Tag Archives: Texas

SCOTUS Blocks Texas Law Letting Cops Arrest Migrants

CNN reports: The Supreme Court on Monday indefinitely blocked Texas from enforcing an immigration law that would allow state officials to arrest and detain people they suspect of entering the country illegally. The so-called administrative stay will remain in place while the court considers emergency appeals from the Biden administration and others, who want the justices to block enforcement of …

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Solar Eclipse Tourism Spurs Surge In Hotel Bookings

Axios reports: A glimpse of next month’s once-in-a-lifetime solar eclipse is already one of the country’s hottest attractions. Millions of people are planning to travel to areas with the best views, and businesses are cashing in on the hype by offering eclipse-themed goodies. Come April 8, as the moon’s shadow passes northeast across North America, it should completely engulf several …

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Porn Bots Spam Texas Republicans’ Replies On X

The Daily Dot reports: “Pornhub has now disabled its website in Texas,” Paxton wrote victoriously. “Sites like Pornhub are on the run because Texas has a law that aims to prevent them from showing harmful, obscene material to children. Good riddance.” “PUSSY IN BIO” a bot commented on Paxton’s post. Texas State Rep. Nate Schatzline (R), who has said he …

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Texans Scramble For VPNs In Wake Of Porn Blackout

PC World reports: In response to Texas’s age-verification law being upheld, the ultra-popular PornHub and numerous other adult sites operated by parent company Aylo went dark in the state. Replacing the NSFW videos you’d normally expect to see, a message decrying government overreach and proposed compromises has been posted. Texas’s actions prompted an increased interest in virtual private networks, or …

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SCOTUS Declines To Lift Ban On Texas Drag Show

NBC News reports: The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a request made by an LGBTQ student group that was hoping to host a “PG-13” drag show on the campus of West Texas A&M University over the objections of administrators. The court decision in a brief unsigned order means the group, Spectrum WT, likely will not be able to hold the …

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Appeals Court Upholds Texas Law Requiring Minors To Get Parental Consent Before Obtaining Birth Control

The Texas Tribune reports: The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a Texas law requiring parental consent to obtain contraception for minors. The decision from a three-judge panel of the federal appeals court in New Orleans largely affirms a 2022 ruling from U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Amarillo, that ended one of the only avenues for Texas teens to …

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Pornhub Blocks Texas Users Over Age Verification Law

The Houston Chronicle reports: One of the most-visited pornography websites, Pornhub, disabled its site in Texas on Thursday over objections to a state law that requires age verification to prevent access to minors. People who go to the site are now greeted with a long message from the company railing against the legal change as “ineffective, haphazard, and dangerous.” The …

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SpaceX Starship Breaks Up: “We Have Lost Ship 28”

The New York Times reports: The third try was closer to the charm for Elon Musk and SpaceX, as the company’s flight test of the mammoth Starship rocket launched on Thursday and traveled almost halfway around the Earth before it was lost as it re-entered the atmosphere. The flight achieved some key milestones in the development of the vehicle, which …

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SpaceX Launches Most Powerful Rocket Ever Built

CBC News reports: SpaceX’s huge Super Heavy-Starship rocket, by far the most powerful ever built, blasted off on its third test flight Thursday morning. The test aimed to boost the unpiloted upper stage into space on a sub-orbital hop to a controlled re-entry and splashdown in the Indian Ocean. The giant rocket’s 33 Raptor engines, gulping 40,000 pounds of liquid …

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Texas GOP Leader Gets 410 Years For Child Rape

Austin’s ABC affiliate reports: A former Hays County GOP leader has been sentenced to 410 years in prison after being convicted of 65 sexual abuse and child pornography charges. A Hays County judge sentenced 44-year-old Bo Dresner on Monday morning. Judge Gary Steel sentenced Dresner with multiple consecutive, or stacked, sentences. Dresner was a precinct chair and former sergeant-at-arms for …

