Texas
Tarrant County Republicans fight to keep control of Texas’ largest GOP county
![Tarrant County Republicans fight to keep control of Texas’ largest GOP county](https://thumbnails.texastribune.org/NTK1vCpoQtHm5zcmfTlWUlguBEM=/1200x630/filters:quality(95):focal(0x0:3000x2000)/static.texastribune.org/media/files/c0b2c982fed2165e531b9aef5a46b232/OHare%20and%20Peoples%20TT.jpg)
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FORT WORTH — Eight years after voting for Gov. Greg Abbott, Angela Martinez discovered herself ready in line Tuesday to snap a photograph with Beto O’Rourke, his challenger on this yr’s nail-biting gubernatorial contest.
Martinez, a 33-year-old marketer for a pediatric house well being company, has by no means recognized as strictly liberal or conservative, she mentioned, and typically looks like “a strolling contradiction.” If there’s a spot for her on the standard political spectrum, she hasn’t discovered it. When she voted for Abbott in 2014, Martinez recognized with what she noticed because the then-attorney basic’s Christian household values.
However since then, Martinez has soured on Abbott. She feels Abbott didn’t do sufficient within the wake of the lethal winter freeze in February 2021 to forestall the state’s electrical grid from collapsing ought to a equally catastrophic climate occasion hit Texas sooner or later. As somebody who values “the sanctity of life,” Martinez is uneasy concerning the state’s blanket ban on abortions that took impact after the Supreme Courtroom overturned Roe v. Wade earlier this yr.
“My mom had the liberty (to hunt an abortion), my aunts had the liberty,” Martinez mentioned whereas ready to satisfy O’Rourke on the College of North Texas Well being Science Heart in Fort Value. “Why shouldn’t we?”
Voters in Tarrant County, the state’s final main city county dominated by Republicans, simply barely broke for Democrats on the prime of the ticket within the final two elections — O’Rourke gained there throughout his 2018 Senate bid and so did President Joe Biden two years in the past — stoking Democrats’ hopes that the trail to the governor’s mansion, and the tip of their decadeslong exile from statewide workplace, goes via Tarrant. Boosting these hopes is infighting this yr amongst Tarrant County Republicans — who insist the occasion is united.
The yr that O’Rourke carried Tarrant throughout his near-miss bid to unseat U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, Abbott gained the county by greater than 66,000 votes and practically 11 proportion factors — outperforming each different statewide Republican on the ticket.
4 years later, Abbott’s crew is “assured” the governor will win Tarrant County as soon as extra, Abbott’s chief strategist Dave Carney told reporters last week whereas acknowledging the county is aggressive. “It’s going to be a battle,” Carney mentioned.
At his marketing campaign cease on the UNT Well being Science Heart, O’Rourke expressed optimism that 125,000 individuals who have been added to the county’s voter rolls since he ran in 2018, mixed with discontent over the ability grid failure throughout final yr’s winter storm, the state’s abortion ban and Abbott’s response to high school shootings would assist ship him the county.
“Abbott has given us an enormous, enormous opening” in Tarrant County, O’Rourke mentioned. “So many individuals are on the lookout for the widespread floor and the widespread sense that’s been lacking from our state authorities.”
However as Democrats categorical optimism due to O’Rourke and Biden’s victories, Republicans proceed to dominate down-ballot races in Tarrant County — an indication of the GOP’s enduring dominance right here.
“They’ve now slightly little bit of historical past that means that Democrats would possibly have the ability to win in Tarrant County,” mentioned James Riddlesperger, a political science professor at Texas Christian College. “Alternatively, there has not been a countywide Democrat elected for county workplace in Tarrant County on this century.”
Earlier within the yr, Democrats appeared primed to beat expectations {that a} president’s occasion will get pummeled throughout the midterm elections — bouyed by surprisingly excessive ballot numbers within the wake of the Supreme Courtroom ruling on abortion rights earlier this yr. However that lead evaporated amid excessive inflation and Biden’s persistently low approval rankings.
That bodes effectively for Republicans’ probabilities to carry onto Tarrant, mentioned Rick Barnes, Tarrant County Republican Celebration chair.
“It’s not a great time to be a Democratic candidate, due to this fact not a great time for Beto in Texas,” Barnes mentioned.
“My financial savings simply retains getting smaller and smaller”
Jaynell Sharum, a 73-year-old retiree who final labored for a Fort Value regulation agency, mentioned she and her husband have needed to make sacrifices as the price of gasoline and meals have gone up — for which she blames Democrats. Sharum and her husband don’t exit to eat as a lot as they used to, she mentioned, and at house have in the reduction of on how a lot meat they purchase from the grocery retailer.
