Lots of focus on Gov. Abbott vetoing funding for the legislative branch, but that was just one of 21 vetoes this session, including for several bills with broad bipartisan support. This one would have required Texas students get lessons on preventing domestic violence.
This one would have prohibited criminal courts from relying on statements obtained via *hypnosis*. You read that right: Hypnotizing people is still an acceptable investigative technique in Texas. (Be sure to read @lmcgaughy’s work on this interactives.dallasnews.com/2020/memory-ro… )
This one would have made it easier for people convicted of crimes when they were teenagers to be released on parole.
This one would have made it illegal to leave a dog chained up without adequate water, shade or shelter. It also would have banned the use of heavy chains.
This one, aimed at saving bees, would have created a program to encourage solar farms to *voluntarily* create bee-friendly natural habitats.
1. Y’all. It’s been a while since I’ve teamed up with @charlesornstein, & honestly, I‘d forgotten how tired you feel after a few days of churning with that guy...
We linked up last week to tell the story of what’s happening in Houston’s hospitals. Here’s what we found:
2. First we examined internal staff messages sent to hospital workers, which showed that some hospitals were already straining to keep up with COVID-19 hospitalizations a week ago. One public hospital had run out of a key drug. nbcnews.com/news/us-news/i…@NBCNews@propublica
3. Then we pulled public autopsy data and examined EMS response records to show that — as COVID cases surged — a growing number Houston area residents were dying suddenly at home. Another indicator that things are spiraling here. nbcnews.com/news/us-news/c…@NBCNews@propublica
Whelp, there it is. The Texas Medical Center has deleted its helpful charts showing base and surge ICU capacity. No longer part of the daily updates. Comes 3 days after Gov. Abbott ordered hospitals in Houston to stop doing elective surgeries to preserve ICU beds.
After Abbott issues his order on elective procedures, which could cut deeply into hospitals’ revenue, TMC leaders held a news conference. They hadn’t meant to alarm people when they warned about running out of ICU beds. houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-t…
After that, some Houston hospitals started sending notes to staff, like this one, which was passed to me. Now there was still plenty of ICU surge capacity, so despite the governor’s order, the hospitals were going to keep performing those elective procedures.
God I love Houston. An urban trail riding club, Nonstop Riders, has just rolled up to the downtown protest. Here’s Marcus Johnson of Houston’s Fifth award, fist raised in the air. “We’re here representing for all our black brothers and sisters.”
Cheers rose up from the crowd as these dudes rolled up. Clip-clip-clip-clop.
In case you’re wondering why Houston came out in force ...
About an hour after we published the story, hospital leaders sent an email to staff pledging to investigate and inviting them to come forward with concerns: nbcnews.com/news/us-news/w…
1/ In October we wrote the story of a mother who lost her daughter after being accused of harming her with medical treatments. There were serious problems with the evidence presented in her case. Now we're reporting on another just like it from Washington: nbcnews.com/news/us-news/h…
3/ Megan Carter reached out to us after reading it. “After we went through this, I wanted to just crawl away and never talk about it again,” she told me. “But then I was like, this is just going to keep happening.”