Texas

Texas Rejects Allowing Academics To Fact-Check Public School Textbooks

November 26, 2015 Will Weissert, www.csmonitor.com Educate! Books, Education, Texas

By Will Weissert for The Christian Science Monitor - AUSTIN, TEXAS — Top Texas education officials rejected Wednesday letting university experts fact-check textbooks approved for use in public-school classrooms statewide, instead reaffirming a vetting system that has helped spark years of ideological battles over how potentially thorny lessons in history and science are taught. The Board of Education approves textbooks in the nation's second-largest state and stood by its vetting process — despite a Houston-area mother recently complaining that a world geography book used by her son's ninth grade class referred to African slaves as "workers." The publisher, McGraw-Hill Education, apologized and moved to make immediate edits.

U of Texas Professor Compares Palestinian Activists To Terrorists

November 23, 2015 Kit O'Connell , www.mintpressnews.com Resist! Palestine, Student Protests, Texas

By Kit O'Connell for Mint Press News - AUSTIN, Texas — A planned walkout at a University of Texas at Austin event earlier this month erupted into a violent confrontation with the college’s professor of Israel Studies and another audience member. Now Palestinian activists say they feel unsafe on campus after the professor accused them of having ties to terrorism. The incident began at a Nov. 13 public lecture on the military culture of the Israeli Defense Forces. Twelve members of UT Austin’s Palestine Solidarity Committee planned to stage a short disruption to voice their objections to Israel’s occupation of Palestine and apartheid policies, then leave the event.

When We Fight: Keystone XL And Delegitimizing Fossil Fuels

November 10, 2015 Scott Parkin, www.counterpunch.org Resist! Fossil Fuels, Texas

By Scott Parkin for Counter Punch - Near the sprawling Dallas suburb of Garland, TX where I grew up are the east Texas piney woods that are now home to the southern leg of the Keystone XL pipeline. In the blistering summer heat of 2012, I traveled there in support of the coalition of local Texas and Oklahoma landowners and radical environmentalists known as the Tar Sands Blockade that fought to stop the southern leg of the pipeline. A year before, Keystone XL had become a household name when over 1200 people participated in two weeks of sit-ins at the White House demanding that Barack Obama reject the pipeline. A few months after the White House sit-ins, Obama fast-tracked the permit for the southern leg with the stroke of a pen.

Hunger Strike At Texas Detention Center Swells Into The Hundreds

November 4, 2015 Kanya D'Almeida, www.rhrealitycheck.org Resist! Hunger Strikes, Immigration, Texas

By Kanya D'Almeida for RH Reality Check - The number of hunger strikers at a Texas immigrant detention facility has swelled to almost 500 since last Wednesday, an Austin-based advocacy group revealed in a phone call with RH Reality Check. When news of the protest action broke on October 28, about 27 women at the T. Don Hutto detention center in Taylor, 35 miles east of Austin, were reportedly refusing their meals. While grievances ranged from abusive treatment by guards to a lack of medical care, the women, hailing primarily from Central America, were unanimous in their one demand: immediate release.

Texas City Councilman Arrested Same Sheriff’s Dept As Sandra Bland

October 12, 2015 Nicole Hensley, www.nydailynews.com Resist! Black Lives Matter (BLM), Police Brutrality, Texas

By Nicole Hensley for The Daily News - A Texas city councilman was stunned with a Taser while on his knees and then arrested outside his Prairie View home Thursday night — the same agency whose officer helped arrest Sandra Bland. The arrest involved a Prairie View cop – one of the city's six-officer force – with ties to Bland's arrest alongside Texas Department of Public Safety in July, authorities confirmed. Newly-elected Councilman Jonathan Miller identified himself as an elected official while stepping between Prairie View cops confronting four of his fraternity brothers practicing a step routine, local reports said.

