Tag: texas

Texas Dept. of Health and Human Services Refuses to Answer Questions About Anti-Porn Law’s Mandatory ‘Warnings’

The Texas Department of Health and Human Services has declined to confirm or deny whether the “health warnings” mandated by the state’s recent anti-porn age verification law are supported by any official documentation or statement produced by that office.

As XBIZ reported, the Republican-authored HB 1181 was passed by the Texas legislature with bipartisan support in May and will go into effect September 1.

The new Texas age verification law — part of a state-by-state campaign by religious conservatives and anti-porn activists to outlaw all sexual material online — compels adult websites to post pseudoscientific anti-porn propaganda disclaimers declaring that “pornography is potentially biologically addictive, is proven to harm human brain development, desensitizes brain reward circuits, increases conditioned responses and weakens brain function.”

HB 1181 is a much-augmented version of Louisiana’s age verification law and its many copycats, and echoes the debunked “porn addiction” language of faith-based anti-porn groups.

XBIZ asked the Press Office of the Texas Department of Health and Human Services if the department could provide any documentation or statement pertaining to those warnings, and clarify whether the language of the warnings has its basis in any documentation or statement produced by the Texas Department of Health and Human Services.

After requesting several days to provide a reply to the query, Press Officer Tiffany Young declined to answer, deflecting the questions with an invitation to contact “the authors of this bill for information about how it originated.”

XBIZ also contacted Texas Department of Health and Human Services Chief of Staff Kate Hendrix and the bill’s main sponsor, Rep. Matt Shaheen (R), but received no reply to the same questions.

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Texas School District Threatens to Seize 79-Year-Old Man’s Home for Stadium Parking Lot

A family in Houston, Texas, is at risk of having their generational home seized to make way for the expansion of the adjacent high school football stadium’s parking lot.

In April, the Aldine Independent School District voted to authorize the use of eminent domain to seize the home and surrounding acre of land currently owned and occupied by 79-year-old Travis Upchurch, reported the Houston Chronicle in July.

The land has been in Upchurch’s family since 1916 when his relatives first immigrated to the area from Sweden. At the time they settled there, the area was predominately agricultural, dominated by dairy farms and pecan trees.

Beginning in the 1970s, Aldine ISD started purchasing up the land around the Upchurch property as part of the construction of its current football stadium. Today, it’s surrounded on three sides by stadium parking. The vacant lot abutting the fourth side of the property is also owned by the district.

“My dad has pretty much been in a high school football stadium parking lot since then,”  Travis Upchurch’s daughter, Tara Upchurch, tells Reason.

Tara Upchurch says that she had expected Aldine ISD would want to buy the land once her father passed away. Her family’s expectation was that until then, he’d be able to stay in their longtime family home.

That expectation was upended in June when Travis Upchurch received a letter in the mail informing him that the school district was intent on purchasing his land as part of a $50 million rebuild of the existing stadium.

“It was pretty shocking,” says Tara Upchurch. “It was really hard to process the loss of it.”

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Dallas cops roar with laughter after disabled military vet urinated on himself

Four Dallas police officers are under investigation after they were caught on video laughing about a disabled military veteran who urinated on himself when he was prohibited from using a restaurant bathroom.

US Army vet Dynell Lane told the Dallas Police Department’s oversight board that two off-duty cops working security at Serious Pizza refused to let him use the bathroom around 2:15 a.m. on June 10 — despite his efforts to show them his medical paperwork documenting his medical issues, The Dallas Morning News reported.

Lane, who was disabled on deployment in the Middle East, said he called 911 but responders did not arrive before he wet himself.

“The Dallas Police Department failed me,” Lane told the board at its monthly meeting on Aug. 8.

“Two Dallas police officers discriminated against me and declined to assist me in bridging the gap between myself and the Serious Pizza manager.”

Body camera footage from one of the two off-duty cops shows two other uniformed officers arrive at the pizza joint and ask about a report of someone who “pissed themselves,” according to the paper.

