By Hafsa Mustafa | Houston Public Media

Governor Greg Abbott announced a statewide disaster proclamation over diesel shortage on Monday, following recent record-high prices.

The proclamation permits the use of dyed diesel on roads and lifts weight restrictions for agricultural, timber and fuel loads. It also suspends Texas Low Emission Diesel rules to the extent allowed by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Dyed diesel — regular diesel with red pigment — is reserved for off road use only, usually by farm and construction equipment. Unlike regular diesel, it is untaxed. With the proclamation, the governor's office aims to alleviate skyrocketing prices at the gas pump. While it increases the supply of diesel, it does not affect the fuel tax, which is 20 cents per gallon.

"Texas agriculture and freight run on diesel," Abbott said in a press release. "Record prices put both industries at risk and raise costs for every Texas family. Farmers and truckers can now use dyed diesel on Texas roads, and fuel, crop, and timber loads can move at a higher weight. These steps cut costs on the farm, on the road and at the store."

Seven months into the U.S. and Israel's war with Iran, the U.S. continues to suffer from a major upset in exports of oil and gas from the Middle East, due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and damaged infrastructure. According to AAA, diesel prices reached a record high of $6.53 on average last week. This time last year, diesel average $3.69 a gallon.

President Donald Trump recently vetoed a proposal by Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz, and talks to end the war have continuously deteriorated.

Politicians across Texas have sought to capitalize on voters' affordability concerns, in response to continued inflation.

Abbott, who is seeking re-election, will face Democratic State Rep. Gina Hinojosa in November. Hinojosa has asked the governor to waive the state gas tax.

Texas Public Radio | By Dan Katz

Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, the Austin man shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer earlier this month, is due in federal court in San Antonio on Wednesday as his attorneys seek his release from detention.

Garces Perez remains in significant pain and still has a bullet lodged in his body, according to his attorney. Immigration attorney Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch said he also has a fractured clavicle and limited mobility, and that his legal team is concerned about infection and permanent damage if he does not receive surgery.

Lincoln-Goldfinch said Sunday that she spoke with Garces Perez by video after rumors circulated online that he had died. She said those rumors were false. A representative for Rep. Joaquin Castro confirmed his condition Monday evening.

Garces Perez, 28, has been held at the South Texas ICE Processing Center in Pearsall since he was discharged from an Austin hospital following the Sept. 20 shooting. His attorneys are challenging his detention and seeking his release.

A federal judge has scheduled a habeas hearing for Wednesday, Sept. 30, in San Antonio and ordered Garces Perez to appear.

The shooting and Garces Perez’s continued detention have prompted protests. About 160 people gathered Sunday at the North Austin site where he was shot, following earlier demonstrations in Austin. Supporters have also protested outside the detention center in Pearsall.

Lincoln-Goldfinch asked supporters not to gather at the federal courthouse during Wednesday’s hearing, saying the judge would expect decorum. She said peaceful vigils elsewhere were welcome.

Garces Perez was working as a DoorDash driver when federal immigration agents pursued him in North Austin. Video reviewed by Austin police shows a vehicle pursuit before the shooting. Garces Perez has said he was trying to find a safe place to pull over, while the Department of Homeland Security has said he attempted to evade arrest.

An ICE officer shot Garces Perez in the back during the encounter. He was taken to Dell Seton Medical Center before being discharged into ICE custody several hours later.

His attorneys have questioned whether he received adequate medical care following the shooting. ICE has disputed claims that he has not received appropriate treatment.

Lincoln-Goldfinch also warned about fraudulent online fundraisers, saying the only fundraiser approved by Garces Perez’s family is through the Austin Sanctuary Network.

by Stephanie Koithan

Controversial Republican congressional candidate Brandon “AK Guy” Herrera said on a podcast that resurfaced last week that he wished COVID-19 had killed more fat people.

Herrera, a gun influencer who has millions of YouTube followers, made the remarks on Elijah Schaffer’s Slightly Offensive podcast on July 31, 2022, roughly a year before his first congressional run.

Meidas Touch, a progressive online outlet, resurfaced the clip on Friday.

The podcast started with a discussion of interracial dating. After the host said white men prefer to date white women over Black women, Herrera suggested that the data could be reflecting a preference against obesity.

“I wonder if they’re solving for all variables here. Because there’s also like an obesity epidemic in the female Black community,” Herrera said. “So, it’s like, OK, well, maybe … did you show them like 100 random Black women and they just maybe don’t like obese people?”

After another guest on the show went on a rant about fat women, Herrera offered his support, adding, “I’m of the opinion COVID wasn’t bad enough, because if you had something that just unfairly targeted fucking fat people, I’m here for it. I would have worn my mask nowhere on purpose.”

Obesity is a major comorbidity associated with an increased risk of severe and deadly COVID-19 outcomes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the the National Institutes of Health.

During the same interview, Herrera also called the majority of people in San Antonio ugly.

“Apparently, ugly people are the new minority,” another guest said on the same show.

“I live in San Antonio. They are not the minority,” Herrera responded.

Podcast host Schaffer then laughed and said, “San Antonio’s a very ugly city,” to which Herrera responded, “It’s not great.”

Herrera’s Democratic rival, Katy Padilla Stout, was quick to denounce the comments.

“The only thing ugly in San Antonio are the words coming out of this guy’s mouth,” Stout responded on X, formerly Twitter.

About 9% of the City of San Antonio’s population falls within District 23 after last summer’s redistricting, according to Meidas Touch. However, the district also includes the city’s western suburbs and exurbs, which aren’t included in that percentage.

by Andrea Suozzo and Agnel Philip, ProPublica

The number of women who died after an ectopic pregnancy has spiked in recent years, a ProPublica analysis found. The mounting deaths in Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data have drawn little scrutiny or response.

Such deaths typically occur in the first trimester, after a pregnancy fails to properly implant in the uterus and begins to develop elsewhere, most commonly inside a fallopian tube. The embryo grows until it causes the organ to rupture, triggering catastrophic bleeding.

With prompt and appropriate medical care, maternal health experts say, women should not die. Yet ProPublica’s analysis found a stark and baffling increase: Almost 200 women with the condition died from 2020 to 2025, compared with about 100 in the previous six years.

“A death related to ectopic pregnancy should really be a never event,” said Dr. Alice Abernathy, an OB-GYN in Philadelphia.

While chaos and access issues at hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic likely contributed to at least some of the deaths, the surge has persisted, raising serious questions about the role of the most significant disruption to maternal healthcare in the years since: state restrictions on abortion.

To treat an ectopic pregnancy, which is almost never viable, doctors must terminate it. But lawsuits and federal complaints have alleged that some medical providers are hesitating or flat-out refusing to do that in states where they face criminal penalties for performing an abortion. Patients described their terror.

“I genuinely thought I was going to die,” said Kyleigh Thurman, whose right fallopian tube ruptured after she struggled to get ectopic care in Texas in 2023.

“There were a few times I asked my husband if I was going to die,” Leitaea Lowrimore of Oklahoma said in a lawsuit after being denied treatment for an ectopic pregnancy at multiple hospitals in February. “I kept thinking about our kids.”

