March 3

Dallas County GOP abandons countywide voting, turning thousands away

The Dallas County Republican Party scrapped the county's countywide vote center system for the March 3 Texas primary, requiring voters to cast ballots only at their assigned precinct sites. Thousands of voters who arrived at familiar vote centers were turned away; many cast provisional ballots. The Texas Supreme Court halted counting of late-arriving votes cast under the old system, disenfranchising hundreds who followed outdated guidance.

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Colin Gray convicted of murder in Apalachee shooting parent-liability case

A Georgia jury convicted Colin Gray on 27 counts including second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter on March 3, 2026, for providing his son with the AR-15-style rifle used in the Apalachee High School shooting. Jurors deliberated fewer than two hours before returning the verdict. Gray became the first parent in the United States convicted of murder for an act committed by their child, establishing a precedent for parental liability in school shooting cases.

DHS partial shutdown reaches day 17 as Senate filibuster blocks deportation funding

The DHS-only partial shutdown entered its 17th day as Senate Democrats continued to filibuster the deportation funding bill, demanding ICE reform conditions that Republicans refused. TSA officers and FEMA staff faced delayed paychecks while enforcement operations continued under emergency authority. Senate Majority Leader Thune could not break the 60-vote cloture threshold, leaving DHS operating without appropriated funds since February 14.

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Election deadline: Arkansas Primary Election 2026

Voting for Arkansas Primary Election 2026 occurs on this date. Offices on ballot: U.S. Senate; U.S. House (4 seats); Governor. See the linked election record for registration, early voting, and mail ballot deadlines.

Election deadline: Texas Primary Election 2026

Voting for Texas Primary Election 2026 occurs on this date. Offices on ballot: U.S. Senate; U.S. House (38 seats); Governor; State Legislature. See the linked election record for registration, early voting, and mail ballot deadlines.

Election deadline: North Carolina Primary Election 2026

Voting for North Carolina Primary Election 2026 occurs on this date. Offices on ballot: U.S. Senate; U.S. House (14 seats); Governor; State Legislature. See the linked election record for registration, early voting, and mail ballot deadlines.

Pentagon confirms it used Anthropic Claude AI to select Iran strike targets while Trump

The Pentagon confirmed US Central Command used Anthropic Claude AI to identify and prioritize targets during Operation Epic Fury — even after Trump declared Anthropic a national security risk and barred all federal agencies from its products. Defense Secretary Hegseth had labeled Anthropic a supply-chain risk after CEO Dario Amodei refused to remove safeguards against autonomous weapons use. The disclosure triggered bipartisan demands about AI role in combat targeting and whether human commanders retained final authority.

Pentagon used Anthropic Claude AI for Iran targeting hours after Trump banned the company

US Central Command used Anthropic Claude AI to identify and prioritize over 1,000 strike targets in Iran during Operation Epic Fury, even after Trump declared Anthropic a national security risk and banned federal agencies from using its products. Defense Secretary Hegseth had labeled Anthropic a supply-chain risk after CEO Dario Amodei refused to strip safeguards preventing Claude from being used for autonomous weapons or mass surveillance. The disclosure triggered bipartisan demands for accountability over AI role in combat targeting decisions.

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Iran war triggers biggest single-day U.S. gas price spike since Katrina

US retail gas prices jumped 9 cents per gallon on March 3 alone — the largest single-day increase since Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast in August 2005 — after Iran shut the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for Operation Epic Fury. The average national price surged 20 cents overall in five days, a roughly 7 percent increase that AAA and GasBuddy analysts called the most dramatic short-term shock in two decades. Iran controls the chokepoint through which approximately 20 percent of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas transits daily.

Iran strikes U.S. Embassy in Riyadh as six embassies are evacuated across Middle East

Iranian drones struck the US Embassy compound in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on March 3, with two drones penetrating the diplomatic quarter and severely damaging three floors of a secure wing. The CIA station inside the compound was also hit. The State Department ordered non-emergency staff evacuations from US missions in Kuwait, Bahrain, Iraq, Qatar, and Jordan and issued shelter-in-place alerts for Riyadh, Jeddah, and Dhahran. The attack marked the first direct Iranian strike on a US diplomatic facility since the 1979 Tehran hostage crisis.

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Tillis places hold on all DHS nominees after Noem stonewalls OIG on 10 investigations

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) announced he was blocking all DHS nominations en bloc after submitting a letter from Inspector General Joseph Cuffari documenting 10 instances where Noem misled or obstructed his investigations. Tillis called DHS leadership a "disaster" and "failure" at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, and threatened to deny quorum in multiple committees if Noem failed to respond within two weeks. He simultaneously called for her resignation—one of two Senate Republicans to do so that day.

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Six U.S. servicemembers killed as Pentagon warns interceptor stocks are running low

Six US servicemembers died at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait after Iranian ballistic missile strikes overwhelmed air defenses on March 1-3, raising the confirmed US death toll in the first week of the Iran war. The Pentagon simultaneously acknowledged that the US Army had expended over 800 Patriot interceptor missiles in five days — a burn rate defense analysts said was unsustainable without emergency procurement. Defense officials confirmed interceptor replenishment lead times of 18-24 months, meaning no rapid resupply was possible.

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DOJ drops, then reverses course and resumes appeal of law firm targeting orders

The Justice Department on March 2 voluntarily asked the D.C. Circuit to dismiss its four pending appeals defending Trump executive orders targeting Perkins Coie, WilmerHale, Susman Godfrey, and Jenner and Block. Within 24 hours the DOJ reversed itself, asking the appeals court to reinstate those same appeals without explanation. Federal district courts had already ruled the executive orders unconstitutional as attacks on the judiciary.

