Tag Archives: Texas

Texas committee passes bill to curb transgender bathroom access

FILE PHOTO - A bathroom sign welcomes both genders at the Cacao Cinnamon coffee shop in Durham, North Carolina, U.S. on May 3, 2016. REUTERS/Jonathan Drake/File Photo

By Jon Herskovitz

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) – A bill that would restrict access to public bathrooms by transgender people was approved by a Texas Senate committee on Wednesday after hundreds of people lined up for a nearly 21-hour session on that legislation, which critics said promotes discrimination.

The bill would require people to use restrooms that correspond with the gender on their birth certificate, not the gender with which they identify.

It will now go to the Republican-controlled Senate where it is expected to pass. Republican Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, who guides the Senate agenda, has said the legislation is a priority.

Analysts do not expect the bill to make it through the state House of Representatives, where there is more concern about the potential economic impact of such legislation.

The bill, which focuses on a heated political issue in the United States, is similar to one enacted last year in North Carolina. That law prompted economic boycotts and the loss of sporting events that were estimated to have cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars.

The Texas Association of Business released a study in January in which it said that if the legislation were enacted it could cost Texas as much as $8.5 billion in the state’s gross domestic product and the loss of more than 185,000 jobs in the first year alone.

Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick has challenged the survey and brought North Carolina Republican Lieutenant Governor Dan Forest to Texas to rally support for the bill.

Nearly 70 businesses, including some of the state’s biggest employers such as American Airlines, sent a letter to Republican leaders this month asking them to reject the bill on the grounds that it would “legalize discrimination.”

THIRD-GRADER TESTIFIES

Hundreds registered to testify, and more than 250 people addressed the committee. Some waited more than 12 hours while many bill opponents lined the corridors in the Capitol’s dome.

“At the core of this bill is privacy,” Republican state Senator Lois Kolkhorst, the bill’s sponsor, told the committee.

Almost all the testimony was against the bill while supporters said it would help prevent sexual predators from targeting women and children.

Chelsa Morrison, whose 8-year-old daughter Marilyn started third grade at a suburban Dallas school after a gender transition, choked back tears as she told the committee that her daughter was bullied and if the legislation was enacted it would be devastating.

Marilyn told lawmakers, “Trans people are real. You are looking at one right now. This bill is horrifying to me and all of my transgender friends.”

She said it would be embarrassing if she were forced to use the boys’ bathroom. “All we got to do is tinkle and get out. That’s all.”

Her mother said later in a telephone interview that Marilyn attended school in the latter part of last year for about a month, then left because of bullying and bathroom restrictions. She is now being schooled at home.

Lieutenant Governor Patrick has called the bill common sense legislation. “North Carolina was the tip of the spear,” he told reporters this week. “We will be next to pass a bill that focuses on privacy, a person’s privacy, and public safety.”

(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Additional reporting by Letitia Stein in Tampa; Editing by Frances Kerry, Toni Reinhold)

Wildfire threat remains after killing six, destroying numerous structures

(Reuters) – The threat of wildfires is expected to remain high on Wednesday in the U.S. Plains, where prairie fires have claimed six lives, prompted thousands of evacuations and destroyed numerous structures.

Fire weather advisories remained in effect in parts of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas where firefighters continued to battle wildfires stoked by high winds and tinder-dry vegetation over the last several days.

Low humidity along with 15 to 25 mph (25 to 40 kph) winds and ongoing drought conditions will continue to create elevated fire dangers throughout the region, the National Weather Service said in its advisories that also included Missouri and Nebraska.

Cooler temperatures, diminishing winds and a chance of rain were in the forecast for parts of the region over the weekend, but the weather service warned that the threat of wildfires remained in effect.

“Winds will be considerably lighter through the middle to latter part of the week. This will result in less threatening fire weather conditions. However, a limited to elevated risk will continue, given the dry conditions,” the service said.

The fires killed four people, including three ranch hands racing to herd livestock to safety, in the Texas Panhandle. One motorist died in Kansas on Monday from smoke inhalation, authorities said.

A woman in Oklahoma suffered a heart attack while trying to move cattle from harm’s way and died, NBC News reported. Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin declared an emergency in 22 counties hit by wildfires.

The Perryton fire blackened more than 300,000 acres (121,000 hectares) and destroyed two homes in the Texas Panhandle and was 50 percent contained, authorities said.

Wildfires in northwestern Oklahoma prompted evacuations of multiple towns, according to state officials, who said more than 10,000 acres (4,000 hectares) have burned.

At least 10,000 residents in central Kansas were asked to evacuate their homes due to a wildfire in Reno County, where about 230 responders were on the scene, the county’s emergency management agency said.

