Tag Archives: Texas

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 …

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 …

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 …

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. …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

NBC News reports: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is calling on “licensed professionals” and “members of the general public” to report the parents of transgender minors to state authorities if it appears the minors are receiving gender-affirming medical care. The directive was part of a letter Abbott, a Republican, sent Tuesday to the Department of Family and Protective Services, calling on …

The Texas Tribune reports: El Paso leaders on Friday denounced Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s threat to shut down Annunciation House, a network of migrant shelters that has been in operation for almost 50 years. “An attack on one is an attack on all,” U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, said during a news conference. Annunciation House operates several shelters …

The Washington Post reports: Kelsie Norris-De La Cruz tried not to cry as the doctor in the emergency room delivered one of the most frightening diagnoses a pregnant woman can receive. The 25-year-old college senior was told she likely had an ectopic pregnancy, a highly dangerous condition where the embryo implants outside of the uterus. Without immediate treatment, the fallopian …

ABC News reports: Texas is building a new military base for National Guard members deployed to the southern border in Eagle Pass, Texas — where state and federal authorities have been in a tense conflict over dealing with immigration — Gov. Greg Abbott said. At a news conference Abbott announced the construction of what he said would a new “base …

Dallas’s ABC affiliate reports: A Keller ISD school board member announced on Facebook Sunday she will resign from her position. In a post from her now-deleted page, Sandi Walker wrote she decided to resign as a trustee after prayer and conversations with friends and family. Walker added she was proud of what the board had accomplished in her nearly two …