Hoax

Texas households received mailers this month branded as a "Texas Trans & LGBTQ+ Student Resource Guide," arriving as early voting began. The materials pointed minors toward hormones, out-of-state medical transition, and legal emancipation from parents. The Transgender Education Network of Texas (TENT), whose branding appeared throughout, denies producing or approving the pamphlet. Investigators traced it to a Wyoming-registered shell company with a nonexistent return address, prompting a forgery investigation by a local district attorney. No sender has been identified, and TENT is seeking to depose the vendors involved.

While the mailer's origin remains unconfirmed, its content echoes real debates over parental rights, gender-identity policy in schools, and state laws like Texas's bans on youth medical transition and school gender clubs.

Donald Ray McCray, 67, of Dallas has been sentenced to more than 17 years in federal prison after a jury convicted him of mailing threatening communications and a hoax weapon of mass destruction. Prosecutors said McCray sent threatening letters to U.S. district court judges in the Northern District of Texas and the Eastern District of New York, and mailed envelopes containing white powder to the federal courthouse in Fort Worth and to the court clerk in Amarillo while he was incarcerated in a Texas state prison in March 2025.

Officials said the letters threatened to kill state and federal government employees, including judges, and that McCray made further threats at a court hearing after being indicted in June 2025. He will be returned to state custody to face a separate charge of attempted murder of a prison guard. Authorities described the case as an attack on the integrity of the federal judiciary.

New York political leaders are calling on the federal government to act quickly on artificial intelligence oversight, following warnings from AI lab CEOs about potential risks from unchecked development. Mayor Zohran Mamdani called recent AI warnings "incredibly alarming" and said the city would explore protective measures, while Gov. Kathy Hochul urged Washington to set national standards prioritizing public safety over the race to build more powerful AI systems. President Trump has dismissed such concerns as a "hoax" and opposes new regulation, citing competition with China.

New York City and State have already taken steps, including the RAISE Act, a one-year data center moratorium, and a ban on AI chatbots for young students, but a state comptroller audit and a city public advocate report both found more oversight is needed. The debate has also become a flashpoint in competitive congressional races, with data center policy emerging as an attack line, and Assemblymember Alex Bores launching a multimillion-dollar push to unify Democrats around AI regulation.