Small Texas Town Banned Fracking, Then Oil Industry Stepped In

September 8, 2015 Adam Briggle, www.salon.com Resist! Fracking, Law, Oil & Gas, Texas

By Adam Briggle in Salon - It was 6:30 a.m. on June 1 in Denton, Texas, and we had come to defend our fracking ban. Last November, Denton citizens voted in a landslide to ban hydraulic fracturing (an oil and gas well stimulation technique that can be invasive and toxic). The ban was our last option after years of trying to accommodate an industry that refused to compromise. In January 2013, we passed rules to keep fracking away from residential areas. But in September of that year, they kept on fracking less than 200 feet from homes. Gas well operators and industry representatives claimed they didn’t have to follow local rules, because they held more than 11,000 acres of Denton territory that were grandfathered under old laws written long before the impacts of fracking were understood. Without the ban, we feared our local regulations would be trampled again and again. It would be spell mass neighborhood industrialization across our town.

The American Lawn Is Now The Largest Single ‘Crop’ In The U.S.

August 24, 2015 Rob Wile, www.huffingtonpost.com Resist! Environment, NASA, Texas

By Rob Wile in The Huffington Post - Americans’ lawns now cover an area three times larger than any irrigated crop in the U.S. According to a new study from NASA scientists in collaboration with researchers in the Mountain West, there is now an estimated total of 163,812 square kilometers, or more than 63,000 square miles, of lawn in America — about the size of Texas. The study was not about the growth of lawns, however. Instead, it focused on their impact on the environment and water resources. The researchers found that well manicured lawns can act as carbon sinks — meaning they would help mitigate climate change by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. However, maintaining a well-manicured lawn uses up to 900 liters of water per person per day and reduces sequestration effectiveness by up to 35 percent by adding emissions from fertilization and the operation of mowing equipment.

Texas Cops Sexually Assault 21-Year-Old Charnesia Corley

August 12, 2015 Mark Frauenfelder, www.boingboing.net Resist! Civil Rights, Law, police brutality, Racial Justice, Sexual Abuse, Texas

By Mark Frauenfelder in Boing Boing - A Houston deputy who pulled over Charnesia Corley, a 21-year-old black woman on her way to the store to pick up medicine for her sick mother, thought he smelled weed in Corley's car. He searched the car and couldn't find any. He called for a female officer to come to the gas station where Corley was being held so she could have her vagina searched. They arrested Corley because she objected to having her vagina examined in a gas station parking lot. From KRTK: "She tells me to pull my pants down. I said, 'Ma'am, I don't have any underwear on.' She says, 'Well, that doesn't matter. Pull your pants down,'" Corley said. She admits hesitating. Deputies say she resisted. "I bend over and she proceeds to try to force her hand inside of me. I tell her, 'Ma'am, No. You cannot do this,'" Corley told us candidly.

Activist Sandra Bland Dies After Minor Traffic Stop

July 18, 2015 Shaun King, www.dailykos.com Resist! #BlackLivesMatter, #SayHerName, Black Lives Matter (BLM), police brutality, Sandra Bland, Texas

By Shaun King in Daily Kos - Sandra Bland died in police custody this past Monday. Visiting Texas from Chicago to interview for a college job at her alma mater of Prairie View A&M, she was pulled over for a routine traffic violation (failure to use her turn signal). Everything from that point forward screams racism and foul play, including her death in the Waller County jail Monday. The first red flag is that Bland was officially arrested on Friday for assaulting a police officer. What we see from a bystander video is her telling the officers she is in pain and cannot hear after her head was slammed on the ground by the male arresting officer. The video is below. We have now learned that Waller County Sheriff Glenn Smith, who made the first public comments about Bland's in-custody death, was suspended for documented cases of racism when he was chief of police in Hempstead, Texas, in 2007.

Texans’ ‘Operation Counter Jade Helm’ Keeps Eye On Federal Troops

July 14, 2015 Dylan Baddour, www.chron.com Resist! Police the Police, Texas, Wars and Militarism

By Dylan Baddour in Houston Chrnoicle - When the troops land in Texas for Operation Jade Helm next week, someone will be waiting for them. Hundreds of people have organized a "Counter Jade Helm" surveillance operation across the Southwestern states and in an effort to keep an eye on the contentious military drill that's sparked many suspicious of Uncle Sam's intentions. Eric Johnston, a 51-year-old retired firefighter and sheriff's deputy who lives in Kerrville, is a surveillance team leader in Texas. He'll coordinate three groups of volunteers, about 20 folks in total, who hope to monitor the SEALs, Green Berets and Air Force Special Ops in Bastrop, Big Spring and Junction when Jade Helm kicks off on July 15.

