Today is
Wednesday June 03, 2026
NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. stock market is pushing to more records Thursday as companies like Dollar Tree, Snowflake and Hormel Foods keep piling up profits. That’s even as oil prices continue to swing and more data shows pressure building on the economy because of the war with Iran.
The S&P 500 added 0.4% to its all-time high set the day before after drifting between small gains and losses earlier in the morning. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 9 points, or less than 0.1%, as of 11:15 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.5% higher after both indexes also set records the day before.
Even with worries about expensive oil and high inflation, the U.S. stock market has run to records largely because U.S. companies keep making more money. Stock prices tend to follow the path of corporate profits over the long term, and companies have been routinely topping analysts’ expectations for the first three months of 2026.
Dollar Tree’s stock soared 18.1% after it became the latest to report fatter profit than analysts expected. CEO Mike Creedon said improved store conditions helped the retailer make more profit off each $1 in sales during the latest quarter despite tariffs adding to its costs. The company also gave a forecast for profit over the full year that topped analysts’ expectations.
Kohl’s rallied 16.3% after the retailer reported better results for the latest quarter than analysts had feared, while Best Buy climbed 15.9% following its own better-than-expected profit report. Hormel Foods climbed 9.8% after a strong performance for its Jennie-O ground turkey and exports of its Spam luncheon meat helped it report a better profit than analysts expected.
Snowflake rose 34.1% after saying artificial intelligence continues to be a strong driver of its business, and profit and revenue for the latest quarter exceeded expectations.
They helped offset a dip for Marvell Technology, which fell 1.3% after its profit for the latest quarter only matched analysts’ expectations. It also said AI is driving big revenue growth for it, particularly its data center business.
In the oil market, prices ticked higher following their latest U-turns. The price for a barrel of benchmark U.S. crude oil rose 1.2% to $89.76, but only after bouncing between $87 and $92. It’s been swinging as hopes rise and fall that the United States and Iran may reach a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and get oil flowing again from the Persian Gulf to customers worldwide.
The latest threat to the ceasefire in the war came after U.S. Central Command said Kuwait had intercepted missiles launched by Iran late Wednesday night. That followed earlier “defensive” strikes by the U.S. military on missile launch sites and minelaying boats in southern Iran.
In the bond market, Treasury yields eased after a report said the measure of inflation that the Federal Reserve likes to use accelerated last month but was roughly within economists’ expectations.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.46% from 4.48% late Wednesday after giving up an earlier gain.
Data also showed how U.S. households are less able to save money, with the personal savings rate down to a four-year low of 2.6%, “pointing up the financial pressure on lower- and middle-income families,” according to Gary Schlossberg, global strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute.
U.S. households have been saying they’re feeling discouraged about the economy and inflation, even as the stock market keeps chugging along.
High yields in bond markets worldwide recently have threatened to slow economies and undercut prices for stocks and all kinds of other investments. High yields have already forced the average long-term U.S. mortgage rate to its most expensive level since last summer, and they could curtail companies’ borrowing to build the AI data centers that have supported the U.S. economy’s growth recently.
A report on Thursday said the pace of sales of new U.S. homes unexpectedly slowed last month, as the weight of higher mortgage rates hurts the market.
In stock markets abroad, indexes dipped across much of Europe and Asia. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1.3% for one of the world’s larger losses.
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks inched to more records Wednesday after oil prices fell and eased the pressure on households and businesses worldwide.
The S&P 500 edged up by less than 0.1% and added to its all-time high set the day before. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 182 points, or 0.4%, and the Nasdaq composite gained 0.1% as both indexes also set records.
Stocks of companies with big fuel bills helped lead the way on hopes that lower oil prices will remove a big drag on their profits. Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings climbed 6.1%, and United Airlines rallied 6.3%. Delta Air Lines rose 3% and set an all-time high.
The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil fell 4.6% to $92.25 after the ceasefire between the United States and Iran appeared to hold despite the U.S. military launching what it called “self-defense” strikes in southern Iran. A barrel of benchmark U.S. crude fell even more, 5.5%, to settle at $88.68 and is back to where it was in mid-April on hopes that the United States and Iran can reach an agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and allow oil tankers to exit the Persian Gulf for deliveries again.
