Enlarge Marjorie Kamys Cotera

Gov. Greg Abbott accepts Site Selection's 2015 Governor's Cup Award on behalf of the State of Texas on March 9th, 2016

Gov. Greg Abbott continues to maintain a massive war chest with more than two years until he is up for re-election. 

His political shop announced Thursday that Abbott has $28.6 million in the bank after raising $8.66 million during the first half of this year. Abbott's team also said he received a donation from all 254 Texas counties and added 6,600 first-time contributors. 

The figures reinforce Abbott's reputation as a prodigious front-runner and a likely formidable incumbent to topple in 2018. A full campaign finance report is due to the Texas Ethics Commission on Friday.

*****

U.S. Housing Secretary and potential vice presidential candidate Julián Castro on Thursday hailed the progress of the Latino community in America while arguing there is "still so much work left to do."

"Today more than ever, the destiny of the United States is intertwined with the destiny of the Latino community," Castro said in a keynote address at a Latino issues summit hosted by U.S. Senate Democrats at the Capitol.

The speech by Castro, the former mayor of San Antonio, came with possibly days until presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton picks her running mate. Castro is reportedly under consideration for the job, and another rumored contender, U.S. Labor Secretary Tom Perez, was also scheduled to speak Thursday.

Despite the vice presidential buzz, Castro largely steered clear of politics in his address. The closest reference came while he was talking about the legacy of President Barack Obama, whom Castro said has "done more to expand opportunity for the Latino community than any president in our nation's history."

"Today we have the chance to build on everything that the president has helped accomplish," Castro said.

*****

Despite stubbornly low oil and gas prices, North Texas mineral owners (and their attorneys) are poised for a windfall.  

Chesapeake Energy has agreed to pay roughly $51 million to settle hundreds of lawsuits alleging that the driller was skimping on royalties, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported Wednesday.

Attorneys will get nearly $20 million of the sum.

Those North Texas lawsuits were part of the flood of challenges Chesapeake has fought across the country that accused the company of shortchanging royalty owners, including cities and other government entities.

 Two Fort Worth law firms representing 13,000 clients — McDonald Law Firm and Circelli, Walter & Young — announced that 91 percent of those folks had agreed to settlements, the Star-Telegram reported.

Separately, the City of Fort Worth was among aggrieved mineral owners who had already settled. Earlier this year, it agreed to drop its suit for $15 million.

The lawsuits targeted longstanding company practices of deducting large percentages of royalties to cover certain production costs. The company has denied in court that its deductions were illegal. 

Though based in Oklahoma City, the Chesapeake has a particularly large footprint in North Texas’ Barnett Shale, and it occupied for several years a 20-story office building in Fort Worth — a prominent fixture of the city's skyline that it sold in 2014. 

For years, Aubrey McClendon led the company. He died in March after the Chevy Tahoe he was driving crashed into a wall, shocking the energy world.

*****

State Reps. Jason Isaac, R-Dripping Springs, and Tony Dale, R-Cedar Park, are calling for the 85th Legislature to do more to keep teachers accused of sexual misconduct out of Texas public schools.

Noting that there is no statute that bars teachers who resign amid allegations of sexual misconduct from teaching at other schools in the state, Isaac and Dale are asking Gov. Abbott to designate the issue — which they described "passing the trash" in a press release — an emergency item ahead of the next legislative session.

“It’s clear that current state law simply does not go far enough to protect the children of Texas,” Isaac said in a statement.

Enlarge Robert Hart for The Texas Tribune

Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings shakes Chief of Police David Brown's hand as former President Bush, President Obama, their wives, U.S. Sens. Cornyn and Cruz and others applaud on July 12, 2016.

President Barack Obama had an unlikely companion as he flew Tuesday to Dallas: Ted Cruz, the Texas senator who has fought the Obama administration at every turn.

