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Paxton Decides Yes He Can Sue School Districts Mandating Masks. And Does.

By Margaret Downing

Sep 10, 2021

Apparently disturbed by reports that Gov. Abbott wasn't doing anything to school districts that have been defying his order barring any of them from requiring masks, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton reversed course and filed several lawsuits Friday with the promise of filing more. Although representatives of Gov. Abbott and...

Fort Bend ISD's school board has given locals whiplash with its back and forth (and back again) decisions on mask rules

Are Mask Rules Why HISD Has Tallied Fewer COVID Cases Than Way Smaller FBISD?

By Schaefer Edwards

Sep 8, 2021

One, two, three, four — Those aren’t just the first four numbers Houston ISD’s youngest students are taught. Throw them all together in a row and you end up with 1,234, the total cumulative number of COVID-19 cases as of Tuesday afternoon among HISD students and staff members since the...

State Sen. Bryan Hughes and Gov. Greg Abbott were all smiles in East Texas Tuesday.

Abbott Signs Controversial GOP "Election Integrity" Bill Into Law

By Schaefer Edwards

Sep 7, 2021

After Labor Day weekend, Gov. Greg Abbott got right back to work by signing into law Senate Bill 1, the Republican-backed slate of election changes that he and his supporters proclaim as a defense against voter fraud and critics say is nothing but a way to make it harder for...

Texas' GOP Big Three had plenty to celebrate following special session two, but there's still more lawmaking on the horizon.

Texas Lawmakers Head Home, But A Third Special Session Looms

By Schaefer Edwards

Sep 3, 2021

The Texas Legislature officially shut the door on special session number two Thursday night, as both the state House and Senate voted to adjourn and head home in time for Labor Day weekend. Even though Republicans are celebrating the passage of most of the GOP's laundry list of laws during...

Pro-choice advocates protested in Houston Wednesday over Texas' new restrictive abortion law.

U.S. Supreme Court Refuses To Block Texas’ New Abortion Law From Being Enforced

By Schaefer Edwards

Sep 2, 2021

Late Wednesday just before midnight, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a brief 5-4 decision rejecting an emergency request from abortion advocates for the court to block Texas’ newly enacted “heartbeat bill” abortion law. In one of the first major rulings on an abortion issue since liberal justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg...

Gov. Greg Abbott is glad the "election integrity" bill is on his desk, but other conservative priorities have stalled in the Lege.

Election Bill Hits Abbott's Desk While Fights Over Other GOP Priorities Heat Up

By Schaefer Edwards

Sep 1, 2021

With less than a week left in the Texas Legislature’s second straight overtime round of lawmaking this summer, state Republicans have finally delivered Gov. Greg Abbott the “election integrity” bill he and the GOP base have been clamoring for, the one that will supposedly prevent Texas from falling victim to...

Pro-choice protesters gathered in Austin in May after the Legislature passed its "heartbeat" abortion bill.

Pro-Choice Groups File Last-Ditch Request Asking U.S. Supreme Court To Block TX Heartbeat Bill

By Schaefer Edwards

Aug 30, 2021

Texas pro-choice advocates hoped a legal challenge to Senate Bill 8 — the state’s new “heartbeat” abortion law that would effectively ban all abortions in the state after a fetal heartbeat is detected — could lead a federal district court to block the law from going into effect later this...

Judge Kelli Johnson demonstrated how she uses Zoom in her courtroom to allow for social distancing.

Local Criminal Court Backlog Likely To Keep Growing As Pandemic Surges

By Schaefer Edwards

Aug 26, 2021

When asked about how the massive slowdown in the local court system and the resulting backlog of tens of thousands of criminal cases has affected the men and women whom he defends on a daily basis, Joseph Vinas, local defense attorney and president of the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association,...

Abortion advocates protested in the state Capitol in 2017 before the Lege passed the recently upheld D&E abortion ban.

U.S. Appeals Court Upholds Texas Ban On Common Abortion Method

By Schaefer Edwards

Aug 19, 2021

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals dealt a blow to abortion advocates in Texas when it affirmed a ban on the most common method of abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy in a ruling Wednesday night, overruling a previous decision from that same court’s judges just last year. It’s the...

Gov. Greg Abbott is hell-bent on fighting local mask orders.

Abbott And Dems Go At It In Legal Fights Over Masking As GOP Lawmakers Ignore Delta

By Schaefer Edwards

Aug 12, 2021

A rational person might think that the worsening spread of COVID-19 triggered by the insanely contagious Delta variant that’s left Texas hospitals on teetering on the edge of catastrophe would be the number one thing the Republicans who control all the levers of Texas government would be focused on right...

Millard House II announced Wednesday he had the HISD board's blessing to flout Gov. Greg Abbott on requiring masks.

