Current Events

Federal Judge Blocks Texas Abortion Law — For Now

Federal Judge Blocks Texas Abortion Law — For Now

Opinion: How Did Turner End Up in This Mess?

Opinion: How Did Turner End Up in This Mess?

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COVID Metrics Improve Across Texas As U.S. Coronavirus Deaths Pass Grim Milestone

By Schaefer Edwards
Oct 5, 2021

The United States finally hit the tragic milestone of over 700,000 COVID-19 fatalities over the weekend, solidifying the coronavirus pandemic as the most deadly pandemic in the history of our country. But thankfully, key COVID-19 metrics across the country, Texas and in the greater Houston area continue to trend downward...
Texas House Speaker Phelan Rebukes Abbott and Patrick On Illegal Voting And Winter Storm Response

By Schaefer Edwards
Oct 1, 2021

In a series of tweets Thursday night, Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan (R-Beaumont) publicly broke with Gov. Greg Abbott over Abbott's insistence that Texas lawmakers should increase penalties for voting illegally, and disagreed with Gov. Dan Patrick’s assertion that retiring state Rep. Chris Paddie (R-Marshall) couldn’t be trusted based on...
Proposed Texas House District Maps Would Protect GOP Advantage Statewide

By Schaefer Edwards
Sep 30, 2021

If the new Texas House district maps unveiled by the Republican-led House Redistricting Committee Thursday are approved as expected, incumbent Republicans across the state would by and large be protected, likely solidifying the GOP’s grip on the House for the next decade. That advantage would come at the expense of...
Trump Tells Texas Four County Audit Isn't Good Enough

By Schaefer Edwards
Sep 30, 2021

Days after Gov. Greg Abbott’s administration hastily announced a partial audit of Texas’ 2020 election results, former President Donald Trump declared that the limited audit wouldn’t be enough to satisfy him or the legions of MAGA diehards in the Lone Star State. In a statement to the Texas Tribune Wednesday,...
Over 1.2 Million Marriage Licenses Added To Harris County's Website

By Schaefer Edwards
Sep 30, 2021

Access to Harris County’s marriage records took a leap into the 21st century on Wednesday, as the Harris County Clerk’s Office announced it had added more than 1.2 million marriage license records to its website, making it possible to view copies of them and purchase them online. All Harris County...
GOP-Drawn Texas Congressional Map Gives Wesley Hunt A New Red Seat For The Taking

By Schaefer Edwards
Sep 29, 2021

When the GOP Texas Senate on Monday unveiled its proposed new district maps for Texas’ seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, the likely impact on greater Houston’s slate of congressmen and women was pretty clear. Local red districts would get redder and blue districts would get bluer under the...
Refugees Are Not Our Exploitable Work Force

By Jef Rouner
Sep 29, 2021

There are two kinds of crises down at the southern border depending on who you listen to. According to the many Republican fundraising emails I get, the biggest problems is that thousands of people are “invading” the country, bringing poverty, disease, and crime. For those of us who have a...
Abbott Tells Fox News A Rape and Incest Exception To New Abortion Ban Won't Happen

By Schaefer Edwards
Sep 27, 2021

In a recent Fox News interview, Gov. Greg Abbot didn’t flinch when questioned as to why Texas’ new “heartbeat bill” that’s effectively banned abortions as early as six weeks after conception doesn’t have any exceptions for rape or incest, and said he believes there’s no way the Republican-led Texas Legislature...
Trump-Backed Audit, a Hasty Senate and a Sleepy House Mark Week One of Texas' Third Special Session

By Schaefer Edwards
Sep 27, 2021

One week into the Texas Legislature’s third round of overtime, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s Senate has already cranked out plenty of GOP priority legislation and even a first stab at new Senate districts maps at a breakneck pace. Meanwhile, the biggest news to come out of the Texas House is...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Mind-Bending Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience Adapts the Troubled Artist for the Digital Age

By Bob Ruggiero
Sep 18, 2021

Of all the Impressionist painters, Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890) is likely the genre’s Biggest Rock Star. An artist whose name and work is recognizable even among the general non-art loving public, and whose rudimentary life sketch only burnishes his image (the madness, the poverty, the suicide and that auditory appendage...
Over 14,000 Harris County Residents Are Overdue For Second Vaccine Dose

By Schaefer Edwards
Sep 17, 2021

More than 14,000 people in Harris County are overdue for getting their crucial second COVID-19 vaccine shot, despite public health officials’ attempts to persuade folks who’ve received their first shot of a two-dose coronavirus vaccine how important shot number two is in granting maximum coronavirus protection. Those under-vaccinated residents coupled...
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...
Over 80,000 in the Houston Area Still Lack Electricity Post-Nicholas

By Schaefer Edwards
Sep 15, 2021

Nicholas may have weakened into a Tropical Depression and hightailed it out of Texas for Louisiana already, but for the tens of thousands of Houston area residents who still haven’t had their power restored, the storm's impact is still far from a memory. CenterPoint Energy reported that 83,878 of its...
Nicholas Exits Stage Right, But Plenty of Residents Remain Powerless

By Schaefer Edwards
Sep 14, 2021

Tropical Storm Nicholas continued its eastward path out of the Houston area throughout Tuesday, leaving most of inland Harris County relatively dry but still struggling with widespread power outages and scattered debris. While the more southeastern reaches of Harris County saw significant rain totals and a healthy storm surge early...
Power Outages From Nicholas Likely To Last As It's Still Too Windy For Crews To Start Work

By Schaefer Edwards
Sep 14, 2021

In brief remarks updating the public on Harris County’s response to Tropical Storm Nicholas, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo on Tuesday warned residents without power that they may not have their electricity restored any time soon, as CenterPoint crews will not be sent out into the field until the strong...

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