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Despite the high temperatures, protesters marched on Saturday.

In Houston: Women's Marchers Protest the Expected Overturning of Roe v. Wade

By Houston Press

May 16, 2022

On Saturday, protesters marched from Discovery Green to Houston's City Hall in opposition to the expected overturning of Roe v. Wade by the U.S. Supreme Court. The crowd was dominated by women, several of whom carried signs demanding the right to control their own bodies. The U.S. Supreme Court, thanks...

Whatever form used, the info wasn't accurate, the feds say.

Add Tax Evasion to the Charges Filed in Alleged HISD Bribery Scheme

By Margaret Downing

Apr 7, 2022

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Houston had more bad news for former Houston ISD Chief Operating Officer Brian Busby and contractor Anthony Hutchison Thursday, as it announced new charges against the pair accused of engaging in a massive bribery scheme involved the school district. The new charges cite the two...

Director Charlie Minn interviews a survivor of the 2021 Astroworld concert.

New Documentary Gives Horrifying Grounds-Eye View of Astroworld Concert

By Jef Rouner

Apr 5, 2022

Charlie Minn’s documentary on the tragic 2021 Astroworld concert is about 85 minutes long At a guess, about 5 percent of the runtime contains the sights and sounds of injured people screaming for help. Concert Crush takes viewers into a minute-by-minute account of the Travis Scott concert that topped off...

Candace Owens and Houston U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw at a 2018 Turning Point USA event in Palm Beach, Florida.

Opinion: Greatest Hits of Candace Owens, Ted Cruz’s SCOTUS Hopeful

By Jef Rouner

Feb 4, 2022

When Justice Stephen Breyer announced his retirement, President Joe Biden vowed to fulfill a campaign promise to fill the vacancy with the Supreme Court’s first Black woman. Republicans, who prefer all nominations be picked by the Federalist Society, promptly freaked out. Our own Sen. Ted Cruz waded into the fray...

Brian Busby in 2018 explaining new standardized bus times at an HISD

Feds Unseal Bribery Indictment Involving Former HISD COO and Houston Vendor

By Margaret Downing

Dec 16, 2021

The former chief operating officer of Houston ISD participated in an alleged bribery scheme that reportedly paid him off in cash and home repairs in exchange for awarding inflated contracts to a Houston vendor, the U.S. Attorney's Office and Department of Justice announced Thursday. Brian Busby, who has been under...

Houston's March for Women's Rights in October

U.S. Supreme Court Rules That Challenge to Texas Abortion Law Can Continue, But Doesn't Shut Law Down

By Margaret Downing

Dec 10, 2021

In a partial and very narrow victory for opponents of S.B. 8, the new Texas abortion law that essentially shreds Roe v. Wade protections by banning abortions after the six week mark, the U. S. Supreme Court Friday voted 8-1 to allow abortion providers to continue to challenge the new...

Sheriff Gonzalez Insists Jail Is Not "Broken," Discusses Sexual Assault on Female Deputy

By Margaret Downing

Dec 8, 2021

Faced with both an inspection from the state that found the Harris County Jail out of compliance with standards and the sexual attack on a female deputy by an inmate this week, Sheriff Ed Gonzalez at a Wednesday morning press conference argued for more staffing, while saying that he doesn't...

Opinion: Rittenhouse Verdict Further Sanctifies “Defensive” Murder

By Jef Rouner

Nov 22, 2021

The jury in the Kyle Rittenhouse case found him not guilty of murder, which is exactly what laws like the Wisconsin castle doctrine are designed to do. It’s also a huge win for people obsessed with fatal defensive gun use. It’s a common misconception that the jury in the Rittenhouse...

Tony Buzbee with the particulars of one lawsuit with more to come.

Lawyers and Lawsuits Line Up Following Astroworld Tragedy

By Margaret Downing

Nov 8, 2021

Rapper Travis Scout has offered to pay funeral expenses for the eight young people who died at his Astroworld Festival on Friday, which didn't stop the parade of lawsuits that began marching their way to Houston's courts on Monday, the first workday after the tragedy. As was expected, more than...

The Women's March in Houston in October.

