Texas

Four years after Gov. Greg Abbott announced Texas would be the first state to build its own border wall, lawmakers have quietly stopped funding the project, leaving only scattered segments covering a small fraction of the border.

That decision, made in the waning hours of this year’s legislative session, leaves the future of the state wall unclear. Just 8% of the 805 miles the state identified for construction is complete, which has cost taxpayers more than $3 billion to date. The Texas Tribune reported last year that the wall is full of gaps that migrants and smugglers can easily walk around and mostly concentrated on sprawling ranches in rural areas, where illegal border crossings are less likely to occur.

State leaders suggested the federal government could pick up the effort. However, during President Donald Trump’s first term, when wall building was his top priority, his administration completed just 21 miles in Texas — about a third of what the state was able to build over the past four years.

The Tribune reported last year that the state’s wall program would take around 30 years and more than $20 billion to complete.

cross-posted from: https://50501.chat/post/330887

Link to video | San Antonio | 6/12

Originally Posted By u/Short-Detective- At 2025-06-13 07:25:46 PM | Source

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cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/32157448

The North Texas Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and FBI Dallas’s North Texas Child Exploitation Task Force announce the conclusion of Operation Soteria Shield, a month-long collaborative enforcement effort conducted in April 2025 aimed at rescuing children from online sexual exploitation and bringing perpetrators to justice. This operation was run in conjunction with the National Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and was jointly managed by the FBI Dallas Division, Dallas Police Department, Plano Police Department, Wylie Police Department, and Garland Police Department.

More than 70 Texas law enforcement agencies joined forces throughout the month of April to combat the exploitation of children in the digital space. These agencies leveraged the expertise of highly skilled computer crimes investigators that worked around the clock to identify victims and apprehend offenders engaged in the production, distribution, and possession of child sexual abuse material.

Operation Soteria Shield resulted in the rescue of 109 children and the arrest of 244 offenders. In addition to these enforcement actions, investigators seized extensive volumes of digital evidence, including terabytes of illicit data stored on electronic devices that were used in the commission of these crimes. These devices are undergoing forensic analysis and may lead to further arrests and the identification of additional victims.

Some excerpts:

The hospital is the long-awaited result after the Texas Legislature in 2023 approved $159 million to build an inpatient psychiatric hospital in Amarillo. Mental health advocates in the area say it is desperately needed to bring mental health resources closer to the largely rural region that’s home to nearly 436,000 people.

The hospital in Amarillo is one of seven new state psychiatric hospital projects by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. Lawmakers approved spending $1.5 billion in 2023 for the projects, including a psychiatric hospital being built in Lubbock, about 120 miles south of Amarillo.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/30881152

cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/31499289

Eyewitnesses reportedly said Joss’ neighbor, who has yet to be publicly identified, shot at him several times before fleeing in a vehicle. Officers arrested the suspect a block from the residence after responding to a call of a shooting, KENS5 reports.

News is still coming out.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/30443526

At least one company uses computer models to inspect these photos and flag moldy roofs, askew tree branches and missing shingles. Insurers then notify homeowners their policies may not be renewed.

While it’s unclear how many homes are under surveillance, the number could be massive — and growing. One aerial imaging technology company common among insurers says it has eyes on 99.6% of the country’s population.

Faced with more extreme weather and costlier damage to homes, insurers are increasingly relying on new technologies like aerial images to evaluate policies — and in some cases, to forgo risk. Between 2020 and 2023, the rate at which insurers in Texas chose to not renew home insurance policies almost doubled.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/30407255

Link to Bill with text: https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=89R&Bill=SB10

Recently SB10 passed the House to soon be signed by Greg Abbott. Public schools will have to abide by the law and display a copy if one is donated. What are some ways to comply with the law but also piss off the TX lege?

Nothing about color scheme is mentioned in the bill, or font size, or text orientation, or specifics for the frame. I have a few ideas but I also don't want to punish teachers and students with things like a poster made of iron or a gigantic one that covers an entire wall.

Wind turbines have become a financial lifeline in rural areas, but state legislators are now targeting them

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/30170441

Lawmakers can override the governor’s vetoes only during the session in which the bills are rejected, according to experts’ interpretation of the law. But typically, governors veto bills after sine die – the last day of session.

In 2023, Gov. Greg Abbott vetoed a nearly record-breaking 76 bills and one budget item— widely seen as his way to punish members for failing to pass his priority bills. Just two bills were vetoed during the session, in the window that lawmakers could have voted to override them.

Now, some lawmakers want to change that process. A proposal by Sen. Brian Birdwell would amend the Texas Constitution to allow legislators to briefly meet after the regular session ends to reconsider bills that passed by more than two-thirds of members.

A 2024 war among Republicans tilted the House to the right. Now more closely aligned with the Senate, Speaker Dustin Burrows has accelerated action on bail, school vouchers and social issues.

With tensions boiling over in the final days of the 2021 Texas legislative session, Rep. Dustin Burrows, a Lubbock Republican and a top House lieutenant, went out of his way to throw shade at the Senate and its leader, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, for letting too many House bills languish.

From the back microphone on the House floor, Burrows rhetorically asked then-Speaker Dade Phelan if he was aware that “less than 50% of the House bills that we sent over were passed by the Senate” — much worse than the success rate for Senate bills sent to the lower chamber. It came shortly after Patrick had flayed the House for killing several of his top conservative priorities.

Four years later, Burrows’ first session wielding the speaker’s gavel is winding down with little of the same inter-chamber acrimony. Conservative priorities that had failed in session after session in the House, from private school vouchers to stricter bail laws, have cleared the Legislature with time to spare. So have once-thorny issues, like property tax cuts, school funding and immigration, that in years past had generated bad blood between the chambers and needed overtime sessions to address.

Many of those now-imminent laws were in the sweeping agenda Patrick unveiled near the start of the session in January, marked by several issues that Gov. Greg Abbott also championed as “emergency items.” All but a handful of Patrick’s priorities — from conservative red meat to top bipartisan priorities to the lieutenant governor’s own pet issues — have made it across the finish line or are poised to do so in the closing days of the session, which ends June 2.

The lack of discord reflects the collegial relations Patrick and Burrows have worked to maintain from the start; Burrows’ apparent desire to avoid drawing Patrick’s wrath and the political damage it inflicted upon his predecessors; and the reality that the House, thanks to the turnover wrought by a bruising 2024 primary cycle, is now more conservative and more receptive than ever to Patrick’s hard-charging agenda.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/30218735

12 republicans joined all 60 democrats in the Texas house to vote to formally repeal the gay sex ban that was ruled unconstitutional in 2003

First time the Texas house has passed any repeal attempts. It still faces steep odds in the Texas senate

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/29762276

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/29324469

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20250508114222/https://boltsmag.org/texas-1925-abortion-law/

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/21747943

It was a tough night for MAGA-aligned candidates in Texas. In the May 3, 2025, local elections, voters across the state decisively rejected far-right candidates, particularly in school board and city council races. From Tarrant County to Collin County, and from San Antonio to Dallas, communities chose leaders who prioritize public education, inclusivity, and pragmatic governance over culture wars and partisan agendas. This widespread shift signals a growing resistance to extremist politics at the local level.

Gov. Greg Abbott threatened to pull state funding after the City of San Marcos placed a resolution in support of a ceasefire in Gaza on its City Council agenda for Tuesday.

The resolution, proposed by council members Alyssa Garza and Amanda Rodriguez, calls for an “immediate, permanent and sustained ceasefire in occupied Palestine,” an “arms embargo on the state of Israel” and “recognition of Palestinian sovereignty and protection of constitutional rights.”