DALLAS, Texas — A federal freeze on most evictions that was enacted last year is scheduled to expire July 31, after the Biden administration extended the 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
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WASHINGTON, DC — Democratic state lawmakers from Texas said Wednesday that they are on Capitol Hill to drum up support for federal voting rights legislation amid a boycott of a special session to pass a bill with restrictive elections measures back at home. State legislators also said they don’t plan to travel back to the
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WASHINGTON, DC — Republican U.S. Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz of Texas joined a group of several of other GOP senators on Wednesday in blasting the Biden Administration’s handling of public health at the U.S.-Mexico border. Their news conference came amid word that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will issue an
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AUSTIN, Texas — As Democrats fled the state to avoid voting on a GOP priority elections bill that would restrict voting rights in the state, the Texas Senate approved the bill Tuesday with a party-line vote of 18-4. The Senate passed the controversial elections bill — and bail legislation — a day after 51 House
Continue Reading PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania — President Joe Biden declared that preserving voting rights is “a test of our time” Tuesday as Texas Democrats took dramatic action to stymie their state’s latest effort in a nationwide Republican push to tighten ballot restrictions. Biden, who has proclaimed protecting ballot access the central cause of his presidency, has faced sharp
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AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas House voted Tuesday morning to send law enforcement to track down Democrats who left the state a day earlier in protest of Republicans’ priority elections bill “under warrant of arrest if necessary.” More than 50 state House Democrats left Monday for Washington, D.C., to deny the chamber a quorum as
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AUSTIN, Texas — Abortion rights groups filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday seeking to block a new Texas law empowering individuals to sue anyone assisting a woman with getting an abortion starting with her sixth week of pregnancy. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Center for Reproductive Rights and Planned Parenthood are among the 20
Continue Reading Texas state House Democrats left the state in an effort to block Republicans from passing a restrictive new voting law in the remaining 27 days of the special legislative session called by Gov. Greg Abbott. CNN’s Don Lemon talks to one of those Democrats, Rep. Jasmine Crockett, about the goals of the lawmakers who fled to Washington, DC.
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AUSTIN, Texas — Democrats in the Texas Legislature on Monday afternoon bolted for Washington, D.C., and said they were ready to remain there for weeks in a second revolt against a GOP overhaul of election laws, forcing a dramatic new showdown over voting rights in America. At least 51 of the 67 Democratic representatives took
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IOWA CITY, Iowa — Agreements released Monday show Iowa is donating the use of state troopers and their equipment at “no cost to Texas” to fight crime along the U.S. border with Mexico, but a spokesman for Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said there still is a chance Texas could later reimburse some costs. The agreements
Continue Reading DALLAS, Texas — Former President Donald Trump bathed in the adulation of an adoring crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference Sunday as he easily won the informal straw poll of attendees when they were asked who they’d like to see run for the White House in 2024. The political gathering normally serves as an
Continue Reading By Ed Lavandera, Chris Boyette and Veronica Stracqualursi, CNN A Texas man who told CNN he waited for “a lit bit over six hours” at a polling center in Houston to participate in Super Tuesday last year was arrested and charged this week with two counts of illegal voting. According to a June 24 indictment
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AUSTIN, Texas — Former El Paso Congressman Beto O’Rourke was among hundreds of Texans who lined up at the state Capitol on Saturday for their first opportunity during the special legislative session to testify before lawmakers against a bill which would enact sweeping voting restrictions across the state. Nearly 300 members of the public were
Continue Reading By Maeve Reston and Sara Murray, CNN As Texas’ battle over voting rights continues to unfold during the special session in Austin, the outrage stoked by former President Donald Trump’s false 2020 election claims was still on full display Saturday a few hours north at the major gathering of conservative activists where Trump will be
Continue Reading By Eric Bradner, CNN Texas Republicans are set to mount another push for restrictive new voting laws in their state as lawmakers on Thursday begin a 30-day special legislative session that Gov. Greg Abbott says he wants to see focused in part on “election integrity.” Abbott released an 11-item agenda for the special session that
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EL PASO, Texas — The city of El Paso plans to issue nearly $100 million in certificates of obligation, a form of non-voter approved debt. City Council voted 6-2 vote on Tuesday to approve publishing a notice to let taxpayers know the city intends to issue the debt later this year. City representatives Joe Molinar
Continue Reading By Priscilla Alvarez, CNN A group of mayors recently pressed US immigration officials on Covid-19-related travel restrictions that remain in effect and threaten to further hurt their local economies. The question on their minds: Why has cross-border travel, which has been suspended for more than a year, not been allowed to resume? Officials didn’t have
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AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday revived the GOP’s thwarted efforts to pass new voting laws in America’s biggest red state after Democrats temporarily derailed a restrictive bill with a late-night walkout in the state Capitol in May. As expected, Abbott made new election laws one of nearly a dozen items —
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ALAMOGORDO, New Mexico — A political committee has begun circulating a petition to recall Cowboys for Trump founder Couy Griffin from public office as a commissioner in Otero County. The Committee to Recall Couy Griffin said in a news release that it started collecting signatures last week in an effort to schedule a recall election.
