Tag Archives: Texas

Texas GOP On Verge of ‘Egregious Power Grab’ to Crush Local Democracy, Critics Warn

House Bill 2127 “is undemocratic,” said San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg. “It is probably the most undemocratic thing the Legislature has done, and that list is getting very long.”

By Kenny Stancil. Published 5-16-2023 by Common Dreams

Gallery View of House of Representatives Chamber, Texas State Capitol. Photo: Randy von Liski/flickr/CC

Republican state lawmakers in Texas are on the verge of virtually eliminating the ability of Democratic-led cities and counties to enact progressive policies.

At issue is House Bill 2127, which would prohibit municipalities from instituting new local ordinances that go further than what’s already permitted under nine broad areas of state law and also overturn existing regulations that do so, thus preempting democratically elected policymakers from strengthening workers’ rights, environmental protection, and more.

Continue reading →

‘Absolutely Insane’: Greg Abbott Seeks Pardon for Man Convicted of Murdering BLM Protester

Leave a reply

“If a fiction author wrote this, no one would believe it,” said one trial attorney.

By Brett Wilkins Published 4-9-2023 by Common Dreams

Garrett Foster is seen here with his fiancée Whitney Mitchell, who was present when Foster was murdered. (Photo: Garrett Foster/Facebook)

Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott drew widespread condemnation from legal experts after he said Saturday that he is “working as swiftly” as the law allows to pardon a man who was convicted the previous day of murdering a racial justice protester in 2020.

Daniel Perry, a U.S. Army sergeant, was convicted by an Austin jury on Friday of murder and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon for the fatal shooting of 28-year-old Garrett Foster, an armed Air Force veteran participating in a Black Lives Matter protest in the Texas capital following George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police.

Continue reading →

‘Our Blood, Your Hands’: Students Stage National Walkout to Demand Gun Control

Leave a reply

“We’re determined to be the last school shooting generation,” asserted protest organizer Students Demand Action.

By Brett Wilkins. Published 4-5-2023 by Common Dreams

Students from Boulder High School march through Boulder, Colorado Photo: Paige Leonard/Twitter

Students across the United States walked out of their classrooms Wednesday to take part in a nationwide protest demanding gun control legislation amid relentless shootings that have already claimed more than 10,000 lives in a little over three months this year.

Wednesday’s National School Walkout followed a smaller demonstration Monday in Nashville, Tennessee, where six people including three 9-year-old children were shot dead last week at the Covenant School.

Continue reading →

15 Million People Could Lose Coverage as Nightmarish Medicaid ‘Purge’ Begins

Leave a reply

“I feel sick,” said one physician. “Medicaid is not enough: we need seamless, lifelong universal care now.”

By Jake Johnson. Published 4-1-2023 by Common Dreams

Beginning on Saturday, states across the U.S. will start the process of stripping Medicaid coverage from millions of people as pandemic-related protections lapse, part of a broader unraveling of the safety net that was built to help families withstand the public health crisis and resulting economic turmoil.

Medicaid’s continuous coverage requirements were enacted early in the Covid-19 pandemic to help vulnerable people maintain insurance amid the health emergency, resulting in record-high Medicaid enrollment.

Continue reading →

Trump Rally in Waco Called Not a Dog Whistle, But a ‘Blaring Air Horn’ to Far-Right

Leave a reply

“There’s not really another place in the U.S. that you could pick that would tap into these deep veins of anti-government hatred—Christian nationalist skepticism of the government,” said one extremism expert.

By Jessica Corbett. Published 3-24-2023 by Common Dreams

Former President of the United States Donald Trump speaking with supporters at a “Save America” rally at Country Thunder Arizona. Photo: Gage Skidmore/flickr/CC

While former U.S. President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign insists it is purely coincidental that his planned Saturday rally in Waco, Texas falls during the 30th anniversary of a deadly 51-day siege targeting a religious cult, some Texans and extremism experts aren’t buying it.

Since law enforcement—including Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents—carried out the botched operation at a Branch Davidian compound near Waco from February 28 to April 19 in 1993, the event has been a source of anti-government sentiment for the likes of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh and U.S. militia movement members. Continue reading →

‘I Am Disturbed’: Locals Alarmed Over Plan to Inject Toxic Ohio Wastewater Underground in Texas

Leave a reply

“It’s foolish to put it on the roadway,” said one Houston-area resident. “We have accidents on a regular basis. Do they really want to have another contamination zone?”

By Kenny Stancil. Published 2-24-2023 by Common Dreams.

Photo: Jamie Brown/Twitter

Residents and officials in Harris County, Texas have expressed alarm since learning that contaminated water used to extinguish a fiery train crash in East Palestine, Ohio has been transported more than 1,300 miles to a Houston suburb for disposal.

Houston’s Coalition for Environment, Equity, and Resilience tweeted Thursday: “We are disturbed to learn that toxic wastewater from East Palestine, Ohio will be brought to Harris County for ‘disposal.’ Our county should not be a dumping ground for industry.” Continue reading →

Calls for US Facial Recognition Ban Grow After Mom Booted From Theater Over Her Job

Leave a reply

“This is exactly why we need an outright ban on all use of facial recognition surveillance in places of public accommodation like bars, restaurants, retail stores, and music and sports venues,” said one digital rights campaigner.

