Daily Briefing: Sunday, October 18, 2026

Governor Greg Abbott asked U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Thursday to suspend federal tax filing and payment deadlines and waive late fees for Texans hit by the storms and flooding that began July 14, the governor’s office announced. The request covers all 62 counties in Abbott’s July 14 disaster proclamation. Washington approved a Major Disaster Declaration on September 1 for only 23 of them.

The Texas Health and Human Services Commission plans to award $78 million in Rural Texas Strong grants to 216 rural healthcare providers, the governor’s office announced Thursday. The money is part of a $281.3 million first-year award from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, with an estimated $1.4 billion coming to Texas over five years.

Railroad Commissioner Wayne Christian urged lawmakers and regulators to set clear rules for the industrial reuse of treated produced water, the salty wastewater that comes up with oil and gas, the Railroad Commission of Texas said Thursday. “Texas desperately needs more water, and our oil and gas industry sits on an ocean of it,” Christian said. He named data center cooling as one use. Treated samples from 2024 and 2025 pilot projects met Texas Commission on Environmental Quality drinking water limits for nearly all comparable measures, according to the release.

Crowds of independence supporters filled the plaza outside the Alberta Legislature in Edmonton on Saturday afternoon at a rally organized by Let Alberta Decide, CBC News reported. Speakers included Keith Wilson, the group’s co-chair and head of the Alberta Transition Council. Albertans vote Monday.

Supporters of keeping Alberta in Canada marched through downtown Calgary on Saturday, one of more than a dozen unity events across the province that day, including rallies in Airdrie, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat and Red Deer, according to CBC News. The Alberta Federation of Labour holds another unity rally at the Legislature on Sunday.

Community group leaders across Alberta told CBC News that the 10 questions on Monday’s ballot are causing confusion, and that many voters know only of the separation question, CBC News reported. Five of the questions ask whether the provincial government should take more control over immigration from Ottawa. Question 10 asks whether Alberta should remain in Canada or begin the legal process toward a binding referendum on separation.

The Wood County team of the Texas Nationalist Movement (TNM) holds a meet and greet at Jalapeno Tree in Mineola on Tuesday, October 20, at 6 p.m., according to the TNM calendar.