Daily Briefing: Monday, October 12, 2026

Prisons. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice filed a notice of appeal to the Fifth Circuit on October 8 and asked U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman to put his September 22 judgment on hold while the appeal runs, according to the agency’s motion. The judgment orders air conditioning in all 104 state prisons by the end of 2029. The motion calls that thirty-nine-month timeline “unachievable” and puts the cost above $1.5 billion. Around 90,000 inmates are held without air conditioning, The Texas Tribune reported.

Schools. The Austin Independent School District faces state intervention after Webb and Burnet middle schools received five straight failing ratings, and the Texas Education Agency (TEA) gives districts no added money to pay for an intervention, the Austin Current reported Monday. Houston’s school district drew nearly $450 million from its reserves in the first two years after the state took control in 2023. Austin’s district, already short on cash, must borrow $140 million to cover payroll through November.

Water. Corpus Christi has spent at least $50 million on a seawater desalination plant that has yet to be built, eight years after the region’s largest industrial water users agreed in 2018 to help pay for it, Inside Climate News and The Texas Newsroom reported Monday. The area’s main reservoirs nearly ran dry this spring.

Alberta. Advance voting in Alberta’s referendum runs Tuesday, October 13, through Saturday, October 17, ahead of Referendum Day on Monday, October 19, according to Elections Alberta. The tenth of the ballot’s ten questions asks whether the province should stay in Canada or hold a second, binding referendum on leaving. The pro-separation Let Alberta Decide campaign plans a Saturday rally on the legislature grounds the weekend of the vote, and the Alberta Federation of Labour plans a unity rally there on Sunday, Narcity reported.

Scotland. First Minister John Swinney said, ahead of the Scottish National Party’s conference in Aberdeen, that the party has “turned the corner on the independence argument,” the PA news agency reported. He pointed to the agreement signed by the pro-independence leaders of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Biafra. Nnamdi Kanu, the jailed leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, rejected any settlement short of a vote on Biafran independence in a written address to the American Veterans of Igbo Descent convention in Duluth, Georgia, Sahara Reporters reported. “I discuss referendum and nothing else,” Kanu wrote.

Texas Nationalist Movement calendar. The Brazoria County team of the Texas Nationalist Movement (TNM) holds a meet and greet and Texian App workshop Tuesday, October 13, at Smithhart’s Texas Grill in Angleton, according to the TNM calendar. The Llano County team holds a meet and greet Thursday, October 15, at The Falls in Llano. On Saturday, October 17, TNM teams hold information tables on the Llano Courthouse Square, at a park in Bullard in Cherokee County, and at the Texas Gun & Knife Show in Abilene in Taylor County.