💵Airlines to pay own way for TSA screenings; Whale of a title for TechFW client; Texas wins lottery, 7 million eggs on the way.

Scheduling note: 817 Biz will be off Friday and will resume publishing Monday, July 6.

American Airlines and Tarrant County College announced a memorandum of understanding that creates a direct pathway to careers at American. Top candidates from TCC's Aviation Maintenance Technology program will have priority access to interviews, mentorship and engagement opportunities with American’s maintenance professionals and exposure to the airline’s maintenance facilities.

Soon, pilots and flight attendants no longer will be able to skip regular TSA security secreenings. See how many millions it will cost airlines going forward.

Bectas Therapeutics, a TechFW member, and TrialScreen emerged from a field of 100 applicants and 25 startup pitches to win the competitions at the Drug Information Association’s global annual meeting. Bectas took home the Biotech Blue Whale, recognized for its work developing precision monoclonal antibody therapies for cancer, combining best-in-class drug activity with biomarker-driven patient selection. TrialScreen won the Clintech Blue Whale award, the top prize in clintech innovation. 

Lockheed Martin was awarded a $3-billion contract Tuesday that supports the production of the U.S. Army's Sentinel A4 radar system and related engineering work. The work locations and funding will be determined with each order; the work is expected to be completed by June 29, 2031. 

Lockheed Martin and Finnish firm Insta plan to establish Europe's first maintenance and sustainment center for the fire control system utilized in M270A2 Multiple Launch Rocket Systems and Himars rocket launchers. This facility, located in Tampere, Finland, will provide maintenance, lifecycle support and technical services. 

National Logistics Day was this week and the Fort Worth Economic Development Department put together a story on what moves Fort Worth -- from its central location and multi-modal infrastructure to the talent, innovation and supportive business climate.

AstraZeneca has settled claims with Texas for nearly $34 million. Allegedly, the company engaged in a kickback scheme for doctors who prescribed its medications to patients, often funded by the state’s Medicaid program.

Eggcellent news: Texas' Attorney General's office is part of a 17-state coalition that has settled with three egg producers to donate more than seven million eggs to food banks across Texas. This settlement resolves antitrust claims that stemmed from an alleged conspiracy by Cal-Maine Foods, Centrum/Versova, and Hickman’s Egg Ranch to inflate egg prices between 2022 and 2025.

Did you know? On this date in 1928 in Fort Worth, Bobby Day was born Robert James Byrd. Day wrote and recorded the 1958 hit “Rockin’ Robin,” which reached No. 2 nationally and later became a pop-culture staple. He attended I.M. Terrell High School before building his music career in Los Angeles.

American City Business Journals is starting a 5-day-a-week, digital-only publication in October called Fort Worth Business Journal. Seth Bodine, lead reporter in Fort Worth for the Dallas Business Journal, will guide the launch. Business Journal stories are behind a paywall and require a subscription to read.

Today is the first day there no longer will be juror parking at LaGrave Field. So, no more Trinity Metro juror shuttle. Jurors can present their summons and ride other Trinity Metro options for free. For assistance, call 817-215-8600 or visit RideTrinityMetro.org. 

Trademark Property Company has opened The Vickery residential community at 700 W. Vickery in the Near Southside. Within its five acres are residential offerings, on-site pickleball, a public park, two dog parks and a Sky Lounge.

Fort Worth has extraordinary cultural resources, but access is uneven. The DASH Pass program, led by the Rainwater Charitable Foundation, brings together cultural institutions, parent-facing organizations and families. Cultural institutions welcome DASH Pass holders and help track usage. Parent-facing organizations connect families to the program and distribute passes. All the while, Rainwater is measuring the impact. See how it works.

Local Favorite Restaurants acquired Cotton Patch Café, with 46 locations in Texas and New Mexico. Brandon Coleman III, CEO, and Stephanie Callaghan, CFO, will lead the next phase of growth.

The La Playa Maya Stockyards restaurant on N. Main will close Sunday, according to reports. Three other La Playa Maya locations -- in south and west Fort Worth and in Hudson Oaks -- will remain open. Leticia and Lupe Ayala, who died in 2025, founded the restaurants, which are still family owned.

