Texas is receiving the kind of political attention usually reserved for states where neither party can feel comfortable. With the November election approaching, the Senate contest between Republican Ken Paxton and Democrat James Talarico has become a test of party loyalty, candidate appeal and voters' concerns about their finances. President Donald Trump's planned October 7 appearance in San Antonio underscores the stakes. Reuters reported that the trip would be his third Tex

In South Texas, immigration enforcement is also a story about whether a construction crew arrives, a farm has enough workers and a local business can keep its schedule. The debate increasingly connects border policy with the daily mechanics of the regional economy. An October 7 Washington Post report described labor pressures in the Rio Grande Valley amid increased immigration arrests. Its analysis found construction payrolls in the Brownsville-Harlingen area down 5 percent f

President Donald Trump spent months arguing that the United States needed Greenland. On Tuesday, he signed an agreement that expands America’s military role on the Arctic island while leaving its sovereignty where it was: with the Kingdom of Denmark and the people of Greenland. The agreement, signed in New York by Trump, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen, permits the United States to strengthen its existing Pituffik Spa

For millions of Americans, the first house was never supposed to be the dream house. It might have had two bedrooms, a cramped kitchen, one bathroom and a backyard that needed work. The appliances were old. The neighborhood wasn't glamorous. There was probably a list of improvements waiting for the new owner. That was the point. The starter home gave ordinary working people an affordable entrance into homeownership. They could purchase something modest, make payments, build e

AUSTIN — Texas has spent years selling itself as the place where Americans can find jobs, build businesses and pursue a more affordable life. The latest employment numbers suggest the message is still working. But the state's remarkable economic expansion is creating another question: Can Texas build fast enough to accommodate its own success? New labor-market data released Friday shows Texas added 159,400 nonfarm jobs between August 2025 and August 2026, more than any other

AUSTIN, Texas — Texas is putting the brakes on the expansion of automated license-plate surveillance, raising new questions about how far law enforcement should be allowed to go in tracking vehicles traveling across the state. Gov. Greg Abbott has directed state agencies to stop spending state money on additional automated license-plate reader cameras operated by Flock Safety, a technology company whose camera systems have become increasingly common among police departments a

HUNTSVILLE, Texas — For generations, Huntsville has been known primarily for three things: Sam Houston, the Texas prison system and Sam Houston State University. But in 2026, the Walker County seat is increasingly becoming something else—a growing regional city attempting to manage the opportunities and pressures that accompany expansion. Perhaps the clearest indication of that change is occurring at Sam Houston State University. SHSU reported an unofficial record enrollment

For decades, the idea that intelligent machines could destroy humanity belonged largely to science fiction. Computers would become self-aware, turn against their creators and wage war on civilization. Today, the concern sounds different—and some of the people raising it are among those who helped build modern artificial intelligence. The danger does not necessarily involve humanoid robots suddenly deciding they hate humans. Researchers studying advanced AI are concerned about

Texas has spent decades attracting factories, energy companies and technology businesses with abundant land, relatively low costs and a business-friendly reputation. Now another enormous industry is searching for places to build: artificial intelligence. The physical infrastructure required to power AI is creating one of the largest construction booms in the technology industry's history. Massive data centers filled with computer servers are being proposed across Texas as com

The opening attack in America's next major conflict may not involve missiles, bombers or soldiers crossing a border. It could begin with a computer. The lights could go out. Telecommunications networks could be disrupted. Water systems could malfunction. Transportation networks could experience problems. Government communications could be compromised. Behind the scenes, the United States has increasingly been preparing for exactly this kind of confrontation: a conflict fought

For many Huntsville homeowners, the annual property-tax bill arrives as a single number. What is less obvious is that the money does not go to a single government agency — and the City of Huntsville controls only a relatively small portion of the total. That distinction is becoming increasingly important as Huntsville grows, property values rise and local governments face pressure to fund police, fire protection, roads, schools and infrastructure without placing an excessive

A Massachusetts courtroom is confronting one of the most difficult questions the criminal justice system can face: What happens when there is little dispute over who killed three children, but enormous disagreement over whether their mother was legally responsible for doing it? Lindsay Clancy, a 36-year-old former labor-and-delivery nurse from Duxbury, Massachusetts, is on trial for the January 2023 deaths of her three children — 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson and 8-month

For nearly a decade, Houston's bayous have produced a grim and steady stream of bodies. More than 200 people have been pulled from the city's waterways since 2017, with most deaths ultimately attributed to accidents, overdoses, suicides or drownings. Houston officials have consistently rejected any suggestion that a serial killer is behind the pattern. Still, one name has surfaced repeatedly in reporting on the long-running investigation: Carl Clint Ashworth, a former long-ha

For decades, one of the most persistent and troubling disparities in American public health has received comparatively little attention: men are dramatically more likely than women to die by suicide. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the age-adjusted suicide rate for American men was 22.7 deaths per 100,000 in 2023, compared with 5.9 for women. Men accounted for nearly four out of every five suicide deaths in the United States. The disparity does no

Artificial intelligence is quietly moving into the machinery of American government. The question is no longer whether agencies will use it—but how much authority Americans are willing to give it. WASHINGTON — For generations, Americans dealing with the government encountered clerks, investigators, police officers, auditors and bureaucrats. Increasingly, another participant is entering those interactions: an algorithm. Artificial intelligence is spreading through government a

HARRIS COUNTY, Texas — In early 2025, four current or former members of the Harris County Sheriff’s Office died by suicide within just six weeks. The extraordinary concentration of deaths stunned one of the nation's largest sheriff's departments and quickly generated an uncomfortable question online: Could four deaths involving people connected to the same agency really be unrelated? Authorities say they were. The sequence began on Feb. 6, 2025, when retired Deputy Long Nguye

HUNTSVILLE, Texas — For generations, Huntsville has carried an identity unlike almost any other city in America. Home to the headquarters of the Texas prison system and several correctional facilities, the city has long been known nationally as the “Prison Capital of Texas.” But Huntsville is changing. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice remains one of the area's defining institutions and employers. The historic Huntsville Unit, commonly known as the “Walls Unit,” sits o

Texas has spent decades selling itself as a place where businesses can build, families can prosper and economic growth has room to run. Now that success is creating a new problem: The state may be growing faster than its infrastructure can keep up. Nowhere is that challenge more apparent than on the electric grid. Population growth, new manufacturing plants, oil and gas operations and a massive wave of artificial-intelligence data centers are creating unprecedented demand for

WASHINGTON — With fewer than three months remaining before the 2026 midterm elections, Americans are preparing to decide far more than who represents them in Congress. The November vote is rapidly becoming a referendum on President Donald Trump’s second term — and a battle that could determine whether he governs his final two years with a Republican Congress or faces a Democratic-controlled chamber determined to challenge his agenda. Every one of the 435 seats in the House of

NEW YORK — The killing lasted only seconds. The argument it unleashed has lasted nearly two years. On the morning of Dec. 4, 2024, UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson was walking toward an investor conference at the New York Hilton Midtown when a gunman approached and shot him. Surveillance footage of the attack quickly spread across the country, setting off a nationwide manhunt and transforming what might otherwise have been remembered as the murder of a corporat