Josephine Lee

Harris County landlords dodged $119 million in property taxes, report shows Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy tallied the property taxes being avoided through public facility corporations and other tax-break deals.

“Harris County landlords dodged $119M in property taxes last year using controversial tax-break deals” www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston...

Paxton offers to drop Senate bid if Republicans pass SAVE America Act The message quickly drew praise from online far-right activists.

🚨BREAKING: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) is publicly offering to abandon his U.S. Senate campaign if Senate Republicans agree to change the filibuster rules and pass the SAVE America Act, a sweeping anti-voting bill. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...

A group of people standing on the roof of a beige building in Iran. A headline reads: "Chaos and Panic Grip Iran As U.S. Airstrikes Are Reported Across the Country" Photo by Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times

U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran on Saturday sent panicked residents of the capital, Tehran, into the streets and parents racing back to schools where they had just dropped off their children. Follow live updates. trib.al/yRLAlzO

U.S. launches 'major combat operations' in Iran, Trump says On Saturday Donald Trump announced the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran with strikes designed to prevent nuclear weapons and help Iranians.

“This is the eighth military intervention of Trump’s second term in office”

Can Labor Candidates Help Texas Dems Win Back Power? A slate of union-affiliated candidates are taking the labor movement on the campaign trail up and down the ballot.

“Nobody’s coming to save the working class and the regular American, so we might as well step up and save ourselves.” www.texasobserver.org/texas-labor-...

Can Labor Candidates Help Texas Dems Win Back Power? A slate of union-affiliated candidates are taking the labor movement on the campaign trail up and down the ballot.

New from Josephine Lee: “People are tired of the same old politics. The working people of Texas are looking for somebody that is actually going through what they are, who can understand what their kitchen table issues are and make sure they have somebody that fights on their behalf.”

Can Labor Candidates Help Texas Dems Win Back Power? A slate of union-affiliated candidates are taking the labor movement on the campaign trail up and down the ballot.

“Nobody’s coming to save the working class and the regular American, so we might as well step up and save ourselves.” (via Josephine Lee / @texasobserver.org)

Featuring @marcosisaiasvelez.bsky.social, @joseloya.bsky.social, @rableforwesttexas.bsky.social, & other union-first candidates!

Trump’s Assault on Immigrants Hurts U.S.-Born Workers, Too The research is clear: when immigrant workers are targeted, it threatens all workers’ ability to fight for better pay and conditions.

"When immigrant workers are targeted, it threatens all workers’ ability to fight for better pay and conditions," writes @sarahlazare.bsky.social @inthesetimes.com. That's why we need equal rights for ALL workers. See equalrightsforallworkers.com for more. inthesetimes.com/article/trum...

TEA warns of state takeovers for “encouraging” student protests The state education agency issued guidance to districts after Gov. Greg Abbott directed its commissioner to investigate the student protests of killings by federal agents.

“The Texas Education Agency on Tuesday warned school districts that they could be taken over by the state if they help facilitate students walking out of class to attend protests.” www.texastribune.org/2026/02/03/t...

BREAKING: We just approved our Texas AFL-CIO COPE 2026 Primary Endorsements!

We're ready to get to work to elect this wave of union members, and take on the billionaires and the big corporations. View our full list of endorsements here: texasaflcio.org/news/texas-a...

The Houston Chronicle editorial board says that Democrats should make state Rep. James Talarico their Senate candidate because he's running like he actually wants to win in Texas. bit.ly/4qfdZkM

A Reporter's Religious Quest in Houston Suburbia At a Hindu temple hidden in Pearland, I found lessons about community, womanhood, and alienation.

New from @josephinelee.bsky.social: "I lived in Pearland for six years, but I didn’t learn about the Sri Meenakshi Temple until last year when I made a wrong turn. The temple’s sculpted stone tower rises 58 feet, seeming to materialize out of nowhere in this otherwise humdrum space ..."

Greg Abbott says White House needs to ‘recalibrate’ ICE following fatal Minneapolis shooting The Republican governor accused Democratic leaders in Minnesota of inciting violence. Democrats in Texas have condemned the shooting of demonstrator Alex Pretti.

While accusing Democratic leaders in Minnesota of inciting violence, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says the federal government should “recalibrate” its immigration operations in order to garner respect.

