New law says prosecutors who adopt policy of refusing to go after people for violating abortion bans constitutes ‘official misconduct’
After the supreme court overturned Roe v Wade last year, district attorneys from major counties in Texas vowed not to vigorously prosecute people under the state’s anti-abortion laws.
Now, Texas has a plan to punish them if they don’t fall in line.
Continue reading...Reports suggest plans for ‘Project 42’ included a glass structure that contained a residential element for the chief executive
US prosecutors are investigating Tesla over alleged use of company funds for a secret project described internally as a house for Elon Musk, the electric carmaker’s chief executive.
Information sought from Tesla by the US attorney’s office for the southern district of New York includes personal benefits paid to Musk, how much was spent on the project and its purpose, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Continue reading...Republicans’ ‘Death Star’ law would have hurt many local labor laws, including paid sick leave and mandated water breaks
A Texas judge has ruled that a controversial bill dubbed “the Death Star law” is unconstitutional, just days before the law was set to take effect when it would have hurt many local labor laws, including paid sick leave and mandated water breaks for some employees toiling outside in a brutal heatwave.
The state district judge Maya Guerra Gamble issued her decision in response to a lawsuit against Texas filed by the cities of Houston, San Antonio and El Paso. Gamble agreed with arguments made by the cities that the bill is vague and unclear on which ordinances the municipalities must cancel before it was set to take effect.
Continue reading...Law allows for termination if patient’s water breaks too early or in cases of ectopic pregnancy, but critics say it is not enough
A Texas law about to take effect on Friday carves out exceptions to the state’s abortion ban.
In June, the Republican governor, Greg Abbott, quietly signed HB 3058, allowing doctors to provide abortion care when a patient’s water breaks too early for the fetus to survive, or when a patient is suffering from an ectopic pregnancy.
Continue reading...Ruling comes on same day Missouri judge rules similar law can take effect, prohibiting doctors giving crucial care to trans youth
A Texas judge on Friday blocked the state’s upcoming ban on gender-affirming medical care for minors, the latest in a legal fight over efforts by conservatives to restrict such care around the country.
The decision came on the same day a Missouri judge ruled that a similar law can take effect.
Continue reading...About 1.3 million people under warning as storm moves inland over south Texas and governor deploys state’s national guard
The skies began to darken over southern Texas on Tuesday as Tropical Storm Harold hurtled toward the state, just as California began cleanup from the historic storm system Hilary.
Texas, still grappling with the effects of one of the hottest and driest summers on record, is now bracing for a deluge. As Harold continued on its westward trajectory after sweeping through the Gulf of Mexico, forecasters warned it could drop up to 7in of rain in some areas with risks of flash flooding.
Continue reading...Court to decide whether to remove them as Greg Abbott and other Republican governors defend militarization of border with Mexico
A federal judge heard arguments on Tuesday about whether state authorities should remove huge buoys installed to stop migrants crossing the river that divides Texas from Mexico.
The court hearing in Austin came a day after Texas’s governor, Greg Abbott, and a group of hardline Republican governors gathered on the riverbank to defend local militarization of the US-Mexico border – while also acknowledging that the 1,000ft (305-meter) floating barrier had been adjusted after complaints that it had mostly drifted into Mexican territory.
Continue reading...Officials argue ‘unborn child’ may not have rights under US constitution in lawsuit defense over prison guard stillbirth
In defending themselves against a lawsuit, Texas officials have argued that an “unborn child” may not have rights under the US constitution, putting them in tension with arguments made by the state’s attorney’s general’s office as well as Republican lawmakers to support restrictions to abortion.
A guard at the state prison in the community of Abilene filed the lawsuit in question after she asserted that her superiors barred her from going to the hospital while she experienced intense labor pains and what she suspected were contractions while seven months pregnant and on duty.
Continue reading...From Venezuela, the child died at a local Illinois hospital on Thursday evening after showing signs of illness
A three-year-old girl from Venezuela being transported to Chicago from Texas by bus with other migrants died at a local Illinois hospital after showing signs of illness, the Texas department of emergency management said on Friday.
“Once the child presented with health concerns, the bus pulled over and security personnel on board called 9-1-1 for emergency attention,” the TDEM said in a written statement.
Continue reading...Body of Jimmy Hendricks, 66, from Austin, was found after he announced on Facebook plan to hike in Arches national park
A Texas man found dead while hiking in Utah was on the way to scatter his late father’s ashes, according to family members.
Jimmy Hendricks, 66, left his Austin home in mid-July for Nevada, where he planned to scatter the ashes on a mountain. Along the way, he made stops at Guadalupe Peak in Texas and the Grand Canyon.
Continue reading...State attorney general immediately appeals against ruling that says doctors must be allowed to end unsafe pregnancies
A judge in Texas has ruled that the state’s abortion ban is too restrictive for women with serious pregnancy complications and must allow exceptions without doctors fearing the threat of criminal charges.
