Happy Tuesday! Let the new month serve as a new beginning.

☀️ Today's weather: High close to 100 degrees.

🎵 Sounds like: "Highway Don't Care"

🎉 Happy birthday to our Axios Dallas member Dennis O'Loughlin.

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🌧️ Situational awareness: DFW Airport has gone 47 days without measurable rainfall, making last month one of the driest Augusts on record, per the National Weather Service.

Today's newsletter is 883 twinning words — a 3.5-minute read.

More than 1.2 million Texas voters have been flagged as possibly no longer living at the address listed on their registration, potentially facing an extra step when they head to the polls this fall.

Why it matters: Voters on the so-called suspense list remain registered and can still vote, but the designation means election officials have questions about whether their registered address is current.

Driving the news: Roughly 6.6% of Texas' 18.7 million registered voters are currently on the suspense list, the Dallas Morning News first reported.

• A voter is placed on the list when a county registrar has reason to believe the voter's registered address is outdated, often because a voter registration card was returned as undeliverable.

What they're saying: Texas has used the process for years to keep voter rolls updated, secretary of state spokesperson Alicia Pierce tells Axios.

• "Voters on the suspense list remain registered, but they may need to confirm their address information," Pierce says. Voters then would sign a statement of residence before voting.

The other side: Voting rights advocates say the process can nevertheless create additional hurdles for eligible voters.

• "The registration status of over 1 million potential Texas voters has been placed under suspicion by Texas election officials, potentially interfering with their ability to vote this fall — and the vast majority probably have no idea," Chris Mosser of progressive advocacy group Progress Texas wrote last month.
• "This means extra friction at the ballot box, as there are administrative obstacles that are triggered for a voter in suspense."

By the numbers: About 129,000 Dallas County voters are on the state's list of voters whose address could not be confirmed, per the Dallas County Democratic Party.

The bottom line: Texans can check their registration status and update their address at VoteTexas.gov before the Oct. 5 deadline for the November election.

You may see fewer sheriff's deputies and more Dallas police cars on the city's freeways and tollways starting this week, as the city expands traffic enforcement.

Why it matters: The change follows shifting responsibilities on North Texas' roads by the Dallas County Sheriff's Office and Texas Department of Public Safety.

Catch up quick: The sheriff's office had primary oversight of the city's major freeways for over a decade, letting police focus on residential and commercial law enforcement. That agreement has come to an end.

• Meanwhile, DPS' longstanding agreement to patrol the North Texas Tollway Authority's roads has also ended.

State of patrols: Dallas police started overseeing the city's freeways — both traffic enforcement and crash response — on Friday.

• Starting today, the department has started patrolling the city's NTTA roads as well. The change includes parts of the President George Bush Turnpike.

The big picture: NTTA says it's in the process of having cities patrol the tollways within their boundaries.

• DPS has agreed to patrol the roads at no cost to NTTA until the authority finalizes its agreements with the cities.

Pro tip: Drivers can still call 911 for emergencies and crashes.

🚨 A North Texas man died and two of his friends were still missing yesterday, after flash floods swept through the Grand Canyon over the weekend. (DMN)

🏫 UT Arlington president Jennifer Cowley is stepping down after four years in the role. She was the first woman to lead the university. (Fort Worth Report)

🎄 Madisonville Christmas Co. plans to open a pop-up store in Plano later this month. The store will stay open through the holiday season. (CultureMap)

In the last decade, the rate of twin births has declined in the U.S. and in Texas, per CDC data.

The big picture: Early use of IVF contributed to a national twin baby boom. But once fertility treatments got more advanced, doctors increasingly recommended transferring a single embryo to reduce pregnancy risks.

By the numbers: The national twin birth rate rose 79% from 1980 to 2014, before dropping an average 1% per year after that, according to the CDC.

Zoom in: Between 2022 to 2024, Texas counted 33,164 twin births, per the CDC.

• Over the same three-year period a decade earlier, Texas counted 36,499 twin births, per state health statistics.

State of play: Nationally, the biggest twin birth declines were for mothers age 30 and older. Rates dropped …

• 18% for mothers 30-34.
• 27% for mothers 35-39.
• 46% for mothers 40 and older.

The intrigue: Black mothers already had the highest twin birth rate, and that rate rose 5% nationally over the decade. The CDC didn't determine what drove the increase.

This newsletter was edited by Bob Gee.

Our picks:

🤷‍♀️ Naheed thinks stores should be banned from selling Christmas decor until temperatures dip below 100 degrees.

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