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