# The Barbed Wire > Texas News with Teeth Public Ghost content for AI and LLM tooling. This file includes a bounded export of public pages first, then recent public posts. Append `.md` to any post or page URL to get the content in Markdown (for example, `/example-post.md`). ## Pages ### About Us URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/about/ Last updated: 2026-08-04T01:33:12.000Z Howdy, reader. Thanks for spending time with *The Barbed Wire,* where we bring you independent Texas journalism. We hope to make you laugh, tell your stories, shine a light on parts of Texas you've never seen, and entertain you — whether you're scrolling our Instagram, watching on TikTok, enjoying one of our excellent newsletters, or reading right here on the site. When you subscribe, you'll stay in the loop with the latest from our newsletters. When you become a member with a paid subscription, you'll get some great merch, invites to events across the state, and exclusive access to our reporting team. *Thank you!* *The Barbed Wire* is a public benefit corporation and is fiscally sponsored by the [Lenfest Institute](https://www.lenfestinstitute.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a leader in non-profit journalism. --- Subscribe to the Wild Texas Newsletter Texas is one big, wild place. Our weekly round up keeps you in the know. All killer, no filler. It's Texas news worth your time. Subscribe Check your inbox and click the link to confirm. Something went wrong. Try again. ## Our Work The majesty, absurdity, diversity, and ferocity of Texas is in everything we do — from headline-worthy scoops and cultural analysis to in-depth reporting and investigations. Our editorial outlook is ideologically progressive, and our journalism is nonpartisan. At *The Barbed Wire*, we have assembled a team of spectacular contributors who treat all political parties and all candidates as fair targets of thoughtful reporting — and as joke fodder for our merch store. We won’t be engaging in both-sidesism or providing a platform for unscientific, inaccurate information. We’ll be fact-first, thoughtful, and intentional about how we approach our coverage. We’re going to respect your attention by earning your trust with honesty and plain language. If water is falling from the sky, we’ll call it rain. If a law has disenfranchised people based on the color of their skin, we’ll call that racist. We’ll write headlines that are spicy and hopefully funny, but aren’t clickbait. With the help of our readers and funders — a mix of private investors, nonprofit grantors, and you, our individual members and supporters — *The Barbed Wire* celebrates Texas culture in all its wonderful weirdness. In addition, we're grateful to receive support from Kind Clinic & Texas Health Action, and the ACLU of Texas. --- ## Team ![David Cohen](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/07/david-cohen.png) **David Cohen** is the founder and CEO of *The Barbed Wire*. Before journalism, he spent two decades in national politics — including Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign — and as founder of Forward Majority, a national organization focused on state legislative races. ![Mario Leal](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/07/mario-leal.png) **Mario Leal** is The Barbed Wire's news director and the founding anchor of the Barbed Wire News Brief. He is a Texas native, and an Emmy and Murrow Award-winning journalist, specializing in bilingual, Texas-native reporting. ![Brian Gaar](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/07/brian-gaar.png) **Brian Gaar** is a founding member of *The Barbed Wire* and writes the Wild Texas newsletter. A longtime Texas journalist, he has written for the Austin American-Statesman, the Waco Tribune-Herald, Texas Monthly, and more, and was a writer and producer at Rooster Teeth. ![Elizabeth Spiers](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/07/elizabeth-spiers.png) **Elizabeth Spiers** advises and edits *The Barbed Wire*. She is a *New York Times* contributor, an NYU journalism professor, and a media entrepreneur — the founding editor of Gawker and former editor-in-chief of the New York Observer. ![Brian Sweany](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/07/brian-sweany.png) **Brian Sweany** advises *The Barbed Wire* on editorial, business and strategy. He is former editor-in-chief of *Texas Monthly*, where he was on staff for 18 years. A native Texan who was born on Texas Independence Day, he began his career in journalism as an intern at the magazine in 1996. And The Barbed Wire is bigger than any masthead — see everyone who has written for us on our [Contributors page](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/contributors/). --- ## Standards Journalism is a set of choices — who to talk to, what to publish, whose money to take, what to do when you get it wrong. These are ours, written down, so you can hold us to them. ### Style Our style guide is a mix of Associated Press and preferences we’ve accumulated working in previous newsrooms, with influences from [Language, Please](https://languageplease.org/style-guide/?ref=thebarbedwire.com); the [Trans Journalists Association Stylebook and Coverage Guide](https://transjournalists.org/style-guide/?ref=thebarbedwire.com); the [Disability Language Style Guide](https://ncdj.org/style-guide/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) from the National Center on Disability and Journalism; [The Diversity Style Guide](https://www.diversitystyleguide.com/,?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a project by the Center for Integration and Improvement of Journalism; the [Reporting and Indigenous Terminology Guide](https://najanewsroom.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/NAJA%5FReporting%5Fand%5FIndigenous%5FTerminology%5FGuide.pdf?ref=thebarbedwire.com) from the Native American Journalists Association; the National Association of Hispanic Journalists’ [Cultural Competence Handbook](https://nahj.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/NAHJ-Cultural-Competence-Handbook.pdf?ref=thebarbedwire.com); the [National Association of Black Journalists Style Guide](https://nabjonline.org/news-media-center/styleguide/?ref=thebarbedwire.com); the [BuzzFeed Style Guide](https://www.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeednews/buzzfeed-style-guide?ref=thebarbedwire.com) (RIP); and the [Dart Center Style Guide for Trauma-Informed Journalism](https://dartcenter.org/resources/dart-center-style-guide?ref=thebarbedwire.com). ### Anonymous Sources We grant anonymity only when a source faces real, demonstrable risk to their job or their safety, and only when the story serves the public interest. When we do, our editors verify the source's identity every way we can — corroborating interviews, social media, public records. Even then, a single anonymous source is almost never enough to publish on. ### Attribution When we cite or quote other reporting, we link to the original and name the outlet wherever we can. We don't plagiarize and we don't fabricate. If anyone here does, we treat it as the firing offense it is. ### Conflicts of Interest Reporters and editors disclose their conflicts to us — past employers, personal relationships, anything that could give a reader pause. When it's relevant to a story, we tell you, in the text or in an editor's note. ### Editorial Independence & Advertisers Nobody who gives us money gets a say in our journalism. Not advertisers, not the foundations that fund us, not our investors. They don't pick our stories, they don't read them before you do, and they don't get to ask for changes. There's one exception, and we label it. Sometimes an advertiser pays us to publish a piece about their own work. When that happens, you'll see a **Sponsored** tag above the headline — on the story and everywhere it shows up on the site — plus a note at the top telling you who paid for it and whether they read it before it ran. We call it paid content, because that's what it is. Kind Clinic and Texas Health Action also **underwrite** Big & Bright, our queer Texas newsletter. That means they pay for the coverage to exist. It doesn't mean they pick the stories, read them early, or have any say in what's in them. That's the whole arrangement. No advertiser has a say in a story that's about them, their competitors, or the laws and policies affecting them. Not paid, not unpaid, not ever. ### How We're Funded Friends and family, foundations, underwriting, and members. Members are the point — everything else is how we get there. ### Reporting Practices At rallies, protests, and public forums, we watch and record without announcing ourselves. That's standard. But when we talk to you directly, we tell you we work for The Barbed Wire — when we're asking questions, when we want to use something you've made, and when you're the one asking the questions. If a person or an organization is the focus of our reporting, we contact them before we publish and give them a real chance to respond. That holds even when the story is about something they posted online. Our journalists are on the internet, and they have opinions. Those opinions are theirs. ### Corrections We correct our mistakes, fast, and we tell you what happened. Small errors get an editor's note at the bottom of the story. Big ones get it at the top. The principle: disclose as much as possible, as often as possible. We take stories down only in extreme circumstances — a significant factual failure, a legal or ethical violation, a threat to someone's safety. When we do, our editors make the call and we explain it to you. ### Warnings We warn readers, and point them to help, before coverage of suicide, severe mental illness, violence, threats, and disasters both natural and man-made. --- ### Love, Texas URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/love-texas/ Last updated: 2025-02-13T06:01:00.000Z _No content available._ ### Newsletters URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/newsletters/ Last updated: 2026-08-21T00:32:54.000Z # Newsletters ![The Barbed Wire — Newsletters](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/07/Newsletters-Header.jpg) Three newsletters, one mission. Pick what fits, drop your email, and we'll land in your inbox. No spam, no filler, no selling your address to anybody. The Flagship · Weekly ## Wild Texas Texas is one big, wild place. Our biweekly roundup keeps you in the know. All killer, no filler. It's Texas news worth your time. Sign me up Check your inbox and click the link to confirm. Something went wrong. Try again. Sent every week by Brian Gaar. Queer Texas · Opt-in ## Big & Bright Queer Texas in all its glory — the fight, the joy, and the community politicians wish you couldn't see. Count me in Check your inbox and click the link to confirm. Something went wrong. Try again. Opt-in only. You ask for it, you get it. 60 Seconds · As It Breaks ## BW News Brief Texas, cut to the bone. We send the day's need-to-know story and breaking news straight to your inbox — one alert at a time, called like it is. Get the Brief Check your inbox and click the link to confirm. Something went wrong. Try again. Opt-in only. The day's top story and breaking news. ## Recent Issues Wild Texas Loading recent issues… Big & Bright Loading recent issues… The Barbed Wire dinkus A single strand of twisted barbed wire with three evenly spaced barbs, in burnt orange. ### Privacy Policy URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/privacy-policy/ Last updated: 2026-06-26T02:32:35.000Z **Date of Last Revision: July 1, 2026** Howdy, reader. Thank you for joining us in our corner of the Texas internet. Barbed Wire Media, A Public Benefit Corporation, doing business as The Barbed Wire (“The Barbed Wire,” “we,” “us,” or “our”), is committed to protecting your privacy and to being transparent about how we handle your personal information. This Privacy Policy explains what personal information we collect, how we use it, how we share it, and the choices and rights you have. --- # **1\. Scope** This Privacy Policy applies to personal information we process about visitors, readers, subscribers, members, and others who interact with us, including through our website at **thebarbedwire.com** and our related newsletters, applications, and offerings (collectively, the “Services”). By using our Services, you agree to the practices described in this Privacy Policy. # **2\. Personal Information We Collect** The categories of personal information we collect depend on how you interact with us and on applicable law. We collect information you provide directly, information collected automatically when you use the Services, and, in limited cases, information from other sources. ## **A. Information You Provide to Us Directly** - **Accounts, subscriptions, and memberships.** When you create an account, subscribe to a newsletter, or become a paying member, we collect information such as your name, email address, and (for paid memberships) billing details. - **Payments.** Payments for memberships and subscriptions are processed by Stripe, and payments for merchandise are processed by Fourthwall. We do not collect or store full payment card numbers; those are handled directly by our payment processors. See “How We Share Your Information” below. - **Your communications with us.** When you contact us, respond to a survey, apply for a job, or otherwise communicate with us, we collect the information you choose to share, such as your name, email address, and the contents of your message. - **Comments and public contributions.** If you submit a comment or use a public or social feature of the Services, the information you choose to make public will be treated as public and is not subject to the protections of this Privacy Policy. - **Job applications.** If you apply for a posted role, we collect the information in your application, résumé, and any cover letter to evaluate your candidacy. ## **B. Information Collected Automatically** When you use our Services, we and our service providers may automatically collect limited technical information, such as your IP address, browser and device type, referring and exit pages, and general usage information. We use this information to operate, secure, and improve the Services. **Cookies and similar technologies.** We use a small number of cookies and similar technologies that are necessary to operate the Services (for example, to keep you signed in and to remember your preferences) and to understand site performance through privacy-focused analytics. We do not use cookies or tracking technologies to build advertising profiles or to serve interest-based advertising. **Analytics.** We use The Barbed Wire’s built-in, privacy-focused website analytics (provided through our publishing platform, Ghost) to understand how our Services are used in the aggregate. We may add or change privacy-focused analytics providers over time and will update this Policy accordingly. ## **C. Information From Other Sources** We may receive limited information about you from service providers that help us operate the Services (for example, our payment processors confirming a transaction) or from publicly available sources. We do not purchase personal information for advertising or profiling. # **3\. How We Use Your Information** We use personal information for the following purposes: - To provide, maintain, and improve the Services, including managing your account, subscription, or membership. - To deliver newsletters, alerts, and other communications you have requested, and to send service and transactional messages (such as receipts and policy updates). - To process payments through our payment processors. - To respond to your inquiries and provide customer support. - To evaluate job applications. - To maintain the security and integrity of the Services, prevent fraud and abuse, and debug and fix problems. - To understand, in the aggregate, how our Services are used. - To comply with our legal obligations and enforce our terms and policies. - For any other purpose disclosed to you at the time we collect the information or with your consent. # **4\. How We Share Your Information** **We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioral or targeted advertising.** We share personal information only in the limited circumstances described below. - **Service providers.** We share personal information with vendors that perform services on our behalf and are permitted to use it only to provide those services to us. These include our publishing and email platform (Ghost), our payment processor for memberships and subscriptions (Stripe), and our merchandise provider (Fourthwall), as well as providers of hosting, security, and similar infrastructure. - **Legal and safety.** We may disclose information when we believe in good faith that doing so is necessary to comply with applicable law or legal process, to enforce our agreements and policies, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of The Barbed Wire, our users, or others. - **Business transfers.** If The Barbed Wire is involved in a merger, acquisition, financing, reorganization, bankruptcy, or sale of all or part of its assets, personal information may be transferred as part of that transaction. We will require that any successor honor the commitments in this Privacy Policy or provide notice and choice as required by law. # **5\. Your Privacy Choices and Rights** ## **A. Communication Choices** **Email.** You can unsubscribe from marketing or newsletter emails at any time using the unsubscribe link in those messages. You may still receive non-promotional, service-related messages (such as receipts and notices about changes to our Services or policies). **Opt-out preference signals.** Some browsers and extensions let you broadcast an opt-out preference signal, such as Global Privacy Control (GPC). Where required by applicable law, we honor a recognized opt-out preference signal as a valid request to opt out of any sale or sharing of personal information for that browser or device. (As noted above, we do not sell or share personal information for targeted advertising.) ## **B. Your Rights** Depending on where you live and subject to applicable law, you may have some or all of the following rights regarding your personal information: - **Right to confirm and access.** To confirm whether we process your personal information and to obtain a copy of it. - **Right to correct.** To correct inaccuracies in your personal information. - **Right to delete.** To request deletion of personal information we have collected from you. - **Right to data portability.** To obtain a copy of your personal information in a portable, readily usable format, where technically feasible. - **Right to opt out.** To opt out of the sale of personal information, sharing for targeted advertising, and certain profiling. As described above, we do not engage in these activities. - **Right against discrimination.** We will not discriminate or retaliate against you for exercising any of these rights. ## **C. How to Exercise Your Rights** To submit a request, email us at **support@thebarbedwire.com** with the nature of your request. We will take reasonable steps to verify your identity before responding, and we may ask for information sufficient to confirm that you are the person to whom the data relates. You may use an authorized agent to submit a request where permitted by law. There is no charge for a first request within a given period. We will respond within the time required by applicable law — generally within 45 days — and may extend that period where the law permits, with notice to you. ## **D. Appeals (Texas and Certain Other States)** If we decline to take action on your request, you may appeal our decision by replying to our response or by emailing **support@thebarbedwire.com** with the subject line “Privacy Appeal.” We will respond to your appeal within the time required by applicable law — generally within 60 days — and will explain the reasons for our decision. If your appeal is denied, you may contact the Texas Attorney General to submit a complaint at [texasattorneygeneral.gov](https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/consumer-protection/file-consumer-complaint?ref=thebarbedwire.com), or the applicable authority in your state. # **6\. Security of Your Information** We take reasonable administrative, technical, and physical measures designed to protect your personal information. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, however, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. If we become aware of a security incident affecting your personal information, we will notify you and applicable authorities as required by law. # **7\. Retention of Personal Information** We retain personal information for as long as your account, subscription, or membership is active and for a reasonable period afterward to operate our business, and longer where retention is required to meet legal, tax, accounting, or regulatory obligations or to resolve disputes and enforce our agreements. When personal information is no longer needed, we take reasonable steps to delete or de-identify it. # **8\. U.S.-Based Operations** The Barbed Wire is based in the United States, and the information we collect is governed by U.S. law and processed in the United States. If you access the Services from outside the United States, you understand that your information will be processed in the United States, which may have data-protection rules different from those where you live. # **9\. Children’s Information** The Services are intended for a general audience and are not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13\. We do not knowingly process the personal information of any minor for targeted advertising, sale, or profiling — activities we do not engage in for any user. If you believe a child has provided us personal information, please contact us at support@thebarbedwire.com and we will take appropriate steps to delete it as required by law. # **10\. Other Provisions** **Third-party services.** Our Services may link to or integrate with third-party websites and services (for example, Stripe and Fourthwall checkout flows) that we do not control. This Privacy Policy does not apply to those third parties, and we encourage you to review their privacy policies. **Changes to this Privacy Policy.** We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we make material changes, we will provide notice as required by law, such as by updating the Effective Date above and, where appropriate, by posting a notice on our website or sending you an email. Your continued use of the Services after an updated Policy takes effect means you accept the changes. # **11\. Contact Us** If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or our privacy practices, or to exercise your rights, contact us at **support@thebarbedwire.com**. ### Terms of Use URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/terms-of-use/ Last updated: 2026-06-26T02:33:03.000Z **Date of Last Revision: July 1, 2026** PLEASE READ THESE TERMS OF USE (“TERMS”) CAREFULLY. BY ACCESSING OR USING THE WEBSITE THEBARBEDWIRE.COM (THE “SITE”) OR BECOMING A MEMBER, YOU AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THESE TERMS AND ALL TERMS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE, YOU MAY NOT USE THE SITE. The Site is operated by Barbed Wire Media, A Public Benefit Corporation, doing business as The Barbed Wire (“TBW,” “we,” “our,” or “us”). These Terms govern your access to and use of the Site, including any paid memberships and any merchandise purchased through the Site. We may modify these Terms from time to time. If we make material changes, we will provide reasonable notice — for example, by updating the date above and, where appropriate, posting a notice on the Site or notifying members by email. Changes take effect when posted, and your continued use of the Site after that constitutes acceptance. We encourage you to review these Terms periodically. --- # **1\. Privacy Policy** Our [Privacy Policy](https://thebarbedwire.com/privacy-policy?ref=thebarbedwire.com) describes how we collect, use, and disclose personal information and is incorporated into these Terms by reference. # **2\. Memberships and Subscriptions** The Barbed Wire offers free and paid memberships. Paid memberships are available at several tiers, each offered on a monthly or annual basis, and are processed by our payment processor, Stripe. By purchasing a paid membership, you authorize us and Stripe to charge your payment method according to the plan you select. - **Automatic renewal.** Paid memberships renew automatically at the end of each billing period (monthly or annual) at the then-current rate, using your payment method on file, until you cancel. This is a recurring charge. - **Cancellation.** You may cancel at any time from your account page on the Site, which stops future renewals. You may also email support@thebarbedwire.com for help cancelling. When you cancel, your membership and access continue through the end of the period you have already paid for, and you will not be charged again. - **Refunds.** If you are unhappy with a paid membership, contact us at support@thebarbedwire.com and we will work with you, including by providing a refund. We are a reader-supported, open publication and aim to be fair about this. - **Price changes.** We may change membership prices. If we do, the new price will not take effect for your membership until your next renewal after we provide notice, and you may cancel before then if you do not wish to continue at the new price. - **Eligibility.** You are responsible for keeping your account and payment information accurate, and you agree that you are authorized to use the payment method you provide. # **3\. Merchandise** Merchandise offered through the Site is produced on demand and fulfilled by our third-party provider, Fourthwall, which serves as the merchant of record for those purchases. When you buy merchandise, your purchase is also subject to Fourthwall’s terms and policies, and Fourthwall handles payment processing, production, shipping, and related customer service. Because items are printed on demand specifically for you, all merchandise sales are final and we do not offer refunds or returns except where an item arrives defective or damaged, or as otherwise required by law. If something is wrong with your order, contact us at support@thebarbedwire.com and we will help you resolve it. # **4\. Copyright, Content, and Limited License** Unless otherwise indicated, the Site and its content and materials — including the TBW name and logo, and all designs, text, graphics, images, data, software, and the selection and arrangement of these — (the “Site Materials”) are the property of TBW or its licensors and are protected by U.S. and international intellectual-property laws. Subject to these Terms, we grant you a limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-sublicensable license to access and use the Site and Site Materials for your personal, non-commercial use. You agree that you will not: - license, sell, rent, lease, transfer, reproduce, distribute, host, or otherwise commercially exploit the Site Materials, except as expressly permitted here or by applicable law (including fair use); - frame or use framing techniques to enclose any TBW trademark, logo, or other Site Materials without permission; - use TBW’s name or trademarks in metatags or other hidden text without permission; - remove or alter any copyright or proprietary notices in the Site Materials; or - access or use the Site Materials in a way that infringes the rights of others or violates applicable law. **Automated access, indexing, and machine learning.** The Barbed Wire is an open publication, and we generally welcome our journalism being read, indexed, and used — including by search engines and to train or improve machine-learning and artificial-intelligence systems. We therefore permit automated access to publicly available pages of the Site for these purposes. This permission does not extend to activity that harms the Site or other users — for example, accessing non-public or members-only content without authorization, circumventing security or access controls, scraping at a volume or rate that degrades or disrupts the Site, or copying the Site Materials to build a substantially similar or competing publication. We may revoke or limit this permission, in whole or in part, at any time. Some Site Materials may be hosted by third parties. We cannot monitor all such materials, and you access them at your own risk. # **5\. Copyright Complaints (DMCA)** Consistent with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) and other applicable law, we may, in appropriate circumstances and at our discretion, limit access to the Site or terminate the accounts of users who infringe the intellectual-property rights of others, including repeat infringers. If you believe content on the Site infringes a copyright you own or control, you may send a notice to our designated agent that meets the requirements of 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3): **DMCA Designated Agent, The Barbed Wire**1401 Lavaca, Suite 193, Austin, TX 78701support@thebarbedwire.com Note that if you knowingly misrepresent that material is infringing, you may be liable for damages, including costs and attorneys’ fees, under § 512(f). # **6\. Trademarks** The TBW name, logo, and related marks, and the look and feel of the Site, are trademarks and trade dress of TBW and may not be used without our prior written permission. Other marks appearing on the Site are the property of their respective owners. References to third-party products or services do not imply our endorsement. # **7\. User Conduct** As a condition of using the Site, you agree not to take any action that: (a) infringes any intellectual-property, privacy, publicity, or other right of any person; (b) is unlawful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, deceptive, fraudulent, obscene, or otherwise objectionable; (c) constitutes unauthorized advertising or spam; (d) impersonates any person or entity, including TBW staff; (e) interferes with the proper functioning or security of the Site; or (f) attempts to gain unauthorized access to any part of the Site, its servers, or members-only content, or introduces malicious code. (Routine automated access of public pages for the purposes permitted in Section 4 is not a violation of this Section.) # **8\. Third-Party Sites, Content, and Services** The Site may link to or make available third-party websites, content, products, and services that we do not control. We provide these for convenience and do not endorse them or take responsibility for their content, accuracy, or practices. Your dealings with third parties, including any purchase made through a third party such as our merchandise provider, are solely between you and that third party. When you leave the Site, these Terms no longer govern, and you should review the third party’s own terms and privacy practices. # **9\. Feedback** If you send us feedback, questions, comments, suggestions, or ideas about the Site or TBW (“Feedback”), you agree it is non-confidential and that we may use it for any purpose without compensation or attribution. You represent that you have the rights necessary to provide any Feedback you submit and that it does not violate the rights of others. # **10\. Indemnification** You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless TBW and its parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, employees, agents, partners, suppliers, and licensors (each a “TBW Party”) from any losses, costs, liabilities, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) arising out of: (a) your use of, or inability to use, the Site Materials; (b) your violation of these Terms; or (c) your violation of any applicable law. We may assume the exclusive defense of any matter subject to indemnification by you, and you agree to cooperate. This Section does not require you to indemnify a TBW Party for that party’s own fraud, deception, misrepresentation, or unconscionable commercial practice. This Section survives termination of your access. # **11\. Disclaimers** TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, YOUR USE OF THE SITE AND SITE MATERIALS IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK, AND THEY ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE,” WITH ALL FAULTS AND WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. TBW DISCLAIMS ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE SITE OR SITE MATERIALS ARE ACCURATE, COMPLETE, RELIABLE, CURRENT, ERROR-FREE, OR FREE OF HARMFUL COMPONENTS. TBW IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS OR OMISSIONS, INCLUDING AS TO PRICING. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF CERTAIN WARRANTIES, SO SOME OF THE ABOVE MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. # **12\. 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International Users** The Site is operated from the United States. We make no representation that the Site or Site Materials are appropriate or available for use outside the United States. Those who access the Site from other locations do so on their own initiative and are responsible for compliance with local law. # **14\. Governing Law and Venue** These Terms and your use of the Site are governed by the laws of the State of Texas, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. Any action arising out of or relating to these Terms must be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Texas, and you consent to the personal jurisdiction of those courts. # **15\. Termination** We may, in our discretion and without notice, suspend or terminate your license to use the Site and Site Materials, and block future access, including for any violation of these Terms. 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Loading contributors… The Barbed Wire dinkus A single strand of twisted barbed wire with three evenly spaced barbs, in burnt orange. ### Big & Bright URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/bigandbright/ Last updated: 2026-08-22T18:19:18.000Z ![Big & Bright](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/size/w1600/2026/07/BigAndBright_V10_GlitterStars_close.png) Queer Texas · From The Barbed Wire # Queer stories. Unapologetically Texan. **Big & Bright** is our newsletter covering the full spectrum of queer life in the Lone Star State — the fight, the joy, and the community politicians wish you couldn’t see. Written by Kit O’Connell. Your email Count me in Something went wrong — try that once more? Free. Opt-in only. We never sell or share your address, and you can leave in one click. One more step ## Check your inbox. We just sent you a confirmation link. **You have to click it** — otherwise you won’t be subscribed. Look for **“Complete your sign up to The Barbed Wire”** — that’s us. Big & Bright is published by The Barbed Wire, so the email comes under that name. Not there in a couple of minutes? Check promotions or spam — and if you find it there, drag it to your inbox so you don’t miss the newsletter. ## You’re in. Welcome to Big & Bright. Your first issue is on its way. [Start reading → ](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/tag/queer-texas/) What you get - Original reporting on queer Texas — politics, health, and the laws that actually affect your life. - Culture, joy, and pride: the drag, the art, the people, the parties. - Straight to your inbox. No algorithm deciding whether you see it. Big & Bright is underwritten by Kind Clinic and Texas Health Action. All reporting, essays, and analysis are editorially independent. ## Posts ### 📊 Democrats Lead Nearly Every Statewide Race in Texas URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/democrats-lead-nearly-every-statewide-race-in-texas-2/ Last updated: 2026-10-19T14:36:59.000Z Hey y’all, it’s Brian Gaar with *The Barbed Wire*. Welcome back to the home stretch of the midterm elections. Democrats are leading in nearly every statewide Texas race, according to a new poll, while Ken Paxton is privately complaining about his Senate campaign’s struggles and a North Texas Republican is scrubbing the “ultra MAGA” branding from her campaign. Meanwhile, the state is facing a lawsuit over more than 500,000 voter registration applications that went unprocessed ahead of the midterm. Early voting is less than a week away, let’s dig in. --- ## 😰 **Democrats are making Republicans sweat** A new poll finds Democrats [narrowly leading in nearly every statewide race](https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/politics/elections/texas-senate-polls-democrats-lead-statewide-governor-talarico-paxton-hinojosa-abbott/287-7ca6a6ad-790b-4eb0-90a4-8d24551deea1?ref=thebarbedwire.com), though all the margins fall within the poll’s margin of error. In the U.S. Senate race, Democrat James Talarico leads Ken Paxton 50% to 47%. Talarico also has a huge advantage among independents, 69% of whom view him favorably, compared with 11% for Paxton. Meanwhile, Democrat Gina Hinojosa leads Gov. Greg Abbott 49% to 48%, and Democrat Vikki Goodwin leads Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick 49% to 46%. Republicans still have plenty of loyal voters, but Democrats report greater enthusiasm about voting in the University of Texas/Texas Politics Project. Like I said, early voting begins Monday, Oct. 19, so there’s not much time left for the GOP to figure out what’s going on. ## **Ken Paxton has some excuses** And speaking of freaked-out Republicans, in leaked audio Paxton told donors that Gov. Greg Abbott is “struggling” in his reelection bid and conceded that Republicans will probably lose some seats in the Texas Legislature. The recordings from a private fundraiser, [obtained by *Rolling Stone*](https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/ken-paxton-new-leaked-audio-texas-senate-1235641655/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), offer a behind-the-scenes look at Paxton trying to explain why his own campaign is struggling against Talarico. Paxton blamed his brutal primary, negative ads, a lack of time to raise money, and Talarico’s name recognition. He also complained that Donald Trump’s September convention in Dallas hurt his numbers, and said the war in Iran and rising gas prices were weighing on his campaign. At one point, he even took a swipe at Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick over the 2017 ban on straight-ticket voting, despite Paxton having defended the ban in court as attorney general. A Paxton spokesperson dismissed the recordings as a “partisan hit job,” insisting Republicans remain united behind him. (Just don’t call John Cornyn, right?) ## 🤣 **MAGA makeover** And speaking of even MORE freaked-out Republicans, GOP member Leigh Wambsganss is [scrubbing the “ultra MAGA” branding from her campaign](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/10/14/texas-wambsganss-rehmet-senate-tarrant-election-2026/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) as she prepares for a rematch with Democrat Taylor Rehmet in a North Texas state Senate district Donald Trump won by 17 points in 2024\. Wambsganss has removed a “Trump Endorsed” banner from her website, swapped campaign photos, and replaced her old yard signs with blue ones declaring, “Putting working families first.” The makeover follows an embarrassing January special-election loss, when Rehmet beat Wambsganss with 57% of the vote and flipped a seat Republicans had held for 12 years. Now Wambsganss says she wants to focus on property taxes and affordability, while Rehmet is emphasizing healthcare costs, schools, and the rising cost of living. Wambsganss insists she’s still proud of Trump’s endorsement. Lol. ## Half a million (!) voter registrations lost in the system Voting rights groups are suing Texas [after more than 500,000 voter registration applications and updates](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/10/14/texas-voter-registration-lawsuit-applications-failure/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) submitted through the Department of Public Safety’s online portal went unprocessed. The groups want a judge to enforce a 2021 settlement requiring the state to maintain a reliable way to register voters when they renew or update their driver’s licenses or state IDs. The backlog dates to at least October 2025 and stems from a software update error. Problems with the secretary of state’s voter registration system have made it harder to clear, and the lawsuit says some Texans are still facing registration problems ahead of the Nov. 3 election. The groups want state agencies ordered to fix the process, produce records documenting the failures, and prove compliance within a month. ![Mario Leal on The Barbed Wire News Brief](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/10/Screenshot-2026-10-16-at-10.13.16---AM.png) Barbed Wire News Brief Did you register or update your registration through the online system when updating your drivers license? TBW’s Mario Leal has an explainer to help. Find it on [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DeH0LTigczH/?utm%5Fsource=ig%5Fweb%5Fcopy%5Flink&mdxt=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==&srtk=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==) or [TikTok](https://www.tiktok.com/@thebarbedwiretx/video/7693246788764994830?is%5Ffrom%5Fwebapp=1&sender%5Fdevice=pc&web%5Fid=7525276099396896311&ref=thebarbedwire.com) and give us a follow to always get the latest. --- | Follow The Barbed Wire [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/thebarbedwiretexas/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) · [TikTok](https://www.tiktok.com/@thebarbedwiretx?ref=thebarbedwire.com) · [Bluesky](https://bsky.app/profile/thebarbedwire.com?ref=thebarbedwire.com) · [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/@thebarbedwire?ref=thebarbedwire.com) | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ### 👺 Banned books and the monster inside URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/banned-books-and-the-monster-inside-2/ Last updated: 2026-10-13T17:01:40.000Z 🌙 The days are getting shorter, but around here we’re always Big & Bright 🌈 ⭐! Welcome back, my queer stars. Today, I’m thinking about what it means to be a monster, in an age when our culture is [censored](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/dreaming-of-a-world-full-of-wonderful-things-2/) … 🎃 I’m one of those girlies who celebrates Halloween all month long, from October 1st all the way to our horror holy-day. But this isn’t just the start of spooky season; we’re also closing out the annual [Banned Books Week](https://bannedbooksweek.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and Texas holds the current [national record for book banning](https://www.chron.com/news/article/texas-book-bans-22466304.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). One of the books that’s touched my life the most, Maia Kobabe’s graphic novel *Gender Queer,* frequently appears on lists of the [most banned books](https://bannedbooksweek.org/american-library-association-releases-2025-most-challenged-books-list/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). And I’ve often found myself wondering, what makes my identity so dangerous to the far-right? 👻 Even more than other transgender identities, existing outside the binary creates a threat to the patriarchal status quo which requires us to fall in line in order to function. Nonbinary people know that if you don’t fit into “male” or “female,” you can choose “both” or “nope,” plus infinite other configurations. In a way, we’re a haunting reminder that it doesn’t have to be this way, one which they cannot exorcise. 🫶 Many a thesis, book and YouTube essay analyze the reasons why LGBTQ+ people see themselves reflected in villainous and horrifying fictional characters, so I won’t rehash that here. What I will argue is that if our enemies see us as monstrous, so be it. This Halloween, let’s not just be out of the closet, *let’s rampage in the streets.* Wherever you fall under the rainbow, let’s unashamedly embrace our strange and monstrous selves, this month and every month. And if it shakes the foundation of this broken world to be that way, all the better. ⚕️ I’ll be back next week with more reporting on HIV in Texas. In the meantime, read on for all the latest headlines from queer Texas and beyond … 😷 P.S. [Covid is running wild in Texas](https://www.today.com/health/coronavirus/summer-covid-surge-symptoms-guidelines-2026-covid-vaccine-test-rcna592549?ref=thebarbedwire.com) (guess who just tested positive? 🥺), so get your booster shot and mask up! | ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/07/Dinkus-1.png) | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Supported by The ACLU of Texas A special thanks to The ACLU of Texas for underwriting our queer Texas coverage. All essays, reporting, and analysis is, as always, editorially independent. ## **Steers & Queers 🐂** *What we’re writing and reading in Texas.* 🧇 Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico [clarified his position on transgender athletes in school sports](https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/texas-dem-senate-candidate-talarico?ref=thebarbedwire.com), saying he supports “fairness” and will always stand up to those who bully children. He still has not walked back his support for a ban on surgical gender-affirming care for minors (which is very rare, but often life-saving when it does occur). The waffling earned him a spot on *Houston Chronicle’s* [Flip-Flop Tracker](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/projects/2026/flip-flop-tracker-paxton-talarico/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). 🦸🏾‍♂️ *LGBTQ Nation’s* Chaaz Quigley [profiled state Representative Venton Jones](https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2026/10/for-venton-jones-the-gops-on-black-lgbtq-civil-rights-is-intensely-personal/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the North Texas lawmaker who is openly gay and openly HIV positive, on how he’s fighting for our rights and his vision for the future of Black queer Texas. 🏈 Gwen Howerton at *Chron* explains why [NFL-fans from Tampa to Chicago](https://www.chron.com/culture/article/ken-paxton-nfl-commercials-texas-22462936.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) were subjected to Ken Paxton’s transphobia. 🍸 Gwen also documents how [Meta’s censorship is hurting LGBTQ+ bars in Texas](https://www.chron.com/culture/article/meta-texas-gay-bar-mistake-22460160.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com), specifically Rain and Oilcan Harry’s in Austin. It’s deeply troubling to me that so much queer life is centered on a social network that hates us. 🏳️‍🌈 “Dallas’ LGBTQ+ population is currently louder and prouder than ever,” declared Joel Medina of the *Los Angeles Blade* after attending [Pride celebrations in Oak Lawn](https://www.losangelesblade.com/2026/09/25/dallas-pride-was-a-weekend-of-unabashed-joy-for-texas-queer-community/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) late last month. 🧛🏻‍♂️ Caleb De Casper’s new single “[People Don’t Fall](https://www.instagram.com/p/DeM2plvR4ee/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)” is out on streaming services, with a music video dropping later this month. I [interviewed this Texas vampire](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/interview-with-a-lone-star-vampire-caleb-de-casper-is-reborn-in-darkness/), for *The Barbed Wire,* in July. 👑 [El Daña](https://www.instagram.com/eldanadragking?exln=MWFrMWVqNDJraGVtOA==&ref=thebarbedwire.com), who holds the world record for oldest performing drag king, will have [a special appearance next month](https://www.instagram.com/p/DeKRV5eEdc%5F/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) at Austin's Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center. Mention her next time someone claims gender bending is a recent fad… ## **Stars & Stripes 🇺🇸** *What’s happening in the rest of the gayborhood.* 🫏 Christopher Wiggins at *The Advocate* asked Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson about [Democrats abandoning transgender people in the midterms](https://www.advocate.com/politics/election/hrc-warns-dems-caving-transgender?ref=thebarbedwire.com): “You don’t have to sacrifice any member of our community to win.” 🏳️‍⚧️ New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has allocated [nearly $9 million towards gender-affirming care for minors](https://gothamist.com/news/nyc-moves-to-spend-nearly-9m-of-gender-affirming-care-fund-for-minors?ref=thebarbedwire.com), after major hospitals caved to the Trump administration by halting trans kids’ care. 🌵 A court of appeals ruled that [trans people born in Arizona](https://www.advocate.com/politics/states/arizona-transgender-birth-certificate-changes?ref=thebarbedwire.com) can update their birth certificates, even if they don’t receive gender-affirming surgery, according to Edgar Ramirez at *The Advocate.* 🟠 Cheetos are bad for you: A study in the journal *Psychological Science* found that the mental health of parents of trans kids [declined after the re-election of Donald Trump](https://www.them.us/parents-trans-youth-mental-health?ref=thebarbedwire.com). ⬇️ Data from the Trump administration claims [young people are less likely to identify as LGBTQ+](https://www.them.us/answers-and-advice/health/lgbtq-identification-youth-free-fall?ref=thebarbedwire.com)*,* but there’s ample reason to question the accuracy of their analysis. 🍃 Mathew Rodriguez of *Them* reports that [*Avatar: Seven Havens*](https://www.paramountplus.com/sneak-peak/everything-you-need-to-know-about-avatar-seven-havens/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)*,* the new entry in *The Last Airbender* universe, [features a gay couple](https://www.them.us/entertainment/tv-and-movies/avatar-seven-havens-gay-couple?ref=thebarbedwire.com). **🔪** Nicole Froio at *The Flytrap* digs into a topic I haven’t been able to stop thinking about: [*Camp Miasma’s* exploration of queer sexuality](https://www.theflytrapmedia.com/death-becomes-her-camp-miasma-review/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Spoilers ahead … but why haven’t you een it yet?! 🤠 Masked icon Orville Peck once [dressed up as himself](https://www.instagram.com/reel/Dbtfehwgl8g/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for Halloween. ## **Bright & Buzzy**📱 *Memes and more.* 👟 [Mascs at the pool](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DeQGPTPNsiL/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Austin. 🦖 [Queer history](https://www.instagram.com/reel/Dd67GGyzif-/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) at Chicago's Field Museum. 🔥 [Slay the means of production](https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPLMeYnJ6/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). 🐺 Bonus: [WOLFSTORY (PILOT)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvU1-LuxLIY&ref=thebarbedwire.com). ## **Shameless** [**Merch Plug**](https://thebarbedwire.com/shop/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) 🧢 📚 Banned Books Week comes once a year, but censorship in Texas is a year-round problem. Fortunately, our warm climate means you can always rock our [Read Banned Books](https://shop.thebarbedwire.com/en-usd/products/read-banned-books-tee?ref=thebarbedwire.com) t-shirt, too. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/10/Read-Banned-Books.png) Reach out if you have tips, story ideas, or to tell me about your favorite banned books. 🌈 Stay big, bright, and bold, Kit (They/Them), [kit@thebarbedwire.com](mailto:kit@thebarbedwire.com) | ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/07/Dinkus-1.png) | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ### 281 or 287 URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/281-or-287/ Last updated: 2026-10-05T12:34:51.000Z Every trip I take back to Wichita Falls is met with the same question: Did you take 281 or 287? It’s an important question, because it tells the inquirer what kind of person you are. Do you want to get there as quickly as possible, taking 287 through Fort Worth? Or do you appreciate the natural beauty of Texas enough to take the slower 281 through Mineral Wells and Jacksboro, where you can enjoy the scenery and, very possibly, a speeding ticket? I’m a 287 person. Get there fast, or die trying. And by “die,” I mean “sit in DFW traffic.” I have never been particularly fond of the city I grew up in. So I perpetually want to get there and get it over with. Recently, I went back to deal with a family matter, and I was reminded of exactly why I felt that way. Wichita Falls is not lovely, by any means. Its main claims to fame are tornadoes, hosting the Cowboys’ training camp 30 years ago, and the band Bowling for Soup, whose song “My Hometown” contains the rousing chorus: “I hope you got the fuck out of our hometown.” There is an actual waterfall, which was built in the ’80s and sometimes it [turns brown](https://www.tiktok.com/@christiday/video/7104507570852760878?ref=thebarbedwire.com) with sediment, calling to mind scenes from *Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory*. Wichita Falls knows the rest of Texas thinks it sucks. *Texas Monthly* once ranked “[full time resident of Wichita Falls](https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/bad-jobs/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)” among the worst jobs in the state. That was in the ‘70s, but we still haven’t gotten over it. The result is a city that exists in a kind of sullen, defensive crouch: You don’t like us? We don’t like you either. It’s also deeply conservative and rabidly anti-government, despite the government being [its biggest employer](https://www.huduser.gov/portal/periodicals/USHMC/reg/WichitaFallsTX-HMP-April2024.pdf?ref=thebarbedwire.com). And for most of my life, I have been happy to declare war on Wichita Falls. It’s an easy battle. Wichita Falls is the early-season opponent your powerhouse college football team schedules when it needs a confidence boost. When I visited recently, I was wearing a cap with the logo of my alma mater, the University of Texas. In Wichita Falls, this is basically like announcing you’re visiting from Iran and have a few notes. I’m sure I was happy to thumb my nose. But something weird happened. People were nice. The Whataburger had some of the best customer service I’ve ever experienced. Everywhere I went, people were chatty in that lovely small town way. Was I ... enjoying myself? Memories started coming back. Movies at Sikes Center Mall with friends. The arcade, where you could spend an entire afternoon for a few bucks. Watching my friends’ bands play at Iron Horse and The Refuge. Stanley’s Beanie Burgers. Casa Mañana. Buying comics at Kouri’s. Blood feuds with Rider High, our eternal rival. Still, I never felt like I belonged. My family were economic immigrants from Louisiana who moved us there when I was 9, and I was a smallish nerd who liked comedy and video games. I knew Wichita Falls wasn’t going to be my forever home. But I *did* make friends there. Good ones to this day, even if one of our main bonding points was wanting to get out. Eventually, I went to college in Austin, which was the opposite of Wichita Falls in all the ways that mattered to me. There were weirdos everywhere. Artists and musicians and comedians. People who could spend an afternoon arguing about *The Simpsons* and then go watch a football game. Nobody was particularly interested in making you pick a side. I could be a nerd, a writer, a comedian, a sports fan, whatever the hell I wanted to be, and nobody found the combination especially strange. But leaving Wichita Falls also meant leaving behind some things I didn't realize I would miss. In Austin, I had more possibilities, but I didn't have the same history. Nobody there knew me when I was 10, or 15, or 17\. Nobody remembered the bands, the stupid haircuts, the first jobs. Austin gave me room to become somebody else. Wichita Falls was where I'd already been somebody. I thought leaving meant leaving Wichita Falls behind. It didn’t. It’s where I first saw Willie Nelson perform, back when he was paying off his tax bill. I had my first kiss there. My [best Christmas ever](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-best-christmas-ever-and-the-gift-of-a-lifetime/) happened there. Wichita Falls isn’t part of my everyday life anymore. But it’s still in me, in the way I talk and the way I’ll roll my eyes whenever an Austin liberal gets a little too high off the smell of their own farts. And even if it takes five or six hours to drive back, there’s something comforting about knowing it’s still there. Still pretty much the same. (Although I swear I noticed fewer Trump signs, this time. Maybe that was just wishful thinking. Because if any blue wave reaches the shores of Wichita Falls, MAGA is well and truly fucked.) At 50, I’ve got less piss and vinegar than I used to. I don’t feel like I’m better than where I grew up anymore. Sure, I’ve had opportunities that took me further away. I don’t share most of the politics or attitudes that dominate the place. But does that make me a better person? Nah. I’m just like everyone else back in Wichita Falls: trying to get through life in whatever language makes sense to me. And while writing this, I realized something. When I’m writing about Wichita Falls, I keep using the word “we.” ### Thanks To CDC Cutbacks, 13 Texas Nonprofits Lose Millions In HIV Outreach Funding URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/cdc-cutbacks-13-texas-nonprofits-lose-millions-in-hiv-outreach-funding/ Last updated: 2026-09-22T13:29:08.000Z On the way into the nightclub, you notice a friendly face beckoning you from a table set up in front of a nonprofit’s testing van, along with some cute stickers, key chains, and other free swag to lure you in. And the offer they make is risk free. *Why not?* you think, *it's been a while since I checked my HIV status.* Services like these are at risk nationwide. The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is dismantling a vital program that nonprofits across the country use to fund HIV prevention outreach and education, affecting at least 13 organizations here in Texas. Without these funds, it will become harder for these nonprofits to reach people in vulnerable populations where they gather – at clubs, pride marches, barber shops, and community events – when they might not otherwise come into a clinic or request testing for sexually-transmitted infections from their normal medical provider. The program, called [PS21-2102](https://restoredcdc.org/www.cdc.gov/nchhstp/media/pdfs/2024/08/cdc-hiv-ps21-2102-preapp-ta-webinars.pdf?ref=thebarbedwire.com), or “Comprehensive High-Impact HIV Prevention Programs for Community-Based Organizations,” began in 2021 and was originally scheduled to end in July, before getting an extension until September. According to our interviews, CDC officials have promised to redirect these funds to state health programs, but administrators at the affected organizations say it will be difficult if not impossible to reproduce the infrastructure that allows them to target affected communities directly — which they’ve spent years (and in some cases, decades) building. The CDC did not respond to requests for comment from *The Barbed Wire*. The cuts come even as the reduction in new HIV diagnosis has stalled, with an estimated 38,000 newly diagnosed Americans per year, [according to U.S. government figures](https://www.hiv.gov/hiv-basics/overview/data-and-trends/statistics?ref=thebarbedwire.com). It’s estimated that 1.2 million people in the U.S. are living with HIV, and about 13% of them are unaware of their status. Both Black and Latino populations are disproportionately affected. [Michele Durham](https://beataids.org/about/staff/michele-durham-2/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), executive director at [Beat AIDS](https://beataids.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in San Antonio, told us that funding cuts like these make it harder to believe that we will end the HIV epidemic. The CDC program allowed Beat AIDS to hire queer people who worked directly in their community, were from the populations that they served, and are among the most vulnerable to HIV. “These workers were able to speak the same language and walk the same walk as the individuals they’re reaching out to for tests and PrEP, and be an example of what safe and happy sexual health looks like.” Altogether, according to a list provided by [Vivent Health](https://viventhealth.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the Texas nonprofits losing access to the funds cover a wide swath of the eastern part of the state, all the way from the [Valley AIDS Council](https://www.valleyaids.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in the Rio Grande Valley, north to [Special Health Resources for Texas](https://www.specialhealth.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in Texarkana. The Houston area, where a total of six nonprofits are affected, is especially hard hit. [Jeffrey Campbell,](https://www.aihhouston.org/work?ref=thebarbedwire.com#AboutUs) chief executive officer at [Allies in Hope Houston](https://www.aihhouston.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), told us his organization would lose $450,000 in annual funding when the program ends. Based on conversations with other organizations in his city, he estimated that a total of $2 million will be lost across all of the Gulf Coast-area nonprofits. “It allowed us to be able to do very focused HIV and STI testing in communities that have some of the highest rates of HIV prevalence,” Campbell said. At Vivent Health, the funds paid for over 1,000 HIV tests in Central Texas over the past two years; during that time, nearly one-third of all HIV cases identified by the organization came as a result of these tests. In addition, these funds didn't simply facilitate testing, but allowed the organizations to be extremely agile as well. In the event of a positive result on a HIV or other STI test, many nonprofits can make a same-day referral to treatment. [Emma Sinnott](https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmaksinnott/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), vice president of health center operations for Vivent Health in Austin, gave one recent example where an individual tested positive for HIV during outreach at a site where unhoused people gather. Since Vivent Health’s clinic in Austin features a pharmacy, the team were able to get the individual into treatment within the hour. “We were able to get that individual into an Uber … to the clinic,” she told *The Barbed Wire.* “So we were immediately able to link that person to a case manager, immediately link them to the clinician, immediately link them to medication.” Others clients leave their encounter with an outreach team with the peace of mind of knowing their status, and potentially a referral to other protections like pre-exposure prophylaxis medications (PrEP), which can often be accessed inexpensively or free of charge. Taken properly, PrEP makes it almost impossible to contract HIV, while a modern viral suppressant regimen makes it almost impossible for an HIV-positive person to transmit that illness to others. These advances in treatment, prevention, and the overall reduction of stigma, have transformed the services that AIDS-related nonprofits provide. Campbell said Allies in Hope, which was founded 44 years ago as AIDS Foundation Houston, and is the oldest AIDS-related nonprofit in the state, originally primarily provided hospice care. “When we started in 1982, really the work was to ensure that people who had an HIV diagnosis had a dignified death and that they had food while they were waiting to die.” Today Allies In Hope still offers help with housing and food, but also helps people living long lives with HIV meet new challenges, such as paying for medication. They also created [Camp Hope](https://www.aihhouston.org/contact%5Fus?ref=thebarbedwire.com#YouthPrograms), an annual summer camp for children with HIV or who have HIV-positive family members. “Yes, it is treatable, but … we have to do our best work to prevent it because preventing an HIV transmission is much less expensive than treating an HIV diagnosis,” Campbell said. Sinnott at Vivent Health said CDC officials are promising to redirect the funds from the program to state health programs but she, like others we interviewed, doubted they could do as effective a job of reaching vulnerable populations. “No one is successful by themselves, so the state health department, the city health department, the community-based organizations have to work together to be able to make a meaningful difference.” The cuts have left the affected nonprofits scrambling for new funding sources, or leaning harder on existing funds that may already be allocated elsewhere. Sinnott said this means HIV-prevention organizations are left to gamble on where and when to use their dwindling outreach dollars. “What that might mean is we're not able to go to as many events, we're not able to do as much targeted outreach with populations that we know are most at risk and most vulnerable.” With the state legislature returning to the capitol next year, there is some hope for a legislative fix for these lost outreach dollars, or other statewide policy changes that could reduce the spread of HIV. In addition to simply directing funds toward community-based organizations, the state could also mandate more HIV testing in general. During our interviews, both Sinnott and Campbell suggested that the more often HIV testing becomes routine whenever a person has a blood draw, the easier it is to detect new cases and prevent transmission. State Representative Venton Jones, [a Dallas-area representative](https://dallasvoice.com/state-rep-venton-jones-gregory-scott-jr-are-married/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) who is [openly HIV positive](https://dallasvoice.com/texas-public-health-committee-holds-hearing-on-hiv-testing-bill/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and vice-chair of the state’s LGBTQ Caucus, has been a past supporter of a bill to make HIV testing an opt-out part of more blood draws. “Most people are not going to say no” when offered an HIV test in a clinical setting, Campbell said. However, he added that city governments have a role to play in keeping their populations safer, too. “Houston … does not have a line item in \[its budget\] for HIV prevention that goes to the community-based organizations, unlike San Francisco, New York, Chicago \[where\] their city leadership has been very intentional about having money in their line item budget that goes out to community,” Campbell said. “I do believe that that's one of the reasons where those cities are able to get the epidemic under some level of control.” Campbell blamed the end of the CDC’s PS21-2102 program on ongoing DOGE-like cuts from the federal [Office of Management and Budget](https://prospect.org/2026/02/05/doge-russell-vought-elon-musk-office-management-budget/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Alongside countless other cuts to public health resources, it’s left nonprofits competing against one another for a piece of the shrinking public health pie. “If you blink an eye in this day and time, you wake up the next morning and that resource has been jeopardized,” he said. And Sinnott acknowledged that the overall anti-LGBTQ+ atmosphere created by Republicans’ relentless attacks on LGBTQ+ civil rights makes their work harder, especially as people flee back into the closet and misinformation spreads. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, has even supported the long debunked myth [that HIV and AIDS are unrelated](https://www.thenation.com/article/society/aids-denialism-joe-rogan-bret-weinstein-rfk/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “My staff are largely members of the population that we serve, and so there are days that are incredibly rough,” Sinnott told us. “I have to say they're amazing and incredibly resilient, but also it's hard when you hear all this rhetoric in the community at large, and you come in and you have to put on a brave face.” She added, “I'm very proud of them but, at the same time, I would not wish that on anybody.” Sinnott concluded that although HIV prevention workers are trying to remain hopeful, it’s hard not to worry about lost progress under the current administration. “I might have a bit of a Pollyanna view of how things should be working, but that's born out of seeing some great successes that we've had,” she said. “And I've known people that have worked in Texas with HIV prevention since the early days, and going to meetings now is so heartbreaking because this is 40 years of their life, and we’re taking us back decades.” --- ### 🌵 Somebody Finally Wandered Into the Restaurant URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/somebody-finally-wandered-into-the-restaurant-2/ Last updated: 2026-09-22T13:34:48.000Z Hey y'all, it’s Brian Gaar with *The Barbed Wire*. It’s been another colorful week in our beloved state: the Longhorns are No. 1, Austin might get an NHL team, the governor’s race has suddenly gotten interesting, a statewide Republican candidate decided to pick a fight with some college students based on the color of their skin, and a San Antonio woman’s family is suing the state over an abortion they say could have saved her life. So, basically, everything is going great and nobody should ask any follow-up questions. | ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/07/Dinkus-1.png) | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Get Brian Gaar's Wild Texas newsletter direct to your inbox: Subscribe to the Wild Texas Newsletter Texas is one big, wild place. Our weekly round up keeps you in the know. All killer, no filler. It's Texas news worth your time. Subscribe Check your inbox and click the link to confirm. Something went wrong. Try again. --- ## **Bo French discovers the worst possible way to celebrate a football win** 🏈 Over the weekend, Texas beat Ohio State in one of the wildest comebacks in Longhorn history, coming back from 20 points down in the fourth quarter to win 24-23\. And while most Texans were celebrating, Republican Railroad Commission candidate Bo French [apparently looked at a photo of South Asian UT students celebrating in the stands](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/16/us/attack-on-university-of-texas-students-tests-texas-gop-unity.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&ref=thebarbedwire.com) and decided *this is my moment*. French posted that the students represented “how many Americans have been displaced by foreigners,” prompting condemnation from Republicans including John Cornyn, Dustin Burrows and Greg Abbott. (But will they still vote for him? Sadly, reader, we both know the answer.) French has defended the posts and blamed some of his critics on the “less-conservative” side of the Texas Republican Party. Karl Rove has reportedly said he’ll vote for Democrat Jon Rosenthal rather than French, breaking with decades of Republican voting, while French has responded to the controversy by celebrating the fact that he passed 100,000 followers on X. Very cool, man. ![Mario Leal on The Barbed Wire News Brief](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/09/Screenshot-2026-09-18-at-10.06.17---AM.jpg) Barbed Wire News Brief TBW’s Mario Leal covered this Wednesday on the News Brief, including local reaction. Find it on [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DdXcYSUjIBr/?utm%5Fsource=ig%5Fweb%5Fcopy%5Flink&stkn=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==) or [TikTok](https://www.tiktok.com/@thebarbedwiretx/video/7686275578357452045?is%5Ffrom%5Fwebapp=1&sender%5Fdevice=pc&web%5Fid=7525276099396896311&ref=thebarbedwire.com). ## **Gina Hinojosa asks Texas to consider a novel concept: a different governor** For years, the Texas Democratic gubernatorial campaign has been a little like opening a restaurant in the middle of the desert and hoping somebody wanders in. Gina Hinojosa [knows she has a steep hill to climb against Greg Abbott](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/15/us/gina-hinojosa-governor-texas.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), who has a massive financial advantage and has been governor for more than a decade. But recent polling has put the race considerably closer than the conventional wisdom would suggest. A September UT/AARP/Univision polling snapshot had Abbott at 49% and Hinojosa at 46% in one survey, while a Televisa/Univision survey had them tied at 47%-47%. Hinojosa has centered her campaign on affordability, public schools and opposition to the rapid growth of data centers. She also released an emotional ad about carrying a high-risk pregnancy to term decades ago, and another ad in which she introduced herself with the line: “My pronouns are Mom, Texan and, soon to be, governor.” (Gina, please, we love you but pronoun jokes are so 2020.) The race is still months away, and polls are snapshots rather than prophecies. But after years of Texas Democrats being told to please stop bothering everybody and go home, maybe this time will be different (we say nervously, as we wait for Lucy to, once again, yank away the football). ## **Texas family sues over a pregnancy that ended in death** The family of Tierra Walker, a 37-year-old San Antonio woman who died in 2024 while 20 weeks pregnant, [filed a lawsuit accusing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton](https://abcnews.com/amp/Health/family-texas-pregnant-woman-died-sues-texas-ag/story?id=136489875&ref=thebarbedwire.com), the Texas Medical Board’s executive director, doctors and medical institutions of contributing to her death. Walker had been diagnosed with preeclampsia, and her family alleges that she repeatedly asked for an abortion as her health deteriorated but was not provided one. The lawsuit argues that Texas’ abortion restrictions contributed to Walker being denied potentially life-saving care. The defendants have not been found liable, and the allegations remain claims in a lawsuit. The case comes as Paxton is running for U.S. Senate and as Texas continues to grapple with questions over how doctors should interpret the state’s abortion laws when a pregnancy threatens a patient’s health. This one is less “Texas is weird” and more “Texas laws have consequences for actual human beings,” which is considerably less funny but more important. ## 🤘 **TEXAS IS NUMBER ONE, BABY*!*** The Texas Longhorns are [officially No. 1 in the country after pulling off that absurd 24-23 comeback against Ohio State](https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/%5F/id/49929921/texas-rises-top-ap-poll-ohio-state-oregon-tumble-michigan-back-top-25?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Texas received 56 first-place votes in the latest AP Top 25, jumping from No. 4 to the top spot. Ohio State fell from No. 1 to No. 6 after blowing a 20-point fourth-quarter lead. That comeback was the largest fourth-quarter rally ever against an AP No. 1 team, according to Sportradar. Texas is now 2-0, which means there is absolutely no reason whatsoever for anyone in Austin to become emotionally invested in anything else for the rest of the year. Also, Texas A&M is No. 9, Texas Tech is No. 13, SMU is No. 16, and Houston is No. 22\. So apparently the entire state decided to have a football year. So, yeah, please enjoy this brief period of peace. ## 🏒 **Austin or Houston might get an NHL team** And finally, Texas could be getting another NHL team, with [Austin and Houston being considered as potential destinations for the league’s 33rd franchise](https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/%5F/id/49950236/nhl-expansion-team-texas-austin-houston-updates-news-draft-divisions?ref=thebarbedwire.com). NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said the league was exploring a second Texas team, and the Friedkin family has agreed to a $3.5 billion investment that would cover an expansion fee and arena construction costs. Houston has the larger metro area and a long history of professional hockey, including two versions of the Aeros. Austin, meanwhile, has become a major sports market with Austin FC, the Circuit of the Americas and the Texas Stars already calling the area home. The Friedkin family, which owns soccer clubs including AS Roma and Everton, has reportedly come to see Austin as its preferred destination, although that doesn't mean the NHL has made a final decision. So Austin could soon have MLS, Formula 1, college sports, minor-league hockey, major-league hockey and whatever the hell else it can cram into the sports calendar. Houston, meanwhile, would presumably like a word. | ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/07/Dinkus-1.png) | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [ ![Become a Member](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/07/become-a-member-1.png) ](https://thebarbedwire.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#/portal/signup) | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Follow The Barbed Wire [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/thebarbedwiretexas/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) · [TikTok](https://www.tiktok.com/@thebarbedwiretx?ref=thebarbedwire.com) · [Bluesky](https://bsky.app/profile/thebarbedwire.com?ref=thebarbedwire.com) · [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/@thebarbedwire?ref=thebarbedwire.com) | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ### 🚍 Under the bus, again URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/under-the-bus-again-2/ Last updated: 2026-09-15T17:27:46.000Z 💥 Greetings, my queer stars, Welcome back to Big & Bright 🌈 ⭐ 👏, your biweekly newsletter about life in queer Texas … where the ground is always shifting under our feet and this time we can't blame fracking. 💚 Want this as a newsletter as soon as it's published? Sign up now! Subscribe to the Big & Bright Newsletter Queer Texas in all its glory — the fight, the joy, and the community politicians wish you couldn't see. Count me in Check your inbox and click the link to confirm. Something went wrong. Try again. 🫏 If this newsletter is a little later than usual, it's because I had a whole other essay planned out, and then the [Democrats](https://www.thepinknews.com/2026/05/22/democrats-republicans-dont-say-trans-bill-students/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) disappointed me. Again. This time, it was [James](https://www.advocate.com/politics/national/james-talarico-trans-athletes-2677841392?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [Gina](https://ginafortexas.com/2026/09/new-ad-pronouns-hinojosa-fights-for-working-families-abbott-runs-same-old-playbook/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). 🏐 For one brief moment, it seemed like we had a cohort of Texas Dems who knew how to properly play dodgeball with Republican talking points. Instead of letting themselves get dragged down into the muck with the GOP, they would deliberately and insistently pivot back to substantive policy issues. Because Gina is right: we do have plenty of real problems in Texas. I just don't understand why she couldn't make that point without invoking the “[one joke](https://www.reddit.com/r/t5%5F23lsub/s/2d3pe6455D?ref=thebarbedwire.com)” about pronouns. 💀 Remember when the Democrats had a reputation for being the party which defended human rights? Of course, their waffling didn't start with trans rights, because this is a party all-too-frequently willing to equivocate and triangulate themselves off a cliff. After all, when was the last time you heard about mainstream Democratic Party opposition to the death penalty or bloated police budgets? 🦈 Republicans have been quite open about admitting they're coming for broader queer rights, like [marriage](https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/06/the-campaign-to-overrule-obergefell/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), once they're done with trans folks. They’re also open about the fact that they’re using trans women in sports as [a wedge to attack women's sports](https://www.reddit.com/r/t5%5F23lsub/s/2d3pe6455D?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in general. And yet Democrats fall for their framing of the issues, again and again, as if it's some kind of compulsion. Now that James Talarico and others have shown they will compromise on one issue, Ken Paxton and Greg Abbott (and [Trump](https://www.advocate.com/politics/national/trump-dallas-transgender-empty-arena?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [Elon](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/08/us/politics/elon-musk-transgender-midterms-democrats.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com)) will smell blood in the water, and I fear the attacks will only grow more intense before November. 😡 I try to leave these essays on a positive note. But today all I have is frustration, rage and disappointment. Maybe you're feeling it too, and we can just sit together with those emotions, because in solidarity we can find strength in each other. Maybe, someday, we can collectively dream up a better world where the opinions of the political pundit class no longer control our human rights. 🫂 Thanks for taking that moment with me. Now, read on for all the latest from queer Texas and beyond. --- Supported by Kind Clinic A special thanks to Kind Clinic and Texas Health Action for underwriting our queer Texas coverage. All essays, reporting, and analysis is, as always, editorially independent. ## **Steers & Queers 🐂** *What we’re writing and reading in Texas.* 💃 Rep. Al Green, the Houston LGBTQ+ Political Caucus, and the Montrose Center are raising an alarm over the abuse of [transgender immigrants in ICE detention](https://www.youtube.com/live/SiFqLQKZhBE?ref=thebarbedwire.com). 🎓 Houston Public Media reports that the Texas A&M University System became the latest in Texas to target diverse education, with [some 200 courses on LGBTQ people, women's studies and climate change](https://www-houstonpublicmedia-org.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/education-news/2026/09/03/561051/texas-am-system-considers-removing-courses-on-lgbtq-ethnic-studies-and-climate-change-from-core-offerings/?amp=1&%5Fjs%5Fv=0.1&%5Fgsa=1&ref=thebarbedwire.com#webview=1) potentially getting cut from the core offerings available to students. 🤠 Backing up [previous reports](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-is-a-lot-more-queer-than-you-think/) that a ton of us Texans are gay, Gwen Howerton at *Chron* reported that a new study by Human Rights Campaign found that [over 2 million Texans identify as LGBTQ](https://www.chron.com/culture/article/texas-lgbtq-population-report-22396418.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com)+, which once again puts us in second place after California. 🏳️‍🌈 [Katy Pride](https://www.katypride.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) is coming October 3, and Brandon Wolf of *OutSmart Magazine* [profiled board member Barbara Kosciewicz](https://www.outsmartmagazine.com/2026/09/barbara-kosciewicz-katy-pride/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a mother of a transgender teen and a fierce ally. 👬 Tammye Nash at *Dallas Voice* brings us the news that State Representative Venton Jones, vice chair of the Texas LGBTQ Caucus, [announced his wedding to Gregory D. Scott, Jr](https://dallasvoice.com/state-rep-venton-jones-gregory-scott-jr-are-married/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Jones said in a statement, “No amount of hate can erase the truth of who we are.” [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/07/Kind-Clinic-1.jpg)](https://kindclinic.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) ## **Stars & Stripes 🇺🇸** *What’s happening in the rest of the gayborhood.* ⚧️ According to Ken Klippenstein, White House counterterrorism czar Sebastian Gorka is [now including nonbinary people](https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/nonbinary-gender-extremism?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in his disturbing rants about so-called “extreme gender ideologies.” 🪖 The Department of Defense is [stepping up efforts to target transgender and intersex troops](https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/the-pentagon-is-digging-through-medical?ref=thebarbedwire.com), even as a judge threatened to cut them off. S. Baum at *Erin in the Morning* reports the DoD is making unprecedented use of sensitive medical records to complete its witch hunt before the court's deadline. ⚕️ Photojournalist Greg Pak shared a moving thread of photos from [a protest at Mt. Sinai Hospital](https://bsky.app/profile/gregpak.net/post/3mv2jdfscbk2v?ref=thebarbedwire.com) over the decision to [end gender-affirming care](https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2026/09/patients-condemn-ny-hospital-for-bending-the-knee-to-trumps-anti-trans-threats/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for young people. 🤑 *Calmatters* reports that [about 1,500 trans and gender non-conforming kids](https://calmatters.org/health/2026/08/transgender-youth-medicaid-california-funding/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) from California are at risk of losing access to gender-affirming care after the federal government cut off funding, leaving a 10 million dollar shortfall. 🎤 It had previously been reported that our dearly departed mother Dolly Parton had a transgender chauffeur, Jason Pirro, for 3 decades, but her biographer recently revealed she even [paid for his gender-affirming care](https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2026/09/dolly-parton-paid-for-the-gender-affirming-care-of-her-good-friend-chauffeur-of-30-years/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). 📖 San Francisco's Mechanics Institute [now houses one of the country's largest archives of LGBTQ kids books](https://www.kqed.org/news/12097547/time-capsules-huge-san-francisco-archive-of-kids-books-traces-long-history-of-lgbtq-families?ref=thebarbedwire.com), with the earliest entry dating back to 1969. **👦** So call me, Ilya. Carly Rae Jepson [named her son after our favorite fictional Russian](https://www.them.us/entertainment/music/carly-rae-jepsen-son-ilya?ref=thebarbedwire.com) hockey player, according to Delia Curtis of *Them*. 👽 Gillian Anderson, who has previously been open about her attraction to women, [officially came out as pansexual](https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2026/09/gillian-anderson-comes-out-as-pansexual-shares-what-turns-her-on-about-mens-womens-bodies/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)–as if that would surprise anyone that's seen “Camp Miasma.” ## **Bright & Buzzy**📱 *Memes and more.