ReportWire

Tag: Texas

  • History repeats itself with anti-China land ownership proposals | CNN Politics

    History repeats itself with anti-China land ownership proposals | CNN Politics

    [ad_1]

    A version of this story appeared in CNN’s What Matters newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here.



    CNN
     — 

    New efforts to bar Chinese citizens and others from owning property in Texas and other states echo the treatment of Asian people in the US more than 100 years ago, when Congress barred them from obtaining citizenship and multiple state laws restricted land ownership.

    • In Virginia, Gov. Glenn Youngkin is expected to sign legislation to bar citizens of countries the State Department has designated as “foreign adversaries” from owning agricultural land. Companies with deep ties to those countries would also be affected. Those countries currently include China, Russia, North Korea and Iran. There are similar proposals in Montana, Wyoming and North Dakota. Foreign owners control a fraction of US farmland, according to the Congressional Research Service.
    • In Texas, a much broader proposal names those countries and bans citizens of them from owning any land whatsoever. The ban would presumably extend to legal immigrants living in the US. That bill is still working its way through the legislature but has the support of Gov. Greg Abbott.

    The Texas proposal in particular specifically recalls a despicable chapter in US history, when so-called Alien Land Laws were passed in numerous states between the 1880s and 1920s to specifically bar Asian people from owning land. The California Alien Land Law was eventually overturned by the Supreme Court in 1952 for violating the 14th Amendment.

    Chinese people were explicitly barred from immigration to the US for generations – from the 1880s, when Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, until that law’s repeal during World War II.

    So few Chinese people were allowed to immigrate for another generation after that until 1965 – 105 per year – that it amounted to a de facto ban.

    As a result, the anti-Asian property laws mostly affected Japanese Americans.

    While the laws did not specifically single out Asians, they were applied to people “ineligible for citizenship.”

    That made the laws specifically apply to Asians since Congress, at the time, allowed citizenship only for immigrants coming from Europe or Africa.

    The most notorious example of Alien Land Laws was in California, which passed multiple versions of these laws over the years, and where Asian immigrants were concentrated.

    One celebrated and yearslong court battle pitted a Japanese immigrant, Jukichi Harada, who found a way around the law by having his children own the house where his family lived in Riverside, California. They were ultimately able to keep the house when a judge ruled in their favor in 1918, but they were later moved to internment camps during World War II because of their Japanese ancestry.

    Today, the Harada House is a National Historic Landmark and a museum.

    I called Madeline Hsu, a history professor and expert in Asian American studies at the University of Texas at Austin, to ask if these new proposals are an example of history repeating itself.

    “It’s definitely sort of reinvocation of kind of what people in Asian American studies would refer to as ‘Yellow Peril’ fearmongering,” she said.

    “There are ways in which it resonates with what happened to Japanese Americans during World War II, where regardless of citizenship, regardless of nativity, they were racially categorized as enemy aliens.”

    Hsu pointed me to an article in the Journal of Southern History by the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley professor Brent Campney that documents fears of a Japanese “invasion” in the Rio Grande Valley more than 100 years ago.

    Campney’s larger argument in studying the treatment of Asian Americans, in this case people of Japanese descent, is that the local discrimination in Texas and also California reverberated back into the growing animosity between Japan and the US leading up to World War II.

    Decades before the US government robbed Japanese Americans of their rights and held them in camps, Campney writes, “white Americans appealed to the same stereotypes and exclusionary impulses used against the Japanese during the internment, exacerbating tensions between Japan and the United States.”

    That’s a historical lesson everyone has an interest in learning as tensions between the US and China grow today. The US military is maneuvering with allies to control China in the Pacific. The US government is focused on making the economy more independent from Chinese manufacturing. There is even talk of banning TikTok, the app popular with young people in the US and owned by a private Chinese company.

    These efforts against a government seep into more problematic territory when they seem to target the many Chinese and ethnic Chinese people who live in the US.

    “Targeting people by nationality is also problematic,” Hsu said. “That’s not a good way of identifying people who are national security risks or who are acting on behalf of a foreign government.”

    She drew a correlation between these new state proposals and former President Donald Trump’s promise to enforce a ban on Muslims traveling to the US. In order to get a plan through the Supreme Court, he instead banned, for a time, travel from certain countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and South America.

    The Texas bill similarly targets specific countries by name and generalizes that all citizens of those countries could be a threat.

    “The only thing it does is it expresses these kinds of gut suspicions and hostility to these countries,” Hsu said.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • DOJ prosecutors in DC take over corruption probe into Texas attorney general | CNN Politics

    DOJ prosecutors in DC take over corruption probe into Texas attorney general | CNN Politics

    [ad_1]



    CNN
     — 

    Justice Department prosecutors in Washington, DC, have taken over the corruption investigation into Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

    State prosecutor Kent Schaffer, who is separately investigating Paxton, told CNN in an interview that the Justice Department notified him of the change. The yearslong corruption investigation had, until now, been under the control of federal prosecutors in Texas.

    The recent takeover by federal prosecutors at Justice Department headquarters in Washington is the most recent development in the investigation of the Texas attorney general, which was initiated after several aides accused Paxton of bribery, abuse of office and other potentially criminal offenses in 2020. It also comes just days after Paxton agreed to a tentative $3.3 million settlement with four of the aides who made the public accusation.

    Paxton has repeatedly denied allegations of wrongdoing. In a statement to CNN after the settlement was announced last week, Paxton said he had “chosen this path” to “put this issue to rest.”

    The investigation will now be handled by the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section, according to Schaffer. The Public Integrity Section handles high profile prosecutions of government officials, including in cases of bribery and corruption.

    It is not clear what prompted the move to replace the federal prosecutors in Texas on the case.

    A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment.

    Paxton’s attorney Dan Cogdell told The Associated Press, which first reported the development, that he had previously asked for prosecutors from the Western District of Texas to be off the case because they had “an obvious conflict,” but that he had not personally been notified of the move. Cogdell did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNN.

    CNN has also reached out to Paxton’s office for comment.

    In an interview with CNN, Schaffer said that “there is no reason in the world that [the Texas prosecutors] couldn’t have continued with the prosecution.” He said he worries “Ken Paxton has committed a crime … and he won’t have to answer for it.”

    He continued: “This cat’s got nine lives, and it looks like he’s used up about seven or eight of them.”

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Another education fight over DEI emerges, this time at a conservative campus in Texas | CNN

    Another education fight over DEI emerges, this time at a conservative campus in Texas | CNN

    [ad_1]


    Lubbock, Texas
    CNN
     — 

    One of the largest universities in Texas is now reviewing its hiring procedures after one department closely scrutinized candidates over their knowledge of diversity, equity and inclusion, more commonly known as DEI.

    “We could see that this could be viewed as possibly exclusionary,” Texas Tech President Lawrence Schovanec said in an interview with CNN. “And so we wanted to step back and review the whole process.”

    The biology department at Texas Tech University – set in deeply conservative West Texas – asked faculty candidates in 2021 to submit statements on their commitment to DEI. Some candidates received negative notes if their answers were deemed insufficient, such as not knowing the difference between “equality” and “equity.”

    The process, which came to light earlier this month, prompted swift conservative backlash against the storied institution, with critics decrying such DEI screenings as litmus tests that discriminate based on ideology. The term DEI has become the latest target among conservative politicians in the recent era of racial reckoning, echoing the heated debates over critical race theory in schools.

    DEI programs have become commonplace in the worlds of business, government, and education to promote multiculturalism and to encourage success for people of all races and backgrounds. But they’ve also become a focal point of those who describe them as another example of extreme political correctness.

    In Florida, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis said earlier this month he intends to ban state universities from spending money on DEI initiatives. “We want education, not indoctrination,” he said at an event in Jacksonville.

    And in Texas, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott this month issued a memo to state agencies and universities asserting that using DEI as a screening tool is illegal. “When a state agency adjusts its employment practices based on factors other than merit, it is not following the law. Rebranding this employment discrimination as ‘DEI’ does not make the practice any less illegal,” the memo said.

    Schovanec said the school’s lawyers insist the biology department’s actions were not illegal, but the university is ending efforts that use DEI as a screening tool for faculty while it undergoes a review of its hiring practices campuswide.

    A group called the National Association of Scholars first uncovered the situation at Texas Tech by obtaining DEI-specific notes and documents from the biology department’s hiring process through open records requests. The group published the roughly 100 documents online, along with an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, called “How ‘Diversity’ Policing Fails Science.”

    The DEI portion was just one component of screening candidates in the biology department, according to the university. Each applicant was asked to submit a curriculum vitae, three representative publications, separate statements of research and teaching interests, three potential referees, and “a diversity statement that addresses any past contributions to diversity, equity, and inclusion and outlines plans and actions for advancing DEI” at Texas Tech. Finalists were also interviewed by a DEI committee.

