Progressive sex therapist Maureen Galindo lost the Democratic runoff for Texas’ 35th District after being accused of antisemitism and facing condemnations from within her own party.
Johnny Garcia’s victory over Galindo on Tuesday has national and Texas Democrats breathing a sigh of relief.
They had moved en masse to disavow Galindo after she said in a recent social media post that she would write legislation to turn a local ICE detention center into a “prison for American Zionists and former ICE officers for human trafficking.” They had also accused Republicans of trying to prop her up, pointing to a shadowy super PAC with possible GOP ties, Lead Left, that pumped over $900,000 into the race to boost Galindo and attack Garcia.
The district is one of the five that Texas Republicans are targeting for pickups this fall, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has added Garcia, a county sheriff’s deputy, to its coveted “Red to Blue” program to support his candidacy.
Galindo has said she’s not antisemitic and claimed DCCC was trying to “inflame my comments because they want my Israeli-backed opponent.”
In an email to POLITICO last week, she said her proposal for the detention center “was NEVER for Jewish Zionists — it’s for BILLIONAIRE Zionists, regardless of religion. If they’ve done business for genocidal prison state materials or there’s evidence of pedophilia from Epstein files, they should be brought to trial.”
Tuesday’s result is a reversal from the March primary, where Garcia finished second to Galindo.
Blue Dog Action PAC spent over $1 million boosting Garcia’s bid in recent weeks, including over $450,000 to directly counter Lead Left. And he had racked up endorsements from former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to Texas Reps. Lloyd Doggett, Joaquin Castro and Greg Casar, all of whom represent nearby districts.
Garcia will face Carlos De La Cruz, a Trump-backed candidate and the brother of Rep. Monica De La Cruz (R-Texas) who won his GOP primary Tuesday night. Trump won the district by 10 points in 2024.
Michele Johnson, Barabara Murphy, Fred Murphy, and a bear-suited Joe Parnell at the Port Chilkoot Dock. Monday, May 25, 2026. (Will Steinfeld/Chilkat Valley News)
Monday welcomed in the first real summer weather of the year, and the first real summer crowds: more than 2,000 passengers off Cunard Cruise Line’s Queen Elizabeth.
Currently, there are just a handful of those high-volume, 2000-plus passenger days each year in the Chilkat Valley. That could change, as the community draws nearer to a decision on a deal to lease the municipal cruise dock to an outside port-management company. According to preliminary talks, the company, Global Ports Holding, would attempt to quadruple the valley’s annual cruise-passenger visitation.
There appears to be no simple answer, yet, on whether locals want such an increase, with plenty of voices on each side.
But what do cruise passengers think?
Chilkat Valley News reporters Will Steinfeld and Lizzy Hahn spoke to Queen Elizabeth passengers Monday, some on shore excursions, some exploring town on their own. They asked how the stop in the Chilkat Valley compared to other Southeast ports, and what visitor’s thought about Haines’ attractions.
Here’s what they said:
Michele Johnson, Barbara Murphy and Fred Murphy
Johnson, a Chicagoan, and the Murphys, Texans but near year-round RV travelers, had just returned from a bus trip to the Haines Highway summit.
When the prospect of increased cruise numbers came up, Johnson immediately interrupted: “Oh no. Absolutely not.”
“This is Alaska,” she said. “I have no interest in going to the places that are touristy. I would go to ten of these places in the place of one Disneyland. I want to see how people live in Alaska, to talk to people, ask how they survive the winter.”
The Queen Elizabeth, which left out of Seattle, had just stopped in Ketchikan, and Johnson drew a sharp distinction between Haines and Southeast’s southern port.
“In Ketchikan, I didn’t even care if I got off the ship, I can buy things anywhere,” Johnson said. “I think you guys should preserve the resources you have — the scenery and the sense of community.”
“Start a GoFundMe instead,” she added, after acknowledging the potential economic boost of increased tourism. “I’d donate monthly to that.”
