OTERO COUNTY, New Mexico — Federal prosecutors have offered a confidential plea agreement to Cowboys for Trump founder Couy Griffin that might resolve criminal charges against him linked to the Jan. 6 siege on the U.S. Capitol. Those discussions came during a court hearing in Washington on Monday. The Otero County Commissioner still denies federal
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UPDATE: EL PASO, Texas — The Socorro Independent School District may join three other key school districts in the state – Dallas, Austin and Houston – in going against Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s order forbidding school mask mandates. The SISD Board of Trustees is scheduled to take up the matter on Tuesday at 6 p.m., according to
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By Keith Allen, CNN Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins asked a Texas court Monday for a temporary restraining order seeking to hold portions of Gov. Greg Abbott’s July executive order involving mask mandates “unenforceable,” according to a statement from the judge’s office. Abbott last month issued an executive order that combined many of his earlier
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AUSTIN, Texas — Gov. Greg Abbott is appealing for out-of-state help to fight the third wave of Covid-19 in Texas. The Monday appeal comes as a county-owned hospital in Houston raises tents to accommodate their Covid-19 overflow. Private hospitals in the county already were requiring their staff to be vaccinated against the coronavirus. Meantime, the
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AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas House on Monday fell just short of having enough members to begin conducting official business and voted overwhelmingly in favor of a procedural move that locked the doors of the chamber to prevent members from leaving in an effort to retain a quorum. The move, known as a “call of
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AUSTIN, Texas — A state district judge in Travis County has issued an order blocking the arrest of House Democrats who have broken quorum by leaving the state, paving the way for those who remain outside of Texas to return home without threat of apprehension. State District Judge Brad Urrutia, a Democrat, granted the temporary
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SANTA FE, New Mexico — New Mexico’s governor and dozens of other elected officials are urging the state’s business community to require that employees be vaccinated against Covid-19 or alternatively undergo regular testing. The letter sent at week’s end to employers and business groups said the action is necessary to stop the current increased spread
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LAS CRUCES, New Mexico — Southern New Mexico Congresswoman Yvette Herrell has renewed her call for Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan to deploy the New Mexico National Guard to the U.S.-Mexico border. The lone Republican member of the state’s congressional delegation, Herrell has supported the border wall and tighter controls on immigration. In her latest request,
Continue Reading AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Democrats still refused to return to the state Capitol on Saturday as Gov. Greg Abbott began a third attempt at passing new election laws, prolonging a months-long standoff that ramped up in July when dozens of Democratic state lawmakers left the state and hunkered down in Washington, D.C. “A quorum is
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By ACACIA CORONADO and PAUL J. WEBER Associated Press AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas Democrats are still refusing to return to the state Capitol. Most Democrats didn’t show up when Republican Gov. Greg Abbott opened a special session Saturday, the GOP’s third attempt to pass new election laws in Texas. Some Democratic legislators who fled
Continue Reading AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas Democrats again fail to show up to state Capitol as Republicans begin 3rd attempt at passing new voting laws.
