A wayward sea turtle travels thousands of miles back home

GALVESTON (AP) — An endangered sea turtle that was found about a year ago some 5,000 miles (8,047 kilometers) from its native waters has been released into the Gulf of Mexico, according to the Houston Zoo.

The Kemp’s ridley sea turtle, named Boeier after the boat that rescued it, was found off the coast of the Netherlands after becoming entangled in the net of the commercial fishing boat.

The zoo said the turtle apparently was carried away by currents until it was found and the U.S. National Fish and Wildlife Service secured the turtle’s return.

The turtle was taken to the Rotterdam Zoo where it was nursed back to health and eventually was flown to Houston, where it arrived Oct. 29, the zoo said.

After medical tests and an acclimation process, a healthy Boeier was released into the Gulf of Mexico from Stewart Beach in Galveston on Nov. 4.

The Kemp’s ridley sea turtle is native to the coastal waters of the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean and is the smallest sea turtle at 27-32 inches (68-81 cm) long and weighs 75-100 pounds (34 to 45 kg), according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

The turtle was placed on the endangered species list in 1970, according to the department.

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich had a stroke

SAN ANTONIO (AP) – Basketball Hall of Famer Gregg Popovich has been away from the team because he suffered a mild stroke earlier this month, the San Antonio Spurs announced Wednesday.

Popovich is in his 29th season as coach of the Spurs and there is no timetable for his return to the sideline, the team said. The stroke happened on Nov. 2 at the team’s arena, and Popovich is expected to make a full recovery.

The 75-year-old Popovich, the NBA’s all-time win leader who has led the Spurs to five championships and USA Basketball to a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, has already started a rehabilitation program, the team said.

“During this time, the organization is grateful to the extended community for providing privacy and space to the Popovich family,” the Spurs said in a release.

Assistant coach Mitch Johnson has been the acting head coach in Popovich’s absence. The Spurs play at home Wednesday against Washington, and that will be the seventh straight game where Johnson will be filling in for Popovich.

“Mitch has been great,” Spurs rookie Stephon Castle said Wednesday, before the team announced the details about Popovich’s health. “Even when Pop was here, he’s always had a voice in our huddles and in our locker room. Our philosophies haven’t been changed.”

A stroke happens when blood flow to part of the brain is blocked or if a blood vessel in the brain bursts. That deprives the brain of oxygen which can cause brain damage that can lead to difficulty thinking, talking and walking, or even death. Strokes may lead to difficulty speaking, paralysis or loss of movement in certain muscles, memory loss and more.

It is unknown if Popovich is dealing with any aftereffects of the stroke.

Stroke was the fourth leading cause of death in the U.S. in 2023, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and more than half a million Americans have a stroke every year.

The Spurs were playing the Minnesota Timberwolves at home on Nov. 2, and Popovich’s medical episode occurred there in the hours before that game. Johnson took over for that night’s contest, which the Spurs won, after the team said Popovich was not feeling well.

Johnson and Popovich spoke the following day. The Spurs had not released much in the way of details since, prior to Wednesday’s announcement about the stroke.

“Right now, his health is the No. 1 priority,” Johnson said on Nov. 4, adding, “He’s in good spirits. He’ll be OK. He is OK. And we can’t wait to have him back.”

Popovich is one of only three coaches to win the NBA coach of the year award three times, Don Nelson and Pat Riley being the others. He’s one of five coaches with at least five NBA titles; Phil Jackson (11), Red Auerbach (9), John Kundla (5) and Riley (5) are the others.

Popovich has been part of the Spurs for nearly 35 years. He was an assistant coach from 1988 through 1992, then returned to the club on May 31, 1994, as its executive vice president for basketball operations and general manager. He made the decision to fire coach Bob Hill and appoint himself coach on Dec. 10, 1996.

He’s been the Spurs’ sideline boss ever since.

Popovich’s 29-year run with the Spurs is a span the likes of which has been nearly unmatched in U.S. major pro sports history.

Connie Mack managed the Philadelphia Athletics for 50 years, George Halas coached the Chicago Bears for 40 years and John McGraw managed the New York Giants for 31 years. Those three tenures — all wrapping up well over a half-century ago — are the only ones exceeding Popovich’s run with the Spurs; his 29-year era in San Antonio to this point matches the tenures that Dallas Cowboys’ Tom Landry and the Green Bay Packers’ Curly Lambeau had in those jobs.

Catholic bishops say they will defend migrants

TEXAS – The Religion News Service says that gathering in Baltimore on Tuesday (Nov. 12), just a week after former President Donald Trump won reelection, leaders of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops promised to defend immigrants and poor people in the coming years. “As the successors of the Apostles and vicars of Christ in our dioceses, we never backpedal or renounce the clear teaching of the Gospel. We proclaim it in and out of season,” said Archbishop Timothy Broglio, president of the conference, who also leads the Archdiocese for the Military Services. Broglio’s comments expanded on an appearance last week on the Catholic media network EWTN, where the archbishop said the majority of Catholics had supported Trump due to concern for the “dignity of the human person.” In Baltimore Broglio made clear that human dignity should be protected “from womb to tomb,” saying the bishops were committed “to see Christ in those who are most in need, to defend and lift up the poor, and to encourage immigration reform, while we continue to care for those in need who cross our borders.”

