Texas

Drama, energy and Trump. Those words sum up this year's Texas GOP convention, which wrapped up Saturday in Houston.

No. Are any of us? "Anyone who, like me, has been doing this for 20 years knows that's the method they use to kill our priorities," Hall said. "We've just had a very spirited primary," Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said. "We can’t compromise with Democrats who have a different and incompatible vision for our future," Rinaldi said. "But at the end of the day, we have to come together in November and we have to beat the Democrats." This comes after a controversial Republican-backed law went into effect last year that created new penalties around elections.

"We reject the certified results of the 2020 Presidential election," the Republican Party of Texas says, referring to President Biden as the "acting" ...

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Delegates at biennial convention also approve platform declaring that Joe Biden was not legitimately elected.

Steve Toth, the state representative for part of Montgomery county, a Houston suburb, denied the party was moving to the right. The Republicans have always been strong defenders of constitutional family values.” Republicans, who control the legislature, governor’s mansion and every statewide office, have used their dominance to push through a swath of regressive laws in recent months including anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQ+, anti-migrant and anti-voting rights legislation.

Longhorn Great Betsy Mitchell is one of eight inductees announced for the 2022 class.

The Southwest Conference Hall of Fame is one of four separate halls of fame housed within the Texas Sports Hall of Fame's physical structure. Mitchell went on to be inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1998 and the Texas Athletics Hall of Honor in 2000. She earned a second silver medal at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, swimming the backstroke in the women's 4×100-meter medley relay in the preliminary heats, and also placed fourth in the final of the 100-meter backstroke.

The party not only called for tighter voting rules in the wake of the 2020 election; it approved a resolution declaring that President Biden hadn't been ...

One thing that didn’t change in 2022 relative to 2014 was how the party thought climate change and evolution should be taught in schools: “We support objective teaching of scientific theories, such as life origins and climate change. That natural disasters are listed last is not an accident, nor is the emphasis on both hot and cold. 2022: “We oppose environmentalism that obstructs legitimate business interests and private property use, including the regulatory taking of property by governmental agencies. Common Core is a set of educational standards implemented early in the Obama administration that was criticized as an effort to impose federal control over academic standards. The implementation of a state-level electoral college, of course, is meant to further reduce the power of Democratic-voting cities. 2014: “America is proudly a nation of immigrants. 2022: “We encourage the Legislature to preempt local government efforts to interfere with the State’s sovereignty over business, employees, and property rights. 2022: “We support equal suffrage for all United States citizens of voting age. 2014: “We support restoring integrity to the voter registration rolls and reducing voter fraud. We oppose any identification of citizens by race, origin, or creed and oppose use of any such identification for purposes of creating voting districts. For example, it called for Congress to investigate the purported “IRS targeting of specific political groups and individuals” during the Obama administration, a favorite subject of conservative media at the time. It’s a remarkable reactionary document, a summary not only of many of the grievances seen on the political right but often of the fringiest articulation of them.

El Partido Republicano de Texas adoptó nuevos cambios en la plataforma que mueven el partido aún más hacia la derecha, declarando la homosexualidad como ...

- “Las plataformas de los partidos a menudo se usan como un garrote en las primarias de los partidos. La multitud lo abucheó. - La nueva plataforma señala considera que el trastorno de identidad de género es “una condición de salud mental genuina y extremadamente rara”. Instan a la legislatura estatal a aprobar un proyecto que exija que los documentos oficiales se adhieran al "género biológico". - Incluye una sección sobre la “Homosexualidad y cuestiones de género” en la que señala que no deben otorgarse “derechos legales especiales” o “un estatus especial para el comportamiento homosexual”,dice el documento. Anti-LGBTQ+. En la nueva plataforma del Partido Republicano de Texas, donde se establecen los principios que espera defiendan los líderes a través del “reconocimiento y acción”. El Partido Republicano de Texas adoptó nuevos cambios en la plataforma que mueven el partido aún más hacia la derecha, declarando la homosexualidad como “una elección de estilo de vida anormal” y se oponen a “todos los esfuerzos para validar la identidad transgénero”.

At the Texas GOP convention over the weekend, the party declared war on LGBTQ Americans, the democratic process, and even members like John Cornyn and Dan ...

And, at the GOP convention in Texas over the weekend, there was no shortage of kindling to keep that blaze going. “It is time to smartly change course, modernize the Party, and learn once again how to appeal to more people, including those who share some but not all of our conservative principles,” the Republican National Committee wrote in an autopsy of Mitt Romney’s loss in the 2012 election. But the party outright dismissed an effort by some of its delegates to do just that, underscoring not only how far to the right the GOP is continuing to move, but how brazen it has become in doing so.

The Austin Chamber of Commerce is gathering community leaders for a trip to Washington D.C. to meet with officials and agency leaders about funding for ...

Last week, the star witness at a January 6 select committee hearing warned that Donald Trump remained a "clear and present danger" to American democracy.

