Photo: Democratic State Rep. Rafael Anchia of Dallas sports a pink scarf in solidarity with Planned Parenthood. Photo by Rep. Caesar Blanco. A bill threatening the funding of abortion and other health care services, like HIV testing, diabetes, and cervical cancer...
Texas Legislature
back to archiveWith its buffet of red meat, Republican leadership has failed to deliver this legislative session
The 86th session of the Texas Legislature was supposed to be different. Optimism was in the air that opening day back on January 8. The Texas House had a new Speaker, Angleton Republican Dennis Bonnen, elected unanimously by his colleagues, and Lt. Governor Dan...
One year after Santa Fe school shooting, what has Texas done to prevent such horror again?
Spoiler: Zero on the gun safety side of things. On May 18, 2018, a 17-year-old high school student opened fire and killed 10 of his classmates and teachers in Santa Fe, Texas, outside of Houston. The tragic event became the deadliest school shooting in state history...
Texas Senate goes whole hog on LGBT discrimination, again
Here they go again. Certain Republicans in the Texas Senate are again distracting themselves with an issue even most Republicans don’t care about: ripping on the LGBT community. Taxes, the economy, education, and property tax reform are the issues the people of this...
Editorial: With victory in the Texas House, LGBTQ equality continues march forward
Achieving LGBTQ equality is like driving stick shift for the first time. You sputter forward, then abruptly stall, screech forward, stall again. Texas is learning to drive the car. On Thursday, the LGBTQ Caucus in the Texas Legislature racked up its first victory....
GOP flirtation with a tax increase is rebuffed
This week, Texas Republicans were not successful in their attempt to raise taxes, a move that would have hit working class families hard. The proposed tax bill sought to raise the state’s sales tax in order to, as some Republicans said, provide relief for property...
UPDATED: Texas Democrats fight Republican tax increase
Update May 7: The GOP's bill to increase taxes is dead for the session. State Rep. Chris Turner, a leading Democrat in the legislature, said following the bill’s death, “Texans want real solutions to lower their property taxes and fund public education, not a...
Texas Republicans plot new ways to raise your taxes
Update 5/7: The GOP tax hike proposal is dead. “The world has gone mad today And good's bad today, And black's white today, And day's night today…” In the words of the great Cole Porter, anything goes. With just a few weeks remaining in the 86th regular session of...
Don’t mess with Texans’ free speech
The right to boycott has always been a part of the American experience, from the American Revolution to the Civil Rights movement. Expressing economic or moral disapproval is as American as apple pie. It all comes down to free speech. So it wasn’t unusual that a...