#tribfest23 closing keynote. First Q from @evanasmith: Are you running for president?

Manchin: “I don’t know … I’ll do whatever it takes to try to bring my country together.” Expects to make decision by end of the year. Manchin says only way to win presidency is through independents. Says he will not run to be a spoiler. “There’s no one willing to take our place” in global leadership. “We are the hope of the world because we’ve answered that call.” #TribFest23

EXCLUSIVE: The Texas Observer, the crusading liberal magazine founded in 1954, which Molly Ivins edited in the ’70s, is closing down and laying off its staff. The board voted on Wednesday, and again today, to proceed with the shutdown.

texastribune.org/2023/03/26/tex… Co-founded by Ronnie Dugger in 1954, @TexasObserver chronicled an era in which Texas flipped from solidly D to solidly R. Unfortunately, it relied on a small number of major donors and didn’t manage to broaden its audience.

texastribune.org/2023/03/26/tex…

Today I had the privilege of interviewing Anthony Graves, who served 18.5 years in prison (12 of them on death row) for a mass murder he did not commit. He was freed in 2010 and later awarded $1.4m in compensation.

texastribune.org/2023/03/07/tex… Mr. Graves told me that a mix of naivete, faith, love and determination sustained him and kept him from losing his sanity and his humanity while he was imprisoned—in solitary confinement during his time on death row.

NEWS: @TexasTribune is one of 11 new @_trustproject partners! We abide by 8 Trust Indicators including fairness and accuracy; transparency about our mission, funding and methods; diversity of perspectives; and opportunities for engagement.
thetrustproject.org/2023/03/trust-… The @_trustproject’s guiding principles stem from the 1947 Hutchins Commission on Freedom of the Press. The 8 Trust Indicators show who and what is behind a news story so people can easily assess for themselves whether it comes from a credible source.

Listening to @georgewill and @KarlRove on “The Future of Conservatism,” sponsored by @LBJFoundation @TheLBJSchool @ClementsCenter and UT Athenaeum. Packed crowd at @LBJLibrary. What is conservatism? Rove: “We used to be the party that was constitutionalist, limited government, federalism and strong national defense and respect for the individual. A lot of those old touchstones have been ignored or diminished.”

EXCLUSIVE: @TexasTribune @propublica obtained recordings of 911 calls and emergency communications from the Uvalde school shooting. They lay bare the urgency and desperation conveyed by children and teachers.
texastribune.org/2022/11/01/uva… The calls reveal inadequate communication, command and coordination. In some calls, officers said they were unaware that anyone aside from the gunman was in Rooms 111-112 — even as dispatchers were getting desperate calls from children seeking help. propublica.org/article/uvalde…

NEW INVESTIGATION: Churches routinely break the law by endorsing candidates, an investigation by @JinATX @jessica_priest for @TexasTribune @propublica found. The IRS has largely abdicated enforcement of a 1954 law prohibiting such campaigning.
texastribune.org/2022/10/30/joh… Our two newsrooms documented at least 18 violations of the Johnson Amendment. That’s more than the entire total number of churches the IRS has investigated for intervening in political campaigns over the past decade.
texastribune.org/2022/10/30/joh…

Watching third and final episode of #USandTheHolocaustPBS. It points out that many US newspapers downplayed the Holocaust. A Black paper, the Pittsburgh Courier, was a notable exception.

newyorker.com/culture/cultur… Gerhart Riegner, 30, a @WorldJewishCong representative, learned of Nazi plans for mass murder. On 8/8/42 he made a report at the US Consulate in Geneva. It made its way to Washington—with a cover letter saying the report seemed like “a war rumor.”

It’s been four months since the tragedy in Uvalde. In June I shared that @TexasTribune is committed to staying on the ground and writing about the Uvalde community’s challenges and hopes, while holding officials to account. We’re keeping our promise. bit.ly/3BT34Hr We recently published, with @propublica, a powerful investigation into @TxDPS. State troopers outnumbered local law enforcement 2-to-1, but DPS has refused to release records or answer detailed questions about its response — while blaming local police. bit.ly/3B7jytS

Episode 2 of #USandTheHolocaustPBS opens in 1938 with Kristallnacht. Even Americans who didn’t want to let in Jewish refugees spoke out against the Nazi violence.

@deborahlipstadt: “This is a country seemingly going crazy. Seemingly completely out of control.”

https://twitter.com/KenBurns/status/1572009678204182529

FDR recalled US ambassador to Germany—the only world leader to do so. He allowed Jews in US on tourist visas to stay.

In surveys at the time, Americans deplored the violence but opposed lifting the immigration quotas, which only Congress had power to do.