Reprieve In Texas, Assault On Reproductive Rights Continues

July 1, 2015 John Queally, www.commondreams.org Resist! Abortion, Law, SCOTUS, Texas, Womyn's Rights

By John Queally in Common Dreams - Advocates for reproductive rights welcomed the ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday which put a block on a Texas law that would have shuttered nearly every abortion clinic in the state. In a 5-4 decision (pdf), the ruling came in the form of a stay that will delay enforcement of the law—originally passed in the Texas legislature as H.B. 2 and signed into law in 2013—until a full challenge is taken up by the court. The stay, in effect, suspends a ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit earlier this month which upheld specific provisions of the law that would have likely resulted in the closure of all but nine abortion clinics in the state.

Denton, TX Residents Gather For Frack Free Fridays

June 28, 2015 Staff, www.bprisingtide.org Resist! Denton, Fracking, Texas

By Staff of Blackland Prairie Rising Tide. Frack Free Fridays got off to a great start this morning with coverage on WFAA’s ‘Good Morning Texas.‘ One of the 10 Denton residents arrested attempting to enforce our ban had this to say: “The message that I would say is it’s not only about Denton. It’s about local control and how it was robbed from us by the Texas legislature. So look out, your community is next.” – Elida Tamez If you’re interested in joining us for future Frack Free Friday events, sign up here. Meanwhile, here’s some photos from today’s event. Once again residents from the neighborhood directly across the street joined us. Residents attempted to slow down trucks entering the frack site, but no arrests were made today. Last week, local Denton mother Meredith Buie was arrested for peacefully sitting down in front of a fracking truck attempting to enter a Vantage Energy well site located less than 200 feet from nearby houses and businesses.

Police Criminals & The Brutalization Of Black Girls

June 16, 2015 Sikivu Hutchinson, www.thefeministwire.com Educate! Black Women, Patriarchy, police brutality, Racial Justice, Texas

By Sikivu Hutchinson in The Feminist Wire - The videotaped assault and sexual harassment of 14 year-old Dajerria Becton by a rampaging white police officer after a pool party in McKinney, Texas makes it clear that it continues to be open season on black women and girls. In the video officer Eric Casebolt grabs, straddles and violently restrains Becton while she is lying face down on the ground in a bikini. Ignoring her cries of pain and anxiety, he sadistically sits on her back while handcuffing her. Casebolt then pulls a gun on a few young people who attempt to intervene. Some of the good white citizens of McKinney have reportedly praised Casebolt’s thuggery. The assault of Becton is an enraging reminder of the particular brand of sexual terrorism black women routinely experienced in the Jim Crow South at the hands of white law enforcement and ordinary white citizens.

Clinics To Close As Court Upholds Texas Abortion Restrictions

June 11, 2015 Samantha Lachman, www.huffingtonpost.com Educate! Abortion, Court, Law, Texas, War on women

By Samantha Lachman in The Huffington Post - A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld some of the most onerous parts of a Texas abortion law, which is likely to cause most of the state's abortion clinics to close. The ruling, released Tuesday, allowed provisions requiring clinics to meet hospital-level operating standards and requiring providers to have admitting privileges at local hospitals to go into effect. It did exempt the last open clinic in the state's Rio Grande Valley from the provisions, which were passed by the Republican-controlled state legislature and signed by former Gov. Rick Perry (R) two years ago. In court, attorneys opposing the law said it could close all but eight clinics in Texas.

Rage Is Our Rightful Response to Anti-Black Racism

June 9, 2015 Kirsten West Savali, www.theroot.com Resist! Black Girls, Black Women, police brutality, Racial Justice, Texas

By Kirsten West Savali in The Root - Yes, it was painful to watch the boys restrained in handcuffs. One boy even appeared to be bleeding from his mouth, though whatever happened to cause that injury happened off camera. Still, it is the young girl, forced by her hair to the ground as she screamed for her mother, that chilled me the most. It’s the pleasure the white officer seemed to take from exerting power over her black body—as adult men, both black and white, stood by and did nothing—that enraged me. It is the thought of Daniel Holtzclaw, the former Oklahoma City police officer accused of sexually assaulting eight black women while on duty—and what the officer in this case possibly does to young black women when the cameras aren’t rolling—that made me sick to my stomach.

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