Free Republic

We are now a little over a month into the Constitutional Carry era in Texas. As most of your probably know, HB1927 included the creation of a new "30.05" sign to go along with the familiar 30.06 and 30.07 signs. If you don't know, and you carry a handgun in Texas with or without an LTC, then you should look it up and familiarize yourself with the effect of each sign. My question: Have you seen any 30.05 signs in the wild yet? If so, did they replace a 30.06 and/or 30.07 sign from before, or were they put up...

An armed robber was shot in the face in Texas when his victim pulled out his own gun and shot at him, just days after a Texas law went into effect allowing residents to carry handguns without permits. "He was shot in the face one time. He’s at the hospital. He’s going to live. He’s conscious and breathing right now," Houston Police Department Lieutenant R. Willkens said. The incident unfolded Wednesday evening in Houston when the victim was walking to a local Shell gas station to make a few purchases, SBG San Antonio reported. The suspect in the case was...

Updating the nation on the White House response to COVID on Wednesday, President Biden said he has directed Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona to exercise full oversight authority and explore legal action against governors who attempt to prohibit school mask mandates by executive orders. “Some politicians are trying to turn public safety measures into political disputes for their own political gain,” Biden said, referencing Tennessee and other Republican states, which he alleged have used “intimidation and threats” against school boards. The president said he called a number of superintendents in Florida in solidarity, praising their mask rules for K-12 students...

More confusion is unraveling across the state as elected officials continue quarreling about their authority to impose mask mandates, all while trying to force old rules on citizens that didn’t work the first time. Power Fight The saga originally began last year, when Gov. Greg Abbott issued executive orders closing businesses and imposing mask mandates in response to the Chinese coronavirus. Then, in July, he issued an executive order that local officials are not allowed to mandate masks on citizens. Despite Abbott’s most recent order, local officials across Texas have started disregarding it and imposing their own local mask requirements....

The Texas Supreme Court ruled Tuesday evening that the state’s constitution allows the state House of Representatives to arrest absent members to force them to return to the chamber to conduct legislative business. The court’s decision is a win for House Republicans. It lifts a temporary restraining order a county judge issued last week blocking arrest warrants — signed by Republican House Speaker Dade Phelan — targeting dozens of House Democrats who fled the state to block Republicans from passing a restrictive voting bill. “The question now before this Court is not whether it is a good idea for the...

HOUSTON — Houston police are looking for tips in a case where they said a driver was surrounded by a group of men on ATVs and bikes and then shot to death. This happened on Friday night around 7:20 p.m. in the 9000 block of Westheimer Road near Fondren. According to investigators, the group of men on the ATVs, dirt bikes and bicycles surrounded the 48-year-old driver and even tried opening the driver's doors. Someone then pulled out a gun and fired shots at the driver as he tried to get away, police said. The driver, who was hit at...

AUGUST 15 ORDERS The Texas Supreme Court on Sunday granted stay orders against temporary retraining orders by courts of appeals in San Antonio and Dallas that allowed mask mandates despite the governor’s executive order prohibiting them. The courts granted the orders against Gov. Greg Abbott to bar enforcement of the executive order. A hearing on a temporary injunction in the Bexar County case, scheduled Monday, is not affected, nor is a hearing on a temporary injunction in the Dallas County case set August 24. Briefs in 21-0686 (Dallas County) Briefs in 21-0687 (Bexar County)

EXECUTIVE ORDER BY THE GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF TEXAS Executive Department Austin, Texas March 2, 2021 EXECUTIVE ORDER GA34 Relating to the opening of Texas in response to the COVID-19 disaster. WHEREAS, I, Greg Abbott, Governor of Texas, issued a disaster proclamation on March 13, 2020, certifying under Section 418.014 of the Texas Government Code that the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) poses an imminent threat of disaster for all counties in the State of Texas; and WHEREAS, in each subsequent month effective through today, I have renewed the disaster declaration for all Texas counties; and WHEREAS, I have issued executive...

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) conceded Sunday that Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) may be right about the unconstitutionality of former President Donald Trump’s upcoming impeachment trial. Murphy appeared on Fox News Sunday to discuss the upcoming impeachment trial scheduled to begin Tuesday. Murphy has said that he supports impeaching the president and disagrees with Paul’s argument, but said the Kentucky senator made a valid point. “I admit this is of course a matter of first impression and so I don’t think the case that Senator Paul is making is a ridiculous one,” Murphy said, according to Fox News. Dozens of Senate...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has rejected a plan to reconvene the Senate in an emergency session to hold trial over an impeachment article against President Trump in the House. McConnell press secretary Doug Andres confirmed a report that the Kentucky Republican would not sanction such a move on Wednesday. Without the emergency session, the Senate is due back in session on Jan. 19., so McConnell’s decision all but kills a Democrat-led effort to oust Trump from office before his term is up and President-elect Joe Biden is sworn in on Jan. 20. A trial over the impeachment article is...

