Texas

>A US appeals court ruled that the Federal Communications Commission's Universal Service Fund is unconstitutional, finding Universal Service fees on phone bills to be a "misbegotten tax." If not overturned, the ruling would upend the $8 billion-a-year system that is used to expand telecom networks and make access more affordable through programs such as Lifeline discounts and deployment grants for Internet service providers. > >But the FCC program could survive in the end as the case appears ripe for Supreme Court review, with yesterday's ruling creating a circuit split. The ruling against the FCC was issued by the US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, which is generally considered one of the most conservative appeals courts. > >The FCC previously prevailed in the 6th and 11th circuit appeals courts, which both rejected claims that the Universal Service Fund is unconstitutional. All three cases against the FCC were filed by Consumers' Research, a nonprofit that fights "woke corporations," and a mobile virtual network operator called Cause Based Commerce, which offers wireless service to "values-based consumers who want alternatives to the many companies and providers that support causes and positions contrary to their beliefs."

Everyone's favorite, Texas-based, Conservative rubber stamp strikes again. This may be a federal court, but don't forget that these people represent Texas every time they issue a bad ruling.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/22721459

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/22721947

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/17908943

> The law enforcement officer spent months methodically gathering evidence. He leafed through thousands of pages and highlighted key passages amid reams and reams of paper. He wore his body camera to record his interactions with witnesses and suspects. And he photographed what he saw as instruments of the alleged crime: > > Books. > > The targets of the investigation? Three school librarians in Granbury, Texas. The allegation? They had allowed children to access literature — such as “The Bluest Eye,” by Toni Morrison — that the officer, Scott London, a chief deputy constable, had deemed obscene. > > In an extraordinary look into the ramifications of the right-wing backlash against books dealing with racism, gender, sex and sexuality, an 824-page investigative file obtained by NBC News and NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth shows how, for two years, London vigorously pursued felony charges against librarians in the Granbury Independent School District. > > London secured subpoenas, filed public records requests, received names of students who’d checked out certain books and, after a year, wrote draft criminal complaints. > > Those charges — distributing harmful material to a minor — were never filed. The investigation came to an end in June after Hood County District Attorney Ryan Sinclair turned down London’s request to indict the librarians, citing a lack of conclusive evidence to charge them with felonies.Sinclair declined to be interviewed and did not respond to written questions. London, who has ties to the anti-government constitutional sheriff’s movement and tried to launch a local chapter of the far-right Oath Keepers militia in 2020, did not respond to questions. > > ...

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/22560387

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/11789756

> Cross posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/11789755

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/17583278

> Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20240715124633/https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/texas-senate-sexual-harassment/

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/17395041

> Lawyers for Donald Trump’s former faith advisor Robert Morris accused a 12-year-old girl of initiating “inappropriate” sexual conduct with the ex-Dallas megachurch  pastor, new documents have revealed. > > Morris resigned in June after admitting to the incident. His accuser Cindy Clemishire previously claimed that the pastor had begun abusing her on Christmas Day in 1982. > > Clemishire, now 52, said that Morris and his wife had been staying at her family home at the time when he asked her to come into his room, whereafter he told her to lay on his bed and then began touching her inappropriately. > > She said the abuse had continued until 1987 when she told her parents. > > However, 25 years after the incident, a lawyer for Morris – J Shelby Sharpe – claimed that it was the child who was actually to blame.

>Texas is receiving federal aid for Hurricane Beryl later than needed because state leaders were slow to request an official disaster declaration from the White House, President Joe Biden told the Houston Chronicle Tuesday.

>With Gov. Greg Abbott out of the country on an economic development trip in Asia, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has served as acting governor amid the storm, making him responsible for putting in the state’s request for aid.

>A White House spokesperson told the Chronicle that officials had tried multiple times to reach Abbott and Patrick, and Biden said he only connected with Patrick Tuesday, after which he issued the disaster declaration. Beryl came ashore on Texas' Gulf Coast early Monday morning, bringing heavy rain and winds that wreaked havoc over Houston and other parts of southeast Texas.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/24651024

> A West Texas pastor who used his parish’s resources to campaign for office and several pastors from other churches who donated to him were fined after the state’s ethics commission determined that each violated election law. > > The fines, some of which were issued last month, are the latest sanction from the commission following reporting from ProPublica and The Texas Tribune, which revealed that three churches donated to the campaign of Scott Beard, founding pastor at Fountaingate Fellowship church, despite state and federal prohibitions on such activity. > > Beard, who was fined $3,500, showed a “lack of good faith” in accepting the donations and in posting campaign signs on church property for his unsuccessful Abilene City Council race despite the commission’s warnings against doing so, it found. > > “Because the respondent committed extensive corporate contribution violations in defiance of the applicable law, a substantial penalty is required,” the commission wrote about Beard. He did not respond to a request for comment.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/17367256

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/17335752

We lost power around 4:30 A.M. and have one fence panel down but are holding on okay otherwise.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/17319988

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/17268020

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/17199492

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/17235221

>Amarillo residents will vote on a so-called abortion travel ban in November, one of the few times Texas voters will have a say on abortion since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022.

>Supporters of the measure, who gathered 6,300 verified signatures to petition for approval of the ordinance, submitted their request to city officials to have it placed on the Nov. 5 ballot after the Amarillo City Council rejected it last month, per local rules.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/17018450

Welcome to Texas.

https://www.kut.org/health/2024-06-27/ascension-will-stop-offering-health-insurance-plans-in-texas

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/16956532

> Conservative activists, led by a local pastor and outspoken Israel advocate, pushed the district, Mission CISD, to excise books mostly about gender, sexuality and race. Their demands represented an extreme version of a nationwide culture war over books that has played out in recent years — and ensnared a number of books with Jewish themes. > > In Mission, the long list of books on the chopping block includes a recent illustrated adaptation of Anne Frank’s diary; both volumes of Art Spiegelman’s Holocaust graphic memoir “Maus”; “The Fixer,” Bernard Malamud’s novel about a historical instance of antisemitic blood libel; and “Kasher in the Rye,” a ribald memoir by Jewish comedian Moshe Kasher.