The committee is implicitly making the point that it would be impossible for Trump to not know he was crossing a legal line. Additionally, prosecutors in any criminal case against Trump would have to prove intent to a jury -- namely that the former President knew what he was doing was a crime and that he went ahead anyway. This is why the panel has highlighted testimony from witnesses who repeatedly told Trump he lost the election and that his scheme to have the election thrown to him in Congress was not legal. The radicalization of the Texas Republican Party is just the most recent case. While the committee's mission has been to examine what happened in the lead up to January 6, 2021, and on that fateful day, there is clearly a political undercurrent to its work. Another member of the panel, Maryland Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin, said over the weekend that accountability can come in two ways -- through criminal action or in a broader political sense. The hearings so far have made a compelling presentation on the stunning, unprecedented behavior of a President who lost reelection, fairly and squarely, and pushed plans he was repeatedly told were illegal. - Trump relentlessly bullied then-Vice President Mike Pence to sign up to the legal fantasy that he had the power simply to reject the election result and hand his boss a second term as he presided over Congress' certification of the vote. One side effect of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy's decision to pull his remaining picks from the committee Moreover, many of the rioters believed that they were acting directly on the then-President's wishes and responded to his statements. There has been an effort to portray the former President as a massive scam artist who has misled and exploited his supporters, such as when the committee unveiled how Trump's election defense fundraising had been spent on other matters. It's extraordinary how a lie about voter fraud coined by a President so desperate to cling onto power that he would stop at nothing, even an insurrection, has caused so much chaos and fallout.

Longhorn Great Betsy Mitchell is one of eight inductees announced for the 2022 class.

The Southwest Conference Hall of Fame is one of four separate halls of fame housed within the Texas Sports Hall of Fame's physical structure. Mitchell went on to be inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1998 and the Texas Athletics Hall of Honor in 2000. She earned a second silver medal at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, swimming the backstroke in the women's 4×100-meter medley relay in the preliminary heats, and also placed fourth in the final of the 100-meter backstroke.

Texas contract provisions reviewed by Axios reveal state officials can exert political leverage on companies hungry to win business with government ...

The bottom line: "From the taxpayer's point of view, you want to go with whatever entity can perform the job for the lowest possible cost," Kettl says. "The more restrictions you put in place with the contract, the more you run the risk of driving out the lower bidder." - A federal judge in January ruled that Texas can't block an engineering firm from boycotting Israel as part of its contract with the City of Houston. What they're saying: The COVID-19 requirement "fits in with the policy direction of the state," Ann Bowman, a professor of government at Texas A&M, tells Axios. - In a letter sent last month to the Texas attorney general, before the Uvalde shooting, officials at JPMorgan described the bank's "longstanding business relationships" with the Texas firearm industry, noting that it "anticipates continuing such relationships into the future,"the New York Times reported. If you want to sell widgets — or really any item or service — to the state of Texas, you first have to formally pledge that you won't boycott Israel and that you won't "discriminate against" firearm companies.

The new Texas Republican Party platform called President Joe Biden's win illegitimate, urged a repeal of the Voting Rights Act and demanded a statewide vote on ...

Cruz, who led the effort to block the certification of Biden's win in Congress, was trashed by a right-wing activist as a "coward and a globalist." Crenshaw was confronted by members of the Proud Boys and others who called him "eyepatch McCain" and a "globalist RINO." In one important example, repealing the VRA would eliminate the ban on literacy tests," he told The Washington Post. It's especially alarming after the Republican-dominated legislature already passed a sweeping bill imposing new voting restrictions in a state that already had strict election laws, he added. Along with a full embrace of the "Big Lie" and secessionist rhetoric, the platform called for the abolition of the Federal Reserve, federal taxation powers and gun control laws. The document argued that "all gun control is a violation of the Second Amendment and our God given rights." "We can't compromise with Democrats who have a different and incompatible vision for our future," state GOP chairman Matt Rinaldi said at the convention.

The Texas Tribune has reviewed law enforcement transcripts and footage that federal and state investigators are examining after the May 24 tragedy.

“The person who should be in charge is the person who has the best picture of what’s happening and also the skill set to manage what needs to happen,” Blair said. (It’s not clear if he’d heard that a Halligan was available.) By noon, officers had rifles, a Halligan and at least one ballistic shield — yet made no attempt to enter the classrooms for 50 minutes. One child whose still body was placed on the floor had to be gently pushed to make room for others streaming in and and out, his blood leaving a wide swath of crimson across the hallway floor. The fisheye camera in the hallway captured a single first responder standing in the center of the hallway, his surgical-gloved hands motioning to others standing behind him to remain there until all the officers exited. A dispatcher asked whether the door was locked, and an officer replied that they didn’t know but that they had a Halligan available. Shooting started again inside the school within a minute of the start of the call. Officers believed that the shooter was contained, and Arredondo called the Uvalde Police Department’s dispatch on his cellphone. Arredondo told the Tribune that he tried to open one door and another group of officers tried to open another, but that the door was reinforced and impenetrable. The camera looks straight south from its north ceiling perch and offers a slight view of the entrances to classrooms 111 and 112 to the left. At least one of the officers expressed confusion and frustration about why the officers weren’t breaching the classroom, but was told that no order to do so had been given. - At least some officers on the scene seemed to believe that Arredondo was in charge inside the school, and at times Arredondo seemed to be issuing orders such as directing officers to evacuate students from other classrooms. Public understanding of the response to the tragedy has been marred by refusals by state and local agencies to release public records, efforts by local officials to bar journalists from public meetings, and the closed-door nature of the hearings held by state lawmakers.

