Tag Archives: Texas

Religion News Service reports: A Texas death-row inmate has sued state prison officials to allow his pastor to lay hands on him as he dies from a lethal injection. John Henry Ramirez, 37, is scheduled to be put to death in the Texas death chamber on Sept. 8, but his attorneys said in a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday in Corpus …

The Austin Statesman reports: Two days after announcing a new policy that required indoor diners to provide proof of at least one round of COVID-19 vaccination, sister restaurants Launderette and Fresa’s changed their policy after receiving a phone call and letter from the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission alerting them that they were in violation of Section 14 of Senate Bill …

Bloomberg News reports: Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott escalated the fight over his ban on local face mask rules, vowing along with his attorney general Wednesday to drag into court “any school district, public university or local government official that decides to defy” the governor. But even as the two said they would immediately ask a state appeals court to …

Houston’s ABC News affiliate reports: Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan [photo] on Tuesday evening signed civil arrest warrants for 52 House Democrats still missing from the state Capitol as he aimed to regain the quorum needed for the chamber to begin moving legislation during the second special session. The move was confirmed by Phelan spokesperson Enrique Marquez, who said the …

The Texas Tribune reports: Dozens of Texas hospitals have run out of intensive care unit beds as COVID-19 surges faster than any other time during the pandemic, propelled by the new delta variant. The state is divided into 22 trauma service areas, and half of them reported 10 or fewer available ICU beds on Sunday. As more than 9,400 COVID-19 …

Houston’s ABC News affiliate reports: A former athlete recovering from COVID-19 says he is lucky to have survived and was brainwashed by misinformation. “I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t even walk 10 steps,” said Andres Perekalsk, who is now home, tethered to an oxygen tank. The father of two told ABC13 he was asking for a vaccine from that bed, certain …

The Texas Tribune reports: House Democrats who refuse to show up for the Legislature could soon be detained by law enforcement and brought back to the state Capitol, after the Texas Supreme Court on Tuesday voided a state district judge’s temporary restraining order barring their arrest. The all-Republican high court’s order came at the request of Gov. Greg Abbott and …

The Associated Press reports: Gov. Greg Abbott appealed for out-of-state help to fight the third wave of COVID-19 in Texas while two more of the state’s largest school districts announced mask mandates in defiance of the governor. Abbott’s request Monday came as a county-owned hospital in Houston raised tents to accommodate their COVID-19 overflow. The Republican governor has directed the …

The Texas Tribune reports: Resistance is growing to Gov. Greg Abbott’s May executive order that Texas schools can’t require masks, with an advocacy group suing to block the order and two of the state’s biggest districts indicating that they want to mandate masks anyway. Dallas Independent School District officials announced Monday morning that they will require students and teachers to …

The Texas Tribune reports: Twenty-two Texas House Democrats sued some of the state’s top Republican leaders in federal court in Austin late Friday, alleging that GOP officials’ efforts to bring them home for a special legislative session infringed on their constitutional rights to free speech and to petition the government for redress of grievances. The lawsuit was filed on the …

The Texas Tribune reports: Texas school districts will not be required to conduct contact tracing this year if a student contracts COVID-19, according to new guidelines issued by the Texas Education Agency this week. The TEA announced its rules in a public health guidance issued Thursday. While districts must report positive cases to the local health department and the state, …

The Texas Tribune reports: Gov. Greg Abbott announced Thursday that the second special legislative session will begin at noon Saturday — and with an expanded agenda. The 17-item agenda still includes well-known Abbott priorities like the election bill that caused House Democrats to flee the state at the start of the first special session, which ends Friday. But it also …

The Galveston Daily News reports: H. Scott Apley, a Dickinson city council member and official in the Galveston County Republican Party, has died after being hospitalized with COVID-19, officials said Wednesday in a post on the party’s Facebook page. He was 45. “It is with an extremely heavy heart that we share the news of the death of H Scott …

The Texas Tribune reports: Local mask mandates are popping back up across Texas — even as Gov. Greg Abbott has stressed that local officials who try to enforce restrictions aimed at reducing spread of COVID-19 will be penalized. Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner is the most recent to defy the governor’s order. He announced Monday that the city’s nearly 22,000 city …

Salon reports: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, an ardent Trump supporter who was the lead plaintiff in a last-ditch Supreme Court case aimed at overturning the 2020 election, appears to be backing away from his past claims of widespread election fraud. Facing discipline or even potential disbarment in Texas, Paxton now merely alleges that there were “irregularities” in battleground states, …

The Texas Tribune reports: The Biden administration sued Texas on Friday, asking a federal judge to block Gov. Greg Abbott’s order that state troopers pull over drivers transporting migrants who pose a risk of carrying COVID-19 as a way to prevent the spread of the virus. The lawsuit comes a day after the U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, in a …

CNBC reports: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order Thursday, reiterating his opposition to mask mandates, Covid-related business restrictions and vaccination requirements and issuing fines of up to $1,000 on those who fail to comply. The measure bans government agencies from requiring individuals to get vaccinated or provide proof of vaccination. Public and private entities receiving state funding are …

Axios reports: Donald Trump’s advisers are angry at David McIntosh, president of the conservative Club for Growth, for persuading the former president to endorse a losing candidate in the special election for Texas’ 6th District. “I think this is the only race we’ve lost together,” Trump said of McIntosh and the Club for Growth, before catching himself mid-sentence on the …

The Washington Post reports: Voters in North Texas rebuked former president Donald Trump on Tuesday, electing state Rep. Jake Ellzey to a vacant seat in Congress after Trump endorsed a rival Republican candidate. Ellzey, a Navy veteran who ran on border security and stopping the Democrats’ congressional agenda, defeated Susan Wright, the widow of Rep. Ron Wright, whose death this …

Dallas’s Fox News affiliate reports: A Corsicana pastor says his fight against COVID-19 has changed his perspective on getting the vaccine. The North Texas pastor has been battling the virus for more than 20 days. He admits he was not vaccinated but now plans to after his near-death experience. “God puts us through these moments to teach us the lessons,” …