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HOUSTON, Texas — While it’s not 100% sure actor Matthew McConaughey will be running for Texas governor, he seems to already be a fan favorite against current Gov. Greg Abbott, ABC affiliate KTRK reported Tuesday. A new poll from Quinnipiac University shows the actor and Texas native gaining a lot of attention. According to the poll, 41%
Continue Reading Jobless residents of Maryland and Texas have filed lawsuits in state courts seeking to force their governors to reinstate pandemic unemployment benefits. They join an effort begun by out-of-work Indiana residents, who have yet to see their payments restart despite a court ruling last week ordering the state to continue the benefits. A judge in
Continue Reading SANTA FE, New Mexico — Federal relief funds will be used to offer back-to-work bonuses of up to $1,000 for New Mexico residents who find a job in the coming weeks and stop receiving unemployment insurance benefits. The Department of Workforce Solutions said it expects up to 15,000 people will take advantage of the program
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SANTA FE, New Mexico — New Mexico fully reopened Thursday, marking a return to business throughout the state following 16 months of disruption due to the Covid-19 pandemic. So what does this mean? All businesses may once again operate at 100%, inside or outsideAll limitations on mass gathering are liftedLarge events and organizations may resume
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(Editor’s note: In the video players above, first is Trump and Abbott’s appearance together at the border, in the second player is their complete remarks at a border security briefing beforehand.) PHARR, Texas — Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday joined Texas’ top state leaders at the U.S.-Mexico border to slam the Biden administration’s immigration
Continue Reading TAOS, New Mexico — Donald Rumsfeld, the two-time defense secretary and one-time presidential candidate whose reputation as a skilled bureaucrat and visionary of a modern U.S. military was unraveled by the long and costly Iraq war, died Tuesday. He was 88. In a statement Wednesday, Rumsfeld’s family said he “was surrounded by family in his beloved
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SIOUX FALLS, South Dakota — South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem said Tuesday she will use a donation from a Republican donor to fund a deployment of up to 50 South Dakota National Guard troops to the U.S. border with Mexico. Noem joined a growing list of Republican governors promising to send law enforcement officers to Texas as the GOP
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SANTA FE, New Mexico — New Mexico legalized the possession of recreational cannabis on Tuesday and allowed hobbyists to start growing their own weed at home, as regulators prepared for the launch next year of recreational marijuana sales. The milestone was celebrated by cannabis consumers and advocates for criminal justice reform that believe poor and minority communities
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SANTA FE, New Mexico — An effort to recall the founder of Cowboys for Trump from his public office as a county commissioner can move forward under an order of the New Mexico state Supreme Court. In a written order Monday, the Supreme Court rebuffed an appeal from Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin and upheld a lower
Continue Reading AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is pulling out all the stops to build a border wall between his state and Mexico, and a new poll shows that his base is all for it. Texas Republicans are overwhelmingly supportive of Abbott’s border wall effort: 89% support it and only 8% are opposed, according to
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EL PASO, Texas — Even before Vice President Kamala Harris’s plane landed in El Paso on Friday morning, protesters had already started to gather outside the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s central processing center that Harris was slated to visit. Many of the pro-Trump demonstrators in the gathering crowd blew whistles, chanted and jeered as
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