    According to the documents, candidates were flagged for being “reluctant” to answer questions about DEI or not having a “good grasp” of the concept. Under the “weaknesses” for one candidate, it was noted the candidate repeatedly used the pronoun “he” when talking about professors. The same candidate was “red-flagged” and hiring committee members wrote they had “reservations about sending him into a large, diverse undergrad classroom with his current understanding and strategies.”

    Another candidate’s weakness was listed as: “Mentioned that DEI is not an issue because he respects his students and treats them equally.”

    While the names of the candidates in the documents were redacted, Texas Tech University confirmed to CNN that some of the candidates featured in the documents were hired and not all of the positions have been filled yet.

    Steve Balch is a former Texas Tech professor and founder of the National Association of Scholars, which has done considerable research on DEI efforts in universities to illustrate what it sees as an impediment to academic freedom.

    “My quarrel isn’t with people who think diversity, equity and inclusion are good things,” he told CNN. “My argument and the argument of the NAS is turning them into dogma and then using them to vet faculty members, graduate students, undergraduate students – creating aversive environment in which you feel you have to swear fealty to a particular creed. I think that’s wrong.”

    The issue at Texas Tech also came up in a state Senate hearing on February 8. Sen. Joan Huffman questioned Texas Tech’s chancellor Tedd Mitchell, saying she was “concerned and confused” over the incident.

    “I do not believe in litmus tests of any type,” Mitchell said. “It’s no more appropriate to ask somebody about their position on DEI than it is to ask them if they’re a Christian or a Muslim. When we find out something like that has occurred, we stop it.”

    Schovanec recognizes that Tech is in conservative part of a conservative state with many key conservative stakeholders, donors, and legislators involved in school funding.

    “We have to be pragmatic in acknowledging issues that are being raised,” he said. “Our legislators are responding to their constituents. And in this country right now, education has many challenges.”

    He stressed the importance of diversity at the school, which has its own DEI division. According to Texas Tech, 46% of this year’s incoming class are students of color, and 30% of faculty are faculty of color.

    “So we’re totally committed to a diverse campus community, but those hiring practices could present the perception that certain candidates would be excluded based on their ideological views, as opposed to the real excellence related to that discipline and the ability to address the priorities of our mission here,” he said.

    Schovanec said the school needs more diverse faculty, and he acknowledged that some prospective candidates might see the school’s recent move to end DEI screenings and question Tech’s commitment to diversity.

    “Faculty and students have to judge us by our actions. Do we support them? Do we create an environment here where they feel they belong and this is a place where they can thrive? That’s a much bigger issue than certain elements of a hiring process,” he said “But that is a challenge that we have.”

    Paulette Granberry Russell, president of the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education, said the political firestorm over the incident at Texas Tech is simply an “attempt to fuel the base” among those who don’t agree with longstanding efforts to increase diversity.

    She’s concerned that DEI will follow the same path as critical race theory, or CRT, and become a term that’s twisted and misrepresented for political purposes.

    “It’s demonizing efforts, not only within higher education, but I think within this country to create a more equitable, just United States,” she said. “On some levels it’s misappropriating the work that is being done and using it as a basis for saying we’re discriminating against others.”

    Granberry Russell said she wants people to understand the nuance of DEI and that it’s designed to increase opportunities for people who have been historically marginalized or not well represented in higher education or the workforce.

    “My hope would be that as we begin to think more broadly about inclusion, that people will better understand this is not a situation where some are intending to take access away, but to expand access,” she said.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Eye Opener: 1 dead, 3 wounded in El Paso mall shooting

    Eye Opener: 1 dead, 3 wounded in El Paso mall shooting

    [ad_1]

    Eye Opener: 1 dead, 3 wounded in El Paso mall shooting – CBS News


    Watch CBS News



    One person was killed and three others were wounded in a shooting at a mall in El Paso, Texas. Also, a gunman who killed 10 people in a racist mass shooting at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket was sentenced to life in prison without parole. All that and all that matters in today’s Eye Opener.

    Be the first to know

    Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.


    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • 1 dead, 3 injured in shooting at El Paso shopping mall | CNN

    1 dead, 3 injured in shooting at El Paso shopping mall | CNN

    [ad_1]



    CNN
     — 

    Four people were shot Wednesday evening at the Cielo Vista Mall in El Paso, Texas, according to police. One person died, said Sgt. Robert Gomez.

    “We have one person in custody. We do believe there could be one outstanding. That’s why the extensive search of the mall is being done right now,” Gomez said.

    Police did not comment on a possible motive and did not provide details on the conditions of the three victims who were hospitalized.

    “It was chaotic. People did flee. They were scared,” said Gomez.

    Earlier, police asked people to avoid Cielo Vista Mall after getting reports that shots have been fired in the food court.

    “Mall scene is still active please avoid the area. Multiple agencies responding to the area,” EPPD said in a tweet Wednesday afternoon.

    The mall is adjacent to a Walmart where a mass shooting in 2019 killed 23 and left nearly two dozen more injured.

    Robert Gonzalez was in the mall and told CNN he “saw people running to the exit.”

    Videos taken by Gonzalez show several mall storefronts closed with their security gates down and police parked outside. He said he was able to make it safely to his car, where he was waiting to leave as he spoke with CNN.

    Gonzalez recalled the 2019 mass shooting, saying today’s experience “just brought back bad memories.”

    This is a developing story and will be updated.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Here are the Republicans considering 2024 presidential runs | CNN Politics

    Here are the Republicans considering 2024 presidential runs | CNN Politics

    [ad_1]



    CNN
     — 

    Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and United States ambassador to the United Nations, launched her bid for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination Tuesday.

    But the primary is still in its early stages, and it could take months before the field fully rounds into form and candidates make more than occasional visits to states like Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina that will kick off the GOP’s nominating process.

    Haley could stand alone for weeks or even months as the party’s only official rival to former President Donald Trump.

    Here’s a look at who’s in and who is considering a 2024 run for the Republican nomination:

    Donald Trump: The former president officially launched his campaign in November, days after the midterm elections. And he never really stopped running after 2020, continuing to hold campaign-style rallies with supporters.

    Nikki Haley: Haley launched her presidential campaign Tuesday. It was a shift from her previous insistence she would not run against Trump. “It’s time for a new generation of leadership to rediscover fiscal responsibility, secure our border and strengthen our country, our pride and our purpose,” she said in a video announcing her bid.

    Ron DeSantis: The Florida governor emerged as the top alternative to Trump in many conservatives’ eyes after his dominant reelection victory. A DeSantis announcement is likely months away, with Florida currently in the middle of its legislative session. But his memoir, accompanied by a media blitz, will drop at the end of February, and top advisers are building a political infrastructure.

    Mike Pence: The former vice president’s split with Trump over the events of January 6, 2021, kicked off a consistent return to political travel. He has made clear that he believes the GOP will move on from Trump. “I think we’re going to have new leadership in this party and in this country,” Pence told CBS in January.

    Tim Scott: The South Carolina senator would make a second Palmetto State Republican in the 2024 field if, as expected, he enters the race in the near future. Scott is building a political infrastructure, including hiring for a super PAC, and is set to visit Iowa for an event his team billed as focused on “faith in America.”

    Ted Cruz: The Texas senator and 2016 GOP contender has not ruled out another presidential bid. But he is also seeking reelection in 2024. “I think there will be plenty of time to discuss the 2024 presidential race. I’m running for reelection to the Senate,” he told the CBS affiliate in Dallas in February.

    Glenn Youngkin: The Virginia governor’s 2021 victory offered Republicans a new playbook focused on parental power in education. His political travel, including stops for a series of Republican gubernatorial candidates last year, makes clear Youngkin has ambitions beyond Virginia. He faced a setback to his push for a 15-week abortion ban when Democrats won a state senate special election earlier this year, expanding their narrow majority.

    Chris Sununu: The New Hampshire governor’s timeline isn’t clear, but he recently established a political action committee that borrowed his state’s motto: “Live Free or Die.” He has positioned himself as a strong Trump opponent and alternative within the GOP. He would also start with the advantage of being universally known in an early-voting state. “I think America as a whole is looking for results-driven leadership that calls the balls and strikes like they see them and is super transparent,” Sununu told Axios this week.

    Kristi Noem: The South Dakota governor who won reelection in November has certainly cultivated a national profile, becoming a regular at conservative gatherings and donor confabs. But she hasn’t committed to a presidential run. “I’m not convinced that I need to run for president,” she told CBS in January.

    Greg Abbott: The Texas governor who cruised past a 2020 presidential contender, former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, to win his third term in November is unlikely to make any official 2024 moves until his state’s legislative session wraps up at the end of May. He told Fox News in January that a 2024 run “is it’s not something I’m ruling in right now. I’m focused on Texas, period.”

    Larry Hogan: The former Maryland governor is another Trump opponent. He told Fox News he is giving a 2024 run “very serious consideration.”

    Chris Christie: The former New Jersey governor is one of several 2024 GOP prospects headed to Texas for a private donor gathering in late February, along with Pence, Haley, Scott, Sununu and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp. Christie said on ABC earlier this year he doesn’t believe Trump could beat President Joe Biden in 2024.

