AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A state judge has shielded, for now, Texas abortion clinics from lawsuits by an anti-abortion group under a new state abortion law. The law, which took effect Wednesday, allows anyone anywhere to sue anyone connected to an abortion in which cardiac activity was detected in the embryo. However, state District Judge
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NEW YORK (AP) — Ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft say they will cover the legal fees of any driver who is sued under the new law prohibiting most abortions in Texas. The Texas law bans abortions once medical professionals can detect cardiac activity, usually around six weeks and often before women know they’re pregnant. Rather
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By STEPHEN GROVES Associated Press SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem says the National Guard troops that she deployed to the U.S. border with Mexico will return later this month. The Republican governor deployed 48 National Guard troops to Texas in July. The deployment came in response to a request from
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El PASO, Texas — Preparing for the worst, without traumatizing students. That’s the goal of a new Texas law, Senate bill 168, sponsored by El Paso state Sen. Cesar Blanco that went into effect this week. Active shooter drills are not new in Texas, but the law changes how they’ll be conducted. The new law
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By Nicole Chavez, CNN An abortion fund that helps hundreds of women in the southernmost region of Texas each year has stopped answering its hotline after one of the strictest bans in the nation went into effect this week. “Our very existence is a risk. The fact that we exist as an organization puts us
Continue Reading EL PASO, Texas — A judge Thursday afternoon granted the City of El Paso’s request for a temporary injunction, blocking Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive order forbidding mask mandates. County Court at Law Judge Ruben Morales’ ruling allows El Paso City/County Health Authority Dr. Hector Ocaranza to institute mask rules. As a result, Ocaranza announced
Continue Reading WASHINGTON, DC — A new Texas law that effectively bans most abortions prompted President Joe Biden on Wednesday to use a word he’d entirely avoided as president: “Abortion.” The absence of the word in Biden’s public remarks and statements has frustrated activists, who say it reflects an issue that fell off the priority list even as women’s right to
Continue Reading By JESSICA GRESKO Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is denouncing the Supreme Court’s decision not to block a new Texas law banning most abortions in the state. He said Thursday he is directing federal agencies to do what they can to “insulate women and providers” from the impact. Hours earlier, in the
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EL PASO, Texas — Starting Wednesday, more Texans will now be eligible for low-THC after a new law taking effect extends the state’s medicinal marijuana program to more patients. In 2015, the state started the Compassionate Use Registry of Texas that is run by the Department of Public Safety. The registry keeps track of licensed
Continue Reading Tierney Sneed, CNN Access to abortion was curtailed significantly in Texas on Wednesday, with the state’s extreme and novel ban on abortions at six weeks going into effect. Clinics across the state — the second most populous in the country — drastically limited their services, as the law prohibits physicians from conducting the procedure when
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AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Senate on Wednesday sent legislation to Gov. Greg Abbott committing nearly $2 billion in additional funds for border security over the next two years, as the state prepares to erect a border wall using state dollars. In a 23-8 vote, the Senate approved House Bill 9, which would allocate $1.88 billion
Continue Reading WASHINGTON, DC — A controversial Texas law that bars abortions at six weeks went into effect early Wednesday morning after the U.S. Supreme Court and a federal appeals court failed to rule on pending emergency requests brought by abortion providers. The lack of judicial intervention means that the law — which is one of the
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UPDATE, Aug. 31: At a heated El Paso City Council meeting Tuesday, council overrode a mayoral veto of nearly $100 million in non-voter approved debt that had previously been ok’d by council members. City Rep. Peter Svarzbein accused Mayor Oscar Leeser of lack of planning and leadership, saying vetoing $96 million in certificates of obligation
Continue Reading AUSTIN, Texas — A total of 666 new Texas laws will go into effect this Wednesday. Debated, passed and signed during the 87th Texas Legislature, these laws include changes to public safety, health care and K-12 education. Not every bill signed into law during the regular session will go into effect Sept. 1. Some bills went
Continue Reading By PAUL J. WEBER and ACACIA CORONADO Associated Press AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The Texas Legislature has signed off on a sweeping GOP rewrite of election laws after months of protests by Democrats. The nearly 75-page bill that won final approval Tuesday in both the House and Senate would ban 24-hour polling locations and empowers
Continue Reading By Tierney Sneed, CNN A Texas state law that bans abortion after as early as six weeks into the pregnancy could provide the playbook for red states to pass extreme abortion restrictions — without having to wait for the Supreme Court to revisit Roe v. Wade. The measure — signed into law by Republican Gov.