To determine whether these issues go beyond anecdotes, ProPublica analyzed the data collected from every state by the CDC to look for patterns. The analysis shows a growing divide for women in states with strict abortion bans compared with those without.

While the uptick in ectopic deaths occurred nationwide, the climb has been much steeper in states that banned abortion after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.

ProPublica shared its analysis with more than a dozen maternal health experts, including leaders in the field, who were unaware of the spike; early pregnancy complications are chronically underresearched.

While they cautioned that abortion bans alone can’t explain the national rise, maternal health experts said any examination of the spike should include the documented delays in care caused by the laws, including for ectopic pregnancies.

In Thurman’s case, despite clear signs of an ectopic pregnancy, two emergency departments sent her home without resolving the complication. Regulators in 2025 found that one of the hospitals, Ascension Seton Williamson, failed to properly screen Thurman for a suspected ectopic pregnancy and did not call in an OB-GYN, in violation of the hospital’s own policies and federal law that requires emergency departments to treat and stabilize patients before discharging them. Thurman has an ongoing lawsuit against Ascension Seton Williamson and the other hospital, Ascension Seton Highland Lakes, for medical malpractice.

Thurman had to have her fallopian tube removed after it ruptured. (Thurman is not related to Amber Thurman, who died in Georgia, which also has an abortion ban, after doctors delayed treating different pregnancy complications in 2022.)

“I’ve never been in a situation where I didn’t get healthcare when I needed it,” Thurman told ProPublica, comparing the condition to having “a time bomb you can’t control.”

A spokesperson for the Ascension Seton hospitals said in a statement, “When a patient experiences a serious or life-threatening condition during pregnancy, our clinicians provide medically indicated treatment, including treatment for an ectopic pregnancy.” The hospital has denied Thurman’s malpractice allegations in a court filing.

Ectopic pregnancies, while rare, have long been recognized as the leading cause of maternal deaths in the first trimester. The condition impacts up to 2% of pregnancies in the U.S. Because government agencies don’t require hospitals to track or report overall ectopic diagnoses, it is impossible to know whether the condition itself is becoming more common.

While rates for other pregnancy-related deaths also increased during the pandemic, those climbs have largely subsided.

Experts aren’t sure why ectopic deaths have continued to rise. Ectopic pregnancies are more common among older women, but the increase in deaths has been even more stark among younger women, the analysis showed.

Anti-abortion groups have suggested that the use of abortion pills prescribed online is leading to more undiagnosed ectopics because telehealth patients don’t receive an ultrasound. But studies have found that ectopic rates are far lower among people who seek medication abortions than in the general population. Telehealth clinics ask questions that filter out patients at higher risk of ectopic pregnancy and follow up with those they treat to screen for symptoms, said Ushma Upadhyay, a researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, who studies telehealth abortion administration.

Experts told ProPublica that more research is required to determine the role of the abortion bans in the rise of ectopic-related deaths. Many states with bans, which generally provide less Medicaid funding and coverage to low-income women, have long had poorer maternal outcomes. “It’s a real challenge to try and tease out one thing out of the array of factors that undermine women’s health in these states,” said Eugene Declercq, a public health researcher at Boston University.

But experts said ProPublica’s data analysis, along with stories about delays in ectopic care, underscores the need to find out what is driving the deaths.

“Reproductive health is unusual across medicine when we consider how swiftly policy changes affect the care patients can receive,” said Dr. Courtney Schreiber, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology.

Caitlin Myers, an economist at Dartmouth College who studies abortion policy, said the deaths should be investigated: “This is a potentially profound consequence of the regulation,” she said.

How abortion bans interfere with ectopic care

Many state abortion bans include exceptions for ectopic pregnancies. But experts have worried that doctors are hesitating to offer treatment without an ironclad diagnosis, which clinicians say can take time and increase risks to the mother.

Ectopic pregnancy symptoms often begin with abdominal pain and bleeding, which send women to emergency rooms. There, doctors use ultrasounds to locate where the pregnancy has implanted.

However, embryos are often not visible on an ultrasound early in pregnancy. That could mean the pregnancy is ectopic, but it may also be a miscarriage or normal pregnancy that’s too small to see. Doctors can also assess whether the pregnancy is likely ectopic through blood tests over multiple days.

If the pregnancy is ectopic, the risk of rupture increases the longer treatment is delayed. In a state without a ban, a patient could decide at any point that that risk is not worth taking and opt to terminate the pregnancy.

In a state with a ban, however, that option may not exist. If doctors can confirm the pregnancy is ectopic through an ultrasound, they can protect themselves from having their decision to terminate questioned, perhaps by a zealous prosecutor. But waiting for this can delay treatment by days or even weeks.

“Seeing a mass is not the only reason to have high suspicion for an ectopic pregnancy,” said Dr. Rebecca Nerenberg, an emergency medicine doctor in New York and the clinical director at Access Bridge, which educates ER doctors on reproductive healthcare and has released evidence-based guidelines for diagnosing possible ectopic pregnancies.

Experts say that doctors should be able to offer treatment when other symptoms are present, such as plateauing pregnancy hormone levels, bleeding and abdominal pain. Patients can be treated with a procedure or a cancer drug that stops cells from growing.

But for women in states with abortion bans, getting that treatment can be difficult.

Lowrimore, who lives near the state border in Oklahoma, sought care at an Arkansas emergency department in February after experiencing abdominal pain and significant bleeding. She was sent home and told to return for more tests after being diagnosed with a “pregnancy of unknown location,” because an ultrasound could not show where her pregnancy had implanted, according to a lawsuit.

Lowrimore visited three different hospitals across both states over the following week as she began passing blood clots and the pain intensified, radiating up the left side of her body, according to the lawsuit.

The fact that the states’ abortion bans make exceptions for ectopic pregnancies did not help her, even though doctors acknowledged that was a possible diagnosis. In each visit, they didn’t treat her for that condition. One told her that intervening in her pregnancy could land him jail time — “10 years in the poky,” according to the suit. “I felt like my life was a risk he couldn’t afford,” she said in the lawsuit filing.

After consulting a lawyer, Lowrimore finally drove to a hospital in Kansas, where abortion is legal, and got an injection of the cancer drug called methotrexate within hours of arrival.

Lowrimore’s lawsuit, in which an OB-GYN and six women who were denied care are seeking to block the Arkansas abortion ban, is ongoing. Lowrimore also filed complaints under the same emergency medicine law as Thurman against the three hospitals. Regulators cited Mercy Hospital in Fort Smith, Arkansas, for failing to provide care during the eight hours Lowrimore waited to be seen. The other two hospitals were not found to have violated that law, and they did not respond to requests for comment.

A spokesperson for Mercy Hospital declined to comment on the case, saying that, “in tragic situations when a mother suffers from an urgent, life-threatening condition during pregnancy, Mercy provides all medically indicated treatment to save her life.”

Many experts predicted that ordeals like the ones Lowrimore and Thurman described would occur when abortion bans took effect. To see if more women with ectopic pregnancies are experiencing severe health outcomes, ProPublica analyzed hospital data from Texas, the most populous state to ban abortion.