The Murphys, in agreement with Johnson, highlighted the sense of community their friend spoke about.
Talking about their day trip out to the pass, they brought up a specific moment from their guide:
“When our tour guide heard we were going on the shuttle, she said, ‘say hello to my friend Jack driving the shuttle, go into this place and tell my friend so-and-so hello,’” Barbara Murphy said. “It’s very cool that it works that way. You really get a feel for the town, how friendly people are.”
“When I opened my window and looked out this morning, I thought, oh my, I’m in Alaska,” she added. “It’s my understanding that Skagway sees something like 12,000 people in at one time. I no longer have an interest in going to Skagway now that I’ve heard that.”
Said Fred Murphy, “Ketchikan is just excursion after excursion. I can see that anywhere in the country. This stays plain. This is what we want.”
Gang Hou, Jemmy Lo and Dinna Lo
Gang Hou, Jemmy Lo, and Dinna Lo were eating lunch at a picnic bench by Fort Seward. They had split off from their larger group of friends after their scheduled tour to Chilkoot Lake failed to arrive.
They were less focused on the local details than Johnson and the Murphys had been. In fact, Hou and the Los weren’t entirely sure the name of the town they were eating lunch in.
The way it worked, they said, was as the ship approached port, ship staff handed out a Haines brochure and briefed passengers on the stop.
“They compared the different cities, saying, ‘maybe it’s not as modern as Skagway, but it’s more peaceful,’” Dinna Lo said.
When the Chilkoot excursion fell through they had opted for a walk around downtown.
“Downtown is very boring, to be honest with you,” Lo added. “If there were some more activities, or more transportation to go to Chilkoot Lake, it would be better.”
Gang Hou had a slightly different perspective. The friends were coming from Houston, where they had lived for decades after immigrating from Taiwan, and Hou said he was glad to have something different.
“We come from Houston,” Hou said. “That’s a modern city. We don’t need to make everything like a Houston. If I wanted that I would have stayed in Houston. So I like this. It’s different.”
Like the previous group, the Los and Hou were also very interested in how locals survived winter.
Gang Hou, Jemmy Lo, Dinna Lo, and a friend (second from left), all of Houston, off the Queen Elizabeth. Monday, May 25, 2026. (Will Steinfeld/Chilkat Valley News)
Kristin and Rich Snoddy
The Queen Elizabeth, the Snoddys said, was the first cruise they had been on where shore excursions could be scheduled ahead of time, before the cruise even started.
By the time they got around to looking at Haines excursions, they were all sold out. Instead, the Snoddys, from the Detroit area, spent the morning walking around town, impressed by skunk cabbage in a ditch by Mountain Market.
“For me, your scenery here is killing it,” Kristin Snoddy said. “I’m not here to shop, although I’ve bought some interesting things today. Just being able to walk around and (look at the scenery) is enough for me.”
Gill and Paul Anderson
The Andersons, from Southern England, rented e-bikes from Sockeye Cycle and had made it out to Chilkoot by mid-afternoon. That was their second activity of the day, after a morning on a whale-watching excursion.
“We saw eagles, whales, dolphins — our minds were blown,” Paul Anderson said.
Unlike the passengers in town, they saw less of a difference between Haines and Ketchikan — the ship’s other port call outside of a trip through Glacier Bay.
“I feel like Ketchikan offered similar sorts of things,” Gill Anderson said. “Walking tours, learning about the history. We were supposed to do the Klondike in Skagway but it got cancelled late last night. But we managed to get on the whale watching this morning so it worked out for the best.”
Christina Mitchell and Jennifer Allen
Mitchell and Allen were in a similar boat, though actually, technically, a different boat. The two, from Arizona and Washington, were on a Norwegian Cruise Lines ship docked in Skagway, and had taken the fast ferry Monday morning down the canal.
But like the Andersons, they said they were glad they opted for Chilkoot kayaking rather than Skagway attractions.
