Good Morning! On this day in 1917, the United States War Department ordered the Thirty-sixth Infantry Division at Camp Bowie in Tarrant County to mobilize for combat in Europe. Composed mostly of Texas National Guard troops, the Texas Division—or “T-Patchers”—participated in the Meuse-Argonne offensive in October 1918, suffering 2,601 casualties.
Country singer Pat Green gave a benefit concert for flood victims Wednesday night, raising over $1 million. You can watch it here and read about it in today’s Roundup section.
On Fridays, Amy Hess dives deeper into Feel Good Flyover with heartwarming interviews and stories to kick off your weekend right. Today, she talks to the Kentucky priest who shouted “I love you, Kate!” at Wimbledon. Listen on Spotify, YouTube, or Apple and see why Feel Good Flyover is our most-loved edition.
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Kerr County Residents Protest Potential Tax Hike
At least 135 people are confirmed to have died in the devastating flash floods in six counties two weeks ago, and 102 people are believed to be missing.
On Wednesday, the family of deceased Camp Mystic co-owner Dick Eastland said they are unsure whether he saw the flood warning alert from the National Weather Service at 1:14 a.m. on July 4, backtracking from an earlier statement acknowledging Eastland waited to begin evacuating.
Meanwhile, Kerr County residents gathered Wednesday to protest a potential tax rate hike discussed during Monday’s commissioners meeting. The tax assessor-collector was authorized to calculate a “voter approval” tax rate of 8%—only allowed when a disaster declaration has been issued—in addition to the standard 3.5%.
At a low water crossing on State Highway 39 in Hunt, TxDOT crews found a mangled guardrail that looked “like a towel that got rung,” an indication of the force exerted by an estimated 10 million pounds of water per second that flowed down the Guadalupe River.
Campaign Finance Reports Show Tight Senate Race
Attorney General Ken Paxton raised $2.9 million for his U.S. Senate campaign during the second quarter, while incumbent John Cornyn received about $800,000 in direct contributions. A joint fundraising committee collected $3.1 million. This is the first report since Paxton announced his campaign.
Cornyn, who has been endorsed by the National Republican Senatorial Committee, has about $5.9 million in cash on hand. His joint fundraising committee controls another $2.7 million. Paxton reported $2.5 million in cash on hand.
Meanwhile, Gov. Greg Abbott collected more than $20 million in donations during the first half of the year, and he has a campaign war chest of over $87 million. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has over $37 million in the bank.
Yesterday, former Galveston mayor Joe Jaworski announced he would run for attorney general as a Democrat, having fallen short of securing his party’s nomination in 2022. Earlier this week, State Rep. Steve Toth (R-Conroe) announced he would challenge Republican Dan Crenshaw for his seat in Congress.
Pat Green Raises Over $1 Million for Flood Victims
Fort Worth country singer Pat Green raised over $1 million for flood victims during a livestreamed benefit concert at Globe Life Field in Arlington on Wednesday night. Green’s brother, sister-in-law, and two of their children died in the July 4 flash floods in Kerr County.
The stadium was empty, and several other prominent artists performed in person and remotely. “No audience, just music and a mission: to help families devastated by the Texas floods—including my own,” Green said in the post about the concert.
“You can’t define how much pain is going on right now, I’ve certainly never been through this… I’m trying to turn the sorrow into some bright light and hopefully bring some resolution for these families that have been decimated,” Green said.
The money raised will benefit Kerr County Relief, TEXSAR, and the Do It For Durrett Foundation through The Pat Green Foundation. A video of the concert can be viewed here.
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➤ Gov. Greg Abbott has added five counties to the state’s disaster declaration after recent flooding: Maverick, Uvalde, Hamilton, Lampasas, and Sutton. There are now 26 counties included in the declaration. (See Details)
➤ Austin: Attorney General Ken Paxton has launched an investigation into candy company Mars, the maker of M&M’s and Skittles, for allegedly refusing to remove artificial food dyes from its products sold in U.S. markets, as it pledged to do in 2016. (More)
➤ Dallas: Le Chau, an officer with the city’s police department since 2013, was arrested last week on charges that he stole over $37,000 of merchandise at three local Apple stores while working off-duty overnight security shifts. (More)
➤ Bell County: The emerald ash borer beetle has been identified in five new Texas counties, including Bell County, the southernmost confirmed spot in the U.S. “EAB is one of the worst invasive insects to impact North American forests,” said Allen Smith of the Texas A&M Forest Service. (Watch Video)
➤ Corpus Christi: Tuesday’s city council meeting lasted 13 hours after the public comment period was moved from noon to 5:30 p.m. to allow more residents the opportunity to participate. (See Details)
➤ Austin: Meanwhile, state lawmakers heard more than 11 hours of public testimony Tuesday regarding a proposal to extract up to 50,000 acre-feet of water from East Texas aquifers every year for potential export across the state. (More)
➤ Bellville: Residents lined the streets Wednesday night to honor 8-year-old Camp Mystic flood victim Virginia Hollis, whose horse walked behind the hearse carrying her body. (See Video)
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➤ Texas Longhorns safety Michael Taaffe honored the Camp Mystic flood victims at the SEC Media Days by wearing a custom-made tie with their initials. (More)
➤ San Antonio native Michelle Lee won the 2025 PGA High School Golf National Invitational on Wednesday, beating the second-place finisher in a sudden-death playoff. (More)
➤ The Dallas Cowboys will deduct $500,000 from cornerback Trevon Diggs’s $9 million base salary for not completing at least 84% of his offseason workouts with the team. Diggs is recovering from a January surgery on his left knee. (More)
➤ Three Texas schools rank in the top five of On3’s list of the biggest spenders in college football. Texas is No. 1, Texas Tech is No. 2, and Texas A&M is No. 5. (More)
➤ Dallas Mavericks rookie Cooper Flagg won the 2025 ESPY for Best College Athlete in Men’s Sports, adding to an already impressive career trophy case. (More)
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➤ ZDT’s, a family-owned amusement park in Seguin, is shutting down next month after 18 years in business. The park garnered headlines in 2015 for its wooden shuttle coaster, the Switchback, which takes riders 60 feet in the air on an 87-degree incline. (More)
➤ Virginia-based EdgeConneX is building a 578,000-square-foot data center in Cedar Creek. The $440 million project is scheduled to be completed next summer. (More)
➤ GrabAGun, an online firearms retailer based in Coppell, began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday. Donald Trump Jr. is an investor in the company and a member of its board. (More)
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➤ Texas families are the most financially distressed in the nation, according to a new WalletHub ranking based on metrics like average credit score, bankruptcy filings, search interest in “debt” and “loans,” and the share of residents with deferred payments or accounts in forbearance. (More)
➤ Border agents in Pharr recently intercepted $39 million of methamphetamine hidden in shipments of carrots and papayas. In Brownsville, agents also seized 12,000 counterfeit Texas vehicle registration stickers. (See Photos)
➤ Floating colonies of fire ants have been seen on Lake Travis in recent days after their underground nests were flooded. The ants form the living rafts by locking their legs and jaws together. (Watch Video)
➤ The Abilene Zoo recently welcomed a sloth bear named Vicki on loan from the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. The long-haired animal is native to India, Sri Lanka, and Nepal, and there are fewer than 20,000 remaining in the wild. (See Photos)
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Kerr County Residents Protest Potential Tax Hike