More than 650,000 acres (263,000 hectares) also have burned in Kansas, according to the state’s emergency management agency.

Firefighters battling a 30,000-acre (12,000-hectare) grassland fire in northeastern Colorado extended containment lines to 80 percent of the blaze’s perimeter on Tuesday. Five homes were lost in the flames, a spokeswoman for Phillips County official said.

(Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee; Editing by Toby Chopra)

Colorado wildfire burns 30,000 acres, destroys homes

Fires in Colorado and Texas.

By Keith Coffman

DENVER (Reuters) – A wind-driven wildfire erupted on the eastern plains of Colorado on Monday, scorching 30,000 acres of grassland, prompting the temporary evacuation of a small farming town and destroying at least three homes, emergency officials said.

The fire erupted around midday east of the town of Sterling and quickly grew out of control as gale-force winds fanned the flames, said Marilee Johnson, spokeswoman for the Logan County Office of Emergency Management.

Mandatory evacuations were lifted for the town of Haxtun late in the afternoon but some 900 homes remain threatened and those residents have been warned to prepare to flee should shifting winds drive flames their way, she said.

The 30,000-acre fire was 50 percent contained, the Logan County Office of Emergency Management said in a statement.

No injuries have been reported but three homes and a fourth structure were burned to the ground. The cause of the fire was unknown.

Footage from a Denver television station showed rows of hay bales in the agricultural area consumed by flames. More than 70 firefighters from 13 agencies were battling the blaze, emergency managers said.

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment issued an air quality alert due to smoke and dust kicked up by the winds, warning residents to stay indoors.

“This is especially true for those with heart disease, respiratory illnesses, the very young and the elderly,” the health department said in a statement.

Interstate 76 was temporarily closed due to smoke and blowing dust but some county roads remained closed by nightfall, the state emergency operations center said.

Schools in the towns of Caliche, Haxtun and Fleming were evacuated as winds whipped up the grass fire in the afternoon, the state office of emergency management said in a statement posted on its website.

The National Weather Service issued high wind warnings or advisories for much of Colorado as a cold front blew across the state on Monday, with blowing snow making for hazardous driving conditions in the Colorado mountains.

“Expect an additional 3 to 5 inches of snow combined with west winds of 35 to 50 mph and gusts to 70 mph,” the weather service said in a statement.

High winds also buffeted the Denver metropolitan area, causing power outages to nearly 600 businesses and residences for a time on Monday, the utility company said on its online outage report.

(Editing by Nick Macfie)

U.S. judge blocks Texas plan to cut Planned Parenthood Medicaid funds

FILE PHOTO - Planned Parenthood South Austin Health Center is seen in Austin, Texas, U.S. on June 27, 2016. REUTERS/Ilana Panich-Linsman/File Photo

By Jon Herskovitz

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) – A U.S. judge in Austin issued a preliminary injunction on Tuesday halting Texas’ plan to cut Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood, saying the state did not present evidence of a program violation that would warrant termination.

U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks said state health officials “likely acted to disenroll qualified health care providers from Medicaid without cause.” He said the preliminary injunction will preserve the court’s ability to render a meaningful decision on the case’s merits.

“Such action would deprive Medicaid patients of their statutory right to obtain health care from their chosen qualified provider,” wrote the judge who was appointed by Republican former President George H.W. Bush.

The reproductive healthcare group has said the threatened funding cut, by terminating Planned Parenthood’s enrollment in the state-funded healthcare system for the poor, could affect nearly 11,000 patients across Texas as they try to access services such as HIV and cancer screenings.

Texas and several other Republican-controlled states have pushed to cut the organization’s funding since an anti-abortion group released videos it said showed Planned Parenthood officials negotiating prices for fetal tissue collected from abortions.

Texas investigated Planned Parenthood over the videos and a grand jury last January cleared it of any wrongdoing. The grand jury indicted two anti-abortion activists who made the videos for document fraud but the charges were dismissed.

The state took no further criminal action against Planned Parenthood after that but has repeated its accusations that the abortion provider may have violated state law.

Planned Parenthood has denied any wrongdoing and sued the anti-abortion activists who made the videos.

Texas Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton said his office would appeal.

“Today’s decision is disappointing and flies in the face of basic human decency,” he said in a statement.

In fiscal 2015, Planned Parenthood affiliates across Texas received about $4.2 million in Medicaid funding, the state’s Health and Human Services Commission said. Planned Parenthood said the amount for 2016 was estimated at around $3 million.

None of the money that the group received went for abortions, plaintiffs in a lawsuit against Texas and the Medicaid defunding plan have said.

Planned Parenthood has 34 health centers in Texas, serving more than 120,000 patients, 11,000 of whom are Medicaid patients, it said.

