Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas:
In thanking Donald Trump for interfering with FIFA in a USMNT red card, Ted Cruz jinxed the team into an embarrassing defeat in the World Cup: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/watch-sen-cruz-thanks-trump-for-getting-rid-of-folarin-baloguns-world-cup-red-card
Governor Greg Abbott's reversal on data centers is nothing but talk, should he fail to call a special session to stop their spread across Texas: https://www.chron.com/news/article/data-center-greg-abbott-legislature-22333815.php
..."Batch Zero" is the codename for a huge wave of data centers, all fast-tracked through approval as a group - and by the 2027 session, they'll be grandfathered in: https://www.politico.com/newsletters/power-switch/2026/07/06/why-texas-lawmakers-cant-keep-up-with-data-centers-00987738
Patriot Front - the masked gang of matched khakis marching through D.C. on the Fourth of July - were founded and are based in Texas: https://www.statesman.com/news/article/patriot-front-texas-group-22334164.php
...They originated after a splinter neo-Nazi group underwent an internal coup after the 2017 Charlottesville uprising: https://www.sacurrent.com/news/texas-news/white-supremacist-group-from-texas-marched-on-washington-d-c-during-july-fourth-holiday/
...The Southern Poverty Law Center says Patriot Front's mission is the formation of a white ethnostate in the United States: https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/patriot-front-in-washington-dc-july-4-white-nationalist/287-f33ffe9e-d664-4d4e-ba4d-d7b394825639
With the run of Alisa Simmons for County Judge, Tarrant County has become the epicenter of the political struggle of 2026 in Texas: https://www.lonestarleft.com/p/how-important-is-tarrant-county-in-6eb
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