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Yahoo
7 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump voices shock at devastating scale of Texas flood damage
US President Donald Trump spoke Friday of seeing devastation like he'd never before experienced as he toured parts of Texas hit by devastating flash floods that have left at least 120 people dead, including dozens of children. The Republican leader and First Lady Melania Trump were in the Hill Country of central Texas to meet first responders, victims' families and local officials, a week after a rain-swollen river swept away houses, camp cabins, cars and people. "This is a tough one. I've never seen anything like this," Trump said at a roundtable meeting in Kerrville, in the worst-affected Kerr County. "I've gone to a lot of hurricanes, a lot of tornadoes. I've never seen anything like this. This is a bad one." Trump lashed out at reporters for questioning authorities' response to the disaster and said he wanted to focus on solidarity with emergency workers and volunteers. "All across the country, Americans' hearts are shattered," said Trump, speaking at a table draped in a black banner with the message "Texas Strong." "I had to be here as president. The first lady wanted to be here." He compared the suddenly rising floodwaters to a "giant wave in the Pacific Ocean that the best surfers in the world would be afraid to surf." Earlier, the Trumps were met by Governor Greg Abbott near the Guadalupe River in Kerrville, in an area with numerous downed trees and an overturned tractor trailer. They were briefed by Texas Emergency Management and Kerrville Fire Dept officials, and greeted by 30 or so rescue workers and Coast Guard members. The search for more than 170 missing people, including five girls who were at summer camp, was in its eighth day as rescue teams combed through mounds of debris and mud. But with no live rescues reported this week, worries have swelled that the death toll could still rise. Trump has brushed off questions about the impact of his cuts to federal agencies on the response to the flood, which he described as a "100-year catastrophe" that "nobody expected." On Thursday, Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem, who was with Trump in Texas, defended the immediate response as "swift and efficient." But Texas officials have faced questions about why emergency evacuation messages to residents and visitors along the flooding Guadalupe River reportedly were delayed, in some cases by hours. Trump expressed support for a flood warning system in a telephone interview with NBC News on Thursday. - FEMA questions - The floods, among America's deadliest in recent years, have reopened questions about Trump's plans to phase out federal disaster response agency FEMA in lieu of greater state-based responsibility. FEMA began its response to the Texas flash floods over the weekend after Trump signed a major disaster declaration to release federal resources. But the president has so far avoided addressing questions about its future. Noem insisted FEMA should be "eliminated" in its current form at a government review meeting Wednesday. Officials in Kerr County, which sits astride the Guadalupe River in an area nicknamed "Flash Flood Alley," said at least 36 children were killed in the disaster at the start of the Fourth of July holiday weekend. Details have surfaced about reported delays to early alerts at a local level that could have saved lives. Experts say forecasters did their best and sent out timely and accurate warnings despite a sudden weather change. ABC News reported Thursday that at 4:22 am on July 4, a firefighter in Ingram, upstream of Kerrville, had asked the Kerr County Sheriff's Office to alert residents of nearby Hunt to the coming flood. The network said its affiliate KSAT obtained audio of the call, and that the first alert did not reach Kerr County's CodeRED system for a full 90 minutes. In some cases, it said, the warning messages didn't arrive until after 10:00 am, when hundreds of people had already been swept away. The flooding of the Guadalupe River was particularly devastating for summer camps on its banks, including Camp Mystic, where 27 girls and counselors died. dk-ft/acb
Business Insider
20 minutes ago
- Business Insider
Tesla Price Target Trimmed by Top Analyst Despite Improving U.S. Auto Outlook
Goldman Sachs analyst Mark Delaney lowered the price target for Tesla stock (TSLA), despite his improving view of the overall U.S. auto sector. The top analyst cut the price target from $315 to $285, implying 8% downside from current levels. Delaney also maintained his 'Hold' rating on Tesla stock. Meanwhile, he increased his U.S. auto sales forecasts to 15.75 million units for 2025 and 15.50 million units for 2026, up from his prior forecasts of 15.40 million and 15.25 million, respectively. Elevate Your Investing Strategy: Take advantage of TipRanks Premium at 50% off! Unlock powerful investing tools, advanced data, and expert analyst insights to help you invest with confidence. Make smarter investment decisions with TipRanks' Smart Investor Picks, delivered to your inbox every week. Delaney is a five-star analyst on TipRanks, ranking #257 out of 9,871 analysts covered. He boasts a 61% success rate and an average return per rating of 17.90%. Why Does GS Remain a Hold on TSLA? Delaney predicts that vehicle sales in the U.S. will moderate in the second half of 2025. He attributes this to the 'pre-buying' of automobiles ahead of tariffs. The analyst also forecasts auto prices will rise in the second half of the year, after accounting for the impact of tariffs. At the same time, Tesla's electric vehicles (EVs) are expected to be more adversely affected by the expiration of the federal EV tax credits on September 30, 2025. President Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill' has proposed ending these tax credits. Delaney also made price target changes for other American auto companies as part of his broader auto industry update. For instance, he raised the price target for Ford stock (F) from $10 to $11, implying 7.6% downside potential. Additionally, General Motors (GM) stock saw a more notable price target increase, from $60 to $70 (31.7% upside), with the Buy rating maintained. Rivian (RIVN) also experienced a price cut similar to Tesla, down from $14 to $13 (2.4% downside), while retaining its Hold rating. Is Tesla Stock a Buy, Hold, or Sell? A majority of Wall Street analysts share a similar view on Tesla stock as Delaney. On TipRanks, TSLA stock has a Hold consensus rating based on 14 Buys, 13 Holds, and nine Sell ratings. Also, the average Tesla price target of $296.80 implies 4.2% downside potential from current levels. Year-to-date, TSLA stock has lost 23.3%.
