Progress Texas Podcasts

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Texas transplant Elon Musk has come under scrutiny by multiple federal agencies for his failure to properly disclose his interactions with foreign governments: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/17/technology/elon-musk-spacex-national-security-reporting.html ...Musk is suspected of having failed to provide required information on his meetings wi...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Ken Paxton's lawsuit against a doctor based in New York who prescribed and delivered abortion-inducing drugs to a Texas woman may lead to consequential decisions about how U.S. states regard the laws of other states: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/12/texas-new-york-doctor-abortion-lawsuit-civil-war.html ...New York Governor Kathy Ho...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Republican House Rep. Ryan Guillen of Rio Grande City in Starr County is excited that a new concentration facility for migrants rounded up by Donald Trump's deportation operation will provide economic opportunities for his county: https://www.dallasnews.com/news/2024/12/16/potential-trump-texas-deportation-partnership-puts-spotlight-on-rural-...

U.S. Representative Lloyd Doggett has been an elected fighter for Texas progressive people and causes for almost five decades, having become a member of the Texas Senate in 1973, an Associate Justice of the Texas Supreme Court in 1989, and a member of the U.S. House in 1994. Most recently, he's been notable as the first sitting federal official to have called for President Joe Biden to step aside...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Texas transplant Elon Musk, hard at work trying to slash federal jobs and your Social Security benefits, is also keeping hundreds of millions of dollars that his Musk Foundation is required by law to convert to charitable donations: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/12/us/politics/musk-foundation-taxes-donations.html ...Musk's efforts at DOGE j...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: A new academic study shows that Republicans are much more likely to spread information that they know to be false than Democrats are: https://www.ama.org/2024/12/09/study-republicans-respond-to-political-polarization-by-spreading-misinformation-democrats-dont/ A judgement of over $14 million against ExxonMobil for violations of the federal Cl...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Texas GOP machine choice David Cook and establishment-defying Dustin Burrows both claim to have enough votes to become Speaker of the Texas House - Burrows in particular is flirting with disaster: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/editorials/article/dustin-burrows-david-cook-texas-house-speaker-19971639.php ...Burrows has started calli...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: The struggle within the Texas Republican Party has become a contest of "Trumpier than thou": https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/5030621-texas-house-speaker-race-republican-divisions/ The 2025 Legislature is certain to face a renewed push for book-banning by pearl-clutching Republicans: https://www.expressnews.com/opinion/editorial/artic...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Lubbock State Rep. Dustin Burrows has defied the House GOP Caucus, announcing that he has enough votes from both parties to win the race for Speaker - despite the Republicans officially nominating Mansfield Rep. David Cook: https://www.texastribune.org/2024/12/07/texas-house-speaker-david-cook-dustin-burrows/ Austin U.S. Rep. Greg Casar has b...

