Tag: texas

Fresh fears Texas serial killer could be on the loose as three more bodies pulled from bayous

Fears of a Texas serial killer resurfaced in Houston after three more bodies were recovered from the city’s bayous this week.

The latest discoveries bring the number of bodies found in the waterways in 2025 to at least 34, according to KTRK, just one less than last year’s total.

Authorities have repeatedly denied that the high figure is the work of a mystery murderer, as terrified locals have demanded answers.

On Monday, a body was found in the Buffalo Bayou near the 100 block of Crawford Street, per Houston Public Media.

The deceased was recovered after someone spotted a body in the water and called 911, bringing a response from the Houston Police Department’s dive team.

That same day, another body was found near the Brays Bayou at the intersection of Texas Spur 5 and Old Spanish Trail.

The person was found on Christmas Eve in the Buffalo Bayou around 3500 Memorial Parkway, Houston police said on X.

Since 2017, at least 198 dead bodies have been found in Houston’s bayous, per Harris County Medical Examiner’s Office records obtained by KPRC 2.

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Federal Judge Blocks Texas App Store Digital ID Age Verification Law, Citing First Amendment Violations

A new Texas statute aimed at inserting the state into routine decisions about app downloads has been stopped at the courthouse door, at least for now.

A federal judge ruled days before the law’s scheduled launch that its design collides with the First Amendment and cannot be enforced while the case moves forward.

Robert Pitman of the Western District of Texas issued a preliminary injunction blocking Senate Bill 2420, the Texas App Store Accountability Act, which was set to take effect on January 1.

We obtained a copy of the order for you here.

The law would have required app stores to verify every user’s age (which would mean digital ID checks or biometric scans) and forced minors to obtain parental approval before downloading apps or buying in-app content.

In a detailed written ruling, Pitman concluded the statute is both constitutionally defective and structurally unworkable.

“The Act is akin to a law that would require every bookstore to verify the age of every customer at the door and, for minors, require parental consent before the child or teen could enter and again when they try to purchase a book,” he wrote.

He added that “when considered on the merits, SB 2420 violates the First Amendment.”

SB 2420 does not target a narrow category of online services. It applies to nearly every app store and app developer operating in Texas, bringing in news outlets, streaming platforms, educational tools, fitness apps, and digital libraries alongside social media and games.

Under the statute, developers must assign state-defined age ratings, explain the reasoning behind each rating, and report significant changes to content or features.

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Court Records Reveal Texas Senate Candidate Jasmine Crockett Had Legal Troubles After Renting Car with Convicted Robber and Repeat Offender

Court Documents obtained by The Daily Caller show that Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX), early in her legal career, had some bizarre legal issues after renting a car with a felon who was convicted of robbery and drug charges, as well as arrested and charged several other times. 

The apparent friend of Crockett, Soweto Hoilett of Texas, was accused of robbing three people in 1998 and pleaded guilty to two of the robberies, one being first-degree felony robbery, in February and September, according to court documents uncovered by the Daily Caller.

After serving five years behind bars, Hoilett was slapped with a drug possession charge in June 2005, which he pled guilty to in exchange for dropping an obstructing an officer charge, and was only sentenced to probation.

According to a lawsuit from Budget Rent a Car, Crockett rented a car with Hoilett on August 9. The rental company later sued her for refusing to pay after Hoilett, an unauthorized driver, crashed the car and totaled it.

One month after the pair rented the car, Hoilett was arrested and charged in September 2006 for an August 27, 2006, incident, where he ultimately pleaded guilty to resisting arrest and served 120 days in jail.

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Texas AG sues five major TV companies for allegedly spying on state residents

exas Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton filed lawsuits Monday against five major television companies for allegedly spying on state residents by secretly recording what they watch in their own homes.

The lawsuits include two China-based television companies, Hisense and TCL Technology Group Corporation, which Paxton claimed pose serious concerns about consumer data harvesting. 

The three American companies are Sony, Samsung and LG. 

“Companies, especially those connected to the Chinese Communist Party, have no business illegally recording Americans’ devices inside their own homes,” Paxton said. “This conduct is invasive, deceptive, and unlawful. The fundamental right to privacy will be protected in Texas because owning a television does not mean surrendering your personal information to Big Tech or foreign adversaries.”

Paxton’s office said the companies have been illegally collecting personal information from users through Automated Content Recognition technology, which captures “screenshots of a user’s television display every 500 milliseconds, monitor viewing activity in real time, and transmit that information back to the company without the user’s knowledge or consent.”

The companies then sell the information to ad agencies so targeted advertisements can be shared on different platforms.

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Supreme Court Rejects Bid to Overturn Texas “Book Bans,” Library May Remove LGBTQ Books

The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by a group of Texas county residents challenging their local library’s removal of LGBTQ and other controversial books from its bookshelves.

