TribCast: Will the Texas Legislature pay Ken Paxton’s legal settlement?
In this week’s episode, Matthew speaks with James about lawmakers’ reluctance to spend $3.3 million on a whistleblower settlement for Attorney General Ken Paxton. Full Story
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How an old law found new life in lawsuit seeking to revoke approval of abortion pill
Anti-abortion advocates are trying to revive the long-dormant 1873 Comstock Act, which banned mailing of anything related to abortion or contraception, in a lawsuit about mifepristone, an abortion-inducing drug. Full Story
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![Abortion rights supporters gather in front of the federal courthouse in Amarillo on March 15, 2023.]()
Credit: David Bowser for The Texas Tribune -
Watch a conversation with Texas Tribune journalist Roxanna Asgarian about her new book
Asgarian, a law and courts reporter for the Tribune, talked about “We Were Once a Family,” a deeply reported story of a murder-suicide that claimed the lives of six children. Full Story
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In rural counties, Texas law puts low-income defendants at a disadvantage
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
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![Chief Public Defender of the Concho Valley Public Defender's Office Joe Stephens looks out at the Tom Green County Courthouse in San Angelo on March 12, 2023.]()
Credit: Eli Hartman for The Texas Tribune -
Texas AG Ken Paxton pushes court to reconsider injunction halting investigations into affirming care
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
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![Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks during a press conference at the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. on April 26, 2022. Earlier, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments for Texas v. Texas, the enforcement of the Trump-era “remain in Mexico” policy that required asylum seekers to stay in Mexico as they waited for hearings in U.S. immigration court. (Eric Lee for The Texas Tribune).]()
Credit: Eric Lee for The Texas Tribune -
Federal judge hears challenge to FDA approval of abortion drug
U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk said he would rule “as soon as possible” on the request for a preliminary injunction that would move mifepristone, a common abortion-inducing drug, off the market. Full Story
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![Kathy Thomas, far left, holds a sign that reads “abortion is healthcare” during the Women's March protest outside of the Federal Courthouse in Amarillo, on March 15, 2023. U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk hears a motion by anti-abortion groups, led by Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, to pull mifepristone, a drug used in medication abortion, off the market.]()
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Uvalde families ask to join suit pushing for DPS to release public records
The lawyers for some of the Uvalde families say there is “a compelling need” for records into the May 24 shooting at Robb Elementary to be publicly released. Full Story
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![Velma Duran, the sister of Irma Garcia, one of the two teachers killed in the Robb Elementary school shooting, confronts Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw after he finished testifying to the Homeland Security & Public Safety committee hearing at the state Capitol in Austin on Feb. 28, 2023. “They stood around and enabled the shooter to obliterate my sister. You couldn’t recognize her,” Duran said to McCraw. “Look at me!”]()
Credit: Evan L'Roy/The Texas Tribune -
Federal judge at center of FDA abortion drug case has history with conservative causes
U.S. District Matthew Kacsmaryk was once deputy counsel for the First Liberty Institute, the Plano-based conservative Christian law firm. Full Story
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![Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk.]()
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Ken Paxton’s campaign against election crimes ensnared a Texas justice of the peace three times before judges thwarted the efforts
Many of the illegal voting cases the Texas attorney general has boasted about are unraveling after a key court ruling. But Tomas Ramirez III said the pursuit of charges against him has taken its toll. Full Story
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![Medina County Precinct Four Justice of the Peace and attorney Tomas Ramirez III takes calls and responds to emails at his office in Devine on March 12, 2023.]()
Credit: Kaylee Greenlee Beal for The Texas Tribune -
Texas removed six Black children from their homes. Their adoptive parents drove them off a cliff.
