Progress Texas Podcasts

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: The Biden administration and the government of Mexico face off against Texas in federal court today over Governor Abbott's buoys barrier: https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/judge-texas-oversize-buoy-barrier-us-mexico-river-102442113 ...While a ninth busload of migrants, including 16 children, are sent by Texas into the path of Tropic...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: A Second Amendment group is waging a legal battle to allow the sale of a gun modification device that enables machine gun-style rapid fire: https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/forced-reset-triggers-illegal-machine-guns-atf-gun-102402318 A former judge who donated to a recent Ken Paxton opponent declines an invitation to participate in the...

Stories we're following this Friday morning at Progress Texas: Parts of SB-1, the 2021 GOP voter suppression law, have been struck down by a federal judge: https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/federal-judge-strikes-down-portions-of-texas-voter-suppression-law-s-b-1/ ERCOT pleads for conservation, but keeps the AC on - while energy prices spike 6,000%: https://www.reuters.com/business/en...

We've been fans of Liz Hanks, the Texas Chapter Lead for Moms Demand Action, for a long time - so, we're elated but not surprised that she's been chosen to receive that fine organization's Sue Brooks Award, honoring her as the top of 51 state leaders (including Washington, D.C.)! We invited Liz to talk about the award, the significance of it coming to Texas, what Moms Demand Action...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Texas House impeachment managers respond to Paxton attempts to dismiss with more tawdry details: https://www.texastribune.org/2023/08/16/ken-paxton-impeachment-evidence-senate/ A ruling to limit the use of a safe and effective abortion medication has mostly been reversed - same judge will preside over upcoming Planned Parenthood lawsuit:...

A closer look at the Planned Parenthood lawsuit shows that an anonymous whistleblower working with Ken Paxton stands to take home 20% of any judgement: https://www.forbes.com/sites/darreonnadavis/2023/08/15/what-to-know-about-texas-lawsuit-that-could-cost-planned-parenthood-18-billion/?sh=67fec23f4ae3 ...And that Amarillo, where the case is being heard, itself has no Planned Parenthood clinics: ht...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Texas launches a lawsuit designed to destroy Planned Parenthood: https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/texas-planned-parenthood-repay-millions-dollars-102273480 Women forced to carry medically hopeless pregnancies to term under SB-8 continue to tell their stories: https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/texas-news/texas-abortion-plaintiff-hopes-d...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: As a migrant child dies on a Greg Abbott bus to Chicago, California Governor Gavin Newsom calls our Governor's care for human life "absolutely appalling": https://www.ktvu.com/news/newsom-calls-out-texas-gov-after-3-year-old-migrant-dies-on-bus-to-chicago Also appalling - someone is stealing water barrels intended to save th...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Operation Lone Star claims Noah's Ark as their excuse to place deadly barriers in the Rio Grande: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/article/border-buoys-noahs-ark-18289332.php Chip Roy leads charge to defund the Border Patrol: https://www.politico.com/minutes/congress/08-10-2023/roy-approps-demands/ Federal grand jury ca...

Stories we're following today at Progress Texas: The McCombs Business School at UT Austin has been hosting a radical white supremacist scholar: https://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/news/2023-08-09/new-report-reveals-ut-austin-scholar-wrote-for-white-supremacist-publications/ Houston City Council invites 2028 Republican National Convention to town in near-unanimous vote: https://www.houstonchr...

During the 2022 election, Mothers Against Greg Abbott grabbed the attention of voters across Texas with their eye-popping and sometimes heartbreaking video content directed at pushing forward progressive candidates. As a new election looms with the stakes even higher, we've invited founder Nancy Thompson to join us to share her story of activism, her thoughts on our best strategies for 2024, a...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Orange river buoys deployed by Governor Abbott and Operation Lone Star are modified with razor-sharp circular saw blades: https://theweek.com/greg-abbott/1025651/circular-saw-blades-divide-controversial-rio-grande-buoys-installed-by-texas Texas officials at the border have defied warnings about breaking international and Federal law for m...

Stories we covered on our FIRST Progress Texas Daily Dispatch: Gerrymandering trial starts in packed Galveston courtroom: https://www.galvnews.com/news/gerrymandering-trial-starts-in-packed-galveston-courtroom/article_f86c3afd-c325-5b95-829b-3aed69ab7452.html Gov. Abbott holds ceremonial signing for law restricting trans athletes in the name of supporting women's sports: https://www.wfaa.com/a...

