Texas State University

The fatal shooting at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, which killed three students and a teacher, ended when an armed civilian opened fire on the teenage gunman. Kaylub Giamanco, a 36-year-old carpenter whose daughters attend the school, retrieved a legally stored .40-caliber pistol from his vehicle and fired after seeing a teacher struggling with the attacker, police said. President Trump praised the intervention.

Such cases remain rare: Texas State University's ALERRT center found armed civilians stopped attackers in only 29 of 634 tracked "active attack" incidents since 2000, with civilians subduing attackers another 31 times by other means. The episode has renewed debate over armed-citizen response policies, echoing past interventions in shootings in Twin Falls, Idaho, and at Texas churches in White Settlement and Sutherland Springs.

A father of two, Kaylub Giamanco, is being credited with confronting the teenage gunman who attacked Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, killing three students and a teacher. Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz said Giamanco, a 36-year-old carpenter, retrieved a legally owned .40-caliber pistol from his vehicle, entered the school, and fired on the attacker after seeing him struggling with a teacher. President Trump praised the intervention. Such civilian interventions remain rare: a Texas State University tracking center found armed civilians stopped attackers in only 29 of 634 active-attack incidents studied since 2000, reviving debate over armed-citizen policies like Texas's school marshal program versus Oregon's stricter gun laws.

A newly public deposition from December 2014 shows Texas Attorney General and GOP Senate candidate Ken Paxton repeatedly unable or unwilling to answer federal investigators' questions about his personal finances. The transcript, obtained and authenticated by The New York Times and provided by someone opposed to Paxton's Senate bid, stems from an SEC probe into Servergy Inc., a McKinney, Texas tech startup under scrutiny for alleged false claims to investors. Paxton said "I don't remember" or "I don't recall" more than 200 times, attributing gaps in his knowledge to being busy with legislative work and campaigning, delegating investment matters to staff, and relying on his then-wife, Angela, to handle taxes. He described receiving 100,000 Servergy shares as a gift from the company's founder, calling it consistent with the man's faith, though he admitted it was "not logical."

The SEC later brought civil fraud charges against Paxton that were dismissed; a related state securities fraud indictment ended in a deal with no admission of wrongdoing. Paxton's campaign called the leak a political distraction, as he trails Democratic opponent James Talarico, who is seeking to unseal two other sealed depositions.

The 2026 race for Texas Agriculture Commissioner features Republican Nate Sheets against Democrat Clayton Tucker, along with Libertarian candidate Kelly. Incumbent Sid Miller lost his primary bid to Sheets, a businessman and co-founder of Nature Nate's Honey who is backed by Gov. Greg Abbott and other prominent Texas Republicans. Sheets identifies with the MAHA movement and has focused his platform on clean food production, curbing tax breaks for data centers, rural economic development and stricter employment verification requirements.

Tucker, a rancher and Texas Farmers Union secretary with a background in trade justice advocacy, ran unopposed in the Democratic primary. Her platform emphasizes protecting family farms from data center expansion, lowering food costs, regulating chemicals like PFAS, and expanding hemp farming and agricultural co-ops. Libertarian candidate Kelly, an ecology consultant and lecturer, calls for cutting regulations, auditing the agriculture department and protecting property rights. The office oversees agribusiness regulation, rural economic development and disaster relief for the state's roughly 230,000 farms.

A new national free speech ranking from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression found the average campus climate score is 61.36 out of 100 — a seven-year high, but still a D-. Of 261 schools ranked, 121 received an F and only 24 earned a C or better. The University of Chicago topped the list for the third time in seven years, followed by Claremont McKenna, Georgia Tech, Michigan Tech and Vanderbilt; New York University ranked last. In Minnesota, the University of Minnesota and Macalester College both flunked, with Macalester criticized for restrictive speech policies and intolerance of opposing views, while Carleton College earned a D- but was praised for improved political tolerance.

The University of Arkansas scored 56.6 amid controversies including the rescinded hiring of a law school dean over her support for transgender athletes and discipline against a professor over pro-Palestinian posters. Nationally, students report high self-censorship, most often on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, followed by Trump, Charlie Kirk's assassination, abortion, immigration and transgender rights. Some schools lost points for firing professors over posts about Kirk's death; Utah Valley University fell sharply after dropping a commencement speaker. The findings arrive as the Trump administration pressures universities over protests, funding and diversity programs.