    Asa Hutchinson: The former Arkansas governor is a rare Republican from a deep-red state who has been willing to criticize Trump. Now weeks removed from office, he also doesn’t have the at-home responsibilities facing other governors. He told CBS that he’ll decide on a 2024 by “probably April.” He said he believes voters are “looking for someone that is not going to be creating chaos, but also has got the record of being a governor, of lowering taxes.”

    Mike Pompeo: Trump’s secretary of state and the former Kansas congressman said during a tour for his new book, “Never Give an Inch: Fighting for the America I Love,” that he would decide on a presidential run in the coming months. He’s been among the Republicans most openly considering a run, traveling to early-voting states for more than a year.

    Liz Cheney: The former Wyoming congresswoman who emerged as the foremost GOP critic of Trump’s lies about widespread election fraud lost her House seat to a Trump-backed primary challenger. She launched a political action committee last year and made clear she intends to try to purge the GOP of Trump’s influence. But what that means in the context of a potential 2024 bid is not yet clear.

    Will Hurd: The former Texas congressman who represented a border district recently traveled to New Hampshire, an early-voting state, though it’s not clear whether or when he would enter the race. “I always have an open mind about how to serve my country,” he told Fox News.

    Others to keep an eye on: Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, who fended off a Trump-backed primary challenge on the way to reelection last year, has added political staffers and is sometimes mentioned as a vice presidential prospect. Florida Sen. Rick Scott and Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley have both said they will not run for president in 2024 – but things can change, and both had also taken steps to build their national profiles. Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton has teased a run as a Trump foil.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • GOP lawmakers escalate fight against gender-affirming care with bills seeking to expand the scope of bans | CNN Politics

    GOP lawmakers escalate fight against gender-affirming care with bills seeking to expand the scope of bans | CNN Politics

    [ad_1]


    Washington
    CNN
     — 

    A flurry of bills seeking to restrict access to gender-affirming care for trans youth have been introduced by Republican state lawmakers this year, with debates around the issue reaching new heights thanks to proposals that would dramatically expand the scope of bans on such care.

    More than 80 bills seeking to restrict access to gender-affirming care have been introduced around the country through February 9, according to data compiled by the American Civil Liberties Union and shared with CNN.

    Gender-affirming care is medically necessary, evidence-based care that uses a multidisciplinary approach to help a person transition from their assigned gender – the one the person was designated at birth – to their affirmed gender – the gender by which one wants to be known.

    Though many of the bills introduced so far this year target trans youth and their access to gender-affirming care, at least four states saw bills introduced this session that would restrict such care for individuals over the age of 18, including at least two states where proposed bans covered people under the age of 26.

    Legislation aimed at trans adults has alarmed LGBTQ advocates, who worry that even if those measures don’t become law, they will make future bills exclusively targeting minors seem like sensible compromises.

    The slew of new bills underscores the shifting policy goals of some conservatives seeking to politicize the lives of transgender Americans by imposing restrictions on a small and vulnerable group that, LGBTQ advocates say, are largely misunderstood, making their existence ripe for attacks. A number of GOP-led states have in recent years been successful in banning trans youth from competing on sports teams that match their gender identity, but now it appears the focus has largely turned to gender-affirming care.

    “It’s really, I think, a big but important, notable moment that they’re no longer pretending that this is about caring about young folks, and making it very clear that all that they really want to do is prevent trans folks from being able to receive medically necessary, life-saving care basically at any age,” said Cathryn Oakley, state legislative director and senior counsel for the Human Rights Campaign, one of the nation’s largest LGBTQ rights groups.

    “They have abandoned women’s sports entirely but doubled down on trying to hurt trans kids,” she added. “So, you know, the through line here is about hurting trans people. And yes, they’re looking for the next discriminatory measure that they can get passed.”

    In pushing the health care bans, Republicans have argued that decisions around such care should be made after an individual becomes an adult – a position that is facing intense scrutiny as some lawmakers have moved the age goalpost this year.

    Many of the bills likely won’t get far in the legislative process. An HRC report released last month said that of the 315 anti-LGBTQ bills introduced in 2022, only 29 – or less than 10% – became law. Still, the influx of bills this session is already helping to grow the small group of states that previously enacted bans on gender-affirming care.

    Last month, Utah became the first state this year to enact a ban on gender-affirming care for trans youth, joining Arkansas, which enacted its ban in 2021, and Alabama, which put a similar ban on its books last year. Arizona also enacted restrictions on gender-affirming care in 2022, though its ban was less sweeping than the others.

    Two of those laws have already brought forth a complicated legal landscape around the issue. The ACLU sued Arkansas over its ban and a federal judge temporarily blocked it in 2021, and Alabama’s law was partially blocked by a federal judge last May.

    As states consider the dozens of health care bans introduced this year, they’ll do so under threat of federal legal action, with the legislative efforts having caused the US Department of Justice to take notice.

    Last year, DOJ’s Civil Rights Division sent a stern warning to state attorneys general on the matter, saying in a letter that it “is committed to ensuring that transgender youth, like all youth, are treated fairly and with dignity in accordance with federal law.”

    “Intentionally erecting discriminatory barriers to prevent individuals from receiving gender-affirming care implicates a number of federal legal guarantees,” the letter read in part.

    Major medical associations agree that gender-affirming care is clinically appropriate for children and adults with gender dysphoria, which, according to the American Psychiatric Association, is psychological distress that may result when a person’s gender identity and sex assigned at birth do not align.

    Though the care is highly individualized, some children may decide to use reversible puberty suppression therapy. This part of the process may also include hormone therapy that can lead to gender-affirming physical change. Surgical interventions, however, are not typically done on children and many health care providers do not offer them to minors.

    LGBTQ advocates have long argued that the health care bans further marginalize a vulnerable community and could cause serious harm to a group that suffers from uniquely high rates of suicide.

    “LGBTQ youth are not inherently prone to mental health challenges and suicide. They are placed at higher risk by the hostility and discrimination they face because of who they are,” said Kasey Suffredini of the Trevor Project, a nonprofit that works to prevent suicide among LGBTQ youth. “It is on adults to carry young people through this period until we get to the place where lawmakers aren’t attacking these young people anymore.”

    At least four states saw bills introduced this year that would restrict gender-affirming care for individuals over the age of 18, dramatically raising the bar in Republicans’ efforts to regulate such care.

    Among those bills was one in Mississippi that would have criminalized people who provided or aided in the provision of gender-affirming care for individuals under the age of 21, with violators of the ban facing “the felony crime of ‘gender disfigurement.’” If convicted, a violator could have been sentenced to a maximum of five years in prison and face a fine of at least $10,000. That bill, however, died in committee in late January.

    A Kansas bill would prohibit medical professionals from “knowingly performing … or causing to be performed” gender-affirming care on an individual under the age of 21 and would make violations of the ban a felony under state law. The bill makes some exceptions, including in the case of someone born intersex.

    A bill in South Carolina, meanwhile, would impose similar restrictions. But the measure, among other things, would require someone older than 21 who is seeking gender-affirming care to first get a referral from their “primary care physician and a referral from a licensed psychiatrist who must certify that the person has been diagnosed with gender dysphoria or a similar condition by the psychiatrist and that the psychiatrist believes that gender transition procedures would be appropriate for the person.”

    Two near-identical bills in South Carolina and Oklahoma go a step further, providing that a “physician or other healthcare professional shall not provide gender transition procedures” to anyone under the age of 26. Medical professionals convicted of violating the act would be guilty of a felony, with a conviction in Oklahoma carrying a maximum sentence of five years in prison. The bills also prohibit public funds from being used “directly or indirectly” at organizations that provide such care.

    “Surgical and chemical genital mutilation has been occurring in our great state, and it must be stopped,” the bill’s sponsor, Oklahoma GOP state Sen. David Bullard, said in a statement, using incendiary language to describe the clinically appropriate health care he’s trying to restrict.

    The statement said Bullard “chose the age of 26 to account for scientific findings that the brain does not fully develop and mature until the mid- to late 20s with the prefrontal cortex, the part responsible for critical skills like planning and controlling urges, developing last.”

    Bullard’s bill was later gutted by a Senate committee, with the changes removing the ban on care but maintaining the public funds prohibition.

    “These are people who are old enough to enlist in the military, buy guns, buy alcohol, buy tobacco, get married, do a variety of other things that we leave to adults to do,” Oakley said. “And yet we would be forbidding them from being able to receive gender affirming care, as if that is in some way a more permanent decision.”

    The push to restrict gender-affirming care has been a central focus for a number of well-funded national right-wing groups, including the conservative American Principles Project.

    The group’s president, Terry Schilling, told CNN that it works with states to introduce and pass such bans, saying their overall goal is to eliminate gender-affirming care for all Americans, regardless of age. “The movement to oppose (gender-affirming care) has never said, ‘we only care about children.’ We’ve said, ‘we want to protect children,’” he said.