Technicality That Enabled the Texas Abortion Ban May Trip it Up Before U.S. Supreme Court

By Margaret Downing

Nov 2, 2021

It is more than a little ironic that the technical loophole the Texas conservative officials used to shut down the federally-guaranteed right to abortion in our state may be upended by another technicality. And by conservative justices on the U.S. Supreme Court, no less. Monday, the Supreme Court heard arguments...

Participants in the recent women's march in Houston argued for control over their own bodies.

Federal Judge Blocks Texas Abortion Law — For Now

By Margaret Downing

Oct 7, 2021

”Labeling it an "unprecedented and transparent statutory scheme," a federal judge Wednesday issued an order blocking the new Texas abortion law — at least for now — which means that abortion providers can resume their activities in the state if they feel confident enough to do so. Predictably, the opinion...

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

Pro-Choice Groups Beg U.S. Supreme Court To Hurry Up And Rule On Texas Abortion Ban

By Schaefer Edwards

Sep 24, 2021

Sick of being forced by Texas’ controversial “heartbeat bill” to tell Texans seeking abortions they’ll have to venture hundreds of miles out of state to have their pregnancies terminated, Texas abortion providers and pro-choice groups filed an emergency request Friday asking the U.S. Supreme Court to bypass the normal appeals...

As experts continue to urge vaccinations, more and more Texans are dying of COVID-19 due to the Delta surge.

Texas COVID Deaths Surge While Hospitalizations Fall As Delta Wave Continues

By Schaefer Edwards

Sep 24, 2021

As public health experts predicted all along, the quick rise in Texas COVID-19 cases from the summer’s Delta surge has finally been followed by a dramatic uptick in deaths from the virus. While there are now thousands fewer Texas hospital beds occupied by COVID-19 patients than there were a few...

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton wants his fellow Republicans to lay off, a big ask given all his controversies.

Texas AG Paxton Says Since He's Elected, the Whistleblower Act Doesn't Apply to Him

By Schaefer Edwards

Sep 23, 2021

Beleaguered Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s representatives argued in court this week that Paxton shouldn’t be considered a “public employee,” and therefore should be immune to a whistleblower lawsuit filed against him by former colleagues he fired after they accused their old boss of corruption. Meanwhile, Paxton’s been filing a...

Pro-choice activists have been protesting Texas' Senate Bill 8, which has halted most in-state abortions since September 1.

Lawsuits Follow After Texas Doctor Breaks Abortion Law, Just Not From Who You'd Expect

By Schaefer Edwards

Sep 22, 2021

In the days since San Antonio Dr. Alan Braid’s announcement in the Washington Post that he’d performed an illegal abortion flouting Texas’ controversial “heartbeat bill,” the first two lawsuits filed against him came from pro-choice advocates hoping to block the law, not anti-abortion activists. Meanwhile, Texas’ most ardent abortion foes...

Once a fixture in Harris County COVID-19 education efforts, Dr. Hasan Gokal is now fighting the county in court.

Exonerated Doctor Accused Of Stealing Vaccines Sues Harris County For Over $1 Million

By Schaefer Edwards

Sep 21, 2021

Dr. Hasan Gokal was fired by Harris County Public Health for allegedly stealing COVID-19 vaccine doses in December. But after he was found to have committed no crime by a local judge, a county grand jury and the Texas Medical Board, Gokal — a Pakistani immigrant — has now sued Harris County...

A rumored new set of state Senate voting maps would give Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick's GOP an even bigger advantage.

Texas Redistricting When Republicans Seem to Hold All the Cards

By Schaefer Edwards

Sep 20, 2021

It doesn't matter that 95 percent of the state’s population growth since 2010 (according to the latest census results) has come from Texans of color who traditionally lean toward Democrats when voting. Not when Republicans control the Senate and House. State Democrats and progressive advocacy groups are already convinced the...

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland's Justice Department has upped the ante in its attempt to block Texas' latest abortion ban.

DOJ Asks Judge To Block Texas' Abortion Law, While Women Seeking Abortions Are Driven Out of State

By Schaefer Edwards

Sep 15, 2021

One sexual assault victim had to travel to Oklahoma to get the abortion now forbidden to her by the new draconian Texas abortion law that went into effect September 1. “I provided an abortion to [a] woman from Texas who had been raped and could not get an abortion in...

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...

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Legal Questions Raised About Dusty Hill Estate Sale

U.S. Supreme Court Overturns Roe v. Wade

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