Robert Roberson’s case spotlights Texas’ GOP divide on criminal justice
Texas’ junk science statute has remained hamstrung for the last decade. So too have other criminal justice reforms, despite efforts from the Texas House.
Pro-life groups slam Harris for uncompromising abortion position: ‘Christians are not welcome’
Pro-life groups are livid at Vice President Kamala Harris after she took an uncompromising position on abortion rights at odds with many faith-based health care providers. Harris told NBC’s Hallie Jackson on Tuesday that she does not support religious exemptions for abortion and would not make any concessions on that issue, if elected, under a potentially divided government. “I don’t think we should be making concessions when we’re talking about a fundamental freedom to make decisions about your own body,” Harris said in the interview. Christian and pro-life leaders said her position is hostile toward believing doctors and Catholic hospitals, who view abortion as the sinful taking of innocent life. They questioned whether she would respect constitutional protections for religious Americans if she wins the presidency. HARRIS REFUSES TO MAKE CONCESSIONS TO REPUBLICANS ON ANY ABORTION LEGISLATION, INCLUDING RELIGIOUS EXEMPTIONS “Kamala Harris’ comments here show that she believes the First Amendment no longer applies to people of faith, including Catholics,” said Brian Burch, president of CatholicVote, in an interview with Fox News Digital. “She is setting the stage to put Catholic doctors in jail, to strip medical licenses from Catholic physicians and to shut down Catholic health care as we know it.” Dr. Grazie Pozo Christie, a senior fellow with The Catholic Association, said Harris “should clarify, and quickly, whether given the chance she would force Americans who object on religious or conscience grounds, to participate in abortion.” “Sadly, it would not be the first time Harris has used her political power to trample the rights of religious Americans,” she added. HARRIS CLAIMS SHE WAS ‘HONEST WITH THE AMERICAN PEOPLE’ ABOUT BIDEN’S MENTAL ACUITY: ‘CAPABLE IN EVERY WAY’ The Biden-Harris administration has come under fire from Christians and pro-life groups for filing lawsuits against activists who prayed outside of abortion clinics under the Freedom of Access to Clinical Entrances Act. Activist Lauren Handy, with Citizens for a Pro-Life Society, was handed a nearly five-year prison sentence in May for organizing one such protest outside a clinic in Washington, D.C., in 2020. CatholicVote and others have accused the Biden-Harris administration of “weaponizing” the Justice Department against abortion opponents. The Harris campaign did not respond to a request for comment. In interviews, Harris has refused to say whether there is any restriction on abortion that she supports. When Jackson repeatedly pressed her on whether there were any compromises she might support to pass legislation to expand abortion access, Harris refused to “engage in hypotheticals.” “Let’s start with the fundamental fact. A basic freedom has been taken from the women of America, the freedom to make decisions about their own body. And that cannot be negotiable, which is that we need to put back in the protections of Roe v Wade, and that is it,” Harris said. KAMALA HARRIS AVOIDS QUESTIONS ABOUT BIDEN’S MENTAL DECLINE: ‘JOE BIDEN IS NOT ON THE BALLOT’ The vice president has supported legislation in Congress that would codify the Supreme Court’s now defunct opinion in Roe v. Wade, which would guarantee federal protections for abortion access and override nearly all abortion restrictions enacted by pro-life lawmakers at the state level nationwide. William Wolfe, founder and executive director of the Center for Baptist Leadership, said Harris’ position makes “crystal clear” that “Christians are not welcome in the modern, pro-abortion Democrat Party.” “Frankly, I’m not surprised to learn that a Kamala administration would shred the First Amendment and force Christian doctors and hospitals to provide abortions because ‘expanding abortion access’ is a key tenant of their progressive ‘religion.’ There is nothing that the Democrats value more than the ‘freedom’ to end innocent, pre-born human life in the womb with no legal restrictions or repercussions,” said Wolfe. “Her fanatical commitment to abortion access and disregard for the First Amendment isn’t a bug – it’s a feature of her platform. I fail to see how any Christian can support such a barbaric and unconstitutional candidate in good faith.” CLICK HERE FOR THE LATEST MEDIA AND CULTURE NEWS Public opinion polls show, and political analysts agree, that the 2024 presidential election is on a trajectory to be one of the closest in decades. Seven battleground states will determine the winner, and those states are expected to be decided by slim margins – where support from significant voter blocks, like Catholics, could very well make the difference. “The Catholic vote will be critical, as it has been in every election over the last 40 years,” said Burch. “The Democratic Party has gone from safe, legal and rare to now let’s force Catholic hospitals to perform abortions, or we’ll throw you in jail. That’s quite the shift, and I think voters recognize this as a bridge too far.” Bob Vander Plaats, president and CEO of The Family Leader, an Iowa-based socially conservative group, said he has “never seen an election that represents a bigger contrast of worldview” than the 2024 presidential contest. “You can’t tell a doctor my so-called ‘right’ to abortion trumps your right of conscience, so I can force you to commit what you believe is murder. That’s not the America I grew up in, not the America our Founders would have ever permitted, but that’s the Kamala Harris America,” he said. “The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the guarantee of religious liberty, is on the ballot. Choose well, America.” Harris will travel to Texas on Friday, a state her campaign has called “ground zero of Trump’s abortion bans.” She will attend an event in Houston with women “who have faced the direct impacts of these extreme laws” and will speak about the “harm Donald Trump’s abortion bans have caused across the nation.”
J-K: Two army soldiers injured as terrorists attack army vehicle in Gulmarg
An Indian Army vehicle was attacked in Jammu and Kashmir’s Gulmarg on Thursday evening, i.e., October 24, leaving two soldiers injured.
Former Eagle Pass detective sentenced to 10 years in prison for running migrant stash houses
Hazel Eileen Diaz received nearly $40,000 in cash and money transfers for letting human smugglers use her rental properties.
From Denton to Edinburg, Texas cities are spooking their residents and tourists this Halloween
Denton has renamed itself Halloween, Texas, and has planned 31 days of events to drive up tourism and family entertainment.
Federal agencies ordered to use ‘most powerful’ AI systems in first-ever National Security Memo on AI
The U.S. National Security Council released on Thursday its first-ever memo on artificial intelligence (AI), ordering federal agencies to use the “most powerful” AI systems while balancing the risks associated with the new technology. The National Security Memorandum (NSM) details the U.S. approach to harnessing the power of AI for national security and foreign policy purposes “to ensure that America leads the way in seizing the promise and managing the risks of AI,” senior administration officials said. “We are directing that the agencies gain access to the most powerful AI systems and put them to use, which often involve substantial efforts on procurement,” the officials said. The NSM, which was signed by President Biden, serves as the framework for the AI Safety Institute in the Department of Commerce, which already issued guidance on safe AI development and entered into agreements with companies to test new AI systems before they are released publicly. WHAT IS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI)? “This is our nation’s first-ever strategy for harnessing the power and managing the risks of AI to advance our national security,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan said as he described the new policy to students during an appearance at the National Defense University in Washington. Recent advances in artificial intelligence have been hailed as potentially transformative for a long list of industries and sectors, including military, national security and intelligence. FLORIDA MOTHER SUES AI COMPANY OVER ALLEGEDLY CAUSING DEATH OF TEEN SON But there are risks to the technology’s use by governments, including possibilities it could be harnessed for mass surveillance, cyberattacks or even lethal autonomous devices. The framework announced Thursday also prohibits national security agencies from certain uses, such as applications that would violate constitutionally protected civil rights or any system that would automate the deployment of nuclear weapons. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Harris’ ‘mixed messages’ on natural gas production could cost her pivotal Pennsylvania
