The Guardian visits three gay bars in Texas, Mississippi and Indiana, where the owners and punters share how important those spaces remain for a community threatened by Trump
Category Archives: Texas
One dead and six injured in Dallas crane collapse amid severe thunderstorms
- Witness: crane ‘fell straight through’ apartment building
- Names of injured and woman who died not known
A woman has died and at least six people were injured when a crane collapsed on to an apartment building in Dallas amid severe thunderstorms early on Sunday afternoon.
Dallas Fire-Rescue spokesman Jason Evans told reporters first responders searching the Elan City Lights building found a woman inside an apartment who was later pronounced dead.
Continue reading...Sandra Bland’s own cellphone video surfaces from 2015 traffic stop – video
A video taken by Sandra Bland in 2015 shows how a white state trooper confronted the 28-year-old black woman in a traffic stop after he says she failed to signal. Texas authorities have denied withholding the footage shot by Bland, who was found hanged in a jail cell near Houston in 2015. The video had not been publicly seen until it was aired this month by a Dallas TV station. Both lawmakers and Bland’s family say they had never seen the clip
Continue reading...The astonishing disappearing act of Beto O’Rourke
#Betomania became #Betofatigue in six short months – can the Texas Democrat rise again and show voters what type of president he’d be?
When Beto O’Rourke travelled to Yosemite in California to unveil his $5tn plan on climate change, a ripple of surprise crossed America. How did the tall white guy with the funny first name known for his punk past, Beatnik road trips and fondness for campaigning atop counters get to be the first Democratic candidate to proclaim on the crisis of our age?
This wasn’t the O’Rourke that the country had grown used to during his battle with Ted Cruz last November for a US Senate seat. Then, the Texas Democrat had propelled himself to within three percentage points of victory, and with it national stardom, by making viral speeches about NFL players taking a knee and by instilling hope through a feel-good but rather wishy-washy call to unity.
Continue reading...‘Texans don’t stand for this’: O’Rourke and Buttigieg call out anti-gay hecklers
O’Rourke condemned protesters at Buttigieg’s Dallas event while the mayor has been shutting down hecklers on the campaign trail
Pete Buttigieg has faced homophobic heckling during one of his latest 2020 presidential campaign events.
“Marriage is between a man and a woman!” one protester yelled during the mayor’s speech at an event in Dallas, Texas, on Friday, according to a CNN reporter who filmed the event. Another protester yelled: “Repent!”
Continue reading...US builds migrant tent city in Texas as Trump likens treatment to ‘Disneyland’
US border agency, which previously forced migrants to sleep under a bridge, says an influx of arrivals demands more shelter space
The US government has begun erecting tents close to the border with Mexico to house detained migrants – even as Donald Trump likened the treatment of undocumented families entering the US to “Disneyland” on Sunday.
Life at the foothills of the Franklin mountains in El Paso, Texas, has been rudely disrupted in the last few days by construction crews coming and going near the adjacent border patrol station.
Continue reading...Member of armed militia who detained migrants faced similar charges in 2006
- Larry Mitchell Hopkins held on Saturday in Texas
- Earlier arrest involved impersonating a police officer
A member of an armed civilian group that has detained migrants near the US-Mexico border who was arrested on Saturday reportedly faced similar charges in Oregon 13 years ago.
Related: Videos appear to show armed militia detaining migrants at US-Mexico border
Continue reading...The small Texas town where Trump’s wall will destroy families and livelihoods
Deep in the deep Rio Grande Valley, plans for president Trump’s wall would cut through towns and communities. In Madero, families fear the loss of their livelihood but vow to resist
Rey Anzaldua walks the path, through a pluvial afternoon on the Rio Grande reach opposite Mexico, towards the little church where he has worshipped “since I was five years old”– the lovely chapel of La Lomita, built in 1865 on a Spanish land grant of 1767. It is a jewel: candle smoke and the musky scent of whitewashed stone wrapping the Virgin of Guadalupe icon and offerings of flowers and corn.
Rey’s family has been here since the 1750s. His extended family “had three Spanish land grants between 16,000 and 18,000 acres along the Rio Grande river and the bridge between,” Rey said. “We don’t have much of that now.”
Continue reading...Serial killer’s drawings of alleged victims released by FBI
Agency hopes sketches by Samuel Little, who has confessed to killing 90 women, may help solve dozens of homicides
The FBI has released sketches made by a serial killer of his alleged victims, in the hope that they may help solve dozens of unsolved homicides.
The agency released the drawings and other information on a string of cold-case homicides that investigators say Samuel Little has admitted to having carried out.
