Texas

While more Republican incumbents assess their party's-- and their own-- electoral prospects next year and respond by announcing early retirements, a flood of qualified Democrats are rushing to announce their candidacies across the country.

Amid statewide efforts to clean up the aftermath left by the historic flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey, the Pentagon announced last week that it had dispatched C-130H Sprayers from the Air Force Reserve’s 910th Airlift Wing in order to “assist with recovery efforts in eastern Texas.” However, these “recovery efforts” have little to do with rebuilding damaged structures or with the resettlement of evacuees.

(ANTIMEDIA) — According to a new forecast by AccuWeather, the combined damage from the one-two punch thrown by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma will cost the U.S. economy around $290,000,000,000.

With Hurricane Irma thrashing Florida as this episode goes to publication, we share an interview with Niecee X of the Black Women’s Defense League, which is deeply involved in relief efforts for those in Houston impacted by Hurricane Harvey.

Yesterday was California Admission Day. We became a state on September 9, 1850, the U.S. having forced Mexico to give up what is now the state after the Mexican-American War (1848). British and Spanish ships began exploring the coast of California by the mid-1500s. By the 1700s Spanish missionaries started building missions and the Spanish military started building forts and towns-- including what are now Los Angeles and San Jose.

2 TexansCBS couldn't contain its excitement about snairing American neo-Nazi plotter Stephen Bannon for 60 Minutes. Reports by people who have watched the show, which airs Sunday, say Bannon explains that Trump's neo-Nazi base-- including himself-- are pissed off about Trump's somewhat confused stand on DACA.

Even with Hurricane Harvey relief for Texas tied to the debt ceiling deal that passed the Senate 80-17 yesterday, there is a lot of grumbling among right fringe Texas Republicans that the deal Trump cut with Pelosi and Schumer is too liberal for them to back.

After a year in which bilateral relations between the U.S. and Venezuela deteriorated significantly, many assumed that gestures of goodwill between the two countries were out of the question.

Unlike any past storm — natural or man-made — Hurricane Harvey has exposed the fault lines between the politically powerful Texas petrochemical industry and the public’s right to know what dangers lie within their facilities.

Federal and state initiatives targeting undocumented immigrants have spread alarm through Latino communities as people face ethnic profiling,  and some in Houston even feared seeking refuge from Hurricane Harvey because of the possibility they would run afoul of law enforcement.