By MARK SHERMAN and JESSICA GRESKO Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A majority of the Supreme Court are signaling that they would allow abortion providers to pursue a court challenge to a Texas law that has virtually ended abortion in the nation’s second-largest state after six weeks of pregnancy. But it was unclear Monday how
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SAN MARCOS, Texas (AP) — An updated federal lawsuit alleges that police officials in San Marcos, Texas, refused to provide an escort for a Joe Biden campaign bus when it was surrounded by supporters of then-President Donald Trump on an interstate in October 2020. The updated lawsuit, filed Friday, included transcribed 911 audio recordings. The
Continue Reading By Amy Simonson, Rebekah Riess and Katelyn Polantz, CNN Texas on Friday filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration over its Covid-19 vaccine mandate for federal contractors, calling it unconstitutional. The move followed an announcement hours earlier from the Missouri Attorney General’s Office that a 10-state coalition had filed its own lawsuit against the administration
Continue Reading By Ben Church, CNN The NAACP sent an open letter to five players’ unions on Thursday, urging their athletes not to sign with teams in Texas. “Over the past few months, legislators in Texas have passed archaic policies, disguised as laws, that directly violate privacy rights and a woman’s freedom to choose, restrict access to
Continue Reading By Nicole Chavez, CNN A Texas Republican lawmaker has launched an inquiry to identify books at public school libraries and classrooms on the subjects of race or sex that might “make students feel discomfort.” State Rep. Matt Krause, a Republican who is chair of the Texas House Committee on General Investigating, sent a letter on
Continue Reading By Ariane de Vogue, CNN Supreme Court Reporter The Supreme Court received a flood of legal briefs Wednesday concerning Texas’ six-week abortion ban, which has rendered Roe v. Wade a dead letter in the country’s second largest state, in advance of next week’s oral arguments. The filings come after the court agreed last week to
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EL PASO, Texas — A majority of El Paso City Council members told the city attorney to continue with on-going litigation against the state of Texas over the governor’s order forbidding local face mask mandates. In a 5-3 vote on Tuesday, council members rejected a motion to drop the litigation undertaken by the city stemming
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AUSTIN, Texas — Texas’ transgender student athletes will be restricted from playing on K-12 school sports teams that align with their gender identity under a bill Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law this week. House Bill 25, authored by state Rep. Valoree Swanson, R-Spring, will require student athletes who compete in interscholastic competition to play on
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AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has signed redrawn voting maps that pave a safer path for the GOP’s slipping majority. Abbott signed the maps Monday near the end of a highly charged year in Texas over voting rights. Those maps keep most of Fort Bliss and the El Paso International Airport under the
Continue Reading By Rosa Flores, CNN The 27-year-old man tried to hold it together as he walked to his cell. It was weeks since he had been arrested. Weeks with no charges and no access to an attorney, he told CNN. Worst of all, two weeks without being able to talk to anyone on the outside, especially
Continue Reading By Ariane de Vogue, CNN Supreme Court Reporter Justice Sonia Sotomayor sent a strong reminder Friday that she is not a justice looking to carve out compromises with a conservative majority. She knows she will be in dissent in cases that most capture the public’s attention for the foreseeable future. Still, she writes to illuminate
Continue Reading WASHINGTON, DC — The U.S. Supreme Court is not immediately blocking the Texas law that bans most abortions, but has agreed to hear arguments in the case on Nov. 1. The court’s action on Friday leaves in place for the time being a law that clinics say has led to an 80% reduction in abortions
Continue Reading WASHINGTON (AP) — Texas is urging the Supreme Court to leave in place its law banning most abortions and telling the justices there’s no reason to rush into the case. The state filed its response Thursday to the Biden administration’s call on the high court to block the law and rule conclusively this term on
Continue Reading By Dianne Gallagher and Wesley Bruer, CNN John Scott, the newly appointed top election official in Texas, briefly represented President Donald Trump in his legal challenge of the 2020 election results in Pennsylvania. Gov. Greg Abbott announced Thursday his appointment of Scott, a Fort Worth attorney, to be the next Texas secretary of state. The
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EL PASO, Texas– Early voting for the Canutillo Independent School District’s multi-million dollar bond is underway this week. If passed, the bond will allocate $177.5 million dollars to school facilities for maintenance projects, and the new construction of campuses. The other $10 million would go to refinance older maintenance tax notes. Canutillo ISD officials said