(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Grant McCool and James Dalgleish)

Tornadoes pummel San Antonio, many homes and businesses damaged

Monday evening radar, storms trek East

by Kami Klein

Severe Storms, downpours and tornadoes hit the residential areas north and northeast of downtown San Antonio shortly after midnight and early morning Monday.  The National Weather Service confirmed Monday morning that four tornadoes hit San Antonio. Two were rated EF-1, with winds of 110 and 105 mph. The third and fourth were rated an EF-0, with winds of 70 and 85 mph.

USA Today reported over 150 homes and businesses received damage from these tornadoes that ripped through the area.  Five injuries were reported by city officials, but all were minor.  At the height of the outages, CPS Energy reported nearly 40,000 customers without power due to the storms.

Storms continued to pound the state of Texas as the storm system moved on towards the east.  The National Weather Service is predicting more severe thunderstorms heading towards eastern Texas and Louisiana late Monday and headed towards the evening hours.  The National Weather Service is predicting more flooding and high winds in these potentially dangerous systems.

 

Texas mosque fire called arson, reward offered: ATF

arson fire on islamic center mosque in texas

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) – A January fire that gutted a Texas mosque has been ruled arson, with a reward of up to $30,000 offered for tips leading to arrests, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said on Wednesday.

The fire at the Victoria Islamic Center, about 125 miles (200 km) southwest of Houston, was started just hours after U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order temporarily barring travel from seven Muslim-majority countries.

Authorities have found no evidence linking the fire with the order.

U.S. Islamic rights groups have said they saw the fire as part of a growing wave of bigotry toward Muslims in the country.

“Houses of worship are a sacred place in this country, and ATF is committed to devoting the necessary resources to solving this crime,” Fred Milanowski, the special agent in charge of the ATF Houston Field Division, said in a statement.

The fire destroyed the building and caused about $500,000 in damages, the ATF said. The Houston Field Division of the ATF, the Victoria Islamic Center and Crime Stoppers are offering rewards of up to $10,000 each, the ATF said.

An online GoFundMe.com campaign to rebuild the mosque has raised more than $1 million.

(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Peter Cooney)

Supreme Court rejects Texas appeal over voter ID law

Supreme Court building

By Lawrence Hurley

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal by Texas seeking to revive the state’s strict Republican-backed voter-identification requirements that a lower court found had a discriminatory effect on black and Hispanic people.

The justices let stand a July 2016 decision by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that found that the 2011 Texas statute ran afoul of a federal law that bars racial discrimination in elections and directed a lower court to find a way to fix the law’s discriminatory effects against minorities.

There were no noted dissents from the high court’s decision not to hear the case from any of the eight justices, but Chief Justice John Roberts took the unusual step of issuing a statement explaining why the case was not taken up, noting that litigation on the matter is continuing in lower courts.

Roberts said that although there was “no barrier to our review,” all the legal issues can be raised on appeal at a later time.

A special 15-judge panel of the New Orleans-based appeals court ruled 9-6 that the Texas law had a discriminatory effect and violated the U.S. Voting Rights Act. The judges were divided differently on other parts of the ruling.

The appeals court directed a federal district court to examine claims by the plaintiffs that the law was actually intended to be discriminatory, rather than merely having a discriminatory effect.

A hearing on that part of the case was scheduled for Jan. 24 but has now been delayed following a request from President Donald Trump’s administration. While former President Barack Obama’s administration had backed the challenge to the Texas requirements, the Trump administration could change course.

(Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; Editing by Will Dunham)

Texas Planned Parenthood asks judge to block Medicaid funding cut

Planned Parenthood in Austin, Texas

By Jon Herskovitz

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) – The leaders of Texas Planned Parenthood asked a federal judge on Tuesday to block the state’s bid to halt Medicaid funding for the healthcare group, which has long been targeted by Republicans for providing abortions.

Planned Parenthood has said the threatened funding cut, by terminating Planned Parenthood’s enrollment in the state-funded healthcare system for the poor, could affect nearly 11,000 patients across Texas.

It is seeking an injunction from Judge Sam Sparks in federal court in Austin to stop the cutoff, part of a protracted legal and political fight.

Texas and several other Republican-controlled states have pushed to cut the organization’s funding since an anti-abortion group released videos it said showed Planned Parenthood officials negotiating prices for fetal tissue collected from abortions.

The defunding efforts could gain traction now that Republicans, who already control the U.S. House and Senate, are expanding their powers with this week’s inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump.

Ken Lambrecht, chief executive of Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas and a plaintiff, testified his group does not participate in fetal tissue donation for medical research.

Planned Parenthood has denied wrongdoing nationally, saying the videos were heavily edited and misleading.

