Texas
Gov. Greg Abbott and Beto O’Rourke accused each other of misinforming Texans during their debate. Here are the facts.
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Gov. Greg Abbott, who’s searching for a 3rd time period, and Beto O’Rourke, the Democrat attempting to unseat him in November, confronted off of their solely scheduled debate Friday evening and sparred over the main points within the race, from immigration to gun insurance policies to the reliability of Texas’ energy grid since a February 2021 winter storm left hundreds of thousands with out energy or warmth for days.
All through the controversy — held within the empty auditorium on the College of Texas Rio Grande Valley campus in Edinburg — Abbott and O’Rourke continuously accused one another of getting their info improper or mendacity to Texas voters. Here is a few of the claims they mentioned through the debate and what you must find out about every concern:
Abbott on busing migrants to New York
The assertion: Abbott mentioned New York Metropolis Mayor Eric Adams “has by no means known as my workplace, by no means talked to anyone in my administration” to coordinate with Texas since Abbott’s resolution to bus 1000’s of migrants from Texas to New York and different Democrat-run large cities.
What you must know: Adams’ press secretary Fabien Levy instructed The Texas Tribune that Adams’ workplace reached out to a member of Abbott’s administration they usually spoke on the telephone on Aug. 1 about alerting Adams’ workers earlier than the migrants’ arrival to New York Metropolis.
Levy shared an email from Adams’ workplace, dated Aug. 1, that he mentioned was an effort to observe up on the telephone name with Abbott’s workers earlier that day. The e-mail doesn’t particularly point out migrants or busing. Levy mentioned Adams’ workplace didn’t obtain a reply from Abbott’s workers.
4 days later, on Aug. 5, Abbott introduced he was sending migrants to New York Metropolis on buses. That announcement got here two weeks after Adams held a press convention saying that asylum seekers have been already arriving in New York Metropolis on buses despatched by the Texas and Arizona governments.
Texas’ rating on psychological well being entry
The assertion: Abbott repeated his declare that psychological well being issues lead folks to commit mass shootings and mentioned the state is addressing that concern. O’Rourke mentioned Texas ranks final within the nation for psychological well being care entry. Abbott disagreed and mentioned Texas ranks twenty seventh.
What you must know: A 2022 report from Psychological Well being America helps O’Rourke’s assertion that Texas’ restricted availability of psychological well being sources places the state 51st within the nation — together with Washington D.C. — for psychological well being care entry. It’s not clear what metric Abbott was referring to when he claimed that Texas ranked twenty seventh. Abbott’s workplace didn’t reply to a request for clarification on Saturday.
O’Rourke additionally accused Abbott of taking $211 million supposed for psychological well being care from the state funds. That quantity was subtracted from the funds of the Texas Well being and Human Companies Fee , which oversees psychological well being points, over a two 12 months interval, to assist fund Abbott’s Operation Lone Star border initiative. It’s not clear if that cash would have instantly gone to enhance psychological well being care entry.
The aftermath of Texas’ energy grid failures
The assertion: Abbott mentioned that no Texan has misplaced electrical energy due to energy grid failures because the February 2021 winter storm, whereas O’Rourke faulted Abbott for failing to right vital issues with the grid earlier than its failure in 2021.
What you must know: The 2021 winter storm that induced the ability grid to fail, leaving hundreds of thousands with out energy or warmth and inflicting a whole bunch of deaths, got here years after earlier excessive climate occasions uncovered the grid’s vulnerabilities, which lawmakers did not right throughout Abbott’s tenure.
After the 2021 storm, the Legislature accredited, and Abbott signed, quite a few payments aimed toward enhancing the grid — though consultants have mentioned these efforts is probably not sufficient.
Whereas the state’s grid operator requested that Texans cut back electrical energy utilization a number of occasions earlier this 12 months when demand threatened to exceed provide, no main grid-related outages have been reported within the state since February 2021; there have been localized outages attributable to a wide range of causes unrelated to the state grid — similar to tree limbs falling on energy traces.