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Appeals Court Upholds TX Porn Age Verification Law

Ars Technica reports: Texas can enforce a law requiring age-verification systems on porn websites, the US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit ruled. The appeals court vacated an injunction against the law’s age-verification requirement but said that Texas cannot enforce a provision requiring porn websites to “display health warnings about the effects of the consumption of pornography.” In a …

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Texas Utility Admits Role In Sparking Record Wildfire

The Texas Tribune reports: Xcel Energy on Thursday acknowledged its involvement in the Smokehouse Creek fire, which started last week and quickly became the largest wildfire in state history, burning more than 1 million acres. “Based on currently available information, Xcel Energy acknowledges that its facilities appear to have been involved in an ignition of the Smokehouse Creek fire,” the …

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Texas Students Petition SCOTUS To Allow Drag Show

Courthouse News reports: An LGBTQ student group asked the Supreme Court on Wednesday for emergency intervention so it can conduct an annual charity drag show against the wishes of the university’s Christian president. Two lower courts denied Spectrum WT’s request to block West Texas A&M University’s ban on the performance. The group urged the justices to act where the lower …

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LOL: When A Texas County Counted All Votes By Hand

The Texas Tribune reports: Bruce Campbell, chairman of the Gillespie County Republican Party, predicted that results from the 13 GOP precincts would start trickling into the county elections office by 8:30 p.m. By 9:30 p.m., he expressed surprise that none had returned. They’d begun at 7:30 that morning in a glass-walled tasting room at a winery. At 4:30 a.m. Wednesday, …

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Notorious Anti-LGBTQ Activist Loses Texas Primary

The Texas Tribune reports: Houston Rep. Lacey Hull has prevailed in the Republican primary against Jared Woodfill, a prominent anti-gay activist who was backed by Attorney General Ken Paxton and other Republican leaders despite his role in an ongoing sex abuse scandal. Woodfill’s campaign — and its endorsement by Paxton, Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller and Texas GOP Chair Matt Rinaldi …

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QAnon/Anti-Vax Proud Boys Ally Loses Texas Primary

Anti-vax QAnon Texas state House candidate Bianca Gracia was trounced in the Republican primary yesterday. Here’s what she said in 2022 when she lost her Texas state Senate primary by a similar 40-point margin: God chose me for a reason. I didn’t lose. I won. Now you’ve just gone and made me more dangerous. I went into the lion’s den …

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Rep. Colin Allred Wins Texas Dem US Senate Primary

The Texas Tribune reports: U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, D-Dallas, will challenge Sen. Ted Cruz in November after defeating a crowded field of Democrats on Tuesday, according to the Associated Press. Allred easily prevailed over state Sen. Roland Gutierrez of San Antonio who was also vying for the nomination. “I want every Texan to know, whether you’re a Democrat, an independent …

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Unchecked Wildfires Devastate Texas Cattle Country

The Guardian reports: Ferocious winds continue to thwart firefighters across a broad swathe of Texas on Sunday where the second largest wildfire in US history is only 15% contained after six days. As of Sunday morning the Smokehouse Creek Fire has so far scorched almost 1.1m acres – 1,700 sq miles – across the Texas Panhandle in the north of …

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Record Texas Wildfires Continue To Spread [VIDEO]

ABC News reports: Several large wildfires continue to tear through the Texas Panhandle, including one that has grown into the largest blaze in state history. At least two people have died in the blazes so far, as the fire threat is expected to continue into the weekend. The largest of the blazes — the Smokehouse Creek Fire — covers an …

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Court Blocks Paxton’s Demand For PFLAG Documents

The Hill reports: A Texas district court judge on Friday temporarily halted a demand from the state attorney general’s office for an LGBTQ advocacy group to hand over information related to its support of transgender children receiving gender-affirming medical care. PFLAG National, a nonprofit group that supports LGBTQ people and their families, sued Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) late …

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