The Medicaid cut was “unconscionable,” Lambrecht testified, adding it would make it more difficult for some of the state’s poorest people to access services his affiliate provides, such as cancer screenings and HIV testing.

Texas has said other medical facilities could provide similar services as Planned Parenthood.

Planned Parenthood affiliates across Texas received about $4.2 million in Medicaid funding during the 2015 fiscal year, the state’s Health and Human Services Commission said.

None of that money went to abortions, plaintiffs in the lawsuit against Texas and the Medicaid defunding plan have said.

Sparks said he does not see the videos as a central to the hearing, which opened Tuesday and is scheduled to run through Thursday. He called on the state to present evidence to back up its allegations that Planned Parenthood violated the law.

Texas investigated Planned Parenthood over the videos and a grand jury last January cleared it of any wrongdoing. The grand jury indicted two people who made the videos for document fraud but the charges were later dismissed.

The state took no further criminal action against Planned Parenthood after that but has repeated its accusations that the abortion provider may have violated state law.

Planned Parenthood gets about $500 million annually in federal funds across the United States, largely in reimbursements through Medicaid.

(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Tom Brown and Lisa Shumaker)

Texas moves to cut Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood

Planned Parenthood center

By Jon Herskovitz

AUSTIN, Texas, Dec 21 (Reuters) – Texas plans to block about $3 million in Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood operations in the state, according to a legal document obtained on Wednesday, a move the reproductive healthcare group said could affect nearly 11,000 low-income people.

Planned Parenthood said it would seek court help to block the funding halt, which would cut cancer screenings, birth control, HIV testing and other programs.

Planned Parenthood gets about $500 million annually in federal funds, largely in reimbursements through Medicaid, which provides health coverage to millions of low-income Americans.

Texas and several other Republican-controlled states have tried to cut the organization’s funding after an anti-abortion group released videos last year that it said showed officials from Planned Parenthood negotiating prices for fetal tissues from abortions it performs.

Texas sent a final termination notice to Planned Parenthood in the state on Tuesday to alert it of the funding cut, the document showed, saying the basis of the termination was the videos.

Planned Parenthood has denied wrongdoing, saying the videos were heavily edited and that it does not profit from fetal tissue donation. It has challenged similar defunding efforts in other states, calling them politically motivated.

Republican President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to defund Planned Parenthood, and at least 14 states have tried to pass legislation or taken administration action to prevent the organization from receiving federal Title X funding.

“Texas is a cautionary tale for the rest of the nation,” Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said in a statement. “With this action, the state is doubling down on reckless policies that have been absolutely devastating for women.”

The Texas governor’s office was not immediately available for comment. The state investigated Planned Parenthood over the videos. A grand jury in January cleared Planned Parenthood of any wrongdoing and indicted the anti-abortion activists who made the videos for tampering with government records.

About a year ago, the Texas health department cut funding to a Houston Planned Parenthood affiliate for a nearly three-decade-old HIV prevention program. The contract was federally funded through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention but managed by the state.

(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)

Texas judge allows ‘Charlie Brown Christmas’ poster to go back up

Attorney General Ken Paxton during Christmas

By Jon Herskovitz

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) – A Texas judge ordered a school district to allow for the display of a poster inspired by the animated holiday television cartoon “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” that the district had banned because it had a Christian message, state officials said on Thursday.

The poster put up this month at a middle school in the central Texas city of Killeen had became a flashpoint in the state’s culture wars.

Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, a conservative Christian, said the school district had unlawfully stamped out religious expression when it banned the poster, and his office filed legal papers against the district to put it back up.

The poster from nurse’s aide Dedra Shannon included a hand-drawn cartoon figure of “Peanuts” character Linus and a quote from the half century-old animated TV show that has been a staple of the holiday season.

“For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. … That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown,” the text read.

On Wednesday, the school board voted to ban the poster’s display on the grounds that it could offend students who do not have the same religious views as Christians.

“Religious discrimination towards Christians has become a holiday tradition of sorts among certain groups,” Paxton said, adding, “I am glad to see that the court broke through the left’s rhetorical fog.”

The district said the ruling from the Bell County 146th District Court required that text must be added to the poster saying it is “Ms. Shannon’s Christmas Message.”

“We believe that directing the individual to include the additional text better complies with state and federal law,” the district said in a statement. “We support this decision.”

Matt Angle, director of the left-leaning Lone Star Project that is often critical of Paxton, saw the attack against the school district as being a “cynical smokescreen.”

“Ken Paxton is exploiting people of faith in order to distract from his own criminal indictment,” Angle said.

Paxton is facing securities fraud charges that can bring up to 99 years in prison if he is convicted. He is expected to go on trial next year.

(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Sandra Maler)