Two East Texas towns declared among most comfortable for seniors

MINEOLA — WorldAtlas listed the top nine most comfortable towns in Texas for seniors, deeming them as charming towns ideal to settle down due to their slow paced life, cozy natural setting and outdoor activities. Both Mineola and Hawkins represented East Texas on the list. You can view the entire list here.

The struggle for Senate control goes down to the wire as spending shatters records

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Billions of dollars in advertising are raining down on voters across the Rust Belt, Rocky Mountains and American southwest as the two major political parties portray their opponent’s candidates as extreme in a struggle for control of the U.S. Senate.

In three races alone — Ohio, Pennsylvania and Montana — more than $1 billion is projected to be spent by Nov. 5.

The race in Ohio could break the spending record for Senate races. The race in Montana will go down as the most expensive Senate race ever on a per-vote basis. And, late in the game, Democrats are sending millions more dollars to Texas, a GOP stronghold where the party has new hopes of knocking off two-term conservative stalwart Sen. Ted Cruz, an upset that could help them protect their majority.

Republicans need to pick up two seats to capture a surefire majority, and one of those — West Virginia — is all but in the bag for the GOP.

Other races are more volatile and less predictable.

For Democrats, the brutal math of this year’s election cycle is forcing them to defend eight seats in tough states. Losses by established incumbents could amount to an extinction-level event for Democrats who represent reliably Republican states.

The election also will test the down-ballot strength of both parties in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, the premier presidential battleground states known as the Blue Wall for their relatively reliable Democratic voting history. Wins there by Republicans would dramatically alter the Senate playing field.

All told, data from political ad tracking firm AdImpact projects that more than $2.5 billion will be spent on advertising in Senate races in this two-year campaign cycle, slightly more than the 2022 total.

That includes a half-billion dollars in Ohio alone, another $340 million in Pennsylvania and $280 million in Montana, population 1.1 million, or less than one-tenth of the population of either Ohio or Pennsylvania. The most expensive Senate race ever was Democrat John Ossoff ‘s victory in a Georgia contest that went to a runoff in 2021 and decided Senate control, according to data from the campaign finance-tracking organization Open Secrets.

Generally, campaign strategists say Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is polling ahead of his party’s Senate candidates in Senate battleground states, while Democratic candidates in those states are polling ahead of their presidential nominee, Kamala Harris.

That means there is a slice of voters who could vote for Trump but not back Republicans in Senate races — or who could split their tickets with Democratic Senate candidates.

Such splits have been rare. In Maine, in 2020 voters backed Democrat Joe Biden for president and re-elected Republican Sen. Susan Collins, for instance.

Republican strategists said they expect the party’s major super PACs to spend until election day in seven states where Democrats are defending Senate seats: Michigan, Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, where polls show competitive races, but also Nevada and Arizona, where Republicans are encouraged by strong early voting numbers.

Republicans are most confident about flipping the seat in deep-red Montana, where Republican Tim Sheehy is challenging third-term Democratic Sen. Jon Tester. They are also optimistic about reliably red Ohio, where Republican Bernie Moreno is challenging third-term Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown.

Torunn Sinclair, a spokesperson for a pair of Republican-aligned super PACs, said one — American Crossroads — is pulling $2.8 million out of Montana, while the pair are plunging several million more into Pennsylvania.

There, Republican David McCormick is trying to knock off three-term Democratic Sen. Bob Casey in a presidential battleground undercard that both sides say is close.

McCormick, a former CEO of the world’s largest hedge fund, has hammered the message in two debates that Casey is a “sure thing” to back the Biden-Harris administration’s agenda.

In recent days, Casey began running an ad in conservative areas that touts his “greedflation” legislation to pursue price-gouging. The ad says “Casey bucked Biden to protect fracking” and “sided with Trump” on trade and tariffs.

Republicans say Casey’s ad showing Trump is similar to a TV ad that Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin is airing and speaks to both Democrats’ need to protect themselves against Harris’ vulnerability in their states.

“They’re hoping to peel off enough Trump voters to win,” Sinclair said.

Still, Casey ran a similar ad in 2018’s midterm election when he won easily — even though that ad didn’t mention Trump — while Casey’s campaign notes that he has long split with Democrats by opposing free trade agreements and supporting fossil fuel-power projects.

Democrats, conversely, say they are forcing competitive contests late in the campaign in two red states, Texas and Nebraska. Ousting incumbent Republicans from one or both of those seats could help Democrats to at least a 50-50 split in the Senate should Democrats lose in Montana or Ohio.

In Texas, U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, a former professional football player, has proven adept at raising small-dollar donations in his challenge to incumbent Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. Allred has outraised every Senate candidate nationally, except Tester and Brown.

The ad spending advantage for Allred has been 3-to-2, according to AdImpact, with the Democratic-aligned Senate Majority PAC touting a new seven-figure digital ad buy and a separate $5 million TV ad buy attacking Cruz on a key issue for Democrats, abortion rights.

On top of that, Democrats hope Harris’ rally in Houston on Friday with Allred and Beyoncé can help Allred by boosting Black voter turnout.

In Nebraska, independent Dan Osborn — a tattooed former labor leader who supports abortion rights — appears to have consolidated Democratic and independent voters while making some inroads with Republicans, Democratic strategists say.

While Osborn is running as an independent and hasn’t said which party he’d caucus with, he’s getting support from a liberal super PAC that has helped him amass a significant spending advantage over Republican Sen. Deb Fischer.

