Texas families and health care providers sued the state over Senate Bill 14, which restricts transgender youth from accessing gender-affirming care. The groups are requesting an injunction from a state district court judge before the law goes into effect on Sept. 1.
William Melhado
William Melhado was an Austin-based general assignment reporter until 2024. He originally joined the Tribune in 2022 as a Poynter-Koch fellow. Before his time at the Tribune, William worked as a staff writer at the Santa Fe Reporter, an alt-weekly newspaper in New Mexico, and he also worked as an educator for five years at a public high school in the Bronx, New York and 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.
Posted in
Immigration
Child dies while en route to Chicago as part of Gov. Greg Abbott’s migrant busing program
After a 3-year-old began showing signs of distress, the bus of asylum-seekers traveling from Brownsville to Chicago pulled over and an ambulance was called. The child later died at a hospital in Illinois.
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Higher Education
U.S. Department of Education reaffirms Baylor’s religious exemption in response to sexual harassment complaints
The university had asked the federal agency to dismiss sexual harassment complaints by LGBTQ+ students, arguing that the claims infringed on the school’s religious tenets.
Posted in
Politics
Sheriff says U.S. Rep. Ronny Jackson cursed at officers, threatened his job in rodeo altercation
The Amarillo Republican was briefly detained in the incident as he was trying to help a teenager suffering from a seizure.
Posted in
Texas Abortion Restrictions
Texas AG appeals judge’s order that allows women with complicated pregnancies to get abortions
State District Court Judge Jessica Mangrum on Friday issued a temporary exemption to Texas’ abortion ban. Hours later, the attorney general’s office filed an appeal, which blocked the order.
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Higher Education
Texas A&M regents could offer a settlement to the journalism professor at center of hiring controversy
The system’s board also plans to formally appoint an interim president after Katherine Banks resigned last week following news that the school changed its job offer to Kathleen McElroy, a Black journalism professor, after outcries from conservative groups.
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LGBTQ+ Texans
“Unbearable”: Doctors treating trans kids are leaving Texas, exacerbating adolescent care crisis
Texas doctors fear a new era of government intrusion into medicine as lawmakers ban transition care for kids following prohibitions on abortion.
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Higher Education
Texas A&M president says she didn’t know about job offer changes that led to professor’s botched hiring
M. Katherine Banks told faculty she was unaware of successive, diminished offers to Kathleen O. McElroy, who was recruited to revive a journalism program. Professors demanded an investigation.
Posted in
LGBTQ+ Texans
Twenty years after a breakthrough Texas case launched a new era of gay rights, trans people are still in the fight
The U.S. Supreme Court paved the way for major civil rights victories for queer Americans in the 2003 decision that decriminalized homosexuality. But progress for LGBTQ+ people has been uneven.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
State troopers will resume patrolling Austin streets in July, with some changes in response to criticism
Texas Department of Public Safety officers were criticized for the disparate number of Latino and Black residents arrested during the first iteration of a partnership to help Austin with policing duties.
