Progress Texas Podcasts

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Daily Dispatch 4/17/24: New Poll Shows Texas Senate Race a Toss-Up, and More Apr 17, 2024

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Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas:

A new poll shows Ted Cruz leading Colin Allred by less than the percentage of undecided voters: https://www.khou.com/article/news/politics/elections/texas-poll-cruz-allred-trump-biden-race/285-bcc3a200-0d18-448d-ba7a-90e8fa4996dd

Texas Republican Congressmen Michael McCaul and August Pfluger are among the GOP gang who delivered the futile and stupid impeachment articles against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to the Senate yesterday: https://www.texastribune.org/2024/04/16/michael-mccaul-august-pfluger-mayorkas-impeachment/

Republican Tarrant County Judge Tim O'Hare told Commissioner Alisa Simmons, a Black woman, to "sit there and be quiet" during a partisan exchange at the Tarrant County Commissioners Court yesterday: https://www.keranews.org/government/2024-04-16/you-sit-there-and-be-quiet-tarrant-commissioners-argue-over-county-judges-contract-employee

Increasing heat is coupling with ever-building energy demand to erase the springtime power draw lulls that ERCOT still unrealistically wants to use for grid maintenence: https://www.marketplace.org/2024/04/16/texas-electric-grid-is-feeling-the-strain-and-its-not-even-all-that-hot-yet/

Freeport LNG is levied an embarrassingly small fine for years of emissions violations at its Quintana plant: https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/texas-regulators-fine-freeport-lng-environmental-breaches-2024-04-17/

Early voting in the municipal elections of new oversight positions with county tax apprasial districts starts Monday! https://progresstexas.org/blog/why-you-should-care-about-may-appraisal-district-elections

Don't forget about the Texas Gun Sense community picnic NEXT Saturday, April 20 in central Austin: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/tx-gun-sense_texas-gun-sense-invites-all-of-our-supporters-activity-7183153558412750850-cS-U

Progress Texas invites progressive candidates to share their views with us - which we'll then share with our statewide audience - via our Certified Progressive questionnaire: https://progresstexas.org/blog/progress-texas-certified-progressives-2024-progressive-values-questionnaire

Instagram users: be sure to enable political content on that platform, which has begun opting users out: https://x.com/ProgressTX/status/1771276124498100667?s=20

Thanks for listening! Find our web store and other ways to support our important work this election year at https://progresstexas.org/.

Daily Dispatch 4/16/24: SCOTUS Fails To Protect 1A in Texas, and More Apr 16, 2024

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Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas:

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to review a 5th Circuit Court of Appeals decision that protest organizers are liable for the actions of attendees, undermining the First Amendment right of gathering and demonstration: https://www.chron.com/politics/article/texas-right-to-protest-19403818.php

...While video of the death of another unarmed Black man while being restrained by police in Texas is released: https://www.expressnews.com/news/texas/article/kenneth-knotts-body-cam-footage-19395426.php

The Texas Health And Human Services Commission is found to be in contempt of federal court over its failure to follow up on claims of abuse and neglect by children in our foster care system: https://www.texastribune.org/2024/04/15/texas-foster-care-federal-judge-fine-contempt/

Lt. Governor Dan Patrick is hoping the Republican "Contract On Texas" will pave the way for the elimination of property taxes (and the destruction of public schools) in Texas: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/columnists/tomlinson/article/texas-property-tax-elimination-schools-19399995.php

Colin Allred is now outpacing even Beto O'Rourke's impressive fundraising numbers from 2018: https://www.texastribune.org/2024/04/15/colin-allred-beto-orourke-ted-cruz-fundraising/

Those billions of federal dollars coming to Texas via a massive investment in Samsung, explained: https://thehill.com/business/4594523-biden-administration-samsung-texas-chips-act/?email=467cb6399cb7df64551775e431052b43a775c749&emaila=12a6d4d069cd56cfddaa391c24eb7042&emailb=054528e7403871c79f668e49dd3c44b1ec00c7f611bf9388f76bb2324d6ca5f3&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=04.15.24%20Tech

Instagram users: be sure to enable political content on that platform, which has begun opting users out: https://x.com/ProgressTX/status/1771276124498100667?s=20

Thanks for listening! Find our web store and other ways to support our important work this election year at https://progresstexas.org/.