In this new analysis, ProPublica found that 310 more patients in Texas experienced substantial blood loss after an ectopic pregnancy in 2023 and 2024 compared with 2018 and 2019, an increase of about 29%. Similar to ectopic deaths, the rise appeared to begin during the COVID pandemic, but the rate of complications remained elevated after hospital systems stabilized and the state passed its restrictive law. ProPublica is working to acquire similar data from states without abortion bans.

In response to ProPublica’s reporting on the deadly impacts of Texas’ abortion ban, the state passed the Life of the Mother Act in 2025, which attempted to clarify what kinds of abortions are allowed by the state’s law, explicitly adding ectopic pregnancies to the list.

But new guidance from the Texas Medical Board includes only a case study with an ectopic pregnancy that can be seen in an ultrasound, remaining silent on the difficulty of early ultrasounds to detect where a pregnancy has implanted. This leaves open the possibility that a prosecutor could question whether such a case was really ectopic, in a state where doctors face up to 99 years in prison for performing illegal abortions.

A spokesperson for the Texas Medical Board said the course is not intended to cover all scenarios and that it “explains that imminent harm is unnecessary and specifically states that physicians who follow evidence-based medicine, standard emergency protocols, and proper documentation face minimal risk.” Asked whether a conclusive ultrasound image is necessary for an ectopic diagnosis, the spokesperson said, “The Board has consistently stated that providing commentary on every possible situation would be impractical.”

But Michelle Maloney, an attorney who represents Thurman and 13 other Texas women or their families who say they were denied care — including seven with ectopic pregnancies — said she still gets frequent calls from women who say they were denied care for pregnancy complications. “I don’t think specific exemptions address the massive gray areas that arise in pregnancy,” she said.

Solutions are unlikely to come from the states themselves. A previous ProPublica investigation found that states with strict bans are not studying whether their laws are contributing to maternal deaths. And others have not followed Texas in attempting to amend their bans.

Gaps in research, training and awareness

One of the biggest challenges to reducing ectopic pregnancy deaths nationwide is the lack of awareness, research and data.

No one, for example, is tracking whether women who experienced ectopic pregnancies also had one or more common risk factors, like a history of ectopic pregnancies, infertility or use of hormonal intrauterine devices, according to ProPublica’s review of maternal health statistics and interviews with experts.

Nor has any published research addressed the connection between recent ectopic pregnancy death rates and untreated infections like gonorrhea and chlamydia, which increased substantially during the first years of the pandemic before declining again. Those infections can cause pelvic inflammatory disease, which causes fallopian tube scarring and raises the long-term risk of developing an ectopic pregnancy.

It is unclear why the CDC and other federal agencies across two administrations have failed to publicly respond to the increase in deaths despite having access to the same information ProPublica analyzed. But experts say the country’s capacity to respond to it has been greatly reduced under President Donald Trump.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, told Congress in April that improving maternal health outcomes is a priority. But the Trump administration has eliminated much of the staff devoted to researching the topic and cut hundreds of millions of dollars in government funding for healthcare research.

The CDC’s Division of Reproductive Health, for example, lost most of its 100 employees, according to a lawsuit filed by more than a dozen states’ attorneys general last year. The entire team that ran the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System, a significant source of data for state and local governments as well as maternal health researchers, is on paid administrative leave. That includes many researchers who would have been responsible for investigating the rise in ectopic pregnancy deaths, according to current and former CDC employees.

“You’re losing the capacity to know what’s going on with pregnant women,” Lee Warner, the former chief of the Women’s Health and Fertility Branch at the CDC, said of the cuts at the division. “It’s going to take decades to build this capacity back.”

Funding cuts have also impacted efforts to raise awareness about the condition. Because ectopic pregnancies usually cause complications before standard prenatal care begins around 10 weeks, patients often rely on emergency departments, where doctors don’t typically have specialized training in pregnancy care. Experts say more training on high-risk early pregnancy conditions could help combat rising maternal mortality rates.

The CDC in 2025 also stopped funding a partnership with the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists to educate emergency medicine doctors about reproductive healthcare. The initiative, “Obstetric Emergencies in Nonobstetric Settings,” offers resources for emergency departments on caring for pregnant patients with cardiovascular disease, hypertension and eclampsia. An ACOG spokesperson said its foundation now funds the project, and that the organization is working on a set of guidelines for diagnosing and managing tubal ectopic pregnancies in the emergency department.

A spokesperson for HHS said the agency continues to track maternal mortality trends, investigate their causes and provide funding for research. “This important work is being accelerated across the Department to support healthy mothers, healthy babies, and strong families,” the spokesperson said.

The United Kingdom’s response to a similar spike in ectopic deaths during the pandemic shows just how much the U.S. is failing to do.

Researchers and officials there identified a surge in deaths in 2021 and 2022 in the U.K. and Ireland; 12 women died of an ectopic pregnancy during those years, which, as in the U.S. during this period, represented a near doubling of the death rate compared with previous years.

They investigated the causes and found a range of culprits, including overstretched emergency services and inadequate early pregnancy screenings, says Marian Knight, a professor at the University of Oxford who leads the U.K.’s maternal mortality reporting.

In 2024, Knight co-authored a maternal mortality report that focused on those deaths and offered policy recommendations. Knight worked with policymakers and a U.K. charity to raise awareness and help doctors and the general public recognize ectopic pregnancy symptoms. Officials also changed how patients experiencing ectopic pregnancy symptoms are prioritized when they call for an ambulance, leading to faster response times.

But the first step, said Knight, was identifying and investigating the issue. “If we’re not tracking and not just understanding the numbers, but understanding the why behind the numbers, we have no ability to respond,” Knight said.

The U.S. doesn’t do national maternal mortality reviews, said Boston University’s Declercq, who serves on the Massachusetts Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Review Committee. Instead, CDC epidemiologists review death and birth records to establish accurate national totals of pregnancy-related deaths, largely leaving state and local maternal mortality committees to take an in-depth look at individual cases and make recommendations to lawmakers and medical providers.

Declercq said his committee has not identified a notable increase in deaths from ectopic pregnancies in Massachusetts in recent years. In most states, these deaths are sporadic enough that they don’t, in isolation, show a notable trend.

It’s only at the national level that this increase in avoidable deaths becomes visible.

ProPublica’s analysis “raises concern that young women are dying from a preventable cause at an increasing rate,” Schreiber, the professor of OB-GYN, said. “That is not what we should be seeing in the United States of America.”

Texas Public Radio | By David Martin Davies

Texas laws taking effect Sept. 1 will change how consumers repair electronic devices, strengthen oversight of residential solar sales and allow certain forms of gold and silver to be used as legal tender.

House Bill 2963 creates a limited “right to repair” for digital electronic equipment. It requires manufacturers to provide owners and independent repair businesses with the parts, tools and documentation available to authorized repair shops on “fair and reasonable terms.”

“This law is a major step forward,” said Nathan Proctor, senior director of U.S. PIRG’s Right to Repair campaign. “It allows Texans to get access to parts, tools, and other things you need to fix modern electronics.”

The law covers consumer electronics with a wholesale price of at least $50 — but only equipment originally offered for sale in Texas on or after Sept. 1. Consequently, devices already on the market before that date are not covered.

The measure also contains numerous exemptions, including many motor vehicles, farm equipment, medical devices, video-game consoles, large home appliances, heavy equipment and certain cybersecurity-related products.

