By Terri Langford, The Texas Tribune July 21, 2026 Four months after two children’s deaths and other staffing problems at Dallas-based foster care provider EMPOWER forced the state to place it into receivership, the agency’s commissioner took action on Tuesday and abruptly canceled the private company’s contract. In a letter sent to Texas Family Initiative…

By Gabby Birenbaum and Hien An Ngo, The Texas Tribune July 22, 2026 WASHINGTON — Texas’ U.S. House delegation will experience high turnover come 2027, as a spate of retirements, redistricting-related changes and competitive races have the potential to remake the state’s footprint in Washington. The delegation also stands to get wealthier. The majority of…

By Alex Nguyen and Uriel J. García, The Texas Tribune July 21, 2026 A federal judge has ordered the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to not deport a witness in the fatal shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo by a federal immigration agent earlier this month in Houston. U.S. District Judge Keith P. Ellison issued the…

By Stephen Simpson and Antranik Tavitian, The Texas Tribune July 22, 2026 HOUSTON — Less than 10 years ago, Moises Badera, 14, was playing soccer at a refugee camp in Burundi. He never would have imagined that he’d step onto a World Cup field in Houston, next to one of his favorite players, Cristiano Ronaldo.…

By Ellie Ashby, The Texas Tribune July 22, 2026 One year after volunteer firefighter Razor Dobbs scoured the Texas Hill Country for victims of a devastating early morning flood, he stood before an elderly couple reluctant to evacuate their Center Point-area home as rain pounded and thunder crashed. It was around 3 a.m. Thursday, and…

By Jessica Priest, The Texas Tribune July 22, 2026 Texas spent billions recruiting scientists from around the world to turn the state into a cancer-research powerhouse. Now, nearly six months after Gov. Greg Abbott restricted public institutions’ use of the H-1B visa program, cancer advocates and immigration attorneys warn the policy could undercut that strategy.…

By Uriel J. García, Lomi Kriel and Alex Nguyen, The Texas Tribune July 21, 2026 Two passengers in a van when an immigration agent fatally shot 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo earlier this month said that two unmarked vehicles struck them from behind and the side before they stopped, according to their written statements filed in…

SCENIC ROUTE TIFFANY HOFELDT Take Me Back to Bandera Where do you take someone who’s about to leave Texas for a whole other country? Faced with this question recently, as two dear friends prepared to move to France, a group of us decided there was no place more apt than Bandera, the Cowboy Capital of…

View Online Army Contracting Support Enables Marine Operations Along Southern Border July 21, 2026 | By U.S. Army Mission and Installation Contracting Command Contracting officers assigned to the U.S. Army Mission and Installation Contracting Command Southern Border Contract Team provided contract support to Marines assigned to Company A, 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment supporting Operation…

DENTON, Texas – FEMA announced the approval of more than $76.3 million in post-disaster funding for Public Assistance and Hazard Mitigation Grant Program projects in Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. These programs empower states, local communities, and territories to recover to rebuild more resilient, safer communities and protect infrastructure from future events. With…