Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas:

Despite right-wing attempts to drum up anti-immigrant fear over the New Orleans terror attack, the alleged perpetrator was a born and bred native of Texas: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/crime/article/new-orleans-attacker-houston-ties-20010254.php

Elon Musk's push for more foreign tech workers to be brought to the U.S. under H-1B work visas is not only counter to the MAGA base's virulent anti-immigrant tendencies, it would also allow him to build a large tech workforce he'd be able to treat as indentured servants: https://electrek.co/2024/12/30/tesla-replaced-laid-off-us-workers-with-foreign-workers-using-h-1b-visas-that-musk-want-to-increase/

...Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders opposes Musk's plan: https://thehill.com/policy/technology/5064132-sanders-criticizes-musk-h1b-visa/

Collin County State Rep. Mihaela Plesa gets a writeup in the Texas Tribune (and is also featured one click back in this podcast feed: https://www.texastribune.org/2025/01/03/mihaela-plesa-greg-abbott-texas-house-democrats/

Texas Republicans next frontier in their culture war against women is the elimination of no-fault divorce: https://www.chron.com/culture/religion/article/texas-christians-no-fault-divorce-20009469.php

Two recent decisions may indicate that our institutions may not save us in this new era - first, a Texas Assistant Attorney General gets away with his efforts to undermine the 2020 election: https://www.texastribune.org/2024/12/31/texas-attorney-general-state-bar-lawsuit-dismissed-brent-webster/

...And two Republican U.S. Congressmen get away with what appears to have been inappropriate spending of campaign funds on personal expenses: https://www.texastribune.org/2024/12/30/wesley-hunt-ronny-jackson-investigation/

Our annual rundown of the Top 10 Best And Worst Texans is up! Thanks for your help in compiling this year's list: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://progresstexas.org/blog/best-and-worst-texans-2024⁠⁠⁠⁠

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