After a murder-suicide in 2018, a reporter spent years investigating Texas’ troubled foster care system. Too often, it prioritized terminating parental rights over keeping birth families intact. Full Story
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![Clockwise: Devonte, Ciera, (group photo) and Jeremiah are seen in a CPS photo used for the Texas Adoption Resource Exchange (TERE)]()
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Workforce shortages in the state psychiatric hospital system prolong jail time for mentally ill Texans
The state has added more beds for jail inmates who need psychiatric treatment to be considered competent to face trial. But at least a third remain empty because the state can’t hire enough people to staff them. Full Story
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![The Austin State Hospital is shown on April 29, 2016. Despite an infusion of funding from lawmakers for the state’s mental health care system, Texas struggles to provide psychiatric care for all patients who need it.]()
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Ken Paxton’s whistleblowers ask Texas Supreme Court to take up their case as $3.3 million settlement in jeopardy
Lawyers for four former employees who accused the attorney general of firing them for reporting alleged crimes to authorities say Paxton won’t agree to finalizing the deadline by the end of this legislative session. Full Story
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![Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks at a press conference at the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. on April 26, 2022. Earlier, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments for Texas v. Texas, the enforcement of the Trump-era “remain in Mexico” policy that required asylum seekers to stay in Mexico as they waited for hearings in U.S. immigration court. (Eric Lee for The Texas Tribune).]()
Credit: Eric Lee for The Texas Tribune -
Uvalde district attorney fights release of public records against wishes of most families
Joining the Texas Department of Public Safety’s fight against the release of records, the district attorney claims the support of every family who lost a child in the 2022 mass shooting. Attorneys representing many of the families refute that claim. Full Story
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![A cross in memory of Eva Mireles is decorated for the holiday season, at the Memorial Plaza in Uvalde on Dec. 21, 2022.]()
Credit: Evan L'Roy/The Texas Tribune -
Texas experts dive into the state of public defense 60 years after Gideon decision
In 1963, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Gideon v. Wainwright that the Sixth Amendment’s guarantee of a right to a lawyer applies to criminal defendants. Together with the Texas Indigent Defense Commission, The Texas Tribune hosted a series of conversations Friday on public defense in Texas. Full Story
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![Victoria County Judge Ben Zeller speaks during a symposium on indigent public defense hosted by the Texas Tribune and the Texas Indigent Defense Commission inside the Texas State Capitol on Friday, March 17, 2023. The event discussed the effects of the 1963 Supreme Court ruling on Gideon v. Wainwright which required states to provide attorneys to defendents who could not afford them. (Sergio Flores for The Texas Tribune)]()
Credit: Sergio Flores for The Texas Tribune -
Women denied abortions sue Texas to clarify exceptions to the laws
Five women announced a new lawsuit Tuesday, marking the first time patients directly affected by new abortion laws have sought to challenge them in court. Full Story
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![Lauren Hall outside her home on Sept. 10, 2022. Hall had a non-viable pregnancy and had to leave the state in order to terminate, revealing gaps in the state's miscarriage exception after Roe v. Wade was overturned.]()
Credit: Shelby Tauber for The Texas Tribune -
Texas abortion funds likely safe from prosecution, federal judge rules
U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman dismissed Attorney General Ken Paxton from the lawsuit, ruling he had no authority to enforce Texas’ abortion bans beyond state lines. Full Story
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![Dr. Franz Theard, looks at a patient's sonogram at his abortion clinic, Women's Reproductive Clinic of New Mexico in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, on Jan. 13, 2023. Dr. Theard's abortion clinic, less than a mile from Texas, where abortion is illegal since the landmark legal case Roe v. Wade which protected a woman's constitutional right to an abortion was overturned, provides medical abortions for women who are flying and driving hundreds of miles across Texas.]()
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Look up your representatives in the Tribune’s elected officials directory
Look up information about every statewide elected official, every member of the Texas Legislature and every Texan in Congress and see who represents you. Full Story
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![State Representatives and their families sit on the House floor on the opening day of the 88th Legislative Session at the state Capitol in Austin on Jan. 10, 2023.]()
Credit: Evan L'Roy/The Texas Tribune -
Lawyers representing children in federal foster care lawsuit rebuked for hiring lobbyists
Texas lawmakers and a federal judge say attorneys in the case against the state’s Department of Family and Protective Services should not hire lobbyists using funds won in court. Full Story
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![Heart Galleries, portraits of adoptable children, on display at the Child Protective Services office at the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services in Austin on Nov. 14, 2019.]()
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Federal judge dismisses Wendy Davis’ challenge to Texas abortion ban
Davis, best known for her 13-hour filibuster of a 2013 abortion bill, sought to block the state’s ban on abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy. A federal judge found Davis had not “articulated a credible, imminent threat.” Full Story
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![A sign advertising an organization that offers services to abortion patients is on the wall at Whole Woman’s Health of Austin on Wednesday, September 1, 2021.]()
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D.C.-based DOJ investigators take over corruption probe into Attorney General Ken Paxton
Paxton’s lawyer had argued that federal prosecutors based out of San Antonio had an “obvious conflict” in the investigation. Full Story
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![Ken Paxton poses for a photo with guests at his primary election results watch party in McKinney, TX on March 1, 2022.]()
Credit: Shelby Tauber for The Texas Tribune