    “And so, we want to protect who we can as quick as possible. And the group of people that we can protect as quick as possible is children,” Schilling added. “And so that’s the thrust of the strategy – is we want to protect everyone from this stuff. But ultimately, we have to start with children because that’s where the vast majority of the American people are right now.”

    Lawmakers in Texas have introduced a number of bills that would outlaw gender-affirming care for trans youth, with most of them setting up blanket bans similar to ones being floated elsewhere.

    But the state is also attempting to approach the issue in a unique way, with lawmakers there having introduced at least four bills that would expand the definition of child abuse to include providing gender-affirming care to minors.

    The bills are seeking to codify a non-legally binding opinion released last year by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton that said providing gender-affirming surgical procedures and drugs that affect puberty should be considered child abuse under state law.

    Paxton’s move prompted the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services to begin investigating parents who provide their children with such care. But LGBTQ advocates sued, and a district judge ruled last September that the state cannot pursue investigations into parents providing such care if their children and those families are part of one of the groups suing the state.

    One of the bills states in part that abuse “includes the following acts by a medical professional or mental health professional for the purpose of attempting to change or affirm a child ‘s perception of the child’s sex, if that perception is inconsistent with the child ‘s biological sex.”

    When Republican state Rep. Bryan Slaton pre-filed the bill last year, he said in a statement that it “will designate genital removal surgeries, chemical castration, puberty blockers, and other sex change therapies as child abuse.”

    Elsewhere, states are pushing ahead with bans similar to the ones in Arkansas and Alabama that are currently in legal jeopardy.

    In Utah, the Republican-controlled legislature moved a ban on gender-affirming care for minors through the statehouse in under a month, with Republican Gov. Spencer Cox giving it his stamp of approval in late January.

    “More and more experts, states and countries around the world are pausing these permanent and life-altering treatments for new patients until more and better research can help determine the long-term consequences,” Cox said in a statement explaining his decision to sign the bill into law.

    “This is a devastating and dangerous violation of the rights and privacy of transgender Utahns, their families, and their medical providers,” said Chase Strangio, deputy director for transgender justice at the ACLU, in a statement. “Claims of protecting our most vulnerable with these laws ring hollow when lawmakers have trans children’s greatest protectors – their parents, providers, and the youth themselves – pleading in front of them not to cut them off from their care.”

    LGBTQ advocates hoped Cox would veto the ban, pointing to the governor’s decision last year to veto an anti-trans sports bill in the state. At the time, he questioned the need for it and stressed that it targets a marginalized group that suffers from high rates of suicide. Lawmakers, however, quickly overrode his veto, with the drama underscoring how Republicans are not always in lockstep on matters pertaining to the LGBTQ community.

    Last month, Mississippi’s House passed a bill that similarly makes it illegal to “knowingly provide gender transition procedures to any person under” the age of 18. Physicians and other medical professionals found to have violated the ban would have their license to practice health care in the state revoked.

    “I just believe a child needs to wait until they’re 18-years-old, then they can make their own decision,” the bill’s sponsor, Republican state Rep. Gene Newman, told CNN. Decisions about the type of care Newman’s bill seeks to limit, however, are made by a mix of people, including a child’s parents and the medical provider.

    A South Dakota bill would also prohibit health care professionals in the state from providing gender-affirming care to minors. Like the Mississippi bill, providers found to be in violation of the ban by a professional or occupational licensing board would get their license to practice medicine revoked, according to the bill. The bill cleared South Dakota’s Senate on Thursday and is now headed to Republican Gov. Kristi Noem, who is supportive of the legislation.

    South Dakota has been especially hostile to trans youth in recent years, with Noem having signed a bill last year banning transgender women and girls in the state from competing on sports teams consistent with their gender at accredited schools and colleges. That legislation codified an executive order the governor signed in 2021.

    As lawmakers continue to debate these bans, advocates like Strangio, who is involved in the ACLU’s legal fight against some of the bans, are vowing to take states to court over any enacted restrictions.

    “It will be the government’s burden to defend it in court,” he told a Tennessee House committee last month that went on to approve a ban there. “And Tennessee, like Alabama, like Texas, like Arkansas, will not be able to do so.”

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Shelter-in-place order lifted in Harris County, Texas, after anhydrous ammonia leak | CNN

    Shelter-in-place order lifted in Harris County, Texas, after anhydrous ammonia leak | CNN

    [ad_1]



    CNN
     — 

    A shelter-in-place order has been lifted that was in effect for some Harris County, Texas, residents after an anhydrous ammonia leak Sunday, according to Harris County Public Health Department.

    The leak at a warehouse in Katy led authorities to ask nearby residents to stay indoors Sunday morning because of health risks.

    “If anyone is experiencing watery eyes, burning eyes, irritation of the nose or throat, difficulty breathing, we are asking that you proceed to the nearest emergency center to seek care,” Dr. Ericka Brown, director of Harris County Public Health’s community health and wellness division, said earlier Sunday.

    The county health department tweeted the areas affected by the shelter-in-place advisory.

    Anhydrous ammonia is a pungent gas with suffocating fumes that is used as a fertilizer, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    Anhydrous means “without water.” If anhydrous ammonia combines with water in the human body, it can cause rapid dehydration and severe burns.

    “There is no antidote for ammonia toxicity,” the CDC’s website says.

    Symptoms of anhydrous ammonia exposure include breathing difficulty; irritation of the eyes, nose or throat; burns or blisters.

    Those who get anhydrous ammonia in the eyes should wash the eyes with large amounts of water for 15 minutes.

    Exposure to high concentrations of anhydrous ammonia can lead to death.

    As of Sunday morning, no injuries had been reported in connection with the leak, the Harris County Fire Marshal’s Office tweeted.

    The cause of the leak was not immediately clear.

    CNN has reached out to the Harris County Fire Marshal’s Office, the Texas Department of State Health Services and the Harris County Sheriff’s Office for more information.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • After recent student fentanyl overdoses in Texas community, court documents reveal drug supplier lived blocks away from schools | CNN

    After recent student fentanyl overdoses in Texas community, court documents reveal drug supplier lived blocks away from schools | CNN

    [ad_1]



    CNN
     — 

    Parents across the Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent School District (CFBISD), located in a Dallas, Texas, suburb, are reeling following a string fentanyl overdoses by nine students who attend schools in the district.

    The students, who range in age from 13 to 17 and are not identified by name in court documents, overdosed between September 18, 2022 and February 1, 2023. Three of the students died, and one of the students, a 14-year-old girl, overdosed twice, according to a statement by the US Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Texas.

    Law enforcement officers traced the drugs the students overdosed on to a house within walking distance from a middle school and a high school, court documents say.

    “First with all the school shootings, now this with drugs,” Lupe Rebadan, who has two children, as well as nieces and nephews, attending schools in the district told CNN. “Our kids are not safe at school… When is this all going to stop?”

    Luis Eduardo Navarette and Magaly Mejia Cano have been charged with conspiracy to distribute fentanyl, according to the US Attorney’s Office.

    “To deal fentanyl is to knowingly imperil lives. To deal fentanyl to minors – naive middle and high school students – is to shatter futures. These defendants’ alleged actions are simply despicable,” US Attorney Leigha Simonton said in the statement.

    The complaint illuminates a network of drug dealers and users, most of them teenagers who attend R.L. Turner High School, Dan Long Middle School and Dewitt Perry Middle School, and traced the proliferation of fentanyl tainted “M30” pills to Navarette and Cano’s residence.

    International drug trafficking organizations often produce M30 pills by mixing highly addictive fentanyl with acetaminophen “and other binder type substances and pressed into various tablets/pills,” says an affidavit by a Drug Enforcement Administration task force officer included in the criminal complaint.

    Many fake pills are made to look like prescription opioids such as oxycodone (Oxycontin, Percocet), hydrocodone (Vicodin), and alprazolam (Xanax); or stimulants like amphetamines (Adderall),” according to the DEA’s “One Pill Can Kill” website.

    Criminal organizations, according to the DEA officer’s affidavit, sell M30 pills for $1 to $2 dollars per pill when the purchasers buy in bulk amounts. Those are later sold to “street level dealers” for $3 to $5 per pill, and later sold to consumers for $10 per pill.

    Law enforcement tracked multiple teenagers engaging in “hand-to-hand transactions” with Navarette and Cano outside of their house, which is approximately five blocks from R.L. Turner High School and two blocks from DeWitt Perry Middle School, the court documents reveal.

    On January 12, a Carrollton Street Crimes Unit detective observed a 16-year-old obtain M30 pills from Navarette and Cano’s residence.

    The teenager appeared to crush and snort a pill on their front porch, “possibly package” the drugs, then walk toward the high school, where he was enrolled, according to the complaint.

    The school was notified by law enforcement, and later that day a school resource officer located the teenager in a bathroom making a “snorting sound” and appearing intoxicated.

    Navarette and Cano made their initial appearances in court on Monday, Erin Dooley of the US Attorney’s Office in Northern Texas told CNN. Naverette waived his right to a detention hearing and was ordered detained pending trial, and Cano had her detention hearing on Friday, she added. Attorneys for Navarette and Cano haven’t responded to CNN’s requests for comment.

