Category Archives: Texas

Greg Abbott signs law banning diversity offices in Texas higher education

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The governor signed the bill prohibiting diversity, equity and inclusion offices in addition to another codifying tenure restrictions

Texas’s Republican governor, Greg Abbott, has signed a bill that will ban diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) offices and initiatives across higher education institutions in the state.

Under SB 17, DEI offices across state colleges will close starting in January 2024 and activities that seek to promote certain groups of individuals over others based on race, ethnicity and gender will also come to an end.

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US halts appointments using migrant phone app at Texas border crossing

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Move follows reports of extortion by Mexican officials in Nuevo Laredo who threaten migrants with missing asylum appointments

The Biden administration has stopped taking mobile phone app appointments to admit asylum seekers at a Texas border crossing that connects to a notoriously dangerous Mexican city after advocates warned US authorities that migrants were being targeted there for extortion.

US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) gave no explanation for its decision to stop scheduling new appointments via the CBP One app for the crossing in Laredo, Texas.

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Man who ran over bird’s nest drives across Texas to save only intact egg

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Roadrunner hatchling named Miles was driven 660 miles in total before dying at wildlife rescue center several days later

A man was clearing land in the west Texas city of Odessa when he realized he had made a horrible mistake: he ran over a bird’s nest and smashed the eggs inside.

But one egg remained in tact, and he went to extraordinary lengths to try to save it in a saga that has captured national US media attention.

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Outcry as Texas to install ‘buoy barrier’ in Rio Grande to deter border crossings

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Rightwing governor Greg Abbott unveils new measures at US-Mexico border condemned by critics as ‘chilling’

The governor of Texas announced the state will install a barrier made of buoys along a section of the Rio Grande where people often wade or swim across the treacherous river from Mexico seeking refuge in the US, as the state committed $5.1bn towards ramping up plans to thwart border crossings.

Greg Abbott said a “new, water-based barrier of buoys” will be placed in the river. At a press conference he showed a line of large red buoys floating in the center of the Rio Grande.

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Texas woman dies of infection linked to cosmetic surgery in Mexico

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Family says Lauren Brooke Robinson, who reportedly contracted fungal meningitis, began to feel ill months after February surgery

A Texas woman has died after contracting fungal meningitis in an outbreak that has been linked to a cosmetic procedure performed in Mexico.

Lauren Brooke Robinson, 29, died on Wednesday from a fungal meningitis infection after receiving cosmetic surgery in Mexico, the local TV news station KBMT reported.

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Texas attorney general impeached by Republican-led House in historic vote

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Ken Paxton drew support from Donald Trump and Ted Cruz prior to the vote

Texas’ Republican-led House of Representatives impeached state attorney general Ken Paxton on Saturday on articles including bribery and abuse of public trust, a historic rebuke of a GOP official who rose to be a star of the conservative legal movement despite years of scandal and alleged crimes.

Impeachment triggers Paxton’s immediate suspension from office pending the outcome of a trial in the state Senate and empowers Republican governor Greg Abbott to appoint someone else as Texas’ top lawyer in the interim.

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Impeachment proceedings against scandal-hit Texas attorney general begin

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Republican-led state house of representatives to debate whether to impeach Ken Paxton over allegations of bribery

Texas’s Republican-led house of representatives launched historic impeachment proceedings against attorney general Ken Paxton on Saturday as the scandal-plagued lawyer called on supporters to protest a vote that could lead to his ouster and Donald Trump came to his defense.

The house convened on Saturday afternoon to debate whether to impeach and suspend Paxton from office over allegations of bribery, abuse of public trust and that he is unfit for office. They’re just some of the accusations that have trailed Texas’s top lawyer for most of his three terms.

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Texas attorney general urges supporters to protest at capitol ahead of impeachment vote

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Ken Paxton’s call for protesters to be ‘peacefully’ heard at the state capitol echoes similar request from Donald Trump before 6 January 2021

The Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, has urged his supporters to protest at the state capitol when Republicans in the House of Representatives take up historic impeachment proceedings against him.

The state House has set a Saturday vote to consider impeaching Paxton and suspending him from office over allegations of bribery, unfitness for office and abuse of public trust – just some of the accusations that have trailed him for most of his three terms.

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Texas panel recommends impeaching state attorney general Ken Paxton

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Republican-led house unanimously recommended impeaching state’s top lawyer on 20 articles including bribery and abuse of public trust

The Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, teetered on the brink of impeachment Thursday after years of scandal, criminal charges and corruption accusations.

In an unanimous decision, a Republican-led House investigative committee recommended impeaching the state’s top lawyer on 20 articles, including bribery, unfitness for office and abuse of public trust.

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Winnie-the-Pooh book teaches Texas kids to ‘run, hide, fight’ in a shooting

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Stay Safe book, produced by a law enforcement consulting firm in Houston, was sent home in backpacks of children

Texas schoolchildren as young as four years old are being given Winnie-the-Pooh cartoon books, teaching them to “run, hide, fight” if a gunman enters their building.

Parents and teachers in the Dallas area have expressed alarm and concern that the Stay Safe book, produced by a law enforcement consulting firm in Houston, has been sent home in the backpacks of children in pre-kindergarten and elementary classes.

