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Nov 22 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
On Friday, the Texas State Board of Education approved a state-authored curriculum under intense scrutiny in recent months for its heavy inclusion of biblical teachings.
Here’s what you need to know about the new lessons and how an Abbott-appointee became the deciding vote. 🧵
The new curriculum proposed by the Texas Education Agency inserts Bible teachings into K–5 reading and language arts lessons.
For example, a fifth-grade lesson on the Renaissance uses Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper to teach students about Jesus and the twelve disciples.
Oct 11 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
In Texas’ biggest purple county Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare is creating a playbook for local governing. From cutting social services to changing election rules, the far-right republican has pushed his agenda with an uncompromising approach.
Over the past two decades, O’Hare methodically amassed power in North Texas as he pushed incendiary policies such as banning undocumented immigrants from renting homes and vilifying school curriculum that encouraged students to embrace diversity.
Aug 18, 2023 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
1/ Overnight, House managers published nearly 4,000 pages of evidence ahead of next month’s impeachment trial of suspended Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Here’s what we know so far.
texastribune.org/2023/08/18/ken…2/ Included in the 3,760 pages are 150 exhibits. These documents give granular details of how Paxton allegedly abused his office to help Austin real estate developer Nate Paul.
1/ Over the past quarter century, a war machine was constructed inside the Texas Office of Attorney General, designed to push conservative legal doctrine through the courts.
Here’s how Texas got here — and what it means for the country's future. bit.ly/3KjCMC12/ Under three attorneys general, John Cornyn, Greg Abbott, and Ken Paxton, the office began assembling an all-star team to barrage the federal courts with state-funded lawsuits born of increasingly overt right-wing activism. bit.ly/3KjCMC1
May 22, 2023 • 12 tweets • 5 min read
1/On May 24, 2022, 19 children and two teachers were killed in the Robb Elementary shooting.
The shooting also caused emotional and psychological damage to a generation of children in Uvalde. The Treviños are one of many families adapting to a new reality.texastribune.org/2023/05/22/tex…2/ Three of the Treviños’ kids — Austin, Illiaña and David James — have been diagnosed with PTSD.
The kids attended Robb Elementary and were on campus on May 24 for an awards ceremony. Their mom, Jessica, picked them up from school shortly before the shooting began.
Mar 20, 2023 • 11 tweets • 5 min read
1/ Officers responding to the Uvalde shooting said they were afraid to immediately engage the gunman because he was using an AR-15, a Texas Tribune investigation has revealed.
This drove their decision to wait over an hour for a Border Patrol SWAT team. bit.ly/40lOYHX2/ In never before released body camera footage and post-action interviews, officers described realizing the gunman had an AR-15 style rifle and concluding that confronting him would be too dangerous because of its firepower. bit.ly/40lOYHX
Feb 2, 2023 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
Many of the beloved trees across Texas’ Hill Country snapped under the weight of heavy ice that accumulated during multiple days of freezing rain this week.
They frequently damaged power lines, homes, and property on their way down.
texastribune.org/2023/02/02/cen…
Ice can increase the weight of tree branches up to 30 times, according to Kerri Dunn, a communications manager for Oncor.
Some trees, like live oaks and ashe junipers, are also more likely to have broken limbs or split trunks in an ice storm.
1/ Freezing temperatures and ice are expected in much of Texas through at least Thursday.
Here’s a running list of Texas warming centers, mutual aid and safety tips. If you know of any other resources in your community, please reply to this thread to share them with others.
2/ Here’s a list of warming centers open across North Texas: nbcdfw.com/news/local/war…
Jan 27, 2023 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
The growing, far-right “constitutional sheriff” movement wrongly claims that sheriffs have the power to override federal and state authority.
While legal scholars say the movement has no grounding in law, it is gaining steam, especially in Texas.
texastribune.org/2023/01/13/con…
The Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, the key organization fueling the movement, led around a dozen training sessions in Texas in 2020 and 2021.
Some 50 Texas sheriffs and numerous elected officials have attended those trainings.
Twenty-six migrants, including a baby, were buried at the Maverick County Cemetery after their bodies were found in the Rio Grande.
They would likely have remained unidentified if Texas State students hadn’t exhumed their bodies.
texastribune.org/2023/01/24/tex…
Teams of students have been working to learn the names of the unidentified migrants so their families can be notified.
“It’s not easy work, but it’s work that needs to be done. I know that this easily could have been someone in my family.”
Texas’ electric regulators have approved a new plan that would make substantial changes to the state’s electricity market.
