Tag: texas

‘His followers who worship Monkey and Elephant’: Democrat charged with felony for allegedly creating fake Facebook account to harass himself with racist, xenophobic messages

A candidate for county office in the far-flung Houston suburbs allegedly impersonated racists online — attacking himself with racist and xenophobic posts — in order to bring attention to his campaign.

Taral Patel, 30, has been the Democrat running for Fort Bend County Commission Precinct 3 since last year. As of this week, he stands accused of one count each of online impersonation, a third-degree felony, and misrepresentation of identity, a Class A misdemeanor.

On Sept. 18, 2023, Patel authored a lengthy Facebook post that contained an image collage of several different Facebook posts. Among those posts were instances of anti-Asian, anti-Pakistani, anti-Indian, anti-Hindu, anti-Chinese, anti-George Soros, anti-taxation, anti-Democrat, anti-curry, and anti-communist rhetoric. The collage featured multiple users often extolling the virtues of Christianity, America, and the GOP — as well as the Republican incumbent in the race — though a few such identities were redacted.

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Feds: Over 52,000 “special interest aliens,” including potential terrorists, have crossed the Texas border since October

Authorities recently reported that over 50,000 “special interest aliens” (SIAs) have been encountered at the United States’ borders since Oct. 1, 2023, and Syrian nationals were among those who have illegally entered the Texas border.

The announcement came on the same day the Texas Department of Public Safety (TxDPS) apprehended 31 illegal migrants in Maverick County, right on the border with Mexico. The migrants included two Syrian nationals who had been living in Venezuela. The other 29 were from Colombia, Cuba, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Peru, Honduras, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic. They were taken into custody and brought to the Val Verde Processing Center in Del Rio.

The video that was posted on X, formerly Twitter, by TxDPS spokesperson Chris Olivarez included the Syrians talking about their plight to reach Texas.

One follower commented: “Just walked from Syria wearing a perfectly starched and spotless white shirt,” referring to the border crosser who was wearing a clean shirt despite claiming to have walked from Venezuela to Colombia, rode a boat from Colombia to Nicaragua, walked again from Nicaragua to Honduras to Guatemala to Mexico until they reached the Texas border.

Meanwhile, another social media user replied in the thread saying: “Isis undercover operatives.”

Chief of U.S. Border Patrol Jason Owens also revealed the significant number of SIAs encountered this fiscal year, with the San Diego Sector accounting for 88 percent of the apprehensions. He referred to them as “special interest migrants,” a term initially introduced by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). According to DHS, an SIA is a non-American who, based on travel patterns, might pose a national security risk to the U.S. or its interests, often linked to potential terrorism.

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South Texas Judge Overturns City Council Election Due to Voter Fraud and Allegations of Fake Addresses on Voter Registrations

A visiting judge has overturned the results of the November 2023 Edinburg City Council election, declaring Gerardo “Gerry” Lozano the rightful winner over incumbent David White, myRGV.com reported.

The lawsuit, brought forward by challenger Gerardo “Gerry” Lozano, contested the narrow victory of incumbent David White, alleging widespread irregularities, including illegal assistance to voters and the use of fake addresses in voter registrations.

The central issue in Lozano’s suit involved allegations against ‘politiqueras’, paid campaign workers accused of illegally aiding voters both in-person and through mail-in ballots. Some accusations extended to voters allegedly using fake addresses on their voter registrations.

The court’s findings revealed that these politiqueras assisted numerous voters who did not meet the legal criteria for such help. According to myRGV, citing Texas Election Code, assistance at the polls is strictly reserved for voters who are either illiterate or physically incapable of filling out ballots on their own. This assistance can extend to physically disabled voters eligible for curbside voting.

In his ruling, Senior Judge Jose Manuel Bañales confirmed that several voters received unlawful help filling out their ballots and participated in unauthorized curbside voting. Notably, the judge highlighted instances of individuals voting curbside from a van, despite being physically able to enter the polling place.

After conducting a three-day bench trial, Judge Bañales determined that more than a dozen illegal votes had been cast for incumbent David White, surpassing his narrow victory margin.

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Dallas Voters Could See Marijuana Decriminalization On November Ballot Under New City Council Plan

Dallas voters could decide whether to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana if City Council members approve a plan to put the measure on the November ballot, several council members said Friday.