In both states, Republicans acknowledge that they’ve had to spend money unexpectedly to shore up their incumbents’ prospects, but they also say they expect to win comfortably.

In Ohio, Brown has tried to personalize his appeal by appearing in most of his own ads and speaking directly into the camera.

“I’m Sherrod Brown and I have a question,” Brown says, looking into the camera and leaning his elbow on what might be a wood-working shop table. “Have you ever heard Bernie Moreno talk about what he’s going to do for Ohio?”

Brown also makes a personal appeal to potential swing voters, saying he has spent his career fighting for workers and veterans and working with law enforcement and “presidents of both parties to do what’s best for our state.”

Elsewhere, strategists expect first-term Florida Sen. Rick Scott will fend off a challenge from Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-Powell and that Democrat Angela Alsobrooks in deep-blue Maryland will beat former Gov. Larry Hogan to fill a seat being vacated by Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin.

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Associated Press reporter Julie Carr Smyth in Columbus, Ohio, contributed to this report. Follow Marc Levy at twitter.com/timelywriter.

Jury orders Bell Helicopter to pay $16 million to former supplier in a trade-secrets case

FORT WORTH (AP) — A Texas jury ordered Bell Helicopter Textron to pay $16 million to a California company that claims Bell gave proprietary information that the companies developed to a rival supplier of cockpit display systems.

The jury in state court in Fort Worth this week decided that Bell engaged in unfair competition, but it rejected Rogerson Aircraft Corp.’s claim that Bell stole trade secrets.

Bell, a Fort Worth-based unit of Textron Inc., did not respond to requests for comment.

According to its lawsuit, Rogerson made avionics and display systems for Bell helicopters for more than 25 years. It sued in 2017, seeking more than $100 million in damages. It claimed that Bell gave designs the two companies produced together to a third firm, which developed a replacement for Rogerson’s equipment.

Rogerson claimed that Bell was trying to avoid the need to get regulatory approval for new systems by labeling them replacements.

Texas hospitals must now ask patients whether they’re in the US legally. Here’s how it works

AUSTIN (AP) – Texas hospitals must ask patients starting Friday whether they are in the U.S. legally and track the cost of treating people without legal status following an order by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott that expands the state’s clash with the Biden administration over immigration.

Critics fear the change could scare people away from hospitals in Texas, even though patients are not required to answer the questions to receive medical care. The mandate is similar to a policy that debuted last year in Florida, where Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is also a frequent critic of the federal government’s handling of illegal crossings along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Texas hospitals have spent months preparing for the change and have sought to reassure patients that it won’t affect their level of care.

Here’s what to know:
Required to ask, not required to answer

Under the executive order announced by Abbott in August, hospitals must ask patients if they are citizens in the U.S. and whether they are lawfully present in the country.

Patients have the right to withhold the information and hospital workers must tell them their responses will not affect their care, as required by federal law.
Tracking hospital costs and patient data

Hospitals are not required to begin submitting reports to the state until March. An early draft of a spreadsheet made by state health officials to track data does not include fields to submit patient names or personal information.

Providers will fill out a breakdown of visits by inpatient and emergency care patients and document whether they are lawfully present in the country, citizens or not lawfully present in the U.S.

The reports will also add up costs for those covered by Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program, known as CHIP; and the cost for patients without it.

“Texans should not have to shoulder the burden of financially supporting medical care for illegal immigrants,” Abbott said when he announced the policy.
Texas is following Florida’s lead

Florida enacted a similar law last year. Health care advocates contend the law has made immigrants who need of emergency medical care fearful and led to fewer people seeking help, even from facilities not subject to the law.

Florida’s early data is — by the state’s own admission — limited. The data is self-reported. Anyone can decline to answer, an option chosen by nearly 8% of people admitted to the hospital and about 7% of people who went to the emergency room from June to December 2023, according to Florida’s state report. Fewer than 1% of people who went to the emergency room or were admitted to the hospital reported being in the U.S. “illegally.”
Texas hospitals have been preparing

Immigrant and health care advocates have sought to educate the Texas public about their rights. In Florida, groups used text messages, posters and emails to get the word out. But advocates there have said they didn’t see fears subside for about a year.

Health care providers received directives from the state and guidance from the Texas Hospital Association.

“The bottom line for patients is that this doesn’t change hospital care. Texas hospitals continue to be a safe place for needed care,” said Carrie Williams, spokesperson for the hospital association.

Cumberland Academy lays off more than 50 staff members

TYLER – Cumberland Academy announced layoffs to many staff members in an email sent to Cumberland parents and the Tyler community this week according to our news partner KETK. In the message, superintendent Charles Pulliam explained the private school is facing a shortfall of $2 million.

“Due to the state’s five-year funding freeze, the end of federal COVID relief, inflationary pressures, and rising operational costs,” said Pulliam in the letter.

Because of these factors, the school district said its necessary to consolidate, reduce and realign staff.

“We were blindsided,” said Jennifer Blake, one concerned mother. Jennifer Blake is just one of many parents with students at Cumberland Academy who received the following email on Wednesday afternoon. She said that the teachers were given little to no notice and little severance pay.

(more…)

Cruz, Allred make spirited final pitches to Texas voters in Senate race

JOURDANTON, Texas (AP) — Republican Sen. Ted Cruz and Democratic U.S. Rep. Colin Allred are making their final pitches to Texas voters in a frenzied burst of travel across the state near the end of one of the nation’s most expensive and closely watched Senate races.

