Author: CNN Newsource

By Francis Page Jr.

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    July 7, 2026 (Houston Style Magazine) — In Harris County politics, a headline with a dollar sign can move faster than a summer thunderstorm rolling across I-10. Add a familiar last name, a powerful county position, and the phrase “hundreds applied,” and suddenly the public is invited to lean in, squint hard, and wonder whether something does not smell quite right.

That is the atmosphere surrounding recent scrutiny of Erica Lee Carter, Harris County’s newly appointed County Administrator. ABC13’s 13 Investigates reported that roughly 401 people applied for the position, that Carter’s salary is about $411,000, and that she is the daughter of the late Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee. Those facts are fair game. Public salaries deserve public review. High-level appointments deserve questions. Taxpayers deserve transparency.

But journalism also owes the public something more valuable than suspicion: context.

And in this case, context is not a footnote. It is the story.

Harris County Commissioners Court appointed Erica Lee Carter on February 12, 2026, with her tenure beginning March 9. She became the first African American woman to serve as Harris County Administrator, stepping into a role created in June 2021 as part of a larger effort to professionalize county government. The office was designed to help oversee the day-to-day operations of one of the largest county governments in America, coordinate major departments, improve accountability, and execute the policy direction of Commissioners Court.

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This is not a ribbon-cutting position. It is not a ceremonial desk with a nice view. The Harris County Administrator functions much like a chief operating officer for a county of nearly five million residents, with responsibilities touching budgeting, departmental coordination, strategic planning, performance management, and public service delivery.

So yes, the salary is large. But the job is also large. Very large.

What the public deserved from ABC13’s report was a clearer explanation that this compensation level did not begin with Erica Lee Carter. The County Administrator’s salary has been high before her appointment. Previous administrators and interim leadership were also paid at executive levels because the county built the position as a professional management role. If the salary is the issue, then the honest question is not simply, “Why is Erica Lee Carter paid $411,000?” The better question is, “How has Harris County historically valued this office, and has that value been consistent across administrations?”

That distinction matters.

It also matters that Carter was not slipped quietly into the position by one faction in a smoke-filled back room. Commissioners Court unanimously approved her appointment. That includes Republican Commissioner Tom Ramsey, who publicly praised her understanding of Harris County during the appointment discussion. In today’s political climate, unanimous agreement on Commissioners Court is not exactly an everyday coffee order. When Democrats and a Republican commissioner support the same administrative appointment, that deserves to be reported with the same volume as the salary figure.

Carter’s background also deserves fuller treatment. Before becoming County Administrator, she served as Policy Director for Harris County Precinct One, where she worked on county priorities and led policy operations. She also served briefly in Congress, completing the term of her late mother, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, after winning a special election. Before that, she built a record in education, public policy, and civic service, including service on the Harris County Department of Education Board of Trustees. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Master of Public Policy from Duke University.

None of that makes her beyond scrutiny. No public official is. But it does make her more than a famous last name.

And that is where ABC13’s framing becomes troubling. By emphasizing her connection to Sheila Jackson Lee while not giving equal weight to the history of the position, the prior salary structure, the unanimous vote, and Carter’s county policy experience, the story risks creating an impression before readers have received the full record.

There is a difference between investigation and insinuation.

To be clear, the public should ask how the hiring process worked. If 401 people applied, residents have a right to know how finalists were evaluated, what criteria mattered most, and how Commissioners Court weighed internal experience against outside executive credentials. Those questions are legitimate. They are not attacks. They are the normal business of accountable government.

But fair journalism should not stop at the most clickable facts. It should also answer the obvious follow-up questions: What did previous administrators earn? When was the office created? What departments does the role oversee? Who voted for Carter? What did supporters say about her qualifications? Was the salary already attached to the office before her name entered the conversation?

Those missing pieces change the public’s understanding.

Harris County residents do not need soft coverage. They need complete coverage. They do not need public officials protected from questions. They need those questions asked in a way that informs rather than inflames.

Erica Lee Carter now carries a serious responsibility. She must help lead county operations at a time when Harris County is facing budget pressure, infrastructure needs, public safety concerns, economic equity debates, and a tense political environment. Her performance should be measured. Her decisions should be watched. Her office should be transparent.

