Progress Texas Podcasts

Latest Episodes:

Daily Dispatch 4/5/24: Former Speaker Straus Confirms Anti-Semitism Of Billionaire Tim Dunn, and More Apr 05, 2024

Show notes

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas:

At a speaking event at the University of Texas yesterday, Republican and former House Speaker Joe Straus confirms that oil billionaire Tim Dunn told him during a 2010 meeting of his opinion that only Christians should hold positions of leadership in the Texas Legislature: https://www.texastribune.org/2024/04/04/tim-dunn-joe-straus-christian-texas/

...New details of UT's mass-firing of former DEI employees this week: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/04/05/dei-ban-university-of-texas-sb-17/73206765007/

...Signs of discontent among the UT student body are literally popping up: https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/not-our-texas-notes-placed-near-ut-campus-appear-to-protest-dei-law-firings/

...Link to the "Not Our Texas" Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/notourtexas/?img_index=1

Ken Paxton insists that the press got Texas Solicitor General Aaron Nielsen's view that Texas may have "gone too far" on SB-4: https://www.chron.com/politics/article/ken-paxton-sb4-immigration-19385168.php

The conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation has dodged paying property taxes on its luxury Capitol-area digs for the last decade: https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/texas-public-policy-foundation-property-taxes/

Austin listeners: mark April 20th for the first Advocate Spring Picnic to be hosted by Texas Gun Sense in central Austin: https://tinyurl.com/yc6jsacj

Central Texas listeners: please help Progress Texas by nominating our ever-popular Humans Against Ted Cruz campaign in the Austin Chronicle's Best OF Austin Readers Poll: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/oxds6t7aDnQXKwkL/?mibextid=WC7FNe

Direct to the page: https://vote.austinchronicle.com/

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/.

Happy Hour 150: Lauren Ashley Simmons Returns! Apr 04, 2024

Show notes

Progress Texas proudly endorsed Houston progressive activist and organizer Lauren Ashley Simmons in her race to replace fellow Democrat Shawn Thierry in the Texas House - and she came within half a point of unseating one of the least-reliable Democrats in that body in the primary last month. The runoff election is coming up on May 4 - one month from the publishing of this episode - and we're proud to bring Lauren back for an update.

Follow the adventures of Lauren Ashley Simmons at https://www.laurenashleysimmons.com/.

Thanks for listening! Learn more about all the great stuff Progress Texas does and how to support our work in this all-important election year at https://progresstexas.org/.

Daily Dispatch 4/4/24: SB-4 Back On The Shelf, and More Apr 04, 2024

Show notes

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas:

Colin Allred on The Daily Show this week: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtnYzqWtIKE

After yesterday's hearing at the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, SB-4 remains blocked for now: https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/crime/texas-controversial-immigration-law-remains-on-hold-shelved-by-3-judge-panel/ar-BB1l1WlU

...Meanwhile a Texas National Guard soldier has been arrested on human trafficking charges: https://abc13.com/texas-national-guard-soldier-arrested-savion-johnson-human-smuggling-us-mexico-border/14613422/

A pair of Denton ISD administrators have been indicted on charges of illegal electioneering: https://komonews.com/news/nation-world/texas-school-district-employees-indicted-in-alleged-illegal-electioneering-scheme-denton-isd-attorney-general-ken-paxton-jesus-and-lindsay-lujan-republican-primary-gop-voting-elections-crisis-in-the-classroom

Uvalde's brand new mayor has quit, just ahead of a planned City Council vote on a new report clearing the officers who responded to the Robb Elementary shooting of wrongdoing: https://www.msnbc.com/top-stories/latest/uvalde-mayor-cody-smith-resigns-rcna146088

...The author of that report, a former Austin Police Department detective, himself has no active shooter training: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/lead-investigator-in-uvalde-police-probe-had-no-active-shooter-training-report_n_660d68dfe4b083254eaa817c

GOP subcommitte chairs have announced a "field hearing" in Port Arthur next week that will likely amount to a MAGA rally for oil and gas interests: https://energycommerce.house.gov/posts/chairs-rodgers-and-duncan-announce-field-hearing-in-port-arthur-on-biden-s-lng-export-ban

Direct to the page: https://vote.austinchronicle.com/

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 4/3/24: SB-4 Back In Court, Abbott Handing Migrants Over To Hate Groups, and More Apr 03, 2024

Show notes

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas:

SB-4 will see a hearing at the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals today, with a focus on its constitutionality: https://www.npr.org/2024/04/03/1242451969/a-controversial-immigration-law-will-be-back-in-court-in-texas

...While the Southern Poverty Law Center discovers that Operation Lone Star has been paying a Texas hate group millions of dollars to bus migrants northward in terrible conditions: https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2024/04/02/texas-company-paid-extremist-group-20-million-operation-lone-star-busing