    Days after the complaint outlining the 10 overdoses became available to the public, CFBISD released a statement expressing sorrow and concern over “the loss of young lives.”

    The district explained how it has educated the community about the threat from fentanyl over the past several months.

    “We will continue to work cooperatively with local law enforcement agencies to address this issue and to maximize safety on our campuses in every way possible. We believe if we work together as a community, we can avoid these tragedies,” the district said.

    The district said Narcan, or naloxone, an emergency drug used to treat fentanyl overdoses, had been obtained for all district facilities in October and random canine searches were being conducted on secondary campuses.

    Drug awareness presentations for parents will also resume this year, according to the district.

    “The fentanyl crisis is claiming far too many young Texans,” Texas Governor Greg Abbott tweeted Wednesday. Abbott launched the #OnePillKills campaign in October 2022 to “combat the growing national fentanyl crisis plaguing Texas.”

    In the first week of school in 2022, four students died from “fentanyl poisoning, or suspected poisoning” in Hays County Independent School District (HCISD), located in a suburb of Austin. This prompted the district to create “Fighting Fentanyl,” an informational campaign warning students and faculty about the deadly drug.

    Tim Savoy, the chief communication officer at HCISD, noted that the district has spent tens of millions of dollars for preventative measures against school shootings and Covid-19, two issues that have affected schools nationwide. The fentanyl crisis on school campuses deserves the same level of concern and response, he said.

    “This is a threat. We’re losing students, too. And so we made the decision that we have to get this equal attention and resources and do what we can,” Savoy told CNN.

    Despite the district’s awareness-raising campaign, an email from the superintendent on January 9 informed parents of “three more suspected accidental fentanyl poisonings” and one death in which fentanyl may have been to blame.

    “Our students are dying from this, and we have to do what we can,” Savoy said. “This is not just something that you’re seeing elsewhere. This is really happening in our community.”

    According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, median monthly overdose deaths among 10- to 19-year-olds across the United States involving illicitly manufactured fentanyl surged 182% from December 2019 to December 2021.

    Adolescents are particularly vulnerable to fentanyl exposure due to the “proliferation of counterfeit pills resembling prescription drugs containing IMFs (illicitly manufactured fentanyls), and the ease of purchasing pills through social media,” according to the CDC.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Richard Acosta Jr., Texas father of teen accused in triple murder at convenience store, convicted

    Richard Acosta Jr., Texas father of teen accused in triple murder at convenience store, convicted

    [ad_1]

    Father guilty of capital murder in Garland fatal triple shooting he drove his son to and from


    Father guilty of capital murder in Garland fatal triple shooting he drove his son to and from

    02:28

    A Texas man has been convicted of capital murder in the fatal shooting of three teenagers by the man’s then-14-year-old son. A 15-year-old newly hired cook was injured in the shooting and has recovered.

    Richard Acosta Jr., 34, was convicted Friday by a jury in Dallas of capital murder for the 2021 shooting deaths of Xavier Gonzalez, 14; Ivan Noyala, 16; and Rafael Garcia, 17, the day after Christmas.

    In the trial, prosecutors alleged that Acosta drove his son to and from a Garland gas station convenience store, where the 14-year-old fatally shot three teens and wounded a fourth, according to CBS DFW.

    Acosta surrendered to police a day after the shooting.  

    Acosta testified that he did not know his son, Abel Elias Acosta, had a gun or had shot anyone, only that the teenager got into his vehicle and told his father to drive away because someone was shooting.

    Abel Acosta disappeared shortly after the shooting and authorities say he remains at large and is considered armed and dangerous.

    Prosecutors argued that Richard Acosta sought to dispose of evidence and tried to move his family from Garland.

    “We are only halfway to justice,” according to a statement on social media by the Garland Police Department that said authorities would persist in their search. “We will not stop until Abel Acosta is captured.”

    Richard Acosta testified that he does not know where his son is.

    Abel Acosta has been on the run since the Dec. 26, 2021, shooting in Garland.

    Acosta, who faces life without parole because prosecutors did not seek the death penalty, was convicted under a Texas law that allows accomplices to be charged even if they did not commit the actual crime.


    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • What to know about the lawsuit aiming to ban medication abortion drug mifepristone | CNN Politics

    What to know about the lawsuit aiming to ban medication abortion drug mifepristone | CNN Politics

    [ad_1]



    CNN
     — 

    A federal judge may rule later this month on a lawsuit seeking to block the use of medication abortion nationwide, in the biggest abortion-related case since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year.

    The lawsuit, filed in November by anti-abortion advocates against the US Food and Drug Administration, targets the agency’s 20-year-old approval of mifepristone, the first drug in the medication abortion process

    Medication abortion, which now makes up a majority of abortions obtained in the US, has become a particularly acute flashpoint in the fallout from the Supreme Court’s decision last year overturning Roe v. Wade.

    US District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, has extended the briefing deadline in the case until February 24.

    Reproductive rights advocates say that if Kacsmaryk sides with the plaintiffs, “it would eliminate the most commonly used method of abortion care,” according to NARAL Pro-Choice America.

    Here’s what to know about the lawsuit:

    The lawsuit, filed last year by a coalition of anti-abortion national medical associations under the umbrella of the “Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine” and several doctors, is seeking a number of actions by the court, chief among them a preliminary and permanent injunction ordering the FDA “to withdraw mifepristone and misoprostol as FDA-approved chemical abortion drugs and to withdraw defendants’ actions to deregulate these chemical abortion drugs.”

    “After two decades of engaging the FDA to no avail, plaintiffs now ask this court to do what the FDA was and is legally required to do: protect women and girls by holding unlawful, setting aside, and vacating the FDA’s actions to approve chemical abortion drugs and eviscerate crucial safeguards for those who undergo this dangerous drug regimen,” the complaint reads.

    The FDA responded to the lawsuit last month by asking the judge to deny the motion for a preliminary injunction, arguing that issuing one in the matter “would upend the status quo and the reliance interests of patients and doctors who depend on mifepristone, as well as businesses involved with mifepristone distribution.”

    The agency also says a ruling against it would set a dangerous precedent.

    “More generally, if longstanding FDA drug approvals were so easily enjoined, even decades after being issued, pharmaceutical companies would be unable to confidently rely on FDA approval decisions to develop the pharmaceutical-drug infrastructure that Americans depend on to treat a variety of health conditions,” the FDA wrote.

    “A preliminary injunction would interfere with Congress’s decision to entrust FDA with responsibility to ensure the safety and efficacy of drugs. In discharging this role, FDA applies its technical expertise to make complex scientific determinations about drugs’ safety and efficacy, and these determinations are entitled to substantial deference.”

    Danco, which makes mifepristone, also made a similar request to the FDA’s in a court filing, stressing that the lawsuit could decimate the company’s business.

    “Danco is a small pharmaceutical company. It sells one drug: Mifeprex,” lawyers for the company wrote in court papers. “Entering the mandatory preliminary injunction plaintiffs seek would force FDA to withdraw approval for Danco’s only product, effectively shuttering Danco’s business.”

    “Congress entrusts decision-making like this with the FDA. And they’re coming in trying to overrule that, saying this medication is unsafe because women bleed. Well, that’s part of having an abortion. It’s also part of having a pregnancy,” said Ryan Brown, an attorney representing Danco in the case. “The bottom line being that they just want to do away with abortion across the board and for any reason.”

    Kacsmaryk was appointed to the court in 2017 by then-President Trump and was confirmed by a 52-46 vote in 2019.

    Since then, he’s helped make Texas a legal graveyard for policies of President Joe Biden’s administration, presiding over 95% of the civil cases brought in Amarillo, Texas.

    In December, Kacsmaryk put on hold the Biden administration’s most recent attempt to end the so-called “Remain in Mexico” program. And he has overseen Texas cases challenging vaccine mandates, the gender identity guidance issued by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the administration’s limits on the use of Covid-19 relief funds for tax cuts.

    Before joining the court, Kacsmaryk served as deputy general counsel at the First Liberty Institute, a nonprofit religious liberty legal group, where he worked mainly on “religious liberty litigation in federal courts and amicus briefs in the US Supreme Court,” according to his White House biography.

    The case is being closely watched by a number of interested parties, including Republican and Democratic state attorneys general. On Friday, two different multi-state coalitions filed amicus briefs with the court urging them to act one way or another in the matter.

    A coalition of 22 Democratic attorneys general urged Kacsmaryk to deny the motion for a preliminary injunction, writing in court papers that “annulling – or even merely limiting – any of the FDA’s actions relating to medication abortion would result in an even more drastic reduction in abortion access across the entire nation, worsening already dire outcomes, deepening entrenched disparities in access to health care, and placing a potentially unbearable strain on the health care system as a whole.”

    And a coalition of 22 Republican attorneys general asked the court to issue the preliminary injunction, arguing the FDA exceeded its authority when it approved the medication.