Stocks have been able to run to records despite the painful inflation and uncertainty caused by high oil prices largely because companies have reported surprisingly strong profits for the start of 2026, and the forecast is for them to continue.
Bath & Body Works rallied 9.7%, and Abercrombie & Fitch climbed 8.9% after both reported bigger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. That’s even as U.S. consumers continue to say they’re feeling discouraged about the economy and inflation.
Lululemon Athletica rose 2.9% after reaching a deal with its founder, Chip Wilson, where it will add a former chief marketing officer of ESPN and a former co-CEO of On to its board of directors.
On the losing side of Wall Street was Dick’s Sporting Goods, which dropped 6% despite delivering a profit for the latest quarter that edged past expectations. Analysts pointed to how much profit it wrung out of each $1 in revenue, which some called a bit weak.
Oil-and-gas stocks also sank, hurt by the dropping prices for crude. Exxon Mobil fell 1.3%, and Chevron slipped 1.3%. Halliburton dropped 3.6% to bring its gain for the year so far back toward 40%.
All told, the S&P 500 rose 1.24 to 7,520.36. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 182.60 points to 50,644.28, and the Nasdaq composite gained 18.55 to 26,674.73.
In the bond market, Treasury yields eased after falling oil prices took pressure off inflation. The yield on the 10-year Treasury slipped to 4.48% from 4.50% late Tuesday and from 4.67% roughly a week ago.
It’s a respite following recent gains for yields in bond markets worldwide, which threatened to slow economies and undercut prices for stocks and all kinds of other investments. High yields have already forced the average long-term U.S. mortgage rate to its most expensive level since last summer, and they could curtail companies’ borrowing to build the artificial-intelligence data centers that have supported the U.S. economy’s growth recently.
In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed across Europe and Asia. South Korea’s Kospi was one of the world’s best performers and jumped 2.3% after SK Hynix, which is a big beneficiary of the AI boom, soared 9.3%.
A day before, Micron Technology surged to become the latest Big Tech company to be worth more than $1 trillion because of AI excitement. Its stock has more than tripled already in 2026, and analysts at UBS said Tuesday it could soar even more because of how fundamentally AI has improved demand for computer memory. It rose another 3.6% Wednesday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — When President Donald Trump’s administration announced last week that it would require green card seekers to apply from their home countries instead of in the U.S., immigration attorney Flavia Santos Lloyd’s phone began ringing off the hook with clients worried about the implications for them.
Lloyd wasn’t sure what to tell them, but she knew the confusing new policy would slow down applications.
“It has a chilling effect because we have some cases that we were going to proceed and I can tell already, we should wait and see what’s going on,” she said.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced Friday that foreigners in the U.S. who want a green card will need to leave and apply in their home country, barring some unspecified exceptions.
The announcement, which potentially affects hundreds of thousands of green card applicants a year, was the latest immigration policy unveiled by Trump’s Republican administration to stun and confound lawyers, advocates and immigrants. It’s also part of a pivot by the administration to target legal pathways to immigration, after focusing since last year mostly on migrants in the U.S. illegally.
“This is simply an attempt to try to limit and scare people away from the legal immigration process,” immigration attorney Charles Kuck said, adding that he expected legal action against the change. “This is a scare tactic.”
As worried immigrants and their employers flood immigration law offices with questions, it’s unclear what the effect will be, what exceptions might be allowed and how the policy will play out on the ground.
Some green card seekers were already facing questions about why they should be allowed to apply from the U.S.
A confusing rollout for the new policy
For more than half a century, foreign nationals with legal status have been able to apply for and complete the process for permanent residence in the United States — including people married to U.S. citizens, holders of work and student visas, and refugees and political asylum-seekers, among others.
That appeared to change suddenly on Friday, when USCIS announced the shift on its website.
“From now on, an alien who is in the U.S. temporarily and wants a Green Card must return to their home country to apply, except in extraordinary circumstances,” the agency said. In response to questions by The Associated Press, USCIS said only people who provide an “economic benefit” or “national interest” could likely apply from the U.S.
