Texas

In response to questions about why A&M discontinued the medical care, a university spokesperson said its growing student population and the resulting strain on the A.P. Beutel Health Center require officials to continuously review the services they offer and how they use the center’s resources. The spokesperson noted that the university has invested more in mental health care following a national rise in college students seeking it out.

Transgender and queer students are skeptical of that explanation and believe the university acted in response to pressure from conservative groups. They say the move shows the university is not willing to support them equally.

“It just seems that they don't take the same level of care to address concerns of the queer community as they would other communities,” Klatt said.

Students saw the move as part of a political environment that has become increasingly hostile against LGBTQ+ people in Texas. And it comes as the state’s public universities face top-down pressure to appease Republican leaders — or risk incurring their wrath during next year’s legislative session.

Don't you just love that "small government?" FFS, y'all. Please vote like people's futures depend upon it.

cross-posted from: https://reddthat.com/post/24218249

https://www.texasstandard.org/stories/texas-summer-heat-power-grid-solar-batteries/

"English-learning students’ scores on a state test designed to measure their mastery of the language fell sharply and have stayed low since 2018 — a drop that bilingual educators say might have less to do with students’ skills and more with sweeping design changes and the automated computer scoring system that were introduced that year.

English learners who used to speak to a teacher at their school as part of the Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System now sit in front of a computer and respond to prompts through a microphone. The Texas Education Agency uses software programmed to recognize and evaluate students’ speech.

Students’ scores dropped after the new test was introduced, a Texas Tribune analysis shows. In the previous four years, about half of all students in grades 4-12 who took the test got the highest score on the test’s speaking portion, which was required to be considered fully fluent in English. Since 2018, only about 10% of test takers have gotten the top score in speaking each year."

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/26980853

DALLAS (AP) — The State Fair of Texas is laying down a new rule before millions of visitors flock through the gates for corn dogs, deep-fried delights and a friendly wave from a five-story cowboy named Big Tex: No guns allowed.

But that decision by fair organizers — which comes after a shooting last year on the 277-acre fairgrounds in the heart of Dallas — has drawn outrage from Republican lawmakers, who in recent years have proudly expanded gun rights in Texas. On Wednesday, the state’s attorney general threatened a lawsuit unless the fair reversed course.

“Dallas has fifteen days to fix the issue,” said Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, “otherwise I will see them in court.”

Tensions over where and how gun owners can carry firearms in public are frequent in Texas, but the standoff with one of the state’s most beloved institutions has moved the fight onto unusual turf. The fair has not backed down since cowboy hat-wearing organizers announced the new policy at a news conference last week.

The fair, which reopens in September and lasts for nearly a month, dates back to 1886. In addition to a maze of midway games, car shows and the Texas Star Ferris wheel — one of the tallest in the U.S. — the fairgrounds are also home to the annual college football rivalry between the University of Texas and University of Oklahoma. And after Big Tex, the towering cowboy that greets fairgoers, went up in flames in 2012 due to an electrical short, the fair mascot was met with great fanfare upon its return.

AUSTIN (KXAN) — A brainstorming session happened for hours Monday at the Texas Capitol so that state lawmakers could find out where to look for ideas on crafting private school subsidy legislation, a policy goal that has eluded top Republican leaders.

The Texas House of Representatives Committee on Public Education held a hearing to discuss how to move forward with possibly implementing education savings accounts (ESAs) during next year’s regular legislative session. The panel heard first from witnesses who come from some of the 13 states that now offer public dollars through ESAs to help families cover expenses from private or homeschooling.

Indiana served as the first example. Christina Kaetzel, the executive director of the Indiana Education Scholarship Account Program, testified about how her state now provides up to $20,000 for students with disabilities and their siblings who fall within a certain income level. This became law in 2021, and so far 555 students received the assistance during the 2023-2024 school year.

“The ESA grant must be used on private school tuition, curriculum, services, therapies, transportation, training programs and camps and assessments,” Kaetzel told the panel Monday afternoon.

Jonathan Covey, the policy director for the conservative advocacy group Texas Values, said he hopes state lawmakers will think more broadly.

MOST READ: Texas Lottery Commission ‘stuck between a rock and a hard place,’ Sunset Advisory Commission says “We support universal school choice,” Covey said. “We also support some sort of prioritization method so that low-income and vulnerable demographics can get what they need.”