Continue reading...Trump administration still separating families at border, advocates say
Annunciation House shelter still receives calls each week about new cases of separations in El Paso, legal coordinator said
The Trump administration is still tearing young children away from their parents when they cross the US-Mexico border unlawfully, despite formally ending the policy of family separations last summer, according to immigration advocates in Texas.
Related: 'Inexplicable cruelty': US government sued over family separations at border
Continue reading...Donald Trump v Beto O’Rourke: rival rallies on US border security – video report
Donald Trump and potential presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke held rallies in El Paso, Texas, on Monday night offering their contrasting views on Trump's US-Mexico border wall. The president addressed his crowd in front of a big US flag along with three 'finish the wall' banners. Meanwhile nearby, O'Rourke told supporters El Paso was, 'safe not because of walls but in spite of walls'.
Continue reading...Trump: ‘Just so you know, we’re building the wall anyway.’ – video
Donald Trump's pursuit of a border wall continued as he spoke at a rally in El Paso, Texas. Banners reading 'Finish the wall' lined the El Paso County Coliseum as the president spoke of how Democrats wanted to propose measures that would 'release of thousands of criminal illegal aliens'
- Trump and Beto O'Rourke speak at dueling rallies in Texas
- Party leaders reach deal to avoid fresh US government shutdown
Trump policy to deter asylum seekers is illegal, says Amnesty director
‘Remain in Mexico’ policy is also a human rights violation that is ‘throwing the entire system into chaos’, said Margaret Huang
The Trump administration’s “remain in Mexico” policy aimed at deterring asylum seekers, especially at the southern border, is illegal and a human rights violation, the head of Amnesty International in the United States has said.
Related: Ice force-feeds immigrants inside Texas detention center
Continue reading...Quebec mosque attack: two years on, will security trump openness?
The planned transformation of Quebec’s Grand Mosque is haunted by the deadly attack on the Islamic centre in 2017
Until 29 January 2017, random motorists on the busy Chemin Sainte-Foy would sometimes pull over to the Quebec City Grand Mosque to withdraw some money.
Converted from a Desjardins Bank, it still looks like one, with its rows of rectangular glass panes and a barricaded drive-through. Its only crescent and minaret are in graphic form on a small plastic sign, blocked from the road by trees.
Continue reading...Jazmine Barnes shooting: man charged with murder in seven-year-old’s death
Eric Black Jr was taken into custody and has admitted to the shooting, the Harris county sheriff’s office said
A 20-year-old man has been charged with capital murder in the death of Jazmine Barnes, the seven-year-old who was killed when a man in a pick-up truck fired into her family’s car as they went to get coffee.
Related: Jazmine Barnes death: seven-year-old's family plead for help to catch killers
Continue reading...Senate approves bill to keep government running into 2019
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., joined by Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., left, and Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, right, arrives to speak to reporters about the possibility of a partial government shutdown, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2018. Congress and President Donald Trump continue to bicker over his demand that lawmakers fund a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, pushing the government to the brink of a partial shutdown at midnight Friday.
O’Rourke’s liberal credentials questioned as he eyes 2020
During this year's Texas Senate race, some home-state Democrats grumbled that Beto O'Rourke wasn't softening his liberal positions enough to finish a near-upset of Ted Cruz. Now, as the outgoing congressman mulls a 2020 White House run, a small but vocal segment of activists is suggesting he's not liberal enough, arguing he's more about feel-good flash than commitment to values that will excite his party's ascendant leftist wing.
Dallas GOP donor targets Abbott, pledges to make 100K robocalls defending Confederate plaque
A Dallas man angry over the removal of Confederate monuments has pledged to call 100,000 Texas households in the next few weeks urging them to contact their elected officials. Dallas businessman and GOP donor Christopher Ekstrom said the Conservative Response Team , a politically active nonprofit he leads, plans to make the robocalls before Jan. 12. The calls will urge registered Republicans to call Rep. Dennis Bonnen, the Angleton Republican assumed to become the next speaker of the Texas House, who recently joined Gov. Greg Abbott in calling for the removal of a controversial Confederate plaque at the state Capitol.
The Latest: Cruz, O’Rourke trade barbs in Senate debate
The Latest on the Texas Senate race debate between Republican incumbent Ted Cruz and Democratic challenger Beto O'Rourke : Beto O'Rourke has evoked a nickname Donald Trump bestowed on his then-2016 presidential rival Ted Cruz, "Lyin' Ted," as the Democrat went on the offensive repeatedly during a Texas Senate debate in San Antonio. Early into the action, Cruz criticized O'Rourke for supporting a proposal that explored imposing a tax on oil production.
Ap Fact Check: Cruz, O’Rourke claims cite taxes, immigration
U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, D-Texas, left, and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, right, take part in a debate for the Texas U.S. Senate, Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018, in San Antonio.