Continue Reading By ACACIA CORONADO and PAUL J. WEBER Associated Press AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas Republicans have approved redrawn U.S. House maps that favor incumbents and could decrease political representation for growing minority communities in the nation’s largest red state. The Republican-controlled Legislature approved the maps late Monday night, and they will now be sent to
Continue Reading By MARK SHERMAN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is asking the Supreme Court to block the Texas law banning most abortions, while the fight over the measure’s constitutionality plays out in the courts. The administration has also taken the unusual step of telling the justices they could grant the Texas law full
Continue Reading AUSTIN, Texas — Legislation barring transgender children from participating in K-12 public school sports on teams that align with their gender identity passed Friday evening in the Texas Senate, despite impassioned speeches and legislative efforts by El Paso lawmakers to derail the measure. The bill passed Thursday evening in the House, and now moves back to
Continue Reading By PAUL J. WEBER Associated Press AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The Biden administration says it will turn next to the U.S. Supreme Court in another attempt to halt a Texas law that has banned most abortions since September. The announcement Friday by the Justice Department comes after an appeals court again left in place the
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AUSTIN, Texas — A federal appeals court is once again allowing Texas to continue banning most abortions. The decision Thursday night keeps the law known as Senate Bill 8 in place as the Justice Department tries halting the law. The Biden administration is suing Texas over the restrictions that ban abortions once cardiac activity is
Continue Reading SOUTHLAKE, Texas — A top administrator with the Carroll Independent School District in Southlake advised teachers last week that if they have a book about the Holocaust in their classroom, they should also offer students access to a book from an “opposing” perspective, according to an audio recording obtained by NBC News. Gina Peddy, the
Continue Reading By Ariane de Vogue, CNN Supreme Court Reporter Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton urged a powerful federal appeals court on Thursday to allow a state law that bars abortion after the detection of a fetal heartbeat to remain in effect while legal challenges play out. The new briefs are the latest salvo from Texas that
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AUSTIN, Texas — The scandal-plagued Texas Juvenile Justice Department is the target of a new federal civil rights investigation, the four U.S. Attorneys for the state announced at a news conference on Wednesday. The probe will examine whether children in Texas’ five state youth lockups are suffering from widespread sexual assault and other constitutional violations
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By Marshall Cohen and Hannah Rabinowitz, CNN A Texas florist became the 100th person to plead guilty in connection with the January 6 insurrection, a landmark moment more than nine months after the deadly attack on the US Capitol. Jenny Cudd, 37, pleaded guilty Wednesday to entering a restricted building, namely the Capitol. Cudd could
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UPDATE, Oct. 12: The Texas House unanimously approved an amendment Tuesday evening to the state’s redistricting map to include most of Fort Bliss in El Paso Rep. Art Fierro’s House District 79. The original redistricting map proposed by the Texas GOP had placed Fort Bliss in a district whose representative lives hundreds of miles away
Continue Reading By PAUL J. WEBER Associated Press AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The Biden administration is again urging courts to step in and suspend a new Texas law that has banned most abortions in the state since early September. The latest request came Monday night as clinics in Oklahoma, Louisiana and other states remain busy with Texas
Continue Reading By JIM VERTUNO Associated Press AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order Monday to prohibit any entity, including private business, from enforcing a COVID-19 vaccine mandate on workers and called on state lawmakers to pass a similar ban into law. The Republican previously sought to ban state and local governments
Continue Reading SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — The final price tag for a settlement reached by New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and a former campaign spokesman is now $150,000. The latest round of payments to settle accusations of harassment are disclosed in a mandatory campaign finance report that the Democrat’s campaign filed Monday. The staffer had
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By Andy Rose and Veronica Stracqualursi, CNN Allen West, Republican candidate for governor of Texas, is being treated at Medical City Plano, he said Sunday on Twitter, a day after announcing he has pneumonia due to Covid-19. The former Florida congressman said that he and his wife Angela “underwent monoclonal antibody infusion therapy” Saturday at
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By JUAN A. LOZANO Associated Press HOUSTON (AP) — Executions in the nation’s busiest capital punishment state face delays amid legal questions over Texas’ refusal to allow spiritual advisers to touch people as they are being put to death. It’s unclear when Texas may carry out another execution after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to
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