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Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas:
Grief, frustration and rising anger are seen across the Houston community in the wake of the ICE killing of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/08/texas-ice-shooting-victim-son
...A large gathering convened in vigil last night on Houston's Canal Street, where the shooting occurred on Tuesday morning: https://www.texastribune.org/2026/07/08/texas-houston-ice-shooting-vigil/
Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico has raised over $30 million over the second quarter of 2026, almost all from small-dollar donations averaging under $50 each: https://www.texastribune.org/2026/07/08/texas-james-talarico-senate-fundraising-second-quarter-30-million/
Over 500 Lubbock residents showed up to a public hearing on data centers on Tuesday night, overwhelmingly opposed to their takeover of the Lubbock region: https://www.chron.com/texas/article/data-centers-lubbock-texas-22337210.php
Also in Lubbock, a group of Texas Tech professors have banded together to sue Chancellor Brandon Creighton and the Texas Tech Board of Regents over their new conservative constraints upon academic content: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2026/07/09/texas-tech-faculty-sue-over-race-gender-rules
...Almost 300 courses at Tech have been severely curtailed and modified to comply with the University's new undercutting of academic freedom: https://www.advocate.com/news/education/texas-tech-curriculum-censorship-lawsuit
Check out the Substack version of the Daily Dispatch, which delivers each pod to your inbox and frequently includes extra video goodies: https://substack.com/@progresstexas
Progress Texas has expanded into both broadcast radio - including a new partnership with KPFT-FM in Houston! Make a tax-deductible contribution to our radio initiative HERE, and to our Spanish expansion HERE. Find our web store and other ways to support our important work at https://progresstexas.org.
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas:
In a tragically familiar scenario, another killing by ICE of a Texas motorist - this time Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, who had lived in Houston since 1993: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/ice-agent-fatally-shoots-mexican-motorist-texas-during-vehicle-stop-agency-says-2026-07-07/
...A large group of Houston elected leaders and advocacy groups are calling for an independent inquiry: https://www.houstonpress.com/news/independent-probe-demanded-in-houstons-fatal-ice-shooting/
...Ordinary Latino citizens - not criminals or gang members - are bearing the brunt of a recent escalation in ICE aggression: https://www.sacurrent.com/news/texas-news/ice-primarily-targeting-non-criminal-immigrants-in-texas-recent-numbers-show/
Ken Paxton appears to have illegally voted in at least six elections - including the primary and runoff that put him in line for the Senate - as he's still registered at his old address in Collin County, two years after moving out: https://www.texastribune.org/2026/07/07/ken-paxton-voting-election-law/
Democratic gubernatorial nominee Gina Hinojosa says she plans to declare an affordability emergency upon becoming Governor, and to send each Texas household a check for $1,500 from the bloated Rainy Day Fund: https://www.fox7austin.com/news/texas-gubernatorial-candidate-gina-hinojosa-proposes-1500-refund-texans
Outgoing Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller joins a growing chorus urging Governor Abbott to declare a special legislative session to stop the explosive growth of data centers across the state: https://www.kcbd.com/2026/07/07/texas-ag-commissioner-miller-urges-governor-abbott-call-special-session-data-center-expansion/
Check out the Substack version of the Daily Dispatch, which delivers each pod to your inbox and frequently includes extra video goodies: https://substack.com/@progresstexas
Progress Texas has expanded into both broadcast radio - including a new partnership with KPFT-FM in Houston! Make a tax-deductible contribution to our radio initiative HERE, and to our Spanish expansion HERE. Find our web store and other ways to support our important work at https://progresstexas.org.
