josh Hill didn't make an immediate decision on holding a contempt hearing. Lawyers, however, said they would be available for proceedings in July. Lawyers for Franklin Peña last week said they believed Ogg, who left office in January, violated a judicial gag order that was supposed to prevent lawyers involved in the capital murder case from talking to the media.

Ogg on May 29 appeared on Fox 26, and revealed that a woman had told the DA’s office that Peña had assaulted her in Costa Rica. In a motion filed Wednesday, the defense attorneys wrote that Ogg’s interview violated the parts of the gag order that were meant to prevent media interviews that could possibly prejudice a future jury against their client. “At this point, the acts have already happened and the court must hold her in criminal contempt to vindicate the court’s authority,” the lawyers wrote. “Not doing so would set a dangerous precedent that any attorney involved in this capital murder case could go to as many media outlets as they please with no consequences whatsoever.” The defense team also said that Ogg should be punished for an interview she gave to Fox & Friends in December, when she announced the DA’s office would seek the death penalty against Peña and Johan Martinez-Rangel. Peña and Martinez-Rangel are both accused of raping and strangling Jocelyn and leaving her bound body in a shallow creek in north Houston. Both men are Venezuelan nationals, and the case gained national attention because of its connection to national debates about immigration enforcement and crime.

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Texas is suing genetic-testing company 23andMe. Here's what that means.

Texas is suing 23andMe to prevent the genetic testing firm from selling personal data of state residents as the company's bankruptcy case moves forward. In the lawsuit, state Attorney General Paxton said his goal is to force the company to adhere to Texas’ data privacy laws, which prohibit the unauthorized sale of genetic information without an individual's consent. “Texas’s strong data privacy laws grant consumers property rights to their genetic information and require companies to obtain user consent before sharing any of this highly confidential data,” Paxton said in a statement. 23andMe in March filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection while it attempts to sell the business. According to Paxton, that includes customers' private genetic and health information, as well as personally identifiable information.

23andMe allows customers to decline to make their genetic data and other personal information available for medical research. They can also ask the company to delete all of their data and direct them to destroy their saliva sample. Paxton asserted that if the company tries to change that at any time during the sale of the company, state law allows Texans to ask for their data to be deleted and genetic samples to be destroyed. On Monday, 27 states jointly sued 23andMe to similarly block it from selling their residents' data without consent. On Thursday, U.S. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jan Schakowsky sent letters to potential buyers of 23andMe to demand details of their consumer privacy policies, should one of them acquire it. In May, biotech company Regeneron announced it was the successful bidder for 23andMe in its bankruptcy auction after offering $256 million for the company. However, 23andMe CEO Anne Wojcicki offered $305 million for the company after the auction closed through newly formed nonprofit TTAM Research Institute. The new offer caused a federal judge to reopen the sale process, giving Regeneron and TTAM a chance to make a final bid.

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Flooding in San Antonio leaves five dead; rescue operations ongoing

At least five people died amid record-breaking flooding on San Antonio’s Northeast Side on Thursday, with some family members continuing to search for missing loved ones. San Antonio Police Chief William McManus confirmed four people died as near-record rainfall created flash flooding through the area. Reports of calls for water rescue began at 5 a.m. from the Loop 410 and Perrin Beitel Road area, said Joe Arrington, a San Antonio Fire Department spokesman. San Antonio-area firefighters responded to at least 65 calls for water rescues and one watercraft rescue. At least one dozen people were rescued, and at least four were taken to the hospital for treatment. There were also reports of three lightning strikes, four downed power lines, three structure fires and numerous motor vehicle crashes.

With more rainfall possible in the San Antonio area on Thursday evening, rescue crews were searching for at least two more people thought to be missing, according to San Antonio Fire Department spokesperson Woody Woodward. Maricela Castro told the San Antonio Express-News she tracked her nephew Victor Macias’ phone to the rescue operation at Beitel Creek on Thursday. His girlfriend had been on the phone with him as he drove to work at 4 a.m. He told her that someone hit his car, Castro said. That is the last time anyone heard from him. When family members arrived at the rescue operation on Thursday, first responders told them they had recovered Macias’ body from the floodwaters. “These low water crossings, the depth of the water and the speed at which they’re traveling are very hard to gauge," McManus said. "That little saying, 'Turn around, don’t drown,' is really important to heed when we see waters rushing." He said at least three vehicles had been submerged in the high waters, and at least 10 people were rescued from trees. Two people were able to escape on their own.