“So you guys made a guy pee himself?” one of the on-duty officers says in the shocking exchange, holding her fist to her mouth as she laughs.

“Yeah,” one of the off-duty officers responds, smiling. He looks at the other off-duty officer, who appears to ask, “He called 911?”

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Texas elementary school fires black teacher after numerous racist tweets against white people go viral

A teacher at an elementary school in Texas was fired after several racist, anti-white messages on social media were picked up by conservatives and went viral.

Danielle Allen taught first grade at a Thompson Elementary School in the Mesquite Independent School District near Dallas when she posted the missives against white people on social media.

Allen referred to herself as a “black supremacist” and posted a message implying that she wanted to have her sister’s boyfriend killed because he was white.

“I promise I’ll help you hide the body. Bring all 4 of your guns,” she said in one message.

In a video she posted later, Allen then smiled as she promised to do everything in her power to break up the biracial relationship.

“Why shouldn’t I hate white people?” she said in another post.

“I enjoy being racist! I’m never changing!” read another message.

On Monday, she claimed that she had talked to school administrators about the controversy and that they had reassured her that her job was safe.

“They laughed and told me to watch what I say and I’ll be good to go! Being a great teacher pays off very well when they know your true self!” she claimed.

On Tuesday, the school posted a message saying that Allen was no longer employed at the school and was not “eligible” for rehire.

“Nevertheless, the highly offensive statements posted to her X account do not reflect the values and standards of Mesquite ISD, and the district condemns them in the strongest terms,” they added.

Allen has since deleted her social media account and has been removed from the staff directory of the school.

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Fired Southlake cop smiled for swastika photo accidentally texted to citizen, records say

One of two Southlake police officers fired last month texted a photo of the other smiling after he drew a swastika and lightning bolts, which typically represent Hitler’s paramilitary forces, according to documents obtained Wednesday by The Dallas Morning News.

The chief terminated Sgt. Jonathan Macheca and Capt. James Preston Logan last month after an investigation into the drawing, according to the documents. The records allege Macheca made the illustration on a whiteboard during a break from hiring prospective officers at a training center. Logan is accused of snapping the photo and sending it to other officers and accidentally including a member of the public, the documents say.

The documents do not include any images of the drawing. The lightning bolts are still used as a sign of white supremacy. It was unclear whether the officers had attorneys. They could not be reached for comment Wednesday evening.

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Texas man found ‘not guilty’ after being ticketed for feeding homeless

A Texas man was found not guilty after he was ticketed for feeding homeless people in Houston.

According to Fox 26, Phillip Picone opted to go to trial after being ticketed while volunteering for Food Not Bombs, a group that has been feeding homeless people near the public library in Downtown Houston for 20 years.

The city had outlawed setting up feeding stations, initially citing public health and safety concerns after violent incidents near the library. It asked that charities moved their services to the old Houston Police Headquarters.

The jury unanimously found Picone “not guilty.”

Picone received his ticket on March 3 and is the first of dozens of volunteers to go to trial. Attorney Paul Kubosh represents him and 37 other volunteers.

“What I’m hoping for is vindication,” Kubosh told Fox 26 before the hearing. “I’m hoping for not guilty. If you’re trying to affect the lives of homeless and trying to make their situation better, you don’t do that by attacking the Samaritan. This law is not about the homeless. It’s about the Samaritan.”

The city of Houston defended the charges in a statement.

“The City of Houston intends to vigorously pursue violations of its ordinance relating to feeding of the homeless,” city attorney Arturo Michel said. “It is a health and safety issue for the protection of Houston’s residents. There have been complaints and incidents regarding the congregation of the homeless around the library, even during off hours.”

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Texas A&M suspended professor accused of criticizing Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick in lecture

Joy Alonzo, a respected opioid expert, was in a panic.

The Texas A&M University professor had just returned home from giving a routine lecture on the opioid crisis at the University of Texas Medical Branch in March when she learned a student had accused her of disparaging Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick during the talk.

