Austin, TX
New law to make small change to Texas’ near-total abortion ban
AUSTIN, Texas — Today, Texas has one of the strictest abortion bans in the country. Under state law, abortions are legal if the patient’s life is at risk, but some doctors say that’s not clearly defined. State law says doctors who perform abortions could face life in prison and fines of up to $100,000. That’s why Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin, worked with a bipartisan group of lawmakers to clarify the law.
“The purpose of [House Bill] 3058, the new bill, was to ensure that there was an affirmative defense for physicians, that they would not have to be concerned about liability for using their medical judgment,” she said.
The new legislation says doctors have protection against prosecution when they treat PPROM. Short for previable premature rupture of membranes, PPROM is when a woman’s water breaks early, perhaps before the baby is viable. It can be fatal if untreated. Doctors were already allowed to perform an abortion in cases of ectopic pregnancies.
“This will give cover in just those two specific instances,” Rep. Howard said. “So the concerns that physicians have had in other instances, I think, will still be there.”
Some conservatives think the law was already clear, but say the clarifying legislation was needed to make sure doctors know they can provide care to mothers who need it.
“Unfortunately, it has been kind of necessary to add reinforcement or clarification on the exceptions for the abortion law,” said Mary Elizabeth Castle, the director of government relations for Texas Values. “We’re very happy that we’re able to provide this clarification to let women know that we care about them as well, and the life of the baby.”
Rep. Howard disagrees with those who say the abortion law was clear enough for doctors to follow.
“I heard that from some of my Republican colleagues in particular, that it was clear, and my retort to them was, ‘It may be clear to you. You’re not a physician,’” she said. “[Physicians] are saying it is not clear; the hospitals are saying it is not clear. So, I appreciate that some of my colleagues believe in their own minds that it’s clear from their perspective. Those who are actually put in the position of having to make these decisions are saying it is not clear. And what their concern is that they are having to wait for women to start dying before they can intervene. And that is wholly unacceptable and obviously goes against everything that the physicians have been trained to do.”
Although many Democrats say they will keep fighting for reproductive rights, Castle says there’s a “consensus in the pro-life community and amongst pro-life legislators that we are going to keep our pro-life laws as tight and as close to the original as possible.”
“Some people are pro-abortion because they’re confused,” she says. “They don’t know exactly what the law means, so I think there’s a lot of support for the clarification and my hope is that, truly, we’re seeing more people becoming pro-life, regardless of party.”
The exception for PPROM was added at a time when more than a dozen Texans are suing the state over its abortion law. Amanda Zurawski, the lead plaintiff, says she was denied abortion care when she experienced PPROM. Due to an infection, she can no longer have children naturally.
“All pregnant people in Texas and in other states where abortion is banned deserve better,” Zurawski said in July. “These are fundamental human rights we’re talking about, vital to our lives, freedom, health and safety. We need to get them back.”
The plaintiffs want more clarity around the exceptions and seek the right to an abortion when an unborn child is unlikely to sustain life after birth.
Ultimately, Rep. Howard would like to see abortion rights restored in Texas.
“The whole point here is to trust women and families to make their own decisions about these very, very personal things,” Rep. Howard said. “I’m just very disappointed that we feel like we can determine 100% of the time what should or shouldn’t be done. These are individual decisions.”
Rep. Howard says adding clarifications this year bodes well for future modifications to the law.
“But unfortunately, we’re a part-time legislature,” she said. “It’s not going to happen anytime soon.”
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Eminem rode around Detroit in a 1976 Oldsmobile Delta 88 throughout 8 Mile, but he’s gonna need some new wheels to keep up in Formula 1.
Slim Shady has been announced as one of the concert headliners alongside Sting when the 2024 Formula 1 U.S. Grand Prix comes to Austin, Texas in October. Em is slated to perform on night two come Oct. 19. Sting is the other artist hitting the Germania Insurance Super Stage.
“‘Dare me to drive?!’ #Formula1 Austin TX 10/19,” he wrote to Instagram while quoting lyrics to his early-career anthems like “My Name Is” and “Stan.”
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Fans are excited to hear that Eminem will be returning to the capital of the Lone Star State. Day passes and general admission tickets are still available on Ticketmaster for $179 plus fees.
“Bros gonna rap faster than them cars,” one person wrote. Another fan is making the trip from north of the border. “Travelling from Toronto for this. Can’t miss,” they added.
By the time October’s race rolls around, Eminem’s anticipated The Death of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce) will most likely have arrived. The Detroit legend has promised that his 12th studio album will be released this summer. He kicked off the LP’s rollout in May with the nostalgic “Houdini,” which gave Em his highest-charting single of the decade when it debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The album will be Eminem’s first since 2020’s Music to Be Murdered By, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and earned the rapper his 10th consecutive chart-topper.
Find Eminem’s F1 concert post below.
The pitmaster of one of Austin’s best and exciting barbecue restaurants is going to be publishing a new cookbook. Evan LeRoy of new-school barbecue restaurant and food truck LeRoy & Lewis is writing New School Barbecue, which will publish sometime in 2026 under book distribution company Abrams Books.
