Michael VerMeulen
Environment
Supreme Court Declares War on Environment
To cap off what is possibly the most right-wing judicial term in over a century, the highest court in the land has dealt yet another massive blow to the progression of common-sense liberal governance. In today’s ruling in the case West Virginia v. EPA,...
Texas Tribune
Liberal Justices Protect Texas Veterans From Right-Wing
In a rare good ruling from the nation’s highest judicial body, the Supreme Court issued a June 29 ruling in the case of Torres v. Texas that protects veterans from discrimination by state governments and retains legal liability for those same administr...
Texas Tribune
SCOTUS Eliminates Separation of Church and State in Schools
In an opinion released on June 27 and written by the Trump-appointed Justice Neil Gorsuch, the Supreme Court used a case about a Washington high school football coach to effectively neuter a section of the First Amendment and open the door to legislati...
Texas Tribune
Texas Labor Scores Big With World Cup Selection
On June 16, leaders in the Houston and Dallas/Fort Worth areas jumped for joy when they heard the news they had long anticipated: the World Cup was coming to Texas. Texas politicians and interest groups had been working to bring the world’s most wid...
climate change
Passing the Ike Dike: A Step Closer to Preventing Environmental Catastrophe
The 2022 hurricane season is officially upon us, with Texans once more preparing themselves for the worst. As hurricanes increase in force due to the effects of climate change, so do the intense flooding and winds that accompany the storms become an ev...
climate change
Odessa and the Worsening Texas Water Crisis
In the midst of a Texas summer that is regularly setting temperature records and will probably end up one of the state’s hottest ever, Odessa made national headlines when its main water line broke and left more than 165,000 residents without access to ...
Texas Tribune
Monkeypox: Worth Worrying About?
The COVID-19 pandemic has made Americans hyper-aware to the risks and consequences of not taking developing pathogens seriously, so the concerning appearance of the monkeypox virus outside its usual confines in Central and West Africa has understandabl...
Texas Tribune
How Heat Waves Threaten the Texas Grid
In the wake of the horrific winter storm in February 2021 that exposed the frightening fragility of Texas’s power grid, much has been written about the failures of ERCOT and Republican leadership to weatherize and strengthen the state’s electrical syst...
Environment
Ted Cruz Proves Himself Wrong on Energy Inflation
Texas energy prices are rising at a dramatic rate once again, and Senator Ted Cruz is falling back on blaming an old boogeyman for the price hikes: the Green New Deal. Over the weekend, Cruz released an incendiary statement on Twitter blaming the da...
Texas Tribune
The Continuing Legal Fight Over Texas Redistricting
On May 31, The Supreme Court denied three Texas Republican lawmakers the ability to avoid questioning under oath in lawsuits by the Biden administration and civil rights groups that say the recently-accepted Texas voting maps are racially discriminator...
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Latest News
FBI searching Biden home in Rehoboth, Delaware, in classified documents probe
U.S. Secret Service agents are seen in front of Joe Biden's Rehoboth Beach, Del., home on Jan. 12, 2021. The FBI is conducting a planned search of President Joe Biden's Rehoboth Beach, Delaware home as part of its investigation into the potential misha...
Fox News
President Biden’s physical delayed due to travel schedule, White House says
President Biden will receive a physical examination on Feb. 16 after weeks of delays that a spokesperson attributed to a "busy and evolving travel schedule in recent weeks."Biden, the oldest president in history, is expected to announce his bid for re-...
Fox News
Manchin, Cruz introduce bipartisan bill barring Biden admin from selling US oil reserves to China
EXCLUSIVE: Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., joined Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Wednesday in introducing bipartisan legislation that would prohibit the federal government from selling American emergency oil reserves to China.The legislation — which, in addition t...
Fox News
DOJ searching Biden Delaware beach home amid classified document investigation
FBI agents were sent to President Biden's vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, on Wednesday to conduct a search for additional classified documents, the president's attorney Bob Bauer said."Today, with the President’s full support and cooperation...
World News
Private payroll growth slowed to 106,000 in January as weather hit hiring, ADP says
Job creation in the private sector plunged in January as weather-related issues sent workers to the sidelines, payroll processing firm ADP reported Wednesday.Companies added just 106,000 new workers for the month, down from an upwardly revised 253,000 ...