But scrutiny should be applied evenly, not selectively. If the salary was newsworthy under Carter, it was newsworthy under the administrators before her. If the structure of the office is worth questioning now, it was worth questioning when the office was created. If taxpayers deserve answers, they deserve the full timeline, not just the part that makes the loudest headline.

EDITOR NOTE: ABC13 may not owe Erica Lee Carter silence from scrutiny, but it does owe Harris County viewers the full context. And if its reporting created an unfair impression, then a public clarification, and yes, perhaps even an apology, would be appropriate.

That is not asking the press to back away from accountability. It is asking the press to practice it fully. Newsrooms are not weakened when they add context, issue clarifications, or revisit a story with greater precision. They are strengthened. Trust is not built by pretending every first draft is perfect. Trust is built when journalists show the public that fairness matters as much as speed.

At Houston Style Magazine, we believe accountability and fairness can stand in the same room. In fact, they must. Harris County deserves a press corps that asks hard questions, but also respects the intelligence of readers enough to provide the whole picture.

Erica Lee Carter should be judged by her work, her transparency, her leadership, and her results. Not reduced to a salary figure. Not reduced to her mother’s legacy. And not reduced to a headline that leaves too much unsaid.

Fact-check support: ABC13 reported the salary, applicant count, ranking, and Ramsey quote; Harris County confirmed Carter’s appointment and historic role; Houston Chronicle reporting supports the office timeline, prior administrators, and salary context.

OCA.HarrisCountyTX.gov

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

Kierra Lee
KIELEESTYLE@GMAIL.COM
4096658446

By Ben Jealous

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    July 7, 2026 (Houston Style Magazine) — Voting rights is back in the news because some people are still trying to decide whose votes deserve trust. In Georgia, the Justice Department and FBI under President Donald Trump have reopened questions around Fulton County’s 2020 election records after agents seized hundreds of boxes of ballots. The Associated Press reports the FBI has assigned 260 analysts and operations staff to review them.

Fulton County includes most of Atlanta and sits at the heart of Georgia’s transformation. It has a large Black electorate, growing Latino and Asian American communities, and many newer residents drawn by the Atlanta region’s jobs and universities. It voted against President Trump. Yet Georgia’s 2020 result was not some partisan rumor. Local officials counted the ballots. The state counted them three times, including once by hand. Republican officials certified the result. Each count confirmed the same outcome. That matters because vote suppression has often followed the same pattern: discredit the voters, divide the people, deprive enough citizens of the ballot, and move power upward.

The country has largely forgotten one of its earliest broad voting rights victories: the campaign to end property qualifications for white men. In many states, a man could be white, free, taxed, armed and called to defend the Revolution — and still be denied the vote because he did not own enough property.

Those men did not suffer as long as Black men, women, Native people or others shut out of democracy. Their exclusion still reveals the old fault line. Power rightfully belongs to the people. Yet wealthy interests have often tried to keep too much of it for themselves.

Some people profit from our forgetting. If we forget that landless white men once had to fight for the vote, we can miss the pattern when it returns in new clothes.

Benjamin Franklin saw the absurdity. He told the story of a man whose vote depended on owning a jackass worth enough money to qualify him. When the animal died, the man lost the vote. Franklin asked the obvious question: “In whom is the right of suffrage? In the man or in the jackass?”

Thomas Paine gave the moral answer. “Man did not enter into society to become worse than he was before, nor to have fewer rights than he had before, but to have those rights better secured.”

There is irony in President Trump’s love of President Andrew Jackson. Jackson and his allies built the Democratic Party with a founding promise: government should answer to the landless many, not merely the propertied few.

Jackson’s democracy was badly bounded. It excluded Black people, women and Native people. His politics also embraced slaveholding white supremacy. Still, he saw one danger clearly. In his veto of the national bank, he warned that “the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their selfish purposes.”

That warning fits this moment. Vote suppression has often worked by discrediting voters, dividing working people against one another, and depriving the many of their full voice so some rich and powerful people can bend government toward themselves.

