Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas:

Not only is it Tax Day here in mid-April, but we've also already started getting warnings of power failures from ERCOT: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-04-12/texas-warns-of-possible-power-emergency-next-week

Hard right GOP Texas House lawmakers have written up a Contract On Texas, which would allow them to push through their most radical agenda items with little resistance: https://www.kxan.com/state-of-texas/state-of-texas-contract-with-texas-aims-to-push-house-further-right/

...Part of which is threatening people who seek abortion care with the death penalty: https://www.yahoo.com/news/texas-gop-preach-morals-abortion-142543561.html

Red states across America are hard at work putting together copycat anti-migrant laws based upon SB-4: https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/14/us/texas-immigration-law-iowa-other-us-states-cec/index.html

...Could the collective harrassment threatened by SB-4 build voting unity among Texas Latinos? https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/04/texas-immigration-law-latino-voters/678063/

...Louisiana soldiers sent in to help with Operation Lone Star have largely been sitting around doing nothing: https://www.nola.com/news/politics/national_politics/louisiana-soldiers-on-mexico-border/article_a0122d24-f930-11ee-86dd-47dfc542a907.html

Ken Paxton's effort to crack down on Media Matters for negative reporting on Elon Musk's X has been defeated in court: https://www.thedailybeast.com/judge-deals-blow-to-texas-ags-retaliatory-probe-of-media-matters-for-america

GOP slimeballs Jonathan Stickland and Matt Rinaldi have formed a new right-wing action group called "Ratmaster Holdings LLC": https://www.texastribune.org/2024/04/12/jonathan-stickland-matt-rinaldi-white-supremacy-scandal/

Don't forget about the Texas Gun Sense community picnic NEXT Saturday, April 20 in central Austin: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/tx-gun-sense_texas-gun-sense-invites-all-of-our-supporters-activity-7183153558412750850-cS-U

Progress Texas invites progressive candidates to share their views with us - which we'll then share with our statewide audience - via our Certified Progressive questionnaire: https://progresstexas.org/blog/progress-texas-certified-progressives-2024-progressive-values-questionnaire

Instagram users: be sure to enable political content on that platform, which has begun opting users out: https://x.com/ProgressTX/status/1771276124498100667?s=20

Thanks for listening! Find our web store and other ways to support our important work this election year at https://progresstexas.org/.