Council member Chad West will propose the Dallas Freedom Act at a June 26 meeting, he said in a news release. A petition supporting the change garnered more than 50,000 signatures, organizers said.

“Voters in our city and across the country want to decriminalize marijuana,” West said. “Our already burdened police should focus their attention on serious crime, not arresting people with small amounts of marijuana. Bringing this to voters through a City Council-proposed Charter amendment instead of a petition will save the city time and resources.”

The proposal would direct police to stop writing tickets or making arrests for less than four ounces of marijuana. Possessing two to four ounces is a class A misdemeanor that can carry a one-year jail term and holding under two ounes is a classor B misdemeanor that can come with a 180-day sentence.

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Texas judge blocks Biden ATF rule expanding gun background checks

A federal judge in Texas temporarily blocked the Biden administration from enforcing its gun background check rule in the Lone Star State on Sunday evening, one day before the national measure took effect.

U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, granted a temporary injunction against the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives to block the federal rule in Texas, though not in other states that challenged the rule.

The rule was scheduled to go into effect on Monday and shutters the “gun show loophole” for firearms sales, requiring dealers selling guns for a profit to be licensed and requiring background checks for buyers.

“I am relieved that we were able to secure a restraining order that will prevent this illegal rule from taking effect,” Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who challenged the Biden administration rule, said in a statement. The challenge to the ATF measure was also joined by the Gun Owners of America, a pro-Second Amendment group.

“President Biden and his anti-gun administration have aggressively pursued an agenda meant to harass, intimidate, and criminalize gun owners and dealers at every turn,” said Erich Pratt, senior vice president of GOA.

Plaintiffs argued the ATF rule violated the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act of 2022 and the Second Amendment. Kacsmaryk did not rule on the constitutional claim but agreed with the plaintiffs that it ran afoul of the 2022 law.

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Former Texas District Attorney Official Pleads Guilty to Smuggling Illegal Aliens in Government Vehicle

A former official from the Starr County District Attorney’s Office pleaded guilty on Friday to smuggling illegal aliens from the border in a government vehicle.

Bernice Annette Garza had been charged with conspiracy to transport people illegally within the United States.

Garza was arrested on December 7, 2022, during a traffic stop near Victoria. According to a report from MY RVG, four illegal aliens were found inside the District Attorney’s office vehicle at that time.

Express News reports:

In the car with Garza were Magaly Rosa and her husband, Juan Antonio Charles, both then 40 and part of the smuggling operation, according to court records.

The deputy also found four undocumented migrants in the car, records show. They were visibly trembling, were wearing new clothes and appeared to answer questions as though “rehearsed,” the complaint says.

Rosa told authorities that Garza had recruited her to smuggle migrants in her county vehicle. She said Garza provided fraudulent court papers that identified migrants as crime victims, the complaint says.

Rosa and her husband operated their home as a stash house for newly arrived migrants, according to the criminal complaint. They would buy them clothes and feed them, and then Garza would pick up the migrants and Rosa in her county vehicle for the trip to Houston, the complaint says.

Garza confessed that she and her coconspirators had made over 40 trips smuggling the migrants between June and December 2022.

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Texas pardons US Army sergeant Daniel Perry who was convicted of murder for shooting AK-47 wielding BLM protester during 2020 riot

A Texas man convicted of shooting a Black Lives Matter protestor dead during the 2020 riots has received a pardon. 

Daniel Perry, a US Army Sergeant, was found guilty in April 2023 of murdering protestor Garrett Foster in Austin, and was sentenced to 25 years in prison. 

Texas Governor Greg Abbott requested the parole board looked into his case to discuss a possible pardon just days later, which led to a unanimous approval vote that was announced Thursday. 

In a statement after the vote was announced, Abbott cited Texas’ ‘Stand Your Ground’ laws, which allow people to use deadly force if they feel they are in imminent danger. 

‘Texas has one of the strongest ‘Stand Your Ground’ laws of self-defense that cannot be nullified by a jury or a progressive District Attorney,’ Abbott said.

‘I thank the Board for its thorough investigation, and I approve their pardon recommendation.’ 

