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Texas is one of only two states with a bifurcated court system: After going through intermediate appellate review, criminal matters are routed to the Court of Criminal Appeals while civil matters are routed to the Texas Supreme Court. It’s unique. But so is Texas! A few weeks ago, the CCA handed down an 8-to-1 decision in State v. Stephens declaring unconstitutional a statute giving the Texas Attorney General authority to “prosecute a criminal offense prescribed by the election laws of this state.” That statute—section 273.021 of the Texas Election Code—which has been around for several decades— has allowed Texas Attorneys...

And you can buy it with cryptocurrency. The Enigma, a 555.55-carat black diamond is currently being exhibited in the United Arab Emirates and will soon be up for bidding, the auction house Sotheby's said in its listing. According to the details provided by Sotheby's, the diamond is the largest black diamond in the world and was listed as the largest cut diamond by the Guinness Book of Records in 2006. Black diamonds, also called carbonado, are extremely rare and are found in Brazil and Central America, Time reported. Researchers are still figuring out what makes these diamonds so tough at...

Employees at Starbucks are no longer required to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Roughly a week after the Supreme Court reversed President's Biden workplace vaccine mandate, the coffee chain is following suit, according to The Associated Press. "We respect the Court’s ruling and will comply," Starbucks Chief Operating Officer John Culver wrote in a memo to employees.

After my last few blog posts people have been messaging me and asking why I am criticizing alt-tech phonies like Gettr, Rumble, and Parler when I should instead be focused on the common enemy of Big Tech. These people don’t realize that by calling out these fakers, I am indeed focused on Big Tech because they are nothing more than subversive subsidiaries of Big Tech itself. These platforms are literally all built on Big Tech infrastructure, they all have Big Tech “hate speech” rules, and they are all distributed on Big Tech app stores with Big Tech trackers hidden in...

SECOND WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME MARK 3:1-6 Friends, today’s Gospel shows an angry Jesus healing a man with a withered hand. Whenever the Bible speaks of the divine anger, which it does a lot, it is talking poetically about God’s passion to set things right. God doesn’t go in and out of emotional states. He doesn’t fall into snits. He longs to establish justice on the earth and stands athwart those forces opposed to his purpose. This is precisely what Jesus does toward the Pharisees in today’s Gospel. The episode concerns the idea of justice. Now, what is justice? I...

The Transportation Security Administration revealed that unlawful immigrants who are unable to obtain proper identification are being allowed to pass through security using an arrest warrant to prove their identity. Rep. Lance Gooden, R-Texas, had sent a letter to TSA after a whistleblower claimed the agency was allowing 'unknown migrants' to board commercial airlines in the U.S. TSA Administrator David Pekoske responded explaining that certain Department of Homeland Security (DHS) documents may be considered acceptable alternate forms of identification, including a 'Warrant for Arrest of Alien' and a 'Warrant of Removal/Deportation.' Other acceptable forms include an Order of Release on...

Nazarbayev acknowledges Tokayev’s triumph.On January 18, Kazakhstan’s first president Nursultan Nazarbayev interrupted his prolonged silence and recorded an address to the nation in which he assessed the recent upheaval in Kazakhstan and, more importantly, attempted to refute rumors that it was caused by a split and disagreements in the country’s political elite. He reiterated that President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has full authority, is the head of the Security Council and will soon be elected chairman of the Nur Otan ruling party. "So, there’s no conflict or standoff among the elite. The rumors on this subject are absolutely groundless," Kazakhstan’s first president...

For the last 20 years, North Korea has ranked No. 1. This year, a new country has taken the No. 1 position as the world's worst enemy of faith.

Starbucks has decided to reverse its COVID-19 vaccine mandate on U.S. workers in response to the Supreme Court's ruling on the Biden administration's mandate. Starbucks on January 3 announced its mandate, which would have required employees to be vaccinated against the virus by February 9 or to test weekly, the Associated Press reported. But in a Tuesday memo sent to the coffee chain's 228,000 U.S. employees, Starbucks Chief Operating Officer John Culver said the company would change its policy due to the Supreme Court's decision to strike down President Joe Biden's mandate requiring vaccines or weekly testing for businesses with...

I just got word of the death of Arnold, a (black) high school classmate of many decades ago. For some reason, my memories of him also brings up memories of another black classmate, Bryant. Arnold had a huge personality that found pleasure and humor no matter the circumstances. He was the type of person that would approach a stranger, struck up a conversation and walk away with an instant friend. I was shocked that he remembered a conversation we had many, many decades ago. Life was hard on him, in a recent photo, he looked decades older than his age....