Regulators will let the Legislature review the plan before putting it in place. Here’s a breakdown of what it would change⤵️.
texastribune.org/2023/01/19/tex…
The idea, known as the “performance credit mechanism,” is a first-of-its-kind proposal meant to help produce enough power when extreme heat or cold drives up demand and electricity production drops.
1/ It’s hard for teens to access contraceptives and sex education beyond abstinence in Sabine County.
The Deep East Texas county has one of the highest teen birth rates in the state. texastribune.org/2023/01/04/eas…2/ Nearly 7% of teenage girls between the ages of 15 and 19 gave birth in 2020 in Sabine County, which has no family planning clinic. The statewide average was 2% that year.
Dec 21, 2022 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
1/ With Title 42 still in limbo, National Guard members, armed with rifles, began blocking dozens of migrants from crossing a shallow spot in the Rio Grande River near El Paso on Tuesday.
texastribune.org/2022/12/20/tex…2/ Title 42, a pandemic-era emergency order that immigration officials have used to expel migrants immediately, was set to expire Wednesday. But the U.S. Supreme Court stopped the policy from being lifted after a request by 19 Republican-led states.
Delays during the Uvalde school shooting doomed the quest to save victims with a pulse.
Records obtained by @propublica, @washingtonpost and the Tribune show in striking detail how the muddled police response hampered emergency medical services. bit.ly/3G9yk7j@propublica@washingtonpost Fourth-grade teacher Eva Mireles was still conscious when police carried her out of classroom 112. As more ambulances began to arrive, she wasn’t put inside one until 16 minutes after police stormed the school.
1/ A recently released Texas maternal mortality report showed that Black women continue to be disproportionately impacted by critical health issues during pregnancy and childbirth.
texastribune.org/2022/12/17/tex…2/ A decade ago, Black women in Texas were twice as likely as white women to die from pregnancy and childbirth.
1/ In April, a Texas National Guard member named Bishop Evans drowned after jumping into the Rio Grande to save two migrants being swept away by the current.
His family members will receive no financial payment.
New with @ArmyTimes. bit.ly/3V5xUD82/ If Bishop Evans had been a trooper for the Department of Public Safety or a game warden for the Parks and Wildlife Department, his family would have received a $500,000 lump-sum payment to ease the burden of his passing. bit.ly/3V5xUD8
Dec 15, 2022 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
🧵 In 26 days, the Texas Legislature will convene for its biennial regular session. Lawmakers are sitting atop an enormous, $27 billion budget surplus, and Texans are worried about public education, the power grid, property taxes, the economy and health care. #txlege
Texans need an authoritative source to explain how the actions of state lawmakers impact life in the state. That’s why our reporters work day in and day out — and sometimes overnight — monitoring consequential legislation and watchdogging our lawmakers. bit.ly/3uBEoi4
Dec 15, 2022 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
NEW: Parents, full of anger and disbelief, have confronted school leaders in the Lubbock area over a series of racist and antisemitic incidents in several schools. bit.ly/3HD3tBd
Parents say Black students have endured months of racism, from racial slurs to physical threats.
Students even reported hearing the sounds of cracking whips as they walked the hallways at one school. bit.ly/3HD3tBd
Dec 14, 2022 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
In the near West Side, a mostly Latino, mostly low-income San Antonio community born of segregation and redlining, residents are fighting back against the pressures of redevelopment as they work to keep their neighborhood affordable. 🧵
bit.ly/3hgQqdR
The West Side was once one of the few places Mexican Americans were allowed to live in San Antonio. The neighborhood has persisted through a lasting record of indignities and negligence.
Photo by Azul Sordo / The Texas Tribune
Dec 8, 2022 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
When infrastructure failures that impact water quality or electricity affect day-to-day life in Texas, our nonprofit newsroom is quick to provide critical information to help Texans. (🧵)
Just last month, when Houston issued a boil-water notice, several readers said it was our text message that first alerted them. We spoke with Houstonians grappling with the notice, many of whom said the city of Houston failed to effectively communicate. bit.ly/3BjUTTQ
Nov 22, 2022 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
1/ Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is attempting to toss out 2,000 provisional ballots that were cast during extended voting hours in Harris County, the state’s most populous county and home to Houston. bit.ly/3AzcxTm2/ A judge on election night ordered polling locations in the county to stay open an hour later following reports of “widespread problems”, including voting locations opening more than an hour late and having a shortage of paper ballots. bit.ly/3AzcxTm
