Texas Progressives jump into the middle of summer

A state district judge has ordered DPS to release Uvalde shooting records. While DPS head and Strangeabbott flunky Steve McCraw didn't comment, contra the mush of the spox that did, this will surely be appealed. It is a good ruling and let's hope it stands on appeal.

Off the Kuff looked at the new laws that are likely to result in lawsuits over various constitutional issues.

SocraticGadfly took a look at the escalating dust-up at TSHA.

Politico gives a long profile of Democratic state legiscritter James Talarico, including the buzz that he's likely to run against Strangeabbott in 2026 AND the scuttlebutt that he had considered taking on Havana Ted next year but decided not to when Colin Allred jumped in.

The Texas Supremes said Greg Abbott's blocking of local COVID masking regs was constitutional. And, of course, this gives ammo to today's Lege continuing to erode local control.

The Trib wonders if, in the wake of the national Supremes gutting affirmative action as part of college admissions, if other states will adopt some version of Texas' Top 10 percent plan. The Trib ignores that his applies to public universities in Texas only, and that, in general, public universities don't have class-based and luck-birth-based legacy admissions. It also admits that Top 10 is itself only a partial, and only a modest, semi-solution.

The Monthly remembers John Goodenough, who, if he did not "perfect" the lithium ion battery, certainly made it good enough to kick off today's electronics world, and above all, hybrid and electric cars, as well as consumer electronics.

Meet the Bushman of the Riverwalk.

What's worse than ROTC or active-duty military recruiting captive kids on on high school campuses? TDCJ doing the same, whoring for prison guards.

Brandon Rottinghaus collects a list of issues the next Mayor of Houston will be facing.

One urban demographics and economy site ranks Dallas 53rd most expensive city in the world. Believable, indeed, with soaring housing prices, the Lege's electric surcharges + disconnected grid, swinging temps to drive electric use, and more.

Neil at the Houston Democracy Project posted the Project's weekly report on the pre-trial hearings for the horse hockey Harris County Republican election-denial lawsuits. 

The San Antonio Report reports on the initial construction of a new and long-envisioned bus rapid transit system in that city. 

Michael King ponders the "bookends" of the 88th Legislative session, Bryan Slaton and Ken Paxton. 

Charlotte Clymer catalogs Lance Armstrong's many transgressions.

Independent Political Report is often good, though its third-party reporting is massively Libertarian. That said, George Phillies appears to have jumped into the deep end of an empty pool with his recent First Amendment fear-mongering.

Corey Robin claims 303 Creative was NOT about religion. Oh, in a technical sense, he's right. The plaintiff (besides having a fake basis for the suit) cited Freeze Peach, but it was ultimately free speech in the service of religious issues. Wiki gets that right, Corey.

Smoke on the US East Coast from Canadian wildfires, mainly in Quebec, will probably last until the end of summer.

Reason 1,074 I'm not a Dem/am not voting for Joe Biden? Warmonger Joe wants to name convicted felon and Henry Kissinger Jr. level neocon Elliott Abrams to an inside-baseball diplomacy committee.

Thomas Knapp, who has left me semi-hot and definitely cold in the past, is running for prez as an "independent." Unless he's repudiated his Boston Tea Party Veep run, what he's really running as in as a Ron Paul-tard. Beyond being an idiot on "fiat money," by being radically anti-abortion and other things, Paul was and is not an actual L/libertarian. And, per the announcment, Knapp also worked for the campaign of the late, not-so-great, drive without a license Michael Badnarik.