Ahead of Monday’s meeting, State Rep. Gina Hinojosa, D-Austin, posted on X accusing the state’s top Republican leaders of saving a $32 billion surplus to pay for a voucher-like program during next year’s session. During the hearing, she said testimony from the invited witnesses lacked much evidence to show the benefits of enacting such a program here.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/12280096

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/18565523

…

The new matchup between Trump and Harris is helping Democrats close the enthusiasm gap, in part by capturing the attention and interest of young voters who historically vote at lower rates than older generations. But the historic nature of Harris’ candidacy as the party’s first Black woman and South Asian presidential nominee, coupled with the rapid shift in the campaign’s tone, has young voters of all political stripes taking a hard look — some for the first time — at the role they could play in November.

…

If motivated, Gen Z voters could have a major impact on elections. Texas’ population has the second youngest median age of any state, other than Utah. And in 2020, there were about 1.3 million Texans ages 18 to 24 who were registered to vote. Those voters have historically turned out to vote at rates lower than any other age range, with voter participation rates increasing steadily as age ranges increase.

About 43% of young Texans aged 18-29 voted in 2020 — an eleven point increase from 2016. 66% of all eligible voters and 76% of eligible voters age 64 and older voted that same year.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/15217379

cross-posted from: https://fedia.io/m/[email protected]/t/1058000

A man taking his trash to an apartment dumpster was shot and killed after he slipped while walking and the gun he was carrying went off accidentally, according to San Antonio police.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/18339864

A judge in Texas sentenced a man to 40 years in prison for murdering his wife just months into their marriage.

Jared Dicus, 23, confessed to killing his wife, Anggy Diaz, 21, on Jan. 11, 2023, the same day that her mutilated body was discovered near the couple's residence, according to the Waller County Sheriff's Office (WCSO).

The newlyweds were living in a home on the property of Dicus' parents, who alerted police after coming across their daughter-in-law's body, according to the WCSO.

Sheriff Troy Guidry described the scene at a press conference a few days later, saying: "A portion of the body was dismembered, and the residence was covered in blood. Gruesome scene at best."

"It was early 2022, and Kiany Casillas was in a panic. It had been two years since she and her newborn daughter had followed her husband from California to the Texas Panhandle, and during that time, she had enrolled at Texas Tech University Health Science Center to pursue a career as a psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner.

Casillas is considered the perfect student for Texas Tech’s online program because she lives in the rural city of Dalhart, an hour and a half northwest of Amarillo, and is willing to work there when she graduates. However, a year had passed, and Casillas and the school had yet to find a supervisor for her necessary clinical hours, and the deadline was fast approaching.

“I was anxious, nervous, and baffled. How can I help people if nobody is willing to help me? You know, I was just kind of sad,” Casillas said.

Supervised clinical hours are considered an essential part of the mental health field. They allow students to learn on the job while the supervisor, known as a preceptor in the medical field, assumes the risk of liability. However, only a limited number of mental health providers seem willing to take on this responsibility."

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/26247146

Youth lockups in Texas remain beset by sexual abuse, excessive use of pepper spray and other mistreatment including the prolonged isolation of children in their cells, the justice department has said in a scathing new report that accused the state of violating the constitutional rights of hundreds of minors in custody.

The report comes three years after a federal investigation began into alleged widespread abuse and harsh practices within the Texas juvenile justice department, which incarcerates hundreds of young people every year.

Staff in the detention centers have engaged in sexual acts with children, kept some for stretches of 17 to 22 hours of isolation in their cells and pepper-sprayed minors in their faces, US assistant attorney general Kristen Clarke said in releasing Thursday’s report.

Clarke also noted that about 80% of detained Texas children are Black or Hispanic.

"On a recent appearance on MSNBC, U.S. Rep. Colin Allred was asked how Vice President Kamala Harris’ presumptive rise to the top of the party’s ticket was affecting his campaign in Texas to unseat U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz.

Allred’s response was polite, but muted: “Vice President Harris was a member of the congressional Black Caucus and I’ve known her for some time and I support her nomination.”

That five-second comment was all the time Allred spent discussing Harris. He quickly pivoted for the rest of the seven-minute segment to attacking Cruz for blocking bipartisan border security and immigration bills, opposing abortion access and leaving the state for Cancun when millions of Texans had lost power in their homes in 2021.

Harris’s impending nomination has injected the November election with renewed enthusiasm among Democrats, who are hoping the historic nature of her candidacy as a woman of color could also boost down-ballot candidates. But in Republican-dominated Texas, Allred — who has been running his campaign as a centrist — is not flocking to her side."

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/18215721

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/23061605