Although the USA isn’t the one nation experiencing speedy inflation, economists have laid among the blame on federal stimulus funds that helped overheat the financial system.
Sharum plans to vote Republican up and down the poll, although she fears a “exhausting touchdown subsequent yr” for the financial system even when Republicans meet projections and retake the U.S. Home.
“I feel what they (Democrats) are doing is simply making it worse,” Sharum mentioned at a Republican Girls of Arlington assembly final week. “We’re going to have to chop again, the federal government’s going to have to chop again on their spending and it’s gonna be exhausting on everyone. But when we don’t chew the bullet now, I don’t know what it’s gonna be like in one other yr — besides that my financial savings simply retains getting smaller and smaller.”
Some conservatives who’ve chafed at a few of Abbott’s strikes mentioned they nonetheless plan to vote for him. Kaye Moreno, a member of Fort Value Republican Girls, mentioned she disagreed with how lengthy Abbott saved in place measures like masks mandates and occupancy restrictions for companies supposed to gradual the unfold of COVID-19 — guidelines that had been deeply unpopular among the many Republican base.
“There could also be some issues that I’ve disagreed with Abbott on right here and there, however not sufficient to say that I might by no means vote for him,” Moreno mentioned. “I’m fairly pleased with him.”
Democrats, in the meantime, are betting they will peel off sufficient average Republicans disaffected by the occasion’s rightward shift within the final 4 years to interrupt their decadeslong exile from statewide workplace — and maybe countywide workplace in Tarrant as effectively.
Scott White, a 55-year-old former managing director for Accenture who lives in Grapevine, mentioned previously he persistently voted Republican with few exceptions: He voted for the Libertarian Celebration candidate slightly than former President Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton and for Biden in 2020.
However this yr, White mentioned he voted straight Democratic — a reversal sparked partially by his opposition to the state’s whole abortion ban, which he known as “past appalling.” And he thinks Abbott, who he has voted for twice, has grown too obsessive about “pulling stunts” slightly than working to handle points head-on — referring to Abbott’s busing of migrants to so-called sanctuary cities like New York Metropolis and Chicago.
“They (Republicans) was once a celebration of average conservatives that had a radical proper that was just about underneath management,” White mentioned. “That’s just about flipped now and the moderates not have any energy and it’s simply this radical proper crowd and the propaganda machine. That’s what they’re left with.”
GOP civil struggle?
A part of Democrats’ hopes relaxation on a perceived rift between the county’s conventional class of extra average, business-friendly Republicans and the occasion’s proper wing.
Voters in a contentious GOP major for county choose, the county’s prime elected place, handed over Betsy Value — who served as Fort Value mayor for 10 years and is taken into account extra of a centrist — for Tim O’Hare, the previous Farmers Department mayor who in 2008 ushered in an ordinance forbidding landlords from renting to undocumented immigrants, which a federal courtroom later dominated unconstitutional. O’Hare, who drew the backing of Trump, additionally co-founded Southlake Households PAC, which efficiently opposed a plan to handle racial discrimination at a college district in northeast Tarrant County.
However the county’s prime Republicans haven’t solidified behind O’Hare. Tarrant County Choose Glen Whitley, a Republican who shouldn’t be in search of reelection, shouldn’t be backing O’Hare as his would-be successor — and Value has implored fellow Republicans to not simply vote for candidates as a result of they’ve an “R” subsequent to their identify on the poll. Nonetheless, Whitley and Value haven’t endorsed O’Hare’s Democratic opponent — Deborah Peoples, a retired AT&T govt and former chair of the Tarrant County Democratic Celebration.
“I actually imagine that Republicans, independents and even average Democrats are extra targeted on the problems that impression them on a day-to-day foundation,” mentioned Whitley, who has backed Democrat Mike Collier in his bid to unseat Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. “That’s property taxes, that is schooling, that’s the financial system. They’re not as involved about (essential race concept) and the assorted points that the extremes need to concentrate on.”
For O’Hare, speak of stark GOP divisions in Tarrant County are overblown.
“Yeah, there was a contentious major and other people picked their sides,” O’Hare mentioned. “However we got here out on prime and we gained Fort Value outright. We gained the remainder of the county outright. The concept there’s some civil struggle, I feel, is simply not correct.”
That hasn’t stopped Peoples from attempting to select off Republicans probably turned off by O’Hare.
Peoples gained the backing of Steve Murrin, a widely known Republican and businessman generally known as the “mayor of the Stockyards.” She’s sought to solid herself as a business-friendly Democrat who can shepherd the county’s progress by way of expanded public transit and infrastructure — and painting O’Hare’s involvement with the Southlake Households PAC as a possible hindrance for attracting new companies to Tarrant.