* In the last issue of this newsletter, I accidentally misgendered director Jane Schoenbrun, who uses they/them pronouns. I deeply regret the error, and by way of apology here's a bunch of Jane and Camp Miasma content: ⚧️ [Navigating the film world as a trans creator](https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTU5Kweoe/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). 👗 [Meet the movie's costumer](https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTU5EJtgm/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). ⚡[Just a typical Camp Miasma showing](https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTU5EJAm4/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). 🚶‍♂️[Perfecting the Little Death walk](https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTU5EJtgm/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). 🌶 [Gillian Anderson and Hannah Einbinder do “Secretary.”](https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTU5EJtgm/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) 🔪 [Ranking history's greatest Final Girls](https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTU5EycSd/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). **Shameless** [**Merch Plug**](https://thebarbedwire.com/shop/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) 🧢 👢 Ready to raise some hell and look good while you do it? Our [Texas Troublemakers Tee](https://shop.thebarbedwire.com/products/texas-troublemakers-tee?ref=thebarbedwire.com) tells the world you stand for a better, more progressive and inclusive state … and that you have great taste in reading material, too. [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/09/Tex-Trouble-Tee.png)](https://shop.thebarbedwire.com/products/texas-troublemakers-tee?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Reach out if you have tips, story ideas, or if you just need to vent about feckless Democrats ([kit@thebarbedwire.com](mailto:kit@thebarbedwire.com)). 🌈 Stay big, bright, and bold, Kit (They/Them) 💖 | ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/07/Dinkus-1.png) | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ### 🎨 The Passive-Aggressive Power of Oil Paint URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-passive-aggressive-power-of-oil-paint-2/ Last updated: 2026-09-08T22:05:22.000Z Howdy gang, it’s Brian Gaar with *The Barbed Wire*. And welcome back to Texas, where the courts have become a judicial choose-your-own-adventure, Greg Abbott is having second thoughts about the surveillance-camera empire his state helped build, Tarrant County is cutting polling places, and Texas is rewriting history class to make sure children know that Islam is apparently very scary. Oh, and George W. Bush has apparently decided the best way to deal with Donald Trump is to paint a giant ugly picture of him. Grab your breakfast taco, lower your expectations, and let’s get into it. | ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/07/Dinkus-1.png) | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ## 🍗👩‍⚖️ **Texas: Come for the BBQ, Stay for the Judge Shopping** The Trump administration wanted hospitals to turn over records involving transgender care for children, and after judges in several states rejected or limited those demands, the Justice Department [took its case to a Fort Worth federal courthouse](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/30/us/politics/texas-judge-trump-agenda.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). There, Judge Reed O’Connor approved a subpoena against a Rhode Island hospital (even though Texas had no hospitals providing the care in question) and ordered it to turn over personal information including the names and Social Security numbers of minors who received treatment. The case has renewed scrutiny of the Northern District of Texas, where cases can be assigned in ways that allow litigants to target courthouses with a predictable lineup of overwhelmingly Republican-appointed judges. Because nothing says “justice is blind” quite like knowing which courthouse to walk into. ![Mario Leal on The Barbed Wire News Brief](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/09/BWNB-Judge-Shopping.jpg) Barbed Wire News Brief TBW’s Mario Leal covered this in our daily video series — cough, cough, before the *Times*. Find it on [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/reel/Dbjv5lmgZ63/?utm%5Fsource=ig%5Fweb%5Fcopy%5Flink&igsi=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==), [TikTok](https://www.tiktok.com/@thebarbedwiretx/video/7669602297332108557?is%5Ffrom%5Fwebapp=1&sender%5Fdevice=pc&web%5Fid=7525276099396896311&ref=thebarbedwire.com), or [YouTube](https://youtube.com/shorts/YWAcNmXghfo?feature=share&ref=thebarbedwire.com). ## **Abbott Discovers That Maybe Flock Cameras Are a Little Much** Gov. Greg Abbott has [ordered state agencies to stop funding Flock cameras](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/08/28/texas-greg-abbott-flock-cameras-order-state-money/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), just as the *Texas Tribune* was preparing to publish an [investigation detailing how a state agency](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/08/28/texas-flock-cameras-auto-insurance-fee-mvcpa-grants/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) had spent at least $30 million expanding the surveillance network. Texas agencies have helped install at least 3,200 Flock cameras since 2023, with another 1,200 being installed by DPS through a $15.9 million contract, some of the money coming from a $1 fee added to Texans’ auto insurance policies to fight catalytic converter theft. After multiple Texas law enforcement agencies faced allegations of Flock misuse, Abbott declared that the cameras would have to be “used responsibly if they’re used at all.” Weird that this turnabout came just as a big investigation was about to be published! ![Mario Leal on The Barbed Wire News Brief](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/09/BWNB-Flock-Cameras.jpg) Barbed Wire News Brief Just this week, Mario covered a couple counties taking them down on our daily video, the News Brief — find that story on [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DcuRVMOAIUK/?utm%5Fsource=ig%5Fweb%5Fcopy%5Flink&igsi=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==), [TikTok](https://www.tiktok.com/@thebarbedwiretx/video/7680342116513369357?is%5Ffrom%5Fwebapp=1&sender%5Fdevice=pc&web%5Fid=7525276099396896311&ref=thebarbedwire.com), or [YouTube](https://youtube.com/shorts/BAgVAnsyqwE?feature=share&ref=thebarbedwire.com). ## 📖 **Texas Rewrites History, and Islam Doesn**’**t Come Off Great** The State Board of Education [preliminarily approved social studies standards that would teach students](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/08/31/texas-rewrite-social-studies-high-school/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that “radical Islam” motivated the 9/11 attacks and describe early Islam through references to violence, slavery and female captives. Muslim Texans, students and even some of the board’s appointed experts argued the material is historically misleading, while Republicans rejected calls to restore lessons about Muslim contributions to fields such as algebra and astronomy. The new standards also put greater emphasis on Christianity and biblical principles, with final decisions expected Friday and the changes scheduled to begin rolling out in 2030-31. (We assume that “love thy neighbor” won’t be a part of the new curriculum. After all, it’s an election year.) ## 🗳️ **Tarrant County Cuts 92 Polling Places** And speaking of elections, Tarrant County commissioners voted [to approve 224 Election Day polling sites and 47 early-voting locations for November](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/09/01/tarrant-county-removes-polling-sites/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). That is *way* down from 316 Election Day sites and 50 early-voting locations in 2022\. More than 100 people testified against the cuts during an eight-hour meeting, with Democrats accusing Republicans of making voting harder and Republicans arguing the new plan still gives voters plenty of opportunities to cast ballots. The meeting ended with three attendees removed, but no arrests. Which is an improvement over last month, when one speaker was carried out by his ankles and wrists. So yeah, once again, Republicans are trying to pick their voters, rather than letting voters pick their politicians. ## 👨‍🎨 George W. Bush Has Discovered the Passive-Aggressive Power of Oil Paint George W. Bush has spent years refusing to publicly criticize Donald Trump, despite Trump’s destruction of the Republican establishment Bush’s family helped build, and even when Trump attacked democratic institutions and Bush’s own signature accomplishments. Bush says former presidents shouldn’t criticize their successors, but, in a delicious sendup, [*The New Yorker* argues his silence also reflects his temperament](https://www.newyorker.com/news/essay/george-w-bushs-code-of-silence?utm%5Fsource=firefox-newtab-en-us), concern for his family and an intense interest in protecting his historical legacy. And now, according to someone who saw it, Bush may have found the perfect compromise: a “big, ugly” portrait of Trump that he can hang somewhere and let the oil paint do the talking. | ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/07/Dinkus-1.png) | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [ ![Become a Member](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/07/become-a-member-1.png) ](https://thebarbedwire.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#/portal/signup) | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Follow The Barbed Wire [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/thebarbedwiretexas/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) · [TikTok](https://www.tiktok.com/@thebarbedwiretx?ref=thebarbedwire.com) · [Bluesky](https://bsky.app/profile/thebarbedwire.com?ref=thebarbedwire.com) · [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/@thebarbedwire?ref=thebarbedwire.com) | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ### Trans Teen From Rural Texas Forces High School to Change Transphobic Dress Code URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/trans-teen-from-rural-texas-forces-high-school-to-change-transphobic-dress-code/ Last updated: 2026-08-27T20:42:51.000Z In a small Texas town of less than 4,000 people, one transgender teenager fought back against her school district’s transphobic dress code and won. Amid rising anti-LGBTQ+ bigotry in our state, the teen known as “Emma Doe” showed that it is possible to successfully push back against bigoted policies and make room for queer and trans young folks to be themselves. Her case also highlights the often overlooked problem of restrictive dress codes in schools and how they can hurt marginalized students from a variety of backgrounds. It's a separate, parallel issue to the rise of [censorship in school libraries](https://www.chron.com/news/article/dan-patrick-books-texas-schools-22395120.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and laws like Texas SB 12, the so-called “Parents Bill of Rights,” that restricts many students from [using their chosen names and pronouns](https://www.teenvogue.com/story/texas-schools-forced-to-deadname-trans-students?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and limits the [ability of teachers to support LGBTQ+ students](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/what-its-like-to-be-a-nonbinary-educator-in-texas-right-now/). Although it receives less attention, dress codes are crucial to students' ability to express themselves and their identities at school. Upon meeting Emma, who is now 18, I was immediately struck by her extremely strong sense of self; this is a young woman who very much knows who she is. And part of that is a very well-defined and eclectic fashion sense. “I have some boho things in my closet,” Emma told us, “I have some Western things in my closet, some more contemporary looks, I even have a couple things that are very Victorian-coded. I like everything.” When we met in Waco, she wore a ruffled and strappy dress printed with pink roses that contrasted beautifully with her brightly-colored dyed hair. But Emma actually lives with her family in Groesbeck, population 3,631, about 40 minutes to the east. (The [ACLU of Texas](https://www.aclutx.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) gave her the pseudonym “Emma Doe” to protect her from unwanted attention as a result of her court case against Groesbeck ISD, and *The Barbed Wire* agreed to use this name in our coverage.) Growing up, Emma Doe discovered a love of learning but also that being a queer and – at the time, closeted – transgender student drew a lot of negative attention and bullying. Her school's dress code didn't help her feel like she could be herself, either, especially during its most restrictive years. Emma endured several different waves of policies that affected what she could or couldn't wear and how she presented herself. “In middle school, they had the traditional \[dress code\]: boys can't wear earrings, boys can't have hair longer than their collarbones, and then they got rid of the hair length.” By eighth grade, and then as she transitioned into high school, the dress code had become refreshingly gender neutral, although the implementation of the policy wasn’t perfect. “Administrators and faculty at the school have always and stereotypically tended to target the female population more … because I can name a bunch of boys at the school who broke dress code every day and never got anything said to them about it,” Emma recalled. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/08/Emma-2.jpg) The Groesbeck ISD dress code adopted in 2023 barred transgender students from wearing skirts or dresses. Photo: Mario Leal / **The Barbed Wire* But that changed in the summer of 2023, when the school board voted to institute a dress code which banned transgender students from wearing skirts and dresses. According to [Chloe Kempf](https://www.aclutx.org/bios/chloe-kempf/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a staff attorney at the ACLU of Texas who represented Emma, this dress code was an outlier even in a state where such restrictions are all too prevalent. “It was one of the worst dress codes we've seen in terms of singling out transgender students directly,” Kempf said. “And this is a small school district, so Emma being one of only a very few transgender students, it felt very targeted and very stigmatizing and harmful.” Although the dress code at Groesbeck ISD was extreme, [research by the ACLU of Texas](https://www.aclutx.org/app/uploads/drupal/sites/default/files/dresscodereport%5F2-22-24.pdf?ref=thebarbedwire.com) has found that far too many schools put restrictions on how their students can express themselves in ways that have little to do with classroom discipline. In a 2024 survey, which looked at dress codes in 1,200 Texas schools, over half had policies based on harmful and outdated rigid gender norms. Over 300 of the school districts restricted the hair length of those perceived to be boys – a holdover from 1960s culture war battles that continues to hurt both cis and trans students alike. Queer and trans kids aren't the only ones that suffer under these dress codes: students from marginalized religious and racial groups can also find their freedoms restricted. For example, 80 percent of dress codes prohibited essentially all head coverings without apparent exceptions for religious and cultural expression. By the time of the ACLU of Texas survey, most but not all schools had altered their dress codes to remove bans on hairstyles and textures associated with race in order to comply with [the CROWN Act](https://www.naacpldf.org/crown-act/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). After the state adopted this law in 2023, school districts were prohibited from implementing racist restrictions on hair. However, 80 percent of districts have vague and subjective hairstyle policies which could still be used in a racially-motivated fashion. Kempf told us that she believes dress code policies which are less restrictive and more affirming contribute to better outcomes for students and teachers. Letting “students show up at school as their authentic selves actually improves the school environment because all students see that if there's something a little bit different about them, that's going to be still welcome at school, and that they can feel free to express their differences and be proud of who they are.” While the previous dress code at Groesbeck ISD was an example of how wrong things can go when policies are made without a student's best interests at heart, Emma's story also offers a potential pathway to fighting back against these troubling school board decisions. Even before the ACLU of Texas got involved, Emma and her mother had spent months advocating for her to school administrators, the superintendent and the school board, and Kempf said that might have been the key to her success. “They had really done so much of the legwork and exploring all possible avenues of relief that basically we just came in as pinch-hitters at the end and said, ‘Okay, let's help get this over the finish line,’” Kempf explained. At the start of Emma's sophomore year, her high school principal warned her about the newly restrictive dress code, and explained her options for fighting back. “‘I'm gonna help you understand the steps that you need to take to get this all the way to the school board because it's the school board that made that decision,’” Emma recalled her principal saying. “She told us about the grievances process and how to properly go about it.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/08/Emma-3.jpg) Emma and her mother spent months filing grievances at every level before the ACLU of Texas got involved. Photo: Mario Leal / **The Barbed Wire* Kempf explained that all Texas schools are required by law to offer a clear grievance process. Even so, that process was a lengthy one, requiring meetings to be scheduled at each level from principal to superintendent and beyond, even though the decision ultimately lay with the school board. “So it was, you set up this meeting, and then you take a day and you do the meeting, and then they can't do anything for you. So then it's two months later, whenever you have your next meeting,” Emma said. Luckily, Emma's mother was willing to take on much of the work involved in filing grievances and following up on them. In January of 2024, Emma's family even went so far as to file a Title IX complaint against the dress code with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. Because of the years-long process and potential court case, Emma knew it was possible she might graduate before the matter was resolved. But she knows other queer and trans young folks in Groesbeck, and it was important to her that future students wouldn't struggle with their ability to express themselves in the same way as she had. “There's actually quite a decent sized community of us in my town, and I am friends with a lot of them.” Luckily, the district decided to settle with Emma rather than take things all the way through a legal battle. As Kempf explained, “The immediate outcome is that Emma got to finish out senior year wearing all of her fabulous skirts and dresses, walk the stage at graduation in a beautiful dress, and for all the students that will come after her, this really unjust rule will no longer be on the books, and every student in the district is now going to be treated the same regardless of their sex assigned at birth or their gender identity, which was you know one of our main priorities in this case.” Although the district's 2026 dress code no longer targets transgender students, it still leaves a lot to be desired. The [current version](https://files-backend.assets.thrillshare.com/documents/asset/uploaded%5Ffile/3730/Gisd/e122034c-4895-4ac1-95ea-a0f2a6bf9154/2024-2026%5FStudent%5FDress%5FCode.pdf?disposition=inline&ref=thebarbedwire.com) bans *all* students, from seventh to twelfth grades, from wearing skirts or dresses, regardless of gender. “We'll have to see how it's enforced, but it is a win for us in that every student is going to be treated the same,” Kempf said. “No student is going to be singled out.” Groesbeck ISD did not respond to requests for comment sent by phone and email. Emma said she has family in Colorado, And she did consider moving up there after learning about the transphobic dress code. So many transgender people have fled Texas as a result of policies like these that Seattle considered [declaring a state of emergency](https://www.chron.com/culture/article/texas-seattle-lgbtq-migration-22256832.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) earlier this year. “I didn't want to leave my support system here,” Emma said. “Some people don't have the ability to \[leave\], and I also had to think about those people.” Now that she's graduated, Emma has her education planned out and hopes to follow in the footsteps of family members who have worked in medical fields. “I'm going to a junior college this year and next year, and I'm going to get my associates in biology, and then I plan on moving up. I don't know where I want to go for my university yet, but I want to get my microbiology bachelor's, and then a master's in something related to viral science or immune science, and then a doctorate one day.” The ACLU of Texas has [a resource guide for students](https://www.aclutx.org/students-rights-hub/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and families who are facing similar restrictive policies. Kempf cites the CROWN Act as an important first step towards fixing the state's dress codes, but would like to see these laws expanded to protect more students and additional groups. “We know the Constitution says you have to treat boys, girls, and non-binary students equally but I would like our state laws and our school board policies to reflect that more clearly.” She also said it's up to all of us to protect students like Emma from unjust policies. “It's incumbent on all of us as community members, whether we go to school or have kids in school or not, to stand up and communicate our values to our elected representatives. Go to your school board meetings, write op-eds, make your voice known that you think that students in your community should all be treated with dignity.” As for Emma, like so many trans people, she looks forward to the day when politicians care less about how she dresses or what she does. Until then she needs more allies to stand up. “Let me be, and I'll let you be,” she said. “And if somebody were to come and challenge your rights, I would be there to help you. So I would love it if they would be there to help others.” *Mario Leal contributed reporting to this story.* ### Greg Abbott Is Obsessed with Feet URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/greg-abbott-is-obsessed-with-feet-2/ Last updated: 2026-08-23T19:11:15.000Z Howdy y’all, it’s Brian Gaar with *The Barbed Wire*. Our government here in Texas had a busy week finding new things to be mad about: DFW Airport canceled plans for a Muslim ablution facility after Greg Abbott threatened its funding, while Texas Tech is using AI to hunt through college courses for insufficiently conservative content. Meanwhile, Minnesota is suing Abbott to get an ICE agent charged with assault back to Minneapolis, and the federal government has temporarily stopped carving a road through Big Bend National Park. So join me as we take our biweekly bath of culture war bullshit (ginned up just in time for the midterms)! | ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/07/Dinkus-1.png) | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ## **Abbott vs. the Extremely Dangerous Airport Foot-Washing Station** Gov. Greg Abbott has found a new threat to the Lone Star State: people washing their feet at airports. Abbott [threatened to withdraw state and federal funding](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/08/14/texas-greg-abbott-dfw-iah-airport-islam-ablution-facility-grant/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) from Dallas Fort Worth International Airport after the airport planned to install an ablution facility, a place commonly used by Muslims to rinse their hands and feet before prayer. He also sent letters to the mayors of Dallas, Fort Worth and Houston, saying his office was reviewing grant funds for airport facilities and asking the U.S. Transportation Department to investigate. “These ablution facilities appear designed to single out one subset of the population for special treatment based on religion. That is illegal,” Abbott said. Houston Mayor John Whitmire defended the ablution room at George Bush Intercontinental Airport, saying it is available to people of all faiths and was created in response to passenger requests. He also pointed out that it was paid for with fees from international airlines, not taxes or grants. DFW, meanwhile, canceled its planned facility shortly after Abbott announced his threat. The airport said the project “would not deliver the originally anticipated operational benefits.” So, to summarize: We, as a state, have reached the point where washing your feet at the airport is a matter of state government concern. Yee haw. ## **Texas Tech Deploys the Most Powerful Weapon in Academia: A Robot Looking for Pronouns** Texas Tech University is using artificial intelligence to help review university courses for [material involving topics such as sexual orientation and gender identity](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/18/us/texas-tech-artificial-intelligence-ideology-brandon-creighton.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). You’d think the Terminator robots would have better things to do, right? Not in Texas! The effort is being pushed by Brandon Creighton, the former state lawmaker who has led the Texas Tech University System since November. Creighton has said there was “quite a bit of garbage in curriculum” at universities and believes his review process “will produce the best curriculum in America.” The university system has reviewed more than 14,000 courses, with about 60 recommended for modification. Officials say another 300 were proactively modified by faculty before review. But professors say the process has produced factual errors and plenty of anxiety. At one faculty meeting, professors reportedly described the AI-generated reports as “A.I. slop.” One professor, Lucy Schiller, said a report hallucinated information about a course she wasn't teaching. The system also flagged a book she did teach, *Voice of the Fish*, which explores the trans experience. Schiller ultimately left Texas Tech and started at Grinnell College this month. Other professors have begun changing their courses themselves out of fear of running afoul of the new rules. One historian removed two weeks of study about Viking men and women because he worried that material about gender-changing figures in Norse mythology might cause problems. Another professor worried that mentioning gay and bisexual men who were victims of the Nazis could cause her Holocaust literature course to be pushed out of the core curriculum. “Now the Holocaust becomes an elective,” she said. ## **Minnesota Is Coming to Texas for One Very Specific Reason** Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has sued Gov. Greg Abbott, demanding that Texas [extradite an ICE agent charged with shooting an immigrant](https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2026/08/18/minnesota-sues-texas-gov-greg-abbott-demanding-former-ice-agents-extradition/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) during the Trump administration's immigration crackdown in Minneapolis. Christian Castro, 52, faces four counts of assault and one count of falsely reporting a crime related to a Jan. 14 incident. Prosecutors allege he fired through the front door of a Minneapolis home he knew was occupied. Castro is currently being held at a jail in Texas. Minnesota officials have repeatedly asked Abbott to authorize his extradition. Last week, Ellison warned that he would sue if Abbott didn't do so by Monday. On Tuesday, he followed through. “This is not some accidental thing,” Ellison said. “This is a choice.” Abbott, for his part, said he wouldn't respond to Minnesota prosecutors until they acknowledge their fault in what the Trump administration has accused of being fraud in Minnesota and repay the government for it. “I don’t trust \[Minnesota Gov.\] Tim Walz on anything, let alone something like this,” Abbott said. Minnesota's lawsuit also seeks to prevent the Cameron County Sheriff's Office from releasing Castro. According to the lawsuit, he could be released under Texas law as soon as Aug. 26 if he isn't extradited. And this isn't happening in a vacuum. The shooting was one of three January incidents during the federal immigration surge in Minneapolis in which federal officers fired at people. The other two resulted in the deaths of Renée Good and Alex Pretti, both U.S. citizens. The legal principle here is pretty straightforward: If you're charged with a crime in one state and flee to another, the second state is generally supposed to send you back. As University of Houston law professor Seth Chandler put it, extradition is “part of the glue that holds the nation together.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/08/Big-Bend-with-Trucks-1.jpg) ## **Big Bend Gets a Temporary Reprieve From the Bulldozers** Let’s end on some good news: The bulldozers have stopped bulldozing Big Bend National Park. At least temporarily. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott said Monday that [construction of border infrastructure in Big Bend had been halted](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/17/us/big-bend-border-wall-texas-construction.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) while he travels to West Texas to personally evaluate the project and meet with local officials. Contractors had been building a patrol road and vehicle barriers along the border with Mexico, cutting a path through parts of the park near major natural attractions. The project has drawn criticism from opponents and local law enforcement officials, who say the infrastructure is costly and unnecessary in such a remote area where relatively few migrants have crossed. Federal officials had previously said they were no longer planning a 30-foot wall there. Instead, the project involves an access road, detection technology and vehicle barriers along roughly 118 miles of border inside the park. The work has proceeded under waivers of environmental and other laws, and several lawsuits have been filed seeking to stop it. Jenna Cantrell, who lives nearby in Terlingua, said she visited the park Monday and saw no contractor traffic. “Every day the bulldozers aren’t working is a nice day,” she said. But she's not exactly declaring victory. “We’re not going to rest until there’s no more contract.” Laiken Jordahl of the Center for Biological Diversity said the project had already caused “irreversible” damage to parts of the desert ecosystem around Mariscal Mountain. “You can’t pick up a rock and take it home from Big Bend National Park, and yet we’re seeing these federal contractors gouging a permanent scar,” he said. | ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/07/Dinkus-1.png) | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [ ![Become a Member](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/07/become-a-member-1.png) ](https://thebarbedwire.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#/portal/signup) | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Follow The Barbed Wire [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/thebarbedwiretexas/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) · [TikTok](https://www.tiktok.com/@thebarbedwiretx?ref=thebarbedwire.com) · [Bluesky](https://bsky.app/profile/thebarbedwire.com?ref=thebarbedwire.com) · [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/@thebarbedwire?ref=thebarbedwire.com) | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ### Can You Still Buy Weed? And Other Texas Questions URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/can-you-still-buy-weed-and-other-texas-questions-2/ Last updated: 2026-08-11T13:28:29.000Z ![Brian Gaar](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/07/Brian-Gaar.png) Hey y'all, it's Brian Gaar with *The Barbed Wire*. And good morning to everyone who woke up wondering: *Can I still buy weed? Is my salad trying to kill me? Is the power grid about to be eaten by AI? Is Ken Paxton actually losing? And why is Buc-ee's dressing Aggies now?* It’s just another week in Texas, where we’re banning some THC, pausing data centers, watching a surprisingly competitive Senate race, telling you to wash your lettuce, and somehow finding time to release what might be the most aggressively Texan T-shirt ever made. | ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/07/Dinkus-1.png) | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ## **Texas THC Ban Takes Effect. Delta-9 Lives to Fight Another Day.** Texas' [new hemp rules kicked in last week](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/07/30/texas-thc-cannabis-ban-delta-9-8-marijuana/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and the result is confusing enough that you'll probably need to ask your local smoke shop employee for a flowchart. Starting July 31, the state banned several hemp-derived THC products, including delta-8, delta-10, THCP, and THCA flower, after a Texas Supreme Court ruling allowed the Texas Department of State Health Services to classify them as Schedule I drugs. Seems nuts, right? Welcome to Texas. The big exception? Low-dose delta-9 THC products remain legal, meaning we can still buy qualifying edibles, drinks, tinctures, and (for now) even smokable delta-9 hemp while a separate court fight over that ban continues. Cannabis advocates say the ruling could wipe out 60% to 90% of products sold in some stores and force businesses to close. Supporters of the restrictions (\*cough\* the booze industry \*cough\*) argue they're needed to protect children. Meanwhile, possession of the newly banned products could now carry penalties ranging from 180 days to two years in prison and fines of up to $10,000. So congratulations, Texas. We somehow made buying weed require more legal research than buying a gun. Yee-fuckin’-haw. ## **Texas' Summer Parasite Is Back. Please Wash Your Lettuce.** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/08/stocksnap-still-2608134_1920.jpg) Texas health officials say [confirmed cyclospora cases jumped from 121 to 188 in just one week](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/public-health/article/cyclospora-texas-numbers-update-22374148.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com), with another 10 probable cases under investigation. The Dallas-Fort Worth region saw one of the biggest increases, jumping from six reported cases to 31\. South Texas remains the state's hotspot with 68 cases, followed by the Houston area with 43. The parasite causes cyclosporiasis, which is the gastrointestinal equivalent of spending an afternoon at Six Flags in the middle of August. The good news: Texas has reported 37 hospitalizations but no deaths this year. Officials recommend avoiding recalled foods, washing produce, and cooking fruits and vegetables to at least 158 degrees if possible. Or you *could* just start an all-brisket diet and be fine! ## **Abbott Hits Pause on Texas Data Centers** After months of complaints about giant AI data centers popping up across Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott [has ordered state regulators to stop approving new facilities](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/08/03/texas-data-center-project-audit-greg-abbott/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) until they complete audits of projects waiting to connect to the power grid. Abbott wants developers to disclose information including electricity use, water consumption, tax incentives, ownership, cooling systems, and community impacts before they're allowed onto the grid. ERCOT says more than 1,800 projects are currently waiting in the connection queue, representing more than five times the state's record peak electricity demand. Abbott says roughly 90% of those new power requests are for data centers. Critics say the move doesn't go far enough, arguing it's more of a paperwork timeout than a true moratorium. Nothing says "Texas infrastructure planning" like realizing maybe we should ask where all the electricity is going *after* hundreds of data centers line up to plug in. ## **New Poll Shows Talarico Leading Paxton** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/08/Senate-Underwater.jpg) Another poll has Democrat James Talarico [narrowly ahead of Republican Ken Paxton](https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/6006373-democrat-talarico-leads-paxton-polling/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in Texas' U.S. Senate race. The new Texas Southern University survey shows Talarico leading 47% to 45%, with 6% of voters still undecided. That's within the poll's margin of error, but it follows a Fox News poll released just days earlier that also showed Talarico with a small lead. The poll also found Paxton underwater on favorability, with 39% viewing him favorably and 57% unfavorably. Talarico was nearly even, with 46% favorable and 47% unfavorable. Decision Desk HQ currently rates the race as a toss-up. In a sane state it wouldn’t be, but after a bazillion years of Republican dominance, we’ll take what we can get. ## **Texas A&M and Buc-ee's Finally Become One** In news that somehow feels less like a corporate partnership and more like a prophecy being fulfilled, Texas A&M and Buc-ee's have [launched their first co-branded merchandise](https://stories.tamu.edu/news/2026/08/04/texas-am-university-and-buc-ees-launch-co-branded-merchandise/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The first item is a Texas A&M/Buc-ee's T-shirt, available at 20 Buc-ee's locations around Texas and at the Barnes & Noble bookstore in College Station. (And I can personally vouch for the new shirts’ existence, having seen one recently at a Buc-ee’s in Temple. It was a bit weird, but also … not really.) The partnership celebrates Buc-ee's founder Arch "Beaver" Aplin III, a Texas A&M graduate whose $60 million gift is helping build the Aplin Center on campus. Earlier this year, Texas A&M became the first university to sell Buc-ee's products on campus. Now you can wear the collaboration too. Honestly, if this partnership eventually results in a Buc-ee's inside Kyle Field, none of us should be surprised. | ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/07/Dinkus-1.png) | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [ ![Become a Member](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/07/become-a-member-1.png) ](https://thebarbedwire.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#/portal/signup) | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Follow The Barbed Wire [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/thebarbedwiretexas/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) · [TikTok](https://www.tiktok.com/@thebarbedwiretx?ref=thebarbedwire.com) · [Bluesky](https://bsky.app/profile/thebarbedwire.com?ref=thebarbedwire.com) · [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/@thebarbedwire?ref=thebarbedwire.com) | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ### Texas’ First Nonbinary City Council Member Wants To Make Denton More Affordable, Equitable and Safe URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-first-nonbinary-city-council-member-wants-to-make-denton-more-affordable-equitable-and-safe/ Last updated: 2026-08-06T15:50:36.000Z Texas just elected its first nonbinary city council member, who is also likely the first openly nonbinary elected public official anywhere in the state. Despite all the challenges facing their city – from AI data centers sucking up resources to a rapidly worsening affordable housing crisis – and even after all the vitriol they faced during their campaign, they still believe in the future of Denton. At 38 years old, George Ferrie, who [won the office on June 13](https://www.keranews.org/elections-2026/2026-06-15/george-ferrie-wins-denton-city-council-place-5-seat-after-tight-race-with-erica-garland?ref=thebarbedwire.com) after a divisive runoff election, is part of a wave of millennials elected to Denton’s city council. With their election, four out of seven of the city council members are under the age of 40, and Ferrie believes this generational shift is part of a mandate from local voters who want to feel represented by a diverse group that’s dedicated to making concrete improvements in their quality of life. “I'm grateful that our city sees the need to have and prioritize young folk on council who have been through these systems and understand them more acutely to create actionable change in a time that feels really heavy and hard,” they told *The Barbed Wire.* “I actually do feel quite hopeful.” Supported by Kind Clinic A special thanks to Kind Clinic and Texas Health Action for underwriting our queer Texas coverage. Even though they expected to face opposition, they were surprised by the intensity with which their campaign came under attack, with opponents going after everything from their sexuality to their work as a social worker who supports LGBTQ+ populations in the state. We spoke after Ferrie had taken a short vacation to recuperate from the campaign. “I knew and expected that some harmful, hurtful things were going to be said,” Ferrie said. “I did not think it gets to the point where you've had people harassing my husband or my volunteers.” Even so, Ferrie’s thrilled to be breaking barriers for nonbinary people in elected office, and knows that’s part of what appealed to voters in Denton, a progressive college town about forty miles northwest of Dallas. “The reason I stayed in Denton this long is because I love it, right? I love this town. It's so supportive. It's so diverse.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/08/615511148_1456492809819551_5002574654540967419_n.png) However, identity is just a small part of what Ferrie brought to the table for their city. Ferrie is an experienced community organizer, with a background that includes founding a theater troupe as a dancer and running a local wine bar before they started [Radiant Counseling and Wellness Collective](https://radiantcounseling.care/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), their private social work practice. They’re on the [board of Pride Denton](https://www.pridenton.org/team?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and were part of the campaign to pass [Denton’s nondiscrimination ordinance](https://www.cityofdenton.com/910/Non-Discrimination-Ordinance?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which is one of the most comprehensive in the state. For their successful campaign, Ferrie developed a [progressive, data-driven platform](https://www.georgefordenton.com/vision?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that offers material solutions to what they see as the biggest issues the city needs to solve, especially a serious housing crisis. “I've served on 12 different boards and nonprofits over the last 21 years, and one of them recently I just stepped off the board of is [Denton Affordable Housing Corporation](https://www.dentonaffordablehousing.com/about-dahc?ref=thebarbedwire.com),” Ferrie said. The nonprofit aims to increase both the amount of affordable housing available in the region, and supportive services which help people stay in their homes. Today, Denton is the 15th fastest growing city in the U.S. according to census data, but the Dallas Fort-Worth region, as a whole, lags behind when it comes to the available inventory of affordable housing. “DFW, currently, only has 14 homes for every 100 low or severely low-income family that needs a house,” Ferrie said. Their solutions for the imbalance include making more efficient usage of recently passed housing bonds, looping in local nonprofits of all sizes that handle outreach to vulnerable populations, and educating landlords about the opportunities for tax breaks if they offer affordable housing. “We have a long way to go to make sure that we're not only focused on the missing middle, which is imperative and important … but also, what type of responsible growth we want, and what that looks like.” It’s a combination approach that Ferrie returned to multiple times during our conversation. Ferrie’s also worked with multiple local nonprofits and coalitions that serve Denton’s unhoused population, and is committed to increasing the amount of permanent supportive housing for those in need. They cited one upcoming project, [McAdams Haven](https://www.dentonaffordablehousing.com/about-mcadams-haven?ref=thebarbedwire.com), as an example: an affordable housing complex expected to offer 84 units by the end of 2027, which is partnered with the county’s mental health services and other nonprofits to help the residents adjust and prosper. “George has always been the kind of person that just shows up and will support even when it's a non-Denton Pride-related thing,” explained Kamyon Conner, executive director of the [Texas Equal Access Fund](https://www.teafund.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), an abortion fund offering financial and emotional assistance to people seeking reproductive healthcare. Conner serves alongside Ferrie on the board of Denton Pride. “I've seen them supporting the efforts when there was a freeze and people's pipes broke and didn't have access to water, and \[when\] we had a boil notice, George delivering water to people's doorsteps, including my own.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/08/615511148_1456492809819551_5002574654540967419_nn.png) Ferrie and Conner met around 2017 when Denton Pride began holding meetings at Ferrie’s former wine bar. They’ve been allies and collaborators on projects numerous times since then, from LGBTQ+ events to passing the nondiscrimination ordinance. Conner, who is also a social worker, said she acted as something of a mentor to Ferrie as they joined their field. She said social work has helped to inform Ferrie’s holistic approach to problem-solving. “George really operates from that social work value of seeing people as full individuals and trying to find the best ways systematically to support those folks, especially those who are most at the margins, which are our communities that are unhoused, which are our BIPOC communities, and our queer and trans folks and our youth.” Social work depends on cultural competence training and expertise – the kind of training that’s [actively under attack by the Republican Party in our state](https://www.texasobserver.org/social-work-programs-accreditation-dei/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “You're not going to be able to silo yourself and work as a social worker, right?” Conner explained. As a result, social workers are also well-acquainted with building power to push back against the far-right agenda. That’s important, since Denton has a history of having bipartisan initiatives overruled by Republicans at the legislature, from [a historic local ban on fracking](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-33140732?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to [cannabis decriminalization](https://www.dallasobserver.com/news/denton-repeals-marijuana-decriminalization-mandate-22350092/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). With big dreams for Denton – from a diversion program for recently arrested unhoused people in a mental health crisis to restrictions on the continued buildout of AI data centers – Ferrie knows they’re likely to face opposition from the state. However, Ferrie believes that there is a political change for good happening in the U.S., as progressive and socialist candidates get elected and even supporters of the right become disillusioned with how they’ve been failed by governments and politicians. “I'm very proud to be the first non-binary individual elected to public office in the state of Texas, and I think it speaks to this shift that we're seeing.” And Ferrie is prepared to work across the aisle to build a better world, as long as people are willing to listen. “You know the systems are broken; they're failing us, and we need people who have navigated those systems,” Ferrie told us. “We need people who are showing up for the community and who understand opportunities that exist and are willing to pull those levers and make things happen and have those hard conversations to educate folks when … they don't agree because they don't understand.” --- ### Three Senate Debates Scheduled, Paxton Hasn't Confirmed URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/three-senate-debates-scheduled-paxton-hasnt-confirmed/ Last updated: 2026-08-05T01:58:38.000Z Three televised debates in the Texas U.S. Senate race now have dates, venues, and broadcast partners. Democrat James Talarico has accepted all three. Republican Ken Paxton has not confirmed any of them. - Sept. 22, 8 p.m. CT — Rio Grande Valley (NBC/Telemundo/Hearst) - Oct. 6, 8 p.m. CT — Dallas (WFAA/TEGNA) - Oct. 13, 9 p.m. CT — Austin (KXAN/Nexstar) Paxton's campaign told the [Texas Tribune](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/07/16/texas-ken-paxton-james-talarico-debate-senate-race-2026/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) he intends to debate and is close to terms with one outlet. Adviser Nick Maddux said Texans deserve "a fair side-by-side comparison, not political theater," and objected to negotiating through Talarico's press shop or accepting a moderator chosen by the opposing campaign. Talarico announced the schedule on July 29 and framed the gap plainly: he's accepted, and it's on Paxton to show up. Last month Paxton took questions at a Fort Worth press conference and ended it when reporters asked about his real estate holdings and his voting address. Agreeing to debate and agreeing to show up are two different things. The first date is September 22nd. We'll tell you whether he's on that stage. ### ✨ Dreaming of a world full of ‘wonderful things’ URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/dreaming-of-a-world-full-of-wonderful-things-2/ Last updated: 2026-08-04T15:16:21.000Z 🎭 Dear queer stars, how can we hang onto art that brings us queer joy? Given all the slings and arrows the world is throwing at us right now, it’s easy to worry for the future of queer creativity. Let’s talk about it, and maybe find some kind of hope, in this week’s Big & Bright 🌈 ⭐ 👏! ⚠️ We recently launched a [new and improved website](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/) where you can catch up on Big & Bright 🌈 ⭐ 👏 newsletters, as well as my [latest LGBTQ+ reporting](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/tag/queer-texas/)! And, while you’re here, please consider supporting our work: | [Become a Member ](https://thebarbedwire.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#/portal/signup) | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | *A special thanks to Kind Clinic and Texas Health Action for underwriting our first sponsored vertical and our newsletter. All essays, reporting, and analysis will remain, as always, editorially independent.* 🎵 When [I interviewed Austin musician Caleb De Casper](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/interview-with-a-lone-star-vampire-caleb-de-casper-is-reborn-in-darkness/), he told me how public broadcasting nurtured his musical awakening, from classical symphonies to Little Richard’s [appearance on *Sesame Street*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWCEG6lV0ek&ref=thebarbedwire.com). Coincidentally, I discovered Caleb’s music through a 2022 show where he and other local acts performed [with a live symphony orchestra](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSZs9LZKxw8&ref=thebarbedwire.com). The backers of that show were PBS and our local NPR affiliate, KUT. 😢 Sometimes it’s hard to grasp the scale of the damage right-wing politicians have done to our society, and then something personal brings it home. I found myself wondering whether the next generation will have the chance to discover the depth and wonder that music and the arts have to offer, thanks to bone-deep cuts to programs like public broadcasting. When I asked Caleb about this, he told me, “I hope that the wonderful things that we have in this world make it through the turbulence that we're experiencing right now.” 🌠 My queer stars, we can’t turn back the clock and undo what’s already been done. But what we can do is make sure each of us preserves the art, music and other media that brings us queer joy, and support the artists who continue to create despite a hostile culture. Hang onto those queer albums, books, comics, zines, and movies so we can use them as a lifeline that nurtures the next generation of queer kids. Like the living books from [*Fahrenheit 451*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6VUExA5UKA&ref=thebarbedwire.com)*,* we can each of us carry forward the “wonderful things,” and keep them alive til this dark night ends. 🧛‍♂️ Read on for my interview with Caleb, a very Texas vampire, and for all the latest from queer life in our state and beyond … | [Become a Member ](https://thebarbedwire.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#/portal/signup) | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/07/Dinkus-1.png) | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/07/Kind-Clinic-1.jpg)](https://kindclinic.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) ## **Steers & Queers 🐂** *What we’re writing and reading in Texas.* 🌈 The City of Austin [removed its rainbow crosswalks](https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/austin-city-workers-remove-rainbow-crosswalks-early-monday-morning/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on Monday morning, a move made under pressure from the state government. As [previously shared](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-transformative-power-of-being-weird-2/), locals already replaced the roadway art with [other rainbow features](https://thedailytexan.com/2026/06/21/we-must-protect-austins-values-austin-mayor-holds-community-events-amid-removal-of-crosswalk-murals/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in the gayborhood. Queer Austinites rallied on Tuesday, with drag queen Brigitte Bandit declaring [we must refuse](https://www.instagram.com/p/DbCM1B1kYtD/?img%5Findex=1&ref=thebarbedwire.com) to “let our history and our presence be chipped away piece by piece.” 🐘 [Neil J. Young of the *Philadelphia Inquirer* asks](https://www.inquirer.com/politics/nation/talarico-paxton-lgbtq-republicans-homophobia-bigotry-20260714.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), ‘Why have LGBTQ+ Republicans suddenly gone silent in the face of homophobic attacks on James Talarico?’ 🤑 *Axios Dallas* laid out the [social and economic challenges LGBTQ+ Americans face](https://www.axios.com/local/dallas/2026/07/09/leaving-texas-isn-t-so-simple-for-lgbtq-residents?ref=thebarbedwire.com) as they weigh living in more affordable places (like Texas) versus cities in blue states where they may feel safer but the cost-of-living may be much higher. ♿ In honor of Disability Pride Month, *OutSmart’s* Brandon Wolf profiled longtime HIV survivor and [Houston resident Nathaniel De La Fuente](https://www.outsmartmagazine.com/2026/07/nathaniel-de-la-fuente-disability-pride-houston/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). 💅 Nathaniel slays when he tells Brandon, “I know that my inner strength can outmatch most people who deem themselves as normal.” ## **Stars & Stripes 🇺🇸** *What’s happening in the rest of the gayborhood.* 🪖 Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth declared that [male servicemembers 30-years-old and up](https://abcnews.com/Politics/hegseth-directs-troops-30-testosterone-checked/story?id=134793096&ref=thebarbedwire.com) would have their testosterone tested, and would be able to receive testosterone supplements if it’s low, despite [the same treatment](https://www.them.us/politics/pentagon-testosterone-program?ref=thebarbedwire.com) being [denied](https://www.readtpa.com/p/theres-no-gotcha-here?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to many [transgender servicemembers and vets](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/healthcare-for-trans-veterans-was-already-bad-and-under-trump-its-getting-worse/). Kara Corcoran, executive director of [Sparta Pride](https://spartapride.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), accurately pointed out the policy’s contradictions: “The same class of evidence-based medical treatment cannot be characterized as readiness-enhancing for one group and readiness-destroying for another.” 🙏 Family members and advocates for trans rights are blaming the [suicide of 16-year-old Idaho resident May Pollard](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/idaho-pushed-anti-trans-laws-transition-care-bathroom-trump-rcna350199?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on the harmful effects of anti-trans legislation. We won’t forget you, May, and we’ll fight in your name. 🏳️‍⚧️ Chalk up a win for once: Massive backlash forced Health and Human Services to halt plans to [block medicare and medicaid funding to any hospitals](https://www.npr.org/2026/07/13/nx-s1-5888586/transgender-gender-affirming-care-medicare-medicaid-hhs?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that provide gender-affirming care to young people. However, the Trump admin is still targeting trans healthcare, including attempts to [subpoena the medical records of trans teens](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-doj-subpoena-trans-kids%5Fn%5F6a5661f4e4b0d75ea1c23747?ref=thebarbedwire.com). 📖 Republicans in the Senate introduced a [book ban bill](https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/libraries/article/100876-national-book-ban-bill-now-introduced-in-senate-committee.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) which, if it became law, could see literature acknowledging the existence of trans and other LGBTQ+ people [censored from school libraries](https://www.everylibrary.org/statement%5Fon%5Fthe%5Fsenate%5Fbook%5Fban%5Fbill?ref=thebarbedwire.com) nationwide. Similar legislation was [introduced in the House](https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/libraries/article/99810-same-ingredients-different-recipe-in-proposed-u-s-book-ban.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) where it passed the Education and Workforce Committee along party lines. Neither bill is currently scheduled for a chamber-wide vote. 🫏 Meanwhile, the Democratic Party continues to fight internally over whether to fight for trans rights, after Amy Acton, the [Dems candidate for governor in Ohio](https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/dem-ohio-governor-candidate-amy-acton?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and [U.S. Representative Marcy Kaptur of Toledo](https://www.advocate.com/politics/states/ohio-democrats-transgender-retreat?ref=thebarbedwire.com), made transphobic remarks, drawing condemnation from other Buckeye Dems. 🇬🇧 Ultrabigot JK Rowling and her cohort are [threatening Amnesty International](https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/terf-activist-jk-rowling-threatens?ref=thebarbedwire.com), because the organization issued then [retracted](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/jk-rowling-amnesty-amnesty-international-uk-beira-edinburgh-b3014615.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) a report ([full text here](https://skywriter.blue/@esqueer.net/3mqhgfxhyjk2h?ref=thebarbedwire.com)) calling out the shockingly bad state of trans rights on “[TERF Island](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-transgender%5Fmovement%5Fin%5Fthe%5FUnited%5FKingdom?ref=thebarbedwire.com).” Classic “[Are we the baddies?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToKcmnrE5oY&t=2s&ref=thebarbedwire.com)” moment. ⚧️ This week, I’m absolutely living for this [headline from Quispe López](https://www.them.us/entertainment/tv-and-movies/elliot-page-the-odyssey-backlash?ref=thebarbedwire.com), lifestyle editor for *Them:* “Elliot Page Is Three Things Transphobes Will Never Be: Happy, in a Hit Movie, and With a Girlfriend.” Not incidentally, *Odyssey* had a [$124M opening weekend](https://variety.com/2026/film/box-office/the-odyssey-box-office-christopher-nolan-opening-weekend-shatters-expectations-1236815861/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), despite the whining of very-online dudebros. [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/07/Kind-Clinic-1-1.jpg)](https://kindclinic.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) ## **Bright & Buzzy**📱 *Memes and more.* 🚽 ~~Trans~~ [children don’t belong in toilets](https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTALxMMro/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) (from *The Onion’s* new[*Infowars*](https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTALxAxHr/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)). ✈️ [When you're a lesbian at TSA](https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTAL4cUYV/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). 🏳️‍🌈 The ever fabulous Vivian Wilson explains [why we really need more gays in government](https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTAL4wqsk/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). ## **Shameless** [**Merch Plug**](https://thebarbedwire.com/shop/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) 🧢 📚 If you’re like me and your to-read pile is always growing, then you need our [Read Banned Books tote](https://shop.thebarbedwire.com/en-usd/products/read-banned-books-tote?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to carry home your latest bookstore (or public library!) haul. It features a freedom-fighting cowgirl who knows what’s up: ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/07/Read-Banned-Books-Tote.png) Reach out if you have tips, story ideas, or to tell me about your favorite queer art ([kit@thebarbedwire.com](mailto:kit@thebarbedwire.com)). 🌈 Stay big, bright, and bold, Kit (They/Them) 💖 --- ## **The Big Story** 🤳 ### [Interview With a Lone Star Vampire: Caleb De Casper Is Reborn In Darkness](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/interview-with-a-lone-star-vampire-caleb-de-casper-is-reborn-in-darkness/) [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/07/BW-De-Casper-1.jpg)](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/interview-with-a-lone-star-vampire-caleb-de-casper-is-reborn-in-darkness/) *No Longer a ‘Good Boy,’ Caleb De Casper is back with a darker, more grown up sound and a stronger sense of self.* All rockstars have at least a little bit of the undead in them, according to Caleb De Casper. “Musicians, true musicians, are vampires,” the Austin musician explained during an interview with *The Barbed Wire* before a recent performance*.* “We're night people, creatures of the night. We dabble in hedonism, (mind-altering) substances, intense passion and longing that we can't quite put our finger on.” De Casper is hardly the first person to connect rock stars and vampires, or queer people with the monstrous. After all, *The Vampire Lestat,* which depicts Anne Rice’s antihero as a rockstar, has received buckets of praise and even racked up multiple GLAAD Media Awards for its positive representation of LGBTQ+ characters. And the [connection between LGBTQ+ symbolism and horror](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBTQ%5Fthemes%5Fin%5Fhorror%5Ffilms?ref=thebarbedwire.com#References) has been the subject of much scholarship, but De Casper feels a more personal connection to the bloodsucker than most. [Read the full story →](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/interview-with-a-lone-star-vampire-caleb-de-casper-is-reborn-in-darkness/) ### Weed Whiplash URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/weed-whiplash/ Last updated: 2026-08-04T16:09:09.000Z As of July 31, Texas bans hemp products built on Delta 8, Delta 10, THC-P and THC-A flower — now Schedule 1 controlled substances. Possession is a state jail felony: 180 days to two years, plus fines up to $10,000\. Shops that keep selling can lose their hemp license. Still legal: Delta 9 under 0.3% by dry weight — gummies, drinks, tinctures. And smokable Delta 9 flower, still on shelves only because the state's separate smokable ban is frozen in court. [Experts told the Texas Tribune](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/07/30/texas-thc-cannabis-ban-delta-9-8-marijuana/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) 60 to 90% of THC products could vanish from some 14,000 licensed stores statewide. In May, the Texas Supreme Court revived a 2021 rule courts had kept frozen for five years. At least two businesses are prepping lawsuits. ### Ken Paxton Would Like a Word (But Not That One) URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/ken-paxton-would-like-a-word-but-not-that-one-2/ Last updated: 2026-07-27T18:26:45.000Z Howdy y'all, it's Brian Gaar with *The Barbed Wire*. There are weeks when Texas feels like a state. Then there are weeks when it feels like four different TV shows airing at the same time. This week, Ken Paxton held a press conference that ended the second reporters started asking questions. New court filings cast fresh doubt on the government's account of a fatal ICE shooting in Houston. Canada looked at Texas livestock and said, "Yeah… we're gonna sit this one out for a while." And the Houston Dynamo found a way to get paid to put "Dude Wipes" on their butts. Let's get into it. --- ## **Ken Paxton Holds Press Conference, Immediately Leaves Press Conference** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/07/gettyimages-1328181596-1-scaled.jpg) Credit: Brandon Bell / Getty Images Texas Attorney General and Senate candidate [Ken Paxton](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/ken-paxton-scandal-timeline/) [held a rare press conference Tuesday](https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:4llrhdclvdlmmynkwsmg5tdc/post/3mr6hjlz77c26?ref=thebarbedwire.com). And it went about as well as you’d think a Ken Paxton press conference would go. Reporters wanted to ask about the growing list of [controversies surrounding his campaign](https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/ken-paxton-press-conference-scandals-texas?ref=thebarbedwire.com), including allegations involving where he voted, reports about mortgage documents listing multiple primary residences, and recent reporting that property records suggest Paxton or his trusts now own at least 15 properties worth roughly $9 million. Paxton had other plans. When one reporter started asking about those allegations, Paxton interrupted to say he only wanted questions about law enforcement. Reporters, exercising the radical notion that journalists get to decide what questions they ask, kept pressing. So Paxton walked away from his own press conference. Lol. His Democratic opponent, state Rep. James Talarico, criticized Paxton for refusing to answer questions. Not surprisingly, Paxton still has not agreed to debate his opponent. Subscribe to the Wild Texas Newsletter Texas is one big, wild place. Our weekly round up keeps you in the know. All killer, no filler. It's Texas news worth your time. Subscribe Check your inbox and click the link to confirm. Something went wrong. Try again. ## **New Witness Statements Challenge ICE's Account of Fatal Houston Shooting** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/07/GettyImages-2285291516.jpg) Credit: Brandon Bell / Getty Images New court filings have raised significant new questions about the fatal July 7 ICE shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston. Two passengers riding in Salgado Araujo's van [submitted handwritten statements](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/07/21/texas-houston-ice-shooting-witnesses-statements/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) saying ICE vehicles struck the van from behind and the side before it stopped. Both men said Salgado Araujo had already come to a complete stop when agents opened fire. Those accounts directly contradict ICE's initial public statement, which said an agent fired in self-defense after Salgado Araujo attempted to use the van to run over an officer. One passenger wrote that it was "impossible" for officers to have been in danger of being run over because they were positioned alongside the van, not in front of it. The Department of Homeland Security referred questions to the Office of Inspector General, which is investigating the shooting, while the FBI is also conducting its own investigation. The case has drawn increased scrutiny because the agents involved were not wearing body cameras, and officials have said there were no dashboard cameras either. ## **Canada Would Like Texas to Keep Its Livestock to Itself** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/07/GettyImages-2280052877-sm.jpg) Credit: Brandon Bell / Getty Images Canada has [temporarily suspended imports](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/07/14/texas-animals-exports-canada-suspended/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of a long list of animals from Texas—including horses, cattle, pigs, sheep, goats, deer, elk, llamas and more—over concerns about the spread of the New World screwworm. If you're unfamiliar with the New World screwworm, congratulations on having a pleasant day up until this point. The parasitic fly lays eggs in open wounds, and its larvae feed on living tissue. Texas has confirmed 34 cases since the infestation was detected in South Texas in June. Canadian officials say the restriction is meant to prevent the pest from reaching Canada during the summer months, even though the country's climate isn't suitable for the fly to establish itself long-term. Experts estimate roughly 500 million sterile flies need to be released every week to eliminate the infestation. The U.S. is currently producing about 100 million per week, meaning officials still have a long road ahead. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/07/Dude-wipes-1.jpg) Credit: Ahmet Kurt / The Barbed Wire ## **Houston Dynamo Put Dude Wipes Exactly Where You Think They Did** The Houston Dynamo [have signed a multiyear sponsorship deal with Dude Wipes](https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Articles/2026/07/21/dynamo-sell-new-back-of-kit-sponsorship-to-dude-wipes/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), making them the first MLS team to sell the league's new back-of-jersey advertising space as a standalone sponsorship. Which, if you're Dude Wipes, is apparently the dream. The company says its marketing strategy revolves around "being on the butt" of uniform partnerships. And their campaign with the Dynamo includes the slogan: "Space City has Uranus covered." No notes. The logo will debut on the backs of Dynamo jerseys next month, and current jersey owners will even be able to add the new sponsor logo to existing kits. Somewhere, Don Draper is either crying or taking furious notes. --- Subscribe to the Wild Texas Newsletter Texas is one big, wild place. Our weekly round up keeps you in the know. All killer, no filler. It's Texas news worth your time. Subscribe Check your inbox and click the link to confirm. Something went wrong. Try again. ### Interview With a Lone Star Vampire: Caleb De Casper Is Reborn In Darkness URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/interview-with-a-lone-star-vampire-caleb-de-casper-is-reborn-in-darkness/ Last updated: 2026-08-06T19:20:30.000Z All rockstars have at least a little bit of the undead in them, according to Caleb De Casper. “Musicians, true musicians, are vampires,” the Austin musician explained during an interview with *The Barbed Wire* before a recent performance*.* “We're night people, creatures of the night. We dabble in hedonism, (mind-altering) substances, intense passion and longing that we can't quite put our finger on.” De Casper is hardly the first person to connect rock stars and vampires, or queer people with the monstrous. After all, *The Vampire Lestat,* which depicts Anne Rice’s antihero as a rockstar, has received buckets of praise and even racked up multiple GLAAD Media Awards for its positive representation of LGBTQ+ characters. And the [connection between LGBTQ+ symbolism and horror](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBTQ%5Fthemes%5Fin%5Fhorror%5Ffilms?ref=thebarbedwire.com#References) has been the subject of much scholarship, but De Casper feels a more personal connection to the bloodsucker than most. Supported by Kind Clinic A special thanks to Kind Clinic and Texas Health Action for underwriting our queer Texas coverage. All essays, reporting, and analysis is, as always, editorially independent. De Casper’s music has transformed stylistically over the years, ranging from the gender-bending glam rock of his 2022 debut album “[Femme Boy](https://open.spotify.com/album/2NdYRh2Fh6voD9r9hD9YTX?si=IaBvRHNiRca6Pt4y%5F-6z1Q&ref=thebarbedwire.com),”to his current incarnation, a swaggering vampire dude, clad in scarlet and leopard print. He’s risen, as if from the grave, in this new form after several years out of the public eye. Now in his early 30s, he said he’s spent the time refining his sound and maturing as a person. “I needed time to grow as an individual and to not worry so much about public perception or interpersonal relationships,” he said. “I felt like I had a lot of like people who were just hanger-ons, and they were … making empty promises, trying to control me, and telling me what I should and shouldn't say in front of people.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/07/BW-De-Casper-2.jpg) Now De Casper’s back, with a new image that he says is closer to his true self. And he’s releasing new music, such as “[Waiting 4 Heaven](https://open.spotify.com/track/0x8LhjbDQmOd6qNwQUlxpT?si=62d10cc0ae5d4cfb&ref=thebarbedwire.com),” in preparation for a summer 2027 release of his next album, “Delirium.” In the single, De Casper’s deep voice echoes over urgent and dramatic synth pop, creating a darker tone than much of his earlier work. During our interview, he wryly pushed back when I suggested he was adopting “a new vampire persona now.” “Who said anything about a persona?” At least symbolically speaking, the vampire is more than just a character or role he’s playing, but an archetype he feels haunted by, ever since a troubling experience with drugs at a party about a decade ago, when he said he felt close to death. At first, he said, he was unfazed by the brush with the abyss. “My blood came back, I came back conscious, and I went back to the party.” But even years later, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he’d been transformed by that moment, and possibly not for the better. It’s something many of us who lived hard in our younger years can empathize with: a feeling of psychedelic unreality caused by a suspicion that [everything that came after ](https://americanliterature.com/author/ambrose-bierce/short-story/an-occurrence-at-owl-creek-bridge?ref=thebarbedwire.com)a mind-bending trip might actually be a near death experience or, in De Casper’s case, a transformation into the undead. “That's the moment I became infected, and then I have lived past 10 years trying to get through life as this night creature who needs to reckon with mortality and spirituality and love and boundaries and relationships and, you know, being dangerous.” He said major influences on this period include INXS, Lady Gaga, Peaches, and Depeche Mode. But De Casper’s love of music runs deep into his childhood, and his musical heroes go even further back – which is another way he recognizes himself in a vampiric agelessness. “I've always been musically inclined,” he explained. As a small child, he was fascinated by classical music and symphonies which he watched on [PBS](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/pbs-cultural-life-vest-for-kids-in-texas/), and then later obsessed when he caught a rerun of an episode of “Sesame Street” that featured Little Richard. Liberace was another early obsession. “Those things really really stuck with me, and I think that's kind of magical and strange in a way for a little kid to be fascinated with Little Richard and Liberace.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/07/BW-De-Casper-3.jpg) Throughout his life, music has been a way to explore identity and gender, and that’s left him with a lasting love and sense of connection to the drag community. Legendary, almost archetypal figures like Liberace helped him tap into the camp roots of modern day queer culture. “I like to think that it's because either we all share part of the same spirit somehow or … maybe our spirits used to know each other a long time ago.” On Sunday, De Casper reaffirmed his love of drag when he returned to the stage to perform his new music during Kream, a recurring Austin drag showcase hosted by the drag queen [Cupcake](https://www.instagram.com/cupcakeatx/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). During the last Texas legislative session, De Casper testified against [Republican attempts to ban the art form](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/next-top-drag-performer-texas/), an experience that seems to have left him feeling a bit jaded about how governments betray their constituents and how the LGBTQ+ community can turn on each other during moments of tension. “There's no social safety net for anything, you know. That's implemented on purpose to keep people from joining together, being stronger together. If they're struggling with their own issues independently, they're going to get a rugged individualist mindset instead of a community mindset.” Although it’s been four years since his last full album, he hinted at his current dark pop diva incarnation with his 2024 single “Sik Culture,” a collaboration with the Italian producer [Antonio Rosselli](https://www.antoniorosselli.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), better known as “Ribongia.” To create *Delirium*, Ribongia traveled from his current home, in Mauritius, to stay with De Casper for a week while they recorded the album. De Casper saw a kindred spirit in him, and their collaboration was fruitful. Ribongia recently released a remix of De Casper’s “[Good Boy](https://open.spotify.com/track/4lSF8QbYpICfNhymNUIzTq?si=731248e823604d67&ref=thebarbedwire.com),” originally one of the highlights from his debut album. “It's what I've always wanted to make,” De Casper told us of his new sound. “It's dark pop, it's a little bit industrial, a little bit dirty, a little bit of Eurotrash.” Although De Casper has come out of the closet as a creature of the night, it doesn’t stop him from dreaming of a better dawn, and he struck a note of hope at the end of our interview: “We got some serious existential issues that we are working through as a culture, and as a world, as a country. And I would love to see things be stronger on the other side of this because we realize that nothing in this world should be taken for granted. Every day is a gift. This is coming from an undead vampire that's lived for the past 10 years, right?” *You can follow* [*Caleb De Casper*](https://www.calebdecasper.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) *on* [*Instagram*](https://www.instagram.com/calebdecasper?ref=thebarbedwire.com)*, and find his newest music on* [*Spotify*](https://open.spotify.com/artist/0kWeZGYElhzsx3ezHSSfSP?si=w0pkaoMUS%5FWYyTjhXFm86Q&ref=thebarbedwire.com)*.* --- *Note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly named one of the artist's song titles.* ### ☎️ The Voter-Fraud Tip Line Comes for Its Founder URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-voter-fraud-tip-line-comes-for-its-founder-2/ Last updated: 2026-07-30T13:37:31.000Z Howdy y’all, it’s Brian Gaar with *The Barbed Wire*. This week in Texas: the attorney general who built his brand around election integrity is facing questions about his own voting address, the state just voted to make Bible stories required reading for millions of students, ICE fatally shot a man during an immigration operation in Houston, Democrats are pitching $1,500 checks for every household, and scientists are trying to figure out whether flesh-eating flies can slow down Texas' feral hogpocalypse. 🦒 On the bright side, [Gracie the missing giraffe has been found and she’s fine](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/missing-giraffe-gracie-found-texas-rcna351965?ref=thebarbedwire.com). We stan a queen who just needed a few days to herself. Let’s dig in! | ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/07/Dinkus-1.png) | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ## **Ken Paxton's voting address is under scrutiny** 📍 For years, Attorney General Ken Paxton has made cracking down on voter fraud one of the defining issues of his political career. Earlier this year, he even launched a public tip line encouraging Texans to report suspected election crimes, reminding voters that "it is illegal to misrepresent your residence on election records." Now, reporting from [*The Texas Tribune* and *ProPublica* says Paxton himself may have violated that same law](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/07/07/ken-paxton-voting-election-law/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). According to the investigation, Paxton has continued voting from the Collin County home he once shared with State Sen. Angela Paxton, despite her divorce filing stating he moved out in 2024\. The news organizations report he voted from that address in six elections over the past two years, including this year's Republican Senate runoff. Three election lawyers told the outlets Paxton may have violated Texas election law, though proving residency cases can be difficult because state law considers multiple factors and allows voters to keep their registration if an absence is temporary and they intend to return. Paxton's campaign didn't answer questions about his voter registration, instead issuing a statement saying he has been "a national leader on election integrity" and dismissing the reporting as "a baseless, lie-filled tabloid story." The irony here is difficult to ignore. Even legal experts quoted in the story emphasized that residency disputes are often more complicated than they first appear. Which, as one law professor pointed out, is exactly why actual voter fraud cases are so rare. | [ ![Become a Member](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/07/become-a-member-1.png) ](https://thebarbedwire.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#/portal/signup) | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ## **Texas schools are getting a required reading list — and yes, it includes Bible stories** 📖 The Texas State Board of Education voted to establish statewide required reading lists for every grade level, [meaning more than five million public school students will study many of the same books](https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/26/us/texas-schools-bible-curriculum-vote?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Among them: classics like *Charlotte's Web* and *Stuart Little*, historical documents like the Gettysburg Address … and, you guessed it, Bible stories and passages. Elementary students will read adaptations of David and Goliath and Daniel in the Lion's Den. Older students will read passages from Genesis and Psalms alongside works by George Washington, Langston Hughes and Robert Frost. Supporters say the Bible should be taught as an essential literary work that helps students understand Western history and American founding documents. Board member Brandon Hall called the changes "a generational opportunity" and said, "We're going to stop watering down American history." Opponents argue the new curriculum favors Christianity and crosses constitutional lines. Republican board member Evelyn Brooks, the lone GOP vote against the plan, called it "unconstitutional," while Democratic board member Tiffany Clark argued that "Bible lessons should be taught on Sundays." The changes begin rolling out during the 2030-31 school year. ## **Houston ICE shooting prompts calls for an independent investigation** A federal immigration officer [fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo during a targeted enforcement operation Tuesday in Houston](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/7/8/us-immigration-officer-shoots-and-kills-man-in-texas?ref=thebarbedwire.com). According to the Department of Homeland Security, Salgado Araujo ignored commands to stop, rammed an ICE vehicle and attempted to run over an officer with his van. His son, however, told Telemundo Houston that his father had been looking for workers to hire when he was shot. Reuters reviewed surveillance video showing what appeared to be the aftermath of the shooting, with a person lying beside a white van surrounded by officers. Democratic U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia called for an independent investigation, saying all available footage and communications should be preserved. Juan Proano, CEO of the League of United Latin American Citizens, also called for a transparent investigation, saying, "We don't take DHS at their word at all." According to *Reuters*, this is at least the sixth fatal shooting involving federal immigration officers since President Donald Trump's intensified immigration enforcement began. ## **Gina Hinojosa wants to send Texans $1,500** 💸 Democratic gubernatorial nominee Gina Hinojosa has a campaign pitch designed to get people's attention: [a $1,500 check for every Texas household](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/07/07/gina-hinojosa-proposes-sending-every-texas-household-1500-in-her-bid-to-oust-greg-abbott/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Her proposal would use roughly $17 billion from the state's Rainy Day Fund, which currently holds nearly $25 billion. Hinojosa calls it a "corruption tax refund," arguing Gov. Greg Abbott is "hoarding" money that should be helping Texans struggling with rising costs. "It is irresponsible," she said. "This money should be in our economy in Texas." The proposal would require legislative approval and leave roughly $10 billion remaining in the state's reserve fund. Abbott's campaign declined to comment. Whether it has any chance of making it through a Legislature dominated by Republicans is another question entirely, but it's an early sign that affordability, not just culture war politics, is likely to dominate this governor's race. ## **Finally, nature is pitching its own solution to Texas' feral hog problem** 🐗 Texas has somewhere between 3.5 million and 6 million feral hogs. It also has a returning population of New World screwworms, aka parasitic flies whose larvae feed on living flesh. Naturally, scientists have begun asking a deeply Texas question: could one invasive nightmare solve the other? The answer appears to be, please don't root for that. [Experts told *Texas Monthly*](https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/feral-hogs-new-world-screwworm/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that while screwworms will almost certainly infect feral hogs, they'd also threaten cattle, goats, sheep, wildlife and pets. "It's going to kill pigs, but at what cost?" Texas A&M wildlife professor John Tomeček said. "I don't want to live in a world where screwworms are so widespread that they're making a landscape-level dent in the feral-hog population." In other words, if the flesh-eating flies become good enough at controlling hogs, Texas will probably have much bigger problems than hogs. | [ ![Become a Member](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/07/become-a-member-1.png) ](https://thebarbedwire.