Good Morning! On this day in 1943, military historian and political commentator Oliver North was born in San Antonio. North was a Marine Corps platoon commander during the Vietnam War, and he helped orchestrate sales of arms to the Contra rebels in Nicaragua as a staffer for the National Security Council in the 1980s. After charges against him were dismissed, North ran for Congress, hosted radio and TV shows, and served as president of the National Rifle Association. This August, he married Fawn Hall.
A Texas startup got a massive contract to deliver 300 luxury jets without windows. Check out the details in today’s Business section.
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Abbott Authorizes National Guard Deployment
Gov. Greg Abbott has authorized President Donald Trump to deploy up to 400 Texas National Guard members to other states to protect federal officials amid protests against immigration enforcement operations.
“You can either fully enforce protection for federal employees or get out of the way and let Texas Guard do it,” Abbott said in a Sunday social media post. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said the deployment to Illinois, Oregon, or other states would last up to 60 days.
Later Sunday, a Trump-appointed judge blocked the administration from deploying National Guard troops from any state to Oregon, expanding a Saturday order that applied to the Oregon National Guard. On Monday, a Biden-appointed judge declined to block the deployment of National Guard troops in Illinois.
Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek called the development an “escalation of the President’s dangerous, un-American misuse of states’ National Guard members and hard-earned taxpayer dollars.” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, meanwhile, characterized it as “Trump’s Invasion.”
Wesley Hunt Joins Senate Race
U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt of Houston announced he is running for the U.S. Senate on Monday, joining incumbent John Cornyn and Attorney General Ken Paxton in competing for the Republican nomination.
Hunt, 43, flew helicopters in the Army after graduating from West Point, and he has represented a heavily Republican district in northwest Houston since 2023. He said that he is “the most consistently conservative legislator representing Texas in Congress.”
“The U.S. Senate race in Texas must be about more than a petty feud between two men who have spent months trading barbs,” Hunt said in a statement. “With my candidacy, this race will finally be about what’s most important: Texas.”
A Cornyn spokesman dismissed Hunt’s campaign as a “quixotic quest for relevancy” that would drain financial resources and “endanger the Trump agenda from being passed.” Paxton, meanwhile, welcomed Hunt to the race, saying “primaries are good for our party and our voters.”
TxDOT Building 6.5-Mile Tunnel in Austin
As part of a $4.5 billion project to expand I-35 through Austin, a 22-foot-wide drainage tunnel is being built 200 feet below ground along 6.5 miles of the major corridor, which is being lowered by 65 feet. The project includes a pump station capable of moving 130,000 gallons of stormwater per minute.
Two German-made boring machines will be delivered next spring to dig the tunnels. The “double shield” machines are expected to produce vibrations that can be felt at the surface while advancing up to 50 feet a day and installing pre-cast concrete panels that line the tunnel walls.
TxDOT has constructed nine drop shafts along the tunnel route to provide access to the machines. “Crews anticipate working in these areas during the day, at night, and on the weekends” until the project’s expected completion in 2029, TxDOT said.
Before the work begins, the contractor will provide the public with an opportunity to see and touch the machines in person. Check out TxDOT’s website for more information on the project.
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➤ Austin: More than 60 firefighters responded to a blaze at a vacant hotel near the University of Texas campus on Sunday. “Huge billows of black smoke” could be seen from miles away. (See Photos)
➤ Angleton: The woman accused of killing two of her children and injuring two others has been identified as 31-year-old Oninda Romelus. She is detained in the Brazoria County Jail on bonds totaling $14 million. (More)
➤ Dallas-Fort Worth: Ten people were killed in homicides over the weekend. A teenager was shot in a confrontation following a minor car wreck. And for the second time in as many weeks, there was a shooting on a Dallas Area Rapid Transit train. (More)
➤ Austin: Hundreds of people attended a pro-Palestinian protest over the weekend ahead of the two-year anniversary of the Hamas attack that killed nearly 1,200 people in Israel and took another 251 hostage. (More)
➤ Fort Worth: U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor, a George W. Bush appointee, ruled that a longstanding prohibition on carrying guns in post offices is unconstitutional, citing a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court precedent that requires restrictions to be “consistent with this nation’s historical tradition.” (See Details)
➤ Game wardens in East Texas are alarmed about the rapid spread of the invasive Giant Salvinia plant in the region’s lakes. Meanwhile, officials plan to release hundreds of sterile grass carp in Lake Austin to combat the spread of the invasive hydrilla plant. (More)
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➤ Texas A&M moved up one spot to No. 5 in the AP Top 25 college football poll following its defeat of Mississippi State, while Texas Tech moved up to No. 9 after stifling Houston. The Longhorns—who lost to unranked Florida—fell out of the Top 25 entirely. (See Full Poll)
➤ Austin FC qualified for the Major League Soccer playoffs on Sunday for the second time in club history. Despite losing to St. Louis City FC 3-1 on Saturday, Vancouver’s 4-1 win over San Jose on Sunday put Austin in a tie for sixth in the Western Conference with two games to play. (More)
➤ Tarleton State basketball coach Billy Gillispie has been put on administrative leave following an anonymous complaint that administrators declined to explain. Gillispie was accused of mistreating players during his tenures at Texas Tech and Kentucky. (More)
➤ The Dallas Stars ranked No. 1 in USA Today’s NHL Preseason Power Rankings. The team’s high expectations are bolstered by a talented roster that includes three of the NHL’s Top 50 players. (See Rankings)
➤ Get the EZY Tech phone adapter now at a huge discount—50% off today! Plug it into your car for seamless charging and connectivity so your devices stay powered while you drive. Don’t miss this limited-time deal. (SHOP NOW)
➤ Peak energy demand this summer was 83,679 megawatts in August, well below the record of 85,508 megawatts set two years ago. Still, regulators expect total energy consumption to increase by more than 5% from last year, due to population growth and the surge in data center development. (More)
➤ Private luxury jet provider Flexjet has agreed to purchase 300 carbon fiber Phantom 3500 jets being developed by Fort Worth startup Otto Aerospace for $6 billion. The windowless jets will display live outside video feeds to screens inside the cabin. (More)
➤ Dallas-based Comerica Bank is being acquired by Cincinnati’s Fifth Third Bancorp for $10.9 billion in an all-stock deal. The merger will create the nation’s ninth-largest bank, with assets of about $288 billion. (More)
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➤ Western entertainment and sports company Teton Ridge sold all 116 horses at its TR9 Ranch in Weatherford for more than $28 million. Third Edge, a 2018 red roan stallion and 2022 National Cutting Horse Association Horse of the Year, was purchased for $5.6 million by a breeder in Gainesville. (More)
➤ Early summer rains followed by a dry spell in Floyd County, where most of the state’s pumpkins are grown, have produced a strong pumpkin harvest, according to Texas A&M AgriLife. (More)
➤ Krystal and Timothy Wertman, the organizers of a popular annual pickle festival in Kingwood, opened In A Pickle Co. in Spring earlier this month, offering pickle dogs, pickle cotton candy, and Hot Cheetos-stuffed pickles. “Anything you can imagine, it can have pickle,” said Krystal. (More)
Abbott Authorizes National Guard Deployment
