Off the Kuff reports on two new abortion-related lawsuits, one by forced birth zealots seeking to punish women who helped a friend get mifepristone, and one by five women harmed by Texas' existing laws seeking to clarify and expand exceptions for maternal health.
Matt Schaefer basically wants to go down the Aridzona/Sheriff Joe road of years ago and have citizen vigilantes patrol the border, while his head, Dade "Dade" Phelan wants to state-criminalize border crossings, as he joins Goeb and Strangeabbott on attacking the US Constitution. And, we're less than halfway into the Lege's session.
Joan Huffman wants to get tough on gunz used in crimes, but she and her ilk still don't want to tighten actual gun control legislation. As criminal justice academics know, mandatory minimum sentencing doesn't work. And, gun nutz advocacy groups are already opposing this as well. But, if it gets enough steam on the GOP side, expect ConservaDems to jump on board.
Small county courts at law and county attorneys are trying to stiff indigent defendants on legal defense. My own county is one of them.
SocraticGadfly looks at the closure of Fairfield Lake as reflective of the ways TPWD doesn't work well.
Medical marijuana is as easy as hell to get in Oklahoma, but voters there resoundingly rejected a referendum to make recreational cannabis legal.
Could "water cremation," now in murky territory, become expressly legal? I hope so, just to upset people calling it "distasteful."
At the Monthly, Chris Hooks calls out the Lege for coddling Kenny Boy Paxton, in part through its stated refusal (so far) to spend state money on his lawsuit settlement. (I discussed that issue here.) Hooks says the optics are bad on Paxton's part, but notes it's a drop in the state's bucket for the state to pay. He then looks at yet-more-serious Paxton scandals, about which Speaker Dade "Dade" Phelan and the rest of the Lege are doing bupkis.
Bryan Hughes is trying to keep independent candidates off the ballot with SB 2531. It would double both signature requirements and filing fees for all such candidates. (Surprised he didn't include doubling signature requirements for minor parties that have lost ballot access, but it's not too late for somebody to offer that as an amendment.)
Fuck Oilmonger Joe. Even if you are blocking other Alaskan drilling. If you want to lower oil prices, end the war in Ukraine rather than starting one on Alaskan caribou. As for wingnuts in Alaska, basically nobody lives on the North Slope in the first place to be crying out for "jobs." And, if Willow can produce 1.5 percent of current US production, it WILL exacerbate climate change. And, yes, #BlueAnon, he IS a flip-flopper.
The Austin Chronicle looks at barriers low-income residents of Travis County are facing as they try to access healthcare in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
El Paso Matters connects climate change to allergies and asthma.
Maggie Gordon tries to take a walk along Buffalo Bayou. Reform Austin reports on the Lege targeting insurers in their anti-ESG frenzy.
Michael Hudson has an interesting, albeit not totally correct, overview of the fall of Silicon Valley Bank.
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