Daily Dispatch 4/15/24: ERCOT Power Warnings...In April? And More Apr 15, 2024

Show notes

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas:

Not only is it Tax Day here in mid-April, but we've also already started getting warnings of power failures from ERCOT: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-04-12/texas-warns-of-possible-power-emergency-next-week

Hard right GOP Texas House lawmakers have written up a Contract On Texas, which would allow them to push through their most radical agenda items with little resistance: https://www.kxan.com/state-of-texas/state-of-texas-contract-with-texas-aims-to-push-house-further-right/

...Part of which is threatening people who seek abortion care with the death penalty: https://www.yahoo.com/news/texas-gop-preach-morals-abortion-142543561.html

Red states across America are hard at work putting together copycat anti-migrant laws based upon SB-4: https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/14/us/texas-immigration-law-iowa-other-us-states-cec/index.html

...Could the collective harrassment threatened by SB-4 build voting unity among Texas Latinos? https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/04/texas-immigration-law-latino-voters/678063/

...Louisiana soldiers sent in to help with Operation Lone Star have largely been sitting around doing nothing: https://www.nola.com/news/politics/national_politics/louisiana-soldiers-on-mexico-border/article_a0122d24-f930-11ee-86dd-47dfc542a907.html

Ken Paxton's effort to crack down on Media Matters for negative reporting on Elon Musk's X has been defeated in court: https://www.thedailybeast.com/judge-deals-blow-to-texas-ags-retaliatory-probe-of-media-matters-for-america

GOP slimeballs Jonathan Stickland and Matt Rinaldi have formed a new right-wing action group called "Ratmaster Holdings LLC": https://www.texastribune.org/2024/04/12/jonathan-stickland-matt-rinaldi-white-supremacy-scandal/

Instagram users: be sure to enable political content on that platform, which has begun opting users out: https://x.com/ProgressTX/status/1771276124498100667?s=20

Thanks for listening! Find our web store and other ways to support our important work this election year at https://progresstexas.org/.

Happy Hour 152: Texas Gun Sense and the New Federal Firearms Background Check Rule Apr 14, 2024

Show notes

Late last week, the Biden administration and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives announced a new rule designed to close the infamous "gun show loophole" - gaps in background check requirements that allowed basically anyone, regardless of criminal background or mental state, to buy a gun from a dealer outside of a brick-and-mortar shop. And - right on cue - our senior Senator John Cornyn has announced a fight to block it. We've invited our good friend Nicole Golden, Executive Director of Texas Gun Sense, back to the Happy Hour to tell us what this new rule means, what chances its opposition might have of undermining it, and what's next in the fight for common-sense gun safety regulations that's been central for their hard-working organization for a lotta years now - we are fans.

Learn more about this new rule here: https://www.nydailynews.com/2024/04/13/bidens-bulls-eye-on-gun-loophole-background-checks-are-needed-on-every-weapon-sale/

Learn more about Texas Gun Sense (and RSVP for the April 20th picnic in Austin!): https://txgunsense.org/

Thanks for listening! Learn more about what Progress Texas does, and how you can join the fight too, at https://progresstexas.org/.

Daily Dispatch 4/12/24: Adoption Misinformation Pushed By State Officials, and More Apr 12, 2024

Show notes

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas:

Those "I'm In Control" pro-adoption billboards are not only misleading about the realities of adoption as an abortion alternative - they're also being paid for by YOUR tax dollars: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/article/misleading-ads-no-remedy-cruelty-texas-abortion-19324750.php

...While San Antonio officials argue over whether to use their Reproductive Justice Fund to pay for out-of-state travel for abortion care seekers: https://www.tpr.org/government-politics/2024-04-11/majority-of-san-antonio-city-council-supports-using-tax-dollars-for-out-of-state-abortion-travel

...And the Black reproductive health non-profit the Afiya Center highlights Colorado as its top choice for abortion care travel, due to that state's high standards of safety: https://www.9news.com/article/news/health/texas-nonprofit-calls-colorados-abortion-access-lifesaving/73-427eac86-3103-495f-8e93-ba260aa64ca0

So, is Ted Cruz's clandestine payoff from his podcast illegal? https://www.texasobserver.org/ted-cruz-podcast-payoff-fec-complaint/