New York Times article "Where Did All the American-Born Roofers Go" and a photo from article. Break the Chains response: "The New York Times fails to answer its own question! Construction jobs have been under attack through subcontracting for 50 years, because bosses can exploit an underclass of workers with no right to work or organize. Our bosses crushed our job economy, lowering union membership rates and reducing wages. The only way to stop the spiraling of our working conditions and improve the US job market is to unite working people to fight back against the system which criminalizes all of us!"

@nytimes.com fails to answer its question! Jobs turned 'bad' because bosses use an underclass of workers to drag down our working conditions. The only way to end this is to unite the working class and fight against the criminalization of working people. Learn more at equalrightsforallworkers.org

You can see pretti’s hands under the pile all the way up to where gray jacket guy takes the gun.

Pretti clearly never pulled it out.

I've been informed that the man in this video is Matthew James Obadiah Allen, better known as Twin Cities hip hop artist Nur-D

this guy just wanted to help defend his community and they murdered him for it and the highest officials in the nation are lying about what multiple camera angles are showing the nation

this cannot stand

3) @josephinelee.bsky.social at the @texasobserver.org finds that many private schools accepted into the program openly discriminate by religion and sexual orientation - while rural Texans have few private school options at all.

bsky.app/profile/texa...

Coalition group Youth Against Sweatshops put out a statement on Venezuela and how it will directly hurt American workers.
www.instagram.com/p/DTdHMnsjWb...
www.stopcriminalizing.us/articles/tru...
Join Break the Chains and learn more at equalrightsforallworkers.org

Anti-ICE Protests Spread Across U.S. After Fatal Shooting The killing of Renee Good and shooting in Portland has sparked plans for 1,000 anti-ICE protests this weekend

The execution of Renee Good clearly shows that ICE's assaults are not just a war on immigrants but a tool to silence all workers. We must go further beyond ICE accountability to demand equal rights for ALL workers @ equalrightsforallworkers.org. time.com/7345243/ice-... #SayHerName #stopiceviolence

Exactly @channel5bluesky.bsky.social ! Our government criminalizes immigrants so we fight among ourselves! We cannot let our bosses and landlords continue to exploit us and divide workers! Unite to fight back against those who are killing us! go to: equalrightsforallworkers.org to learn more!

In Texas State Jails, a Rising Death Toll and a Broken Promise Once billed as rehabilitative alternatives to prisons, these facilities are the sites of fatal overdoses—like that which ended the life of a Texan named Jackie Wiley.

An important and heartbreaking look at how incarcerated people are dying of overdoses under the care of facilities meant to rehabilitate them, by @michellepitcher.bsky.social for @texasobserver.org 👇
www.texasobserver.org/state-jails-...

In Texas State Jails, a Rising Death Toll and a Broken Promise Once billed as rehabilitative alternatives to prisons, these facilities are the sites of fatal overdoses—like that which ended the life of a Texan named Jackie Wiley.

Out today: “Isn’t it ironic that the same system that punished him for his addiction on the outside continued to supply and feed it on the inside?”

In Ink and on Airwaves, Texas Media Grows Ever More Concentrated Hearst's acquisition of struggling newspapers in the state may seem like welcome news. But bigger doesn't always mean better.

The expansion raises questions long-term about the size, strength, and investigative firepower of the state’s press corps—particularly at the Capitol. Is it in fact a good thing that Hearst now runs the papers servicing the four largest metros in Texas?

Revealed: Four Businesses with Ties to Patriot Front Operating in North Texas The neo-Nazi group is engaged in a strategy to establish an independent economic ecosystem. Through publicly available information, interviews, and in-person observation, the Observer has identified…

The neo-fascist group Patriot Front is building a network of businesses in North Texas in an attempt to create a parallel, self-sufficient white nationalist economy. The Observer identified the men behind 4 of these companies.

FBI Investigating Renee Good While Obstructing Probes Into ICE Killer At the same time, numerous officials have resigned from the DOJ over its decision to not investigate the killing.

FBI Investigating Renee Good While Obstructing Probes Into ICE Killer @sharonzhang.bsky.social truthout.org/articles/fbi...

A Dallas Megadonor, a New Nonprofit, and the War on ‘Housing First’ A scheme to relocate the unhoused out of one Texas city's downtown sheds light on a larger right-wing takeover of federal homelessness policy.

As someone on the Dallas subreddit said: "This article provides the best description of the individuals attempting to undermine homeless services in Dallas."

Give it a read.

www.texasobserver.org/dallas-texas...

Some of these schools use curriculum from Abeka or Bob Jones Univ Press which have included racist statements that describe slavery as “black immigration” This one from Covenant Christian Academy teaches that “disease is a result of sin.”