Ramirez is currently a U.S. magistrate judge for the Northern District of Texas, serving in that role for over two decades.
2023
Posted in
Texas Legislature 2023
After school voucher bill falls apart, supporters and opponents get ready for future fights
The Texas House’s vote to block education savings accounts disappointed voucher advocates and likely spelled doom for additional public school funding. Both bands say they’ll keep pushing for their priorities during next year’s primary elections and the 2025 legislative session.
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Politics
Texas GOP executive committee rejects proposed ban on associating with Nazi sympathizers and Holocaust deniers
Some members of the committee said such a ban, proposed two months after a prominent conservative activist was caught meeting with a famous white supremacist, might be a “slippery slope” or too vague.
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Politics
With GOP priorities unfinished, Texas House plans to wrap fourth special session Tuesday
The decision to end work Tuesday leaves long odds for bills to boost school safety funding and make sure that election challenges don’t delay the implementation of property tax cuts, teacher pension raises and infrastructure spending.
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Climate Change in Texas
Texas will have to cut methane emissions from oil fields under new federal climate rule
The Biden Administration announced a crackdown on methane emissions, a major driver of climate change. Major oil and gas companies also signed on to a voluntary net-zero commitment.
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State Government
Texas must remove floating barrier from Rio Grande, Fifth Circuit Court orders
The appeals court upheld an earlier ruling by an Austin federal judge to remove the 1,000-foot-long barrier the state deployed near Eagle Pass.
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Texas Legislature 2023
Texas Senate passes its own school safety funding bill, but little time remains to get it across the finish line
Senate Bill 5 would send an extra $800 million to public schools for security upgrades over the next two years. But the measure is at risk of becoming the latest casualty of the rift between the Texas House and Senate.
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Texas Legislature 2023
Texas Legislature sends $1.54 billion bill for border barriers to Gov. Abbott
Senate Bill 3 would also appropriate $40 million for state troopers to patrol Colony Ridge, a housing development outside of Houston, and allow the state to send money to local jurisdictions to offset the cost of enforcing another immigration-related bill.
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Politics
Tax cuts, teacher pension increases at stake after misinformation-led challenge to 2023 election
Tax cuts were a major legislative priority for Republican leaders, including Gov. Greg Abbott. The governor cannot certify the election results until the challenges are resolved.
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Courts
Sandra Day O’Connor, born in El Paso, remains point of civic pride
O’Connor, the first female U.S. Supreme Court justice, died Friday. She is more commonly known as an Arizonan, but she graduated high school in Texas and multiple schools here now bear her name.