...Don't count on the Federal Elections Commission to be much of a problem for Cruz, as its current Trump-appointed chair is a MAGA diehard: https://www.sacurrent.com/news/head-of-commission-hearing-complaint-against-ted-cruz-once-worked-for-the-senator-34271983

Senator John Cornyn, having learned his lesson after crossing Texas gun nuts after the Uvalde shooting, is pledging to block new Biden admistration regulations on the "gun show loophole": https://www.chron.com/politics/article/john-cornyn-gun-reform-texas-19397377.php

Instagram users: be sure to enable political content on that platform, which has begun opting users out: https://x.com/ProgressTX/status/1771276124498100667?s=20

Thanks for listening! Find our web store and other ways to support our important work this election year at https://progresstexas.org/.

Happy Hour 151: The May Tax Appraisal Elections Are Actually Important! Apr 12, 2024

Show notes

Any time a bright idea comes springing from the Republican-led Texas Legislature, alarm bells should go off for Texas progressives - and newly-created elected positions of oversight for county appraisal districts are certainly no exception. Should the GOP succeed in their plans to monkey-wrench the tax apprasal processes of large (and generally Democratically-run) cities, you can count on them to create as much havoc for us, and as much profit for themselves, as humanly possible. Which is why we've invited two Democrats and longtime PT partners running for these important seats to explain what all of this means, and why it's so important to vote in EVERY election - even the ones that seem vague and unimportant (there's no such thing)! Dick Lavine is endorsed by Progress Texas in his race for one of these newly-created positions in Travis County, and Progress Texas Certified Progressive Kendall Scudder is running in Dallas County - we're proud to welcome both of them back for an important and informative conversation.

Learn more about Dick Lavine at https://www.dicklavinefortcad.com/, and learn more about Kendall Scudder at https://www.kendallscudder.com/.

Thanks for listening! Learn about all the groovy ways to support our important work at https://progresstexas.org/donate.

Daily Dispatch 4/11/24: Ted Cruz Podcast Income Skirts Campaign Finance Law, and More Apr 11, 2024

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Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas:

Two advocacy groups have asked the Federal Election Commission to look into Ted Cruz's podcast income, which may have been sent to a PAC supporting his re-election illegally: https://www.texasstandard.org/stories/ted-cruz-podcast-campaign-finance-complaint/

The Texas Education Agency is planning to replace up to $20 million in human labor in STAAR Test scoring with AI: https://www.texastribune.org/2024/04/09/staar-artificial-intelligence-computer-grading-texas/

TODAY AT 11AM - Join Progress Texas and the Trade Justice Education Fund to rally against an oil polluter who is challenging a decision made in Quebec, Canada against a new LNG terminal: https://tradejusticeedfund.org/events/texas-rally-against-ruby-rivers-isds-attack-on-climate-action/

A lawsuit by three Black Texas DPS troopers, accusing the agency of racial discrimination, can move forward this summer: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/article/black-troopers-discrimination-lawsuit-19396537.php

A Louisiana gun company, hired by multiple North Texas law enforcement agencies to destroy unwanted guns, has instead been stripping them for parts, which are then sold online: https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/i-team-guns-sent-off-by-texas-police-departments-to-be-destroyed-were-stripped-of-parts-and-sold-online/

Solar energy deployment in Texas continues to lead the nation and is now closing in on natural gas as the most sensible source and solution: https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2024/04/09/solar-is-beginning-to-sunset-natural-gas-use-in-texas/

...It's already a major component of the overall electical supply during daylight hours: https://cleantechnica.com/2024/04/09/texas-solar-power-growth-changing-the-shape-of-daily-electricity-supply-in-ercot/

Instagram users: be sure to enable political content on that platform, which has begun opting users out: https://x.com/ProgressTX/status/1771276124498100667?s=20

Thanks for listening! Find our web store and other ways to support our important work this election year at https://progresstexas.org/.

