Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas:

A Second Amendment group is waging a legal battle to allow the sale of a gun modification device that enables machine gun-style rapid fire: https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/forced-reset-triggers-illegal-machine-guns-atf-gun-102402318

A former judge who donated to a recent Ken Paxton opponent declines an invitation to participate in the upcoming impeachment trial: https://www.texastribune.org/2023/08/19/dan-patrick-marc-brown-paxton-impeachment-adviser-counsel/

U.S. Senate hopeful Colin Allred reports from a week-long listening tour of Texas: https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/politics/inside-politics/texas-politics/democrat-colin-allred-travels-texas-listening-tour-us-senate-campaign/287-52952df5-eea1-4ea9-a310-6aab87c09c33

GOP governors from a bunch of flyover states will join Governor Greg Abbott at the border today for a press conference about....something: https://www.keloland.com/news/local-news/governor-kristi-noem-to-join-other-republican-governors-at-texas-border/

New HISD superintendent subjects teacher and students to a musical play about...himself: https://www.texasobserver.org/houston-isd-takeover-the-musical/

Our new heroes, The Ru-Publicans, are on a quest to buy a billboard in Austin mocking our state's new drag show ban: https://www.texasobserver.org/houston-isd-takeover-the-musical/

Texas A&M University Police say they will no longer make small-possession pot busts: https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/texas-a-m-marijuana-18303293.php

...While a cannabis decriminalization push gets going in Lubbock - proving that conservatives enjoy a tasty buzz too: https://www.marijuanamoment.net/activists-in-another-texas-city-kick-off-effort-to-decriminalize-marijuana-with-signature-gathering-underway-in-lubbock/

A scary piece on scary televangelist Kenneth Copeland and the "Prosperity Gospel" movement in Texas: https://www.texasobserver.org/these-christians-think-god-needs-you-rich-and-to-rule-the-world/

ERCOT implores Texans to cut back the AC for a second time in four days: https://www.texastribune.org/2023/08/20/texas-ercot-conservation-request/

...While an all-too-brief rain spell and temperature drop appears to be headed for South Texas on Tuesday: https://www.ksat.com/weather/2023/08/16/tropical-wave-expected-in-the-gulf-of-mexico-next-week-heres-what-were-monitoring/

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