Cautioning that the bishops “certainly do not encourage illegal immigration,” he said, to applause from his fellow bishops, “we will all have to stand before the throne of grace and hear the Lord ask us if we saw him in the hungry, thirsty, naked, homeless, stranger, or sick and responded to his needs.” At a press conference, El Paso Bishop Mark Seitz, current chair of the migration committee, said that while the conference was waiting to see how Trump’s campaign rhetoric will materialize as policy, the conference would speak out for migrants in the event of mass deportations. “We will raise our voice loudly if those basic protections for people that have been a part of our country from its very beginning are not being respected,” Seitz said, referring to both legal and human rights. “This is going to be a test for our nation. Are we in fact a nation based on law, on the most fundamental laws about the rights of the human person?” When asked how he would respond if Trump followed through on suggestions about involving the military in mass deportations, Broglio said he had a responsibility to “ensure pastoral care” for the military. “Unfortunately, the way the military is set up, you cannot conscientiously object to a policy or to a certain war, you have to conscientiously object to war in general, and so that doesn’t really provide an avenue out of the service,” Broglio said.

Renewable growth in Texas hinges on fate of Biden climate law

HOUSTON – The Houston Chronicle reports the fate of the booming renewable energy industry in Texas during President-elect Donald Trump’s second term depends largely on how his administration treats President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. Roughly $154 billion in clean energy investments have been announced since passage of the IRA in 2022, with about 80% targeted for Republican districts. That includes $4.5 billion of announced investment and more than 22,000 announced jobs in Texas, according to data from Utah State University and research firm Atlas Public Policy. As a result, most experts don’t expect a complete repeal of the monumental climate bill. Still, modifications are possible, and Texas could be among the most impacted, given that it not only has the most renewable resources in the country but also a huge pipeline of pending clean energy projects.

Passage of the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022 supercharged the buildout of clean energy across the country, providing tax credits and other incentives as part of the Biden administration’s effort to fight climate change. Trump has vowed to “rescind all unspent funds” under the bill. Project 2025, a conservative policy playbook Trump has repeatedly disavowed but was created by some of his allies, has called for legislation fully repealing Inflation Reduction Act tax credits. Yet because so much money has flowed into conservative states, if Republicans modify the law they would likely to take a scalpel rather than a sledgehammer to it, said Maheep Mandloi, director of clean energy equity research at the investment firm Mizuho Securities. He cited 18 House Republicans who wrote a letter to Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., in August urging him to maintain some of the IRA. Joseph Osha, an analyst at the investment bank Guggenheim Securities focused on renewables, said he’ll be watching how Republicans do the math to extend Trump’s 2017 tax law, much of which is due to expire next year. If Republicans want to claim victory on tax cuts more than they want to take credit for the IRA’s investments and jobs, the Biden administration’s bonus tax credits for clean energy development could be on the chopping block, including those tied to sourcing materials from domestic manufacturers and investing in communities whose economics depended on fossil fuels.

Wall Street drifts near record highs after an in-line inflation report

NEW YORK (AP) – U.S. stocks are drifting near their records after the latest inflation update boosted hopes that more help for the economy will arrive next month from another cut to interest rates. The S&P 500 was up 0.1% in early trading Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 62 points, and the Nasdaq composite was up 0.1%. Stocks got support from easing yields in the bond market. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.38% from 4.43% late Tuesday. It sank after a report said the inflation that U.S. consumers felt last month was exactly as economists expected.

Texas mother sentenced to 50 years for leaving kids in dire conditions

Guns smuggled from the US are blamed for a surge in killings on more Caribbean islands

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) – Dozens of soldiers and police fanned out across a neighborhood on a recent night in the Turks & Caicos Islands just days after the archipelago reported a record 40 killings this year.

They were on the hunt for criminals and illegal weapons fueling a surge of violence across the Caribbean as authorities struggle to control a stream of firearms smuggled in from the U.S.

Half an hour into the Oct. 30 operation, one driver tried to run authorities off the road as he tossed a handgun into the bushes.

“Rest assured, we remain committed to disrupting the flow of illicit guns,” Police Superintendent Jason James said hours later.

But the flow is too strong, with illegal firearms blamed for an increase or a record number of killings in a growing number of Caribbean islands this year, including Trinidad and Tobago and the Bahamas.

No Caribbean nation manufactures firearms or ammunition or imports them on a large scale, but they account for half of the world’s top 10 highest national murder rates, according to a statement from U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut.

In a letter sent to U.S. legislators in late September, New York’s attorney general and 13 other colleagues across the U.S. demanded new measures to stop the flow of guns, noting that 90% of weapons used in the Caribbean were bought in the U.S. and smuggled into the region.

“American-made guns are flowing into Caribbean nations and communities and fueling violence, chaos, and senseless tragedies throughout the region,” wrote New York Attorney General Letitia James.

