Carla Astudillo

FEMA denied or didn’t advance most Kerr County flood requests Advocates are questioning why so many applicants from the flood-ravaged county have not received federal disaster help. Nonprofits are trying to fill in the gaps.

It's been more than 3 months since the Central Texas floods, and the application window for FEMA aid has closed. So @carla-astudi.bsky.social and I looked at where things stand. We found about one-fifth of FEMA applications from Kerr County have been approved so far.

A line chart that shows the height of the Guadalupe River in Kerrville. The line goes from less than 5 feet to 36 feet from 4 a.m. to 7 a.m.

A line chart that shows the height of the Guadalupe River in Kerrville. The line goes from less than 5 feet to 36 feet from 4 a.m. to 7 a.m.

Three bar charts showing the highest river levels recorded in each year going back to 1968 in Kerrville, Hunt and Comfort.

Just how catastrophic was the scope, scale and intensity of the Central Texas floods? The
@texastribune.org team have put together graphics explaining. Visuals by me, Chris Essig and Edison Wu. www.texastribune.org/2025/07/09/h...

DHS Cancels Extreme Weather Comms Grant While Bodies Still Being Recovered in Texas As more than a hundred fatalities have been confirmed in Texas flash...

NEW: Sec. Noem has now admits "last mile" disaster communications weren't up to par in the Texas catastrophe. But while bodies were still being recovered on Tuesday DHS canceled a $3 million grant focused on improving precisely those kinds of "last mile" comms. talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/dhs-c...

Poorest Americans Dealt Biggest Blow Under Senate Republican Tax Package

With the House bill now passed, I wanted to re-up two important stories:

The bill benefits the rich, and inflicts deepest harm on the poorest Americans, data show www.nytimes.com/2025/07/01/b...

The deep federal aid cuts will not arrive immediately. A timeline: www.nytimes.com/2025/07/02/u...

Kristi Noem Secretly Took a Cut of Political Donations A dark money group paid $80,000 to Noem’s personal company when she was governor of South Dakota. She did not include this income on her federal disclosure forms, a likely violation of ethics requirem...

NEW:

Kristi Noem secretly took a cut of political donations and then failed to disclose it

www.propublica.org/article/kris...

w/ @josh-kaplan.bsky.social @amierjeski.bsky.social

A search bar with "Enter the name of a legislator" text above. Below a headshot of Texas House rep Greg Bonnen. Below are three cards with Bonnen's votes on the State Budget, School Voucher and Banning THC bills.

A search bar with "Enter Your Address" text above. Below a headshot of Texas Senate rep Sarah Eckhardt and Texas House rep Gina Hinojosa. Below are three cards with the representatives' votes on the State Budget, School Voucher and Banning THC bills.

Now that the 2025 #txlege is over, are you wondering how your legislators voted on key bills? I got ya covered! I built a nifty little lookup tool to help you do just that for the
@texastribune.org Link: www.texastribune.org/2025/06/13/t...

To avoid a water crisis, Texas may bet big on desalination. Here’s how it works in El Paso. Desalination can create millions of gallons of fresh water a day. But it is expensive and there are many environmental concerns.

Desalination can create millions of gallons of fresh water a day. Texas lawmakers are betting on this solution to solve the state’s water crisis. But it is expensive and there are environmental concerns. For @texastribune.org graphics: @carla-astudi.bsky.social www.texastribune.org/2025/04/11/e...

At #NICAR25 the CFPB’s Chief Technologist @erie.bsky.social says the agency is still here and can only be ended by an act of Congress, despite her team being recently fired. The DOGE team has “god mode” access to all CFPB complaint data. “It's a 5 alarm fire for me that they have this data.”

Tip for @ire-nicar.bsky.social #nicar25 newcomers: Go to any session by Paul Overberg. It's always a master class.
He began his hands-on workshop on CDC deaths data with an overview of record-keeping in the American colonies before the Declaration of Independence.

Texas Won’t Study How Its Abortion Ban Impacts Women, So We Did Since Texas banned abortion, no one has studied the statewide effects on pregnant women experiencing complications. Here’s how we sifted through data on millions of pregnancy hospitalizations and anal...

How we did it: Texas Won’t Study How Its Abortion Ban Impacts Women, So We Did

Texas Banned Abortion. Then Sepsis Rates Soared. ProPublica’s first-of-its-kind analysis is the most detailed look yet into a rise in life-threatening complications for women experiencing pregnancy loss under Texas’ abortion ban.

Texas banned abortion. Then sepsis rates soared. www.propublica.org/article/texa...

🧵 THREAD: In the second Trump administration, we’re devoting a significant part of our staff to detailing dramatic changes in the role of the federal government in the lives of Americans.

Here are some of the issues we’re watching — and how you can inform our work.

Elon Musk’s Demolition Crew Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, has been unleashed on federal agencies. ProPublica is attempting to document who is working with him and what they are doing.

New: @propublica.org is tracking who's in Musk's DOGE crew. 20+ names so far including some that haven't yet been reported.