The ruling in Austin was the first to undercut the law since it took effect in 2022 and delivers a major victory to abortion rights supporters, who see the case as a potential blueprint to weaken restrictions elsewhere that Republican-led states have rushed to implement.
Continue reading...Kathleen McElroy, whose history of promoting diversity caused pushback, receives damages and apology from Texas A&M
A Black journalism professor who was hired by Texas A&M University before objections in some quarters over her history of promoting diversity foiled the job offer has secured a $1m settlement from the institution.
Kathleen McElroy also received an apology from officials at Texas A&M, the largest public school in the US, who in a statement Thursday acknowledged “mistakes … made during the process”.
Continue reading...Texas government installed barrier to deter migrants – Mexican and US governments want it removed as dangerous and illegal
A body has been found stuck in a floating barrier installed by Texas authorities in the Rio Grande river on the US border, Mexico’s foreign ministry has said
Authorities were working to identify the body found in the river and determine the cause of death, said Mexico’s foreign ministry, as it reiterated safety concerns.
Continue reading...Duvan Tomas Perez killed at slaughterhouse while department found 4,474 children working illegally since start of fiscal year
The US Department of Labor has decried a national surge in child labor as the agency has found thousands of violations and is currently investigating the death of a 16-year-old boy from Guatemala, Duvan Tomas Perez, who was killed on the job at a slaughterhouse this month in Mississippi, reported the New York Times.
Two other 16-year-olds have died on the job in the US this year. Michael Schuls was killed on 29 June while working for a sawmill in Wisconsin. He was attempting to unjam a wood stacking machine when he was caught and pinned by the conveyor belt. Will Hampton was died in Missouri on 8 June while working at a landfill when he was pinned between a tractor trailer rig and its trailer.
Continue reading...Joy Alonzo accused by student of disparaging Dan Patrick in lecture on opioid crisis at Texas A&M University
The Texas A&M University professor Joy Alonzo criticized the Texas lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick, during a visiting lecture in March 2023 on the opioid crisis at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas.
Just hours later, Alonzo learned a student accused her of disparaging Patrick during the lecture. The complaint reached her supervisors and the chancellor of Texas A&M, John Sharp, who was in communication directly with the lieutenant governor’s office.
Continue reading...Move is the latest in a growing political spat between Greg Abbott and Biden administration over immigration
The US Department of Justice has sued the Republican governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, over his refusal to remove a floating barrier placed on the Rio Grande to stop migrants entering the US from Mexico.
The move is the latest in a growing political spat between Abbott and the Biden administration, heightened by Republican attempts to scaremonger over immigration as the 2024 presidential election looms.
Continue reading...Tony Gonzales said governor Greg Abbott is ‘doing everything he can’ at the US-Mexico border despite justice department backlash
A Texas Republican representative, Tony Gonzales, has called the current tactics used to deter migrants at the US-Mexico border “not acceptable” and urged the Biden administration and Congress to focus more heavily on legal immigration.
In an interview with CBS’s Face The Nation on Sunday, Gonzales, whose 23rd district in Texas includes 800 miles of the US-Mexico border, said that the border crisis “has been anything but humane” and called recent reports of Texas troopers allegedly pushing small children and nursing babies back into the Rio Grande “not acceptable”.
Continue reading...Bus was carrying 44 people hailing from Colombia, China, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela, including 14 children
A fifth bus of asylum seekers from Texas arrived in Los Angeles on Saturday as part of Texas governor Greg Abbott’s plans to transport migrants away from Texas.
On Saturday, Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass’s office announced that the bus – the fifth one to arrive in the city since 14 June – arrived at around 11.30am at Union Station.
Continue reading...Phoenix and Californian town of Needles experiencing 70th day in which temperatures have reached 90F
A brutal heatwave is persisting throughout much of the US, with cities across the south-west reaching all-time records for hottest consecutive days. Intense heatwaves are becoming more frequent as a result of the climate crisis, but alarmingly, these streaks of hot days are also lasting longer.
People living in cities in Arizona, California and Texas are entering their second month of days in which the temperature reaches 90F (32.2C) and above. Cities such as Phoenix, and Needles in California, have had no relief from this extreme heat in the past 70 days, with Phoenix recently experiencing three consecutive weeks of temperatures reaching 110F (43.3C) and above.
Continue reading...Trooper employed by Greg Abbott’s initiative expressed concern over ‘inhumane’ actions, in email reviewed by the Guardian
Texas troopers employed by Greg Abbott’s border patrol initiative were instructed to push children into the Rio Grande and deny migrants water in extreme heat, according to emails sent by a state employee.
Nicholas Wingate, a trooper-medic from the state’s department of public safety expressed concern over “inhumane” actions towards migrants in a 3 July email to supervisors and reveals other unreported incidents involving migrants, the Houston Chronicle first reported.
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