...A Dallas education reformer (and Republican primary voter) points out inconsistencies between conservative hate for migrants and the vital role they play in our economy: https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2024/04/03/we-need-texas-republicans-to-rescue-our-workforce/

...Bloomberg has published a solid video essay on the Texas border drama and where it's headed next: https://youtu.be/S7ewfWcFHpU?si=JCRjaXhvxCj9lMfE

The University of Texas at Austin has drastically stepped up its DEI dismantling efforts, suddenly firing about 60 related employees: https://www.kut.org/education/2024-04-02/ut-austin-dei-diversity-law-sb-17

...UT students are pissed and organizing: https://www.kvue.com/article/news/education/texas-employees-fired-dei-ban-at-ut-austin/269-fc37c6cc-79fe-43d2-81fd-5daab6baa27f

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg will be in the Dallas area tomorrow to celebrate infrastructure improvements designed to erase prior cultural and community barriers: https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/pete-buttigieg-visit-dallas-thursday-highlight-north-texas-highway-projects/287-20e721ec-51da-4ea8-93ea-9ab849cae674

Direct to the page: https://vote.austinchronicle.com/

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 4/2/24: Colin Allred Blasts Ted Cruz On Reproductive Rights Record, and More Apr 02, 2024

Show notes

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas:

Colin Allred trails Ted Cruz in some polls, but has beaten the odds against established Republicans before: https://www.dmagazine.com/frontburner/2024/03/qa-senate-hopeful-colin-allred-says-november-election-is-larger-than-our-own-problems/

...Allred highlights Ted Cruz's lockstep support for Texas' abortion ban and the potential for a national ban: https://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/-that-s-not-freedom-allred-hits-ted-cruz-s-extreme-abortion-record-208121413883

...Watchdog groups are noticing a potentially over-cozy relationship with iHeartMedia, a registered lobbyist: https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/ted-cruz-podcast-payment/

PT's Hiba Faruqi writes on the current and future state of Texas' intense climate crisis: https://progresstexas.org/texas-climate-crisis-rising-temperatures-threaten-homes-and-health

..While future monster hurricanes are already driving homeowner insurance rates skyward: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/columnists/tomlinson/article/hurricane-texas-climate-economy-insurance-19371487.php

That bird flu case in Texas? There's good news and bad news: https://www.vox.com/health/24118152/explain-it-to-me-bird-flu-human-case-texas-chickens-cows-animal-agriculture

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 4/1/24: Texas Court Defies New Rules Against "Judge Shopping", and More Apr 01, 2024

Show notes

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas:

The chief judge of the Northern District of Texas says his court will not follow new rules from the Judicial Conference designed to curb "judge shopping": https://www.commondreams.org/news/judge-shopping-texas

A Starr County woman has sued the Starr County prosecutor's office over false murder charges they pressed upon her over a self-induced abortion in 2022: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/30/us/texas-abortion-murder-charge-lawsuit.html

Severe emotional trauma for an East Texas family whose matriarch was forced to carry a baby with a fatal brain anomaly to term by Texas' draconian abortion limits: https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2024/03/health/texas-abortion-law-mother-cnnphotos/

A Rockwall Southern Baptist Convention pastor is under fire over a misogynistic joke he told at Lakepointe Church recently: https://www.chron.com/culture/religion/article/texas-sbc-pastor-marriage-joke-19376274.php

Our state's own data shows that immigrants are less likely to commit homicide than citizens: https://www.latintimes.com/how-us-media-coverage-contributes-polarization-immigration-debate-across-country-552552

Seeking to solidify gains among Latino voters in Texas, a group of Hispanic GOP lawmakers has founded a new caucus: https://www.chron.com/politics/article/texas-hispanic-republicans-19375625.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/.

Daily Dispatch 3/29/24: Holiday Weekend Invites Reflection On Capital Punishment, Trans Rights, and More Mar 29, 2024

Show notes

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas:

On Good Friday, we join reminders to President Biden of his campaign pledge to end capital punishment in America: https://www.newsweek.com/president-biden-should-follow-through-ending-death-penalty-opinion-1883271

On Easter Sunday, we also observe this year's Trans Day Of Visibility, and encourage a renewal of kindness and protection for that valued segment of our Texas family: https://glaad.org/tdov/

Fort Worth grandmother Crystal Mason, sentenced to five years for voting in the 2016 election while banned from doing so, has had her five-year prison sentence thrown out: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/28/crystal-mason-texas-woman-acquitted

...The ACLU of Texas has been in Mason's corner all along: https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/texas-second-court-of-appeals-reverses-crystal-masons-conviction-in-major-voting-rights-victory

...While Ken Paxton is targenting several school districts across the state for daring to encourage people to vote: https://progresstexas.org/blog/ag-ken-paxton-sues-isds-encouraged-voting

