Texas Legislature

A Democrat State Representative filed a bill this week to modify the Texas Castle Doctrine law. The bill would require homeowners to be “unable to safely retreat” before using deadly force.

Voters in Texas sustained the Republican majority in the state’s House of Representatives despite millions of outside dollars poured into races.

Texas House of Representatives member Gene Wu (D-137) lamented on Twitter Friday evening that it would be “hard to serve a prison sentence” if President Donald Trump dies of Coronavirus. Not long after, the tweet was deleted and replaced with well wishes for a full recovery. The southwest Houston politician did not offer an apology for the original statement.

The Texas Legislature passed a bill to make red light cameras illegal in the Lone Star State. The Governor signed the bill on Saturday and placed it into law. Existing cameras can stay in place until the local jurisdictions contract with the supporting companies expire.

Two members of the Texas House of Representatives are preparing a bill that would provide $2.5 billion to fund a border wall. The proposal would take the money from Texas’ “Rainy Day Fund.”

Harris County, Texas, stands accused of “hiding public information” on noncitizen voters, says a national election integrity law firm.

Texas took its fight for the State’s new anti-sanctuary jurisdiction ban to the appellate courts. A judge appointed by then-President Bill Clinton blocked the law’s prohibition on ignoring U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainers and provisions that address policies that “materially limit” the enforcement of federal immigration laws.

Members of the Texas House introduced a series of bills in an apparent attempt to obstruct the conservative agenda set by Governor Greg Abbott. The Texas Constitution states that there shall be no legislation on subjects other than those designated by the governor in his proclamation calling for the special session.

A woman in a Houston area suburb was shocked when a man with a child in a stroller started filming her in a Target dressing room. She was even more shocked when no one near the fitting room came to her aid while she was screaming.

A new video captures a Texas Democrat encouraging protest disruptions from the floor of the State House of Representatives last week. The video was taken moments before the now-famous confrontation between Republican Rep. Matt Rinaldi (R-Irving) and Hispanic Democrat legislators.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed a bill into law Tuesday which not only bans dismemberment abortion in the state; it prohibits the purchase or sale of baby body parts. The law also requires that aborted remains be disposed of in a humane and respectful way.

President Donald Trump kept the threat of voter fraud on the front pages both before and after the 2016 Election. Although ballots have long since been counted, cases of illegal voting and other election law violations continue to surface in the aftermath.

DREAMERs and undocumented supporters were at the Texas Capitol to protest the anti-sanctuary legislation debated by the House of Representatives. Several “sanctuary city” sheriffs also showed their support.

A video of a Senate hearing shows two state senators challenging the Texas Association of Business (TAB) president about his dire warnings of economic destruction if the “bathroom bill” is passed. One of the senators accused the TAB official of spreading “absolutely fake news.”

The protracted public relations campaign on behalf of a non-U.S. citizen found to have voted illegally in north Texas continued over the weekend pages of The New York Times.

Leading Texas Republican lawmakers and officials publicly endorsed a bill that would make permanent a voter ID “safety net” allowing those without proper documentation to cast a regular ballot if they sign an affidavit.

A federal judge has blocked Texas from stripping Planned Parenthood’s taxpayer Medicaid funding.

The Texas Attorney General has issued a letter signing off on the legality of requiring governmental entities to cooperate with federal authorities when they are enforcing immigration laws. Police officers may also not be prohibited from verifying immigration status.

The transgender bathroom battle is being hit straight-on in the Lone Star State. A state senator has pre-filed a bill which she says “seeks to put an end to a controversy that began in Washington D.C.”

A showdown is looming in the Texas Legislature over in-state tuition benefits for the children of illegal immigrants as the two top leaders of the state’s legislative bodies are at odds on the issue.

The federal judge overseeing a class action lawsuit against the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (TDFPS) has issued an order that finds that the agency has not been complying with her December 2015 order keeping the department from placing children in foster homes that lack 24-hour supervision. She opines that the state agency has continued to have children in these facilities for over a year.

A Democrat senator from Austin, Texas, has pre-filed a bill that if passed, would add a college or university ID to the list of forms of identification that could be used for voting in Texas.

There is going to be a fight in Texas and those on both sides of the transgender bathroom issue pledge all-out efforts.

Austin firefighters sued for allegedly spending time on union activities instead of answering emergency calls have filed their response to the lawsuit that seeks to halt the practice.

Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) Director, Colonel Steve McCraw, told a Texas House committee that only two of Texas’ fourteen border counties are under “operational control.” No Texas border counties have been raised to the highest security level of “substantial control.”

The Texas Legislature could look into new state-level immigration laws to give police more authority in immigration-related cases. During a meeting of the Texas House’s State Affairs Committee, Texas Deputy Attorney General Brantley Starr told legislators they could create state-level immigration laws if they were careful to carve out unique areas that did not conflict or step on federal immigration laws.

The LGBT lobby has been in full-throttle since a conservative Texas state representative filed bills which would undermine its agenda. The Washington, D.C., based LGBT advocacy group has flooded Rep. Debbie Riddle (R-Tomball) with public information requests seeking all communications of any sort with pastors, faith organizations, and others – in all, 43 conservative and religious groups and individuals.

One hundred forty people have committed suicide in Texas county jails over the past five years. This disturbing trend was revealed in the wake of the hanging suicide of Sandra Bland in the Waller County jail two weeks ago.

Few public policy issues are more boring than public employee pensions.

Really, who wants to sit around the dinner table and talk about pension amortization, funded ratios, or unfunded liabilities? By comparison, C-SPAN 2 looks like a summer blockbuster.

One Texas legislator seems to be finding criticism over a bill he filed too much to take, lashing out at critics on Twitter, then deleting some of his most intemperate remarks, as well as deleting critical comments from his Facebook page before finally taking down the page altogether.