The Senate expanded the bill targeting drag queen story hours to target all public funding for libraries. The upper chamber also approved a bill limiting other drag performances kids can see.
April 2023
Posted in
Courts
Texas Supreme Court chief justice calls for higher judicial salaries, business courts
In his biennial state of the judiciary, Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Nathan Hecht also warned against politics’ encroachment into the third branch of government.
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Texas Legislature 2023
Bill intended to force Texas prosecutors to pursue abortion, election cases passes Senate
The bill, a priority for Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, is part of a larger effort to limit the power of elected prosecutors, especially in Texas’ largest, left-leaning counties.
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Guns in Texas
Texas Senate approves bill that would create mandatory prison or probation terms for some gun crimes
Sen. Joan Huffman said the bill was in response to increased violent crime since 2019. Legislative researchers could not determine how the bill would affect the state’s prison population.
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Texas Legislature 2023
State retirees struggle through inflation while budget plans leave them out
Budget proposals in the Texas Legislature include billions in raises for current and retired teachers, as well as current state employees. So far, retired state employees are not mentioned in the budget plans. The state’s former public servants haven’t had a pension raise in 20 years.
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Guns in Texas
Sutherland Springs shooting victims reach tentative $144.5 million settlement with U.S. government
The U.S. Department of Justice also agreed to drop its appeal of a lawsuit in which a judge found the military mostly at fault for the 2017 mass shooting at a church.
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Texas Legislature 2023
Quran taken from Texas Capitol chapel recovered by state police. They aren’t saying who removed it.
Days after it went missing, DPS identified the person who removed a family Quran Rep. Salman Bhojani had placed in the chapel. The state has since provided its own copy.
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Environment
Texas has the fifth-highest percentage of water pipes made of lead
In a first-of-its-kind survey of public water utilities, the EPA estimates that 7% of water lines in Texas, more than 647,000, are lead based. It’s the fifth-highest proportion of lead-based water lines in the country.
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LGBTQ+ Texans
GOP Texas senators pull their support for allowing some transgender kids to keep receiving puberty blockers and hormone therapy
The Senate approved Senate Bill 14, which would ban transition-related care for transgender kids. Republicans had previously voted to allow kids currently receiving such care to continue doing so.
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Texas Legislature 2023
Family of dead National Guardsman urges Legislature to make death benefits bill named for him retroactive
While the state guarantees law enforcement officers, like Department of Public Safety troopers, a $500,000 death benefit for their families if they die on duty, National Guard troops who stand shoulder to shoulder with those DPS officers on Operation Lone Star don’t have the same benefit.