The new book will include LeRoy’s techniques and recipes for cooking and smoking meats and vegetables with his new-school approaches pulling in techniques, ingredients, and flavors from around the world. The book will specifically include cauliflower and brisket, among other items. There will also be care taken to given information for all levels of cooks and pitmasters from beginners to experts.
This is LeRoy’s first cookbook, but not his first time sharing his cooking and smoking knowledge with the public. LeRoy & Lewis has a YouTube channel and Patreon membership service where he and the team share recipes and techniques. There’s also the New School BBQ University programs, with the next set of classes set for January 2025.
New School Barbecue is being co-written by Paula Forbes. She’s a noted cookbook author — she wrote the Austin Cookbook in 2018, collecting recipes from beloved restaurants and food trucks in the city; and most recently, she also co-wrote Cured: Cooking With Ferments, Pickles, Preserves, & More with San Antonio chef Steve McHugh, which published earlier this summer. She’s also the editor and writer of International Association of Culinary Professionals award-winning cookbook newsletter Stained Page News. And then she’s also an acclaimed food writer, as well as the founding editor of Eater Austin.
The Publishers Marketplace deal report announcing New School Barbecue dated on June 17 notes that the sale is a pre-empt, which means that the book deal was made early in the process because it’s a wanted title. Behind the deal is literary agent David Hale Smith, a member of literary agency InkWell Management. He also works with Jordan Mackay (who, among other books, co-authored all of Aaron Franklin’s cookbooks: Franklin Barbecue, Franklin Steak, and Franklin Smoke) and Texas Monthly barbecue editor Daniel Vaughn.
LeRoy’s Austin barbecue career started as the founding pitmaster of now-closed restaurant and whiskey bar Freedmen’s in 2012. He left in 2016 with the goal of opening his own business. That ended up being the food truck version of LeRoy & Lewis, with co-owners Sawyer Lewis and Nathan Lewis (rounded out by Evan’s wife Lindsey LeRoy) in 2017. It won the Eater Austin Eater Award for best new food truck that same year. The four always had the goal of opening a physical restaurant, which finally happened earlier this February in Garrison Park.
Austin, TX
Three Austin area companies featured in Fortune 500 after impressive showing across Texas
As Austin continues to rise to prominence on the national stage, so too does its presence on lists like Forbes’ Fortune 500.
The last decade has seen the city’s tech environment continue to flourish, garnering the nickname “Silicon Valley of the South.” As a result, Austin now is home to three tech companies in the Fortune 500.
Here are the three Austin-Area companies that featured on the list of revenue giants, plus a look at how other Texas metros performed on the 2024 edition of the Fortune 500.
Austin-Area features three tech titans in Fortune 500
Austin icon Dell Technologies, now headquartered in Round Rock, slotted in at 48 on the Fortune 500. In the last year, Dell posted a revenue of $88 billion.
Perhaps the most notable Austin HQ’d company, Tesla, was also the highest-ranked company on the Fortune 500. The most valuable car company in the world produced a revenue of $96.7 billion in 2023, this is an 18.8% increase from the prior year.
Lastly, computer software company, Oracle, placed 89th on the list after generating a revenue of $49.9 billion in 2023 — $7 more than the company earned in 2022. The Austin transplant, which moved to the city in 2020, has posted record number in almost every year since moving to Texas’ capital.
While Oracle is currently located in Austin, it announced in April that it plans to move its headquarters to Nashville.
Texas metros boast a strong showing in Fortune 500
This year Texas was dethroned as the top state on the list. The Lone Star state’s West Coast rival, California, was featured 57 times in the 2024 edition of the Fortune 500. This is the first time since 2014 that the Golden State has topped the list, according to Fortune. Texas and New York tie for second, both with 52 companies.
Houston was a stand-out city for Texas as it featured the third most Fortune 500 companies on the list, with 21 entries, led by oil giants like Phillips 66 and ConocoPhillips. San Antonio was featured just twice on the list, but it contributed one of Texas’ highest-ranked companies — Valero Energy.
The Dallas-Fort Worth area was a big winner on the list. Despite multiple years of rocky headlines related to mass flight cancelations, Southwest Airlines found itself in the top 200. In Fort Worth, another airline featured as American Airlines, one of the highest-rated airlines in the country, came in at 86.
The DFW as a whole featured 10 total companies, nine of which Dallas contributed.
Fortune 500: Top 20 Texas companies
Below are the top Texas companies that made the Fortune 500 list and their rank:
- 7: Exxon Mobil
- 9: McKesson
- 26: Phillips 66
- 29: Valero Energy
- 32: AT&T
- 40: Tesla
- 48: Dell Technologies
- 51: Energy Transfer
- 54: Sysco
- 59: Caterpillar
- 68: ConocoPhillips
- 86: American Airlines Group
- 89: Oracle
- 90: Enterprise Products Partners
- 92: Plains GP Holdings
- 103: USAA
- 120: D.R. Hortom
- 137: HF Sinclair
- 138: CBRE Group
- 147: Hewlett Packard Enterprise
Beck Andrew Salgado covers trending topics in the Austin business ecosystem for the American-Statesman. To share additional tips or insights with Salgado, email Bsalgado@gannett.com.
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