Cruz, who finds himself in another competitive contest after narrowly winning a second term in 2018, is leaning into conservative pledges for tougher border measures and attacks on policies that support transgender people, including at a bus tour rally outside of San Antonio on Tuesday.

Allred, who would become Texas’ first Black senator, spent a day criss-crossing Houston, the state’s biggest city and a crucial Democratic stronghold for the underdog congressman, who needs a big showing from loyal Democrats to unseat the incumbent. At a rally at Texas Southern University, a historically Black college, the three-term congressman emphasized his support for abortion rights and blamed Cruz for limiting women’s access to reproductive healthcare.

Statewide races in Texas have been out of reach for Democrats for decades, but recent signs that the race might be tightening have led some to think 2024 might finally be the year. It’s an ambitious target but one of the few pickup opportunities for Democrats in a year when they are defending twice as many Senate seats as Republicans nationally.

A surprise win in Texas would dramatically boost their chances of maintaining their narrow Senate majority.

Both candidates combined have raised more than $160 million in the race.

Last week, Democrats backing Allred announced a $5 million ad campaign on reproductive freedom for women.

At one of his stops in Houston, Allred asked voters to turn the page on divisive politics and look to leaders who can accomplish something.

“I don’t spend my time throwing bombs,” he said. “I work hard not because bipartisanship is the end goal, because that’s how you get things done.”

Some 250 miles (402 kilometers) to the west, at a rally in the rural South Texas town of Jourdanton, Cruz cast himself as the reasonable candidate.

“This is no longer a battle between Republicans and Democrats,” he said. “This is a battle between sane and crazy.”

Dust swirled in and around a warehouse in Jourdanton on a warm October afternoon as supporters for Cruz donned “Make America Great Again” hats and waved signs bearing Cruz’s “Keep Texas, Texas” slogan. Cruz stood on the bed of a pickup truck and gave a nearly 40-minute speech, casting the race as a battle between tradition and change.

The Senate race has drawn the most attention and money in Texas, as Allred, a three-term congressman from Dallas, seeks to unseat Cruz and do what no Democrat has done in 30 years: win a statewide election in the nation’s second-most populous state. Cruz has looked to tie Allred to Vice President Kamala Harris on immigration, LGBTQ+ issues and the economy.

In a state with some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the nation, Cruz has largely avoided the subject.

Cruz narrowly defeated Beto O’Rourke in 2018 in his last reelection campaign and Democrats view the Senate race as an opportunity to take advantage of Texas’ shifting demographics and a relatively unpopular incumbent.

Sarah Brietzke, a retired teacher from nearby La Vernia, said she doesn’t expect Cruz to lose. “I would be surprised,” she said.

“I have nothing against the guy,” Scott Smith said about Allred. Still, Smith said he believes Cruz has stronger economic and immigration policies.

Allred has attempted to capture moderate voters by running a lower-profile campaign focused on reproductive care, a winning issue for Democrats where the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to strip federal protections for abortion remains unpopular with most Americans.

On Tuesday night in Houston, Allred repeatedly attacked Cruz for his 2021 trip to Mexico during a deadly winter storm that left millions without power. The swing through Texas’ largest city came just days after Allred joined Harris and Beyoncé at a rally Friday night, the vice president’s first and only stop in Texas. For most of his race, the former NFL linebacker and civil rights attorney has kept Harris at arm’s length, saying he’s focused on his own campaign.

He spoke to a half-full auditorium of about 300 people where he worked to shore up support among Black voters, a historically strong voting bloc for Democrats. Allred hasn’t emphasized big rallies in his campaign, which frustrated some Democrats early on in his race, although he has increased his travel down the stretch.

“Everything is bigger in Texas except for our senator. He’s too small for our state. His vision for us is too small,” Allred said.

Allred was joined at Tuesday’s rally by Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia, who told the crowd that Allred would continue fighting for student debt relief and for women’s reproductive rights. Allred said he would be a senator for all Texans and continue his efforts to reach across the aisle and work with Republicans.

Kamerin Joseph, 27, said he is voting for Allred because of the congressman’s support of women’s reproductive rights.

“That is a very big one for me,” he said. “I mean, you hear about those stories of women having to watch their children die and women having to go through complications themselves.”

Joseph, who works for Protest, Organize, Participate, a Houston-based nonprofit that engages young people in politics, said that after knocking on doors and talking to people, he thinks many are aware of the Senate race and the potential for change.

“I really feel like we’re going to turn Texas blue this year. I genuinely feel that,” Joseph said. “I feel like your average, everyday Texan wants Colin Allred. You know, they’re ready for Cruz to go.”

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Lozano reported from Houston. ___

Lathan is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

New East Texas manufacturing facility will provide jobs

CORRIGAN – Gov. Greg Abbott visited East Texas on Wednesday for a $211 million expansion of a timber manufacturing company. According to our news partner KETK, RoyOMartin is expanding its wood manufacturing efforts in the Piney Woods. Their Corrigan plant, Corrigan OSB, LLC is now the largest facility of its type in the nation.

Executive Vice President of Manufacturing and Product Sales Terry Secrest said the new development will create 300 new jobs for the area. “These are not low-level entry type jobs that people can create a career with, and they can continue with a lifetime employment here continuing to learn and grow and excel,” Secrest said.

