Progress Texas Podcasts

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...

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=shar...

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-...

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 "M...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: The public comment period has begun on the Texas Medical Board and their timidity on specifics regarding abortion ban exceptions in Texas - make your voice heard here: https://progresstexas.org/blog/protect-abortion-rights-provide-public-comment-texas-medical-board More from the Center for Reproductive Rights: https://twitter.com/ReproRig...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Attorneys for Ken Paxton appear close to cutting a deal with prosecutors that would bring the nine-year-long felony securities fraud charges against him to an end: https://abc13.com/texas-attorney-general-ken-paxtons-fraud-charges-could-be-dismissed-security-case-communnity-service-tribune/14559450/ There's a hearing on all of this se...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: A large group of desperate migrants pushed through border fortifications at El Paso yesterday, highlighting the humanitarian crisis being created by Republican policy: https://www.keranews.org/texas-news/2024-03-21/migrants-on-texas-southern-border-breach-wire-barriers-erected-under-operation-lone-star ...U.S. Homeland Security Secretary...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals was not successful in reaching a decision yesterday regarding whether to allow SB-4 to take effect while being considered by the courts: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68613083 ...Texas sheriffs appear enthusiastic about SB-4 but are inconsistent about their views on enforcing it: https://apnews....

These days, it seems that Facebook, Instagram and other major social media platforms would much rather deal in cat videos than politics - perhaps political talk is too much trouble to moderate, or maybe too intellectually challenging to be much fun for much of their attention-addled audiences. In this second of two full panel discussions from this year's Unified Jam in Austin, Unified Head of...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: After yesterday's allowance of SB-4 to take effect by the U.S. Supreme Court in returning the case to the 5th Circuit of Appeals, the 5th Circuit renews the hold- as of this morning, it's blocked: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/03/19/us/texas-immigration-supreme-court ...Reactions within Texas border communities: https://apnews...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito extends the Court's stay on SB-4 a third time, seemingly indefinitely: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68597752 ...Indicating anything but an open-and-shut matter: https://www.nytimes.com/article/texas-border-law-challenge-explainer.html The Dallas Morning News kicks Texas GOP Chair Mat...

Earlier in March, we participated in the annual Unified Jam - a political discussion and gathering event hosted by the progressive organizing social media network Unified - in the midst of Spring festival season in Austin. In this first of two panel sessions we're presenting in podcast form, introduced by Unified CEO Shion Deysarkar and moderated by our own Chris Mosser, we meet three young Te...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: The U.S. Supreme Court is likely to issue a ruling on SB-4, Texas' new harsh and possibly unconstitutional new border security law: https://komonews.com/news/nation-world/scotus-decision-on-sb-4-sweeping-texas-border-security-law-could-come-by-monday-immigration-border-security-southern-border-migrant-crisis-operation-lone-star-initia...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: At the behest of two Texas attorneys, the Texas Medical Board is set to discuss clarification for medical exceptions to the near-complete ban on abortion care in Texas: https://www.texastribune.org/2024/03/14/texas-medical-board-doctors-abortion-guidance/ Ken Paxton escalates his assault on Frisco ISD, whose social media posts about fundi...

A new federal courts rule is aimed at preventing "judge shopping" - filing lawsuits in districts with single judges of sympathetic sensibilities - a favorite tactic of Ken Paxton's: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/article/ken-paxton-court-rule-18971181.php More artists, and now panel speakers, have been bailing on SXSW over its ties to the military and defense tech in...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: The U.S. Supreme Court has delayed the enactment of Texas' new immigration law SB-4 until at least Monday afternoon, while a new legal challenge is launched: https://apnews.com/article/texas-immigration-law-sb4-7b74b6637dd39320dfdb447a189e745f ...While Laredo U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar spearheads a new Democratic action group on immigrat...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: A judge in El Paso has backed Annunciation House, a large migrant shelter near the border, in refusing to turn its records over to Ken Paxton: https://elpasomatters.org/2024/03/11/el-paso-annunciation-house-ken-paxton-court-ruling/ Ted Cruz complains of regular Saturday pro-Palestinian protests in his front yard: https://www.chron.com/pol...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: A helicopter crash Friday at the border killed three service members: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/2-soldiers-border-patrol-agent-dead-helicopter-crash-texas-mexico-bord-rcna142589 A lawsuit filed by Texas against a federal program for immigrants from Haiti, Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela has been thrown out: https://www.cbsnews.co...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: President Joe Biden's performance last night at the State Of The Union was stellar: https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/08/politics/cnn-poll-biden-sotu-speech-reaction/index.html ...But not perfect, with a gaffe involving language about undocumented people: https://www.texastribune.org/2024/03/07/state-of-the-union-joe-biden/ Pro-Palestinian...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Amplify Austin Day 2024 is on through 6pm Thursday night! Most solid news is behind paywalls, while misinformation and propaganda are usually free. Help us keep our solid reporting accessible with a donation of ANY amount - thank you! https://www.amplifyatx.org/organizations/progress-texas-institute Progress Texas endorsee Julie Johnson i...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Complete election results coverage by the Texas Tribune: https://apps.texastribune.org/features/2024/primary-election-results-2024/ The campaigns of retribution against members of their own party by Governor Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton pay dividends: https://www.texastribune.org/2024/03/06/texas-primaries-gop-incumbents-de...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Last chance for YOUR voice to be heard in the 2024 primary! Polls are open across the state until 7pm: https://progresstexas.org/ ...Our Democratic primary endorsees: https://progresstexas.org/podcast/happy-hour-145-meet-our-progress-texas-primary-endorsees ...Wednesday at 9am, see the Texas Tribune's "Breaking Down The 2024 Texa...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Poor turnout by Democrats in the early voting phase of the 2024 primary causes the overall turnout to fall well short of 2020: https://www.texastribune.org/2024/03/03/early-voting-turnout-2024-primaries/ ...Republicans outpaced Democrats in early voting turnout three to one: https://www.kxan.com/news/your-local-election-hq/march-2024-turn...

Lawyers for Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza have issued a cease-and-desist order against a shadowy group that has financed an egregious and foul hit campaign against Garza, apparently without proper legal arrangement as a political action committee - all to benefit his opponent, who is known to be backed by benefactors who typically fund Republican candidates. We've invited District...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Upwards of 1.2 million Texans have voted so far in the primary, with only today and Super Tuesday remaining: https://www.kxan.com/news/your-local-election-hq/march-2024-turnout-tracker/ New polling from UT Tyler shows Ted Cruz and Colin Allred tied at 41%: https://t.co/4LBcQuPneA President Biden spoke in Brownsville yesterday: https://www...