Energy industry leaders are pushing for Vice President Kamala Harris to clarify her stance on fossil fuel production in the final days of the presidential race, citing fears that she would restrict production and add on to four years of confusing policy under President Biden. These concerns reached a fever pitch last week after senior campaign climate adviser Camila Thorndike said in an interview that Harris has no plans to promote fracking in office. The remarks, since walked back, sparked backlash and criticism from Republicans and industry groups, who re-upped their calls for clarity from the vice president. Many viewed the now-retracted comment as a sign she would crack down on fracking. This could cost Harris big time in Pennsylvania – the second-largest U.S. natural gas producer behind Texas, and a key swing state with 19 electoral votes out for offer in the presidential race. Harris did little to assuage voters in her town hall event Wednesday night. She denied that she had previously endorsed a fracking ban while seeking the presidency in 2019 – when she said there was “no question” she is in favor of banning fracking – and instead pointed to her recent endorsement of the practice. She has also repeatedly noted her tie-breaking vote for the Inflation Reduction Act, or the Democratic-led legislation that opened new lease sales for fracking. BIDEN SEEKS TO CEMENT LEGACY ON CLIMATE CHANGE IN REMAINING MONTHS AS PRESIDENT However, even in the Keystone State, gas groups remain skeptical as industry leaders note that with just days left before the election, Harris has done little to spell out how she would lead on oil and gas issues, especially when it comes to issues of fracking – a necessary technology to extract natural gas in Pennsylvania. Instead, one statewide industry group said, her remarks have only inspired “more fracking confusion.” Harris “was against it before she was for it. Or is it the other way around now?” a spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Energy Infrastructure Alliance quipped of Harris’s fracking flip-flops in a blog post Wednesday. Harris “continues to give mixed messages about her position on fracking – an issue central to voters in battleground states like Pennsylvania,” a spokesperson for Grow America’s Infrastructure Now Coalition told Fox News in a statement. While Harris has said she would “not ban fracking,” the group said, “there is a distinct difference between not banning fracking, and promoting energy production.” KEY BATTLEGROUND STATE VOTER REGISTRATION DATA SHOWS INFLUENTIAL SHIFTS FAVORING GOP “As the Harris campaign travels through Pennsylvania … it remains to be seen whether she will clarify her position,” they added. Winning Pennsylvania may require an embrace of fossil fuel production. The state is the second-largest natural gas producer in the U.S. and boasts a gas industry that supports more than 120,000 state jobs and adds roughly $41 billion annually to the state’s economy. “It’s obvious that the pathway to the presidency goes through Pennsylvania,” Amanda Eversole, the chief operating officer of the American Petroleum Institute, told Fox News earlier this month. Harris, to date, has ignored calls to clarify her exact policy positions on energy production, which was a heated topic during the Biden administration. Her recent stump speeches in Pennsylvania have leaned heavily on the historic levels of U.S. oil and gas production reached under President Biden – despite the fact that this production was in large part a response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “I am proud that as vice president over the last four years, we have invested a trillion dollars in a clean energy economy while we have also increased domestic gas production to historic levels,” Harris said in recent campaign remarks. The U.S. Oil and Gas Association described Harris’s view on social media as the latest “change in her prior, prior, position.” BIDEN SEEKS TO CEMENT LEGACY ON CLIMATE CHANGE IN REMAINING MONTHS AS PRESIDENT Republicans also used it to seize on their wins in Pennsylvania, where Democrats have struggled to gain momentum in recent weeks– including both Harris and down-ballot candidates, such as Sen. Bill Casey. When asked for a comment Wednesday, a spokesperson for former President Donald Trump’s campaign seized on Thorndike’s recent remarks, telling Fox News in a statement that they only “cement the reality” that “the only candidate in this race who will unleash Pennsylvania energy to cut utility bills and fuel American growth is [Trump].” Former U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry also criticized the interview and the confusion swirling around Harris’s policy positions so close to Election Day. “With the election less than 2 weeks out, the recent comments from Harris’ climate director are concerning,” Perry told Fox News in a statement. “Calling the oil and gas industry ‘ecoterrorists’ is insulting to the millions of energy workers across the country, and the Vice President should disavow these extreme comments,” he said. “Voters from PA, OH, and WI should believe Vice President Harris the first time she vowed to ban fracking.” Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.