We enjoyed being back with our friends at Antone's in downtown Austin last week for the first of our two holiday parties this year! This pod features short conversations with a bunch of our guests, offering words of wisdom and encouragement for all of us as we get ready for the fight ahead. THANKS to everyone who came out! And, we'll do it again at our second holiday party in Dallas on Monday, Dec...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: New figures reveal that Texas transplant Elon Musk spent over $250 million - over a quarter-billion dollars - to help put Donald Trump back in office: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/05/us/politics/elon-musk-trump-rbg-election.html ...Musk's Twitter has harbored four virulent and influential literal Nazi accounts, three of which are revealed...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Congratulations to State Rep. Gene Wu, who has been chosen as the new leader of the Democratic minority in the Texas House: https://www.expressnews.com/politics/texas/article/gene-wu-texas-house-democrats-19960489.php Not only is an extreme weather event in Texas more likely than usual this winter, but if it happens, there's an 80% chance of...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Both the Texas House Democratic Caucus and their Republican counterparts meet late this week to discuss who the 2025 Speaker will be - the Democrats hold the key, as neither Republican candidate has a clear majority: https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/texas-house-speaker-race-19953807.php Expect the continued and escalating assa...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: As the nation prepares for Trump 2.0, in Texas we're bracing for another nutty Texas Legislative session, where Republicans will be pressing the crazy on a variety of issues, including immigration: https://www.npr.org/2024/12/01/nx-s1-5203015/immigration-will-be-under-the-spotlight-in-the-upcoming-legislative-session-in-texas ...And reproduct...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: The Texas Maternal Morbidity Committee has announced that they will skip the data from the first two years of Texas' near-complete abortion ban, ignoring the effect of that ban on pregnant women in Texas: https://www.kxan.com/news/texas/texas-maternal-mortality-committee-to-skip-over-full-reviews-in-years-after-abortion-ban/ ...Any other deat...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Donald Trump's new threat of a 25% tariff on Mexican imports have consumers and business owners in South Texas concerned for the future: https://www.texastribune.org/2024/11/26/donald-trump-tariffs-texas-border-economy/ ...Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum doesn't appear ready to give in to Trump, threatening tariffs of her own: https://apn...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Propublica is reporting on a third Texas woman who died needlessly after being denied abortion care in the midst of a problem miscarriage: https://www.propublica.org/article/porsha-ngumezi-miscarriage-death-texas-abortion-ban ...Domestic violence shelters are reporting an uptick in pregnant women arriving at their facilities seeking refuge fr...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Leaders of the Texas construction industry - who are curiously mostly left out of right-wing panic over immigration - say their sector is existentially threatened by Donald Trump's mass deportation plan: https://www.tpr.org/economy-and-labor/2024-11-23/trumps-deportation-vow-alarms-texas-construction-industry The Texas State Board of Educatio...

Coming off this year's election, if you're a progressive voter who's now dreading having to interact with your MAGA relatives back home this holiday season, you're far from alone - "mixed" families such as these are probably more common in Texas than in most parts of the country. Peace and family harmony is important - but, so are the positions we believe in and advocate for year-round. So, how to...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: H.R. 9495, narrowly defeated in the U.S. House last week, passed in that body on a second try yesterday largely on partisan lines: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2024/11/21/treasury-secretary-house-bill-nonprofit-organization/76468156007/ ...Crossing the partisan line to support the undermining of non-profits like Progress Texas...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Trump's "border czar" Tom Homan expresses glee that he'll have over a thousand acres in Texas upon which to crowd the detainees he plans to round up in the "biggest mass deportation in history": https://thehill.com/regulation/national-security/5001566-tom-homan-says-trump-admin-will-absolutely-use-gifted-texas-land-for-deportation-program/ .....

David Pepper is a renowned political writer and the former Chair of the Ohio Democratic Party. He's written several books that are highly instructive for the current political moment as we prepare for Trump 2.0 - and Ohio has a lot in common with Texas when it comes to being overrun by opportunistic Republicans. How both of our states have fallen victim to GOP gerrymandering, how Donald Trump will...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: The Texas General Land Office has offered up a 1,400 acre Starr County ranch to the Trump administration for the building of a huge detention facility for undocumented immigrants rounded up in the planned "largest mass deportation in American history": https://www.texastribune.org/2024/11/19/texas-border-starr-county-ranch-trump-deportation/...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Trump's plan to deploy American military forces in the effort to deport millions of undocumented immigrants would have a major presence in Texas: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/18/us/politics/trump-military-mass-deportation.html ...U.S. Rep. Chip Roy disagrees with the rosy assessment of fellow GOP Rep. Tony Gonzales, that Trump's dragnet wi...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: The Texas State Board of Education is set to vote today on the adoption of "Bluebonnet Learning", public school materials developed under a new Texas law that allows the frequent use of Christian Bible lessons: https://communityimpact.com/austin/south-central-austin/texas-legislature/2024/11/15/texas-board-of-education-to-vote-on-first-state-...