While speaking to a crowed of more than 200 entrepreneurs and workers, Abbott assured the new plan will put out more products and help Texas build new homes. (more…)

East Texans push back against reservoir that threatens homes

CAMP COUNTY — On Wednesday, East Texans voiced their frustrations in a packed meeting all against a proposed reservoir that would force them out of their homes. According to our news partner KETK, the Marvin Nichols Reservoir project would flood at least 66,000 acres of land in the Region “D” area. The project is spearheaded by Region “C” within the Texas Water Development Board. Region “C” is the DFW area and Region “D” encompasses Red River, Lamar, Delta and Titus counties. The reservoir has been in the works for decades to pump water from East Texas to the DFW area. Generations of East Texans say they are fed up fighting for their properties since the 1960s.

Dozens of residents are opposed to the project that would flood land where their homes, businesses and schools currently exist. “We just don’t want the lake. We want it to go away and never be heard of again,” Red River County resident David Stewart said.
(more…)

Hiker found dead in Texas national park after authorities notice car unattended for days

ALPINE (AP) — A hiker has been found dead at a national park in Texas after authorities discovered a car had been parked for several days and launched a search and rescue operation, officials said.

The body of the unnamed 24-year-old hiker was discovered in Big Bend National Park in Texas on Monday after an aerial and ground search by National Park Service rangers and U.S. Border Patrol. Supported by helicopters from the Texas Department of Public Safety and U.S. Customs Air and Marine Operations, they found the hiker’s remains along the park’s “rugged” Marufo Vega Trail, according to a statement from the National Park Service.

“The day before, park rangers observed a vehicle that had been parked for multiple days at the Trailhead for Marufo Vega / Strawhouse / Ore Terminal Trail,” NPS said. “Records indicated that there were no overnight backpackers listed for that area for those nights. A quick search by the park pilot was unable to locate hikers in the area.”

On Monday morning, the park search and rescue team was mobilized across three different trails and air assets were directed to the remote area, authorities said.

“The victim was located along the rugged Marufo Vega Trail. A Department of Public Safety helicopter was utilized to remove the body from the remote area,” NPS said.

The Marufo Vega Trail is a “spectacular yet challenging 14-mile loop that winds through rugged desert and along rocky limestone cliffs. No shade or water makes this trail dangerous during the warmer times of year,” park officials continued. “Even though it is late October, daily temperatures along the Rio Grande and desert areas of Big Bend remain extreme; close to 100 degrees each afternoon. Park Rangers wish to remind all visitors to be aware of the dangers of extreme heat. Hikers should be prepared to carry plenty of water, salty snacks, and to plan on being off desert trails during the heat of the afternoon.”

“Big Bend National Park staff and partners are saddened by this loss,” stated Deputy Superintendent Rick Gupman. “Our entire park family extends condolences to the hiker’s family and friends.”

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Texas’ high housing costs sparked a movement to bring them down

The scene was a familiar one at Austin City Hall: The City Council once again was seeking reforms to curb the capital city’s sky-high home prices and rents, and opponents had turned out in force to try to block them.

The central idea behind the reforms: Austin needed a lot more homes and it would have to relax certain city rules to see them built.

On a Thursday in May, more than 150 people signed up to denounce the changes. Among them were homeowners who complained the overhaul would wreck the character of their single-family neighborhoods and anti-gentrification activists who feared it would further displace communities of color.

Such critics — often referred to as NIMBYs, which stands for “not in my backyard” — have long held sway in Austin and other cities. But something was different this time.

As Austin grew and its housing costs soared during the COVID-19 pandemic, a diametrically opposed group of advocates who push cities to allow cheaper and denser housing — known as “yes-in-my-backyard” activists, or YIMBYs — had gained new footing at City Hall. That day at City Council, they showed up in numbers that rivaled their opponents and urged council members to pass the reforms.

By that point, they barely needed to convince anyone. Austin YIMBYs had laid the groundwork for the reforms during the last citywide election, when they successfully backed candidates who vowed to tackle the housing crisis head-on. Those efforts resulted in a YIMBY supermajority on the City Council that includes Mayor Kirk Watson. After hours of testimony that stretched past midnight, council members approved the reforms.

The moment was the capstone of a fledgling but precarious political realignment in Austin, where forces steadfastly opposed to more housing had long used their influence to kill ideas aimed at allowing more places for people to live. That philosophy, YIMBY activists have argued, hamstrung the city from adapting to needs brought on by its robust growth and caused real-world harm.

“If you put your neighborhoods in amber, you’re literally saying ‘people can’t live here,’” said Felicity Maxwell, a board member of the Austin YIMBY group AURA. “We can’t stay like that. There’s no way to make your city freeze. And if you do, there’s a lot of dire economic and social outcomes because of that.”

That reckoning now shows signs of spreading beyond Austin as the state finds itself in the grip of a crisis that has forced many would-be first-time homebuyers out of the market and left tenants paying exorbitant rents.

YIMBY activists in Dallas have pushed local leaders, with mixed results, to embrace the idea that the country’s ninth-largest city should make it easier to build homes besides standalone single-family homes on large lots and big apartment buildings. In cities like El Paso, San Antonio and Fort Worth, policymakers are eyeing ways to add more homes and beat back their housing crises.

As the nation grapples with high housing costs, YIMBY ideas have hit the mainstream and caught the attention of some of the state’s top Republican leaders, like Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dade Phelan, as well as Democratic leaders who are increasingly nervous the state’s once-celebrated housing affordability is slipping.