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), a thorn in the side of President Trump for much of the last four years, has reportedly been asked by Joe Biden to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. “He is currently discussing the nomination with his family and is expected to accept the appointment,” The Buffalo Chronicle reported Saturday. “Biden advisors expect that Romney — a former management consultant by training and a former CEO of Bain Capital — will be tasked with making the national healthcare system more affordable without legislation that modifies the Affordable Care Act,” the Chronicle reported. “It’s unclear...

HARRIS COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) -- Harris County saw record-breaking voter turnout during the first three days of early voting, and this week exceeded registered voter turnout from previous elections. On the 12th and final day of early voting in 2016, only 43.7% of registered voters cast a ballot either by mail or in person. As of Thursday night, about 55% of registered voters in Harris County cast a ballot with just one more day of early voting left, according to the county's unofficial totals.

OPINIONS 20-0729 State of Texas v. Harris County Clerk Chris Hollins from Harris County and the 14th Court of Appeals ¶ For petitioner: Kyle D. Hawkins, Austin ¶ For respondent: Susan Hays, Austin REVERSED AND REMANDED, per curiam opinion: The issue is whether the Harris County clerk’s plans to send mail-in ballot applications to all county voters should be halted as illegal, beyond the clerk’s specified powers under the Texas Election Code, that will cause irreparable harm if not stopped. In this case the trial court denied the state’s request for a temporary injunction because it determined the Harris County...

The New York City subway system will stop running 24 hours a day in an unprecedented action designed to deter homeless people and to disinfect trains and stations amid hygiene fears during the new coronavirus pandemic. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who controls the subway, said Thursday the system’s 472 stations will close between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. The overnight closures are expected to begin May 6. During more than a century of operations, the subway system has shut down for days because of labor strikes, storms and blackouts. But this is the first time the system has ceased...

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is warning the general public that it is illegal to operate a drone with a dangerous weapon attached. Perhaps you’ve seen online photos and videos of drones with attached guns, bombs, fireworks, flamethrowers, and other dangerous items. Do not consider attaching any items such as these to a drone because operating a drone with such an item may result in significant harm to a person and to your bank account. Operating a drone that has a dangerous weapon attached to it is a violation of Section 363 of the 2018 FAA Reauthorization Act enacted Oct....

There are a lot of great political stories out there right now, so it’s easy to miss that the biggest one might be happening below the federal level. Nationally, what appears to be the blue Democratic tidal wave is arguably really a pink wave, with women voters, donors, and candidates driving much of the movement in favor of Democrats. We are seeing eye-popping gender gaps, with the Republican edge among men dwarfed by the Democratic advantage among women. In the mid-September NBC News/Wall Street Journal national poll, men narrowly favored Republicans in preference for control of the House, 47 to...

Students at a leading London university have been condemned as blind to reality after defending the system of Soviet Gulag labour camps where thousands perished as “compassionate” places of rehabilitation. Trans rights campaigners at Goldsmiths University described the Gulags as benign places where inmates received education, training and enjoyed the opportunity to take part in clubs, sports and theatre groups. In fact most historians agree they were a brutal network of labour camps used by Stalin’s Soviet dictatorship to incarcerate internal opponents and so-called "enemies of the state", resulting in the death of more than an estimated 1.05 million people....

Growing concerns about a possible nuclear war and other global threats have pushed forward the symbolic Doomsday Clock by 30 seconds - to just two minutes before midnight. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BAS) said it had acted because the world was becoming "more dangerous". The clock, created by the journal in 1947, is a metaphor for how close the mankind is to destroying the Earth. It is now the closest to the apocalypse it has been since 1953. That was the year when the US and the Soviet Union tested hydrogen bombs. Last year, the clock was also...

SPRING, Texas (KTRK) -- Walking with a limp from an injury suffered in a prison fight, Khari Ty Kendrick had one thing to say. "I'm sorry this happened," Kendrick said as he was led to a patrol vehicle. Sources told Eyewitness News the 23-year-old is the one, when interviewed, who confessed to killing Jenny and Bao Lam, both 61, last week. Erick Alfredo Peralta, a 20-year-old who was arrested along with Kendrick, answered ABC13 with a question. "Do I look like a killer?" Peralta asked. Aakiel Ricardo Kendrick, 21 and Khari's younger half-brother, was the most-recognized after security video was...

The House of Representatives will vote on national gun-carry reciprocity and gun background check fix bills this week. The Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017 and the Fix NICS Act will be combined and likely voted on Wednesday, a GOP aide told the Washington Free Beacon Monday. "It is my understanding they may be combined," the aide said. "Rules is meeting at 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday. They have both. Floor vote should be Wednesday." The House Committee on Rules website shows the texts of the two bills combined as well as an amendment filed by Rep. Dina Titus (D., Nev.)...