Last week the House Committee on Homeland Security & Public Safety heard several bills that would allow guns in college campus buildings and in K-12 schools.
The hearing lasted over five hours, with plenty of testimony from both sides of the gun violence prevention debate. Many familiar activists from the last two sessions who prevented the legislation passing reappeared in full force. The committee ended with all bills left pending, with no action made to date.
You can follow some of the top tweets from the hearing below the jump:
El Paso, is one of the cities in Texas greatly threatened by the sequester cuts because of its heavy reliance on military services and international trade. Fort Bliss and trade with Mexico have long driven its local economy.
The El Paso Times hammered down on what the sequester cuts mean to the city:
Our predicament is that a large part of the $85 billion in spending cuts is aimed at the military and border agencies. Fort Bliss is one of the nation's largest. military installations. There are 11,000 civilian employees at Fort Bliss who may have to docked in pay by 20 percen by April 22.
El Paso is also home to virtually every branch of federal law enforcement. Three deal largely in border issues: [Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Border Patrol and the Office of Field Operations] employ some 6,000 area residents. If the congressional impasse continues, those agencies plan up to two weeks of furloughs for all employees."
While El Paso's congressmen Beto O'Rourke and Pete Gallego have shown urgency to move forward to address sequestration, our Senators have been dismissive of what the impacts of the sequester mean to the Sun City:
"Texas Republican U.S. Sen. John Cornyn said such fears are overblown. Cornyn said the automatic $85 billion in spending cuts represents only a 2 percent reduction in the overall federal budget. It appears Cornyn is speaking more about overall effects to the nation and to the parts of Texas that are not home to the military and are border cities."
El Paso's congressional representatives, unlike our Senators, understand what is on the line. Both O'Rourke and Gallego have boldly spoken on how the sequester impacts benefits for veterans and military employees. What we have seen time and time again is that John Cornyn and Ted Cruz are only interested in using their positions to make noise, not to face the practical reality facing Texans. As the sequester persists, El Pasoans and other people living on the border will be forced to bear with these with these results until the GOP decides that all of our residents matter.
Yesterday's Save Texas Schools rally drew thousands around the state to the south steps of the Capitol geared with signs and firm warnings to the state legislature if they refuse to fund education this session.
Several Democratic lawmakers and activists were at the event. Speakers at the rally included former Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott denounced the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or STAAR.
You can follow some of the best tweets and pictures from the event below the jump!
Senator Ted Cruz has been very busy this week, wasting as much time as humanly possible in the US Senate. We've seen him shamelessly file to "repeal Obamacare" (Because real bills are soooo boring.), accuse two army veterans of not supporting our military, and said diverting funds from our public schools was "the civil rights issue of our time." And we all know that John Cornyn is ready to follow Ted Cruz no matter what as long as it means remaining safe in 2014.
So follow the jump and check out some of the top Texas Tweets of the Week on our nutty junior Senator!
Yesterday, Planned Parenthood hosted a Tweet chat with two of Texas Legislature's most ardent advocates for reproductive equity, Representative Donna Howard and Senator Leticia Van de Putte, about women's health care in Texas.
The chat was an opportunity to discuss what we can do to better advocate for sane solutions in response to the lack of adequate preventative care services for the women in our state.
Unfortunately, it clearly became an opportunity for fundamental anti-choicers to flood the hashtag stream with crazy talk about embryos that wasn't related to what was being discussed. Think "your birth control will cause your womb to be laden with baby corpses" kind of crazy. However, it benefitted the advocates involved to be able to contrast rational conversation from the oh-so-definitely-not rational.
The legislators did an excellent job with addressing the real issues at hand, and getting information out about the need for family planning in Texas.
Yesterday's Tweet chat reinforced that the lack of education about reproductive health in Texas is clearer than ever, which means we need to work that much harder to make the real issues apparent.
You can follow some of the top tweets after the jump!
This is BOR's Video of the Day, or VOTD, our nightly video clip segment highlighting must-see content. If you like today's video and want more people to see it, share it on Twitter and Facebook!
Today's video shows what the first one hundred days of a Romney presidency would look like. The video includes (but isn't limited to) tax increases on the middle class, jobs being sent overseas, and the overturning of Roe v. Wade. If that doesn't sound frightening enough, watch below:
It's one day out-- you only have until tomorrow to vote in order to keep our country on the right track!
Check out all of our BOR videos of the day on the VOTD tag.
This is BOR's Video of the Day, or VOTD, our nightly video clip segment highlighting must-see content. If you like today's video and want more people to see it, share it on Twitter and Facebook!
If you've been dying to know which party is sweeping the sleazy guy vote, look no further! Today's video points out that sleazy guys around America will be voting full-force with the GOP to further disenfranchise women.
Watch below:
Early voting ends tomorrow-- get out to make sure the sleazy guys don't win!
Check out all of our BOR videos of the day on the VOTD tag.
This is BOR's Video of the Day, or VOTD, our nightly video clip segment highlighting must-see content. If you like today's video and want more people to see it, share it on Twitter and Facebook!
We all know the scariest thing this Halloween is the idea of Mitt Romney as President-- but today's video goes even further to describe the potential result of a Romney presidency: a zombie apocalypse. Enjoy!
Watch below:
Happy Halloween everyone!
Check out all of our BOR videos of the day on the VOTD tag.
This is BOR's Video of the Day, or VOTD, our nightly video clip segment highlighting must-see content. If you like today's video and want more people to see it, share it on Twitter and Facebook!
In the most recent ad released by the Paul Sadler campaign, the Democratic nominee for Senate touts his honorable record as reason he should be sent to Washington, DC. The ad highlights Sadler's many honors from various communities during his time as a legislator, his endorsements from top statewide publications, and the candidate's long record of bipartisanship.
Watch below:
Paul Sadler represents the kind of leadership that should be seen from our state on the national stage. The endorsements Sadler has received shows that this race is closer than you think. Make sure you vote before early voting ends this Friday!
Check out all of our BOR videos of the day on the VOTD tag.
This is BOR's Video of the Day, or VOTD, our nightly video clip segment highlighting must-see content. If you like today's video and want more people to see it, share it on Twitter and Facebook!
In today's video, Senator Wendy Davis discusses the importance of early voting and casts her ballot at the Southwest Sub-Courthouse in Fort Worth. Senator Davis is one of many Democratic leaders this election season who is emphasizing the importance of voting early.