Houston ISD Formally Issues Mask Mandate As County Legal Fights Over Masks Heat Up

By Schaefer Edwards

Aug 11, 2021

The rise of the Delta variant of COVID-19 throughout Texas and the resulting surge of sick coronavirus patients filling up state hospitals ahead of the upcoming school year has caused local leaders in Texas’ largest counties and school districts to push back against Gov. Greg Abbott’s attempts to forbid mask...

Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan wants to lay the hammer of the law on absentee Democrats.

TX House Speaker Phelan Signs Arrest Warrants For 52 Democrats Still Missing From Austin

By Schaefer Edwards

Aug 11, 2021

Tuesday night, Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan officially signed 52 civil arrest warrants for all of the 52 House Democrats who have yet to report to the House floor for the second special session which began Saturday in an attempt to finally give his chamber the 100 members needed to...

A contingent of Texas Democrats has vowed to keep the state Legislature paralyzed, but how long can they keep it together?

Second Round of Overtime for Texas Legislature Sees Some Democrats Trickling Back to Austin

By Schaefer Edwards

Aug 10, 2021

The second straight special session of the Texas Legislature has gotten off to a predictably slow start given that enough House Democrats who fled the state for Washington, D.C. last month to block GOP-backed voting restrictions have still refused to return to Austin to deny the House the 100 out...

Pro-choice Texans flocked to Austin in May to protest Senate Bill 8, the law abortion advocates sued to block Tuesday.

Pro-Choice Advocates File Lawsuit Hoping To Block Texas’ New Abortion Law

By Schaefer Edwards

Jul 13, 2021

A broad group of abortion providers and pro-choice advocates joined forces Tuesday by filing a federal lawsuit they hope will block Texas’ recently passed law — that would ban abortions as early as six weeks — from going into effect later this year. Senate Bill 8, the controversial bill which...

Harris County Precinct One Constable Alan Rosen (right) has been sued for allegations of sexual harassment under his watch.

FBI Investigating Claims That Harris County Constables Molested Female Deputies In Drunken Undercover Party Stings

By Schaefer Edwards

Jul 8, 2021

An explosive federal lawsuit against Harris County Precinct One Constable Alan Rosen and two other department officials alleges that Rosen’s office routinely held undercover “bachelor party” stings between 2019 and 2020 during which female deputies “were molested and traumatized by their intoxicated male commanding officers for their own sexual gratification.”...

Gov. Greg Abbott gave Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan his special session marching orders Wednesday.

Abbott Sets A Red-Meat Menu For Special Legislature Session Starting Thursday

By Schaefer Edwards

Jul 7, 2021

Ending weeks of speculation, Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday morning finally unveiled the full list of items Texas lawmakers will be allowed to focus on during the upcoming special legislative session set to begin Thursday morning. “The 87th Legislative Session was a monumental success for the people of Texas, but...

Gov. Greg Abbott has brought Republicans and Democrats together — to accuse him of abusing his powers, that is.

Abbott Faces Fire From Left and Right On Legislative Funding Veto As New Opponent Enters the Fray

By Schaefer Edwards

Jul 7, 2021

Gov. Greg Abbott has faced plenty of backlash after he vetoed two full years of funding for the Texas Legislature last month, his way of retaliating against state lawmakers who weren’t able to pass a Republican priority bill to make voting in Texas more difficult after foot-dragging from Republicans created...

Houston Mayor Turner stood Friday with two Houston women whose children and grandchildren were murdered days earlier.

After Multiple Houston Kids Killed In Two Days, Turner and Chief Finner Say Hands Off Our Children

By Schaefer Edwards

Jul 2, 2021

Ahead of the Fourth of July weekend, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner and Houston Police Department Chief Troy Finner swore to the public they are doing everything in their power to put an end to a local wave of shootings that has left multiple Houstonians dead over the past week. Several...

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick sure has a knack for hyperbole.

A Sampling of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick's Most Outlandish Statements In Recent Memory

By Schaefer Edwards

Jun 29, 2021

Former Baltimoreon and current Texas Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has spent most of the past two decades clawing his way up the Lone Star State’s political power structure. Patrick parlayed his Houston conservative talk radio career into a 12-year stint as a state senator before he stole former Lt...

Renequa Burch and her lawyer at the Foster Care Advocacy Center believe her race was a factor in CPS taking her children.

Black Children In Harris County Are Seized By CPS 3.5 Times More Often Than White Kids

By Schaefer Edwards

Jun 28, 2021

Renequa Burch still wonders why exactly Child Protective Services moved so quickly to take four of her five kids away from her in the summer of 2018, but she’s convinced the fact that she and her children are Black had something to do with it. A social worker and mother...

Courts

Texas Dems Already Wary Of GOP Redistricting Plans

U.S. Justice Dept. Seeks Immediate Ban On Texas Abortion Law

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