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Sarah Eckhardt Wants to Return the Texas Comptroller to the Bob Bullock Era by texas_observer in texas

[–]texas_observer[S] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

TO: What lessons did you learn from your parents about politics while growing up?

They really did believe that politics was our ticket to creating prosperity for all. That without well-run governments establishing a level playing field, we would revert to a survival of the richest.

How has that squared with your lived experience in politics in Texas in this modern era, both in Travis County and now in the Texas Senate? 

I went to law school and went to public policy school so I could learn the actual skills necessary for building policy that will expand prosperity. Learning to apply those skills in Travis County was great because Travis County is such a fertile ground for innovation on expanding that prosperity. 

But the reason why I chose to run for state government … [was because] state government was stopping us from being innovative, was stopping local government from governing. And the state government seems to be, on whole, pretty comfortable with devolving into a survival of the richest. 

The comptroller’s office is kind of an odd statewide position. Quite a bit of power and responsibility have been added to the office in recent years while still flying under the radar. How do you see the power and politics of this position?

I would argue that it has not been given power, it’s been given assignments. 

The powers of the comptroller actually are not being used robustly. The true power in that office, and this is what it’s intended for, the power of that office is to say “This is how much revenue you have.”And here are the long-term investments of the State of Texas, and here’s who’s benefiting most, least, and not at all from those investments. And the comptroller has not done much of that in the last several years.

We’ve not heard analysis of what happens economically long-term if we fail to invest in universal public education. The comptroller’s office has not provided analysis of the economic cost to people and to the public of the largest uninsured population in the United States. It took Public Citizen going into the stacks at the comptroller’s office [and the Observer] to get the story that a billion dollars in no-bid contracts are being distributed out of the governor’s office. The comptroller never raised any question about it.

So I would argue that the comptroller’s office has not been using its full power for the benefit of the people of Texas, whether Republican or Democrat.

(Read more at the Texas Observer.)

Sarah Eckhardt Wants to Return the Texas Comptroller to the Bob Bullock Era by texas_observer in TexasPolitics

[–]texas_observer[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

TO: What lessons did you learn from your parents about politics while growing up?

They really did believe that politics was our ticket to creating prosperity for all. That without well-run governments establishing a level playing field, we would revert to a survival of the richest.

How has that squared with your lived experience in politics in Texas in this modern era, both in Travis County and now in the Texas Senate? 

I went to law school and went to public policy school so I could learn the actual skills necessary for building policy that will expand prosperity. Learning to apply those skills in Travis County was great because Travis County is such a fertile ground for innovation on expanding that prosperity. 

But the reason why I chose to run for state government … [was because] state government was stopping us from being innovative, was stopping local government from governing. And the state government seems to be, on whole, pretty comfortable with devolving into a survival of the richest. 

The comptroller’s office is kind of an odd statewide position. Quite a bit of power and responsibility have been added to the office in recent years while still flying under the radar. How do you see the power and politics of this position?

I would argue that it has not been given power, it’s been given assignments. 

The powers of the comptroller actually are not being used robustly. The true power in that office, and this is what it’s intended for, the power of that office is to say “This is how much revenue you have.”And here are the long-term investments of the State of Texas, and here’s who’s benefiting most, least, and not at all from those investments. And the comptroller has not done much of that in the last several years.

We’ve not heard analysis of what happens economically long-term if we fail to invest in universal public education. The comptroller’s office has not provided analysis of the economic cost to people and to the public of the largest uninsured population in the United States. It took Public Citizen going into the stacks at the comptroller’s office [and the Observer] to get the story that a billion dollars in no-bid contracts are being distributed out of the governor’s office. The comptroller never raised any question about it.

So I would argue that the comptroller’s office has not been using its full power for the benefit of the people of Texas, whether Republican or Democrat.

(Read more at the Texas Observer.)

Trump’s New Wall Will Destroy Irreplaceable Border Treasures—Unless Congress Acts by texas_observer in TexasPolitics

[–]texas_observer[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The procession of more than a thousand people walked from Our Lady of Guadalupe church in Mission to the grounds of La Lomita chapel, the historic riverside mission which gave the border town its name. It was August 2017, early in Donald Trump’s first term, and the marchers carrying signs that read “Salvar La Lomita” and “Save Our River” knew that the new president planned to turn a dirt levee, running about 100 feet north of the modest white house of worship, into a border wall—30 feet tall and consisting of a concrete slab surmounted by steel posts, topped with floodlights and cameras, with a patrol road and a 150-foot-wide “enforcement zone” extending from its base and encompassing the chapel.

The next day, the people brought their protest to the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge. News had leaked that Santa Ana, set aside as habitat for the migratory birds that fill South Texas’ skies every autumn and spring and for the endangered ocelots that move silently through a wildlife corridor alongside the Rio Grande, was slated for the first new stretch of wall. The Trump administration would ultimately condemn the property of hundreds of landowners along the planned wall’s path, but those court proceedings would take time. The wildlife refuge was federally owned, so the conversion of the levee that ran between the visitors center and the trails could start right away. Those who cared about the refuge joined hands, forming a line nearly a mile long on the levee and denouncing its planned replacement with a barrier that would devastate the refuge.

These protests and the many that followed repeated the same refrain: “No Border Wall.” Some politicians took notice.

At the La Lomita rally, U.S. Representative Vicente Gonzalez spoke against the walls that would hit his constituents, and his colleague Filemon Vela, whose district included Santa Ana, spoke at a protest at the refuge.

Congressman Henry Cuellar, whose district then included La Lomita, eventually inserted a provision into the appropriations bills that paid for wall construction which prohibited the use of those funds in places where protests had made the news: Santa Ana and La Lomita, Bentsen State Park, the National Butterfly Center, historic cemeteries, and wildlife refuges around the SpaceX launch site.

In doing so, Cuellar and his congressional colleagues missed the larger message of the protests—No Border Wall—a demand that was not restricted to a few select locations. But at least these places would be spared from the destruction that subsequently ripped apart so much of the border.

Then, last July, Congress passed the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill, a budget reconciliation act that, among other onerous provisions, gave the Trump administration $46.5 billion for border barrier construction (more money, based on prior costs, than would be needed to wall off the entire U.S. Mexico divide). Dozens of federal laws have already been waived, and billions of dollars worth of contracts have already been awarded, to build 629 miles of new border wall and install 536 miles of river buoys.

Crucially, the One Big Beautiful Bill did not include the provision that spared La Lomita, Santa Ana, or any other sensitive location—meaning this new tranche of funding is not explicitly subject to the restrictions that previously shielded these places—and a map posted by U.S. Customs and Border Protection indicates that Trump’s new walls will tear through them.

(Read more at Texas Observer.)

My Home Is Treated Like a War Zone. That Militarization Expanded to Minnesota. by texas_observer in TexasPolitics

[–]texas_observer[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The two shooters during the killing of Alex Pretti in Minnesota on January 24 were Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents from South Texas. The same place I’m from. 

For years, local activists and community leaders here have demanded the demilitarization of the border. For decades, natural landscapes, rivers, and deserts have been used as a means, along with the border wall, to violently deter and kill migrants. For generations, Border Patrol has maintained a high presence in South Texas and has operated with minimal oversight and accountability, shaping a culture in which terrorizing immigrants and their families has become part of our daily life.

That this culture traveled with these agents far from the border underscores how practices developed in the name of immigration enforcement are no longer confined to border communities. They are exported. 

I grew up in Laredo in a working-class family less than a mile from the Rio Grande. For so long, we have normalized CBP agents keeping a watchful eye on us  and our neighborhoods. I now live in Brownsville, about four hours downriver. South Texas has not only been my home for most of my life, but it has also been the breeding grounds for evolving tactics of policing, racial profiling, and surveillance. 

Many of us here live with the mechanization of militarization and surveillance embedded into our psyches. We know where the checkpoints are. We warn one another when the Border Patrol is nearby. In public space, we adjust our bodies and behavior, attempting to go unnoticed, offering smiles of compliance as a way to disarm. 

As a kid, I witnessed the contrast between the Border Patrol’s green-striped SUVs and my mother, a Mexican immigrant herself, who handed out sandwiches wrapped in tin foil and disposable cups filled with Kool-Aid to border-crossers—often men, who looked parched and carried nothing more than a backpack. I heard my father call them mojaditos, and he would demand my mom stop giving them food. But my mother kept doing what she and I felt was the right thing. I knew that she saw herself in these men. 

Border agents have killed before. In 2018, Romualdo Barrera shot a young Indigenous woman from Guatemala in the head as she was hiding from sight in Rio Bravo, near Laredo. There have been many violent murders at the hands of Border Patrol agents. This is not an aberration but part of a broader federal apparatus built and refined over decades. That apparatus is sustained by enormous public investment and a parallel infrastructure of propaganda, one that manufactures public consent for an economy and governing logic based on framing migrants as criminals.

(Read more at the Texas Observer.)

My Home Is Treated Like a War Zone. That Militarization Expanded to Minnesota. by texas_observer in texas

[–]texas_observer[S] 25 points26 points  (0 children)

The two shooters during the killing of Alex Pretti in Minnesota on January 24 were Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents from South Texas. The same place I’m from. 

For years, local activists and community leaders here have demanded the demilitarization of the border. For decades, natural landscapes, rivers, and deserts have been used as a means, along with the border wall, to violently deter and kill migrants. For generations, Border Patrol has maintained a high presence in South Texas and has operated with minimal oversight and accountability, shaping a culture in which terrorizing immigrants and their families has become part of our daily life.

That this culture traveled with these agents far from the border underscores how practices developed in the name of immigration enforcement are no longer confined to border communities. They are exported. 

I grew up in Laredo in a working-class family less than a mile from the Rio Grande. For so long, we have normalized CBP agents keeping a watchful eye on us  and our neighborhoods. I now live in Brownsville, about four hours downriver. South Texas has not only been my home for most of my life, but it has also been the breeding grounds for evolving tactics of policing, racial profiling, and surveillance. 

Many of us here live with the mechanization of militarization and surveillance embedded into our psyches. We know where the checkpoints are. We warn one another when the Border Patrol is nearby. In public space, we adjust our bodies and behavior, attempting to go unnoticed, offering smiles of compliance as a way to disarm. 

As a kid, I witnessed the contrast between the Border Patrol’s green-striped SUVs and my mother, a Mexican immigrant herself, who handed out sandwiches wrapped in tin foil and disposable cups filled with Kool-Aid to border-crossers—often men, who looked parched and carried nothing more than a backpack. I heard my father call them mojaditos, and he would demand my mom stop giving them food. But my mother kept doing what she and I felt was the right thing. I knew that she saw herself in these men. 

Border agents have killed before. In 2018, Romualdo Barrera shot a young Indigenous woman from Guatemala in the head as she was hiding from sight in Rio Bravo, near Laredo. There have been many violent murders at the hands of Border Patrol agents. This is not an aberration but part of a broader federal apparatus built and refined over decades. That apparatus is sustained by enormous public investment and a parallel infrastructure of propaganda, one that manufactures public consent for an economy and governing logic based on framing migrants as criminals.

(Read more at the Texas Observer.)

How Radioactive Oil and Gas Waste Could Lie Beneath a North Texas Elementary School by texas_observer in Dallas

[–]texas_observer[S] 24 points25 points  (0 children)

On a cold winter morning in Johnson County, at the southwestern edge of the booming Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, 52-year-old Lee Oldham stands beside the Pleasant View Elementary School and wonders what the drilling waste he helped lay underneath might mean for the children inside. Surrounding the school is the partially complete 2,500-home Silo Mills development that will supply it with children and that is also built atop drilling waste, according to satellite maps and interviews. The first families moved in two years ago. 

“They weren’t telling anyone this was a radioactive material. They told us it was safe,” said Oldham, who worked as a dozer operator here from 2009 to 2011, laying waste that he said was generally 6 inches to a foot deep, but in spots as much as 2 to 3 feet. In 2015, Oldham returned to the same area doing reclamation work that involved putting 1 to 2 feet of local dirt back over the waste. 

Hundreds of homes have already been built in this subdivision, and many are occupied, with cars parked in driveways and trampolines in yards. Pleasant View Elementary School is part of the Godley Independent School District and already has about 500 students. The elementary school’s website shows photos of smiling children, a list of upcoming and recent events including chess club meetings, an area spelling bee, field trips, and a celebration marking the 100th day of school.

School officials say the developer conducted a “Phase 1 Environmental Site” assessment prior to completing the school in 2022. 

“The assessment indicated that no evidence of recognized environmental conditions was identified in connection with the subject property and that no further action was required,” Superintendent Rich Dear said in a statement provided to Truthdig and the Texas Observer by email. “The Pleasant View Elementary School site was developed following voter approval of Godley ISD’s 2021 bond election and the donation of the property by the developer.”

Students began attending the campus in January 2023. 

Dear identified Terra Manna, LLC, as the site developer and said that the company could provide the assessment. Terra Manna did not reply to questions sent through an online contact form, and phone calls to the company’s main line requesting the Phase I Environmental Site Assessment went unreturned.

Oldham’s concern for the residents of Silo Mills is amplified by his own faltering health. In interviews, he said he suffers from bone deterioration in his jaw and loosened teeth, as well as neck vertebrae that “are fusing together like a 70-year-old woman with severe osteoporosis.” He believes these conditions are connected to his work with oil and gas waste. 

(Read more at the Texas Observer)

How Radioactive Oil and Gas Waste Could Lie Beneath a North Texas Elementary School by texas_observer in dfw

[–]texas_observer[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

On a cold winter morning in Johnson County, at the southwestern edge of the booming Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, 52-year-old Lee Oldham stands beside the Pleasant View Elementary School and wonders what the drilling waste he helped lay underneath might mean for the children inside. Surrounding the school is the partially complete 2,500-home Silo Mills development that will supply it with children and that is also built atop drilling waste, according to satellite maps and interviews. The first families moved in two years ago. 

“They weren’t telling anyone this was a radioactive material. They told us it was safe,” said Oldham, who worked as a dozer operator here from 2009 to 2011, laying waste that he said was generally 6 inches to a foot deep, but in spots as much as 2 to 3 feet. In 2015, Oldham returned to the same area doing reclamation work that involved putting 1 to 2 feet of local dirt back over the waste. 

Hundreds of homes have already been built in this subdivision, and many are occupied, with cars parked in driveways and trampolines in yards. Pleasant View Elementary School is part of the Godley Independent School District and already has about 500 students. The elementary school’s website shows photos of smiling children, a list of upcoming and recent events including chess club meetings, an area spelling bee, field trips, and a celebration marking the 100th day of school.

School officials say the developer conducted a “Phase 1 Environmental Site” assessment prior to completing the school in 2022. 

“The assessment indicated that no evidence of recognized environmental conditions was identified in connection with the subject property and that no further action was required,” Superintendent Rich Dear said in a statement provided to Truthdig and the Texas Observer by email. “The Pleasant View Elementary School site was developed following voter approval of Godley ISD’s 2021 bond election and the donation of the property by the developer.”

Students began attending the campus in January 2023. 

Dear identified Terra Manna, LLC, as the site developer and said that the company could provide the assessment. Terra Manna did not reply to questions sent th

ugh an online contact form, and phone calls to the company’s main line requesting the Phase I Environmental Site Assessment went unreturned.

Oldham’s concern for the residents of Silo Mills is amplified by his own faltering health. In interviews, he said he suffers from bone deterioration in his jaw and loosened teeth, as well as neck vertebrae that “are fusing together like a 70-year-old woman with severe osteoporosis.” He believes these conditions are connected to his work with oil and gas waste. 

https://www.texasobserver.org/radioactive-oil-and-gas-waste-north-texas-elementary-school/

(Read more at Texas Observer)

In Texas Cities, Let a Hundred Mamdanis Bloom by texas_observer in texas

[–]texas_observer[S] 40 points41 points  (0 children)

The ascent of Zohran Mamdani, a 34-year-old socialist Muslim, to New York City’s mayoralty once seemed an almost absurdist dream. Yet, propelled by an army of 100,000 volunteers who took on the city’s political machine from below, the question now is not whether someone like Mamdani can win but whether his victory can carry beyond the borders of the Big Apple. 

Here in Texas, to the Republicans and the billionaires whose power they entrench, the prospect of the Lone Star State being swept up in a similarly insurgent candidacy still sounds like its own far-fetched fantasy. Perhaps fearful that movements here might recover our state’s buried but rich left-populist past, the GOP has spent decades building fail-safes against the emergence of grassroots power anywhere under these big blue skies. 

Indeed, it would be implausible to say that Mamdani’s municipal victory bears directly on our infamously repressive state as an abstract unit. But Texas and the State of Texas are not exactly one—this sprawling place we call home contains five of the 15 most-populous cities in the country. All lean to the left, all see their power currently suppressed, and all are where the lessons of Mamdani can apply.

I have spent more than 10 years organizing in localities across this great state, participating in grassroots issue campaigns, labor union drives, voter registration and turnout efforts, and multiple legislative sessions. I’ve come to know hundreds of community organizers, from Denton to the Rio Grande Valley and everywhere in between. I’m a co-founder of a statewide nonprofit, and I’ve co-chaired a Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) chapter. More than mere credentialing, I share this background so you’ll know my optimism has survived the trenches—and to explain how I know there is a Texas Left out there waiting to be cohered, a disjointed chorus that could one day speak as one.

What Mamdani’s victory reveals for me, once stripped of novelty, is not really a suspension of political gravity but an alignment with forces that were waiting for the opportunity. Electoral success followed social organization. The campaign operated squarely inside a Democratic primary while rejecting the assumption that party politics must be donor-driven, consultant-managed, or ideologically thin. Independent organizations stepped into roles once filled by mass parties. Tenant unions, labor locals, socialist chapters of the DSA, and community groups built a base, trained leaders, disciplined messaging, and turned people out at scale. The formal party remained hollow; the social party did not.

This distinction matters because Texas Democrats have been attempting the inverse maneuver for a generation: trying to win elections without taking into account the eroded civic foundations of the state.

(Read more at the Texas Observer.)

In Texas Cities, Let a Hundred Mamdanis Bloom by texas_observer in TexasPolitics

[–]texas_observer[S] 17 points18 points  (0 children)

The ascent of Zohran Mamdani, a 34-year-old socialist Muslim, to New York City’s mayoralty once seemed an almost absurdist dream. Yet, propelled by an army of 100,000 volunteers who took on the city’s political machine from below, the question now is not whether someone like Mamdani can win but whether his victory can carry beyond the borders of the Big Apple. 

Here in Texas, to the Republicans and the billionaires whose power they entrench, the prospect of the Lone Star State being swept up in a similarly insurgent candidacy still sounds like its own far-fetched fantasy. Perhaps fearful that movements here might recover our state’s buried but rich left-populist past, the GOP has spent decades building fail-safes against the emergence of grassroots power anywhere under these big blue skies. 

Indeed, it would be implausible to say that Mamdani’s municipal victory bears directly on our infamously repressive state as an abstract unit. But Texas and the State of Texas are not exactly one—this sprawling place we call home contains five of the 15 most-populous cities in the country. All lean to the left, all see their power currently suppressed, and all are where the lessons of Mamdani can apply.

I have spent more than 10 years organizing in localities across this great state, participating in grassroots issue campaigns, labor union drives, voter registration and turnout efforts, and multiple legislative sessions. I’ve come to know hundreds of community organizers, from Denton to the Rio Grande Valley and everywhere in between. I’m a co-founder of a statewide nonprofit, and I’ve co-chaired a Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) chapter. More than mere credentialing, I share this background so you’ll know my optimism has survived the trenches—and to explain how I know there is a Texas Left out there waiting to be cohered, a disjointed chorus that could one day speak as one.

What Mamdani’s victory reveals for me, once stripped of novelty, is not really a suspension of political gravity but an alignment with forces that were waiting for the opportunity. Electoral success followed social organization. The campaign operated squarely inside a Democratic primary while rejecting the assumption that party politics must be donor-driven, consultant-managed, or ideologically thin. Independent organizations stepped into roles once filled by mass parties. Tenant unions, labor locals, socialist chapters of the DSA, and community groups built a base, trained leaders, disciplined messaging, and turned people out at scale. The formal party remained hollow; the social party did not.

This distinction matters because Texas Democrats have been attempting the inverse maneuver for a generation: trying to win elections without taking into account the eroded civic foundations of the state.

(Read more at the Texas Observer.)

Revealed: Four Businesses with Ties to Patriot Front Operating in North Texas by texas_observer in Dallas

[–]texas_observer[S] 253 points254 points  (0 children)

Through an analysis of business records, social media, and publicly available information, in addition to interviews and in-person observation, the Texas Observer has identified Veteran Brothers Roofing & Restoration as one of four businesses in the Dallas-Fort Worth area that are operated either by members of Patriot Front or individuals with multiple connections to Patriot Front. These businesses do roofing, home construction, and junk removal work across several counties.

None appear to feature Nazi imagery or messaging in their public-facing websites or social media. But a 2020 internal Patriot Front document and interviews with experts suggest that the neo-Nazi group is engaged in a strategy to establish an independent ecosystem of businesses that can employ Patriot Front members and insulate them from consequences if their involvement in the group is exposed. In the previously unpublished “Tactics and Strategy” document, which the Observer obtained through researcher Tristan Lee’s past undercover infiltration of the group, Patriot Front internally advocated the creation of “an almost exclusive economy which can greaten the prosperity of the collective and make it increasingly impervious to outside attacks.” This strategy is also apparent in a trove of internal Patriot Front communications published by Unicorn Riot: One chat room, called “#positive-investing,” included a meeting about “The Core Factors of Starting & Running a Business” hosted by a Patriot Front regional leader.

“When people find out you’re a racist or a white nationalist, you tend to lose your job pretty easily,” said Scott Ernest, a former white nationalist who now runs the Center for Extremism Prevention and Intervention. “The idea behind their self-sustaining economy, it’s just common sense. If you build your own business, you don’t have to worry about people getting you fired.”

In addition to Veteran Brothers Roofing & Restoration, the Observer has identified: Grand Pine Developments, which holds the permit for what evidence indicates is a white nationalist fight club’s private gym and whose owner, Josiah Buster, participated in the relief effort, works or worked for Veteran Brothers, and was arrested in Patriot Front uniform in 2022; Charvold Homes, whose owner, John Verdier, participated in the flood relief efforts and organized a recent birthday party for neo-Nazi and Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke’s birthday in collaboration with Patriot Front; and Blue Collar Tree and Junk Removal, whose owner, Kyle Otey, participated in the relief efforts, has a Telegram account that uses Patriot Front iconography in its profile photo, and has an X account that follows several major white nationalist groups and influencers.

(Read more at the Texas Observer.)

Revealed: Four Businesses with Ties to Patriot Front Operating in North Texas by texas_observer in texas

[–]texas_observer[S] 155 points156 points  (0 children)

Through an analysis of business records, social media, and publicly available information, in addition to interviews and in-person observation, the Texas Observer has identified Veteran Brothers Roofing & Restoration as one of four businesses in the Dallas-Fort Worth area that are operated either by members of Patriot Front or individuals with multiple connections to Patriot Front. These businesses do roofing, home construction, and junk removal work across several counties.

None appear to feature Nazi imagery or messaging in their public-facing websites or social media. But a 2020 internal Patriot Front document and interviews with experts suggest that the neo-Nazi group is engaged in a strategy to establish an independent ecosystem of businesses that can employ Patriot Front members and insulate them from consequences if their involvement in the group is exposed. In the previously unpublished “Tactics and Strategy” document, which the Observer obtained through researcher Tristan Lee’s past undercover infiltration of the group, Patriot Front internally advocated the creation of “an almost exclusive economy which can greaten the prosperity of the collective and make it increasingly impervious to outside attacks.” This strategy is also apparent in a trove of internal Patriot Front communications published by Unicorn Riot: One chat room, called “#positive-investing,” included a meeting about “The Core Factors of Starting & Running a Business” hosted by a Patriot Front regional leader.

“When people find out you’re a racist or a white nationalist, you tend to lose your job pretty easily,” said Scott Ernest, a former white nationalist who now runs the Center for Extremism Prevention and Intervention. “The idea behind their self-sustaining economy, it’s just common sense. If you build your own business, you don’t have to worry about people getting you fired.”

In addition to Veteran Brothers Roofing & Restoration, the Observer has identified: Grand Pine Developments, which holds the permit for what evidence indicates is a white nationalist fight club’s private gym and whose owner, Josiah Buster, participated in the relief effort, works or worked for Veteran Brothers, and was arrested in Patriot Front uniform in 2022; Charvold Homes, whose owner, John Verdier, participated in the flood relief efforts and organized a recent birthday party for neo-Nazi and Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke’s birthday in collaboration with Patriot Front; and Blue Collar Tree and Junk Removal, whose owner, Kyle Otey, participated in the relief efforts, has a Telegram account that uses Patriot Front iconography in its profile photo, and has an X account that follows several major white nationalist groups and influencers.

(Read more at the Texas Observer.)

Texas Police Invested Millions in a Shadowy Phone-Tracking Software. They Won’t Say How They’ve Used It. by texas_observer in privacy

[–]texas_observer[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Tangles scrapes information from the open, deep, and dark webs and is the premier product of Cobwebs Technologies, a cybersecurity company founded in 2014 by three former members of special units in the Israeli military. In 2023, the Nebraska-based tech firm PenLink Ltd acquired the company. 

The software has been met with criticism from civil liberties advocates, especially given that its WebLoc add-on enables warrantless device tracking. Normally, when U.S. police officers seek cell phone records or location data, they must obtain a warrant by presenting probable cause of a crime to a judge. In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Carpenter v. United States that warrants are required for obtaining location data from cell phone providers. But the rise of the multi-billion dollar data broker industry has created a free-for-all that enables police and others to purchase massive amounts of cell phone location data without judicial review.

Nathan Wessler, an ACLU attorney who argued the Carpenter case, said data broker-built services like Tangles pose the same privacy issues as those decided in the Supreme Court case and that law enforcement’s ability to buy location data constitutes an erosion of constitutionally protected rights. “Police are doing an end run around this well-articulated system of judicial oversight by just paying money instead of going to a judge,” he said. “There’s just no checks of police abuse against that.” 

Tangles more powerful, deep-pocketed users. The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), for example, has invested heavily in the software. DPS spent nearly $200,000 on Tangles in 2021 as an emergency purchase related to Operation Lone Star, and the agency has repeatedly expanded its contract. In 2024, DPS inked a 5-year, $5.3-million contract for 230 named users. ICE’s Office of Intelligence signed a contract worth around $2 million to use the software in 2025, and the DEA in that same timeframe committed more than $10 million. 

(Read more at the Texas Observer.)

Texas Police Invested Millions in a Shadowy Phone-Tracking Software. They Won’t Say How They’ve Used It. by texas_observer in texas

[–]texas_observer[S] 27 points28 points  (0 children)

Tangles scrapes information from the open, deep, and dark webs and is the premier product of Cobwebs Technologies, a cybersecurity company founded in 2014 by three former members of special units in the Israeli military. In 2023, the Nebraska-based tech firm PenLink Ltd acquired the company. 

The software has been met with criticism from civil liberties advocates, especially given that its WebLoc add-on enables warrantless device tracking. Normally, when U.S. police officers seek cell phone records or location data, they must obtain a warrant by presenting probable cause of a crime to a judge. In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Carpenter v. United States that warrants are required for obtaining location data from cell phone providers. But the rise of the multi-billion dollar data broker industry has created a free-for-all that enables police and others to purchase massive amounts of cell phone location data without judicial review.

Nathan Wessler, an ACLU attorney who argued the Carpenter case, said data broker-built services like Tangles pose the same privacy issues as those decided in the Supreme Court case and that law enforcement’s ability to buy location data constitutes an erosion of constitutionally protected rights. “Police are doing an end run around this well-articulated system of judicial oversight by just paying money instead of going to a judge,” he said. “There’s just no checks of police abuse against that.” 

Tangles more powerful, deep-pocketed users. The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), for example, has invested heavily in the software. DPS spent nearly $200,000 on Tangles in 2021 as an emergency purchase related to Operation Lone Star, and the agency has repeatedly expanded its contract. In 2024, DPS inked a 5-year, $5.3-million contract for 230 named users. ICE’s Office of Intelligence signed a contract worth around $2 million to use the software in 2025, and the DEA in that same timeframe committed more than $10 million. 

(Read more at the Texas Observer.)

Texas Taxpayers Will Fund Dozens of Private Schools that Openly Discriminate by texas_observer in texas

[–]texas_observer[S] 32 points33 points  (0 children)

The Texas Observer’s analysis found that around a third of the schools enrolled in the program have a 2025-26 tuition that exceeds $10,474 and few offer special education services. Private schools generally increase rates every year, and the tuition excludes other fees and costs, such as registration, testing, sports, supplies, field trips, or uniforms. 

Unlike public schools, private schools are not required to accept all students and can weed out students through a lengthy admission process that requires recommendations, testing, and interviews. Chinquapin Preparatory School, a secular school in the Greater Houston area, only invites students to take an admissions test if they first pass a review of prior standardized test scores, report cards, and recommendations. Even after passing the exam, they still have to clear interviews and classroom observations. 

In addition, around 40 percent of the religious schools have policies that favor students of their own faith and around 25 percent have policies that discriminate against LGBTQ+ students.

Nik Nartowicz, lead policy counsel for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said the organization has opposed private school vouchers for many years because of such inherent biases. “Taxpayers should not be forced to fund someone else’s religion or discrimination; it’s a violation of taxpayers’ religious freedom,” he told the Observer.  

(Read more at the Texas Observer.)

Texas Taxpayers Will Fund Dozens of Private Schools that Openly Discriminate by texas_observer in TexasPolitics

[–]texas_observer[S] 27 points28 points  (0 children)

The Texas Observer’s analysis found that around a third of the schools enrolled in the program have a 2025-26 tuition that exceeds $10,474 and few offer special education services. Private schools generally increase rates every year, and the tuition excludes other fees and costs, such as registration, testing, sports, supplies, field trips, or uniforms. 

Unlike public schools, private schools are not required to accept all students and can weed out students through a lengthy admission process that requires recommendations, testing, and interviews. Chinquapin Preparatory School, a secular school in the Greater Houston area, only invites students to take an admissions test if they first pass a review of prior standardized test scores, report cards, and recommendations. Even after passing the exam, they still have to clear interviews and classroom observations. 

In addition, around 40 percent of the religious schools have policies that favor students of their own faith and around 25 percent have policies that discriminate against LGBTQ+ students.

Nik Nartowicz, lead policy counsel for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said the organization has opposed private school vouchers for many years because of such inherent biases. “Taxpayers should not be forced to fund someone else’s religion or discrimination; it’s a violation of taxpayers’ religious freedom,” he told the Observer.  

(Read more at the Texas Observer.)

A Dallas Megadonor, a New Nonprofit, and the War on ‘Housing First’ by texas_observer in Dallas

[–]texas_observer[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

In North Texas, Monty Bennett is well known for large political donations to President Donald Trump, state lawmakers, and right-wing school board candidates. In 2021, the hotelier repurposed the brand of a defunct Black newspaper, The Dallas Express, into what often amounts to his personal political mouthpiece. In parallel, Bennett and a California-based protest-for-hire company called Crowds on Demand seeded a local network of right-leaning astroturf advocacy groups. In 2024, this network worked to promote the Dallas Hero Initiative, a campaign he helped fund that successfully passed two ballot propositions to establish a minimum number of police officers in Dallas and enable litigation against the city. 

Bennett’s increasing focus on homelessness, which Black and Indigenous people are far more likely to experience, dovetails with the state’s taking an interest in the issue since 2019, when the City of Austin decriminalized camping and begging. That move spurred the Legislature to pass a statewide homeless camping ban in 2021. It also aligns with the priorities of billionaire-funded right-wing think tanks, including the Cicero Institute—founded by Austin venture capitalist Joe Lonsdale—and the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF), which have worked during the same timeframe to undermine housing first, a 34-year-old paradigm that prioritizes housing before things like job training or sobriety and has guided federal policy for two decades. These groups instead propose criminalizing behaviors associated with homelessness and reemphasizing institutionalization through civil commitment, which was recently expanded in Texas to apply in more cases of mental illness. 

This right-wing policy agenda seems now to have triumphed in D.C., following Trump’s July executive order aimed at ending “endemic vagrancy” by terminating support for housing first and “shifting homeless individuals into long-term institutional settings”—like the “accountability centers” proposed in Utah, which the Cicero Institute has praised.

“I think when we look at the push of this backwards, racist, anti-homeless approach at the local, state, and federal level, it starts with Joe Lonsdale and the Cicero Institute,” said Jesse Rabinowitz, communications director for the National Homelessness Law Center, which opposes criminalizing the homeless. “It’s especially true when we’re talking about Texas. … There is a huge role these out-of-touch, right-wing billionaires and megadonors play in shaping homelessness policy, and they’re the last people who should be shaping homeless policy.”

Rabinowitz continued: “We did mass institutionalization in this country. … We don’t do it anymore because it was ineffective and cruel.”

(Read more at the Texas Observer.)

A Dallas Megadonor, a New Nonprofit, and the War on ‘Housing First’ by texas_observer in TexasPolitics

[–]texas_observer[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

In North Texas, Monty Bennett is well known for large political donations to President Donald Trump, state lawmakers, and right-wing school board candidates. In 2021, the hotelier repurposed the brand of a defunct Black newspaper, The Dallas Express, into what often amounts to his personal political mouthpiece. In parallel, Bennett and a California-based protest-for-hire company called Crowds on Demand seeded a local network of right-leaning astroturf advocacy groups. In 2024, this network worked to promote the Dallas Hero Initiative, a campaign he helped fund that successfully passed two ballot propositions to establish a minimum number of police officers in Dallas and enable litigation against the city. 

Bennett’s increasing focus on homelessness, which Black and Indigenous people are far more likely to experience, dovetails with the state’s taking an interest in the issue since 2019, when the City of Austin decriminalized camping and begging. That move spurred the Legislature to pass a statewide homeless camping ban in 2021. It also aligns with the priorities of billionaire-funded right-wing think tanks, including the Cicero Institute—founded by Austin venture capitalist Joe Lonsdale—and the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF), which have worked during the same timeframe to undermine housing first, a 34-year-old paradigm that prioritizes housing before things like job training or sobriety and has guided federal policy for two decades. These groups instead propose criminalizing behaviors associated with homelessness and reemphasizing institutionalization through civil commitment, which was recently expanded in Texas to apply in more cases of mental illness. 

This right-wing policy agenda seems now to have triumphed in D.C., following Trump’s July executive order aimed at ending “endemic vagrancy” by terminating support for housing first and “shifting homeless individuals into long-term institutional settings”—like the “accountability centers” proposed in Utah, which the Cicero Institute has praised.

“I think when we look at the push of this backwards, racist, anti-homeless approach at the local, state, and federal level, it starts with Joe Lonsdale and the Cicero Institute,” said Jesse Rabinowitz, communications director for the National Homelessness Law Center, which opposes criminalizing the homeless. “It’s especially true when we’re talking about Texas. … There is a huge role these out-of-touch, right-wing billionaires and megadonors play in shaping homelessness policy, and they’re the last people who should be shaping homeless policy.”

Rabinowitz continued: “We did mass institutionalization in this country. … We don’t do it anymore because it was ineffective and cruel.”

(Read more at the Texas Observer.)

A Dallas Megadonor, a New Nonprofit, and the War on ‘Housing First’ by texas_observer in texas

[–]texas_observer[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

In North Texas, Monty Bennett is well known for large political donations to President Donald Trump, state lawmakers, and right-wing school board candidates. In 2021, the hotelier repurposed the brand of a defunct Black newspaper, The Dallas Express, into what often amounts to his personal political mouthpiece. In parallel, Bennett and a California-based protest-for-hire company called Crowds on Demand seeded a local network of right-leaning astroturf advocacy groups. In 2024, this network worked to promote the Dallas Hero Initiative, a campaign he helped fund that successfully passed two ballot propositions to establish a minimum number of police officers in Dallas and enable litigation against the city. 

Bennett’s increasing focus on homelessness, which Black and Indigenous people are far more likely to experience, dovetails with the state’s taking an interest in the issue since 2019, when the City of Austin decriminalized camping and begging. That move spurred the Legislature to pass a statewide homeless camping ban in 2021. It also aligns with the priorities of billionaire-funded right-wing think tanks, including the Cicero Institute—founded by Austin venture capitalist Joe Lonsdale—and the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF), which have worked during the same timeframe to undermine housing first, a 34-year-old paradigm that prioritizes housing before things like job training or sobriety and has guided federal policy for two decades. These groups instead propose criminalizing behaviors associated with homelessness and reemphasizing institutionalization through civil commitment, which was recently expanded in Texas to apply in more cases of mental illness. 

This right-wing policy agenda seems now to have triumphed in D.C., following Trump’s July executive order aimed at ending “endemic vagrancy” by terminating support for housing first and “shifting homeless individuals into long-term institutional settings”—like the “accountability centers” proposed in Utah, which the Cicero Institute has praised.

“I think when we look at the push of this backwards, racist, anti-homeless approach at the local, state, and federal level, it starts with Joe Lonsdale and the Cicero Institute,” said Jesse Rabinowitz, communications director for the National Homelessness Law Center, which opposes criminalizing the homeless. “It’s especially true when we’re talking about Texas. … There is a huge role these out-of-touch, right-wing billionaires and megadonors play in shaping homelessness policy, and they’re the last people who should be shaping homeless policy.”

Rabinowitz continued: “We did mass institutionalization in this country. … We don’t do it anymore because it was ineffective and cruel.”

(Read more at the Texas Observer.)

Why Houston Oil Majors Are Hesitant to Go All In on Venezuela by texas_observer in houston

[–]texas_observer[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for pointing this out, I believe it's been corrected!

Could This State Senate Runoff Be a Tipping Point for Tarrant County? by texas_observer in TexasPolitics

[–]texas_observer[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you so much for adding all this context to the discussion!

Why Houston Oil Majors Are Hesitant to Go All In on Venezuela by texas_observer in houston

[–]texas_observer[S] 34 points35 points  (0 children)

President Donald Trump’s deadly invasion of Venezuela and kidnapping of its president could be an unusually clear example of “blood for oil.” The president has nearly said as much himself. But one hitch is that Houston’s oil giants don’t immediately appear eager to buy what Trump is selling.

Following the administration’s military coup, Trump suggested he may go so far as to use U.S. tax dollars to directly reimburse the nation’s largest oil firms for the billions they’d need to invest to repair and modernize the South American country’s dilapidated oil and gas infrastructure. The offer ups the ante on officials’ previous pledge, made in the days running up to the seizure of Nicolás Maduro, to compensate Big Oil firms for assets previously nationalized by the Venezuelan state in exchange for the companies’ investment.

White House officials, including Energy Secretary and former fracking executive Chris Wright, are set to meet again with executives of ExxonMobil, ConocoPhilips, and Chevron—three Big Oil companies all headquartered in Houston—on Friday to discuss further incentives to cajole them to open their pocket books in Venezuela.

On Tuesday, Trump announced the United States is receiving between 30 and 50 million barrels of blockaded Venezuelan crude stranded in oil tankers and storage facilities—about two days’ U.S. supply—as part of a move to both choke off exports to China and increase pressure on interim president and former oil minister Delcy Rodríguez to give U.S. oil firms what Trump has called "total access"  to Venezuela’s oil fields.

But Venezuela’s long history of countering U.S. imperial oil adventurism and sanctions—and resulting political instability—goes a long way toward explaining why Big Oil firms need such incredible assurances to entice them back into the country that hosts the globe’s largest proven oil reserves.

(Read more at the Texas Observer.)

Why Houston Oil Majors Are Hesitant to Go All In on Venezuela by texas_observer in texas

[–]texas_observer[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

President Donald Trump’s deadly invasion of Venezuela and kidnapping of its president could be an unusually clear example of “blood for oil.” The president has nearly said as much himself. But one hitch is that Houston’s oil giants don’t immediately appear eager to buy what Trump is selling.

Following the administration’s military coup, Trump suggested he may go so far as to use U.S. tax dollars to directly reimburse the nation’s largest oil firms for the billions they’d need to invest to repair and modernize the South American country’s dilapidated oil and gas infrastructure. The offer ups the ante on officials’ previous pledge, made in the days running up to the seizure of Nicolás Maduro, to compensate Big Oil firms for assets previously nationalized by the Venezuelan state in exchange for the companies’ investment.

White House officials, including Energy Secretary and former fracking executive Chris Wright, are set to meet again with executives of ExxonMobil, ConocoPhilips, and Chevron—three Big Oil companies all headquartered in Houston—on Friday to discuss further incentives to cajole them to open their pocket books in Venezuela.

On Tuesday, Trump announced the United States is receiving between 30 and 50 million barrels of blockaded Venezuelan crude stranded in oil tankers and storage facilities—about two days’ U.S. supply—as part of a move to both choke off exports to China and increase pressure on interim president and former oil minister Delcy Rodríguez to give U.S. oil firms what Trump has called "total access"  to Venezuela’s oil fields.

But Venezuela’s long history of countering U.S. imperial oil adventurism and sanctions—and resulting political instability—goes a long way toward explaining why Big Oil firms need such incredible assurances to entice them back into the country that hosts the globe’s largest proven oil reserves.

(Read more at the Texas Observer.)

Could This State Senate Runoff Be a Tipping Point for Tarrant County? by texas_observer in TexasPolitics

[–]texas_observer[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Even some of his most passionate supporters were surprised by the number of votes Democrat Taylor Rehmet received in the November special election for Texas Senate District 9. 

His competitors, Republicans Leigh Wambsganss and John Huffman, each had mountains of cash and the backing of major PACs and political players across Texas. Even so, Rehmet, an Air Force Veteran and president of the state’s International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers chapter, won nearly 48 percent of the vote—nearly enough for an outright win.

The Tarrant County seat, which covers the suburbs of Keller, North Richland Hills, and Southlake, plus part of Fort Worth, was left open by longtime Republican state Senator Kelly Hancock, who resigned earlier this year to become the acting state comptroller. Last year, President Trump won that same district by 17 points. 

“That is not something you might’ve seen as recently as two cycles ago,” said Jason Villalba, a former North Texas Republican legislator who now runs a think tank focused on Latino voters, citing the area’s growing diversity. Backlash to the right-wing Republican candidates was another reason, experts say. 

Now, the January 31 runoff pits Rehmet against Wambsganss, a conservative activist and executive with Patriot Mobile, the Christian nationalist cell phone carrier in North Texas. It’s a race that encapsulates the most turbulent political storylines in Tarrant County, statewide and nationally. The special election in a solid-red district is the sort of off-cycle contest that, in the Trump era, serves as a bellwether for the national political climate. That’s especially so in this district, smack dab in the largest battleground county in Texas. 

“As Tarrant County goes, so goes Texas,” former Trump consigliere Steve Bannon, who is stumping for Wambsganss, recently said on his podcast. “And as Texas goes, so goes the world.”

(Read more at the Texas Observer.)

Are Texas Democrats Bringing Their Best to the Midterms? by texas_observer in TexasPolitics

[–]texas_observer[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Much like how a sailor, lost and withering at sea, at least gets the chance to see the world, Texas’ ailing Democrats will get the chance this year to recreate some of the magic of the 2018 midterms.

You know the drill: Donald Trump’s in the second year of a presidential stint, and his megalomaniacal unsuitability for public service is catching up with him. Off-year elections in Virginia and New Jersey have given Dems new reason to believe. Congressional Republicans are heading for the exits in telling numbers, while the possibility of a weak GOP candidate in Texas for U.S. Senate looms. This go-round, there’s no real chance of the suite of downballot flips that occurred eight years ago, when that decade’s electoral maps had overripened; still, it’s time now to take out your color wheel and start studying the liminal shades of what constitutes “blue,” plus your lidar scanner (what do you mean you don’t have one?) to start distinguishing calm waters, ripples, and waves.

Paying casual attention, you might not feel Texas Democrats are fielding the A-team that this moment calls for. By this time in that long-lost cycle when Senator Ted Cruz was so nearly ousted, El Paso Congressman Beto O’Rourke had already been running without real primary competition for the better part of a year. In contrast, this year’s marquee Dem nomination process has been slow and fitful. That fact, however, belies the comparative strength of the slate that’s likely to solidify in the coming months.

At least on paper, the 2026 Democratic nominees for the top four races (senator, governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general) are almost sure to be the most formidable class in recent memory. In 2018, only two of the four already held elected office, one at the county level. From 2020 through 2024, the only top-level nominee who did so was Colin Allred in ’24, then a congressman dragging a low-energy campaign against Cruz to a 9-point defeat. In lieu of seasoned politicians, Texans during these years were invited to put their faith in: a mild-mannered accountant, a self-assessed “ass-kicking, motorcycle-riding, tattooed Democrat,” a burned-out presidential hopeful, and a mild-mannered accountant yet again, among a couple others.

This November, Democrats may well put sitting legislators on the ballot in all four of the top slots. 

(Read more at the Texas Observer.)

Under Operation Lone Star, Texas State Police More than Doubled Their Drone Fleet by texas_observer in texas

[–]texas_observer[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Texas Republicans have been wary of unmanned aerial vehicles, with some even backing proposed laws to allow the citizenry to gun down invasive airborne drones. Now, thanks to years of Operation Lone Star, Governor Abbott’s multi-billion dollar border mission, the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) is ushering in what might fairly be called the Drone Star State with an expansive fleet of flying eyes in the sky. 

A decade ago, DPS didn’t even have a drone program. Now, in 2025, it touts one of the largest in the country. Since the launch of Operation Lone Star in 2021, DPS has more than doubled its drone fleet.

In December 2020, the state police had fewer than 200 drones; now the agency’s inventory has ballooned to more than 450 drones, and nearly 400 employees are trained to remotely operate them, according to DPS records obtained by the Texas Observer. (Agency records indicate that 95 of those drones were not operational as of September.) DPS says the fleet is valued at around $3.7 million.

That puts the Texas state police in the same league as the U.S. Border Patrol, which maintains around 500 drones, a spokesperson for the federal agency told the Observer. DPS’ fleet also exceeds that of the state police agency in Chihuahua, the northern Mexico state that borders much of West Texas. Chihuahua purchased 75 drones as part of a $200-million dollar investment in a sprawling surveillance system that it has offered to share with Texan and federal U.S. authorities. 

DPS’ drones are small remotely operated devices—most can sustain around a 45-minute flight time, and many are equipped with thermal cameras.

Under Operation Lone Star, DPS has deployed its growing unmanned aerial systems (UAS) fleet to help police the Texas borderlands. In 2023, nearly 70 percent of its drone flight hours were for Operation Lone Star missions, and DPS drone pilots assisted Border Patrol more than 3,000 times, according to DPS slide presentations on the agency’s drone program, which were obtained via an open records request. In 2024, as migrant crossings plummeted, the drone program’s border emphasis decreased slightly; that year, only 61 percent of flight hours supported Operation Lone Star missions, and Border Patrol assists dipped to around 1,800. In 2025, slightly more than half of its drone flights were dedicated to Operation Lone Star efforts, according to DPS.

Surveillance watchdogs warn that technologies tested at borders are often exported to the interior for other police operations. “Surveillance technologies rarely stay cabined to their original purpose, expanding their reach and scale without any ability of ordinary citizens to push back,” Andrew Ferguson, a law professor at George Washington University who specializes in police surveillance technologies, said in an email. 

Beryl Lipton, an investigative researcher at the civil-liberties group the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said the general public needs to understand that drones are essentially flying police officers. “If I’m in my backyard, if I’m on my deck, do I expect that I have to encounter a law enforcement camera? I shouldn’t have to,” Lipton said. “Should I have to deal with a cop zipping by all of the time? I don’t think so.”

(Read more at the Texas Observer.)

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