Cruz joined Obama on Air Force One for a ride from Washington, D.C., to Dallas, where the two attended the memorial service for five Dallas police officers killed last week by a sniper at the conclusion of a protest against police-involved shootings elsewhere in the country.

"Senator Cruz was invited by the White House to accompany the President on Air Force One as we travel to his home state for this memorial service," White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters aboard the plane, according to a transcript. "At the time that our country is feeling so divided, I think it is important that the country's leaders are coming together across party lines despite significant political differences to emphasize a shared desire to unify the country."

Earnest added that he believed Cruz and Obama would "have a conversation on the flight." He did not say what the two were expected to discuss.

When Air Force One landed at Love Field in Dallas, Obama emerged from the plane, followed by Cruz and three other lawmakers: U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, as well as Democratic Reps. Eddie Bernice Johnson of Dallas and Marc Veasey of Fort Worth.

The attack on the Dallas police officers took place in Johnson’s congressional district.

Obama spoke at the ceremony, urging Americans to reject despair as they grapple with the aftermath of the police shooting, which also left seven officers wounded. Cruz did not speak but was among the dignitaries seated behind Obama on the stage.

*****

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott will not attend the Republican National Convention as a result of severe burns he suffered on a family vacation in Wyoming, spokesman Matt Hirsch said.

Abbott was accidentally scalded with hot water last week during a vacation in Jackson Hole. A spokesman said he suffered "second- and third-degree burns" to his feet and legs.

The incident caused Abbott to miss the memorial service this week in Dallas where the president honored the five police officers killed in last week's shooting.

Abbott may be skipping the Republican National Convention, but his absence will have a minimal effect on the Texas delegation.

Abbott is neither stepping down as an at-large delegate nor chairman of the delegation, Texas GOP spokesman Michael Joyce said Thursday. That means the only real variable is who now does the roll call for Texas delegates on the floor of the convention, which is usually handled by the chairman. 

Doctors performed skin-graft surgery on Abbott on Monday at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, where he has remained since. He was scheduled to spend Thursday night at the hospital, according to a spokesman, John Wittman.

*****

Days after his father is set to accept the Republican nomination for the presidency, Donald Trump Jr. will head to Dallas on a fundraising swing.

The son of the real estate magnate and presumptive GOP nominee will headline a lunch fundraiser on Monday, July 25, in Dallas. 

"Our country is at a crossroads – America needs a new direction of leadership. As we have seen in recent weeks, our country is in dire need of a renewed trust," wrote James Van Lare, a fundraiser for the Dallas-based McIntosh Company, in an email invitation obtained by the Texas Tribune.

"This luncheon will be a unique opportunity to hear from Donald J. Trump’s eldest son in a private setting on how we can rebuild our nation’s trust in government," he added.

Requested donations and bundling range from $1,000 to $25,000 and will benefit Trump Victory, a joint fundraising committee comprised of the Trump presidential campaign, the Republican National Committee and an assortment of state Republican parties.

*****

Ash Wright, the campaign political director for Texas Land Commissioner and Texas Republican Victory Chairman George P. Bush, is moving to state Republican Party to serve as its Texas victory director for 2016.

"I am excited to be working alongside the experienced staff at the Republican Party of Texas to reach millions of voters across our diverse state," Wright said in a statement, highlighting party goals to "make Republican gains for the next legislative session and reach deep into the African-American, Hispanic and Asian communities to expand our Party’s base."

Wright was Bush's political director over the 2014 election cycle.

Ann Marie-Birdwell, formerly statewide field director for the Texas Republicans, will be deputy victory director.

Enlarge

For this week’s nonscientific survey of insiders in government and politics, we asked about the state of police and community relations in the wake of last week's attack on officers in Dallas.

We started by asking a trio of questions on the level of trust between police and the larger community in Dallas, in Texas and beyond.

On this one, the insiders were most positive about the situation in Dallas with 37 percent saying relations were better than average and just 14 percent saying they were worse than average. Compare that to what insiders said about the general level of trust between police and the public where just 10 percent said relations were better than average and 41 percent said relations were worse than average.

