Just hours after voting started in Texas, Kimberly Rubio cast her ballot in the same Uvalde city building where she waited in May to learn that her daughter, Lexi, was one of 19 fourth-graders fatally shot at Robb Elementary School. “If our children aren’t safe, neither are your jobs,” Rubio said as she walked out of her polling place with an “I voted” sticker. Nearby, another woman waved a “Don’t tread on me” flag. The deadliest classroom shooting in Texas history has cast a long shadow in the midterm elections, intensifying Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s campaign against Democrat Beto O’Rourke and driving a blitz of television ads. On Thursday, a Republican congressman joined calls for Texas’ state police chief to resign, reflecting continued anger five months after the massacre. But with more than 1 million votes already cast in Texas, Uvalde families who have been most outspoken since the May 24 attack are facing an uphill climb for bigger shakeups on Election Day, including a change in governor. Abbott, who has waved off calls to tighten Texas gun laws since the shooting, has never trailed in polls. He is also seizing on national headwinds facing Democrats, who are in danger…

A complex of giant tents built on an island is set to open Wednesday as New York City’s latest temporary shelter for an influx of international migrants being bused into the city by southern border states. The humanitarian relief center on Randall’s Island is intended to be a temporary waystation for single, adult men — many from Venezuela — who have been arriving several times per week on buses chartered predominantly from Texas.Spartan and utilitarian, the tents include cots for up to 500 people, laundry facilities, a dining hall and phones for residents to make international calls. The city’s plan is to bring single men to the facility once they arrive at the main Manhattan bus terminal and to house them there for a period of days while determining next steps, officials said. Families with children are being housed in a hotel. “We needed a different type of operation that gave us the time and space to welcome people, provide them a warm meal, shower, a place to sleep, to understand their medical needs, to really then work with them to figure out what their next step is going to be,” said Emergency Management Commissioner Zach Iscol. The white, plastic-walled tents…

A Texas police officer who shot and wounded a teenager who had been sitting in his car eating a hamburger has been fired, police said. San Antonio Officer James Brennand was fired after shooting Erik Cantu, 17, on Oct. 2 in a fast food restaurant parking lot, police training commander Alyssa Campos said in a video statement released Wednesday. Brennand had responded to an unrelated disturbance at the fast-food restaurant when he saw Cantu inside the car, which had evaded him a day earlier, Campos said. A Texas prosecutor said in a statement Friday that he has not seen enough evidence to file charges against the teenager. “While Sunday’s shooting of an unarmed teenager by a then-San Antonio Police officer remains under investigation, the facts and evidence we have received so far led us to reject the charges against Erik Cantu for further investigation,” Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales said. Brennand, who had been on the force for less than one year, violated his training and police procedures after approaching the car, Campos said. “The officer abruptly opened the driver’s door and ordered the driver out of the car” before the arrival of backup officers that Brennand had requested, Campos…