Governor Greg Abbott announced 84 Jobs and Education for Texans (JET) grants totaling over $20 million have been awarded to Texas public junior, state, and technical colleges; school districts; and open-enrollment charter schools. The JET grants, awarded through the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC), will help schools buy equipment to start or improve career and technical education (CTE) training programs that lead to high-demand careers.
Texas Comptroller Don Huffines said many cities and counties can reduce property taxes due to increased sales tax revenue as local governments will receive $1.3 billion in allocations of net local sales tax collected in September, 11.6% more than a year ago. Net revenue reflects sales tax collections after refunds, overpayment credits and prepayment adjustments. Local amounts are also net of the state’s 2% administrative fee, which is deposited to the General Revenue Fund.
We've been skeptical it would ever happen, but New York Governor Kathy Hochul has stood up to the teachers' unions and brought her state into the new federal tax credit scholarship program created by the Big Beautiful Bill.Starting in tax year 2027 every U.S. taxpayer can donate up to $1700 single/$3400 married to a Scholarship Granting Organization and get the money back dollar-for-dollar on their federal taxes.
Riots in France. Protests on college campuses. Antisemitism running rampant. New York’s mayor accusing Israel of genocide on the 3rd anniversary of October 7th. It would appear that the intifada is already globalized and is part of three concurrent left-wing movements: the radical LGBTQ agenda, the rise of the Democratic Socialists of America, and the infiltration of radical Islam into American politics. These three ideologies have turned America upside down. All these things are what the Left calls “social justice” and the Right calls “culture rot.”
I am proud to have delivered a $750,000 investment to Concho County Hospital, Ballinger Memorial Hospital, and North Runnels Hospital through the Rural Health Transformation Program, a $50 billion national initiative to strengthen rural healthcare. For families in Concho County and the surrounding area, this funding is a lifeline. It means care closer to home, so they don’t have to drive over an hour to the nearest city when they or a loved one need medical attention.
Governor Abbott emphasized that schools are for education, not indoctrination, and that parents deserve transparency in curriculum. The Governor also celebrated the historic education victories achieved in Texas, including signing the strongest parental right laws in the country, delivering the largest day-one school choice program in America, and signing the largest teacher pay raise in state history and record funding for public schools.
Members of my Washington, D.C. staff were honored to greet veterans from the Permian Basin Honor Flight this week and present each veteran with a flag that had flown over the U.S. Capitol. For many of these heroes, this trip was their first chance to see the monuments dedicated in their honor. It was also a long-overdue moment of recognition for the veterans who never received the heroes' welcome they deserved when they came home.
The energy produced and shipped along the Texas Gulf Coast should power America and our allies, not prop up a communist dictatorship just 90 miles from our shores. Last week, federal officials announced the seizure of 19 shipments carrying approximately 119,000 gallons of biodiesel at the Port of Houston before they could reach ENETEC, a sanctioned, state-owned fuel company in Havana.
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins sent a letter to all livestock ranchers holding grazing permits on U.S. Forest Service allotments, outlining the Department’s June 12, 2026 Grazing Directive. The U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management administer approximately 240 million acres of rangelands across 28 states, supporting more than 23,000 permittees and lessees. Secretary Rollins noted that restoring the nation’s beef and sheep herds will, by necessity, include both Forest Service and BLM lands.
Columbus was not perfect, even in his own age; all humans are fallible. What made Columbus great was, well, he changed history and the world. Rarely in history has one person ever done that. There is no more important date in the past millennium than 1492. It is obviously the watershed from which all subsequent history, to our very day, flows. Of course, 1492 did not happen in a vacuum, but Columbus did do something nobody else had done and which changed the entire world forever. Even the people who hate him are a product of what he did.
Governor Greg Abbott reminded Texans that Free College Application Week is Oct. 12-18, 2026. Next week, Texas residents can apply to undergraduate programs at any public college or university in the state at no cost. Free College Application Week is a key part of Governor Abbott’s college affordability efforts. Since 2023, the Governor has directed all public colleges and universities to freeze undergraduate tuition rates. That freeze remains in place through the 2026-27 academic year for two-year and four-year institutions.
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) joined President Donald Trump at the White House yesterday to discuss the automatic enrollment of millions of American children in Trump Accounts. Sen. Cruz authored and passed into law the legislation establishing Trump Accounts last year. On October 1, the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced the completion of automatic enrollment for Trump Accounts. The Treasury established accounts for more than 60 million additional eligible children.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas killers slaughtered 1,200 people, more than two-thirds of them civilians, inside Israel. For the ensuing three weeks, they refused Israel's demands to turn over the 251 hostages and to surrender the architects of the massacre. No matter — within a day of the attacks, when Hamas gunmen were still fighting Israeli troops on Israeli soil, the American Left was already screaming "genocide!"
Of the $12.4 million in grants approved, about $10.8 million is to be allocated to 47 local entities for the Rural Law Enforcement Salary Assistance Grant Program, which the Texas Legislature created in 2023 to supplement salary assistance to the sheriff’s departments, constable’s offices, and district and county attorney’s offices in rural areas of the state. In 2024 and 2025, this agency awarded $254.4 million to more than 1,000 Rural Law Enforcement Salary Assistance grant recipients.
Texas Land Commissioner and Veterans Land Board (VLB) Chairwoman Dawn Buckingham, M.D., is encouraging Veterans to act now and bid during the exclusive Veterans-Only Land Sale. The sale includes six available tracts totaling more than 41 acres. Bidding closes on Thursday, October 15, 2026, at 5:00 p.m. Earlier this year, the VLB approved an increase for the VLB standard land loan amount from $150,000 to $200,000 and the dual-spouse land loan amount from $225,000 to $275,000.
Governor Greg Abbott today announced Blue Origin Manufacturing LLC is constructing an advanced manufacturing and operations campus in Hutto, with a $554,780,000 capital investment that will create more than 2,000 new jobs. A Texas Enterprise Fund (TEF) grant of $18,171,000 and a Veteran Created Job Bonus of $10,000 have been extended to Blue Origin. TEF is a performance-based grant, administered by the Texas Economic Development & Tourism Office within the Office of the Governor.
“Today's anniversary is a day for mourning but also for renewing resolve. Over the last three years, Israel has demonstrated extraordinary courage, resolve, and skill in destroying the Hamas terrorists who committed the October 7th attack and in dismantling the Iranian-controlled terrorist armies that the Iranian regime had built across the Middle East. These operations were a necessary, measured, and just response to the attack..."
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins announced that the Farm Service Agency’s Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) will generate approximately $13.8 billion in gross payments to eligible agricultural producers for the 2025 crop year; the largest annual payout by far since these key safety net programs were established in the 2014 Farm Bill. ARC and PLC protect producers from substantial declines in crop prices or revenues.