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Robert Morris’ accuser sues him, Gateway Church, alleging defamation over past statements

A woman who said she was sexually abused as a child by Gateway Church founder Robert Morris has sued him and the church, alleging she was defamed by statements categorizing the abuse as an “inappropriate relationship.” Cindy Clemishire and her father, Jerry Lee Clemishire, are suing Morris, his wife Debbie, the Robert Morris Evangelistic Association, Gateway, three of its current elders, several former elders and a former Gateway spokesperson. According to a news release from the law firm representing the Clemishires, the suit was filed in Dallas County District Court and seeks civil damages in excess of $1 million.

The suit alleges Clemishire and her family were defamed by a past statement made by Morris in which he referred to Clemishire as a “young lady.” Morris’ statement, which was sent to Gateway staff shortly after the allegation against Morris became public last year, also said he stepped out of ministry to undergo a two-year “restoration process” after Clemishire reported the alleged abuse to her parents and returned to ministry with the blessing of Clemishire’s father, which the suit said is not true. Clemishire’s father also previously denied giving Morris his blessing in a letter to The Dallas Morning News. The civil claim follows the criminal charges that Morris is already facing in Oklahoma and comes on the heels of a civil lawsuit between Morris and the Southlake-based megachurch he founded in 2000. In that case, Morris is seeking allegedly-owed retirement payments worth millions of dollars from his former church. The suit filed by Clemishire and her family contains pictures of several exhibits from the suit between Morris and Gateway, which the suit from Clemishire alleges is proof Gateway leaders knew of Morris’ alleged abuse.

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National Stories

Sen. Alex Padilla is forcibly removed from DHS Secretary Kristi Noem's news conference in Los Angeles

Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., was forcibly removed from a news conference in Los Angeles on Thursday after he tried to question Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem during a media event related to immigration. "I am Sen. Alex Padilla. I have questions for the secretary," Padilla told Noem, which prompted several men dressed in plainclothes to push him out of the room. A top FBI official later said bureau personnel and Secret Service agents were involved in his removal. Padilla's office shared a video of the incident with NBC News. The video shows Padilla being taken into a hallway outside and pushed face forward onto the ground as officers with FBI-identifying vests tell him to put his hands behind his back. The officers then handcuff him.

President Donald Trump's immigration policies — and the administration's handling of demonstrations against them — have sparked an outcry in recent days. After protesters clashed with officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Los Angeles on Friday, Trump deployed members of the National Guard, and later the Marines, to assist local law enforcement. Dozens of demonstrations have taken place across the country since then. Padilla to reporters later Thursday that he was waiting for a scheduled briefing from military officials when he learned Noem was in the same building and decided to join her briefing. "I was there peacefully," he said. "At one point, I had a question, and so I began to ask a question. I was almost immediately forcibly removed from the room, I was forced to the ground, and I was handcuffed." Noem offered a different account in an interview on Fox News in which she falsely said Padilla did not identify himself before he was forced out. "We were conducting a press conference to update everyone on the enforcement actions that are ongoing to bring people bring peace to the city of Los Angeles, and this man burst into the room, started lunging towards the podium, interrupting me and elevating his voice, and was stopped, did not identify himself, and was removed from the room," she said. Before Padilla began questioning Noem, she spoke to reporters about the administration's actions, the subject of her appearance in Los Angeles. Noem said the Department of Homeland Security and its agencies, as well as the military, "will continue to sustain and increase our operations in this city."

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Appeals court pauses ruling requiring Trump to return control of California National Guard to state

A federal appeals court late Thursday paused a ruling that required President Donald Trump to return control of members of California’s National Guard to the state. Senior US District Judge Charles Breyer had ruled that Trump unlawfully federalized thousands of members of California’s National Guard and must return control of the troops to the state by mid-day Friday. But the order from the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals puts that on pause. Breyer’s ruling, nevertheless, is a significant win for Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who sued Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth earlier this week after the president called the troops into federal service in the wake of protests in the Los Angeles area over Trump’s hardline immigration policies. “His actions were illegal – both exceeding the scope of his statutory authority and violating the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