“It’s smaller crowds here, it’s a different feel,” Mitchell said. “More laid back.”
“I think Haines has a good number of options,” she added. “It’s different than what you’d see at other ports. It’s nicer because it’s smaller and fewer people.”
Rep. Chip Roy lost the GOP runoff for Texas attorney general after a challenger to his right painted him as insufficiently loyal to MAGA.
State Sen. Mayes Middleton’s victory Tuesday proves that fealty to President Donald Trump continues to be the defining issue for Republican primary voters.
Middleton convinced voters he was the best Republican to carry the MAGA torch from outgoing Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is competing in his own Republican runoff Tuesday, against Sen. John Cornyn, for the Texas Senate seat.
Middleton finished ahead of Roy in the March primary, knocking out two other opponents. A wealthy oil businessman from Galveston, Texas, Middleton loaned his campaign more than $16 million.
If he were to get elected as attorney general, Middleton would help shape the future of the Republican Party post-Trump, playing a key role leading the conservative legal movement.
Looks like The White Lotus is getting extra meta.
Indeed, details are coming to light about season four of the HBO series, which appears to center on celebrities attending the Cannes Film Festival… E! Online (US) – Top Stories
Attorney General Ken Paxton defeated Sen. John Cornyn in the Senate GOP runoff Tuesday, cementing the influence of the far right in Texas and potentially putting the seat in play for November.
Paxton was boosted by a last-minute endorsement from President Donald Trump in the final days of the race. His defeat of Cornyn, a towering figure in Texas politics and four-term incumbent, is a major MAGA coup.
But establishment Republicans and major national donors have warned that a Paxton victory would lead to a costly general election against Democratic nominee James Talarico. Head-to-head polling shows Talarico with a slight lead over Paxton.
Paxton overcame his deficit in the March primary, where he finished narrowly behind Cornyn, by leaning on his grassroots support among MAGA voters — a base he’s cultivated throughout his tenure in Texas.
He also overcame millions of dollars in attack ads from Cornyn that highlighted his long trail of personal and political scandals. And Trump’s endorsement one week before the primary runoff likely sealed the deal.
Rosie O’Donnell almost can’t believe she got a facelift.
The comedian shared that she decided to get the procedure done in January of this year—and it certainly was not cheap. As Rosie revealed in… E! Online (US) – Top Stories
Texas Democratic Rep. Christian Menefee defeated longtime Rep. Al Green in a runoff that was defined by heavy outside spending and clashes over generational change.
The Tuesday result will likely end the long career of Green, a 78-year-old civil rights champion who was running for a 12th term in Washington. He entered the race in the newly drawn Houston-area 18th District after his own district was carved up in redistricting.
Menefee, a 38-year-old Harris County attorney and fellow member of the Congressional Black Caucus, was sworn into Congress earlier this year after winning a special election in January to serve out the remainder of the late Rep. Sylvester Turner’s term. He is expected to cruise to victory in November in the safely Democratic Houston district.
The race was also the latest sign of the power of the crypto lobby’s influence. A cryptocurrency super PAC poured $4 million into the race to back Menefee, turning the incumbent-on-incumbent showdown into the most expensive House runoff in Texas this cycle.
In the end, Green, an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump, couldn’t overcome the cash disadvantage despite his name recognition.
