🛤️Railroad merger appears on track; He worked 80 years for one company; Popular pastime? Bet you can't guess.

Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern submitted a revised merger application to regulators that they say offers greater protections to customers and improves their chances of completing the industry's largest merger. In the filing, the companies pledged four new or expanded commitments, including an enhanced oversight process and allowances for customers to seek temporary alternate rail service in the event of service declines. 

Fort Worth ISD’s Board of Managers will vote Aug. 11 to shut off a political race money pipeline with a tougher conflict-of-interest policy aimed squarely at vendors and contractors. The proposal drops the vendor contribution cap from $2,000 to zero for campaigns, limits gifts to $100 in many cases, and requires disclosure of certain loans or debts. 

Here we come, Jetsons: The Trump administration unveiled plans to speed up commercial space licensing by cutting what it called unnecessary environmental reviews. The Federal Aviation Administration proposed waiving requirements in 13 federal environmental and natural resource laws for certain commercial space licenses and permits. It would leave in place what is needed to protect public safety, national security, property and U.S. foreign policy interests.

Texas could be expanding the use of the Classic Learning Test in public university admissions despite an independent review that found far less evidence linking the exam’s scores to college performance than SAT and ACT scores. Education Commissioner Wynn Rosser said universities can immediately consider CLT scores for any applicants who fall outside the top-10% automatic admissions window, a signal of the state’s plan to formally approve the CLT by fall 2028 for home school, private school or out-of-state applicants.

Fort Worth-based Exline has acquired the Tulsa Industrial Portfolio: a 24-building, 1.06 million-square-foot package spanning six business parks in Oklahoma, from DRA Advisors. The off-market acquisition in partnership with SWORD Industrial Partners includes 103 suites with occupancy more than 90%.

Please stand, the Anthem has begun: Trademark Property Company and Harrison Street Asset Management broke ground on Anthem, a $135+ million transformation of the former Lincoln Square shopping center in Arlington. The 43-acre redevelopment will include retail, dining and entertainment with improved walkability, green spaces and gathering areas, art, and community programming. 

Haltom City-based RF Manufacturing has leased an additional 5,000-square-foot industrial facility a street away at 4300 Garland Drive. Benson Williams of LanCarte Commercial represented RF Manufacturing, which is focused on RF connectors, coaxial cables, printed circuit boards and more for the aerospace, defense and telecommunications industries.

Azriel "Al" Blackman, a mechanic with American Airlines, has passed away at the age of 100. Okay, so? He was still working! Blackman spent 80 years with the airline, a Guinness World Record for mechanics. 

The Yellowstone effect: Ranch prices have more than doubled in 10 years. The country has gone "ranch mad," and it's not only on TV. Nationally, homes defined as ranches had a median listing price of $769,750 as of June 2026, up a staggering 112% in 10 years, according to the latest Realtor.com Luxury Housing Report. For comparison, the national median listing price for all homes rose about 66% during the same 10-year period.

BioNTX selected Eric N. Olson, Ph.D. as its 2026 Dennis K. Stone Award recipient. He is the founder and chair of the Department of Molecular Biology at UT Southwestern Medical Center and has transformed the understanding of muscle development, disease and regeneration. His lab has uncovered key mechanisms controlling muscle biology and pioneered Myoediting, a groundbreaking, gene-editing approach for Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

Governor Greg Abbott announced 24 grants for more than $5.8 million to graduate medical and nursing schools to train doctors and nurses in emergency and trauma care and expand the state’s healthcare coverage. In Tarrant, only Texas Wesleyan ($400k) received money. The recipients are here.

Mkango Resources has provided an update on its HyProMag USA facility in Northlake. A phased-in strategy for the Ironhead facility includes first-half 2027 fast-tracking of magnet finishing equipment commissioning and initial production.

Mind and Machine, a group built around business and AI, is starting a Fort Worth group Sept. 2 at HopFusion Ale Works. The first speaker is Sean Inman, Founder and CEO of Inman Technologies, and the first sponsor is Richard Chance and Tarrant County College Corporate Solutions. Details are here.

Data centers certainly have become a bone of contention. "Residential ratepayers will not foot the bill for this industry's growth," said Gov. Greg Abbott. So, the state's Public Utility Commission and the Electric Reliability Council have begun filing rules that would make “large computational loads” pay more of their costs and accept tighter reliability requirements. 

