TexasTowelie
TexasTowelie's JournalLow pressure system could soon become tropical system
Although an area of interest in the southwest Caribbean Sea has a high interest of development possible over the weekend, weather forecasters expect it to have low or little impact to the Rio Grande Valley.
However, forecasters encourage the public to continue to monitor the tropics as a precautionary measure.
The National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida reports the low pressure in the Caribbean has a 50 to 80 % chance of development to become either a tropical depression or tropical storm late this week or over the weekend.
Brian Adams, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Brownsville, writes, “Rough seas, higher tides and wave heights, as well as elevated risks for rip currents at local beaches seem likely starting Sunday and lasting into early next week.
Read more: https://myrgv.com/local-news/hurricane-central/2021/08/25/low-pressure-system-could-soon-become-tropical-system/
Mathis ISD in Hot Water (GRAPHIC WARNING)
Lauryn Pena suffered second degree burns on the palms of her hands due to a punishment by volleyball coaches for missing practice.
Photo courtesy of Larry Pena
Parents of Mathis athletes to seek legal action, grand jury indictment possible for coaches
On July 29, several Lady Pirate volleyball players were forced to do bear crawls across the hot track around the football field as punishment for missing practice. Afterwards several of the student athletes’ palms ended up severely burned, one even claiming to have nerve damage and needing plastic surgery to fix the scars left from the burns.
Lauryn Pena was one of those student athletes and wound up at the hospital with second degree burns on her palms which resulted in huge blisters.
Now the mothers of the athletes have banded together and are seeking legal action against the school district.
Shortly after the incident, MISD Superintendent Benny P. Hernández issued a statement that read, “The Mathis Independent School District has received a report of injuries suffered by some volleyball players during practice. The district takes all issues dealing with student injuries seriously. Further, the district shall cooperate with any regulatory agencies to ensure that this matter deserves the attention it deserves. The safety of the district’s students remains of upmost importance to the district personnel, and all employees will continue to follow all safety protocols developed by the district.”
Read more: https://www.mysoutex.com/san_patricio_county/news/features/parents-of-mathis-athletes-to-seek-legal-action-grand-jury-indictment-possible-for-coaches/article_74b439ac-0526-11ec-b4dc-5b1f14860cba.html
Newspaper Unions in Texas Fight for First Contracts
In the notoriously anti-labor Lone Star State, three recently unionized newsrooms are fighting for their first collective bargaining agreements, the contracts that will determine their future working conditions. Often, this is a long and grueling process. At Texas’ three union newspapers, workers report that bargaining is taking dramatically different paths depending on who owns the outlet.
In July of 2020, journalists at the Dallas Morning News became the first to announce they were unionizing in Texas. They were followed by workers at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and the Austin American-Statesman. All decided to join the NewsGuild, part of a growing nationwide trend as journalists fought back against layoffs and corporate predation. There hadn’t been a union paper in Texas since the San Antonio Light shuttered in 1993.
The Morning News is owned by the DallasNews Corporation, formerly called the A.H. Belo Corporation, which owns no other papers outside Dallas and has been controlled by the same family since the 19th century. The paper has a long anti-labor history, including possibly coining the misleading term “right to work,” and management opposed the union effort last year. But, after workers voted in a landslide in October to unionize, the company has reportedly proved rather amenable at the bargaining table.
Since late last year, Morning News workers and management have been meeting about once a month, according to the chair of the union’s bargaining team, and the two sides have reached tentative agreements on almost all “non-economic” issues. That includes items such as protection against spontaneous or unjust firings and a requirement that more interviewees be from underrepresented groups. Things have moved quickly: “The company’s been like, ‘What do we have to do to get this finished today?’” says Leah Waters, a Morning News copy editor and the bargaining chair.
Read more: https://www.texasobserver.org/newspaper-unions-in-texas-fight-for-first-contracts/
Newspaper Unions in Texas Fight for First Contracts
In the notoriously anti-labor Lone Star State, three recently unionized newsrooms are fighting for their first collective bargaining agreements, the contracts that will determine their future working conditions. Often, this is a long and grueling process. At Texas’ three union newspapers, workers report that bargaining is taking dramatically different paths depending on who owns the outlet.
