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Texas
Here's to the beginning of this community. I'll be posting news articles and such that I come across pertaining to Texas. Please read the rules in the sidebar and be kind to your neighbors!
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/20368025 > Vote, get active, get involved > > [Find how to register to vote for where you are](https://vote.gov/) > > [Find opportunities to volunteer for dems around you](https://events.democrats.org/)
www.nbcnews.com
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/19637526 > https://ghostarchive.org/archive/iHXDz > > https://archive.ph/WxdTL
www.theguardian.com
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/19575830 > **_Plaintiffs in lawsuit allege they were terrorized for more than 90 minutes as at least 40 vehicles encircled the bus_** > > A jury trial opening in Austin, Texas, on Monday will seek to hold Trump supporters accountable for [allegedly ambushing a Joe Biden-Kamala Harris campaign bus](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/oct/31/biden-harris-bus-texas-trump-supporters-highway) on the state’s main highway in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election. > > Plaintiffs in the lawsuit allege they were terrorised and intimidated for more than 90 minutes as they took a bus tour canvassing for the Democratic ticket in the final days of the election. > > At least 40 vehicles flying Make America great again flags formed themselves into a so-called “Trump Train” and encircled the bus, trying to run it off the road and playing what the suit claims was a “madcap game of highway ‘chicken’”. > > The plaintiffs, who include the bus driver, a Biden campaign staffer and Wendy Davis, the former Texas senator and Democratic gubernatorial candidate, say they were forced to cancel campaign events for fear that the intimidation would be repeated. **They are pursuing punitive damages under both Texas law and the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, a federal statute from the Reconstruction period designed to end political violence and voter intimidation**.
But that’s ok because Nestle will upsell it back to you in a bottle labeled Ozarka after they’ve finished pumping it all from Canton.
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/28425809 > Texas sued the Biden administration in an effort to block a new rule that seeks to protect the privacy of women living in states that ban abortion who travel out of state for the procedure. > > In a lawsuit filed on Wednesday, opens new tab in Lubbock, Texas, the state is asking a federal judge to strike down the rule, which prohibits healthcare providers and insurers from giving state law enforcement authorities information about reproductive healthcare that is legal where it was provided. > > President Joe Biden, a Democrat, said in announcing the rule in April that no one should have their medical records "used against them, their doctor, or their loved one just because they sought or received lawful reproductive health care."
www.commondreams.org
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/19456280 > Texas Gov. Spent $221 Million on Migrant Busing 'Political Stunt'
www.commondreams.org
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/19412621
Paxton said he'd sue Harris and Bexar counties if they sent voter registration forms to "unverified recipients". I wonder why Paxton doesn't want Harris county to vote.
abcnews.go.com
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/19340554 > The shooter is a sovereign citizen.
www.tomshardware.com
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/28144160
arstechnica.com
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/21655258 > Attack on free speech by the free speech guy.
www.texastribune.org
>Allred’s sharp divergence from Beto O’Rourke’s more active campaign style has stirred dissent among some Democrats. His allies say it’s working. >Six years after Beto O'Rourke’s electrifying Senate campaign set the standard for Texas Democrats seeking statewide office, U.S. Rep. Colin Allred is taking a completely different approach in his own bid to oust U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz. >Allred, a third-term Dallas congressman, has been far less visible on the campaign trail, opting for events with smaller and more curated audiences in the major cities and select suburbs, rather than the casual town hall-style rallies O'Rourke held in every corner of the state. And instead of O’Rourke’s unapologetic liberal stands which activated legions of young voters, Allred has adopted a more calibrated message aimed at winning over moderates. He’s running ads that portray him as "tough" on the border and willing to work across the aisle, while keeping his distance from his party's standard-bearers, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. >Allred's sharp divergence from O'Rourke's more active and freewheeling style has stirred dissent and even signs of panic among a segment of Texas Democratic activists who say Allred should be holding more rallies, small-dollar fundraisers and other publicly accessible events. The more buttoned-up approach, they argue, is unlikely to inspire the sort of grassroots energy that helped O'Rourke build a juggernaut volunteer turnout operation and come within three points of ending Texas Democrats’ statewide drought
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/27939300 > A Texas man who spent 34 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted of aggravated assault was exonerated Thursday by a Dallas County judge who ruled that he is actually innocent. > > The judge approved a motion by the Dallas County District Attorney’s office to dismiss the case against Benjamin Spencer, 59, who was initially convicted in 1987 of murder in the carjacking and death of Jeffrey Young. > > “This day has been a long time coming. I am relieved and humbled to help correct this injustice,” said Dallas County Criminal District Attorney John Creuzot. > > Spencer, who has maintained his innocence, saw his 1987 conviction later overturned. He was then tried again and convicted and sentenced to life in prison for aggravated robbery of Young.