Small countertop appliances are not included in the home-appliance exemption. The Texas attorney general can enforce the law, but it does not create a private right for consumers to sue over violations.

“We strongly advocate for the right to repair everything,” Proctor said. “In Texas, there was clear agreement on personal electronics.” He said Texas lawmakers could expand the right to repair, as in other states, if enough voters make it clear this is what they want.

Another change arriving Sept. 1 is the registration requirement under Senate Bill 1036, the Residential Solar Retailer Regulatory Act. Residential solar systems salespeople must now register with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation and work for a registered solar retailer. Retailers that employ or contract with salespeople must also register.

Ann Baddour of the nonprofit Texas Appleseed said the accountability provisions “go a long way toward addressing many of the problems that we saw in the market prior to the most recent legislative session.”

Texas Appleseed examined complaints filed between 2018 and 2024 and reported allegations of forged signatures, misleading promises, undisclosed financing terms, liens and panels that were paid for but never installed. Complaints involving solar panels submitted to the attorney general increased 818% between 2018 and 2023, while those submitted to the licensing department rose 576%, according to the organization.

“We heard story after story of people in their 80s with $100,000 in solar panel loans,” Baddour said, describing obligations that caused severe financial hardship.

Most of SB 1036, including its requirement that contracts allow purchasers or lessees to cancel within five business days, took effect Sept. 1, 2025. However, the salesperson and retailer registration requirements, along with the law’s enforcement provisions, takes effect this year.

House Bill 1056, authored by Republican state Rep. Mark Dorazio of San Antonio, recognizes qualifying privately produced gold and silver specie as legal tender in Texas beginning Sept. 1.

The metal must be marked with its weight and purity and cannot bear markings suggesting that it was issued by a government. No person, business or government agency will be required to accept it.

Dorazio has promoted the measure as a way to make precious metals functional money and provide an alternative store of value.

“How am I supposed to buy groceries or put gas in my car with a gold bar?” Dorazio asked during a legislative hearing. “Fortunately, the technology is available today and allows you to pay for goods and services using a gold card through the convenience of a debit card.”

That electronic-payment component, however, does not begin Sept. 1. The provisions authorizing systems backed by bullion held in the Texas Bullion Depository take effect May 1, 2027, and implementation will depend on action by the state comptroller.

The Sept. 1 change is limited to recognizing qualifying physical gold and silver as legal tender.

Dorazio said the bill protects Texans by “making gold and silver functional money.” Supporters view precious metals as a hedge against inflation, while the law’s practical reach will depend on voluntary acceptance and the later development of the electronic transaction system.

SAN ANTONIO – License plate readers are placed on the entrances and exits of North Star Mall to monitor the property.

The readers have been there for two years, according to a North Star spokesperson. However, people have been sharing more information about their concerns with the cameras online in recent weeks.

The cameras capture images of vehicles entering and leaving the mall, recording license plate information that can be used for security purposes.

“The license plate information is stored in a database accessible only to mall security management and SAPD,” a North Star spokesperson said in a statement. “The information is retained for 30 days and is automatically deleted.”

The mall’s website says the cameras are used to “help identify non-customers and their vehicles, ... Repeated non-compliance with our employee parking program and/or abuse of our private property parking lots ... detect vehicles known to be associated with persons that have been banned from the property ... (and) assist in detecting vehicles that are suspected of being associated with a recent crime or investigation.”

Garrett Langley, CEO of Flock Safety, said the company’s technology is used by nearly 7,000 police departments, as well as businesses and neighborhoods across the country.

“At the end of the day, we have to find a society where safety and privacy can coexist,” Langley said.

Some North Star shoppers said the cameras make them feel watched rather than safe.

“It almost makes me not want to go to the mall,” San Antonio resident Aria Friederich said.

Another shopper, who did not want to be identified, questioned whether a private business should be collecting the information.

“That seems to be some type of violation of a right for them to be able to do that,” the shopper said. “They’re not police.”

People who responded to a social media question about the cameras also raised concerns about privacy and the Fourth Amendment. A majority of the responses opposed the license plate readers or said they did not feel safer because of them. People in favor of the license plate readers said they believe people who are law-abiding citizens should not be concerned.

North Star Mall is not the only entity in the area using Flock cameras. The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office and Texas Department of Public Safety also operate the technology.

Guadalupe and Kendall counties recently voted to end their contracts with Flock Safety, but the cameras remain in use across Bexar County.

SAN ANTONIO – Nearly 45 years after Yolanda Herrera was killed, her family finally has a name in the case.

Herrera was 23 when she was last seen leaving Johnny’s Inn in Universal City on April 11, 1981. She was walking along Aviation Boulevard, just minutes from the home where she lived with her grandmother.

Two days later, Herrera’s body was found in a field near the 500 block of East Aviation Boulevard. Her death was ruled a homicide.

For more than four decades, investigators were unable to solve the case.

That changed last week when investigators identified a suspect through a DNA match, according to the Universal City Police Department.

Kelly Lee Brower Sr., 68, was arrested Wednesday in Cottonwood, Arizona, where he was already in custody on an unrelated charge. Brower is charged with capital murder in connection with Herrera’s death.

Herrera’s cousins, Mary Gonzales and Duane Scognio, spoke with KSAT’s Erica Hernandez in their first interview about the case since the arrest. The cousins remember Herrera as strong, independent and full of life.

“She was tough. Tomboy. Very pretty. Very big heart,” Scognio said.

Gonzales said the family was close-knit and their grandmother played an important role in raising her.

The family said the killing was difficult to comprehend, particularly because Herrera had grown up in a time when they felt safe walking around their Universal City neighborhood.

The investigation continued for decades as investigators followed leads and collected DNA.

At one point, the family said they believed the case might never be solved after they were told a potential DNA match had died.

“So at that point we figured, OK, it’s done, and then this happened,” Gonzales said.

The family said they were stunned when they learned about the new development.

“This is totally shocking to us,” Gonzales said.

According to the family, Brower confessed to the crime. Universal City police have not publicly detailed the alleged confession.

Herrera’s cousins said the arrest has brought a sense of peace after decades of uncertainty.

“We do have the closure that, thank God for the Rangers and Universal City Police Department, you know, now we can rest,” Gonzales said.

The family said Universal City police also went to Herrera’s grave and told her the person accused of killing her had been caught.

For Herrera’s family, that moment represented what they had been waiting nearly 45 years to hear.

“She can rest, my grandma can rest,” she said.

Brower remains in Arizona. It was not immediately clear when he will be transferred to Bexar County.

The Universal City Police Department is scheduled to hold a news conference Tuesday with additional details about the investigation.

Texas state law requires you to register 30 days prior to the election in which you want to vote. To exercise your voting rights, it's essential to plan ahead and register promptly. Missing this deadline means you will be unable to vote. 

Eligibility to Register as a Bexar County Voter

To be eligible for voter registration a person must:

• register to vote in the county in which you reside. 
• be a citizen of the United States. 
• be at least 17 years and 10 months old to register, and you must be 18 years of age by Election Day.
• not be finally convicted of a felony, or if you are a felon, you must have completed all of your punishment, including any term of incarceration, parole, supervision, period of probation, or you must have received a pardon. 
• not have been determined by a final judgment of a court exercising probate jurisdiction to be mentally incapacitated or partially mentally incapacitated without the right to vote.