In mid-2023, the U.S. government appointed its first coordinator for Caribbean firearms prosecutions to help curb weapon smuggling from the U.S. to the region, with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives already tracing firearms seized in the Caribbean.

Last year, 266 firearms seized in the Bahamas were submitted to ATF, along with 234 firearms from Jamaica, 162 from the Dominican Republic and 143 from Trinidad and Tobago, according to the agency’s most recent data.

The majority are handguns, followed by semiautomatic pistols.

The information gleaned from recovered weapons can help authorities in the U.S. determine where and when they were bought, triggering a domestic firearms trafficking investigation.

But it’s a struggle to stop the flow of weapons, with smugglers disassembling them and hiding their parts in sea-bound containers.

“As much as you try to harden the infrastructure at the official ports, it is essentially like trying to plug a sift,” said Michael Jones, executive director of the Implementation Agency for Crime and Security at Caricom, a Caribbean trade bloc.

Infowars auction could determine whether Alex Jones is kicked off its platforms

A look at the candidates vying to be the next Senate majority leader

After election, Texas House speaker race remains up for grabs

AUSTIN – The Texas Tribune reports themembership of the Texas House is finally set after Tuesday’s general election — but the future of the chamber’s leadership remains a mystery.

On Thursday, the jostling to hold the speaker’s gavel resumed with insurgent candidate Rep. David Cook, R-Mansfield, saying incumbent Speaker Dade Phelan does not have enough support from House Republicans to win.

“We cannot continue to govern effectively without the Republican majority selecting our Speaker,” Cook wrote in the letter. “It is clear with my list of supporters that the current speaker cannot win an endorsement of the Republican Caucus.”

The House GOP Caucus will meet in a month to endorse its nominee for speaker. The speaker presides over the processes in the House and appoints members to leadership positions. Bills often live or die on whether the speaker supports them, or the lawmaker who has authored them.

In September, Cook became the consensus candidate of House Republicans who want to oust Phelan because they believe he is too liberal. Cook published a list of 48 supporters who had pledged to vote for him in January.

It takes only 76 votes – a simple majority of the 150-member chamber – to become speaker. But the House Republican Caucus rules require that all members vote for the caucus’ endorsed candidate. To garner that endorsement, a candidate must receive three-fifths of the group’s support. Neither Cook nor Phelan have shown they have that level of public support yet.

Since initially publishing his pledge list, Cook has dropped one supporter, Steve Kinard, who lost his bid for a Collin County seat to Democratic incumbent Mihaela Plesa. That puts his pledge list at 47. But the caucus has grown to 88 members after Republican victories on election day, putting the new threshold for a group endorsement at 53.

Phelan, a Beaumont Republican, has said that he continues to have the necessary votes to win the speaker’s gavel at the beginning of the legislative session.

“Rep. Cook does not have the necessary support to become the caucus nominee, let alone the Speaker of the House,” Phelan said in a statement. “I have the votes to become Speaker of the House and look forward to leading another banner session that reflects the will of our state and its lawmakers.”

Given Cook’s pledges, however, Phelan’s presumed path to the speakership runs through a coalition of loyal Republicans and Democrats, a move that would likely bypass the GOP caucus rules. Phelan has not published a list of his supporters.

That was the situation that brought about the speakership of Joe Straus, a Republican who took the gavel in 2009 and held the position for a record five terms. Straus was considered a moderate by the GOP’s increasingly conservative base and hardline lawmakers frequently bashed him for working with Democrats, saying he was killing conservative legislation.

Cook alluded to Straus’ tenure over the House in his letter on Thursday and described his rise to power like a usurpation which “fractured the unity of the Republican Caucus and set the stage for the division that persists to this day.”

Cook said caucus members had three choices: unify behind him, speculate about a new speaker candidate and reconvene the group to hash out an endorsement or re-elect Phelan – which he said was “the worst option.”

Cook has pledged to do away with the appointment of Democrats as committee chairs – a long-standing bipartisan tradition that Phelan supports. Many of Cook’s supporters also want to replace Phelan because they believe he held up school voucher legislation last session and because he oversaw the impeachment of Attorney General Ken Paxton, a right-wing darling who is a polarizing figure in the party.

Paxton was acquitted by the Senate and school voucher legislation is a priority for Gov. Greg Abbott, who believes he now has enough votes to pass a bill.

John Cornyn spent years preparing to run for majority leader.

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. John Cornyn has never lost an election.

On Wednesday, he’ll see if he can continue his streak, cashing in decades of political capital as he runs to become the next Senate majority leader to replace Mitch McConnell, who’s held the position for 17 years, according to the Texas Tribune.

It’ll be the highest office Cornyn has ever run for, but no Texans will cast a ballot — save for himself and Texas’ junior senator, Ted Cruz. Leadership is decided by the 53 Republican members of the next Senate in a secret ballot vote. The stakes were raised last week when Republicans won a majority in the Senate, making the party leader the agenda setter for the whole chamber and a core legislative partner for the incoming Trump administration.