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#/portal/signup) | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/07/Dinkus-1.png) | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ### 🫠 The Transformative Power of Being Weird URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-transformative-power-of-being-weird-2/ Last updated: 2026-07-30T13:37:51.000Z 🏳️‍🌈 My dear queer stars, congrats on making it through Pride Month, and welcome back to Big & Bright 🌈 ⭐ 👏! I hope you’ve rehydrated and recovered. Pride may be over, but the discourse never stops, because some folks seemed determined to reheat a very old discussion… ✋ Hold up, before we go further … have you joined *The Barbed Wire* yet? Please become a member now on our [new and improved site](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/)! You'll support this newsletter and our reporting on LGBTQ+ Texas. | [ Become a Member ](https://thebarbedwire.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#/portal/signup) | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | *A special thanks to Kind Clinic and Texas Health Action for underwriting our first sponsored vertical and our newsletter. All essays, reporting, and analysis will remain, as always, editorially independent.* | ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/07/Dinkus-1.png) | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | 📰 Thanks to[ two recent](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/30/opinion/queer-gay-rights.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [newspaper editorials](https://www.wsj.com/opinion/im-gay-but-that-doesnt-make-me-queer-289ff9e0?ref=thebarbedwire.com), we’re partying like it’s [1990](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queer?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Yes, it’s time yet again for certain cisgender male gays to reject association with the LGBTQ+ rainbow and insist that “the queer kids” are the problem, rather than the politicians attacking our rights. Needless to say, there’s been an [intense pushback](https://www.washingtonblade.com/2026/07/01/actually-im-gay-and-im-queer-it-matters/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) against this [retrograde call](https://www.advocate.com/opinion/nyt-wsj-gay-queer-stigma?utm%5Fmedium=social&utm%5Fsource=instagram&utm%5Fcampaign=marfeelSocial%5FlinkInBio%5Ftheadvocatemag&mrfcid=202607056a469af84c493c53f0a8c9d8) for [assimilation](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DaRBs33OpbZ/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) during [Pride month](https://www.instagram.com/p/DaOdaaQD0zg/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). As if safety could ever come by rejecting those of us who don’t fit in; our most committed enemies will never accept us, regardless of how ‘normal’ we act. [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/07/Kind-Clinic-3.jpg)](https://thebarbedwire.acemlnb.com/lt.php?x=4lZy~GDFJ6bOD53AzQ9LURRuAHAkvQ~vw-sxjKTHIIOg6HF7yEy.zeZs1o2midA~lfY4ZHPDkqUN5X%5F%5FzEyLwOJ&ref=thebarbedwire.com) 👩 I couldn’t help but reflect on this while writing about [the “Weird Moms Club” of Fort Worth](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/meet-the-weird-moms-of-fort-worth-who-embrace-diversity-acceptance-joy-in-north-texas/) for *The Barbed Wire*. In contrast, here’s a group that understands that embracing our oddness can, paradoxically, be the key to finding common ground. Similarly, since the concept of reclaiming “[queerness](https://www.instagram.com/p/DaazXg0lRpt/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)” was born, folks who’ve embraced that label understood that, through celebrating our differences from the mainstream, we can create a protective umbrella of celebratory LGBTQ+ culture that embraces everyone that’s part of the alphabet soup. In fact, rather than trying to assimilate and be normal, now’s the time to [queer up](https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTSx5pahk/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) even more, and to group up. I believe building tight-knit communities is the most vital response to the myriad crises we face, from anti-trans laws to climate collapse. 👗 So read on to learn about the ‘Weird Moms’ and their upcoming prom, plus all the latest from LGBTQ+ Texas and beyond… ### **Steers & Queers 🐂** *What we’re writing and reading in Texas.* 🐘 Texas Republicans released [a new party platform](https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/newly-released-texas-gop-platform?ref=thebarbedwire.com) calling for [bans on trans teachers and transgender healthcare](https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/newly-released-texas-gop-platform?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for anyone under the age of 26\. Remember, they test these views in places like Texas before bringing them to the rest of the country. 🚄 *Advocate* profiled a [terrified public transit rider](https://www.advocate.com/news/people/roswell-encina-patriot-front-metro?ref=thebarbedwire.com), forced to share the D.C. subway with hundreds of white supremacists from Patriot Front, the group with ties to [North](https://www.statesman.com/news/article/patriot-front-texas-group-22334164.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [Texas](https://www.texasobserver.org/revealed-four-businesses-patriot-front-north-texas/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that [marched in Washington over July 4th weekend](https://www.reuters.com/pictures/photos-show-hundreds-masked-patriot-front-white-nationalists-marching-dc-2026-07-04/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Especially when bigots feel emboldened to once again march on our streets, it's vital that we find ways to protect each other. 👮‍♀️ According to Jacob Ogles at *Advocate,* the FBI is claiming credit for [preventing a mass shooting](https://www.advocate.com/news/crime/fbi-texas-pride-mass-shooting?ref=thebarbedwire.com) at [Lubbock Pride](https://www.lubbockpride.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which took place without incident on June 27\. A New Mexico man was arrested for allegedly posting threats on the Facebook page of the *Lubbock Avalanche-Journal,* although it’s unclear whether he also had concrete plans to commit violence. 🧊 [Lex McMenamin](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DaMfR%5Flu-3v/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) wrote about how charges against the Prairieland anti-ICE protesters, who collectively face nearly a half century in prison, [disproportionately targeted transgender activists](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/jun/24/prairieland-texas-ice-protests-zines?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Read more and [learn how to support the defendants](https://prairielanddefendants.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on their homepage. 🏳️‍⚧️ Rose Daphnee, a 19-year-old transgender woman, [spoke powerfully at Houston Pride](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DZVM-JvslH7/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), offering a fiery reminder that there is no Pride without trans people. ⚽ Forget FIFA, this is Fabulous: Gwen Howerton, culture reporter at Chron.com, profiled [Space City Pride FC](https://www.spacecitypridefc.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), an inclusive club in Houston that [celebrates queer and trans soccer enthusiasts’](https://www.chron.com/culture/article/space-city-pride-world-cup-22305837.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) love of the game. ⌛ Gwen also introduced Chron’s feature on the [250 most influential Texans](https://www.chron.com/project/texas-250-greatest-influential-famous/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) with some musings on the [outsize influence of Texas on national politics](https://www.chron.com/texas/article/texas-250-america-influence-essay-22325772.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Among the list’s luminaries is [Phyllis Frye](https://www.texasmonthly.com/being-texan/phyllis-randolph-frye-transgender-rights-houston-judge/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the first openly transgender judge appointed to serve in the U.S. 🌈 Somewhere over the Texas rainbows … Ayden Runnels at the *Texas Tribune* closed out Pride Month with this comprehensive overview of how Texas cities have [responded to the removal of rainbow crosswalks](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/06/29/texas-rainbow-crosswalk-alternatives-austin-mural-el-paso-dallas/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), from murals to lighting to sidewalks and stairs. ### **Stars & Stripes 🇺🇸** *What’s happening in the rest of the gayborhood.* ⚾ The United States Supreme Court [upheld state-level bans](https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/supreme-court-rules-title-ix-means?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on [transgender athletes in sports](https://ballsandstrikes.org/scotus/west-virginia-v-bpj-case-next-steps/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), in what has been called a [heartbreaking](https://www.salon.com/2026/07/05/one-of-the-worst-days-of-my-life-scotus-ruling-forces-parents-to-break-trans-kids-hearts/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) ruling. While it’s tempting (and accurate) to point out that these bans [inevitably](https://www.kuow.org/stories/transgender-ballot-initiative-could-require-genital-exams-for-wa-secondary-school-students?ref=thebarbedwire.com) affect [more](https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/2026/06/10/olympic-gene-testing-woman-trans-athletes-2028-olympics/89948469007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) than [just trans people](https://bsky.app/profile/famousartthief.bsky.social/post/3mpjjgncho22c?ref=thebarbedwire.com), let’s not overlook the fact that this is part of a [concerted effort](https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2026/07/03/after-win-trans-athletes-conservative-group-tells-blue-states-youre-next/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) by the political right-wing to [erase trans people](https://www.readtpa.com/p/reasonable-concerns?ref=thebarbedwire.com) from public life. We need cis allies to stand up for us, more than ever. 🏢 Orion Rummler, LGBTQ+ Reporter at *The 19th*, reported that an [alphabet soup of government agencies](https://19thnews.org/2026/07/gender-affirming-care-government-restrictions/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) are currently attacking gender-affirming healthcare as the Feds weaponize government oversight in unprecedented and deeply troubling new ways. 🍎 It’s up to you, New York: After previously announcing the creation of [a public health clinic for transgender adults](https://www.advocate.com/health/transgender-health/trans-health-clinic-nyc-queens?ref=thebarbedwire.com), NYC mayor Zohran Mamdani has pledged to [spend $15 million](https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/mayor-mamdani-announces-15-million?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on improving access for trans youth. ♿️ LGBTQ+ Pride Month is over, but July is [Disability Pride Month](https://thearc.org/blog/why-and-how-to-celebrate-disability-pride-month/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), marking the anniversary of the 1990 [Americans With Disabilities Act](https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/on-vitality/202607/disability-pride-expanding-the-meaning-of-independence?ref=thebarbedwire.com). It's a good time to learn the history of the [Gang of 19](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DaQs4ZXh8-p/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and other [heroes](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/iconic-civil-rights-protest-you-dont-know/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of the [movement](https://adaptmuseum.net/gallery/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Reminder: some studies show [queer and trans people are more likely to be disabled](https://glaad.org/disabilities/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) than the rest of the population (and a rising tide lifts all boats). ### **Bright & Buzzy**📱 *Memes and more.* 🐈‍⬛️ Queer history: Formed this month, in 1973: [the Lavender Panthers](https://www.instagram.com/p/DadTC%5FImR2G/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). 🎤 Comedian Marcello Hernandez explains why “[regardless of the race, all gay people are Latino](https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTSx5VP4j/?ref=thebarbedwire.com).” 🦈 [A shark with an instruction manual. ](https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTSx5bH8N/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) ### **Shameless** [**Merch Plug**](https://thebarbedwire.com/shop/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) 🧢 💦 Queer life in Texas doesn’t quit just because Pride Month is over. Know what else is nonstop this time of year? The heat ☀️🥵! Unlike other rainbow swag, our [Texas Pride steel water bottle](https://shop.thebarbedwire.com/products/texas-pride-steel-water-bottle?ref=thebarbedwire.com) is free of corporate branding and holds 17 ounces of hydration. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/07/f8cfe99c-26da-41c5-b2aa-4f11653ab07c.png) Reach out if you have tips, story ideas, or if you just want to be a little weird, together. ([kit@thebarbedwire.com](mailto:kit@thebarbedwire.com)). 🌈 Stay big, bright, and bold, Kit (They/Them) 💖 | [ Become a Member ](https://thebarbedwire.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#/portal/signup) | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/07/Dinkus-1.png) | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ## Meet the ‘Weird Moms’ of Fort Worth Who Embrace Diversity, Acceptance & Joy in North Texas *From meet and greets with local candidates to the “Weird Mom Prom,” this Fort Worth nonprofit is building community and changing perceptions about the kinds of people who live in the DFW metroplex.* Eight years ago, a moment of humor shared between two women blossomed into a movement for weirdos in North Texas. In 2018, Haley Ballenger had just moved to Fort Worth from Houston, where her husband had family ties and deep roots but she didn’t know anyone. Casting about for a new social circle, the mother of two joined a book club and hit it off with another mom there like herself. “We were joking one night,” Ballenger recalled. “Yeah, we're not regular moms, we're cool moms. We were like, yeah, we've got piercings and we've got tattoos and we say bad words. We're not even cool moms, we're weird moms – and it just stuck, right?” [Read the full story →](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/meet-the-weird-moms-of-fort-worth-who-embrace-diversity-acceptance-joy-in-north-texas/) ### Meet the ‘Weird Moms’ of Fort Worth Who Embrace Diversity, Acceptance & Joy in North Texas URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/meet-the-weird-moms-of-fort-worth-who-embrace-diversity-acceptance-joy-in-north-texas/ Last updated: 2026-07-08T11:56:09.000Z Eight years ago, a moment of humor shared between two women blossomed into a movement for weirdos in North Texas. In 2018, Haley Ballenger had just moved to Fort Worth from Houston, where her husband had family ties and deep roots but she didn’t know anyone. Casting about for a new social circle, the mother of two joined a book club and hit it off with another mom there like herself. “We were joking one night,” Ballenger recalled. “Yeah, we're not regular moms, we're cool moms. We were like, yeah, we've got piercings and we've got tattoos and we say bad words. We're not even cool moms, we're weird moms – and it just stuck, right?” Today, the [Fort Worth Weird Moms Club](https://www.facebook.com/groups/fortworthweirdmoms/) group on Facebook has over 3,000 members, and Ballenger (and her team of volunteer administrators and moderators) have created a space where oddballs, iconoclasts and outcasts can build community ties with one another, and exercise their voices on the political stage. Every member gets to be a “Weird Mom” or just a “Weirdo” regardless of their gender. The Weird Moms host multiple events a year, including the highly anticipated annual ‘Weird Mom Prom’ and a youth Pride Prom, and they’ve just become a formal nonprofit with big plans for the future. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/07/IMG_6458.JPG) Austin is usually perceived as the hub of weirdness and whimsy in the state, thanks in part to the city’s once-popular, unofficial slogan “[Keep Austin Weird](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keep%5FAustin%5FWeird?ref=thebarbedwire.com),” which seemed to decorate every bumper in the city in the early 2000s and became the motto of the Austin Independent Business Alliance. Meanwhile, North Texas, and especially the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, was often held up as Austin’s opposite, more concerned with business and banking than frivolity and fabulousness. But, in 2026, Austin is the home of [Joe Rogan](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewvRS3NwIlQ&ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [Elon Musk](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/abbott-claims-musk-emails-too-embarrassing-intimate-for-public/), and the Fort Worth Weird Moms prove that no part of Texas has a monopoly on quirky, progressive folks. “We're trying to shine a light on (Fort Worth) and say, ‘we're not Dallas, we're not Tanglewood; there's real interesting people that live here, and you should get to know your neighbors, and you should try to do something nice for your neighbors,’” Ballenger told *The Barbed Wire.* Almost immediately after [the group](https://www.facebook.com/groups/fortworthweirdmoms/)’s founding, the Weird Moms spilled off [social media](https://www.instagram.com/fwweirdmoms/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and into the real world by hosting events. At first they started small, with a clothing exchange at a member’s house that gave the moms a chance to swap local school uniforms in different sizes. But Ballenger envisioned something bigger, the kind of event that creates lasting memories: the Weird Mom Prom, which began in 2019\. “It was like the typical cheesy high school prom. We had the two pillars, the flower arrangements, and it was in a gym, and we really teased it up,” Ballenger said. “It was called ‘A Night to Forget,’ and the only rules were you had to bring another weird mom as your date, and your outfit couldn't be new off the rack, it had to be something thrifted or something you owned or borrowed.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/07/IMG_8713.jpg) After a few years, the adult prom had grown so successful that some of the group’s equally weird kids wanted a piece of the action, which led to the LGBTQ+ Pride Prom, held for the last four years in June. The past three were held at [Finn’s Place](https://www.finnsplacetx.org/]?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a Fort Worth community center for transgender and gender-expansive young people. Like the adult version, the Pride Proms have a theme – this year’s was bioluminescence, “blacklight meets under the sea,” as Ballenger described it – but she said the real message of the events, which are open to folks from ages 11 to 18, is “you are loved, you're welcome, you're seen, you're free to be yourself.” --- The Weird Moms also wear their politics proudly on their sleeve, according to Ballenger: “We tend to be left leaning, very democratic in our beliefs. We’re of course very pro-LGBTQ, we are pro-Black Lives Matter, pro ho. We work really hard on being openly anti-racist and making a difference in our community. We do a lot of community service and give back. We're also really involved in the local political scene. We do a lot of voter education, candidate meet and greets, and things like that.” Last year, the Weird Mom Prom added drag queens and kings to the night’s lineup, even as a new state law [threatened the free expression of drag performers](https://www.aclutx.org/app/uploads/2026/02/KYR-S.B.-12-Drag-Ban-Factsheet-1-1.pdf?ref=thebarbedwire.com) (although the art form remains fully legal in Texas). “Last year's theme was, ‘I'm with the banned’ – B A N N E D – and we were raising money for banned books and for local libraries, and it's like, you know, what else is banned? Drag.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/07/Black-and-White-Grunge-Concert-Promo-Flyer.png.PNG) It was a big success. “Folks collectively lost their minds, in the best way possible,” Ballenger told us. She believes adding drag to the prom helps make the art form more accessible to people who’ve never experienced it before. As a result, bringing back drag was the “number one requested thing” for 2026\. Now in its seventh year, the latest Weird Mom Prom is scheduled for [September 19](https://www.instagram.com/p/DaRY0mTlR09/?img%5Findex=1&ref=thebarbedwire.com), with a theme of “Nowhere to Wear It,” as a place to break out that special outfit “you bought and you’re like ‘I don’t know where I’m going to wear this, but I have to have it.’” Ballenger anticipates that around 70 weirdos will attend, dressed in everything from cosplay to comfy sweats to wedding finery. But there’s one major difference from past proms, which raised money for local causes and nonprofits. “This year Weird Moms have officially incorporated as a nonprofit in Texas, and we're working on getting our official IRS nonprofit status, so we're going to be raising funds this year for us, and our goal is to buy a building that we can turn into a community third space or a community event center,” Ballenger explained. The Weird Moms envision a place where they can host regular community events, and offer services such as a food pantry, book exchange and clothing swap closet. And since it would be operated by a nonprofit, community members will be able to rent it for their events at a fraction of the cost of other local commercial spaces. “Even our local community spaces are charging over $100 an hour … (and) that’s just not sustainable,” Ballenger said. “There's been a lot of interest in doing a ‘Weird Mom University,’” she continued, “where different folks come and teach a skill — teach one, learn one. We have members who are PhD astrophysicists, and we have folks that are master seamstresses, and quilt makers, and bakers, and photographers, and you know, all these great skills that we could learn and share and teach each other, but where do we have it, and how do we do it affordably?” --- Reflecting on the past eight years, and the rapid growth of the Weird Moms from a Facebook group to a local force to be reckoned with, Ballenger seems equal parts surprised and proud. “It sounds so silly (to say that) this Facebook group is my magnum opus, but it really has changed my life and changed the lives of other people.” Her kids, currently 12- and 18-years-old, even think she’s pretty cool, she said, frequently sharing the Facebook group with friends’ parents or telling her when they spot a Weird Moms bumper sticker in the wild. “They are really my number one cheerleaders.” Despite initially feeling displaced and lost by her move to Fort Worth eight years ago, Ballenger knows she’s exactly where she’s meant to be. “It's a wild ride that I could have never imagined, and I'm honored that I get to use my big mouth and all of my privilege to try to make the world a better place.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/07/IMG_6523.jpeg) ### Camp Mystic files for bankruptcy, a heated Senate race, one missing giraffe🦒 URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/camp-mystic-files-for-bankruptcy-a-heated-senate-race-one-missing-giraffe/ Last updated: 2026-06-29T10:31:14.000Z Howdy y’all, it’s Brian Gaar with *The Barbed Wire*. Welcome back to Texas, which continues to be the only state capable of producing all of these headlines at the same time. Nearly a year after the deadly Hill Country floods, Camp Mystic is filing for bankruptcy, and the state's marquee Senate race is shaping up to be a photo finish, Texans are suddenly skeptical about becoming America's AI server farm, the NHL is eyeing Austin or Houston for expansion, and somewhere near Leakey there's a giraffe named Gracie living her best fugitive life. --- ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/06/April-28--2026-in-Austin--Texas---Brandon-Bell.jpg) State Sen. Charles Perry (R-TX) speaks to the Eastman family during a hearing on Camp Mystic at the Texas State Capitol on April 28, 2026 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images) ## Camp Mystic Files for Bankruptcy Nearly a year after catastrophic floods killed 28 people at Camp Mystic, including 25 campers, two counselors and the camp's executive director, the camp's operators have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The filing comes weeks after state investigators concluded that the camp had inadequate emergency plans and did not respond quickly enough as floodwaters surged through the property. ## Paxton and Talarico Locked in a Dead Heat A new University of Texas/Texas Politics Project poll shows Attorney General Ken Paxton leading Democratic state Rep. James Talarico by a single point, 43% to 42%, in the race for U.S. Senate. Republicans have largely consolidated behind Paxton since his primary victory over John Cornyn, while independent voters currently favor Talarico by a wide margin. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/06/vote-badge.jpg) ## Texans Say 'No Thanks' to Data Centers Texas may be on track to become the nation's biggest data center market, but many Texans don't seem thrilled about it. A new poll found 56% oppose building data centers in their communities, with opposition rising to 62% in rural areas where many of the planned projects are expected to be built. ## The NHL Is Shopping for a Texas Home The NHL has opened a six-month process to evaluate placing its 33rd franchise in either Austin or Houston, with the Friedkin family identified as the prospective owner. League officials say both cities would require a new arena, and the process will determine which market is the better fit for expansion. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/06/a-lost-giraffe-should-be-easy-to-find.jpg) ## Wanted: One Missing Giraffe A giraffe named Gracie has been missing from a private ranch near Leakey for more than a week after wandering off the property and into the Texas Hill Country. Her owner is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to her safe return. And honestly? I’m impressed that a building-sized animal has been able to remain undetected for this long. --- ### Healthcare for Trans Veterans Was Already Bad, And Under Trump It’s Getting Worse URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/healthcare-for-trans-veterans-was-already-bad-and-under-trump-its-getting-worse/ Last updated: 2026-06-25T22:56:27.000Z Holden will never forget the discomfort he felt on his second visit to a Veterans Affairs’ endocrinologist for gender-affirming care. It was spring of 2020, and the COVID-19 pandemic was raging across the globe. The army vet was masked up in a tiny, stuffy exam room, when his endocrinologist asked if she could invite medical students to join them. At first he refused, but he said his medical provider “guilted” him into agreeing: “She closed the door, and (said) ‘this is kind of like for the benefit of future trans people coming in, these students are going to become doctors here, etc.” Two medical students entered the room and began a hands-on examination of Holden, including asking him to remove his face mask so they could study the growth of facial hair, and requesting that he remove his shirt to show his scars from chest masculinization top surgery. (*The Barbed Wire* agreed to use only Holden’s last name to protect his privacy.) As illustrated by Holden’s experience, accessing healthcare has long been fraught with challenges for transgender veterans, even before President Donald Trump’s second administration when the VA used to offer a wide-array of gender-affirming care services. Supportive practitioners exist within the system, but so do numerous roadblocks. And today, newly transitioned veterans are excluded entirely. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/06/Kind-Clinic-3.jpg) Holden, who served in the military from 2012 until 2019, began transitioning soon after his contract with the army ended. But before he could be referred to an endocrinologist, the first practitioner he approached in the VA told him (incorrectly) that he’d need to travel from Phoenix, Arizona, where he lived at the time, to Boston, Massachusetts, in order to receive gender-affirming care. He only made progress after demanding a new primary care physician. Holden was stationed at Ft. Hood, then moved to Austin as a veteran in 2023, and he still receives his testosterone prescription through the VA. He’s among a dwindling number of trans veterans who can access hormone-replacement therapy through the system. In March 2025, the [VA announced](https://news.va.gov/press-room/va-to-phase-out-treatment-for-gender-dysphoria/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) it would “phase out treatment for gender dysphoria,” although it continues to offer care to those who transitioned before the change was announced, or who are already receiving hormones in the military when they separate from service. The move was made amid attempts to ban transgender servicemembers from the military by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and nationwide attacks on gender-affirming healthcare, driven by the American right-wing. At the same time, a recent court decision has brought renewed attention on trans people in the military: Earlier this month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for Washington, D.C. ruled that [banning existing transgender servicemembers was unconstitutional](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/01/transgender-troops-military-enlistment-ruling?ref=thebarbedwire.com), although the decision allowed the military to continue its ban on new enlistment by trans people. The U.S. has promised to appeal the decision. The ongoing court cases over the ban have left servicemembers like Kara Corcoran, executive director of [Sparta Pride](https://spartapride.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in limbo. “I'm still an active duty infantry officer,” she told *The Barbed Wire.* “I haven't been allowed to go to work in a year.” Sparta Pride is a D.C. nonprofit that supports transgender servicemembers, veterans, and their families through political advocacy, peer support and emergency grants. She explained that the Department of Defense has transformed what used to be the pathway to accessing care into the reason to deny service, for troops and vets alike. “Per the policy, you're supposed to get a letter from within the (Department of Defense), from a DOD doctor to say you have gender dysphoria.” This is in keeping with the World Professional Association for Transgender Health’s standards for gender-affirming healthcare, which requires diagnosis and treatment by a mental health professional as part of best practices for trans patients. Although still the traditional approach, some providers have moved to an [informed consent model](https://journalofethics.ama-assn.org/article/informed-consent-medical-care-transgender-and-gender-nonconforming-patients/2016-11?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which allows trans people more agency to make their own medical decisions without a formal diagnosis from a psychiatrist. Regardless, under the VA’s previous healthcare policies, a diagnosis of gender-dysphoria opened doors for people like Holden. Although gender-affirming surgeries were not available, trans vets and servicemembers used to be able to access vocal training, support groups and a variety of devices such as prosthesis and chest binders, in addition to hormone-replacement therapy. All of those programs are either gone, or increasingly difficult to access for those who remain in treatment. Now, Corcoran continued, the diagnosis of gender dysphoria is used to pathologize trans folks as mentally ill, who are then told their illness makes them unfit to serve in the military, and unworthy of treatment that directly addresses their needs. “They said we had to get (the diagnosis), that it was just for insurance … and now that’s the thing they’re using to ban us,” Corcoran said. Corcoran pushed back against the idea that gender dysphoria itself had prevented her from serving her country. “We’ve seen that getting the treatment you need allows you to optimize your performance as a servicemember.” Holden agreed about the benefits of taking testosterone on his well-being and ability to function. “I am a totally different person,” he told *The Barbed Wire.* “I'm not angry anymore; I've been more optimistic now than I was pre-transition.” For transgender veterans before the ban, or those who, like Holden, are still allowed to keep their existing care, Corcoran suggested the quality of treatment available varied greatly from provider to provider, and depended a great deal on where they’re located. Major urban areas tend to have more providers who are up-to-date on the latest, best practices for treating trans folks. In addition, turnover within the VA health system can be extremely high, so there’s no guarantee of keeping a supportive provider once you find them, as Teván Perez, an Austin Air Force veteran, discovered after beginning his transition. “I have been through four psychiatrists at the VA at this point since 2021 and the first few were very against me starting testosterone,” Perez told *The Barbed Wire.* After seeing previous providers, Perez was afraid that testosterone would interact with his psychiatric medications. His fourth psychiatrist explained that there were no contraindications; his previous providers had simply not been supportive of his transition. It was only then that Perez felt confident seeking out hormone replacement therapy. However, he recently found out his psychiatrist would be leaving the VA. “I had him for about two years, and so… I had him for the longest out of all the previous psychiatrists.” Similarly, Holden recently found out that his primary care physician had moved on when he struggled to refill his testosterone prescription. After days of silence, he finally reached the nurse who had worked with his previous doctor who explained that she’d left the VA. He ended up going weeks without his T. “I’ve got to be honest with you, I couldn't even function,” Holden recalled, describing intense brain fog. “I was just kind of in a cloud … for at least a week of those two weeks.” Holden still hadn’t seen his new provider when we spoke and, although they sent him a refill on his testosterone, his prescription had changed without explanation: he now takes his hormone injection once every two weeks versus every week, and at a higher dosage than before. Although he knows he can get his T from an outside source – Perez, who is a friend of his, receives his testosterone from Austin’s nonprofit [ASHWell Clinic](https://ashwellatx.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) – Holden said he’s holding onto his VA-based prescription out of a stubborn optimism. “I want to give them the benefit of the doubt, (but) I feel like the political climate isn’t helping me,” he said. “After this prescription is completely depleted, if I haven't had any face time with this primary care doctor, I'm probably just going to go ahead and switch.” The erratic treatment they receive as transmasculine veterans navigating the VA healthcare system has led both Holden and Perez to frequently seek care outside of the VA, even for something that would otherwise have been covered. Holden paid out-of-pocket for his hysterectomy, after hearing horror stories of transmen’s mistreatment by VA gynecologists. He described previous visits to the gynecologist, where he overheard nurses arguing with each other over who would be forced to examine him. Negative experiences were frequent, even when he had his supportive primary care physician. “The last interaction we had, she had sent me to go get an ultrasound …The ultrasound tech was not comfortable giving me an ultrasound, and at first was somewhat unsure … and took one look at me and (said) ‘are we sure that this is what we're looking for? I don't think you have a uterus,’ (and I said) ‘oh, it's in there, you'll find it.’” [![CTA Image](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/06/B-B-Intro-1.png)](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/newsletters/) Get all our queer Texas coverage direct to your inbox with the Big & Bright newsletter. [Sign Up ](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/newsletters/) The VA declined to comment on this story, and directed *The Barbed Wire* to [a press release](https://news.va.gov/press-room/va-to-phase-out-treatment-for-gender-dysphoria/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) about their decision to end trans healthcare. The press release, which dishonestly conflates sex and gender and fails to understand that even sex is not binary, claims that the VA is diverting funds from gender-affirming care to "help severely injured VA beneficiaries — such as paralyzed Veterans and amputees — regain their independence." Aside from the fact that some severely injured VA beneficiaries are trans themselves and gender-affirming care is part of what helps them heal and thrive, the VA already helps severely injured veterans as part of its core mission. It is one of the most visible things the agency does. Corcoran suggested the ban on trans healthcare is the first step towards eliminating care for the LGBTQ+ community as a whole. “This is not formal policy yet, but a narrative to erase the LGBTQIA+ community from the VA. We have seen this pattern of behavior from this administration before, and it is a mechanism to force the LGBTQIA+ community to seek care elsewhere. This is not how we take care of our American patriots." For Perez, who served as a medic during his time in the Air Force, it’s especially disheartening to see the current state of healthcare under the VA. Even when he was stationed in conservative West Texas, he knew there were patients at his clinic who could access services that have since disappeared. “I was the person checking you in for your appointment, taking your vitals, asking what you're there for, and … between 2016 and 2021 we had had multiple patients who were also active duty that were trans and … they were able to access hormone replacement therapy.” He continued, “It's really infuriating now that …even if there are good people working at the VA–because I know that there are– they no longer even have the option to care for their patients in a way that they should be able to.” Holden struggles with knowing he served his country in order to defend what he thought were well-established rights to bodily autonomy, even putting up with intense harassment as an assigned-female-at-birth servicemember, only to transition to civilian life and see attacks on trans healthcare and the end of *Roe v. Wade.* “It's kind of like, ‘what did I do it for? What did I do it for?’ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/06/tbw-boot-endmark.png) ### Flesh-Eating Worms, Hemp Chaos, and a Blue Texas? URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/flesh-eating-worms-hemp-chaos-and-a-blue-texas/ Last updated: 2026-06-26T20:37:03.000Z Hey y’all, it’s Brian Gaar with *The Barbed Wire*. If you've visited the site lately, you've probably noticed things have been a little quiet. That's because we're busy retooling and plotting the next chapter. In the meantime, the newsletter lives on. Every week or so, we'll round up the biggest, weirdest, and most Texas stories making news across the state. This week: Democrats think they might finally flip Texas, state officials are fighting over flesh-eating worms, hemp retailers are once again trying to determine whether their businesses exist in a legal dimension, and Texas Tech is embroiled in a controversy that has college football power brokers discussing doomsday scenarios. Let’s dig in. To start, let’s talk about Blue Texas, an idea that has kept Lone Star liberals [going for decades](https://www.thepilgrims-school.co.uk/%5Fsite/data/images/news/992/main-9%2024-Nov.png?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Every few years, Democrats look at Texas and convince themselves that this is finally the moment. Usually by Thanksgiving they're staring blankly into the distance while Ted Cruz is giving another victory speech. This year, however, they [might actually have an argument](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/27/upshot/paxton-talarico-texas-polling.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), reports Nate Cohn of *The New York Times.* After Ken Paxton defeated incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in the Republican primary, political analysts are increasingly treating Texas as a legitimate battleground. The reason isn't just Paxton's baggage–which includes [investigations, indictment, impeachment, and a messy public divorce](https://thebarbedwire.com/2026/02/17/ken-paxton-scandal-timeline/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)–but also shifting demographics. According to recent polling cited by the *Times*, Republicans' gains among Hispanic voters may be evaporating. Democrats have also gained white voters compared to a decade ago. Combined, those trends have some analysts arguing that Texas could actually be competitive. Meanwhile, the flesh-eating New World Screwworm has arrived in Texas, and instead of presenting a united front against a parasite that literally eats animals alive, two of the state's biggest agricultural figures have decided to start beefing with each other. CNBC reports that U.S. [Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins publicly called](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/06/08/rollins-miller-texas-ag-chief-unserious-screwworm-threat-trump.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller "unserious" after Miller criticized the USDA's response to the outbreak. Rollins also accused him of making a "very dangerous suggestion" after Miller claimed ranchers might avoid reporting cases out of fear of government quarantines. Miller, meanwhile, says the USDA moved too slowly and ignored a suppression system he has advocated for. He even appealed directly to President Trump to take control of the response. Oh, and if you’re wondering if Elon Musk’s DOGE cuts affected screwworm research, [you’re right](https://newrepublic.com/post/211495/screwworms-trump-doge-cuts-beef-prices?ref=thebarbedwire.com)! Now it’s time for another (infuriating) THC update! Texas hemp retailers woke up this week to discover that the rules have changed again. Or maybe they haven't. [An appeals court has allowed](https://www.kut.org/business/2026-06-09/austin-tx-hemp-cannabis-marijuana-court-appeals-decisin?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Texas' new hemp regulations to take effect, including a rule that counts THCA toward total THC levels and sharply increases fees for retailers and manufacturers, KUT reports. But the state health department says it's still figuring out how to proceed, meaning enforcement remains unclear. The result is that businesses are trying to determine whether products they've been selling are still legal, while regulators are trying to determine whether they intend to regulate them. And finally, let’s talk about religion, er, college football. Specifically, Texas Tech's support for quarterback Brendan Sorsby has triggered what appears to be a [full-scale panic attack among college football leadership](https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/texas-tech-brendan-sorsby-decision-college-football/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). A judge granted Sorsby a temporary injunction allowing him to play despite his admission that he bet on sports dozens of times (and probably [much more than that](https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/brendan-sorsby-granted-2026-eligibilty-texas-tech-qb-ncaa-gambling/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)). According to CBS Sports, Texas Tech is now standing alone within the Big 12 in supporting his eligibility. Then the appeal landed in a court where all [four justices graduated from Texas Tech Law,](https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/%5F/id/49010107/big-12-talk-options-sorsby-trial-gets-post-season-date?ref=thebarbedwire.com) causing college football fans nationwide to make the universal "come on, man" gesture at their phones. The reaction has been dramatic. Other schools are reportedly threatening scheduling changes, conference officials are holding meetings and Texas Tech is increasingly looking like the odd man out. Not great, Bob! ### 👀 Pride, like no one is watching URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/pride-like-no-one-is-watching/ Last updated: 2026-06-26T20:07:47.000Z 🏳️‍🌈 Happy Pride Month, my queer stars, and welcome back to Big & Bright 🌈 ⭐ 👏. I’m grateful to still be here sharing all the latest news from queer Texas. As long as you keep reading and clicking, we’ll keep publishing this newsletter. Now, let’s talk about celebrating Pride and the importance of being ourselves, in public … 😎 Like what we do? It’d be real cool if you supported our work *..*. [Please become a member now if you haven't joined yet.](https://thebarbedwire.com/support-us/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) --- *A special thanks to* [*Kind Clinic and Texas Health Action*](https://kindclinic.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) *for underwriting our first sponsored vertical and our newsletter. All essays, reporting, and analysis will remain, as always, editorially independent.* --- 🔬 Recently, my TikTok feed served up a video of Round Rock Mayor Craig Morgan [addressing his city’s Pride rally](https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTBmBTVC6/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). It reminded me that we’re being judged by everything we do, including how we celebrate. His speech ends with “be safe, cause you know people are watching.” Whether he meant it or not, he implied that the biggest risk for us is appearing to be dangerous to others, not the danger posed to us by violent bigots. 🤠 Round Rock’s mayor is to be commended for continuing to [support us despite right-wing pressure](https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTBmB3grg/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). But I can’t help but hope we someday reach a place where we don’t need to act like our every move could be judged by Ken Paxton or Libs of TikTok, because bigots like them no longer wield power over us. 🫧 On Saturday, I joined one of Austin’s largest alternative Pride events, [Queerbomb](https://www.instagram.com/queerbombaustin/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), on a march past the night clubs of 6th Street. Although our chants were sometimes ragged, and the humidity near overwhelming, I saw and heard from passersby how important it was to see us being loudly and publicly queer. One participant rode alongside the march in an electric cab, leaning out the window in a full-body fur suit of a goat, shooting us with a bubblegun, to the crowd’s delight. 🐐 In my experience, furries are consistently kind and sweet people, but are dragged through the mud for their perceived differences. Yet here they are, still joyously being themselves. It struck me as an encapsulation of the energy we need to bring to Pride and the rest of 2026: Blast the haters with bubbles and keep on loudly being **you**. 🌈 I hope you’ll find ways to be your joyous, riotous, gorgeous selves out in the open, this month, and every month, my queer stars, and read on for all the latest from Texas and beyond. … **Steers & Queers 🐂** *What we’re writing and reading in Texas.* 🏳️‍⚧️ Ken Paxton [threatened a lawsuit over Big Gay Swim Day](https://www.kxan.com/lgbtq/paxton-stands-down-lawsuit-against-denton-over-big-gay-swim-day/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), an event that took place last weekend in Denton, but backed down when the city agreed to keep same-sex bathroom and changing facilities intact at the pool. The event’s organizers [called the legal threats “frivolous” and a “waste of taxpayers’ time and money.”](https://instinctmagazine.com/texas-big-gay-swim-day/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Doesn’t Ken have some corruption to commit or some child abusers he could be pardoning? 💃 Round Rock honored historic queen Barbette, who Chron.com’s Gwen Howerton correctly classifies as “once one of the most celebrated acrobats and drag performers,” with [a permanent historical marker](https://www.chron.com/culture/article/round-rock-barbette-historical-marker-22291119.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). 🎤 For *Austin Free Press*, I wrote about some of the [challenges trans adults face accessing gender-affirming care](https://austinfreepress.org/trans-formation/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and an upcoming fundraiser show to help pay for the surgeries of several drag performers and musicians. If you’re in the area, [check out Tops & Bottoms](https://www.instagram.com/p/DZFMQgZDrbW/?img%5Findex=1&ref=thebarbedwire.com) on Saturday. 🤖 Writing for progressive publication *Truthout*, Texas State University journalism student Ryan Claycamp created a rather [comprehensive overview of the decline in LGBTQ+-related courses](https://truthout.org/articles/texas-universities-crackdown-on-lgbt-courses-and-dei-is-getting-worse/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and degrees at Texas universities, including the usage of AI to review and censor prospective syllabi. 🖼️ [Austin’s MASS Gallery](https://massgallery.org/binawd-artemisiatridentata?ref=thebarbedwire.com), an art space led by volunteers from the queer community, is hosting a double exhibition for Pride: “[Butch Is Not A Dirty Word](https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTBmS5gNv/?ref=thebarbedwire.com),” a portrait series by photographer [Esther Godoy](https://www.esthergodoy.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and “Artemisia Tridentata: From Rugged Soil,” a collection of the work of rural queer artists. ⚾ More upcoming Pride events around the state: sports fans can celebrate with the [El Paso ](https://www.suncitypride.org/events?ref=thebarbedwire.com)Locomotive (soccer) on June 13 or with the El Paso Chihuahuas (baseball) on June 18, and Tyler, Texas celebrates [Rose City Pride](https://www.instagram.com/p/DVM6-R%5Fj%5FWi/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on June 20. **Stars & Stripes 🇺🇸** *What’s happening in the rest of the gayborhood.* 🪖 The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that [Trump’s ban on transgender military troops is unconstitutional](https://msmagazine.com/2026/06/08/trump-hegseth-trans-military-ruling/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Under the ruling, [trans troops could remain in the military](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/01/transgender-troops-military-enlistment-ruling?ref=thebarbedwire.com), though new enlistment is still blocked. 👩‍🤝‍👩 Support for LGBTQ+ rights in the U.S., including same-sex marriage, is [on the decline](https://19thnews.org/2026/06/lgbtq-rights-support-declines-gallup-poll/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) according to a recent Gallup poll, with Republicans leading the way. As Erin Reed of *Erin in the Morning* put it, [the GOP will not be satisfied](https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/latest-gallup-poll-shows-republicans?ref=thebarbedwire.com) with just attacking trans people, they’ll attack anyone who’s not straight and cis. 🔫 Mathew Rodriguez at *Them* reports that Rihanna Kelver [faces felony charges in Wyoming after defending herself](https://www.them.us/story/trans-woman-faces-assault-charges-self-defense-wyoming-stand-your-ground-law?ref=thebarbedwire.com) from transphobic attackers, even though Wyoming has a “Stand Your Ground” law. Rihanna has also [struggled to raise money for her legal defense](https://www.facebook.com/CascadeOpal/posts/pfbid02ZbfGuJ7t9pDAdz3N8FHw2SVmB3obfkc3Ayprdtgeasu1Fo5oGSF6UTZbVi1VNJuGl) after being kicked off of multiple crowdfunding platforms. 🍍According to S. Baum at *Erin in the Morning,* a law signed into effect in Hawaii adds [protections for gender-affirming care](https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/hawaii-governor-signs-powerful-trans?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to an existing shield law that protects access to reproductive healthcare. 📺 Last month people [flooded the Federal Communications Commission with comments](https://www.instagram.com/p/DZLOX7VEjxg/?img%5Findex=1&ref=thebarbedwire.com) urging them not to create special warning labels for LGBTQ+ or trans content on TV. A second window for comment is open until June 22, with [instructions available from the nonprofit GLAAD](https://glaad.org/fcc/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on how to share your thoughts with the FCC. ⚕️ Because what starts in Texas never stays here: families are continuing to fight the Trump administration’s [attempts to access their trans’ kids healthcare records](https://www.them.us/story/health/transgender-health/trans-youth-sue-hospital-subpoena?ref=thebarbedwire.com), while the [Cleveland Clinic](https://www.advocate.com/health/transgender-health/cleveland-clinic-detransition-settlement?ref=thebarbedwire.com) became the second in the nation, after Texas Children’s Hospital, forced into offering a “detransition clinic.” 🍎 Under Mayor Zohran Mamdani, New York City will open [a city-sponsored clinic for gender-affirming care](https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2026/06/zohran-mamdani-is-opening-a-gender-affirming-clinic-but-its-already-banning-trans-youth/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), but they’re already signaling they [won’t accept patients under 19](https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/mamdanis-new-trans-direct-clinic?ref=thebarbedwire.com). 🍑 Adventures in corporate Pride: Food-kit vendor, perennial podcast sponsor (and [accused union-buster](https://perfectunion.us/hello-fresh-workers-unionizing/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)) HelloFresh [made waves with an Instagram post](https://www.prweek.com/article/1960868/hellofreshs-pride-post-love-it-safer-approach?ref=thebarbedwire.com) offering high-fiber foods for “prepping” bottoms, while [Levi’s Jeans](https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTBmQJY8f/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) went viral for this year’s leather-forward Pride collection. **Bright & Buzzy**📱 *Memes and more.* 🍴 [What are we having for dinner?](https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTBmB7Eym/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) 🍅 [Queer kids can make *anything* queer](https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTBmSBsPv/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) 👑 [Everyone can learn from drag queens](https://www.instagram.com/p/DYpeGTzlVM2/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) … **Shameless** [**Merch Plug**](https://thebarbedwire.com/shop/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) 🧢 🏴 In this house we stand for the flag … and by flag, of course I mean our [Texas Pride Window Flag](https://thebarbedwire.com/product/texas-pride-window-flag/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which puts the Lone Star State in full rainbow glory against a trans pride backdrop. No slogans or logos, just showing the neighbors you believe in human rights for all! [![](https://thebarbedwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/garden-flag-white-12x17-back-68498543d495e-1024x1024.png)](https://thebarbedwire.com/product/texas-pride-window-flag/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Reach out if you have tips, story ideas, or just to tell me how you’re celebrating Pride. ([kit@thebarbedwire.com](mailto:kit@thebarbedwire.com)). 🌈 Stay big, bright, and bold, Kit (They/Them) 💖 ### Ken Paxton, ‘Champion for the Unborn,’ Would Have Let Our Babies Die. We Know Firsthand. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/ken-paxton-champion-for-the-unborn-would-have-let-our-babies-die-we-know-firsthand/ Last updated: 2026-05-29T20:01:57.000Z In March 2023, we became [two of the first women](https://reproductiverights.org/news/zurawski-v-texas-plaintiffs-stories-remarks/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to sue Texas over its abortion bans. While pregnant with twins, we’d each learned that one of our twins had severe complications that were threatening the lives of the other — and our own. Yet, we were denied potentially live-saving abortions. So we asked the state a simple question: How dead did we have to be to receive healthcare that could save our viable babies and our own lives? Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton called us “woke” for daring to ask such a question. After Paxton defeated U.S. Sen. John Cornyn in the Republican primary this week, we felt compelled to share the grisly reality behind that question. Ashley’s daughter, Isla, was diagnosed with [acrania](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11146448/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), an always-fatal condition in which the skull never forms. On the ultrasound, Ashley and her husband, Marcus, could see their daughter’s brain matter flowing out of her skull. Every day Isla kept growing, the amniotic fluid broke down more of her brain tissue — and put her twin sister, Marley, in greater danger. Ashley’s risk of miscarriage and premature labor was high, which meant she stood to lose both babies. Marley might survive if born early, but only after months in intensive care, if she lived at all. Lauren’s son, Thomas, was diagnosed with [Trisomy 18](https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/22172-edwards-syndrome?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a genetic disorder that ravages every organ in the body. Half of where his brain should have been was nothing but fluid, swelling his skull outward. From 12 weeks to the end of pregnancy, [Trisomy 18 results in miscarriage](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18361449/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in nearly three of every four pregnancies. The doctors, specialists, and genetic counselors all agreed: Every day Thomas kept growing, he put his healthy twin brother, Henry, and Lauren herself at greater risk. And Lauren was already gravely sick, vomiting as many as 20 times an hour. On another emergency room visit, she learned she was heading toward organ failure — but still not near death enough for an abortion that would save her health and Henry’s life. All her doctors could say was, “I’m so sorry.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image.jpg) Marley Brandt and Henry Miller are survivors of Texas’ abortion ban and Ken Paxton’s overreach to prevent Texas families from making the right decision for their family. Credit: Courtesy of Lauren Miller & Ashley Brandt. We were the lucky ones. We had the money, the time, and the childcare to make the trip to Colorado for the care Texas denied us. There, we each had a single fetal reduction, a procedure that terminates one pregnancy in the case of multiple pregnancies, which has been found to reduce preterm birth and pregnancy complications without increasing pregnancy loss. Two of our co-plaintiffs, [Amanda Zurawski](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-true-cost-of-texas-abortion-ban-rising-deaths-abandoned-babies-fewer-doctors/) and Kristen Anaya, were not so lucky: they went septic waiting to find out whether they were dead enough for an abortion, after their water broke far too early for their daughters to survive. Texas lawmakers pioneered the “vigilante” civil enforcement mechanism that first got around legal protections for abortion while Roe v. Wade was precedent. The passage of Senate Bill 8 in 2021, which bans physicians from performing abortions if a fetal heartbeat is detected, made [Texas the most restrictive state on abortion in the country](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-true-cost-of-texas-abortion-ban-rising-deaths-abandoned-babies-fewer-doctors/) — and the [state to watch](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-abortion-laws-national-ban/). Last year, [Texas passed House Bill 7](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-women-invisible-labor-abortion-bans/), essentially replicating the bounty hunter law, this time for abortion medication like mifepristone and misoprostol. These are the laws that Paxton promotes. There are exceptions for certain anomalies, which passed in May 2025 after a bipartisan effort to help clean up the mess of Texas’ abortion and was signed into law as [Senate Bill 31](https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=89R&Bill=SB31&ref=thebarbedwire.com), or [the Life of the Mother Act](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/05/21/texas-abortion-exception-save-mothers/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The bill aligns language among the state’s myriad abortion laws and codifies court rulings, as well as requiring education for both doctors and lawyers on the law’s nuances. However, it doesn’t expand abortion access or make any exceptions for rape, incest, teen pregnancies and fatal fetal abnormalities. In plain language, Paxton said we weren’t dead enough for an abortion — that our doctors were right to deny us care. Then he turned around and said we should sue those same doctors for denying us care. Never mind that in Lauren’s case, her doctor was Dr. Austin Denard, a co-plaintiff asking the same question: How dead do we need to be? Paxton never answered that question. Everything he has done since tells us his answer: He wants Texas women closer to dead. When our friend, Kate Cox, asked the courts for an abortion in the middle of a medical emergency — an unviable pregnancy threatening her future fertility — a judge sided with her. [Paxton’s response was to threaten](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/dec/12/texas-abortion-ken-paxton-kate-cox?ref=thebarbedwire.com) every hospital in the Houston area where her doctor had admitting privileges with civil and criminal charges. The court had spoken. But Paxton — [indicted, impeached, and divorced by his wife on “Biblical grounds”](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/ken-paxton-scandal-timeline/) — brought it to the [Texas Supreme Court](https://www.txcourts.gov/media/1457645/230994pc.pdf?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which ruled that Kate Cox didn’t qualify for an exemption. Paxton has demonstrated that he does not believe in your right to make decisions for your own family. We know, first-hand, that he does not believe in your right to protect a healthy, wanted baby. That he does not believe the law applies to him. That he is too dangerous to represent Texas. Maybe you think this could never happen to you. Neither did we. Every one of these stories began with a wanted pregnancy and a family trying to do right by the people they love. If you have ever wondered whether your vote could matter, let us be clear: for the mother of your children, for a wanted pregnancy, for anyone you would carry into an emergency room, your vote for the Texas’ next senator is a matter of life and death. We watched Paxton dismiss our lives and the lives of our children. Don’t give him the chance to do it to your family, too. *Editor’s note: The views and opinions presented by guest contributors to The Barbed Wire do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the company, the newsroom, its staff, advisers, or advertisers.* ### 🗣️The Texans Who Refused To Shut Up URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-texans-who-refused-to-shut-up/ Last updated: 2026-06-26T20:37:25.000Z Howdy y’all, it’s Brian Gaar again, senior editor of *The Barbed Wire*. This week’s stories are about the Texans who built communities, whether that meant opening Black-owned bookstores during a racial reckoning or organizing queer mutual aid in Dallas, decades before Stonewall. Turns out the most dangerous thing in Texas has always been a group of people reading together. Fort Worth sisters Donna and Donya Craddock called 2020 “the unicorn year.” After George Floyd’s murder sparked nationwide protests and conversations about race, their store, The Dock Book Shop, [became a gathering place where people came to talk, learn, and listen](https://thebarbedwire.com/2026/05/28/black-owned-bookstores-in-texas-bring-communities-together-theyre-also-harassed-and-vandalized/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). For a brief period, Black-owned bookstores across the country saw sales and attention they hadn’t seen in years. But the surge didn’t last. The story traces how Black-owned bookstores in Texas still face harassment, closures, vandalism, and financial struggles even as they continue serving as community spaces, event hubs, and in some cases even warming centers during winter storms. As author Char Adams put it, Black-owned bookstores are “revolutionary” in a country where Black people were once “beaten and killed for attempting to read.” Andlong before Stonewall became shorthand for LGBTQ+ resistance, [Dallas had its own queer organizing movement](https://thebarbedwire.com/2026/05/27/before-stonewall-riots-dallas-queer-community-had-own-movement/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) quietly operating in the middle of conservative Texas. Historian M. Rhys Dotson’s new book, “The Dallas Way,” explores how early activists built networks, protected each other from police raids, and organized through churches, newsletters, and carefully managed public events. [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/size/w2000/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/4c59815b-0ff9-469f-a1aa-0b98fc1c5805-scaled.jpg) The Barbed Wire Years Before the Stonewall Riots, Dallas’ Queer Community Had Its Own Movement By Kit O'Connell ](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/queer-texas/before-stonewall-riots-dallas-queer-community-had-own-movement/) The story also highlights how AIDS activists in the 1980s forced Dallas politicians to respond during the height of the epidemic, including a protest where activists turned a vacant lot into a mock graveyard after the city spent more money filling a construction hole than fighting AIDS. It’s a reminder that Texas history is full of people who survived not because institutions protected them, but because communities did. ### 📚 Learning from queer history... URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/learning-from-queer-history/ Last updated: 2026-07-07T17:19:33.000Z 🤔 Welcome back, my beloved queer stars, to Big & Bright 🌈 ⭐ 👏. Your Aunt/Uncle Kit has more deep thoughts for you, alongside the latest in Texas LGBTQ news. This week I'm wondering … Have you considered the benefits of repeating history? --- 🙏 We need your support to keep The Barbed Wire alive ... Please become a member now if you haven't joined yet. *And a special thanks to* [*Kind Clinic and Texas Health Action*](https://thebarbedwire.acemlnb.com/lt.php?x=4lZy~GDFJ6bOD53AzQ9LURRuAHAkvQ~vw-sxjKTHIIOg6HF7yEy.zeZr242miNU~lfY4Z5HHkqUN5X%5F8ykyLwOJ&ref=thebarbedwire.com) *for underwriting our first sponsored vertical and our newsletter. All essays, reporting, and analysis will remain, as always, editorially independent.* [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/07/kind-clinic.jpg)](https://thebarbedwire.acemlnb.com/lt.php?x=4lZy~GDFJ6bOD53AzQ9LURRuAHAkvQ~vw-sxjKTHIIOg6HF7yEy.zeZr242miNU~lfY4Z5HIkqUN5X%5F8ykyLwOJ&ref=thebarbedwire.com) ♻️ We all know the cliche, but instead of being doomed to repeat the worst parts of history, what can we recreate from it instead? While reading “[The Dallas Way](https://thebarbedwire.acemlnb.com/lt.php?x=4lZy~GDFJ6bOD53AzQ9LURRuAHAkvQ~vw-sxjKTHIIOg6HF7yEy.zeZr242miNU~lfY4Z5HJkqUN5X%5F8ykyLwOJ&ref=thebarbedwire.com),” M. Rhys Dotson’s new history book [which I profiled this week for *The Barbed Wire*](https://thebarbedwire.acemlnb.com/lt.php?x=4lZy~GDFJ6bOD53AzQ9LURRuAHAkvQ~vw-sxjKTHIIOg6HF7yEy.zeZr242miNU~lfY4Z5HJkqUN5X%5F8ykyLwOJ&ref=thebarbedwire.com), I was struck by how those early LGBTQ+ organizers really played the long game. Some of the strongest grassroots groups that formed around the time of the Stonewall riots were still around decades later to support the community through the AIDS crisis. 💞 We live in a very different era, with new technologies and developments our elders couldn’t imagine. But I see similarities: conservative politicians in power who want to erase us and our culture, who are trying to drive us back in the closet just as we begin to gain a few shreds of liberation. We could stand to learn from the queers of last century about the importance of not just fighting back in the present, but building rock solid communities that can support us through not just ascendent fascism, but also natural disasters, pandemics, and whatever bizarre 💩 the future brings. 👉 Read on for my full review and interview with Rhys, and all the headlines from our state. And since it’ll be a couple weeks before we speak again … 🏳️‍🌈🌈 Happy Pride Month\~! --- ## Steers & Queers 🐂 What we’re writing and reading in Texas. 🏳️‍⚧️ In a bizarre and unnecessary waste of funds, a $10 million legal settlement between the state and Texas Children’s Hospital will force the facility to create the country’s first “[Detransition Clinic](https://thebarbedwire.acemlnb.com/lt.php?x=4lZy~GDFJ6bOD53AzQ9LURRuAHAkvQ~vw-sxjKTHIIOg6HF7yEy.zeZr242miNU~lfY4Z5HKkqUN5X%5F8ykyLwOJ&ref=thebarbedwire.com)” for ex-trans youth. Despite the setbacks, remember you are valid and there are countless Texans who will [keep fighting for trans folks of all ages](https://thebarbedwire.acemlnb.com/lt.php?x=4lZy~GDFJ6bOD53AzQ9LURRuAHAkvQ~vw-sxjKTHIIOg6HF7yEy.zeZr242miNU~lfY4Z5HMkqUN5X%5F8ykyLwOJ&ref=thebarbedwire.com). 🛫 So many [LGBTQ+ folks are moving from red states to Seattle](https://thebarbedwire.acemlnb.com/lt.php?x=4lZy~GDFJ6bOD53AzQ9LURRuAHAkvQ~vw-sxjKTHIIOg6HF7yEy.zeZr242miNU~lfY4Z5LDkqUN5X%5F8ykyLwOJ&ref=thebarbedwire.com) that the city may declare a state of emergency in order to free up more resources to support them. Although the crisis was widely covered in the media, it was Chron’s Gwen Howerton who revealed that a [massive influx of relocating trans Texans](https://thebarbedwire.acemlnb.com/lt.php?x=4lZy~GDFJ6bOD53AzQ9LURRuAHAkvQ~vw-sxjKTHIIOg6HF7yEy.zeZr242miNU~lfY4Z5LEkqUN5X%5F8ykyLwOJ&ref=thebarbedwire.com) is a major contributing factor. 🏃 [Let Them Play](https://thebarbedwire.acemlnb.com/lt.php?x=4lZy~GDFJ6bOD53AzQ9LURRuAHAkvQ~vw-sxjKTHIIOg6HF7yEy.zeZr242miNU~lfY4Z5LFkqUN5X%5F8ykyLwOJ&ref=thebarbedwire.com)! The cover story to the latest Texas Observer magazine, now [available online](https://thebarbedwire.acemlnb.com/lt.php?x=4lZy~GDFJ6bOD53AzQ9LURRuAHAkvQ~vw-sxjKTHIIOg6HF7yEy.zeZr242miNU~lfY4Z5LFkqUN5X%5F8ykyLwOJ&ref=thebarbedwire.com), is a beautifully persuasive essay by Austin historian and investigative journalist [Jessica Luther](https://thebarbedwire.acemlnb.com/lt.php?x=4lZy~GDFJ6bOD53AzQ9LURRuAHAkvQ~vw-sxjKTHIIOg6HF7yEy.zeZr242miNU~lfY4Z5LGkqUN5X%5F8ykyLwOJ&ref=thebarbedwire.com) on the importance of including transgender people in competitive sports, with equally beautiful art by Adrià Voltà. 🫏 [Eight Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives](https://thebarbedwire.acemlnb.com/lt.php?x=4lZy~GDFJ6bOD53AzQ9LURRuAHAkvQ~vw-sxjKTHIIOg6HF7yEy.zeZr242miNU~lfY4Z5LHkqUN5X%5F8ykyLwOJ&ref=thebarbedwire.com) joined Republicans in voting for HR 2616, which would censor educators from talking about transgender people and force teachers to out trans kids to their parents. The two offenders from Texas are [Rep. Henry Cuellar](https://thebarbedwire.acemlnb.com/lt.php?x=4lZy~GDFJ6bOD53AzQ9LURRuAHAkvQ~vw-sxjKTHIIOg6HF7yEy.zeZr242miNU~lfY4Z5LIkqUN5X%5F8ykyLwOJ&ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [Rep. Vicente González](https://thebarbedwire.acemlnb.com/lt.php?x=4lZy~GDFJ6bOD53AzQ9LURRuAHAkvQ~vw-sxjKTHIIOg6HF7yEy.zeZr242miNU~lfY4Z5LJkqUN5X%5F8ykyLwOJ&ref=thebarbedwire.com) – here’s their contact info so you can express your displeasure. ⚕️ Even though other courts have quashed similar requests, a federal appeals court [allowed a Texas judge to subpoena medical records from a Rhode Island hospital](https://thebarbedwire.acemlnb.com/lt.php?x=4lZy~GDFJ6bOD53AzQ9LURRuAHAkvQ~vw-sxjKTHIIOg6HF7yEy.zeZr242miNU~lfY4Z5LKkqUN5X%5F8ykyLwOJ&ref=thebarbedwire.com) that offers gender-affirming care to minors. It’s part of Trump’s ongoing war on healthcare for trans people but a three-judge panel claimed the government pinky-swear promised not to use the records to cause harm. 🌈 The City of Austin bowed to state pressure to [remove its remaining rainbow crosswalks](https://thebarbedwire.acemlnb.com/lt.php?x=4lZy~GDFJ6bOD53AzQ9LURRuAHAkvQ~vw-sxjKTHIIOg6HF7yEy.zeZr242miNU~lfY4Z5LLkqUN5X%5F8ykyLwOJ&ref=thebarbedwire.com), along with a “Black Artists Matter” street mural. According to Alex Driggars of the Austin American Statesman, the city is evaluating other options such as [San Antonio’s painted sidewalks](https://thebarbedwire.acemlnb.com/lt.php?x=4lZy~GDFJ6bOD53AzQ9LURRuAHAkvQ~vw-sxjKTHIIOg6HF7yEy.zeZr242miNU~lfY4Z5LMkqUN5X%5F8ykyLwOJ&ref=thebarbedwire.com). 💃 A Pride festival that has [taken place every October in Seguin since 2018](https://thebarbedwire.acemlnb.com/lt.php?x=4lZy~GDFJ6bOD53AzQ9LURRuAHAkvQ~vw-sxjKTHIIOg6HF7yEy.zeZr242miNU~lfY4Z5PDkqUN5X%5F8ykyLwOJ&ref=thebarbedwire.com) drew some backlash from residents, who turned up at a city council meeting to [voice their objections](https://thebarbedwire.acemlnb.com/lt.php?x=4lZy~GDFJ6bOD53AzQ9LURRuAHAkvQ~vw-sxjKTHIIOg6HF7yEy.zeZr242miNU~lfY4Z5PEkqUN5X%5F8ykyLwOJ&ref=thebarbedwire.com) to the gathering sponsored by local nonprofit [Riverside Pride](https://thebarbedwire.acemlnb.com/lt.php?x=4lZy~GDFJ6bOD53AzQ9LURRuAHAkvQ~vw-sxjKTHIIOg6HF7yEy.zeZr242miNU~lfY4Z5PFkqUN5X%5F8ykyLwOJ&ref=thebarbedwire.com). Even though all-ages drag shows are still legal in Texas ([as reported in *The Barbed Wire*](https://thebarbedwire.acemlnb.com/lt.php?x=4lZy~GDFJ6bOD53AzQ9LURRuAHAkvQ~vw-sxjKTHIIOg6HF7yEy.zeZr242miNU~lfY4Z5PGkqUN5X%5F8ykyLwOJ&ref=thebarbedwire.com)), organizers responded by separating the festival into a “family friendly” morning event and an 18+ evening featuring drag. 🏳️‍🌈 June is almost here! Both [Dallas](https://thebarbedwire.acemlnb.com/lt.php?x=4lZy~GDFJ6bOD53AzQ9LURRuAHAkvQ~vw-sxjKTHIIOg6HF7yEy.zeZr242miNU~lfY4Z5PHkqUN5X%5F8ykyLwOJ&ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [Houston](https://thebarbedwire.acemlnb.com/lt.php?x=4lZy~GDFJ6bOD53AzQ9LURRuAHAkvQ~vw-sxjKTHIIOg6HF7yEy.zeZr242miNU~lfY4Z5PIkqUN5X%5F8ykyLwOJ&ref=thebarbedwire.com) have their official Pride celebrations on June 6, with [Austin’s Queerbomb coming back on June 7](https://thebarbedwire.acemlnb.com/lt.php?x=4lZy~GDFJ6bOD53AzQ9LURRuAHAkvQ~vw-sxjKTHIIOg6HF7yEy.zeZr242miNU~lfY4Z5PJkqUN5X%5F8ykyLwOJ&ref=thebarbedwire.com). With so many attacks on our rights, it’s more important than ever for us to show up! --- ## Stars & Stripes 🇺🇸 *What’s happening in the rest of the gayborhood.* 📺 A coalition of 40 nonprofits objected to a proposal by the Federal Communications Commission to add content warnings on TV programs which [feature transgender or nonbinary characters](https://thebarbedwire.acemlnb.com/lt.php?x=4lZy~GDFJ6bOD53AzQ9LURRuAHAkvQ~vw-sxjKTHIIOg6HF7yEy.zeZr242miNU~lfY4Z5PLkqUN5X%5F8ykyLwOJ&ref=thebarbedwire.com), even if they don’t contain any sexual content. ⚧️ A Kansas judge issued “a scathing 117-page rebuke of the state's ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth,” [according to Erin Reed of *Erin in the Morning*](https://thebarbedwire.acemlnb.com/lt.php?x=4lZy~GDFJ6bOD53AzQ9LURRuAHAkvQ~vw-sxjKTHIIOg6HF7yEy.zeZr242miNU~lfY4Z5PMkqUN5X%5F8ykyLwOJ&ref=thebarbedwire.com). Since the lawsuit is based on the state’s constitution, it’s insulated from SCOTUS’ anti-trans [“Skrmetti” decision](https://thebarbedwire.acemlnb.com/lt.php?x=4lZy~GDFJ6bOD53AzQ9LURRuAHAkvQ~vw-sxjKTHIIOg6HF7yEy.zeZr242miNU~lfY4Z5TDkqUN5X%5F8ykyLwOJ&ref=thebarbedwire.com). Similarly, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that a state children’s hospital must [continue offering gender-affirming care](https://thebarbedwire.acemlnb.com/lt.php?x=4lZy~GDFJ6bOD53AzQ9LURRuAHAkvQ~vw-sxjKTHIIOg6HF7yEy.zeZr242miNU~lfY4Z5TEkqUN5X%5F8ykyLwOJ&ref=thebarbedwire.com). 😷 The [Centers for Disease Control deleted a page](https://thebarbedwire.acemlnb.com/lt.php?x=4lZy~GDFJ6bOD53AzQ9LURRuAHAkvQ~vw-sxjKTHIIOg6HF7yEy.zeZr242miNU~lfY4Z5TFkqUN5X%5F8ykyLwOJ&ref=thebarbedwire.com) encouraging LGBTQ+ individuals to protect themselves from Mpox through vaccination and other preventative health measures. One former CDC official told Advocate’s Christopher Wiggins that the move is “high public health treason.” 🏒 The [Montréal Victoire took home the Walter Cup](https://thebarbedwire.acemlnb.com/lt.php?x=4lZy~GDFJ6bOD53AzQ9LURRuAHAkvQ~vw-sxjKTHIIOg6HF7yEy.zeZr242miNU~lfY4Z5TGkqUN5X%5F8ykyLwOJ&ref=thebarbedwire.com), the Professional Women’s Hockey League’s ultimate prize, leading to a “heated” viral moment after teammates Laura Stacey and Marie-Philip Poulin, who are also married, embraced in celebration. Meanwhile trans Heated Rivalry actor and former hockey player Harrison Browne [spoke out publicly for trans athletes](https://thebarbedwire.acemlnb.com/lt.php?x=4lZy~GDFJ6bOD53AzQ9LURRuAHAkvQ~vw-sxjKTHIIOg6HF7yEy.zeZr242miNU~lfY4Z5THkqUN5X%5F8ykyLwOJ&ref=thebarbedwire.com). --- ## Bright & Buzzy📱 *Memes and more.* 🐸 [Crying over ‘Frog and Toad’](https://thebarbedwire.acemlnb.com/lt.php?x=4lZy~GDFJ6bOD53AzQ9LURRuAHAkvQ~vw-sxjKTHIIOg6HF7yEy.zeZr242miNU~lfY4Z5TIkqUN5X%5F8ykyLwOJ&ref=thebarbedwire.com) 🎤 [If you give an “angry gay kid” a microphone …](https://thebarbedwire.acemlnb.com/lt.php?x=4lZy~GDFJ6bOD53AzQ9LURRuAHAkvQ~vw-sxjKTHIIOg6HF7yEy.zeZr242miNU~lfY4Z5TJkqUN5X%5F8ykyLwOJ&ref=thebarbedwire.com) 👩‍🍳 [Let her cook!](https://thebarbedwire.acemlnb.com/lt.php?x=4lZy~GDFJ6bOD53AzQ9LURRuAHAkvQ~vw-sxjKTHIIOg6HF7yEy.zeZr242miNU~lfY4Z5TKkqUN5X%5F8ykyLwOJ&ref=thebarbedwire.com) --- ## Shameless Merch Plug 🧢 ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/07/e75293a4-6be9-426e-b05c-9c45f00ed848.png) 📗 Ever woken up from a dream with a flash of insight, only for it to escape in the light of day? Keep our [Big & Bright hardcover notebook](https://shop.thebarbedwire.com/products/big-bright-ideas-notebook?ref=thebarbedwire.com) by your bedside, and you’ll never lose another bright idea. It even comes with a ribbon to keep your place and a pocket for those little keepsakes. Reach out if you have tips, story ideas, or to share your favorite Texas queer history. (kit@thebarbedwire.com). 🌈 Stay big, bright, and bold, Kit (They/Them) 💖 --- ### Black-Owned Bookstores in Texas Bring Communities Together. They’re Also Harassed and Vandalized. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/black-owned-bookstores-in-texas-bring-communities-together-theyre-also-harassed-and-vandalized/ Last updated: 2026-09-22T13:38:52.000Z Fort Worth sisters Donna and Donya Craddock refer to 2020 as “the unicorn year.” There was the COVID-19 shutdown, but there was also something more — a death that prompted a period of racial reckoning. On May 25, 2020, George Floyd was murdered on camera by a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota. What followed were the [largest nationwide racial justice protests](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/george-floyd-black-lives-matter-impact/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) since the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. “The United States of America was really wanting to have conversations and wanting to learn from each other and come together,” Donna told *The Barbed Wire* in a recent interview. The Craddocks held a soft-opening for The Dock Book Shop in Fort Worth on Mother’s Day weekend in 2008\. Shoppers skimmed through copies of “The Parable of the Sower” and books by Black authors as soft jazz played in the background. “The community supported us,” Donna said. But a community is not a monolith: In 2017, their front window was broken. Some months later, a man came up to them during closing and spit on them. Then, after Floyd’s death, the bookstore saw more customers and eventgoers wanting to talk and learn about race in America than ever before. “We became a space for one-on-one conversations and group conversations,” Donya said. “Just to be heard.” “Black bookstores were seeing sales and profits that they hadn’t seen in a long long time,” said Char Adams, author of “Black-Owned: The Revolutionary Life of the Black Bookstore.” “But that was only a four month period” after Floyd’s death, during the height of Black Lives Matter protests, Adams added. Since 2020, 11 Black-owned bookstores have opened their doors in Texas, according to a directory compiled by the [National Association of Black Bookstores](https://www.nab2.org/directory?ref=thebarbedwire.com). There are many still standing, but, Adams said, “Today, Black-owned bookstores are still struggling.” Donna and Donya agree that “there’s been a decline.” And closures aren’t just financial. BlackLit, the first Black-owned book store in the Metroplex suburb of Farmers Branch, closed its brick-and-mortar store after months of harassment in Nov. 2024, [according to KERA News](https://www.keranews.org/arts-culture/2024-11-14/first-black-owned-bookstore-farmers-branch-closed-harassment-blacklit?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The community had celebrated the store’s two year anniversary a month prior. Requests for an interview with BlackLit’s former owners were not answered. Brown Sugar Café & Books opened in 2022 but was [vandalized with racist graffiti](https://abc13.com/post/katy-store-vandalized-brown-sugar-caf-and-books-raven-white-racial-hate/11469705/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) a month before its grand opening in Katy. The owner, Raven White, closed the storefront in 2024 and opened a new store in Chicago the next year. Requests for an interview with Brown Sugar Café & Books’ former owners were not answered. Times of political upheaval, violence, and racial reckonings tend to have disproportionate impacts on Black educators and journalists, as [Taylor Crumpton previously wrote](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/free-speech-crisis-for-black-americans-charlie-kirk/) for *The Barbed Wire* in the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s murder. In the weeks after Kirk’s assassination, multiple historically Black colleges and universities were placed on lockdowns and experienced [terroristic threats.](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/09/11/hbcus-lockdown-threats/86094019007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Meanwhile, Black students were [expelled](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/09/16/texas-state-university-student-charlie-kirk-comments/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) or forced to withdraw for expressing their first amendment rights. Crumpton reached out to numerous experts after Kirk’s assassination about safety at HBCUs and only heard back from one. “In all my years of journalism, I’ve never seen so much fear from subject matter experts,” she wrote. The racial makeup of the [more than 350 complaints filed against Texas teachers](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/09/15/texas-education-teacher-comments-charlie-kirk/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for alleged comments on the killing of Kirk has not been reported. As book bans make headlines across the country, it’s important to note that the majority of [banned](https://www.aclum.org/en/banned-books-black-authors?ref=thebarbedwire.com) books are by Black authors — a [University of Colorado Boulder study](https://www.colorado.edu/today/2024/07/02/women-color-disproportionately-targeted-book-bans-study-finds?ref=thebarbedwire.com) found that authors of color were 4.5 times more likely to be banned than white authors. #### ‘A Watershed Moment’ In Houston, more than 250 miles across the state from the sisters’ North Texas shop, CLASS Book Store opened its e-commerce store in November 2020\. On Dec. 3, 2022, it opened a brick-and-mortar location in the Third Ward, which is 56% Black, and is just a five minute walk from Yates High School — the same one George Floyd attended. “George Floyd’s murder was a watershed moment that happened not only in the history of this country but the world,” said David Landry, co-owner of CLASS Book Store. “2020 was this racial reckoning and there was this national conversation about Black-owned bookstores and their place as sites of education,” Adams said. But those same times that disproportionately harm Black Americans may also be “the times that are most profitable for Black owned-book stores,” he added. “When people are overtly confronted with politics and with questions of race, they tend to go to Black-owned bookstores,” he continued. “People have come to us at both our pop ups and brick-and-mortar store and said, ‘Hey I want to get this book from y’all because I feel like if I don’t now, eventually it won’t be available.’” Yet even when people are engaging with questions of race, educating themselves, and attending events, as Adams said, “A Black-owned book store is more likely to close than to last.” According to Adams, adaptability, community, and innovation are the main things that impact a Black-owned book store’s survival. CLASS Book Store and The Dock Book Shop both host events and act as a center for their communities. During winter storms, the former store serves as a warming center. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/landryclassbookstoreedits-2_1_1.jpg) CLASS Bookstore opened its brick-and-mortar location in 2022, located five minutes away from the high school George Floyd attended. The Book Readers Venue opened in 2022 in Humble and formed its community around books written by independent romance authors. “Not only was it a Black-owned bookstore, it was a Black-owned bookstore whose niche was the community of Black and brown authors,” Sherrelel Goloversie said. In April 2025, when Ohio state Sen. Nina Turner [called for a national boycott](https://youtube.com/shorts/uglkLiVptII?si=WBGGJiAt9EEfMY8d&ref=thebarbedwire.com) of Target following [a rollback of the company’s diversity equity and inclusion commitments](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/target-says-it-is-ending-its-dei-goals-and-programs-citing-an-evolving-external-landscape?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Goloversie saw an increase of shoppers at the Book Readers Venue. “That was when I started to see my first real turn around in terms of consistent book sales every day,” Goloversie said. A year later, the 180-square-foot bookstore still stands defiantly and — despite anti-DEI policies — Goloversie says that, at the end of the day, they just sell books. “It’s not harmful” and “nothing major,” she said. But after years of studying Black-owned book stores, Adams disagrees. “Black owned book stores as a whole — as a concept — are revolutionary just in the context of what reading and books and education has been to Black people in this country,” Adams said. She continued, “There was a time when Black people were beaten and killed for attempting to read.” ### Years Before the Stonewall Riots, Dallas’ Queer Community Had Its Own Movement URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/before-stonewall-riots-dallas-queer-community-had-own-movement/ Last updated: 2026-06-24T21:18:51.000Z In 1988, the city of Dallas filled in a hole. City council spent half a million dollars to fix a dangerous gap left on a vacant lot by a construction company. Seemingly good news, right? Well, to local LGBTQ+ activists, it was a sign of how little local politicians cared about them. At the time, the AIDS pandemic was tearing through the local gay population. AIDS had killed more than 600 people in the city by the end of 1987, yet the city budget only allocated about $50,000 to fight the disease and support its victims. That’s where GUTS, the Gay Urban Truth Squad, stepped in. They transformed that same vacant lot into a mock graveyard for the fallen and held a rally demanding that the city pay attention. “The potter’s field demonstration applied significant pressure to the Dallas City Council,” historian M. Rhys Dotson wrote in his new book, [“The Dallas Way,” which will be published on June 2 by New York University Press](https://nyupress.org/9781479839414/the-dallas-way/?ref=thebarbedwire.com).“By the fall of 1988, city council members Lori Palmer and Craig Holcomb fought to significantly increase funding to the tune of $552,000 the following year.” According to “The Dallas Way,” GUTS cofounder Bill Hunt was “frustrated by the lack of progress as ‘good little civic citizens,’ which led the group to “embrace civil disobedience” inspired by ACT-UP, the grassroots political activists group founded in March 1987 in New York City. Up until that point, many of the most active and successful activists in Dallas embraced what today might be called “respectability politics” in order to survive in one of the country’s most conservative cities. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/screenshot_2026-05-26_at_1-25-05_pm.png) The titular “Dallas Way” is a term dating back to the 19th Century, when local bankers worked closely but quietly behind the scenes through networking and social engineering to achieve their aims. Dotson’s book explains how, in a similar fashion, the earliest groups of queer activists wrote polite letters to their enemies, carefully dressed in suits and ties when they met with politicians, and worked closely with churches to protect themselves from police raids. “It's a different lived experience in Dallas, and because there's a different cultural experience in Dallas, I think that that also provides us with a different way of getting things done,” Dotson told *The Barbed Wire.* Speaking for those early activists, he said, “We're not radical people out here trying to upturn the entire system. We're just wanting to be treated as fair and equal citizens.” Dotson studies the history of civil rights movements at the University of Texas at Tyler. In a phone interview, he said he was born in a rural town east of Dallas, which led to a lifelong fascination with the history of the area. One day, he was browsing the [Portal to Texas History](https://texashistory.unt.edu/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — an incredibly comprehensive online archive of historical documents created by the University of North Texas — and was shocked to discover a photo of a [1979 billboard in Dallas](https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc276159/?q=gay%20billboard&ref=thebarbedwire.com) advertising a [national gay and lesbian march on Washington](https://www.advocate.com/history/first-national-march-washington-1979?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that took place in October of that year. As outlined in Dotson’s book, this was one of the first campaigns of its kind to ever openly feature LGBTQ+ people on billboards. “That kind of just led me down a rabbit hole to discover that there was an active gay community in Dallas before the ‘79 march that actually extended before the Stonewall riots or the Stonewall rebellion in 1969,” said Dotson, which is how American historians and global LGBTQ+ scholars mark the beginning of the queer civil rights movement in the United States. “The Dallas Way” begins with the Circle of Friends, one of the earliest “homophile” groups to form in Texas, founded three years before Stonewall by Phil Johnson, a Dallas native who was searching for the same kind of gay camaraderie he’d discovered in the military during his service in World War II. Although he wanted to build gay community, he knew he wouldn’t find the kind he was seeking in the city’s gay bars. But not only was Johnson uncomfortable in the bar scene, he also knew LGBTQ+ people were unsafe there too, as bars were frequently raided by the police. In order to protect members' privacy and anonymity from police snooping, Johnson partnered with Doug McLean, a local Methodist minister, to create his circle. “I think that that also speaks to the conservativism, and for lack of a better word, maybe the religiosity of the area, that police officers could not conceive that they would go in and raid a church, that was just a step too far for them in that era,” Dotson told me. The lengths that these early Dallas activists had to go to protect themselves from police harassment and the very real possibility of life-ruining legal consequences is remarkable. At an early public pride event in the city, the Dallas Gay Political Caucus, which later became the Dallas Gay Alliance, held a June 1976 rally to honor Stonewall at Exall Park. Not only was it opposite a popular gay bar, but just as importantly, the park was lacking in public restrooms, where activists feared the “Dallas Vice Squad might lure, trap, and apprehend unsuspecting young men.” *“*The Dallas Way” not only paints a fascinating and engaging portrait of an understudied period in Texas history, it also highlights the vital importance of media that centers LGBTQ+ reporters and queer and trans voices. With *The Dallas Morning News* opinion page often arguing in favor of the sodomy laws, which made queer life illegal, it fell on newsletters and independent publications by the queer community to document their lives and highlight their struggles. (Though most have disappeared, the [*Dallas Voice*](https://dallasvoice.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) continues to publish online and in print.) “I think that's a really great way for us as historians to get an almost both sides perspective,” Dotson said of the vital role LGBTQ+ reporting plays for historians like him. “It really helps us build a richer narrative,” said Dotson. “If we did not have those publications … then we would not have the ability to tell the story and the agency of the gay community.” ### Texas County Pursues Death Penalty ‘Almost Exclusively’ Against People of Color, Report Shows. We Have an Opportunity to Change That. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/tarrant-county-pursues-death-penalty-almost-exclusively-against-people-of-color/ Last updated: 2026-05-21T05:01:00.000Z My brother was [wrongfully convicted](https://innocenceproject.org/cases/timothy-cole/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). My wife is a police officer. My sister is the former city attorney for Austin, Texas. I have worked to free innocent people who were wrongfully convicted in Tarrant County and in the state more broadly. I was not shocked — but still incredibly disappointed — when I heard about a new bombshell report [issued by the Texas Defender Service](https://www.texasdefender.org/tarrant-county-death-penalty-report/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that revealed Tarrant County’s aggressive pursuit of death sentences, especially and “almost exclusively” against people of color. The Texas Defender Service, which authored the report, is an organization “dedicated to ending mass incarceration and excessive punishment in Texas through direct representation, policy reform, and public education.” Titled [“An Extreme Outlier: Race and the Death Penalty in Tarrant County, the Third Largest County in Texas,”](https://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/article315660828.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) the publication made significant waves in North Texas earlier this month. “At a time when most jurisdictions in Texas and around the country are moving away from the death penalty, the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office continues to seek the ultimate punishment at a remarkable rate, and almost exclusively against people from racial and ethnic minority groups,” said the group’s Executive Director Burke Butler. Faith leaders and community activists expressed concerns about the findings — that Tarrant County threatens the death sentence as leverage in plea bargains and unfairly targets racial and ethnic minorities in death penalty cases — as [*The* *Fort Worth Star-Telegram*](https://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/article315660828.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) reported last week. Rev. Ryon Price, the senior pastor of Broadway Baptist Church, [said at a press conference](https://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/article315660828.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that Tarrant County’s pursuit of the death penalty is “shocking in its frequency and absolutely abhorrent in its effect.” [Texas has executed 600 people since 1982](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/tcadp-org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/tcadp-statement-on-the-execution-of-edward-busby.pdf), which is more than any other state by far. And as the report alleges, Tarrant County is an outlier even within a state universally acknowledged as the death penalty capital of the nation. For context, across the globe, executions in 2025 soared to the highest figure recorded by Amnesty International since 1981, with 2,707 people executed in 17 separate countries. In a [dataset published on Monday](https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2026/05/executions-surge-highest-recorded-figure-44-years/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the organization’s Secretary General Agnès Callamard said “a small, isolated group of countries willing to carry out executions at all costs” were the cause of a global spike she deemed “alarming.” Of course, the United States was included in that group, along with China, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Kuwait, and Singapore. “This shameless minority are weaponizing the death penalty to instill fear, crush dissent, and show the strength state institutions have over disadvantaged people and marginalized communities,” said Callamard. Ultimately, as the United States is a world leader in executions, and Texas has executed far more people than any other state, Tarrant County’s position as an “extreme outlier” is all the more concerning. The report is confirmation of an unfair and abhorrent practice in Tarrant County that many of us unfortunately already suspected. The public believes that this is just the norm and how the criminal legal system operates, but this new evidence could be an opportunity to force change. Tarrant County has accounted for nearly one-quarter of death penalty trials in Texas since 2020, even though it has only seven percent of the state’s population. Out of Texas’ 254 counties, only prosecutors in two, Harris and Tarrant, pursued new death sentences in 2025, according to the group. Ninety-two percent of the death sentences sought by Tarrant County prosecutors since 2012 have been against racial and ethnic minorities, even though 40% of Tarrant County’s population is white. According to the report, racial discrimination is obvious in cases where the severity of the charges far exceeds the evidence to support those charges. It is a horrific practice known as “up-charging.” More than a quarter of Tarrant County capital murder cases during the past two decades resulted in a non-homicide conviction and ten percent of defendants received no jail time at all. Up-charging is a common practice used to get convictions, but to see it used with capital charges — and not even result in any jail time — is another thing altogether. You must ask the question, “What is the motivation behind up-charging in that case when you know the death penalty is supposed to be reserved for the most heinous crimes?” The perverse thing is, you sometimes do get convictions out of it when you should not, because the charge is so serious that many people will just plead guilty to avoid the up-charge. By any measure, it is an eye-opening report, and it is right here in my own backyard. Up-charging on cases, which perverts the rule of law, and disproportionately targeting and intimidating people with the ultimate sentence of death, are all practices of the Tarrant County District Attorney’s office. Texas Defender Service’s report makes it clear that the time has come to address these types of troubling practices that have been routinely used by the office for years. What will it take to get the Tarrant County DA’s office to move away from using the death penalty as a hammer of threat? Shining a light on these practices is a first step toward making the Tarrant County District Attorney's office a beacon of light for all district attorneys to follow — instead of an outlier for cruelty and racism. *Editor’s note: The views and opinions presented by guest contributors to The Barbed Wire do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the company, the newsroom, its staff, advisers, or advertisers.* ### Trump Finally Endorses Paxton, Cornyn Reduced to ‘Good Man’ Status URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/trump-finally-endorses-paxton-cornyn-reduced-to-good-man-status/ Last updated: 2026-06-25T18:14:12.000Z Donald Trump has officially endorsed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for U.S. Senate, bucking his party's mainstream donors and siding with the MAGA favorite in the May 26 Republican runoff. In a [statement roughly the length of a Russian novel](https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/116602192066577324?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Trump praised Paxton as an “America First Patriot,” a “MAGA Warrior,” and most importantly, “extremely loyal.” “I know Ken well, have seen him tested at the highest and most difficult levels, and he is a WINNER!” our president wrote. In his usual meandering way, Trump also mentioned “Radical Left Lunatics,” stock markets, the Space Force, Iran, and somehow all of it tied back into Ken Paxton becoming a senator from Texas. The bigger takeaway, though, is that Trump kicked incumbent mainstream-as-hell Sen. John Cornyn to the curb, despite Cornyn [massively outraising Paxton](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/05/14/texas-us-senate-gop-runoff-cornyn-paxton-attack-ads-spending/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). But Trump decided to buck the mainstream Republican money and support Paxton, a man whose picture is next to "messy" in the dictionary. This is, after all, [is the same Ken Paxton who](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/ken-paxton-scandal-timeline/): - was indicted on securities fraud charges in 2015, - survived an FBI investigation, - survived impeachment, - settled whistleblower lawsuits, - got sued by the Texas Bar over the 2020 election, - weathered years of affair allegations, - endured a very public divorce filed on “biblical grounds,” - and somehow still emerged as the avatar of the Texas Republican base. Trump even referenced Paxton having “gone through a lot, in many cases, very unfairly." Of course. Cornyn spent years being the traditional Texas Republican establishment guy: business-friendly, conservative, predictable. But in today’s GOP, that’s like saying you're for universal healthcare and a gun ban. Paxton, meanwhile, is pure Republican primary catnip: permanently embattled and able to transform every investigation into proof the “deep state” fears him personally. And now he has Trump’s blessing. The winner of the Paxton/Cornyn mudfight will go on to face Democratic state Rep. James Talarico, who must have a Texas-sized grin on his face, because he now gets a much-easier opponent. "As I said on primary night, it doesn't matter who wins this runoff," said Talarico, who does not mean that. "We already know who we're running against: the billionaire mega-donors and their corrupt political system." ### ‘Future Legends.’ Despite So-Called ‘Drag Ban,’ Texas’ Queer Showcases Are Launching Pads for Performers. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/next-top-drag-performer-texas/ Last updated: 2026-05-13T05:01:00.000Z In Austin, a city with an abundance of drag shows, one monthly showcase offers a unique platform — and launch pad — for emerging talent. “You get to see future legends get their start, and other people just flourish and find their niche.” That’s how “[Big Tits, Bigger Dreams](https://www.instagram.com/bigtitsbiggerdreams/?ref=thebarbedwire.com),” or BTBD, was described by co-host and regular performer [Reyah Sunshine](https://www.instagram.com/its.reyah.sunshine/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) at this month’s event on May 2\. BTBD takes place on the first Saturday of every month at [Oilcan Harry’s](https://oilcanharrys.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Austin’s oldest gay bar, and is hosted and created by one of Austin’s most well-known drag artists. [Brigitte Bandit](https://www.instagram.com/brigittebandit/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) became famous for her advocacy and activism, including [testifying against state bills that have attempted to ban drag](https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/texas-drag-queen-brigitte-bandit-senate-testimony/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — and then she joined a [lawsuit](https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/texas-drag-ban-takes-effect-after-appeals-court-decision/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) against [one such law](https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2025/11/drag-is-still-legal-activist-has-an-important-reminder-after-court-upholds-state-drag-ban/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). However, that so-called “drag ban,” which was [reinstated in November](https://www.advocate.com/news/texas-drag-ban-ruling-reversed?ref=thebarbedwire.com) by a U.S. Court of Appeals decision, is very narrowly defined. Thus, there’s room for events like “Big Tits, Bigger Dreams” to continue. Rather than simply bask in her renown, Bandit uses her growing profile — including more than 82,000 followers on Instagram alone — to shine a light on up and coming drag artists. Bandit always chooses a regular, such as Sunshine, to co-host. At May’s show, there were about 30 performers, ranging from drag queens to kings and nonbinary drag ‘creatures,’ with diverse looks that included ghoulish goblins with fang-filled snouts, impeccably coiffed femme fatales, and studly cowboys in sparkly boots and fringe. During a phone interview before May’s show, Bandit explained that “Big Tits, Bigger Dreams” began in October 2022 as a non-competitive place for new drag performers to appear before an audience. Since then, there have been more than forty monthly BTBD showcases, with guest hosts taking over when Bandit is unavailable or on vacation. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/btbd-group-shot-dsc04090.jpg) Other open mics geared toward new performers are typically judged, with the winner receiving a small cash prize, but Bandit believed this intimidates newcomers to the stage. Instead of prizes, for “Big Tits, Bigger Dreams” Bandit hires a professional photographer, who takes both portraits and performance photos of each performer. “Everyone walks away with something,” Bandit explained. Those portraits help artists get booked at other shows. In addition, since performers aren’t trying to win a prize, the show is open to a wider variety of styles and moods That’s how “[HOT LOAD & THE GLAMCÖCKS](https://www.instagram.com/p/DCF48lqgNJ8/?img%5Findex=1&ref=thebarbedwire.com)” was born, first taking the stage at the November 2024 show. The infamous quartet of transmasculine drag kings perform with cardboard instruments and mimic a heavy metal hair-band, even to the point of staging fake drunken brawls with their audience. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/hot-lunch-performs-dsc01787.jpg) It’s that exact kind of creativity and weirdness — and gender diversity — that Bandit aims to cultivate. “I think Austin has a lot more gender diversity than you would find in other drag scenes,” she said, “and I do have to credit BTBD for a lot.” Being in the audience at Oilcan Harry’s for “Big Tits, Bigger Dreams” feels more raw and intimate than other drag shows, where there’s a sharper divide between performers and viewers. At a typical drag show, for example, it’s easier to feel like a tourist or an outsider looking in. But on Saturday, the performers crowded around, along with their friends and even family members, cheering each other on. As dollars flew, the sound system’s loud bass pulsed in my belly, and drag artists and audience members wandered together onto the bar’s open roofed back patio to pass joints with each other. It was easy to feel like part of a community instead of just a spectator. “It's a really awesome, supportive environment, and that's what I love the most about it,” Sunshine said. For her performance that night, she wore a bedazzled band-leader’s uniform and danced with a baton and prop instruments. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/reyah-sunshine-performs-dsc04006.jpg) “Big Tits, Bigger Dreams” highlights the personality and unique style of each drag performer, encouraging them to bring out their most outrageous looks. Hot Lunch, leader of the previously mentioned “drag band” HOT LOÄD & The GLAMCÖCKS, said he presents himself as an “80s-inspired sleazy man meets kind of a mime.” At the most recent BTBD, he dressed in a shiny jumpsuit, wrap-around shades, blacklight reactive lightning bolt earrings and a massive pornstar mustache, and he danced like a randy janitor while holding a broom to “Night Work” by the Scissor Sisters. He told *The Barbed Wire* that his fellow band members met through BTBD, and they’ve continued to perform together at other venues, most recently at Austin’s fantasy-themed [Tiny Minotaur](https://www.tinyminotaur.com/home?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Pub for an event called “Drag Me To The Tavern,” hosted by [Sir Beau Elliot](https://www.instagram.com/sir.beau.elliot/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a former BTBD cohost. “I found a lot of community and trans people (through BTBD) and drag has brought a lot of joy into my life,” Hot Lunch told *The Barbed Wire* earlier this month. Bandit told us that many other alumni of the event have also gone on to start their own drag revues. [Karabiner](https://www.instagram.com/thekarabiner/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) now hosts an all-lesbian drag show called [Futch Fetish](https://www.instagram.com/futch.fetish/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [Munster Mash](https://www.instagram.com/munster.mash7743/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) hosts [Shock Therapy](http://www.instagram.com/shocktherapyatx/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). In the almost four years since “Big Tits, Bigger Dreams” began, other similar events have sprung up around the state, showcasing their community’s best new drag artists. That Saturday, Lucile De Monic, who was wearing vampire fangs, a blood red dress, dark corset, and beautifully contoured white face makeup, told us that she frequently performs at “[Baby Bats](https://www.instagram.com/babybatsproductions/?ref=thebarbedwire.com),” a monthly all-ages drag open mic in San Marcos with a gothic and alternative theme. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/lucille-de-monic-performs-dsc03123.jpg) “I love an open stage,” De Monic said. “Baby bats is, especially if you're in the goth community, one of the most welcoming and friendly and embracing (spaces) … it feels like a big hug, but instead of arms with bat wings.” Another space for emerging talent is San Antonio’s “[Draguate School](https://www.instagram.com/draguateschool?ref=thebarbedwire.com),” led by drag king [Ewan Danger](https://www.instagram.com/ewan.danger/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Styled as a series of “semesters,” Draguate School pairs each new performer up with a more seasoned artist, who works with the newcomer to create four performances, culminating in the “senior showcase” which is performed as a duet between mentor and student. Similar to BTBD, the newbies walk away with top-quality photos that they can use to promote themselves to future venues. “I’ve seen a lot of performers get attention because they were in Draguate School,” Danger told *The Barbed Wire*. “Draguates” who now appear more frequently around the scene include [Necrosis](https://www.instagram.com/necrotic.llorona/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [Leo Vixen Darlng Danger](https://www.instagram.com/leo%5Fvixen%5F/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [Skarlet](https://www.instagram.com/thee.skarlet/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and [Morte Lumina Danger](https://www.instagram.com/mortexlumina/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), who also performed on Saturday. After Draguate School, he added, they “actually start to get bookings and get more traction in the scene.” On Saturday, he was dressed in sparkly Western finery, including a black fringed jacket with “Danger” bedazzled in silver on the back. However, his playful demeanor turned serious when I asked him about the so-called drag ban. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/ewan-danger-performs-dsc01755.jpg) “It is affecting a lot of my trans brothers and sisters, because they feel nervous going out,” Danger told us. The law, which bans “sexually-oriented performances” around minors, and was intended to suppress drag performances in the state, is still pending future court hearings. In the meantime, it remains in effect, though the federal appeals court went to some lengths to specify that most forms of drag performance are still protected free speech and therefore exempt from the law, including wearing prosthetic body parts and dancing or twerking. Despite the exemptions, the law has increased the atmosphere of fear and uncertainty for trans performers, Danger said. “Friends of mine say ‘I don't feel comfortable performing here because of the drag ban, and because I'm trans,” he added. “That's one of the most upsetting parts of it, because the drag world, its foundation, its roots are in the trans community. Trans women of color are the literal cornerstone of the entire drag scene that we have today. And to watch them feel so uncomfortable in a scene that was literally built on their backs breaks my fucking heart.” Bandit told *The Barbed Wire* she appreciates that “Big Tits, Bigger Dreams” gives her an opportunity to clear up misconceptions about the law. “I'm really glad that I'm able to talk about the drag ban on stage every single month, educate these newer performers on their rights and make sure that they still feel empowered, especially with all the misinformation surrounding it,” Bandit said in our interview. “I think that BTBD is a really great space for me to … let them know, ‘Hey, you are still well within your rights to go do drag. And in fact, you should probably do it more now.’” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/kylie-kinks-works-the-crowd-dsc01613.jpg) Despite the ban, drag continues to thrive in Austin and around the state, and Bandit ensures first-time performers get priority when it comes to making each month’s roster. Readers of the *Austin Chronicle* voted BTBD as the [best drag showcase](https://calendar.austinchronicle.com/best-of/2025/arts-and-entertainment-readers-poll/drag-showcase-13406708?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in their annual poll, an impressive achievement for a city often boasting multiple drag events per day.She also recently spun off a separate, competitive event called “[The Titty Tournament,](https://www.instagram.com/p/DTMP9K4Da7x/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)” with $150 in cash for each week’s winners. Still, Bandit adores how her monthly, noncompetitive showcase brings out unique performances that might not have a home anywhere else, from the ribald to the vulnerable: “You're gonna see somebody shaking their ass for three minutes, and then the next one's gonna be pouring their heart out.” Reyah Sunshine, who had never hosted a drag event before this month’s showcase, told us she hopes everyone walks away from the event feeling empowered to try new things. “If you even have an urge about wanting to try drag yourself, don't let that turn into a permanent ‘what if’ for the rest of your life,” she told *The Barbed Wire.* “Even if it's one night only, do it, find somebody or find the YouTube tutorials, throw yourself in a glam and just have a time, because that's what we've been doing for almost four years.” ### She Thought Her Daughter Was Faking Sick. Then She Found Out Her Elementary School Was Built on a Drilling Waste Site. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/her-elementary-school-was-built-on-a-radioactive-fracking-waste-site/ Last updated: 2026-09-22T13:36:40.000Z ## EXCLUSIVE If anyone had told Joey Giminiani what was under his house, he never would've bought it. On April 23, Giminiani took off work at the electric utility and joined a Zoom meeting from the home he had sunk his life savings into. He watched as the residential developers on the call insisted on two things. First, that no matter what anyone said, the site was safe. And second, that no one ever had any reason to tell him what lay beneath it. Giminiani had been bracing for these test results for weeks. If they came back inconclusive, he told me last month, there would be an uproar. If they came back contaminated, it would force the state to test every lot in the development. Instead, he tuned in that Thursday, along with 25 other homeowners from the hundreds in the neighborhood, to hear the developer arguing there had never been a problem — or as he put it, trying to “sweep things under the rug.” Bret Pedigo, a partner at Terra Manna Homes, opened by telling residents that Silo Mills in Johnson County was “a place to call home, to raise your families,” that it was perfectly safe — and that it was being “attacked or terrorized by irresponsible media stories.” Reader, he was talking about us. In February, [*The Barbed Wire*](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/a-whistleblower-says-radioactive-fracking-waste-melted-his-jaw/) and the [*Texas Observer*](https://www.texasobserver.org/radioactive-oil-and-gas-waste-north-texas-elementary-school/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) published investigations [that found Silo Mills had been built on a former landfarm](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/a-whistleblower-says-radioactive-fracking-waste-melted-his-jaw/) — a site where solid, often toxic waste from oil and gas drilling had been spread on the land and left to break down. A whistleblower who had worked the site, Lee Oldham, [told us he had personally helped bury radioactive drilling waste there](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/a-whistleblower-says-radioactive-fracking-waste-melted-his-jaw/). We also reported that Silo Mills was one piece of a much larger problem: an estimated 20 to 60 million tons of drilling waste from the fracking boom that had been buried, plowed under, or dumped in municipal landfills around Dallas-Fort Worth, a region now in the middle of rapid suburbanization. Silo Mills was exceptional, however, in a couple of ways. First, that a whistleblower with knowledge of the site had come forward to tell the public of what he had done there. Second, there were the kids: As part of the deal to develop the property, Terra Manna donated land to the local school district, which built Pleasant View Elementary on the same ground. So our story caused an uproar. In the weeks that followed our investigation, the Texas Attorney General's Office began looking into the development. The Texas Railroad Commission visited the site. And Pleasant View parents, some of whose children had health concerns they attributed to the waste buried under 500 elementary school students, pressed Pleasant View administrators for answers. Meanwhile, the superintendent, hoping to reassure parents, released the environmental records the district had relied on when the school was built. Which only made things worse: Parents reading the records realized they showed a walkabout-and-paperwork inspection — not soil or chemical testing of the site itself. (As we’ll get to, the developers would later argue the site had been tested back when it operated as a waste disposal site, but their records, they claim, have been lost.) The developers were rattled by our reporting too. “When the first article came out, it certainly caused a lot of stress and concern here,” Jeffrey Harper, an attorney representing Terra Manna and Prophet Equity, told me. “Did we misunderstand here? Why are people making these claims? Who the heck is Lee Oldham?” Late last month, the Silo Mills developers came before the residents who had bought the houses they built to argue that all of the concerns had been overblown — a product of bad-faith journalism. The testing the developers cited to make this case was substantial. According to Harper and a recording of the Zoom meeting I later reviewed, UES Professional Solutions — the firm hired to do the testing — had audited the original mud-farm records in Austin, cross-referencing them against the property to confirm the historical permitting and test data checked out and didn’t have gaps. The developers say this 2010s-era testing of the active oil and gas waste disposal site was exhaustive, though they have not released hard copies of either the testing or the methods they used. They told residents, and us, that last month’s testing involved drilling more than 60 holes around the school and community buildings. These boreholes went down 15 feet, and then every foot of every hole was sampled for a variety of common oilfield contaminants — radiation, toxic oil-cousins like benzene and toluene, and heavy metals like arsenic. The result: 137 core samples and roughly 1,996 individual data points. Company representatives said that results for every contaminant they looked at came back below regulatory limits for the primary human-health exposure pathways — skin contact, ingestion, and inhalation. UES is a reputable company, and Eurofins — which tested the samples — is a reputable lab. But the methodology that the company shared with us revealed significant holes. For one, there is a long list of cancer-causing compounds common in oilfield waste that the developers didn’t test for: polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons like benzopyrene, which can cause skin cancer; the metal nickel, which can cause breathing problems and lung cancer; and PFAS, the “forever chemicals” that wreck the endocrine system. These chemicals stick around in soil, don't break down well in landfarms, and have [led](https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/five-companies-agree-pay-72-million-settle-allegations-natural-resource-damages-watershed?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [to](https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/energy-environment/2024/10/14/502875/pemex-deer-park-lawsuit-hydrogen-sulfide-release-injuries-workers/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [major](https://nationalaglawcenter.org/farmers-file-suit-over-pfas-contamination/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [lawsuits](https://www.instagram.com/p/DUlSBs%5FjDMF/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Perhaps most importantly, per Pedigo’s statements on the Zoom call, UES had sampled the school grounds, the common areas, and around the amenity center — but not the soil under or directly around the houses where families actually lived. Despite these holes, Terra Manna and its financier, Prophet Equity, told *The Barbed Wire* they had spent more than $1 million on follow-up testing — and insisted no more was needed. Harper said UES had expressed “100 percent certainty” that the site was clean of radiation. “A granite countertop has more radiation than this land,” he said of Silo Mills. The testers, he added, had “reiterated everything that we knew and thought, which was that there is no way any radioactive materials ever made it to this farm.” Harper said UES had also told the company there was “no point doing any further testing out there.” Such absolute language is unusual in environmental science, where empirical findings tend to come with caveats. Johnson County Detective Dana Ames, who led the county's investigation into PFAS dumping that had killed 80-plus cattle on nearby farmland, said she would be testing the Silo Mills site herself, including for PFAS. Ames told *The Barbed Wire* she could not comment on the developer's results because the company had not given her their data or methodology. The county's investigation, she said, was ongoing. #### ‘She’s a Completely Different Kid’ Many residents weren't convinced by the developers’ assurances that all was well. In the weeks after our story ran, a half-dozen parents responded to a survey I posted online with health concerns about themselves and their children — symptoms they said appeared during the school year and cleared up during breaks. We followed up with these parents to get more information about their stories and to verify their identities; *The Barbed Wire* granted them anonymity because of concerns about backlash in a community that has polarized around the issue. One mother told us she had long ago begun making her kids shower off after coming home from school and that she felt sick when at events on the premises. Another said her daughter's constant dizziness and bad headaches after school had led her to suspect the girl was making things up — until she read our reporting. Still another described how, in the months before our story came out, her family had tried detoxes, parasite cleanses, and mold remediation to address their continual symptoms. “I'm so tired of having to keep my kids at home because they don't feel well, and then getting in trouble with the school because of absences,” she said. Two families told us that the symptoms disappeared during holiday breaks. “Over summer,” one mother wrote, “she's a completely different kid than the school year.” One mother who lived next to Silo Mills [reported in a Facebook post](https://www.facebook.com/groups/1359671781188096/permalink/2277081986113733/?rdid=Ix4fa3UWy9dZpE7G#) that when the wind blew south, a foul “rotten” odor filled her house. What caused the symptoms and smells hasn't been established. But the pattern the families describe appears consistent with something tied to the school property and Silo Mills at large, considering that symptoms showed up during the academic year and cleared up during breaks, when children weren't on the premises. (Pleasant View takes children from surrounding communities, not just Silo Mills.) The complaints echoed older ones about the site, dating back to 2018 — before the development existed. That year, neighbor Sue Beaton told Texas state environmental regulators — in records reviewed by *The Barbed Wire* — that fumes from the mud farm, by then decommissioned, had stripped the paint from her house and her car, left a foul odor in her pool, and that dying animals, which she assumed came from the site, kept ending up on her property. #### ‘You Didn’t Do the Proper Testing’ The developers said they had always known the site underneath Silo Mills was safe. They used to own it. Why would anybody dispute that they knew what was buried there? Before it financed the construction of Silo Mills, Prophet Equity owned a controlling share in a gas drilling company and in a drilling fluids company. That drilling company sent its waste to Joshua Land Farm LLC — a company owned, per state records, by Prophet Equity founder and managing partner Ross Gatlin, who scowled, camera-on, through the Zoom town hall last month. In other words, the companies generating the waste, receiving it, and building homes on top of it were all controlled by or partnered with the same private-equity firm. The site had been farmland before it was a land farm. After the DFW-area oil and gas boom largely ended and the landfarm was decommissioned, Prophet had tried to convert the property into a wastewater treatment plant; when that effort fell through, the company turned to housing. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/frackingsiteembed.gif) Lee Oldham was the source whose testimony first revealed what was under Silo Mills — both in our previous story and to Dana Ames, the Johnson County detective. Oldham, 52, was a former landfarm worker who had spread and buried drilling waste at what locals called the Joshua Mud Farm during the Barnett Shale fracking boom of the early 2010s. He believes he was poisoned by radiation there — something the company now argues its post-publication tests have proven impossible. When Pleasant View Elementary opened on the site, [he came forward with claims](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/a-whistleblower-says-radioactive-fracking-waste-melted-his-jaw/) that the dust he inhaled during his time at the landfarm had severely degraded the bones in his jaw and neck, a [known side effect of radium exposure](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radium%5Fjaw?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Harper disputed parts of Oldham's timeline. “I'm confident that we have multiple people in charge of the property, and confident he was not working on our land at that time,” he told me. The company, Harper said, had been in contact with former landfarm employees who could dispute Oldham's account, though he did not provide their names. But the developers did not consult with Oldham when they did their testing, and none of these employees have brought their concerns about him to law enforcement. Ames told me she would welcome the chance to interview anyone who had worked the site, but that the developer had not provided that information to her and none of those alleged witnesses had come forward. (A Facebook post from one man claiming to be an employee [said the truckloads were radioactive](https://www.facebook.com/groups/468443093900364/permalink/2162295311181792/?rdid=A3HUTYkQOmd4WI4N&share%5Furl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fshare%2Fp%2F18C7qBBQHX%2F#); another former worker [wrote on Oldham’s page](https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1ZbY3c7Q3g/) after our story published that her colleagues at the landfarm had experienced “odd cancers & birth defects passing to the younger generations.”) Swipes at the whistleblower aside, Harper’s main point was this: Exhaustive testing before construction of the new development on a former waste site had been unnecessary because Joshua Land Farm LLC had run such a rigorous intake operation. The dump site was fenced, monitored by cameras, and patrolled by security personnel. At the gate, every incoming truck was inspected. The staff, Harper said, had been trained to assess the loads by smell — “it doesn't take a genius,” he said he’d been told, to tell the difference between water- and oil-based drilling muds. Trucks that smelled wrong were turned around. The rest were sent on to a testing pad, where a technician ran samples against chemical strips. But what, exactly, that technician had been testing for, Harper could not say. The one substance she could swear she had checked for, he said, was petroleum — the company's main concern was making sure no one was sneaking in oil-based drilling mud, which is regulated more stringently. Beyond that: “The short answer is, she just wasn't \[sure\],” Harper said. The records of what had been tested at the landfarm were also gone. “I can't give you the documentation for what we did back then, because we don't have it,” Harper said. “When the company closed down, that was put in storage for, I think, seven years, and we looked for it to see if we still had it. And we just don't.” And as with the UES testing, there was one category of pollutant the company had never tested for at all: radioactive heavy metals, which Harper said the site wasn’t licensed to receive. PFAS — forever chemicals — also went unchecked. “Other than avoiding oil, I don't think that they were making any particular test,” Harper said. The company had since done its own radiation testing, post-publication, and concluded nothing was there — proof, they argue, that their controls when it was a landfarm had worked. But during its operating years, was there ever actual *testing* for radiation in the trucks dumping at the landfarm? Harper was unequivocal: “There was not.” The testing the company *did* perform before construction — the results the Godley Independent School District superintendent released, to widespread frustration — was what’s called a Phase I environmental assessment, which isn’t really testing at all. Instead, an assessor walks the property, reviews the available records, and writes a report. The hands-on work — drilling cores, sampling soil, testing groundwater — is a separate process. At Silo Mills no one broke ground to test the former landfarm between the time it was closed and the time the homes were built, or before Pleasant View Elementary opened on the same ground. The Phase I report TBK Environmental had written for the site flagged this issue directly: The lack of surface-level toxic waste, the inspectors wrote, did not prove that nothing was there. The only way to know for sure, they wrote, was through “soil and groundwater testing and/or excavation.” The company, Harper told me, didn't feel the need to do soil testing before Silo Mills was built because of the stringent testing the Railroad Commission had required to run the site and to decommission it. But that decommissioning testing, like last month's UES work, had the same blind spots — which included no testing for PFAS. Of these, PFAS are a particular concern, both due to their carcinogenic and estrogen-disrupting impacts and presence in oilfield waste. A [2021 report by Physicians for Social Responsibility found that PFAS](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/psr-org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/fracking-with-forever-chemicals.pdf) — the same forever chemicals Detective Ames was now testing for — had been used in hydraulic fracturing in more than 1,200 oil and gas wells since 2012. The figure is almost certainly an undercount, since testing for the chemicals is expensive and access to wells is hard to come by. The developer's testing at Silo Mills had not covered them. For Giminiani, the lack of proactive soil testing on a known oilfield waste disposal site was the thing that didn't add up. “It's incredible,” he told me. “You're gonna invest millions and millions of dollars into a property and then not go the full route?” Another homeowner, Clayton Boley, had pulled the Phase I report and read it himself. The records were “pretty spotty,” he told *The Barbed Wire*. “You didn't do the proper testing,” Boley said, of Prophet Equity and Terra Manna. “You just rolled the dice.” “They've only ever answered the questions they've been asked,” he added. Blake Scott of Waste Analytics, an industry veteran who [runs the site Wellfacts](https://wasteanalyticsllc.com/wellfacts-property-reports/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to help homeowners untangle whether their property hosts old oil-and-gas infrastructure, said that even if the developers could ultimately prove a site like Silo Mills was safe, they had already taken from homeowners something critical: the right to choose whether to buy a property built on oilfield waste. “Just because they decided it was okay, and the state decided these were the standards to close the facility — well, I get to make my own choice for my family over whether I think that's okay.” Someone buying a used car, he added, “gets a Carfax report. But you don't tell me about this being spread on the site of a home I'm gonna live in?” For their part, the developers have held the line on the argument that no one ever needed to disclose any of this to residents in the first place — though Harper was at pains to argue that it was the real estate agents, not his clients, whose responsibility it would have been, had it been anyone’s. At the online town hall on April 23, a homeowner who was listing her property asked Pedigo — the partner at Terra Manna Homes who gave the presentation — whether she had to disclose the site's waste history to a future buyer. Pedigo's answer: “This is a very subjective matter and each homeowner can decide what they want to do with this information — whether you want to disclose it or not.” But, he said, “it's kind of like if you didn't have a hole in your roof, you wouldn't go around saying you don't have a hole in your roof. There's nothing to disclose.” Giminiani called the answer “a non-answer” — “mob boss advice.” He added, “But of course he isn't going to say that dumping anything from the oilfield onto the ground isn't a good idea.” Harper, the attorney, made a different case: If you start disclosing a site’s history, where does it all end? He argued, effectively, that all development in rural Texas carried with it a long history and a buried risk of toxins. Before it was a landfarm, he explained, a property like Silo Mills “has been ranchland, and before that it was being used to grow wheat, and before that it was being used as a landfarm. The question is how far you choose to go back.” Each of those uses came, like a landfarm, with its own potential residue of poisonous petrochemicals — fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides for the ranch and the wheat, drilling waste for the landfarm. It was, Harper contended, “difficult to know what to disclose.” The developers, Harper argued, had revealed “what they felt was relevant based on all the information at their disposal.” The legal picture, however, is more contested than Pedigo's “nothing to disclose” suggests. Texas Real Estate Commission disclosure forms list specific fields for hazardous waste and former landfill sites. Real estate attorneys familiar with the area told *The Barbed Wire* they would advise their clients to disclose, even where the law's requirements are unsettled. Texas law also requires sellers to disclose deaths caused by a defect in a property — and Boley, one of the homeowners, argues the same principle applies to a home knowingly built on oilfield waste, however benign it may prove to be. If he ever sells his house, Boley said, “Morally and ethically I still have to disclose. There are still people that don't trust those reports and don't want anything to do with those places.” Asked about the residents’ frustration, Harper noted that the builder, not the firms he represents, was the entity in direct contact with buyers — while acknowledging that the underlying decision about what to disclose had been his clients’. “If there is a thought by somebody that they would have liked to have known more,” Harper said, “I'm sorry that they feel that way.” He added: “I'm not disputing that somebody out there says, ‘Gee, I wish I'd known.’” The question of what needs to be told to potential buyers is not academic, nor is it simply an exercise in where the fault lies. Silo Mills — and some of its residents — still have homes to sell. In a complaint to the Texas Attorney General, Giminiani warned what could come as a result of Terra Manna and Prophet Equity’s failures to properly test the site before building there: If “prospective buyers become fearful that the site is contaminated,” the development “could stall or be abandoned altogether,” leaving current homeowners “unable to sell or refinance” and bearing “the financial burden of a partially completed or stigmatized development.” Meanwhile, construction at Silo Mills has not stopped. The builder is [advertising the final lots](https://www.bloomfieldhomes.com/new-homes/tx/joshua/silo-mills/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in Phase 1 and pre-selling Phase 2 — which is being built, Oldham said, on the precise part of the property where he once helped bury the highest concentration of toxic drilling waste. Homes are available, if you're in the market, for $339,990 to $584,990 apiece. ### ‘When You Know Homeless People, You Can’t Ignore Them’: Inside ‘The Challenger,’ a Newspaper Written by and for Unhoused Austinites URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/when-you-know-homeless-people-you-cant-ignore-them-inside-the-challenger-a-newspaper-written-by-and-for-unhoused-austinites/ Last updated: 2026-04-29T05:01:00.000Z Clifton Pappas, who is unhoused, has been a distributor for [*The Challenger*](https://www.challengernewspaper.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) newspaper for a year. He walks Austin streets wearing a black cowboy hat with a short rim and a backpack. He also carries what all distributors do: printed copies of the paper, as well as an ID badge with his photo and number, Venmo QR code, and a prepared statement explaining his work if he’s questioned by police. “The Challenger is a voice of people on the street,” according to its website. “We are 95% homeless written.” Pappas typically sells his papers at local businesses or sometimes delivers his “street pitch” along Congress Avenue, saying, “Hey, how you doing? You heard of *The Challenger*?” “You know, just, like, the '40s and '50s,” Pappas said of his old-school sales method. “If you have fun with it and people see that you're having fun with it. You'd be surprised. A lot of people have good hearts still here in Austin.” [*The Challenger*](https://www.challengernewspaper.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) publishes a new paper once a month. The booklet typically features a colorful front cover with images celebrating major holidays of the month. Inside, you’ll find stories from unhoused writers about their past, injustices they face, and anecdotes from life on the street. Once the copies are printed, distributors purchase them for a dollar and sell them for a donation, keeping the profit. About 300 to 350 copies are sold in person, while an unknown number are read online. Valerie Romness and a group of people experiencing homelessness created *The Challenger* in 2011\. Romness, the director and editor of the nonprofit, previously worked at a now-dissolved Austin street newspaper but had a different vision. She wanted to create a newspaper written by the homeless community instead of stories about homelessness written by housed people. “I set it up to be empowering for those on the street,” said Romness. “I really, really, really listen to their suggestions and their ideas and work with transparency.” While in her 30s in the 1990s, Romness befriended people experiencing homelessness on her bus route. One of them helped her get sober after she left an abusive boyfriend. “When you know homeless people, you can't ignore them,” she said. The majority of *The Challenger*’s content is written by unhoused people. She emphasizes the importance of giving them a voice and stays removed from the writing process. “She likes to say she's the editor that doesn't edit,” said Jesse Greiner, *Challenger*’s treasurer and a distributor, who is also experiencing homelessness. Writers have one week to edit their own piece, while Romness focuses on creating the layout of the paper. Julian Reyes, [an unhoused activist also known as Lizard King](https://www.statesman.com/story/news/2013/05/19/kelso-street-artist-seeks-justice-for-dog-shot-by-officer/10133049007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), has been [speaking out against police brutality for over a decade](https://www.challengernewspaper.org/shiners-story/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — after police [shot his dog, Shiner Bock](https://www.challengernewspaper.org/shiners-story/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). He wrote about it for the April issue of *The Challenger*, inviting readers to a memorial for his beloved pet. Pappas is also a regular writer for the paper. In April, he reflected on hitchhiking across several states 20 years ago to reunite with his pregnant fiancée. In other pieces, he writes about the challenges he’s faced on the streets. He said he has been robbed 12 times since arriving in Austin and has had repeated problems in cold shelters. Writers are always encouraged to tell their personal stories. In the [December 2025 issue](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-challengernewspaper-org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/challenger-dec-2025.pdf), Pappas wrote about his encounter with police drones. He said he had been camping near railroad tracks in a wooded area, where he regularly cleaned up after himself and the addicts who left needles near his campground. One Sunday morning, he woke up to beeping. “I turned and looked, and the drone was about seven feet from my head and snapped a picture, then shot up and away like a bullet, almost. Minutes later, a police unit rolls up on the street,” [wrote Pappas](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-challengernewspaper-org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/challenger-dec-2025.pdf). The Austin police department initially replied to an interview request from *The Barbed Wire* but did not respond when provided with specific questions. According to Pappas, nearby residents reassured the police that he was not a drug addict, and officers left him alone. “I tried a shelter, and I got smashed out in my sleep for snoring, and then robbed again,” Pappas said. “So, I don't do shelters.” He typically stays to himself and searches for places with “security and cameras and stuff, because those drug addict thieves, they stay away from those kinds of areas,” he told *The Barbed Wire*. But *The Challenger* has helped him find people he can trust. He's built good relationships with Greiner and Romness. He also interacts with customers daily. “*The Challenger* newspaper is (a) very good, very positive paper,” said Pappas. “It's done a lot for me, and ... it's kept my spirits up. If I didn't have the paper, I’d just sit by myself and stay away from everybody.” The money helps him buy his “simple pleasantries,” like the powder deodorant he prefers. It also helps buy him the tobacco he's been addicted to since he was 7 years old. “*(The) Challenger* is a very good thing for people,” Pappas said. “It gives them a chance to work. Especially, you know, you don't have ID, you don't have anything. It gives people a chance to make a few bucks.” Greiner saw the benefit of the money 14 years ago when he quit his job to be a full-time distributor. “I realized I was making more off the newspaper than I was at Arby's,” said Greiner, “And I actually enjoy doing what I did.” He opts for the door-to-door sales method. He has his usual neighborhoods and customers. “Every person I meet is almost like their own little world,” Greiner said. “I've been doing it so long, I've seen families grow up, kids go to college.” Greiner is also able to afford necessities from the money, and even a phone through the newspaper’s electronics program. After six months, writers are eligible to receive a used laptop, a tablet, or a phone donated to the newspaper. Despite the financial benefits the newspaper has brought him, Greiner is most proud of the activist work done by the newspaper. He said the newspaper reported on the conditions experienced during homelessness and has had demonstrable impact, including incentivizing the city to open its cold shelters sooner, at 35 degrees instead of waiting until temperatures drop below 32. “We published about it, and we raised awareness on the street,” Romness said. “When you’ve known street people a long time, you can see that what they’re saying is true,” she said. ### An Oilfield Leak Springs Under a Permian Basin Baptist Church URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/oilfield-leak-under-a-permian-basin-baptist-church/ Last updated: 2026-04-27T17:17:26.000Z *This [article originally appeared ](https://insideclimatenews.org/news/23042026/west-texas-permian-basin-oilfield-leak/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, non-partisan news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for their newsletter* [*here*](https://insideclimatenews.org/newsletter/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)*.* Salty water is gurgling up from underground in the middle of the small Permian Basin town of Grandfalls, Texas. The liquid began pooling in the parking lot of the First Baptist Church on Tuesday. State inspectors from the Railroad Commission arrived soon after and remained on-site on Wednesday. Nearby landowners suspect oilfield wastewater is pushing up through the wellbore of an old plugged oil well. It is the latest instance of water bursting to the surface in the Permian Basin, which has been wracked by blow-outs, geysers and surface leaks in the last five years. Oilfield wastewater, known as produced water, is injected underground, increasing pressure below the surface. State regulators acknowledge that excess pressure underground has contributed to other surface leaks in the Permian Basin. The wastewater has extremely high salt content and can contain other contaminants. Unlike recent blowouts and geysers that occurred on ranches, the latest incident is in the middle of a town that is home to over 300 people. The latest leak is one block from the Grandfalls-Royalty K-12 school and across the street from the historic Union Church, built in 1910\. Vacuum trucks were siphoning the liquid off the Baptist Church parking lot on Wednesday. Residents have been warned to keep their distance. “The Railroad Commission of Texas is responding to an unidentified flow located in Grandfalls in Ward County,” said spokesperson Bryce Dubee. “State Managed Plugging crews are currently on site and have begun removing fluid while continuing to assess the area to determine if the source of the flow is from an oil and gas well.” The Grandfalls city administrator said Wednesday morning that residents should refer any questions to the Railroad Commission. She said she had called the commission’s district office in Midland, but “it rang and rang and nobody ever answered.” A school district employee said that classes were proceeding as usual while the cleanup operation was underway. https://videopress.com/v/aKAfJcKM?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true A drone video recorded on Wednesday shows water gurgling up from underground in the parking lot of the First Baptist Church in Grandfalls. The Railroad Commission is investigating the origin of the leak. Video Credit Courtesy of Sarah Stogner The Railroad Commission’s online Geographic Information System map shows a plugged oil well underneath the foundation of the Baptist church. The date the well was drilled or plugged and other identifying information was not immediately available. There are at least two dozen plugged wells within Grandfalls’ city limits, according to the online map. Many plugged wells in Texas predate modern record-keeping and state officials have limited information about the plugging methods or materials used. Laura Briggs, a nearby landowner in Pecos County, said she drove through Grandfalls early Tuesday morning and could already see water accumulating on the street. She said the water appeared to be leaking from under the church sanctuary. Briggs said the building’s cornerstone indicates the church dates to 1955\. Any plugged oil well underneath would predate the church. By the time Sarah Stogner, the district attorney for the 143rd Judicial District of Texas which includes Ward County and a longtime oilfield watchdog, arrived on Wednesday afternoon, vacuum trucks had sucked up most of the water. The crew appeared to have drilled a hole in the parking lot and placed hoses into it to collect water. Liquid continued to gurgle to the surface while Stogner took drone footage. “This is why we need to stop building on top of old plugged wells,” Stogner [wrote on X](https://x.com/zombiewellz/status/2047111388750033073?s=20&ref=thebarbedwire.com). “They don’t always stay plugged.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/the-railroad-commissions-geographic-information-system-shows-numerous-plugged-wells-in-the-city-of-grandfalls-the-green-dots-with-a-cross-through-them-indicate-the-locations-of-plugged-oil-wells.jpg) The Railroad Commission’s Geographic Information System shows numerous plugged wells in the city of Grandfalls. The green dots with a cross through them indicate the locations of plugged oil wells. Credit: Inside Climate News Since the advent of fracking in the Permian Basin, oil companies have generated vast quantities of produced water, the wastewater that comes to the surface during drilling. Most of the water is injected back underground into deep disposal wells. After these wells were linked to a spate of earthquakes in the Permian Basin, the Railroad Commission restricted deep injection in certain areas. Operators shifted to inject into shallow formations instead. But the shallow injection began to fill underground reservoirs and increase pressure. Aging wellbores or wells that were plugged decades ago have become conduits for the pressurized water to erupt to the surface. Last year, the Railroad Commission [introduced new permit restrictions](https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2025-permian-basin-geyser/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to limit injection pressure and prevent blowouts and leaks. Many of these incidents have been concentrated around aging oilfields in Ward, Crane and Pecos Counties, where wells were drilled in the 1930s or earlier. Grandfall’s population boomed after oil was discovered nearby in 1928, but has declined since the 1990s. Stogner documented a previous surface leak in Grandfalls in 2022\. Grandfalls is on Farm to Market Road 18 between Fort Stockton and Monahans, about 70 miles southwest of Midland and over 350 miles west of Austin. The town was named for the falls that once cascaded down the Pecos River near town. There is no longer enough water to feed the falls. ### Did Whataburger ‘Fall Off’? We Sent a Team of Texas Comedians to Investigate. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/whataburger-private-equity/ Last updated: 2026-06-29T15:22:59.000Z ## EXCLUSIVE It was 6 p.m. in downtown Austin. Traffic was humming, and responsible adults were bustling, which is to say it was absolutely the wrong time to eat Whataburger. Whataburger is 2 a.m. food. Eating it while the sun is still up feels like seeing a teacher at the grocery store: technically allowed, but unsettling. But my friends and I had pressing business. A [rumor](https://www.reddit.com/r/texas/comments/15g207r/anyone%5Fnoticed%5Fhow%5Fabsolutely%5Ftrash%5Fwhataburger/?utm%5Fsource=share&utm%5Fmedium=ios%5Fapp&utm%5Fname=ioscss&utm%5Fcontent=2&utm%5Fterm=1) — [spreading](https://www.reddit.com/r/Whataburger/comments/1nz6ksp/not%5Fgonna%5Flie%5Fwhataburger%5Fsucks%5Fnow/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) across [Reddit threads](https://www.reddit.com/r/texas/comments/on0d2j/current%5Fstate%5Fof%5Fwhataburger%5Ffood%5Fand%5Fservice/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and the [rest of the internet](https://www.dallasobserver.com/food-drink/whataburger-quality-texas-fast-food-21325203/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — with the speed of gossip and the evidence of a UFO sighting: Has Texas’ favorite burger chain fallen off? Ever since Chicago investment firm BDT Capital Partners [bought a majority stake a few years back](https://austin.eater.com/2019/6/14/18679506/whataburger-sold-bdt-capital-private-equity-firm?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the whispers have gotten louder: *Tastes different. Higher prices. Vibes allegedly “off.”* Even the national media picked it up. “The sale is blamed in popular Reddit threads for everything from a perceived drop in food quality and service to a less specific complaint that Whataburger is ‘going downhill’ as it opens more restaurants in other parts of the country,” longtime Texas journalist Omar Gallaga [wrote in *The Washington Post*](https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2024/12/14/whataburger-locations-ownership-change-expansion/?pwapi%5Ftoken=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJyZWFzb24iOiJnaWZ0IiwibmJmIjoxNzM0NDExNjAwLCJpc3MiOiJzdWJzY3JpcHRpb25zIiwiZXhwIjoxNzM1NzkzOTk5LCJpYXQiOjE3MzQ0MTE2MDAsImp0aSI6Ijc0NjAzNTk1LWM1ZTktNGE0Yi05NDIxLWM3N2UxMDU3NzRjZCIsInVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lndhc2hpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbS90cmF2ZWwvMjAyNC8xMi8xNC93aGF0YWJ1cmdlci1sb2NhdGlvbnMtb3duZXJzaGlwLWNoYW5nZS1leHBhbnNpb24vIn0.xRw-mdeIepg-9coWPt2CvuzqIhfKBGcVJm4Hg4nOg2M&ref=thebarbedwire.com). So I did what journalism demands. I assembled a highly unqualified focus group of myself and Texas comedians Pat Sirois and Danny Goodwin. We went to the nearest Whataburger, ordered meals, and conducted a taste test in the least natural habitat imaginable: early-evening sobriety. The food arrived. First bite. Pause. Everyone contemplated hard. “This tastes like Whataburger,” I pronounced. And it did. Fries hot. Mustard present. Onions accounted for. Vegetables noticeably colder than the meat. My panel agreed. The Monterey Melt was declared “one hell of a sandwich.” The Sweet & Spicy Bacon Burger still “goes hard.” Nobody could identify a clear pre- versus post-private-equity flavor shift. No one produced a spreadsheet of bun elasticity metrics. The burger tasted like memory with mustard. “This doesn’t taste any different from what I’m used to,” Sirois offered. Which raised an uncomfortable possibility: What if the burger didn’t change … but we did? When people say Whataburger “fell off,” are we really just older, more breakable, and less capable of metabolizing joy? Fast food at 18 hits different than it does in your 30s and 40s. Your stomach used to bounce back. Now it files HR complaints. “To me, when I hear the (allegations of) the fall off,” Goodwin said, “sometimes I’m just like, we’re all older and probably shouldn’t be having it whatsoever.” At least, not as much as we did back in the day, he added. “Fast food in general just makes me feel worse than it did 15 years ago,” he added. Sirois argued Whataburger’s biggest enemy isn’t private equity. It’s logistics. “It doesn’t lend itself very easily to meal apps … like DoorDash,” Sirois said. “I’ll only eat Whataburger if I go through the drive-through.” Delivered Whataburger, he said, “feels congealed.” Agreed. Delivered to your house, the burger feels like it lost custody of its will to live somewhere between the fryer and your porch. Whataburger is drive-thru cuisine. Steering-wheel food. Removing it from that ecosystem is like microwaving brisket — edible, but spiritually fraudulent. Meanwhile, competition for your burger dollar has gotten intense. Like the rest of Texas, Whataburger has been dealing with its own California transplants, namely In-N-Out Burger, whose burgers win praise while the fries are …. Well, they’re there. On paper, In-N-Out should fit the Texas psyche: a family-run chain that [prints Bible verses on cups](https://www.today.com/food/why-does-n-out-print-bible-verses-its-cups-wrappers-t164235?ref=thebarbedwire.com), keeps the menu simple, and avoids publicly traded fast-casual theater. But it’s not Texan, and its headquarters sit in a faceless office tower in Irvine. For a state that treats geography like ancestry, that detail lands like a character flaw. A Whataburger rep didn’t respond when *The Barbed Wire* reached out for comment on this story. But last year, [speaking on the “Digital & Dirt” podcast](https://podcasts.apple.com/zw/podcast/donna-tuttle-vp-of-marketing-whataburger/id1584836501?i=1000714446252&ref=thebarbedwire.com), vice president of marketing Donna Tuttle gave a little history lesson of the orange and white chain. The business started in 1950 in Corpus Christi when founder Harmon Dobson wanted to make a burger so big that it would come as a pleasant surprise to patrons. (Hence the exclamation, get it?) But why has it endured? “At least part of the reason Whataburger is so beloved by Texans is the simple fact that as the oldest hamburger chain around, it has dotted the Texas landscape for most everyone’s entire lives,” said David Courtney, who writes the Texanist column for *Texas Monthly*. “As such, the delicious mustard-forward ‘Texas-style’ burgers, and later the buttery taquitos, were imprinted onto us early,” he said. “Which is a hard thing to shake.” Mustard. Onions. Spicy ketchup. Orange-and-white branding that doubles as a regional flag. A medium fry carton shaped like it’s smuggling extra volume across county lines. It tastes like Texas in the same way classic rock radio and high school fight songs feel like Texas: familiar, loud, old-fashioned, and proud of it. For Sirois, a military kid raised on base food courts dominated by Burger King and McDonald's, choosing Whataburger felt rebellious. Slightly upscale. Like picking Target instead of Walmart. Same category, different self-image. Sirois remembered his mom — a lifelong unadventurous eater, medically robbed of her sense of smell — regaining her taste after sinus surgery and immediately calling him, ecstatic about her first Whataburger in decades. Which either proves the burger still hits — or that nostalgia is the most powerful condiment on Earth. There’s also the breakfast factor. Whataburger starts serving it at 11 p.m., a schedule that respects the spiritually nocturnal. (I’m not normally a fast-food breakfast guy but will admit that the Honey Butter Chicken Biscuit remains undefeated.) And hovering over all of this is the myth layer. Regional chains in Texas don’t just sell food; they anchor identity. They live in the same [emotional ZIP code as H-E-B](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/heb-mexico-regios-monterrey/) — less a store than a civic utility with tortillas. A disaster response center. A cultural commons. And there’s the allure of your memories, which even Whataburger is keenly aware of. Tuttle said: “There’s so much nostalgia built up, and so many great connections built up around this brand. Because at the time, there wasn’t any Internet, and it was the place to go. It was orange and white stripes and everybody went to Whataburger.” “And because of that, there are some great human connections,” she said. “That, I think, has built up this fandom.” Private equity doesn’t just tweak operations; it triggers existential dread. People aren’t only asking whether the burger changed. They’re asking whether something magical of theirs got standardized. So, has Whataburger fallen off? Maybe? To be honest, as much as I hate private equity, I couldn’t tell a difference. Sitting in the bustling restaurant’s fluorescent glow, it still tasted like good memories. Courtney said that “even though the company has been controlled by a Chicago investment firm for the past five or so years, it remains in the pantheon of our most treasured Texas institutions.” As we sat, chatting over familiar food, that sentiment rang true. Was it different? Maybe, but so is everything, nowadays. But most importantly, Whataburger still *felt* like Whataburger. “Even now,” Goodwin said, “it does (feel) like, ‘All right, we’re home.’” *Like our journalism?* The Barbed Wire *is always free to read…but journalism isn’t free to make. Support from our readers helps pay for the reporting that makes stories like this come to life. Pitch in below — or* [*become a member of* The Barbed Wire](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/become-a-member/)*, today.* ### It’s Not Just Tony Gonzales. Four More Texans Are in a New Report on Widespread Sexual Misconduct in Congress. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texans-sexual-misconduct-congress/ Last updated: 2026-04-22T14:34:57.000Z Five Congressmen from Texas are included in [a new report](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/static1-squarespace-com/static/6867ea3d3086bf19df66b698/t/69e6a8d248e46e3953985f91/1776724178115/abuse%5Fof%5Fpower%5F-%5Fcongressional%5Fedition%5Fapril%5F2026.pdf) released this week on sexual harassment in Congress, which has been rocked with recent sexual misconduct allegations against former U.S. Reps. Tony Gonzales of San Antonio and Eric Swalwell of California. The report by the National Women’s Defense League, a nonpartisan sexual harassment prevention organization, found that since 2006, 49 individuals who have served in Congress have been accused of sexual misconduct — data which the organization says confirms a well-known wide-spread problem. Founded in 2022, the National Women’s Defense League publishes an annual report on sexual misconduct in politics at the state level, and [this year added the new portion](https://19thnews.org/2026/04/sexual-misconduct-state-federal-lawmakers/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on the federal legislative branch. It came at a momentous time. Both Gonzales and Swalwell [resigned from the House last week](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/13/eric-swalwell-resigns-congress.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), prompting [lawmakers and constituents alike](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/20/congress-eric-swalwell-house-ethics-sexual-misconduct.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to reexamine sexual harassment among elected officials. Swalwell, who was campaigning for governor of California, [was accused of sexual assault by a former staffer](https://www.cnn.com/2026/04/10/us/eric-swalwell-sexual-misconduct-allegations-invs?ref=thebarbedwire.com), as well as sexual misconduct by three other women. Swalwell repeatedly denied the allegations, but [announced his resignation on X](https://x.com/RepSwalwell/status/2043802702971359521?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on April 13 with an apology for “mistakes in judgment I have made in my past.” The [allegations against Gonzales,](https://www.expressnews.com/news/article/tony-gonzales-affair-regina-santos-aviles-21357720.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of his affair with a staffer who later took her own life by setting herself on fire, were included in the report. After initially denying the affair, [Gonzales admitted to it in March](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/03/04/tony-gonzales-admits-affair-staffer-suicide-texas-23rd-district-congress/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), saying “I’ve asked God to forgive me, which he has”. Shortly after, Gonzales [dropped his re-election bid](https://www.ksat.com/news/ksat-investigates/2026/03/06/scandal-ridden-us-rep-tony-gonzales-drops-re-election-bid-after-admitting-to-affair-with-staffer/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and resigned on April 14. Current Congressman Al Green of Houston was also included in the report, for an accusation of sexual assault by a former staffer in 2008\. In 2017, both Green and the staffer [issued a joint statement](https://www.politico.com/story/2017/11/27/al-green-allegations-assault-261020?ref=thebarbedwire.com) saying the issue had been “absolutely resolved.” Former Congressman Joe Barton of Arlington, who served in the House from 1985 to 2019, was also included, for accusations from three different women in 2017 that he had sent them sexually explicit messages or had affairs with them. Barton [announced in November of that year he would not seek re-election ](https://www.texastribune.org/2017/11/30/joe-barton-retire-congress/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)after the accusations were made and a nude photo of him was posted on social media, according to *the Texas Tribune*. Former Rep. Blake Farenthold of Corpus Christi, who served from 2011 to 2018, was sued by a former staffer in 2014, according to the report, accusing Farenthold of firing her after she complained that he was telling aides he had “wet dreams” and “sexual fantasies” about her. The lawsuit was settled for $84,000 — [which Farenthold paid using taxpayer money, according to *Politico*.](https://www.politico.com/story/2017/12/01/blake-farenthold-taxpayer-funds-sexual-harassment-274458?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Farenthold resigned in 2018 after another allegation about sexually demeaning comments prompted a House ethics investigation against him. Former Rep. Van Taylor of Plano, who served from 2019 to 2023, was also included in the report over a reported nine-month affair with a British woman who said Taylor paid her $5,000 for her debts and personal expenses. The report found that the majority of the targets of sexual harassment were legislative staffers, 97% of those accused were men targeting women, and approximately 60% of the accused legislators were Republicans, while 40% were Democrats. Nine of the accused members remain in office, according to the report. On Monday, the House Committee on Ethics [released a statement](https://ethics.house.gov/press-releases/statement-of-the-committee-on-ethics-regarding-sexual-misconduct-and-workplace-rights/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) condemning sexual misconduct and detailing the investigations it has conducted on such matters since its establishment in 1967\. However, the statement acknowledged there were likely instances of misconduct that have gone unreported. “Unfortunately, there likely exist matters never reported to the Committee,” [the statement ](https://ethics.house.gov/press-releases/statement-of-the-committee-on-ethics-regarding-sexual-misconduct-and-workplace-rights/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)reads. “As the Committee has repeatedly asserted to the House community, through investigative matters and other actions, it treats allegations of sexual misconduct with the utmost seriousness.” The National Women’s Defense League report also acknowledged the likelihood that actual incidents of sexual misconduct were likely much higher than the numbers reported. “The true scope of misconduct in Congress is likely far greater than what is documented here,” [the report reads](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/static1-squarespace-com/static/6867ea3d3086bf19df66b698/t/69e6a8d248e46e3953985f91/1776724178115/abuse%5Fof%5Fpower%5F-%5Fcongressional%5Fedition%5Fapril%5F2026.pdf). “Government reporting mechanisms typically reflect only those cases that result in formal investigations or public exposure, leaving a substantial portion of complaints—and experiences — unaccounted for.” ### There Was Yet Another ‘Ugly Fight’ in Houston Over Immigration Enforcement. But the City Already Knows What’s Right. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/there-was-yet-another-ugly-fight-in-houston-over-immigration-enforcement-but-the-city-already-knows-whats-right/ Last updated: 2026-04-22T01:24:59.000Z *Editor’s note: The views and opinions presented by guest contributors to* The Barbed Wire *do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the company, the newsroom, its staff, advisers, or advertisers.* Emmanuel Gonzalez, a 15-year-old who has a serious intellectual disability, walked away from his mom’s fruit stand in Houston in October. His mother filed a missing person’s report. When Houston police found Emmanuel, they didn’t reunite the boy with his mother. They [called immigration authorities](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/disabled-child-federal-immigration-custody/). His mother pleaded with immigration officials for his release. Instead, the Office of Refugee Resettlement detained Emmanuel for 48 days. Emmanuel’s treatment triggered a fight [at city hall](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/disabled-child-federal-immigration-custody/) over who was responsible. This was not an isolated incident, nor was it specific to Houston. That fight has only escalated in recent days — to finger-pointing, lawsuits from the state of Texas, and threats from the Houston Police Officers’ Union. According to an [analysis by the *Texas Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/11/03/texas-trump-immigration-crackdown-ice-arrests-deportation/?