Breakdown of $1 billion request for Trump’s White House ballroom project

Cranes overlook the White House, as construction of the new ballroom extension continues, following demolition of the East Wing, on April 11, 2026. (Al Drago/Getty Images)

(WASHINGTON) -- ABC News has obtained a one-page breakdown of how the White House says it intends to spend the $1 billion that some Republicans want to approve for President Donald Trump's East Wing renovation to the White House, which includes the construction of Trump's massive ballroom.

The document -- which was provided without elaboration -- was presented by U.S. Secret Service Director Sean Curran to Senate Republicans during a luncheon on Tuesday.

The price breakdown for each target area of the project area is:

$220 million for White House hardening
$180 million for White House visitor security screening facility
$175 million for Secret Service training
$175 million for enhancements for Secret Service protectees
$150 million for evolving threats and technology
$100 million for events of national significance

Axios was first to report the news.

While the White House has insisted the funding is necessary in the wake of the assassination attempt against Trump at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner, Senate Republicans still appeared skeptical of the $1 billion request following Curran's briefing.

"He gave us a list that breaks down the spending in a little more detail, but ... there are still a lot of questions," said Republican Sen. John Kennedy. "It's not the only concern, but one of the biggest concerns on our side is adding to the deficit."

While Senate Majority Leader John Thune remains adamant that the request could be tucked into the ongoing reconciliation process, it faces an uphill battle earning 50 Republican votes.

It's also not clear whether the provision will make it through the Senate's rigorous review process. Democrats are expected to argue before the Senate's parliamentarian that the spending is extraneous and therefore should not be allowed to be included in a reconciliation bill. 
Since news of Republicans' intention to include funding for the ballroom became public last week, Democrats have repeatedly hammered the proposal. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer criticized the administration for focusing on the ballroom instead of lowering consumer costs during a speech on the Senate floor on Wednesday morning.

"At a time when 77% -- that's 77% -- of Americans say that Donald Trump's policies have increased their cost of living, Trump and the Senate GOP try to force through a bill that would spend a billion taxpayer dollars on a gilded ballroom and not one penny on bringing down costs," Schumer said, referencing a CNN poll out earlier this week that found 77% say that Trump’s policies have increased the cost of living in their own community.

"Trump may be trying to build a ballroom but clearly he is living in the theater of the absurd," Schumer added.

The $1 billion request is in addition to the annual USSS budget, $3.2 billion in FY 2025.

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

‘Big Brother’ season 28 gets CBS premiere date

Julie Chen Moonves awards Ashley Hollis the winner of 'Big Brother' season 27. (Matthew Taplinger/CBS)

It's not summer without Big Brother.

CBS has announced that season 28 of the hit reality competition series will premiere on July 9. The special 90-minute episode kicks off premiere week. It will be followed by the return of the show's companion series, Big Brother: Unlocked, on July 10. Another 90-minute episode will air on July 12.

Big Brother follows a group of people who live together in a house without the ability to leave it or access anything about the outside world. The house has dozens of cameras and microphones that record their every move, every second of the day. Each week a person gets voted out of the house, until the last remaining houseguest wins the $750,000 prize.

Julie Chen Moonves returns once again to host the show, which this season will include the milestone 1,000th episode of the series. This means Big Brother will become the first primetime series to reach 1,000 original episodes.

After its premiere weekend, Big Brother season 28 will air Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays on CBS. It will also be available to stream on Paramount+ the following day.

Additionally, fans will once again be able to watch the Big Brother live feeds on Paramount+ and Pluto TV.

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Information on fatal hit-and-run needed

Information on fatal hit-and-run neededVAN ZANDT COUNTY — The Texas Department of Public Safety is seeking any information known of a hit-and-run that left a pedestrian dead on May 8 in Van Zandt County. According to our news partner KETK and DPS, the incident occurred on County Road 2501, rural Van Zandt County at around 11:30 p.m. The pedestrian was walking south and was struck by an unknown vehicle traveling in an unknown direction of travel.

The DPS asks that anyone with any information regarding the fatal crash is urged to contact them at 940-327-9122.

