Progress Texas Podcasts

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Governor Abbott backs that bill to ban "furries" from public schools in his push for private school vouchers, even though he knows it targets a fictitious problem: https://www.kut.org/politics/2025-03-14/furries-texas-school-choice-vouchers ...Meanwhile lobbyists for "voucher vendors" - private companies that profit handsomely from managing v...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: New reporting by the Texas Tribune shows that a severe shortage of cooking, cleaning and drinking water for Texas towns and cities could arrive as soon as 2030: https://www.texastribune.org/2025/03/13/texas-water-explained-supply-demand/ ...Of obvious equal importance, at least to Smithville GOP Rep. Stan Gerdes: keeping kids from being "furr...

Aside from the daily drama at the Capitol, the race to succeed Ron Nirenberg as the next mayor of San Antonio is one of the top political stories in Texas, as the leadership of the Lone Star State's second-biggest city for next four years hangs in the balance. Candidate Gina Ortiz Jones is well-known to followers of progressive politics in Texas - she has distinguished herself via an impressive mi...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Governor Abbott has announced a grant of over $17 million to SpaceX for semiconductor research and development in Bastrop: https://www.kxan.com/news/spacex-to-receive-17m-from-the-texas-semiconductor-innovation-fund-grant/ ...While Elon Musk's slashing of federal spending has resulted in billions in funding cut from food banks, including thos...

Urgent action is warranted TODAY, if you happen to be one of the over half of adult Texans who rent their home from a landlord or property owner: HB-32, promoted by the Texas Apartment Association, introduced by D/FW Republican Angie Chen Button, and curiously supported by El Paso Democrat Joe Moody, would greatly speed up the process by which your landlord might evict you from your home - and mos...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Discussion of HB3, the Texas House GOP's attempt to establish a billion-dollar private school voucher program was heated, and hundreds signed up for a long day of testimony: https://www.kut.org/2025-03-11/texas-house-republicans-get-an-earful-from-the-opposition-on-proposed-school-voucher-program ...Texas citizens called for this money to ins...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: A huge day at the Texas State Capitol today, as House Bill 3, which would establish a private school voucher program in Texas, goes before the House Public Education Committee: https://cbsaustin.com/news/local/texas-house-committee-to-hold-pivotal-hearing-on-school-voucher-bill ...New polling shows broad, bipartisan opposition to private...

The battle over private school vouchers sees a major milestone on Tuesday, as House Bill 3 - the GOP-controlled House's latest scheme to redirect money earmarked for public schools to private and parochial schools instead - comes before the Texas House Public Education Committee. This is a debate that has become partisan at the legislative level, though not as completely as some other issue areas...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: House Bill 3, a Republican proposal to establish a private school voucher program in Texas, is set to be heard at the Capitol tomorrow - the time to call your Representative to oppose vouchers is right now. Arizona provides a great example of what opponents of this terrible idea would like to avoid: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/ed...

Great fun and a huge turnout for today's rally at the Texas State Capitol! Thanks to Rep. Lloyd Doggett, Rep. Greg Casar and their teams for allowing us to capture the event and all of its speakers: 00:56 - Emcee and Travis County Democratic Party Chair Pooja Sethi 03:40 - Austin U.S. Rep. Greg Casar 13:18 - California U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu 18:00 - Austin pediatrician Dr. Kimberly Avila Edwards 25:47...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: In an amazingly classless punching-down display, both Governor Abbott and Elon Musk have celebrated the firing of a Texas Real Estate Commission employee who refused to remove his pronounce from his work email signature: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/06/musk-greg-abbott-fired-worker-pronouns Meanwhile, Tesla has been fined abou...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Houston U.S. Congressman, just two months into his first term succeeding the late Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, has died in office at 70: https://www.texastribune.org/2025/03/05/sylvester-turner-texas-houston-dies/ ...Until Governor Greg Abbott calls a special election to replace Turner, House Democrats are down a vote - the margin is now...