That was much of the logic of monarchy: divide and conquer. It was much of the logic of Jim Crow: tell poor white people their enemy is Black freedom. It was true in the 1820s. It was true in the 1920s, when immigrants from predominantly Catholic countries like Ireland and Italy were cast as threats to real America. It is true today, when immigrants from predominantly Catholic countries like Haiti and Mexico are made into scapegoats again. Tell rural voters their enemy is city voters. Tell Election Day voters their enemy is mail voters.

The tools change. The purpose often does not. Property requirements became poll taxes. Poll taxes became literacy tests. Literacy tests gave way to purges, ID rules, closed polling places and attacks on early voting, same-day registration and mail ballots.

The burden comes as paperwork, deadlines, long lines, missing names and ballots questioned after the people have spoken. A poll tax charged money. A long line charges time. Cutting early voting can tax people who do not control their schedules. Restricting mail ballots can tax seniors, disabled voters, rural voters and caregivers.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson spent his life widening the meaning of the many. He urged young people to hold “a diploma in one hand” and “a voter registration card in that other hand.” Education and the ballot. Knowledge and power.

I come to this history as a son of the Revolution, the abolitionist movement, and the Southern populist tradition that rose in the decades after the Civil War and united working men across color lines. My great-great-grandfather, Edward David Bland, was born enslaved and died a Virginia legislator.

He helped build the Readjuster Party, a post-Civil War, multiracial voting rights movement that brought together Black men who had been enslaved and white men who had fought for the Confederacy. Their cause was schools, fairer taxes, debt relief, voting rights and democracy. When they gained power, they abolished Virginia’s poll tax.

After they were broken, Virginia’s ruling Democrats wrote a new constitution in 1902 that brought the poll tax back with literacy tests and other barriers. Black voters were almost wiped out as a political force. White voting was cut roughly in half. The old ruling class knew whose coalition it was trying to prevent from rising again.

Imagine if every schoolchild learned that the poll tax was not only an attack on Black voting power but also on poor white voting power. We might see the trick more clearly when it returns in new clothes.

The Democratic donkey did not come from Franklin’s parable. It came from Jackson’s enemies calling him a jackass, an insult he embraced and cartoonists later made stick. Still, the echo is hard to miss.

If Democrats keep the jackass, they should remember Franklin’s question. The right was never in the jackass. It was never in the deed, the poll tax, the ID card, the Tuesday work schedule, the mailbox or the database.

The right is in the people. Every generation that won more democracy ultimately did so by resisting efforts by the few to divide the many. That is our work now: remember the history, reject the division, and defend the vote for every one of us.

Ben Jealous is a professor of practice at the University of Pennsylvania and former national president and CEO of the NAACP.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

Kierra Lee
KIELEESTYLE@GMAIL.COM
4096658446

By Francis Page Jr.

Click here for updates on this story

    July 7, 2026 (Houston Style Magazine) — Sunday, July 5, 2026, is not just another Sunday on Virginia Street. It is the “last-last” day, the final curtain call for Five Central Houston at the location that helped turn dinners into reunions, happy hours into networking rooms, birthdays into productions, and ordinary weekends into H-Town folklore.

For seven unforgettable years, Five Central has lived up to its promise as a dining, entertainment, and events venue built around “one location” and “countless experiences,” offering Houstonians a place to eat, celebrate, connect, and be seen. The venue’s own site highlights its role as a Houston destination for dining, entertainment, weekly happenings, and private events, and those words have been more than marketing. They have been a lived experience for professionals, entrepreneurs, celebrities, athletes, elected officials, Divine Nine organizations, social clubs, and everyday Houstonians who simply wanted a place with flavor, music, energy, and heart. Five Central Houston

This final weekend on Virginia Street is being celebrated with the kind of love only Houston can produce: part family reunion, part business mixer, part Sunday funday, and part thank-you note written in bass, brunch, and beautiful memories.

Five Central’s leadership, including Joycelyn LG Williams and the Houston Hotspots family, has offered heartfelt gratitude to every customer who supported the venue with love and with many events. They have also extended deep appreciation to the employees whose professionalism, commitment, and loyalty helped make the operation successful. In a city where hospitality is often measured by the plate, Five Central reminded Houston that true hospitality is also measured by the welcome.