What is the premier conference in college football right now: the Big Ten or the SEC? After producing the last three College Football Playoff national champions — from three different schools — there is no denying the Big Ten has sat atop the college football world recently. But there is also a growing sentiment that the SEC is stronger in the middle and at the bottom, making it the deeper league overall. “There was a lot of pushback from the Big Ten on that this week,” FOX Sports’ Joel Klatt said on a recent episode of “The Joel Klatt Show,” discussing what he learned at the Big Ten spring meetings in Palos Verdes, California. “And really, the Big Ten is not wrong.” Klatt pointed out that the Big Ten is 4-0 against the SEC in the College Football Playoff over the past three years. The conference is also 5-2 against the SEC in non-CFP bowl games over the past two years. “There is an idea that the depth of the Big Ten is being undersold nationally, and a way to fight that would be a scheduling agreement with the SEC,” Klatt said. “They want to fight the narrative on the field.” Here’s a look at 10 future SEC-Big Ten college football matchups Klatt would love to see if the conferences ever agreed to a scheduling agreement: Klatt: Bielema-Beamer 2! Remember that Citrus Bowl at the end of the 2024 season, when there was some bad blood there, particularly with how the game ended? I want this again. There’s no doubt. This might not be the best possible matchup, but certainly the storylines would run deep. Klatt: Kirby [Smart] to face Dan Lanning in Autzen Stadium? Yes! I’m in on that. Lanning’s first game as the head coach of the Oregon Ducks was against Georgia, and that one was in Atlanta in 2022. Georgia beat them up, 49-3. I’d love to see Kirby go up and face his former assistant and defensive coordinator. Klatt: We heard a lot in the playoff a couple of years ago about Neyland North. Listen, Tennessee fans, to your credit, you guys showed up huge in that playoff game. There’s no doubt. There was more orange in the stands than I saw of any other color in my history calling college football games in Columbus at The Shoe. I want to see Ohio State go and return the favor. Klatt: Lane [Kiffin] back in LA? Yup, you bet! Lane has obviously been back to LA, but not in an official capacity since he was left on the tarmac as the head coach of the USC Trojans. Bring him back. I want that every day of the week. Every year. That would be phenomenal. Please give us this scheduling agreement because it would be great for fans and great for college football. Klatt: How about bringing back an old rival? Nebraska-Oklahoma used to be as good as any rivalry in college football, maybe second to only Michigan-Ohio State. Throughout the whole Big 8 days, and even in the Big 12, this was a marquee Thanksgiving weekend matchup. Bring back this one. Klatt: I’m just hitting all the classics, and USC-Texas is absolutely a classic that I want to see. Obviously, that Rose Bowl with [Matt] Leinart, [Reggie] Bush and Vince Young was maybe the greatest game we’ve seen in the history of college football. You get those colors on the field at the same time. It would just drip with nostalgia. We’d be thinking about that and Keith Jackson on the call. Klatt: Curt Cignetti going back to Alabama, where he got his start, in a big way, under [Nick] Saban as a recruiting coordinator. Plus, this would be a rematch of last year’s Rose Bowl. That would be a great one. Klatt: This one’s time sensitive. So, it wouldn’t happen, unless we could do it this year. But, how about Nico Iamaleava going back to Tennessee? How about Nico and [UCLA head coach] Bob Chesney going to face Josh Huepel and Tennessee back in Knoxville? I’m sure those fans would just welcome Nico back with open arms. Klatt: I would love to see the Urban [Meyer] Bowl. Urban won a championship with both of those schools. I think that one would be phenomenal. Kalen DeBoer had a lot of success at Washington, getting them right on the precipice of a championship, and then leaving for the bigger and greener pastures of the SEC and Alabama.Latest Sports News from FOX Sports