Timeline published in local news reports suggests police in Uvalde had ability to confront gunman far earlier during May attack in which 21 died.

Burrows did not immediately emerge from the executive session on Monday afternoon to make a statement on the day’s testimony. “These are the consequences my family has to suffer due to the lack of due diligence. They took turns criticizing the police response and what they described as lax security measures at the school in general. Delays in the law enforcement response have been the focus of the federal, state and local investigation of the massacre and its aftermath. And The New York Times reported two Uvalde city police officers told a sheriff’s deputy that they passed up a fleeting chance to shoot the gunman while he was still outside the school because they feared they would hit children. At 12.46pm, Arredondo told the tactical team members to breach the door when ready, the outlets reported.

The director of the Texas Department of Public Safety on Tuesday slammed the law enforcement response to last month's mass shooting in Uvalde as an "abject ...

And the fact that we're not getting that information is just a travesty in and of itself." "I don't understand the reason why they stood back that long for them to go back in ... Standing back a whole hour, leaving them inside with that gunman, is not right. "While they waited, the on-scene commander waited for a radio and rifles," McCraw said, referring to Arredondo. "Then he waited for shields. "I just don't understand why that didn't happen, why they didn't breach the room. In the first minutes of their response, an officer also said a Halligan, a firefighting tool that is used for forcible entry, was on scene, according to the timeline. A body camera transcript showed Arredondo indicating to other officers at 12:46 p.m. that if a SWAT response team was ready, they should breach the door, an action that came four minutes later. "The officers had weapons, the children had none. The suspect then shot and injured several officers who approached the classrooms, and they retreated to a hallway outside the rooms. Texas Sen. Roland Gutierrez, a Democrat, told CNN on Monday that the reporting underscored his questions about why police did not try to breach the doors sooner. The officers had body armor, the children had none," McCraw said. The group of officers then remained in the hallway and did not approach the door for another 73 minutes. "Three minutes after the subject entered the West building, there was a sufficient number of armed officers wearing body armor to isolate, distract and neutralize the subject," he continued.

A top Texas law enforcement official said that there were enough armed police officers wearing body armor to stop the late May shooting at Robb Elementary ...

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AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Law enforcement authorities had enough officers on the scene of the Uvalde school massacre to have stopped the gunman three minutes ...

“He walked around with a bag of dead cats,” McCraw said. McCraw said if he could make just one recommendation, it would be for more training. Arredondo has declined repeated requests for comment to The Associated Press. Because terrible decisions were made by the on-site commander,” McCraw said. Questions about the law enforcement response began days after the massacre. Instead, he said, police waited around for a key.

In the most detailed account yet from officials, the Texas Department of Public Safety said police responding to the Uvalde, Tex., massacre, made numerous ...

A few members of the public and law enforcement officers took seats next to tourists taking respite in the air-conditioned chamber from the 100-degree weather outside. The officers had body armor, the children had none. The officers had training, the subject had none.” “The officers had weapons, the children had none. McCraw has previously criticized Arredondo, saying three days after the shooting that the chief was the commander on the scene and made the “wrong decision” not to pursue the gunman. The decision described by McCraw runs counter to decades of police training, which has emphasized pursuing and stopping attackers ever since the Columbine High School massacre in 1999.

A special Texas Senate committee is meeting at 9 a.m. Central on Tuesday in response to the Uvalde school shooting that left 19 children and two teachers ...

A special Texas Senate committee is meeting at 9 a.m. Central on Tuesday in response to the Uvalde school shooting that left 19 children and two teachers dead. Gov. Greg Abbott called on lawmakers to make legislative recommendations in response to the the May mass shooting. Those meetings have been held behind closed doors.

The Texas state Senate is hearing testimony on the Uvalde shooting as part of a committee hearing on preventing future mass shootings in Texas.

The only way to know that the door is unlocked is to go out, close the door, OK, then try it." McCraw also said "there was no duress system throughout the campus," which caused confusion among those inside the building. "It’s just the portable radio devices that first responders had didn’t." "I challenge this chief to come testify in public as to what happened here," said Sen. Brian Birdwell, a Republican on the state Senate committee. He did not clarify how or why the door closed but remained unlocked. McCraw said he would ask the officers who responded first.