Cornyn, a McConnell protégé who previously served as Republican whip and chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, is up against the current Minority Whip John Thune of South Dakota and former NRSC Chair Rick Scott of Florida. Like Cornyn, Thune is a decorous lawmaker who spent years close to McConnell and is well regarded throughout the conference. Scott represents a newer, more right-wing generation of the Republican conference who has openly butt heads with McConnell and appeals to the MAGA wing of the party.

Cornyn has for years signaled his desire to succeed McConnell, the longest serving party leader in Senate history. As whip, Cornyn was McConnell’s No. 2 and kept the conference on board with the leadership’s agenda by addressing each senator’s individual needs and interests. He helped elect several current senators while leading the NRSC, the party’s Senate campaign arm. He has actively campaigned and fundraised on behalf of Republicans this election cycle, raising nearly $33 million and traveling the country to help incumbents and new candidates alike. Those ties have formed a key component in his bid for leader.

“One of the things that people do expect of the leadership is to raise money for the team. You see that with Speaker [Mike] Johnson in the House. You see that with Sen. McConnell in the Senate,” Cornyn said in September. “Demonstrating my experience and my contribution to this effort, my ability, along with my team, to do it is something people are going to want to consider when it comes to the leadership election.”

Cornyn is also running on his legislative record. He’s a member of three of the most coveted Senate committees: Judiciary, Finance and Intelligence. He has advised and advanced judicial confirmations under Republican and Democratic presidents. He often works across the aisle to get major legislation passed, including the CHIPS and Science Act to bolster the nation’s semiconductor industry and counter competition from Asia.

But Cornyn’s long tenure in the Senate has opened him to criticism from the right at home — some of it so rabid they’re actively rooting against Cornyn to win the leadership role. He was censured by the Collin County Republican Party and booed at the 2022 Texas Republican Party Convention after he drove the passage of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the first gun safety bill to pass into law in decades, which he worked on after the Uvalde school shooting. In recent days, both the Tarrant County and Dallas County Republican Parties issued statements rejecting Cornyn as a suitable Senate leader.

“The U.S. Senate needs a Majority Leader who is fully committed to conservative principles and who will champion the policies of President [Donald] Trump,” Dallas County Republican Party Allen West wrote in an open letter to Senate Republicans. “Senators John Cornyn and John Thune have consistently aligned themselves with Democrats and voted for omnibus bills that fail to serve the interests of America and its citizens.”

Both West and Tarrant County GOP Chair Bo French are two of the state’s loudest and most far-right Republican county leaders.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton ridiculed Cornyn, himself a former Texas attorney general, after McConnell announced he would be stepping down. Paxton posted on social media that Cornyn shouldn’t be Senate leader because he is “anti-Trump, anti-gun,” and will be too busy fending off challengers when he’s up for reelection in 2026.

“Republicans deserve better in their next leader and Texans deserve another conservative senator,” said Paxton, who has not ruled out running against Cornyn.

In an unusual public exchange for the senator who usually shrugs off critics, Cornyn responded: “Hard to run from prison, Ken,” in reference to Paxton’s numerous legal challenges. No Senate majority leader has lost reelection since Sen. Ernest McFarland in 1952, though Thune entered the Senate in 2005 defeating then-Democratic Minority Leader Tom Daschle in South Dakota.

Several other prominent members of the MAGA movement have also rallied around Scott in the days before the leadership election. Elon Musk, Tucker Carlson and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene all threw their support behind Scott, criticizing both Cornyn and Thune for their work with McConnell, who has become a pariah among the most conservative flanks of the party.

But none of those outside voices will have a say in the leadership vote. The anonymity of the vote also allows senators to vote more candidly based on their own relationships with the candidates.

While his approval rating has dipped in recent years among Texas Republicans, Cornyn has maintained good standing with many prominent Republicans in Texas. He and Cruz have worked together repeatedly on legislation impacting the state and on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and both supported each other’s reelection efforts, though Cruz hasn’t said how he’s voting on the leadership election.

Texas Republican Party Chair Abraham George, who chaired the Collin County party when it censured Cornyn, met with the senator in September to coordinate efforts electing Republicans in the state.

“I truly appreciate all your efforts in what is such a pivotal election in our nation’s history,” George posted on social media after their meeting. “We are going to win Texas and we are going to win big!”

A Texan has not been a party leader in the Senate since Lyndon B. Johnson. Past leaders have used the position to benefit their home states, including Johnson, who used the perch to help secure Houston’s place as the center of the U.S. space program.
A leader in fundraising

Cornyn has been climbing the leadership ladder since his first term in Congress. He served as Republican conference vice chair from 2007 to 2009 as a first-term senator, succeeding fellow Texan Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.

His influence took a leap when he was elected to serve as the NRSC chair in 2009, making him the chief fundraiser and recruiter for Senate Republicans aside from the party leader himself. It’s a grueling job, but Cornyn thrived. Paired with a 2010 Tea Party wave, Republicans managed to defend all 18 of their incumbents for the first time in 16 years and gained six more seats. Cornyn’s colleagues asked him to serve a second time for the 2012 cycle.