“People ask me, ‘What are the things that worry you the most?’ Usually one of the things I mention is affordability of housing and where we’re going to be in another 5, 10, 15, 20 years. That worries me as much as anything else,” said Comptroller Glenn Hegar, a Republican and the state’s chief treasurer whose office published a report in August embracing the notion that Texas needs more homes to bring down costs.

The housing crisis will only get worse if nothing changes, YIMBY activists argue — but reforms to ease it are far from a sure thing.

Housing is deeply personal. Everyone needs shelter. Owning a home, the most widely accepted engine to build generational wealth, represents the biggest investment most people will make in their lives. Many homeowners don’t want to see their neighborhoods dramatically transformed. In many places, resistance to new development holds strong.

In North Dallas, neighborhood groups recently sought to recall their City Council member over her support for ongoing plans to replace a low-lying, waning shopping center called Pepper Square with shops, restaurants and almost 1,000 apartments. She later opted not to seek reelection, though she said the development fight didn’t influence her decision.

The groups argued in part the redevelopment would clash with nearby single-family neighborhoods. That flummoxed Melissa Kingston, a member of a key city panel that voted in August to advance the proposal. If they don’t want more housing in their single-family neighborhoods, Kingston told them at a recent meeting, that housing needs to go somewhere as the region grows.

“What I’ve heard you all say is, ‘We don’t want it in our neighborhood and we don’t want it anywhere near our neighborhood,’” Kingston said. “That’s not reality. Cities change, and they either change for the better or they change for the worse. But they don’t stay the same.”
A shift in Austin

The state’s housing crisis is effectively a new problem for state and local leaders — mainly because, for the longest time, Texas used to be cheap.

The state’s poorest residents have usually struggled to find housing they can afford, but housing used to be inexpensive and plentiful for middle-class families — especially when compared with Texas’ chief rivals, California and New York. Now the crisis has crept up the income ladder. Worries have begun to percolate that if Texas doesn’t contain housing costs, it could eventually wind up in the same boat as those states — with homes completely out of reach for typical families and residents fleeing for cheaper states.

At the heart of the state’s housing affordability woes lies a deep shortage of homes. Homebuilding lagged as the state’s economy boomed over the past 15 years and millions of new residents moved here. That left Texas, which builds more homes than any other state, with a shortage of 306,000 homes, according to an estimate by housing policy organization Up For Growth.

A growing body of research in recent years shows that stringent local restrictions on what kinds of homes can be built and where, known as zoning regulations, ultimately limit the overall number of homes and thus contribute to higher costs. In Texas cities, standalone single-family homes can be built almost anywhere homes are allowed. But it’s largely illegal to build other kinds of housing like townhomes, duplexes and small-scale apartments in those same places, a Texas Tribune analysis found. And cities set aside comparatively little room elsewhere for those kinds of homes as well as large apartment buildings.

Relaxing those regulations, research shows, helps cities add more homes and contain housing costs.

Austin officials have sought for much of the past decade to update those rules, but longtime homeowners opposed to new housing have often frustrated the city’s biggest efforts. Just before the pandemic, some homeowners convinced a judge to kill a major overhaul of the city’s land development code that would have allowed denser housing.

Then came the pandemic. Housing prices in the Austin region skyrocketed amid record-low interest rates, the rise of remote work and sustained population growth. The typical home in Austin went for more than $500,000. Rents took off, too, rising three times faster between 2019 and 2022 than they did in the three years preceding the pandemic, according to Zillow data.

Austin’s housing crisis had become undeniable. How to solve the problem became a dominant theme in the city’s 2022 elections.

“People just kind of got to this point where they had had enough,” Council Member José “Chito” Vela said. “They just were like, ‘okay, what we were doing on housing for the last 20 years is clearly not working.’”

The council members YIMBYs helped elect passed several reforms aimed at juicing the city’s housing stock.

The most contentious new policies aimed to broaden the kinds of homes that can go in the city’s single-family neighborhoods. Late last year, council members voted to allow up to three housing units in many places previously limited to detached single-family homes.

The council then reduced how much land the city requires single-family homes to sit on, known as a minimum lot size requirement. For more than 80 years, that requirement had sat at 5,750 square feet in much of the city. In May, they reduced it to 1,800. The idea was twofold: allow smaller and cheaper homes and make it possible to build more homes overall. At the same time, they enabled the construction of apartment buildings along the city’s planned light-rail line and closer to existing single-family homes.

Within two years, the council made more sweeping changes to the city’s zoning rules than it had since the Reagan administration. Council members recognized they needed to act fast and make up for lost time, Maxwell said.

“Everything came together so that nobody wanted to say ‘no,’” said Maxwell, who now sits on the city’s Planning Commission. “They wanted to say, ‘yes.’”

That was a marked reversal from previous years, when homeowners and neighborhood groups that wield tremendous influence made one thing clear to local politicians: Touch our neighborhoods and pay for it at the ballot box. But in the face of a devitalizing affordability crisis, complaints about how different types of homes like duplexes or triplexes might change the feel of a neighborhood lost some of their bite.

“We don’t have the luxury of not doing anything,” Watson, Austin’s mayor, told The Texas Tribune.