There’s no better time to have a breakout campaign than in a contract year. In the NFL, it’s certainly not uncommon for a contract year to lead to big-time results on the field for a player, either. And with that comes a big reward. Just ask Indianapolis Colts wide receiver Alec Pierce. After recording a career-high 1,003 receiving yards in the final year of his rookie deal, Pierce cashed in and landed him a four-year, $114 million deal with Indianapolis this spring. The deal was the largest ever for a free-agent wide receiver in league history, and it made him the 11th-highest-paid receiver in the league at the time of the deal. Next year, who could emerge in a Pierce-like way and land a massive contract of their own in the process? In descending order, here are the 10 contract-year players in 2026 I believe have the best chance of breaking out: A 2023 second-round pick, Matthew Bergeron has been the Atlanta Falcons’ starting left guard since his rookie season. But the addition of longtime offensive line coach Bill Callahan to new coach Kevin Stefanski’s staff could take his game to new heights. Callahan has long been regarded as one of the NFL’s top offensive line coaches, credited with developing the likes of Zack Martin and Tyron Smith. Ji’Ayier Brown, who has five interceptions since entering the league in 2023, has started 13 games and recorded six pass breakups in back-to-back seasons. Reinforcements on the San Francisco 49ers’ defensive front in 2026 (linebacker Fred Warner and edge rusher Nick Bosa returning from injury; bringing linebacker Dre Greenlaw back; trading for defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa) will create more playmaking opportunities on the back end for Brown. Set to play on his fifth-year option in 2026, Kayvon Thibodeaux has been the subject of trade rumors this offseason. Whether he plays the upcoming season with the New York Giants or elsewhere, he’ll have plenty to prove in a season where long-term security could be on the line. The former No. 5 overall pick had a career-low 2.5 sacks in 2025. The rebuilding Miami Dolphins are built around star running back De’Von Achane and dual-threat quarterback Malik Willis on offense. There will be plenty of opportunities for Aaron Brewer to continue showing his athleticism in space, building off of an impressive 2025 season, when he was named a second-team All-Pro selection. A 2023 second-round pick, Brenton Strange’s numbers have improved every season of his career, including more than doubling his receiving yards per game last season (45.0) from 2024 (24.2). Another exponential leap could be in store in 2026, when he’ll be in his second season in coach Liam Coen’s offense and fourth year playing with quarterback Trevor Lawrence. Myles Murphy started to come on at the end of last season, recording three of his career-high 5.5 sacks in the final four weeks of the year. The additions of nose tackle Dexter Lawrence II, defensive tackle Jonathan Allen and edge rusher Boye Mafe should create favorable matchups for Murphy, a 2023 first-round pick, in 2026. Josh Downs had career lows in receptions (58) and receiving yards (556) last season, but he should become a much more significant part of the Colts’ offense with Michael Pittman Jr. getting traded to the Pittsburgh Steelers. A former third-round pick, Downs is the second-best wide receiver on Indianapolis’ roster behind Pierce, who’s expected to miss all of the team’s offseason workouts following ankle surgery. The Green Bay Packers’ passing attack is always balanced, but Christian Watson has a prime opportunity to break out. He tied a team-high 61.1 receiving yards per game last season, and Romeo Doubs departed in free agency for the New England Patriots. Star tight end Tucker Kraft could miss the start of the season thanks to a torn ACL, which could make Watson the focal point of Green Bay’s passing game. Riq Woolen has plenty to prove on his one-year deal with the Eagles, given he lost his starting job with the Seattle Seahawks last season and saw his play overall marked by inconsistency since his Pro Bowl rookie season. The 2022 fifth-round pick has elite ball skills — he led the NFL with six interceptions in his rookie year — and he’ll have plenty of playmaking opportunities with opposing offenses looking to avoid targeting Quinyon Mitchell and nickelback Cooper DeJean. If Kyler Murray beats out 2024 first-round pick J.J. McCarthy for the starting quarterback job, the former Arizona Cardinals quarterback will be positioned to thrive. He’ll have the best supporting cast of his career, highlighted by superstar wide receiver Justin Jefferson. Head coach Kevin O’Connell is also well-regarded as a quarterback guru, helping Sam Darnold earn a three-year, $100.5 million deal when he was in a similar situation a few years ago.Latest Sports News from FOX Sports
Clint Black’s long awaited memoir, Killin’ Time: My Life and Music, is finally out in the world, allowing fans to get a look behind the curtain through the stories of his journey from growing up outside of Houston to becoming one of the most iconic stars in country music.
While reflecting on the process of seeing this project come to life, the Texas native admitted to Country Now that it took a bit of convincing before he was ready to unleash his memories and life experiences in this brand-new way. He “never thought” he would or could write a book, but his wife, Lisa Hartman Black spent years telling him that he needed to do it.