One critically injured in stabbing

One critically injured in stabbingLONGVIEW — A Monday night dispute in Longview ended in violence when a man was stabbed and hospitalized, authorities said. According to our news partner KETK, the Longview Police Department said officers were dispatched to a “reported cutting” in the area of Hawthorne Avenue and East Culver Street on Monday at around 5:52 p.m. When they arrived, they learned two men had been involved in a verbal altercation.

During the altercation, the victim was reportedly stabbed and was taken to a local hospital for life-threatening injuries.
53-year-old Catalino Garcia Ramirez was arrested and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. He remains in the Gregg County Jail on a $100,000 bond.

Meg Stalter to make Broadway debut starring in ‘Oh, Mary!’

Meg Stalter attends the Los Angeles premiere of 'Hacks' season 5 on April 8, 2026, in Los Angeles, California. (Rodin Eckenroth/FilmMagic via Getty Images)

Oh, Mary? More like Oh, Meg!

Meg Stalter will make her Broadway debut by taking on the starring role of Mary Todd Lincoln in the Tony Award-winning play Oh, Mary!

Stalter's run in the production will be a 10-week limited engagement starting on July 6 and ending on Sept. 12.

Oh, Mary!'s official Instagram shared a poster with Stalter adorned in Mary's signature bratty curls. The account also posted a video of Stalter getting in costume as Mary before looking straight to the camera and saying, "Sensational."

Cole Escola created, wrote and won a Tony for starring in Oh, Mary! The show is a one-act comedy play centered on Mary Todd Lincoln in the weeks leading up to her husband Abraham Lincoln's assassination.

Maya Rudolph is currently starring as Mary Todd Lincoln in the production. She made her Broadway debut through this limited run, which was recently extended for two additional weeks. Her final performance in the role will be July 5.

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

‘Stuart Fails to Save the Universe’ gets release date, teaser trailer

Lauren Lapkus, Kevin Sussman, John Ross Bowie and Brian Posehn in 'Stuart Fails to Save the Universe.' (Colin Remas Brown/HBO Max)

The Big Bang Theory spinoff series Stuart Fails to Save the Universe now has a teaser trailer and release date.

HBO Max has announced that the series will premiere on July 23. It will consist of 10 episodes which will be released weekly every Thursday.

The new series stars Kevin Sussman as Stuart, Lauren Lapkus as Denise, Brian Posehn as Bert and John Ross Bowie as Barry.

"Comic book store owner Stuart Bloom is tasked with restoring reality after he breaks a device built by Sheldon and Leonard, accidentally bringing about a multiverse Armageddon," according to its official logline. "Along the way, they meet alternate-universe versions of characters we’ve come to know and love from The Big Bang Theory. As the title implies, things don’t go well."

The new teaser trailer shows off the high-concept series, with Stuart meeting an alternate universe version of himself.

"I'm you from another stream of reality," alternate Stuart says. "This apocalyptic nightmare, the dimensional rifts, never has to happen."

Stuart Fails to Save the Universe comes from Chuck Lorre Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television. It is created, written and executive produced by Lorre, Zak Penn and Bill Prady.

Stuart Fails to Save the Universe is not the first Big Bang Theory spinoff. Young Sheldon, which followed the origins of the original show's protagonist, Sheldon Cooper, aired on CBS from 2017 to 2024. A spinoff of Young Sheldon, titled Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage, currently airs on CBS. It premiered in October 2024 and is now in the middle of its second season.

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Industrial structure fire in Crockett under investigation

CROCKETT – An investigation is underway after an industrial building in Crockett caught fire on Tuesday night, which officials expect to continue to burn for the next few days. According to our news partner KETK and the Houston County Emergency Management Office, the building was identified as Animal Comfort Group. The fire started before 11 p.m.

The cause of the fire is unknown at this time and is under investigation, the Crockett Fire Department said. There were no reported injuries as of 8 a.m. on Wednesday.

“This fire is contained and will likely continue to burn for a few days,” the fire department said. “CFD will continue to monitor the area and work with property ownership to ensure it remains contained.”

Residents are asked to use caution in the area and be respectful of personnel working the scene.

