Good morning! On this day in 1839, the Rev. Thomas Spraggins and a small group of fellow Baptists organized Independence Baptist Church in Independence, Washington County, building a congregation of 15 by year’s end. Sam Houston joined the church in 1854. The pew where he sat is still marked for visitors.
It’s the last day of August, with football in full swing and the launch of the three-syllable months tomorrow. We’re curious: What’s the best summer thing you did this year, and/or what did you hope to do that will have to wait for next year? Hit reply to celebrate and release all your late summer feels.
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CPS Energy had fewer than 20,000 customers without power Sunday after a Friday night storm knocked out power to more than 100,000 homes at its peak. Outages were down another 6,000 by mid-Sunday. Interim CPS President Frank Almaraz said restoration will stretch into the start of the week.
Pedernales Electric Cooperative sent 50 lineworkers, nearly doubling the utility’s capacity. Crews repaired more than 100 downed wires overnight on Saturday, the city said. Poles and transformer crews won’t be able to reach some areas until debris is cleared.
Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones confirmed one storm death: a 46-year-old woman, believed to be homeless, was swept into San Pedro Creek north of downtown Friday and found dead Saturday. Police are also investigating a man’s body pulled from Woodlawn Lake on Sunday.
Six resilience hubs will remain open until noon today, and the Food Bank has planned three distribution sites. SAISD is running a normal schedule. Some 119 traffic signals were dark on Sunday morning. The Las Palmas H-E-B reopened with thin shelves.
Ex-TCU Player Charged over Punch
Former TCU safety Jacob Fields turned himself in Sunday on a charge of aggravated assault causing serious bodily injury. Agent Philip Miller told ESPN that Fields was held at the Tarrant County Jail in Fort Worth and expected to post bond yesterday.
The charge stems from an Aug. 13 locker room altercation in which Fields allegedly punched Horned Frogs receiver Dozie Ezukanma. TCU general manager Ryan Dorchester called campus police the next day, and the school dismissed Fields on Aug. 18.
In a since-deleted Instagram video, Ezukanma said he was “sucker punched” and knocked unconscious when his head hit the floor. Miller has called much of what has circulated online “false or purely speculative.” Fields will have no further comment, Miller said.
The case also cost a reporter access to the program. TCU pulled the Fort Worth Star-Telegram beat writer’s credentials over his coverage, saying it “endangered a student-athlete.” Fields was Conference USA’s Co-Defensive Player of the Year last season at Louisiana Tech.
Texans Pay $615K in Lifetime Taxes
A new Visual Capitalist map puts the estimated lifetime tax bill for a single Texas filer at $615,932, landing the state near the middle of the national pack even though Texas levies no individual income tax.
The figures come from Self Financial, with estimates as of June 2026. They combine federal and state income taxes with sales, property, and vehicle taxes over a 45-year working life, assuming homeownership at 40 and five vehicles owned in a lifetime.
New Jersey tops the ranking at $1.36 million, followed by Massachusetts at nearly $1.30 million and Connecticut at $1.25 million. New Hampshire and New York round out a top five dominated by the Northeast.
Florida is the lowest at $508,980, followed by South Dakota, Arkansas, and Oklahoma, all under $527,000. Texas sits roughly $107,000 above Florida and far below Pennsylvania’s $835,067. Washington, also with no state income tax, still ranks 16th at $816,217 per lifetime.
A Note from Cole, CEO of The Flyover
Dear Reader,
This week, The Flyover’s editions, including The Texas Flyover, passed six million readers combined.
Before anything else, thank you. A milestone like this belongs to the people who open our email every morning—that’s you.
But the number isn’t the point. The point is what six million of you showed up for, and what you have walked away from.
You know what’s on the other channel. Anchors telling you what to think before they’ve told you what happened. So-called “straight news” pages that read like opinion pages. The legacy media had one job: reporting the news, and somewhere along the way, they decided their real job was converting you to their ideology.
The slant isn’t an accident, and it isn’t decided in front of you. It happens in rooms you’ll never see. Every so often, the door cracks open: last fall, a leaked memo revealed that a legacy media outlet had spliced a presidential speech into something it never was. Two top executives resigned. That’s one leak from one room. The decisions that never leak? Those just become the evening news.
We run on the opposite principle: the truth survives the light. The facts arrive the way we found them. We don’t bend them toward a conclusion, and we don’t decide what you’re allowed to make of them. That’s your job.
We report what happened, not what to think about it. We keep the spin out and trust you with the facts. And The Texas Flyover stays free.
That was the deal at reader one. It’s the deal at six million. It’ll be the deal at 60 million.
Because here’s what I’ve learned this year, watching those newsrooms shrink and quietly walk away from their readers: a promise like ours doesn’t get broken all at once. It erodes, one compromise at a time, when an outlet stops answering to its readers.
We keep ours by staying answerable to you.
So on the week you made us six million strong, I’m asking you to put your name behind the promise. If news that plays it straight is something you want to see thrive, this is how you feed it.
Support the news you can trust. Free, every morning.
Make a generous donation to support The Texas Flyover.
The BBC caught scam call center workers on hidden cameras as they laughed at the people they were tricking. One worker bragged about making $250k from victims. The disturbing truth? Scammers don’t pick phone numbers at random. They buy your data from brokers.
Once your data is out there, it’s not just calls. It’s phishing, impersonation, and identity theft. That’s why we recommend Incogni: They delete your info from the web, monitor and follow up automatically, and continue to erase data as new risks appear.