Stories we're following at Progress Texas: Huge shoutout to Houston Congressman Al Green, who defied Donald Trump to his face before being ejected from last night's speech before Congress: https://www.chron.com/politics/article/texas-al-green-removed-trump-address-20203096.php ...Unfortunately, much of the rest of the Democratic response while Trump trolled and insulted them was anemic at best: ht...

Progress Texas Advocacy Manager Reagan Stone had an opportunity to sit down at the Capitol with Representative Terry Meza, who has represented her native Irving area in North Texas since first winning election in 2018. We discussed the continuing fight for reproductive justice in Texas, the looming fight over private school vouchers, the inexplicable failure of our state to accept Medicaid expansi...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: 25% Trump tariffs on all goods from Mexico and Canada are in place as of midnight: https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/video/trumps-new-tariffs-begin-tuesday/ ...The auto industry, much of which is headquartered in Texas, stands to take a huge hit: https://www.wfaa.com/article/money/trump-tariffs-canada-mexico-impact-texas-car-manufacturers-dealers...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Surprised at a tsunami of boos and jeers, Republican State Reps Cody Harris and Brad Buckley fled the stage of a town hall they tried to hold in Palestine: https://www.kltv.com/2025/03/01/school-voucher-town-hall-palestine-ends-with-state-representatives-booed-off-stage/ ...Meanwhile the small-town Plainview ISD is speaking up against voucher...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Republican officials from Governor Abbott on down have been generally silent when it comes to recommending vaccinations for their constituents in the midst of the biggest outbreak of measles in Texas in three decades: https://www.texastribune.org/2025/02/28/texas-measles-abbott-lawmakers-response/ ...The Mennonite community of Gaines County h...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: A child died Tuesday night of measles at a Lubbock hospital - the first American measles death since 2015: https://apnews.com/article/measles-outbreak-west-texas-death-rfk-41adc66641e4a56ce2b2677480031ab9 ...New Trump administration U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Director Robert F. Kennedy Jr. tried to downplay the Texas outbrea...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Anti-vax "experts" are blaming the Texas measles outbreak on the measles outbreak itself - and are theorizing that the outbreak was engineered as an attack on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/texas-measles-outbreak-anti-vaccine-advocates-blame-shot-rcna193478 ...The case count is now up to 128, with cases popping up 250 mil...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: A lawsuit filed by the state in an attempt to escape enforcing a new law protecting workers in the process of pregnancy and maternity threatens a broader undermining of Congressional authority: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2025/02/texas-pregnant-workers-fairness-constitutional-chaos.html Doctors as far north as Chicago are warily eyein...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: The West Texas measles outbreak had grown to almost 100 cases by Friday: https://www.iflscience.com/us-measles-outbreaks-nearly-100-people-infected-across-two-states-78173 ...Alerts have been sounded in San Antonio, New Braunfels and San Marcos as an infected person from West Texas visited various locations there between February 14 and 16: h...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: A ProPublica analysis reveals that unnecessary cases of sepsis resulting from second-trimester failed pregnancies has jumped 50% since Texas largely banned abortion procedures: https://www.propublica.org/article/texas-abortion-ban-sepsis-maternal-mortality-analysis ...Congratulations to reproductive rights activist and advocate Amanda Zurawsk...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Texas Republican lawmakers in D.C. are mostly silent as Donald Trump threatens to abandon Ukraine and NATO in favor of Russia and Vladimir Putin: https://www.mytexasdaily.com/news/national/pressured-by-putin-and-trump-walls-close-in-on-zelensky/article_4c5d2204-56ec-51ad-b4f3-35c960e01b04.html Dallas Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett points out...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: A Senate bill aimed at teacher pay raises will only benefit those who stick around through years of the terrible pay and conditions that have heavily damaged the profession in Texas: https://www.texastribune.org/2025/02/18/texas-senate-teacher-pay/ ...Another Senate bill wants to direct Texas funds into a Bitcoin reserve - exposing state doll...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Elon Musk and his team of hackers are zeroing in on Social Security: https://thehill.com/opinion/5148448-elon-musk-targeting-social-security/ ...The acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration has resigned over Musk's attempts to gain access to its sensitive financial data on American citizens: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/17...