It said nonimmigrants, such as students or temporary workers, are in the U.S. temporarily and should leave when that time is up.
USCIS also issued a more detailed policy memo designed as guidance for its staffers who decide these cases. Immigration experts who were trying to decipher the news said the memo was more nuanced, leading to confusion over what the change actually entailed.
One immigration law firm, Boundless Immigration, in a blog post on its website stating its interpretation of the policy, said officers were being instructed to “apply existing discretionary standards more rigorously” but surmised that the policy doesn’t completely stop the adjustment of status process for “eligible applicants” depending on the category of visa they have.
The company cited previous policy memos about citizenship acquisition that had not prompted harsher steps in practice.
Immigration firms and advocates left guessing who’ll be impacted
Shev Dalal-Dheini, senior director of government relations at the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said the guidance may be targeting people who overstayed their visas, such as the parent of a U.S. citizen who remained after a visa expired, an employee of a company who transferred to the U.S. or people in the country on visas specific to clergy and other religious workers.
“It seems like maybe who they’re targeting is potentially those whose period of stay lapsed while they were here,” she said.
Kevin Miner, a partner with the immigration law firm Fragomen, said he expected that people on employment-based visas, like H-1Bs, would be exempt. Known as dual-intent, these visas allow people on nonimmigrant visas in the U.S. to seek a green card. Those dual-intent visas were specifically mentioned in the memo as areas of possible exception.
“Those probably are cases that will continue to precede business as usual and that we won’t see a significant impact,” said Miner, who said the announcement Friday took people by surprise.
Matthew Soerens, the U.S. director of church mobilization for World Relief, an organization that helps resettle refugees in the U.S., said language in the memo referring to cases in which immigrants have to adjust their status in the U.S. gives the organization “hope” and “expectation” that the guidance doesn’t apply to refugees.
Refugees are people who are fleeing their homeland who meet a specific set of criteria to be admitted to the U.S. after lengthy vetting. They are required to do that green card processing a year after arriving in the U.S. and can’t go home because of the risks they’d face there, Soerens said.
Trump’s administration has slashed the number of refugees admitted into the U.S. this year and limited them to white South Africans.
People who entered the country under humanitarian parole, which allows presidents to admit people for humanitarian reasons and which President Joe Biden’s Democratic administration expanded dramatically, could also be impacted, Soerens said.
Many of those people might have already had family in the U.S. or they married a U.S. citizen — both of which potentially give them pathways to apply for a green card that could now be complicated.
All of these nuances make it difficult to provide general legal advice to people, said Dalal-Dheini.
“It’s going to be a very case by case specific thing,” she said.
Immigrants facing questions about their applications, group says
The American Immigration Lawyers Association said several people in green card interviews under the new guidance faced questions Tuesday that haven’t previously been asked of applicants.
One person who was applying to get a green card based off their marriage to a U.S. citizen was asked why they applied to adjust their status in the U.S. instead of going back to their home country and applying at the embassy there. They were asked if there were any factors that would prevent them from applying back at their home country and if they still had family there.
Another person was asked to file a form demonstrating why they should be allowed to apply from the U.S. and were told evidence should prove they wouldn’t be a financial burden or a “public charge” on the U.S. and could include their 2025 tax return, a letter from an employer stating their salary and bank statements.
Lloyd, the immigration attorney, said she has sent emails to her corporate and noncorporate clients telling them that she is monitoring the situation and she will reach out to them as soon as she has more guidance and practical applications.
She said she thinks the policy will deter some companies from pursuing green cards for their clients.
“I don’t want everybody to panic,” she said. “My advice to them is wait and see.”
TYLER – As the Downtown Improvement Project moves closer to completion, the City of Tyler will mark a major milestone with a celebration recognizing the reopening of North College Avenue, West Erwin Street, and the intersection connecting the two.
The milestone celebration will be held on Friday, May 29, at 10:30 a.m. at the intersection of North College Avenue and West Erwin Street. The event will highlight visible progress in the heart of Downtown and recognize this important step toward the final phases of the project. Guests are encouraged to stay in the area and support Downtown businesses following the celebration.