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas:
In thanking Donald Trump for interfering with FIFA in a USMNT red card, Ted Cruz jinxed the team into an embarrassing defeat in the World Cup: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/watch-sen-cruz-thanks-trump-for-getting-rid-of-folarin-baloguns-world-cup-red-card
Governor Greg Abbott's reversal on data centers is nothing but talk, should he fail to call a special session to stop their spread across Texas: https://www.chron.com/news/article/data-center-greg-abbott-legislature-22333815.php
..."Batch Zero" is the codename for a huge wave of data centers, all fast-tracked through approval as a group - and by the 2027 session, they'll be grandfathered in: https://www.politico.com/newsletters/power-switch/2026/07/06/why-texas-lawmakers-cant-keep-up-with-data-centers-00987738
Patriot Front - the masked gang of matched khakis marching through D.C. on the Fourth of July - were founded and are based in Texas: https://www.statesman.com/news/article/patriot-front-texas-group-22334164.php
...They originated after a splinter neo-Nazi group underwent an internal coup after the 2017 Charlottesville uprising: https://www.sacurrent.com/news/texas-news/white-supremacist-group-from-texas-marched-on-washington-d-c-during-july-fourth-holiday/
...The Southern Poverty Law Center says Patriot Front's mission is the formation of a white ethnostate in the United States: https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/patriot-front-in-washington-dc-july-4-white-nationalist/287-f33ffe9e-d664-4d4e-ba4d-d7b394825639
With the run of Alisa Simmons for County Judge, Tarrant County has become the epicenter of the political struggle of 2026 in Texas: https://www.lonestarleft.com/p/how-important-is-tarrant-county-in-6eb
Check out the Substack version of the Daily Dispatch, which delivers each pod to your inbox and frequently includes extra video goodies: https://substack.com/@progresstexas
Progress Texas has expanded into both broadcast radio - including a new partnership with KPFT-FM in Houston! Make a tax-deductible contribution to our radio initiative HERE, and to our Spanish expansion HERE. Find our web store and other ways to support our important work at https://progresstexas.org.
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas:
By appointing Don Huffines, the GOP nominee for Texas Comptroller, to that post in the middle of an election for it, signals an amazing degree of arrogance and disdain for Texas voters: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/article/don-huffines-greg-abbott-comptroller-22330470.php
...And to double that effect, his elevation of election denier and Christian crusader Nate Schatzline to a key election administration post shows his lack of concern for public confidence in that process: https://www.dallasnews.com/news/elections/article/abbott-appoints-election-denier-lead-election-22331096.php
...Meanwhile - could Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson rescind her resignation and retain control over the November midterm? Abbott is largely powerless to fire her: https://www.chron.com/news/article/texas-secretary-of-state-jane-nelson-22330005.php
Check out the Substack version of the Daily Dispatch, which delivers each pod to your inbox and frequently includes extra video goodies: https://substack.com/@progresstexas
Progress Texas has expanded into both broadcast radio - including a new partnership with KPFT-FM in Houston! Make a tax-deductible contribution to our radio initiative HERE, and to our Spanish expansion HERE. Find our web store and other ways to support our important work at https://progresstexas.org.
We're continuing to dig through the mountain of content we accumulated during the Texas Democratic Convention in Corpus Christi, and up next are the full remarks from Friday from Democratic gubernatorial nominee Gina Hinojosa.
We'll remind you that Gina won the primary outright with nearly 60 percent of the vote in a crowded field, has been a longtime champion of public schools and thus one of the Legislature's fiercest opponents of private school vouchers, is centering her campaign on schools as well as corporate accountability, and, despite a continuing familiarity gap and Governor Greg Abbott's 100 million dollar war chest, is lately trailing the Governor by a very bridgeable six percentage points in recent polling.
Learn more about Gina Hinojosa and her campaign at https://ginafortexas.com/.
Thanks for listening! Learn more about Progress Texas and how to support our ongoing work at https://progresstexas.org/.
From Dan Patrick's declaration that the separation of church and state is dead, to Texas Republicans kicking Muslims out of their state convention in Houston, to the Ten Commandments and bible stories permeating our public schools, the takeover by Christian Nationalism of Republican politics is no longer a theory - it's real, and it's here, right now. How to resist is now one of the primary questions for progressive people - and we've brought on Rebecca Markert to discuss that question. She's the Vice President and Legal Director of Americans United For Separation of Church and State, a national organization dedicated solely to the protection of the foundational American principles of freedom of religion - and freedom from religion.
Learn more about AU at https://www.au.org/.
Thanks for listening! Learn more about Progress Texas and how you can support our ongoing work at https://progresstexas.org/.