Men wrongly accused of grisly yogurt shop murders in Texas reach $35 million settlement with city

AUSTIN (AP) – The city of Austin will pay $35 million to three men and the family of a fourth who were wrongly accused of the 1991 rape and murder of four teenage girls at a yogurt shop, a case that initially sent one of the men to death row and another to life in prison, under a tentative settlement reached Tuesday.

Robert Springsteen, Michael Scott, Forrest Welborn and Maurice Pierce had all insisted they were innocent of one of the city’s most notorious crimes. They were finally declared innocent by a judge in February after investigators determined the crime was committed by a suspect who died in 1999.

The settlement must still be approved by the city council at a later date. Details of the payments to the men and their families were not released.

“This settlement closes the final chapter of a devastating story in Austin’s history,” Austin City Manager T.C. Broadnax said in a statement. “We are pleased to have reached an agreement with those who were wrongly accused and wrongly convicted in this case and hope that this settlement brings a sense of closure to everyone affected by this horrific event.”

Scott and his attorney Tony Diaz said in a joint statement they are hopeful the settlement will help improve investigation practices and safeguards against wrongful convictions.

“Discussions and negotiations are ongoing regarding police reforms that would help ensure that nothing like what occurred in this case ever happens again,” they said.

Amy Ayers, 13; Eliza Thomas, 17; and sisters Jennifer and Sarah Harbison, ages 17 and 15, were bound, gagged and shot in the head at the “I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt” store where two of them worked. The building was set on fire.

Investigators chased thousands of leads and several false confessions before the four men, who were teenagers when the girls were killed, were arrested in late 1999.

Springsteen and Scott were convicted based largely on confessions they insisted were coerced by police. Both convictions were overturned in the mid-2000s.

Welborn was charged but never tried after two grand juries refused to indict him. Pierce spent three years in jail before the charges were dismissed. He died in 2010 in a confrontation with police after a traffic stop.

Prosecutors wanted to try Springsteen and Scott again, but a judge ordered the charges dismissed in 2009 when new DNA tests that were unavailable in 1991 and the previous trials revealed another male suspect.

Investigators determined in 2025 that new DNA science and reviews of old ballistics evidence pointed to Robert Eugene Brashers as the sole killer.

Since 2018, authorities had used advanced DNA evidence to link Brashers to the strangulation death of a South Carolina woman in 1990, the 1997 rape of a 14-year-old girl in Tennessee and the shooting of a mother and daughter in Missouri in 1998.

The link to the Austin case came when a DNA sample taken from under Ayers’ fingernail came back as a match to Brashers from the 1990 killing.

Brashers died in 1999 when he shot himself during an hourslong standoff with police at a motel in Kennett, Missouri.

New city council members sworn in

New city council members sworn inTYLER – On Wednesday, May 13, City of Tyler City Council members were sworn into office. Those taking their oath of office included newly elected Councilmembers Clint Childs (District 4) and Carleen Dark-Bays (District 6). 
 
Re-elected Council member Petra Hawkins (District 2) will be re-sworn in at a later date. 
  
Following the swearing-in, the council held its first meeting, where they elected District 2 Council member Petra Hawkins as Mayor Pro Tem. Members of the Council elect the Mayor Pro Tem, who serves in the Mayor’s absence for a one-year term. 
  

In brief: ‘Every Year After’ trailer, and more

Prime Video has dropped the trailer for its upcoming romance series, Every Year After, based on the bestselling book Every Summer After by author Carley Fortune. The series, starring Saltburn’s Sadie Soverall and High School Musical: The Musical: The Series’ Matt Cornett, tells the love story of two friends, Percy and Sam, over the course of six years and one week in the lakeside town of Barry’s Bay. The eight-episode season premieres June 10 ...

Oscar Isaac’s Las Vegas-set Netflix show now has a title and more cast members. The show, about the high-stakes world of casinos, is called The Roman. Betty Gilpin, Alec Baldwin and David Costabile are joining Isaac in the cast. A release date for the eight-episode series has yet to be announced ...

Paranormal Activity is going from the big screen to the Great White Way. Paranormal Activity: A New Story Live on Broadway will officially open in New York this fall. The Olivier Awards-nominated production will play a limited 20-week engagement beginning on Aug. 14 ...

