Tag Archives: Texas

TX Gov: No Bars Until Positivity Rate Stays Under 10%

The Texas Tribune reports: During a press conference on Thursday afternoon, Gov. Greg Abbott expressed his sympathy for Texans who are now unemployed following his order closing bars, but stressed that those areas are one of the most “prolific spreading events.” On Thursday, he said bars could potentially reopen once coronavirus metrics improve more significantly. He said he would need …

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TX Testing Down 42% As Schools Prep For Reopening

The Texas Tribune reports: The number of Texans being tested for the coronavirus has fallen sharply in recent weeks, a trend that has worried public health experts as officials consider sending children back to school while thousands more Texans are infected each day. In the week ending Aug. 8, an average 36,255 coronavirus tests were administered in Texas each day …

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Anti-LGBT TX Grifter Sells “Immune Packs” To Students

Media Matters reports: Right-wing quack Steven Hotze has dangerously told people that the coronavirus is “not very contagious,” that masks should be avoided, and that people should conduct their lives normally during the pandemic. Despite these claims downplaying the risks of COVID-19, Hotze has been trying to profit from concerns about students returning to school by selling “immune” packages that …

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Texas AG: Local Governments Can’t Delay Evictions

The Texas Tribune reports: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton advised today that local Texas governments’ attempts to delay evictions for renters grappling with the COVID-19 recession amounted to rewriting state law — something they can’t do, he said in nonbinding legal guidance. “While local officials do possess certain emergency powers … statewide eviction procedures far exceed the requirement that those …

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GOP Reps Sue TX Gov Over Contact Tracing Contract

The Texas Tribune reports: Five of the Texas Legislature’s most conservative members are suing Gov. Greg Abbott and state health officials, claiming Texas leaders overstepped their bounds when they awarded a major contract for tracking Texas’ coronavirus outbreak to a little-known technology firm. In a lawsuit filed Monday, Republican state Reps. Mike Lang, Kyle Biedermann, Bill Zedler, Steve Toth and …

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Trump: NRA Should Move To Texas For A Beautiful Life

Yahoo News reports: President Trump on Thursday suggested the National Rifle Association (NRA) relocate to Texas following a lawsuit from the New York attorney general seeking to dissolve the gun rights group. “I just heard about that. That’s a very terrible thing that just happened,” Trump said of the lawsuit while speaking with reporters outside the White House. “I think …

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TX Regulators Fire Warning Shot At Demon Semen Doc

The Houston Chronicle reports: In an apparent warning shot at Dr. Stella Immanuel, the Texas agency that regulates the practice of medicine has advised physicians it can take action against those who promise a cure for COVID-19. Numerous studies have found the drug touted by Immanuel does not show any benefit against COVID-19 and the Food and Drug Administration has …

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COVID Obit Wishes “Karma” On Trump And Texas Gov

The Washington Post reports: Much of David W. Nagy’s obituary, which ran in his local paper in Jefferson, Tex., on July 30, recounted his painful death from the novel coronavirus at age 79 and named his surviving family members. But midway down, the tone shifted to offer a pointed message for President Trump and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R). “Family …

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REPORT: Texas Isn’t Counting All COVID+ Test Results

The Houston Chronicle reports: The government’s official data on the coronavirus outbreak is startling: More than 4.6 million cases in the U.S. More than 440,000 in Texas. More than 70,000 in Harris County. But those numbers don’t include all positive COVID-19 patients. Texas, unlike 27 other states, excludes the results of increasingly popular, rapid COVID-19 tests from the numbers it …

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Texas Gov To Skip GOP Convention Due To COVID

The Texas Tribune reports: Gov. Greg Abbott will skip the Republican National Convention later this month in North Carolina as he continues to respond to the coronavirus pandemic in Texas, and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick will instead chair the state’s delegation to the scaled-down gathering. Abbott announced the plan in a letter dated Friday to the national GOP chairwoman, Ronna …

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Man In Trump Shirt Spits On Cops In Mask Dispute