Voter Registration Reminders

• Your voter registration will become effective 30 days after it is received or on your 18th birthday, whichever is later.
• If you move to another county, you must re-register in the county of your new residence.
• You will automatically receive a new certificate every two (2) years if you haven’t moved from the address at which you are registered.

Identification Requirements for Voter Registration Applications

All voters who register to vote in Texas must provide a Texas driver's license number or personal identification number issued by the Texas Department of Public Safety. If you don’t have such a number, simply provide the last four digits of your social security number. If you don’t have a social security number, you need to state that fact.

Texas Public Radio | By Joey Palacios

The San Antonio City Council voted unanimously Thursday to change César E. Chávez Boulevard back to its former name, Durango Boulevard.

The change comes after renewed scrutiny of Chávez’s legacy following sexual abuse allegations detailed by Dolores Huerta, who co-founded the United Farm Workers with Chávez. Changing the street signs is expected to take two to six months, while replacing highway signs could take six months to a year.

The roadway stretches about 5.3 miles from the Alamodome on the city’s East Side, through downtown and into the West Side. It is broken up into segments in some areas and ends at Old Highway 90.

In 2011, the City Council voted to rename the street for Chávez, a leader of the farm labor movement who had received decades of accolades. Workers’ rights marches were held in his name, and streets, buildings and statues across the country honored his legacy.

But that honor came under scrutiny after Huerta and other victims detailed years of sexual harassment, sexual abuse and rape allegations against Chávez in a New York Times investigation published in March. The report prompted an immediate response and calls to remove Chávez’s name from the boulevard.

In April, District 5 Councilwoman Teri Castillo, who represents the West Side, submitted a council consideration request asking that the street be renamed. A CCR is a mechanism council members can use to introduce new city policies. The request was supported by council members Phyllis Viagran, Edward Mungia, Sukh Kaur and Ric Galvan.

In June, the San Antonio Planning Commission approved changing the name back to Durango, leaving final approval to the City Council.

Castillo told TPR on Wednesday that residents in her district wanted the name restored to Durango.

“My expectation and responsibility is to honor those who live on the street, and I value the input of others in terms of what we should explore,” she said.

Restoring the Durango name would also honor the history of San Antonio’s predominantly Latino West Side, which includes streets named for other Mexican states.

“There’s Tampico, Veracruz, so on and so forth, and Durango within that intersection, so there’s a very historic tie to the history of Mexico in the historic West Side. So it’s going back to those roots, which the residents who reside in that area have requested,” she said.

Other names had been suggested, including names honoring farm workers and activists such as Emma Tenayuca and Jovita Idar. Castillo said some streets already have memorial way designations, and those suggestions could be considered for new streets in the future.

On Thursday, District 6 Councilman Ric Galvan said there are other ways to pay tribute to the labor movement.

“We can still honor the legacy of folks coming together to push for civil rights here in our community, push for labor rights here in our community, not only in San Antonio but throughout the country without focusing on this one individual, that's not what movement politics is,” he said.

Changing an existing street name is no small task. It requires coordination among the city, county, mapping systems, U.S. Postal Service, school districts, Texas Department of Transportation and Bexar Metro 911.

The cost is estimated at $374,700. The change would affect 295 addresses and require replacing 58 mounted street signs, 31 streetlight signs, 15 highway signs and one access road sign.

The changes are not expected to affect residents during the November election, city staff told council members Thursday.

This is the second time in 15 years that San Antonio has restored the former name of a major street.

In 2015, council members approved renaming Old Highway 90 to Enrique M. Barrera Parkway after a former city councilman but received significant pushback from residents in the area. A different council reversed the decision in 2022.

In addition to the street name change, the city of San Antonio removed a city holiday named after Chávez that was observed on March 31. The state of Texas also removed its observance of the holiday named for Chávez.

The annual César Chávez March in San Antonio, organized by the now-defunct César Chávez Legacy and Educational Foundation, was canceled indefinitely.

Texas Public Radio | By Andrea Drusch | San Antonio Report

This story has been updated.

San Antonio City Council rejected calls to hold a public vote on its $489 million Spurs arena contribution on Monday, voting down a proposal to put it on the Nov. 3 midterm ballot.

The move means that last November’s election approving $311 million in Bexar County venue tax dollars for the arena, known as Proposition B, could be both the first and only time voters are asked about a public investment that totals more than $800 million.

Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones called Monday’s meeting knowing she likely lacked the support from colleagues to get a city vote on the ballot.

Now that the council is facing a ballooning budget deficit, Jones said that investment of this scale deserved its own public hearing.

The majority of her colleagues disagreed, saying it was bad for business to invite the public to weigh in on major spending decisions that don’t legally require it.

“We should be very careful about establishing a precedent that every significant revenue bond decision requires another election simply because the dollar amount is large,” said Councilwoman Misty Spears (D9), one of the nonpartisan panel’s two most conservative members.

During public comment, the packed chamber was split between those who said voters are being shut out of the process and those who believe a county vote last year should suffice.

The 5-6 vote marked a slight decline in support since the council approved its tentative agreement with the team last year.

At that point, Jones wanted to pause negotiations so that the city could get an independent economic analysis on the sports and entertainment district. Five council members who supported the deal went around the mayor to put it on the agenda anyway, moving the project forward with a 7-4 vote.

On Monday, Councilman Edward Mungia (D4) was the only member to change sides, aligning with Jones’ call for a November election.

Mungia and the council’s progressives, Jones, Jalen McKee-Rodriguez (D2), Teri Castillo (D5) and Ric Galvan (D6), accounted for the five “yea” votes.

The six “nays” included the more business-centric members: Spears, Sukh Kaur (D1), Phyllis Viagran (D3), Marina Alderete Gavito (D7), Ivalis Meza Gonzalez (D8) and Marc Whyte (D10).

City vs. county funds

The concept of a new arena originated with city leaders, who spent years quietly exploring the possibility of how it could anchor a major downtown redevelopment effort known as Project Marvel.

But the $1.3 billion arena’s biggest political hurdle was securing money from Bexar County, which owns the team’s existing Eastside home, and was expected to put up $311 million of the $800 million in public funding.

County leaders came on board with the idea after negotiating an agreement to renovate the team’s existing home at Frost Bank Center, and helped secure support for both proposals on the November 2025 ballot, known as Propositions A and B.

Now nearly nine months later, the city is the one rallying support for its own deal, while the county’s East Side plans also seem to face some headwinds.

The San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo — expected to lead the redevelopment of the Spurs’ East Side home — has cast doubt on whether the vision voters embraced will ever come to fruition because private developers were promised some of the rodeo’s parking lots and barns.

Many changes have also been made to the City of San Antonio’s development vision surrounding the new arena site, including canceling plans for a new convention center hotel and scrapping a land bridge that lacks the originally expected federal funding.

This week City Manager Erik Walsh sought to tamp down on those concerns with a letter slamming “misinformation” circulating in the media, and insisting that the overall vision remains similar to when it was first proposed.

“As with any major project as complex and multifaceted as the sports and entertainment district, the initial plan is preliminary and has been, and will continue to be, subject to further evaluation, refinement, and potential modification as feasibility is assessed and additional information becomes available,” Walsh wrote.