%5Fbhlid=a04cdf8098af9189909db37dcd6178beadc0199b&ref=thebarbedwire.com), daily immigration-related arrests have risen roughly 30 percentage points in regions including Houston, and the Harris County Jail leads the country in ICE detainers (requests from immigration agents to hold a person for deportation). Reporting from the *Houston Chronicle* found [police calls to ICE have surged 1,000%](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/immigration/article/houston-police-ice-calls-surge-21080950.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). And, in an increasing number of cases, calls for help to Houston police have resulted in the caller or a family member winding up in federal detention. In one case, a woman from [El Salvador called Houston police to report an abusive ex-husband](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/immigration/article/houston-police-ice-domestic-violence-20382891.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — but instead, officers called ICE. (A [similar case in Austin](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/abolish-ice-gains-traction-after-mom-shot-minneapolis/) recently resulted in the deportation of a 5-year-old American citizen and her mother to Honduras.) Now, like [many other American cities](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/from-minneapolis-to-el-paso-every-city-is-now-a-border-city/) in President Donald Trump’s second term — which has seen the largest immigration crackdown in our country’s history — Houston’s police force finds itself at a crossroads. Whitmire, the city council, and Houston’s police union have spent months embroiled in a dramatic, chaotic, voices-raised battle over their participation in federal immigration enforcement. “You're playing politics with our officers,” said Doug Griffith, president of the Houston Police Officers' Union, to the city council during yet another “ugly fight” at City Hall. [As *Chron.com* first reported](https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/ugly-fight-breaks-city-hall-170034415.html?guccounter=1&guce%5Freferrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce%5Freferrer%5Fsig=AQAAAKdj6eyt0T16FYM-CIwsptVn9PAgSPBH9bL-NvDu25uS9wzmn8Z3f6AEBZP2bsoJIbuyI736Hc1kg6tVLjDdgjnAbukSFZRJ4tAfE-ZEP-QLRoQ8fcchzkwsIdv-TsRUsjs-rVlYw00DPbA1dKOVXOxhC2ex5eZaKXZgUaifTAfL&ref=thebarbedwire.com), Griffith argued that rank-and-file officers are left to deal with the consequences of the city council’s decisionmaking. “Don't tell me we don't have bigger issues in this city,” said Griffith. “We can't get our water cheap, we cannot get our heavy trash picked up… and now we're worried about this — 74 traffic stops last year.” Those 74 immigration-related traffic stops were the issue. By a vote of 12-5 last Wednesday, Houston City Council [changed a set of Houston Police Department rules](https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/city-of-houston/2026/04/16/549367/houston-mayor-whitmire-hpd-ice-policy-governor-abbott-deadline-extended/?amp=1&ref=thebarbedwire.com) governing how officers work with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) — rules which had been [among the friendliest in the state](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/article/houston-police-ice-arrests-21939264.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to Trump’s mass deportation regime. In plain language, the ordinance ensures a police officer can only detain someone for as long as necessary to investigate state or local crimes. Under the new policy, officers cannot continue to detain someone solely on the basis of a federal administrative warrant, which, unlike warrants issued in criminal cases, are not reviewed and approved by a neutral decision-maker. Not only is this sound policy, the ordinance implements the requirements of the Fourth Amendment, protecting Houstonians constitutional freedoms. In response, the Houston Police Officer’s Union and its president released an inflammatory statement claiming it “will not support any council member who supported” the ordinance — including Whitmire, whom the union previously endorsed in his mayoral run (Whitmire subsequently[ gifted police officers ](https://www.houstonlanding.org/whitmire-offering-houston-police-36-5-percent-raises-over-5-years-can-the-city-afford-it/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)a 36% raise over five years). Days later, Griffith claimed, “no endorsements have been retracted.” Then, this week, Griffith returned to council on behalf of the union to provide a rant full of falsehoods, personal attacks on councilmembers, and arrogance. The union — and Griffith’s response — demonstrates that council members must reconsider the value of the support of an association that in one breath demands the discretion to utilize untold time and resources to [personally transport individuals to ICE](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/article/houston-police-ice-arrests-21939264.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and in the next defends their suspension of [thousands of sexual assault investigations](https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/police/2024/02/22/478328/houston-police-confirm-4000-plus-suspended-sexual-assault-cases-finner-vows-to-clear-backlog/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for “lack of personnel.” The mayor and 11 council members who supported the ordinance to protect Houstonians constitutional rights deserve applause. Particularly in light of threats from Gov. Greg Abbott that materialized last week [in the form of a lawsuit](https://www.fox26houston.com/news/texas-attorney-general-suing-houston-officials-adopting-unlawful-ordinance-violating-senate-bill-4?ref=thebarbedwire.com) by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. The lawsuit is seemingly political fodder for Paxton’s heated run-off election in the Republican Senate primary. But it does force the city’s hand to decide whether Houston will stand on its principles by defending the ordinance in court or be bullied into submission by Austin politicians that do not share Houstonians values. As Councilmember Alejandra Salinas [put it](https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/texas-attorney-general-suing-houston-214832608.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), “It’s no longer a question about whether the city should go to court.” She continued, “We’re already there. The mayor and city council must vigorously defend the law we voted for and that the city attorney deemed legal. I stand ready to work with my colleagues to defend our laws and protect Houstonians’ constitutional rights.” In fact, the union’s initial decision to pull its endorsement from the mayor, and then issue a contradictory subsequent statement, should serve as a wakeup call to city officials that the union expects obedience above all else — or what the U.S. Constitution says. In his remarks before city council this week, Griffith, on behalf of the union, seemingly threatened Council Member Carolyn Evans-Shabazz, telling her, “Don’t you ever let me catch you saying \[you support police\] again.” Gasps and shouts erupted in the room. > [](https://twitter.com/Charlesblain/status/2044158561505198554?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Then, when asked about a [controversial cartoon depicting](https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1410715274420793&set=a.625973622894966) several council members operating a lemonade stand in front of City Hall, posted to the union’s Facebook page,Griffith defended it saying, “some council member thought it was funny.” His performance before city council was the real joke, though, as it exposed the glaring lack of factual, legal, and public support behind the union and Mr. Griffith’s position. This is not the first time the union has taken a position that harms Houstonians. When discussing the [well-documented](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/crime/article/houston-police-use-of-force-incidents-rising-19428433.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com)[ discriminatory](https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/criminal-justice/2023/09/19/462759/report-finds-racial-disparities-among-houstonians-pulled-over-for-non-moving-traffic-violations/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) impact low-level traffic enforcement has on Black and brown Houstonians this past fall, the union’s president, Griffith, stated that reform efforts would be better spent “on educating the public on how to act” during a traffic stop because “the road is not the place to argue over your ‘rights.’” Griffith also explained his view that attempts to reduce racial disparities in traffic enforcement are trying to “solve a problem that don’t exist,” even though the city’s [own data](https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/police/2024/04/01/481997/black-drivers-were-pulled-over-and-searched-at-higher-rates-last-year-in-the-houston-area-new-data-shows/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) confirms that Black drivers are disproportionately more likely to be stopped, searched, and brutalized during traffic stops. But according to Griffith, this data is “highly offensive” to police officers because “\[e\]very single incident that leads to \[a police officer using\] violence begins with a violator refusing to comply with lawful commands.” > [](https://twitter.com/SaraForTexLege/status/2044167009147990459?s=20&ref=thebarbedwire.com) Long time followers of the union’s work will recall similar rhetoric from 2020, when they opposed proposals for reform in the wake of the police murder of George Floyd, [claiming](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Residents-denounce-police-task-force-call-for-15367414.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) advocates of such policies were “uneducated to the true facts of Houston police department and their interactions with the community.” Similarly, in 2022, the union issued a report decrying misdemeanor bail reform in Harris County — reforms which independent monitors recently confirmed are protecting the public while saving taxpayers millions. But the union’s[ report](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/crime/article/Houston-police-union-issues-report-saying-Harris-17160799.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) “was riddled with inaccuracies and faulty assumptions,” as the [*Houston Chronicle*](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/crime/article/Houston-police-union-issues-report-saying-Harris-17160799.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) reported. While the union tells the city council to “pay more attention to the actual issues,’” it routinely stands in the way of fixing them by blocking evidence-based policies, all while celebrating a new contract that will cost the city nearly a billion dollars over five years. The union claims to be “extremely disappointed” in council members who supported the policy and absurdly called it “extremely dangerous” for its officers. Given their persistent opposition to commonsense proposals and wild overreactions, it's abundantly clear that the values of the police union are what’s “extreme” and that they do not align with the interest of the people of Houston. Hopefully now that the union has shown its true colors, reasonable city council members can finally act freely to protect the rights and safety of Houstonians. ### How Selena Called Me Home to Texas URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/black-texans-and-selena/ Last updated: 2026-04-16T02:49:21.000Z I have a secret to admit. *I’m not a Texas native.* Luckily, I’m not a Californian who moved to the Lone Star State. I’m a Nebraskan who fell in love with the Dallas Fort-Worth area. But my introduction to Texas was not the metroplex. Nor was it Southern Methodist University, where I attended college. It was Selena Quintanilla. Selena was born in Lake Jackson, Texas in 1971\. Her music blended Tejano, pop, and cumbia styles. She sang in Spanish and won her first Grammy in 1994 for best [Mexican/Mexican-American album](https://news4sanantonio.com/news/local/remembering-selena-31-years-since-the-loss-of-a-music-icon-corpus-christi-san-antonio-texas-yolanda-saldivar-gold-records-trial?ref=thebarbedwire.com). If you think you’ve never heard her music before, you are either living under a rock or blatantly wrong. The songs “Bidi Bidi Bom Bom” and “Como la Flor” are so ingrained into my earlier childhood memories that I can’t even remember when I first heard them. Instead, I see flashes of dance routines my 7-year-old friends and I made up to the contagious cumbia beats. Our teacher in Nebraska — about 1,000 miles away from the birthplace of Selena’s music — would take out a radio and play a Tejano station during recess. I’d mix the hip-swaying dance moves I saw on MTV’s “Total Request Live” with my dad’s Salsa steps. I grew up pretending I knew the Spanish lyrics despite not learning the language until my late 20s. Growing up Black in a predominantly white city of less than 70,000 people, Selena meant something to me. She and her music were a tie to a state and Tejano culture I eventually called home. She was a bridge to multiculturalism that I didn’t completely understand until I was much older. I was born a few months before Selena’s murder in 1995 when she was just 23, but I didn’t know her life had ended tragically until I saw the 1997 biopic on TV years later. In elementary school, I spent weeks transfixed by the iconic sparkling purple bodysuit Jennifer Lopez wore in the movie. I was also shocked and confused by the fact that her killer was [Yolanda Saldívar, the president of her fan club.](https://news4sanantonio.com/news/local/selenas-murderer-yolanda-saldvar-denied-parole-after-first-petition-attempt-tejano-music-corpus-christi-fans-albums-icon?ref=thebarbedwire.com) The movie was added to the National Film Registry at the Library of Congress in 2021 after a successful campaign by U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro. Decades after her death, Selena still has a hold on Texans — natives and transplants alike. Each year, on April 16, fans gather on her birthday, visiting memorials, murals, and statues from Corpus Christi (where there’s a [Selena Museum](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nunukTcLJfU&ref=thebarbedwire.com)) to El Paso. In Texas, it’s known as [Selena Day.](https://www.elpasotimes.com/story/entertainment/people/2025/04/16/celebrate-selena-quintanilla-day-across-texas-at-selena-memorials/83020714007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) She would have been 55 this year. Selena’s legacy transcends genders, languages, and cultures. Her fans are everywhere because the emotion and danceability of her music speaks to the human experience. [On Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/SelenaQuintanilla/comments/z0bxka/question%5Ffor%5Fthe%5Fnonhispanic%5Ffans%5Fof%5Fselena/?solution=989b7f3fa7bf7185989b7f3fa7bf7185&js%5Fchallenge=1&token=bbbe4bf1c9a2b5160829c4be34da58613eee8bef571cadfc741fd27ed9ba6475&ref=thebarbedwire.com), users still sound off about the moments they discovered her: A pawnshop at 13, when the 1997 movie came out on VHS rental, a music video on Univision viewed from Portugal. Students [sketch drawings of her](https://www.reddit.com/r/SelenaQuintanilla/comments/1sl0qnx/a%5Flittle%5Fsketch%5Fi%5Fmade%5Fof%5Fselena%5Fduring%5Fclass/?utm%5Fsource=share&utm%5Fmedium=web3x&utm%5Fname=web3xcss&utm%5Fterm=1&utm%5Fcontent=share%5Fbutton) in class at school and [read commemorative editions](https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/to-selena-with-love-chris-perez/1106017417?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of her widower Chris Pérez’s book, called “To Selena, With Love.” They post [photos of visits](https://www.reddit.com/r/SelenaQuintanilla/comments/1sjofz1/selena%5Fmural%5Fin%5Fla%5Fby%5Fstreet%5Fartist%5Fsloemotion/?utm%5Fsource=share&utm%5Fmedium=web3x&utm%5Fname=web3xcss&utm%5Fterm=1&utm%5Fcontent=share%5Fbutton) to her murals in Los Angeles and share [tattoos of Selena’s face](https://www.reddit.com/r/SelenaQuintanilla/comments/1shouk8/my%5Fselena%5Ftattoo/?utm%5Fsource=share&utm%5Fmedium=web3x&utm%5Fname=web3xcss&utm%5Fterm=1&utm%5Fcontent=share%5Fbutton) on their calves. Seeing people share their own memories makes me feel like part of a community connected by Tejano music. Now that I’m a Texan transplant, her music makes me feel like I’m a [Dune bluebonnet](https://wildseedfarms.com/blogs/news/lore-of-the-bluebonnet?ref=thebarbedwire.com). While not originally from Texas, the flower and I have made it our home. Selena reminds me of my dad, who taught me I can embrace and appreciate other cultures despite them not being my own. Through the years, Selena stayed with me. She became a litmus test for dating in Texas. On a bad date in Dallas, the man I was interested in did not recognize “Bidi Bidi Bom Bom,” and I laughed about it with my girlfriends afterwards. If the person I was seeing didn’t know her music? They weren’t right for me. Selena herself taught me that it was ok to love and relate to a culture not your own. I witnessed her embrace Black music and culture, and as Vanessa Angélica Villarreal said in *Harper’s Bazaar*, “[Selena’s life cannot be portrayed without Blackness.](https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/film-tv/a34921118/selena-latinx-representation-influence-from-black-culture/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)” Her primary influences for both her music and her iconic performance styling were Michael and Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey, Jody Watley, and Whitney Houston. One of her most iconic performances was the 1995 [Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo at the Astrodome, which broke the venue’s ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqyUf19c%5F7Y&ref=thebarbedwire.com)[attendance record and drew nearly 67,000](https://www.billboard.com/music/latin/selena-first-latina-star-trail-fame-houston-rodeo-9330785/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)[ fans inside the stadium.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqyUf19c%5F7Y&ref=thebarbedwire.com) Selena opened with a disco medley of songs by predominantly Black artists. In the 1990s, Houston was a frequent tour stop for Selena. And Houston, the city with the largest Black population in Texas, remembers. Thirty years after that performance, Texas Southern University’s [Ocean of Soul marching band performed “Como La Flor.”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRM2zTkYDIg&ref=thebarbedwire.com) On a spring break trip in college my roommate and I went to the Katy Livestock Show and Rodeo, and my ears perked up when I heard La Carcacha playing as we sat on a bench watching men get bucked from horses. As a Black woman who grew up hundreds of miles away from Texas, her music still feels like a childhood summer. When I listen to her, I feel like that 7-year-old girl impatiently waiting for my life to begin. Today, as the world tries to silo each of our cultures into their own lanes, I turn on Selena’s music and think about the lessons she taught us: To embrace each other and elevate and celebrate our cultures. That you can love other cultures and still be authentic to the space you were raised in. Selena [embraced her heritage, even as she was influenced by Black artists. ](https://www.texasmonthly.com/arts-entertainment/selena-fashion-icon/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)She had mainstream appeal in the 90s *and* was unapologetically Mexican-American. And that might be why [Black fans still resonate with her music.](https://thegrio.com/2026/04/01/selena-31-years-after-the-tejano-singers-death-her-music-still-resonates-with-black-fans/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) A young Beyoncé got the chance to [meet Selena](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpGzEJZx-gE&ref=thebarbedwire.com) in 1993 and went on to say in 2007 how much the [Tejano star influenced her.](https://www.teenvogue.com/story/beyonce-selena-quintanilla-netflix-selena-the-series?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Wyclef Jean has sampled her music in performances, Frank Ocean reflected on Selena’s death in his “Blonde” album, and Keke Palmer [has performed renditions](https://www.tiktok.com/@martyal1/video/7284843559713393950?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of “Amor Prohibido.” And that’s just a few famous Black fans. “Listen—Black folks love Selena for a REASON,” wrote [mspackyetti on Threads](https://www.threads.com/@mspackyetti/post/DEavzhexrmW?ref=thebarbedwire.com) “We understand, even if we don’t understand, you know?” “Selena is at least as popular as Jesus,” H. Drew Blackburn [wrote for *The Barbed Wire* in October 2024](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-texas-voyager-well-always-do-anything-for-selena/). About eight months ago, as the school year began in Fort Worth, the [principal of Kirkpatrick Middle School](https://www.reddit.com/r/SelenaQuintanilla/comments/1mr5bsf/and%5Fthis%5Fis%5Fwhat%5Fwe%5Fmean%5Fwhen%5Fwe%5Fsay%5Fblack%5Fpeople/?utm%5Fsource=share&utm%5Fmedium=web3x&utm%5Fname=web3xcss&utm%5Fterm=1&utm%5Fcontent=share%5Fbutton) performed “Como La Flor.” Between verses, he was intermittently shouting “welcome back!” — all while dressed in bright purple. “And this is what we mean when we say Black people don’t play about Selena,” read [a caption of the video](https://www.reddit.com/r/SelenaQuintanilla/comments/1mr5bsf/and%5Fthis%5Fis%5Fwhat%5Fwe%5Fmean%5Fwhen%5Fwe%5Fsay%5Fblack%5Fpeople/?utm%5Fsource=share&utm%5Fmedium=web3x&utm%5Fname=web3xcss&utm%5Fterm=1&utm%5Fcontent=share%5Fbutton) posted to Reddit. On the 30th anniversary of her posthumous album “Dreaming of You,” writer Jonathan Apollo [reflected on what it means to be a Black and gay fan](https://medium.com/counterarts/eternal-reflecting-on-30-years-of-being-a-black-fan-of-selena-quintanilla-perez-af36092e5a99?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of Selena’s — listening to her on first dates, pushing her cassette into a Walkman at the age of 13, witnessing little girls fawn over her at anniversary screenings of the biopic. Selena, he wrote, helped “me make sense of my identity and further appreciate the Black culture that occasionally shunned me.” Now, as I listen to Selena I understand more. Not just because the language barrier has been lifted. I’ve had my heart race from — crushes (like in “Bidi Bidi Bom Bom”) to heartbreak (like in “Como La Flor”). Selena will always be with me. Whether it’s at the rodeo, dancing with friends, or listening to her as I run errands. Like a bluebonnet, she’s uniquely Texan. And for a little Black girl finding her home, she was so much more. *Editor’s Note:* The Barbed Wire *is in the midst of [our spring fundraising campaign](https://thebarbedwire.com/spring-fundraiser/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Good journalism isn’t free. Thanks to everyone who has donated so far — it funds what we do. If you haven’t donated yet, you can become a member for as little as $4 a month, or make a one-time gift.* ### ‘Accusations of ‘Indoctrination’ Were Nothing but an Excuse’: Texas Tech Roiled by Axing of Programs, Free Speech Lawsuit URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-tech-free-expression/ Last updated: 2026-04-14T16:27:57.000Z In recent days, Texas Tech University has come under fire by free speech advocates over its decision to cancel programs — and a first amendment lawsuit filed by a student after she was disciplined in the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s death. The university system will shutter its programs focusing on gender identity and sexuality, according to [a memo](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-texastribune-org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/26-4-9-memorandum-chancellor-creighton-1.pdf) released on April 9 by Chancellor Brandon Creighton and first reported by the *Texas Tribune*. The memo said that both the university policy and state law mandate only two sexes be recognized, and that currently enrolled students in any affected program would be able to finish their degree, but the university system would be otherwise phasing them out. [According to the *Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/04/10/texas-tech-ban-gender-identity-sexual-orientation-academics/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Creighton said in a statement that he is focused on “ensuring our academic programs are rigorous, relevant, and produce degrees of value.” “That focus is matched by our unwavering support for the First Amendment and the open exchange of ideas that define a public university,” Creighton continued. Students and faculty have expressed disappointment and surprise at the decision. Jen Shelton, an associate professor of English, has taught at Texas Tech for 25 years, and told the *Texas Tribune* that the university’s provost had assured faculty their research would not be impacted. “I think the whole university has been betrayed. I think even the provost did not expect it to look like this,” Shelton said to the *Texas Tribune*. Andrew Martin, president of the Texas Tech chapter of the American Association of University Professors, released [a statement](https://aaup-texas.org/blog/f/texas-tech-directive-harms-education-violates-rights?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on April 10 about Creighton’s memo and its impact on the education of Texas Tech students. “The policy handed down in today’s memo is shocking in its brazen disregard for our commitment to delivering a meaningful, complete, and truthful education, and finally demonstrates the true agenda: The accusations of ‘indoctrination’ were nothing but an excuse to inflict a preferred indoctrination,” Martin said [in the statement.](https://aaup-texas.org/blog/f/texas-tech-directive-harms-education-violates-rights?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Brian Evans, president of the Texas AAUP, also made a statement condemning the change as detrimental to the job prospects of Texas Tech students. “These programs teach students the reality of the world around them, making them better prepared for careers in everything from healthcare and education to understanding consumers at big corporate jobs,” Evans said. “This decision from a politician-turned-higher-education-administrator shortchanges Texas Tech students and hangs them out to dry in the job market.” Also this week, on April 12, [a law student sued the university](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-texastribune-org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/fisher-tech-lawsuit.pdf) for reprimanding her over comments made after the death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk in September 2025. According to the lawsuit, the student, Ellie Fisher, was investigated for “unprofessional conduct” after discussing Kirk’s death in class and with law school faculty and other students. Fisher was the only student scrutinized for her discussion of the events, the lawsuit said, despite many other students engaging in the topic. The lawsuit described the killing of Kirk, who was shot during a speaking event at a university in Utah, as an “assault” on freedoms afforded by the First Amendment — which was then used by Texas Tech’s faculty to inflict “more rather than less viewpoint suppression,” the suit claims. Fisher was found in violation of Texas Tech Law School’s honor code after the investigation found her discussion of Kirk’s death to be “loud, happy and celebratory,” [the *Texas Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/04/13/texas-tech-student-lawsuit-charlie-kirk-discipline/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) reported. Fisher was given a reprimand that will appear on her school record. The lawsuit alleges that the disciplinary action and investigation wrongfully singled out Fisher. Garrett Gravley, a campus rights advocate for free speech advocacy organization FIRE, told the student newspaper [*The Daily Toreado*r](https://dailytoreador.com/article/law-student-found-guilty-of-violating-honor-code-20260327?ref=thebarbedwire.com) after Fisher was found guilty of misconduct that the decision violated her First Amendment rights. “This decision was a miscarriage of justice. It was very offensive to the First Amendment and to free speech values,” Gravely [said to the *Toreador*.](https://dailytoreador.com/article/law-student-found-guilty-of-violating-honor-code-20260327?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Antonio Ingram, counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, [told the *Texas Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/04/10/texas-tech-ban-gender-identity-sexual-orientation-academics/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that Texas Tech’s move to end education centered on gender identity and sexual orientation could potentially amount to unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination, and appeared politically motivated. “I think in many ways, this is a doubling down on a political project that is not meant to help students. It is really meant to uphold a political worldview,” Ingram said [to the *Texas Tribune*.](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/04/10/texas-tech-ban-gender-identity-sexual-orientation-academics/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) ### The Bootlegging, Blues Singing Star of 1930s Prison Radio URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-bootlegging-blues-singing-star-of-1930s-prison-radio/ Last updated: 2026-04-14T15:13:03.000Z [*This essay*](https://www.themarshallproject.org/2026/04/12/hattie-ellis-prison-blues-redemption-songs?ref=thebarbedwire.com)*, originally* [*written by Maurice Chammah*](https://www.themarshallproject.org/staff/maurice-chammah?ref=thebarbedwire.com)*, is an edition of Redemption Songs, a limited-run newsletter from The Marshall Project that dives into the music produced in prisons over the last century.* [*Sign up now*](https://www.themarshallproject.org/newsletters/redemption-songs?ref=thebarbedwire.com) *to get a song by incarcerated artists delivered to your inbox each Sunday through September.* My favorite song on the Oscar-winning soundtrack to the movie “Sinners” is “[Pale, Pale Moon](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AOydLHGMnY&ref=thebarbedwire.com),” where actress Jayme Lawson channels the great blues women of the 1920s and 1930s like Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith. But the song also reminded me of Hattie Ellis, the imprisoned Dallas vocalist who once earned comparisons to Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. Ellis is mostly unknown, perhaps because she left behind only two songs, recorded while she was incarcerated in [The Goree State Farm for Women](https://www.tsl.texas.gov/exhibits/prisons/reform/goree.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) near Huntsville, Texas. But almost a century later, her voice remains mesmerizing through the grit of early phonograph technology. I wish someone would make a movie based on what we do know about her life, because the bare facts are so dramatic. As [Texas Monthly’s Skip Hollandsworth](https://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/blue-notes/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) reported, Ellis was involved in Prohibition-era bootlegging at the age of 20\. One day, she got into an argument with a customer named Henrietta Murphy, possibly over the cost of whiskey. Murphy, who was likely drunk, urinated on Ellis’s floor. After the argument, Ellis drove to Murphy’s house and shot her in the stomach. At trial, Ellis said the victim attacked her with a razor. The jury evidently didn’t believe her, since she got a 30-year sentence for murder. She was sent to Goree, a segregated facility [named after a former slave owner and Confederate officer](https://www.themarshallproject.org/2020/07/29/will-the-reckoning-over-racist-names-include-these-prisons?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=In%20Texas%2C%20for%20example%2C%20most,state%20would%20just%20replace%20him.). Black women worked in the fields while White women worked in a garment factory. But each week, some of the women were taken to a male prison nearby to perform on “Thirty Minutes Behind the Walls,” a variety radio show broadcast on Wednesday nights. Scholar Caroline Gnagy writes in her 2016 book “Texas Jailhouse Music: A Prison Band History” that most of the performers were White men, so we can assume it was Ellis’ skill during her debut, in March 1938, that earned her a spot almost every week for three years. According to Gnagy, Ellis received as many as 3,000 fan letters in a single week, singing hits of the era like “Heart and Soul,” “Stormy Weather” and “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” since “The Wizard of Oz” came out while she was inside. I found a 1939 [clip from The Echo](https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1724296/m1/7/?q=%22hattie%20ellis%22&ref=thebarbedwire.com), the state prison newspaper of the era, that says Ellis would perform for the public at “the Texas Prison System’s big Juneteenth celebration,” which also involved a prisoner baseball game. (She also sang for the public at the annual [Texas Prison Rodeo.)](https://www.themarshallproject.org/2026/03/10/prison-music-texas-rodeo-redemption-songs?ref=thebarbedwire.com) She was often introduced in public with condescending monikers that focused on her race, like the “blues-singing Negress,” and the “dusky songstress.” Among her fans was Texas Gov. Wilbert Lee “Pappy” O’Daniel, who praised the power of the radio show that featured her every week. “Before the advent of radio, prisoners were exiled; citizens outside paid little attention to them,” O’Daniel said on “Thirty Minutes Behind the Walls” in 1939\. “But now you hear them talk; you hear them sing; you find out they are sons and daughters of good mothers. You find out they made mistakes, thus proving that they are human.” O’Daniel went on to pardon Ellis, perhaps seeing it as a canny political move given her popularity (sort of like how President Donald Trump granted clemency to rappers such as Lil Wayne and Kodak Black). The Echo [reported that professional talent scouts were interested in her](https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1804580/m1/11/?q=%22hattie%20ellis%22&ref=thebarbedwire.com) and she wanted to have a music career, but there is no public record to explain why she never succeeded. She returned to prison briefly in the 1950s, after violating her parole, but that’s where the breadcrumb trail ends. There are no surviving recordings of the radio show, but in 1939, the folklore researchers John and Ruby Lomax captured Ellis singing “[I Ain’t Got Nobody](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qb4hw-dzWb8&ref=thebarbedwire.com),” a classic of the era, and “[Desert Blues](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8miZ3ekW%5F4&ref=thebarbedwire.com),” which she said she wrote. A White guitar player named Jack Ramsey played behind her, which is surprising given how segregated prisons were at the time. John Lomax had previously found success by promoting the music of Huddie Ledbetter — better known by his stage name Lead Belly, a blues singer in a Louisiana prison who had also [earned release at one point through his music](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2YVlepnkuc&ref=thebarbedwire.com). But he wasn’t as impressed with Ellis. Lomax had a paternalistic, conservative view of authenticity and wanted prison music untouched by popular culture. In field notes [preserved by the Library of Congress](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/tile-loc-gov/storage-services/service/afc/afc1939001/afc1939001%5Ffn0001/afc1939001%5Ffn0001.pdf), he wrote, “Hattie’s singing is fast becoming ‘throaty’ as she strives to imitate the professional ‘blues’ singers.” But her ability to sound like the greats of her era is precisely why I think she could have had a career. We can only guess why she didn’t. ### This Austin Art Show Is the Mirror America Needs Right Now URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/this-austin-art-show-is-the-mirror-america-needs-right-now/ Last updated: 2026-07-08T12:58:54.000Z **Paid content.** The Cathedral paid for this article and reviewed it before publication. A pirate radio station broadcasting from inside an art gallery, a cowboy who refuses to be a conqueror, and mirrors positioned so carefully throughout the space that you can't look at the work without looking at yourself. That's ‘The Neon Republic’ — and it might be the most urgent art show happening in Austin right now. Opening on April 24 at The Cathedral, a Latina-artist owned multi-functional art gallery, this new exhibition brings together resident artist Autumn Mae and guest artist Chris Tobar in a show that doesn't flinch. Not from politics. Not from history. Not from you. **Two Artists. One Charged Universe.** Autumn Mae's work hits first. Using plastic, resin mirrors and reclaimed American iconography, Mae’s pieces dismantle the comfortable distance between "the system" and the rest of us. Familiar phrases and patriotic symbols are recontextualized to reveal what the language of freedom has always quietly been doing. In a moment of executive overreach, defunded art programs, and history being banned from classrooms, her work doesn't rage. It simply holds up a light and asks you to look. > "Slavery never ended, it was simply rebranded for everyone. It can be seen in the patterns we so boldly use to decorate our homes, garments, cards, and pillows. A symbol dating arguably back thousands of years can be subverted into differing perspectives, new ideologies, and new iconographic impressions for an entire society. These symbols can represent and reflect religion, power, and ultimately war. What symbols do you carry, and how many thousands of years did OUR ancestors survive to behold an offering post mortem." - Autumn Mae Then there's Chris Tobar's ‘The Neon Rodeo.’ If you think you know what a cowboy represents, Tobar is here to complicate that beautifully. Through an Afro-Latino lens, the cowboy sheds his mythology of conquest and becomes something more truthful: a figure searching for identity, endurance, and belonging in a country that has never stopped deciding who deserves it. His immersive universe unfolds through storytelling and the live transmissions of K-RDEO 88.8 FM — a pirate radio station you can tune into inside the gallery. It feels like stumbling onto a frequency that's been broadcasting the whole time, just waiting for someone to listen. > "The Neon Rodeo series reflects the wild, unpredictable journey of being a creator, using the spirit of the rodeo as a metaphor for navigating identity, ambition, and self-expression. Rooted in the rich history of Black and Brown cowboy culture, the work reclaims and reimagines that legacy through a personal lens—encouraging creators to move boldly, trust their voice, and create without waiting for permission." - Chris Tobar **Why This Show? Why Now?** The Cathedral is home to atxGALS, an art collective that was built on a simple but radical idea: that women and underrepresented artists deserve not just a platform, but a stage. No corporate backing. No grants. Just a fiercely independent space committed to art that matters. ‘The Neon Republic’ embodies that mission in full force. At a time when the stories we're allowed to tell are getting narrower, when entire communities are being legislated out of public life, this exhibition does the opposite — it expands. It reclaims. It imagines. The show asks who gets to write the story of a nation, who gets remembered, and what becomes possible when artists refuse to wait for permission. These are not rhetorical questions. Walk through this exhibition and they become very, very real. **Go See It. Bring Someone.** This is the kind of show that stays with you — not because it's comfortable, but because it's true. And right now, truth told through art is one of the most powerful things we have. ‘The Neon Republic’ runs through the end of April. Tickets to the open house are available now. [GET TICKETS](https://www.eventbrite.com/e/april-open-house-the-neon-republic-reception-tickets-1986035174670?aff=oddtdtcreator&ref=thebarbedwire.com) 📅 Friday, April 24 📍 The Cathedral | 2403 East 16th Street, Austin TX ### A ‘Gut Punch’ of Censorship and ‘Erasure’: University of Texas Professors Decry Rushed Merging of Ethnic & Gender Studies URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/a-gut-punch-of-censorship-and-erasure-university-of-texas-professors-decry-rushed-merging-of-ethnic-gender-studies/ Last updated: 2026-04-13T05:01:00.000Z Nearly two months after University of Texas at Austin President Jim Davis announced plans to consolidate seven ethnic and gender studies departments, students and faculty say they’re still in the dark and bracing for what comes next. On Feb.12, [Davis announced](https://president.utexas.edu/message/changes-to-departmental-structure-in-the-college-of-liberal-arts/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) a consolidation set to take effect in fall 2027. Then, on Apr. 2, interim College of Liberal Arts Dean David Sosa sent an email to faculty announcing the consolidation will now begin in fall 2026, a year earlier than previously expected. Seven departments will be merged into two new ones. French and Italian, Germanic Studies, and Slavic and Eurasian Studies will form the Department of European and Eurasian Studies. Meanwhile, African and African Diaspora Studies, American Studies, Mexican American and Latina/o Studies, and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies will become the Department of Social and Cultural Analysis. Faculty had been warned last fall that changes were coming but were officially notified just before Davis’ announcement. Davis said the consolidation is necessary for a “balanced and challenging educational experience.” He pointed to “size, scope, academic mission, student demand, student-to-faculty ratio, resource allocation, and other dimensions.” Some faculty and staff aren’t so sure. “I think this is the first step to erasure,” said Karma Chavez, chair of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies, speaking in her capacity as a professor. “The reasoning is questionable,” said Luis Guevara, graduate program administrator for Mexican American and Latina/o Studies, noting that other smaller departments in the College of Liberal Arts are not under review. More than 800 students are currently pursuing degrees across the affected departments, [according to the *Texas Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/02/12/texas-ut-austin-consolidate-race-gender/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). (Full disclosure: The author is currently pursuing a minor at UT Austin in Mexican American and Latina/o Studies.) Guevara added that the department has been successful by its own measures, citing a survey in which 57% of respondents said their major prepared them “extremely well” for their careers or further schooling, and 23% said, “very well.” Neither Davis nor the dean of the College of Liberal Arts replied to requests for comment from *The Barbed Wire* by press time. In an email to *The Barbed Wire*, Chavez said faculty were “certainly surprised” by the accelerated timeline. Chavez said Interim Dean Sosa explained the move was necessary ahead of the 2027 legislative session.She believes this is because “upper admin doesn't want any more legislation that will target UT.” “This is all political, and so the timeline will not be attending to faculty, staff, or student needs or concerns,” Chavez wrote. “It’s a real shame.” Lauren Gutterman, a professor in American Studies and Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies, sees the consolidation as a part of a “right-wing political effort to censor teaching and learning on these topics.” The Republican-led political changes to higher education began with Senate Bill 17, which passed in 2023 and banned diversity, equity and inclusion offices and programming at public universities. In 2025, Senate Bill 37 passed, which further limited faculty control over curriculum and governance. At the federal level, the [Trump administration sent a “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” letter to UT Austin in October 2025](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/10/02/university-texas-austin-trump-administration-compact-2/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), tying federal funding to Trump’s ideological compliance. UT did not respond, leaving its position unclear. Across Texas, universities are rolling back race- and gender-related programs. [Texas Christian University](https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty-issues/curriculum/2025/10/31/tcu-moves-race-gender-studies-departments-english?ref=thebarbedwire.com) has restructured programs. [Texas A&M](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/01/30/texas-am-courses-eliminated-race-gender/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and the [University of North Texas](https://texasscorecard.com/state/university-of-north-texas-to-cut-womens-gender-studies-minor/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) are closing their women’s and gender studies programs after political backlash, while [Texas Tech University ](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/12/01/texas-tech-university-system-brandon-creighton-race-gender-discussions/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)is among those reducing or reshaping related courses. Chavez and colleagues had proposed a School of Global Cultures to preserve departmental autonomy. The proposal was denied by UT Austin leadership. In his announcement, Davis wrote, “It is important to bear in mind that many subjects worthy of research and teaching do not necessarily need to be isolated as their own small academic departments.” Chavez said that logic misunderstands ethnic studies. “It’s very hard for us to fit within traditional structures because our work is inherently interdisciplinary,” she said. “We are the only ones qualified to evaluate the quality of our work because we are interdisciplinary scholars.” Faculty worry the consolidation will eliminate not just departments, but roles and courses. Lilia Rosas, a professor of Mexican American and Latino/a Studies, said positions like graduate advising, communications, and community outreach could be combined and classes deemed redundant. “It raises questions about oversight (of) classes that will now, perhaps, not be considered important,” Rosas said. Chavez expects remaining faculty to disperse into other departments rather than join what she called “this new 80-person department that's not intellectually justified.” Rosas worries about her own future. “I do wonder if there'll still be a place for me here,” she said. “(But) there's a part of me that knows my amazing colleagues and I are willing to say we still matter and we're still here.” For now, students can finish their degrees and faculty are expected to keep their jobs. But Chavez believes majors could be next. “They said they're going to engage in curriculum audits,” she said. “They haven't given us any details… but I would surmise that (they’ll say), ‘I don't think we need a specific major in Mexican American and Latino studies or African and African Diaspora Studies or Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.’” Those fears intensified after the Texas Board of Regents updated Rule 3004, which governs how “controversial” topics are taught. The rule requires multiple viewpoints, syllabus disclosures, and content deemed “germane,” but leaves those terms undefined — raising concerns about administrative overreach. Rosas said the change, paired with consolidation, felt like “a gut punch.” “They’re coming at us from different angles,” Chavez said, adding she fears syllabus reviews could be automated and used to flag “controversial” material, forcing changes or cancellations. Other universities offer a warning. The University of Iowa [attempted a similar consolidation in 2025](https://dailyiowan.com/2025/01/21/ui-proposes-closing-gender-studies-department-drawing-controversy-and-praise/?ref=thebarbedwire.com); when its Board of Regents did not approve the new school, [the major was eliminated](https://dailyiowan.com/2026/03/10/gwss-department-faces-looming-closure/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Rosas fears UT is on a similar path to erase the ethnic, gender and sexuality studies altogether. “If it's done slow, it will be death by a thousand cuts,” she said. “Slowly, it'll be harder and harder for us to justify our classes.” For many students, the stakes are personal. “It was the place where a lot of us who were BIPOC, queer, or working class finally found a home,” Rosas said of ethnic and gender studies. “They function both as a place for us to be seen and as a place for others to practice allyship.” “It gives us a safe space,” said Jordyn Butler, a senior majoring in African and African Diaspora Studies. Butler said those spaces have already shrunk. The Multicultural Engagement Center closed after SB 17, and a camp for new Black students lost funding. “We've gone from being very supported to totally unsupported (and) left like fish flapping on a dry beach,” Butler said. She’s now applying to nursing schools in Atlanta and said she would choose a Historically Black University if starting over. “I really wouldn't have chosen to come here if I knew those fields wouldn't be accessible to me,” said Madison Wright, a senior double majoring in Race, Indigeneity and Migration and Mexican American and Latina/o Studies. “We’re losing great minds — professors and students,” Butler said. “We are great students. We’re smart. We’re going to change the world, but you’re losing us.” Rosas sees broader implications. “If you think ethnic studies and women’s and gender and sexuality studies are the only programs to go, pay attention,” she said. “This university is reinventing itself around a lens less committed to knowledge-making and more committed to business and efficiency.” Chavez, despite everything, isn’t ready to leave. “I want to stay here and keep doing the work I’ve been doing,” she said, “and keep fighting for students to have the freedom to learn what they want.” ### How Texas College Students Are Helping Thousands of Undocumented Classmates URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/undocumented-students-texas/ Last updated: 2026-04-09T05:01:00.000Z Obed Valencia wasted no time in his first two years of college. He joined several clubs, made friends, got an internship — he even won a “Most Involved” student award in his first year at Texas A&M San Antonio, he said. “I made the most of it just because I wasn’t sure when would be the last day I would get to experience,” Valencia told *The Barbed Wire*. That uncertainty stemmed from being a “dreamer,” a term used to describe immigrants who were [brought to the U.S. as a child, including those who](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dreamer?ref=thebarbedwire.com) received protections under the program known as [Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals](https://www.uscis.gov/DACA?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — or DACA. Valencia moved to the U.S. from Mexico when he was just 4 years old, he told *The Barbed Wire*. Alongside his friend and fellow student María Andrade, Valencia founded the Dreamer Student Organization on the San Antonio campus in the fall of 2023, which provided support and a safe space to other immigrant students like them. “We wanted to build a community for students who were undocumented immigrants, or if they were just allies, wanting to help,” Andrade said. With Valencia as president, the Dreamer Student Organization focused on building community, social events, and education on issues facing immigrants in its first year. But things changed in 2025. Since President Trump took office in his second term, the [largest immigration crackdown in U.S. history](https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/fact-sheet/understanding-ice-worksite-raids/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=ICE%20has%20also%20targeted%20larger,part%20of%20a%20single%20operation.) has [disappeared parents](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/million-texas-students-undocumented-ice-mom-taken/), [killed dozens of people](https://www.npr.org/2026/04/03/nx-s1-5754749/ice-detention-deaths-are-on-a-record-pace-one-texas-facility-bears-the-brunt?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — including [American citizens](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/abolish-ice-gains-traction-after-mom-shot-minneapolis/) – and spread fear across communities in Texas. In Austin, [a mother called police only to find herself and her 5-year-old child, a U.S. citizen, deported to Honduras](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/abolish-ice-gains-traction-after-mom-shot-minneapolis/). A Palestinian woman who protested at Columbia University was [held in a Texas ICE detention center for a year](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-democrats-demand-release-of-political-prisoner-leqaa-kordia-compare-ice-facility-to-internment-camps/), despite being granted bond multiple times. A two-month old baby [was deported, along with his family](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/2-month-old-baby-juan-nicolas-unresponsive-hospital-sent-back-to-ice-facility/), after being hospitalized for bronchitis in a Texas detention center just hours earlier. Immigrants have also faced financial barriers as the crackdown has swept across the country, where Texas has the most undocumented higher ed students in the country — second only to California. As of June 2025, [*Inside Higher Ed*](https://www.insidehighered.com/news/government/politics-elections/2025/06/05/texas-ends-state-tuition-undocumented-students?ref=thebarbedwire.com)reported there were 57,000 undocumented students enrolled in Texas colleges and universities. The Texas Dream Act, [which provided in-state tuition rates to undocumented students](https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/blog/texas-dream-act-undocumented-students-higher-education/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) since 2001, was halted in June 2025 after the [U.S. Department of Justice sued the state](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/06/04/texas-justice-department-lawsuit-undocumented-in-state-tuition/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). For TAMU San Antonio, [in-state tuition for the current school year](https://www.tamusa.edu/paying-for-college/tuition/Cost-of-Attendance.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) is $8,032\. Out of state tuition is $18,878\. Suddenly, undocumented students were saddled with tuition bills more than double the amount they had previously paid. Valencia was one of many students who could not return to his university in the fall because he was unable to afford the heightened costs. In the summer after his sophomore year, Valencia said he had just gotten off of work when he read the news online that the Texas Dream Act would be halted. “My whole world pivoted, because I thought I was gonna go back, I was gonna continue my education,” Valencia said. “It was honestly super hard, heartbreaking.” Valencia took the fall 2025 semester off from school while he tried to figure out how he could continue his education. Faced with the sudden absence of her friend — and many others — from campus, Andrade said the Dreamer Student Organization had to step up. “I saw a lot of struggle,” Andrade said. “He couldn't afford going to school anymore, and I could. It disheartened me so much.” “We had to do something,” she added. Andrade took on the role of president of the organization and began helping undocumented students apply for [an academic excellence scholarship](https://www.thedream.us/scholarships/opportunity-scholarship/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that provided a stipend, allowing them to keep paying in-state tuition rates. “I want to know what else I could do for my dreamers,” Andrade said. “Although our community shrunk, there is so much support on this campus.” Not all students were able to get a scholarship, Andrade said. [*The Mesquite News* reported in October](https://mesquite-news.com/it-all-happened-so-fast-dreamer-enrollment-drops-after-texas-dream-act-repeal/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that 55 out of 103 undocumented students on campus did not return that semester. Valencia was eventually able to continue his college education this semester — but not at TAMU San Antonio. He received a scholarship partnered with Our Lady of the Lake University, a private Catholic school in San Antonio. Valencia said he is grateful for the opportunity to continue working towards a degree, but the transition between schools has been difficult. “I just feel so behind,” Valencia said. “I'm still having a hard time because I am entering in the middle of the year.” “I don't have any friends yet,” he added. Andrade said the absence of dreamers on TAMU San Antonio’s campus has had a detrimental impact on the community at her school. “People who I used to see day-to-day are now gone,” Andrade said. “It definitely leaves a mark, subconsciously, it does. Because these are people who you grow to love, care, be around. You grow in that sense of community.” #### ‘When One of Us Experiences Something, We All Experience It’ Andrade’s campus isn’t the only Texas university feeling the effects of the change. Students across the state have rallied behind their undocumented peers, including those at the University of Texas at Austin. Last spring, UT Austin multicultural fraternity and sorority members [testified in front of the Texas Legislature](https://thedailytexan.com/2025/04/23/latinx-organizations-supporters-advocate-on-behalf-of-undocumented-students-at-state-capitol/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), urging lawmakers to vote against a bill that would repeal the Dream Act. Amy DonJuan, a member of Latina sorority Kappa Delta Chi, was one of those students, inspired to act. “We have a couple of undocumented sisters who were impacted by the Texas Dream Act,” DonJuan said. “We're a very close knit and tight community. When one of us experiences something, we all experience it.” DonJuan, along with Marco Julian Gonzalez, a member of Latino fraternity Sigma Lambda Beta, [met with bipartisan state lawmakers last April](https://www.statesman.com/news/education/article/texas-dream-act-ut-students-tuition-21315905.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com), urging them not to repeal the act. “We’ve had many alumni who were recipients of the Texas Dream Act,” Gonzalez said. “That enabled them to be able to afford schools like the University of Texas at Austin.” Gonzalez said that his fraternity is politically diverse, with some members voting for Republicans and some for Democrats. However, a rise in anti-immigrant sentiment brought them together in bipartisan advocacy for their brothers after the 2024 election. “This term of ‘criminal alien’ was one that really struck home,” Gonzales said. “Friends that I have who were brought here when they were one, two, three, five years old, they didn’t have any agency over that. And they’re certainly not criminals.” The Texas Dream Act has been around since 2001, [when it was passed with bipartisan support ](https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/texas-dream-act-house-bill-1403?ref=thebarbedwire.com)by the Texas Legislature. Under the law, undocumented students who have lived in the state for at least three years prior to earning their high school diploma or GED [have been able to pursue an education](https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/blog/texas-dream-act-undocumented-students-higher-education/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) with in-state tuition rates for more than two decades. The law made Texas [the first state in the nation](https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/texas-dream-act-house-bill-1403?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=House%20Bill%201403%2C%20widely%20known,2%20nays%2C%20and%202%20abstentions.) to allow undocumented students the chance at in-state tuition, and many other states followed with similar laws of their own. The UT students’ efforts last April paid off in the short term, when the bill to repeal the Dream Act [failed to make it to the legislature’s floor](https://legiscan.com/TX/text/SB1798/id/3149639?ref=thebarbedwire.com). However, in June 2025, the Department of Justice under the Trump administration took matters into their own hands, [filing a lawsuit in the Northern District of Texas](https://www.justice.gov/opa/media/1402576/dl?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that argued the Dream Act was unconstitutional. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton joined the Department of Justice, asking the court to strike down the law. Six hours later, a [judge blocked the Dream Act from being enforced](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/doj-coordinated-texas-ag-kill-texas-dream-act-trump-official-says-rcna214871?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “It just felt like a sidestepping of the democratic process,” Gonzalez said. After the act was halted, DonJuan and Julian Gonzales’ undocumented brothers and sisters faced the same fate as Andrade’s friend Obed — they were forced to find a way to pay the heightened tuition in August or leave school altogether. UT Austin’s in-state tuition for this academic year is between $10,858 and $13,576, [according to the university’s website](https://onestop.utexas.edu/managing-costs/cost-tuition-rates/cost-of-attendance/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Out of state tuition is between $38,650 and $46,498. “One of the members from Signal Lambda Beta mentioned having a friend who received news of the Texas Dream Act and had to sell a lot of their belongings, their car, to be able to make tuition,” DonJuan said. “They had to make thousands, thousands of dollars overnight.” UT Austin used to have a program called Monarch, which provided assistance and scholarships to undocumented or mixed status students. However, [the program was shut down in January 2024](https://www.kvue.com/article/news/local/ut-austin-monarch-program-diversity-equity-inclusion-sb17-dei/269-d270c28f-fdf7-46c0-ad81-47c02db59cd7?ref=thebarbedwire.com), after Senate Bill 17 banned all public universities from diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. The students and alumni that had been involved quietly reorganized, creating [a new organization](https://rootedtexas.wordpress.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to fill the gap, under a new name: Rooted. Ana\*, a UT student who works with Rooted and requested a pseudonym to speak to *The Barbed Wire* out of fear she’d be targeted because of her immigration status, said that the organization has given thousands of dollars to undocumented students to help defray the cost of attendance, from grants and fundraisers. “We've been able to fundraise money through our GoFundMe, and also we received a grant last fall of $20,000, that has helped us give a good amount to students,” Ana told *The Barbed Wire*. “We’ve been able to help at least 20 to 30 students, which is great.” Ana said most of their donations come from individuals or organizations outside UT Austin. “What if it happened to you? What if suddenly you couldn’t pay your tuition, and you also got your TASFA, your FAFSA revoked, and on top of that, scholarships are immensely competitive for undocumented students?” Ana asked. “I don’t know if people maybe don’t understand what the implications of this repeal really were for students.” In order to protect Rooted members’ safety, Ana said the organization primarily hosts off-campus socials or fundraising events, and spreads word about their resources via social media. “We don’t table so much on campus, really (it’s) word of mouth,” she said. “It’s a balance between, ‘how can we protect ourselves and also our work and help as many students as we can?’” #### ‘High School Students Are the Most Vulnerable’ Students at other schools, like the University of Houston, also turned to organizations unaffiliated with their universities after Senate Bill 17 and the repeal of the Dream Act left the schools unable to provide much institutional support. This year’s in-state tuition at UH is $11,888, while [the out of state cost is $27,776](https://www.uh.edu/undergraduate-admissions/cost-and-aid/index.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Abraham Espinosa works with UH students and immigrants in Houston, helping them navigate the heightened cost of earning an education. Espinosa is the director of higher education and community protection at [FIEL Houston](https://fielhouston.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), an immigrant-led advocacy organization. Espinosa said that after the halting of the Dream Act, he worries about the next generation of prospective students. “I think the high school students are the most vulnerable,” Espinosa said. “There's not a lot of options right now for them, especially if they're undocumented.” One option for undocumented youth used to be the [Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals](https://www.carecen-la.org/what%5Fis%5Fthe%5Fhistory%5Fand%5Fcurrent%5Fstatus%5Fof%5Fdaca?ref=thebarbedwire.com) program, created via executive order in 2012 by the Obama administration. DACA gave children who were brought to the U.S. when they were young the opportunity to get a work permit, and protection from deportation. Espinosa said that DACA recipients would still qualify for in-state tuition without the Texas Dream Act, except for one small issue: DACA was [halted under President Trump](https://uss.ucsd.edu/policy/index.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and has not accepted new applications since 2017, leaving today’s undocumented teenagers without that path. Espinosa said FIEL provides financial counseling to these students, trying to help them find more affordable ways to get higher education rather than foregoing school altogether. “One of the recommendations that we're doing right now with the high school students is maybe consider community college, maybe a university is not going to be something that's going to be financially attainable right now,” Espinosa said. “The biggest thing that we're trying to avoid is selling them, don't go to school, because at the end of the day, let's be honest, the people that are attacking our community, that's what they want.” Espinosa said he has also met with high school and university officials in the Houston area to understand if there are any options for undocumented students to get scholarships or reduced tuition. “There's a university here in Houston that actually sat down with us behind closed doors and said, like, ‘we have this tuition,’” Espinosa said. “That basically (undocumented students) need to get $1,000 of scholarship from the school and they'll qualify for state tuition.” Although some universities have tried to quietly assist undocumented students with tuition, Espinosa said the main source of support has come from their peers. “There's been a lot of buzz around college student groups kind of organizing together and trying to sort of support their undocumented students,” Espinosa said. “I think there is support from other students wanting to support their fellow students because honestly, I'm not seeing much action from the schools itself.” Even as students take matters into their own hands to rally behind their undocumented community members, the Texas Dream Act is not completely a lost cause, Gonzalez said. A Latino civil rights organization [appealed the court order](https://www.maldef.org/2025/09/maldef-files-appeal-of-court-decision-blocking-students-from-defending-the-texas-dream-act/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that halted the act in September, on behalf of students who could no longer afford tuition. Gonzalez’s fraternity chapter, Sigma Lambda Beta, and its sister sorority chapter Sigma Lambda Gamma, signed on to the lawsuit in an amicus, or ‘friend of the court’ brief. Gonzalez said the two chapters were the only student organizations at UT Austin to sign on to the brief. “We have stakes in the outcome of this litigation,” Marco Julian Gonzalez, the member of Latino fraternity Sigma Lambda Beta Gonzalez at UT Austin, said. “Our argument is very simple: These students didn’t get their day in court.” [That case](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/txilc-org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/usa-v-students-amicus-brief-of-texans-for-economic-growth-et-al-filed.pdf) is currently still pending review in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. The brief that the UT organizations signed onto echoes a statement that college students across the state have been making: Their undocumented classmates are vital to their communities, and the loss of their presence is detrimental to all students, DonJuan said. “Now we're missing one part of what used to be our community,” DonJuan said. “Students just don't get to see those stories and voices, and they don't get to learn from one another the way that we were.” Andrade said that even in cases where undocumented students weren’t always as involved as Valencia, they still made a mark on their communities — and their absence has left a void. “You do notice this impact, you notice that there's students who brought life to school, maybe if it wasn't to the grand scale of the school, it was personally onto other people's lives,” Andrade said. “Whether it’s a community level or university level, there’s always going to be a missing part of that population, because it was taken away.” Despite starting over at a new university, Valencia said he plans to continue making an impact and becoming involved in his new community. “I’m just super, super grateful to be having the opportunity to attend college,” Valencia said. “I know that I truly made an impact on A&M San Antonio, and I hope to make the same impact here.” [**Think this kind of reporting matters? Support *The Barbed Wire* by giving a one-time donation or by becoming a member now.**](https://thebarbedwire.com/spring-fundraiser/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) ### Is Fracking in Texas Endangering a Day Care’s Children? URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/is-fracking-in-texas-endangering-a-day-cares-children/ Last updated: 2026-04-08T05:05:00.000Z In early December, drilling resumed near Mother’s Heart Learning Center. Newly installed gas wells dot property at 2020 S. Watson Road, less than one mile from the day care. One day in December, the sound of fracking machinery was so cacophonous that children couldn’t play outdoors. For gas companies and stakeholders, the project is [poised to be an economic windfall](https://www.mineralview.com/blogs/barnett-shale?ref=thebarbedwire.com). But many Arlington residents and experts say it could come at the expense of the community — especially its children. In January 2025, the Arlington City Council unanimously approved a permit allowing French oil and gas company TotalEnergies to install 10 new gas wells in East Arlington, which has a heavy concentration of Black and Latinx residents. It marked the first time in over a decade that the city council approved a permit for a new drill site after years of community opposition. Named Maverick, the new site also lies near three schools — Johns Elementary, Adams Elementary and Thornton Elementary. Five wells owned by the same company already occupy the plot of land near the new drilling site, which the company has owned since 2008. Hydraulic fracturing — or fracking — is used to extract gas by pumping pressurized water, sand and chemicals into bedrock. Texas policymakers have lauded the activity as a boon to local communities, garnering $2.48 billion in state tax revenue in 2025, according to the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. Arlington is choked with hundreds of these gas wells. The city, which sits atop the Barnett Shale, is a modern-day Golconda. But fracking has drawn sharp criticism from health experts, who say it could be linked to severe conditions like preterm births, congenital anomalies, lung diseases and childhood cancers. The practice has also elicited backlash because of its role in accelerating the global climate crisis through greenhouse gas emissions. TotalEnergies has been embroiled in legal controversies for years, and its troubles have mounted in recent months. [As of February, it is facing a historic civil climate case in France](https://insideclimatenews.org/news/19022026/paris-totalenergies-climate-trial/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), brought on by a coalition of French environmental groups and more than a dozen municipal authorities. The company has rejected proposed limits to its fossil fuel production. “It makes no sense at all to prevent TotalEnergies \[from\] producing oil and gas that the global energy system still uses today,” it [said in a statement.](https://insideclimatenews.org/news/19022026/paris-totalenergies-climate-trial/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) “The courtroom is not the right place to advance the energy transition.” The 19th interviewed Arlington residents about the impact fracking has had on their lives. They shared their fears about their grandchildren’s health, their experiences living in neighborhoods impacted by fracking and their reservations about TotalEnergies expanding operations in the city. ## Devastated residents throughout Arlington ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/fracking_02.jpg) Ingrid Kelley is among community members speaking out about concerns over fracking and its potential effects on children’s health. Ingrid Kelley, 69, has grown tired of the gas wells sprouting throughout North Texas. Several sit less than a mile from her house in East Arlington, and a pungent lingering scent of sulfur and something else that she can only describe as “rotten” has settled into her neighborhood. She fears what might happen to her 4-year-old grandson, who lives with her and attends Mother’s Heart Learning Center. “I can’t project and trace what all is going to affect him and all those that live around there and all those that are around these sites,” she said. “It’s very hard to project what’s going to happen, how many people are going to have increased cancer risk, respiratory disease, cardiac disease — all the things that go along with being premature or having congenital heart disease that affect you the rest of your life.” Her grandson — who was born in Arlington with a congenital heart disease — has had to undergo intermittent nebulizer treatment since he began attending Mother’s Heart in 2024, a treatment typically reserved for those who have lung complications. He had no prior respiratory complications, Kelley said. Kelley won’t open windows at home, fearing contaminated air from nearby fracking sites will seep in. “We’re like one big science experiment here,” said Kelley who, in 2016, became involved with [Liveable Arlington, a grassroots organization targeting fracking in the city](https://www.liveablearlington.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). She is now on the board. Edgar Bunton, who is in his 60s, moved to his home in southwest Arlington six years ago and lives less than 600 feet from more than a dozen wells. His wife began to experience frequent and unexplained migraines. Two of his grandchildren who live near these gas wells have respiratory complications, which Bunton attributes to the wells. “I really got on board because of my grandbabies,” he said. The adverse health effects of hydraulic fracturing on children have been studied over the decades. “This is a cumulative risk issue, because this is not just one chemical at a time people are being exposed to,” said Meagan Weisner, a senior health scientist at Environmental Defense Fund and a former public health epidemiologist who has studied health impacts related to oil and gas development in Colorado. “This is dozens of chemicals coming from more than just one site because they’re already near other wells.” According to Weisner, the contaminants released are dangerous to nearby residents not only during the drilling phase, which emits numerous toxic chemicals, but also after. “There were a lot of parents that were reporting their children were feeling ill during the pre-production phase,” Weisner said, which encompasses drilling. “So it would not surprise me at all if these residents in Texas that are close to these 10 wells experienced adverse health impacts because of their proximity.” Children in particular are uniquely susceptible to harm. “We saw health impacts in children extended out to two miles from the pad,” she said. “I don’t know if that would be the exact same in Texas, but we saw adults had reported significant adverse symptoms within a one-mile radius but, for children, it was within a two-mile radius, and that does track along the lines of children are just much more vulnerable.” The 19th reached out to the City of Arlington for comment. In an emailed response, the city only said that the drill site was approved because “it met the 600-foot spacing requirement from protected uses, as outlined in the City’s Gas Drilling and Production ordinance.” TotalEnergies did not respond to questions from The 19th. Before energy companies descended on Arlington, the sprawling land behind Phil Kabbakoff’s house was decorated with oak trees. When the company Chesapeake Energy arrived in his neighborhood, they were leveled and reduced to kindling. Now, a towering drill rig owned by TotalEnergies looms behind the 84-year-old’s home in their place. Kabbakoff resides in the Glen Springs subdivision of southwest Arlington, the same neighborhood where Bunton’s grandchildren developed respiratory illnesses. “A lot of these houses now are leased, and so people come and go, and we don’t know who they are,” he said. “We used to know everybody on the street.” Like other residents, he was upset that more gas wells were installed by Mother’s Heart. “We were up in arms about it all the way around,” he said. While Kabbakoff would like to see sustained changes made to fracking practices in the city, he believes that Arlington elected officials will only continue to value the interests of gas companies despite protest. “They’re never going to change, not this council,” he said. “They don’t know anything about it. Nobody’s researched it. They could care less. They know they make money from it, and that’s all they’re worried about.” ## ‘Sacrifice zones are safe spaces for polluters’ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/fracking_03.jpg) A fracking site sits approximately five miles from Ranjana Bhandari’s home in Arlington, Texas. Residents say nearby drilling activity raises concerns about potential impacts on children’s health. In 2005, landmen arrived to secure land for mineral ownership and drilling rights from Arlington residents. Ranjana Bhandari, founder of Liveable Arlington, was approached and ultimately declined. “This is almost 20 years ago,” she said. “Because I was a mother — I had a young child — I didn’t think that it made any sense to have that kind of pollution around our children.” At the onset of the fracking boom in Arlington, Bhandari spent hours poring over reports from other regions that experienced similar fracking booms, hoping for a glimpse of what this new development might mean for her city. “Very quickly, they built 56 drill sites here, and they were spread out all over the city,” she said. “There’s literally one everywhere you see, one every few minutes.” She read studies about cancerous pollutants linked to childhood leukemia coming out of states like Colorado. In the neighboring city of Fort Worth, she saw reports that air quality was slowly deteriorating because of drilling-related emissions of benzene, [a carcinogen with proven harmful reproductive effects on women and fetuses](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-epa-gov/sites/default/files/2016-09/documents/benzene.pdf). “Benzene is a serious, serious cat,” she said. “It’s a category one carcinogen. There’s no safe amount of it.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/fracking_01.webp) By 2015, families in Arlington, Texas were so overwhelmed by the noxious fumes of drill sites and the effects of fracking that rippled throughout the city, Ranjana Bhandari decided to intervene by creating Liveable Arlington. Bhandari recalled a particular moment when she and her family stopped at a red light directly across from one now-defunct drill site around 2011\. Within minutes, she said, they began to feel sick. “That was my first inkling that we weren’t just looking at climate harm.” The discovery was bleak to Bhandari. By 2015, families in Arlington found themselves overwhelmed by the drill sites’ noxious fumes and the effects of fracking that rippled throughout the city — so much so that they decided to intervene. She created Liveable Arlington the same year. “We were a mothers’ organization — mothers and grandmothers concerned about children’s health — and, through our campaigns and over the years, started learning many new things,” Bhandari said. “We focused on the science. We focused on the community,” she continued. “I started it as a concerned parent. We were much more focused on fracking near children, fracking near day cares and schools, and so some of our most successful campaigns and most of our advocacy was to stop expansion of fracking around eight sites in Arlington, which are right next to day cares.” Now 61 years old, she has seen the very problems she once read about penetrate her own community. And the repercussions have been more consequential for some communities than others. More often than not, Bhandari said, they’ve settled disproportionately in majority Black and Latinx neighborhoods, like the one where Mother’s Heart is located. “The burdens of fracking were so unequally distributed,” she said. “The other bigger picture that people seem to miss when they say, ‘It’s OK to put it somewhere else, just not near me,’ is that you always will preserve a safe place. Sacrifice zones are safe spaces for polluters.” ![](https://pixel.19thnews.org/2026/04/fracking-arlington-texas-community-families-day-care) ### Corpus Christi Water Crisis Spurs Stampede on South Texas Aquifers URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/corpus-christi-water-crisis-spurs-stampede-on-south-texas-aquifers/ Last updated: 2026-04-08T05:01:00.000Z *This article originally was written by [Dylan Baddour](https://insideclimatenews.org/profile/dylan-baddour/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [appeared on Inside Climate News](https://insideclimatenews.org/news/07042026/corpus-christi-water-crisis-south-texas-aquifers/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a nonprofit, non-partisan news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for their newsletter* [*here*](https://insideclimatenews.org/newsletter/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)*.* UPDATE: *On Tuesday, the city presented plans to achieve 25% curtailment in water consumption across all customer classes, including the fuel refineries, chemical plants and other industrial facilities that collectively use about half the region’s water.* JIM WELLS COUNTY, Texas—Dwindling levels in this region’s main reservoirs have triggered a rush on local aquifers as cities, towns, chemical plants and ranchers drill for water. The nearby city of Corpus Christi faces a [looming catastrophe](https://insideclimatenews.org/news/08032026/after-a-decade-of-missteps-a-texas-city-careens-toward-a-water-shortage-catastrophe/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) from the imminent depletion of water supplies that sustain 500,000 people and one of Texas’s main industrial complexes. Recent emergency groundwater projects have pushed off the [timeline to disaster](https://insideclimatenews.org/news/17032026/corpus-christi-cuts-timeline-to-disaster-as-abbott-issues-emergency-orders/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) by months, officials said last week. But locals fear they may threaten the water supplies of rural towns and residents who have historically relied on their own small wells. “People like me are probably gonna be running out of water,” said Bruce Mumme, a retired chemical plant worker who lives on family land in rural Jim Wells County, about 40 miles outside Corpus Christi. “Then this property and house is useless.” Dust covers the fields where hay for Mumme’s cattle should grow. His catfish are about to die as the last of their pond evaporates. Sand dunes have started to form. He’s roamed this land since he was a boy and he’s never seen sand dunes. “Without water we can’t even live out here,” he said as he drove dirt roads of the land his grandfather bought. “You can’t feed cows bottled water.” Last fall, after the city of Corpus Christi first began pumping millions of gallons per day from the Evangeline Aquifer, towns and landowners across this area saw water levels in their wells drop. Mumme lost access to water for three days while he waited for workers to come lower his pump, which he said cost thousands of dollars. After that experience, he paid $30,000 to add another well on his property, for backup. He’s not the only one. The region’s largest industrial water users are also drilling wells, according to officials. In Nueces County, where Corpus Christi is located, newly planned pumping projects alone could add up to over 1,000 percent of what the [state water plan considers](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-twdb-texas-gov/groundwater/dfc/docs/summary/gma16%5Fmagsbycounty%5F2021.pdf) a sustainable rate of withdrawal from aquifers. In March, Corpus Christi began pumping millions more gallons per day from its wellfield on the western banks of the Nueces River, about 15 miles outside the city, after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott waived permitting processes for the project in a bid to avert a water shortage. Across the river, drill rigs are turning at the city’s eastern wellfield. “I've done a lot of big projects in my career,” said Rik Allbritton, an operations manager for Weisinger Inc. with 40 years drilling experience, as a rig roared behind him at the eastern wellfield last Tuesday. “This is on the bigger side.” These two projects, each containing clusters of several large water wells, aim to pump tens of millions of gallons per day in coming months. More than 20 miles away, in San Patricio County, piping has arrived for a third wellfield. A fourth and fifth are also in the queue along the Nueces River. The region’s largest water user, a massive, new plastics plant operated by ExxonMobil and the Saudi state oil company, also drilled test wells recently but found water that was too salty to use, according to Corpus Christi city manager Peter Zanoni. “They continue to look for alternative water sources,” Zanoni said in an interview. “Several of the big companies are doing that, and the choice is really just groundwater.