Breakout Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette star Paul Anthony Kelly has joined the cast of American Horror Story. The 13th season of the Ryan Murphy anthology series debuts on FX and Hulu this fall. Further details on Kelly's role have yet to be revealed ...

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

‘Ted Lasso’ star Cristo Fernández signs pro soccer contract

Cristo Fernandez attends Elton John AIDS Foundation's 34th Annual Academy Awards Viewing Party on March 15, 2026 in West Hollywood, California. (Jerod Harris/Getty Images)

Cristo Fernández is turning his on-screen soccer dreams into reality.

The actor best known for playing Dani Rojas on the hit Apple TV+ comedy Ted Lasso has signed a professional soccer contract with El Paso Locomotive FC, the club announced Tuesday.

Fernández, 35, joined the USL Championship side after completing what the club described as an "extensive" two-month trial.

During that stretch, the Mexican actor and forward trained regularly with the team and appeared in a preseason match against New Mexico United.

"Fútbol has always been a huge part of my life and identity, and no matter where life has taken me, the dream of competing professionally never truly left my heart," Fernández said in a statement released by the club.

Long before his acting career took off, Fernández played youth soccer for Mexican club Tecos FC. However, an injury forced him to step away from the sport when he was 15 years old.

He later shifted his focus to acting and became one of the breakout stars of Ted Lasso in 2020.

His character, Dani Rojas, became a fan favorite for his upbeat personality and memorable catchphrase, "Fútbol is life."

In recent years, Fernández has shared his journey back to soccer on social media, posting videos of himself training with professional clubs across the country, including teams connected to Major League Soccer organizations.

El Paso Locomotive FC head coach Junior Gonzalez said Fernández will bring both talent and leadership to the squad.

"Cristo is a great addition to our roster, adding another attacking threat to our forward line," Gonzalez said. "His passion for the game and leadership qualities for our locker room allow us to continue growing the positive culture we strive for as a club."

Fernández said the opportunity represents more than just a return to soccer.

"This journey back to professional soccer is about believing in yourself, taking risks, and continuing to chase your dreams no matter how unexpected the path may be," he said.

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Natural resource protection motion tabled

Natural resource protection motion tabledSMITH COUNTY — As East Texas counties continue searching for solutions to protect their property and water rights, Van Zandt County is proposing a partnership with Smith County to better protect the region’s natural resources. According to our news partner KETK, Van Zandt County proposed a 391 commission, which would create a council including commissioners and residents from both counties. It would allow neighboring counties to work together to protect the region’s groundwater and property rights. The commission would oversee potential projects in the area and discuss developmental issues that affect both counties.

Following Tuesday’ s meeting, attended by several key lawmakers and public officials, Smith County Commissioners voted to table the decision until they obtained further information on the proposal. During a Smith County Commissioners Court meeting earlier this month, Van Zandt County resident David Dunigan said if Smith County entered the partnership, it would ensure better protection of the region’s natural resources.

“Your voice is going to tell people we can’t be predatory against East Texas counties anymore,” Dunigan said. “I really urge you guys to amplify your voice for the citizens of this county, and for the surrounding East Texas counties to be able to at least say yes, we want something, or no, we don’t.” Continue reading Natural resource protection motion tabled

Domestic dispute leaves 2 dead, 1 injured in shooting at Texarkana Aluminum

TEXARKANA, Texas (KETK) — Two people are dead and one person is recovering at a hospital after a domestic dispute led to a shooting at Texarkana Aluminum early Tuesday morning, the Nash Police Department confirmed. According to Nash PD, the shooting occurred at the facility’s parking lot at around 6:37 a.m. 48-year-old Eddie Hill Jr. was attempting to intervene in what is believed to be a domestic dispute between 40-year-old Wendell Champion Jr. and his wife, who worked at Texarkana Aluminum.

Champion Jr. then shot and killed Hill Jr. and shot his wife. She was transported to a local Texarkana hospital and is in stable condition, the police department said. Champion Jr. then shot and killed himself, Nash PD said. Champion Jr. had been convicted of murder in Harris County in 2010 and was released on parole in 2025.

There is no danger to the public at this time, the police department said.

Both Hill and Champion Jr.’s wife were employees of Texarkana Aluminum, which will continue operations as normal but has counseling available for employees.