A California urologist points out the danger pregnant people in Texas face every day by refusing to travel here while pregnant: https://www.tpr.org/news/2024-03-28/urologist-refuses-to-come-to-san-antonio-for-annual-conference-because-of-texas-abortion-laws

H-E-B Chairman Charles Butt is the latest relatively-conservative but also generally normal public figure targeted by Texas Republicans for being insufficiently nutty: https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/texas-gop-heb-chairman-charles-butt/

Dallas U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett is featured on the latest episode of Pod Save America: https://crooked.com/podcast/a-tale-of-two-campaigns/

Temps are expected to hit 100 about two weeks ahead of "normal" along the Rio Grande Valley over the holiday weekend: https://www.expressnews.com/san-antonio-weather/forecast/article/triple-digit-texas-early-next-week-19373899.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/.

Daily Dispatch 3/28/24: Activists Want Murder Charges For Abortion, and More Mar 28, 2024

Show notes

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas:

A Christian Nationalist group, with support from current elected officials, calls for women who have sought abortion care to be charged with murder: https://twitter.com/MrsAMartini/status/1773160427981070620?t=KYb98_RSF5BTJKpKpBe0pw&s=19

Rep, James Talarico's talk on Christian Nationalism: https://youtu.be/Blph_2RSBno?feature=shared

Governor Abbott has issued an executive order equating pro-Palestinian protest with anti-semitism, ordering Texas universities to crack down: https://www.chron.com/politics/article/abbott-antisemitism-texas-colleges-19371821.php

...While students at UT find the new lack of DEI support discouraging: https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/28/us/university-of-texas-austin-anti-dei-law/index.html

...And in incredible timing, a new right-wing institute has opened at UT: https://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/news/2024-03-27/right-wing-funded-civitas-institute-is-almost-up-and-running-at-ut-austin/

In a small win for capital punishment opponents, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has re-sentenced an intellectually-disabled death row inmate to life in prison: https://www.texastribune.org/2024/03/27/randall-mays-death-penalty-intellectual-disability/

As Women's History Month winds down, check out a great talk with the longest-standing members of both the Texas Senate and the Texas House, both of whom are women: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/happy-hour-149-womens-history-month-with-sen-judith/id1552998795?i=1000650551946

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

Daily Dispatch 3/27/24: Ken Paxton Gets Off...For Now, and More Mar 27, 2024

Show notes

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas:

As expected, felony securities fraud charges delayed by a decade for Ken Paxton were dropped in a deal with prosecutors yesterday - but why? https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/article/ken-paxton-fraud-deal-19369122.php

...But our AG's legal troubles are far from over: https://www.kvue.com/article/news/politics/ken-paxton-legal-battles/269-ceefcfd0-3ebb-4cff-8bf5-b7e5b7030ce7

...Still, we learn yet again that justice is not equal in Texas: https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/editorials/2024/03/27/this-is-ken-paxtons-texas/

...PT Advocacy Fellow Tatum Owens weighs in: https://progresstexas.org/blog/statement-paxton-deal-joke%E2%80%99s-texas

SCOTUS judges considering the Texas case against mifepristone seemed pretty skeptical of the argument against the abortion medication yesterday: https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2024-03-26/supreme-court-argument-abortion-pills-justices-skeptical

...While the nation's highest court may consider a case challenging a Texas law that only allows older voters full access to voting by mail: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/03/supreme-court-texas-mail-in-voting-case.html

Republican U.S. Rep. Troy Nehls of the southern Houston suburbs is under investigation by the House Ethics Committee: https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4557719-texas-republican-under-investigation-by-house-ethics-committee/

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

Happy Hour 149: Women's History Month with Sen. Judith Zaffirini and Rep. Senfronia Thompson Mar 27, 2024

Show notes

As we continue observing Women's History Month this March, it may come as a surprise - and considering over-arching political circumstances in Texas, perhaps ironic - that the senior members of BOTH the Texas Senate and the Texas House of Representatives are women. We are honored to be joined by State Representative Senfronia Thompson - known to her colleagues, constituents and fans as "Ms. T" - and Senator Judith Zaffirini, a trailblazer both for women and Hispanic Texans, for a deep dive into their experiences as actual participants in women's history in Texas. Have a look at the good old boys' club they've had to confront (and dominate) as women have taken their rightful place in the leadership of the Texas Democratic delegation - much experience and wisdom to be gained in this terrific conversation.

Find Senator Judith Zaffirini at https://judithzaffirini.com/.

Find Representative Senfronia Thompson at https://senfroniathompson.com/.

Thanks for listening! Find our awesome web store and all the great stuff we do - and ways to help us keep doing it - at https://progresstexas.org/.

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