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/4o6a0437.jpg) A drilling crew with Weisinger Inc. at Corpus Christi’s eastern well field on March 31. A spokesperson for Exxon, Kelly Davila, said the company doesn’t comment on operational details. “We continue to explore alternative water sources that do not draw on those currently used for public consumption,” she said. About five miles away, the tiny town of Taft depends on Corpus Christi water and is looking at rehabilitating its own old wells, according to Mayor Elida Castillo. “Funding is always gonna be the issue,” she said. ## Salty Groundwater Salty, or brackish, groundwater in this region poses major challenges for the rush to develop its aquifers. Treating brackish groundwater requires complex hardware for reverse osmosis, which is expensive to build and operate. Last year the city of Beeville issued a $35 million bond for an emergency brackish groundwater project, which it [hopes to have running](https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/race-water-texas-reaching-critical-225243650.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) next year. Corpus Christi also has [agreements](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/stwa-org/documents/1553/stwa%5F102725%5Fminutes.pdf) with a private company, Seven Seas Water Group, for a large [reverse osmosis plant](https://sevenseaswater.com/breaking-ground-on-stwa-project/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to treat [brackish groundwater](https://sevenseaswater.com/breaking-ground-on-stwa-project/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The tiny town of Orange Grove might need to install reverse osmosis treatment systems for its current groundwater supply, according to city manager Todd Wright. Salinity has risen rapidly in Orange Grove’s wells since Corpus Christi began pumping last summer, Wright said, and soon could exceed safe drinking water standards. “We’re closely approaching that threshold,” Wright said in an interview at his office last week. Wright, like officials and residents in nearby towns, attributesthe falling water levels and rising salinity in local wells to drawdowns and sediment disturbance caused by Corpus Christi’s new large-scale pumping. Officials with Corpus Christi stress that no conclusive link has been made. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/4o6a0092-2048x1366-1.jpg) A pond on Bruce Mumme’s land is drying up, leaving his catfish to die. Orange Grove can’t pay for reverse osmosis systems, Wright said, but the city has hired legal counsel to explore other options. It might also be able to buy water from the neighboring town of Alice, where Seven Seas booted up a reverse osmosis treatment facility last year. Planning for that project started more than a decade ago, according to Alice city manager Michael Esparza, then picked up speed around 2018\. Esparza, the son of a local life insurance underwriter, said Alice foresaw this situation. “You get life insurance when you don’t need it because when you need it, you can’t get it,” he said last week. “Same thing with our water.” Alice is also drilling an emergency freshwater well, he said. ## Refineries and Chemical Plants Will Have to Cut The city of Corpus Christi supplies more than 100 million gallons per day to 500,000 residents, businesses and industrial complexes across seven counties. If the city’s portfolio of groundwater projects can’t meet most of that demand within months, it will need to implement emergency reductions in water demand. The city previously projected the emergency could come as soon as May. But following Abbott’s executive orders, that’s been pushed to October, according to officials. On Tuesday, the city presented [plans to achieve 25 percent curtailment](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28021365-20260331-city-council-water-workshop/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in water consumption across all customer classes, including the 23 fuel refineries, chemical plants and other industrial facilities that collectively use about half the region’s water. “Industry, everybody will have to cut,” Zanoni told the meeting. “Because there might not be enough to supply if we don’t.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/4o6a0373.jpg) Gulf Coast Growth Ventures, a plastics production facility operated by Exxon Mobil and Saudi Arabia, started operations in 2022 and is the largest water consumer in the Corpus Christi region. Councilmember Gil Hernandez, a national account sales executive at the Coca-Cola Co., which bottles drinks in Corpus Christi, said the city rules didn’t appear to require cutbacks for certain large industrial users. “There is no penalty for them not doing curtailment,” Hernandez said. “Are you going to shut off their water? I don’t think so.” But Corpus Christi city attorney Miles Risley pointed to a line in the city’s contract with industrial users that said: “This agreement does not prevent the city from allocating water supply in the event of an emergency.” Risley said, “That provision specifically allows us to sit down with the large water users and directly cut them back, potentially, maybe even going so far as to cut them off.” It remains unclear exactly how industrial curtailment would unfold, what authority the city could wield and how the surcharge exemption contracts would be regarded during an emergency, according to Michael Miller, a member of the Corpus Christi Planning Commission and a vice president at Teal Construction Co. “There’s going to be a lot of legal opinions, possible litigation surrounding that, if and when we go into curtailment,” he said. Without big rain soon, he said, it appears likely the city will go into emergency curtailment while its well fields gradually come online. This race to tap aquifers comes at a cost. Today the city is paying more to acquire water rights alone than it would have cost several years ago to buy entire properties, said Miller. “The days of inexpensive water projects are long gone,” he said. “The clock is ticking and we have to turn on water sources very quickly.” ## “Ready, Shoot, Aim” Many factors contributed to this situation. Five consecutive years of record heat and drought have dried up the region’s reservoirs, while large-scale pumping of the state’s inland aquifers has killed springs that used to feed local tributaries. Miller attributes the predicament primarily to poor planning. In the last 15 years, this region welcomed a spate of downstream industrial projects, including massive petrochemical plants by Exxon and [Occidental Chemical](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/Occidental-s-massive-petrochemical-plant-comes-10976995.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com), as well as expansions at [Valero](https://www.bizjournals.com/sanantonio/blog/eagle-ford-shale-insight/2015/02/valero-planning-to-expand-lightcrude-processing.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [Flint Hills](https://www.ogj.com/refining-processing/refining/operations/article/17271487/flint-hills-breaks-ground-on-texas-refinery-expansion?ref=thebarbedwire.com) refineries. While those and other projects came online, the city tried fruitlessly to develop designs for a seawater desalination plant, which Miller considered ill-conceived. “We did not simultaneously add new water supply,” Miller said. “We thought everything was going to be OK. But it was not going to be OK. And we should have known better.” By all accounts, leaders in Texas watched this crisis approach for generations. Now the plight of Corpus Christi might await other parts of the state, according to Larry Soward, a former commissioner of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Soward joined the Texas Water Quality Board as a staff attorney in 1975, became executive director of the Texas Water Commission in the 1980s and served as chief counsel on water for Agriculture Commissioner Rick Perry in the 1990s. All along, he said, everyone knew Texas was on course to outgrow its water supply. The state hasn’t been able to build new reservoirs since the 1960s. As water demand crept upwards through the decades, no comprehensive plans to keep up emerged. The crisis in Corpus Christi, he said, “seems like a ready-shoot-aim type thing.” “The reasons this floundered is the same reason that a lot of water issues in Texas have floundered,” Soward said. “There’s been a lack of realistic planning.” Thirty years ago, Corpus Christi also faced a severe drought. Projections said its Nueces River reservoirs could dry up completely within 18 to 24 months. The city responded with a swift, ambitious project that it still depends on today, running the 64-inch-wide Mary Rhodes Pipeline 101 miles to Lake Texana, then 30 miles farther to the Colorado River. The Mary Rhodes Pipeline “was needed to save jobs and avert wrenching economic disruptions that might scar the region for decades to come,” according to a [project summary](https://photos.app.goo.gl/NCy6kTS9nZ557NSJ9?ref=thebarbedwire.com) from the time. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/4o6a0594-2048x1366-1.jpg) “It’s going to be an economic disaster,” said James Dodson, former director of the Corpus Christi Water department. James Dodson, the regional director of Corpus Christi Water who oversaw the Mary Rhodes Pipeline, later went to work as a private consultant, developing a project to pump groundwater from the Evangeline Aquifer in Bee County, on the route of the Mary Rhodes Pipeline, and send it to the city. But the city abruptly canceled its contract with the company in 2008, Dodson said. Dodson, a Corpus Christi native and the son of an oilfield worker, later discovered that the city had decided to [pursue seawater desalination](https://insideclimatenews.org/news/04112022/corpus-christi-texas-exxon-water-desalination/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) instead. ## Emergency Groundwater Projects Late in 2024, as outlooks began to appear dire for Corpus Christi’s water supply, Dodson booked a meeting with the city water department, accompanied by John Michael, vice president of Hanson Professional Services, an engineering firm. The duo brought in a stack of old maps from Dodson’s house showing old city wells that had been forgotten along the Nueces River. “We educated the staff on what we had done previously,” said Michael, who drilled some of those wells in the 1980s. The city issued an [emergency authorization](https://insideclimatenews.org/news/23012025/corpus-christi-launches-emergency-water-projects-as-reservoirs-dwindle-and-industrial-demand-grows/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for the groundwater project on Dec. 31. In the summer its wells started pumping water into the Nueces River. “If we don’t get the rains that we need in our reservoirs, we’re going to have to continue to drill our way through this. That’s really the only source of water,” said Michael, who has spent 44 years with Hanson in Corpus Christi. “I think the city is doing everything it literally can do at this point.” Until last July, water trickled naturally from the small, domestic well at Chris Cuellar’s house, about two miles from the city’s wellfield. Within six months it had dropped to 15 feet below ground. Luckily, he still received municipal water service from the city of Robstown. A retired chemical plant worker who spent 10 years managing wastewater operations at one of the region’s largest industrial complexes, Cuellar began to organize the neighbors. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/4o6a0243-2048x1366-1.jpg) Chris Cuellar uses a conductivity meter to measure salinity in the Nueces River and the city of Corpus Christi’s wells that flow into it. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/4o6a0229.jpg) A well at Corpus Christi’s western wellfield pumps water into the Nueces River on March 31. Every day he made rounds and measured the salinity of the outfall from the city’s wells and the river that received their output, seeking to hold the city accountable for limits that would restrict how much it could pump. He didn’t think to check his municipal tap water until his mother-in-law began to experience a quick, dramatic rise in blood pressure. Cuellar said his measurement showed that the tap water, which came from the Nueces River, was significantly above safety limits. With no well and no safe tap water, his family started drinking bottled water, while Robstown soon struck a deal to [pipe in water](https://www.kristv.com/running-dry/robstown-water-line-to-be-fast-tracked-as-arsenic-tds-concerns-grow?ref=thebarbedwire.com) from Corpus Christi. By that time, Corpus Christi was also urgently pursuing plans to pump water from the Evangeline aquifer into the Mary Rhodes Pipeline. But that effort got hung up when the city of Sinton, which depends on Evangeline water, challenged Corpus Christi’s permits before the local groundwater conservation district, which regulates allowable pumping rates. Nueces County, in contrast, has no groundwater conservation district to regulate pumping, although Cuellar and his neighbors are [working to create](https://nuecesgcd.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) one. The only thing stopping Corpus Christi from running its wells full-blast is limitations on the salinity levels it can create in the Nueces River. The city would need a “bed and banks” permit to authorize such significant changes to the river, which Cuellar and his neighbors, as well as the city of Orange Grove, planned to challenge in administrative court. But Abbott [issued the permit by directive](https://insideclimatenews.org/news/17032026/corpus-christi-cuts-timeline-to-disaster-as-abbott-issues-emergency-orders/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in March, waiving standard processes for public input, and the city commenced large-scale pumping the next day. The city’s temporary permits still contain guidelines for salinity, known as total dissolved solids (TDS), in the river, which city manager Zanoni said continue to limit production from the wells. He thanked Abbott for the directives that have bought critical time for Corpus Christi, and he called for further relaxation of the standard in order to help the city continue supplying all its customers with water. “A little bit of TDS in the river for a short distance is not all that bad,” Zanoni said. “It’s better than having no river and we could be heading there.” > Correction: This story previously said Corpus Christi served 23 industrial water customers. That number represents the number of industrial water connections that Corpus Christi maintains, but individual customers may have two or more connections. This version has been updated. ### Elon Musk Wants to Turn 700 Acres of Texas Wildlife Refuge Into SpaceX Property URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/spacex-wildlife-refuge-texas/ Last updated: 2026-04-07T17:37:43.000Z Elon Musk’s SpaceX is aiming to acquire 712 acres of land in the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge, amid the protests of environmentalists and activist groups. [The proposal](https://www.fws.gov/media/draft-environmental-assessment-south-texas-land-exchange?ref=thebarbedwire.com) would exchange the wildlife refuge land for 692 acres of land in Starbase, SpaceX’s headquarters on the southern tip of Texas. Starbase was officially designated a city in May 2025, after workers living near SpaceX’s rocket launch facility there voted in favor of the measure, [according to *the Texas Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/05/03/spacex-starbase-texas-vote-elon-musk/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)*.* A draft of the proposed land exchange was published on March 2, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which manages the National Wildlife Refuge in question, asked the public to submit feedback on the proposal, [according to *Valley Central*](https://www.valleycentral.com/spacex/us-fish-and-wildlife-service-accepting-comments-on-proposed-land-swap-between-spacex-laguna-atascosa-national-wildlife-refuge/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)*.* SpaceX has not said how it intends to use the land, but the proposal acknowledged it is likely they will develop on that land after acquisition. “It is reasonably foreseeable that the lands proposed for divestiture will be used for residential, commercial, industrial, and infrastructure purposes in the near term,” [the proposal reads](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-fws-gov/sites/default/files/documents/2026-03/draft%5Fea-sotx-landex-030226.pdf). The South Texas Environmental Justice Network, an environmental advocacy group in the Rio Grande Valley, submitted comments on behalf of 3,392 people opposed to the land exchange, [according to their press release](https://sotxejn.org/2026/04/01/press-release-rio-grande-valley-community-and-tribe-oppose-us-fish-wildlife-giving-away-habitat-to-spacex/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “Rio Grande Valley residents oppose Elon Musk’s colonization of our wildlife, beach, and sacred lands for SpaceX’s dangerous and unnecessary rockets,” said Bekah Hinojosa, the network’s co-founder, [in the press release](https://sotxejn.org/2026/04/01/press-release-rio-grande-valley-community-and-tribe-oppose-us-fish-wildlife-giving-away-habitat-to-spacex/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “We urge the US Fish & Wildlife to listen to our community’s pleas and deny SpaceX’s 712-acre land grab.” [The proposal](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-fws-gov/sites/default/files/documents/2026-03/draft%5Fea-sotx-landex-030226.pdf) by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said the purpose of the land exchange was to “conserve species’ habitats, improve habitat protection, consolidate ownership, and simplify management of refuge lands”. The South Texas Environmental Justice Network also said the 712 acres that SpaceX wants are considered “culturally significant” to the [Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas](http://www.carrizocomecrudonation.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a group indigenous to the Rio Grande Valley. “Elon Musk and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are allowing the destruction of our lands and ecosystems in pursuit of space ventures, while neglecting the responsibility to protect what is here,” said Juan B. Mancias, tribal chair, [in the press release](https://sotxejn.org/2026/04/01/press-release-rio-grande-valley-community-and-tribe-oppose-us-fish-wildlife-giving-away-habitat-to-spacex/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). [According to the proposal](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-fws-gov/sites/default/files/documents/2026-03/draft%5Fea-sotx-landex-030226.pdf) by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the agency collaborated with SpaceX to evaluate the land in question, based on habitat quality, how integral it was to the refuge, and whether the land was habitat to an endangered species. Based on these criteria, the proposal said the 692 acres offered up by SpaceX was classified as “high quality,” while the 712 acres of refuge were considered “poor” and “medium quality.” Marisa Perales, an attorney for the South Texas Environmental Justice Network, [told the *Austin-American Statesman*](https://www.statesman.com/business/article/spacex-national-wildlife-refuge-land-swap-texas-22188311.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that the refuge land being considered of poor quality was a “direct effect of SpaceX activity in the area, including bulldozing and constructing buildings.” SpaceX activity in the region has long been the subject of criticism or pushback from residents in the Rio Grande Valley, due to the use of public land and environmental impact of rocket launches. On March 5, the Texas Supreme Court [heard arguments](https://www.valleycentral.com/spacex/texas-supreme-court-weighs-spacex-launch-closures-at-boca-chica-beach/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) over whether the closures of Boca Chica Beach, a public beach near Starbase, during SpaceX launch operations, were lawful. In June of 2025, a late-night explosion during a rocket test rocked the residents of nearby Brownsville. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality reported wildfires, smoke clouds, and debris in rivers in the area after the explosion, [according to the *San Antonio Express-News.*](https://www.expressnews.com/business/article/spacex-explosion-starship-elon-musk-oversight-21055267.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) The proposal to exchange the 712 acres of refuge includes a list of endangered species that occupy the land in question, including the Northern Aplomado Falcon and Rufa Red Knot shorebird. The proposal acknowledged that development on the lands could disturb endangered species’ habitats, expose them to chemicals, or kill them in vehicle collisions. However, the proposal cited the already-low quality of the habitats as determined by their classification system developed with SpaceX. “While \[endangered\] species may be present or have the potential to use these lands, the overall habitat suitability is limited and the likelihood of adverse impacts from future development is low,” [the proposal reads](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-fws-gov/sites/default/files/documents/2026-03/draft%5Fea-sotx-landex-030226.pdf). The Defenders of Wildlife, an environmental advocacy group, [posted a statement](https://defenders.org/newsroom/defenders-calls-service-pull-out-habitat-degrading-land-swap?ref=thebarbedwire.com) warning that the land exchange would be harmful to the wildlife in the refuge, and pointing to the environmental harm of previous SpaceX activity in the region. “Experimental rockets have caused damage through falling debris, explosions, fires and have impacted shorebird nests,” the organization’s [statement](https://defenders.org/newsroom/defenders-calls-service-pull-out-habitat-degrading-land-swap?ref=thebarbedwire.com) reads. Defenders of Wildlife policy analyst Nathan Marcy said the logic used in the Fish and Wildlife Service’s proposal is incorrect, and the land exchange will only cause a greater environmental impact. “Giving the company the very land it destroyed through its own actions won’t buy safety for Lower Rio Grande Valley,” Marcy said [in the statement](https://defenders.org/newsroom/defenders-calls-service-pull-out-habitat-degrading-land-swap?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “Just the opposite, it will guarantee even more development on the refuge’s doorstep, which in turn will damage even more wildlife habitat.” The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ended its call for public comments on the proposal at the beginning of April, and will review feedback to decide whether the deal will continue, according to the [*Statesman.*](https://www.statesman.com/business/article/spacex-national-wildlife-refuge-land-swap-texas-22188311.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) ### Our Independent Newsroom Was Built on a Ferocious, Delusional Sense of Hope. Help Us Keep It Going. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/independent-newsroom-delusional-hope/ Last updated: 2026-04-07T13:47:20.000Z When I moved back to Austin to start *The Barbed Wire*, I was an investigative reporter by trade, and I’d written a book, but I had never managed a team, never created an editorial calendar, never even been a full-time editor. The joke we tell is that I Dick Cheney’d myself into this position — which for young readers means that I was hired to recruit someone for editor-in-chief then I ended up in the role myself. But the truth is that I was terrified I wasn’t ready. And even though everyone we spoke to unanimously agreed this thing should exist, very few people were willing to fund it, and nobody was willing to run it. When it came time to choose — either letting go of this dream newsroom I kept fantasizing about or just doing the job myself imperfectly — there was *only ever really one choice*. Though I have to imagine the Anna Wintours and Evan Smiths of the world are born to be editors-in-chief, I’ve been assured most of us fear we aren’t ready. Yet somehow, I had this absurd, irrational hope that I could create a newsroom unlike any I’d worked in before. I can’t tell you how many times in my career someone told me not to take a risk. Not to become a journalist, not to move for a job at *The Waco Tribune-Herald*, not to risk it all on a startup in a collapsing industry. When someone doesn’t think a story I want to tell matters, it doesn’t make me hopeless. It makes me angry at the fact that I can see something *so clearly* that they can’t. Anyway, as my parents can tell you, I’ve always been stubborn. And I just knew in my bones that we could make Texas’ journalistic ecosystem more robust, more diverse, and more accessible to younger, even news-avoidant readers. So we spent more than a year planning and fundraising, and then we launched exactly 589 days ago. We miraculously scraped together just enough money to launch a newsroom. Not a well-staffed one with a luxurious runway, but one made of duct tape and shoestring where everyone wears many hats, works long hours, and cares deeply — personally — about the work. The fact that I somehow recruited this team — some of the best journalists and kindest people I’ve ever met — to join me is the ONLY reason we’re still standing. And frankly, none of us would be here without our families, friends, supportive spouses, readers, and members. Thanks to all of you, as of this morning, this team has pitched, written, edited, fact-checked, illustrated, built, and published 703 stories. *The Barbed Wire* has forced me to grow as a reporter, a person, a writer, an editor. And the stories our little team has published have been the most important ones of my career. Heavyweight investigations on [men in power](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/houston-horn-player-harrassed-rice-students/), charities that [broke promises](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/raices-drops-child-immigration-clients/), [radioactive waste buried under](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/a-whistleblower-says-radioactive-fracking-waste-melted-his-jaw/) [elementary schools](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/a-whistleblower-says-radioactive-fracking-waste-melted-his-jaw/), and white supremacists [running for office](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/jason-lee-van-dyke-unapologetic-fascist-despises-democracy/). Stories about [Black joy](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/beyonce-bowl-nfl-halftime-performance-was-a-master-class-in-black-joy-authenticity/) and [school voucher policies](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-school-vouchers/). [Devastating](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/camp-mystic-campers-grieve-magical-place-100-years-flood-texas-guadalupe/) [floods](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/camp-mystic-alum-remembers-past-flood/), the [value of PBS](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/pbs-cultural-life-vest-for-kids-in-texas/), and stories of immigrants — [including children](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/disabled-child-federal-immigration-custody/) and [2-month-old babies](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/2-month-old-baby-juan-nicolas-unresponsive-hospital-sent-back-to-ice-facility/) — who’ve been cruelly detained by federal immigration authorities despite committing no crimes. Interviews with [wrestlers](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/pro-wrestling-elite-texas-brick-savage/), political [strategists](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/jasmine-crockett-talarico-senate-electability-debate/), and [drag queens](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-drag-queen-legislation/). Essays on love, loss, and community. The experience of taking — and becoming addicted to — [synthetic heroin](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/i-cant-believe-its-not-heroin/). The [free speech crisis for Black Americans](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/free-speech-crisis-for-black-americans-charlie-kirk/) and the [journalists who’ve been seized by ICE](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/how-my-friend-and-fellow-journalist-was-targeted-by-ice/). We’re not objective when we’re writing about a state we love. I’m an eighth generation Texan. My grandpa was in oil. I went to grade school with girls who attended [Camp Mystic](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/camp-mystic-campers-grieve-magical-place-100-years-flood-texas-guadalupe/). Senior editor Brian Gaar [writes about education policy](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-school-vouchers/) while his kids attend Texas schools. Deputy Managing Editor Leslie Rangel is about seven months pregnant, writing about [pregnancy loss](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-women-invisible-labor-abortion-bans/) and [kids in danger](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/million-texas-students-undocumented-ice-mom-taken/). Our staff is personally affected by racism, by dangerous anti-abortion laws, by homophobia. And we feel a duty to tell true stories about our friends, neighbors, and communities. To bear witness to both the joy and pain. I happen to think our diversity, vulnerability, and tenacity defines us for the better. We have had tremendous successes, which I’ll happily expand on, but you simply cannot imagine how many rejections we had to get through to make it here. Rejected fellowships, grants, funding pitches, interview requests, people we wanted to hire who said no, you name it. A lot of folks told us to our faces they didn’t believe what we envisioned was even possible, however noble of a goal it was. But through sheer force of will, we have held onto a ferocious, maybe even delusional sense of hope for 589 days and counting. And in that time, more than one million people have clicked on our stories. And despite all those rejections, we have had real, tangible impact. Our antics, reporting, and writing have been featured in MSNBC, Condé Nast, Harvard’s Nieman Lab, NPR, CNN’s *Reliable Sources*, *Politico*, *The Washington Post*, *The Guardian*, every major local city paper in the state, and many more. We have been on the front pages of Apple News, on Monica Lewinsky's Instagram page, shared by GLAAD, the ACLU, but also the University of Texas’ athletic director. We’ve partnered with so many newsrooms, including student papers, and the [Pulitzer-winning Investigative Reporting Workshop](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/anti-trans-laws-houston-ordinance-bathroom-bill/) at American University and we’re working now on a piece for which we received a grant from the Pulitzer Center, in collaboration with Wired magazine. Our team has guest lectured at the University of Texas and [moderated a forum for the Democratic National Committee](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0lzKUBPk30&ref=thebarbedwire.com). We’ve been panelists at investigative journalism conferences, the Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, abortion convenings, and this year, for the first time, SXSW. But as proud as I am of these accomplishments, we would not be able to keep going without a steady stream of that absurd, irrational hope. Hope that we can tell more untold stories, shine more light on injustice, inform more communities, and elicit more laughs. Hope, as someone once said, is the “certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.” That’s how I’ve felt about this newsroom from the very beginning. The grim reality is that we need reader support to make it to our second anniversary in September. But if we went under tomorrow, it would have been worth it to learn from these colleagues, tell these stories, impact these sources’ lives, and make these impossible things happen. To make something that felt worthy of the generosity and attention of readers, colleagues, friends, and family like all of you. Thank you for showing up for us — and for proving to me that I was right to be hopeful the whole time. [*Support* The Barbed Wire *by giving a one-time donation or by becoming a member now.*](https://thebarbedwire.com/spring-fundraiser/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) ### Who Gets to Lead the Church? Women and LGBTQ+ Pastors Are Forcing an Answer. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-women-and-lgbtq-pastors/ Last updated: 2026-04-01T19:55:53.000Z For many Christian women, a woman’s role in the church’s ecosystem has long been fixed. But Beth Allison Barr, a historian and the wife of a pastor, felt compelled to challenge the prevailing narrative surrounding women in North American Christianity using history. This culminated in “The Making of Biblical Womanhood” in 2021, a book rebutting the idea that women’s existence in Christianity hinges on their submissiveness and arguing that it is rather the result of significant moments throughout history. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/aune_011626-5.jpg) Beth Allison Barr, a historian and author, sits in her office on the campus of Baylor University in Waco, Texas, on July 10, 2025\. Photo by: Corrie Aune/ The 19th News Her dreams for her daughter, who was about 8 or 9 when Barr first mulled over the idea for the book, drove her decision to pursue the project. “I just remember thinking, ‘You know what? If I want her to have choices that women don’t have, the needle has to move.’” The book was a catalyst for Barr but, after its publication, it also unleashed a torrent of harassment. “I was like, ‘I didn’t really want to be in this space. I didn’t want to put my family in this space.’ All I want to do is just disappear.” Eventually, the feelings of doubt subsided, in no small part because of the outpouring of support she received from women around the world, whose own interpretations of biblical womanhood were reconstructed by Barr’s words. “I still remember this letter that I got from a young woman in China who got her professor who spoke English to email me, contact me on Instagram, DM me on Twitter …,” Barr recalled. “I remember one of the things that she said in it: ‘For the first time, I realized that Jesus is for me and not against me.’” More women and LGBTQ+ people are looking within themselves and their church communities and stepping into leadership roles. Corrie Aune, a photojournalist, set out to document these leaders. “I wanted to highlight the diversity within church leadership that often goes unrepresented in media coverage, especially coverage of Texas,” Aune, who grew up in Texas, told The 19th in an email. She added, “I also wanted to acknowledge the barriers that women and LGBTQ+ people often face in seeking leadership, belonging and full participation within the church.” Here are the stories of some of the pastors in Texas who are helping lead the charge. ## Babs Miller The first time Babs Miller stood before their congregation at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Austin, they were bathed with warmth. They saw the same kindness that they preached about in their sermons reflected in the faces that stared back at them. Ministry was a calling they had fervently rejected for decades. “I did not figure out I was a lesbian until I got to seminary, and I didn’t get to seminary till I was in my 40s,” said Miller, who is now 83\. “So by the time I figured out that I was a lesbian, it’s my second year in seminary and I thought, ‘I can’t get ordained. I finally have my evidence for God that this is a mistake. I kept telling you this all my life.’ God and I had battled over my going to seminary since I was 17.” It was at 17 years old that Miller had their first brush with ministerial duty. It came by chance at church camp, after they and a group of children listened to excerpts from the 1949 stage play “Death of a Salesman,” in which the central figure takes his own life at the end of the production. “This girl who was in the class who was so quiet I did not even know her name, comes up to me and says, ‘Can we talk?’” Miller said. “She asked me point-blank what I believed about suicide.” The question marked a turning point for Miller. > “**I want them to feel the love that is here for them. And to share that love with others.”** > > Babs Miller “Well, I’m 17 years old. I’ve got all the answers. I know what the Bible says about suicide, but the words that came out of my mouth were not my words,” Miller recalled. “I absolutely felt like I was sitting up in the tree watching this scene take place below me, and there was a person there who looked like me talking to this girl. But I really have no idea what I said to her, but whatever I said to her let her know that she was okay. Her dad had committed suicide as it turned out, and apparently I told her that it was okay.” When Miller went to staff to inform them of the interaction, “They say to me, ‘Have you ever thought of becoming a minister?’” Miller’s position at St. Andrew’s today is a far cry from where they were at 17 years old, when the prospect of leading a church seemed out of reach. Now, they are among a number of members of the LGBTQ+ community who are reconstructing how Christianity is taught. “I want people to have hope and to not lose sight of that,” they said. “And I want them to feel the love that is here for them. And to share that love with others.” ## Janice Bryant For many women like the Rev. Janice Bryant, 76, the idea of leading a congregation seemed improbable, bordering on taboo. “I came out of seminary with that belief that women could not be preachers, that women should not be preachers,” she recounted. Bryant serves as an associate pastor at Ebenezer Third Baptist Church in Austin. “So having gotten a call spiritually, it was sort of embarrassing. And that’s a strange way to put it, but it’s sort of like, ‘Why would you call me into something that is so controversial, something that is probably not going to happen anyway?’” Her religious background was conservative, and a woman’s role was clearly defined by the church. Still, Bryant became a minister at Ebenezer in 2000 and, in 2003, became the first ordained female minister in Austin, a feat that was met with opposition from traditionalists and became a significant point of contention within the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). “I don’t know if it’s a lack of enlightenment or if it’s just been a tradition for so long, or if it’s the thing where men have the authority and are not willing to relinquish it,” Bryant said about the Southern Baptist Church’s refusal to ordain women. “I can only guess at why those things don’t happen. I go to a place and they say, ‘All ministers, raise your hand.’ I don’t even bother, because they’re not going to recognize me anyway.” > “**As a matter of fact, it’s almost a source of pride that they do have a woman minister.”** > > Janice Bryant She recalled an order that was enacted by the SBC in Austin at one point that attempted to prevent women from becoming ministers. But for Bryant, her congregants’ faith in her ability to lead has never wavered. “My thing is, when God calls a minister, God calls a church also,” she said. “So this was a church of acceptance, and this is a church that accepted me. And right now, you would be hard pressed to find anyone in this church who would have a problem. As a matter of fact, it’s almost a source of pride that they do have a woman minister.” ## Irie Session and Kamilah Hall Sharp Dr. Irie Session, 66, and Dr. Kamilah Hall Sharp, 49, are co-pastors and founders of The Gathering in Dallas, a church that centers on womanism, a term coined by author and activist Alice Walker in 1982 to specifically acknowledge the overlapping struggles experienced by Black women. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/aune_011626-9.jpg) Irie Session and Dr. Reverend Kamilah Hall Sharp stand together in the backyard of Session’s home in Cedar Hill, Texas, on July 19, 2025\. Photo by: Corrie Aune/ The 19th News “We center the experiences of Black women in our preaching and our things,” Sharp said. The church has prioritized equality and equity as core pillars of its teachings. The church is also concerned with eliminating what it calls P.M.S. — patriarchy, misogyny and sexism. “Womanists are concerned about the survival and wholeness and wellness of entire communities — male and female, and so all marginalized people,” Session said. “We are advocates for their full flourishing and survival, right? Whereas when feminism was what it was, what was centered really was the experiences of White women.” > “**We center the experiences of Black women in our preaching and our things.**” > > Dr. Kamilah Hall Sharp The use of womanism in theological studies dates back to the late 1960s among Black seminary women, according to Session and Sharp. “There’s no Black liberation without Black women, and so where’s our voice?” Session said. Black seminary women used Walker’s definition of womanism to create a “methodology for preaching” and centered on its four tenets: radical subjectivity, traditional communalism, redemptive self love and critical engagement. There is no senior pastor. Rather, their services — all of which are conducted from a womanist lens — are informed by the church’s members, who play an equal role in advancing its mission. “Me and Dr. Irie are co-pastors, but everybody in our church is a ministry partner,” Sharp said. “They have a voice and all the ministries that we have, it comes from people asking to do the things. There are certain things that we believe as a congregation, but things like that, it comes from the community and their experiences and what they want to do.” The church’s values of equality include the LGBTQIA+ community. The minister of congregational care is a Black lesbian who preaches regularly, the pastors shared. The former minister of worship and arts was a transgender woman, who has since found a position in Boston. And the minister of music is a gay Black man. For Session and Sharp, the importance of supporting the LGBTQA+ isn’t something they just preach. It’s something they actively apply to real life. “When trans Black women in Dallas are murdered or beaten, we show up physically to advocate for them, to pray with them, to be of support to them,” Session said. “We’ve been a part of press conferences around the violence toward Black trans women. So, you know, we do the best we can to make what we say we believe a live reality.” ## Fernanda Casar Fernanda Casar’s call to seminary wasn’t a spectacular revelation. “I remember it was nothing supernatural,” she said. “You know, I didn’t hear a voice. I didn’t see a cloud or anything like that.” Rather, it arrived as a messianic passage — Isaiah 61. It was about “rebuilding and restoring the ruins and and serving the poor and serving the blind and all that,” she said. “I felt like this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. And it was just a conviction within myself that I was going to do it. Whether here, there, I didn’t have any idea, but that was just a conviction.” The [United Methodist Church (UMC) granted women full clergy rights](https://www.umc.org/en/content/timeline-of-women-in-methodism?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in 1956, which meant that women in leadership roles at the church was not a new phenomenon to Casar, now a 39-year-old associate pastor at Bethany United Methodist Church in Austin. But, as she advanced beyond seminary, she realized just how different their experiences were. “I started to question a lot of things and to see that, despite having women in ministry, almost all of them were very relegated to rural communities, small churches with very few salaries,” she said. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/aune_011626-8.jpg) Fernanda Casar, Associate Pastor at Bethany United Methodist Church in Austin, Texas, stands by a stained-glass window on July 15, 2025\. Photo by: Corrie Aune/ The 19th News Later when she became a teacher at the seminary, she said, “I started to notice that the female students were assigned to churches that needed children’s ministry or you know things like that, and male students — they were at the pulpit, preaching and doing stuff. I started to notice all these disparities and to question and that’s when things started to get a little tough.” In 2020, she was laid off from her position teaching at seminary because she was “too progressive and too feminist for them.” “It was tough because I grew up there, so I knew almost all the pastors. I knew their kiddos. I grew up with their kiddos and now I was like the black sheep,” she said. “I was the one bringing all these ideas against the Bible. I was starting to talk about inclusivity, and that was from Satan, you know, and all that.” Casar also encountered resistance at several of the churches she later went on to teach. “I don’t know if it’s a cultural thing, but the majority of them struggle a little bit with the fact that I was a woman, and not only a woman, but I was younger than the majority, and also I was an immigrant, right? So those three things, one way or another, they become like a struggle for some people.” > “**I pray that I can serve, that I can show God to them through what I do.**” > > Fernanda Casar Casar said her identity as a woman has not hampered her experiences in her current position at Bethany United Methodist, largely because she’s the latest in a considerably long string of women ministers. But she feels there’s a responsibility that accompanies preaching as a Mexican-born immigrant in the UMC. “I feel that sometimes people don’t have any idea what that means, what it represents, and all the birth and mental burden that we carry every single day,” she said. As a leader at a predominantly White church, Casar said she and her congregation are looking forward to her ushering in more diverse voices. “This is different. But I pray that I can serve, that I can show God to them through what I do.” ![](https://pixel.19thnews.org/2026/04/women-lgbtq-pastors-texas-churches) ### ‘I Hate This.’ Texas Cracks Down on THC, Maddening Us All. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-thc-ban-2/ Last updated: 2026-03-31T18:11:55.000Z Texas is about to Thanos-snap a big chunk of what’s sitting on hemp shop shelves. Thanks to a [rules shift taking effect](https://www.dshs.texas.gov/sites/default/files/hemp/pdf/dshs-26-0009-manufacture-distribution-and-retail-sale-of-consumable-hemp-products-attachment-2-rule.pdf?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on Tuesday, products that were legal yesterday are suddenly failing the test, sending retailers and THC fans into a tailspin. The Texas Department of State Health Services is now enforcing a stricter THC limit of 0.3%, calculated by factoring in THCA after it’s heated. That last part is the sticky point. Because THCA converts into Delta-9 THC, many smokable products that once passed, like pre-rolls and loose flower, no longer qualify and are set to disappear from shelves overnight. Some shops have been holding clearance sales to move inventory before the deadline. The nonprofit advocacy group Texas Cannabis Collective [posted on X](https://x.com/txcannaco/status/2038687596570677531?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that the change ensures “massive profits to New Mexico, Colorado, and Missouri.” “Overnight Texas will reestablish the biggest cannabis black market in the country and cannabis arrests will once again skyrocket to lead the US,” they wrote. As you might imagine, lots of folks were not pleased. X poster Zaven Austin [wrote](https://x.com/ZavenAustin/status/2038749107334832423?ref=thebarbedwire.com): “Lt. Gov Dan Patrick would rather see drug dealers on the street and not stoners eating pizza.” Also on X, [Texas resident Susan Joliver wrote](https://x.com/SeekingSusie/status/2038703033752711316?ref=thebarbedwire.com): “I hate this. I have 20 vet friends that will now have to overpay and go back to buying in dangerous situations just to get some pain relief. This is insanity.” Another Texan, David Burton, [posted](https://x.com/Infantry%5FGhost%5F/status/2038692474861023726?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that Texas is “going backwards instead of cashing in on all the taxes generated by legal sales.” “Did the state legislature decide they hate making tons of money?” he wrote. The rules took effect less than a year after THC dominated debate at the Texas Capitol, where lawmakers [passed a full ban on all THC products](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-thc-ban/), only for Gov. Greg Abbott to [veto it at the last minute](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/greg-abbott-thc-ban/). Shop owners say the impact of this week’s change could be immediate and severe. Todd Harris, co-owner of an Austin store and a leader with the Texas Hemp Business Council, [told *The Dallas Morning News*](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/texas/2026/03/30/texas-to-restrict-smokable-thc-hemp-products-starting-march-31/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that products targeted by the rules make up about 70% of his sales. On top of that, businesses face sharply higher licensing costs, with some saying fees could jump from hundreds of dollars to tens of thousands. “We’re going from under $600 to about $20,000,” Harris said. “That’s a pretty terrifying number to encounter as a small business.” ### What It’s Like to Be a Nonbinary Educator in Texas Right Now URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/what-its-like-to-be-a-nonbinary-educator-in-texas-right-now/ Last updated: 2026-03-31T17:58:18.000Z Indigo Giles remembers the lonely feeling when they first came out as nonbinary in eighth grade: Neither teachers nor students made much effort to acknowledge their new identity. “I do think that would have made a big difference in my struggle with my mental health and with feeling secure in who I am as a person at a much earlier age,” Giles said in an interview with *The Barbed Wire.* “If there had been a teacher who had just said, ‘Thank you for telling me that, thank you for trusting me.’ … then nothing has to change other than that teacher would now call me by a nickname, right?” Today, at 24 years old, Giles is proudly nonbinary and, since August of last year, a special education assistant at a Texas public school. But under the current laws of the state of Texas, their ability to support LGBTQ+ students is tightly restricted. Educators in 2026, especially ones like Giles who are themselves part of the LGBTQ+ community, are forced to navigate a confusing maze of vaguely written policies, under the far-reaching restrictions placed on schools by Senate Bill 12, the [so-called “Parental Bill of Rights,”](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/08/18/texas-public-education-new-laws/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) which opponents have often compared with Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law. Signed into law last summer, and taking effect at the start of the school year, the law uses vague language to ban schools from, among many other prohibitions, educating students about gender identity, or supporting their “social transition.” At some schools, this has led to teachers being told to [“deadname” transgender students](https://www.teenvogue.com/story/texas-schools-forced-to-deadname-trans-students?ref=thebarbedwire.com) (call them by their birth names rather than their chosen names) or only use their last names. In August, a federal court [temporarily blocked](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/08/29/texas-aclu-k-12-public-schools-dei-ban/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) the parts of SB 12 banning diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in schools in the Houston, Katy, and Plano districts, under an injunction granted in a lawsuit launched by the ACLU and the Transgender Law Center. The entirety of the law remains in effect elsewhere in the state. Giles obtained a psychology degree two years ago at the University of Texas at Austin, then took time off to save money before intending to return to school to get a graduate degree to become a child therapist or developmental psychologist. After working as an office manager for a tech company (“soul-crushing,” Giles said) and for a few months as a barista (“a true nonbinary Austinite rite of passage,” they described) they decided to apply to work at a school as a way of adding more experience with kids to their resume. But in the process, they inadvertently discovered a passion for teaching. “I am … shifting my entire life path: I plan on going back next summer to get my alternative certification, to get my teaching license, so that I can be a fully licensed special education teacher,” Giles said. (Giles is not allowed to speak as a representative of the school where they work or discuss its specific policies, but *The Barbed Wire* has verified that they are employed with a Texas public school district.) The administration at the school where Giles works is supportive of their identity but, even so, joining a Texas public school as a nonbinary educator in 2026 was an intimidating process. “On my first day, I got called into the principal's office and I had that childhood (feeling), ‘Oh my gosh, am I in trouble?’” Instead, the principal wanted to discuss how Giles was, or wasn’t, allowed to talk about their gender identity in class. “We ended up figuring something out that didn't involve putting me back in the closet, which is very nice but I still, every day when I'm at work, walk around with just that cloud hanging over me because I'm not allowed to explain my pronouns to the kids,” Giles told *The Barbed Wire*. When Giles is at work, the kids refer to them as “Teacher Indigo” rather than using “Mister” or “Miss.” Although this solution has worked through the school year so far, Giles worries that even this small difference from the norm might be enough to alert a conservative parent who may have heard their child talking about Giles. They’ve also had to carefully negotiate with the administration about how they are or aren't allowed to dress, addressing special concerns such as whether they can wear clothing with pride flags. “It's not necessarily about what my admin is going to have trouble with,” Giles explained. “It's if a parent sees this and raises a stink, am I going to get in trouble? Is my school going to get in trouble with the district?” Giles believes that all these restrictions make it harder for them to connect with their students. “There's so much that can be gained with building rapport and that foundation of trust with students, with being honest and open with children, obviously, to developmentally appropriate levels and all of that. … especially with my position in special education.” In addition, they’re not allowed to acknowledge any pride colors or other LGBTQ+ symbols worn by the students. “I'm not trying to get into any inappropriate territory, but especially coming from a background of being a queer child in the public school system, at that young age, it would have been so meaningful for me to have a teacher just say, ‘I see you and I acknowledge you.’” The details of how to implement Senate Bill 12, or even definitions of many terms, are not specified, leading to widespread confusion and policies that differ wildly from district to district and school to school, *The Barbed Wire* found through multiple interviews with Texas public school teachers and open records requests. One policy slideshow about Senate Bill 12, obtained from Austin Independent School District, is rife with question marks, suggesting even administrators don’t know when it’s appropriate to use a student’s chosen name. Other activities forbidden under Senate Bill 12 include offering medical care without a parent’s permission or educating children about diversity, equity, and inclusion-related topics. As widely covered in the media last September, the law’s prohibition on giving medical care without permission left school employees, from educators like Giles to nurses, [unclear about how or when they’re allowed to help](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/09/05/texas-school-nurses-students-parental-consent/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) their students with emergencies or even basic first aid like band aids. “There's this sort of sense of panic and confusion” over the law, Giles recalled. “The people in that room are professionals at what they do (and) if there's one thing that everybody in a school building knows how to do, it is take care of kids,” they said. “Well, now I'm not allowed to do what I know is best for these kids.” When it comes to restrictions on subjects related to diversity, equity, and inclusion-related topics, Giles said many educators continue to teach as they always have, in the absence of clear guidance. “Until we get more clarity, and until we're told specifically, ‘This is what you can't do,’ I guess we're just going to continue business as usual until we get more information, because we can't really do anything with this right now.” But they noted that some schools, such as those banning the use of nicknames for some or all students, are [obeying in advance](https://snyder.substack.com/p/obeying-in-advance) — essentially, anticipating the spirit of the law and willingly capitulating — without even being required to do so by the state. On March 18, Giles appeared in Austin, alongside transgender advocates for LGBTQ+ rights, on a SXSW panel called, “Resistance, Resilience, and Reality: The Fight for Trans Equality.” The panel, which was organized and moderated by [Equality Texas](https://equalitytexas.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), also featured Morgan Walker, an attorney at [Lambda Legal](https://lambdalegal.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a nonprofit dedicated to defending the legal rights of LGBTQ+ people. Walker spoke with *The Barbed Wire* about LGBTQ+ rights in Texas, though she emphasized that she can’t give legal advice and can only talk generally, not about specific cases or situations. “Though Senate Bill 12 talks about a prohibition on assisting a student with (social) transition, it doesn't define what that means: It doesn't define what assistance is, and it doesn't even really clearly define transition,” she said. Walker told *The Barbed Wire* that the law does not ban the use of nicknames or chosen names, even though some school districts have interpreted the law that way. “If a kid shows up in class and gives a nickname, SB 12 does not compel that teacher to go back and research that child's anatomy or dig through public records to find a birth certificate or wherever it may exist in the world,” Walker said. “It may very well be true that teachers who are respectful of students and conscientious of the weight of these kinds of things may just tell students, you know what, I honor your nickname.” She added that anyone concerned about the potential effects of the law should reach out to the [Lambda Legal Helpdesk](https://lambdalegal.org/helpdesk/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) or the [ACLU of Texas](https://www.aclutx.org/request-legal-assistance/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). During the SXSW panel, Giles warned against the dangers of letting fear make people over-react to laws like Senate Bill 12\. However, they hoped teachers would still do all they can to support kids. “What I've been seeing a lot of is sort of preemptive compliance out of fear, which, as an educator, I totally understand the fear of, ‘If I do the wrong thing, I can lose my job,’” they said. Giles also urged people to get more involved at the school board level, both by voting and showing up for meetings, where Republicans have dominated the agenda. “Because these things can start at the school board level, and nobody's paying attention to the school board races, (they) just flood the school boards … pass all of (their) policies through, and now, boom, they're running the public education system.” International Transgender Day of Visibility is held every year on March 31, serving as a way to raise awareness about trans lives and their needs. “When the people in charge are actively and deliberately coordinating efforts to erase our identity and our history, we must not allow them to succeed,” Giles said when we asked them to reflect on the holiday. “I am so proud to be openly nonbinary in my role as a teacher, because it is deeply important for people of ALL ages to see that gender diversity belongs EVERYWHERE, and that people who are gender diverse can be successful professionals.” They closed with a message to both trans and cisgender people: “To the trans community, and especially any trans youth out there: I see you, and I love you. Keep fearlessly being your authentic self, and the world will catch up with you when it's ready. To the cisgender allies: Tell a trans person in your life that you see them, love them, and are here for them today.” ### ‘They Tricked Me’: A Father Was Chained After He Went to ICE to Reunite With His Kids URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/father-was-chained-after-he-went-to-ice-to-reunite-with-his-kids/ Last updated: 2026-03-30T05:01:00.000Z *This piece was originally published by KFF Health News and written and reported by [Claudia Boyd-Barrett](https://kffhealthnews.org/news/author/claudia-boyd-barrett/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [Renuka Rayasam](https://kffhealthnews.org/news/author/renuka-rayasam/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and [Amanda Seitz](https://kffhealthnews.org/news/author/amanda-seitz/?ref=thebarbedwire.com).* Carlos arrived at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in New Mexico in December, believing he was one step closer to reuniting with his children. By that point, his 14-year-old son and 16-year-old daughter had been in a federal shelter in Texas for nearly a year after crossing the border to be with him. “I feel like I’m suffocating inside this shelter, trapped with no way out,” Carlos’ son said, according to one of the teens’ attorneys, when asked to describe how he felt after months at the Houston-area facility. “Every day, the same routine. Every day, feeling stuck. It makes me feel hopeless and terrified.” During daily video calls, Carlos, who had temporary protected status, urged the siblings to be patient, to trust the process. Federal officials had vetted Carlos before he could be granted custody and told him his case was complete. He believed he would soon be back with his children, who, like him, had sought refuge from political violence in Venezuela. An immigration officer called Carlos on a Friday and asked him to attend a meeting at an ICE office the following Monday to discuss reunification with his children. Once Carlos arrived, officers tried to force him to sign documents he said he didn’t understand. When he refused, they stripped off his clothes, seized his ID and belongings, and chained him by the neck, waist, and legs. “They tricked me,” Carlos said in a phone call from an immigration detention center in El Paso, Texas, where he was held for several months. “They used my children to grab me,” he said. In reporting on the family’s story, KFF Health News reviewed court documents, spoke with the family’s immigration attorneys, interviewed Carlos, and reviewed statements from his children, translated from Spanish. Carlos is a pseudonym, being used at the request of attorneys concerned that speaking out could jeopardize Carlos’ immigration case or further delay his reunion with his family. ### Using Children to Arrest Parents Since 2003, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement has cared for immigrant children under 18 who arrive in the country without their parents, often fleeing violence, abuse, or trafficking. The office, which in February had more than 2,300 children in shelters or with foster families across the country, is supposed to promptly release them to vetted caregivers, typically parents or other family members already living in the country. Congress placed this responsibility with the health agency over 20 years ago to prioritize the well-being of unaccompanied children and separate their care from immigration enforcement priorities. Now the second Trump administration is using migrant children held by the resettlement office to lure their parents, such as Carlos, whether or not they have a criminal record. A KFF Health News investigation found the resettlement office, [headed by a former ICE official](https://acf.gov/orr/about/bio/angie-salazar?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=Acting%20Director%20%28Office%20of%20Refugee,Administration%20for%20Children%20and%20Families.), coordinates with the Department of Homeland Security to arrest people seeking custody of migrant children. Arrest documents show Homeland Security Investigations, the arm of the agency that normally focuses on organized criminals and traffickers, will interview parents or other caregivers then arrest them if they are in the country illegally. Before Donald Trump returned to the White House, the resettlement office prohibited data sharing and collaboration with immigration enforcement, and it did not deny caregivers custody of children solely because of their immigration status. Those [restrictions were rescinded](https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/03/25/2025-04971/unaccompanied-children-program-foundational-rule-update-to-accord-with-statutory-requirements?ref=thebarbedwire.com) last year. It’s unclear exactly how many caregivers have been baited into arrest. LAist [obtained data](https://laist.com/news/migrant-children-southern-california-used-as-bait-to-arrest-deport-parents?ref=thebarbedwire.com) indicating more than 100 have been arrested while trying to get their kids out of detention, but KFF Health News could not independently verify that number with federal agencies. Since February, the Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Homeland Security, and Justice Department have not responded to questions about caregiver arrests. Prior to leaving DHS last month, Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the administration protects children from being released to people who shouldn’t care for them. Andrew Nixon, an HHS spokesperson, referred questions related to immigration enforcement to DHS. At the same time, the resettlement office has [enacted new rules](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/youthlaw-org/wp-content/uploads/ncyl%5Fthe-unraveling-of-orr%5Fsept2025%5Ffinal.pdf) that make it harder for caregivers to gain custody of unaccompanied children. These include narrowing the range of accepted documents, requiring fingerprint-based background checks for every adult in the home and backup caregivers, and requiring in-person appointments to verify identification documents, sometimes with ICE agents present. The requirements keep “children safe from traffickers and other bad, dangerous people,” Nixon said. As of January, the agency had detained at least 300 children already placed with vetted sponsors and asked their caregivers to reapply, according to the National Center for Youth Law and the Democracy Forward Foundation. The advocacy groups filed [a Feb. 23 lawsuit](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/democracyforward-org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/diego-n-complaint.pdf) calling these actions “a quieter, new form of family separation.” ### Reverse Separation Dulce, a Guatemalan mother in Virginia, said her 8-year-old son was sent to a government shelter after he was detained during a traffic stop last summer while visiting family members in a different state. At first, Dulce expected to get her son back within days — she had passed the government’s sponsorship requirements in 2024 and was reunited with him three weeks after he first crossed the border. But resettlement agency officials asked her to repeat the entire process and resubmit documents, Dulce said. It took eight months to get him back. Dulce is a pseudonym being used at her request because she fears speaking out could get her deported. At one point, Dulce was told to attend an interview at an ICE office to show her identification as part of the process of reuniting with her son. She refused out of fear that she too might be detained, because she doesn’t have legal status. She believes ICE agents visited her home at one point. “I stopped going home,” Dulce said. “I lived with some of my friends for days.” Even though she lived just 45 minutes away, Dulce was allowed to visit her son only twice a month. Until recently, most unaccompanied children landed in government custody after being detained at the border. But border crossings started to fall in 2024, and the number of people coming to the U.S. has dropped precipitously in President Trump’s second term. Now, hundreds of kids have been taken to government shelters after being swept up inside the country, often during immigration raids or traffic stops, according to the advocates’ lawsuit. Many were already living with relatives, including guardians already vetted by the resettlement agency. Releases have grinded nearly to a halt. According to the resettlement office, children in its custody stayed in government shelters or foster care for an average of one month in 2024\. As of February, that had jumped to more than half a year. window.addEventListener("message",function(a){if(void 0!==a.data\["datawrapper-height"\]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data\["datawrapper-height"\])for(var r,i=0;r=e\[i\];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data\["datawrapper-height"\]\[t\]+"px";r.style.height=d}}}); When children do get released, it’s often only after their attorneys file a lawsuit in federal court challenging their detention as unconstitutional. Authorities released Dulce’s son to her in February after the boy’s attorneys filed such a petition. Dulce said she’s relieved to have him back but still anxious that ICE could show up at their house. ### Immigrants at Risk During Trump’s first term, his administration was criticized for [losing track](https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/19/politics/undocumented-immigrant-children-not-located-detention-released?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of children who had been released from custody. President Joe Biden was blamed for how his administration processed a surge of unaccompanied children that peaked in 2021 with about 22,000 in the resettlement office’s custody. Though most children were placed with legitimate sponsors, some were placed with people who hadn’t cleared [safety checks](https://apnews.com/article/biden-migrants-border-children-labor-child-90b3c5a409bf4f24ab816cd383f2ef7c?ref=thebarbedwire.com), putting them at risk of [exploitation](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/17/us/politics/migrant-child-labor-biden.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The Trump administration says it is checking on those [children’s welfare](https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/11/14/ice-and-state-local-law-enforcement-287g-partners-launch-initiative-protect?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and the Justice Department has prosecuted [child](https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/honduran-nationals-illegally-united-states-indicted-alien-smuggling-and-fraud-charges?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [trafficking](https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/illegal-alien-pleads-guilty-fraud-charges-related-sponsorship-unaccompanied-alien-child?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [cases](https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/guatemalan-man-unlawfully-us-and-previously-convicted-sexual-battery-pleads-guilty?ref=thebarbedwire.com). On March 1, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who is set to leave her role at the [end of the month](https://abcnews.com/Politics/shes-mood-dhs-shifts-after-kristi-noems-departure/story?id=130827305&ref=thebarbedwire.com), touted a [multi-agency effort](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-ice-gov/doclib/foia/policy/uac-jifi.pdf), including the resettlement office, that DHS said had tracked down 145,000 unaccompanied children who had been placed with caregivers during Biden’s term. Yet internal HHS reports about that initiative obtained by KFF Health News show that nearly 11,800 of those migrant children and nearly 500 of their caregivers were arrested as of Jan. 29\. Only 125 of those migrant children and 55 of those caregivers were arrested for alleged criminal activity, suggesting the majority were for immigration violations. HHS referred questions about the figures in the reports to DHS, which did not respond to requests for comment about the data. However, Michelle Brané, who was a DHS official in the Biden administration, said the figures show that most of the arrests were to detain and deport migrants. Previously, [CNN reported](https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/14/politics/parents-arrested-migrant-children-ice?ref=thebarbedwire.com) the administration targeted parents and caregivers who had paid for children to cross the border, trying to levy smuggling charges against them. “They have really dropped that pretense in a lot of ways, and they are going for anyone openly,” Brané said. “These numbers clearly reflect that this is not about public safety or about safety of the children.” ### Case on Hold Carlos left Venezuela in 2022 because of death threats and, like thousands of others fleeing that country, was granted what’s called temporary protected status under the Biden administration. That protection [was later rescinded](https://www.uscis.gov/newsroom/alerts/dhs-terminates-the-2023-designation-of-venezuela-for-temporary-protected-status?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for most Venezuelans by the Trump administration. In January 2025, days before Trump was sworn in for his second term, Carlos’ children crossed the border from Mexico to the U.S., turned themselves over to border authorities, and were immediately placed in the resettlement agency’s custody. Carlos spent months submitting paperwork to reunite with them. He said he’s their only parent, because their mother left when they were toddlers. Officials visited his home twice and determined he was fit to care for them, according to court documents petitioning for his release from detention. He passed DNA testing, proving he’s the biological father, one of his attorneys said. His arrest documents show he has “no criminal history.” In July, Carlos was told his reunification case was complete and being sent for approval. But then, with little explanation, the case was put on hold. Before his arrest by ICE, Carlos said, he drove 14 hours each way from his home to visit his children. Once there, he could see them for only one hour. When he was in detention, he said, he spoke to them about every two weeks in quick, monitored phone calls. He’s trying to stay hopeful, but it’s hard. According to documents completed by ICE officers during his arrest and submitted in his court case, Carlos was arrested under an initiative called Operation Guardian Trace, which requires immigration officers to detain potential caregivers if they are in the country without legal authorization and recommend that they be deported. “This operation is designed to force parents to make an impossible choice between reuniting with their children and seeking safety,” said one of Carlos’ attorneys, Chiqui Sanchez Kennedy of the Galveston-Houston Immigrant Representation Project, a nonprofit that helps low-income immigrants. ### 'I'm Going to Wait' In March, a federal judge said officials had unlawfully detained Carlos and he was released on bond. But his children still face an uncertain future for now. Government shelters often lack sufficient resources, [research shows](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-luc-edu/media/lucedu/law/centers/chrcs/kids-in-care.pdf), and social workers say lengthy stays in these facilities can result in additional trauma. “Not only is it bad, full stop, but the longer you’re there, the worse it gets,” said Jonathan Beier, associate director of research and evaluation for the Acacia Center for Justice's Unaccompanied Children Program, which coordinates legal services for unaccompanied minors. Carlos’ children could also be sent back to the country they fled. Because of his detention, Carlos will have to redo much of the process to reunite with them, according to an attorney for the children, Alexa Sendukas, also with the Galveston-Houston Immigrant Representation Project. In statements shared through Sendukas, Carlos’ daughter said she no longer wants to be around others and spends most of the time in her room. His son, now 15, described having panic attacks and feeling that he’s missing out on life, whether it’s the opportunities he longs for — to learn English, to study science — or watching basketball with his family. “I remember when I first arrived at this shelter, I was so hopeful and had faith that I would be reunited with my dad soon,” he said. Carlos’ daughter spent the day crying in bed when the siblings learned their father had been detained. For days, they didn’t know where he was. Now, they fear the only way out is through adoption or foster care. “I am afraid,” she said. “I’m going to wait for my dad forever.” *[KFF Health News](https://kffhealthnews.org/about-us?ref=thebarbedwire.com) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about [KFF](https://www.kff.org/about-us?ref=thebarbedwire.com).* [Subscribe](https://kffhealthnews.org/morning-briefing/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to KFF Health News' free Morning Briefing. This [article](https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/trump-deportation-immigration-unaccompanied-children-bait-parent-arrests-hhs/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) first appeared on [KFF Health News](https://kffhealthnews.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and is republished here under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/kffhealthnews-org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/kffhealthnews-icon-w-150.png) ![](https://kffhealthnews.org/?republication-pixel=true&post=2171527&ga4=G-J74WWTKFM0) ### ‘It’s Top Tier.’ With $260 Million in Funding, Professional Volleyball Is Booming in Texas — and Fans Are Watching. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/lovb-volleybally-texas/ Last updated: 2026-03-26T05:01:00.000Z On a Wednesday night in February at the H-E-B Center in Cedar Park, purple foam fingers swayed in the air during LOVB Austin’s third home game of the season. As the inaugural-season champions, the pressure was on for Austin to beat LOVB Atlanta. After a long rally, University of Texas alum Madisen Skinner scored a winning kill for Austin. As the ball hit the floor, cheers erupted from the standing crowd. LOVB, pronounced “love,” stands for League One Volleyball — and it’s making a splash in Texas. The league currently has six teams and began having matches in 2025 in Austin and Houston. It’s one of three major volleyball leagues that have launched recently in the U.S. There’s some serious money involved; in 2024, [LOVB reported raising a total of $160 million in funding](https://www.lovb.com/news/100M-in-new-funding-for-league-one-volleyball?ref=thebarbedwire.com), including donations from prominent athletes such as NBA player Kevin Durant and the WNBA’s Candace Parker. The growing number of volleyball fans is a nationwide trend. ESPN reported “[more than 1.3 billion minutes watched across ESPN platforms](https://espnpressroom.com/us/press-releases/2025/12/aced-it-espn-scored-most-watched-2025-ncaa-womens-college-volleyball-season-on-record/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)” for the women’s 2025 NCAA volleyball tournament, the highest to date. The sport is also seeing more young players signing up. According to USA Volleyball, [2024 marked a 40% increase since 2013-14 in the number of girls ages 11-18 registered with clubs](https://apnews.com/article/youth-sports-volleyball-e63cee43e560e7098db0741109d5767e?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “I think volleyball has just been on the trajectory for a while to have a pro league here in the U.S.,” said Audrey Tuttle, marketing and communications manager for LOVB Austin. Both Austin and Houston made sense to have pro volleyball teams: Austin is home to the Texas Longhorns, who have won two NCAA Championships in the past four years, and Houston hosts the [Houston Skyline, named the top club in the nation in 2024](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/tcspub-blob-core-windows-net/usclubrankings/vb/2024-5-year-rankings.pdf) by USClubRankings. “Volleyball is huge here in this state, and both teams are very, very competitive,” Tuttle said. “There's definitely a little bit of a fun rivalry that is going right now.” LOVB isn’t the only volleyball outlet to stake a claim to Texas. Another pro league, Major League Volleyball, has the Dallas Pulse, which began playing this year. For its part, MLV has eight teams and is backed by more than $100 million in funding, [CBS News reported](https://www.cbsnews.com/sacramento/news/major-league-volleyball-debuts-in-january-2026-sacramento-among-first-10-teams/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). (A third volleyball league, [Athletes Unlimited](https://auprosports.com/volleyball/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), launched in 2021 in partnership with USA Volleyball.) “Dallas was an obvious choice for a Major League Volleyball franchise,” said Rob Carolla in an email. Carolla is Vice President of Public & Media Relations for Major League Volleyball, and he cited significant youth participation in volleyball in the DFW area. Both LOVB and MLV are expanding in the 2027 season. LOVB and MLV have both announced three new teams for the 2027 season. LOVB has announced teams in Los Angeles, Minnesota, and San Francisco. MLV is growing with teams in Washington, D.C., Minnesota, and Northern California. LOVB athletes also host open practices, camps, and clinics for young athletes and meet them at their games. “It's really cool to create these personalized relationships with these kids,” said Logan Eggleston, outside hitter for LOVB Austin. “It's something I would have loved to have when I was growing up. To get to see someone playing professional volleyball in my backyard would be so cool.” Eggleston and Skinner helped the Longhorns win the 2022 and 2023 NCAA volleyball championships, and Eggleston was named the 2022 NCAA championship MVP. But graduating would have meant saying goodbye to her Texas fans, as it would be impossible to continue to make a living playing volleyball in the state. “Somewhere around high school, I realized if I want to keep playing post-college, I have to go overseas,” Eggleston said. Then LOVB came calling. Eggleston became a founding member of the new league, where she helped recruit, build and market the league, and was one of the first players. “The idea of getting to play at home is awesome,” Eggleston said. “Coming back to this community that helped build me as a person and helped me grow as both (a) volleyball player and a human was really, really appealing.” Other players apparently felt the same. Two of LOVB Austin’s players, Carli Lloyd and Juliann Faucette, are moms. Playing in the new league means they’re able to stay on their home soil and raise their kids. The league, which has a minimum yearly salary of $60,000, also provides a “great living wage,” Eggleston said. Meanwhile, LOVB is getting exposure through media partnerships with the USA Network and ESPN TV. Older matches stream on Victory+. San Antonio resident Holly Hernandez attended the Feb. 4 match in Austin, rooting for LOVB Atlanta in support of outside hitter Mackenzie Adams, who coached Hernandez’s youngest daughter two years ago. Hernandez said she watches games during the college volleyball season but didn’t watch women’s pro volleyball “because there wasn’t any and they didn’t show very much on TV.” Now, her daughter finally has female role models for her sport on TV. She and her daughter were inspired by LOVB being on the screen. Hernandez said she watches women's pro sports “on USA, ESPN, you know, wherever we can find it, we'll watch.” And on TV or in person, fans show up. Matt Stephens has held LOVB Austin season tickets both years, he told *The Barbed Wire*. Stephens attended the third home game covered in purple team merchandise. He watched the Longhorns take home an NCAA championship and cites it as one of the attractions of the league. “It's top-tier volleyball,” Stephens said. “If you love athletics, if you love sports in any form, if you want to see people competing at the highest level, this is for you.” ### Getting on PrEP Shouldn’t Have Been a Quest. Now, It Doesn’t Have to Be. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/getting-on-prep-shouldnt-have-been-a-quest-now-it-doesnt-have-to-be/ Last updated: 2026-09-22T13:37:39.000Z **Paid content.