State Headlines
Paxton wants feds to check citizenship of voters
Posted/updated on: October 8, 2024 at 4:14 pmAUSTIN - KUT reports that Monday was the last day for Texans to register to vote in the November election, which means procrastinators will likely cause the state’s voter rolls to grow by the thousands as the clock ticks down toward midnight. At the same time, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is hoping the federal government will help him identify noncitizens so that he can stop them from voting. Paxton sent a letter on Monday to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services requesting the federal government confirm the citizenship status of more than 450,000 of Texas’ registered voters. That group is made up of people that did not use a state-issued driver's license or ID card when they registered to vote (The state accepts several ... Read More
Jurors weigh how to punish a former Houston officer
Posted/updated on: October 8, 2024 at 4:14 pmHOUSTON (AP) — Prosecutors asked a jury on Monday to sentence a former Houston police officer to life in prison for the murders of a couple during a drug raid that exposed systemic corruption. Gerald Goines was convicted last month in the deaths of Dennis Tuttle, 59, and his wife Rhogena Nicholas, 58. The couple and their dog were fatally shot when officers burst into their home in January 2019 using a “no-knock” warrant that didn’t require them to announce themselves before entering. Authorities said Goines lied to get the search warrant and falsely portrayed the couple as dangerous drug dealers. During closing arguments in the trial’s punishment phase, prosecutors told jurors that the deaths of Nicholas and Tuttle were the deadly result of a ... Read More
Supreme Court rejects appeal from Texas officer
Posted/updated on: October 8, 2024 at 4:15 pmWASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court won't hear an appeal from a former Texas police officer convicted in the death of a woman who was shot through a window of her home. The justices did not detail their reasoning, as is typical, and none publicly dissented. Aaron Dean was convicted of manslaughter in Atatiana Jefferson's fatal shooting, and he was sentenced to nearly 12 years in prison. Dean was originally charged with murder. He argued on appeal that prosecutors should not have been allowed to ask the jury to consider the lesser charge at the end of the trial. Dean, who is white, shot Jefferson, a 28-year-old Black woman, on Oct. 12, 2019, after a neighbor called a nonemergency police line to report that the ... Read More
Supreme Court declines appeal in Texas emergency abortion case
Posted/updated on: October 8, 2024 at 4:17 pmWASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday let stand a decision barring emergency abortions that violate the law in Texas, which has one of the country's strictest abortion bans. The justices did not detail their reasoning for keeping in place a lower court order that said hospitals cannot be required to provide pregnancy terminations if they would break Texas law. There were no publicly noted dissents. The decision comes weeks before a presidential election where abortion has been a key issue after the high court's 2022 decision overturning the nationwide right to abortion. The justices rebuffed a Biden administration push to throw out the lower court order. The administration argues that under federal law hospitals must perform abortions if needed in cases where a ... Read More
Permanent daylight saving time?
Posted/updated on: October 8, 2024 at 4:18 pmSAN ANTONIO - The San Antonio Express-News reports if state politicians get their way, when Texans set their clocks back Nov. 3, it could be the last time they must complete the chore — recently passed legislation aims to exempt the state from the biannual daylight saving time change. State Rep. Will Metcalf from Conroe presented House Bill 1422 during a meeting of the 88th Legislative Session on April 11, 2023. The bill that would keep Texas on daylight saving time year-round passed 136-5. Metcalf did not respond to a request for comment, but while explaining the bill he said he believes Texas should, “stick to a time without switching twice a year which allows for maximum amount of daylight in the evenings and I ... Read More
Delta adds new Texas routes
Posted/updated on: October 8, 2024 at 4:18 pmAUSTIN - The Austin American-Statesman reports Delta Airlines reaffirmed its commitment to the Lone Star State this week, announcing that the company would add five nonstop routes from Austin. According to a news release, Delta will add daily nonstop service to Panama City, Fla., beginning in March. Additionally, the airline said it will add nonstop service to Indianapolis; Memphis, Tenn.; San Francisco; and Tampa, Fla. Delta said that starting these routes will provide Austin customers “more options than ever before.” For Delta, which has seen its stock fluctuate recently, the additions symbolize stability as many airlines are trying anything to cultivate profits. ... Read More
IndyCar will race in Texas again
Posted/updated on: October 8, 2024 at 4:18 pmARLINGTON (AP) - IndyCar will return to Texas in 2026 with a street race in Arlington in a joint venture between the Dallas Cowboys and the official events partner of the Texas Rangers. The IndyCar Arlington Grand Prix will be held in March 2026 on a 2.73-mile circuit that will feature AT&T Stadium, where the Cowboys play, and Globe Life Field, where the Rangers play. The course will weave through Arlington’s core sports and entertainment district. Additional details on the event will be announced at a Tuesday ceremony that will include IndyCar owner Roger Penske, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, Rangers chief operating officer Neil Leibman, two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Josef Newgarden, three-time IndyCar champion Alex Palou and Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Pudge Rodriguez. ... Read More
Big Oil urges Trump not to gut Biden’s climate law
Posted/updated on: October 8, 2024 at 4:19 pmHOUSTON - The Wall Street Journal reports that oil companies are conveying an unlikely message to the GOP and its presidential candidate: Spare President Biden’s signature climate law. At least the parts that benefit the oil industry. In discussions with former President Trump’s campaign and his allies in Congress, oil giants including Exxon Mobil, Phillips 66 and Occidental Petroleum have extolled the benefits of the Inflation Reduction Act. Many in the fossil-fuel industry opposed the law when it passed in 2022 but have come to love provisions that earmark billions of dollars for low-carbon energy projects they are betting on. Some executives in the largely pro-Trump oil industry are worried the former president, if re-elected, would side with conservative lawmakers who want to gut the ... Read More
As affordable housing disappears, states scramble to shore up the losses
Posted/updated on: October 8, 2024 at 4:19 pmLOS ANGELES (AP) — For more than two decades, the low rent on Marina Maalouf’s apartment in a blocky affordable housing development in Los Angeles’ Chinatown was a saving grace for her family, including a granddaughter who has autism. But that grace had an expiration date. For Maalouf and her family it arrived in 2020. The landlord, no longer legally obligated to keep the building affordable, hiked rent from $1,100 to $2,660 in 2021 — out of reach for Maalouf and her family. Maalouf's nights are haunted by fears her yearslong eviction battle will end in sleeping bags on a friend's floor or worse. While Americans continue to struggle under unrelentingly high rents, as many as 223,000 affordable housing units like Maalouf's across the U.S. ... Read More
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