    “State laws on chemical abortion thus account for the public interests at issue – and they do so with the benefit of democratic legitimacy (and legal authority). The FDA’s actions can make no such claim. By obstructing the judgments of elected representatives, the agency has undermined the public interest,” they wrote.

    Abortion rights advocates have sounded the alarm on the case, stressing that a ruling by Kacsmaryk in favor of the plaintiffs would affect every corner of the country since the lawsuit is targeting a federal agency.

    “If FDA approval of mifepristone is revoked, 64.5 million women of reproductive age in the US would lose access to medication abortion care, an exponential increase in harm overnight,” NARAL said in a statement on Friday, pointing to internal research.

    “This research reveals the high stakes of this lawsuit, and we can only expect the worst from this Trump-appointed federal judge. Americans want access to abortion, but anti-choice bad actors are dead set on restricting reproductive freedom by any means possible,” said Angela Vasquez-Giroux, the group’s vice president of communications and research.

    And activists are mobilizing in Texas around the issue, with the Women’s March planning to hold a rally at the federal courthouse in Amarillo, Texas, on Saturday.

    “We’ve said it before: the fight for reproductive rights now lies in the states, and legal challenges like these are just the latest example of how our fight is bigger than Roe,” said Rachel Carmona, the executive director of Women’s March.

    On Thursday, Kacsmaryk told the plaintiffs that they had until February 24 to respond to a recent filing by the Danco, writing in an order that following the deadline, “briefing will then be closed on the matter, absent any ‘exceptional or extraordinary circumstances.’”

    On Friday, the plaintiffs in the case submitted one response to the FDA’s filing. But the deadline extension means that after the plaintiffs submit a separate response to Danco, the case is ripe for judgment since all required briefings will have been filed.

    Kacsmaryk can rule at any time after that, though he could also call for a hearing, or ask for additional responses as well.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Texas Attorney General Paxton agrees to $3.3 million settlement with whistleblowers who accused him of abuse of office and bribery | CNN Politics

    Texas Attorney General Paxton agrees to $3.3 million settlement with whistleblowers who accused him of abuse of office and bribery | CNN Politics

    [ad_1]



    CNN
     — 

    Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has agreed to a $3.3 million settlement and an apology as part of a tentative settlement with four whistleblowers who publicly accused Paxton of abuse of office, bribery and other criminal offenses in 2020.

    The former high-level aides – who also reported their allegations to the FBI – were fired within a month of their denouncement of Paxton, a Republican. They filed a lawsuit seeking reinstatement to their former positions or equivalent positions, as well as reinstatement of lost fringe benefits and seniority rights.

    In a filing on Friday, both parties asked the Texas Supreme Court to defer consideration on the case to allow the parties to finalize and fund a settlement agreement.

    The filing included the mediated agreement which says that Paxton’s office will pay $3.3 million and that the final settlement will say Paxton accepts that the former aides were acting in a manner they thought was right and apologizes for referring to them as “rogue employees.”

    Paxton also agreed to remove the 2020 press release from his office’s website in which he described his aides as “rogue.” The press release has already been removed, and the filing says the settlement is contingent on all necessary approvals for funding.

    Despite the apology, the formal settlement agreement does not contain an admission of liability or fault by any party.

    In a statement on Friday, Paxton acknowledged the settlement, explaining why he agreed to “put this issue to rest” but did not mention the apology portion of the agreement.

    “After over two years of litigating with four ex-staffers who accused me in October 2020 of ‘potential’ wrongdoing, I have reached a settlement agreement to put this issue to rest. I have chosen this path to save taxpayer dollars and ensure my third term as Attorney General is unburdened by unnecessary distractions. This settlement achieves these goals. I look forward to serving the People of Texas for the next four years free from this unfortunate sideshow.”

    Lawyers for three of the plaintiffs also issued a statement to CNN, saying: “Our clients have spent more than two years fighting for what is right. We believe the terms of the settlement speak for themselves.”

    Former Texas deputy attorneys general James Blake Brickman, Mark Penley, and Ryan Vassar – along with former director of law enforcement David Maxwell – were the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

    CNN has previously reported that Paxton is facing an FBI investigation for abuse of office. He is also under indictment for securities fraud in a separate, unrelated case. Paxton has denied all charges and allegations.

    The former senior staff members largely stayed out of the limelight after filing the suit, but they broke their silence early last year ahead of the GOP primary, when Paxton was seeking the Republican nomination to be reelected as attorney general. They issued a statement responding to public comments that Paxton had made about the lawsuit during his reelection campaign.

    Paxton was reelected as attorney general in November.

    This headline has been updated.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Texas attorney general Ken Paxton settles with former aides who accused him of corruption

    Texas attorney general Ken Paxton settles with former aides who accused him of corruption

    [ad_1]

    screen-shot-2022-05-20-at-9-17-47-am.png
    FILE: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton talks to reporters after the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in Title 42 case, Apr. 26, 2022 in Washington, D.C.

    Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images


    Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has agreed to apologize and pay $3.3 million in taxpayer money to four former staffers who accused him of corruption in 2020, igniting an ongoing FBI investigation of the three-term Republican.

    Under terms of a preliminary lawsuit settlement filed Friday, Paxton made no admission of wrongdoing to accusations of bribery and abuse of office, which he has denied for years and called politically motivated.

    But Paxton did commit to making a remarkable public apology toward some of his formerly trusted advisers whom he fired or forced out after they reported him to the FBI. He called them “rogue employees” after they accused Paxton of misusing his office to help one of his campaign contributors, who also employed a woman with whom the attorney general acknowledged having an extramarital affair.

    The attorney general’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday.

    Both sides signed a mediated agreement that was filed in the Texas Supreme Court and will be followed by a longer, formalized settlement.

    “Attorney General Ken Paxton accepts that plaintiffs acted in a manner that they thought was right and apologizes for referring to them as ‘rogue employees,’” the final settlement must state, according to court records.

    In all, eight members of Paxton’s senior staff joined in the extraordinary revolt in 2020 and either resigned or were fired. The settlement is with four of them who sued under Texas’ whistleblower law.

    The payout would not come from Paxton’s own pocket but from state funds, which means it would still require approval by the GOP-controlled Texas Legislature.

    Settlement of the case, which Paxton’s office fought in court for years, means he will avoid sitting for a civil deposition at a time when a corruption investigation by federal agents and prosecutors remains open. In turn, the attorney general’s office agreed to remove an October 2020 news release from its website that decries Paxton’s accusers and to issue the statement of contrition to former staffers David Maxwell, Ryan Vassar, Mark Penley and James Blake Brickman.

    The settlement also prevents Paxton from seeking the withdrawal of a 2021 appeals court ruling that state whistleblower law applies to the attorney general.

    The agreement does not include any provisions limiting the ability of Paxton’s accusers to make public statements or cooperate with federal investigators.

    The deal comes more than two years after Paxton’s staff accused him of misusing his office to help Austin real estate developer Nate Paul, whose business was also under federal investigation. The allegations centered on Paxton hiring an outside lawyer to investigate Paul’s claims of misconduct by the FBI.

    Paxton and Paul have broadly denied wrongdoing and neither has been charged with a federal crime.

    In the wake of the revolt, an Associated Press investigation in September found that Paxton’s agency has come unmoored, with seasoned lawyers quitting over practices they say slant legal work, reward loyalists and drum out dissent.

    But the investigation, accusations and a separate 2015 securities fraud indictment for which Paxton has yet to face trial have done little to hurt him politically. He easily defeated challenger George P. Bush in a contested GOP primary last spring, went on to decisively beat his Democratic opponent and secure a third term in November and has filed a steady stream of legal challenges to the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden.

    While swearing in Paxton to another four years on the job last month, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott described it as an easy call during the midterm elections to keep backing him.

    “I supported Ken Paxton because I thought the way he was running the attorney general’s office was the right way to run the attorney general’s office,” said Abbott.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Texas program studies human-robot interactions

    Texas program studies human-robot interactions

    [ad_1]

    Texas program studies human-robot interactions – CBS News


    Watch CBS News



    Can robots and humans coexist? Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin are trying to find out by studying the interactions between humans and robots. Omar Villafranca takes a look.

    Be the first to know

    Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.


    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Can robots and humans coexist? Texas researchers are trying to find out.

    Can robots and humans coexist? Texas researchers are trying to find out.

    [ad_1]

    Texas program studies human-robot interactions


    Texas program studies human-robot interactions

    02:35

    Austin, Texas — When the four-legged robots walk around the campus of University of Texas at Austin, all the attention is on them. They are part of a groundbreaking science and social experiment from the school’s robotics program. 

    The experiment is trying to see how the programmable robots interact with nonprogrammable humans. 

    “The spin that we’re giving here is that we’re not so much interested in a one-to-one interaction with that particular human,” said engineer Luis Sentis. “We’re interested in the interaction with the community.” 

    The first assignment is to stroll through busy walkways delivering sanitizer and wipes. Soon the robots may be able to communicate by giving directions and even tours. But researchers won’t just be watching the robots. 