Tarrant To & Through (T3) Partnership named David Saenz President and CEO after he has served in the role on an interim basis. Saenz was a founding board member of T3 before joining the organization as senior education adviser. 

PeopleFund’s Small Business Accelerator is accepting applications from businesses at least six months old for a free cohort July 15 – September 2. The statewide program provides Texas entrepreneurs with the capital, education and resources to support healthy business growth. The first 70 eligible applicants get in.

We're dying to share this one: Jimmy Lucas, a sixth-generation Fort Worth funeral professional and tech executive Jeff Chen launched TeamTangoAI, an AI platform built for funeral homes, cremation providers and deathcare organizations. The platform is focused on the workflows and communication needs of the funeral and cremation profession first-call intake, after-hours coverage, scheduling, family questions and the routine interactions that pull staff away from the families in front of them.

Supreme Court busy with rulings:

• The court ruled that constitutional privacy protections extend to cellphone location information, ruling in the case of a bank robber whose identity was discovered through a geofence warrant. Justice Elena Kagan wrote for the 6-3 majority that people don’t forfeit expectations of privacy even when they opt into Google’s location history.

• The court again loosened campaign finance restrictions by striking down limits on how much political parties may raise and spend on candidates. By a 6-to-3 vote along ideological lines, the court ruled the law, enacted in 1974, violates political parties' First Amendment rights.

• The court, in a 6-3 vote, shut the door on President Trump’s birthright citizenship restrictions, ruling that his banner immigration policy is unconstitutional. Chief Justice John Roberts, joined by all three liberal justices and Justice Amy Coney Barrett, wrote that the 14th Amendment guarantees automatic citizenship for nearly all children born on U.S. soil, even those born to parents in the country unlawfully. 

• The court ruled that states can ban transgender athletes from female sports teams. Twenty-seven states prevent transgender girls and women from participating on female sports teams in schools. The ruling addresses one of the nation’s most high-profile cultural and political issues.

• The court overturned a 91-year-old precedent that prevented Presidents from removing members of independent agencies. The decision is an expansion of the President's control in the fight for headway in the government's checks and balances. The 6-3 decision did limit the President's ability to fire members of the Federal Reserve Board. 

Snippets: 

• The owners of Mutts Canine Cantina have closed their Clearfork and Dallas locations. See the post here. 

• The Fort Worth Zoo asked your help naming its baby girl giraffe. Honey, Kumi or Iris were the choices and the winner is .... Kumi. 

• The do's and don'ts of bullets and fireworks for July 4. 

• We just shared Saks Global emerged from bankruptcy with a high-end focus and new money. It also has a new name: Exemplar Luxury Group. 

• Fort Worth-based La Pulga Spirits has expanded to Michigan.

• Warren Buffett is delaying his mid-year Berkshire Hathaway stock donation to the Gates Foundation pending a review of its Epstein ties.

• San Marcos is the first Texas city to ban data centers, testing its local control. 

• How difficult is it to give away billions of dollars? MacKenzie and Musk have differing views. 

Today in history (1963): The U.S. Post Office introduced the five-digit ZIP code, short for Zone Improvement Plan, to speed mail sorting and delivery.

Daily digit: 38 = Buc-cees announced it will open stores in San Marcos in 2026 and in Boerne in 2027. That will take the number of Texas locations to 38. The first Buc-cees store opened just south of Houston in 1982.

Significant stat: The overall divorce rate in the U.S. is falling, but that’s not the case for older Americans. People over 50 are splitting up at twice the rate they did in 1990. That number has tripled for those over 65. Nearly 40% of divorces now involve adults over 50.

Announcements:

• Texas: Governor Greg Abbott appointed Emily Groomer of Fort Worth to the Texas Early Learning Council for a term set to expire at the pleasure of the Governor. Groomer is an early childhood special education state coordinator at the Texas Education Agency. 

• Royer Commercial Interiors: Hires Sarah Brock and Lucia Gaudiano Cano as Project Designers.

• Cacique Foods: Hires Brandon Smick as Business Analyst-D365 Finance and Operations.

• Maxim Healthcare: Hires Sarah Iannelli as a registered nurse.

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