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Texas AG Ken Paxton Takes Over Investigation Into Corrupt Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo’s $11 Million No-Bid Contract

The walls are finally closing in on corrupt Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has joined the investigation into Lina Hidalgo’s $11 million no-bid contract.

Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg (D) transferred the case to Ken Paxton’s office so it didn’t ‘fall through the cracks’ when she leaves office next year.

KHOU 11 reported:

Lawyers from the Texas Attorney General’s Office will have six months to become familiar with a case involving three ex-staffers of Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo accused of steering a contract toward a vendor. That timeline was set by Harris County Judge Hazel Jones.

Attorneys from the AG Ken Paxton’s office told Jones they need time to review the material in the case.

“We just got on the case, we need to catch up to speed,” one attorney said.

Hidalgo’s office is embroiled in a bid-rigging scandal.

Lina Hidalgo’s top three staffers were indicted in April 2022 after prosecutors expanded the investigation into an $11 million ‘vaccine outreach contract’ awarded to one of the judge’s political cronies.

While Hidalgo was threatening to jail and fine people for violating her Covid rules, she was secretly trying to award one of her political cronies, Felicity Pereyra, who founded Elevate Strategies, an $11 million ‘vaccine outreach’ contract.

Hidalgo ultimately panicked and canceled the $11 million vaccine contract after questions were raised that it was with a one-person firm with no experience.

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Texas Senate Considers Ban On Intoxicating Hemp-Derived Delta-8 And -9 THC Products

Austin hemp entrepreneur Shayda Torabi is looking at a year filled with uncertainty.

For the six years they’ve been in business, Torabi and her two sisters have operated Restart, their hemp dispensary, in a modest neighborhood in North Austin within an entirely lawful framework—evolving as the laws changed, and staying comfortably and legally off the radar of state lawmakers who authorized the sale of consumable hemp in Texas in 2019.

But all of that is about to change.

Some Texas lawmakers have marked hemp dispensaries for what could be some radical changes in regulations next year. Since their products were legalized, there’s been an overnight proliferation of shops offering baked goods, gummies, oils and smokable buds made with cannabis derivatives—some containing small amounts of psychoactives.

Once the darling of a burgeoning wellness industry, the purveyors of legal cannabis products now face questions from critics who remain unconvinced of the safety of their products and want tighter regulations—or even partial bans.

Consumable hemp products come in forms that include smokable vapes and flower buds, oils and creams, baked goods, drinks, gummies and candies.

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‘I survived the Rainey Street ripper’: Drugged man who plummeted 25ft off bridge believes ‘serial killer’ stalking Austin tried to drown him

A man who was drugged and plummeted 25ft off a bridge, narrowly missing certain drowning, believes he could have been targeted by the ‘Rainey Street ripper’.

Jeff Jones, 38, was on a bachelor party trip to Austin with a dozen friends from his home in Boston on June 23 last year.

He woke up in hospital more than two weeks later with metal rods holding his back together and doctors found the date-rape drug GHB in his system.

Jones believes he was drugged before the would-be killer pushed him off the bridge over a stream where he was supposed to drown and float away.

‘Whoever they may be just missed the target and I hit the ground, and luckily because of that I didn’t drown,’ he told DailyMail.com.

‘I just got lucky… Not many people can say they potentially survived a serial killer, so that’s a story I can tell, I guess.’

Locals have for years feared a serial killer is on the loose as a dozen bodies were pulled from the Colorado River and Lady Bird Lake near the popular bar district.

Two more were found in the past month, both of which are not yet identified, but like all but one of the others were ruled not suspicious by police. 

Police insist there is no killer at large, but rumors of a ‘Rainey Street Ripper‘ have continued to swirl as the bodies pile up.

Jones and his friends began with dinner at the Iron Cactus, and then went to the Rustic Tap and Play – both on West 6th Street.

About 1am he somehow became separated from his group, but he doesn’t remember anything from well before that.

Jones is 6ft 3in and can handle alcohol, and said he wasn’t drinking heavily that night as the trip was a weekend-long affair.

His friends last heard from him about 1.30am, after which he stopped replying to texts and his phone went dead.

An anonymous 911 call was placed about 4am after he was spotted lying motionless at the bottom of the historic West Sixth Street Bridge.

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