Meanwhile, Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai said the county hasn’t started collecting the venue taxes expected to fund its portion of the arena funding because its still determining whether it’s “protecting the public’s interest.”

Sakai also told KSAT this week that the county could face litigation if the city doesn’t produce its portion of the arena funding.

On Monday, San Antonio Spurs Sports & Entertainment CEO RC (RC or R.C.) Buford said the council vote was a reaffirmation of support to a project years in the works.

“We can now turn our full attention to delivering on that shared vision and the transformational opportunity ahead for our city,” Buford said.

A ‘do-over’ vote or ‘voter suppression’?

Unlike the county’s venue tax, San Antonio’s arena contribution comes from sources that don’t require the city to hold an election.

In a nod to the high emotions surrounding the project, however, about half of the packed council chamber on Monday believed that not holding one amounts to “voter suppression.”

The other half said that a city election would be anti-democratic, aimed at repeating last November’s Prop B vote in hopes of achieving a different result.

As the deal was presented to council last year, the city’s $489 million is set to come from a combination of state business taxes captured in a Project Finance Zone, property taxes captured in a Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone and ground leases on city-owned property in the sports and entertainment district.

Since those sources don’t need voter approval, the council made its term sheet with the Spurs dependent on the results of the county election, in which about 51.7% of San Antonio voters approved of Prop B.

“The voters have spoken,” said Martin Gutierrez, director of governmental affairs for the San Antonio Board of Realtors, who signed up to speak at Monday’s meeting. “More than 178,000 registered city of San Antonio voters voted for Prop B in 2025, therefore we do not believe another election is necessary.”

Leading up to that vote, however, critics point out that a PAC aligned with the Spurs spent $9.2 million on a campaign that only described the county’s portion of the money — giving voters a warped perception.

Monica Cruz, who signed up to speak in favor of a city vote, said the Spurs’ campaign specifically told voters that the money wouldn’t come from property taxes, only taxes on tourists.

“In the 10 community conversation meetings that the Spurs had across the city … all of those slides said that it was only paid for by visitor hotel occupancy taxes, which is a half-truth,” Cruz said. “I think that’s important to know.”

Mary Cabral, a retired high school teacher, said that voters were hit with a “massive propaganda” campaign on the part of the Spurs, and that if the deal is truly as good as it sounds, it shouldn’t have a problem passing again this November.

“Why are you afraid to let us vote?” Cabral asked the council on Monday. “Do you know that that is called voter suppression?”

Supporters of the arena deal said they also felt the other side was cheating by using the second vote to go back on a deal they never liked in the first place.

“The mayor wishes that this project would just go away, that something would kill it — an election, an economic study — so she wouldn’t have to manage it,” said Aram Meraz, whose LinkedIn says he’s a management analyst at City of San Antonio. “… I speak for a lot of San Antonians when I say that there is an election that we would like to get a do-over on, and it’s the election of the mayor.”

Politics aside, many business interests in the chamber stressed that the unusual nature of this arena deal wasn’t great for a city trying to attract investment.

Bartlett Cocke General Contractors, for example, brought a group of nearly 50 people to speak as a group on behalf of the construction industry, which the company’s Chairman and CEO James Anderson said can’t execute big projects when the funding and political will is up in the air.

“Those of us in construction understand something very practical about projects of this scale: Uncertainty has cost. Companies plan for years in advance. … People are hired and trained. Design teams are at work. Material and equipment decisions are made,” Anderson said.

“When the path moving forward changes, schedules and costs change along with it, and businesses become cautious about bringing on people and resources, and will begin to look for other opportunities to pursue.”

Another vote to come?

Despite Monday’s vote, residents in the city of San Antonio could still see another sports and entertainment district-related measure on their ballots in 2027.

The city projected last year that the arena would require between $220 million and $250 million in surrounding infrastructure, expected to come from the city’s bond program.

Some council members want those projects to appear in a single line item that voters can approve or reject, while city staff is proposing spreading them across bond proposals with other city projects.

Bond programs require voters’ approval, and they typically involve careful project selection and expensive political campaigns aimed at bringing enough of them on board.

Jones has been warning that Project Marvel could consume as much as half of the bond capacity, leaving little budget for parks, libraries, drainage and other projects residents want.

Last week Walsh said in a budget briefing that Project Marvel’s infrastructure requirements would come in lower than the initial estimate, but the city’s bond capacity has also been shrinking with slowed economic growth.

He’s counting on the council approving an increase to the debt service portion of residents’ tax bill to allow enough money for projects outside of downtown — in addition to a tax increase staff is already proposing to cover day-to-day operations.

This story first appeared in the San Antonio Report.

Madalyn Mendoza, Josephine Walker

Texas could pay an estimated $23 billion toward President Trump's mass deportation push — about $2,500 per taxpayer — according to a calculator from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).

Why it matters: The estimate fuels debate over whether billions of federal dollars devoted to deportations should instead fund other public priorities, such as health care or housing.

How it works: EPI estimated each area's share of federal income taxes to calculate how much taxpayers in each state, county and city would contribute to deportation spending.

Context: The $269 billion the administration is slated to spend on deportations over the course of Trump's second term comes from a combination of money from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, regular appropriations and other repurposed funds.

• The Department of Homeland Security told Axios in July that the government spends roughly $18,000 per non-voluntary deportation.

Zoom in: Bexar County taxpayers would contribute $1.13 billion, or about $1,786 per taxpayer, according to the calculator.

• That amount could instead fund about 4,615 teachers or 4,653 firefighters locally, the calculator shows.

Zoom out: American taxpayers would broadly pay about $2,358 each for Trump's mass deportation push, per EPI's tool.

The other side: A DHS spokesperson told Axios that the Biden administration ignored the costs of illegal immigration and said the department's self-deportation program saves taxpayers roughly $13,000 per removal compared with traditional deportation.

by Michael Karlis

Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa is accusing Republican Gov. Greg Abbott trying to retaliate against San Antonio and its city-owned electrical utility, CPS Energy.

During her campaign’s Latinas for Gina launch party Thursday at San Antonio’s Woodlawn Theatre, Hinojosa — an Austin state rep — said her rival’s pledge to break CPS Energy’s regulated-monopoly status is less about saving Texans money than it is about enriching his wealthy donors.

Abbott’s comments about his desire to “end the monopoly control that cities like Austin and San Antonio have over electricity services” came about a month after a state district judge ruled against CPS Energy in a lawsuit filed against two gas companies that CPS Energy accused of charging it exorbitant prices during 2021’s Winter Storm Uri.

“Your electric company, CPS Energy, took that gas company to court to defend you, so that your prices wouldn’t go up because of what they did to us,” Hinojosa said. “CPS Energy did that to defend you. They didn’t win in court. And now Greg Abbott has come back — as payback, as retribution — to try to take away your energy company and jack up profits, guaranteeing that you will pay even more for your electricity bill. That is an example of the Greg Abbott corruption tax.”

In July, State District Judge Laura Salinas ordered CPS Energy to pay nearly $400 million to two Energy Transfer subsidiaries.