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AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Republican leaders said Friday they were extending “an additional month of funding” for the Legislature as a deadline to reinstate those dollars vetoed by Gov. Greg Abbott nears, which could cost some 2,100 state workers their salaries and benefits. The announcement Friday by Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dade Phelan comes a day ahead
Continue Reading By Fredreka Schouten and Dianne Gallagher, CNN Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has escalated the Republican push to pass new voting restrictions in the state, announcing on Thursday a second special session of the state legislature that could continue the bitter standoff with Democrats in the Texas House who broke quorum and fled to the nation’s
Continue Reading AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Gov. Greg Greg Abbott is ordering another special legislative session to again try passing a GOP voting bill. The announcement Thursday comes after Democrats left the state in protest to again prevent Republicans from changing elections laws. More than 50 Democrats left Texas for Washington, D.C., on July 12 and were
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LAS CRUCES, New Mexico — Southern New Mexico Republican Congresswoman Yvette Herrell has signed her name to a bill that could end some federal funding to New Mexico State University. The We Will Not Comply Act, introduced by controversial Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, says no federal dollars can go to any school — from
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EL PASO, Texas — El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser and County Judge Ricardo Samaniego sent a letter to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday, imploring him to allow local school districts the authority to implement face mask mandates if they so choose. In the letter, the pair said local districts should be able “to decide
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BY ANGELA KOCHERGA, EL PASO MATTERS EL PASO, Texas — Days before its official unveiling on Tuesday, El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego walked through the healing garden planted to honor the victims of the 2019 Walmart mass shooting. Since the hate crime that took the lives of 23 people and left dozens more injured, Samaniego
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UPDATE, Aug. 3: A federal judge in El Paso on Tuesday granted a temporary restraining order prohibiting Texas Gov. Greg Abbott from carrying out plans to have state troopers stop vehicles suspected of carrying migrants. In siding with the federal government, U.S. District Judge Kathryn Cardone found Abbott’s order posed “irreparable harm” and went against
Continue Reading EL PASO, Texas – The Texas Legislature recently passed Senate Bill 1697, which gives parents the ability to withhold their child from advancing to the next grade in school. The new law contains both permanent and temporary components. Parents with children in 4th through 12th grades have the option to prevent their child from advancing,
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RELATED STORY: Willie Nelson, Beto O’Rourke rally with hundreds for voting rights at Texas Capitol (Editor’s note: Beto O’Rourke is an El Paso native, the former U.S. Congressman for the community and a former Democratic candidate for President of the United States. The views expressed in the below commentary distributed by CNN are his own.)
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AUSTIN, Texas — Hundreds of people packed the steps of the Texas Capitol on Saturday at a protest rally to make the end of a four-day march in support of voting rights. Country music legend Willie Nelson, himself a Texan, led spectators in singing “vote them out.” The 27-mile “Selma to Montgomery-style” march, which began Wednesday,
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BROWNSVILLE, Texas — The Biden administration has resumed fast-track deportation flights of undocumented immigrants, Department of Homeland Security officials confirmed to The Washington Post. On Friday, two deportation flights left Texas’ Rio Grande Valley for Central America with 73 immigrants onboard. The planes were originally supposed to carry 147 adult and child deportees, but many were unable
Continue Reading SANTA FE, New Mexico — A federal freeze on most evictions enacted last year is scheduled to expire Saturday, after the Biden administration extended the original date by a month. The moratorium, put in place by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in September, was the only tool keeping millions of tenants in
Continue Reading WASHINGTON, DC — Former President Donald Trump pressured acting U.S. Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen to declare that the election was corrupt in an attempt to help Republican members of Congress try to overturn the election result, according to notes of a December 2020 call Trump held with Rosen and acting deputy attorney general Richard Donoghue. During
Continue Reading DALLAS,Texas — A federal freeze on most evictions that was enacted last year is scheduled to expire Saturday, after the Biden administration extended the original date by a month. The moratorium put in place by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in September has been the only tool keeping millions of tenants in their
Continue Reading WASHINGTON, DC. — U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland threatened legal action against Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive order targeting migrants in a Thursday letter, calling it “both dangerous and unlawful” and urging the governor to immediately rescind it. On Wednesday, Abbott issued an executive order restricting ground transportation of migrants “who pose a risk of
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UPDATE, July 29: AUSTIN, Texas — Church leaders and former Democratic El Paso Congressman Beto O’Rourke continued leading a nearly 30-mile voting rights march in Texas on Thursday. The walk began Wednesday with nearly 100 participants, including prominent civil rights activist Bishop William Barber, in suburban Austin and is scheduled to end this weekend at
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SANTA FE, New Mexico — New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has named two new cabinet secretaries. The top jobs oversee the departments of safety and education. Former Los Alamos Superintendent Kurt Steinhaus will become the new education secretary next month. Deputy Chief of the Rio Rancho Police Department Jason Bowie will become the next
Continue Reading SANTA FE, New Mexico — New Mexico will mandate that all state government employees get the coronavirus vaccine or face weekly Covid-19 testing, moving in sync with federal authorities to shore up rates of immunization. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced Thursday at a news conference that New Mexico will join the federal government, California and
Continue Reading WASHINGTON, DC — The U.S. House Oversight and Reform’s Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Subcommittee held a hearing regarding voting bills in Texas on Thursday. The hearing entitled “Democracy in Danger: The Assault on Voting Rights in Texas” featured the testimony of several Texas lawmakers. They are among a group of Texas Democrats who flocked
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