In Texas as a whole, insiders were nearly evenly divided with 27 percent saying relations were better than average and 25 percent saying relations were worse than average.

The insiders were at near consensus, though, on the next question, which asked if lawmakers were rethinking their positions on gun laws in the wake of the Dallas police shootings. Fully 90 percent said lawmakers wouldn't change their position on any aspect of the state's gun laws.

We closed by asking who would be best positioned to help close the gap between police and the public. Nearly three-fourths of the insiders listed community groups as best positioned, followed by police groups (cited by close to two-thirds) and clergy (cited by about half of the insiders).

State and legislative leaders, meanwhile, were named by just 15 percent of the insiders.

We collected comments along the way, and a full set of those is attached. The final two comments for the question dealing with the level of trust in Dallas were given to other questions but I've moved them since they seem to make more sense listed under the Dallas-specific question. Here’s a sampling:

Enlarge Emily Albracht

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In the aftermath of the Dallas police shootings and unrest elsewhere in the country over the weekend, what’s the general level of trust between police and their communities?

• "Those who don't shoot cops, respect and support them trust them. Those who stir up trouble, promote lies and create problems don't trust them and never will. The BLM is telling flat out lies. The real truth is the black-on-black crime that is not being highlighted and focused on as it should. Can you say CHICAGO? I dare you to print that!"

• "'About the same' doesn't mean good. But maybe with enough attention focused on the issue, things could improve. Personally, I think that starts with lots better training of police."

• "Nothing generates support and sympathy like being a victim in an ambush. For the moment, law enforcement enjoys more trust than at this point last week."

• "People of color will rightfully continue to distrust police. The poor will distrust police. The middle class will continue to support police. And the rich will fund their own police."

• "The fear, frustration and anxiety in the black community, while at times overblown, is palpable. I fear; as I have for some time, believe we're unfortunately moving towards the summer of '68. As a country, we don't know how to and aren't comfortable talking seriously about issues around race."

Enlarge Emily Albracht

.

What’s the level of trust between police and their communities in Texas?

• "In communities with large African-American populations, worse since the development of Black Lives Matter movement."

• "Cops have been so hamstrung from doing their job I would be anxious if I were them, too. Let them take out threats! And, please, the lies of BLM are getting so old. The facts, the FACTS shut down their lies. They want to perpetuate a myth."

• "Divide the state into multiple regions and you will see a pattern: those in low-income communities will continue to distrust police at a higher rate than middle-income communities."

• "City Council funding has a lot to do with this. In Austin, the Council has cut the police budget year after year, sending a multi-pronged message to the community: 1. That police aren't important and that there is a ton of fat in the budget requests. 2. That Austin is so 'safe' (not borne out by the property crime numbers) that we don't need to waste money on police. 3. That the chief is not to be trusted. If the Council would knock this off and support APD appropriately, it would go a long way toward helping everything calm down."

• "Better than average until the empathy generated on Dallas wears off or until some other incident moves it in either direction."

Enlarge Emily Albracht

.

What’s the level of trust between police and their communities in Dallas?

• "Divide the city by neighborhoods and you will see a pattern: those in low-income communities will continue to distrust police at a higher rate than middle-income communities."

• "Better than it was in 1992."

• "It may be better in Dallas thanks to the exceptional leadership of the chief and mayor."

• "Dallas one of best."

Enlarge Emily Albracht

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Do the events in Dallas make lawmakers rethink their position on gun laws?

• "Legislators have ignored the concerns of law enforcement on gun laws and this might give cause for some to think on the issue for a day or so, but it will not result in action because polls mean more than lives."

• "Why rethink it. If I am armed, I am going to put that threat down. If more of us are armed, more of us can protect ourselves and put down threats. This is BS messaging being promoted by the left. Why let a crisis go to waste, right?"