He must therefore return control of the California National Guard to the Governor of the State of California forthwith,” the judge wrote in his 36-page ruling. Breyer, of the federal district court in San Francisco, said Trump had not satisfied any of the requirements that must be met in order to call up members of a state’s National Guard and that the president had not complied with a procedural aspect of federal law that requires presidents to issue an order “through the governor” when they want to federalize state troops. “Regardless of whether Defendants gave Governor Newsom an opportunity to consult with them or consent to the federalization of California’s National Guard, they did not issue their orders through him, and thus failed to comply with” federal law, he wrote. The panel of three judges from the 9th Circuit – two Trump appointees and an appointee of former President Joe Biden – said it will hold a hearing Tuesday on the issue. Trump on Friday morning thanked the federal appeals court.

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In reversal, Trump says Chinese students are welcome

President Trump said that Chinese international students would be welcome in the U.S. in a post on Truth Social on Wednesday announcing the terms of a pending trade agreement with China. In exchange for shipments of rare earth metals, the U.S. “WILL PROVIDE TO CHINA WHAT WAS AGREED TO, INCLUDING CHINESE STUDENTS USING OUR COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES (WHICH HAS ALWAYS BEEN GOOD WITH ME!),” Trump posted (capital letters his). The about-face comes less than two weeks after Secretary of State Marco Rubio promised to “aggressively revoke” Chinese students’ visas and implement a much stricter review process for nonimmigrant visa applications from the country.

That announcement, an escalation of the Trump administration’s campaign to decrease the number of foreign students at American universities, threw higher education into a panic. International enrollment has become a financial lifeline for many institutions, and Chinese students make up nearly a quarter of all international students in the U.S.—around 280,000 in 2023–24, according to the Institute of International Education, more than students from any other country. They make up 16 percent of graduate STEM programs and 2 percent of undergraduate programs. Rubio’s visa-revocation announcement also led to distress among Chinese families, whose hopes of sending their children to a prestigious American university seemed to be fading. In May, the Chinese foreign minister called the policy “politically discriminatory” and “irrational.”

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How the man in seat 11A became a plane crash’s sole survivor

Only the passenger in seat 11A on Air India Flight 171 lived to tell the tale, a survival nothing short of a miracle. When the Air India plane with 242 people onboard crashed into a building moments after taking off from the international airport in Ahmedabad, it burst into flames. The impact, heat and smoke was so intense, officials said, that escape was impossible. Except for Viswash Kumar Ramesh, 38. In the hours after the crash, grainy footage of a man with wounds on his face and blood on his shirt went viral on social media. He walked himself to an ambulance with a slight limp, and told a crowd around him that he had come “from inside” the plane. Mr. Ramesh’s story initially appeared too good to be true; the crash was so severe that the bodies of most victims were charred beyond recognition, officials said. But by late evening, Air India confirmed that there had been one survivor, who was getting treatment at the hospital. Amit Shah, India’s home minister, said he had visited the survivor, and Indian media ran photos of Mr. Shah standing at Mr. Ramesh’s bedside.

“I still can’t believe how I got out alive,” Mr. Ramesh said on Friday in an interview from his hospital bed with India’s state broadcaster, Doordarshan. “I thought I was also about to die.” Mr. Ramesh said the plane had felt “stuck five or 10 seconds after takeoff,” and it seemed to be trying to accelerate when it crashed. The front of the plane, after hitting buildings, crashed into an open area, he said, while the tail was stuck in a building, which was later identified as the dining facility of a medical college. Mr. Ramesh said he unbuckled his seatbelt after the crash when he saw a chance for escape. He did not make clear whether he had to open the emergency exit he was sitting next to, or if the impact had caused it to open. “When my door broke, I saw there was some space — that I could try to get out,” he said in the interview. “The other side, people couldn’t get out, as it was crushed against a wall.” Mr. Ramesh, who is a British citizen, was returning to England after vacationing in India along with his brother Ajay, their younger brother Nayan said. Ajay, who the passenger list showed was seated in 11J on the right side of the plane, did not survive. Shortly after the crash, Mr. Ramesh made a video call from near the wreckage to his family in Leicester to confirm he was safe, the younger brother said. The family home there was a scene of both mourning for Ajay and stunned amazement that Viswash had somehow walked away.