Beyonce to join Kamala Harris at red state campaign rally: report
Singer Beyoncé is expected to join Vice President Kamala Harris during a rally in Houston on Friday, The Associated Press reported Thursday. Harris will head to the Republican state of Texas on Friday, when she will hold a rally spotlighting the state’s abortion laws following the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022. The Associated Press reported Thursday morning that Harris will be joined by Beyoncé, citing three people familiar with the event. Beyoncé, who is from Houston, has not yet endorsed Harris for president, but her song “Freedom” has become a hallmark of Harris’ rallies, including using it as Harris’ walk-up song before she addresses supporters. TEXAS AG SUES BIDEN-HARRIS ADMIN FOR NOT VERIFYING CITIZENSHIP OF 450K ‘POTENTIALLY INELIGIBLE’ VOTERS Speculation mounted in August during the Democratic National Convention (DNC) that Beyoncé would perform for the crowds on the convention’s final night. The singer ultimately did not perform or attend the DNC. BEYONCÉ GAVE SCOTUS JUSTICE KETANJI BROWN JACKSON CONCERT TICKETS VALUED AT NEARLY $4,000: REPORT Though Beyoncé has not yet endorsed Harris this cycle, she has a long history of supporting Democrats, including singing the national anthem during former President Barack Obama’s second presidential inauguration in 2013. Beyoncé’s mother in July issued a full endorsement of Harris following President Biden dropping out of the race as concern mounted surrounding Biden’s mental acuity and age. BEYONCÉ SENDS FLOWERS, THANKS BLACK FEMALE COUNTRY ARTISTS FOR ‘OPENING DOORS’ AMID ‘COWBOY CARTER’ RELEASE “New, Youthful, Sharp, energy!!!! You asked for it and our President Biden did what was best for the country! Putting personal Ego, power and fame aside. That is the definition of a great leader. Thank you, President Biden for your service and your leadership. Go Vice President Kamala Harris for President,” Tina Knowles posted on Instagram in July alongside a photo of her with Harris. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris campaign and Beyoncé representatives for confirmation of the appearance but did not immediately receive a reply. Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.
From ‘joyful’ to ‘fascist’ – Why Kamala Harris adopted Biden’s playbook on blasting Trump
Vice President Kamala Harris stood outside the vice president’s residence in Washington, D.C., launching a blistering attack on former President Trump, her rival in the 2024 White House race. Harris charged that the former president was “increasingly unhinged and unstable” as she pointed to critical comments made by retired Gen. John Kelly, Trump’s former White House Chief of Staff, in a New York Times interview. The vice president argued Trump was a “fascist” as she noted Kelly’s allegations that the then-president repeatedly voiced admiration for Nazi Germany dictator Adolf Hitler. Hours later, at a CNN town hall in battleground Pennsylvania on Wednesday night, Harris doubled down on her charges. NEW NATIONAL POLL SHOWS WHETHER HARRIS OR TRUMP HAS THE EDGE IN THE FINAL STRETCH Asked if she believed the Republican presidential nominee was a fascist, the vice president answered “yes, I do.” And she emphasized that American voters “care about our democracy and not having a President of the United States who admires dictators and is a fascist.” Trump, who has vehemently denied Kelly’s allegations, took to social media to fire back at Harris, arguing that her criticisms were a sign that she’s losing the election. The former president claimed that Harris was “increasingly raising her rhetoric, going so far as to call me Adolf Hitler, and anything else that comes to her warped mind.” CHECK OUT THE LATEST FOX NEWS POWER RANKINGS IN THE 2024 ELECTION If Harris’ criticisms that Trump is “unfit to serve” in the Oval Office sound familiar, there’s a good reason – they are. As he ran for re-election, President Biden made his argument that Trump was an existential threat to democracy a centerpiece of his presidential campaign. Biden spotlighted what he called the former president’s “assault on democracy” – as he pointed to the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters aiming to upend congressional certification of Biden’s 2020 election victory – during a January speech as he kicked off the election year. As he continued to run for another four years in the White House, the president repeatedly argued that Trump was “a threat to democracy.” But after a besieged Biden in July dropped his re-election bid and backed Harris to replace him atop the Democrats’ 2024 ticket, the vice president and her advisers seemed to discard the Biden playbook on Trump. Instead, “joyful warrior” Harris spotlighted a more upbeat message and when she focused on Trump, she noted his petty grievances and called him an “unserious