April Towery

Senate Passes Dan Patrick’s THC Ban But Dems Continue Push for Regulations The dueling legislation (the Perry bill and the Johnson bills) signals a likely showdown in the House of Representatives, where lawmakers are more inclined to regulate THC than eliminate it. A vote in...

THC ban passes Senate but @nathanfortexas.bsky.social is pushing for regs and decriminalization.

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Houston’s Downtown Homeless Ban Aims to Address Mental Health Crisis The pilot program for just two designated areas was designed to help people with such severe mental illness that they are close to death and don’t even know it, said Houston Director of Public Safety ...

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Texas Emergency Management Chief on Hill Country Flood Response: “We’re Better Than That” State officials admitted last week during the first committee hearing on the deadly Hill Country floods that first responders had difficulty communicating with each other, volunteers weren’t properly ...

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Redistricting Critics Say Plan is Racist and Illegal, But Will it Get Through? There's no map to review and no bill to discuss but a July 7 letter from the DOJ to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott suggests that legal action will be taken if the districts aren’t promptly addressed to their ...

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Sheriff Ed Gonzalez Wins Popularity Contest in University of Houston Survey of County Officials Fifty-five percent of respondents said they approved of the job Gonzalez is doing, and 22 percent disapprove, netting the sheriff a 33 percent approval rating, the highest in the survey. Commissioner ...

Sheriff Ed Gonzalez wins popularity contest among Harris County registered voters.

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Dozens of Displaced Hill Country Kittens Are Now in Houston And Need Foster Homes In the midst of the chaos, Galvan learned that some Hill Country animal shelters were flooded or over capacity and needed assistance. Best Friends sent vaccines, transport crates, and medical supplies...

Free kittens! Hill Country rescues need a home, via Houston’s Best Friends Animal Society.

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Want to Track Progress of Harris County’s $2.5B Flood Control Bond Projects? Good Luck. Seven years later, 137 of 181 approved projects are in progress across Harris County, but it’s hard to get a straight answer on what those projects are, how they were selected, and what stage of compl...

Want to track Harris County’s $2.5 billion flood bond projects? Good luck.
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Flood Warning System Alerts Track Real-Time Rainfall in Harris County Of the 5.2 million people in Harris County, only about 44,000 are signed up for the Harris County Flood District’s flood warning system alerts. The text messaging system doesn’t provide a forecast; th...

Harris County Flood Control District’s warning system tracks rainfall in real time.

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Houston Democrats Protest Redistricting “Power Grab” As Special Session Kicks Off in Austin Redistricting is among the priorities in Abbott’s special legislative session that started Monday. The process typically occurs after a 10-year Census, ensuring that districts have roughly equal popul...

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Influential Rice University Political Scientist Bob Stein Dies After Battle With Cancer Longtime Rice University professor and political scientist Bob Stein died Friday following a brief battle with cancer.

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RodeoHouston Scholarship Recipient Finds a Home Building Computer Programs at Rice University Eighteen-year-old Chloe Thomas may not know how to ride and rope but that didn't stop the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo from awarding her a scholarship that's helping her go to Rice University.

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Survey: Harris County Residents Feel Unsafe, Support Deporting Immigrants for Violent Crimes Overwhelmingly, Harris County voters believe undocumented immigrants who commit violent crimes in the United States should be deported, according to a report released this week by Texas Southern Unive...

“From a political perspective as well as a social perspective, perception becomes reality.” - Rice University political scientist Mark Jones

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Family of Man Who Died After Being Tased in Harris County Jail Has More Questions A 5-year-old’s birthday party was held Saturday, but there were more tears than laughter at the gathering. Soon after the cake crumbs were cleared away, relatives began making funeral arrangements for...

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With So Many Agenda Items, What Will Actually Get Done in the Special Session? An already packed special session agenda grew exponentially last week — due in part to the catastrophic Hill Country flooding over July 4 weekend — and now it looks like Texas lawmakers could spend mo...

Lawmakers and political experts weigh in on special session that starts one week from today.

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Senator Paul Bettencourt is Coming in Hot With a Plan to Reduce Flooding Deaths When longtime Houston Senator Paul Betencourt walks into the state Capitol on July 21, he’s going to have a plan in his briefcase that he says will reduce the number of lives lost in a catastrophic fl...