** Kind Clinic and Texas Health Action paid for this article and reviewed it before publication. Mario Leal is a member of The Barbed Wire's staff. I first went on PrEP in 2015 after I’d just moved to Austin for a job. PrEP, the once-daily medication that reduces the risk of contracting HIV, had only been released a few years earlier and was targeted towards high-risk populations. As a 27-year-old gay Latino from South Texas, I fit the bill. Affirming sexual health care, like PrEP, was still novel and largely cost prohibitive. Many providers were reluctant to offer the pill, and doctors and patients were still learning to navigate access to it, so only after a consultation, a series of labs and then a follow up for the results could I be prescribed the pill. I worked the early morning shift, going in at 4 am and leaving around 1, so I didn’t have to take any time off from work. It was the only reason I could make the time to attend the visits at the Austin PrEP Clinic. Growing up in the Rio Grande Valley in the 90s, anything queer was either absent from the conversation entirely or presented as a warning. Sinful. Dangerous. The handful of times HIV and AIDS came up, they weren’t framed as health issues. They were framings of consequences. Of what happened to people that were – insert your favorite slur. It’s what was insinuated that was going to be the outcome if I were one of the slurs. So, you carry that. You carry it into doctor’s offices and into pharmacies. I think back now on many visits with my doctors in my early 20s, newly sexually active, where having a conversation about sexual health as a gay man just never happened. I was very lucky to have great educators and support systems, and, mostly, constant access to health care. And, the Drag Race ads helped. Things are different now. How I navigate and think about health care is different. My family and how we talk about queerness is different. PrEP is different. Access to it is too. I think about how in just a little over a decade someone can walk right in to Kind Clinic and receive a prescription immediately. And, in writing this realized that my journey to PrEP access began at the first iteration of Kind Clinic back in 2015, the Austin PrEP Clinic. ### Same Day PrEP Same Day PrEP at Kind Clinic's Koenig location in Austin launched earlier this month and is running on five Fridays — March 13, 20, 27, April 10 and April 17 — from 1 to 5 pm. No appointment needed and you can just walk right in. New PrEP patients and those transferring their care to Kind Clinic are eligible. After initial intake, those who start through the program become established Kind Clinic patients with their follow-up care built in. This isn't a one-and-done situation — it's a doorway into ongoing, affirming healthcare. Coverage is available with or without insurance, and Kind Clinic's team will work with patients to make it happen. Partnered with their other initiatives, [like their virtual services](https://kindclinic.org/services/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), health care is even more accessible for their patients now. The initiative came from a place the clinic knows well, access isn't just about whether a resource exists. It's about whether people can actually reach it. "Kind Clinic has been providing access to PrEP for HIV prevention for over 10 years," said Juan Benitez, Chief Advancement Officer at Texas Health Action. "We've built incredible community trust not only in the medication we're providing, but in how that medication is delivered to our patients." That trust-building is intentional. It doesn't happen by accident when the communities you're serving have every reason to be wary — of medical institutions, of judgment, of doors that look open until you actually try to walk through them. ### Built for how people access health care I've watched friends cycle in and out of access to health care for their entire adult lives. One worked two jobs, lost the insurance that came with one of them. Another moved to another city and lost the provider who knew their history and the particular program that funded their PrEP access. Finding a clinic that doesn't make you feel like a problem to be managed changes things. Joe Anderson, Jr., Director of Community Engagement at Kind Clinic, put it plainly: "When people want access to HIV prevention medication, they want it right then, and we want to give them the ability to access that medication exactly when they want it." He's speaking from somewhere personal, too. "This pilot program will allow flexibility for people who may not ordinarily have the time to get an appointment and get started on PrEP," Anderson said. "In the past I have had times where I worked two or three jobs and it would have been impossible to find time to get to the clinic. This sort of program would have allowed me to drop in on a day off and get access to that healthcare." It’s difficult to find time to go to the doctor. Kind Clinic’s system is built around how people actually live their lives. ### Access for those who need it most Benitez is clear about why Same Day PrEP matters beyond convenience. "It's important to understand who is more disproportionately impacted by HIV," he said. "At Kind Clinic we specialize in care for LGBTQIA+ communities and communities impacted by HIV. It is especially important that these communities feel comfortable with who they're getting care from." Anderson echoed that. "There are communities that are disproportionately impacted by HIV — our Black and Brown communities, our Trans communities — and when we talk about these communities, we know that there are barriers to even accessing healthcare." "At Kind Clinic, one of our core tenants is health justice and ensuring that all communities, especially communities who are disproportionately impacted by HIV, have that access." Healthcare can be, as Anderson put it, "confusing and cumbersome." The goal of Same Day PrEP is to strip some of that away. "We want to make it as easy as possible for people to get access to the resources they need," he said. ### There’s a pill for that Having access to PrEP relieved much of my anxiety around sex and being able to speak more openly about it. Mostly because the times have changed, and with age allegedly comes wisdom, but also because conversations around sexual health have changed. Fewer barriers for people to actually see a doctor means they can actually ask their questions, get answers and walk out more empowered to navigate their sexual health. All in a little pill. Kind Clinic’s Same Day PrEP is available Fridays through April 17 at their Koenig from 1 to 5 pm. Walk-in STI testing and gender-affirming care remain available separately. ### Don’t Call It ‘Self-Deportation.’ Moving Back to Mexico Felt Like Reclaiming My Life. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/dont-call-it-self-deportation-moving-back-to-mexico-reclaiming-life/ Last updated: 2026-03-24T17:00:13.000Z A breeze swept over me as I looked over Laguna del Carpintero in Tampico, Tamaulipas. Nearby, my three-year-old son Lucas and a local boy about the same age took turns rolling their miniature monster trucks down a blue playground slide. Lucas’ Hot Wheels rattled down first, then the other boy’s lime green truck. Off in the distance, my partner walked back with agua de jamaica from a street vendor. It was a moment of bliss that had otherwise evaded us that week. We left the U.S. on Jan. 20 for a new life in Mexico, and the four days we’d been here felt like a continuous whirlwind. Our son was pissed about the move and acting out. Our AirBnb was dirty. We kept getting lost driving around the city. Rental home tours were letdowns. Every day I thought, “We need to go back.” We had already moved away from our families in northern Virginia and Dallas. We got rid of our possessions. I quit my job at National Public Radio in Washington D.C. The chaotic start to our new life felt like a prank we allowed to go too far. As relaxing as that lazy Saturday afternoon in January was, the anxiety that gripped me for the past year felt like a hand closing around my throat. The doubts family members expressed about our move echoed in my head. Then, my phone buzzed. It was a [news alert out of Minnesota](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-republicans-turn-on-ice-alex-pretti-killing/), where a brutal immigration crackdown was ongoing. “Holy shit,” I muttered under my breath after reading the headline. “They killed another U.S. citizen.’’ ## A Nightmare for Immigrants Since Donald Trump returned to the White House, a lot of people have decided that living in the United States isn’t worth doing anymore. So much so that the U.S. experienced negative net migration in 2025 — the first time that’s happened in at least a half century, according to [an analysis](https://www.brookings.edu/articles/macroeconomic-implications-of-immigration-flows-in-2025-and-2026-january-2026-update/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) by the nonpartisan Brookings Institution. The trend is expected to continue in 2026\. Not only that, but a record number of U.S. citizens also [decided to leave](https://www.wsj.com/us-news/americans-leaving-the-us-migration-a5795bfa?mod=article%5Finline&ref=thebarbedwire.com) the country last year, according to an analysis by *The Wall Street Journal.* My partner and I decided to leave the U.S. almost a full year before [Renee Macklin Good and Alex Pretti were killed](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/abolish-ice-gains-traction-after-mom-shot-minneapolis/) in Minnesota. Their deaths felt like an inevitable climax of Trump’s abhorrent campaign against immigrants living in the country. The [rapid start of raids in Texas](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/its-going-to-be-a-rude-awakening-how-immigrant-aid-groups-are-preparing-for-trumps-crackdown/) and across the U.S. in early 2025 sent chills down the spines of millions of immigrants and their families. Kids — nearly one million in Texas — were leaving their homes with the renewed fear that their parents [could be ripped away](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/million-texas-students-undocumented-ice-mom-taken/) by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Even children are not safe, like 15-year-old Emmanuel Alexander Gonzalez Garcia, a disabled boy who wandered away from his mother in Houston and [was detained by immigration authorities for 48 days](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/disabled-child-federal-immigration-custody/). Or the 2-month-old [deported](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/2-month-old-baby-juan-nicolas-unresponsive-hospital-sent-back-to-ice-facility/) after being hospitalized with bronchitis. Recently, [even Ms. Rachel](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ms-rachel-ice-detention-children-immigration-dilley-texas-center-rcna263786?ref=thebarbedwire.com) has started sharing stories of the children at Dilley Immigration Processing Center who’ve been neglected, sickened, and denied basic human rights. Trump’s return to power, and the violent escalation in immigration enforcement, has undoubtedly forced many of the [nearly 14 million undocumented immigrants](https://www.migrationpolicy.org/programs/us-immigration-policy-program-data-hub/unauthorized-immigrant-population-profiles?ref=thebarbedwire.com) living in the U.S. to question whether they even *want* to live in a country that doesn’t appreciate them, asking themselves whether they should “self-deport.” *The New York Times* [ran a story](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/02/04/us/self-deport-immigration-california.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in February about the patriarch and matriarch of a California family who decided to return to Mexico after living for decades in the U.S. Last summer, CNN reported about a mixed-status family from Pittsburgh who [moved to Mexico](https://edition.cnn.com/2025/07/09/politics/self-deport-migrants-mexico?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to ensure they could remain together. Both stories frame the acts as self-deportation. Some immigrants who decided to “self-deport” [have documented their returns on TikTok and Instagram](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/08/17/deportation-influencers-monetize-misfortune-online/85516504007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), gaining thousands of followers in the process. The Trump administration and its allies have championed “self-deportation” — despite the term [having apparently no legal definition](https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/what-is-self-deportation-and-is-it-a-wise-option-for-undocumented-immigrants.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in U.S. immigration law. They’ve aired absurd ads warning immigrants, whom they haven’t been able to find for decades, that ICE *will* arrest them. “Do what’s right — leave now,” the now-ousted Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in [one video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=La8FvfLzkNU&ref=thebarbedwire.com) nearly 11 months ago. In an attempt to fluff the effect of the immigration crackdown, administration officials have repeated dubious claims that more than 2 million people [have voluntarily left the U.S.](https://www.dhs.gov/news/2026/01/21/celebrating-one-year-trump-dhs-now-offering-2600-stipend-cbp-home-app-illegal?ref=thebarbedwire.com) since Trump returned to office. But as Nick Miroff of *The Atlantic* [pointed out in December](https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2025/12/ice-dhs-self-deportations-trump/685100/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), such a sudden drop in the foreign-born population would likely affect food prices, wages, rent, and other factors. And there’s no obvious observable evidence it has. Even if many people decide that now is the time to go because of the anti-immigrant climate, immigrants themselves and allies should not give in to the fear by calling their decision to reclaim their lives as a move to “self-deport.” To do so undermines the autonomy that brought immigrants here in the first place. Deportation is a punishment that is done to someone. It is the act of federal agents physically removing someone from the country. In zip ties, sometimes after long periods of detention in [miserable facilities with undrinkable water](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/leqaa-kordia-political-prisoner-hospitalized/), and often separated from their families. Human beings making the self-guided, calculated decision to free themselves on their own terms from this flawed country is philosophically the opposite of that. The term “self-deportation” implies wrongdoing or miscalculation on the part of the immigrant — as if we’re correcting a mistake instead of choosing to avoid being persecuted for providing for our families. Many upstanding undocumented immigrants feel like the world is collapsing around them and that it is their fault. Another Trump electoral victory later, I can understand why. It’s what I felt back in November 2016 when he first won. This year marks a decade, but the emotions live within me as if it was yesterday. I didn’t sleep that night after watching election night results at my parents’ home in Dallas. I was undocumented, and his winning was my worst nightmare come true. He had won on a platform of [anti-immigrant promises and threats](https://time.com/4473972/donald-trump-mexico-meeting-insult/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that specifically targeted Mexicans. Throughout the night, I stared at the ceiling. My eyes repeatedly traced a crack in the white drywall above me. I stayed up weighing the two options I believed I had: going back to Mexico or taking my own life. I believed that — maybe by moving to Mexico — I could get my journalism career off the ground. In the U.S., I had been unable to get full-time work or better-paid freelance work because I didn’t have work authorization. I thought maybe I could report from Monterrey or Mexico City to achieve my dream of working for *The New York Times.* For years I had spoken about how proud I was to be a Mexican immigrant. I bragged about my parents’ valiant efforts to pay for my education, our home, and our way of life by selling tacos out of a minivan on the streets of Dallas to construction workers, day laborers, and warehouse employees. Though I’d been reporting and writing for just a couple of years, I had already met dozens of immigrants and their families who had literally risked everything by coming to the U.S. Some had been here for decades after crossing the border on foot or wading through the Rio Grande or overstaying visas. Others had been in the U.S. for just days or weeks. Some had [ridden La Bestia](https://www.dallasobserver.com/news/the-surge-6433330/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the massive freight train railway system that stretches from Mexico’s southern border almost all the way to Texas. Despite what they’d been through, they were optimistic because they had grabbed life and the U.S. by the horns. Writing their stories powered me through most days. But that election night, I allowed myself to be pushed to an edge from which there was no turning back. I felt like being in the U.S. was a fatal sin, even though I was just four years old when my parents moved from Monterrey, Nuevo León to the Dallas neighborhood of Oak Cliff. I wondered what I could’ve done differently to avoid the seemingly inescapable fate of being hunted, detained, and deported. [Even tortured.](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/what-deported-venezuelans-endured-at-cecot-60-minutes/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Then a friend and former editor assigned me to cover [an anti-Trump protest in downtown Dallas](https://www.centraltrack.com/stronger-together/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). As the demonstrators began marching with signs that read “hate will never win,” I ran alongside, behind, and in front of the crowd. The adrenaline coursed through me as I snapped photos and pulled people aside to interview them. “Trump, you didn’t win. Racism did,” read another sign. By the end of the night, just from doing the work of journalism, I had a crucial realization: Donald Trump had not and could not keep me from my dream. He had no power over me because my dreams predated his political career. His winning didn’t magically change that fact. ## ‘Self-Deportation’ as a Door to a New Life Just a few days after Trump was inaugurated in 2017, I met my partner April. The following spring, we got engaged. We married in the summer. I got my green card thanks to their patience and willingness to go through the process. Over the next few years, I worked at *The Dallas Morning News*, Colorado Public Radio, and NPR. In 2024, I became a U.S. citizen. We had a baby and bought a home. I achieved just about everything my parents hoped that I would — despite the obstacles this country’s immigration law had placed in my way. Immigrating anywhere with the goal of building a better life is one of the ultimate acts of self-determination that exist in this world. Deciding to return home may just be the next part of the journey for some of the millions of immigrants in the U.S. That’s where I find myself now. Yes, moving back was about avoiding unnecessary risk. In the months before leaving the D.C. area, I began carrying my U.S. passport with me just in case I was questioned by the federal agents or National Guard troops deployed around the nation’s capital. Every time I left our house, I hoped I would not encounter ICE in immigrant-rich Arlington, Virginia where we lived, as many of our neighbors unfortunately did. We’ve gained a whole new set of headaches in our two months of living in Mexico. We are figuring out how the credit system works so we can buy a car and get a local driver’s license. Our son is rejecting most new foods here, though like a good Mexican, he loves eating tortillas and avocado. But I also have reopened a door to a life I didn’t think would ever be possible. I get to keep doing journalism and can eat tacos in the plazas of my parents’ hometowns. My partner will feel the immigrant experience and work on their own creative projects. I get to research my family’s Indigenous roots in person and teach my son about them. We recently visited the Museo de la Cultura Huasteca here in Tampico, where I showed him a sculpture of Ehecatl, the god of the wind, whom our ancestors worshipped for bringing the rain for the crops. The pull I feel to experience my country of birth on my terms and learn about my past is more powerful than the fear I felt for immigration agents. It’s my choice to be here, and the only role the White House played was to show me just how toxic conditions could get in the U.S. I am by no means arguing for more people to leave the states. Doing so has complications, like being barred from reentering the U.S. for several years — or forever. In the case of Mexicans returning home, there’s dealing with the headache of reintegrating properly. As *The Barbed Wire* previously reported, Mexico’s government has [repeatedly fallen short](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/mexico-new-strategy-deportees-danger-unemployment/) in its efforts to formally welcome back its citizens and keep them safe from the threat of organized crime. It takes valor to free one’s self from the grip of a country that is too foolish to recognize your worth. And there is no shame in going home with your purse full, your family taken care of, and your head held high. Let us not forget that simply because a small man thinks he’s big. ### ‘Life-Changing Money’: How the Houston Rodeo Is Leveling the Playing Field in Women’s Events URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/houston-rodeo-womens-event/ Last updated: 2026-03-19T17:38:54.000Z In the span of 2.8 seconds, Josie Goodrich exploded into the arena on her horse and wrapped her lasso around a fleeing calf. The maneuver [landed the 24-year-old from Oregon first place](https://www.facebook.com/BreakawayRopingJourn/posts/with-a-28-second-run-it-was-josie-goodrich-at-the-top-of-round-2-in-super-series/1244296264348508/) in a preliminary round of breakaway roping at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. Goodrich’s roping has won her $5,000 thus far, and if she advances past the semifinals into the championship, she could also take home the top prize of $65,000. “That is life-changing money,” Goodrich said. The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo is wrapping up its final days of competitions, carnival, and musical performances this week after [opening on March 2](https://www.rodeohouston.com/plan-your-visit/special-days/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=MONDAY%2C%20MARCH%202%2C%202026,activities%20planned%20throughout%20the%20day.). Rodeo season is just kicking off, though, with other competitions across the country [slated from March to September](https://prorodeo.com/schedule?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Houston’s rodeo has been around since 1932, but breakaway roping wasn’t [added as an event until 2022](https://www.rodeohouston.com/rodeo-announces-new-womens-rodeohouston-event/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), giving women competitors another option to win thousands in prize money. However, not all rodeos offer ropers like Goodrich the same financial opportunity. Women have been roping livestock for centuries, and competing in breakaway roping for decades, [according to the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association](https://wpra.com/roping-program/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The WPRA was founded in 1948 by 38 women in San Angelo, Texas, who [decided to create their own competitions](https://wpra.com/about-the-wpra/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in a male-dominated rodeo landscape. The WPRA created formalized rules for women’s events and worked to [add a barrel racing event](https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/womens-professional-rodeo-association?ref=thebarbedwire.com) (in which a cowgirl races her horse through a formation of barrels) to many professional rodeos sanctioned by the [Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association](https://www.prorodeo.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the largest rodeo organization in the world, in the 1960s. Although the WPRA has held [its own breakaway roping competitions](https://wpra.com/roping-program/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) since the 1970s, barrel racing remained the only women’s event in most PRCA rodeos — which enjoy more funding and a national spotlight — for decades. It wasn’t [until 2020](https://wpra.com/roping-program/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that the WPRA and the PRCA signed an agreement to allow all PRCA-sanctioned rodeos to include breakaway roping as a second option for women competitors, said Ann Bleiker, WPRA’s media director. “The leadership of the PRCA and the WPRA, they worked on a partnership together to open it up to more professional rodeos, and that's really when it caught fire,” Bleiker said. Prior to the agreement, breakaway roping was only held at 35 PRCA rodeos, but by 2025 that number had [skyrocketed to 560 rodeos.](https://breakawayropingjournal.com/news/the-prca-wpras-3-year-agreement-and-what-it-does-and-doesnt-mean-for-breakaway-ropers/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=The%20biggest%20change%20in%20the,was%20featured%20in%20560%20rodeos.) “Back in the day, the collegiate level was as far as you could go with breakaway roping, and then you were done, and you just had to be a barrel racer,” Goodrich said. “There are women now coming out of retirement, getting back into the swing of roping.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/embed-courtesy-of-josie-goodrich_impulse-photography.png) Josie Goodrich in the breakaway roping event. The professional inclusion of breakaway roping has driven an explosion of women’s participation and interest in rodeo. A 2021 survey of entries in professional rodeos found breakaway roping had [more entries than any other event](https://breakawayropingjournal.com/news/breakaway-ropers-are-out-entering-nearly-every-other-prorodeo-event-without-a-guaranteed-spot-in-vegas-what-gives/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) across the board except barrel racing. An online rodeo management tool reported in 2023 that nearly 70% of the 90,000 rodeo entries they handled were from female competitors, [according to the *Breakaway Roping Journal*.](https://breakawayropingjournal.com/news/by-the-numbers-how-women-are-transforming-rodeo-in-2024/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) “It has changed the entire sport of rodeo. No question,” Goodrich said. “There are more entries in breakaway roping than in any other event.” Bleiker said the WPRA has also felt the effects of the breakaway roping boom, including adding more personnel to their staff to oversee the breakaway events, and celebrating some of the biggest rodeo competitions adding the event, such as the Calgary Stampede in Canada and the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. “When you get those big rodeos like Calgary and Houston featuring these women, I think that speaks volumes,” Bleiker said. “They're seeing it, and their consumers are wanting it.” Summer Williams, a 20-year-old from Mineral Wells, told *The Barbed Wire* she has been roping since she was in the third grade. Williams also [competed in the semifinals](https://www.rodeohouston.com/rodeohouston/advancements-breakaway/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of Houston’s breakaway roping event this year, and said she is excited to see how the inclusion of the sport will inspire more generations of women in rodeo. “I think that the adding of breakaway into the pro rodeos has really encouraged more women and the younger generation to work harder,” Williams said. “Being there and showing these younger girls that we can accomplish the same thing as the guys or the women running barrels means a lot.” Despite the increase in opportunities for women to compete in roping, financial barriers remain. Many rodeos that added the sport offered a much lower prize amount than what barrel racers or men’s events have been awarded. [The *Breakaway Roping Journal* reported](http://google.com/url?q=https://breakawayropingjournal.com/news/wpra/making-up-ground-comparing-the-money-and-wpra-standings-between-breakaway-and-barrels/&sa=D&source=docs&ust=1773942373232867&usg=AOvVaw3lleFQqBezrvV31HgW%5FRtt) that top ropers in the 2023 season on average still made approximately $5,500 less than a top barrel racer did in a season, and that ropers have 29 fewer rodeos to compete in than barrel racers – no small disparity when considering the travel expenses and entry fees required to compete. Part of that financial disparity comes from equal [added money rules](https://www.powayrodeo.com/rodeo-terminology/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which require rodeos to add the same amount of money to different events’ prize pools regardless of the number of entries. The winners of events then take home the added money plus entry fees. Barrel racing events achieved equal added money status in 1985, [according to the WRPA](https://www.si.com/fannation/rodeo/news/clovis-rodeo-delivers-surprising-announcement-eliminating-breakaway-roping?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=WPRA%20Statement&text=It%20is%20a%20disappointment%20for,money%2C%20we%20thank%20you%20too.). However, breakaway roping does not currently require rodeos to add the same amount of prize money as other events. Instead, the WRPA provided [a gradual timeline to rodeos](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/wpra-coms/wpra0289-breakaway%5Fequal%5Fadded%5Fmoney%5Fguidelines.pdf) in 2023, allowing them to incrementally increase the prize money added for breakaway roping, with a goal of achieving equal added money by 2028. “Breakaway roping has done so much for the sport of rodeo, and so I'm very thankful that it has been added, but we still do have a long way to go,” Goodrich said. “The breakaway ropers do not get equal added money at all of the rodeos. We're still fighting to have the same opportunities as the barrel racers and all of the men's events.” However, some rodeos have opted to give breakaway ropers equal prize money before the WRPA’s 2027 deadline. In 2020, the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo became [the first major rodeo to add a breakaway roping event](https://breakawayropingjournal.com/news/top-10-richest-wpra-sanctioned-breakaway-prorodeos-of-2023/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=3.,Stock%20Show%20&%20Rodeo%20%28Texas%29&text=In%202020%2C%20FWSSR%E2%80%94aka%20the,finals%20to%20win%20$20%2C000%20alone.) with an equal prize money amount as the other events. When the Houston Rodeo [added its breakaway roping event in 2022](https://www.rodeohouston.com/rodeo-announces-new-womens-rodeohouston-event/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), it offered up a $50,000 prize — also an equal prize amount as its other events. “This is truly a monumental day for the women in breakaway roping,” said Jimmie Munroe, then-WPRA President, [after Houston announced they would add the event](https://www.rodeohouston.com/rodeo-announces-new-womens-rodeohouston-event/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “Not only will they have the opportunity to compete and showcase their talent on one of rodeo’s largest stages, but they will do so with equal prize money.” The spectators at these rodeos also reflect the role of women in supporting rodeo competitions. Over 60% of the Houston Rodeo’s attendees in 2023 were women, and over 70% of ticket purchases were made by women, [according to the *Team Roping Journal*.](https://teamropingjournal.com/this-weeks-must-read/the-numbers-dont-lie/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Bleiker said that the WRPA understands that different rodeos have varying financial capacities to handle the addition of a new event, and that when barrel racing was introduced decades ago, rodeos followed a similar incremental added money plan to what the WRPA now offers for breakaway roping. “When you compare Houston to a smaller rodeo, their economics are way different as far as what it costs,” Bleiker said. “We’ve set out a plan for committees to slowly get to that point, a similar deal that they had to get equal money for barrel racing back in the 80s. It's history repeating itself, a little bit.” Despite the WRPA’s gradual added pay timeline, some rodeos have opted to exclude the event. Despite holding a breakaway roping event in its last four rodeos, the Clovis Rodeo in California announced March 10 that it would not host the event in this year’s rodeo, citing the prize money as a reason for its exclusion. “After lengthy negotiations, the Clovis Rodeo Board of Directors has voted to not include breakaway roping at their 112th Annual Clovis Rodeo in 2026,” the Clovis Rodeo [wrote in a statement](https://www.facebook.com/ClovisRodeo/posts/1462865565626078?ref=embed%5Fpost). “The decision is based on a difference of opinion regarding prize money and the term of the agreement.” The WRPA responded to the Clovis Rodeo’s exclusion of breakaway roping with a statement defending the equal added money policies. “Equal added money in professional rodeo has always been an important topic,” the WRPA [statement reads](https://www.si.com/fannation/rodeo/news/clovis-rodeo-delivers-surprising-announcement-eliminating-breakaway-roping?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=WPRA%20Statement&text=It%20is%20a%20disappointment%20for,money%2C%20we%20thank%20you%20too.). “The purpose is to ensure that WPRA members (and their events) are being treated equally and fairly with all the other events at approved professional rodeos.” Goodrich said that the Clovis Rodeo’s decision indicates that progress still needs to be made for breakaway ropers to achieve equal pay within the field of rodeo. “That's a really big rodeo, and that's a really big deal that they're not inviting us back,” Goodrich said. “It's just kind of a reminder that we're not there yet with the other events.” Williams said that although she wishes all major rodeos offered equal money for breakaway roping, she’s grateful for the opportunity to compete in rodeos that do, like Houston’s. “I think in just a few years, if we keep our head down and keep working hard that we will have the equal money that we're wanting,” Williams said. “It's such a great opportunity because just a few years ago, you wouldn't know that breakaway was gonna be in the Houston rodeo.” ### At Least 15 LGBTQ+ Businesses Have Quietly Disappeared in Texas URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/at-least-15-lgbtq-businesses-have-quietly-disappeared-in-texas/ Last updated: 2026-03-18T15:57:14.000Z ## EXCLUSIVE San Antonio’s Turner Hall was constructed more than a century ago as a gathering space to improve its community. Now home to a gay bar called [the Bonham Exchange](https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2021/06/15/ksat-explains-the-history-and-legacy-of-the-bonham-exchange/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the storied building survived the Civil War, both World Wars, the 1921 flood, and the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Today, like many queer spaces, it’s facing an existential threat. If you’ll indulge me in a quick history lesson, the [Turnverein movement](https://www.britannica.com/sports/turnverein?ref=thebarbedwire.com) was started by a German teacher who sought to expand gymnastics and physical education through sports associations; the German term, *turnen* (to practice gymnastics) and *verein* (club) also meant the place to exercise. In 1848, such sports associations were brought to the United States by the [Forty-Eighters](https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/forty-eighters?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — a political group that believed in “unification, constitutional government, and guarantees of human rights.” Soon, they established [Texas Turnvereins](https://www.heritagesociety.org/turnverein?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in Galveston, Houston, New Braunfels, San Antonio, and Comfort. Their clubs helped popularize sports in Texas and physical training in schools. San Antonio’s chapter was founded in 1855 near the Alamo. Turner Hall was [officially opened in 1892](https://www.bonhamexchange.com/about/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). In 1980, Arthur P Veltman — known as “Hap” or “Happy” — bought the building. In 2026, [a years-overdue upgrade to its sprinkler system](https://www.expressnews.com/news/article/bonham-exchange-readies-to-cut-occupancy-21329274.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) has become one of its largest challenges. And last month, plans for how to enforce the fire code spiraled into a contentious debate in the San Antonio City Council Chambers [that resulted in a complaint against the mayor](https://www.sacurrent.com/news/san-antonio-news/san-antonio-council-will-vote-friday-whether-to-censure-mayor-gina-ortiz-jones/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a censure, and an 11th-hour agreement that the current owner, Joan Duckworth, has said could slash revenue and potentially put the club out of business. The twists and turns of the Bonham Exchange saga may be unique, but not [the threat to celebrated queer spaces across the country](https://www.them.us/story/gay-bars-are-closing-doors?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Texas’ political climate, coupled with post-pandemic economics and Trump-era tariffs, is squeezing nightlife. LGBTQ spaces across the state are disappearing — taking community infrastructure with them. In some cases, like with the Bonham, closures or threats of closure have made local news. Others have gone quietly. In a painstaking search for a number, *The Barbed Wire* found a total of 15 closures since 2020 through news articles, business websites and social media accounts. But even the [Gay Barchives](https://gaybarchives.yolasite.com/thelist.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=City%C2%A0%2D%20Connection%2C-,TEXAS%3A,-Austin%C2%A0%2D%20BT2%2C%20Austin) — a site dedicated to documenting closed queer spaces throughout the world — could not keep up; only two of the 15 closures we found were listed. (While some other outlets, like *Them*, have [compiled lists of gay bars that have closed](https://www.them.us/story/gay-bars-are-closing-doors%29?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in the last year, no one had previously compiled an accurate total count for Texas.) “There’s a lot of information out there in the archives about revolutions, and uprising, and activists, and political activity, and legislation. But, the stories of the bars which were the backbone of our community were not really being preserved,” said Art Smith, creator of the Gay Barchives. “I felt that it was important for not only the older people who wanted to remember those spaces, but for the younger people to understand what it was like in the 60s, 70s and 80s.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/art-smith.png) Smith created the archives in 2019 after reminiscing with a friend about gay bars they’d gone to in Atlanta. The site has expanded to several social media accounts, including a [27,000-member Facebook group](https://www.facebook.com/groups/gaybarchives/). Aside from his own research, Art has relied on well-connected bar owners and the social media groups to send in information for bars across the world. Almost entirely self-funded, he occasionally gets help from supporters and bar owners and hopes to expand to working with the [Stonewall National Museum in Ft. Lauderdale](https://stonewall-museum.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Gay bars have long been deemed [safe spaces for the queer community](https://www.out.com/voices/gay-bars-safe-spaces?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The history of gathering in solidarity was well established as part of the American queer record after [The Stonewall Riot in 1969](https://guides.loc.gov/lgbtq-studies/stonewall-era?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and it was only solidified further following the [Pulse Nightclub massacre](https://www.cnn.com/2016/06/12/us/orlando-nightclub-shooting?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in June 2016. In the days after 49 people were killed in Orlando, then-[President Barack Obama accurately reflected that](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-obamalibrary-gov/sites/default/files/uploads/documents/remarks-to-the-press-in-orlando-fl-2016-transcript.pdf), for the queer community, spaces like Pulse have “always been a safe haven, a place to sing and dance, and most importantly, to be who you truly are.” In major metro areas like San Antonio, Houston, and Dallas, the closure of a single gay bar rarely signals the end of queer nightlife. Performers find new bookings. Patrons have options. When one space shuts down, another often takes its place. Take for example the Houston Eagle, which closed abruptly last year. Months later, it reopened as Varsity Bar, a gay sports bar. In San Antonio, Luther’s Cafe is now [Ay Qué Chula](https://ayquechulatx.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). But queer Texans in suburban and rural areas of the state only find space on certain nights. In certain buildings. Under certain circumstances. In rural areas, a single closure can erase the only regular queer gathering space for miles. A Pride organization in Laredo survives on unpaid labor. A drag show in West Texas packs up again, searching for a venue willing to say yes. Taken together, these moments show how uneven survival has become across the state — and who is being asked to carry it. #### Last Call for the Girlies, Gays, and Theys For nearly a decade, Artisan Craft Bar operated quietly outside San Antonio’s main gay strip, a [distillery and lounge](https://www.instagram.com/artisancraftbar/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that became a foothold for drag performers, leather groups, queer artists, and first-time bartenders. “The gay community is everywhere,” Nicholas Spink, the bar’s owner and master distiller, told *The Barbed Wire.* “So, there should be gay bars everywhere.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/nichols-spink-speaks-to-tbw.png) Nicholas Spink speaking to The Barbed Wire about his bar's challenges. Artisan’s location was intentional. Relocating to a spot downtown in 2016 from their original distillery-only location on the northwest side of San Antonio, Spink believed queer spaces should not be confined to a single corridor. For years, on Sunday afternoons, the moody bar transformed into a mini bazaar as tents popped up in the parking lot and patio and vendors sold their goods. Drag queens dipped and flipped as they lip synced their way through patrons lounging on red sofas at brunch. But the distance from the city’s concentration of gay bars came with trade-offs. Without bar-hoppers spilling in from neighboring clubs, Artisan depended on intentional programming: drag brunches, bingo nights, comedy shows, leather community events, Pride fundraisers, and queer art markets. *Like our investigative journalism?* ***The Barbed Wire i*** **s always free to read…but investigative journalism isn’t free to make.* Support from our readers helps pay for the open records requests, document review, and travel expenses that make tough investigative reporting like this story come to life. Pitch in below — or [become a member of The Barbed Wire](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/become-a-member/), today.* Artisan became a bridge, mixing first-time performers with experienced acts rather than separating talent by status. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/lgbtq-comedy-night-at-artisan-craft-bar.png) A comedian doing a set during LGBTQ+ Comedy Night at Artisan Craft Bar. But the past year has been a lot tougher. Spink said costs have risen across nearly every part of the business. “The economy’s just changed a lot,” said Spink. “A lot of people aren’t drinking.” Though Artisan produced its own spirits on-site, Spink said tariffs and supply chain pressures drove costs up. It’s part of a broader contraction in nightlife, but one that has landed especially hard on LGBTQ spaces. “I think it's hitting the LGBTQ+ community really hard, because people don't have the money,” he said. As his lease was set to expire in February 2025, Spink said signing another five-year term while losing money wasn’t realistic. Spink chose to close instead, citing costs. Now San Antonio will also have one less gay venue. On the last Sunday in January, battling the cold snap, Artisan closed for good. “I’m going out of business,” he said. “Entirely out of business.” When asked what’s next, Sprink said, “Good question. I don’t know.” He’s certainly not the only Texas owner struggling to maintain LGBTQ+ spaces. San Antonio staple [Luther’s Café closed in 2022](https://www.expressnews.com/food/restaurants/article/Luthers-Cafe-North-Main-Avenue-diner-closed-17502491.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com), along with juice bar [The Lemon Girls](https://www.mysanantonio.com/food/article/lemon-girls-closing-20278703.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in 2025\. [Retro Sips & Brews](https://www.instagram.com/retrosipsnbrews/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which replaced The Lemon Girls later the same year, closed too. Both were lesbian-owned and hosted community events. In Austin, [Sellers Underground closed in 2020](https://austin.eater.com/2020/12/9/22163869/sellers-underground-closes-downtown-austin-bar-pandemic??ref=thebarbedwire.com), along with [Bout Time 2](https://austin.eater.com/2020/5/8/21251965/bout-time-2-austin-gay-bar-closed-thai-fresh-covid-19-employee-positive??ref=thebarbedwire.com). In 2023 the [Coconut Club ](https://www.kut.org/business/2023-12-05/coconut-club-is-still-on-track-to-close-down?ref=thebarbedwire.com)learned it would be torn down for development; it’s technically still open as of press time, but there’ve been no updates on an official shut down. While [Cheer Up Charlie’s is still alive](https://www.kut.org/business/2026-03-11/cheer-up-charlies-austin-tx-temporary-lockout-unpaid-rent?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — for now — the owners were mistakenly locked out this month following a late rent payment. Dallas saw [Cedar Springs Tap House](https://www.instagram.com/cs%5Ftaphouse/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [The Urban Cowboy Saloon](https://www.facebook.com/TheUrbanCowboySaloon/) close in 2023, along with [Halo’s ft. Rainbow 2.0](https://www.facebook.com/halosftx/) in 2024, and [Hamburger Mary’s in 2025](https://www.chron.com/food/article/hamburger-marys-closes-texas-dallas-21017933.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). In Houston, [Guava Lamp](https://houston.eater.com/2020/10/9/21508854/guava-lamp-houston-lgbt-bar-closed-after-22-years-papis-nite-club-opening-waugh-drive??ref=thebarbedwire.com) closed in 2020, [KIKI and Buddy’s](https://www.chron.com/culture/article/houston-gay-bar-closure-19512401.php??ref=thebarbedwire.com) closed in 2024 just days after Pride, and the [Houston Eagle](https://www.chron.com/culture/article/gay-bar-houston-eagle-closed-20766769.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [Star Sailor closed in 2025](https://houston.eater.com/2025/3/25/24393314/houston-queer-bar-star-sailor-closing?ref=thebarbedwire.com). All these cities still maintain multiple queer bars and venues. Not everything is gone, but it’s clear that the community has narrowed. The same is [happening on college campuses](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/communities-ripped-apart-on-texas-college-campuses-lgbtq-services-have-been-completely-decimated/): In the two years since public universities were forced to implement anti-DEI policies, *The Barbed Wire* found that 12 queer resource centers and programs have closed — along with the layoffs or transfers of at least 100 people. #### The Bar That Took a Chance For Diamond, a San Antonio-born drag performer and producer, Artisan wasn’t just another booking. It was the place that made her return to drag possible two years ago, and the launch of her local drag entertainment company, AD Productions. “Artisan was the first place that ever gave me a chance,” said Diamond. “I walked into bars all over the city, even on the strip, and I got laughed at. I got told no.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/diamond-and-other-entertains-get-ready-in-unusual-places-like-this-hallway-behind-ay-que-chula-before-show-e1773935737767.png) Diamond and other entertainers get ready in unusual places like this hallway behind Ay Que Chula before shows. Diamond pitched shows wherever she could, offering off-nights, early evenings — anything to get her foot in the door. She even tried renting hotel ballrooms and event spaces on her own. “This was kind of becoming the time where drag was becoming more into the front lines of political views,” she said. “So, it was hard.” Then Spink at Artisan said yes. What began as a show with five performers grew to 13, many of whom got their first consistent bookings on Artisan’s stage. Diamond performed a residency twice a week there, and with performances at other venues, was able to meet her expenses. In January though, with Artisan closing, that income disappeared both for her and the performers she was booking at Artisan. “I was doing shows with him two days out of the week,” Diamond said. “Economically, that’s going to affect myself; it’s going to affect my girls. It’s going to affect everything in between.” Diamond said the closing of bars and venues like Artisan is about an entire ecosystem in the gay community. Her audiences wanted to support drag, but rising costs have reshaped how people spend. “They can drink one drink and then they can barely tip the girls,” Diamond said. At the same time, venues have scaled back programming. Saturday brunches are cut. Night shows consolidated. Performers are expected to innovate constantly, often for less pay and fewer guarantees. “At this stage, people would rather pull the plug than give us another shot,” she said. Beyond the money, Diamond told *The Barbed Wire* social media hate and doxxing have made it a more dangerous environment. “People have a phone, and people have a camera… and then that’s viral and now you have been mislabeled and misunderstood,” Diamond said. Still, she stays. And, when the Tina Turner song drops, she’s ready to give it to the audience. Old school. “Even though the economy’s hard, even though you may not feel a lot of joy in your life,” she said, “please come to a show.” Diamond now hosts drag shows at other venues in San Antonio like Ay Que Chula and Paramour at the Phipps. #### Innovation’s a Necessity About 140 miles southeast of San Antonio, the [Mosaic Project of South Texas](https://tmpst.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a non-profit that operates Pride Corpus Christi, told *The Barbed Wire* that the footprint of where they feel welcome in town has shrunk. The non-profit has no brick-and-mortar location, so it relies on a network of borrowed rooms, churches, galleries, and clinics to host Pride events, mental health groups, and transgender resource distribution. Jonathan Swindle, board chair of Mosaic, said Corpus has fewer than 10 spaces that are LGBTQIA+ owned. Though they are “very few and far between,” the organization has kept track of the number of restroom facilities that are safe spaces for the queer community. In eight years, they’ve counted 228 safe restrooms people can use, at locations both LGBTQ+-owned and not; but that number is dwindling. Jonathan said that organizations, businesses, governmental entities, and longtime partners are distancing themselves because of the chilling effect of anti-DEI measures — like [January’s presidential executive order](https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-radical-and-wasteful-government-dei-programs-and-preferencing/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and the [Education Department's use of Title VI to target DEI initiatives](https://www.insidehighered.com/news/government/politics-elections/2026/02/26/eds-dei-guidance-dead-trumps-crackdown-isnt?ref=thebarbedwire.com). ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/screenshot-2026-03-19-at-09-34-03-edited.png) Credit: Courtesy of Jonathan Swindle In 2025, Mosaic canceled their annual movie night after a board member lost their position at a local movie theater. Then, that same year, they ended their Pride Ball fundraiser after the Bay Jewel —– an event center in Corpus —– was sold. The sale also ended drag entertainment for weddings and parties, according to Jonathan. A comedy night was also canceled at a local club due to loss of funding. Then, Mosaic lost access to its partnership with the local Coastal Bend AIDS Foundation when it was restructured as the Coastal Bend Wellness Foundation. “That’s been very detrimental to how we’ve organized,” said Jonathan. It left the nonprofit to prioritize the most crucial community services, like their transgender resource initiative and mental health support groups. The stakes are higher in Corpus Christi because the city has only one long-standing gay bar, [The Hidden Door](https://thehiddendoorcc.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Jonathan said the organization has already had conversations about what happens if it closes. The loss of queer spaces has compounded financial strains for Mosaic. Sponsorship revenue dropped from about $75,000 in 2024 to roughly half — $38,000 — in 2025\. Several long-time sponsors, including city entities and health organizations, pulled back or disengaged entirely. Costs have also risen. Mosaic faced a $900 tariff on compression garments to flatten chests (called binders) and binding tape they purchase for community members. “I paid for it,” Jonathan said. To survive, the organization has cut events, pivoted to grant funding, and softened public-facing language. “So that we can offer to our long-term partners,” Jonathan said, “ways for them to support programs that don’t have those certain keywords, like DEI, LGBTQIA+.” #### When Queer Joy Has Nowhere to Live On the border in Laredo, there are no gay bars left. “There was one and it just closed,” said Fabelina “Fabi” Guerra, a board member with the [Gateway City Pride Association in Laredo](https://gatewaycitypride.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “I'm not even sure if it lasted the year.” Replay Bar & Patio had its [grand opening in April 2025](https://www.instagram.com/p/DIjOKtvMiLE/?utm%5Fsource=ig%5Fweb%5Fcopy%5Flink&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==), about four blocks and a street over from the Juarez-Lincoln International Bridge 1\. It [was closed by the end of the year](https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61567108732223). Nothing replaced it, leaving Gateway City Pride — an entirely volunteer-run organization — back at zero. Pride events, outreach, and programming are organized by a handful of people meeting in living rooms or over Zoom. “I am concerned that if we stop doing what we do, there’s not going to be anything else,” Guerra said. Gateway City Pride, made up of seven board members, is just five years old. Volunteers are hard to come by, and Guerra said private support rarely translates into public backing. “I have a lot of friends and family that accept me,” she said. “But that doesn’t mean they defend and support the cause.” Along the border, queer life is shaped less by hostility than by a loud community absence. There are no casual places to gather, and if there are events, they’re mostly tied to survival — mental health, HIV awareness, and education. “All of that is very important,” Guerra said. “But I would just like to be able to attend something where it’s not tied to that constantly.” Guerra wants queer joy without explanation. She wants to experience drag at brunch without having to cross into Mexico or drive hours north to San Antonio. She wants spaces like the ones she saw on a recent trip to Miami with her wife. “I literally started to tear up; I was just so happy, seeing people happy. There were straight people there too, very welcoming… It was a beautiful feeling I’ve never felt. And I don’t get that here down on the border,” Guerra said. “We have to travel outside the country sometimes to feel accepted and to feel ourselves.” The threatening political rhetoric and lack of visible allies has led to organizer burnout and a struggle to keep showing up. Guerra worries about what comes next if leadership steps away. Guerra and other board members have discussed finding successors, but “it’s not just something that you have people lining up for.” #### When Visibility Is the Risk In rural West Texas, queer people don’t disappear into crowds. In fact, hosting drag can feel like a liability. “None of us out here can make a living doing it full time,” said Cecilia Ford, a drag performer and organizer near Abilene. “We don't do it for the money because we understand that in order to create not only art, but safe space, it comes as a sacrifice.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/cecilia-ford.jpg) Cecilia Ford on stage during one of her performances. Ford was born and raised in Snyder and returned to the region in 2018 to care for family. She grew up in a conservative farming and ranching household and spent decades, she said, living in fear. “Cecilia was born out of a need to further a healing journey for myself and an unwillingness to live in fear anymore.” She lives more than an hour from Abilene — a routine commute in rural Texas. “Abilene has some really great little groups like Rainbows and Friends game night,” she said, “they meet at a private residence and they play board games or video games and they have outings.” Cecilia helped launch a monthly show in 2022, [the West Texas Drag Show](https://www.instagram.com/wtxdragshow/?hl=en&ref=thebarbedwire.com), at a small venue in Abilene, Homer’s Bar and Music Venue. The owners — a straight couple — opened their doors and encouraged performers to build community until closing due to health issues. “They gave it to us till the very last day.” There are no dedicated gay bars in Abilene. No queer coffee shops that consistently host events. Shows rotate through borrowed rooms and short-term goodwill. Performers drive hours, to as far as Dallas or Austin, for pay that barely covers gas. In West Texas, Ford said, most bars already operate on thin margins. In September 2025, Abilene Pride faced threats serious enough to draw federal attention after a man from the area posted online threats about shooting up the parade. He admitted he made the posts to FBI agents and pleaded guilty in October. [He was formally sentenced in February 2026](https://www.lubbockonline.com/story/news/courts/2026/02/18/anson-man-sentenced-in-lubbock-court-for-abilene-pride-event-threats/88743040007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “I didn't allow any of my girls to be in drag on my float,” Cecilia added, “because I was scared for their lives.” #### ‘A Place Where Hope Quietly Takes Hold’ In Lubbock, queer loss doesn’t always look like a closure. Tricia Earl, co-founder of [OUTwest Lubbock](https://www.outwestlubbock.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), said the story of queer West Texas is less about what has closed than what has never been permitted to fully exist in public. “We are surviving,” Earl wrote, through the organizations “that work in the shadows.” For decades, Earl says Lubbock’s queer infrastructure has relied on semi-private spaces rather than nightlife. Groups like PFLAG Lubbock and Queer Sober Lubbock meet in churches. The city’s most visible LGBTQ+ presence is its annual Pride event. “If you have little,” Earl asked, “then is there less to lose?” Earl said the city’s lone long-running gay bar, Luxor, opened in 1998 and still operates out of the same building. Over time, it has adapted to survive in a nightlife district increasingly dominated by student housing. That shift, Earl said, reflects a post-COVID reality in West Texas: Queer space is increasingly built through relationships, not ownership, with drag performers forging temporary alliances with straight venues willing to host. Still, Earl rejected the idea of West Texas as a cultural void. “Most Texans pass through, windshield-focused and in a hurry,” she wrote. “But those who pull over, who linger long enough to really look, sometimes find themselves staying far longer than they planned. What they discover is not a mirage, but a glimmer of resistance — rooted, stubborn, and enduring — a place where hope quietly takes hold.” ### Musician Carter St. Hogan Honed His Trans Identity in Texas Honky-Tonks Before Fighting ICE in Minneapolis URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/musician-carter-st-hogan-trans-identity-texas-fighting-ice/ Last updated: 2026-03-18T12:29:39.000Z Artist Carter St. Hogan starts all of his performances with an unexpected bit: asking the audience to choose between two mustaches. “I’m a trans person who still cannot grow a mustache. It’s not in me. I don’t have the genetics,” Hogan explained during an unofficial SXSW showcase last week at the White Horse, a historic country music venue and the oldest club in Austin. Hogan, who performs country and folk music as [Creekbed Carter](https://www.creekbedcarter.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), had everyone present vote by applause on two highly specific choices of mustache. “We’re going to remember what democracy feels like, just for a moment, here in this dive bar,” Hogan told the laughing audience. That afternoon, the choice was between the mustache of “a very gay tennis instructor” and his Uncle Mark’s mustache. The White Horse crowd voted for the latter — which turned out to be big, broad, and bushy — and Hogan drew it on his face using a makeup mirror and an eyeliner pencil from Walgreens. In a subsequent interview with *The Barbed Wire* at an Austin area bookstore and cafe, Hogan explained that he sees the mustache bit as part of a drag performance, and a way to make the audience an accomplice in the creation of his gender identity. “That mustache becomes a way to make other people in dive bars comfortable with me, right? Because I'm about to talk about being trans, (and) it's not a thing we do in fucking dive bars full of working class people or margarita moms,” Hogan said. Hogan hopes that voting on a mustache also opens people up to other conversations about gender identity. It did for him. Exploring masculine archetypes of country music in his performances helped Hogan figure out what it meant, for him, to be transmasculine. Hogan came out publicly as transgender at his first Creekbed Carter performance in 2021, at Austin’s Sahara Lounge, as clubs reopened in the wake of the pandemic. “During that year (of) isolation, we really had to reckon with some shit, and I was like, ‘OK, I think I am truly a trans person,” Hogan recalled. Before that show, he drew his first eyeliner-pencil mustache, and said he felt like he was simultaneously coming out as transgender while stepping into a rich tradition of country and western musicians — like Nanci Griffith or Lyle Lovett — who build their identities through the songs they play. “It’s honest, but it also comes with an element of performance,” he said. After continuing to hone his identity, he released a [self-titled album](https://www.creekbedcarter.com/creekbed-carter-album?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in 2024. But while Hogan felt at home in the musical traditions of Texas, he didn’t always feel so welcome in its political landscape. During the [2023 legislative session](https://www.texastribune.org/2023/03/06/texas-legislature-lgbtq-bills/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Hogan protested and testified against some of the many anti-transgender and anti-LGBTQ+ bills being debated that year. Although he was awed at the strength and resiliency of the community who came out to fight for their rights, he said he still felt beaten down by the process. “You can only look at elected officials looking you dead in the eye and calling you a pedophile and an aberration and a monster and a deviant for so long before you're starting to internalize some of it,” he said. His partner, a trans woman, also began feeling increasingly unsafe in Texas around that time. So they left for Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota. They’re hardly alone in fleeing Texas for places that seem more welcoming to trans people. One 2025 [study by the Movement Advancement Project](https://www.mapresearch.org/2025-norc-survey-report?ref=thebarbedwire.com) estimated [over 400,000 transgender people](https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/over-400000-transgender-people-have?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in the United States moved states after Donald Trump’s second presidential election. Minnesota currently has the [highest population of people who identify as transgender](https://www.mprnews.org/episode/2025/09/08/report-minnesota-has-highest-share-of-adults-who-identify-as-transgender-in-us?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in the U.S., according to [a September 2025 report](https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/publications/trans-adults-united-states/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) by the UCLA School of Law Williams Institute. In Minneapolis, Hogan believed it would be easier and safer for them to find employment and access healthcare, including gender-affirming care (he’s started taking hormone replacement therapy since moving). “It’s so hard to earn a living if you don’t work for a tech company,” Hogan said. “No judgment for anyone, get your bag (because) we’re in the end times, but I can’t do it without exploding inside.” But he also yearned to surround himself with other trans people and live in a place where he felt their rights were supported. “What if every second of your life was not a battle constantly for resources and for care and for relief?” he remembered asking himself. Hogan said he enjoys returning to visit Texas, but is glad he left for his and his partner’s mental health. “Others have stayed, and (that’s) incredible and beautiful and important.” Up north, he’s joined [communities organizing](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/lgbtq-texans-in-defense-of-immigrants/) against the federal invasion of the Twin Cities, while continuing to write music that’s now influenced by that state’s rich history of labor organizing and resistance to injustice. He joined the [Twin Cities United Performers](https://www.instagram.com/tcupmn/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), an advocacy organization for musicians. Hogan said pre-existing groups like the United Performers have also been pivotal in [mobilizing to protect immigrant neighbors](https://creekbedcarter.substack.com/p/minnesota-forever) against the [record-breaking Department of Homeland Security operations](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/abolish-ice-gains-traction-after-mom-shot-minneapolis/) there in recent months. “When people started getting murdered in the streets by ICE, we had communities to tap into.” During his performance at the White Horse, Hogan talked openly about what he’s seen. “It has been literally horrific, and it’s worse than it looks, and it’s still happening.” But he’s also inspired by the state’s long history of working class labor and union organizing, as well as its history of [resistance to police injustices](https://time.com/5847967/george-floyd-protests-trump/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “Minnesotans … they’ve been violently striking against cops since the dawn of time,” he added. During the past year, he’s been writing new songs for a future album based on that history, under a grant from the [Cedar Cultural Center](https://www.thecedar.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of Minneapolis. He performed one example at the White Horse, leading the audience in singing along with the chorus of an as-yet unnamed song, “slowing that machine of empire down.” The revolutionary acts in the song aren’t about huge confrontations, but smaller acts of defiance, like being an openly transgender chef at a logging camp. The full chorus of the song goes, “Well you can mind your own business, or jump into the fray, because so often resistance means just getting through your day. It’s true that sometimes heroics means just getting in the way and slowing that machine of empire down.” Despite it all, Hogan believes that these smaller actions, from painted-on mustaches to organizing a union at your workplace, are building a better future for all of us. “The thing we want is there, like it feels so actionable, and I probably won't see it in my lifetime, but my god, to be able to help build that is absolutely worth it,” he told *The Barbed Wire.* Creekbed Carter’s next album, “PEASANTS REVOLT,” is due out from [Gar Hole Records](https://garholerecords.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in summer of 2026. ## More Queer Music Around SXSW Los Angeles-based Australian electronic musician [KUČKA](https://www.instagram.com/iamkucka/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) wowed an audience at Austin’s queer bar Cheer Up Charlie’s with their bright, poppy, live digital mixing and ethereal vocals, during Saturday’s Neko Rave, an unofficial showcase that raised money to support [Austin Pet’s Alive](https://www.austinpetsalive.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) animal shelter. KUČKA told *The Barbed Wire* that they love visiting Austin on tour, but worry about the future for themself and their wife, who is of Mexican heritage, in the United States. “The community that I'm part of in Australia just feels a little more, ‘We want to help everyone. We think people should get social benefits.’ Whereas in the U.S. … there's a bit less compassion from the wider society for people that need help.” KUČKA’s album [Can You Hear Me Dreaming](https://www.canyouhearmedreaming.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) is out now, and they’re about to return to the studio to record their next. Over in the official showcases, Georgetown-based [XBValentine](https://www.instagram.com/xbvalentine/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) introduced a Thursday-night audience at Swan Dive to new Spanish-language hip hop from her upcoming album “Mujer Con Proposito,” or “Woman with a Purpose.” After building a fanbase through performing in English, including [over 160,000 followers on TikTok](https://www.tiktok.com/@xbvalentine?ref=thebarbedwire.com), she told *The Barbed Wire* she now feels confident enough to rap in her first language. “I'm really sure about who I am as a person, and I think just kind of embracing all of that and adding that into the music,” she said. A lifelong Texan, she said she worries she might have to move someday in order to safely raise children with her wife. “At the end of the day, I think that's why we have to keep speaking up, keep trying to fight for our rights as much as we can.” https://www.tiktok.com/@xbvalentine/video/7604210287734033677 ### From ‘Kung Flu’ to the Matcha Craze, Asian American Business Owners Say It’s Been a Whiplash Six Years Since Covid URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/covid-asian-american-business-owners-in-texas-describe-a-whiplash-six-years/ Last updated: 2026-03-12T04:59:00.000Z Walk into Hannah Foy’s specialty coffee shop [LauLau](https://www.laulauatx.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in Central Austin, and there’s a good chance her father is washing dishes in the kitchen. Her mother — whom the cafe is named after — is usually at the register taking orders for their signature Mala Latte with Sichuan peppercorn or Black Sesame Hot Chocolate. The menu is deeply personal and inspired by her heritage and Chinese American family, Foy told *The Barbed Wire*. Foy and her husband Chris relocated from Minneapolis to Austin in 2020. “I began seriously pursuing what it would look like to open up my shop as a direct result of the pandemic and its aftermath, including the anti-Asian hate that came with it and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement,” Foy said. “I really felt a push to create a space that combated societal challenges that were suddenly at the forefront of everything.” LauLau officially opened in October 2025\. The launch happened in a [turbulent](https://time.com/7340573/donald-trump-timeline-first-year-second-term/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) economic and political time, and her business, like other small businesses, faces a myriad of challenges. Still, Foy said she’s determined to publicly [take a stand](https://www.instagram.com/p/DUHPz3mjbc0/?utm%5Fsource=ig%5Fweb%5Fcopy%5Flink&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==) against President Donald Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement and its [legally dubious](https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/fact-sheet/ice-cbp-legal-analysis/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) tidal wave of [arrests and deportations](https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trumps-early-immigration-enforcement-record-by-numbers-2026-02-24/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — and put the family cafe’s “values front and center.” “We are anti-ICE, anti-genocide, anti-billionaire, and anti-oppression in all its forms,” the store [posted on its Instagram page](https://www.instagram.com/p/DUHPz3mjbc0/?utm%5Fsource=ig%5Fweb%5Fcopy%5Flink&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==) several weeks ago. “This is woven into the fabric of who we are at Lau Lau, and we stand forever in solidarity with immigrant communities.” Asian American and Pacific Islander chefs and cafe owners in Texas spoke with *The Barbed Wire* six years after COVID-19 was [declared](https://www.who.int/news-room/speeches/item/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-media-briefing-on-covid-19---11-march-2020?ref=thebarbedwire.com) a pandemic in March 2020\. Some are fearful of the current political and economic climate, but despite it all, said they remain hopeful about the future. Many are struggling with Trump’s [ever-changing tariffs](https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/21/business/trump-global-tariffs-increase-supreme-court?ref=thebarbedwire.com), along with a new frenzy of anti-immigrant sentiments from the federal government, and a complex [embrace](https://foodinstitute.com/test-site/focus/from-h-mart-to-mainstream-the-rise-of-asian-food-brands/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of Asian foods and culture driven by trend cycles. In 2020, fears for the lives and safety of Asian Americans during the pandemic were [well-founded](https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/03/17/us/shooting-atlanta-acworth?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Hate crimes against Asian Americans —– from [public attacks and killings](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/19/us/San-francisco-attacks-Asians.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of the elderly to verbal harassment —– soared in the United States with a total of [nearly 11,000 incidents reported](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/stopaapihate-org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/22-sah-nationalreport-3-1-22-final.pdf) between March 2020 and December 2021, according to data collected and analyzed by the organization [Stop AAPI Hate](https://stopaapihate.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Texas [ranked fourth](https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/texas/texas-ranks-4th-in-anti-asian-racist-incidents-how-to-stop-the-aapi-hate/287-6f10e1f8-64c4-4434-8be3-71fca2eb8a3e?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in the nation, with 103 hate incidents reported. These included the [vandalization](https://kval.com/news/nation-world/youre-not-going-to-scare-me-restaurant-owner-speaks-out-after-anti-asian-vandalism?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of a San Antonio Asian-owned restaurant and the [stabbings](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/texas-man-sentenced-25-years-jail-slashing-attack-asian-family-blamed-rcna41689?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of a father, child, and store-employee in Midland. Trump himself spent a significant portion of the last months in his first term pushing harmful rhetoric and racist speech that helped [fuel xenophobic sentiment](https://abcnews.com/Health/trumps-chinese-virus-tweet-helped-lead-rise-racist/story?id=76530148&ref=thebarbedwire.com) on X and in real life. Using the slur “[Kung Flu](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/trump-can-t-claim-kung-flu-doesn-t-affect-asian-n1231812?ref=thebarbedwire.com)” at a campaign rally, for example, inaccurately attached an ethnicity to a deadly virus while normalizing [scapegoating](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/anniversary-vincent-chin-death-relevant-era-kung-flu-covid-10-n1231888?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [prejudice](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9475372/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) against Asian Americans. Fast forward to 2026, and stories about [Korean skincare](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj9y43mv332o?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and beauty trends, [must-try Omakase](https://www.finedininglovers.com/explore/articles/the-rise-of-new-american-omakase?ref=thebarbedwire.com) restaurants, and Adidas’ [viral](https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/16/style/adidas-tang-jacket-chinese-new-year-trend-intl-hnk?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Chinese New Year jacket fill search results instead. 2026 is the year of the fire horse, a rare sign in the Chinese Zodiac that only occurs every 60 years, and white women [are](https://www.tiktok.com/@healingbestiekristina/video/7607662061362924813?q=fire%20horse&t=1773249791620&ref=thebarbedwire.com) [teaching everyone](https://www.tiktok.com/@22kam%5Frelatable%5Fmom/video/7607857689565072654?q=fire%20horse&t=1773249905722&ref=thebarbedwire.com) [about it on TikTok](https://www.tiktok.com/@thekristenshea/video/7606966376875461902?q=year%20of%20the%20horse&t=1773248698192&ref=thebarbedwire.com). There’s a sense of whiplash: “It’s such a big shift in such a short amount of time,” Foy said. It seems to be “trendy to be Asian” now, she added, pointing to videos about Asian cuisine and culture by non-Asian influencers in her ‘For You Page.’ On one hand, Foy said it is fortunate that Asian culture is “being embraced so heavily by non-Asian communities.” But her worry is that this momentum feels “fragile since it is only a few years since I was afraid for my family and friends to leave the house and be targeted,” Foy said. “We coincidentally opened our shop during this ‘trend,’ but we're not a trend,” Foy continued. “LauLau really was built for us and it feels like a space that I always have wanted to see myself. We’ve been here since before the trend, and we'll be here long after it’s over.” #### ‘Hard to Keep Up’ Meanwhile, raids have [targeted immigrants](https://stopaapihate.org/2026/03/05/keeping-count-a-pi-adults-feel-the-impact-of-ice-as-arrests-quadruple-under-trump/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in Asian communities all over the country, leading to detainments, deportations, and deaths. [Two-thirds](https://aapidata.com/featured/by-the-numbers-immigration/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#foreign-born-populations) of Asian Americans are foreign-born, the only racial group where a majority of its members are born outside of the U.S., with [390,000](https://aapidata.com/featured/by-the-numbers-immigration/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#lawful-permanent-residents) Asian immigrants over the past decade applying and receiving green cards; [1 in 8](https://aapidata.com/featured/by-the-numbers-immigration/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#undocumented-immigrants) Asian immigrants in the U.S. are undocumented. Sixty percent of Asian Americans are pessimistic about the future of the U.S., and 41% identified immigration policies as a top concern, according to a [January 2026 AAPI Data](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/aapidata-com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/aapi-data-ap-norc-poll-14-report-1.pdf) report conducted by The AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research at the University of Chicago. Racial profiling and detention of Southeast Asians in Minnesota, where the largest [Hmong community in the U.S. resides](https://www.fox9.com/doc-9/hmong-twin-cities?ref=thebarbedwire.com), prompted the creation of the [Twin Cities Rapid Response Fund](https://aapip.app.neoncrm.com/campaigns/aapip-twin-cities-rapid-response-fund?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Japanese Americans [have spoken out](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/30/us/japanese-internment-camp-trump-immigration.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) about the glaring similarities between the current crackdown and the more than 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry who were forced by the federal government to live in hastily constructed internment camps across the West, including in Texas [at Fort Bliss](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-fort-bliss-ice-detention-facility-at-site-of-wwii-internment-camp/). At least five of the 30 detainees who died in ICE custody in 2025 were Asian nationals, as Russell Jeong [wrote for *The Los Angeles Times*](https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2026-01-06/asian-immigrants-in-ice-custody?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The deaths of [Nhon Ngoc Nguyen](https://www.abqjournal.com/news/vietnamese-man-living-in-albuquerque-dies-months-after-being-taken-into-ice-custody/482307?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Tien Xuan Phan, Kaiyin Wong, and Huabing Xie received limited public attention. However, when investigators [ruled 32-year-old ](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/nyregion/child-father-deported-china-nyc.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&ref=thebarbedwire.com)[Chaofeng Ge](https://abcnews.go.com/US/ice-detainee-found-hanging-neck-detention-facility-agency/story?id=124445669&ref=thebarbedwire.com)’s August 2025 death a suicide, [his family filed a headline-grabbing lawsuit](https://ny1.com/nyc/manhattan/news/2025/11/13/family-of-man-found-dead-in-ice-facility-sues-government?ref=thebarbedwire.com) after [an autopsy report stated that he was found with his hands and feet tied](https://www.scrippsnews.com/investigations/ice-inc/autopsy-raises-questions-about-death-at-private-ice-detention-center?ref=thebarbedwire.com) behind his back. And in 2026, those numbers have kept climbing: Lorth Sim, 59, immigrated to the U.S. in 1983 as a Cambodian refugee. [He died in immigration detention](https://www.reuters.com/world/eleven-people-died-us-immigration-custody-this-year-ice-says-2026-03-09/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) last month in Indiana. In this climate, it's not surprising that 35 Asian American individual retailers and restaurant owners in Texas did not respond — or declined to be interviewed — for a news story when reached by *The Barbed Wire*. And there are new challenges now, as inflation from Trump’s rash of tariffs have driven up the cost of buying goods for [Sip Munch Cafe](https://www.sipmunchcafe.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a Vietnamese Boba shop in North Austin owned by Han Bui and his fianceé. “It’s very hard to keep up because we cannot just keep increasing the price of our menu based on the changing supply all the time,” Han said. “It affects not just the macro but micro level as well: People are more cautious with spending and staying in more.” Han is a first generation business owner who immigrated to the U.S. 16 years ago with a background in information technology. Sip Munch, he said, was started with the vision and goal of expanding people’s access and exposure to Vietnamese snacks and drinks. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DAHUqRDplxR/?utm\_source=ig\_web\_copy\_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== While he has enjoyed personal growth and hopes to turn the cafe into a franchise by 2027, Han said he believes the U.S. is in a recession that could last years. “The unthinkable policies the Trump administration could push out has everyone in a ‘it depends what comes next’ mode,” Han said. The “inconsistent” trade policies and unclear communication have trickled-down on her as a small business owner too, Foy said. It’s been hard to balance paying her employees a livable wage and keeping her store accessible to customers, while the vendors she buys from raise prices to compensate for tariffs. Imperial-grade matcha powder, for example, is imported from across Japan. “The popularity of matcha tea and lattes has skyrocketed in the past couple of years as part of a wellness craze,” Foy said, but she’s still trying to figure out if she can even afford the amount required to meet demand. “It’s very difficult to plan for the future,” she added. #### ‘Function Out of Chaos’ As executive chef and owner of [Koffeteria](https://www.koffeteria.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), two-time James Beard Award semifinalist Vanarin Kuch knows a thing or two about having to adapt and plan for the future in unprecedented times. Kuch is a self-taught pastry chef who found success early in his career, working in fine dining in Chicago and New York for more than 20 years. Kuch appeared on cooking shows “Chopped” and “Top Chef” before moving back home to Houston to start his own shop, he told *The Barbed Wire*. When he decided to take the plunge and open his cafe, COVID-19 hit just three months later. Keeping everyone safe became a priority, Kuch said, and he immediately closed indoor dining and required masks. Still, Kuch and his husband weathered the storm. Today, the couple manages the front and back of the house while Kuch’s father is the accountant. “It's all about adaptability and trying to find the function out of chaos,” Kuch said. All the flavors and recipes of Koffeteria are Cambodian inspired, but Kuch likes to infuse Houston staples and other cultures’ cuisines, he said. This is easy due to the fact that it's one of the most diverse cities in the country, with a robust Chinatown, a [well-established](https://www.texasalmanac.com/articles/czech-texans?