YIMBYs’ opponents are deeply skeptical of their proposals. They argue that some city efforts to allow more housing will spur builders to further target Austin’s low-income neighborhoods and flood them with expensive new housing that will hasten the displacement of Black and Latino residents. Those fears fueled advocates with Community Powered ATX — a coalition of progressive activists based in East Austin, which underwent rapid gentrification over the last 15 years — to rally against the changes.

“We want more deeply affordable housing to be built,” said Alexia Leclerq, a Community Powered ATX co-organizer. “What they’re proposing is not part of the solution. It’s actually making it worse.”

Zoning reform proponents have long countered that displacement in East Austin came about because city rules hampered the city’s overall housing supply and forced development pressure upon only a few parts of town. They point to research that shows loosening regulations to allow more homes across a city may actually safeguard neighborhoods more vulnerable to displacement.

Austin got a glimpse of the effect building new homes has on housing costs even before the zoning reforms were approved. Though rents remain above pre-pandemic levels, a boom in apartment construction in the Austin region drove rents down last year — in newer high-end apartments and older, cheaper apartments alike.

“You’re seeing significant price drops at the lowest end of the market that are really helping out the neediest people here in Austin,” said Vela, who represents a portion of East Austin.

YIMBYs now face the task of protecting their supermajority in the November elections. And while the reforms in Austin represent unprecedented victories for YIMBYs in Texas, their ideas face a steep climb elsewhere.
Can Dallas move forward?

Some 200 miles north on Interstate 35, an attempt to mirror Austin’s moves imploded before it had a chance to get off the ground.

Housing in Dallas, too, grew much more expensive amid the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan region’s vast growth.

“If our city doesn’t do something now, it’s just going to continue to get worse,” said Dallas City Council Member Chad West, who represents the northern part of the city’s Oak Cliff neighborhood. “I want a city where my kids, when they’re old enough to want to move here after college … that they can afford to rent in the city if they want to, or eventually buy a home in the city if they want to, as opposed to having to live in a suburb of Dallas and drive in.”

West took inspiration from Austin’s efforts. Late last year, he and four council colleagues called on the city to explore similar ideas, like allowing new homes to sit on less land and up to four homes where now only one or two may go.

Opponents on the City Council moved fast to squelch the ideas.

“People who bought a home deserve to have the predictability that their neighborhood will stay intact and not turn into something that … is now single-family with multifamily mixed in,” Council Member Cara Mendelsohn, who represents Far North Dallas, said during a February discussion. “People don’t want that. I don’t want that for Dallas.”

West’s effort fizzled. Then came ForwardDallas, an update to an 18-year-old document that guides how the city should use its land. The plan seeks to encourage more kinds of housing — like townhomes, duplexes and small apartment buildings — in existing single-family neighborhoods.

A budding group of Dallas YIMBYs backed those ideas. About 40 people — a mix of homeowners and renters largely organized by the Dallas Housing Coalition, a group of housing developers and pro-housing organizations — testified in support of ForwardDallas before it landed in front of City Council.

“If we think of our city as one large single family, not only is the size of that family growing, but the members of that family are also growing and their needs and their wants and desires and priorities are changing with it,” said Hexel Colorado, a Dallas urbanist, at a council meeting.

In practice, ForwardDallas is little more than a list of recommendations, not a firm policy change. But it was enough to trigger opposition from existing homeowners and neighborhood groups who feared the plan would imperil their single-family neighborhoods.

Yard signs that said “SAVE Single-Family NEIGHBORHOODS from FORWARD DALLAS” and “HANDS OFF! SINGLE-FAMILY NEIGHBORHOODS” proliferated in some neighborhoods. Irate residents packed community centers to blast the plan. A group of homeowners trekked down to City Hall more than once to testify against it.

Single-family housing is “essential and critical to the overall mix of housing options for people who currently live in Dallas and want to move to Dallas,” said Melanie Vanlandingham, an East Dallas neighborhood advocate. “ForwardDallas doesn’t recognize that.”

More than 100 people showed up to City Hall over several months this spring to testify about the plan. More than half were homeowners opposed to allowing other housing types in their neighborhoods, most of whom bought their homes in the decades before the state’s current crisis began to kick in.

In other words, they were exactly the kind of residents local elected officials have traditionally listened to for a key reason: They’re more likely to exact vengeance in low-turnout municipal elections. Most policy decisions about what kind of housing can be built and where happen at the city level, but younger people who want more housing options are less likely to vote in local elections — and older homeowners who may oppose more housing in their neighborhoods are more likely to show up.

That’s a political reality some City Council members openly acknowledged.

“I know how I got here,” Council Member Carolyn King Arnold, who voted against the plan, said at an Aug. 6 meeting. “I know who I came to the dance with.”

For Dallas YIMBYs, that dynamic poses a significant hurdle to enacting reform.

“The most involved people are the ones who are going to oppose housing,” said Adam Lamont, a middle school teacher who leads the group Dallas Neighbors for Housing. “That small swath of the city has really, really gotten riled up and most of the city doesn’t really know what’s going on.”

Amid the backlash, ForwardDallas’ crafters scaled back some recommendations to encourage more housing types. Council members mused about ripping out any mention of housing to get the plan through — and avoid angry homeowners’ ire during the next election cycle.

Council Member Paul Ridley, who opposes allowing denser housing types in existing single-family neighborhoods, broached compromise language seeking to direct “incompatible multiplex, townhome, duplex, triplex, and apartment development” away from those neighborhoods, among other tweaks designed to ease opponents’ concerns.

