Texas bill advancing in the Senate would block minors from updating gender on birth certificates
Opponents of the bill call it a “power play aimed at making the lives of transgender children as difficult as possible.” Full Story
William Melhado is an Austin-based general assignment reporter. He originally joined the Tribune in 2022 as a Poynter-Koch fellow. He previously worked as a staff writer at the Santa Fe Reporter, an alt-weekly newspaper in New Mexico. Before pursuing a career in journalism, William worked as an educator for five years and taught science at a public high school in the Bronx, New York and taught at international schools in Tanzania and Nepal. A native of Boulder, Colorado, William graduated from Middlebury College with a bachelor's degree in chemistry and earned a master’s in secondary science education at CUNY Lehman College.
Opponents of the bill call it a “power play aimed at making the lives of transgender children as difficult as possible.” Full Story
Former president focuses his ire on political enemies and says he will have the back of supporters who have been wronged or betrayed. Full Story
Trump’s first major rally of the 2024 campaign came days after he said he was to be arrested by New York authorities as part of an investigation into alleged hush payments to a former adult film star. Full Story
Uvalde officials said U.S. Border Patrol responded to a 911 call alerting them about a group of people who were trapped for hours inside of a shipping container. Full Story
In 2021, a bill that would block transgender kids’ access to transition-related care passed the Senate but died in the Texas House. This year, a majority of House members back such a ban. Full Story
Proposed legislation from Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, would criminalize explicit performances where children are present and strip libraries of state funding for hosting any event featuring performers in drag. Critics say the bill is discriminatory and unconstitutional. Full Story
In his third consecutive bid for the White House, the former president hopes “Trump Country” supporters in Texas will turn out next Saturday. Full Story
A two-tiered system gives less populated counties more time to provide court-appointed lawyers, requiring creative responses to a long-standing problem. Full Story
In the state’s final brief to appeal a September injunction that halted the investigation into Texas parents of transgender children, Paxton argued that individual families must provide evidence of harm from the actions of the Department of Family and Protective Services. Full Story
Under Senate Bill 23, all felonies involving a gun would incur a mandatory 10-year prison sentence. It’s meant to curb crime, despite the lack of correlation between harsher sentences and crime rates. Full Story