In the few hours it took to drive from Galveston, the complaint had made its way to her supervisors, and Alonzo’s job was suddenly at risk.

“I am in a ton of trouble. Please call me!” she wrote to Chandler Self, the UTMB professor who invited her to speak.

Alonzo was right to be afraid. Not only were her supervisors involved, but so was Chancellor John Sharp, a former state comptroller who now holds the highest-ranking position in the Texas A&M University System, which includes 11 public universities and 153,000 students. And Sharp was communicating directly with the lieutenant governor’s office about the incident, promising swift action.

Less than two hours after the lecture ended, Patrick’s chief of staff had sent Sharp a link to Alonzo’s professional bio.

Shortly after, Sharp sent a text directly to the lieutenant governor: “Joy Alonzo has been placed on administrative leave pending investigation re firing her. shud [sic] be finished by end of week.”

The text message was signed “jsharp.”

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Dallas Law Against ‘Manifesting’ Prostitution Declared Unconstitutional

Manifesting prostitution law rejected. The Dallas County Criminal Court of Appeals has struck down a law against “manifesting the purpose of engaging in prostitution.” The law “is seeking a shortcut that trespasses on the constitutional rights of Dallas citizens,” wrote Judge Kristin Wade in her decision. The statute was “overbroad,” she argued, because “it punishes constitutionally protected conduct as well as illegal activity.”

The Dallas law is separate from Texas’ main prohibition of prostitution. The latter prohibits engaging in, offering to engage, or agreeing to engage in sex acts for a fee. The former prohibits looking like you might be about to do so.

Under the Dallas law, it was a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $500 to loiter “in a public place in a manner and under circumstances manifesting the purpose of inducing, enticing, soliciting, or procuring another to commit an act of prostitution.”

Laws like these—sometimes called “manifesting” for the purpose of prostitution, sometimes “loitering” for prostitution purposes—are common in cities and states around the country. But there’s been a growing movement against these laws, which make it easy for police to hassle and arrest people without cause.

In 2021, New York state repealed its loitering for prostitution statute. California did the same in 2022.

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TEXAS STATE POLICE PURCHASED ISRAELI PHONE-TRACKING SOFTWARE FOR “BORDER EMERGENCY”

THE TEXAS DEPARTMENT of Public Safety purchased access to powerful software capable of locating and following people through their phones as part of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s “border security disaster” efforts, according to documents reviewed by The Intercept.

In 2021, Abbott proclaimed that the “surge of individuals unlawfully crossing the Texas-Mexico border posed an ongoing and imminent threat of disaster” to the state and its residents. Among other effects, the disaster declaration opened a spigot of government money to a variety of private firms ostensibly paid to help patrol and blockade the state’s border with Mexico.

One of the private companies that got in on the cash disbursements was Cobwebs Technologies, a little-known Israeli surveillance contractor. Cobwebs’s marquee product, the surveillance platform Tangles, offers its users a bounty of different tools for tracking people as they navigate both the internet and the real world, synthesizing social media posts, app activity, facial recognition, and phone tracking.

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Veteran biology professor who teaches scientific fact that sex is determined by chromosomes X and Y is FIRED after four students walked out of his reproductive class – accusing him of ‘religious preaching’

A veteran biology professor in Texas who has been teaching that sex is determined by X and Y chromosomes for over 20 years was allegedly fired after four students walked out of his classroom. 

Dr. Johnson Varkey has claimed he was let go from his teaching position at St. Philip’s College in San Antonio after he was accused of ‘religious preaching’.

He was discussing the human reproductive system on November 28, 2022, when four students stormed out of the lecture. 

Varkey was then accused of ‘discriminatory comments about homosexuals and transgender individuals, anti-abortion rhetoric, and misogynistic banter’. 

The professor said he received an email from the Alamo Colleges District Human Resources department in January, which said his credentials would be revoked pending an investigation. He was later fired. 

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