➤ Gulf Coast: A Gulf disturbance has a 30% chance of developing over the next seven days, the National Hurricane Center said Sunday. Heavy rain is the bigger concern, with tropical moisture surging onto the upper Texas coast Tuesday through Thursday. (More)
➤ San Antonio: The Bexar County jail spent Saturday on backup generators after Friday night’s storm cut power to CPS Energy customers citywide. The sheriff’s office said it would issue ice water and jugs to affected cells and run large fans in impacted units. (See Details)
➤ Statewide: The Public Utility Commission on Friday delayed a route decision on the 370-mile Howard-Solstice line from San Antonio to Fort Stockton after Hill Country landowners objected. The commission approved Oncor’s two segments in North and West Texas. Attorney General Ken Paxton is seeking a pause until January. (More)
➤ Central Texas: A 59-year-old East Texas woman was found dead Thursday on a trail at Enchanted Rock State Natural Area. Texas State Parks Police are investigating, and an autopsy has been ordered. Foul play isn’t suspected. It’s the park’s second death this year. (See Details)
➤ Bryan: An ICE agent called Brazos County 911 on Saturday, reporting being followed by drivers who ran traffic signals and tried to block the vehicle. Deputies, not involved in the ICE operation, responded as 25 to 30 protesters gathered outside the detention center. No arrests were made. (More)
➤ College Station: A 1:30 a.m. Saturday traffic stop turned up 900-plus LSD tabs, four pounds of marijuana, two-plus pounds of Adderall, 500-plus Xanax pills, meth, cocaine, and mushrooms after K-9 Kato alerted. Bryan Carbajal Roman faces 11 felony counts and an ICE hold. (See Details)
➤ Marble Falls: As drought-hit reservoirs like Canyon Lake and Lake Travis stage dramatic rebounds, Marble Falls Lake has barely moved. It was 95.8% full on Aug. 28 with 7,281 acre-feet, compared with 95.1% a year ago, after peaking at 97.4% on Aug. 21. (More)
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➤ No. 2 Texas volleyball fell to No. 1 Nebraska in straight sets (25-19, 25-19, 25-16) Sunday at the Players Era Showcase in Las Vegas. It was the programs’ first meeting since the Longhorns swept Big Red in the 2023 national title match. Texas’ Cari Spears led all players with 12 kills. (Details)
➤ The Dallas Cowboys acquired offensive tackle Broderick Jones and a 2027 fourth-round pick from the Pittsburgh Steelers for 2027 third- and sixth-round picks on Saturday. (More)
➤ Houston Rockets veterans Steven Adams and Fred VanVleet are both expected to be ready for the start of the 2026-27 season after missing significant time with injuries. Adams is recovering from ankle surgery, while VanVleet is returning from a torn ACL. (More)
➤ Do you know what the 4 Warning Signsthat your vision is Declining… Nearly 93 million Americans are considered at high risk for serious vision loss. (More)
➤ LendingTree ranked Austin the country’s top boomtown for a third straight year, citing 3.4% housing-unit growth and an 11.3% jump in new business applications. Houston placed ninth, Dallas 11th, and San Antonio 13th. Austin passed one million residents this year. (More)
➤ Scheels opened its 35th store Saturday in Cedar Park, its second in Texas. The store is 300,000-plus square feet, with more than 75 specialty shops, a 65-foot indoor Ferris wheel, and a 16,000-gallon saltwater aquarium. (More)
➤ South Padre Island’s council is weighing three options to expand its 1992 convention center, priced at $86 million to $92 million and paid through voter-approved venue taxes and loans. Officials say events have already outgrown the hall. (More)
➤ Brownsville approved a $220 million memorandum with SpaceX on Saturday for $40 million in escrow, then six quarterly $30 million payments for water and wastewater work. Commissioners also gave final approval to disannexing 444 acres for SpaceX expansion. (More)
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➤ Fifty-one new state troopers graduated Friday in Austin in the Texas DPS’s 182nd class, including 20 military veterans and 12 women, ages 21 to 58. After 30 weeks and 1,204 hours of training, they report Sept. 29. (See Details)
➤ Texas Tech Health El Paso’s Paul L. Foster School of Medicine gave white coats to 138 new students Saturday, its largest incoming class ever, and its 18th annual ceremony. (See Details)
➤ Hereford ISD asked for donations on Aug. 27 after a house fire destroyed a local family’s home and belongings. The community sent clothing, furniture, beds, and cash, and the football team delivered it all after Friday’s practice. (See Details)
➤ The 1,593-acre Burton Ranch in Comanche, run by the same family since the 1870s, is listed for sale at $10,323,817. It includes an 1875 ranch house, five windmill-fed wells, and South Leon River frontage. (See Details)
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➤ Surgeon Warns About “Drunken Gut” Phenomenon. Former surgeon and gut expert Dr. Steven Gundry is shedding light on “Drunken Gut,” a phenomenon where poor gut conditions may cause the body to produce alcohol internally. If you struggle with bloating, fatigue, weight gain, or trouble concentrating, Gundry says these could be warning signs worth knowing. Check for the signs now ==>
The following stories are featured exclusively on The Flyover Podcast—a daily show that gives you the most important headlines in under 15 minutes.
➤ One simple change to your eating habits could lower your risk of depression and dementia. It has nothing to do with what’s on your plate. (Hear Why)
➤ Canada is hiring away dozens of American researchers with a $362 million fund. The move opens a new front in the trade war. (Hear Details)
➤ A survival expert was dropped alone in the Arctic Circle with 10 tools, a camera, and grizzly bears for neighbors. His training began with boiling sea snails as a boy. (Hear Adventure)
San Antonio Storm Outages Dropping