A pair of scandals involving political meddling by conservatives at Texas A&M have rocked academia across the state recently - an esteemed journalism professor whose hiring was publicly celebrated found her arrangement with A&M curtailed following input from powerful Aggieland conservatives, and an adjunct professor who had dared to point out that state policies regarding fentanyl testing...

The scene in Texas on the eve of crucial 2024 elections: defiance of Federal elections law in Galveston County. The inexplicable dumping of a solid national voter roll verification system. The monkey-wrenching of election procedures in Texas' largest county. Contradictory and confusing laws surrounding behavior at polling locations - some carrying felony-level penalties. Sensing imminent irrel...

The entire nation has been shocked by the news of whistleblower allegations of cruel and inhumane treatment of migrants at the Texas border on the orders of Texas DPS commanders aligned with Governor Greg Abbott's Operation Lone Star program. Both Texas State Senator (and U.S. Senate candidate) Roland Gutierrez and Progress Texas Executive Director Kathleen Thompson are in Washington D.C. on t...

With so much bad news surrounding the Texas Legislature, we think it's important to celebrate the good news when it comes - and from the otherwise-lamentable 88th Session came the overwhelming, bipartisan success of the CROWN Act , which was signed into law and takes effect on September 1, outlawing discrimination based upon ethnic and cultural hairstyles in Texas. When we celebrate these rare...

We love nothing more than occasions to gather in person with our fellow progressives and raise a little hell - and that's exactly what we did at our brand new HQ in the Deep Ellum section of downtown Dallas a few days back. Proud to welcome back to the podcast Texas State Representative Venton Jones (as Kathleen loves to point out, HER State Rep) and brand new chair of the Dallas County Democr...

If there was one silver lining in the dark clouds hovering over the U.S. Supreme Court last week, it was the ruling that requires Alabama to redraw electoral maps, finding likelihood that they were drawn to dilute Black voting power in that state. By popular demand, we've convened with Common Cause's Texas Voting Rights Program Manager Katya Ehresman to walk us through that organization&#3...

This last Friday, we joined our friends at Unified for their June monthly meetup, which served as a wrap and summary of Pride Month 2023 with two of Texas' most prominent LGBTQ activists: Adri Perez of the Texas Freedom Network and Pamela Williamson-Wylie of the Human Rights Campaign. This taping happened to come within hours of the announcment of the SCOTUS 303 Creative decision - proof posit...

The second of our two podcast episodes marking the first year beyond the fall of Roe v Wade focuses on efforts in one of Texas' most politically and culturally important regions: the Rio Grande Valley. We're proud to welcome Cathy Torres, Organizing Manager of Frontera Fund, and Laura Terrill, CEO of Planned Parenthood South Texas, two terrific orgs dedicated to providing medical, financia...

This is the first of two podcasts episodes marking one year since the Dobbs decision, by which the Trump-stacked United States Supreme Court wiped away decades of precedent with the Roe V Wade decision that guaranteed the Constitutional right to an abortion for all Americans. That year has seen the redoubling of efforts by abortion rights organizations across the country to regain those rights and...

The Asian American and Pacific Islander community are the fastest-growing ethnic group in the United States - but in Texas politics, they are ignored at best, and demonized at worst. Why have Republican lawmakers determined that AAPI Texans are a threat to be countered and dehumanized - and why have Democrats in Texas been so slow to fully embrace this rising political force? We had a fascinating...

For only the third year, Juneteenth is officially observed across the nation as a Federal holiday this Monday, June 19 - thanks to the tireless work of Black historians and activists across Texas. We're proud to welcome this week one of the pre-eminent authorities on Juneteenth: Donald Payton is president of the African American Genealogy Interest Group, former Dallas County Historical Commiss...

The impeachment of long-indicted Attorney General Ken Paxton is being seen as a sort of consolation prize for Texas progressives, having been denied ANY meaningful political gains in the Republican-stacked legislature again this year - but how did we get here, what's really at stake, and what's likely to happen next? Our guests this week have had a front row seat for the Paxton soap opera...