In July of 2020, journalists at the Dallas Morning News became the first to announce they were unionizing in Texas. They were followed by workers at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and the Austin American-Statesman. All decided to join the NewsGuild, part of a growing nationwide trend as journalists fought back against layoffs and corporate predation. There hadn’t been a union paper in Texas since the San Antonio Light shuttered in 1993.
The Morning News is owned by the DallasNews Corporation, formerly called the A.H. Belo Corporation, which owns no other papers outside Dallas and has been controlled by the same family since the 19th century. The paper has a long anti-labor history, including possibly coining the misleading term “right to work,” and management opposed the union effort last year. But, after workers voted in a landslide in October to unionize, the company has reportedly proved rather amenable at the bargaining table.
Since late last year, Morning News workers and management have been meeting about once a month, according to the chair of the union’s bargaining team, and the two sides have reached tentative agreements on almost all “non-economic” issues. That includes items such as protection against spontaneous or unjust firings and a requirement that more interviewees be from underrepresented groups. Things have moved quickly: “The company’s been like, ‘What do we have to do to get this finished today?’” says Leah Waters, a Morning News copy editor and the bargaining chair.
Read more: https://www.texasobserver.org/newspaper-unions-in-texas-fight-for-first-contracts/
Matthew Dowd Says He Won't Run Against "Craven" Greg Abbott, but "Cruel" Dan Patrick? Wait and See.
The former Bush adviser pledges to help Texas Democrats win in 2022—including, possibly, by putting his hat in the ring.A little more than a week after the January 6 attack on the Capitol, Matthew Dowd announced he was leaving his job as chief political analyst with ABC News after thirteen years with the network. Freed from his talking-head obligations, Dowd could now speak out even more pointedly about what he believes to be the threat to democracy posed by Trump and his imitators. This summer, in tweets and cable interviews, the Democrat turned Republican turned Democrat has excoriated Governor Greg Abbott for a response to COVID-19 that has cost Texans lives. In a June appearance on MSNBC, Dowd said that democracy is in peril and “the only fix to this is Republicans have to lose, and lose badly, in a series of elections, and I’m willing to do whatever I can, on any day I can, to make sure that happens.”
Political apostasy is not new for Dowd. He began his career as a Democrat, serving as an adviser and strategist to Lieutenant Governor Bob Bullock from 1989 to 1999. Then he became a Republican, drawn to what he saw as the bipartisan appeal of Governor George W. Bush. Dowd went on to advise Bush’s 2000 presidential campaign and served as the president’s chief strategist during his successful 2004 reelection campaign.
But in 2007, the same year he began working for ABC, Dowd publicly repudiated Bush for his conduct of the war in Iraq and other policies. In recent years, he has looked for ways around what he considers the failures of the two-party system, flirting in 2017 with an independent bid for U.S. Senate against Ted Cruz, and founding an online community, Country Over Party. But the ongoing threat posed by Trumpism, brought home by the events of January 6, jerked Dowd back to his early allegiance to a Democratic party that he now sees as an indispensable bulwark of a democracy under threat as never before.
Texas Monthly spoke with Dowd, who lives in the Hill Country town of Wimberley, about his diagnosis of what ails the GOP, his nascent plans to run for office, and whether Democrats will ever have another shot at governing Texas.
Read more: https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/matthew-dowd-possible-democratic-run/
Texas House panel approves $1.8B spending proposal for border security
Texas could soon double the state's spending on border security initiatives under a new proposal approved Tuesday by a House committee.
House Bill 9, drafted at the request of Gov. Greg Abbott, would spend $1.8 billion over the next year to deploy more state law enforcement officers to the U.S.-Mexico border, increase prosecutions of migrants arrested for misdemeanor offenses and complete portions of permanent and temporary physical barriers along the border, amid an ongoing surge of migrants crossing the border.
If adopted, the proposal would be an unprecedented investment in border security by the Legislature, where lawmakers have debated for more than a decade what role state dollars and resources should play when it comes to border security — an issue largely under the jurisdiction of federal law enforcement.
The money would be in addition to nearly $1.1 billion approved by Texas lawmakers in May for border security initiatives for the next two years, including the hiring of more than 100 new state troopers and funding Operation Lone Star, a mission launched in March to reduce the smuggling of people and drugs into the state.
