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The Reason Texans Can’t Vote on Abortion and Weed
Hint: The Legislature could give us the chance if it wanted. On Tuesday evening, Ohioans resoundingly passed a pair of ballot measures to provide constitutional protection for abortion and legalize recreational marijuana use. Like Texas, Ohio is a GOP “trifecta” state with Republicans in full control of state government, and the Buckeye State backed Trump in 2020 by an even wider margin than did Lone Star denizens. Despite Ohio’s apparent redness, ordinary citizens gathered hundreds of thousands of signatures to put Tuesday’s measures on the ballot. Voters blew off the views of their state GOP leaders—even clobbering an August effort by lawmakers to raise the bar for passing the abortion measure—and secured for themselves a pair of popular rights.
UAW’s Historic Strike Win Has ‘Huge Implications’ for Texas Autoworkers
The revitalized union is coming after Toyota, Tesla, and other non-union carmakers. The union won tentative contracts last month that include a major pay raise among other benefits. The deal is awaiting final ratification by members, but the effects have already been felt for the approximately 3,800 non-union workers at Toyota’s major San Antonio plant. Toyota on November 1 announced about a 9 percent raise, more time off, and other benefits. UAW president Shawn Fain called it a “UAW bump.” And he said Tesla, with its headquarters and a large plant in the Austin area, will be a target of organizing efforts.
Domestic Abusers Under Protective Orders Often Get to Keep Their Guns
A version of this story ran in the November / December 2023 issue. That Sunday, Sherita Lynch heard the gunshots from her car. A human services practitioner with Advocate for All, Lynch was on her way to meet with Stephen Broderick for a supervised custody visit with his son Cayden, about to be dropped off by Stephen’s ex-wife Amanda. Lynch was only seconds from the meeting spot on Austin’s heavily trafficked Great Hills Trail road when she heard what sounded like a crash, followed by a series of quick pops, according to a police report.
Amarillo Man to Be Executed Based Largely on One Discredited ‘Expert’ Witness
Brent Brewer was convicted of the 1990 murder of Robert Laminack. The State of Texas’ expert witness, Dr. Richard Coons, testified under oath that Brent Brewer, who was on trial for murder, had no conscience. He was the final witness for the prosecution in the 2009 retrial, and he asserted that Brewer would pose a future danger if given life in prison—a critical distinction Texas jurors must make when the death penalty is on the table. His testimony proved damning: The jury sentenced Brewer to death.
Abbott Fails on Vouchers. Again.
The governor's promise to call a fourth legislative session is expected to yield a similar result. He threatened. He baited. But no amount of sticks or carrots helped Texas Governor Greg Abbott pass school vouchers—a means of redirecting public dollars to private institutions—during a third special legislative session he had explicitly called to see his pet project passed. After the state House twice rejected vouchers in the regular 88th legislative session, Abbott failed to persuade lawmakers. Again.
This 11-Year-Old Brownsville ISD Honor Student Was Put in Solitary
A fifth-grader reported being bullied by his principal. Five days later, he was handcuffed and detained. Eleven-year-old Timothy Murray has many trophies displayed in a row by the wall of his room. During a video call, he shows me what he’s won from science projects, chess competitions, and coding programs, and ends with the largest one in his collection—a three-tiered, star-studded trophy he won as grand champion of the Brownsville Independent School District Elementary Science Fair in November 2022. It seems almost as tall as his 4-foot-1-inch frame. He explains that the project measured safety factors when driving over the Golden Gate Bridge by changing variables of speed, mass, and the size of a vehicle.
Biden Quietly Gave Border Wall Contract to Company Used by Trump, Abbott
“Clearly DHS, under the Biden administration, has no more respect for border residents than it did under the Trump administration.”. In late September, the Biden administration’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) awarded a $229 million contract for border wall construction in Starr County to SLSCO Ltd., a contractor that also built wall for the Trump administration and is presently doing so for Texas Governor Greg Abbott. Starr County, a largely rural and flood-prone area in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley with a few towns abutting the river, currently hosts just a few short stretches of border fencing. SLSCO is a Galveston-based firm run by a family of GOP political donors.
Hella Hail Coming Down in Texas
Articles must link back to the original article and contain the following attribution at the top of the story:. This article was originally published by the Texas Observer, a nonprofit investigative news outlet. Sign up for their weekly newsletter, or follow them on Facebook and Twitter.”. Articles cannot be rewritten,...
Corpses of Poor, Black and Vulnerable Frequently Sent to Medical Schools for Dissection
Every year, first-year medical students approach their human cadavers with a mixture of awe and trepidation. They will come to know their assigned cadaver intimately. During the course of their studies, they will carefully pull back layers of skin, muscle and tissue as they learn the fundamentals of human anatomy.