El Paso’s Fox affiliate reports: A man was arrested at a Las Cruces Walmart after allegedly refusing to a mask and spitting on several officers as he was being escorted away. Around 1:44 p.m. on July 12, a Walmart employee told a Las Cruces Police Department officer working overtime at the store at 1550 S. Valley Drive that a man …

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Former Trump Admin Official Declares Schools Should Open Since Most People Dying Are Elderly Or Hispanic

The Texas Tribune reports: Vance Ginn, the chief economist for the Texas Public Policy Foundation, is facing fierce backlash for a recent racist tweet that said schools should open since most of the people dying from the coronavirus in Texas are elderly or Hispanic. Ginn later removed the tweet and apologized. “I believe strongly based on my deep faith that …

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Texas AG Seeks To Override Health Officials: Schools Cannot Be Closed For “Purely Prophylactic Reasons”

The Texas Tribune reports: Local health officials do not have the authority to shut down all schools in their vicinity while COVID-19 cases rise, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in nonbinding guidance Tuesday that contradicts what the Texas Education Agency has told school officials. After Texas ordered schools to reopen their classrooms this fall, county and city public health …

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Homocon Sorry For Believing “Hoax” Claims After He Hosted Party, 14 Family Members COVID+, One Dead

NBC News reports: Fourteen members of the same family in Texas tested positive for the coronavirus following a small gathering in June hosted by a man who says he believed the coronavirus was a hoax. One of them has died and another is on life support. Tony Green, who lives in Dallas and hosted the event, wrote a column titled, …

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TEXAS: Armed Supporters Of GOP Rep. Louie Gohmert Accused Of Assaulting Opponent’s Campaign Manager

Tyler, Texas’s ABC News affiliate reports: During a rally organizers said was to “protest the unconstitutional occupation of Portland,” on Sunday, Hank Gilbert’s campaign manager was allegedly assaulted by a group of counter-protesters. Gilbert, a Democrat from Tyler, is running against U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert, a Republican, for the 1st Congressional District. The protest took place in Tyler’s downtown square …

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Texas GOP State Rep: If Aliens Exist, They Need Jesus

Hemant Mehta reports at The Friendly Atheist: Texas State Rep. Jonathan Stickland, who said last year that vaccines were “sorcery,” said on Twitter this morning that aliens would only find salvation through Jesus. If aliens are real, you would think there are bigger issues to deal with than their salvation. (If nothing else, the existence of aliens would suggest humans …

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Cat 1 Hurricane Hanna Aims For Texas Coast [VIDEO]

CBS News reports: Tropical Storm Hanna was upgraded to a hurricane Saturday, moving toward the Texas coast and threatening to bring heavy rain, storm surge and possible tornadoes. Hanna is now the first hurricane of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season, according to the National Hurricane Center. Maximum sustained winds increased to 75 mph, the hurricane center said in a Saturday …

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TX Hospital Forms Ethics Committee For COVID Triage

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports: Starr County is at a dangerous “tipping point,” reporting an alarming number of new cases each day, data show. Starr County Memorial Hospital — the county’s only hospital — is overflowing with COVID-19 patients. The county health board — which governs Starr Memorial — has been forced to create what’s being compared to a so-called …

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TX Sees Record Hospitalizations, Gov Still Optimistic

The Austin Statesman reports: State health officials reported a record 10,848 patients in Texas hospitals Tuesday as the number of new coronavirus cases and deaths continued to surge. Tuesday’s hospitalization figure increased by 279 patients. The statewide number has exceeded 10,000 for 12 days in a row, a level that health officials say is straining the health care system.  In …

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Allen West Elected Chairman Of Texas Republican Party

The Texas Tribune reports: Allen West, the firebrand former Florida congressman, has defeated Texas GOP Chairman James Dickey to lead the country’s largest state Republican Party. West claimed victory shortly before 3:30 a.m. Monday, while Dickey conceded about an hour later. The developments came during an early-morning round of voting among state Senate district caucuses at the party’s virtual convention. …

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