    “We’re going to watch both [humans and robots],” said social scientist Keri Stephens. “We’re more interested in the interactions and what we can learn from groups of people’s reactions when they see the robots. And then that gives us a lot of feedback with how we might need to adjust the robots to make people more comfortable around them.” 

    Comfort is the key word. With the help of special cameras, the study will look at every reaction the people have — from body language and facial expressions to how they walk around the machines. 

    “What would a robot be like on a day to day basis if you’re interacting with it every day? And that robot needs to be convenient to be around,” said computer science professor Justin Hart. 

    Just taking Spot, the most popular of the robots, for a stroll collects data that scientists hope will make the five-year study a success as robotics and artificial intelligence become more involved in everyday lives. 

    “Moving these things into the wild, I expect to make lots and lots of discoveries about how people actually accomplish things and how to make these interfaces actually work,” Hart said. 

    Omar Villafranca


    Omar Villafranca

    Omar Villafranca is a CBS News correspondent based in Dallas.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • US, states weigh farmland restrictions after Chinese balloon

    US, states weigh farmland restrictions after Chinese balloon

    [ad_1]

    HARLOWTON, Mont. (AP) — Near the banks of Montana’s Musselshell River, cattle rancher Michael Miller saw a large, white orb above the town of Harlowton last week, a day before U.S. officials revealed they were tracking a suspected Chinese spy balloon over the state. The balloon caused a stir in the 900-person town surrounded by cattle ranches, wind farms and scattered nuclear missile silos behind chain link fences.

    Miller worries about China as a rising threat to the U.S., but questioned how much intelligence could be gained from a balloon. China’s bigger threat, he said, is to the U.S. economy. Like many throughout the country, Miller wonders if stricter laws are needed to bar farmland sales to foreign nationals so power over agriculture and the food supply doesn’t end up in the wrong hands.

    “It’s best not to have a foreign entity buying up land, especially one that’s not really friendly to us,” Miller said. “They are just going to take us over economically, instead of military-wise.”

    Miller’s concerns are increasingly shared by U.S. lawmakers after the Chinese balloon’s voyage over American skies inflamed tensions between Washington and Beijing.

    In Congress and statehouses, the balloon’s journey added traction to decades-old concerns about foreign land ownership. U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, a Democrat, is sponsoring legislation to include agriculture as a factor in national security decisions allowing foreign real estate investments.

    “The bottom line is we don’t want folks from China owning our farmland. It goes against food security and it goes against national security,” Tester told The Associated Press.

    At least 11 state legislatures also are considering measures to address the concern. That includes Montana and North Dakota, where the U.S. Air Force recently warned that a $700 million corn mill proposed near a military base by the American subsidiary of a Chinese company would risk national security.

    City council members in Grand Forks, North Dakota, endured a barrage of criticism from town residents Monday night before voting 5-0 to abandon the plan. The move came a year after a joint press release from local officials and North Dakota’s governor called the project “extraordinary,” saying it would bring jobs and bolster the farm industry.

    Enraged residents of the 59,000-person city near the Minnesota border demanded resignations from council members they claimed had tried to push through the plan, brushing off Chinese threats to national security.

    “You decided, for whatever reason, this was such a fantastic thing for our city that you got blinders on,” said Dexter Perkins, a University of North Dakota geology professor. “You guys went all in when there were a gazillion unanswered questions.”

    Before the Air Force’s warning, officials said they weren’t in a position to opine on national security matters.

    Foreign entities and individuals control less than 3% of U.S. farmland, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Of that, those with ties to China control less than 1%, or roughly 600 square miles (340 square kilometers).

    Yet in recent years, transactions of agricultural and non-agricultural land have attracted scrutiny, particularly in states with a large U.S. military presence.

    Limitations on foreign individuals or entities owning farmland vary widely throughout the U.S. Most states allow it, while 14 have restrictions. No states have a total prohibition. Of the five states where the federal agriculture department says entities with ties to China own the most farmland, four don’t limit foreign ownership: North Carolina, Virginia, Texas and Utah.

    The fifth, Missouri, has a cap on foreign land ownership that state lawmakers want to make more stringent.

    Ownership restriction supporters often speculate about foreign buyers’ motives and whether people with ties to adversaries such as China intend to use land for spying or exerting control over the U.S. food supply.

    Texas in 2021 banned infrastructure deals with individuals tied to hostile governments, including China. The policy came after a Chinese army veteran and real estate tycoon purchased a wind farm in a border town near a U.S. Air Force base. This year, Texas Republicans want to expand that with a ban against land purchases by individuals and entities from hostile countries including China.

    Critics see it as anti-foreigner hysteria, with Texas’ Asian American community particularly concerned about the effect on immigrants who want to buy homes and build businesses.

    In Utah, concern has centered on a Chinese company’s purchase of a speedway near an army depot in 2015 and Chinese-owned farms exporting alfalfa and hay from drought-stricken parts of the state.

    Lawmakers this year are considering two proposals that would, to varying degrees, ban entities with ties to foreign governments from owning land.

    “Do we really want any foreign country coming in and buying our agricultural land, our forests or our mineral rights?” asked Republican state Rep. Kay Christofferson, who is sponsoring one of the bills. “If it would interfere with our sovereignty — especially in an emergency situation or during a threat to national security — I think that we’d lose our ability as a state to be independent and self sufficient.”

    Caitlin Welsh, director of the Global Food Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the scramble to limit foreign land ownership tracked rising U.S.-China tensions. Welsh shares concerns about U.S. adversaries purchasing land near military bases like in Grand Forks, but said worries about China controlling the food supply were overblown.

    “China is just a small slice of the bigger picture of foreign ownership,” Welsh said. “When it comes to food security, the biggest threat is that foreign owners can potentially pay a higher price for agricultural land, which then drives up prices.”

    The restrictions have encountered resistance in states with strong property rights. In Wyoming, two proposals to restrict foreign land ownership failed this week even though Republicans who control the statehouse were sympathetic to concerns about China expanding its reach.

    “We’ve had a lot of problems with China lately in the air. Big balloons flying over us. We look at this as a national and state security bill, for Wyoming and the United States,” said Rep. Bill Allemand, a Republican from Casper.

    Lawmakers on Monday rejected Allemand’s proposal to ban ownership of more than an acre of land by people from China, Russia and countries the U.S. government considers state sponsors of terrorism. Skeptics said it would be difficult to police due to the complex web of title companies and holding corporations in agricultural real estate.

    “This is very easy to get around,” Republican Rep. Martha Lawley said. “We may end the day feeling good about ourselves, but we’ve opened up to a lot of liability.”

    Questions about foreign investment are increasingly prompting debate over whether cities and states should be rolling out welcome mats or shutting doors to potential threats. The issue can pit local officials interested in economic development against state and federal agencies concerned with national security.

    That was initially the case with the proposed corn mill in Grand Forks, where officials last year lauded the plans. But days after the U.S. Air Force shot down the Chinese balloon, which China insists was only a weather balloon, the sentiment had fizzled and the city changed course.

    “There’s something that I’ve learned through this process, and that is sometimes to slow down and make sure we fully understand before we move to the next level,” Grand Forks council member Ken Vein said before voting to abandon the corn mill.

    ___

    Mead Gruver in Cheyenne, Wyoming, David Lieb in Jefferson City, Missouri, Acacia Coronado in Austin, Texas, and AP reporters throughout the U.S. contributed reporting.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Suspect in Dallas Zoo animal thefts allegedly admitted to the crime and says he would do it again, affidavits claim | CNN

    Suspect in Dallas Zoo animal thefts allegedly admitted to the crime and says he would do it again, affidavits claim | CNN

    [ad_1]



    CNN
     — 

    The man who faces charges stemming from a string of suspicious activities at the Dallas Zoo allegedly admitted to stealing two tamarin monkeys and trying to steal the clouded snow leopard last month, according to arrest warrant affidavits.

    Davion Irvin also told police that he wants to return to the zoo and take more animals if he gets out of jail, the affidavits claim.

    Irvin, 24, is currently charged with six counts of animal cruelty and two counts of burglary to a building after Dallas police arrested him last week. He is being held at the Dallas County Jail on $25,000 bond, according to inmate search records. CNN has been unable to determine if Irvin has retained an attorney at this time.

    His arrest warrant documents reveal new details about a peculiar case that has gripped the nation’s attention in recent weeks and triggered some concern among zoo staffers.

    Although the monkeys were eventually found at an unoccupied home in the Dallas area, their disappearance followed a series of suspicious incidents at the zoo involving a leopard, langur monkeys and a vulture’s death, leading to a hike in security, including more cameras, patrols and overnight staff.

    On January 13 during the early morning hours, Irvin allegedly entered the Dallas Zoo when it was closed to the public and intentionally cut the fenced enclosure for the clouded snow leopard, according to the affidavits. Irvin then allegedly entered the habitat to take the leopard, which is valued at $3,500 to $20,000, the documents say.

