📰 NEWS AROUND TEXAS 📰
Income gap • Voucher funding • Ballot-count suit 👇
📅 October 29th, 2026AD
⭐ TEXAS' DAILY FRONT PAGE — THE STORIES MOVING THE LONE STAR STATE ⭐
📋 TODAY'S TOP 5
1. 📊 Texas income trails U.S. median
2. 🎓 Voucher funding debate
3. 🗳️ Statewide hand count sought
4. ⚖️ Judge orders answers on mailers
5. 🌊 Texas appeals flood-aid denial
📊 TEXAS INCOME TRAILS U.S. MEDIAN
Texas' median household income was $82,625 in 2025, below the national median of $84,780, according to U.S. Census Bureau data released Thursday, The Texas Tribune reported.
More than half of Texas renters were cost-burdened, even as monthly rents were largely flat, according to the report.
Fewer Texans lived in poverty. The median property-tax bill for homeowners who have paid off their mortgage shrank about 4.2%, the report says.
Texas still has the nation's highest uninsured rate, even though the Census Bureau changed its health-insurance survey questions, the report says.
🎓 VOUCHER FUNDING DIVIDES CANDIDATES
Texas' next comptroller will oversee the $1 billion Texas Education Freedom Accounts program, which helps families pay for private schooling, KERA reported via Houston Public Media.
More than 274,000 requests came in, and more than 100,000 students received money, according to the report.
Republican Don Huffines, the acting comptroller, is asking lawmakers to add another $1 billion for 2028–29, KERA reported.
Democratic state Sen. Sarah Eckhardt says lawmakers should see first-year results before doubling the funding. Any increase would require legislative action.
🗳️ GOP GROUP SEEKS STATEWIDE HAND COUNT
The Potter County Republican Party wants every Texas ballot hand-counted before Nov. 3 election results are certified, The Texas Tribune reported.
Filed Tuesday in Amarillo, the lawsuit was assigned to U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk. It is a request, not a court order.
The filing offers no proof of vulnerabilities and does not allege that past Potter County or statewide results were altered, according to the report.
Texas already requires a partial hand count of paper ballots. Texans cast 11.4 million ballots in the 2024 general election.
⚖️ JUDGE ORDERS ANSWERS ON MAILERS
Travis County District Judge Jan Soifer ordered a Wyoming LLC to answer questions about texts and mailers that claimed to come from Texas transgender groups, The Texas Newsroom reported.
TENT, one of the groups, says it did not send or authorize the messages.
A representative for the LLC must sit for a deposition Friday, while telecommunications company Infobip must provide written answers to TENT's questions by Thursday, according to the report.
The senders' lawyer argues their actions are protected by the First Amendment and has appealed the ruling.
🌊 TEXAS APPEALS FLOOD-AID DENIAL
Texas emergency management chief Nim Kidd appealed FEMA's denial of individual assistance Tuesday, asking the agency to reconsider aid for 20 of 30 counties affected by July's floods, The Texas Tribune reported.
Kerr and Uvalde are among the counties in the appeal. The state counted 2,944 damaged homes and small businesses, including 132 destroyed. At least three people died, according to the report.
The appeal came the same day President Donald Trump promised more recovery funds at a Republican campaign rally in Corpus Christi, the Tribune reported.
That pledge is not an approval of the appeal. The request concerns assistance for individuals, not a confirmed new award to flood survivors.
🌤️ HOOD COUNTY WEATHER WATCH
🌡️ CURRENT: Observed 2:15 p.m., Granbury airport (KGDJ): cloudy, 75°F, south-southeast wind near 9 mph
📅 3-DAY OUTLOOK
Friday: rain showers likely, 72°/59°
Saturday: chance showers and thunderstorms, 74°/60°
Sunday: partly sunny, 81°/65°
💬 COMMUNITY PULSE
Which squeezes your budget more this year: housing costs or everyday expenses?
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