• "Municipal government lawmakers will evaluate their position because they are the lawmakers that have to deal with the immediate consequences of our laws. State and federal lawmakers have partisan primaries and therefore re-election weighs higher in their decision making."

• "Ain't enough votes to change those laws one way or another. But, folks ought to be paying more attention to Sen. West's concerns, as last week confirms minorities are likely to get gunned down or thrown violently to the ground for having the temerity of abiding by the CHL laws or carrying long guns in public."

• "No one is rethinking their position. The Democrats are still trying to disarm the citizenry. Republicans are still committed to protecting the Second Amendment. No one has changed their mind."

Enlarge Emily Albracht

.

Who’s best positioned to rebuild trust between police and their communities?

• "The media is in the best position to do so if they could forgo sensationalism and a false narrative of racist cops for facts — facts which show that there is no better time in all of this country's history for a law abiding individual of any race, including African American, to have an encounter with a police officer and come out of that encounter in a satisfactory fashion."

• "Everyone who gets their name in the paper should be talking about this. Those who don't should be ashamed."

• "Police unions are the ones who blindly defend officers accused of wrongdoing, so they are the ones who must rebuild trust."

• "It would go a long way if police officers publicly condemned the actions of other police officers when their actions are indefensible. Community leaders need to be at the center of trying to unite and find common ground with the police departments."

• "This is a most complicated question. Fair play. Logical laws. Funding for the needs of society. Leaders that lead rather use each incident for political purposes. Chief Brown said it best, too much is asked of our nation's police forces."

Our thanks to this week's participants: Gene Acuna, Jay Arnold, Andrew Biar, Allen Blakemore, Tom Blanton, Chris Britton, Raif Calvert, Lydia Camarillo, Kerry Cammack, Snapper Carr, Elizabeth Christian, Elna Christopher, Harold Cook, Kevin Cooper, Randy Cubriel, Curtis Culwell, Denise Davis, June Deadrick, Glenn Deshields, Tom Duffy, David Dunn, Richard Dyer, Jack Erskine, Tom Forbes, Dominic Giarratani, Bruce Gibson, Eric Glenn, Kinnan Golemon, Clint Hackney, Bill Hammond, Shanna Igo, Deborah Ingersoll, Jason Johnson, Mark Jones, Robert Kepple, Richard Khouri, Tom Kleinworth, Sandy Kress, Dick Lavine, Luke Legate, Ruben Longoria, Matt Mackowiak, Steve Minick, Mike Moses, Keats Norfleet, Nef Partida, Gardner Pate, Robert Peeler, Wayne Pierce, Allen Place, Kraege Polan, Gary Polland, Jay Pritchard, Ted Melina Raab, David Reynolds, Grant Ruckel, Jason Sabo, Andy Sansom, Barbara Schlief, Stan Schlueter, Robert Scott, Bruce Scott, Ben Sebree, Nancy Sims, Jason Skaggs, Ed Small, Martha Smiley, Larry Soward, Dennis Speight, Colin Strother, Sherry Sylvester, Sara Tays, Trey Trainor, Ware Wendell, David White, Darren Whitehurst, Michael Williams, Peck Young, Angelo Zottarelli.

Enlarge Todd Wiseman

Monday, July 18

• Republican National Convention; Quicken Loans Arena, Cleveland, Ohio (July 18-21)

Thursday, July 21

• Dimming the Lights on Property Rights: A Debate on Short Term Rentals in Austin; Texas Public Policy Foundation, 901 Congress Ave., Austin (11:30 a.m.-1 p.m.)
  
• McLennan County Republican Club meeting with guest speaker John Seago, legislative director for Texas Right to Life; 

  Knox Hall, Texas Ranger Museum, 100 Texas Ranger Trail, Waco (11:45 a.m.)

Elementary and middle school students appear to be performing better on required state exams after four years of stagnant scores, but that's compared to old passing standards that no longer apply.

Republican presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump on Wednesday announced U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul of Austin would be among the featured speakers at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland later this month.