Texas is famously home to a host of ultra-rich Republican donors who have financed campaigns for years. Cornyn proved himself an effective fundraiser as Texas attorney general from 1999 to 2002. He was one of the first members of the Republican Attorneys General Association, hosting an Austin fundraiser in 2000 for his fellow state AGs that brought in hundreds of thousands of dollars. That scale of fundraising for attorneys general was novel at the time and attracted controversy as corporate donors gave to candidates who could be involved in their cases. Democrats created their own attorneys general fundraising organization in 2002.

His fundraising reach expanded during his time at the NRSC, building relationships with major donor pools in New York, Florida and California. He courted Wall Street in 2010 to give to Republican candidates as then-President Barack Obama pursued regulatory policy to avoid a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis.

“I just don’t know how long you can expect people to contribute money to a political party whose main plank of their platform is to punish you,” Cornyn said in 2010.

During the 2022 cycle, Cornyn raised more money than any other Senate Republican, including those up for election, with the exception of McConnell himself and Scott, who was then chairing the NRSC. And unlike McConnell, whose Senate Leadership Fund is choosier in which candidates it invests in — it didn’t donated to Cruz this cycle — Cornyn gives to all of his fellow Republicans.

This cycle, Cornyn raised nearly $33 million for Republican senators and candidates, including $16 million for the NRSC. That includes over $500,000 for Cruz, who came out victorious over U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, D-Dallas, one of the most expensive Senate races in Texas history.

Since joining the Senate, Cornyn’s fundraising total is over $414 million. He also traveled around the country campaigning and fundraising for fellow Republicans, including Cruz, Mike Rogers in Michigan, Sam Brown in Nevada, Jim Banks in Indiana, Bernie Moreno in Ohio and Dave McCormick in Pennsylvania. Banks, Moreno and McCormick all won their elections.

“He’s never taken his foot off the gas,” said Brian Walsh, who served as Cornyn’s communications director at the NRSC and still is in touch with his operation. “In terms of having Republican senators and candidates down to Texas, introducing them to his network, helping them raise money … I would argue there’s very few senators who are more responsible for the Republican Senate majority than he is.”

Thune is also a prolific fundraiser and crisscrossed the country this cycle attending over 200 events for Republicans or the NRSC. He has raised over $33 million across his fundraising operation this cycle and was one of the top fundraisers for the NRSC other than the current chair, Steve Daines of Montana, NBC News reported.
The Trump factor

Cornyn has shown willingness to diverge from the current leader if the rest of the party calls for it. That includes shaking up some long standing rules.

Cornyn is vowing to move heaven and earth to get Trump’s cabinet confirmed as swiftly as possible. That includes keeping senators through the weekends to get nominees confirmed (Cornyn is a vocal critic of the short working week and frequent breaks in the Senate) and even bringing back recess appointments, which allows the president to unilaterally make appointments when the Senate is not in session.

Both Republicans and Democrats have prevented presidents from making recess appointments by sending a single senator to Washington to keep sessions going while everyone else was in their home states. But Trump called for the move to get his agenda moving — a mandate all of the candidates were willing to accept.

“No weekends, no breaks,” Cornyn posted on social media Saturday. “Democrats can cooperate in the best interest of the country, or continue the resistance, which will eventually be ground down. Take your pick.”

Cornyn has also expressed an openness to term limits for the party leader — a move McConnell opposes. And he has vowed to open up the legislative process to take in more input from the rank and file through regular Senate order, including debating legislation in committee before they hit the floor. McConnell has been criticized for leading deals with strict control of his conference, with Cruz calling him a “one-man dictator.”

“I believe our members and incoming colleagues have the talent, experience, and character needed to restore the Senate to its fundamental role in our constitutional republic, inducing the critical role of Senate committees in achieving results for the American people,” Cornyn wrote in a September letter to the conference.

Scott and Thune have made similar pitches to make the chamber more participatory. Thune is the only one of the three who has chaired a standing committee, leading the Senate Commerce Committee from 2015 to 2019.

McConnell’s clashing with the right wing of the party stretches back years. He has been hostile toward the more reactionary methods of some newer members to block legislation, and several right wing members blamed McConnell for failing to take control of the Senate in 2022.

McConnell faced his first real leadership challenge in 2022 when Scott launched a bid and secured 10 votes. Cruz, who has beefed with McConnell throughout his time in the Senate, voted for Scott.

Scott has still managed to capture the support of several members of the MAGA wing of the party. He received public endorsements from senators including Tennessee’s Bill Hagerty, Kentucky’s Rand Paul and Alabama’s Tommy Tuberville.

Cruz has not endorsed in the race. He said in February: “I suspect a number of my colleagues are interested in the job, and I look forward to seeing whom the conference selects as the next leader as we hopefully enter the majority this November.” His office did not have a further update, but he recently said on Fox News: “I want to see a majority leader who changes how the Senate operates, who democratizes it more.”

Trump has also not endorsed in the race, though Scott and his allies have requested Trump do so. Trump and McConnell shared an epicly bitter relationship, particularly after Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election escalated into an attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Both Thune and Cornyn broke from Trump after his time in office, with Cornyn saying as recently as last year that Trump could not win in a general election and that his “time has passed him by.”

