Texas protest case could test limits on dissident political speech under Trump

DALLAS — On July 6, 2025, Daniel Rolando Sanchez-Estrada got a call from his wife. She was in jail after attending a protest at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Alvarado and was worried police might search their home in Garland.

An hour later, Sanchez-Estrada loaded his car with various boxes of anti-government and anti-Trump literature, according to court filings. FBI agents waiting outside his house followed him to a nondescript Denton apartment, where he left the boxes. Dallas police officers then arrested Sanchez-Estrada on orders from federal agents.

A year later, Sanchez-Estrada is now serving 30 years in prison for moving the documents 56 miles.

Sanchez-Estrada is one of 16 people sentenced to a collective 562 years in prison for their connection to the Prairieland Detention Center protest — unusually harsh punishments that First Amendment experts around the country are concerned will have a "chilling effect" on political protest around the country.

—The Dallas Morning News

LA Unified School District faces ‘severe’ signs of insolvency; county warns it could take control of budget

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Unified School District faces “severe” indications that it will be insolvent by November 2027 — falling $231 million into the red and unable to make payroll — county analysts have concluded, setting up a 45-day deadline for the school board to amend their budget or face losing significant future authority over spending decisions.

The county has appointed a “fiscal expert” to work with the district to eliminate the projected deficit. If that effort falls short, county authorities will appoint an official empowered to overturn school board spending decisions, according to the letter sent to L.A. Unified.

The July 2 notice, from county education office Supt. Debra Duardo to L.A. school board President Scott Schmerelson, said the district’s recent budget adoption “erodes confidence” in its decision-making.

The county attributes the crisis largely to union contracts it repeatedly warned L.A. Unified officials the district could not afford. The projected annual cost of the union settlements and employee raises is well over $1 billion a year.

—Los Angeles Times

Climate change could double household water costs in some cities, study finds

Household water costs could nearly double in some American cities, new research suggests, as climate change further stresses municipal water systems.

Researchers at Stanford University and other institutions studied how a hotter, drier climate is poised to spike water bills for residents of Santa Cruz, California, in a peer-reviewed study published this week in the journal Nature Sustainability.

While the study focused on that coastal city, the outlook is similar for many cities that will be forced to make costly upgrades to water systems as climate change intensifies, said lead author Jennifer Skerker, who worked on the research while studying for her doctorate in civil and environmental engineering at Stanford.

Without significant government funding, the costs of new water transport systems, desalination plants and sewage water reuse systems are likely to be borne by individual water systems, which are expected to pass them on to consumers through water bills.

—Stateline.org

Venezuela quake death toll reaches 3,811 two weeks after disaster

Two weeks after Venezuela’s devastating twin earthquakes, the country is entering a new and increasingly painful phase of the disaster. While hopes of finding additional survivors have all but vanished, tens of thousands of families remain waiting for answers about relatives whose whereabouts are still unknown.

Government officials said Wednesday night that the official death toll has climbed to 3,811, with 16,740 people injured, as authorities continue shifting their focus from emergency rescue operations toward reconstruction and humanitarian assistance.

The updated figures, presented during a government briefing, show 6,462 people have been rescued alive since the 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes struck north-central Venezuela on June 24, just 39 seconds apart, making them among the deadliest natural disasters in the country’s modern history.

Authorities said 17,907 people remain homeless after losing their residences, while 190 buildings collapsed completely and another 856 suffered significant damage.

—Miami Herald