Good Morning! On this day in 1851, Fort Belknap was founded in Young County in North Texas, becoming the northernmost outpost in the line of frontier defenses stretching from the Red River to the Rio Grande. From 1858 to 1861, it was a stop on the Butterfield Overland Mail route from St. Louis to San Francisco.
Speaking of the 1850s, did you know that the U.S. Army briefly experimented with using camels instead of horses and mules to transport gear? That’s why the Texas Camel Corps gathered some of the animals at the Alamo for World Camel Day. See Et Cetera below for details.
Today’s sponsor, Miso Robotics, is betting that the future of fast food isn’t replacing workers with robots. It’s pairing employees with AI-powered “cobots” that help restaurants run faster, smarter, and more profitably.
A federal judge in Fort Worth on Tuesday sentenced eight people to decades in prison over a July 4, 2025, shooting outside the Prairieland immigration detention center in Alvarado.
Benjamin Song, a former Marine reservist convicted of attempted murder for opening fire and wounding an Alvarado police officer, received the maximum 100 years. The seven others drew terms of 30 to 70 years.
Prosecutors called the case domestic terrorism, tying the defendants to antifa, which President Trump designated a domestic terrorist organization by executive order last fall. They said the group brought rifles, body armor, and trauma kits to the facility.
The defendants denied any antifa affiliation, with their attorneys describing the gathering as a demonstration in support of detainees that turned chaotic only after gunfire broke out. Prosecutors maintained the violence was planned.
Investigators Probe Fatal Katy Tesla Crash
Federal and county investigators are examining what caused a Tesla to crash through a Katy-area home on June 19, killing 76-year-old Martha Avila.
The driver told the Harris County Sheriff’s Office the car was on autopilot. Tesla’s head of Autopilot, Ashok Elluswamy, countered on X that the driver had floored the accelerator to 100%, hitting 73 mph in the residential area.
On Tuesday, the sheriff’s office said it found no evidence of a mechanical malfunction but has not determined a cause. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is also investigating.
Avila, a grandmother who cared for the family’s three children, was in a front room when the car struck the house. No charges have been filed, and the family, which has hired a lawyer, urged the public not to jump to conclusions.
Texas Doctor Charged in Cardiac Fraud
Federal prosecutors charged Texas doctor Jason Finkelstein, 53, with an $89 million scheme that billed insurers for unneeded heart screenings on college athletes.
The indictment says Finkelstein’s company sent unaccredited sonographers to campuses, invented diagnoses like hypertension to win reimbursement, and certified results as normal without reviewing them. In one 2024 case, prosecutors say, he signed off on 63 scans in about 11 seconds.
Prosecutors say the scheme preyed on athletes’ fears of sudden cardiac death, and that one patient died of an undetected heart problem after his test was falsely cleared. The alleged fraud ran from 2019 through late last year.
Finkelstein pleaded not guilty at a hearing in Florida, where his cardiovascular practice was based. The charges were unveiled as part of a national health care fraud crackdown.
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“Cobots” Are Transforming This $1T Market
They’re not replacing humans; they’re working with them. That’s the promise of “cobots,” or collaborative robots.
In a robotics market NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang called “one of the largest industries ever,” the cobot segment is projected to grow 15X by 2035.
And Miso Robotics is proving its value in the $1T fast-food industry.
Their Flippy fry station AI robot boosts restaurant profits up to 3X, logging 200k hours in live kitchens alongside human employees for brands like White Castle.
Flippy carries $4B/year in U.S. revenue potential on its own. And that’s just one piece of Miso’s platform.