Mandates Are About Political Control, Not HealthFor two years, the political class’s ineptitude has been on full display. School shutdowns, business closures, and endless mask mandates have all proven relatively ineffective at stemming the spread of COVID-19 (never mind reducing hospitalizations and deaths), yet politicians continued instituting these harmful and useless measures in a desperate attempt to be perceived as doing something.But over the past month or so, it has become inescapable that sheer incompetence and ignorance can no longer be the sole explanation for two years of bungled policies. Rather, the craven mindset of many of our leaders in...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris will travel to Honduras next week to attend the inauguration of President-elect Xiomara Castro, the Central American country’s first female president. Castro, the leftist opposition party candidate, won out over the country’s ruling party in November. She will be inaugurated Jan. 27. She is the former first lady and her husband, José Manuel Zelaya was ousted by the army in a coup in 2009. She rode a wave of popular discontent with 12 years of National Party governance, which peaked in former President Juan Orlando Hernández’s second term.

Thieves have been raiding cargo containers aboard trains nearing downtown Los Angeles for months, taking packages belonging to people across the U.S. and leaving the tracks blanketed with discarded boxes. The packages are from retailers including Amazon, REI and others, CBSLA reported Thursday. The sea of debris left behind includes items that the thieves apparently didn’t think were valuable enough to take. While CBSLA cameras were on the scene, one person was spotted running off with a container used to hold small packages, and a Union Pacific railroad police officer was spotted pursuing two other people who were apparently going...

Massive Federal stimulus (both fiscal and monetary) have led to bidding wars among the wealthiest Americans. Despite clamoring for The Fed to increase rates and speed-up the shrinking of The Fed’s balance sheet, nothing has happened … yet. (Bloomberg) — Home buyers willing to spend almost a $1 million are competing the most for a piece of the red-hot U.S. housing market. Homes priced between $800,000 and $1 million saw the highest rate of bidding wars at 64.6%, followed by 62% for homes between $1 million to $1.5 million and 61.7% for homes above $1.5 million, according to December data...

Sir Tim Clark, president of Emirates, appeared on Bloomberg Wednesday to blame the shambolic situation on the Biden administration which green-lit the 5G rollout without addressing the safety fears of the aviation industry first. 'I need to be as candid as I normally am and say this is one of the most delinquent, utterly irresponsible issue subjects, call it what you like, I've seen in my aviation career because it involves organs of government, manufacturers, science, etc. The notion that, for instance, the U.S. government should sell its franchise for all the frequencies for a large amount of money, somebody...

The Washington, D.C. Department of Health announced that "beginning January 15, any person wanting to enter any indoor space—including government buildings, restaurants, bars, theaters, gyms, and hotels—in the Capital must show a photo ID and proof of having been vaccinated for covid. Mayor Muriel Bowser said "the convergence of major public health menaces—the emergence of the Omicron variant of covid and the arrival of two major disease vectors—the Annual March for Life on January 21 and the Defeat the Mandates March on January 23—are the reason for this new decree." "While we can't legally bar the hundreds of thousands of...

As it turns out, one man’s bodily reaction to COVID has proven that the virus truly isn’t confined to the throat and upper respiratory tract. According to a foreign medical journal, an Iranian man has drawn the interest of doctors after reporting “agonizing” pain in his penis that turned out to have been caused by blood clots that seriously threatened the man’s sexual health.The man, who wasn’t named in the news reports about the incident, had suffered penile pain for three days before being seen by a urologist in Iran, who referred him for tests. Keep in mind: one of...

Radio personality Howard Stern said Wednesday on his Sirius XM show “The Howard Stern Show” that the unvaccinated who get infected with COVID-19 would be refused service from hospitals. Stern said, “If it was up to me, anyone unvaccinated would not be admitted to a hospital. At this point, they have been given plenty of opportunity to get the vaccine.” [cut] Stern said, “They have been told you will die if you get the vaccine. Some of you will live, but most of you will die. They don’t trust our government. They think that there’s some conspiracy to turn them...

(CNN) On the eve of his one-year anniversary in office, President Joe Biden finds himself at the lowest polling point of his tenure -- a worrisome omen for Democrats desperately trying to hold onto their House and Senate majorities this fall. That's according to new poll numbers from Gallup that peg Biden's approval at just 40% with 56% disapproving. It's the lowest measure so far by Gallup and well below his 48.9% polling average over the past year in the organization's surveys. At this one-year mark, that average is about where Bill Clinton was and ten points better than Donald...

I'm hoping to sell my house by springtime (I need a bigger one for my wife and kids) and would like my bathroom redone. Needs some drywall work, new bathroom tub and shower surround, etc. I had a really hard time finding contractors and I got two bids. I can pick out the items from Home Depot I want him to install. Nothing fancy or complicated. is it expected for me to buy the items I want him to install? Or does he do that as part of the cost of the job?