And then there are the DJs.

The last-day lineup is a tribute to the sound architects who helped define the venue’s rhythm from the beginning. Legendary Supa Neil kicks things off from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m., followed by DJ Halfpint from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., DJ Scotty from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., and DJ Flatline from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. That is not just a schedule. That is a soundtrack for seven years of laughter, dancing, business cards exchanged, selfies taken, birthdays toasted, and “we need to do this again” promises made.

Five Central became more than a hotspot. It became a platform. It hosted local and national business leader forums, D9 legacy events, conferences, all-day happy hour moments, dining specials, global-style engagements, and gatherings for exceptional business owners who understood that community and commerce do not have to sit at separate tables.

That is what made Five Central special. It gave Houston professionals a place to loosen the tie without lowering the standard. It gave entrepreneurs a room where networking felt natural. It gave families a place to celebrate milestones. It gave culture a microphone, a menu, and a dance floor.

As questions swirl online about whether Five Central is closing for good or preparing for its next chapter, the message for this weekend is clear: celebrate the Virginia Street era. Honor what was built. Thank the people who built it. And get ready for what may come next.

Because in Houston, endings rarely arrive empty-handed. Sometimes they come dressed as transition, carrying lessons, relationships, and a bigger vision.

So, thank you, Five Central, for seven years of exceptional H-Town accomplishments. Thank you for serving executives, business owners, community leaders, creatives, partygoers, professionals, and families with style. Thank you for giving Houston a place where the room always felt alive.

Sunday, July 5, is the last-last day at this location. But if the love in the room is any indication, Five Central’s story is not fading out.

It is simply changing addresses in the hearts of Houstonians.

Stay in touch for the new location: fivecentralhouston.com

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

Kierra Lee
KIELEESTYLE@GMAIL.COM
4096658446

By Amari Saxton

Click here for updates on this story

    ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico (KOAT) — New Mexico Department of Health officials are warning the public about bats as rabies concerns arise.

The warning comes after a bat recently tested positive in Corrales back in June 2026.

Officials say the bat was found in a private home, euthanized, and then sent to the NMDOH Scientific Laboratory Division for testing.

All people and animals exposed are currently receiving post-exposure vaccines to prevent disease.

Health officials say that if you do see a bat, do not pick it up or touch it with bare hands or allow your pet(s) to interact with it.

Rabid wild animals may show no fear of people and may be aggressive, or they may be quiet and appear tame.

To prevent rabies, the NMDOH recommends the following:

· Keep your pets up to date on vaccinations and ensure they wear tags on their collar confirming their vaccination status.

· If your cat or dog has been bitten or scratched, especially by a wild animal, call your pet’s veterinarian even if the wound is superficial. 

· Avoid wild or unfamiliar animals. Do not attempt to feed them. Don’t approach or touch wild animals (alive or dead). Teach this important message to your children and keep a close eye on your kids around unfamiliar animals. 

· In the event of an animal bite or exposure to saliva, wash the affected area immediately and thoroughly with soap and water, and seek medical attention promptly.

· People who have direct contact with a bat, who wake to find a bat in their room or who cannot reliably report whether contact with a bat occurred should receive a rabies vaccination.

Report any exposure or bite to your local animal control and call the NMDOH Helpline at 1-833-SWNURSE (1-833 796-8773). You can also text questions to 66364 (NMDOH).

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Amari Saxton

Click here for updates on this story

    New Mexico (KOAT) — New Mexico Department of Health officials are warning the public about bats as rabies concerns arise.

The warning comes after a bat recently tested positive in Corrales back in June 2026.

Officials say the bat was found in a private home, euthanized, and then sent to the NMDOH Scientific Laboratory Division for testing.

All people and animals exposed are currently receiving post-exposure vaccines to prevent disease.

Health officials say that if you do see a bat, do not pick it up or touch it with bare hands or allow your pet(s) to interact with it.

Rabid wild animals may show no fear of people and may be aggressive, or they may be quiet and appear tame.

