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The special legislative session kicked off last Thursday with a grim agenda from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott: reviving the bill to restrict voting rights that Democrats killed at the end of the last session, barring transgender student athletes from teams that correspond to their gender identity and more. MOVE Texas Action Fund Deputy Director Zenén Jaimes Pérez called the agenda “appalling.”
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In an act of restaurant solidarity, downtown San Antonio’s Smoke BBQ+Skybar donated 100% of its ticket sales from a concert last Wednesday featuring country singer Kevin Fowler to Comfort Café — the nationally acclaimed, volunteer-run brunch establishment damaged in last week’s flooding. Comfort’s flagship Bandera Road location is closed until further notice.
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In another example of conservatives engaging in the “cancel culture” they love to complain about, the Bullock Texas State History Museum last week abruptly canceled a talk on the role slavery played leading up to the Battle of the Alamo. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who, along with Gov. Greg Abbott, is on the board that oversees the museum, took credit for the cancellation, writing on Twitter, “I told staff to cancel this event as soon as I found out about it.”. The San Antonio Food Bank raised more than $10,000 during the women’s NCAA tournament in the city. With the Alamodome at reduced capacity for its games throughout the tournament, fans had the opportunity to pay $100 to have a cardboard cutout of themselves in the seats instead while also supporting the food bank. The money raised will provide some 70,000 meals for children in the area. — Abe Asher
YOU SAID IT!
“Eighteen more months of chaos and the inability to get stuff done. That’s what we want.”
ASSCLOWN ALERT
Tantrum time with Allen West Assclown Alert is a column of opinion, analysis and snark.
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That Rocks/That Sucks
Texas GOP Chairman Allen West formally announced his plan to run for governor last week. And according to a recent report, he’s ending his time as party chief kicking over an ant hill. Last Wednesday, the already frayed relationship between West and party vice chair Cat Parks snapped completely when he called her a “cancer” and “delusional and apparently deranged” during an email exchange, the Texas Tribune reports. Adding an extra layer of “ugh” to the exchange, Parks is a cancer survivor. According to the Tribune, the online exchange came about after Parks asked West to intervene in an interparty dispute over whether to publish a “legislative scorecard” to grade state lawmakers on how they performed during the recent session. A snippy email exchange between Parks and West snowballed until he accused her of being a self-promoter who’s failed to raise money for the party, according to the report. “You Ma’am are a cancer, do not EVER email me again,” West wrote, adding that she does “nothing but create chaos and confusion.” The tirade caps off an almost perpetual pissing match between West and members of the party he was elected to lead. Among those episodes, West butted heads with the party over whether it should have an account on Gab, a social media platform used by neo-Nazis and members of other extremist groups. After an executive committee voted to
close the account, West opened a personal one on the site, according to media reports. Last week, a group of county chairs fired off a letter demanding West’s removal, saying it’s a conflict of interest for him to remain in the position of chairman while running for governor, the Tribune reports. Although he formally announced his candidacy for governor on July 4, he didn’t resign from his position until last Sunday. Hang tight until the primaries when we’ll see how many of the state’s Republican voters are keen to replace one reactionary, hot-headed assclown with another. — Sanford Nowlin
A federal judge has ruled that the U.S. Air Force is primarily responsible for the 2017 shooting at the Sutherland Springs First Baptist Church that left 26 people dead. U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez said that the Air Force should have entered the shooter’s criminal history into a database that would have denied him the opportunity to buy firearms and is 60% responsible for the massacre. A later trial will determine damages owed to the victims’ families.
A man shot twice with paintball rounds by a San Antonio Police Department officer at a George Floyd protest last summer is suing the city. In a suit filed in Bexar County District Court, Alexander Lance alleges that he was shot without provocation and was hospitalized for three days as a result. The incident was recorded on video and widely shared at the time. Lance is seeking damages for his medical bills, lost wages and physical and mental injuries.
Wikimedia Commons / Gage Skidmore
Last week, San Antonio Police Department officer Dezi Rios was arrested for DWI and failure to stop and provide information after allegedly fleeing the scene of a car crash. Rios has a reported history of road rage incidents and was once suspended over a gun battle involved in one of them. The officer may also face charges of assault over allegations that he repeatedly punched a 61-year-old man who followed and confronted him after the recent collision.
— Chip Roy,
Republican U.S. Rep. who represents San Antonio, telling a conservative group what he wants to see in Washington to ensure his party flips the House and Senate in the midterms Twitter / MajorNews911
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