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(Editor’s note: This story was produced as part of the Puente News Collaborative, a bi-national partnership of news organizations in Ciudad Juárez and El Paso.) By Veronica Martinez/La Verdad and Victoria Rossi/El Paso Matters CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — Lucero drove across the Bridge of the Americas alone. The cramps the abortion clinic’s staff told her to expect were already
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EL PASO, Texas — El Paso County Commissioners on Monday lowered the property tax rate with the goal of charging homeowners the same amount of taxes the county did last year, and no more. Commissioners voted unanimously to adopt what’s officially called the “no new revenue” rate, which means the county will levy enough taxes
Continue Reading By Sarah Moon and Eric Levenson, CNN Griddy Energy customers won’t be financially responsible for the sky-high electricity bills charged during February’s devastating winter storm, thanks to a new settlement announced Monday by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Millions of Texans were left without power as the storm impacted the state’s power grid, creating life-threatening
Continue Reading WASHINGTON, DC — Lawyers for abortion clinics in Texas raced to the U.S. Supreme Court Monday, asking the justices to block a controversial law that bans abortions at six weeks and allows private citizens to bring civil suits against anyone who assists a pregnant person seeking an abortion in violation of the law. The law set
Continue Reading FORT BLISS, Texas — The Pentagon announced Friday afternoon that Fort Bliss is currently housing 2,160 Afghan refugees and the preparations continue to house thousands more.Defense officials also said that only one refugee of the initial 1,200 to arrive at Bliss tested positive for Covid-19.Meantime, University Medical Center told ABC-7 that they had seen 25
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AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Republicans advanced new voting restrictions Thursday night after months of protests by Democrats, who after returning from a 38-day walkout are now all but out of ways to stop a bill that includes a ban on drive-thru voting and would empower poll watchers. The nearly 50-page bill passed the Texas House
Continue Reading AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Supreme Court temporarily blocked San Antonio’s mask mandate for public schools Thursday — the latest in the tug-of-war legal battle between local governments and the state’s Republican leadership over mandatory face coverings. The state’s highest civil court put the mandate by officials in San Antonio and Bexar County on pause,
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EL PASO, Texas — A federal judge in El Paso on Thursday granted the Biden administration’s request for a preliminary injunction halting an executive order issued by Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott that targeted the transport of migrants. The executive order had already been put on hold with a temporary restraining order from U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone
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FORT BLISS, Texas — El Paso Congresswoman Veronica Escobar visited with Afghanistan evacuees at the Fort Bliss Army post during a tour of the refugee housing area on Wednesday evening. She said she talked with some Afghans who told her they had “lost everything” as they fled their homeland, but were grateful to be in America. Escobar’s
Continue Reading AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday announced an executive order banning Covid-19 vaccine mandates regardless of a vaccine’s approval status with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. He also said he was adding the issue to the agenda for the current special session of the Texas Legislature. The order comes two days
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By ACACIA CORONADO Report for America/Associated Press AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas Republicans are bringing back their voting bill with no changes as some Democrats returned to the Capitol for the first time since ending their holdout. It was clear during a House hearing Monday that the bill is on track to become law after
Continue Reading AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says he has now tested negative for Covid-19, four days after testing positive for the virus. “I am told that my infection was brief and mild because of the vaccination I received,” Abbott said in a video he posted on Twitter Saturday afternoon. “So, I encourage others who have not yet received
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By ACACIA CORONADO Report for America/Associated Press AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas’ lieutenant governor is blaming unvaccinated Black people for rising COVID-19 hospitalization and death rates. His comments were quickly denounced as racist. Republican Lt. Governor Dan Patrick made the comments Thursday night on a Fox News segment. Patrick said the biggest group in most
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TYLER, Texas (AP) — A federal judge has issued a ruling that keeps in place Texas’ Medicaid agreement. The decision Friday blocks an effort by the Biden administration to rescind the deal. Texas is one of only 12 states that have resisted expanding Medicaid coverage under a key provision of former President Barack Obama’s health
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