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas:
Governor Greg Abbott has failed to accept an invitation to debate Democratic nominee Gina Hinojosa in mid-October in Fort Worth: https://www.sacurrent.com/news/texas-news/gina-hinojosa-calls-out-gov-greg-abbott-for-not-accepting-debate-invitation/
...Abbott's drastic pivot on data centers would be very difficult to defend on a debate stage: https://www.chron.com/politics/article/abbott-data-centers-texas-22328740.php
...Not only do they hoard water and power, many Texas data centers that generate their own electricity would also be massive atmospheric polluters: https://www.texastribune.org/2026/07/01/texas-data-center-power-plans-emissions/
...Abbott has also lately been outed for favoring Elon Musk's Starlink over local, rural broadband providers for lucrative state funding: https://www.kut.org/energy-environment/2026-07-02/texas-tx-broadband-development-musk-starlink-rural-internet-governor-abbott
Check out the Substack version of the Daily Dispatch, which delivers each pod to your inbox and frequently includes extra video goodies: https://substack.com/@progresstexas
Progress Texas is expanding into both broadcast radio - including a new partnership with KPFT-FM in Houston! Make a tax-deductible contribution to our radio initiative HERE, and to our Spanish expansion HERE. Find our web store and other ways to support our important work at https://progresstexas.org.
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas:
The one bit of good news - in two days of mostly bad news from SCOTUS - was the denying of Donald Trump his wish to end birthright citizenship: https://progresstexas.org/blog/statement-american-birthright-protected-trump-denied-tyranny
...Texas Republicans, as you might imagine, are beside themselves: https://www.chron.com/politics/article/birthright-citizenship-scotus-texas-22327186.php
...And the bad news: in NRSC v. FEC, SCOTUS has relaxed limits on big money in politics even further, giving billionaires and corporations even more advantages over grassroots-funded candidates: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/supreme-court-nrsc-fec_n_69e13160e4b0555d213a5c96
...In upholding bans on transgender girls playing women's sports, SCOTUS provides a lane for a broader weaponization of laws against LGBTQ people in general: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/01/us-supreme-court-trans-athletes-ruling
...And in perhaps the worst news from SCOTUS this week, Monday's ruling in Trump v. Slaughter gives the President largely unlimited power to fire federal regulators: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/29/supreme-court-trump-agency-firings-slaughter-ftc
National Democrats aren't bothering to counter Donald Trump's announced midterm GOP convention in Dallas this September: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/30/trump-republican-convention-midterms-dallas
Check out the Substack version of the Daily Dispatch, which delivers each pod to your inbox and frequently includes extra video goodies: https://substack.com/@progresstexas
Progress Texas is expanding into both broadcast radio - including a new partnership with KPFT-FM in Houston! Make a tax-deductible contribution to our radio initiative HERE, and to our Spanish expansion HERE. Find our web store and other ways to support our important work at https://progresstexas.org.
In this moment of progressive resurgence and populist success nationwide at the ballot box, at 84, Vermont U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders has lost none of his stride or fire. The main arena at Corpus Christi's Hilliard Center was packed with big Bernie fans as he gave the closing address of this year's Texas Democratic Convention!
Thanks for listening! Learn more about Progress Texas and how you can help support our ongoing work at https://progresstexas.org/.
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas:
After being seized off a McAllen street on her way to Sunday mass last weekend, Sister Letty Ugboaja has been released by ICE: https://www.tpr.org/news/2026-06-29/south-texas-nun-released-after-being-detained-by-ice
Those of us who visited Corpus Christi last weekend might be wondering what the real story is with the water crisis: in short, it was manufactured over the last three decades by GOP sidestepping of climate science in favor of corporate industrial expansion: https://www.texasobserver.org/texas-climate-change-refusal-crisis-corpus-christi/
Eight Texas State Board of Education seats are up for election this fall - the recent votes on Bible stories and revisionist social studies curriculum make those elections more important than ever: https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/republican-majority-sboe-approves-bible-infused-required-reading-lists-and-social-studies-curriculum/
Check out the Substack version of the Daily Dispatch, which delivers each pod to your inbox and frequently includes extra video goodies: https://substack.com/@progresstexas
Progress Texas is expanding into both broadcast radio - including a new partnership with KPFT-FM in Houston! Make a tax-deductible contribution to our radio initiative HERE, and to our Spanish expansion HERE. Find our web store and other ways to support our important work at https://progresstexas.org.
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