www.cnn.com
cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/40984682 > Robert Morris, who founded and led Gateway Church for nearly 25 years in the affluent Dallas-Fort Worth suburb of Southlake, Texas, resigned after the scandal came to light in June. His exit sent thousands of evangelicals into a season of struggle that has lasted months. > > Last week, a pastor who oversaw all of Gateway’s campuses departed amid an undisclosed “moral issue,” becoming the latest in a series of changes for the church: The cancellation of its annual conference. The departure of Morris’ successor. The renaming of its Houston campus and an exodus of worshippers. > > At each weekend service, worshippers continue to face reminders of the scandal, with interim or guest pastors kicking off their sermons saying “I’m sorry,” talking about grief or finding hope in difficult times. They’ve noticed people who have sat and prayed around them for years are once again not showing up for service. > > The church has seen a decrease of 17% to 19% in weekend services attendance, a church spokesperson told CNN.
cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/40733977
newrepublic.com
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/19135866 > **_The Texas attorney general is cracking down on Democrats in a supposed crusade to root out “voter fraud.”_** > > Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s crusade against supposed voter fraud appears to be targeting the state’s Democrats. > > Last week, Paxton’s office announced raids and undercover actions against organizations in Texas it accuses of illegally registering noncitizens to vote. In practice, though, the [raids](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/texas-attorney-general-ken-paxton-raids-latino-democrats-lulac-homes/) have taken place against members of the League of United Latin American Citizens, the oldest Latino civil rights organization in the U.S., as well as several prominent Democrats in south Texas. > > According to LULAC officials, the group’s members had their cell phones and laptops confiscated by law enforcement officials carrying out search warrants.
www.texasobserver.org
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/19105714 > >In June, the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) signed an acquisition plan for a 5-year, nearly $5.3 million contract for a controversial surveillance tool called Tangles from tech firm PenLink, according to records obtained by the Texas Observer through a public information request. The deal is nearly twice as large as the company’s $2.7 million two-year contract with the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). > > > >Tangles is an artificial intelligence-powered web platform that scrapes information from the open, deep, and dark web. Tangles’ premier add-on feature, WebLoc, is controversial among digital privacy advocates. Any client who purchases access to WebLoc can track different mobile devices’ movements in a specific, virtual area selected by the user, through a capability called “geofencing.” Users of software like Tangles can do this without a search warrant or subpoena. (In a high-profile ruling, the Fifth Circuit recently held that police cannot compel companies like Google to hand over data obtained through geofencing.) Device-tracking services rely on location pings and other personal data pulled from smartphones, usually via in-app advertisers. Surveillance tech companies then buy this information from data brokers and sell access to it as part of their products. > > > >WebLoc can even be used to access a device’s mobile ad ID, a string of numbers and letters that acts as a unique identifier for mobile devices in the ad marketing ecosystem, according to a US Office of Naval Intelligence procurement notice. > > > >Wolfie Christl, a public interest researcher and digital rights activist based in Vienna, Austria, argues that data collected for a specific purpose, such as navigation or dating apps, should not be used by different parties for unrelated reasons. “It’s a disaster,” Christl told the Observer. “It’s the largest possible imaginable decontextualization of data. … This cannot be how our future digital society looks like.” > > Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20240827115133/https://www.texasobserver.org/texas-dps-surveillance-tangle-cobwebs/
www.huffpost.com
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/15725184 > By Lil Kalish > > Emily Bray was supposed to be celebrating on Tuesday morning. After years of trying to change her name and gender marker, the 27-year-old YouTuber received an official court order from a Texas judge that she was at last, in the eyes of the state, the woman she had long known herself to be. > > But that elation was short-lived. > > An hour later, she logged onto the private Facebook group where she and other trans Texans discussed the bureaucracy of changing one’s name and gender in a state that is becoming increasingly hostile to trans people. One person shared that they had gone into the Department of Public Safety to update their driver’s license that day and learned that the agency had issued a new policy, barring the use of court orders or birth certificates to change one’s listed sex. > > “There’s no other way to describe it than a gut punch,” Bray told HuffPost. >
abcnews.go.com
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/18901880 > A Texas mother was taken into custody Tuesday after police alleged her 22-month-old child died when she left the infant in a car outside a Corpus Christi school on one of the hottest days of the year. > > The mother, 33-year-old Hilda Ann Adame, was jailed on charges of causing serious bodily injury to a child and child endangerment/abandonment with imminent bodily injury, according to a Corpus Christi Police Department incident report. > > It was not clear how long the infant had been in the car before the baby was found unresponsive, according to the incident report.