But Cornyn endorsed Trump in January after Trump won in the New Hampshire primary. He later campaigned with Trump in Texas and Nevada and attended fundraisers for the Trump campaign in Laredo, San Antonio and Houston, according to a source familiar with Cornyn’s political operation.

Cornyn has also highlighted his work advancing Trump’s policy agenda when he was whip, telling Trump “I’m interested in getting the band back together again,” Cornyn said Monday on Fox News. He advanced the conference through its ultimately unsuccessful repeal attempt of the Affordable Care Act and the Trump tax cuts that have become one of Trump’s defining pieces of legislation.

Cornyn’s and Thune’s supporters are opting to be more private, with only Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri openly backing Cornyn and Sens. Mike Rounds of South Dakota and Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma backing Thune. Hawley is a deeply conservative member who joined Cruz in objecting to the certification of the 2020 election.

Repeating a refrain he has said throughout the year, Cornyn said in September: “I don’t think these races are run in the press, so I’m not going to talk any length about it.”

Texas Republican victories improve school voucher prospect

AUSTIN – The Austin American-Statesman reports that Republicans netted only two new seats in the Texas House in Tuesday’s election, but of the influx of new members who either ousted incumbents in the GOP primary or won open contests means the lower chamber’s center of gravity shifted more to the right. The incoming freshmen vastly enhance Gov. Greg Abbott’s chances of getting his long-denied school voucher bill through the Legislature in 2025 while Republicans continue apace on such conservative priorities as beefing up border security and placing further restrictions on transgender Texans. And it adds a new layer of drama to the ongoing race for House speaker.

“There are a lot of things that can happen along the way. But right now, starting out, Republicans command, and they’re going to pretty much hit what they want,” said Bill Miller, a longtime lobbyist and political consultant. “The question is, how much, how much fighting will go on between leadership about various things. And that’s really the key.” House Speaker Dade Phelan, a Beaumont Republican who was first elected to the Legislature 10 years ago and took charge of the chamber in 2021, has been in the crosshairs for much of his second term. And the flak he’s been taking has come from some corners of his own party — particularly from his counterpart in the Texas Senate, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. The election results that showed former President Donald Trump winning back the White House and Texas Republicans winning 88 state House seats were barely tabulated when Patrick sent his latest cannon volley across the Capitol Rotunda to the speaker’s office. “(T)here’s one Republican left who still supports the Democrats’ agenda and wants to empower them. Not Liz Cheney — she’s old news,” Patrick said on social media, with a reference to the former Wyoming congresswoman who has emerged as Trump’s loudest GOP critic. “This one is right here in Texas.

Despite Trump’s win, voters widely reject school vouchers

AUSTIN – As Texas prepares to consider a school voucher program, ProPublica reports that in 2018, Arizona voters overwhelmingly rejected school vouchers. On the ballot that year was a measure that would have allowed all parents — even the wealthiest ones — to receive taxpayer money to send their kids to private, typically religious schools. Arizonans voted no, and it wasn’t close. Even in a right-leaning state, with powerful Republican leaders supporting the initiative, the vote against it was 65% to 35%. Coming into this week’s election, Donald Trump and Republicans had hoped to reverse that sort of popular opposition to “school choice” with new voucher ballot measures in several states. But despite Trump’s big win in the presidential race, vouchers were again soundly rejected by significant majorities of Americans. In Kentucky, a ballot initiative that would have allowed public money to go toward private schooling was defeated roughly 65% to 35% — the same margin as in Arizona in 2018 and the inverse of the margin by which Trump won Kentucky.

In Nebraska, nearly all 93 counties voted to repeal an existing voucher program; even its reddest county, where 95% of voters supported Trump, said no to vouchers. And in Colorado, voters defeated an effort to add a “right to school choice” to the state constitution, language that might have allowed parents to send their kids to private schools on the public dime. Expansions of school vouchers, despite backing from wealthy conservatives, have never won when put to voters. Instead, they lose by margins not often seen in such a polarized country. Candidates of both parties would be wise “to make strong public education a big part of their political platforms, because vouchers just aren’t popular,” said Tim Royers, president of the Nebraska State Education Association, a teachers union. Royers pointed to an emerging coalition in his state and others, including both progressive Democrats and rural Republicans, that opposes these sweeping “school choice” efforts. (Small-town Trump voters oppose such measures because their local public school is often an important community institution, and also because there aren’t that many or any private schools around.)

Texas’ 90,000 DACA recipients can sign up for ACA coverage

HOUSTON (AP) – When Victoria Elizondo first went to see a doctor about her symptoms at Legacy Community Clinic, a low-cost clinic in Houston, she didn’t know what was wrong with her but she knew something wasn’t right. Her hands would shake uncontrollably, her heart would beat fast even while resting and she suffered from insomnia.

After the appointment, she was told her immune system was attacking an overactive thyroid, a disorder called Graves’ disease, and that an endocrinologist was the only doctor who could help her. But without health insurance, the cost to see one was exorbitant — as much as $800 for a visit.

