Texas Democrats refuse surveillance “permission slips,” stay in chamber to block GOP redistricting

Texas Democrats tore up or refused to sign new “permission slips” requiring Department of Public Safety escorts as they pushed back against a Republican bid to hold a Wednesday vote on contested congressional maps. Dozens of Democrats had fled the state for other Democratic-led states to prevent a quorum and stall redistricting tied to national GOP efforts to reshape the 2026 battleground. On return, Republicans demanded round‑the‑clock trooper escorts and written consent to leave the chamber; Representative Nicole Collier and several colleagues instead remained on the floor in protest. Lawmakers reported plainclothes officers following them to homes and errands, a step Democrats called demeaning and an escalation of an already bitter map fight. The standoff underscores deep partisan tensions over redistricting and election stakes ahead of the 2026 midterms.

Texas names Bobby Lumpkin as next TDCJ chief amid staffing crisis

Bobby Lumpkin, currently chief operations officer, was named executive director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and will assume the role Sept. 1, succeeding Bryan Collier, who retires Aug. 31 after nine years. Lumpkin began his career with TDCJ in 1990 as a correctional officer and will now oversee more than 100 prisons and roughly 140,000 inmates. His promotion comes as the agency faces a severe staffing shortage and high turnover that regulators say threaten employee and inmate safety. Lawmakers have proposed funding increases, pay raises and targeted salary adjustments aimed at stabilizing staffing levels. Observers say Lumpkin’s deep institutional experience will be tested by urgent operational and recruitment challenges in the months ahead.

Fort Worth is rolling out a pilot program that warns drivers about flooded roads - before they barrel straight into them. Sensors at four locations now send real-time alerts to phones and car infotainment systems via apps like Waze and Apple Maps, rather than relying only on flashing lights and barricades that many motorists simply ignore. “Our crews keep watching people drive right around the barricades,” said stormwater official Jennifer Dyke, noting the hope is to reroute drivers earlier, when turning away is still an easy choice. The city’s bet: a nudge from your GPS might save more lives than a blinking light on the roadside.

Prosper ISD is booming so fast it just opened a shiny new high school - but leaders say they’ll need to be careful not to outgrow demand like neighboring Frisco. Superintendent Holly Ferguson says the district is focusing on career and technical programs such as cosmetology, cybersecurity, and electrical engineering to give students options beyond college and keep them competitive with private schools. The goal? Schools that feel like “educational palaces” where kids actually want to show up. But Ferguson’s bigger fight is with Austin: she says lawmakers may claim they’re listening to educators, but what districts really want is local control - not top-down policies from the Capitol.

Dallas Fire-Rescue has discovered a radical new idea: giving people blood «before» they bleed out in the ER. Since launching in February, their ambulances have pulled off 18 life-saving transfusions-including one for a local doctor who nearly died just weeks after giving birth. Supervisors now drive around with coolers full of blood, like the world’s most hardcore food delivery service. And while they don’t get to use it every day, they say watching someone’s odds flip from “probably doomed” to “doing fine” is pretty rewarding.

Dallas’ Redbird Mall-now rebranded as The Shops at Redbird-is turning 50, proving that not every mall is doomed to become a ghost town. Opened in 1975, it was once the community’s crown jewel, then nearly faded as shoppers fled to the suburbs. Today, thanks to ongoing improvements, locals like Hakeem Carbins say they’re glad it’s still standing strong. In short: Redbird’s comeback story is less “retail apocalypse” and more “mall with nine lives.”

At 85, Dallas photographer Laura Wilson proves she’s nowhere near putting her camera down. Her new exhibition «Roaming Mexico» opens Sept. 14 at SMU’s Meadows Museum, kicking off the season with nearly 90 photographs spanning four decades of her travels across Mexico. Known for documenting the American West, Wilson here turns her lens south, capturing everything from colorful festivals to quiet rural moments. Running alongside a show of Manuel Álvarez Bravo’s work, «Roaming Mexico» offers a vivid, deeply personal portrait of a country full of contradictions, beauty, and humanity.

Clear the Shelters Day at Irving Animal Services was part barking chaos, part heartwarming love story. With 60 dogs, 50 cats, plus a few roosters and guinea pigs up for adoption, families came ready to make connections. Bruce Gundermann knew it was fate the moment kitten Coco pawed at the glass, while another couple walked out with not one but two cats (because compromise, apparently, means doubling down). Last year the shelter celebrated 41 adoptions on this day, and hopes were high to top that number again. Proof that sometimes the loudest place in town is also where the quietest bonds are made.

Fort Worth is handing out a financial lifeline to homeowners still patching up damage from 2021’s winter storm Uri. Samuel Bravo, for instance, says insurance only covered half of his mother’s wrecked pipes and foundation repairs-leaving him with an \$8,000 bill. Now, through the city’s \$27 million Homeowner Assistance Repair and Rehabilitation Program, low-income families can apply for help fixing everything from busted plumbing to broken windows. In short: if Uri left your house looking like an ice sculpture gone wrong, Fort Worth might finally foot part of the bill.

The Dallas Police Department has decided that nothing says “Join us” quite like a cowboy hat. This week, officers got the official green light to wear them on duty, with the news announced on Facebook alongside photos of the Love Field Airport Unit showing off their new Texas flair. The move is pitched as part tradition, part recruitment strategy-because apparently, policing is easier to sell when it comes with a side of western style.

