Tag Archives: lawsuit

Time for another Texas Central legislative update

Posted on April 11, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

I keep thinking that Texas Central has reached a point where there’s not much that can be done in the Lege to stop them, and events continue to prove otherwise. Dallas-Houston bullet train developer Texas Central Partners LLC said its … Continue reading →

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The Orbit lawsuit

Posted on April 10, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Now here‘s an interesting case. A Montgomery County woman has filed suit against the Astros, alleging she suffered a broken finger when her left hand was struck by a T-shirt fired from an air-powered cannon wielded by Orbit, the ballclub’s … Continue reading →

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Third Census lawsuit ruling against Trump administration

Posted on April 9, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Once, twice, three times an injunction. A federal judge in Maryland ruled Friday against the government’s addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 Census, The Washington Post reported Friday. Judge George J. Hazel found that in deciding last year to … Continue reading →

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Failing upward

Posted on April 8, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Must be nice. The day after David Whitley took office as Texas secretary of state on Dec. 17, he received a 49 percent pay raise thanks to his friend and political patron, Gov. Greg Abbott. In a Dec. 18 letter to the Legislative … Continue reading →

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LULAC settles its SOS lawsuit

Posted on April 2, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Good news. The state of Texas is ending a program to purge voters it claimed were noncitizens in order to settle lawsuits brought by civil rights groups over the plan. The deal was reached following a meeting Monday in San … Continue reading →

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Congress to investigate bogus SOS advisory

Posted on March 29, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Elections do have consequences. The U.S. House’s main investigative committee has opened an inquiry into the Texas secretary of state’s review of the voter rolls for supposed noncitizens. In letters sent to top Texas officials on Thursday, U.S. Reps. Elijah … Continue reading →

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Judge tosses Dave Wilson’s lawsuit against HCC

Posted on March 29, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Sorry, Dave. A judge has dismissed a lawsuit against Houston Community College that had been filed by one of the Board of Trustee’s controversial members. Dave Wilson claimed in a lawsuit that the college violated his First and 14th Amendment … Continue reading →

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Trump goes all in against health care

Posted on March 27, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Game on. The Trump administration wants the federal courts to overturn the Affordable Care Act in its entirety, an escalation of its legal assault against the health care law. The Justice Department said in a brief filed on Monday that the administration supports a … Continue reading →

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Harris County sues ITC over Deer Park fire

Posted on March 27, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Go get ’em. Harris County has sued Intercontinental Terminals Co. for failing to prevent a massive chemical fire that burned for more than 60 hours last week and spewed an unknown volume of hazardous chemicals into the air and nearby … Continue reading →

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World’s worst pastors drop Austin equal rights lawsuit

Posted on March 26, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Good. A conservative Christian organization has dropped a federal lawsuitthat sought to overturn an Austin anti-discrimination ordinance that offers employment protection based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Dave Welch, head of the Houston-based U.S. Pastor Council, said the decision was … Continue reading →

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An overview on bail reform

Posted on March 24, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

From Mother Jones, a look at how bail reform is progressing in Harris County. I’m going to focus on the part about the second bail-related lawsuit, which covers felony arrests. A federal judge in Harris County is currently considering a … Continue reading →

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Of course some voters were removed by that bogus SOS advisory

Posted on March 18, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

No one should be surprised by this. Fourteen Texas voters caught up in the secretary of state’s botched review of the voter rolls for supposed noncitizens had their registrations canceled but have since been reinstated, state officials told a federal … Continue reading →

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Still a “no” on Whitley

Posted on March 17, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

As it should be. Senate Democrats still pledge to block the confirmation of embattled Secretary of State David Whitley, even as a top Texas law enforcement official is taking blame for major errors in a list of suspected non-citizen voters. … Continue reading →

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Fifth Circuit wants to see how much it can gut abortion rights before it acts

Posted on March 15, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

That’s the takeaway you should have from this. A Texas law banning a common second-trimester abortion procedure will remain blocked after federal judges Wednesday postponed a decision until the Supreme Court takes action on a similar case. A federal district … Continue reading →

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Texas versus AirBnB

Posted on March 14, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

This is one to watch. Texas is adding short-term-rental site Airbnb to a list of companies that cannot receive state investments because it disallows Israeli-owned rentals in the disputed West Bank. Airbnb is the only American-based company on Texas’ anti-Israel … Continue reading →

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Harris County settles ADA voting rights lawsuit

Posted on March 13, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Chalk up another accomplishment for our new county overlords. The U.S. Department of Justice will monitor Harris County elections, at county expense, for up to four years under the settlement of a federal lawsuit over inadequate access to polling places … Continue reading →

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Is the anti-sick leave bill also anti-equality?

Posted on March 13, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Could be. Whose word do you take for it? What started as seemingly simple state legislation hailed as good for Texas businesses is drawing skepticism from legal experts and outrage from advocates worried it would strike employment protections and benefits … Continue reading →

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We’re about to find out how much we’ll pay to fix Houston’s sewer system

Posted on March 13, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Be prepared. Houston would ramp up spending on its sewer system by $2 billion over 15 years under a proposed deal with state and federal regulators that is expected to produce higher water bills as soon as next year. The … Continue reading →

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SOS screws up again

Posted on March 12, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Are you kidding me? The list of missteps in the Texas secretary of state’s review of the voter rolls for supposed noncitizens grew again Monday, when the office inadvertently added additional people to its already flawed list of voters flagged … Continue reading →

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A second win for plaintiffs in Census citizenship question lawsuit

Posted on March 11, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

It’s all up to SCOTUS now. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross acted in “bad faith,” broke several laws and violated the constitutional underpinning of representative democracy when he added a citizenship question to the 2020 Census, a federal judge ruled Wednesday. In finding … Continue reading →

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Bills to restore Open Meetings Act filed

Posted on March 10, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

This is good to see. Two state legislators are aiming to restore a provision of the Texas Open Meetings Act that was struck down last week by the state’s highest criminal court. Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, and Rep. Dade Phelan, … Continue reading →

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Blaming DPS

Posted on March 5, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Meet your new scapegoat for the SOS non-citizen voter advisory fiasco. Amid the fallout surrounding his administration’s botched review of the voter rolls, Gov. Greg Abbott has picked a side. Who’s to blame for the state’s mistaken challenge to the … Continue reading →

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What can you legally wear when you go to vote?

Posted on March 4, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

That’s the subject of a lawsuit involving voters from Houston and Dallas. A Houston woman who was forced to turn a firefighters T-shirt inside out at the polls and a Dallas-area man who tried to vote in his Trump MAGA … Continue reading →

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Not so open meetings

Posted on March 1, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

We’ll have to see how big a deal this is. In a major blow to the state’s government transparency laws, Texas’ highest criminal court has struck down a significant provision of the Texas Open Meetings Act, calling it “unconstitutionally vague.” … Continue reading →

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Judge blocks any voter purges from the SOS advisory

Posted on February 28, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Good. Let’s hope this lasts. In a major victory for voting rights groups, a federal judge has ordered that no Texas county should purge suspected noncitizen voters from the rolls or issue letters demanding that they prove their citizenship “without … Continue reading →

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Of course there are bills to do something with that bogus SOS advisory

Posted on February 27, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

What else did you expect? Among other things,  Senate Bill 960 and Senate Bill 953, filed late last week, would require voter registrars across the state to kick every person off the voter rolls who at one point said they were not a citizen … Continue reading →

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Testimony ends in SOS advisory lawsuit

Posted on February 26, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Now we wait for a ruling. We’ve already sort of gotten one, but it’s not all official yet. As part of an ongoing flurry of litigation in federal court here over the state’s bungled citizenship review of its voter rolls, … Continue reading →

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Same sex employee benefits lawsuit tossed again

Posted on February 25, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

This is great, but as always that’s not the end of it. The lawsuit dates back to 2013, when pastor Jack Pidgeon and accountant Larry Hicks sued the city to end the policy. In 2015, after the U.S. Supreme Court … Continue reading →

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Another reason David Whitley has to go

Posted on February 24, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

County elections officials feel like they can’t trust him or his office right now. That’s a big deal. As the Texas secretary of state’s office rolled out its botched effort to review the citizenship of nearly 100,000 voters, Betsy Schonhoff … Continue reading →

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Is the Lege going to try to “fix” HD90?

Posted on February 24, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Here’s a legislative to do list item that has been completely off the radar. Federal courts last year gave Texas lawmakers 45 days from the beginning of this year’s legislative session to start redrawing boundary lines for Fort Worth’s House … Continue reading →

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Civil rights groups want Whitley to not be confirmed

Posted on February 23, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

No kidding. More than 30 civil rights and community groups are calling on Senate Democrats to block the confirmation of embattled interim Secretary of State David Whitley, who oversaw the botched rollout of an investigation into the citizenship of tens … Continue reading →

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SOS advisory lawsuit continues

Posted on February 22, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

From Day Two of testimony: Despite a glaring error in the original data that questioned the citizenship status of tens of thousands of registered voters, a state elections official defended the investigation in federal court Wednesday, saying some potential illegal … Continue reading →

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City proposes partial pay raise to firefighters

Posted on February 22, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Progress, of a sort. Houston officials have offered to raise firefighters’ base salaries, but not sufficiently to establish pay parity with police officers as approved by voters, city and firefighter union officials said Wednesday. “In my mind, the proposal makes … Continue reading →

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First day in court for SOS advisory lawsuits

Posted on February 20, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

First day for the first lawsuit, one of three filed against that bogus SOS advisory. A federal judge in San Antonio will hear arguments Tuesday in one of three legal challenges to the state’s initiative to purge tens of thousands … Continue reading →

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