Government and Politics

The Trump administration on Thursday asked a federal judge to allow border construction to resume across the Big Bend region. The administration says it plans to take the case to the Supreme Court.

Last month, Lubbock City Council began the procedure to adopt a pause on large-scale data center development. If the moratorium passes, it will be two years until another one can be put in place. With more information and potential changes likely to come out of the state’s legislative session, one councilman has argued that the city should hold off on playing its moratorium card. All the while, the clock may be ticking on the statewide pause on data centers.

During Wednesday’s Texas Senate Education Committee meeting, lawmakers hinted at possibly strengthening a law designed to give parents more control over library materials.

Biden-era changes to the Clean Air Act would have tightened regulations for industrial sites, but the Trump administration has given exemptions to hundreds of facilities. People living near the sites are concerned about air quality and their well-being.

At a Friday hearing in El Paso, a U.S. District Judge ordered all construction on the Big Bend area border wall project to stop immediately — including in Big Bend National Park and Big Bend Ranch State Park. The order also included the stay of federal waivers that expedited the project.

Harris County was awarded $54 million for the solar program in 2024. That money was rescinded in August last year when the county received a termination letter from the EPA that claimed to end the initiative.

The Texas Health and Human Services Commission proposed cuts to more than 20 client services programs. Dozens of Texas advocates testified at a legislative budget board hearing Thursday to ask state lawmakers to protect those programs.

It's not known how many applications have been unprocessed. Counties will receive a backlogged surge less than two weeks before the Oct. 5 deadline to register for the Nov. 3 election.

Fourteen cities and counties have dropped Flock contracts, and Laredo will ask voters to weigh in during a referendum in May.

Chancellor Brandon Creighton and Cody Campbell, who chairs Tech's Board of Regents, are identified by their official university titles on the invitation to the Sept. 29 fundraiser. Lubbock County Democrats are questioning whether their public positions — or university resources — were used to promote the event.