“Corporations worth variety,” Peoples mentioned. “So when you’ve gotten any person who’s saying ‘I don’t worth variety,’ that form of smacks within the face of what many of those corporations try to do.”
O’Hare, who additionally has campaigned on slicing property taxes and boosting public security, dismissed Peoples’ assertion as “a false narrative, which is just about her specialty” and touted endorsements from Fort Value actual property developer Mike Berry and outstanding lawyer Dee Kelly Jr.
O’Hare has trounced Peoples, who twice ran unsuccessfully for Fort Value mayor, in fundraising — gathering practically $602,000 from July 1 to Sept. 29, in accordance with his newest marketing campaign finance report. That’s practically six occasions the $102,000 Peoples raised in the identical interval.
“The Fort Value enterprise group — the ‘downtown crowd,’ typically they’re known as — they’ve gotten behind me huge,” O’Hare mentioned. “We’re very assured that Republicans are behind me in vital numbers.”
Disclosure: Accenture, AT&T, Texas Christian College, College of North Texas and UNT Well being Science Heart have been monetary supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan information group that’s funded partially by donations from members, foundations and company sponsors. Monetary supporters play no position within the Tribune’s journalism. Discover a full listing of them right here.
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Texas
How Texas is still investigating migrant aid groups on the border after a judge's scathing order
![How Texas is still investigating migrant aid groups on the border after a judge's scathing order](https://res.cloudinary.com/graham-media-group/image/upload/f_auto/q_auto/c_thumb,w_700/v1/media/gmg/YZRKIGRR6BCH5M5NAHT2OLCDPM.jpg?_a=ATAPphC0)
MCALLEN, Texas – Texas is widening investigations into aid organizations along the U.S.-Mexico border over claims that nonprofits are helping migrants illegally enter the country, taking some groups to court and making demands that a judge called harassment after the state tried shuttering an El Paso shelter.
The efforts are led by Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, whose office has defended the state’s increasingly aggressive actions on the border, including razor wire barriers and a law that would allow police to arrest migrants who enter the U.S. illegally.
Since February, Paxton has asked for documents from at least four groups in Texas that provide shelter and food to migrants. That includes one of the largest migrant aid organizations in Texas, Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, which on Wednesday asked a court to stop what the group called a “fishing expedition into a pond where no one has ever seen a fish.”
The scrutiny from the state has not stopped the organizations’ work. But leaders of some groups say the investigations have caused some volunteers to leave and worry it will cast a chilling effect among those working to help migrants in Texas.
Here are some things to know about the investigations and the groups:
What started the investigations?
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott sent Paxton a letter in 2022 urging him to investigate the role nongovernmental organizations play in “planning and facilitating the illegal transportation of illegal immigrants across our borders.” Two years earlier, Abbott began rolling out his multibillion-dollar border security apparatus known as Operation Lone Star.
Without citing evidence, Abbott’s letter referenced unspecified “recent reports” that some groups may be acting unlawfully. Paxton later accused Annunciation House in El Paso, one of the oldest migrant shelters on the border, of human smuggling and other crimes.
The groups have denied the accusations and no charges have been filed.
Other Republicans and conservative groups have cheered on Texas’ effort.
Which groups are targets?
Many nonprofit organizations on the Texas border are faith-based and have operated for years — and in some cases decades — without state scrutiny.
Several groups have coordinated with Abbott’s busing program that has transported more than 119,000 migrants to Democratic-led cities across the U.S. Some of those partnerships began to erode, however, following reports of poor conditions onboard the buses and frustration among migrant aid groups that migrants were arriving in cities without warning.
In addition to Annunciation House, Paxton has sent letters to Angeles Sin Fronteras in Mission, Texas; Team Brownsville; and Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley.
The Catholic Charities group is part of the Brownsville diocese and offers services to existing residents as well as migrants. It opened a shelter for migrants in 2017 that typically receives more than 1,000 people a week, most of whom stay only a few days.
In court documents, Catholic Charities said it provided over 100 pages of documents to Paxton’s office and a sworn statement from its executive director. But in June, Paxton asked a court to allow the state to depose a member of the organization about intake procedures, communication with local and state law enforcement, and the organization’s “practices for facilitating alien crossings over the Texas-Mexico border.”
Catholic Charities has denied wrongdoing and this week asked a judge to deny Paxton’s request.
What have courts said so far?
This week, a judge in El Paso accused Paxton’s office of overreaching in its pursuit of evidence of criminal activity.
