Texas

Over the past several years, Total Petrochemical’s sprawling oil refinery in southeast Texas has sprayed tons of sulfuric acid and carbon monoxide into the sky. (AP/David J. Phillip)
A Washington, D.C.-based environmental advocacy group sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday, arguing the federal government isn’t properly policing air pollution permits the state of Texas issued to some of the largest industrial facilities in the U.S.

The U.S. attorney’s office has been harassing Barrett Brown’s literary agent.
Published in partnership with Shadowproof.
The United States Attorney’s office in the northern district of Texas issued another subpoena against journalist Barrett Brown. It was sent to Writers House, Barrett Brown’s literary agent who is working with him on his forthcoming book.

Prison staff and inmates move through the Darrington Unit’s main hallway on July 12, 2017.(Jolie McCullough/The Texas Tribune)
ROSHARON — Just 30 miles south of the urban epicenter of Houston, the scene around one of Texas’ oldest maximum-security prisons has a much more rustic quality.

-by Tom WakelyMy name is Tom Wakely and I am a candidate for Governor of Texas but before we get into that I’d like to tell you a story or two of how I came to the decision to run and why I am running.My wife and I run a private care home for hospice patients in San Antonio. We offer them a place in our home to die. We have been doing this for a little over eight years now and we have helped 48 people to die with dignity and respect.

Roy Oliver. Oliver, a Texas police officer, faces a murder charge in the shooting of a teenager. Oliver fired a rifle at a car full of teenagers leaving a party April 29, killing 15-year-old Jordan Edwards. (Parker County Sheriff’s/AP)
A Dallas County grand jury indicted a former Balch Springs police officer on a murder charge Monday in the shooting death of an unarmed black teenager, an exceedingly rare legal step in Texas that illustrates the controversy surrounding the shooting since details of it rocked the community in April.

Austin, Texas police arrested PINAC News Correspondent Phillip Turner last week for interfering with a police investigation. But, Turner was simply video recording a DUI sobriety test. Once a police supervisor arrived on site Turner was released.
Turner films police on a regular basis so it is no surprise to him how quickly things can go south when a cop sees you filming their every move.

An unarmed Texas teenager was shot and killed, which led a Dallas County grand jury to return a first-degree murder indictment against the police officer who killed him.
Balch Springs cop Roy Oliver shot and killed Jordan Edwards with an AR-15 rifle.
Now he’s facing 99 years in prison.

The Houston Police Department has ended its longstanding practice of using $2 chemical kits to make drugs arrests, a policy that had contributed to hundreds of wrongful convictions in recent years.

Texas hasn't been a big part of progressive plans for winning back Congress in recent years-- nor even Democratic Party plans. Most of the few Democrats the DCCC has backed there have been dreadfully corrupt conservatives like Pete Gallego, Vicente Gonzalez, Henry Cuellar and Filemon Vela. They were certainly openly hostile to Beto O'Rourke when he first ran for Congress in El Paso against another of their corrupt conservatives, Sylvester Reyes.

Last Week, July 3, 2017, in Arlington, Texas Latasha Nelson documented an interaction between herself and Arlington Police Officer Chad Haning. According to local media and the Next Generation Action Network this incident escalated from an unfounded accusation of auto burglary.  Officers claimed that the teen “fit the description” and the mother pleaded with the officer to let her son go because he was not who they were looking for.