To prevent rabies, the NMDOH recommends the following:

· Keep your pets up to date on vaccinations and ensure they wear tags on their collar confirming their vaccination status.

· If your cat or dog has been bitten or scratched, especially by a wild animal, call your pet’s veterinarian even if the wound is superficial. 

· Avoid wild or unfamiliar animals. Do not attempt to feed them. Don’t approach or touch wild animals (alive or dead). Teach this important message to your children and keep a close eye on your kids around unfamiliar animals. 

· In the event of an animal bite or exposure to saliva, wash the affected area immediately and thoroughly with soap and water, and seek medical attention promptly.

· People who have direct contact with a bat, who wake to find a bat in their room or who cannot reliably report whether contact with a bat occurred should receive a rabies vaccination.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Adam Roberts, DMM

Click here for updates on this story

    FORT SMITH, Ark. (KHBS, KHOG) — A former Fort Smith Schools custodian was arrested and accused of raping a child.

Jackie Dewayne Freeman, 56, faces a charge of rape, according to a police affidavit.

Freeman previously worked with Fort Smith Public Schools and is no longer employed there, a district spokesperson told 40/29 News.

In March 2026, a minor called 911 and said Freeman had performed a sex act on him. Police interviewed the minor, who described multiple sex acts that had happened during the previous five to six months.

When DNA test results came back, they showed a match with Freeman. He was arrested on July 2. Bond was set at $250,000, according to online jail records.

Online jail records show Freeman is due in court on Wednesday.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Jackson Scott

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    LAPLACE, La. (WDSU) — St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff’s Office arrested two teenage boys accused of burglarizing a school in LaPlace.

On Friday, July 3, 2026, the 14-year-old boys were accused of burglarizing St. Charles Catholic High School in LaPlace.

The school reported three Apple iPads, four football helmets, four pairs of cleats, four state championship rings, and a backpack as stolen.

All items have since been returned. Both boys have since been released into the custody of their parents.

“I appreciate the community for all the calls in helping us identify the suspects,” Sheriff Mike Tregre said. “I especially appreciate the family members who recognized the subjects and brought them in. They didn’t tolerate it. They didn’t condone it. Thank you for that.”

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Matt Kirkle

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    OMAHA, Neb. (KETV) — Two of the six people federally charged in connection with a human-trafficking investigation in Omaha were sentenced on Monday.

Michel Martinez-Gonzalez was sentenced to just over 16 years in prison for two counts of sex trafficking of a minor. Three other charges of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking and sexual exploitation of a minor were dropped.

Alfredo Zambrano-Hurtado was sentenced to 15 years in prison for the same two counts as Martinez-Gonzalez. Two other charges of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking were dropped.

Both will also have to serve five years of supervised release.

Martinez-Gonzalez, Zambrano-Hurtado and Eduardo Jose Perdomo were all charged for criminal activity that occurred between December 2024 and January 2025.

Three others, Sumit Chaudhari, Kavankumar Patel and Vishal Goswami, were all charged with sex trafficking of a minor as well.

Court documents said police were called to the AmericInn near 13th and Spring streets on Jan. 6 after a report of a theft. Police said two juveniles, 15 and 16 years old, were seen in the hotel related to the theft.

The minors were taken to Project Harmony to be interviewed, and during that process, it was found they were transported from Denver to Omaha multiple times.

According to court documents, the juveniles were brought to Omaha by Perdomo and Zambrano-Hurtado for the purpose of selling them for sex. They got a hotel room for them and placed an ad on a website.

The affidavit said half of the money made was taken by Perdomo and Martinez-Gonzalez.

The investigation yielded some phone numbers for police to call, and when officers called the numbers, court records showed that three men, later identified as Goswami, Patel and Chaudhari, offered the officers two juvenile girls for the purpose of sex. The affidavit said all of the phone numbers were found on the website that is used for commercial sex.

Court documents said Martinez-Gonzalez admitted to communicating with buyers and taking half of the money made.

Patel was sentenced to 10 years in prison back in May.

Perdomo is scheduled to be sentenced on July 20, while Goswami will be sentenced on Aug. 31.

Chaudhari will receive his sentence on Oct. 15.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.