That ruling involved Annunciation House, whose records Paxton began seeking in February. The Catholic shelter in El Paso opened in 1978.
In a scathing ruling, state District Judge Francisco X. Dominguez said Paxton’s attempts to enforce a subpoena for records of migrants violated the shelter’s constitutional rights.
“This is outrageous and intolerable,” the judge wrote.
Paxton’s office has not returned messages seeking comment on the ruling. The state could appeal the decision.
It is not clear when a court might rule in the investigation involving Catholic Charities.
Have Texas’ actions disrupted aid groups?
Each group that received letters from Paxton’s office has continued to offer aid to migrants.
But at Annunciation House, executive director Ruben Garcia said negative comments from Paxton have caused some volunteers to leave over concerns that they could get caught up in the legal process.
Marissa Limon Garza, the executive director of Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center in El Paso, said the legal actions toward their partners are seen as an attack on values of binational communities that help migrant communities. Garza added it’s had a “chilling” effect.
“If this organization that has over 40 years of commitment to standing in solidarity with the most vulnerable in our region is in the eye of the administration, that makes you wonder if your organization will be next,” Limon Garza said.
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Texas
Old pipes cause Texas cities to lose tens of billions of gallons of water each year
![Old pipes cause Texas cities to lose tens of billions of gallons of water each year](https://thumbnails.texastribune.org/NVdYWGZmj64aly55jjb7c6zD-XY=/1200x630/filters:quality(95)/static.texastribune.org/media/files/8a8851f5e56a6f3768d059adcebaf520/SAWS%20Water%20Main%20Break%20CS%2012%20TT.jpg)
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Texas’ most populous cities lost roughly 88 billion gallons of water last year because of aging water infrastructure and extreme heat, costing them millions of dollars and straining the state’s water supply, according to self-reported water loss audits.
The documents show that bigger municipalities are not immune to water issues often seen in smaller, less-resourced communities around the state. All but one big city saw increased water loss from last year’s audits.
While cities are losing water because of inaccurate meters or other data issues, the main factors are leaks and main breaks.
Here’s how much each of Texas’ biggest cities lost last year, according to their self-reported audits:
- Houston: 31.8 billion
- San Antonio: 19.5 billion
- Dallas: 17.6 billion
- Austin: 7.1 billion
- Fort Worth: 5.9 billion
- El Paso: 4.8 billion
Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, Austin, Fort Worth and El Paso must submit water loss audits to the Texas Water Development Board yearly. Other water agencies must do audits only every five years, unless the city has over 3,300 connections or receives money from the board.
“What we have right now is not sustainable [or] tenable,” said Jennifer Walker, National Wildlife Federation’s Texas Coast and Water Program director.
The cities of Houston and Dallas saw the biggest increase in lost water reported. Houston saw a 30% jump from last year’s audit, while Dallas saw an increase of 18%.
Houston is the largest populous city in the state, home to roughly 2.3 million Texans; it lost around 31 billion gallons of water last year.
Houston Public Works blames the region’s long drought from June 2022 to December last year for the increase. Droughts cause clay in soil to dry up and shrink, stressing older water lines and making them more likely to break and leak. Officials said this, combined with aging infrastructure, led to a significant increase in water leaks across the city.
“HPW will continue to pursue all funding options available to help replace aging infrastructure,” the Houston spokesperson said.
Aging infrastructure isn’t only a Houston problem. Dallas officials said they only expected a roughly 4% increase in water loss in 2023. They saw a double-digit increase instead.
A Dallas Water Utilities spokesperson said the city is investigating the cause of the increase and “reviewing records to ensure all allowable unbilled/unmetered authorized uses were properly accounted for in the 2023 calculation.”
On the other side of North Texas, Fort Worth saw an increase from 5.6 billion gallons lost in 2022 to 5.9 billion gallons in 2023, losing Cowtown more than $8 million.
Walker, from the National Wildlife Federation, said numbers are also rising because cities are getting more accurate in reporting water loss.
Fort Worth has a “MyH2O program” that replaced all manual read meters with remote read meters and implemented a Real Water Loss Management Plan in 2020 to focus the city efforts related to leak surveys, leak detection and the creation of district metering areas.
“It is actually a testament to how we are using available data to make better decisions and improve reporting with a higher level of confidence,” said Fort Worth Water Conservation Manager Micah Reed.
Last year, voters passed a proposition that created a new fund specifically for water infrastructure projects that are overseen by the Texas Water Development Board.
The agency now has $1 billion to invest in projects that address various issues, from water loss and quality to acquiring new water sources and addressing Texas’ deteriorating pipes. It’s the largest investment in water infrastructure by state lawmakers since 2013.