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DHS sends out provocative new poster

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published a new poster online featuring World War II imagery, urging citizens to help locate and report immigrants who are in the country without documentation. “Help your country and yourself,” reads the poster, which shows Uncle Sam with a hammer nailing a flier to a wall. “Report all foreign invaders,” it says, providing a phone number to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The poster’s language mirrors a sentiment coming from President Trump and his aides in the White House in recent weeks characterizing immigrants in the country illegally as “foreign invaders” and blaming Democrats for allowing mass migration into the U.S. during former President Biden’s time in office. The poster was posted to DHS’s social media channels and was being widely shared on social platform X this week, including by White House officials. The poster’s publication comes as ICE raids in Los Angeles and other cities around the country have increased as part of Trump’s sweeping deportation plan, an agenda that has sparked protests in locations nationwide, most acutely in portions of the California city. Trump ordered plans for the U.S. military to assist in his deportation efforts, as DHS officials say threats against ICE agents and other federal law enforcement officers have ramped up in recent weeks.

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David Hogg’s exit from DNC stirs mixed reaction

David Hogg’s decision to forgo running again as a vice chair for the Democratic National Committee (DNC) has generated mixed emotions among committee members. While some members were relieved, saying the controversy around Hogg’s decision as a sitting DNC officer to primary incumbents created a distraction for the party, others voiced surprise or disappointment over the move announced Wednesday. The split may be an amicable one: Some Democrats said they’d welcome Hogg to work with the DNC after his exit.

“I think the overall sense is relief that we can finally move on from what has truly been a distraction from the good work that needs to be done to build up our party infrastructure and take the fight to Republicans each and every day and to make the case to American people that Democrats are able and willing to stand up for American values,” noted Michael Kapp, a DNC committee member from California. Earlier Wednesday, a majority of DNC members voted to redo its vice chair election of Hogg and Pennsylvania state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta The vote stemmed from a challenge by Oklahoma DNC member Kalyn Free, who had lost a bid for DNC vice chair. She alleged that the way the election was conducted unfairly advantaged the male vice chair candidates. The DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee last month determined the entire body would vote on redoing the election. That challenge ran in tandem with a separate firestorm Hogg initiated when he announced he would be getting involved in primarying members of Congress in safe seats who he believed were ineffective. But that decision rankled members, including DNC Chair Ken Martin, who said he believed Hogg shouldn’t be doing so while also serving as a DNC officer.

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In N.Y.C. mayor’s race, Top Democrats take on Trump and their own party

The clash consuming New York City is one that has become almost routine in Democratic politics. On one side stands a moderate pragmatist who first took public office three decades ago. On the other is a democratic socialist half his age who has leaped past more seasoned rivals and captured the imagination of the left. The two leading Democratic candidates for mayor, former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, have battled over taxing the rich, the war in Gaza and policing the city’s subways. Yet as New Yorkers head to the polls to determine the future of their city, the two men have risen to the top of a crowded field by adopting a strikingly similar posture: that of a brawler eager to take on not only President Trump but also his own party. Both candidates offer what they say is a path for Democrats out of the political wilderness, albeit in very different directions. It is an unyielding approach that taps into the deep psychological wounds of demoralized Democratic voters, who are seeking a muscular answer to Mr. Trump as he pushes to reduce the power of liberal states like California and New York.

The outcome of the June 24 election — one of Democrats’ first major primary fights since Mr. Trump stormed back to power — could very well set a model for ambitious Democratic candidates in the midterm elections next year and beyond. The dynamic was on colorful display Thursday night in the race’s second and final debate. As other leading candidates quibbled over policy details and plans for “Trump-proofing” the nation’s largest city, Mr. Cuomo and Mr. Mamdani sharpened their critiques. Mr. Cuomo, 67, a once dominant figure whom Democrats ushered out of office in a sexual harassment scandal just four years ago, took the tone of a stern father figure returning home to reassert control after blaming the upstart left for letting things get out of hand. “The question for tonight is who has the ability to get the job done. Who can build housing?” Mr. Cuomo said. He added: “Who can do public safety? While my colleagues were defunding the police, I was adding police.” Mr. Mamdani, 33, sought to convince Democrats that a better future was possible by portraying Mr. Cuomo as an emblem of the failed old guard that got them here. “If you turned on your television 20 years ago, you would have heard the same tired, failed policies you’ll hear from politicians tonight,” Mr. Mamdani said. “It’s time for a new generation of leadership.”

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