Off the Kuff

Hood County is the epicenter of the fight to have some control over data centers being built in your area. That's a very Republican area, as are many of the data center targets, and the locals are not happy at all about it. I keep saying, this sure seems like an opportunity for Democrats.

As goes Hood County | Off the Kuff This is just the beginning of the data center revolution in Hood County, a rural community of 62,000 people about an hour southwest of Fort Worth. Developers have proposed eight data centers spanning over 7,600 acres, or 12 square miles. While it’s unclear how much power all of the facilities woul...

We were supposed to get the Paxton divorce trial this month, but it has now been canceled as the two former spouses are getting close to a settlement. I mourn the spectacle we might have gotten.

Paxton divorce trial canceled | Off the Kuff Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, have canceled their scheduled divorce trial just weeks before it was set to begin.

In Rockwall County, there is now an ostentatious Ten Commandments monument outside that county's courthouse. Except that it's a fake version of the Ten Commandments, one that originated from Hollywood and not the Bible.

The Hollywood monument of Rockwall County | Off the Kuff Whenever you see a “Ten Commandments” monument, the first thing to check is whether it comes from the Bible or if, instead, it comes from the Fraternal Order of Eagles and Hollywood director Cecil B. DeMille.The two telltale signs are: 1) The Eagles/DeMille version is not enumerated and usually ...

Three Democratic members of Congress have sent a letter to Ken Paxton wanting to know why he has sued ActBlue over complaints that people unknowingly had agreed to make recurring donations when they didn't intend to, and not its Republican counterpart WinRed, which has an even longer list of complainants and arguably worse business practices.

Fighting back on multiple fronts | Off the Kuff The top Democrats on three U.S. House committees are going after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, accusing him of ignoring consumer complaints about the Republican organization WinRed’s online fundraising tactics, while filing a lawsuit against the site’s Democratic counterpart ActBlue.

Flock and its relationship with cities where it had signed contracts that weren't publicized and maybe weren't all that well understood continue to make news.

Three Flock stories | Off the Kuff After months of discussion and outrage from residents, the city council of the tiny town of Bandera, Texas voted 3-2 to immediately end its contract with the surveillance company Flock. In the aftermath of the vote, one of the dissenting council members crashed out and said he would be introducing m...

Major League Baseball is beginning to make some investments in India again, on the youth baseball front.

MLB takes another swing at India | Off the Kuff At India’s first MLB Cup in 2021 — an under-11 competition — only 12 teams took part. In a country obsessed with cricket and soccer, it was difficult to find the necessary coaches and ballplayers ready to come out and hit the field.

The latest Texas Public Opinion Research poll has James Talarico up on Ken Paxton 47-44, but it gets there in a really weird way.

TPOR: Talarico 47, Paxton 44 | Off the Kuff Texas Public Opinion Research (TPOR) today released a new poll of likely Texas general election voters, surveying their attitudes on the 2026 races for U.S. Senate, Governor, and Attorney General.

The Fifth Circuit put stays on the district court orders pausing the rulings against the age verification law for app marketplace operators, and on the latest ruling that stopped the law allowing state law enforcement officers to detain and deport undocumented immigrants.

The Fifth Circuit keeps on doing its thing | Off the Kuff Texas’ law requiring app marketplace operators like Google and Apple to verify all users’ ages and seek parental permission before minors can download apps or make in-app purchases can go into effect for now, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday.

The Houston Chronicle was always going to endorse James Talarico over Ken Paxton. So they decided to not wait and do that right away, along with a detailed accounting of why Ken Paxton is so terrible.

Endorsement watch: For Talarico, obviously | Off the Kuff The contest is set. The storyline, straight out of Hollywood. It’s as if, as President Donald Trump likes to say, the candidates came from central casting.

Trump's massive slide with Latino voters plus the previous gains Democrats have made with white voters are what's powering James Talarico's chances in the Senate race.

Another case for Talarico’s chances | Off the Kuff After a decade of big talk from Democrats about Texas, it’s understandable that people could harbor some doubt about flipping the nation’s largest red state. Judging by presidential election results, Democrats barely made any progress at all: President Trump won Texas by almost 14 percentage poi...