Abbott bans low-income Medicaid patients from Planned Parenthood
A state court ruled on Wednesday that an order by Gov. Greg Abbott excluding Planned Parenthood from Texas’s Medicaid program could go through. A Travis County judge blocked the attempt by Abbott in February. More than 8,000 low-income Texans depend on...
Dan Crenshaw bought Boeing stocks as pandemic struck, report finds
A new bombshell report by The Daily Beast has found that Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Houston) purchased hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of stock during the onset of the pandemic in March 2020. Crenshaw purchased stock from Amazon, Southwest, Boeing, and...
Beto O’Rourke: “We Can Win.”
You can read this piece in Spanish here. In 2020, Joe Biden lost by less than Hillary Clinton did in 2016; eleven of the twelve State House seats we won in 2018 were successfully defended, and overall Democratic voter turnout in Texas was the second-highest of any...
How will Republicans gerrymander Texas?
As congressional districts are redrawn after the 2020 census, Texas will once again have a Republican trifecta creating the map. The GOP has used gerrymandering before and with the Democrats retaining only a slim majority in the House, they will most certainly do so...
UT’s “Eyes of Texas” verdict misses the mark
On Oct. 6, 2020, University of Texas president Jay Hartzell announced the formation of the Eyes of Texas History Committee. The 24-member group, which was composed of prominent student athletes, faculty members, former and current students, and administrators, was...
Bill filed to allow Texas counties to legalize pot
On Monday, state Rep. Jessica González (D-Dallas) filed a bill that would allow counties and municipalities in Texas to legalize recreational marijuana via ordinance. Taxes imposed on the legalized pot products would go to regulation, testing, quality...
Vanita Gupta, who has a history with John Cornyn, faces her first Senate confirmation hearing
As a nationally recognized leader in the civil rights movement, Vanita Gupta has the backing of several policing associations and justice organizations ahead of her confirmation hearing today in the Senate Judiciary Committee to be the Associate Attorney General, the...
Texas bill seeks second chance for juvenile offenders
The Texas House Juvenile Justice & Family Issues Committee reviewed a bill on Monday that would show more leniency for Texans who were convicted as minors and are applying for parole. The bill, authored by El Paso Democrat state Rep. Joe Moody, would make parole...
Musings: Truth, Justice, Texas
What will it take to get Texas Republicans to just tell the truth? It’s something I’ve wondered about with a frequency I would find unbearably depressing if I hadn’t already grown so jaded living in Greg Abbott’s Texas. But, alas, we’re here, y’all. And it’s...
Are Texas Republicans scared of a little direct democracy?
Session after session, Texas Republicans have confidently shot down bills they have deemed unworthy of being called Texan or Texas law. “Wrong for Texas” — one of Gov. Greg Abbott’s favorite phrases to deploy when something generally good is being discussed —...
Pentagon watchdog issues scathing report on Rep. Ronny Jackson
On Wednesday, the Department of Defense a scathing review of Rep. Ronny Jackson’s conduct when he was the top White House physician during the Obama and Trump administrations. Jackson, a staunch Trump ally, currently represents Texas 13th Congressional District which...
A new push for Medicaid expansion gains momentum in Austin
The announcement from Gov. Greg Abbott rescinding the statewide mask mandate and giving permission for businesses to reopen at full capacity is a stark reminder that the state of Texas often doesn’t care about the health of its citizens. As the state legislature’s...
Op-Ed: It’s time for the Green New Deal in the fossil fuel capital of the world
Hurricane Katrina. Hurricane Ike. The 2015 Memorial Day Floods. Hurricane Harvey. The 2019 ITC Chemical Plant Fire. And now the Winter Storms of 2021. Living in the oil and gas capital of the world, it’s no surprise that every few seasons come with another 800-year...
House passes George Floyd Justice in Policing Act
Democrats in the U.S. House voted to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act on Wednesday. The legislation includes reform for qualified immunity, a ban on chokeholds and no-knock warrants, a grant program for state attorney generals to investigate police...
How two voting rights bills could help Texas
Texas, like many red states, is not known for protecting voting rights. Under GOP leadership, the state has been plagued by long lines at the polls, onerous voter ID requirements, gerrymandering and other efforts to tilt the scale in favor of Republicans.Yet two bills...