Yesterday, the Court denied the groups’ petition to review the case, letting stand the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals’ earlier dismissal of their free speech claims against the so-called “book bans.”

We covered the case, Little v. Llano County, here:

Federal Appeals Court Tosses “Book Ban” Challenge, Library May Remove Books Based on Content

To recap briefly, the conflict between county residents and library officials began in 2021, when, responding to public complaints, the Llano County library removed 17 controversial books from its shelves, including these children’s books: Freakboy; Freddy the Farting Snowman; and Being Jazz: My Life As a Transgender Teen.  A group of patrons then sued, alleging the library had illegally banned the books.

At first, the case was going the plaintiffs’ way. In 2023, the federal district court sided with the patrons, ruling the library violated their right to receive information under the Free Speech Clause and ordering the books to be put back on the shelves. Last year, a divided panel of the Fifth Circuit Court agreed.

On appeal, however, a full panel of the Fifth Circuit ruled 10-7 that there is “no such right” under the First Amendment: “It is one thing to tell the government it cannot stop you from receiving a book,” Judge Stuart Duncan, a Trump appointee, wrote on behalf of the panel.  “The First Amendment protects your right to do that.” “It is another thing for you to tell the government which books it must keep in the library. The First Amendment does not give you the right to demand that.”

The court also held that the library’s book selections are government speech, similar to a city museum’s selection of which paintings to feature in an exhibit—and therefore not subject to a Free Speech challenge.

The library patrons then petitioned the Supreme Court to intervene and reverse the appellate court’s decision “immunizing” viewpoint discrimination in violation of their First Amendment rights.

Now, in denying their bid to review the case, the Court leaves in place the rule in the Fifth Circuit, that the First Amendment can’t be invoked to challenge a library’s decision “about which books to buy, which books to keep, or which books to remove.”

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Jasmine Crockett’s Finances Exposed – Subject to Personal Liens While She Spends $50k-100k of Taxpayer Cash on Limos, Luxury Hotels Just This Year

If the new congressional maps enacted by Texas Republicans stand until 2026, which it appears that they will, Rep. Jasmine Crockett would likely be out of a seat.

To everyone else, this is pretty much a win-win; I’m going to assume that this includes Democrats, who must be tiring of her antics by now, particularly given her lack of substantive support to the party’s caucus in the lower house. For Crockett, it’s a big lose — because not only will she be out of the corridors of power, but out of ways to spend the taxpayer’s money, as well.

And boy, does she spend it. That’s why her Senate run is so important to her, and soon to be loathed by the Democrats. Not only does it put the left’s one big potential upset of 2026 out of reach for them, most likely, but it also means that Crockett’s profligate spending — while she had a three-grand lien on her condo, no less — is going to be front-page news for a while.

So, in case you missed it (no shade; keeping up on all things Jasmine-related has shaved at least 5 IQ points off my poor, addled brain), Rep. Crockett announced Monday that she was running for GOP Sen. John Cornyn’s seat in the upper chamber.

“Trump, I know you’re watching, so let me tell you directly,” Crockett at her announcement event, according to CNN. “You’re not entitled to a damn thing in Texas. You better get to work because I’m coming for you.”

Dun dun DUN! Be scared, Donald. Be very scared.

Actually, the environment is probably one of celebration rather than anxious celerity on the part of state Republicans. Unlike the usual Democratic saber-rattling about turning Texas purple, this time they looked like they actually had a shot. A divided GOP is likely to mean that Cornyn doesn’t emerge from his own primary as the nominee, with state Attorney General Ken Paxton leading the way in polls.

Paxton is a little bit more MAGA but a lot more controversial than the other Republican challengers, and while he does well in a GOP primary he’s not necessarily the candidate you want to go into a general election with.

On the other hand, pretty much every character issue you can bring up about Paxton goes out the window the moment Crockett gets the Democratic nomination — which she instantly becomes the favorite for. Paxton could be accused of the most abhorrent thing you can think of — do it on live TV, even — and he’d still be considered a near-lock to win the general election.

To that end, too, Crockett has shoved the one candidate who’s remotely electable out of the running — former U.S. Rep. Colin Allred — leaving Crockett to duel it out with James Talarico, a progressive state representative who once said during a floor speech that “God is nonbinary” and somehow managed to dodge the ensuing lightning bolt from the empyrean.

But let’s not talk about the gift that is Crockett’s statewide unelectability. Let’s instead take a look at the gift that is Crockett’s finances for a moment.

According to Fox News, the Dallas County Clerk’s website shows that Crockett — who makes $174,000 a year in her position as a congresswoman — is currently behind on her payments to the Westside Condominium Association by $3,047.79.

The unpaid lien notice dates from over a year ago.

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Crockett’s Senate Run Was Engineered By Republicans

Rep. Jasmine Crockett. (D-Texas) officially launched her campaign for the U.S. Senate on Monday, and Republicans appear to have played a major role in that happening. 