Spain bars U.S. from joint NATO bases for Iran war; Trump threatens trade cutoff

Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares announced on March 3, 2026 that Spain would not permit U.S. forces to use the jointly operated Rota and Morón air bases in southern Spain for strikes on Iran, citing UN Charter limitations on the bases' authorized uses. President Trump responded the same day, threatening to "cut off all trade with Spain." Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez held firm, calling the Iran war playing "Russian roulette" with millions of lives and saying Spain would not be "complicit in something that is bad for the world."

State Department hotline tells 500,000 Americans stranded in Middle East not to rely on U.S. government

Two days after Operation Epic Fury began, the State Department posted a social media message urging roughly 500,000 Americans in the Middle East to leave using commercial transportation — but the phone hotline it directed them to played a recorded message stating "Please do not rely on the US government for assisted departure or evacuation at this time." The contradiction emerged as regional airspace closures and airport strikes made commercial options scarce. Analysts attributed the failure to wartime operational secrecy that prevented State Department pre-positioning of evacuation assets.

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Labor Secretary Chavez-DeRemer's top two aides resign amid IG travel fraud probe

Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer's chief of staff Jihun Han and deputy chief of staff Rebecca Wright resigned in early March after the department's inspector general opened a travel fraud investigation. The probe examined whether the two aides fabricated official events to justify personal travel by Chavez-DeRemer at government expense. Both aides had been on administrative leave since mid-January. A third senior staffer, Melissa Robey, was later fired after cooperating with the IG.

Congress demands probe of pre-war prediction-market trades as insider-trading allegations mount

Congressional Democrats called for investigations into coordinated bets placed on Polymarket in the hours before the US launched Operation Epic Fury against Iran on February 28. A group of 38 anonymous accounts netted over $2 million on the Iran strikes after being preloaded with funds the preceding week, and a single account labeled "Magamyman" made $553,000 betting on Supreme Leader Khamenei's removal. Harvard researchers estimated $143 million in total profits on Polymarket by accounts with suspected insider knowledge of events ranging from the Iran war to diplomatic agreements.

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Paxton leads Cornyn in the Texas Republican Senate primary, forcing a runoff

Ken Paxton finished first in the Texas Republican Senate primary, defeating incumbent John Cornyn but falling short of the 50 percent threshold required to avoid a runoff under Texas election law. Paxton received approximately 48 percent of the vote to Cornyn's 38 percent, with two minor candidates splitting the remainder. The result forced a May 26 runoff between the top two finishers, extending the most expensive Senate primary in Texas history.

Trump offers four contradictory rationales for Iran war in four days

Trump and his top officials provided four shifting justifications for Operation Epic Fury in four days: preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon; preemption of an imminent Iranian attack on US forces (claimed by Rubio but contradicted by the Pentagon briefing); regime change (urged by Trump then reversed by the White House within 24 hours); and dismantling Iran proxy networks. Democrats and foreign policy analysts noted that no single rationale met the legally required imminent threat standard under the War Powers Resolution.

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Netanyahu and MBS secretly lobbied Trump for weeks before Iran war launch

The Washington Post and Axios reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman separately lobbied President Trump for weeks before the February 28 launch of Operation Epic Fury. Netanyahu met Trump twice and spoke by phone 15 times in two months; the decisive call came February 23 when Netanyahu shared intelligence that Iran's supreme leader would be at a single Tehran location. MBS reinforced the push, making Israel and Saudi Arabia an unusual joint lobbying force behind Trump's decision.

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Texas AG Paxton backs Dallas GOP rule change that barred thousands from voting

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton supported the Dallas County Republican Party's switch from countywide vote centers to precinct-only voting for the March 3 primary, defending the change against Democratic legal challenges. The Texas Supreme Court, in a ruling consistent with Paxton's position, blocked Dallas County from counting ballots cast at non-precinct sites after hours. Critics said the change exploited the absence of federal preclearance requirements eliminated by Shelby County v. Holder (2013).

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Noem terminates Yemen TPS in Federal Register, setting May 4 expiration

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem publishes a notice in the Federal Register terminating Yemen's Temporary Protected Status designation, with an effective date of May 4, 2026. The notice declares that conditions in Yemen no longer meet the statutory threshold for TPS protection. Critics immediately argue Noem failed to complete the country conditions review that 8 U.S.C. § 1254a requires before termination. The Center for Constitutional Rights files suit in the Southern District of New York on behalf of approximately 2,810 Yemeni TPS holders and 425 pending applicants. The termination notice does not reference a completed country conditions review — the procedural gap that becomes the core of the plaintiffs' Administrative Procedure Act claim.

900 Google and OpenAI workers demand employers impose ethical limits on military AI use

Nearly 900 Google and OpenAI employees signed an open letter titled "We Will Not Be Divided" urging their employers to reject Pentagon demands to remove ethical limits on military AI use. The petition, released March 3, demanded companies refuse AI deployment for autonomous lethal targeting or domestic mass surveillance without human oversight. The letter cited Claude AI's reported role in selecting over 1,000 targets in U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran.

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Military watchdog reports 200-plus complaints of commanders calling Iran war God's Armageddon plan

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation reported more than 200 complaints from troops at over 50 installations after combat-unit commanders told troops that President Trump was anointed by Jesus to trigger Armageddon through the Iran war, citing the Book of Revelation. MRFF founder Mikey Weinstein called the briefings a violation of DoD religious neutrality policy and UCMJ good order requirements. More than two dozen Democratic members of Congress requested the DoD Inspector General open an investigation into whether commanders violated constitutional Establishment Clause protections.