Matt Haynes is showcasing a new fitness experience Saturday with an open house for Westwood Fitness at the renovated Ridgmar Movie Tavern, 6801 Ridgmar Meadow Rd. The kid- and family-friendly event is from 7 a.m.-1 p.m. and includes food, drinks, a bounce house, fitness challenges and exercise classes.

Texas' Attorney General’s office opened investigations into tampon and lip-product companies to decide whether they misled consumers about chemicals in their products. Texas issued civil investigative demands to Tampax, Kotex, L. and LOLA as part of an industry-wide investigation into feminine-care products.

Snippets:

• The USS Fort Worth will be decommissioned at noon today at the Naval Base San Diego. It will stream live on YouTube. The ship was launched Dec. 4, 2010 and commissioned September 12, 2012. 

• For four decades, Hart Street Pottery, a small studio in east Fort Worth, has been a place where people come not only to learn pottery, but to slow down, work with their hands, and find connection. Today, it is looking for a buyer to steward the future. 

• Fort Worth is renovating 87,000 square feet of space in its old City Hall location at 200 Texas St. to accommodate a series of police units. The one-year renovation is estimated at $22 million, with construction set to begin October 1.

• eBay Inc. agreed to pay almost $50 million to a Massachusetts couple that said former employees of the company targeted them with threats and bizarre anonymous deliveries — including live insects, a funeral wreath and a bloody pig Halloween mask.

Today in history: 1878 = Fort Worth sees its first historic total eclipse. It darkened the city as visiting astronomers established observation stations across north Texas to study and photograph the sun’s corona. It remained the city’s only total solar eclipse for nearly 146 years, until April 8, 2024.

Significant stat: Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” fell just 30% in its second weekend, one of the top 3 smallest drops for a film with a $100M+ opening. The $87M domestic second-weekend haul, combined with $128M overseas, pushed the Universal/Syncopy film to $639M globally and on track to reach $1B worldwide.

Daily digit: How big is this cloud? Alphabet reported its Google Cloud segment posted 82% year-over-year revenue growth, representing 20.7% of total revenues and at a 35%+ operating margin. Its Cloud/AI backlog is $514 billion. 

Announcements:

• Hillwood Communities: Promotes Brian Carlock to Executive Vice President. 

• Charles Schwab Challenge: Hires Jason Mackey as Director of Sales and Sponsorships.

• Lockheed Martin: Names Thania Balcazara Senior Program Manager-Affordability for Upper Tier Integrated Air & Missile Defense.

• American Alliance of Museums: Awards accreditation to Fort Worth Botanic Garden, the highest national honor a museum can receive. Approximately 3% of the nation's 33,000 museums have the designation. 

• Aubrey Guzman.co: Fractional strategic practice launched by Aubrey Guzman for Executive Directors and boards of small- and mid-size non-profits. 

• The North Texas Commission: Selects recipients of its 2026 North Texas Regional Leadership Awards. 

• Fort Worth Water Department: Promotes Bijay Upreti to Engineering Manager.

• BNSF Railway: Angela Caddell, Group Vice President, Agricultural and Energy Products, joins the National Coal Council, which advises the U.S. Secretary of Energy about policy, technology, research and market issues. 

• BNSF Logistics: Names Tim Humbert Chief Commercial Officer, effective Aug. 3.

• Bailey & Gaylen: Family Law attorney Joshua Woodbury has joined the Fort Worth office. 

• Fort Worth Hispanic Chamber of Commerce: Adds Holly Raeder of Oncor Electric Delivery and Salvatore Macedonio of BNSF Railway to its Board of Directors. 

• James L. West Center for Dementia Care: Hires Thomas McCulley as Administrator of Home Care Services and Business Development. 

• Flagstar Bank: Adds John Farris as Senior Vice President - Middle Market and Corporate Banking. 

• Pipeline Plastics: Names Kodiak O'Ravez Vice President of Sales. 

• Fidelity Investments: Senior Manager Diane Turk is leaving the company. 

• Rexel USA: Hires Ali Marciano as SVP and Chief Human Resources Officer. 

• Buff City Soap: Promotes Delaney Shipman to Operations Success Manager. 

• Gourmet Wood Products: Hires Fernando Adame II as Financial Controller. 

• Nextlink Internet: Hires Keith Miller as Director of Marketing. 

• Mariner Logistics: Names Justin Turner Chief Executive Officer. 

• Province: Names Ryan Reed, Bishop Ordinary of the Anglican Diocese of Fort Worth, as Assistant Dean.

• No Puppet Productions: Hires Chris Spinks as Partnerships Marketing Specialist. 

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