Texas

Abbott Says No To Rape, Incest Exception For Abortion Law

Abbott Says No To Rape, Incest Exception For Abortion Law

Trump Audit Caps Off First Week of Special Session Three

Trump Audit Caps Off First Week of Special Session Three

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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 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...
Fall is Here and It's Time to Garden

By Lorretta Ruggiero
Sep 24, 2021

Fall has finally dropped our temperatures and lightened our humidity. Shoppers at the grocery store today were already loading up the pumpkins and buying miniature pickup trucks decorated with fake autumn leaves and "Apples 4 Sale" signs. The pumpkin spice latte crowd are happy and Halloween devotees are already decorating...
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...
Trial Shows Pfizer Vaccine Safe For Kids As FDA Panel Breaks With Biden On Booster Plan

By Schaefer Edwards
Sep 20, 2021

Millions of parents with young kids breathed a collective sigh of relief across the United States Monday morning, as Pfizer announced its trial of its two-dose COVID-19 vaccine found the shots were safe and effective for children ages five to 11. While full authorization for Pfizer’s vaccine in kids five...
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...
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...
Hidalgo Asks Harris County Residents To Stay Put Monday Night Due To Nicholas

By Schaefer Edwards
Sep 13, 2021

As the first bands of rain from the edges of Tropical Storm Nicholas continued to drop water across greater Houston, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo spoke Monday afternoon about the county’s response to the fast-approaching storm. “We could get 10 to 15 inches of rain over the next 24 hours...
Houston Area Leaders and Schools React As Tropical Storm Nicholas Zooms Toward Texas

By Schaefer Edwards
Sep 13, 2021

As Tropical Storm Nicholas barrels toward the Gulf Coast, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner gave a brief update on the city’s preparations for what’s expected to be a heavy rain event that could cause significant flash flooding in parts of the greater Houston area. Meanwhile, several local school districts responded quickly...
Turner Orders Mandatory COVID Tests For Unvaccinated City Employees

By Schaefer Edwards
Sep 8, 2021

Amid anecdotal reports that only 50 percent or fewer of Houston Police Department and Houston Fire Department employees had been vaccinated against COVID-19, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner’s communications director told the Houston Press last week that Turner was still considering issuing a vaccine mandate for city employees. But during Wednesday’s...
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...
Abbott Calls Third Straight Special Session of Legislative OT For September 20

By Schaefer Edwards
Sep 7, 2021

On Tuesday evening, Gov. Greg Abbott called yet another special session of the Texas Legislature, ordering state lawmakers to head back to Austin for one more round of legislating starting September 20. Abbott’s announcement came hours after he signed Senate Bill 1 into law, the controversial set of GOP election...
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 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...