On Texas’ (and California’s) taxes
The assertion: O’Rourke mentioned that Texans pay extra in taxes than Californians.
What you must know: O’Rourke’s assertion is each true and false — relying on an individual’s tax bracket. For Texans with salaries within the prime 20% of the state, native and state taxes quantity to 7.5% or much less of their revenue, in keeping with the Institute of Taxation and Financial Coverage. Californians in that very same bracket pay no less than 9.4% of their incomes to state and native taxes.
On the opposite finish of the financial spectrum, the alternative is true. Texans who’re within the backside 20% of earnings pay 13% of their revenue in taxes, whereas everybody in that very same bracket in California pays 10.5%. In Texas, the upper a family’s revenue, the decrease the tax charge, in keeping with the institute’s evaluation. In California, the tax burden is lowest for center revenue earners, with low-income and high-income residents paying the next proportion in taxes.
O’Rourke’s stance on gun management
The assertion: A debate moderator mentioned that O’Rourke has made conflicting statements about whether or not he helps confiscating AR-15-style rifles from Texans.
What you must know: Whereas campaigning through the 2020 presidential election O’Rourke mentioned he supported confiscating AR-15-style rifles, however earlier this 12 months he mentioned he doesn’t help seizing weapons. O’Rourke mentioned, if elected, he would deal with elevating the age to purchase a semi-automatic rifle like an AR-15 from 18 to 21 — a purpose which he mentioned was extra politically achievable than confiscating weapons.
Abbott has rejected calls to extend the buying age to purchase semi-automatic rifles — as Florida did following the taking pictures deaths of 17 folks at a highschool in Parkland in 2018 — saying that might be unconstitutional.
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Texas
Kinky Friedman, singer and novelist who fronted The Texas Jewboys, dies at 79
Kinky Friedman, the cigar-chomping, mustachioed Texan country singer and mystery novelist whose body of work often seemed like the un-kosher marriage of the Borscht Belt and the Bible Belt, died June 27 from complications of Parkinson’s disease. He was 79.
As frontman for the flamboyant 1970s country group Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys, he was notorious for satirical songs such as “They Don’t Make Jews Like Jesus Anymore,” a raucous sendup of racism, and “Get Your Biscuits in the Oven and Your Buns in Bed,” which poked fun at feminism.
He could also turn serious, with songs dealing with social issues such as abortion and commercialism. His 1973 song “Ride ’em Jewboy” is a haunting elegy on the Holocaust, recorded by Willie Nelson and sung in concert by Bob Dylan. The lyrics transform cowboy cliches into a rumination on Hitler’s victims:
Now the smoke from camps a-rising
See the helpless creatures on their way
Hey, old pal, ain’t it surprising
How far you can go before you stay?
The Jewboys broke up in the mid-1970s and Friedman spent much of the next decade in a haze of drugs. In the mid-1980s he cleaned up and began writing a series of successful, raunchy, comic mystery novels whose main character is himself. He wrote more than 20 books, all on a manual typewriter.
https://youtu.be/uBewkqSdehQ
One reviewer, the actress and author Fannie Flagg, described his writing as “Raymond Chandler on drugs, if Chandler had possessed a tremendous sense of humor.”
In 2006 he ran for governor of Texas, looking to unseat incumbent Republican Rick Perry in a bid that went from joking to serious. His campaign material included a 13-inch talking action figure and bumper stickers that read, “My governor is a Jewish cowboy.” His official campaign slogan was “Why the hell not?” He considered himself tough on immigration, pro-choice, anti-capital punishment and a proponent of alternative fuels.
In time, his campaign gathered force as a serious quest to shake up Texas politics, break down traditional party machines and reach out to a dramatically disaffected electorate.
“In the last election for governor, only 29% of eligible voters went to the polls,” Friedman, known as “the Kinkster,” told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that year. “Seventy-one percent didn’t vote — they didn’t like the choice between paper and plastic.”
In the end, Friedman placed fourth in the six-person race, receiving 12.6% of the vote.
