Tag Archives: Texas

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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Texas State Bar Suspends License Of County Prosecutor Who Pursued Murder Charge Over Woman’s Abortion

The Texas Tribune reports: A Texas prosecutor has been disciplined for allowing a murder charge to be filed against a woman who self-induced an abortion in 2022. Starr County District Attorney Gocha Ramirez reached a settlement with the State Bar of Texas following an investigation. Ramirez agreed to pay a $1,250 fine, and his license will be held in a …

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Trump Claims TX Gov Is “Absolutely” On VP Short List

The Texas Tribune reports: Donald Trump said Thursday during a visit to the Texas-Mexico border that Gov. Greg Abbott is “absolutely” on his short list of potential vice presidential candidates for his 2024 run. During a joint interview with Abbott on Fox News, the former president was asked by host Sean Hannity whether Abbott was under consideration for the position. …

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Sen. John Cornyn Launches Bid For Senate GOP Leader

Politico reports: Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said in a statement Thursday he will run to succeed Mitch McConnell as Republican leader, becoming the first to officially announce his candidacy for the job. “I am asking my Republican colleagues to give me the opportunity to succeed Leader McConnell,” he said. “I believe the Senate is broken — that is not news …

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Judge Blocks TX Law Allowing Police To Arrest Migrants

The Texas Tribune reports: A federal judge in Austin on Thursday halted a new state law that would allow Texas police to arrest people suspected of crossing the Texas-Mexico border illegally. The law, Senate Bill 4, was scheduled to take effect Tuesday. U.S. District Judge David Ezra issued a preliminary injunction that will keep it from being enforced while a …

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Texas Executes Man Despite Doubts About His Guilt

The Texas Tribune reports: Texas executed Ivan Cantu Wednesday for the murder of his cousin and his cousin’s fiancée, James Mosqueda and Amy Kitchen. Prior to the state’s first execution of the year, post-trial evidence raising questions about Cantu’s guilt had persuaded jurors from his original trial to ask Texas courts to reconsider his case. A public campaign pushing to …

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Texas AG Wins Federal Lawsuit To Weaken Protections For Pregnant Workers: Congress Didn’t Have Quorum

The Texas Tribune reports: A federal court in Lubbock ruled Tuesday that proxy voting in Congress doesn’t count toward a quorum, weakening a law to protect pregnant workers that was passed with proxy votes. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued the Biden administration last year over a massive government funding package that passed largely by proxy votes because of the …

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Wildfires Sweep Texas Panhandle, Evacuations Ordered

USA Today reports: The second-largest wildfire in Texas history continued to rip across the Texas Panhandle along with other major blazes on Wednesday, prompting evacuations, school closures and a temporary shut down of the nation’s primary nuclear weapons facility. The blazes began on Monday but spread quickly the following day as strong winds, dry conditions and unseasonably high temperatures, which …

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TX High School Cancels Play About Matthew Shepard

The Dallas Morning News reports: A Keller high school production of The Laramie Project — a play about the aftermath of the 1998 murder of a gay student in Wyoming — was canceled. Timber Creek High School parents received an email Friday night saying that students would no longer perform the show this spring. The email did not provide an …

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Texas Sues Pornhub For Failing To Post Warnings On Site That Porn Causes “Impaired Brain Development”

Courthouse News reports: Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton this week sued a major online porn distributor in an effort to enforce a new state law mandating age verification and purported health warnings on adult websites. The lawsuit, filed in state court in Austin on Monday, accuses the adult-entertainment company Aylo of violating House Bill 1181, a new state content-warning …

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Texas Pastor Drops Out Of Presidential Race After Blowing $10 Million, Calls On Cult To Support Trump

Politico reports: Republican Ryan Binkley ended his longshot presidential campaign and endorsed Donald Trump on Tuesday, after failing to gain traction in any of the early nominating states. While the primary became a one-on-one race between Trump and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, Binkley, a Texas pastor and businessperson, remained in the race since last April, generating minimal support. It …

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Texas: No Free School Lunches For Impoverished Kids

Houston’s ABC affiliate reports: For some children in the U.S., school lunchtime might be the only meal they eat all day. To help combat this issue, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is offering its first-ever free summer school lunch program for participants across the country. This year, 35 states are joining the Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer program – but …

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Justices Skeptical Of Laws Against Social Media Bans

The New York Times reports: The Supreme Court seemed troubled on Monday by a Florida law that prohibits social media companies from disfavoring conservative speakers, at least to the extent that it bars major platforms like Facebook and YouTube from making editorial judgments. But several justices indicated that the sprawling law may be constitutional as applied to other sites like …

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Today: SCOTUS Hears Laws Against Social Media Bans

Vox reports: In mid-2021, about a year before he began his longstanding feud with the biggest employer in his state, Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation attempting to seize control of content moderation at major social media platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, or Twitter (now called X by Elon Musk). A few months later, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, also …

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