Photo Courtesy of Clint Black
The final point of motivation came with the realization that his only daughter, Lily Pearl Black, was turning 25 in 2026. Black explains he wanted to have a collection of stories, not only for the world to read, but also his daughter so that she could learn even more about her dad.
“It was fun to know she was reading it,” he shared.
When the moment finally came for him to take a chance on himself and write the memoir, with some guidance from his co-writer, Craig Shelburne, and editor, by Maddie Pillari with HarperCollins Publishing, Black found that it wasn’t so difficult to put pen to paper. In fact, by the end of the process, he had overwritten about his early struggles, his rise in the spotlight, and building a family amid it all.
Plus, he gets candid about the challenges that came with it, including legal battles, industry pressures, and health scares, like the recent cervical spine injury that threatened his ability to sing.All of these stories come together under the title fittingly named after his groundbreaking debut album, which was released in 1989. t a
“I wrote more than the book needed and I had some feedback from Craig Shelburne and from my editor, Maddie. And I knew I was going to have a great editor at Harper Collins and that I would benefit from their experience. And so I just put more in there than needed,” Black noted. “I just had more than I needed and then relied on Maddie and Craig to help point out areas that needed work. And that was really it.”
Luckily, his collaborators gave him the freedom to decide which stories were worth keeping and which weren’t as important to share.
“There were some things that I would say, ‘I feel strongly about this.’ And my editor would encourage me that, ‘if you really feel strongly about something, don’t listen to me.’ But I listened to her a lot.”
Of course, new memories are made every day so knowing when to put the pen down and decide that the memory was finally complete took some time. However Blacks’ experience with making 14 studio albums throughout his career has given him the tools to know when to call a project finished and move on.
“There are things that I think of now that I feel like, that would’ve been good to put in the book. We’re always telling stories. We’re on the road, on the bus talking. Somebody new joins the tour and will you tell a story or two, and then I think of something that would’ve been good to put in there. But I’m pretty good at moving on. I have had to do it with albums for so many years…so with the book, it wasn’t that hard.”
One of the most important things that readers will learn about Clint Black through Killin’ Time: My Life and Music, is why he is the person he is and all the efforts he made to get to this point in his life.
“I realized that growing up with three older brothers, trying to keep up with them, doing the door-to-door salesman thing for four years, selling newspaper subscriptions, being rejected 99.9% of the time, that really set me up and gave me that fight to keep from drowning that you read about in the beginning, it set me up for all those years in the bars where I was not succeeding, but I was on route. I was on my way there. I just didn’t know how close or how far away it was.”
Black continued, “When you’re in that place, it’s easy to lose hope and become discouraged and give up. I was never even close to that, but I was questioning my tactics. I was questioning how I was going about it, what kind of job I have.T his job singing doesn’t allow for time and energy or money to go and make demos. And so I went through a lot of that.”
Just like anyone else, he went through hardship and faced doubt, not knowing if he was on the right path, but 22 No. 1 singles, nearly two dozen gold and platinum awards (U.S. and Canada), and countless awards later, it’s safe to say that all of Black’s hard work has paid off.
Photo Courtesy of Clint Black
Fans can also see many of those milestone moments and artifacts from Black’s career journey on display at the Country Music Hall of Fame’s new exhibition, Clint Black: The Hard Way on Purpose. The exhibit opened on April 22 and is set to run through August 2027.
Plus, the second led of his 2026 continues with dates throughout November.
Looks like The White Lotus is getting extra meta.
Rosie O’Donnell almost can’t believe she got a facelift.
![<a href="https://countrynow.com/clint-black-shares-why-he-was-finally-ready-to-tell-his-life-story-in-killin-time-my-life-and-music-memoir-exclusive/" target="_blank">Clint Black Shares Why He Was Finally Ready to Tell His Life Story in ‘Killin’ Time: My Life and Music’ Memoir [Exclusive]</a>](https://countrynow.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/2-35-1024x683.jpg)