The origins of Kinky Friedman
Born Richard Samet Friedman in Chicago in 1944, he moved with his parents to Texas as a baby and earned his nickname in college from his curly hair. His parents were educators who ran a summer camp for mainly Jewish children at Echo Hill Ranch, the 400-acre spread where Friedman would come to live in a small but rambling lodge.
“We had services every Friday night, and Kinky would play the guitar,” Ellen St. Clair, who spent four summers at Echo Hill, told JTA in 2006.
The property is also home to the Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch, a home and adoption center for abused and abandoned dogs that Friedman helped found.
He attended the University of Texas at Austin, where he majored in psychology. Friedman proudly recalled that during their time as members of the Jewish Tau Delta Phi fraternity he and a friend, Nathan “Chinga” Chavin, tried to admit African-American students, an effort that was ultimately thwarted.
After graduating in 1966, he served in the Peace Corps in Borneo. After returning from the Peace Corps, he formed Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys, at a time when hybrid “country rock” bands — including The Band, the Eagles and Buffalo Springfield — were rising up the charts. The Jewboys drew a cult following — and occasional protests, as when the National Organization for Women awarded Friedman its “Male Chauvinist Pig Award” in 1973.
In early 1976, he joined Dylan on the second leg of the Rolling Thunder Revue tour. Friedman claimed to have been the first “full-blooded” Jew to take the stage at the Grand Ole Opry.
Friedman would cite Mark Twain and the humorist Will Rogers as his heroes, and the inevitable comparisons were not far off.
“These days,” he once said, “there are many people around the world who listen to the songs that made me infamous and read the books that made me respectable.”
Texas
Texas Football Ranked Among the Top Offenses in the New EA CFB 25 Game
![Texas Football Ranked Among the Top Offenses in the New EA CFB 25 Game](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_crop,w_1022,h_574,x_0,y_0/c_fill,w_1440,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/images/voltaxMediaLibrary/mmsport/longhorns_country/01j1d7qkd5nrq9gq02mb.jpg)
As a part of its rankings week showcase, EA has released its top offenses for the new EA CFB 25 game, with the Texas Longhorns tying for the third-highest-rated squad in this year’s game.
Texas was given a 91-rated offense, tying with Alabama for the third spot. The two teams ahead of the Longhorns and Crimson Tide are Georgia and Oregon, who share the top spot with a 94 overall rating.
Texas looks to feature one of the best offenses in real life in 2024, which will lead to exciting gameplay for the first college football game in over a decade. Just two returning Power Five quarterbacks had more passing yards in 2024 than Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers, and he’ll have the privilege of throwing to the transfer portal’s top receiver Isaiah Bond in the upcoming year.
The offensive line is also one of the best in the nation, ranking inside the top five of rankings from sites like On3, PFF, and 247. Behind that line will be runningbacks CJ Baxter and Jaydon Blue, who combined for 1,057 rushing yards on over five yards per carry in 2023. The Texas offense is filled from top to bottom with playmakers, likely making them one of the deepest offenses to play within the game.
At the quarterback position, Ewers will likely be one of the three highest-rated passers, especially given his status as the cover athlete, and is backed up by Arch Manning, who sadly won’t be in the game due to him opting out. Whether they replace him with an auto-generated player or just leave him out, freshman Trey Owens will be a fine backup in the game.
The running back room not only features Baxter, the No. 1 rusher in the class of 2023, and Blue, but also Tre Wisner, who averaged six yards per carry last year, and the No. 3 running back in the class of 2024, Jerrick Gibson. Baxter will be the highest rated of the group, but the other three rushers will likely be pushing above 95 speed, making them perfect for a simulation football game.
In the receiving core, Bond is joined by two other transfer receivers Matthew Golden and Silas Bolden. Both pass-catchers were rated as four-star or higher transfers, and tight end Amari Niblack was the top tight end transfer in the country. Returning for the Longhorns are sophomore stud wide receivers Johntay Cook, DeAndre Moore, and Ryan Niblett, while five-star freshman Ryan Wingo will bring verticality to the team.
