Austin, TX
Third-party candidate leaves Mexico’s 2024 presidential race
MEXICO CITY (AP) — A third-party candidate announced Saturday he is leaving Mexico’s 2024 presidential race, practically ensuring the country ’s next president will be a woman.
Samuel García, the governor of the northern border state of Nuevo Leon, said Saturday he won’t run for president in the June 2 elections. He had been polling below 10% in the race, and was given almost no chance of actually winning.
That leaves only the ruling Morena party and the opposition coalition’s candidates, both of whom are women. While García’s small Citizen’s Movement party could yet nominate another male candidate, García’s troubled exit suggests the party won’t be able to find anyone of much stature to run.
Gov. García’s decision came after one of the wilder chapters in Mexican politics. On Friday, the border state across from Texas briefly saw two interim governors designated to replace García, who had asked for a six-month leave of absence to campaign for president.
Mexican law requires any official to resign or take a leave at least six months before running for office. With the presidential elections on June 2, that meant Friday was the last day for García to do so. But in view of the conflict, García had to drop his presidential bid to put his state in order.
García had appointed one of his Cabinet members to serve as interim governor, and he was supposed to take over the job on Friday. But the state congress, where García’s party is a minority, has the formal right to name the interim governor and chose an assistant prosecutor who isn’t linked to García’s party.
Angered by that decision, protesters apparently linked to García broke through doors of the state legislature building, took over the floor of the state congress and launched a smoke bomb.
The standoff — which also featured riot police and armored vehicles posted outside the governor’s office at one point Friday — led García to announce he was abandoning his leave of absence and resuming his job as governor.
“Ï have decided not to participate in the campaign for president,” García wrote in a decree announcing his decision.
García’s decision will almost certainly be a disappointment for President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. López Obrador had openly expressed sympathy for García, whose Citizen’s Movement party has been a sometimes ally of the president’s Morena party.
López Obrador claims his sympathy for García stemmed from supposed attempts to keep the governor from running, which the president said paralleled his own experience in 2005 and 2006, when a court briefly stripped him of his right to hold office.
But critics say López Obrador was encouraging García’s doomed candidacy — as Mexican ruling parties have done frequently in the past — as a way to split the opposition vote.
Nuevo Leon, across the border from Texas, is an important industrial hub and García, 35, had hoped his youthful, social media-savvy campaign style would attract younger voters,
Since he took office in 2021, García has faced a severe water crisis that left much of Monterrey, the state capital, without service for weeks. He has also bragged about his friendship with Elon Musk, and has touted hopes that a Tesla plant will be built in his state.
Austin, TX
Texas Supreme Court overturns ruling that state Attorney General Ken Paxton testify in lawsuit
(AP) – The Texas Supreme Court on Friday overturned a lower court ruling that state Attorney General Ken Paxton testify in a whistleblower lawsuit at the heart of impeachment charges brought against him in 2023.
The court on Friday said Paxton’s office does not dispute any issue in the lawsuit by four former Paxton employees and agreed to any judgment in the case.
“In a major win for the State of Texas, the state Supreme Court has sided with Attorney General Paxton against former OAG employees whose effort to prolong costly, politically-motivated litigation against the agency has wasted public resources for years,” a statement from Paxton’s office said.
An attorney for one of the plaintiffs declined immediate comment, and a second attorney did not immediately return a phone call for comment.
The former employees allege they were improperly fired or forced out for bringing to the FBI allegations that Paxton was misusing his office to protect a friend and campaign donor, who in turn, they said, was helping the attorney general to conceal an extramarital affair.
The Supreme Court ruling noted that the Texas governor and Legislature have expressed a desire to hear testimony from the witnesses prior to agreeing to appropriate funds to settle the lawsuit.
The court said forcing Paxton, First Assistant Attorney General Brent Webster, Chief of Staff Lesley French Henneke and senior advisor Michelle Smith to testify earlier could improperly be used for legislative purposes in deciding any appropriation.
Under the preliminary deal, Paxton agreed to apologize to the former employees for calling them “rogue” employees, settle the case for $3.3 million and ask the state to pay for it, prompting the state House to reject the request and begin its own investigation, leading to the vote to impeach him.
Paxton was ultimately acquitted after a Senate trial.
The Supreme Court termed its ruling conditional upon the lower trial court complying with the decision, while saying it is “confident the trial court will comply” with the order.
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
See how the Austin skyline changes annually from ACL Fest 2024
It’s another year of Austin City Limits Music Festival, which means we have an updated photo from 2024 to show the change in Austin’s skyline since 2005.
A Texas city has been named among the top ten U.S. cities to live in over the next two years.
Ten Texas cities were included in the U.S. News & World Report’s 2025-2026 Best Places to Live list. For the annual rankings, U.S. News analyzed 150 major cities in the U.S. based on quality of life, job market, value of living and people’s desire to live in the area.
How did your city fare on the list? Here’s a breakdown of the data.
LIST: 10 best US cities to live
Texas’ capital secured a spot in the top 10 places to live, as determined by U.S. News.
- Naples, Florida
- Boise, Idaho
- Colorado Springs, Colorado
- Greenville, South Carolina
- Charlotte, North Carolina
- Raleigh, North Carolina
- Huntsville, Alabama
- Virginia Beach, Virginia
- Austin, Texas
- Boulder, Colorado
Austin offers healthy balance of work and pleasure, US News says
Austin had an overall score of 6.8 out of 10, compared to Naples’ score of 7.1. The Texas capital also scored 6.8 in the quality of life index, with a value index score of 6.3.
“With the slogan ‘Keep Austin Weird,’ this Texas city is laid-back to the point that if you’re dressing up, it must be a life event,” the U.S. News analysis says. “People here enjoy the outdoors, even more so with their dogs. Austin has a contagious vibrancy and enthusiasm.”
U.S. News notes Austin’s strongest assets are a mix of work and pleasure. The number of companies headquartered in Austin makes it attractive to working professionals, especially those in technology, government, education, and health care. But the capital is far from being “all work, no play.” Its claim as the live music capital of the world invites music lovers to take a listen, whether at the airport, along streets downtown, or at one of the approximate 200 venues throughout the area.
Austin also ranked no. 32 on U.S. News’ Best Places to Retire in 2025 list.
LIST: Best Texas cities to live
Here are the rankings and scores U.S. News gave for the ten Texas cities included in the list:
Ranking
City
Overall Score
Quality of Life
Value Index
#9
Austin
6.8
6.8
6.3
#48
McAllen
6.4
6.6
7.6
#62
El Paso
6.3
6.5
7.3
#77
Corpus Christi
6.2
5.8
7.0
#87
Brownsville
6.2
6.2
7.7
#89
San Antonio
6.1
6.1
6.8
#95
Dallas
6.1
6.4
5.6
#97
Houston
6.1
5.9
6.2
#99
Beaumont
6.1
5.5
7.3
#107
Killeen
6.0
5.9
7.3
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