Houston Senator Paul Bettencourt is Coming in Hot With a Plan to Reduce Flooding Deaths

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Texas Rangers Investigating Death of Harris County Jail Inmate Tased by Officer houstonpress.com/news/harris-co…

Letitia Plummer Resigns Council Seat, Joins Race For Harris County Judge Former Houston Mayor Annise Parker has an opponent in the Democratic primary for Harris County judge, and it’s not incumbent Lina Hidalgo. At-Large Houston City Council Member Letitia Plummer announce...

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Houston Congregations Turn to Prayer For Families Affected by Kerr County Floods Debates and finger-pointing began almost immediately, with Texans questioning whether the state is ignoring the effects of climate change and whether state and federal budget cuts to the National Weat...

Houston congregations turn to prayer in wake of Kerr County flooding.

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Harris County Inmate Deaths Point to Big Systemic Problems, Advocates Say Three Harris County Jail inmates died in custody within a 48-hour period last month. While the circumstances surrounding their deaths are unknown pending autopsies, the news hit home for Marshall and ...

The Harris County Jail has been noncompliant since 2022.

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Republican Primary for Attorney General Heats Up, Sparks Debate Over Paxton's Alleged Overreach Texas Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, entered the AG’s race last week, ensuring there will be a runoff in the Republican primary, set for March 2026. Huffman is facing fellow Sen. Mayes Middleton, R-Gal...

Mayes Middleton, Joan Huffman and Aaron Reitz are on the Republican primary ticket for Texas AG.

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Does Mayor Whitmire's Pending Admonishment Hurt His Re-Election Chances? A wave of disappointment in Houston Mayor John Whitmire’s performance is growing among Harris County Democrats, but it’s unclear whether their activism will be enough to defeat the mayor in a 2027 ele...

Will Whitmire’s pending admonishment hurt his chances of re-election?

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Texans Who Recently Returned From Qatar Say Friends Are Tense in Uncertain Times But Still Feel Safe Monday’s missile attack on a U.S. air base near Doha, Qatar, didn’t surprise Dana Davis — Iran had to show its people that it wasn’t weak, she says — but she worried for her friends in the small Middl...

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Conroe ISD Students Balk at Cell Phone Ban: “It Risks Doing More Harm Than Good” Fifteen-year-old Norma Kean started a Change.org petition on June 18 asking school board members to lift a K-12 cell phone ban for students during school hours. The ban, mandated by a new state law, b...

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With a Vetoed THC Ban Behind Him, Abbott Calls a Special Session for July 21 to Discuss it Again The retailer is one of thousands that sell, among other things, hemp-derived THC products that came close to being banned statewide until Gov. Greg Abbott vetoed the controversial Senate Bill 3 minute...

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Is Houston Ready for Another Hurricane? Critics Say Not a Cyclone’s Chance in Hell. Doris Brown was folding laundry on her sofa on an August day in 2017. She heard the sound of dripping water, and thought she’d left the bathroom faucet running. She left to attend to the noise and whe...

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KP George Switches Political Parties, Denied New Judge in Criminal Cases On Wednesday, the Fort Bend County judge, a longtime Democrat, announced he’s running for a third term, this time as a Republican. On Friday, his request for a new judge to preside over his felony mon...

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Houston’s Trans Community Braces for New Laws They Say Erase Their Identities In the early 2000s, Avery Belyeu was living as a gay man in New York City, starting a career in the nonprofit space...In the early 2000s, Avery Belyeu was living as a gay man in New York City and Bost...

Avery Belyeu, CEO of the Montrose Center, breaks down new Texas laws and what they mean for Houston’s LGBTQ+ community.

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Fort Bend Judge Could Find Out Friday Who’s Presiding Over His Felony Case Fort Bend County Judge KP George’s court appearances are ramping up as the chief elected official was granted a continuance on a misdemeanor case last week and will find out Friday if a presiding offi...

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No Kings Rally at Houston City Hall Attracts Thousands Who Marched With Passion But No Violence Thousands of Houstonians furious about President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration policies and funding cuts to education and healthcare, showed up for the No King's protest at Houston City Hall S...

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In Annise Parker’s Campaign for County Judge, the Challenge Will Be Reminding Voters She’s a Democrat A popular former Houston mayor announced Wednesday she’s entering the Harris County judge’s race, but Democrats are questioning Annise Parker’s allegiance to the party and some say she won’t win a pri...

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