The reopening of this key intersection on June 1 restores a major connection for drivers and offers the public a chance to see how far the project has come. For more information about the Downtown Improvement Project, visit MyTylerTexas.com.
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Tyler – This week, 361 Tyler ISD teachers were surprised with the prestigious TOP (Tyler Optimal Performance) Teacher designation, resulting in $4,365,127 in additional compensation from the state. The designation is part of Tyler ISD’s Approved Local Designation System under the state’s Teacher Incentive Allotment (TIA), created by House Bill 3 to attract and retain highly effective educators.
To earn a TOP Teacher designation, educators must meet rigorous criteria, including student growth metrics, attendance, teacher observation data, and student surveys. Read the rest of this entry »
NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. stock market rose to records Tuesday as it caught up with climbs for others around the world from the day before, when President Donald Trump said negotiations were “proceeding nicely” with Iran on ending their war.
The S&P 500 climbed 0.6% after trading resumed following Monday’s holiday and set an all-time high. The Nasdaq composite rallied 1.2% to set its own record, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 118 points, or 0.2%, from its all-time high.
Stock markets in much of the rest of the world pulled back from their gains the day before, as fighting continued in the region and the U.S. military said it carried out “self-defense” strikes in southern Iran, including on missile launch sites and boats placing mines. Markets have rallied in the past on hopes for a coming end to the war with Iran, only to see the conflict drag on.
U.S. stocks are rising in early trading following the holiday weekend.
Oil prices have been at the center of financial markets’ action since the United States and Israel attacked Iran in late February. The ensuing war has closed the Strait of Hormuz and kept oil tankers pent up in the Persian Gulf instead of delivering crude to customers worldwide. That in turn has driven up oil’s price and sent a wave of painful inflation around the world.
Hopes for a deal to improve the flow of oil helped lift stocks of companies with big fuel bills. United Airlines rose 6%, and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings steamed 4.9% higher.
Big technology stocks also continued their big runs. Micron Technology’s stock leaped 19.3% to top $895.88 and was the strongest force lifting the S&P 500 after analysts at UBS led by Timothy Arcuri raised their 12-month price target for the stock to $1,625 from $535.
The analysts are forecasting continued strength in demand for computer memory, and Micron’s stock has already more than tripled so far this year. It’s the latest Big Tech company to top an overall value of $1 trillion and joined such behemoths as Nvidia, Apple and Microsoft, which have each blown past $3 trillion.
On the losing side of Wall Street was AutoZone, which dropped 9% after reporting slightly weaker revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. CEO Phil Daniele said performance for the retailer’s stores in Brazil and Mexico was below its plan, though its overall profit topped analysts’ expectations.
All told, the S&P 500 rose 45.65 points to 7,519.12. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 118.02 to 50,461.68, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 312.21 to 26,656.18.
Lower oil prices helped pull yields down in the U.S. bond market, which eased the pressure on Wall Street. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.49% from 4.56% late Friday.
It’s a respite following recent gains for yields in bond markets worldwide, which threatened to slow economies and undercut prices for stocks and all kinds of other investments. High yields have already forced the average long-term U.S. mortgage rate to its most expensive level since last summer, and they could curtail companies’ borrowing to build the artificial-intelligence data centers that have supported the U.S. economy’s growth recently.
Most big U.S. companies have been reporting both profit and revenue for the start of 2026 above what analysts expected. The strong performances have helped vault U.S. stocks to records, even with all the uncertainty around oil prices and the war with Iran.
U.S. households have been feeling discouraged about the economy because of accelerating inflation, and a report on Tuesday said consumer confidence edged downward in May, though the number was not as bad as economists expected. It followed a report on Friday that said sentiment among U.S. consumers hit its lowest level on record.
In stock markets abroad, many indexes slipped, including a 0.2% dip for Japan’s Nikkei 225 from its all-time high set the day before.
South Korea’s Kospi jumped 2.5% as it caught up with other markets following its closure on Monday for a holiday. London’s FTSE 100 added 0.2% even though British petroleum giant BP fell 4% there. BP ousted its chairman over what it called serious concerns related to “important governance standards, oversight and conduct.”
SMITH COUNTY – The North East Texas Regional Mobility Authority (NET RMA) will host virtual and in-person public meetings to share information and gather input on the proposed extension of Toll 49 from State Highway 110 to US Route 271, part of the Tyler Outer Loop. The proposed project is currently undergoing an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) study. The environmental study will follow the requirements of federal and state law.
The public meetings are open to anyone interested in learning more about Toll 49 Segment 6 and the EIS process. The project team will be on hand to answer questions. Read the rest of this entry »
TYLER – There will be a funeral procession through parts of south Tyler on May 27, in honor of the late Tyler Fire Department Driver/Engineer Scott Starkey. The route will begin at Flint Baptist Church in Flint. And end at Bascom Cemetery, in Tyler. Traffic could be briefly affected during this time. The funeral will begin at 10:30 a.m., followed by the procession.
LONDON, Uk. (AP) – BP has ousted its chairman over what it called serious concerns related to “important governance standards, oversight and conduct.”
The departure was abrupt and unexpected, with Albert Manifold having been appointed to the position late last year.
“Albert has helped bring a welcome focus and pace to BP’s transformation,” Amanda Blanc, senior independent director, said in a statement Tuesday. “However, the board has been surprised and disappointed to learn of governance oversight and conduct issues it deems unacceptable and has taken decisive action.”
BP’s board named Ian Tyler as interim chair, effective immediately.
BP, based in London, is a “supermajor,” one of the five largest oil production and exploration companies in the world when measured by revenue and profit.
Manifold, who had been the top executive at Dublin-based global building materials company CRH for 10 years, became the chair at BP in October. BP was looking for someone to revamp the oil giant and went with an industry outsider in Manifold, who had made major strategic changes at CRH.
After a new focus on renewable energy at BP in 2020, by 2025 the company was seeking a return to its roots. BP’s hard reset was criticized by environmentalists, as well as some shareholders.
CEO Murray Auchincloss said last year that optimism over opportunities in renewable energy was misplaced, with the company moving “too far and too fast.”
Changes in leadership at BP in recent years has been tumultuous.
CEO Bernard Looney resigned in late 2023 after BP determined that he had misled the company over his past relationships with colleagues.
Auchincloss stepped down in December, and the company named Meg O’Neill as his successor.
Manifold’s was challenged almost immediately when shareholders defeated company resolutions this spring that would have allowed BP to reduce climate reporting requirements and move its annual meetings fully online. Some 18% of shareholders voted against Manifold’s election as chairman, a high level of opposition for an appointment that is generally rubber stamped by investors.
Legal & General, one of Britain’s largest insurers and investment companies, said at the time that Manifold was responsible for resolutions that would have had “a negative impact on shareholders’ insight into how the company is addressing financially material long-term risks, and seizing long-term value creation opportunities, associated with the energy transition,” the Times of London reported on April 23.
Glass Lewis, an influential shareholder advisor, urged investors to vote against Manifold’s election. It held that BP took “unprecedented action” by refusing to consider a resolution from a group of climate activists and pension funds hoping to force the board to create an alternative strategy should demand for fossil fuels decline, the Times reported.
Like other big oil companies, BP has struggled with falling demand in recent years.
BP’s 2025 earnings fell 16% from a year earlier to $7.49 billion as the price of Brent crude, a benchmark for international oil prices, dropped 16.9%. The company’s preferred measure of earnings is underlying replacement cost profit, which adjusts for one-time items and fluctuations in the market value of inventories. Net income plunged 86% to $55 million.
Last year there were media reports that British oil giant Shell was in talks to buy rival BP. Shell denied the reports at the time.
The search for a new chair is underway, BP said Tuesday.
Shares of BP Plc slid nearly 5% in midday trading on the NYSE.
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CHAPEL HILL – Chapel Hill ISD is deeply saddened by the recent and sudden loss of 2026 graduate Vanessa Vazquez. Vanessa was a valued member of the Bulldog family, and her passing is heartbreaking for our students, staff, and community. The school extends their heartfelt condolences and prayers to her family, friends, classmates, and all who knew and loved her.
During this difficult time, we ask our community to keep the Vazquez family in your thoughts and to respect their privacy as they grieve. Counseling support will be available for students and staff members in need.
Vanessa will always be remembered as part of the Bulldog family.
DALLAS (AP) — After three terms in the U.S. House and two unsuccessful campaigns for the U.S. Senate, Colin Allred said he’s heard plenty about voters’ suspicions that politicians are just trying to make a buck in Washington.
“‘What about the stock trading in Congress? What about people getting rich in Congress?’” Allred said they ask him regularly. “And I have to say to them, you’re absolutely right about that, too. We need to be better.”
He’s challenging Rep. Julie Johnson in the Democratic runoff for a Dallas-area House seat on Tuesday, and he’s one of several candidates trying to harness populist anger over congressional stock trading. Allred has denounced Johnson for trades involving companies like Palantir, a data analytics firm with ties to President Donald Trump’s administration.
Johnson said her trades were handled by a financial manager, and she accused Allred of being “only out for himself.” She pointed to financial disclosures that showed Allred’s wealth nearly doubling during his own time in Congress, although Allred said his assets were in a blind trust and the money came from his wife’s income as a partner at a law firm.
“To be clear, the sum total I made on that trade was only $90,” Johnson said of her Palantir stock. “My opponent is trying to make it seem like it was hundreds or thousands.”
The bitter campaign is emblematic of broader debates within the Democratic Party over the role of money in politics. Long a refrain of strident progressives and good-government reformers, accusations that political rivals are self-dealing or bought by special interests have become a mainstay of Democratic primaries. The heightened criticism of lawmakers’ personal wealth comes as the party looks to sharpen its anti-corruption message against Trump and to develop a platform for overhauling Washington if Democrats take power in the midterms.
Some are tracking congressional stock trading
Trump campaigned on a promise to “drain the swamp,” capitalizing on Americans’ disdain for the Washington establishment. Now that his family is profiting while he’s back in the White House, Democrats are eager to regain the upper hand on an issue that could prove potent with voters.
“The difficulty is that right now, no party has the mantle on anti-corruption,” said Daniel Lobo-Lewis, a political consultant in Washington. “Many voters outside of the beltway see both parties as corrupt, because they see all politicians as bought by the donors or by their own self-interest.”
Lobo-Lewis and Nico Agosta founded the Political Integrity Project last year to track stock trading and corporate donations involving members of Congress.
The organization asks candidates to sign an “integrity pledge” to refrain from trading stocks or accepting corporate donations while in Congress and vow not to work as a lobbyist after they leave office. So far, about 90 challengers and seven sitting lawmakers have taken the pledge.
“If we want to, in any way, start rebuilding trust in our political institutions, it starts with no-brainer changes like this that have an approval rating above and beyond any other issue you could imagine,” Lobo-Lewis said.
Congress has yet to enact a stock trading ban for its members, though insider trading is already illegal for members just like it is for anyone else. There are multiple proposals on Capitol Hill, but none have gained traction.
A bipartisan bill to ban congressional stock trading stalled this year despite receiving Trump’s blessing during his State of the Union. And Democrats remain divided over the number of alleged loopholes in their competing proposals.
Anti-corruption messages spread in Democratic primaries
A crowded race in a Democratic-leaning Utah congressional seat has featured attacks over candidates’ personal wealth. State Sen. Nate Blouin criticized his main rival, former Rep. Ben McAdams, for having equity in a Utah data center firm, and excoriated others in the race for past investments and jobs.
McAdams said the equity of several thousand dollars was payment for a past contract completed by his government consulting firm while he was a private citizen. His campaign defended the data center project by saying it would use no water and run on clean energy.
A spokesperson for McAdams also claimed Blouin “is currently hiding his corporate donations” by removing them from campaign disclosure reports, which McAdams’ campaign claims “is not only deceitful, it breaks campaign finance law.”
In an interview, Blouin rejected the claim that he broke the law, and said that he removed the donations because he returned the money to each donor.