Texas school district warns Border Patrol may board buses and question students about citizenship A letter sent to Alice ISD parents Wednesday said a student may be detained and possibly deported if they cannot prove they are in the country legally.

Texas school district warns Border Patrol may board buses and question students about citizenship

www.texastribune.org/2025/02/05/a...

Texas lawmakers may ban certain lessons at state colleges under expanded DEI crackdown Legislators are expected to take up a $360 million proposal that would change the landscape of financial aid in the state.

Texas colleges would be required to submit compliance reports and they don’t fix a violation within 180 days, they would be ineligible for future funding increases. via @jessicapriest.bsky.social @snehadey.bsky.social

this piece also never truly makes the case as to why the Star-Ledger was great in its heyday other than high circulation and staffing numbers + namedropping some reporters. Why were they so great? What stories did they publish? Why waste half the article ranting about how much the SL sucks now?

An immigrant faces deportation after a routine traffic stop in Texas, sparking more fear Advocates worry that rapidly shifting federal and state immigration initiatives will prompt more city police to funnel migrants without criminal records to federal agents.

They went out to buy baby formula and were pulled over for a traffic stop. The man in the process of getting a green card is now facing deportation.
He has no criminal record. His wife is an American citizen and they have 3 kids.
via @serranoalej.bsky.social
www.texastribune.org/2025/01/29/t...

RFK Jr., once a Trump critic on immigration, now could help enforce it Kennedy, who derided Trump’s family-separation policy as forcing “Sophie’s Choice” on migrants, seeks to lead the agency that takes custody of migrant children.

One overlooked part of RFK Jr’s bid to be HHS secretary — what would he do with the agency’s *Human* services?

RFK Jr derided Trump’s first immigration policy as cruel. But as a presidential candidate, he embraced some of Trump’s border ideas.

And if confirmed, RFK Jr could help implement them.

a word of caution: there are a ton of reports flying around right now about which programs have been immediately cut off from federal funding because of trump's freeze. much of it seems unconfirmed at this point, so be discerning in what you share.

please for the love of all that is true on earth, do not share the list compiled via chatgpt of all discretionary programs as if it is what the administration is actually covering.

the poster is not a journalist and has not fact-checked her work.

A Trump DOJ Could Bring an End to the Yearslong Investigation of His Ally Ken Paxton Donald Trump and the Texas attorney general have forged a friendship over the years, one that has been cemented in their shared political and legal struggles and their willingness to come to each othe...

Some thought Texas AG Ken Paxton might be a candidate for Trump’s new attorney general. He didn’t get the job. But there’s a significant way Paxton could benefit from the new administration & his longtime ally. My latest for @propublica.org & @texastribune.org www.propublica.org/article/trum...

The address search bar that searched for Lakeway, Texas which is represented by Ellen Troxclair who voted for David Cook.

In addition, we have a BRAND NEW feature where you can search for your address and find out who is your Texas representative and how they voted for. Hopefully, we will be using a similar feature for important Texas Legislature votes in the future.

The address search bar that searched for Lakeway, Texas which is represented by Ellen Troxclair who voted for David Cook.

In addition, we have a BRAND NEW feature where you can search for your address and find out who is your Texas representative and how they voted for. Hopefully, we will be using a similar feature for important Texas Legislature votes in the future.

This is a table showing the breakdown of how lawmakers in Texas voted for the House Speaker race. Dustin Burrows got 85 total votes while David Cook got 55 votes. 9 representatives were present, not voting and 1 was absent. 36 Republicans and 49 Democrats voted for Burrows while 52 Republicans and 3 Democrats voted for Cook.

A screenshot of a searchable table with all 150 lawmakers’ votes for Texas House speaker.

Lawmakers have voted for the next Texas House speaker (in only two rounds) and we have a total vote breakdown of the final tally as well as a searchable list of how each lawmaker voted. www.texastribune.org/2025/01/14/t...

Also s/o to our photo team for showing the random gaps in the border walls were people could just... walk around...

Screenshot of excerpt: The 50 miles constructed through November, totaling 6% of the 805 miles the state has designated for building, are far from the endless barrier Abbott often presents the wall to be in video clips he shares on social media. The wall is not a singular structure, but dozens of fragmented sections scattered across six counties, some no wider than a city block and others more than 70 miles apart. Each mile of construction costs between $17 million and $41 million per mile, depending on terrain, according to state engineers.

also wow the Texas border wall is crazy expensive. apps.texastribune.org/features/202...

Landowner resistance forces Texas to build wall in remote areas At least a third of landowners approached by state officials have refused to let wall be built on their properties. That’s forced the state to largely build on ranchland in remote areas, or erect sect...

The 3D map visuals in this @texastribune.org Texas border wall investigation are dope! s/o to our talented data visuals developer Yuriko Schumacher (who is not on Bsky) apps.texastribune.org/features/202...

I lit a chart on fire www.washingtonpost.com/business/int...

"The Marshall Project and Los Angeles Times have identified more than 30 lawsuits regarding sleep deprivation behind bars." Important story from @keribla.bsky.social and @shannonheffernan.bsky.social: