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HOUSTON – The Houston Chronicle reports that NASA officials plan to meet in the next two weeks to decide whether the Boeing Starliner Crew Flight Test’s two astronauts on the International Space Station will return on the Starliner. Ken Bowersox, NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate associate administrator, and other NASA officials held a virtual news conference Wednesday about the Starliner, two months to the day after astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were projected to return to Earth after spending around a week in space following a June 5 launch. “We can juggle things and make things work if we need to extend but it’s getting a lot harder,” Bowersox said. “We’re reaching a point where that last week in August, we really should be making a call, if not sooner.”

NASA last week pushed back the launch of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft to the space station to September, from an originally planned departure date of Aug. 18, as it looks to solve the Starliner dilemma. Officials also said during an Aug. 7 press conference that if Wilmore and Williams don’t return on Starliner, they would most likely return on Crew Dragon in February 2025. That would mean Wilmore and Williams would spend about eight months in orbit. NASA chief astronaut Joe Acaba said he communicates frequently with the two astronauts, each currently on their third stay at the space station, and they remain committed to the mission. “Butch and Suni will be ready to support the direction our agency chooses,” Acaba said. The Crew Flight Test is Boeing’s first manned flight to the space station. It originally dealt with multiple delays before its early June launch. The astronauts arrived at the station June 6 after dealing with helium leaks and thruster issues in flight.

DALLAS – KERA reports that Dallas elected officials finalized a slate of proposed changes to the city’s charter. They include measures to decriminalize some amounts of marijuana, administrative policy tweaks, changing when elections are held and allowing noncitizens to serve on city commissions. While the final vote was made during Wednesday’s marathon city council meeting, Dallas voters will ultimately decide which changes to the city’s charter should be passed. Elected officials voted to give Dallas voters a second chance to allow noncitizens to serve on boards and commissions laid out in the charter. The topic elicited strong emotions and tense debate around the horseshoe. Voters will have the chance to decide on an independent inspector general’s office to investigate crime and corruption inside City Hall — and have the director report directly to the city council.

And the council approved a measure that could allow more Dallas residents to serve on boards and commissions. The issue was placed on a pervious ballot and failed. The topic gained intense and emotional discussion from council members during the meeting. Measures aimed at decriminalizing four ounces of marijuana and another set aimed at public safety funding and city hall accountability, will also be added to the ballot. Voter petitions that were certified by the city secretary last month dictated that the city let Dallas voters weigh in on the issues. Even though the city is legally required to move the propositions forward, four elected officials voted against calling the special election for the marijuana amendment. The rest of the council voted in favor of calling the election. When it came to vote to move the voter-led propositions that would dictate funding for public safety, hiring hundreds of new police officers and create new compensation metrics for city officials, the council voiced concern. Ultimately, the body voted 12-3 to call the special election. “I do think they can cause harm to our city,” District 9 Council Member Paula Blackmon said during the meeting. “But I will put it forth to the voters and let them decide.”

AUSTIN – NBC reports that Republican National Convention delegates erupted in applause last month when Texas Gov. Greg Abbott doubled down on his commitment to send buses full of migrants to blue cities. “We have continued busing migrants to sanctuary cities all across the country,” Abbott told the cheering crowd in Milwaukee. “Those buses will continue to roll until we finally secure our border.” But the buses have not been rolling on a consistent basis for months because of a steep drop in the number of migrants apprehended at the southern border, according to officials and migrant shelter operators in Texas and in a half-dozen big cities across the U.S. Roughly 117,000 migrants were stopped in May, down from a record 300,000 in December. In June, the number dropped even further — to about 84,000, the lowest monthly total since President Joe Biden took office in 2021.

“They now come much less frequently,” said Josh Goldfein, a staff attorney for the Legal Aid Society of New York, “because they don’t have enough people to cross the border to fill up a bus.” White House officials and immigration advocates attribute the slowdown to an enhanced crackdown on U.S.-bound migrants by Mexican authorities and Biden’s executive action in June restricting who can claim asylum at the southern border. A spokesman for Abbott acknowledged that there were now fewer migrants to bus out of state, but said that it was the governor’s actions in Texas that fueled the drop in migrants crossing the border. “Texas has decreased illegal crossings into the state by 85% thanks to our historic border mission,” the spokesman, Andrew Maheris, said. “Fewer illegal crossings into Texas means there are fewer buses departing for sanctuary cities.”

NEW YORK (AP) — The federal government wants to make it easier for employees to quit a job and work for a competitor. But some companies say a new rule created by the Federal Trade Commission will make it hard to protect trade secrets and investments they make in their employees.

At least three companies have sued the FTC after it voted to ban noncompete agreements, which prevent employees from working for competitors for a period of time after leaving a job. Their cases are now pending in Florida, Pennsylvania and Texas and the issue could end up in front of the U.S. Supreme Court.