Watching #USandTheHolocaustPBS is doubly painful. It reminds us of the fragility of democracy, at home and abroad, and of the consequences of failing to live up to our humanitarian ideals.

https://twitter.com/kenburns/status/1571648889878450176

The film draws a powerful thread across slavery, Chinese exclusion, eugenics, antisemitism, immigration restrictions, Japanese incarceration.

Perhaps the most damning/horrifying revelation: Trump didn’t make his Rose Garden appearance (at 4:03pm) until AFTER it was clear that the insurrection wouldn’t succeed—the military had been mobilized and the lawmakers had made it to safety. In today’s hearing, every witness on record describing Trump’s Jan. 6 conduct—Pottinger, Matthews, Milley, Cipollone, Kushner, Deere, Luna, Murtaugh, Miller, McEntee—is a Trump appointee. A damning portrait from everyone around him that day. #Jan6thHearings

White House security official: “Members of the VP detail at this time were starting to fear for their own lives.” Some spoke of saying goodbye to their families. Knowing the Capitol had been breached by an armed mob, Trump unleashed 2:24pm tweet criticizing Pence.

Former deputy national security adviser Matt Pottinger: “It looked like fuel being poured on the fire. That was the moment I decided to resign.”

My statement: “The big picture is of a government that generally ignores or does not comply promptly with public information requests and then selectively provides information according to what narrative it wants to shape in any particular moment.” vanityfair.com/news/2022/07/w… We are proud to be part of a broad coalition of media (including @propublica @TPRNews @ExpressNews @statesman @HoustonChron @dallasnews @nytimes) seeking the release of records relating to the May 24 school shooting in Uvalde.

At ⁦@AspenInstitute⁩, ⁦@neal_katyal⁩ just said current SCOTUS is the most conservative in our lifetimes and one of the 3 most conservative in US history. The others were in 1857 and 1935; neither time did things go well. “If Roe can be overruled, then any precedent can be overruled.” Roe was a “super-precedent,” handed down by a conservative majority in 1973 and affirmed by a conservative majority in 1992. Real risk of SCOTUS losing its legitimacy.

For months @TexasTribune has been preparing for this day. Texas gave birth to Roe v. Wade (1973). It will now be the largest state to ban all abortions from the moment of fertilization. @eklib: texastribune.org/2022/06/22/sup… .@WholeWomans, which runs four clinics in Texas and half a dozen in other states, just announced it has stopped providing abortions in Texas. @erinmdouglas23 @eklib: texastribune.org/2022/06/24/tex…

“SB8 has had a chilling effect on a broad range of health care professionals, adversely affecting patient care and endangering people’s lives.” ⁦@NEJM⁩: nejm.org/doi/full/10.10… “After receiving fetal diagnoses of spina bifida and trisomy 18, a 39-year-old woman was shocked that her physician would not even inform her about termination options.”

NEW—> Exactly four weeks after Uvalde school shooting, US Senate votes 64-34 to advance first major bipartisan gun legislation since 1994, with support from @JohnCornyn @LeaderMcConnell and over @NRA opposition. This is big. texastribune.org/2022/06/21/sen… The legislation doesn’t restrict rights of existing gun owners — a non-starter for Senate Republicans. But it would help remove guns from dangerous people; enhance background checks for purchasers under 21; and provide $15 billion for mental health and anti-violence programs.

NEW by @tlangford —> “Y’all don’t know if there’s kids in there? If there’s kids in there, we need to go in there.”

Then nearly an hour passed. Officers in Uvalde had weapons, shields, and even an ax-like door-breaker at the ready. But not clear orders.
texastribune.org/2022/06/20/uva… Revelations about what happened at Robb Elementary on May 24 have come out in @nytimes @ExpressNews @washingtonpost @statesman and elsewhere. Here, we try to put it together. Our analysis builds on that work + includes material not previously disclosed. texastribune.org/2022/06/20/uva…

Tonight @TexasTribune is publishing a minute-by-minute account by @tlangford of the law enforcement response to the May 24 Uvalde school shooting, based on a review of timelines, documents, and video footage, some of which hasn’t been publicly released. In the four weeks since the massacre, questions have swirled around police actions that day — including whether some lives could have been saved if officers had confronted the barricaded shooter sooner. texastribune.org/2022/05/25/tex…

I’m reporting with ⁦@eric_neugeboren⁩ from ⁦@TexasGOP⁩ convention in Houston, where the draft platform calls for requiring students to learn that life begins at fertilization and to listen to live ultrasounds. Story coming soon. The party’s 2020 platform was *relatively* more moderate and economy-focused, after TX D’s made gains in 2018 statehouse races and w an unpopular Trump in the WH. Two years later, culture war issues and condemnation of Biden are at the forefront.