During Uri, which left millions without power, CPS Energy spent some $850 million on fuel. Nearly half of that went to the Houston Pipeline Company and Oasis Pipeline for natural gas delivered during the storm’s price surges.

CPS Energy paid about $52 million to the two companies, but ended up disputing the charges and refusing to pay the remaining $264 million.

In the end, Judge Salinas ruled against CPS Energy.

A month after that ruling, Abbott announced he’s calling on the GOP-controlled Texas Legislature to break up CPS Energy during its 2027 session.

If lawmakers follow through, many worry the breakup would worsen the Alamo City’s already precarious financial situation. San Antonio faces a $158 million budget deficit, and roughly 30% of the city’s $1.7 billion general fund budget is made up of CPS Energy revenue.

In a statement to the Express-News, CPS Energy said “any threat to the not-for-profit municipal model is a threat to all customers.”

During a town hall last week, San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jonessaid Abbott’s comments about breaking up CPS Energy are concerning.

“The fact that we own [CPS Energy] means we pay the lowest in electricity and gas rates in Texas,” Jones said. “You tell me the last time was something fully privatized and passed on those savings to you.”

By Andrea Drusch | San Antonio Report, Joey Palacios

San Antonio City Council is headed for another heated debate over its plans for a new downtown Spurs arena.

On Monday, just hours before the state’s deadline to add measures to the Nov. 3 ballot, the council will hold a special meeting to decide whether to seek voters’ support for a $489 million contribution to the overall $1.3 billion basketball arena.

The move isn’t legally required, and most council members considered the spending a done deal after voters approved Bexar County’s portion of the funding in Props A and B last November.

The Spurs' owners spent more than $9 million campaigning for that election, and the arena funding reached just under 52% support among voters who live within city limits.

But Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones says the county vote was taken before taxpayers had a clear picture of the city’s tough financial straits and put her call for a separate city vote on Monday’s agenda.

A draft of the potential ballot language was posted online Tuesday evening.

“Last November was the county’s vote on the county’s $311 million [arena contribution], but the city’s separate contribution, I think, is also deserving of a vote by city voters,” Jones said on TPR’s The Source this week.

“… Last November we were not talking about raising property taxes, and now we are, with $158 million dollar [budget] deficit,” Jones said. “We are looking at raising property taxes not just once, but potentially twice if we also want to raise the bond capacity, and that is top of mind for folks.”

In order to put the idea before voters, Jones would need six votes from the council. At least six of 10 members have already expressed opposition so far.

Previously Jones had requested another ballot initiative for the meeting, one that would shift funds from Ready to Work, the city’s voter approved job training program, to other portions of the city budget, which is in a deficit.

But this week a letter from city staff indicated that only about $4.5 million of the program’s $120 million could be reallocated to the city budget, and Jones said the council should consider reimagining the program instead.

That issue is not on the agenda for Monday’s special meeting.

Jones’ office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday evening.

A third potential city ballot item for the November ballot, extending the funding for Pre-K 4 SA, will be voted on at the council’s regular meeting on Thursday.

by Michael Karlis

Three San Antonio City Council members issued a memo this week calling for a temporary halt on new data center construction within city limits.

The document signed by District 5 Councilwoman Teri Castillo, District 6 Councilman Ric Galvan and District 8 Councilwoman Ivalis Meza Gonzalez requests a special meeting on the issue no later than Aug. 31.

Specifically, the memo calls for council to discuss a moratorium on all applications for concept plans, site development plans and permits for data center construction, in addition to a pause on the issuance of any site permits for the massive computing facilities or projects classified as “office data processing and management.”

The three-signature request comes as both Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and his Democratic challenger, state Rep. Gina Hinojosa, have publicly raised concerns about rampant development of data centers.

Abbott on Monday froze new data center approvals and ordered the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) to audit all centers waiting to connect to the state’s power grid.

Weeks before the governor’s announcement, Hinojosa called for a statewide pause on new data center construction until a special session of the Texas Legislature can be convened to address the matter.

“What is happening with data centers is an example of the fight of our time, and it is the fight to decide: Is this going to be a Texas that is by and for the people, or is this the billionaires’ world, and we just live here,” Hinojosa said.

Developers and tech-industry officials maintain the facilities create good-paying jobs while supporting services essential to the modern economy. The facilities are used to process and store information used in artificial intelligence, web browsing, streaming, digital banking and more.

However, data center opponents argue the massive computing facilities’ large-scale consumption of power and water strains finite resources and endangers the state’s stand-alone power grid. Residents have also complained about the noise, light and air pollution the sites emit.

During a press conference last month aimed at raising awareness of the growing pushback against data centers, Granbury resident Tom Weeks told reporters he’s concerned that Bitcoin mining in his North Texas community is causing health issues ranging from high blood pressure to seizures. However, he said local and state lawmakers have blown off constituents’ concerns.

“We’re getting the middle finger, and I’m ready to snap it off,” Weeks said.

The three San Antonio council members who signed the memo plan to hold a press conference this Friday.

Texas Public Radio | By Joey Palacios

The San Antonio City Council approved the creation of a 33-member community advisory committee to offer suggestions on how to use $75 million the San Antonio Spurs are committing to the downtown sports and entertainment district.

The committee's creation was proposed by council members Sukh Kaur of District 1, Teri Castillo of District 5, and Marina Alderete Gavito of District 7 using a “three-signature memo.” It’s a process available to council members who want to bring an issue to the floor for discussion.

But that approval didn’t come without another public disagreement among council members, similar to those that have come up during multiple discussions and votes over the proposed Spurs arena and surrounding district known as “Project Marvel.”

Thursday’s disagreement was between San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones and District 3 Councilwoman Phyllis Viagran, with Viagran saying statements made by Jones were misrepresentations or lies.

Thursday’s argument

Early in the discussion, Jones said a presentation by city staff on the committee’s creation appeared to be outdated.

“It sounds like we may have had an older version that was presented as the term sheet is not executed,” Jones said.

The mayor was referring to a term sheet between the City of San Antonio and Spurs Sports & Entertainment that was considered by council in August 2025. At the time, Jones had pushed to delay the term sheet multiple times before it was approved by council.

Councilwoman Viagran called for a point of order shortly after Jones made the claim.

“The term sheet was executed. It was voted on by the council. The contract has not been decided upon,” Viagran said, triggering an argument between the two.

Jones said it was not finalized. Viagran said Jones’ statements were misrepresentations.

Jones then turned to City Attorney Andy Segovia.

“Andy, please correct the councilwoman,” Jones said.

“Mayor, this is an argument, semantics, only a law school student would appreciate. The term sheet was approved by the city council,” Segovia said. “We can use executed, approved, we can use whatever term we want to use. It was approved by city council.”

Jones thanked Segovia for his answer while adding, “we will vote on the final version.”

Viagran challenged Jones again.

“We will vote on a contract. We will not vote on a term sheet,” Viagran said. “Could we please not lie?”

Jones then repeated “no one’s lying” several times.

District 2 Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez attempted to stop the argument.

“Let’s move on, let’s move on,” he said.

“You’re being more than inaccurate,” Viagran said.

“No ma’am,” Jones replied.

“Yes, you are,” Viagran said.

The disagreement ended after Jones said, “it’s a non-binding term sheet.”

