Good evening, Texas. We're wrapping up the day for you with the most important stories you need to know and your weather outlook.

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A big warm up is on the way before a cold front brings rainy relief Thursday into Friday for North and Central Texas

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Today's Big Stories

1. Mexican president, Texas Congress members spar over using U.S. military against cartels

Mexico's leader is taking aim at some U.S. lawmakers who are demanding that the Biden administration characterize Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations and authorize the U.S. military to help combat them.

Due to the fentanyl crisis, U.S. apprehension regarding Mexico's criminal cartels had already begun to mount. Then the killing of two kidnapped Americans this month in the border city of Matamoros added to those fears. Five alleged members of a notorious Mexican cartel have been charged in the case.

2. Bipartisan support exists for cutting state sales tax rate

Since 1990, Texas has had a 6.25% state sales tax, with local governments given the option to raise it to 8.25%. Those combined means Texas has the 14th highest sales tax rate in the nation, according to the Tax Foundation. The sales tax takes a bite out of your income every time you buy clothes, coffee, toilet paper, you name it. It’s primarily responsible for the nearly $33 billion budget surplus. The bipartisan push to cut sales taxes has the backing of the governor.

GOP leaders are promising a sizeable chunk of the budget surplus will go toward reducing property taxes, but there’s growing bipartisan support to cut sales taxes as part of a bigger relief package.  

Austin Skyline. (iStock)

3. Drug-resistant fungus spreading rapidly at health care facilities, CDC says

A deadly, drug-resistant fungus has been rapidly spreading in recent years at U.S. health care facilities, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday.

Infections from the yeast strain Candida auris, or C. auris, have jumped from 476 in 2019 to 1,471 in 2021, while screening cases — those in which the fungus is detected but there is no infection — tripled from 2020 to 2021 to 4,041, according to a CDC study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

The number of cases resistant to echinocandins, the antifungal medicine most commonly recommended to treat C. auris infections, also tripled from 2020 to 2021.

4. Biden designates national monuments in Nevada, Texas

President Joe Biden is establishing national monuments in Nevada and Texas and creating a marine sanctuary in U.S. waters near the Pacific Remote Islands southwest of Hawaii.

The Democratic president announced the measures Tuesday at a White House summit on conservation action at the Interior Department.

"Our country's national treasures define our identity as a nation, our birthright, their birthright we have to pass down to generation after generation," Biden said. "That's why our conservation work is so important. Provides a bridge to our past and to our future. Not just for today, but for all ages."

Your Notes for Tomorrow

In Case You Missed It 

Cedar Hill head coach Robert Vordtriede overlooks as his team runs a drill during practice. (Spectrum News 1/Robbie Fuelling)

From the battlefield to the soccer field, this is the story of Robert Vordtriede

If soccer is Robert Vortriede’s passion, then coaching is his purpose. But he has no professional background in the sport. Nor did he play in college or high school. Vordtriede's journey to the pitch is a unique one and it’s even more remarkable once you learn what preceded it.