“I thought it was a joke,” said Elizondo, a 33-year-old restaurant owner.

Elizondo, who has been paying thousands of dollars a year for treatment, may soon find relief. She is now one of nearly 90,000 DACA recipients in Texas — more than 500,000 across the nation — who finally get a chance at signing up for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act. Through Jan. 15, DACA recipients — those who under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program are temporarily protected to live and work in the U.S. after being brought to the country unauthorized as children — can enroll in the federal health insurance marketplace for the first time since launching 10 years ago.

Advocacy groups say access to the marketplace will help alleviate the health disparities DACA recipients face, such as high uninsured rates and unmet medical needs after years of putting off care. However, a lawsuit threatens to take this eligibility away as Texas, along with 18 other states, argues the policy would financially harm them. Looming even larger is the uncertainty around the existence of DACA as President-elect Donald Trump has promised mass deportations and ending birthright citizenship for people born to undocumented immigrants. In 2017, he attempted to rescind DACA, arguing that it was unconstitutional. Three years later, the Supreme Court ruled that his attempt was unlawful.

With premium tax credits that help lower health insurance costs set to expire at the end of 2025, Trump also has the ability to not renew them.

These subsidies, as well as cost-sharing reductions, are also now available to DACA recipients, lowering the amount they have to pay for premiums, deductibles and co-payments. DACA recipients cannot qualify for Medicaid, the public health insurance program for low-income individuals, under federal law. It’s also unclear how many DACA recipients in Texas receive health insurance coverage through an employer or as a dependent.

“More than one-third of DACA recipients currently do not have health insurance, so making them eligible to enroll in coverage will improve their health and wellbeing, and help the overall economy,” said U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra in a news release.
Cost of health care

Elizondo pays about $200 for each endocrinologist visit and $100 every month for blood work. To cure Graves’ disease, she would need to undergo a thyroid gland removal surgery which can cost up to $30,000.

Having health insurance would mean she could spend less time worrying about her personal costs and physical limitations and put more focus on her growing business.

“It’s a big deal for me,” Elizondo said.

According to the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services, DACA recipients are currently three times more likely to be uninsured than the general U.S. population, resulting in many delaying care because of high out-of-pocket costs. A 2023 survey by the National Immigration Law Center found that more than a third of DACA recipients skipped recommended medical treatments and tests, which can lead to worsening health outcomes and heftier medical costs in the future.

“Right now, people are getting sicker because of (not receiving) preventative care. More folks will have to go to the emergency room,” said Cesar Espinosa, executive director of FIEL Houston, Inc., an immigration advocacy group.

Espinosa would know. When he was an uninsured DACA recipient 16 years ago, he collapsed in front of his mother’s door and was rushed by ambulance to the emergency room. He found out there that he had Type 2 diabetes.

Without health insurance, he had to rely on the Harris Health Financial Assistance Program to cover those hospital costs. After losing access to that help, he now needs to find a way to pay for medication, which can cost about $970 without insurance.

“I’m looking forward to also being able to afford a better quality of health care,” he said.

Espinosa, now a permanent resident who also plans to enroll in federal marketplace insurance, hopes others take advantage of the new eligibility, particularly for their mental health needs. The law center report listed mental health as a top medical concern for DACA recipients, but 36% of them said costs were too high to access treatment. The uncertainty associated with the future of DACA is considered “a source of trauma, leading to increased fear, sadness, and distrust,” according to the report.

“You can never be at peace,” Espinosa said.

This distrust of public programs has motivated navigators, nonprofits that receive federal funding to help first-time enrollees sign up for Affordable Care Act coverage, to develop strategies to better help DACA recipients.

Navigators at health organization MHP Salud in Weslaco have printed flyers, brochures, and DACA-related one-pagers and messaging on their website. They cover six regions in Texas, including El Paso, Eagle Pass, San Antonio, and the Rio Grande Valley, working with community health partners and individuals they work with to spread the word.

Eight days into open enrollment, Martinez said MHP Salud had received five inquiries from DACA recipients through their online information form about coverage.

Jennifer Martinez, a program manager at MHP Salud, said the biggest challenge is trying to find where DACA recipients are located. They can be students or business owners, just graduating college or starting their own family.

In July, U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro along with five other Texas officials wrote a letter to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services urging them to expand their outreach and enrollment assistance efforts for DACA recipients.

“We’re going on a first date with DACA recipients,” said Stacey Thompson, a program director at Civic Heart Community Services, another health navigator organization. “We’re nervous but we’re also excited to serve them.”
Fear of taking subsidies

According to health policy research organization Kaiser Family Foundation, 43% of DACA-eligible individuals have incomes below 200% of the federal poverty level compared with 26% of U.S.-born individuals in the same age group. That’s $30,120 for one person and $62,400 for a family of four.

Since many DACA recipients are low-income and are generally barred from Medicaid, tax credits and cost-sharing reductions for marketplace plans could make the difference between having health insurance or not.