Read more: https://www.statesman.com/story/news/politics/state/2021/08/25/texas-spending-billions-border-secutity/5573827001/
Texas Right to Life sets up site asking for anonymous tips on people who get or offer abortions
With the Lone Star State's "heartbeat" abortion law poised to take effect September 1, the group Texas Right to Life has set up a website urging people to anonymously turn in alleged violators.
The group's prolifewhistleblower.com site includes an anonymous form to report people who purportedly breach the controversial measure, considered one of the country's most restrictive anti-abortion laws.
The law limits legal access to abortions to two weeks after a missed menstrual cycle, a time when many women don't yet know they're pregnant. What's more, it lets private citizens sue abortion providers and others who help a woman obtain an abortion after six weeks.
"If you want to help enforce the Texas Heartbeat Act anonymously, or have a tip on how you think the law has been violated, fill out the form below," Texas Right to Life's anonymous tip page states. "We will not follow up with or contact you."
Read more: https://www.sacurrent.com/the-daily/archives/2021/08/24/texas-right-to-life-sets-up-site-asking-for-anonymous-tips-on-people-who-get-or-offer-abortions
Convicted of Bribing Dallas City Council Members, Developer Ruel Hamilton Wants a Retrial
Ruel Hamilton, the developer who was convicted in June on charges he bribed two former Dallas City Council members, wants the charges against him dropped.
In court filings last week, he and his attorney, Abbe David Lowell, argue the court made several mistaken evidentiary rulings that unfairly influenced the outcome of the trial.
Hamilton and Lowell say that certain damning testimony against the developer was inadmissible hearsay that shouldn’t have been admitted. They also say one of the council members who allegedly took the bribes, the late Carolyn Davis, recanted statements against Hamilton before her death and that this should have been stated in the trial, but it wasn’t.
Lowell didn't respond to requests for comment.
Originally indicted in February 2019, Hamilton is accused of paying Davis and former Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway for help on the City Council with his real estate developments.
Read more: https://www.dallasobserver.com/news/convicted-of-bribing-city-council-members-developer-ruel-hamilton-wants-a-do-over-12253517
Texas Attorney Sues to Block Anti-Abortion 'Heartbeat Bill'
As an attorney and women's rights advocate in Texas, Michelle Simpson Tuegel is no stranger to the state's ever-tightening abortion restrictions. In fact, many of her clients have survived sexual assault and abuse.
“When survivors contact us about their sexual assault case, if they’re pregnant, the question of what to do on that end [and where to seek care] is a discussion that comes up,” she said. Tuegel has to talk to her clients several times a year about abortion laws and their options at any given moment.
She tries to help her clients navigate abortion laws if they choose to get one. But she said Senate Bill 8, which supporters call the country’s “strongest pro-life legislation,” could target her and hold her civilly liable for having these discussions with her clients. That’s why she’s suing Gov. Greg Abbott, Attorney General Ken Paxton, and several Republican sponsors and coauthors of SB 8, to try to block its enactment.
Abbott and Paxton didn't respond to requests for comment, but both publicly back SB 8.
Read more: https://www.dallasobserver.com/news/attorney-sues-to-block-texas-heartbeat-bill-12269985
Conservative Group 'Respect Midlothian 1888' Demands Firing of Black DEI Director
In June 2020, a Midlothian ISD Board of Trustees member faced considerable backlash after photos emerged of her dressed in blackface. In response, the district hired its first diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) director last August, but now, a local conservative group is demanding their firing.
Members of a group calling itself Respect Midlothian 1888 have begun petitioning Midlothian ISD to terminate DEI Director Chalisa Fain, who is Black, according to the Midlothian Mirror. They’ve also accused the district of teaching so-called “Critical Race Theory,” which school officials refute.
It’s the latest right-wing effort to demand greater restrictions on what Texas school districts can teach. Next Wednesday, a law will take effect that limits how teachers can discuss racism and current events in the classroom.
But while liberals insist that district-driven diversity training is necessary to help combat racism, some conservatives are doing all they can to snuff such efforts out.
Read more: https://www.dallasobserver.com/news/respect-midlothian-1888-demands-firing-of-diveristy-equity-and-inclusion-director-12269989
Perhaps they should have called the group Respect Midlothian 1488 since 14 and 88 both have special symbolism among Nazis.
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Gender: MaleHometown: South Texas. most of my life I lived in Austin and Dallas
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Current location: Bryan, Texas
Member since: Sun Aug 14, 2011, 03:57 AM
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