“Consistently, we have heard our residents’ pleas for more housing options and also for protection of their existing neighborhoods and single-family zoning,” said Ridley, who represents East Dallas, a focal point of opposition to the plan, during a Sept. 3 meeting. “Through the input of so many stakeholders, it has become clear to me that those objectives are not incompatible.”

The City Council approved ForwardDallas with Ridley’s amendments last month — but no one seemed completely satisfied. Opponents felt the plan didn’t go far enough in enshrining the city’s commitment to single-family neighborhoods. YIMBYs weren’t thrilled about Ridley’s compromise language, though they considered the document a step in the right direction — even if it was unenforceable.

Some confusion remains. Despite Ridley’s amendments, parts of the document still encourage multifamily developments in single-family neighborhoods.

Nathaniel Barrett, a Dallas developer who helped shape the plan, said ForwardDallas will hopefully set the tone for a broader discussion on housing, but acknowledged the final document is “in conflict with itself.”

“I don’t expect any more housing to be built because of this,” he said. “That work comes elsewhere.”

Among Dallas YIMBYs, worries abound that City Hall won’t take bold action until the city’s housing crisis looks like Austin’s. Dallas rents aren’t far behind where they stand in the state’s capital. Home prices aren’t as bad in Dallas as in Austin but hover well above where they stood five years ago.

If Dallas doesn’t take more steps to address its affordability hurdles, it’s likely the Texas Legislature will do it for them, West said.

State lawmakers “love to come in and tell us what to do in Dallas,” West said. “We’re going to be handing off the decision (to them) on how to run our city because we can’t get past this gridlock.”
Who should fix the crisis?

How Texas lawmakers might address the housing crisis when they return to Austin next year isn’t clear. But the state’s top Republican officials have signaled growing unease about the issue. And polls show strong bipartisan agreement that housing costs are a problem.

Lawmakers tried to alter some city zoning rules last year but failed. Meanwhile, home prices and rents haven’t abated — and voters have become increasingly vocal about the problem, said Nicole Nosek with Texans for Reasonable Solutions, a group that pushed those proposals.

There are signs Texans are open to the proposals YIMBYs espouse. Most Texans support allowing townhouses, accessory dwelling units and small apartment buildings on any residential lot, a recent Pew Trusts poll found. Reducing cities’ minimum lot-size requirements found favor with some 45% of Texans they polled.

“It’s a clear lesson to legislators that this is something that really hits home, no pun intended,” Nosek said.

Neighborhood groups opposed to allowing different kinds of housing where they live will likely mobilize against attempts by the Legislature to alter the rules.

“It is the single largest investment for most people when they buy their home in a single-family neighborhood,” said David Schwarte, who heads the Texas Neighborhood Coalition. “How are they going to respond when they find out that the Legislature just enabled the developer to come into their neighborhood and put up five houses on a lot that was once only one home?”

How much power cities should have to decide what kinds of homes can be built and where will likely be a major dividing line. The Texas Municipal League, cities’ chief lobbying outfit, has vowed to oppose attempts to curtail cities’ authority to enact residential zoning regulations.

The Texas Public Policy Foundation, an influential conservative think tank, came out earlier this year in favor of completely getting rid of cities’ lot-size requirements along with limits on how many homes can go on a given piece of land.

But such a far-reaching measure may not be palatable to lawmakers, said John Bonura, a TPPF policy analyst focused on housing affordability. One alternate route for state lawmakers might be to create a statewide template to loosen cities’ zoning rules and allow cities to opt in, he said. The idea would be for cities to eventually join in once they see how the reform works in other places.

“If we can’t win big, let’s at least get something through the door,” Bonura said.

For Republicans, allowing more homes means an opportunity to slash government regulations, bolster property rights and unleash the free market. For Democrats, zoning reform holds the potential to reduce racial segregation and help fight climate change.

But there are those on both sides of the aisle who are fiercely protective of single-family neighborhoods and will push back vociferously against moves they see as harming those areas.

Weighing in on cities’ residential zoning laws is awkward territory for Democratic state legislators, who have spent much of the last decade trying — and failing — to fend off Republican efforts to sap authority from the state’s bluer urban areas. At the same time, Democrats generally support affordable housing, and defending cities’ right to uphold some of those laws might work against that cause given those rules play a key role in exacerbating housing costs.

Tackling the housing crisis will likely produce strange bedfellows. The Texas Municipal League and TPPF, usually at odds over efforts to diminish cities’ rulemaking authority, agree they want lawmakers to tweak an obscure state law that effectively gives veto power to property owners to kill new housing projects near them. A group of San Antonio residents recently wielded the law to stop a proposed affordable housing development nearby — even though most city council members voted in favor of the project.

That law “makes it hard for a council to do the right thing” and add much-needed affordable housing stock, TML executive director Bennett Sandlin said.

There also appears to be some agreement on both sides that cities should make it easier to build residences in places that allow commercial development— something many of the state’s largest cities don’t allow.

The state also spends very little on housing explicitly targeted at low-income families. State Sen. Nathan Johnson, a Dallas Democrat, said he plans to introduce legislation to start a $2 billion fund to essentially pay developers to provide housing for low-income families by buying down rents in apartments on the market.

Johnson said he’s also open to legislation capping cities’ lot-size requirements and allowing homes in commercial areas — though he hopes local officials would have a say in any statewide revision to cities’ zoning restrictions.

But the state Legislature needs to do something to rein in housing costs, Johnson said.