Over three decades, the amount of money Texas spends on jails and prisons has grown at a much faster rate than what it spends on public schools, a new federal study finds, but schools still receive significantly more money.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick was invited to the White House to participate in a town hall Thursday on race relations with President Barack Obama.

A baby born with microcephaly in Harris County is the first Zika-affected infant in Texas, the Texas Department of State Health Services announced Wednesday.

U.S. Housing Secretary Julián Castro on Wednesday defended his overhaul of a federal program that sells bad mortgages to private investors, rejecting the idea it was driven by politics.

The University of Texas at Austin will give its faculty and staff the option of banning guns from their private offices when the state’s campus carry law goes into effect next month, under regulations UT System regents passed Wednesday.

Days after five police officers were killed by a lone gunman in downtown Dallas, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, introduced legislation Wednesday that would make killing a police officer a federal crime.

U.S. Rep. Ted Poe, R-Humble, announced Wednesday morning that he was recently diagnosed with leukemia and will spend the rest of the summer concentrating on this battle.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott will not attend the Republican National Convention as he recovers from severe burns he suffered during a family vacation, according to his office. 

President Barack Obama, former President George W. Bush and Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings said the best way to honor the lives of the officers is for Americans to put aside their differences and unite.

Disclosure: The University of Texas at Austin has been a financial sponsor of The Texas Tribune. A complete list of Tribune donors and sponsors can be viewed here.

Gov. Greg Abbott made two appointments to the state's Commission on State Emergency Communications, which oversees poison control and 9-1-1 services. Ernestine Robles of Garden Ridge and William “Bill” Buchholtz of San Antonio, who was reappointed, will serve terms until Sept. 1, 2021.

Abbott named emergency physician Robert Greenberg of Belton the chairman of the Advisory Council on Emergency Medical Services, the group that makes recommendations on the state's EMS/trauma system. Abbott also named six others to the council: He appointed Jeffrey Barnhart of Canyon, Sheila Faske of Rose City and Robert Isbell of Midland and reappointed Ryan Matthews of Holliday and Robert Vezzetti of Austin to serve until Jan. 1, 2022, and Mike Clements of Cypress until Jan. 1, 2020.

SD-13 candidate Borris Miles announced endorsements in the past week from Houston’s current mayor, Sylvester Turner, and its most recent mayor, Annise Parker. Democratic precinct chairs in the district meet Saturday to choose who will take the spot on the ballot belonging to state Sen. Rodney Ellis, who has chosen to run instead for Harris County commissioner.

Senfronia Thompson, another contender for the SD-13 seat, received an endorsement this week from Annie’s List, an organization dedicated to electing more pro-choice women to office.

State Rep. Eric Johnson, D-Dallas, has been chosen to serve as chairman of the Fiscal Affairs & Government Operations Committee of the Southern Legislative Conference. The SLC is the Southern office of The Council of State Governments. It met this week in Lexington, Kentucky, for its 70th annual meeting during which representatives from 15 states shared information and best practices.

The Center for Public Policy Priorities, a left-leaning think tank, has named two people, Nick Canedo and Kelly Josh, to its leadership team. Canedo, a San Antonio native who previously worked at the nonprofit Rainforest Alliance in New York, will takeover as CPPP's director of development. Josh, previously at the Texas Defender Service, will join CPPP as its director of finance and administration.

The new government relations consulting firm Grace & McEwan has hired its first associate, Andrea Chavez, who previously worked in the government law and policy section at the law firm Greenberg Traurig. She was a field representative for the Texas Republican Party over the 2014 elections.

Michael Drankoski is joining Gardere Wynne Sewell LLP to serve as the law firm's executive director. Drankoski was previously the director of administration in Norton Rose Fulbright's Dallas office.

Disclosure: The Center for Public Policy Priorities and Greenberg Traurig have been financial sponsors of The Texas Tribune. A complete list of Tribune donors and sponsors can be viewed here.