AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Department of Public Safety is rolling out a new policy that will block transgender Texans from changing the sex on their driver’s licenses and state ID cards.

Equality Texas sent CBS Austin an internal email from DPS that instructs employees to deny these requests.

Ash Hall with the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas says the Texas Department of Public Safety’s new policy isn’t just ignorant, but downright dangerous.

“It’s not at all transparent, it leaves the people out of the process, and I think it’s intentional,” Hall said. “That opens them up to discrimination, harassment, and even violence.”

A leaked email confirmed by KUT News and sent to CBS Austin by Equality Texas reveals a new policy in which Texans will no longer be able to change the sex on their licenses unless it’s to fix a clerical error. Similar policies have already been put in place in Florida, Kansas, and Montana.

“It’s really obvious that that directive is exclusionary, it is meant to render transgender people invisible,” Hall said.

Hall says even more frightening is the directive to record these requests and send them to a specific email address, which they say is reminiscent of a request Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton made in 2022 to gather the same data from DPS.

“I become really anxious, in particular about the list,” Hall said. “For one thing, we have no idea what that list is being used for.”

Brad Pritchett is interim CEO of the LGBTQ advocacy group Equality Texas. He says there are nearly 93,000 trans-Texans, and the importance of them having driver’s licenses can’t be overstated.

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“You need your ID to drive, you need that ID to vote in Texas,” Pritchett said. “You need it for any number of things.”

If gender markers on legal documents don’t match, Hall fears it could lead to confusion or even violence.

“That officer could accuse that trans woman of fraud, which is obviously not the case but that’s how it could look to an officer,” Hall said.

While groups like the Trans Legal Aid Clinic of Texas say it may be best to wait to turn any court order sex change documentation into Texas DPS, Pritchett still recommends going through the process to get it.

“It’s not a simple process to go through,” Pritchett said. “This is being done by people who are playing by the rules, who are following the law to make these changes.”

In a statement, the ACLU of Texas points out that state agencies can’t ignore court orders nor is DPS allowed to collect or share people’s personal information for political aim. While there are no legal challenges yet, Hall believes the policy is destined to fail.

“They are going around the people of Texas in order to intact these harmful, high-stakes policies simply because they have anti-trans animus,” Hall said.

In a statement, the Department of Public Safety says:

The Office of the Attorney General (OAG) has recently raised concerns regarding the validity of court orders being issued that purport to order state agencies—including DPS—to change the sex of individuals in government records, including driver’s licenses and birth certificates. Neither DPS nor other government agencies are parties to the proceedings that result in the issuance of these court orders, and the lack of legislative authority and evidentiary standards for the Courts to issue these orders has resulted in the need for a comprehensive legal review by DPS and the OAG. Therefore, as of Aug. 20, 2024, DPS has stopped accepting these court orders as a basis to change sex identification in department records – including driver’s licenses.

Equality Texas says to visit their website to get connected with resources or legal advice.

AUSTIN, Texas — A heat dome that has led to nearly 90 consecutive days of triple-digit temperatures in Phoenix moved into Texas Wednesday, with record highs expected to fall by the weekend, according to the National Weather Service.

Meanwhile, energy demand in Texas hit an unofficial all-time high Tuesday, according to data from the state’s grid operator.

A major heat alert is in place for Texas, reflecting what the weather service called “rare and/or long-duration extreme heat with little to no overnight relief.” An extreme heat alert was issued for eastern New Mexico.

A heat dome is a slow moving, upper-level high pressure system of stable air and a deep layer of high temperatures, meteorologist Bryan Jackson said.

“It is usually sunny, the sun is beating down, it is hot and the air is contained there,” Jackson said. “There are dozen or so sites that are setting daily records … mostly over Texas.”

Record high temperatures were expected in cities such as Corpus Christi, San Antonio and Amarillo. In Phoenix, monsoon rains have provided brief respites since Sunday, although daytime highs continue to top 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 degrees Celsius).

The dome was expected to move into western Oklahoma and eastern New Mexico beginning Saturday, then into the mid-Mississippi Valley, where it was forecast to weaken slightly, Jackson said.

About 14.7 million people are under an excessive heat warning, with heat indexes expected at 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43.3 degrees Celsius) and above. Another 10 million people were under a heat advisory.

There were 38 heat-related deaths in Texas from January through July, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services, and hundreds have already sought emergency care, according to MedStar ambulance in Fort Worth, Texas. The service responded to 286 heat-related calls during the first 20 days of August, about 14 per day, compared to about 11 per day in August 2023, according to public information officer Desiree Partain.

Austin-Travis County EMS Capt. Christa Stedman said calls about heat-related illness in the area around the Texas state Capitol since April 1 are up by about one per day compared with a year ago, though July was somewhat milder this year.

“The vast majority of what we see is heat exhaustion, which is good because we catch it before it’s heat stroke, but it’s bad because people are not listening to the red flags,” such as heat cramps in the arms, legs or stomach warning that the body is becoming too hot, Stedman said.

Despite the record heat in Texas, residents haven’t been asked to cut back on their energy use like in years prior. This contrasts with the 11 conservation notices issued last year. One reason is that the agency, which manages Texas’ independent energy grid and deregulated providers, has improved the grid’s capabilities with the addition of more than 15 gigawatts of power supply since last summer.

Although the agency has gotten better at controlling the demands of the grid, their criteria for when to notify residents to conserve energy has also changed, Doug Lewin, an energy consultant and president of Stoic Energy said.

Lewin suspects it’s because they’re ineffective and unpopular.

“I don’t think they’re seeing all that much reduction when they give notices,” Lewin said of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. In fact public uproar against the conservation warnings has led to the agency sending fewer of them, he continued.

“There are many factors that ERCOT operations take into consideration when determining the need to issue conservation, case by case depending on conditions at the time,” communications manager Trudi Webster said on the matter.

“It’s been a hot summer, but this one does stand out in terms of extremes,” said Jackson, the meteorologist.

Earlier this month, about 100 people were sickened and 10 were hospitalized due to extreme heat at a Colorado air show and at least two people have died due to the heat in California’s Death Valley National Park.

Globally, a string of 13 straight months with a new average heat record came to an end this past July as the natural El Nino climate pattern ebbed, the European climate agency Copernicus announced Thursday.

AUSTIN, Texas – The Texas Attorney General’s Office on Tuesday executed multiple search warrants in Frio, Atascosa, and Bexar counties as part of an ongoing investigation into election integrity.

The AG’s Election Integrity Unit in 2022 received a referral from the 81st Judicial District Attorney Audrey Louis regarding allegations of election fraud and vote harvesting that occurred during the 2022 elections.

A two-year investigation provided sufficient evidence to obtain the search warrants in furtherance of the ongoing investigation, a news release said.

“Secure elections are the cornerstone of our republic,” Texas Attorney General Paxton said. “We were glad to assist when the District Attorney referred this case to my office for investigation. We are completely committed to protecting the security of the ballot box and the integrity of every legal vote. This means ensuring accountability for anyone committing election crimes.”