The Powerball jackpot has ballooned to a jaw-dropping \$776.7 million after nobody hit the winning combo on Saturday. Monday’s numbers were 19, 64, 34, 16, 37 and 22, with a 3x PowerPlay - which sounds great until Uncle Sam slices that \$338.6 million cash option down to about \$223.8 million. A few lucky players still snagged \$1–2 million prizes over the weekend, but the grand prize hasn’t been touched since May 31. If nobody nails it by Wednesday, the pot just keeps fattening up - because apparently Americans never get tired of funding the world’s most expensive game of hope.

Walmart is turning cart pushers into career welders - literally. Through its Associate to Technician (A2T) program, workers get free, hands-on training for skilled trade jobs that pay around \$32 an hour, well above the Texas average. For many trainees, it’s the difference between “just a job” and an actual career worth retiring from. Walmart says it wants 4,000 employees trained by 2030, proving that the world’s biggest retailer isn’t just selling cheap goods - it’s also quietly manufacturing skilled labor.

Texas lawmakers just cracked down on deed fraud - the sneaky scam where crooks file fake property deeds, often tricking elderly homeowners who may not realize their house has been “stolen” until strangers show up to move in. A new bill, now on Governor Abbott’s desk, makes real estate theft its own crime, extends the reporting window from five to ten years, and gives prosecutors sharper tools to unwind fraudulent deals. Officials hope the law will not only punish scammers but also push more homeowners to sign up for fraud alert systems. In short: Texas is telling deed thieves their free land grab days are over.

Residents near the Denton-Wise county line say their peaceful country life has come with an unwelcome side effect: months of power outages, some lasting up to 12 hours. Neighbors have the receipts-text chains and outage alerts from utility company Oncor, which blames everything from wind to trees to aging equipment. Oncor insists it’s working on “reliability improvements,” but locals say it’s been eight months of déjà vu every time the lights go out.

Dallas just put \$2.7 million on the table to lure Scotiabank into planting its U.S. regional hub in Victory Commons One. The deal requires more than 1,000 jobs with salaries starting at \$135,000-a potential jackpot for the city’s growing financial sector. Officials are hyping it as part of the “Y’all Street” movement, with Dallas pitching itself as Wall Street’s Southern cousin. But with Charlotte also in the running, Dallas will have to wait and see if Scotiabank decides to trade snow boots for cowboy boots.

Micah Parsons is packing his bags-and his pass rush-for Green Bay. The three-time All-Pro defensive end ended his contract standoff by tweeting “Go Pack Go,” while thanking Cowboys fans for making him feel at home in Texas. ESPN reports Dallas will get Kenny Clark and two first-rounders in return, while Parsons cashes in on a monster four-year, \$188 million deal with \$136 million guaranteed-the richest ever for a non-quarterback. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones insists he offered a record-breaking contract, but Parsons’ camp wanted more control in negotiations. Love it or hate it, Dallas fans won’t have to wait long to see him again-the Packers visit AT\&T Stadium on Sept. 28.

Texas is ringing in Labor Day with 835 new laws-because apparently, one or two just wouldn’t cut it. Schools will now feature everything from Ten Commandments posters to phone bans, plus a bigger push for vouchers and “parental rights.” Healthcare changes range from expanding medical cannabis to requiring insurers to cover gender-transition «reversals» (yes, really). Crime laws get oddly specific: “jugging” robberies are now a felony, child-like sex dolls are officially banned, and shooting from your car in road rage is, shockingly, illegal. Tech didn’t escape either-Texas is setting up a Cyber Command, funding quantum research, and trying to tame deepfakes. In short, Texans are starting September with a legislative buffet-heavy on controversy, light on subtlety.

Texas restaurants just got a break: a new state law aims to trim the red tape and rising costs that have been eating into small businesses since the pandemic. The law caps health department fees, standardizes food manager certificates statewide, and wipes out extra local charges like alcohol permit fees. Restaurant owners like Edwin Martinez of Adobo Puerto Rican Cafe say every dollar counts when costs keep climbing. The Texas Restaurant Association is calling it a “signature win”-finally, some legislation that doesn’t come with hidden service charges.

Colleges across the U.S. are bracing for financial pain as Trump administration policies drive down international student enrollment. Schools like the University of Central Missouri, where foreign students bring in nearly a quarter of tuition revenue, are already reporting sharp declines in visa approvals and arrivals. Because international students typically pay full tuition -sometimes double or triple domestic rates - their absence hits budgets hard, especially at smaller universities with little financial cushion. With U.S. high school graduate numbers projected to fall over the next two decades, experts warn that losing international enrollment could push many colleges already on the brink into closure.

Labor Day 2025 is here, which means backyard barbecues, last-chance summer getaways-and plenty of confusion about what’s open. Most big retailers like Walmart, Target, and Home Depot will happily take your money as usual, though Aldi, Sam’s Club, and Hobby Lobby will kick you out early. Costco, ever the contrarian, is shutting its doors completely. Pharmacies, dollar stores, and grocery chains like Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods will mostly stick to regular hours, but don’t expect to pick up mail or cash a check-post offices, FedEx/UPS delivery, and banks are all closed. Translation: shop till you drop, but do it before the fireworks, not after.

More than a dozen Texas college football teams are trading smack talk for solidarity, adding helmet stickers to honor victims of July’s deadly Hill Country floods. The design shows Texas wrapped in a green ribbon, a quiet nod to the 130 lives lost-including 27 children at Camp Mystic. Programs from TCU to Texas A\&M have joined in, proving that even rivals can agree on compassion. No word yet on how long the stickers will stay, but for now, football comes second to remembrance.