This offense will not only be one of the highest rated but also the most fun teams in the game. With the bountiful playbook of head coach Steve Sarkisian and his love for players with speed, it’ll be hard to slow down an offense like this.
Texas
Texas lt. gov. warns of Biden's border inaction after Jocelyn Nungaray's murder: 'It can happen to you'
![Texas lt. gov. warns of Biden's border inaction after Jocelyn Nungaray's murder: 'It can happen to you'](https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/06/jn4.jpg)
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick warned of the deadly consequences of the border crisis, calling out President Biden for failing to “seal the border with Mexico right now” following the brutal murder of 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray.
“If Joe Biden had any compassion at all for this family or the families of Laken Riley or Rachel Morin and others who have been killed… he would secure the border on Thursday, the day of [Nungaray’s] funeral,” Patrick told “America’s Newsroom,” Wednesday.
“This little girl, she was tortured, she was strangled, and she was thrown in the river like a rag doll,” he continued. “Now I want America to wake up. This can come to your wife, your daughter, your sister, your grandmother. It can happen to you. There are animals roaming this country today because of Joe Biden, and these three women I just named would all be alive today – today – if it weren’t for Joe Biden. The blood is on his hands.”
MIGRANT ARRESTED IN BROAD DAYLIGHT RAPE OF 13-YEAR-OLD IN NEW YORK PARK
Video image of Johan Jose Rangel Martinez, 21, and Franklin Jose Pena Ramos, 26, and image of Jocelyn Nungaray (Houston Police Department; Fox Houston Courtesy of the Nungaray family)
Prosecutors said Tuesday that two illegal immigrants from Venezuela allegedly lured the Houston girl under a bridge where they sexually assaulted her before tying her up and killing her.
Johan Jose Rangel Martinez, 21, and Franklin Jose Pena Ramos, 26, have each been charged with capital murder.
“While we’re there, looking at the casket and praying for this family, [Biden] will be letting more animals like the two that allegedly killed her into this country,” Patrick remarked.
The Texas Republican urged former President Trump to confront Biden at Thursday night’s CNN Presidential Debate on the result of his border policies.
“I would ask President Biden, ‘can you tell me who Rachel Morin is? Can you tell me who Jocelyn is? Can you tell me who Laken Riley is?’ And Joe Biden has a choice. He could either say, ‘Yes, there are three people who should be alive today except for my border policies,’ or, ’I don’t know who they are,’” he said.
Jocelyn’s mother, Alexis Nungaray, tearfully told “Hannity” on Tuesday that “we have to stop burying our kids.”
“This isn’t right. We have to have more reinforcement when it comes to letting people in. This is not okay,” she said.
Pena Ramos illegally crossed into El Paso, Texas, in May, sources with the Department of Homeland Security confirmed to Fox News. He was caught by Border Patrol agents and was released into the U.S. with a Notice to Appear in court.
Rangel Martinez also crossed illegally into El Paso in March and was caught by Border Patrol. He was released into the U.S. on an unknown basis.
Pena Ramos was wearing an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) ankle bracelet at the time of the crime – a detail highlighted by Jocelyn’s grandfather, Kelvin Alvarenga, during the “Hannity” interview.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement told Fox News in a statement Friday that he “illegally entered the U.S. without inspection, parole or admission by a U.S. immigration officer on an unknown date and at an unknown location.”
Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg described the city of Houston as a “huge international hub” that draws in people from all over the country.
“Unfortunately, we see a great deal of violence committed by illegal immigrants, and we see as many victimized by other illegals and regular people here. It’s an enormous problem. This was bound to happen,” Ogg told Fox News on Tuesday. “It’s one of those things that, as an elected prosecutor, you are just waiting for [the] other shoe to drop. I’m just sick and sickened this little girl was the innocent victim of these two monsters.”
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Fox News’ Louis Casiano, Bill Melugin, Griff Jenkins, Yael Halon and Greg Norman contributed to this report.
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