man,” as she argued during her Democratic National Convention address in late August. But as the calendar moved from summer to autumn, and Election Day neared, in a margin-of-error race where plenty of polls suggest the momentum belongs to Trump, there’s been an apparent shift of tone coming from the vice president and her campaign. “Donald Trump is increasingly unstable and unhinged and will stop at nothing to claim unchecked power for himself,” Harris charged last week during multiple campaign rallies in battleground Wisconsin. According to a senior campaign official, Harris will deliver what’s being described as a major “closing argument” address next Tuesday – one week until Election Day – on the Ellipse, which is just south of the White House and north of the National Mall. The campaign spotlighted that Trump headlined a large rally of supporters at the Ellipse on Jan 6, 2021. Many of those who attended Trump’s rally then marched to the U.S. Capital and joined other protesters in storming the building. The campaign sees the Ellipse as a symbolic location that they believe will help make clear to voters the choice in the presidential election. The contrast with the former president that Harris is working to sketch comes as she and her campaign make a full court press to attract dissatisfied Republicans who supported Trump rival Nikki Haley earlier this year in the GOP presidential primaries. WHAT THE LATEST FOX NEWS POLLS INDICATE IN THE HARRIS-TRUMP SHOWDOWN While Trump continues to hold massive sway over the Republican Party, even a sliver of GOP voters casting ballots for Harris could make a difference in some of the battleground states in a race likely to be decided in the margins. Harris in recent weeks has teamed up in the key battleground states with high-profile anti-Trump Republicans, including former Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming. A Democratic strategist in Biden’s political orbit told Fox News that the shift in Harris’ messaging is a sign that the president was right to repeatedly take aim at Trump on the campaign trail as an existential threat to democracy. The Trump campaign argues that the new messaging will backfire with voters. “Kamala Harris is focused on Donald Trump and President Donald J. Trump is focused on the American people,” Trump campaign senior adviser Danielle Alvarez argued on “Fox and Friends” on Thursday. “Our closing argument is so different than theirs. They are throwing everything they can at the wall to see what sticks because Kamala Harris is floundering.” Longtime vocal GOP Trump-critic Gov. Chris Sununu of New Hampshire – who was a top Haley supporter and surrogate in the Republican nomination battle but says he’ll vote for Trump – said that the attacks wouldn’t succeed in courting voters. “You’re dealing with an individual who makes outrageous statements all the time,” Sununu said of Trump during an interview on Fox News’ “Your World with Neil Cavuto.” “They’re baked into the noise.” Sununu argued that “the reason the Harris campaign has completely frozen, lost all their momentum, is because all they do is talk about crazy things that Trump says and does.” Longtime Republican strategist Colin Reed, a veteran of multiple presidential campaigns, agreed. “Voters have been hearing versions of this overheated rhetoric for the better part of the last decade, and they’re starting to tune it out as background noise,” he told Fox News Digital. Reed also noted that the new criticism comes after Trump survived two assassination attempts against his life this summer,
From ‘joyful’ to ‘fascist’ – Why Kamala Harris adopted Biden’s playbook on blasting Trump
Vice President Kamala Harris, stood outside the Vice President’s residence in Washington D.C. – launching a blistering attack on former President Trump, her rival in the 2024 White House race. Harris charged that the former president was “increasingly unhinged and unstable” as she pointed to critical comments made by retired Gen. John Kelly, Trump’s former White House Chief of Staff, in a New York Times interview. The vice president argued Trump was a “fascist” as she noted Kelly’s allegations that the then-president repeatedly voiced admiration for Nazi Germany dictator Adolf Hitler. Hours later, at a CNN townhall in battleground Pennsylvania on Wednesday night, Harris doubled down on her charges. NEW NATIONAL POLL SHOWS WHETHER HARRIS OR TRUMP HAS THE EDGE IN THE FINAL STRETCH Asked if she believed the Republican presidential nominee was a fascist, the vice president answered “yes, I do.” And she emphasized that American voters “care about our democracy and not having a President of the United States who admires dictators and is a fascist.” Trump, who has vehemently denied Kelly’s allegations, took to social media to fire back at Harris, arguing that her criticisms were a sign that she’s losing the election. The