➤ Arlington: Six Flags Over Texas has pushed back the opening of Tormenta Rampaging Run, its new 309-foot roller coaster, citing a longer-than-expected testing process. (More)
➤ San Antonio: The Texas Education Agency is investigating whether leaders of Judson ISD, in northeast San Antonio, broke state law, amid allegations of threats and a failure to report child abuse against Board President Monica Ryan and former Superintendent Milton “Rob” Fields III. (See Details)
➤ Brazoria County: Six people face charges after Texas Game Wardens caught them illegally harvesting oysters from Christmas Bay on May 30, hauling nine containers of oysters through the marsh to a waiting vehicle. Charges include harvesting in a closed area and taking undersized oysters. The catch was returned to the bay. (More)
➤ Bruceville-Eddy: Police arrested contractor Loyed Clayton Yost, of Clayton Construction, accused of taking more than $112,000 from a 67-year-old RV park owner and failing to finish the work he was paid to do. (More)
➤ Kerrville: Nearly a year after the July 4 floods that devastated the Hill Country, local leaders gathered in Kerrville to detail progress rebuilding homes lost in a disaster that caused an estimated $18 billion to $22 billion in damage across the region. (More)
➤ Houston: Crews knocked down a three-alarm fire at Mammoth Metal Recycling in the East End, where a pile of tires burned for a day. A Houston Fire source said the operator had been cited twice in the past month for illegal burning. (More)
➤ Medina Lake: Weekend rains pushed Medina Lake up more than 12 feet in a week, though it remains just 8% full. The Edwards Aquifer, San Antonio’s main water source, reached its highest level since February 2024, though the region remains mired in a years-long drought. (See Details)
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➤ The Dallas Mavericks selected University of Michigan big man Morez Johnson Jr. with the No. 9 pick in last night’s NBA Draft. The Spurs, meanwhile, took Kentucky big man Jayden Quaintance at No. 20 and traded up to take UConn big man Tarris Reed Jr. at No. 26. (See Full Draft)
➤ Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo became the first men’s soccer player to score in six different World Cups on Tuesday night in Houston, finding the net in the sixth minute against Uzbekistan at NRG Stadium. Portugal won the match 5-0. (See Goal)
➤ The NHL is exploring a second Texas team in Houston or Austin, Commissioner Gary Bettman said Tuesday. He gave the Houston-based Friedkin family roughly six months to weigh a $3.5 billion move, including a new arena, that would create the league’s 33rd franchise. (More)
➤ The NFL announced it will not hold a supplemental draft this year, effectively blocking former Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby’s path to the league after he left the Red Raiders amid a gambling scandal. (More)
➤ The Dallas Mavericks tried to hire Duke head coach Jon Scheyer multiple times before ultimately hiring Michigan’s Dusty May as their next head coach. (More)
➤ Markets are volatile. Inflation remains a concern. And every week seems to bring a new economic headline. When times are uncertain, getting good information matters. That’s why we’ve partnered with the Freedom Summit, a free online event happening tomorrow, featuring economists, investors, and business leaders discussing what’s next for the economy, inflation, and financial markets. Registration is free. Save your spot today.
➤ Chevron and Microsoft signed a 20-year deal for Project Kilby, a 2.67-gigawatt natural-gas plant in Reeves County that will power a new Microsoft AI data center near Pecos. The roughly $7 billion plant will run off-grid, supplying the data center directly rather than drawing on ERCOT. (See Details)
➤ Midland College landed a $20 million gift from the Scharbauer Foundation toward its new Applied Technology Complex, a hub to expand career and technical training. (See Details)
➤ Axiom Space: The Houston commercial-spaceflight company moved its legal headquarters to Texas from Delaware, Gov. Greg Abbott announced, aligning its legal home with its operations at the Houston Spaceport. The state has built a space fund that earlier awarded Axiom a $5.5 million grant. (See Details)
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Musk: This Will Make Everyone Wealthier Than Me
After SpaceX’s history-making IPO, Elon Musk has become the world’s first trillionaire. But he says the forthcoming AI and robotics boom will make everyone wealthier than him.
Over 44,000 people are tapping into this boom by investing in a private robotics company: Miso Robotics.
Miso’s AI and robots are becoming fixtures across the $1T fast-food industry, serving customers at Cinnabon, Jersey Mike’s, Jamba, and many more. In fact, Miso’s Flippy Fry Station AI robot has already logged over 200,000 hours in real kitchens like White Castle.
This is a paid advertisement for Miso Robotics’ Regulation A offering. Please read the offering circular at invest.misorobotics.com
➤ The living-history group brought camels to the Alamo grounds in San Antonio ahead of World Camel Day, marking the U.S. Army’s 1850s experiment with camels as desert pack animals. The Alamo briefly served as an Army depot, with the animals stationed at Camp Verde in the Hill Country. (Read Story)
➤ A 7-year-oldBurleson boy was nominated for a rare Johnson County sheriff’s commendation after pulling his unresponsive 1-year-old brother from a backyard pool, alerting their mother, and running to a neighbor for help. The toddler is expected to fully recover. (Read Story)
➤ A giraffe that escaped Cedar Hollow Ranch and was last seen on a game camera west of Leakey, in the Hill Country, drew a $5,000 reward and viral attention. (Read Story)
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➤ A Harvard scientist discovered a new “facelift protein” that smooths wrinkles, shrinks pores, and evens-out red blotchy skin in just 7 seconds a day. What surprised researchers the most wasn’t just the results…It was that women with higher levels of this “facelift protein” appeared to age dramatically better than their peers. Learn about this new discovery here.
The following stories are featured exclusively on The Flyover Podcast—a daily show that gives you the most important headlines in under 15 minutes. Clicking the links will take you directly to these stories:
➤ Savannah Guthrie made a tearful on-air plea as new details emerge in her mother’s disappearance. (Listen Here)
➤ Should weight-loss drugs be banned in sports? Serena Williams reignited the debate. (Hear More)
➤ These are the 20 highest-paying jobs in America that aren’t doctors. (Tune In)
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Eight Sentenced in Prairieland Shooting
