Tag Archives: Greg Abbott

The Texas Tribune reports: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says he has now tested negative for COVID-19, four days after testing positive for the virus. “I am told that my infection was brief and mild because of the vaccination I received,” Abbott said in a video he posted on Twitter Saturday afternoon. “So, I encourage others who have not yet received …

Politico reports: Enforcement in the state’s public school systems of Gov. Greg Abbott’s ban on mask mandates has been dropped, for now, the Texas Education Agency said late Thursday. In a public health guidance letter, the TEA said enforcement was being dropped because of ongoing court challenges to the ban. The letter said the new guidance is effective immediately and …

The Texas Tribune reports: The all-Republican court sided with Gov. Greg Abbott and House Speaker Dade Phelan — and ordered a Travis County district judge to revoke his temporary restraining order blocking the civil arrest of Democratic lawmakers whose absences have denied the chamber the number of present members needed to move any legislation. “The legal question before this Court …

Via press release from Abbott spokesman Mark Miner: Governor Greg Abbott today tested positive for the COVID-19 virus. The Governor has been testing daily, and today was the first positive test result. Governor Abbott is in constant communication with his staff, agency heads, and government officials to ensure that state government continues to operate smoothly and efficiently. The Governor will …

The Washington Post reports: Texas health officials have requested five mortuary trailers from the federal government in anticipation of a possible spike in deaths brought about by surging coronavirus numbers in the state. The Texas Department of State Health Services made a request through the Texas Division of Emergency Management to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for five mortuary trailers, …

The Austin Statesman reports: The Texas Supreme Court stepped in Sunday evening to block lower-court orders that had allowed Dallas and San Antonio to impose mask mandates in defiance of an executive order by Gov. Greg Abbott. The action voided temporary restraining orders, issued by separate District Court judges and upheld Friday by two intermediate appellate courts, that halted enforcement …

From the Dallas Morning News editorial board: Babies hooked to ventilators. Overflow tents pitched outside of hospitals. Parents fretting that sending their kids to school might become an intolerable risk. A plateau in vaccination rates and the more contagious delta variant were just the recipe to send cases skyrocketing again. The Dallas-Fort Worth region has swung from a low of …

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 …

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: 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 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 …

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 …

The Texas Tribune reports: Stephen F. Austin, Donnie Darko and a person who calls himself the King of the Wild Frontier were among the first people to give money to support Gov. Greg Abbott’s border wall effort after he announced he would be seeking private donations to help fund it. But there’s no way to verify if Austin, who donated …

The Texas Tribune reports: Of the 8,787 people who have died in Texas due to COVID-19 since early February, 43 were fully vaccinated, the Texas Department of State Health Services said. That means 99.5% of people who died due to COVID-19 in Texas from Feb. 8 to July 14 were unvaccinated, while 0.5% were the result of “breakthrough infections,” which …

Newsweek reports: Texas Governor Greg Abbott has said that Democratic lawmakers who have left the state can and “will be arrested” upon their return as he pushes ahead with changes in voting laws. Abbott, a Republican, gave an interview to KVUE on Monday about the Democrats’ decision to leave the state and whether the special session of the Texas legislature …

The Dallas Morning News reports: Gov. Greg Abbott, after trailing potential challenger Matthew McConaughey in the spring, has rebounded and now has a slight — but not statistically significant — lead over the movie star in a hypothetical matchup in next year’s race for governor, according to a poll released Sunday by The Dallas Morning News and the University of …