🗣 TODAY IS THE LAST DAY TO REGISTER TO VOTE IN TEXAS 🗣#tx2020 #txlege https://t.co/gyd8c8aZyC
— Texas Tribune (@TexasTribune) October 5, 2020
There's a lot corraled here. In a developing item from the weekend:
BREAKING: Seven top aides, including his first assistant, have asked federal authorities to investigate Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for multiple crimes that include bribery and abuse of office, according to a letter obtained today by @statesman and @KVUE. pic.twitter.com/tb7diLqqdi
— Tony Plohetski (@tplohetski) October 3, 2020
Some updates this AM on the shocking story @chucklindell and @tplohetski broke yesterday: https://t.co/SodEyFC059
— Lauren McGaughy 🌟 (@lmcgaughy) October 4, 2020
So far, Speaker, Lt Gov & Gov have not commented. Neither have Paxton's lawyers representing him in his securities fraud case. His consultant just resigned. #txlege
BREAKING: Austin real estate investor Nate Paul is at center of allegations against @KenPaxtonTX. Top aides say in text msg the alleged crimes stem from his “relationship and activities with” Paul. My latest with @taygoldenstein and @Dexinvestigates: https://t.co/NJ1tzWwtTs
— Jay Root (@byjayroot) October 4, 2020
Greg Abbott and Dan Patrick have responded with the predictable "raises concerns; wait for the investigation to play out" pablum. State Rep. Sarah Davis is the first Texas Republican so far to call for Paxton's resignation.
Abbott's troubles, mostly of his own doing, also got a little worse over the weekend.
.@GovAbbott's fellow Republicans organize protest against him https://t.co/74EJ8I8Cmr via @ReformAustin #TXLege
— Forever in debt to your priceless advice. (@PDiddie) October 4, 2020
The protest dubbed “Free Texas — A Protest at the Governor’s Mansion,” is sponsored by a group calling itself “The Still-Somewhat Free Citizens of Texas.” “Tired of King Abbott’s lock down? Tired of masks and HIS control? THIS TYRANNY MUST END NOW,” reads the event flyer shared on the Texas Scorecard website.
The show is scheduled for Saturday, October 10, at 11 a.m.
Attendees will include Texas Republican Party Chair Allen West, Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, Empower Texans CEO and Texas Scorecard publisher Michael Quinn Sullivan, several state representatives and state senators and others.
Might be a fun day trip. Speaking of Sid, he makes a cameo appearance in Sacha Baron Cohen's new 'Borat' movie.
Wherein @MillerForTexas fist-bumps with Borat #TXLege https://t.co/aH9wWCTKOA
— Forever in debt to your priceless advice. (@PDiddie) October 1, 2020
Maybe "Jesus Shot" has designs on higher office in 2022, if Paxton or Abbott are perceived as sufficiently wounded politically to catch a challenge from the Operation Jade Helm Caucus of the TXGOP. Wouldn't that be fun to watch.
Anyway ... Abbott.
The Lone Ballot Box State https://t.co/RUw4r561nz #TXLege #TX2020 h/t @whowhatwhy @donkeyhotey etc. pic.twitter.com/8APAL4tbtL
— Forever in debt to your priceless advice. (@PDiddie) October 4, 2020
Harris County is bigger than the state of Rhode Island, and we're supposed to have 1 site? This isn't security, it's suppression. Mail ballot voters shouldn't have to drive 30 miles to drop off their ballot, or rely on a mail system that’s facing cutbacks. https://t.co/IeKwzdB0Hb
— Lina Hidalgo (@LinaHidalgoTX) October 1, 2020
Can you imagine the outcry if a governor of Texas announced there would only be one location per county to buy guns?#VoterSuppressionInTexas
— Nick_Anderson_ (@Nick_Anderson_) October 2, 2020
More last-minute late night hours billed for the lawyers. Christmas in October.
Voting rights groups sue Abbott over mail-ballot dropoff order https://t.co/m9pTTajXGc
— Houston Chronicle (@HoustonChron) October 2, 2020
Kuff has also covered the two lawsuits filed (so far).
There's a great deal more election news to report. First, in the SD30 special election, Dallas salon owner Shelley Luther finished first, barely, in the jungle primary and advanced to a runoff against Gainesville state Rep. Drew Springer, in a photo finish reminiscent of the Preakness Stakes. (Expect Luther to show up at the Abbott protest rally mentioned above.)
With this week's installment of "Republicans Behaving Badly":
In a competitive Texas House race, a police union official who once compared Black Lives Matter protesters to the Ku Klux Klan hopes fears of police reform will propel him to victory this fall. https://t.co/KXUd8Q6e5j
— The Appeal (@theappeal) October 1, 2020
Snap briefing of selective group of senators by @DNI_Ratcliffe prompts DEMs to accuse former TX congressman of using intelligence to help @realDonaldTrump re-election
— ChickenFriedPolitics (@ChkFriPolitics) October 1, 2020
--The Place for Southern Politics is ChickenFriedPolitics.com--https://t.co/wxFGBmk66J
This is my opponent in #TX10, Rep. McCaul.