San Francisco Chronicle
an hour ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
DOGE sprouts in red states, as governors embrace the cost-cutter brand and make it their own
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The brash and chaotic first days of President Donald Trump 's Department of Government Efficiency, once led by the world's richest man Elon Musk, spawned state-level DOGE mimicry as Republican governors and lawmakers aim to show they are in step with their party's leader. Governors have always made political hay out of slashing waste or taming bureaucracy, but DOGE has, in some ways, raised the stakes for them to show that they are zealously committed to cutting costs. Many drive home the point that they have always been focused on cutting government, even if they're not conducting mass layoffs. 'I like to say we were doing DOGE before DOGE was a thing,' Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said in announcing her own task force in January. Critics agree that some of these initiatives are nothing new and suggest they are wasteful, essentially duplicating built-in processes that are normally the domain of legislative committees or independent state auditors. At the same time, some governors are using their DOGE vehicles to take aim at GOP targets of the moment, such as welfare programs or diversity, equity and inclusion programs. And some governors who might be eyeing a White House run in 2028 are rebranding their cost-cutting initiatives as DOGE, perhaps eager to claim the mantle of the most DOGE of them all. No chainsaws in the states At least 26 states have initiated DOGE-style efforts of varying kinds, according to the Economic Policy Institute based in Washington, D.C. Most DOGE efforts were carried out through a governor's order — including by governors in Florida, Iowa, Louisiana, Montana, New Hampshire and Oklahoma — or by lawmakers introducing legislation or creating a legislative committee. The state initiatives have a markedly different character than Trump's slash-and-burn approach, symbolized by Musk's chainsaw-brandishing appearance at a Conservative Political Action Committee appearance in February. Governors are tending to entrust their DOGE bureaus to loyalists, rather than independent auditors, and are often employing what could be yearslong processes to consolidate procurement, modernize information technology systems, introduce AI tools, repeal regulations or reduce car fleets, office leases or worker headcounts through attrition. Steve Slivinski, a senior fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute who researches state government regulatory structures, said that a lot of what he has seen from state-level DOGE initiatives are the 'same stuff you do on a pretty regular basis anyway' in state governments. States typically have routine auditing procedures and the ways states have of saving money are 'relatively unsexy," Slivinski said. And while the state-level DOGE vehicles might be useful over time in finding marginal improvements, "branding it DOGE is more of a press op rather than anything new or substantially different than what they usually do,' Slivinski said. Analysts at the pro-labor Economic Policy Institute say that governors and lawmakers, primarily in the South and Midwest, are using DOGE to breathe new life into long-term agendas to consolidate power away from state agencies and civil servants, dismantle public services and benefit insiders and privatization advocates. 'It's not actually about cutting costs because of some fiscal responsibility,' EPI analyst Nina Mast said. Governors promoting spending cuts Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry rebranded his 'Fiscal Responsibility Program' as Louisiana DOGE, and promoted it as the first to team up with the federal government to scrub illegitimate enrollees from welfare programs. It has already netted $70 million in savings in the Medicaid program in an 'unprecedented' coordination, Landry said in June. In Oklahoma, Gov. Kevin Stitt — who says in a blurb on the Oklahoma DOGE website that 'I've been DOGE-ing in Oklahoma since before it was cool" — made a DOGE splash with the first report by his Division of Government Efficiency by declaring that the state would refuse some $157 million in federal public health grants. The biggest chunk of that was $132 million intended to support epidemiology and laboratory capacity to control infectious disease outbreaks. The Stitt administration said that funding — about one-third of the total over an eight-year period — exceeded the amount needed. The left-leaning Oklahoma Policy Institute questioned the wisdom of that, pointing to rising numbers of measles and whooping cough cases and the rocky transition under Stitt of the state's public health lab from Oklahoma City to Stillwater. Oklahoma Democrats issued rebukes, citing Oklahoma's lousy public health rankings. 'This isn't leadership,' state Sen. Carri Hicks said. 'It's negligence." Stitt's Oklahoma DOGE has otherwise recommended changes in federal law to save money, opened up the suggestion box to state employees and members of the general public and posted a spreadsheet online with cost savings initiatives in his administration. Those include things as mundane as agencies going paperless, refinancing bonds, buying automated lawn mowers for the Capitol grounds or eliminating a fax machine line in the State Board of Licensure for Professional Engineers and Surveyors. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed an executive order in February creating a task force of DOGE teams in each state agency. In the order, DeSantis recited 10 points on what he described as his and Florida's 'history of prudent fiscal management' even before DOGE. Among other things, DeSantis vowed to scrutinize spending by state universities and municipal and county governments — including on DEI initiatives — at a time when DeSantis is pushing to abolish the property taxes that predominantly fund local governments. His administration has since issued letters to universities and governments requesting reams of information and received a blessing from lawmakers, who passed legislation authorizing the inquiry and imposing fines for entities that don't respond. After the June 30 signing ceremony, DeSantis declared on social media: 'We now have full authority to DOGE local governments.' In Arkansas, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders launched her cost-cutting Arkansas Forward last year, before DOGE, and later said the state had done the 'same thing' as DOGE. Her administration spent much of 2024 compiling a 97-page report that listed hundreds of ways to possibly save $300 million inside a $6.5 billion budget. Achieving that savings — largely by standardizing information technology and purchasing — would sometimes require up-front spending and take years to realize savings.