former president claimed that Harris was “increasingly raising her rhetoric, going so far as to call me Adolf Hitler, and anything else that comes to her warped mind.” CHECK OUT THE LATEST FOX NEWS POWER RANKINGS IN THE 2024 ELECTION If Harris’ criticisms that Trump is “unfit to serve” in the Oval Office sound familiar, there’s a good reason – they are. As he ran for re-election, President Biden made his argument that Trump was an existential threat to democracy a centerpiece of his presidential campaign. Biden spotlighted what he called the former president’s “assault on democracy” – as he pointed to the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters aiming to upend congressional certification of Biden’s 2020 election victory – during a January speech as he kicked off the election year. As he continued to run for another four years in the White House, the president repeatedly argued that Trump was “a threat to democracy.” But after a besieged Biden in July dropped his re-election bid and backed Harris to replace him atop the Democrats’ 2024 ticket, the vice president and her advisers seemed to discard the Biden playbook on Trump. Instead, “joyful warrior” Harris spotlighted a more upbeat message and when she focused on Trump, she noted his petty grievances and called him an “unserious man,” as she argued during her Democratic National Convention address in late August. But as the calendar moved from summer to autumn, and Election Day neared, in a margin-of-error race where plenty of polls suggest the momentum belongs to Trump, there’s been an apparent shift of tone coming from the vice president and her campaign. “Donald Trump is increasingly unstable and unhinged and will stop at nothing to claim unchecked power for himself,” Harris charged last week during multiple campaign rallies in battleground Wisconsin. According to a senior campaign official, Harris will deliver what’s being described as a major “closing argument” address next Tuesday – one week until Election Day – on the Ellipse, which is just south of the White House and north of the National Mall. The campaign spotlighted that Trump headlined a large rally of supporters at the Ellipse on Jan 6, 2021. Many of those who attended Trump’s rally then marched to the U.S. Capital and joined other protesters in storming the building. The campaign sees the Ellipse as a symbolic location that they believe will help make clear to voters the choice in the presidential election. The contrast with the former president that Harris is working to sketch comes as she and her campaign make a full court press to attract dissatisfied Republicans who supported Trump rival Nikki Haley earlier this year in the GOP presidential primaries. WHAT THE LATEST FOX NEWS POLLS INDICATE IN THE HARRIS-TRUMP SHOWDOWN While Trump continues to hold massive sway over the Republican Party, even a sliver of GOP voters casting ballots for Harris could make a difference in some of the battleground states in a race likely to be decided in the margins. Harris in recent weeks has teamed up in the key battleground states with high-profile anti-Trump Republicans, including former Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming. A Democratic strategist in Biden’s political orbit told Fox News that the shift in Harris’ messaging is a sign that the president was right to repeatedly take aim at Trump on the campaign trail as an existential threat to democracy. The Trump campaign argues that the new messaging will backfire with voters. “Kamala Harris is focused on Donald Trump and President Donald J. Trump is focused on the American people,” Trump campaign senior adviser Danielle Alvarez argued on “Fox and Friends” on Thursday. “Our closing argument is so different than theirs. They are throwing everything they can at the wall to see what sticks because Kamala Harris is floundering.” Longtime vocal GOP Trump-critic Gov. Chris Sununu of New Hampshire – who was a top Haley supporter and surrogate in the Republican nomination battle but says he’ll vote for Trump – said that the attacks wouldn’t succeed in courting voters. “You’re dealing with an individual who makes outrageous statements all the time,” Sununu said of Trump during an interview on Fox News’ “Your World with Neil Cavuto.” “They’re baked into the noise.” Sununu argued that “the reason the Harris campaign has completely frozen, lost all their momentum, is because all they do is talk about crazy things that Trump says and does.” Longtime Republican strategist Colin Reed, a veteran of multiple presidential campaigns, agreed. “Voters have been hearing versions of this overheated rhetoric for the better part of the last decade, and they’re starting to tune it out as background noise,” he told Fox News Digital. Reed also noted that the new criticism comes after Trump survived two assassination attempts against his life this summer,