Walker calls the $1 billion a “drop in the bucket.”
Texas 2036, an Austin-based think tank, expects the state needs to spend more than $150 billion over the next 50 years on water infrastructure.
While some of the Texas Water Fund must be focused on projects in rural areas with populations of less than 150,000, Walker said the bigger cities could also receive some funding.
In San Antonio, the San Antonio Water System isn’t “waiting for [the state] to come and tackle the problem for us.”
The city lost around 19 billion gallons of water in 2023 and has seen an increase over the last five years.
“We’re in a state that doesn’t even fund public education,” said Robert Puente, president and CEO of the San Antonio Water System. “So good luck to us getting some money from the state on these issues.”
Earlier this week, the SAWS board of trustees unanimously approved a new five-year water conservation plan.
The city of Austin lost around 7 billion gallons of water in 2023.
Austin has hired a consultant to review our water loss practices and metrics, according to city officials. The capital city is also in the process of replacing water mains around Austin.
Walker said while Texas lawmakers should invest more money in water infrastructure, city officials also need to hire more staff and better planning to address water loss.
The one city that lost less water in 2023 was El Paso, which reported losing 475 million fewer gallons last year. Since El Paso is in the desert, water conservation and having a “watertight” infrastructure is the city’s main focus, said Aide Fuentes, El Paso Wastewater Treatment Manager.
“That makes us a little bit different from the rest of Texas in that sense,” Fuentes said.
El Paso Water officials aim to reduce water loss by 10%.
Walker said the data shows that cities should make the case to the state lawmakers to continue to address water Infrastructure in the next legislative session. She added this issue isn’t going away.
“We really need [to] try to live with what we have and not lose the water that we already have in place and make sure that it’s reaching its intended destination,” Walker said.
Disclosure: San Antonio Water System and Texas 2036 have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
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Texas
Four injured in Fourth of July shark attacks in Texas, Florida
![Four injured in Fourth of July shark attacks in Texas, Florida](https://media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com/image/upload/t_nbcnews-fp-1200-630,f_auto,q_auto:best/rockcms/2024-07/240704-south-padre-shark-jk-2055-23e805.jpg)
A shark bit three people off a southern Texas beach in what the city’s fire chief called an unprecedented incident on the Fourth of July, the same day another person was bitten by a shark in Florida, officials said.
In Texas, three people were bitten in the city of South Padre Island, on a barrier island near Brownsville, and the shark was later located and “pushed out to deeper water,” Fire Chief Jim Pigg said.
“It’s unprecedented here on South Padre Island,” he said. There were two shark bite incidents at different times and locations Thursday, he said.
Police responded to a 911 call that reported “a severe shark bite to the leg” at 11 a.m., city spokesperson Nikki Soto said, and the victim was taken to a local hospital.
After a second 911 call about a shark attack, firefighters found two people who had been bitten by a shark, Pigg said. They were also taken to a hospital.
Kyle Jud, 46, said he saw a woman pulled from the water who appeared to have a bite to a leg.
“Beach patrol lifted her up — her calf was just gone, shredded. Horrific,” Jud said. He posted video of a shark in the water as a helicopter and a boat patrolled.
One of the victims was flown out of a Brownsville hospital for further treatment, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department said.
“Shark encounters of this nature are not a common occurrence in Texas,” the department said. “When bites from sharks do occur, they are usually a case of mistaken identity by sharks looking for food.”
Pigg said that it has not been determined what type of shark was involved and that an investigation was underway.
Lifeguards were encouraging people in South Padre Island, a beach town of around 2,000 on the barrier island of the same name, to stay out of the water or at least to go no further than knee-deep, Pigg said.
After the shark was spotted and pushed out to deeper water, there had been no further sightings, but Pigg said officials would stay vigilant.
South Padre Island Mayor Patrick McNulty said, “Our hearts and prayers are with the injured and their families and we hope for a speedy recovery.”
In New Smyrna Beach, Florida, a 21-year-old man was bitten by a shark while he was playing football in knee-deep water around 4 p.m., said Tamra Malphurs, interim director of Volusia County Beach Safety.
The man, who was visiting the city on the Atlantic coast from Ohio, was taken to a hospital, and his injuries are not believed to be life-threatening, Malphurs said.
There were 36 unprovoked shark attacks against humans in the U.S. last year, and two of those people died, the Florida Museum of Natural History’s International Shark Attack File said in its most recent annual report.
The project, which documents shark attacks around the world, says that the risk of being attacked by a shark is relatively very small but that swimmers can minimize their risk even further by staying in groups and closer to shore.
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