Texas news

• Texas' murder rate went up again last year, remains relatively low

  25-09-2017 23:43 via texastribune.org
  Texas outpaced the nation's increase in murders and other violent crimes last year compared to 2015, according to the latest crime data released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation Monday.
  In Texas and across the country, violent crime rates ticked up for the second year after record low levels in 2014. Property crime fell again, continuing a long trend downward and making the overall crime rate dip slightly.
  But violent crime in Texas is rising at a faster rate than the nation. While the rat
  
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• Texas officials criticize NFL players over national anthem protests

  25-09-2017 23:37 via texastribune.org
  Several Texas officials are criticizing the National Football League in response to recent demonstrations by players and team staff during the national anthem.
  Before their games on Sunday, 130 players from teams across the league, including the Houston Texans, knelt, raised fists, locked arms or stayed in locker rooms during the song in protest of racial violence in the United States.
  Many Texas Republicans have criticized the protests as being disrespectful and divisiv
  
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• Audio: The live Texas Tribune Festival TribCast

  25-09-2017 23:35 via texastribune.org
  On this special live recording of the TribCast, Emily and Ross talk national politics and local control with New Yorker staff writer Larry Wright, Washington Post correspondent Karen Tumulty, San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg and Dallas Sen. Don Huffines. 
  
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• Houston mayor: State should tap Rainy Day Fund for Harvey recovery

  25-09-2017 22:45 via texastribune.org
  Editor's note: This story has been updated to include Gov. Abbott's statements on tapping the Rainy Day Fund.
  HOUSTON — Mayor Sylvester Turner said that a lack of immediate state funding for Hurricane Harvey relief efforts is forcing him to push for a property tax hike in this storm-battered city still reeling from the worst rainfall event in U.S. history.
  In a wide-ranging interview with The Texas Tribune about the city’s on-going relief efforts, Turner also said Monday that the U.S
  
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• Visual Vernacular: Patricia Restrepo

  25-09-2017 20:39
  When one is engaged in conversation with Patricia Restrepo, newly promoted exhibitions manager and assistant curator at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, there is an immediate sense of vibrant joy and love for the arts. She greets others with happiness, always impeccably dressed in vintage clothes full of life. Beyond that, Restrepo is always someone who speaks to you with sincerity and heart.
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• Appeals court allows more of Texas "sanctuary cities" law to go into effect

  25-09-2017 20:20 via texastribune.org
  A three-judge panel of appellate judges on Monday ruled that parts of the state’s immigration enforcement legislation, Senate Bill 4, can go into effect while the case plays out on appeal.
  Last month, U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia halted the part of the bill that required jail officials to honor all detainers. He also blocked other sections that prohibit local entities from pursuing “a pattern or practice that 'materially limits' the enforcement of immigration laws” and an
  
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• If You Don’t Want to Get Punched, Don’t Be a Nazi

  25-09-2017 18:11
  Punching Nazis in their stupid Nazi faces has become… well, if not the new national pastime, at least a hot new trend sweeping the country. It has, however, raised some serious questions about the appropriate response to all the alt-right rhetoric that’s become the new normal here in the age of Trump. Many people want to know where it will end. What’s to be done? I have a simple answer: Don’t be a...
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• The Brief: The top headlines from The Texas Tribune Festival

  25-09-2017 13:30 via texastribune.org
  Thanks for reading The Brief, our daily newsletter informing you on politics, public policy and everything in between. Forward this email to friends who may want to join us. They can sign up here. — CP
  What you need to know
  It was a newsy weekend at The Texas Tribune Festival in Austin, with big headlines on everything from the GOP's health care bill to the 2018 elections. Here's what you need to know: 
  • U.S. Sen. John Cornyn is a yes on the GOP's latest proposal for overhauling
  
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• Texas to change voting in nursing homes — for one election, by accident

  25-09-2017 07:01 via texastribune.org
  Elderly Texans living in nursing homes and other residential care facilities will test a new system of voting during the state’s constitutional election in November. But the law triggering that new system will vanish from the books shortly after voting wraps up — because the Legislature passed a bill that may have needed an extra round of proofreading.
  Local election administrators are now preparing to implement the overhaul for a single election before it's scrapped.
  
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• New Texas law keeps sex offenders out of college dorms

  25-09-2017 07:01 via texastribune.org
  State Rep. John Raney, R-College Station, represents a district flush with college students and considers higher education one of his legislative priorities. So it was “shocking” for him to learn that no Texas law prevented sex offenders from living in campus dorms — and even more upsetting when a constituent came to his office to tell him that at her out-of-state college, she had been forced to live down the hall from a student who had sexually assaulted her the year
  
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• Analysis: A storm brings distinct changes in the political winds

  25-09-2017 07:01 via texastribune.org
  Editor's note: If you'd like an email notice whenever we publish Ross Ramsey's column, click here.
  Politics can change as fast as the weather. Hurricane Harvey proved it.
  The breadth of the storm’s effect was evident at this past weekend’s Texas Tribune Festival — three days of on- and off-stage conversations about politics, policy and government. The plans for the gathering were in place well before the storm, but Harvey leaked into almost every subject under discussion.
  
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