According to a report from NOTUS, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) was “actively worked behind the scenes to encourage Rep. Jasmine Crockett to jump into the Senate Democratic primary in Texas, believing she will be the easiest opponent to beat.”

With Sen. John Cornyn facing a tough three-way primary and Democrats fielding two strong candidates, Republican strategists reportedly were concerned the race would be tougher than expected. They feared a draining fight could leave the nominee wounded before the real battle against the Democrats even began.

Back in July, the NRSC commissioned a private poll that “by design” included Crockett’s name among the Democratic contenders. Her numbers surprised everyone: she topped the field. Instead of treating it as an internal curiosity, GOP operatives moved fast. 

“When we saw the results, we were like, ‘OK, we got to disseminate this far and wide,’” a source told NOTUS.

In June news broke that Texas Democrats Colin Allred, James Talarico, former Rep. Beto O’Rourke and Rep. Joaquin Castro met to discuss the 2026 election.

Operatives at the NRSC realized that Crockett — whose political stock had been rising — wasn’t included in that meeting and also hadn’t been included in any credible poll. So they decided to change that.

Following the NRSC’s polls, other surveys began to include Crockett and showed similar results: She was surging in the primary.

The NRSC then worked to amplify those polls and is taking credit for helping “orchestrate the pile on of these polling numbers to really drive that news cycle and that narrative that Jasmine Crockett was surging in Texas,” the source said.

And Crockett took the bait.

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Grab Your Popcorn: Jasmine Crockett Is About to Crash and Burn

Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) is expected to shake up the Senate race with a Monday announcement that she plans to run for the seat that Republican John Cornyn holds. If she officially files, Crockett will face off in the March 3 Democratic primary against state Rep. James Talarico. Meanwhile, Colin Allred, who ran against Sen. Ted Cruz two years ago and had hinted at another Senate run, is exiting the race to return to the House.

Whoever emerges from the Democratic primary, and polls suggest Crockett is likely to do so, will face the winner of the GOP primary between incumbent Cornyn, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, and Rep. Wesley Hunt.

“Voters are looking for someone who’s unapologetic in defending our values and who is plain spoken and knows how to speak the language of the everyday person,” said Kardal Coleman, chairman of the Dallas County Democratic Party, according to the Dallas Morning News. “All of them are going to be skilled campaigners and skilled communicators, but the person who can really exemplify what it means to be a Texas Democrat is going to have the most success.”

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Texas AG Paxton sues EPIC City developers after probe finds alleged fraud, misleading Muslim-only marketing

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit on Friday against the East Plano Islamic Center (EPIC), Community Capital Partners (CCP) and several associated leaders, accusing them of running an illegal securities and land development scheme tied to a proposed 400-acre community known as “EPIC City.”

The lawsuit, filed in Collin County, follows a monthslong investigation and a referral from the Texas State Securities Board. The state alleges the defendants raised tens of millions of dollars while violating securities laws, misleading investors about the project’s nature and location, and misrepresenting how funds would be used.

“The leaders behind EPIC City have engaged in a radical plot to destroy hundreds of acres of beautiful Texas land and line their own pockets,” Paxton said. “I will relentlessly bring the full force of the law against anyone who thinks they can ignore the rules and hurt Texans.”

According to the Verified Petition, CCP sold investment interests for $40,000 to $80,000, despite failing to register the securities or qualify for federal exemptions. 

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Family of Texas A&M student says new video and evidence of a ‘fight’ will prove her death wasn’t suicide

The family of Texas A&M student Brianna Aguilera has insisted her death at a college tailgate was not a suicide – and they claim new evidence, including a video, will prove it.

Aguilera, a 19-year-old sophomore, fell 17 stories from a high-rise apartment in Austin after attending the football game against arch rival University of Texas on November 28, according to police.

Investigators claim they found evidence that the aspiring lawyer wrote a suicide note and spoke about ending her life with friends in the hours before she died, police said Thursday.

But at a press conference Friday, the family’s high profile attorney, Tony Buzbee, said the autopsy and toxicology report are not yet complete – he blasted Austin police for ruling her death a suicide.

‘The Austin Police Department formed a conclusion within hours of this tragedy that [it] was a suicide without any investigation,’ Buzbee told reporters.

‘Do you realize that the autopsy has not been completed? The medical examiner’s office told us that it will not be completed for 60 to 90 days, yet you had the so-called lead detective in front of millions of people saying that he had concluded that this was a suicide. Now how unprofessional is that?’

Buzbee added that Aguilera’s parents asked for toxicology testing and a rape kit to be included in the autopsy report.

Aguilera’s mother, Stephanie Rodriguez, does not believe her daughter would have died by suicide, and instead thinks someone must have pushed her over the railing.

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