‘Civil and Human Rights Disaster’: Texas Wants to Seize Immigration Authority from Feds
House Bill 4 would turn local police into border enforcers—with new unchecked power. As Texas continues to lead the nation in residents without health insurance, its public school system faces a financial crisis deepened by a right-wing drive for privatization, and its infrastructure is bent to breaking each season by new extremes of heat and cold, the state’s GOP-run Legislature has struck a blow for progress on a decidedly unrelated issue: usurping the federal government’s prerogative to set and enforce the nation’s immigration laws.
Chaplains in Schools Test the Boundaries of the First Amentment
In 1996, a school board in eastern Texas created a program called Clergy in Schools. Beaumont Independent School District recruited volunteer clergy to counsel K-12 students on topics such as self-esteem, peer pressure and violence. The goal, officials said, was to create volunteer opportunities, encourage conversation about civic values and morality, and enhance safe learning environments.
Community Fridges Fight Hunger and Climate Change
Dan Zauderer and his in-laws had eaten plenty of pizza one evening in early October, and they still had seven slices left. What to do? “Well, we could just chuck it,” Zauderer thought. Instead, he and his fiancée wrapped the slices in plastic wrap, slapped labels on them with the date, and walked the leftovers a little more than a block down the road to a refrigerator standing along 92nd Avenue in New York City’s Upper East Side.
Four Texas Counties Now Ban Travel for Abortions
Texas has one of the most restrictive abortion bans in the country, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights. Many Texans are forced to travel out of state—or even out of country—to access an abortion; it is estimated that Texans seeking an abortion have to travel an average of 240 miles each way to access care.
Unmasking Texas Neo-Nazis
Police cited four men for distributing antisemitic and racist flyers in Fort Worth and Weatherford. A Fort Worth police report from August 20 acquired by the Texas Observer revealed the identities of four neo-Nazis who were issued trespassing warnings outside of Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, where they distributed antisemitic flyers associated with the Goyim Defense League (GDL): David Bloyed, a 58-year-old resident of Frost; Jeremy Fuller, a 49-year-old resident of Dallas; Barry Young, a 25-year-old resident of Plano; and Matteo Sheffield, a 20-year-old resident of Austin. The Fort Worth Police Department issued trespassing warnings to all four men and escorted them off the premises.
University of Houston’s LGBTQ+ Students Build New Community After Resource Center Closure
Religious leaders and other allies are struggling to fill the gap left by the loss of a vital campus asset. For many students, the worst impact of SB 17 was losing the LGBTQ+ Resource Center. Under the law, the center was recently merged with the Center for Diversity and Inclusion to form the newly created “Center for Student Advocacy and Community.” But even amidst what seem like insurmountable odds, student leaders and faculty are fighting back. From helping LGBTQ+ students access aid to mounting protest movements, they’ve proven unwilling to give up.
‘Go Away TEA,’ Say Houston ISD Parents and Teachers
“We are professional educators. We demand to be respected.”. Extending a mile, a procession of protestors in red marched in front of the Houston Independent School District (HISD) administrative building last Friday to demand an end to the state takeover of Houston schools. Hoisting signs that read “HISD: Houston Invaded School District,” “Mike Miles—Killing Education One Apple at a Time,” and “Even Prisons Have Libraries,” 600 parents, teachers, and students gathered at the protest organized by the Houston Federation of Teachers to challenge the administration and policies of state-appointed district Superintendent Mike Miles.
Texas Still Issues Thousands of Permits for Natural Gas Flaring
In Texas, State Rule 32 prohibits flaring, or burning off, natural gas at the wellhead except under a few specific conditions. Oil and gas companies are sometimes forced to flare gas during emergencies, to release high pressure in pipes, but more often they flare unwanted gas that comes to the surface in the oil drilling process. Flaring contributes to local air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
No Path to Redemption for Devout Death Row Inmates
Texas offers religious education to the condemned but rarely values spiritual growth when considering clemency requests. Now, as his lawyers and advocates seek clemency from Governor Greg Abbott and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, Speer’s faith is central to their pleas. Speer is one of many on Texas’ death row who have asked for life in prison over the death penalty due to their spiritual devotion in prison—but the God-fearing state doesn’t typically grant clemency for that reason.
Study: More Infants Die in States that Restrict Abortion
The United States has the highest infant and maternal mortality rates out of any other high-income country and, in 2021, the infant mortality rate in the U.S. was 5.4 deaths per 1,000 live births. This research supports previous studies that have found that abortion restrictions are linked to increased maternal and infant death rates which disproportionately affect Black communities.
Abbott Lobbies for More Money As Border Wall Burns Through Budget
In the wake of President Joe Biden’s fencing flip-flop, the Texas governor doubles down on his own barrier. In early October, President Joe Biden announced that his administration would resume building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. To do so, Biden suspended several federal laws to accelerate construction in rural Starr County, where former President Donald Trump’s own wall efforts were met with fierce resistance from landowners.
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