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Mother of girl who died in US border patrol custody says agents ignored her

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Mabel Alvarez Benedicks says eight-year-old daughter ‘cried and begged for her life’ but did not receive hospital care for influenza

The mother of an eight-year-old girl who died in US border patrol custody said on Friday that agents repeatedly ignored pleas to hospitalize her medically fragile daughter as she felt pain in her bones, struggled to breathe and was unable to walk.

Agents said her daughter’s diagnosis of influenza did not require hospital care, Mabel Alvarez Benedicks said in an emotional phone interview. They knew the girl had a history of heart problems and sickle cell anemia.

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Texas man kills girlfriend after she had an abortion in Colorado

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Gabriella Gonzalez, 26, was shot in the head in a parking lot by Harold Thompson, 22, shortly after she ‘shrugs off’ his chokehold

A 26-year-old woman from Texas was shot and killed by her boyfriend after getting an abortion in another state, Dallas police said.

He was jailed on a murder charge as of Friday.

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Venezuelan migrants in Texas start car-wash business after mass killing horror

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Group tell of determination to fulfil American dream after compatriots were killed when SUV driver drove into bus stop

After a tragic start to the week and a night of thunderstorms, a group of migrants in south Texas woke up newly determined to fulfill their American dream.

Equipping themselves with soapy water, buckets, rags and a lot of spirit, about 30 Venezuelan men on Tuesday began operating a donation-based car washing service in a gas station right next to the border that divides Brownsville, Texas, from Matamoros, Mexico.

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Soldier who Abbott pledged to pardon gets 25 years for BLM protester’s murder

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Daniel Perry, 36, convicted of killing Garrett Foster, 28, at Black Lives Matter protest in 2020 while working as ride-share driver

A US army sergeant was sentenced to 25 years in prison on Wednesday, for fatally shooting an armed man during a Black Lives Matter protest in Texas – even after the Republican governor said he wanted to pardon the man.

Daniel Perry, 36, was convicted of murder in April for killing Garrett Foster during the downtown Austin protest in July 2020.

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Texas gunman who killed eight had ‘neo-Nazi’ ideation, say officials

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Mauricio Garcia, who was discharged from the US army in 2008, reportedly also had Nazi tattoos on his body

The gunman who killed eight people and wounded seven others at a suburban Dallas shopping mall had no prior criminal record but had “neo-Nazi ideation”, authorities said on Tuesday.

Investigators are still trying to determine why Mauricio Garcia opened fire on Saturday at the Allen Premium Outlets, Hank Sibley, the regional director of the Texas department of public safety, said at a news conference.

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US on track to set record in 2023 for mass killings after series of shootings

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Country is seeing an average of more than one mass killing weekly – amid little political prospect of meaningful gun control

After a series of shootings and other attacks, 2023 is on track to be the worst in recent history for mass killings in the US.

Mass killings are defined as incidents in which four or more people are killed, not including the shooter or other type of perpetrator. According to data from the Gun Violence Archive, the US is on pace for 60 mass killings this year. There were 31 in 2019, 21 in 2020, 28 in 2021 and 36 in 2022.

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‘Gun-loving’ ex-US army officer calls for gun control after witnessing Texas mall shooting

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Steven Spainhouer described rushing to the shopping center after his son called and trying to help a girl who ‘had no face’

As an ex-police and US army officer, Steven Spainhouer is comfortable around firearms and goes so far as to describe himself as a “gun lover”.

But Spainhouer is now passionately arguing in favor of meaningful gun control after witnessing a rifle-wielding man murder several people before being shot to death by police outside a suburban Dallas shopping mall Saturday.

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Texas mall shooting: family and friends identify victims as investigation goes on

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Police chief Brian Harvey declined to answer questions Sunday evening after a gunman killed eight people at a shopping mall

The victims of a mass shooting have been named as law enforcement officials in Allen, Texas, are still trying to piece together the events of the Saturday afternoon attack that killed nine people, including the gunman, and left at least seven others injured at a suburban shopping mall.

Brian Harvey, the Allen police chief, declined to answer questions Sunday evening, saying of the investigation, “we actually don’t have a lot”.

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Texas takes step toward more gun control as US mass shootings on record pace – as it happened

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The United States is suffering mass shootings this year at a pace that means 2023 is already on track to become a record year for such killings – even as the Republican-controlled legislature of Texas took a small step towards greater gun safety laws.

The mass shooting in Allen, Texas, on Saturday was the second deadliest gun massacre of the year and just the latest in a string of such killings that are blighting 2023 and leaving many Americans in despair that action will be taken to stem the bloodshed.

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Texas: police charge suspect with manslaughter after eight killed by truck

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George Alvarez accused after SUV drove into migrant crowd in Brownsville, as investigators work to determine if crash was intentional

An SUV driver who killed eight people when he slammed into a group waiting at a bus stop in Brownsville, Texas, was charged with manslaughter, police said on Monday as investigators tried to determine if the crash was intentional.

Authorities believe the driver, George Alvarez, 34, of Brownsville, lost control after running a red light on Sunday morning and plowed into a crowd outside a migrant center in the city, which has long been an epicenter for migration across the US-Mexico border.

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