    Irvin allegedly told investigators he petted the leopard, but the 25-pound animal jumped up into the top of its closure, and he wasn’t able to catch the animal. He left the exhibit with the cut still in place, and the leopard escaped, setting off an hours-long pursuit later that morning when zoo officials realized the animal was gone.

    After a frantic search and police involvement, the leopard was found on zoo property that afternoon on January 13.

    Roughly two weeks later, an unknown suspect cut the exterior fencing to the tamarin monkey exhibit and entered the exhibit through an unlocked door before cutting the cages and taking two monkeys, according to the affidavits. This offense, committed on January 30, was not captured on camera.

    In the days leading up to the theft of the monkeys, a person matching Irvin’s description asked zoo personnel specific and “obscure” questions about how to care for the tamarin monkeys and other animals, the affidavits say.

    The suspect was also seen entering nonpublic areas around the monkey exhibit that day, according to investigators, and he was captured on trail cameras eating a bag of chips near the exhibit, according to investigators.

    Another animal habitat near the leopard and monkey habitats was also found to be cut, according to the affidavits. Unreported thefts from early January were also brought to the attention of detectives – such as theft of feeder fish, water chemicals, and training supplies from a staff-only area at the otter exhibit.

    Before Irvin was identified and named as a suspect in the case, police had released surveillance footage and a photo of the suspect on January 31.

    On that same day, police received a tip from a man whose father is a pastor of a church that owns a vacant house in Lancaster. The tipster said Irvin frequently visited the house, and the pastor provided consent for police to search the premises.

    Upon searching, police found the two tamarin monkeys inside the home but no people. Multiple cats and pigeons were also in the home, according to the affidavits, as well as items that went missing from the otter exhibit.

    Detectives said the home’s interior was “in extreme poor condition” with dead animals, suspected cat feces, and mold and mildew.

    Lancaster is about 15 miles south of Dallas.

    While Irvin was not inside the home, police found a pair of Nike shoes that matched the shoes Irvin was wearing in the images captured by zoo cameras, according to the affidavits.

    On February 2, Irvin was spotted at the Dallas World Aquarium and asked employees about the monkeys at their location, according to the affidavits. Aquarium employees recognized Irvin from the photo released to the public, and authorities were contacted. Police followed Irvin onto a commuter train and arrested him.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Southwest and FedEx jets came within 100 feet of collision at airport in Texas, investigators say | CNN

    Southwest and FedEx jets came within 100 feet of collision at airport in Texas, investigators say | CNN

    [ad_1]



    CNN
     — 

    A Southwest passenger jet and a FedEx cargo plane came as close as 100 feet from colliding Saturday at the main airport in Texas’ capital, and it was a pilot – not air traffic controllers – who averted disaster, a top federal investigator says.

    Controllers at Austin’s international airport had cleared the arriving FedEx Boeing 767 and a departing Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 jet to use the same runway, and the FedEx crew “realized that they were overflying the Southwest plane,” Jennifer Homendy, chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board, told CNN Monday.

    The FedEx pilot told the Southwest crew to abort taking off, she said.

    The FedEx plane, meanwhile, climbed as its crew aborted their landing to help avoid a collision, the Federal Aviation Administration has said.

    “I’m very proud of the FedEx flight crew and that pilot,” Homendy said. “They saved, in my view, 128 people from a potential catastrophe.”

    “It was very close, and we believe less than 100 feet,” Homendy said.

    Controllers had cleared the Southwest departure from runway 18 Left when the FedEx jet was about 3.2 nautical miles away, she said. Controllers also confirmed to the FedEx crew that it could land on 18 Left when the FedEx plane was 2.19 nautical miles out.

    The NTSB in 2017 recommended widespread adoption of technology – known as Airport Surface Detection Equipment, or ASDE – designed to notify controllers and prevent this type of collision.

    That system, Homendy said, played a role in preventing a runway collision last month between taxiing and departing aircraft at New York’s John F. Kennedy airport. But it is being used at only 35 airports and was not deployed at the Austin airport, she said.

    “Air traffic control in this situation can see the FedEx plane on radar. They cannot in Austin see where Southwest is on the ground,” Homendy said.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Austin mayor apologizes as city struggles to restore power

    Austin mayor apologizes as city struggles to restore power

    [ad_1]

    AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Widespread power outages in the Texas capital stretched into a third day Friday for thousands of residents following a winter storm that was spiraling into a management crisis as city leaders remained unable to say when all the lights would come back on.

    Impatience among frazzled, freezing and fed-up families in Austin escalated even as milder weather returned. On Friday, the newly elected mayor stood before cameras and apologized after a week of slow repairs, failed technology and lacking communication with the public.

    “The city let its citizens down. The situation is unacceptable to the community, and it’s unacceptable to me,” said Mayor Kirk Watson, a Democrat who took office in January. “And I’m sorry.”

    While New England began shivering and closed schools under an Arctic blast expected to bring the coldest weather in a generation, temperatures finally started to moderate Friday and bring some relief to Austin, where at any given time about 30% of customers in the nation’s 11th-largest city have been without electricity since the ice storm swept into Texas late Monday.

    City officials said Friday that significant progress was finally being made as frozen equipment and roads thawed. About 117,000 customers still lacked power, according to Austin Energy, the city’s utility. That’s down from a peak of around 170,000 people, nearly a third of all customers.

    But frustration was not melting away for residents who still had no assurances or sense of when their power would return.

    “I just honestly think they were not prepared for any of this,” said Edward Kim, 43, whose home had been without power or heat since Wednesday. He was using a generator to keep his house “on life support,” while his wife took her 7-year-old daughter to her office to get a shower.

    Steve Spencer, 63, had also been without power since Wednesday — despite the city’s utility calling him twice to tell him his power was on, he said. “I don’t know what’s going on down there,” he said.

    Will Rison didn’t lose power, but his parents, who are in their 70s, have been without electricity since Wednesday. They’ve been coming to his home to charge their phones and take showers.

    “You can only wrap yourself in so many blankets and wait it out,” Rison said.

    For many, the outages stirred unpleasant memories of the 2021 blackouts in Texas, when hundreds of people died after the state’s power grid was pushed to the brink of total failure because of a lack of generation. That was not the case this week, as the grid maintained sufficient reserves.

    Energy experts said Austin’s dense tree canopy made the outages caused by fallen trees and iced-over power lines more widespread. Most power lines are overhead, and Austin officials said burying existing lines would be expensive and more difficult to repair.

    Austin Energy at one point said power would be fully restored by Friday evening but then backtracked, saying the damage was worse than originally calculated. The utility’s online system for reporting outages also temporarily crashed this week, and city leaders did not hold a news conference to publicly answer questions until Thursday.

    “This was a reminder you can have plenty of power plants but still have an unreliable grid,” said Michael Webber, professor of energy resources at the University of Texas at Austin. “The wires and poles are the weak point of the system.”

    There have been no reports of deaths from this week’s power outages, though the storm and freeze have been blamed for at least 12 traffic fatalities on slick roads in Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma.

    Two fatal crashes occurred in Fort Worth as streets refroze overnight. Lows on Friday night could reach freezing and potentially glaze over the streets again.

    In New England, temperatures began plunging Friday morning, and forecasters said wind chills — the combined effect of wind and cold air on exposed skin — in some higher elevations could punch below minus 50 (minus 45 Celsius). Winds in some of those spots have already topped 80 mph (130 kph).

    Wind gusts began cutting power Friday to some homes in New England, and many communities opened warming shelters, including in Maine and Connecticut.

    Schools closed Friday in Boston and in Manchester, New Hampshire’s largest city. “This is simply too cold for students who walk home,” read an announcement on the Manchester district’s website.

    Some ski areas in the two states scaled back operations, eliminating night skiing or reducing lift operations.

    In Maine, the National Toboggan Championship pushed Saturday’s races back by a day, just two weeks after relocating the competition because a pond wasn’t yet frozen due to warm weather.

    The irony of delaying competition because of frigid conditions wasn’t lost on Holly Anderson, one of the organizers.

    “We’ve done subzero competitions before. But the wind totally changes the environment. It just makes it untenable to be outside,” Anderson said.

    Some of the most extreme weather was expected atop New Hampshire’s Mount Washington, the Northeast’s highest peak and home to a weather observatory, where winds gusted to nearly 100 mph (160 kph) and wind chills could reach minus 100 (minus 73 Celsius).

    The system is expected to move out of the region Sunday.

    ___

    Sharp reported from Falmouth, Maine. Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Kathy McCormack in Concord, N.H., Ken Miller in Oklahoma City, Jim Vertuno and Acacia Coronado in Austin, and David Collins in Hartford, Conn. For more AP weather coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/weather

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Cruz says Biden

    Cruz says Biden

    [ad_1]

    Cruz says Biden “telegraphed weakness” with response to Chinese spy balloon – CBS News


    Watch CBS News



    Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas says President Biden should have taken action sooner to shoot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon.

    Be the first to know

    Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.


    [ad_2]

    Source link