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/18928637 > These are just polls, so vote! > > Hopefully these trends will inspire people in states that have been consistently red that a flip this election is possible!
https://www.texasstandard.org/stories/texas-summer-heat-power-grid-solar-batteries/
arstechnica.com
cross-posted from: https://reddthat.com/post/24218249
www.texastribune.org
>In response to questions about why A&M discontinued the medical care, a university spokesperson said its growing student population and the resulting strain on the A.P. Beutel Health Center require officials to continuously review the services they offer and how they use the center’s resources. The spokesperson noted that the university has invested more in mental health care following a national rise in college students seeking it out. > >Transgender and queer students are skeptical of that explanation and believe the university acted in response to pressure from conservative groups. They say the move shows the university is not willing to support them equally. > >“It just seems that they don't take the same level of care to address concerns of the queer community as they would other communities,” Klatt said. > >Students saw the move as part of a political environment that has become increasingly hostile against LGBTQ+ people in Texas. And it comes as the state’s public universities face top-down pressure to appease Republican leaders — or risk incurring their wrath during next year’s legislative session. Don't you just love that "small government?" FFS, y'all. Please vote like people's futures depend upon it.
www.texastribune.org
"English-learning students’ scores on a state test designed to measure their mastery of the language fell sharply and have stayed low since 2018 — a drop that bilingual educators say might have less to do with students’ skills and more with sweeping design changes and the automated computer scoring system that were introduced that year. English learners who used to speak to a teacher at their school as part of the Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System now sit in front of a computer and respond to prompts through a microphone. The Texas Education Agency uses software programmed to recognize and evaluate students’ speech. Students’ scores dropped after the new test was introduced, a Texas Tribune analysis shows. In the previous four years, about half of all students in grades 4-12 who took the test got the highest score on the test’s speaking portion, which was required to be considered fully fluent in English. Since 2018, only about 10% of test takers have gotten the top score in speaking each year."
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/26980853 > DALLAS (AP) — The State Fair of Texas is laying down a new rule before millions of visitors flock through the gates for corn dogs, deep-fried delights and a friendly wave from a five-story cowboy named Big Tex: No guns allowed. > > But that decision by fair organizers — which comes after a shooting last year on the 277-acre fairgrounds in the heart of Dallas — has drawn outrage from Republican lawmakers, who in recent years have proudly expanded gun rights in Texas. On Wednesday, the state’s attorney general threatened a lawsuit unless the fair reversed course. > > “Dallas has fifteen days to fix the issue,” said Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, “otherwise I will see them in court.” > > Tensions over where and how gun owners can carry firearms in public are frequent in Texas, but the standoff with one of the state’s most beloved institutions has moved the fight onto unusual turf. The fair has not backed down since cowboy hat-wearing organizers announced the new policy at a news conference last week. > > The fair, which reopens in September and lasts for nearly a month, dates back to 1886. In addition to a maze of midway games, car shows and the Texas Star Ferris wheel — one of the tallest in the U.S. — the fairgrounds are also home to the annual college football rivalry between the University of Texas and University of Oklahoma. And after Big Tex, the towering cowboy that greets fairgoers, went up in flames in 2012 due to an electrical short, the fair mascot was met with great fanfare upon its return.
AUSTIN (KXAN) — A brainstorming session happened for hours Monday at the Texas Capitol so that state lawmakers could find out where to look for ideas on crafting private school subsidy legislation, a policy goal that has eluded top Republican leaders. The Texas House of Representatives Committee on Public Education held a hearing to discuss how to move forward with possibly implementing education savings accounts (ESAs) during next year’s regular legislative session. The panel heard first from witnesses who come from some of the 13 states that now offer public dollars through ESAs to help families cover expenses from private or homeschooling. Indiana served as the first example. Christina Kaetzel, the executive director of the Indiana Education Scholarship Account Program, testified about how her state now provides up to $20,000 for students with disabilities and their siblings who fall within a certain income level. This became law in 2021, and so far 555 students received the assistance during the 2023-2024 school year. “The ESA grant must be used on private school tuition, curriculum, services, therapies, transportation, training programs and camps and assessments,” Kaetzel told the panel Monday afternoon. Jonathan Covey, the policy director for the conservative advocacy group Texas Values, said he hopes state lawmakers will think more broadly. MOST READ: Texas Lottery Commission ‘stuck between a rock and a hard place,’ Sunset Advisory Commission says “We support universal school choice,” Covey said. “We also support some sort of prioritization method so that low-income and vulnerable demographics can get what they need.” Ahead of Monday’s meeting, State Rep. Gina Hinojosa, D-Austin, posted on X accusing the state’s top Republican leaders of saving a $32 billion surplus to pay for a voucher-like program during next year’s session. During the hearing, she said testimony from the invited witnesses lacked much evidence to show the benefits of enacting such a program here.
itsgoingdown.org
cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/12280096
www.texastribune.org
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/18565523 > … > > The new matchup between Trump and Harris is helping Democrats close the enthusiasm gap, in part by capturing the attention and interest of young voters who historically vote at lower rates than older generations. But the historic nature of Harris’ candidacy as the party’s first Black woman and South Asian presidential nominee, coupled with the rapid shift in the campaign’s tone, has young voters of all political stripes taking a hard look — some for the first time — at the role they could play in November. > > … > > **If motivated, Gen Z voters could have a major impact on elections. Texas’ population has the second youngest median age of any state, other than Utah**. And in 2020, there were about 1.3 million Texans ages 18 to 24 who were registered to vote. Those voters have historically turned out to vote at rates lower than any other age range, with voter participation rates increasing steadily as age ranges increase. > > About 43% of young Texans aged 18-29 voted in 2020 — an eleven point increase from 2016. 66% of all eligible voters and 76% of eligible voters age 64 and older voted that same year.