The committee

The $75 million from the Spurs as part of a Community Benefits Agreement is spread out over 30 years. The three-signature memo calls for creating a Community Advisory Committee made up of council appointees with expertise in artistry, labor organizations, small businesses and neighborhood groups.

The committee’s makeup of 33 people would allow each council member to appoint three members.

“The benefit of being able to do 33 members is you get a really wide opportunity to do a wide variety of voices,” District 1 Councilwoman Sukh Kaur said. “Sometimes for some of our committees, if we only have one representative each, we may not be able to truly hear from a general representation of the population.”

District 2 Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez said he was not likely to vote for the committee, but his mind could be changed. He offered two amendments to the ordinance. The first was a requirement for members to sign the city’s ethics code, which passed.

The second would require the three chairs to include members from specific council districts.

“What matters to me is that the districts who are most impacted, which will be districts one, two, and five, have an elevated voice in this discussion,” he said.

The amendment didn’t pass. It failed on a 5-6 vote.

Kaur was one of the no votes along with Viagran, Marc Whyte, Teri Castillo, Alderete Gavito, and Misty Spears.

“I selfishly want to say yes to this because it means that a District One individual gets to be a chair of this,” Kaur said. “But I am also conflicted because I do understand that there might be someone from a different district, District Six or District Four, that wants to be able to step up and be chair and is qualified to do so.”

The council approved the committee in a 10-1 vote. District 2 Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez was the lone dissenter. After the vote, he said he believed engagement like this should have come earlier in the sports and entertainment district discussions.

“In this instance, I feel like the creation of this committee is performative. I don't think it meets the true intent of what the community is asking for, and it doesn't take into account all of the impacts that those who live in and around the district will face,” he said.

Selection for the committee is expected to begin in the coming weeks, with the goal of having it filled by the end of September, Kaur said.

Viagran is scheduled to hold a press conference Friday morning on the steps of City Hall with several council members, business groups and community organizations to discuss the city’s economic development investments, annual operating budget and long-term financial health.

Qualifying and ineligible items

The sales tax exemption only applies to qualifying items bought during the tax-free holiday.

Here are the lists of qualifying clothing and footwear and school supplies.

The Texas Comptroller’s Office said the following items are ineligible:

• Items sold for $100 or more
• Clothing subscription boxes
• Specially designed athletic activity or protective-use clothing or footwear
  • For example, golf cleats and football pads are usually worn only when people play golf or football, so they do not qualify for the exemption. Tennis shoes, jogging suits and swimsuits, however, can be worn for other than athletic activity and qualify for the exemption.
• Clothing or footwear rentals, alterations (including embroidery) and cleaning services
• Items used to make or repair clothing, such as fabric, thread, yarn, buttons, snaps, hooks and zippers
• Jewelry, handbags, purses, briefcases, luggage, umbrellas, wallets, watches and other accessories
• Computers
• Software
• Textbooks
• Certain baggage items do not qualify for the exemption, including:
  • Framed backpacks
  • Luggage
  • Briefcases
  • Athletic, duffle or gym bags
  • Computer bags
  • Purses
• Unspecified school supplies do not qualify
  • Only specific school supplies sold for less than $100 qualify for the exemption, and an exemption certificate is not required

Refunds

Anyone charged sales tax on a qualifying item during the tax-free weekend can request a refund from the seller or file a refund claim directly with the Texas Comptroller’s Office.

by Michael Karlis

Former Transportation Secretary and 2020 Democratic presidential contender Pete Buttigieg on Tuesday weighed in on the race for Texas’ 23rd Congressional District, which spans from San Antonio’s far West Side to the outskirts of El Paso.

Buttigieg endorsed Democrat Katy Padilla Stout, an attorney and former public school teacher who’s running against Brandon Herrera, a controversial YouTuber known for his online gun reviews and propensity for outrageous statements.

The endorsement comes with fewer than 100 days until the election in a district Democrats hope to flip blue this cycle. The district is seen as competitive, in part due to scandals linked to its former representative, Republican Tony Gonzales, who resigned in April after admitting to having an affair with a staffer who later took her own life by setting herself on fire.

“While Washington-style politics has rewarded self-serving politicians, Katy Padilla Stout is running for Congress with a focus on integrity and a true commitment to her community,” Buttigieg said. “A lifelong Texan raised by a single mother, she became a public school teacher and then an attorney committed to strengthening systems that protect vulnerable kids. In Washington, she will be a grounded force for change to secure affordable health care, strengthen our public schools, and protect Texas’s children and families. I am proud to endorse her campaign because America will benefit when she brings her grit and compassion to service in Congress.”

Padilla Stout’s campaign has focused on preventing the construction of Trump’s border wall in Big Bend, advocating for universal pre-K and encouraging Congress to protect the Voting Rights Act.

Buttigieg has spent this election cycle traveling the country to support progressive candidates and causes. So far, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, has endorsed more than 50 candidates, including San Antonio area Democrat Johnny Garcia, who’s running to represent the recently redrawn U.S. House District 35.

Buttigieg’s endorsement comes days after the Current reported on new controversy surrounding Herrera, the GOP nominee for Texas’ 23rd District. In a resurfaced video, Herrera — also known by his online persona, the “AK Guy” — referred to children as “cum trophies” and told mothers that “just because you let somebody creampie you doesn’t mean I have to give a shit about your political opinions.”

When a female reporter from the Austin-American-Statesman asked Herrera to clarify his remarks, his team sent her a photo of a cream pie — a move Padilla Stout called highly concerning.

“Brandon Herrera’s remarks are profoundly grotesque, but his response when asked to account for them was even more revealing,” Padilla Stout told the Current. “Instead of demonstrating good judgment and basic decency, he doubled down. This is not mere political incorrectness. It is cruelty as entertainment and treating accountability as something beneath him. Those are dangerous qualities in someone seeking to represent us in Congress. We need a representative focused on solving real problems, not a professional provocateur using public office to shock people and chase attention.”

However, the resurfaced clip is only the latest controversy to hound Herrera, who also took heat during his failed 2024 bid for the same seat for poking fun at veteran suicides, joking about the Holocaust and mocking the appearance of President Donald Trump’s son Barron.

This election cycle, Herrera’s campaign has also come under scrutiny over accusations by a campaign-finance watchdog group that it funneled $2.7 million in contributions into a shell company to avoid reporting how the money was actually spent. In a statement to the Current, Herrera’s campaign described the allegations as “meritless” and “little more than a recycled legal theory.”

Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3.

There have been a few posts popping up regarding safety in the community. First, and foremost, if you believe a crime has been committed, go to the police or relevant authorities.

As a smaller community subreddit, we believe in keeping the community informed, within Reddit's site-wide rules. This means following the rules on Doxxing and Witch Hunting if an announcement post is made:

Do not post other user's private and confidential information without their express permission.

-Names are allowed only if legitimate news outlets have shared the suspects name(s)

-No direct links to socials, including screenshots

-No addresses

-No places of work

-No phone numbers

-No calls for action/payback

Again, we be believe in a safe community. These rules have been created by Reddit due to instances in the past where people with similar looks, names, social media handles were harassed and harm was done (Boston Marathon Incident). So the best course of action is to go directly to the police. If you have any questions, please message the mods directly.