“It was actually quite uncomfortable to return some of those,” said Blouin, because some of the firms included local firms and clean energy companies. “But there is a perception that campaign contributions from lobbyists and companies influence votes, and I think there is some truth to that.”
In a New York City congressional district that includes both Wall Street and the Democratic Socialists of America’s headquarters, the city’s former comptroller, Brad Lander, has accused Rep. Dan Goldman of trying to buy another term by using his own wealth to match campaign contributions. Goldman, an heir to the Levi Strauss family fortune, says he entered all of his assets into a blind trust after taking office in 2023.
A spokesperson for Goldman said Lander is “running a deceitful campaign based on absurd lies that Dan is beholden to special interests” and that Goldman has raised more campaign funds than Lander “without taking a dime of corporate PAC money.” Goldman has spent his own money on the race, the spokesperson said: “To ensure that the NY-10 voters can be sure that he is beholden only to them and his principles.”
Lander said Goldman’s spending is “not illegal, but it is certainly anti-democratic when a quarter-billionaire like Dan Goldman not only dumps millions of his own inherited wealth into his elections but also solicits money from the same forces who are rigging the economy and worsening the affordability crisis.”
More candidates are fighting over stocks in California
Even representatives who support a ban on congressional stock trading are feeling the heat.
Democratic Rep. Brad Sherman of California is facing multiple primary challengers who have criticized the congressman for holding stocks while serving in Congress. Sherman does not trade individual stocks and supports a ban on stock trading.
“I only own three individual stocks, which I inherited from my mother when she passed away, which were originally acquired by my grandmother,” Sherman said. “I have never sold them because I made a promise to my constituents that I would not buy and sell individual stocks.”
One of Sherman’s primary challengers is Jake Levine, a former climate adviser to President Joe Biden, who signed the pledge from the Political Integrity Project. But Sherman said Levine “refuses to disclose key elements of his $18 million stock portfolio, and actively bought and sold stocks while serving on the National Security Council.” Levine has said he cannot disclose the portfolio because it is managed by his family and he has no oversight.
In the race to succeed former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California State Sen. Scott Wiener has critiqued his progressive opponent, Saikat Chakrabarti, over his personal wealth. Chakrabarti is a former software engineer who earned millions as an early employee at the tech firm Stripe. He later served as the first chief of staff to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.
Wiener said that Chakrabarti “has enormous investments” and “is trying to buy this seat” while “spreading bogus conspiracy theories” with his own wealth. He criticized Chakrabarti for not disclosing the last decade of his stock trades.
“If you’re making a ban on stock trades a central part of your campaign — as Saikat is doing, running around saying that everyone under the sun is corrupt — how about you tell the voters about your own stock trading history,” Wiener said.
Chakrabarti retorted that his wealth as a private citizen is not relevant to his future time in office and that he would place all of his assets into a blind trust should he be elected. He critiqued Wiener for being supported by super PACs funded by the AI firm Anthropic and other major corporations.
“This is all part of a larger problem, which is just the whole idea of corruption in our politics,” Chakrabarti said. “If you’re in Congress, you sit on committees that oversee a lot of these industries, and it’s unethical to be using that insider information, that knowledge to make stock trades. But that doesn’t apply to a private citizen.”
SMITH COUNTY – A vehicle is currently stuck inside a house in Smith County after crashing into the home on Monday afternoon.
According to officials with Smith County Emergency Services District 2, the crash occurred at around 5 p.m. after the driver of a Jeep crashed into a home located off Highway 271 in the Eagle Creek subdivision.
Firefighters are currently on the scene working to remove the vehicle from the house. No injuries have been reported following the crash and all the residents have been removed from the home. It is unclear at this time how the crash occurred.
SMITH COUNTY – Smith County will have 19 voting centers open for the Primary Runoff Election from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, May 26.
Statewide runoff races are on the ballot. U.S. Senator, Attorney General, Railroad Commissioner and Court of Criminal Appeals, Place 3, Judge are on the Republican ticket. The Democratic ballot will have runoff races for U.S. Representative, District 1, Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General. The City of Tyler Mayor Runoff Election is not on the current ballot. That election is set for June 13, with early voting beginning June 1. Read the rest of this entry »