Daily Dispatch 4/10/24: Arizona Abortion Decision Highlights Urgency Of Issue For Texans, and More Apr 10, 2024

Show notes

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas:

With new developments in Arizona against reproductive freedom, now's the time for Texas abortion rights advocates to redouble our efforts: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/04/immigration-abortion-texas-greg-abbott-migrant-border-crisis-stunts.html

H-E-B stores are stocking a new over-the-counter birth control medication: https://www.chron.com/culture/article/opill-birth-control-heb-19381763.php

Lt. Governor Dan Patrick is calling for more pastors to run for elected office in Texas: https://www.chron.com/culture/religion/article/dan-patrick-ed-young-19392259.php

A new book examines the outsized political influence of angry White rural voters: https://www.alternet.org/angry-white-rage/

Younger Texans are still not being engaged to vote: https://www.texastribune.org/2024/04/10/texas-high-school-voter-registration/

Progress Texas joins the Texas Muslim community in celebrating Eid al-fitr: https://progresstexas.org/blog/celebrating-unity-embracing-eid

Instagram users: be sure to enable political content on that platform, which has begun opting users out: https://x.com/ProgressTX/status/1771276124498100667?s=20

Thanks for listening! Find our web store and other ways to support our important work this election year at https://progresstexas.org/.

Daily Dispatch 4/9/24: Texas Solar Power Now Eclipse-Proof, and More Apr 09, 2024

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Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas:

Yesterday's historic eclipse reminds us how far solar power infrastructure has come in Texas: https://www.reuters.com/breakingviews/eclipse-overshadows-texas-solar-power-strength-2024-04-08/

A group of nine Houston-area state lawmakers are calling for a public hearing about potential violations of state law by Houstpn ISD, still under TEA control: https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/education/article/texas-hisd-violations-19391789.php

Hundreds of Texas seniors have recently been overcharged on their Social Security checks by a Texas Health and Human Services Commission clerical error: https://www.newsweek.com/texas-seniors-error-medicare-coverage-benefits-1888195

Texas mom Amanda Zurawski, who nearly died due to the denial of essential abortion care by state law, is featured in a new Biden campaign ad: https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4582134-new-biden-campaign-ad-blames-trump-for-near-death-of-texas-woman-who-was-denied-abortion/

...While the Biden administration dedicates another $6 billion to Samsung for microchip plant development in Taylor, Texas: https://www.reuters.com/technology/samsung-get-6-7-billion-chip-subsidy-next-week-texas-expansion-sources-say-2024-04-08/

Instagram users: be sure to enable political content on that platform, which has begun opting users out: https://x.com/ProgressTX/status/1771276124498100667?s=20

Thanks for listening! Find our web store and other ways to support our important work this election year at https://progresstexas.org/.

Daily Dispatch 4/8/24: Texas Supreme Court Justice John Devine Pushes Election Misinformation, and More Apr 08, 2024

Show notes

Stories we're following thi s morning at Progress Texas:

Happy Eclipse Day! Careful with your glasses and good luck with the weather.

Eagle Pass is missing out on a huge, rare windfall with Operation Lone Star occupying Shelby Park, where a big eclipse festival had been planned: https://www.thedailybeast.com/texas-gov-greg-abbott-already-managed-to-screw-up-the-eclipse

A video of Texas Supreme Court Justice John Devine went viral over the weekend in which he pushes election fraud misinformation: https://www.texastribune.org/2024/04/05/texas-supreme-court-justice-john-devine-2024-election/

...A great moment to revisit Find Out PAC, who are looking to unseat Devine and two other justices this fall: https://www.chron.com/politics/article/abortion-texas-supreme-court-19385442.php

...We featured Find Out PAC on the Progress Texas Happy Hour earlier this year: https://progresstexas.org/podcast/happy-hour-144-find-out-pac-targets-texas-supreme-courts-jimmy-john-and-jane

A university professors association has protested the firing of 60 University of Texas employees who had worked for UT's DEI programs: https://apnews.com/article/university-texas-diversity-equity-inclusion-ban-6535e157c65555c8fca08a878566c151

A Republican group backing American support of Ukraine has published a scorecard that reveals a large group of Texas lawmakers who score an F in opposing Vladimir Putin: https://gopforukraine.com/ukraine-report-card/

Instagram users: be sure to enable political content on that platform, which has begun opting users out: https://x.com/ProgressTX/status/1771276124498100667?s=20

Thanks for listening! Find our web store and other ways to support our important work this election year at https://progresstexas.org/.

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