“The tax credits are huge,” said Scott Heard, senior program coordinator for the Prosper Health Coverage Program at Foundation Communities in Austin. “I don’t think some people realize just how essential that is to the program. It’s pretty much not affordable without the tax credits.”

During his previous term, Trump had led an unsuccessful effort to rid the Affordable Care Act, and although he could renew the charge in his upcoming term, a more likely action is that he could whittle away subsidies that help low-income individuals afford a marketplace plan, regardless of their citizenship.

Further complicating the issue, DACA recipients also fear using subsidies could block their paths to citizenship. During the last Trump administration, federal officials broadened rules so that certain immigrants who received Medicaid, housing assistance, child care subsidies, and other benefits for more than 12 months within any 36-month period could be deemed a public charge. Being labeled a public charge or a potential public charge carries high consequences: the inability to become lawful permanent residents.

Espinosa said DACA recipients fear using Affordable Care Act subsidies will carry the same penalty.

“We tell them the truth and that this is not a public charge,” he said. “They are not here illegally. They do have a permit to be here. We are hoping to be able to explain to people what this really means and hoping that they’ll take a chance and do it.”
An uncertain future

DACA recipients were originally excluded from the Affordable Care Act because they were not considered lawfully present. In a 2023 report, Medha Makhlouf, a Pennsylvania State University law professor, suggested that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ decision to exclude DACA recipients was not based on health policy.

“It relied on a desire to not interfere with immigration policymaking,” Makhlouf wrote. “The decision to ‘carve out’ DACA beneficiaries from the category of lawfully present noncitizens was made under pressure from an administration that was concerned about appearing too lenient on immigration issues.”

Those fears that the move would cause political pushback have been validated by a lawsuit, first filed in August, that seeks to reverse DACA recipients’ eligibility for Affordable Care Act coverage. The attorney generals from 19 states, including Texas, argue that by allowing DACA recipients to benefit from subsidized health insurance and making them lawfully present in their health care system, these individuals will want to stay in the United States longer. This will in turn cause states to spend more money on education, health care, law enforcement, and other limited resources, they say. Texas spends more than $250 million each year on social services to DACA recipients, according to the lawsuit.

However, Waco-based economist Ray Perryman told the Dallas Morning News that to his knowledge there is no Texas database or study that tracks what costs the state incurs because of DACA recipients. Texas used Perryman’s estimates in the lawsuit but he said that “none of my analysis regarding immigration or the DACA recipients has identified any cost to the state imposed by DACA recipients.”

DACA advocates say that health insurance coverage helps lower costs because people do not have to wait until their health problems become more serious and more expensive, possibly putting more financial burden on health systems.

Navigators say that federally-funded clinics are the closest thing uninsured DACA recipients have to reliable quality health care.

Nicolas Espiritu, the deputy director of legal at the National Immigration Law Center, said that he does not believe that any states will be harmed if the marketplace is opened up to DACA recipients. If anything, it would be a benefit to states.

“Texas also doesn’t bear any costs for administering the program,” he said. “The health care access and quality and overall health care outcomes will only improve by ensuring that everyone has health care.”

Elizondo has been excited to sign up for Affordable Care Act insurance, listing out all the appointments she would like to make — those for regular health checkups, a gynecologist and mental health therapy. But with the results of Election Day, Elizondo fears she may never get it.

In the meantime, Elizondo, a decorated chef and owner of Houston-based Cochinita & Co., will continue to do what she has always done — push through tired and physically draining days as best she can.

“I have 17 employees, so it’s like I have 17 children,” she said. “The amount of energy it requires is high. Sometimes I feel like I’m not able to meet the demands the business requires.”

Air Force grapples with future of cyber war headquarters

SAN ANTONIO – The San Antonio Express-News reports that nine months after the Air Force announced a sweeping reorganization that included plans to raise the stature of its cyber operations mission headquarters in San Antonio, the service still can’t say exactly what that means. The holdup has left the 16th Air Force — the unit responsible for information warfare that’s housed on Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland — wondering about the impacts on its more than 49,000 employees, including 4,850 local workers. There also are questions about what the changes will mean for the 16th’s portfolio of responsibilities, which include intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, electromagnetic warfare, weather, public affairs and information operations. Playing out in the background are discussions about replacing its old facilities.

The 16th’s headquarters building is 71 years old, with a hobbled HVAC system and foundation problems that cause shifting floors and cracked walls. It’s a bad look for the unit defending the nation on the digital frontier, where something as simple as an air conditioning breakdown could create big problems for the high-end technology the 16th operates. Seeing the need, Port San Antonio earlier this year submitted an unsolicited $1 billion-plus proposal to help the Air Force build a new headquarters for the unit at the Port. And, late last month, the Air Force put out a call for proposals for six projects across JBSA. Among them was a new “Cyber Security Center” for the 16th. As reorganization talks drag on, the 16th’s facilities issues continue. U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales has warned against the Air Force’s open-ended timelines for the moves, saying “the time for waiting is over.” And Port San Antonio’s pitch has drawn bipartisan support from lawmakers who say it’s worthy of consideration. Despite such calls, the wait continues for clarity about the 16th’s future.

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