By Brett Wilkins. Published 12-20-2022 by Common Dreams

The Christmas tree at the Radio City Music Hall. Photo: gigi_nyc/flickr/CC

Digital rights advocates on Tuesday called for a ban on private use of biometric surveillance technology after a mom taking her daughter to see a Christmas show in New York City was kicked out of the theater after its facial recognition system identified her as an employee of a law firm involved in legal proceedings against the venue’s operator.

Kelly Conlon was accompanying her daughter and her New Jersey Girl Scout troop on a post-Thanksgiving outing to Midtown Manhattan to see the “Christmas Spectacular” at Radio City Music Hall starring the iconic Rockettes. However, as soon Conlon entered the venue’s lobby, security informed her that she’d been flagged by facial recognition and that she would have to leave. Continue reading →

Developers Found Graves in the Virginia Woods. Authorities Then Helped Erase the Historic Black Cemetery

Leave a reply

The cemetery’s disappearance cleared the way for the expansion of a Microsoft data center, despite layers of federal and state regulations nominally intended to protect culturally significant sites.

by Seth Freed Wessler. Published 12-16-2022 by ProPublica

Microsoft’s Boydton Data Center in Mecklenburg County. Photo: Data Center Knowledge

ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox.

Nobody working to bring a $346 million Microsoft project to rural Virginia expected to find graves in the woods. But in a cluster of yucca plants and cedar that needed to be cleared, surveyors happened upon a cemetery. The largest of the stones bore the name Stephen Moseley, “died December 3, 1930,” in a layer of cracking plaster. Another stone, in near perfect condition and engraved with a branch on the top, belonged to Stephen’s toddler son, Fred, who died in 1906.

“This is not as bad as it sounds,” an engineering consultant wrote in March 2014 to Microsoft and to an official in Mecklenburg County, Virginia, who was helping clear hurdles for the project — an expansion of a massive data center. “We should be able to relocate these graves.” Continue reading →

Austin AFL-CIO Council Becomes Latest to Urge Biden to End Medicare Privatization Scheme

Leave a reply

The labor council’s newly passed resolution warns that the scheme “allows doctors and their offices to convert a patients’ traditional Medicare choice into ACO-REACH coverage without first informing their patients.”

By Jake Johnson Published 11-21-2022 by Common Dreams

Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra. Photo: Gage Skidmore/flickr/CC

The labor council of the Austin, Texas AFL-CIO has passed a resolution urging the Biden administration to terminate a Medicare privatization scheme that is quietly moving ahead despite vocal opposition from doctors, seniors, and progressive lawmakers.

The pilot program, which inserts private middlemen between patients and healthcare providers, was unveiled with little notice during the final months of the Trump administration despite internal concerns about its legality. The experiment has since been largely upheld by the Biden administration, which announced mostly cosmetic changes earlier this year, winning applause from industry groups that lobbied against complete elimination of the program. Continue reading →

A brief history of Georgia’s runoff voting – and how this year’s contest between two Black men is a sign of progress

Leave a reply

*Former President Barack Obama raises hands with Stacey Abrams and U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock at a Oct. 28, 2022, campaign event in Georgia.*
*Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images*

Joshua Holzer, Westminster College

In the U.S., all elections are administered by the states. But not all states use the same rules.

Georgia uses a version of runoff voting, which entails two rounds of voting. Typically, if a candidate wins more than 50% of the votes in the first round, that candidate is declared the winner. If not, the two candidates with the most first-round votes face off in a second round of voting.

There’s historically been concern that such a runoff system disadvantages Black candidates. Former Assistant U.S. Attorney General John R. Dunne once argued that Georgia’s runoff voting system has had “a demonstrably chilling effect on the ability of Blacks to become candidates for public office.” Continue reading →

Occupy World Writes

The Movement Continues – Globally

Tag Archives: Texas

Texas GOP On Verge of ‘Egregious Power Grab’ to Crush Local Democracy, Critics Warn

House Bill 2127 “is undemocratic,” said San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg. “It is probably the most undemocratic thing the Legislature has done, and that list is getting very long.”

Trump Rally in Waco Called Not a Dog Whistle, But a ‘Blaring Air Horn’ to Far-Right

“There’s not really another place in the U.S. that you could pick that would tap into these deep veins of anti-government hatred—Christian nationalist skepticism of the government,” said one extremism expert.

‘I Am Disturbed’: Locals Alarmed Over Plan to Inject Toxic Ohio Wastewater Underground in Texas

“It’s foolish to put it on the roadway,” said one Houston-area resident. “We have accidents on a regular basis. Do they really want to have another contamination zone?”

Developers Found Graves in the Virginia Woods. Authorities Then Helped Erase the Historic Black Cemetery

The cemetery’s disappearance cleared the way for the expansion of a Microsoft data center, despite layers of federal and state regulations nominally intended to protect culturally significant sites.