“Texas is growing and continues to grow very, very rapidly, and companies continue to locate here,” he said. “If we don’t have affordable housing, that can’t continue.”

Texas still adds more jobs than any other state and remains an attractive place for companies to relocate. But quietly, some circles are fretting that Texas is losing its competitive advantage on housing.

“Nobody moves to Texas for the skiing. They come here because the jobs are plentiful and the houses are cheap,” said Emily Brizzolara-Dove, a policy analyst with Texas 2036 who focuses on housing affordability. “But it is something that could easily shift somewhere else. The stakes are very, very high.”

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This story was originally published by The Texas Tribune and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.

Explosion near Dallas levels house and kills 2 people

VAN ALSTYNE, Texas (AP) — Investigators suspect a propane leak caused an explosion that leveled a home and killed its two occupants in a community just north of Dallas early Monday morning.

First responders received the call at 1:19 a.m. after people reported hearing a loud “boom” in Van Alstyne, Texas. A fire broke out and was extinguished several hours later.

Grayson County Fire Marshal John Weda said the two occupants of the home were inside when the blast occurred. Their bodies were found among the debris. Their remains were sent to the Dallas Medical Examiner’s Office for autopsies.

The home used propane appliances which could have led to the explosion deemed accidental by investigators. “This appears to be a possible propane leak occurring inside the structure resulting in the explosion,” Weda said in a statement. The fire marshal added that an investigation is underway by his office and the Texas Railroad Commission.

Van Alstyne is about 55 miles (89 kilometers) north of Dallas.

Advocates seek restoration of federal judge removed from long-running foster care case

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal appeals court was asked Monday to reconsider its decision to overturn an expensive contempt finding and remove a district judge from a lawsuit over conditions within Texas’ struggling foster care system.

A panel of three 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judges ruled Oct. 11 that U.S. District Judge Janis Jack’s contempt ruling and $100,000-per-day fine violated the court’s constitutional limits of power over individual states.

The appeals court panel also said Jack had disrespected the state and its attorneys during the long-running case.

Attorneys for the child advocates in the case disagreed and on Monday asked for a hearing before all 17 full-time members of the New Orleans-based appeals court. Their filing said the decision by judges Edith Jones, Edith Brown Clement and Cory Wilson conflicted with precedent in a case involving vulnerable children.

“Removing the district judge with deep institutional knowledge poses great risks to the entire plaintiff class of children by further delaying reform,” the filing said. The state had not yet filed a reply as of Monday evening.

The case began in 2011 with a lawsuit over foster care conditions at the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services.

Since 2019, court-appointed monitors have released periodic reports on DFPS’ progress toward eliminating threats to the foster children’s safety.

A report earlier this year cited progress in staff training but continued weaknesses in responding to investigations into abuse and neglect allegations, including those made by children.

In one case, plaintiffs say, a girl was left in the same, now-closed residential facility for a year while 12 separate investigations piled up around allegations that she had been raped by a worker there.

Texas has about 9,000 children in permanent state custody for factors that include the loss of caregivers, abuse at home or health needs that parents alone can’t meet.

Officials warn voters to not wear political gear to polls

SMITH COUNTY – According to our news partner KETK, Smith County election officials are reminding voters to leave their campaign gear at home when they head to the voting booth. The Texas election code is clear, stating a person can not wear political gear when heading to vote. The law prohibits political shirts, hats, signs or other campaign gear in a 100-foot area around polling stations. It’s a crime called electioneering. The any clothing worn can’t express preference for any candidate, measure or political party.

In the first week of early voting, Smith County poll workers said they saw a lot of people wearing political shirts and caps when they showed up to vote. Smith County voter, Craig Pearson believes people should wear what they want to the polls. “I don’t feel that’s right. I don’t think it is. What are they afraid of, that they’re going to actually see an opposing opinion? Not everybody’s the same, the world’s different,” said Craig Pearson, Smith County voter.

In San Antonio, things turned violent over the weekend. (more…)

Death penalty sought for man convicted of killing deputy

LONGVIEW — A grand jury found a Louisiana man guilty of murdering an East Texas deputy on Monday. According to our news partner KETK, the prosecutors are now seeking the death penalty.

Gregory Newson, was accused of shooting and killing William Chris Dickerson, a Panola County deputy during a traffic stop on New Year’s Eve in 2019. Newson was accused of fleeing the scene, leading to a high-speed chase that ended in a crash. The prosecutors asked the jury to look at the evidence in this case when making their decision. During closing statements, the state reviewed evidence, replayed body and dash camera video body which depicted the deputy being shot and Newson driving away.

“Your verdict today is not going to bring Chris Dickerson back,” Wes May, a state lawyer said. “It’s not going to fill the hole left in the shield that these men and women who testified in this case and who Chris himself represented, but it will be one step toward taking justice.”

Man shot after breaking into relative’s Longview home

LONGVIEW – Charges are pending following a Friday night domestic shooting where a homeowner’s relative made forced entry and sustained life-threatening injuries, the Longview Police Department said. According to our news partner KETK, officers responded to a domestic call shortly before 11 p.m. in the 600 block of Ridgelea Avenue where they found a 38-year-old man with a gunshot wound.

Investigators said the shooting was a result of a fight between family members. Police said the man who was shot made forced entry into a family members home and was seriously injured after the resident shot him. Police said the man was taken to a local hospital with life threatening injuries and charges are pending.

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