Texas Dems Executive Committee calls for staff changes, accountability after disappointing cycle
In a strongly worded letter penned to Texas Democratic Party Chair Gilberto Hinojosa last week, 38 members of the Texas State Democratic Executive Committee asked for major changes and heads to roll at the state party after election losses in November. “From...
Texas AG Paxton files embarrassing lawsuit against four battleground states
Joe Biden is the President-Elect and will be sworn in January 20. However, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is trying to force the Supreme Court to overthrow the votes of millions of Americans by suing four states in a last-minute attempt to anoint a new presidential...
Ending reality cop shows in Texas and other police bills this session
The first police-related bill filed for the upcoming Texas Legislature session is a bill to prohibit law enforcement departments from contracting with reality television crews. The legislation is named after Javier Ambler, an Austin area postal worker who died of...
Abbott’s Little Shop of Horrors is coming for his job
Republicans have flirted with fake news super spreaders like Alex Jones for years but lately the alternative news crews just don’t seem that into the Grand Old Party. This weekend critical conservative voices held a rally attacking Governor Greg Abbott...
School board runoff caps off election season in Dallas
Officially the presidential election ended over a month ago (tantrums from President Trump notwithstanding). In Dallas, however, there is still one local runoff race for the Dallas Independent School District Board of Trustees that is very much a bellwether for public...
Giuliani Outbreak raises TX Lege questions
In unfortunate news no one could have possibly seen coming, outgoing President Donald Trump’s resident provocateur and attorney Rudy Giuliani was admitted to Georgetown University hospital this weekend after testing positive with COVID-19. At the age of 76, the...
Somehow Ken Paxton’s Corruption Cases Get Even Worse
Even if he is unlikely to resign as Texas Attorney General, the outlook for Ken Paxton keeps getting grimmer. It was already reported that Paxton is being investigated by the FBI for bribery and abuse of office, but this week brought even more scrutiny of the...
Mehdi Hasan calls out Dan Crenshaw’s gerrymandered district
Political reporter Mehdi Hasan successfully irked Houston’s Rep. Dan Crenshaw this week, sparking the two to go at each other on Twitter. On a segment on “The Mehdi Hasan Show,” Medhi responded to a social media post made by Crenshaw pushing for election reform so...
Texas’ Rainy Day Fund gets bigger — and dustier
Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar recently announced that the state’s Economic Stabilization Fund, better known as the Rainy Day Fund, grew by $1.13 billion this year. The fund would have actually seen $1.6 billion transferred its way if not for the pandemic-driven...
COVID Quagmire Deepens for Texas Elected Officials
It has been yet another rough week for Governor Greg Abbott and his response to the novel coronavirus. Despite boasting that Texas is ready to distribute vaccines within days, news surfaced this week of a report from the White House Coronavirus Task Force imploring...
Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis fires back at Ken Paxton
Harris County Precinct One Commissioner Rodney Ellis did not mince words with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Monday. The indicted state attorney general recently sent a letter to Harris County informing them that the newly created office of Harris County...
Abortion advocates brace for an unsettling era in Texas
For pro-choice activists, the next year in Texas, often considered a bellwether for access to abortion, could be harrowing. Anti-choice attacks are being waged in Texas not only at the legislature, but also the courts, and it’s likely that’s going to intensify even...
Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson asks U.S. health officials for equitable vaccine distribution
Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson has penned a letter to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices asking for communities of color to be prioritized in the upcoming distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, a panel of...
“Full resurgence,” “silent spreaders”: Abbott’s failed Covid response put to the test
Despite his bombastic public proclamations that Texas will enforce no new COVID-19 restrictions, Governor Greg Abbott was greeted by unwelcome news from a building he hopes to one day occupy last week. In a new report issued by the White House citing a “full...
Beware of big vaccine promises as 2020 wraps up
The Thanksgiving break, return of holiday music, and news of an incoming vaccine may have Texans giddy to break out the champagne bottles and celebrate the end to a long year, but there’s still reason to remain cautious. On Monday, reacting to news that United...