— Mike Siegel (@SiegelForTexas) October 3, 2020
Refusing to wear a mask on a commuter flight. Endangering passengers and staff alike.
This absolute disregard for human life is not unusual for him — it’s true to form.
We remove him on November 3.pic.twitter.com/3LwTtStBt5
While the U.S. House overwhelmingly voted on Friday to condemn the QAnon conspiracy theory movement, four Texas Republicans voted against the resolution. https://t.co/1ULdEsaErh
— Texas Tribune (@TexasTribune) October 2, 2020
Rep. Dan Crenshaw calls wind and solar energy 'silly solutions' to climate change https://t.co/vnYkKzFgvx #hounews
— Matt Schwartz (@SchwartzChron) October 2, 2020
Grist thinks there are six close Congressional contestss across the nation that might turn on climate change, and they believe TX-24 (Beth Van Duyne versus Candace Valenzuela) is one of them.
And that's my segue to this week's aggregation of environmental topics.
The French Limited superfund site just outside of Houston is vulnerable to hurricanes, flooding, sea level rise, all of which are intensifying as the planet warms #TX21. Containing this #ClimateEmergency is a priority @SierraClubAlamo https://t.co/0SJurx0a0s
— Rev. Thomas Wakely / TX21 Congressional Candidate (@Wakely2020) September 30, 2020
Evan Mintz is amused by a local referendum that will require public approval and flood impact studies for the construction of... sidewalks. Save Buffalo Bayou profiles an Eagle Scout whose project two years ago to reseed a popular canoe launching spot has flourished. A public works employee in Lake Jackson -- working on the remediation of the city's public water supply because of the presence of a brain-eating amoeba -- has tested positive for COVID.
And Ed Darrell at Millard Fillmore's Bathtub underscores the importance of voting climate, which is exactly what this blogger recommends as well.
¡Candidatos del Partido Verde del mundo #Latinx de #EEUU! ¡#VoteGreen2020! Apoyemos #inmigracion #DACA #Dreamers #Immigration #ImmigrationMatters #Espanol #HispanicHeritageMonth #migrantes https://t.co/ukmTazFvqh
— Latinxs por Howie 2020 (@LatinxsPorHowie) September 25, 2020
October #TXSen Events @dbcgreentx https://t.co/76hYBeifs1 #TX2020 @TXGreens Best of luck, #TurnTexasBlue; #VoteGreen pic.twitter.com/uKINvKr7ET
— Forever in debt to your priceless advice. (@PDiddie) October 1, 2020
How big were the pine trees in East Texas before it was logged over? Here a man walks through a virgin pine forest. Courtesy the East Texas Digital Archive. pic.twitter.com/1ThP1WAj5M
— Traces of Texas (@TracesofTexas) October 4, 2020
The rest of the coronavirus-related and police reform and other social justice headlines I've collected will appear in a follow-up Wrangle later today. I'll end this one with a fond remembrance of Lubbock's own Mac Davis.
Davis was born on Jan. 21, 1942, in Lubbock, Texas. After graduating from high school, he moved to Atlanta, where he began his music career as a member of a rock ’n’ roll band called the Zots. He later worked as a regional manager for both Vee-Jay Records and Liberty Records before getting a job at Nancy Sinatra’s company, Boots Enterprises, Inc., where he played on many of Sinatra’s recordings and got his start as a professional songwriter. His compositions were eventually recorded by Presley, Sinatra, Glen Campbell, Bobby Goldsboro, Lou Rawls, Kenny Rogers & the First Edition, B.J. Thomas and many others. What became his signature song, 1970’s “I Believe in Music,” was also recorded as the first Capitol Records single for Helen Reddy, who died the same day as Davis, Sept. 29, also at age 78.
RIP Mac Davis and Helen Reddy.
— The '60s at 60 (@the_60s_at_60) September 30, 2020
Both with No. 1 hits in 1972. pic.twitter.com/euMKpTbT60
Rest in Peace Mac Davis. He was a famous country music star but we knew him mostly as Seth Maxwell in North Dallas Forty- our favorite football movie ever. Supposedly Davis's QB character was based on Don Meredith. Either way he was the perfect on-screen compliment to Nick Nolte. pic.twitter.com/KTxI5ntivk
— Ken Gelman (@kengfunk) September 30, 2020
As he sang in (I Believe in Music), "I thank God each and every day for giving me the music and the words to say." In a statement, his family confirmed that he will, per the song's closing lines, be buried in Lubbock, Texas, in blue jeans.
1 comment:
I filled out my ballot today. Wrote in Mark Charles.
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