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Czech community, and one of the [largest Vietnamese populations](https://www.pewresearch.org/race-and-ethnicity/fact-sheet/asian-americans-vietnamese-in-the-u-s/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in the U.S. As David Chang [once wrote for *GQ*](https://www.gq.com/story/david-chang-houston-food-city?ref=thebarbedwire.com), “When you get a collision of immigrants, the food scene is guaranteed to be bonkers.” Kuch’s most popular item is a mouthwatering Beef Pho Kalache, a brisket stirred in pho wrapped in a milk roll with sriracha and hoisin. “I wanted to come back and open up something that was a love letter to Houston, the progression of my life, where I'm at now, and tying this inevitable force between cooking Cambodian food and what it means to be Cambodian American,” Kuch said. Thankfully, Kuch said, the tariffs are not affecting Koffeteria’s business as much as other purveyors report, since many ingredients can be grown or sourced in Houston, which has a similar climate to Cambodia. Sourcing is so local, Kuch said he has a whole garden wall of lime leaves right outside his home. He made *The New York Times* [Best Bakery List](https://www.nytimes.com/article/best-bakeries-america.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for the U.S., and he’s getting a second Koffeteria location up and running in Houston. “It became something more than just making pastries,” Kuch told *The Barbed Wire*. “We are a Cambodian-owned, and a Cambodian-inspired bakery that is just trying to tell a story of what it's like to be Cambodian American in the United States.” #### ‘There’s Hope’ All told, Han said he felt like this attention and increased popularity of Asian food and culture is a “benefit for consumers,” both Asian and non-Asian American identifying. “Before, we had to go to Houston or Dallas a lot just to get this kind of cuisine, but nowadays we don't have to drive that much,” Han said. “It's more competitive in a good way since we need to have more options and evolve faster in this current climate, but, for me it still is a double edged sword.” And there’s hope, Foy said, in finding allies in and outside of the AAPI community . “So many people have our backs in the way that we have theirs as well,” Foy said. “I don't really believe that anyone is coming to save us. The more we rely on, support, and get to know each other, the stronger we will be to face whatever comes next.” ### Austin Is Banding Together After Sixth Street Bar Shooting. Here’s How You Can Help. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/austin-bar-shooting-help/ Last updated: 2026-03-05T22:34:30.000Z *Our friends and partners at City Cast Austin have been covering the shooting that occurred at Austin’s Buford’s Backyard Beer Garden on Sunday, March 1\. This piece was [originally published in articles](https://austin.citycast.fm/austin-explainers/fbi-terrorism-austin-shooting-3-dead-14-hospitalized-bufords?ref=thebarbedwire.com) by [City Cast Austin,](https://austin.citycast.fm/best/how-help-bufords-shooting-downtown-austin?ref=thebarbedwire.com) written by Newsletter Editor Kelsey Bradshaw and Executive Producer Eva Ruth Moravec. For more updates, listen to their podcast every weekday morning.* The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Joint Terrorism Task Force is working with the Austin Police Department to investigate a potential act of terrorism after a shooting early Sunday left four people, including the gunman, dead, and 13 injured. “There were indicators, on the subject and in his vehicle, that indicate potential nexus to terrorism,” said Alex Doran, an FBI acting special agent in charge for the San Antonio field office. [Austin police identified](https://x.com/Austin%5FPolice/status/2028275435340009803?s=20&ref=thebarbedwire.com) the suspected shooter as Ndiaga Diagne. The *Associated Press* reported that [Diagne](https://www.statesman.com/news/local/article/bufords-austin-6th-street-shooting-21948608.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) was wearing a sweatshirt that said “Property of Allah,” and had on a shirt with an Iranian flag design. A motive has not yet been determined. Ryder Harrington, 19, died in the shooting, his friend confirmed to *City Cast Austin*. Asher Chang said Harrington was from Round Rock and attended Westwood High School before going to Texas Tech University in Lubbock. There, he joined the Beta Theta Pi fraternity, and though Harrington returned to Central Texas in recent months, he was extremely close to his fraternity brothers. “He was a really funny guy — super energetic, loud, he had a lot of friends,” Chang said. A vigil was held Monday night in Lubbock. On Monday, Austin police confirmed that Savitha Shan, 21, and Jorge Pederson, 30, had also died. Over at the University of Texas at Austin, [students mourned](https://thedailytexan.com/2026/03/02/ut-student-killed-multiple-injured-in-sixth-street-shooting/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) the loss of Shan, a fellow Longhorn. The UT Student Government [held a vigil Wednesday night](https://www.instagram.com/reels/DVfRBpfiHgv/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Gov. Greg Abbott directed the Texas Department of Public Safety to increase weekend patrols in Austin’s Sixth Street District, and also increased security, patrols, and surveillance at energy facilities, ports, along the border, and elsewhere throughout the state. “We must ensure enough boots on the ground to discourage criminal activity,” Abbott said in a statement, adding, “To anyone who thinks about using the current conflict in the Middle East to threaten Texans or our critical infrastructure, understand this clearly: Texas will respond with decisive and overwhelming force to protect our state.” Austin police responded to Buford's Backyard Beer Hall, at West Sixth and Rio Grande streets, around 2 a.m. Sunday as bars were closing. APD Chief Lisa Davis said Diagne opened fire at people on the Buford’s patio and outside the bar from a large SUV. Diagne then parked the SUV and began shooting at people with a rifle. Three police officers fatally shot Diagne as he walked east on West Sixth Street, Davis said. Austin Mayor Kirk Watson praised first responders on Sunday saying they were on-site and treating patients within 57 seconds of the call coming in. Police officers also made it to the scene very quickly, he said. “There is no question in my mind that the quick response of the police officers and of our EMS personnel and those professionals made a difference and saved lives,” Watson said. Buford’s remained closed on Monday while officials investigated the scene, combing the sidewalks for evidence. A memorial of flowers, notes, and other items were left outside of the bar. The bar posted a statement on social media saying, in part, that the victims were “young people with their whole lives ahead of them,” and that the FBI has offered Buford’s staff grief counseling services. APD Chief Lisa Davis gave additional updates at a Thursday press conference. Two people remain at local hospitals, with one in critical condition, Davis said. During its investigation this week, Austin police learned that 19 people were injured in the shooting, Davis said, sharing [video footage of the incident](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWWvThNj7FR0yS50wKhe7Dc9N18DK004P&ref=thebarbedwire.com) and two recordings of 9-1-1 calls. The three Austin police officers who shot and killed the suspected shooter [will not be charged](https://www.kxan.com/news/austin-mass-shooting/travis-county-da-not-pursuing-charges-against-officers-in-downtown-austin-mass-shooting/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Travis County District Attorney José Garza said. Davis said police shot Diagne after he opened fire on them. Body-worn camera footage shows police running toward Diagne as he stood at the corner of West Sixth Street and West Avenue. People outside the bar pointed officers to where Diagne was as they ran and hid. Davis said Diagne had no interaction with Austin police before this shooting, and his only engagement with law enforcement was a welfare check in New York in 2022\. That same year, a state civil court judge in Bexar County, which encompasses San Antonio, [said Diagne had a history of committing family violence](https://www.statesman.com/news/local/article/austin-shooting-suspect-domestic-violence-21953515.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Diagne’s ex-wife was given full custody of the couple’s two sons. ## Here’s How You Can Pitch In ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/buford-tx-how-to-help.webp) ## Give Blood We Are Blood is [asking for](https://www.instagram.com/p/DVWC5onDpjM/?hl=en&ref=thebarbedwire.com) O positive and O negative blood donations. You can schedule an appointment [to donate online](https://weareblood.org/donor/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Dozens of We Are Blood locations are available to choose from! ## Donate to a GoFundMe GoFundMe pages have been set up for Harrington, who was killed in the shooting; and 21-year-old Rodolfo “Rudy” Garza Jr., who is in the intensive care unit with a gunshot wound. The fundraiser for Harrington has [raised more than $120,000](https://www.gofundme.com/f/in-loving-memory-of-ryder-harrington?qid=3be6406d1a5560ae73d45cde7b99f62d&ref=thebarbedwire.com) and the fundraiser for Garza [has raised more than $310,000](https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-rudys-recovery-after-austin-tragedy?ref=thebarbedwire.com). ## Go to a Benefit Marfa Lights Bar, which neighbors Buford’s on West Sixth Street, is donating [100% of its total sales](https://www.instagram.com/p/DVZNmwlkSjW/?img%5Findex=1&ref=thebarbedwire.com) on Friday to victim families. The bar opens at 4 p.m. JABS, a burger restaurant at Fareground downtown, is donating [100% of its proceeds on Saturday](https://www.instagram.com/p/DVbUQhFDWJR/?hl=en&img%5Findex=1&ref=thebarbedwire.com) to Night Owl Therapy, which has been providing mental health services to Austin’s nightlife and hospitality community. Juliet Italian Kitchen is [hosting a 5K race on March 14](https://partiful.com/e/afTTwYaqzC2cvqsIpiik??ref=thebarbedwire.com) to raise money for victim families and families of people affected by the shooting. [A donation fund](https://www.spotfund.com/story/f5f04298-b087-4442-a141-d884b9394a25?source=s&share%5Flocation=c&SFID=z8m86zvsc&referral%5Fid=2f7c4756-7901-47e6-be4a-f8edfb409d3e) for families has been set up. *Subscribe to the City Cast Austin newsletter [here](https://austin.citycast.fm/newsletter?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and look for “City Cast Austin” wherever you get your podcasts.* ### More Than 1,000 Voters Were Turned Away Tuesday. ‘Total Chaos’ in Dallas Raises Alarms of Worsening Voter Suppression. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/more-than-1000-voters-were-turned-away-tuesday-total-chaos-in-dallas-raises-alarms-of-worsening-voter-suppression/ Last updated: 2026-03-05T17:44:34.000Z As if election nights weren't stressful enough, more than 1,000 voters were reportedly turned away from polling locations in Dallas on Tuesday. That count — from Kardal Coleman, the chair of the Dallas County Democratic Party, via the [*New York Times*](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/03/us/elections/dallas-voting-democrats-republicans.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — was only through the afternoon. By the evening it had devolved to “mass confusion,” a Dallas County judge said in an order extending voting by two hours. But before that time was up, the Texas Supreme Court put the extension on hold, and the [*Dallas Morning News* reported](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/elections/2026/03/03/dallas-county-extends-voting-for-democrats-to-9-pm-after-widespread-confusion/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that more voters were turned away. The chaos all stemmed from a change made by Republicans weeks ago — and is cause for alarm ahead of the general election in November. I am a resident of Travis County. One of the many great things I get to enjoy as an Austinite is county-wide voting. I have the luxury of casting my ballot at the polling location of my choosing — whether it’s by my friend’s house, my H-E-B, or my wife’s office. > [](https://twitter.com/%5FRebeccaMarques/status/2029138533685063805?s=20&ref=thebarbedwire.com) For years, residents of Williamson County and Dallas County have enjoyed that perk as well. That is, until the Republican parties there [declined to participate](https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/texas-democratic-voters-scramble-to-find-polling-place-amid-precinct-voting-switch/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in county-wide voting — meaning the Democratic county parties [had to follow suit](https://codes.findlaw.com/tx/election-code/elec-sect-43-007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), according to state law. Residents could only vote at their assigned precinct polling place based on their address. This caused the mass confusion the county judge noted on Election Day. Hundreds of voters who have, for years, cast their vote just like I have — wherever they wanted within the county — all of a sudden [found themselves turned away](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/elections/2026/03/03/were-seeing-chaos-hundreds-turned-away-at-dallas-county-polls-amid-switch-to-precincts/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) from polling places. The Texas Democratic Party claimed that “[hundreds](https://www.texasdemocrats.org/media/hundreds-of-voters-in-dallas-and-williamson-counties-affected-by-polling-location-confusion?ref=thebarbedwire.com)” of voters were denied access to the polls. The *Dallas Free Press* and *Votebeat* reported that [66-year-old Veronica Anderson walked 2.5 miles](https://www.votebeat.org/texas/2026/03/04/dallas-county-precinct-voting-problems-jasmine-crockett-james-talarico-democrats-gop/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center to vote — before finding out she was at the wrong location and would need to cast her ballot at a different precinct she’d never heard of and didn’t know how to get to. > [](https://twitter.com/scottbraddock/status/2028980216010264962?s=20&ref=thebarbedwire.com) “Let's be clear about what happened here,” said Kendall Scudder, the chairman of the Texas Democratic Party, [in a statement](https://www.texasdemocrats.org/media/hundreds-of-voters-in-dallas-and-williamson-counties-affected-by-polling-location-confusion?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “Both counties have spent a million dollars trying to get the word out about this change — a million dollars of taxpayer money that didn't need to be spent. Democrats pushed for a joint election. As it has been for eight years, It would have been cheaper, simpler, and more accessible for every voter in the county. Republicans said no.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/screenshot-2026-03-05-at-12-13-05.png) In addition, the Texas Secretary of State’s office didn’t receive an updated precinct map from Dallas County after the county’s precinct map was redrawn during the Texas GOP’s Trump-mandated [gerrymandering spree](https://www.npr.org/2025/12/04/nx-s1-5619692/supreme-court-texas-redistricting-map?ref=thebarbedwire.com) this summer. Due to this oversight, the state’s votetexas.gov website directed some voters to the wrong polling location, according to a [*Dallas Morning News* report](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/elections/2026/03/03/were-seeing-chaos-hundreds-turned-away-at-dallas-county-polls-amid-switch-to-precincts/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The local Democratic party sued. For a moment, it looked like all had been settled — voting in the Democratic primary in Dallas and Williamson Counties was [extended to 9 p.m.](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/03/03/jasmine-crockett-dallas-williamson-county-voting-changes/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), giving confused voters time to find their polling place and lawfully cast their vote. Then as is so often the case in Texas these days, Attorney General Ken Paxton swooped in. > [](https://twitter.com/Suzierizzo1/status/2029086044419694733?s=20&ref=thebarbedwire.com) Paxton asked the Texas Supreme Court to block the lower court’s voting extension, and the Supreme Court agreed — kind of. The court mandated that polling locations in Dallas County [set aside all votes cast by people who weren’t in line by 7 p.m.](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/03/03/jasmine-crockett-dallas-williamson-county-voting-changes/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), buying the court time to further mull over this decision. On Wednesday, the Texas Supreme Court determined that votes [cast by people in WIlliamson County between 7 and 10 p.m.](https://x.com/andrewlamparski/status/2029268665342787886?s=20&ref=thebarbedwire.com) would not be counted. Luckily, for all of our sanity, it looks as if the post-7 p.m. votes cast in Dallas County aren’t enough to sway the election. Texas state Rep. James Talarico [defeated ](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/talarico-beats-jasmine-crockett/)U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett [in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/talarico-beats-jasmine-crockett/), by about 150,000, so even if every one of the “set aside” votes broke Rep. Crockett’s way, it isn’t enough to change the outcome. Crockett is from Dallas and has a stronghold there. She conceded the race and called for party unity, but told the [*New York Times*](https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/03/04/us/primary-elections-midterms-tx-nc-ar/505a57a9-9c17-50c3-9e2b-98e1bb6f9643?smid=url-share&ref=thebarbedwire.com) that she was concerned her supporters could be reluctant to turn out in the general election, calling what happened in Dallas County voter suppression. “The Democratic Party should absolutely prepare for the worst and get some things litigated right now,” Crockett said to the *Times*. “People will not turn out because of what’s happened, in my opinion, especially if no one fights for their votes to be counted.” The precedent that this event set is chilling. Paxton has an interest in the outcome of the race. He is [headed to a May 26 runoff against U.S. Sen. John Cornyn](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/paxton-cornyn-runoff/) after neither managed to clear 50% in the Republican primary. The winner will face Talarico in the general election. Establishment Republicans have been so concerned that a Paxton victory could open the door to a Democratic victory, they’ve funneled tens of millions into support for Cornyn, who many think has better odds of keeping the Senate seat in Republican hands. Incidents like Tuesday's fiasco only intensify concerns over Republican voter suppression that could be coming in November. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/screenshot-2026-03-05-at-12-15-56.png) As corny as it sounds, one of the best ways to protect your voting rights is to become as informed a voter as possible. Make sure you know your county’s rules for voting; help your friends understand the rules in their area and to cast their vote; don’t rely solely on state sources like votetexas.org and instead seek out resources published by your local county government (which will be running your election come November); and be sure to check that you’re registered to vote, and help your friends to do the same. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/screenshot-2026-03-05-at-12-16-47.png) Then, vote for the candidates at every level who you believe will best protect your rights. The overbearing workload required to correctly cast a ballot is a feature of the policy choices made by Texas Republicans, not a bug. Their hope is that, if they erect enough barriers to the ballot box, it will convince the “wrong” type of voters to simply give up. In an election that looks like it could be a coin toss, that could decide the difference between Senator Talarico or Senator Paxton. > [](https://twitter.com/VotebeatUS/status/2029346380104212641?s=20&ref=thebarbedwire.com) “I walked up here because I want to vote so, so bad,” Veronica Anderson, the 66-year-old woman who was turned away in Dallas after walking for miles, [told reporters](https://www.votebeat.org/texas/2026/03/04/dallas-county-precinct-voting-problems-jasmine-crockett-james-talarico-democrats-gop/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The new barriers felt like “your self-esteem and everything is torn down.” One thing is for sure: We all deserve a state government that is, at the very least, able to perform the basic functions of a democracy. ### From Minneapolis to El Paso, Every City Is Now a Border City URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/from-minneapolis-to-el-paso-every-city-is-now-a-border-city/ Last updated: 2026-03-05T06:03:00.000Z I can’t stop thinking about Gustavo’s truck. On a cold Monday morning this January, Gustavo Navos Morocho, 43, of Ecuador, and two relatives had been driving to a carpeting job in central Minnesota when federal immigration agents began to tail them. The officers pulled the men over, accused them of carrying fake identification papers and shackled their arms, legs, and feet before taking them away, he told me. Gustavo said he had to abandon his truck on the side of the road. He slept with his feet still cuffed on the floor of a federal holding area in Minneapolis. His family members were shipped more than 1,300 miles south, from the snowy streets of the Twin Cities to a detention camp in the West Texas desert — to El Paso. And so it goes. I can’t stop thinking about Gustavo’s truck, and I can’t stop thinking about how my hometown keeps coming up this way, sometimes in echoes, sometimes in a direct line that cuts through time and space, whether I am in Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, D.C., or Minneapolis. For more than a year now, immigration reporters like myself have been [on the frontlines](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/19/us/minnesota-hospitals-ice-agents.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of the [harshest deportation campaign](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/06/us/us-deportation-liam-conejo-ramos-minnesota.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) this country has seen since World War II. We have covered raids and patrols by masked officers at [courthouses, homes, and workplaces](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/29/us/trump-immigration-agents-us-citizens.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). We have reported on the fear and uncertainty spreading across Latino and Iranian and Somali and immigrant neighborhoods. We have tracked the militarization of major American cities. The foundations for all these actions — the policies, the rhetoric, the treatment of migrants — were laid down long before, brick by brick, decade by decade in my hometown of El Paso. Let me tell you a little bit about where I am from. El Paso sits at the farthest western tip of Texas, a place so far west that when I was younger it felt too isolated. All I could dream about was getting out. It was only once I did that, I realized how special my city truly was: a place as much American as it is Mexican, as much Tejana and as it is Chihuahuense, a place that has allowed me to be all parts of myself, tanto de aquí como de allá. But it was only much later, when I became a national political reporter for *The Boston Globe*, that I realized it was even more powerful than that. As El Paso became a backdrop to our nation’s immigration battles, I began to believe it held the key to understanding American identity. If only we can give the city the place it's due at the center — not the margins — of our story. My book, “El Paso: Five Families and One Hundred Years of Blood, Migration, Race, and Memory,” out March 3, from Dutton, is a narrative history of our city, as told through the lives of the people who have crossed and shaped it, and in so doing, shaped the nation, too. The Chews, the Martinezes, the Holguins, the Rubios, and the Mura’ls. They trace Chinese, Mexican and indigenous Guatemalan roots. Some fled violence. Some sought opportunity. All have come and gone through the pass often described as “the Ellis Island of the Southwest,” a central crossroads for blue-collar workers, largely Mexican and Latino, who have been lured north by the promise of the American dream only to be cast out with every other nativist wave. This past is personal. I started digging into it after the summer of 2019, when a white supremacist opened fire at a Walmart in downtown El Paso, decrying the “Hispanic invasion of Texas.” The massacre happened about three minutes from where I went to high school, and covering its aftermath was one of the toughest assignments I have ever had. It was not a rupture in our history, but rather a continuation of a legacy. Federal officials have defended their immigration enforcement actions in Minneapolis and other cities as necessary to capture criminals and rapists, arguing their dragnets are targeted at nabbing the worst of the worst. “Let me send a message to anyone who thinks they can intimidate us. You will fail,” Todd Lyons, the acting head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told Congress in February, blaming elected officials and protesters for intensifying the rhetoric that he said endangered his officers. But after he was pulled over in Minneapolis, Gustavo told me he believed the agents who stopped them on the road only did so because they looked Hispanic. (One of them even told him so, he insisted.) As they were chained up and waiting in the SUV, they could hear the officers high-fiving outside. “‘Give me five! We got three!’” Gustavo recalled one shouting. “I couldn’t believe they would be delighting in someone else’s pain.” I couldn’t help but remember that such attitudes and tactics are deeply rooted in operations long used against Mexicans and Hispanic residents on the border. In one example of that hostility toward migrants, Josiah Heyman, an anthropologist and border researcher who has studied the Border Patrol for more than three decades, was the first scholar to document why agents used the slur “tonks.” It was the sound the handle of their metal flashlight or baton made when it struck a migrant’s head. Gustavo was released a day after his apprehension because it turned out he indeed had a valid visa given to victims of human trafficking willing to come forward and report their abusers to U.S. authorities. More than a decade ago, Gustavo had crossed the border through Arizona with the help of coyotes, or smugglers, who took him hostage. They forced him to work in kitchens under duress and with little pay, he said. Gustavo said those assailants often threatened him and other migrant men with weapons and sexually assaulted the women. It took him a while to come forward. He initially did not trust police to protect him from the people who had hurt him. He worried he would be deported. But in March 2023, after a long vetting process and investigation, he obtained his T visa. A few days after his arrest, Gustavo was able to return to work, but he had not been able to recoup his visa from federal authorities nor his truck from the towing company. The truck was under his brother-in-law’s name, though he had spent three years of savings to purchase it. The fine to retrieve it then stood at $1,000 and was getting higher every day. That truck was his livelihood, he told me, his pedacito of the American dream. But when I asked him what he planned to do now, he took a deep breath. “Don’t worry about me,” he said, “I’ve lived through worse.” There’s plenty of that strength in El Paso, too. *Jazmine Ulloa’s new book,* [*“El Paso: Five Families and One Hundred Years of Blood, Migration, Race, and Memory,”*](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/711804/el-paso-by-jazmine-ulloa/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) *was published Tuesday. It is a narrative history of our city, as told through the lives of the people who have crossed and shaped it, and in so doing, shaped the nation.* *Ulloa will be visiting Texas on her book tour, including the following stops:* *[3/9 EL PASO, El Paso Matters & El Paso Community Foundation at the Philanthropy Theater](https://elpasomatters.org/2026/02/04/jazmine-ulloanew-york-times-el-paso-history-book-talk/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)* *[3/11 DALLAS, Interabang](https://interabangbooks.com/event/2026-03-11/jazmine-ulloa-author-el-paso-conversation-maria-ramos-pacheco?ref=thebarbedwire.com)* *[3/12 HOUSTON, Nuestra Palabra](https://luma.com/pa3msef6?ref=thebarbedwire.com)* ### U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales Advances to Runoff After Reported Sexual Messages with Staffer Released URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/tony-gonzales-advances-runoff/ Last updated: 2026-03-04T15:54:43.000Z ![](https://pixel.19thnews.org/2026/03/texas-us-house-primary-election-results-2026) This piece [was originally published by The 19th\* News](https://19thnews.org/2026/03/texas-us-house-primary-election-results-2026/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [written by **Jasmine Mithani**,](https://19thnews.org/author/jasmine-mithani?ref=thebarbedwire.com) the technology reporter at The 19th whose coverage revolves around themes of information access, privacy and politics. Rep. Tony Gonzales of Texas has advanced to a runoff in the Republican primary for the House seat he’s held since 2020, according to Decision Desk HQ, after reports that he sent sexual text messages to a now-deceased former aide. Gonzales will face off against Brandon Herrera, who narrowly lost to Gonzales two years ago, in a May 26 runoff. Herrera is a right-wing YouTube personality who owns a firearms factory. The district is likely to remain Republican, and President Donald Trump has not renounced his December endorsement of Gonzales. In recent weeks, Gonzales has faced criticism and calls to step down — including from within his own party — over an alleged relationship with a former aide. The former aide, Regina Santos-Aviles, was the Uvalde district director for Gonzales. Her husband, Adrian Aviles, shared alleged exchanges between her and her boss with the media last week. (The texts have not been independently seen by The 19th.) Santos-Aviles died by suicide in September 2025. The reported text messages from 2024 show Gonzales pushing conversations with Santos-Aviles into a sexual direction, despite her attempts to deter him. *The San Antonio Express-News* [first reported](https://www.expressnews.com/news/article/tony-gonzales-texts-regina-santos-aviles-pictures-21362068.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) the content of the text messages, which appear to show an affair. Gonzales, a married father of six, has denied allegations of an affair. Aviles told *The San Antonio Express-News* that he discovered the affair in 2024 and reported it to his wife’s coworkers. The two eventually separated. Aviles said that before her death, his wife was ostracized in the workplace. Several House Republicans have called for Gonzales to step down from office, protesting sexual abuse and misconduct within their own party. GOP women in particular have taken strong stances. “Voters are going to have to turn out against him or force him to resign. I don’t know how he goes forward. It was disgusting and shameful, and it’s why many women feel like second-class citizens,” [said](https://x.com/acyn/status/2026413581697429920?s=46&ref=thebarbedwire.com) Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, who plans to force a vote this week on a measure that would require the release of records on sexual harassment involving lawmakers. “We’ve just got to say no more.” Reps. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida and Lauren Boebert of Colorado have also called on Gonzales to resign, as have Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Tim Burchett of Tennessee. “A male harassing a female employee — I can’t stomach it, dude,” Burchett said last week when [approached by CNN.](https://x.com/mkraju/status/2027019376826736974?ref=thebarbedwire.com) “I got a wife and a daughter. He needs to go.” Gonzales represents Texas’ 23rd District, which covers part of the state’s border with Mexico. ### Talarico Defeats Crockett in Democratic Senate Primary in Texas URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/talarico-beats-jasmine-crockett/ Last updated: 2026-03-04T15:23:31.000Z *This piece was [originally published in The 19th\* News ](https://19thnews.org/2026/03/texas-us-senate-primary-election-results-2026/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)and [written by *Grace Panetta*](https://19thnews.org/author/grace-panetta?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a politics reporter at The 19th covering the candidates, issues and voters that power our elections.* Rep. Jasmine Crockett lost the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in Texas to state Rep. James Talarico, Decision Desk HQ projects. Talarico, a state lawmaker from an Austin-area district, defeated Crockett in the highly competitive primary race, which in many ways centered on race and gender. Many in the Democratic Party viewed the race, the first major primary of the 2026 midterms, as a test of the party’s future direction. Crockett and Talarico were generally aligned on policy, and both rose to prominence in large part through social media, making the race largely about stylistic and strategic differences. Talarico, a former middle school teacher and seminarian, offered a vision of progressive politics rooted in his Christian faith. Much of his campaign message centered on excoriating billionaires and corporate interests, who he said are trying to divide Americans. He sought to build an inclusive, big-tent movement, campaigning in rural and deep-red parts of the state and courting support from independents and Republicans. “Whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican, whether you’re a progressive or a conservative, the real fight in this country is not left versus right. It’s top versus bottom,” Talarico said at a recent campaign rally in San Antonio. “We are not just trying to win an election. We are trying to fundamentally change the politics in this state and in this country,” he added. “Our nation is so divided that we can’t even share the Super Bowl anymore.” It’s not yet known who Talarico will face in November: no candidate received a majority of the vote in the three-way Republican primary, meaning Sen. John Cornyn is headed to a May 26 runoff against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. There were hiccups with voting in Dallas County, a major Crockett stronghold, and Williamson County, north of Austin. Republicans in both counties [ended the use of county-wide vote centers](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/01/09/dallas-williamson-end-countywide-voting-sites-for-march-election/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) where anyone in the county could vote, and now require voters to vote in a specific precinct. On Tuesday, there were widespread reports of voters in both counties being confused about their correct polling places, leading to calls from the Crockett and Talarico camps to extend voting. A court order extended voting by two hours in Dallas County, but the Texas Supreme Court [later temporarily blocked that ruling](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/03/03/jasmine-crockett-dallas-williamson-county-voting-changes/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and ordered provisional ballots cast after 7 p.m. Central Time to be separated from other Election Day votes. On Wednesday, Crocket conceded and called for the party to unite behind Talarico. “This is about the future of all 30 million Texans and getting America back on track,” she said in a statement. “With the primary behind us, Democrats must rally around our nominees and win. I’m committed to doing my part and will continue working to elect Democrats up and down the ballot.” Talarico largely refrained from attacking Crockett directly in his campaign, though [he did tell Politico](https://www.politico.com/news/2026/03/02/texas-primary-crockett-talarico-senate-race-00805194?ref=thebarbedwire.com) he was “concerned” about her assertion that she wouldn’t need to win over Trump voters in a state that backed Trump by 13 percentage points in 2024 and that she would instead seek to expand the electorate by turning out new voters. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/gettyimages-2264108840.jpg) Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas spoke at her election night party during the Democratic primary. Photo by: Ron Jenkins/Getty Images Crockett, first elected to a Dallas-based House seat in 2022, broke out on the national stage as a progressive firebrand with her tough questioning of witnesses before the House Oversight Committee and attacks against President Donald Trump and Republicans. Crockett’s approach launched her into the national spotlight, but also drew criticism and concerns about her viability in a general election. She [infamously insulted](https://19thnews.org/2024/05/house-hearing-fight-insults-greene-crockett-aoc/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) former GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s “bleach-blonde, bad-built, butch body” in a spat during a House Oversight hearing in 2024 after Greene made a dig at her eyelashes. She referred to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who uses a wheelchair, [as “governor hot wheels”](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/03/25/jasmine-crockett-greg-abbott-wheelchair/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — she said she was referring to his busing of migrants to Democratic-controlled states. Late last year, she defended [blasting a Trump Cabinet official](https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/19/politics/video/src-crockett-zeldin?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for taking a campaign donation from “a Jeffrey Epstein” who was not, in fact, the late convicted sex offender but a Long Island physician. And in the final stretch of the campaign, a reporter from The Atlantic said armed security [escorted her out of a Crockett campaign event](https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2026/02/texas-senate-democratic-primary-talarico-crockett/686154/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), an allegation Crockett’s team [denied](https://www.semafor.com/article/02/24/2026/texas-senate-candidate-jasmine-crockett-escalates-her-war-on-the-press?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Crockett and her allies charged that criticisms of her strategy and concerns about electability in a general election were rooted in race and gender. She also pointed to Abbott [spending millions on ads that attack her](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/25/us/greg-abbott-jasmine-crockett-texas-primary-ads.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in his reelection bid as a sign that Republicans weren’t keen to run against her. She also picked up the support of former Vice President Kamala Harris, [who recorded a robocall endorsing her](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/02/27/kamala-harris-jasmine-crockett-robocall-texas-senate-democratic-primary/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) days before the primary. “Some people say, ‘Listen, there’s no way that Texas will support a Black woman,” Crockett said at a recent campaign event, [according to Politico](https://www.politico.com/news/2026/03/02/texas-primary-crockett-talarico-senate-race-00805194?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “We are a majority-minority state, we can start there. The reality is that I didn’t run because I was a woman. I ran because I’m qualified. At the end of the day. I just happened to be Black and woman, but I am the most qualified person in this. Period.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/gettyimages-2264666815.jpg) Supporters of Texas Senate candidate James Talarico (D-TX) cheer to early results on election night on March 03, 2026 in Austin, Texas. Photo by: John Moore/Getty Images Talarico will face an uphill battle in the general election in Texas, which hasn’t elected a Democrat to a statewide office since 1994\. But Democrats hope that Trump’s poor approval ratings, declining poll numbers among Latinx voters who swung to Trump in 2024 and [the messy three-way Republican primary](https://www.politico.com/news/2026/02/26/republicans-alarm-grows-about-holding-texas-senate-seat-00799856??ref=thebarbedwire.com) could give them a shot in the Lone Star state. Trump declined to endorse in the GOP contest, though Senate Republicans and their official campaign arm backed Cornyn in the primary. Republicans control the U.S. Senate 53 to 47 votes. For Democrats to win back the chamber in 2026, they’d need to hold competitive seats in states like Georgia and Michigan while flipping four GOP-held seats in Maine, North Carolina and even more Republican-leaning states like Texas. ![](https://pixel.19thnews.org/2026/03/texas-us-senate-primary-election-results-2026) ### The Texas GOP’s Senate Cage Match Goes to Overtime URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/paxton-cornyn-runoff/ Last updated: 2026-03-04T15:06:37.000Z Get ready for John Cornyn vs. Ken Paxton: The Sequel Nobody Asked For. After nearly [$95 million in attack ads](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/02/28/john-cornyn-ken-paxton-wesley-hunt-texas-senate-primary-republican/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), divorce drama and enough Republican infighting to require protective year, Texas voters have generously decided we all get to do this again in May. Yes, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn and Attorney General Ken Paxton are headed to a May 26 runoff after neither managed to clear 50 percent in the Republican primary for Cornyn’s Senate seat. Texas’ senior senator barely edged our [scandal plagued attorney general](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/ken-paxton-scandal-timeline/) by a percentage point, but it wasn’t enough to avoid a runoff. The vote Tuesday came after a brutal $95 million intraparty foodfight, sorry “primary,” that also included U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt. And judging by Cornyn’s language Tuesday night, he’s prepared for more mudslinging. “I refuse to allow a flawed, self-centered and shameless candidate like Ken Paxton risk everything we’ve worked so hard to build over these many years,” Cornyn said Tuesday night, [according to the *Texas Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/03/03/john-cornyn-ken-paxton-wesley-hunt-runoff-primary-texas-senate-republican/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). For his part, Paxton tried to sing a few notes of “Kumbaya.” “As Attorney General, I’ve won three elections, and I’ve won those general elections because I focused on uniting our party,” he said, [according to the *Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/03/03/john-cornyn-ken-paxton-wesley-hunt-runoff-primary-texas-senate-republican/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “We still have an important runoff ahead, no doubt. But I think everyone in this room, everyone in Texas and everyone in Washington knows where this is headed. I will be the Republican nominee, and we must stay focused, because the Democrats have never been more radical.” The stakes in all of this? Not just who gets to be the Republican nominee in November, but which wing of the GOP gets to claim Texas. Cornyn, first elected to the Senate in 2002 and one of the longest-serving senators in Texas history, has never lost a race in more than 35 years of elected office. He helped engineer the era of Republican dominance in Texas and has served in the upper ranks of Senate GOP leadership. But this time, he’s facing what even his allies would admit [is the most serious threat of his career](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/03/02/john-cornyn-texas-republican-senate-primary/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). That threat is Paxton, the MAGA favorite who has survived securities fraud charges, a 2023 impeachment (in which the Texas Senate found him not guilty), and a nearly [decade’s worth of ](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/ken-paxton-scandal-timeline/)scandals. Paxton has[ survived an impeachment](https://www.texastribune.org/series/ken-paxton-impeachment-texas-attorney-general/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) by the Texas Legislature, a [biblically-charged divorce](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/07/10/angela-paxton-divorce-texas-attorney-general-ken/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a decade of [securities fraud charges](https://ballotpedia.org/Securities%5Ffraud%5Fcharges%5Fagainst%5FTexas%5FAttorney%5FGeneral%5FKen%5FPaxton,%5F2015?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and he’s also [become a multimillionaire during his time in public office](https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/texas-ken-paxton-attorney-general-millionaire-a3be9c94?gaa%5Fat=eafs&gaa%5Fn=AWEtsqfmfgPFssCoaAj2D0gwrg2YbIa2yp7tPmyV89DyMJx1D1CDajdQ-GHFaNmgXS0%3D&gaa%5Fts=68f53aec&gaa%5Fsig=hgq4CGqvgdHZwUDdPcOsKA7pRZTLHlSgTLMulQ7sCrxAQlt4WcR8aRAJlUgzY34zmEJ1f6fOneAf0UR%5FFQUe6g%3D%3D&ref=thebarbedwire.com). He’s also won statewide three times, including while under indictment, and he argues Republicans need a nominee who excites the grassroots. Cornyn’s allies in Washington are not subtle about their preference. [They’ve poured nearly $70 million into boosting him and tearing down Paxton](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-election/trumps-takeover-gop-upends-texas-senate-race-cornyn-paxton-hunt-rcna260621?ref=thebarbedwire.com), worried that a Paxton nomination could endanger GOP control of the Capitol in a midterm year where Democrats are energized and already outvoting Republicans in early voting. Senate Majority Leader [John Thune has lobbied former President Donald Trump on Cornyn’s behalf for months](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/02/28/john-cornyn-ken-paxton-wesley-hunt-texas-senate-primary-republican/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Trump, who says he’s friends with all three candidates, hasn’t endorsed. If you enjoy campaign ads that feel like Thanksgiving dinner arguments with better lighting, this race has delivered. [A Cornyn-aligned ad](https://x.com/JacobRubashkin/status/2026676061644173678?s=20&ref=thebarbedwire.com) frames the choice as between “the wife cheater and fraud or the Texas workhorse,” referencing Paxton’s ongoing divorce, alleged affair and questions about assets accumulated in office. Paxton has responded with a [positive spot featuring his daughter and son-in-law praising him as a family man](https://x.com/KenPaxtonTX/status/2027101165553586430?s=20&ref=thebarbedwire.com), while accusing Cornyn of running a desperate campaign “clinging to power.” Meanwhile, Hunt jumped in last October, [pitching himself as the younger, baggage-free version of Paxton](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/10/06/wesley-hunt-texas-senate-republican-primary-cornyn-paxton-2026/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) who’s closely aligned with Trump and capable of carrying on that agenda longer than his older rivals. Both Cornyn and Paxton allies spent millions attacking Hunt in the final stretch, which to Hunt proved he’s “[right over the target zone](https://www.wral.com/news/ap/c89eb-wesley-hunt-is-facing-attacks-from-better-known-rivals-cornyn-paxton-in-texas-gop-senate-primary/?ref=thebarbedwire.com).” And lately Hunt has had some controversy of his own. A *New York Times* [investigation found that two anonymous X accounts](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/28/us/politics/wesley-hunt-texas-senate-race-campaign-finance.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), one seemingly tied to Wesley Hunt’s Senate campaign and the other linked to an outside group backing him, have publicly shared private polling, strategy, messaging advice and ad-buying details, raising questions about whether they are skirting federal laws that prohibit coordination between candidates and super PACs. Unfortunately for Hunt, that was the biggest splash he made, mainstream press-wise. Sadly for him, it wasn’t enough to make the runoff. So where does that leave us? With a May 26 runoff election that could favor Paxton, as runoffs typically only draw the hardest-core voters. And hovering over all of it is the possibility of a Trump endorsement in the runoff, which would likely trigger an even more frantic lobbying effort from both camps. ### Texas’ Senate Primary Race Is the Most Expensive on Record, Ad Tracking Report Says URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-senate-primary-most-expensive-history/ Last updated: 2026-03-03T17:57:43.000Z Money’s always a hot topic in Texas elections — and this year it’s blazing. A staggering $128 million has been spent so far in Texas’ Senate primary, making the race the most expensive on record, [according to AdImpact](https://x.com/AdImpact%5FPol/status/2028514715475837162?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a political advertisement tracking platform. Republican ad spending is responsible for the lion’s share of that amount (which puts this Senate primary ahead of the $109 million spent in the 2022 Arizona Senate primary), but Democrats have also shelled out a substantial amount. We’re here to break down the numbers for you, and explain the implications for the closely watched contests. ## Republicans and an ‘Unheard of Sum’ [As we predicted](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/cornyn-paxton-senate-texas/), the Senate primary has been an all-out war between the two remaining poles of the Republican party — or as we previously put it, “Trump friendly” and “MR. TRUMP, I WILL DO ANYTHING TO PROVE MY LOYALTY TO YOU, SIR.” It’s a storyline the proverbial money trail has borne out, even as the [president has yet to officially weigh in](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-election/trumps-takeover-gop-upends-texas-senate-race-cornyn-paxton-hunt-rcna260621?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Incumbent John Cornyn and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton are in a [neck-and-neck race](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/02/25/texas-senate-poll-crockett-talarico-university-of-texas-paxton-cornyn-hunt-2026/?utm%5Fcampaign=trib-social&utm%5Fcontent=1772032000&utm%5Fmedium=social&utm%5Fsource=facebook,twitter) trailed by U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt, as establishment Republicans are spending at an unprecedented clip. Ad spending in the race has stacked up to $98.9 million, according to AdImpact, [which noted](https://x.com/AdImpact%5FPol/status/2027408902090842136?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that GOP spending alone would be one of the most expensive Senate primaries on record. Much of it has been in support of Cornyn — the longtime establishment Republican trying to prove his MAGA loyalty — and against Paxton — the insurgent from the right with an impressive ability to [weather political scandals](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/ken-paxton-scandal-timeline/). Things got even more complex in October when Hunt announced his run, much to the [chagrin of national Republicans](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/article/wesley-hunt-senate-cornyn-paxton-21032584.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Cornyn has been working unusually hard against his challengers for an incumbent who has served in the U.S. Senate for almost two decades, with more than $70 [million spent on ads in his support](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/03/03/texas-march-primary-election-day-senate-attorney-general-abbott-5-things/?utm%5Fsource=thetexastribune.beehiiv.com&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=the-brief-march-3-2026&%5Fbhlid=5c61530a586cceb8358d61a525c8e7ec164f6e67) as of last month. That’s an “unheard of sum” for a candidate of his position, [the *New York Times* wrote](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/04/us/politics/john-cornyn-ken-paxton-texas-senate-race.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The other Republican candidates have taken notice. “A 24-year incumbent that’s struggling like this after spending a Powerball ticket is rough,” Hunt said of Cornyn, [according to *NOTUS*](https://www.notus.org/campaigns/inside-the-nasty-primary-that-could-topple-a-veteran-senator?ref=thebarbedwire.com)*.* One of Cornyn’s financial backers is the Lone Star Freedom Project, former Gov. Rick Perry’s political group. The Lone Star Freedom Project has put $18 million behind Cornyn so far, and Perry said they would continue to spend “whatever we need” to see the senator survive the March 3 primary, [according to the *Texas Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/02/17/john-cornyn-rick-perry-texas-senate-gop-primary-early-voting-outside-spending/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Why are longtime GOP members aggressively funding Cornyn? The prevailing notion is that Cornyn has a better chance of beating the Democratic nominee in the general election. Before the [Democratic debate in January](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/jasmine-crockett-talarico-senate-electability-debate/), Jeremi Suri, professor of public affairs and history at the University of Texas, told *The Barbed Wire* that Paxton’s negatives, including the aforementioned scandals, could alienate certain Republican voters and push Independents to come out for Democrats. “It's definitely in the interest of Democrats — either (U.S. Rep. Jasmine) Crockett or (Texas state Rep. James) Talarico — for Paxton to be nominee,” Suri said. Other prominent Republicans backing Cornyn include Alex Latcham, who runs the Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC designed to push for a Republican majority in the U.S. Senate. In an interview [with the *New York Times*](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/04/us/politics/john-cornyn-ken-paxton-texas-senate-race.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Latcham said that the financial backing of Cornyn is an investment in keeping Paxton from being the Republican nominee in November’s general election — which he said could leave the Democratic candidate more likely to win. “Spend now, shore up support for John Cornyn and ensure that he’s the nominee — so you don’t have to spend $100 million to $150 million in November,” Latcham told [the *Times*](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/04/us/politics/john-cornyn-ken-paxton-texas-senate-race.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which reported that Latcham’s super PAC, plus undisclosed donors, and Perry’s group have spent about $29 for Cornyn. Who else is picking sides with their bank accounts? Another super PAC, Texans for a Conservative Majority, has dished out about $17 million to support Cornyn’s campaign, financed by business executives like Blackstone’s Stephen A. Schwarzman and real estate developer Harlan Crow, [*the New York Times*](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/04/us/politics/john-cornyn-ken-paxton-texas-senate-race.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com)reported. According to the [*Houston Chronicle*](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/election/2026/article/texas-senate-campaign-donors-21345627.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Texas businessman John L. Nau III also doled out $4 million to the pro-Cornyn super PAC. Kelcy Warren, a Dallas-based CEO gave $1.3 million to the super PAC, and Anthony Wood, the billionaire founder of the streaming device company Roku, donated $1 million to Cornyn’s campaign, the [*Chronicle* reported](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/election/2026/article/texas-senate-campaign-donors-21345627.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The second biggest spender in the three-way race has been Hunt, with a total of $11.4 million in his support, [according to AdImpact](https://x.com/AdImpact%5FPol/status/2025964412490715440?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Hunt has also been vying for the backing of billionaire Elon Musk, [according to the *New York Times*](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/04/us/politics/john-cornyn-ken-paxton-texas-senate-race.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), writing in a fundraising email that “Elon agrees with Wesley Hunt.” However, Musk has not publicly endorsed Hunt. Another group, Conservative Texans PAC, that has been funding anti-Hunt ads, raised $4.1 million from nonprofits that do not have to share who their donors are, [according to the *Texas Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/02/20/texas-senate-dark-money-superpacs-talarico-hunt-crockett-paxton-cornyn/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)*.* A total of $5.4 million has been spent on anti-Hunt ads in the race so far, compared to $3.6 million each on anti-Cornyn and anti-Paxton ads, [AdImpact reported.](https://x.com/AdImpact%5FPol/status/2025964412490715440?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Paxton currently holds [a narrow lead](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/02/25/texas-senate-poll-crockett-talarico-university-of-texas-paxton-cornyn-hunt-2026/?utm%5Fcampaign=trib-social&utm%5Fcontent=1772032000&utm%5Fmedium=social&utm%5Fsource=facebook,twitter) in polling on the race — despite spending a fraction of the amount of his competitors in advertising, at around[ $3.6 million](https://x.com/AdImpact%5FPol/status/2025964412490715440?ref=thebarbedwire.com), per AdImpact. [Per the *New York Times*](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/04/us/politics/john-cornyn-ken-paxton-texas-senate-race.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Paxton’s limited spending is based on confidence in his support from the Republican base. As he has campaigned for Senate, Paxton has made a show of his conservative stances, using the Texas Attorney General’s Office to file a [flurry of lawsuits](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/congrats-ken-paxton-celebrates-100th-stupid-lawsuit-against-nation/) against everyone from doctors to tech companies and local school districts. However, [*Texas Monthly* found](https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/ken-paxton-tim-dunn/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that he may have lost one of his previous prolific backers, oil tycoon Tim Dunn. The magazine reported that Dunn, who had previously helped Paxton out of his many scandals including his 2023 impeachment, told Paxton to stay out of the Senate race. Many believe a runoff is imminent — if no candidate wins a majority of votes on Tuesday, the top two will advance to a primary runoff on May 26\. That could tilt the scales in Paxton’s favor, as right-wing candidates typically prevail in Texas Republican primary runoffs, according to *Texas Monthly*. Though folks like Perry have made it clear they’ll continue to support Cornyn. So, don’t expect the deluge of ads to go away anytime soon. ## Democrats in the National Spotlight Money has been flying across the aisle, too, thanks to James Talarico, the 36-year-old Texas state representative turned Senate hopeful. Talarico has seen [$24 million ](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/02/us/elections/cornyn-talarico-texas-senate-money.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com)in ad support, more than four times as much as his opponent, U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, who has seen about $5 million, according to AdImpact and the [*New York Times*](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/02/us/elections/cornyn-talarico-texas-senate-money.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). [In just three weeks this fall](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/james-talarico-fundraising/), Talarico pulled in a cool $6.2 million from 125,000 donors across all 50 states, which we noted at the time was either proof of a national movement or confirmation that people outside Texas enjoy watching Lone Star Democrats fight. Then, [according to Axios](https://www.axios.com/local/dallas/2026/02/11/talarico-crockett-us-senate-texas-advertising?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Talarico outraised Crockett by $5 million in the first two months of 2026\. Lone Star Rising, an independent PAC backing Talarico, has also spent more than $1.9 million on advertising. Talarico got yet another boost in February after late-night host Stephen Colbert axed an interview with the Texas politician over [CBS’s alleged legal concerns](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/what-is-the-equal-time-rule-that-colbert-says-led-cbs-to-pull-his-talarico-interview?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Talarico brought in $2.5 million in the 24 hours after his segment was pulled from the broadcast, [according to *The Hill*.](https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5743671-talarico-raises-2-5m-after-colbert-interview-pulled/?utm%5Fsource=Sailthru&utm%5Fmedium=email&utm%5Fcampaign=2/20/26%20AM:&utm%5Fterm=Punchbowl%20AM%20and%20Active%20Subscribers%20from%20Memberful%20Combined) Still, an early February poll found Crockett leading Talarico by 12 percentage points, [according to the *Texas Tribune*.](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/02/25/texas-senate-poll-crockett-talarico-university-of-texas-paxton-cornyn-hunt-2026/?utm%5Fcampaign=trib-social&utm%5Fcontent=1772032000&utm%5Fmedium=social&utm%5Fsource=facebook,twitter) A recent University of Texas’ Texas Politics Project poll also found Crockett in the lead with support of 56% of voters, while Talarico got 44%. Another recent [poll from Emerson College Polling/Nexstar Media](https://emersoncollegepolling.com/texas-2026-primary-poll-talarico-paxton-with-narrow-edges-in-senate-primaries/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) found Talarico up over Crockett, 52% to 47%. Talarico rocketed to national prominence after an appearance on “The Joe Rogan Experience” this summer and during the [House Texas Democrats’ quorum break battle](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/how-five-women-at-the-texas-capitol-stood-up-against-fascism/) for the redistricted congressional maps. Rogan even gave him the presidential nudge. That’s the kind of coverage money can’t buy (though that early $6.2 million certainly helped). Some of Talarico’s funding has drawn scrutiny. A Crockett news release in late February honed in on millions contributed to Talarico’s super PAC by Reid Hoffman, a billionaire cofounder of LinkedIn and AI investor. Hoffman was listed in the Epstein files and visited Jeffrey Epstein’s island, [according to *the El Paso Times*.](https://www.elpasotimes.com/story/news/politics/elections/2026/02/23/texas-senate-primary-jasmine-crockett-hits-james-talarico-over-jeffrey-epstein-linked-donor/88823494007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) The Talarico campaign also caught criticism early on for portraying the aspiring preacher as the antithesis of “billionaire mega-donors and their puppet politicians” yet receiving thousands of dollars in donations from billionaires, [according to *Spectrum News*.](https://spectrumlocalnews.com/tx/austin/news/2025/11/05/democratic-senate-candidate-james-talarico-s-central-message-is-being-anti-billionaire--but-he-is-still-accepting-billionaire-donations-?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Lone Star Rising PAC, a pro-Talarico superPAC, has raised over $6 million to date — more than half of which has come from a group funded by undisclosed donors (commonly referred to as “dark money”), [according to the *Texas Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/02/20/texas-senate-dark-money-superpacs-talarico-hunt-crockett-paxton-cornyn/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Crockett is no stranger to controversial campaign funding practices, either. “In this Senate race I have not taken any corporate PAC money,” Crockett said in [a January interview](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nK-IP7fKFtY&t=1030s&ref=thebarbedwire.com). However, Crockett’s campaign filings show she has transferred at least $26,500 in corporate PAC donations from her U.S. House campaign to her senate campaign in December, [according to *The Intercept.*](https://theintercept.com/2026/02/13/jasmine-crockett-texas-senate-corporate-cash/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Crockett has also faced scrutiny for donations from cryptocurrency super PACs, which spent more than $2 million in her first congressional campaign in 2022, [according to *Texas Monthly*.](https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/jasmine-crocketts-cryptocurrency-history-is-under-scrutiny-heres-what-her-record-tells-us/?utm%5Fsource=thetexastribune.beehiiv.com&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=the-brief-february-25-2026&%5Fbhlid=b6d4e1afc16899af1f7a9cdaf230493dbdcee400) Crockett has been friendly towards crypto, voting for the GENIUS Act and the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act in Congress, bills both supported by the crypto industry and opposed by most other Democrats, [according to *The Intercept.*](https://theintercept.com/2026/02/13/jasmine-crockett-texas-senate-corporate-cash/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) ### ‘Very Real Barriers.’ Trans Voters in Texas Are Worried About Casting Their Ballots. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/trans-voters-texas-primary-elections/ Last updated: 2026-03-03T07:00:00.000Z In theory, being transgender shouldn’t matter when it comes to voting. But when it comes to transgender rights in Texas, things often don’t go the way they should. “The way that it's supposed to work is that no one is supposed to be denied the opportunity to vote based on their appearance,” Ash Hall told *The Barbed Wire* by phone. As a policy and advocacy strategist on LGBTQ+ rights at the ACLU of Texas, it’s Hall’s job to track and oppose attacks on the rights of queer and trans folks in our state, and they’re closely watching the primaries and upcoming midterms for any signs of trouble. Primary Election Day is Tuesday. And nonprofits that protect LGBTQ+ rights in our state are monitoring what’s playing out at polling locations. The ACLU of Texas is part of a coalition of hundreds of organizations that operate the national election protection hotline, [866-OUR-VOTE](https://866ourvote.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). One major area of concern for Hall is what could happen when a person’s gender presentation clearly doesn’t match the gender marker on their identification. “Since Texas has made it impossible to change the gender marker on a lot of the ID options that people use to vote, there's a chance that people are going to face questions from election officials or, in worst case scenarios, harassment and pushback on whether or not they should be allowed to vote,” Hall said. Starting in the [summer of 2024](https://www.kut.org/texas/2024-08-21/texas-transgender-trans-drivers-license-change-update-policy?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Texas began blocking the ability of trans Texans to update the gender marker on their driver’s licenses or state IDs. In March 2025, Attorney General Ken Paxton ordered state agencies to begin [reversing previously issued identification](https://api.courthousenews.com/texas-ag-demands-state-agencies-revoke-gender-marker-changes/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) with updated gender markers. [Changes in federal policy under President Donald Trump](https://www.cntraveler.com/story/what-to-know-about-the-new-policy-on-passport-gender-markers?ref=thebarbedwire.com) have also prevented trans people from updating the gender on their passports, and blocked nonbinary people from obtaining passports with an “X” gender marker, rather than an M or F. Texas law requires voters to [present a form of photo identification](https://www.votetexas.gov/voting/need-id.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), if possible, at the polls, although a person can fill out a form and present an alternative form of ID if that is impossible. As a result, trans and nonbinary people’s gender presentation may not match the gender markers on the documents they present to poll workers. Even though it’s legal to vote in these circumstances, Caleb Armstrong, a transmasculine Texan, worries. Armstrong is the cofounder of the Local Queer Foundation, which, in addition to hosting [social events for Austin’s queer and trans residents](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/queer-community-outside-the-bar-texas/), previously offered clinics to help trans people [update their IDs](https://austinfreepress.org/identity-crisis-austin-trans-community-dresses-for-battle-with-texas-attorney-general-paxton/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “Trans voters are left vulnerable to being outed, questioned, or turned away, which creates very real barriers to casting a ballot,” Armstrong wrote in an email. “It is difficult to find accurate information about voting as a trans person, and for many, the fear of navigating the process is enough to keep folks from voting at all. This fear and confusion has a purpose in trying to silence our voices and keep trans people from participating fully in our democracy.” Texas’ voter ID laws have been [widely criticized](https://factually.co/fact-checks/politics/texas-voter-id-law-impact-3c78e8?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for making it harder for marginalized groups to access the polls, particularly [poor and nonwhite communities](https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/22/politics/ted-cruz-texas-voter-id-professor-hearing?ref=thebarbedwire.com) who may face additional barriers to accessing identification. Intersex voters could also be affected by recent legal changes that make it harder to access identification that matches their gender identity, according to a report in the *Texas Tribune.* “I literally fall into a third gender, according to this law, a third gender that is not defined. So does that mean I legally don’t exist?” Juliette Thurber, an intersex and transgender San Antonio resident [told the *Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/02/11/texas-intersex-sex-definition-hb-229/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Voting rights advocates warn that the proposed Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, or SAVE Act, could also create [additional barriers for voters](https://www.factcheck.org/2025/02/will-save-act-prevent-married-women-from-registering-to-vote/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) across the country who have legally changed their names, a population that includes many trans people in addition to [many married women](https://19thnews.org/2026/02/house-passes-save-america-act-married-women-vote/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). In January, the bill was reintroduced to the U.S. House of Representatives by Texas Republican Congressman Chip Roy. Similar legislation passed the House last July but died in the U.S. Senate. The new measure passed the House in February, but [Republican leaders have warned](https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/26/politics/voter-id-save-act-filibuster?ref=thebarbedwire.com) they don’t have enough support to get it through the Senate. If it becomes law, the act would require additional documentation for anyone registering to vote whose legal name doesn’t match the name on their birth certificate. Both the ACLU of Texas, and LGBTQ+ advocacy groups like Equality Texas, have made efforts to educate the public, and voting rights officials, about how these laws can affect trans Texans. “The voter ID law affects all Texans in their ability to access their … vote, but for trans and non binary folks and queer people in general, it does add some additional barriers,” Brad Pritchett, CEO of Equality Texas, told *The Barbed Wire.* “So every election season, we're making sure folks kind of have an understanding of what applies in the Texas voter ID law and what doesn't.” Pritchett said he’s less concerned for voters in major Texas cities with large LGBTQ+ populations, but it’s possible that inexperienced election workers could still make trans voters feel uncomfortable by asking unnecessary questions. “There's increased tension and stress that comes along with it, because you never know who you're going to be presenting your ID to.” Pritchett said Equality Texas sets up booths at LGBTQ+ events where they [check people’s voter registrations](https://www.texas.gov/living-in-texas/texas-voter-registration/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and they’ve discovered numerous examples of queer and trans people with Hispanic surnames being purged from the voter rolls and forced to re-register. He is concerned voter purges could grow even more widespread, particularly as the Trump administration steps up its war on LGBTQ+ people. In December, Lauren McGaughy of *The Texas Newsroom* reported that the state is creating lists of apparent transgender people for an unknown purpose, including more than 100 people who [tried to change the gender marker on their ID](https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/lgbtq/2025/12/15/538666/texas-trans-transgender-drivers-license-id-list-privacy/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) after the ban went into place. Also in December, Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson turned the name, address, and social security numbers of almost [every Texan registered to vote](https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/doj-seeks-clean-texas-voter-191516928.html?guccounter=1&ref=thebarbedwire.com) over to the Trump administration. The administration said it needed the data "to test, analyze, and assess states' (voter rolls) for proper list maintenance and compliance with federal law," and sent similar requests to other states, the [*Houston Chronicle* reported](https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/doj-seeks-clean-texas-voter-191516928.html?guccounter=1&ref=thebarbedwire.com). “We have no idea what they're going to do with that information or why they need that information, but the odds are it's not going to be something that is designed to increase our access to the ballot,” Pritchett said. “It's probably something more nefarious than that.” Pritchett said that any LGBTQ+ Texans with concerns about their ability to vote can [contact the Equality Texas helpdesk](https://equalitytexas.org/request-support/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which will help them find the resources they need to solve their problem. In addition to re-registering, he also recommended that anyone who has been purged from the voter rolls should get in contact with their county clerk’s office to see if the issue can be solved. They can also cast a provisional ballot on election day, Pritchett said. In addition to issues around voter ID laws, Hall said the ACLU of Texas is also concerned about the potential for extremists harassing voters outside of polling locations. White supremacist groups in the U.S. frequently simultaneously target [both LGBTQ+ and people they perceive to be from immigrant backgrounds](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/lgbtq-texans-in-defense-of-immigrants/). “Any instance of that happening, as long as people call the election protection help line, 866-OUR-VOTE, we'll be able to take action,” Hall said. “My hope is that everybody is able to access their legal right to vote safely and without intimidation.” Hall noted they’re hopeful that members of both parties can assemble peacefully at their polling places during the Texas primaries. “The really bad behavior that we've seen people commit around polling places, it tends to be in general elections, and so I am very hopeful that this primary election will be very uneventful, not dramatic, and a safe way for people to again come together and make their voices heard at the ballot box and let this state and this nation know who they'd like to see representing them.” ### ‘Something’s Different’: LGBTQ+ Texans Are Organizing in Defense of Immigrants URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/lgbtq-texans-in-defense-of-immigrants/ Last updated: 2026-03-02T17:51:28.000Z It’s hard to ignore Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents when they come crashing into your neighborhood. It’s become *the* topic of conversation in Austin’s North Loop, Reilly, a 42-year-old transgender resident, told *The Barbed Wire* one February evening from a graffiti-covered picnic table in the grass behind Epoch, the neighborhood’s beloved 24-hour coffee shop. “I think when people are confronted with the realities — in their face — of what our immigrant neighbors are facing, there's no choice but to respond,” Reilly said, adding that it becomes harder to “stay in your home and try to remain ambivalent to it when you're watching people get yanked out of their cars and thrown into the back of a van and disappeared off to God knows where.” As [reported by KUT’s Greta Díaz González Vázquez](https://www.kut.org/crime-justice/2026-02-04/ice-austin-tx-arrest-video-immigration-texas-north-loop?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a car chase involving ICE ended on Feb. 2 when the driver agents were pursuing crashed onto the front lawn of an area home. An Austin Police Department spokesperson confirmed the incident to KUT and told the outlet none of the vehicles involved in the chase were marked as law enforcement vehicles. A social media video shows armed men with covered faces pinning another man to the ground. North Loop is a bustling, popular destination for events as varied as a workshop on “romantic rope restraint” at sex toy shop Forbidden Fruit to history presentations by the Democratic Socialists of America in the backyard of Barrett’s Too, a bar and eatery serving vegan powerbowls and hemp THC-laced seltzer on tap. It's important to recognize, Reilly said, that people who live in neighborhoods like North Loop “are recognizing that it's about their ability to use (their) privilege to protect their neighbors.” Reilly asked to use a pseudonym to speak openly with *The Barbed Wire* about organizing against ICE as a transgender individual. *The Barbed Wire* has independently confirmed their identity, and the organizing efforts of area residents, but are not naming them due to fears of legal and criminal retaliation. An Austin resident for 20 years, Reilly said they’ve seen a broader range of people talking about ICE activity and efforts to keep immigrant neighbors safe in recent weeks — beyond groups that typically show up in activist spaces. “When you see that happen at a neighborhood association, you realize that it's not like just the usual, you know, ‘radical Antifa cells,’” Reilly said, “it's crossed over into the minds of your SUV driving soccer moms.” ICE activity is arguably less visible in Austin and other major Texas cities compared to locations like Minneapolis, which have seen [surges of thousands of officers](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/2000-federal-agents-sent-to-minneapolis-area-to-carry-out-largest-immigration-operation-ever-ice-says?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in [the largest Department of Homeland Security operation in recorded history](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/abolish-ice-gains-traction-after-mom-shot-minneapolis/). Under the banner of President Donald Trump’s sweeping anti-immigration efforts, the agency has ballooned in both budget and size. Months of [intimidation](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/12/16/texas-immigrants-trump-administration-halts-applications/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [unlawful detainments](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/31/us/politics/liam-ramos-ice-release.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — along with the extrajudicial killings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota and [Keith Porter](https://abc7.com/post/keith-porter-family-man-shot-killed-off-duty-ice-agent-northridge-seeks-answers-la-police-commission-meeting/18396677/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in Los Angeles — have led [Texas lawmakers to demand major reforms to the agency.](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-lawmakers-say-theyre-demanding-major-ice-reforms-because-families-and-children-are-terrified/) U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, who has been monitoring cases like that of a 2-month-old who was deported after being hospitalized with bronchitis, [has called for at least one Texas detention center to be shut down](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/2-month-old-baby-juan-nicolas-unresponsive-hospital-sent-back-to-ice-facility/). Yet, incidents like the car crash in North Loop — amid [dozens of other](https://www.kxan.com/investigations/data-ice-detained-70-minors-in-austin-since-trump-took-office-again/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [local headlines](https://www.kut.org/crime-justice/2026-02-06/austin-tx-ice-immigration-apd-police-protest-deportation?ref=thebarbedwire.com), including the deportation of [a 5-year-old U.S. citizen when her mother called 911 for help](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/abolish-ice-gains-traction-after-mom-shot-minneapolis/) — remind Austinites that ICE is still very present. As such, Reilly said they’ve driven a surge of organizing, as residents get to know one another better and learn to defend each other against immigration crackdowns they find unjust and inhumane. Modeling their work off the “rapid response” networks formed in Minneapolis and other cities, a rapidly expanding network of interconnected, neighborhood based chats and volunteer groups have formed in Austin, operated primarily off an encrypted messaging app. As of publication time, specialized groups cover 23 of Austin’s major neighborhoods, with additional citywide chats, plus others covering surrounding communities like Buda, Dripping Springs, Kyle, and San Marcos. They collectively operate a hotline for reports of ICE activity (512-686-6243) across the whole region. Members follow up on reports or their own sightings, and do their best to help the victims of ICE by sharing information with relatives, helping friends or loved ones retrieve vehicles or possessions, and filing incident reports with organizations that support immigrants, such as [Grassroots Leadership](https://www.grassrootsleadership.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Reilly said ICE raids have been a call to action for Austin residents in general, but especially for LGBTQ+ locals, and especially white queer and trans folks who were more easily able to ignore the long history of injustice in the U.S. immigration system. “There are queer and trans immigrants, and they've been in this fight for a while, you know, through all sorts of different organizations,” Reilly said. “The work that those people have already been doing is really calling out the lack of effort and energy that queer non-people of color have been putting into or paying attention to this work. It feels trite to say it at this point but recognizing that the struggle of all oppressed peoples are linked.” The idea that “all our struggles are connected” is reinforced by the stark reality of anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-immigrant violence, and the racist philosophies that inspire both that violence and attempts by the Trump administration to roll back rights for all marginalized groups, according to R.G. Cravens, senior manager of research and analysis with the Intelligence Project at the extremism research nonprofit Southern Poverty Law Center. “My team researches and monitors anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim and anti-LGBTQ+ hate and extremist groups,” Cravens explained. Attacks on both immigrants and LGBTQ+ people connect back to ideas like the [“great replacement” theory](https://www.splcenter.org/resources/hatewatch/racist-great-replacement-conspiracy-theory-explained/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), that [white people are being deliberately and systematically eradicated](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/300-texas-accounts-white-supremacist-dating-site-politics-right-now/). “Anti-LGBTQ and anti-immigrant groups, and I would add white nationalist groups too, view LGBTQ+ people and immigrants as threats to what they believe should be the dominant white Christian culture in the United States,” Cravens said. “I think that's the connection.” This can be seen at the street level, in acts of violence against both immigrant and LGBTQ+ communities, according to data provided to *The Barbed Wire* by the Anti-LGBTQ Extremism Reporting Tracker, or [ALERT](https://glaad.org/publications/alert-desk/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a project of the LGBTQ+ advocacy nonprofit GLAAD. Separately, in both 2024 and 2025, researchers found more than 50 hate incidents nationwide simultaneously targeted LGBTQ+ and immigrant communities. The ALERT desk compiles verifiable incidents from news reports and social media, meaning the real number of incidents could be much higher. Among the incidents documented by the ALERT project: - On March 31, 2025, individuals associated with Blaze TV and Turning Point USA disrupted a Trans Day of Visibility Rally at the University of Texas at Dallas. Trolling comments included both transphobic remarks and threats to call ICE. - In May 2025, [a San Antonio man](https://www.kens5.com/article/news/local/san-antonio-texas-man-arrested-online-youtube-comments-violent-racially-motivated-death-threats-democratic-congress-protestors-pride/273-69a3949b-f711-4615-aa39-d1cdbadf71da?ref=thebarbedwire.com) allegedly made more than a dozen violent threats online, targeting both pro-immigrant protests in Los Angeles and Pride parades in Texas. - Around Oct. 4, 2025, individuals associated with an extremist group placed anti-LGBTQ and anti-immigrant stickers along the route for the Pride Parade & Block Party in Corpus Christi, Texas. Stickers included “Don't Mexico My Texas,” and “Reject the gender cult.” - On Oct. 18, 2025, extremists protested against a drag performance at the Filipino Street Festival in Sugar Land, Texas. “In this moment, we must all speak out and condemn the campaign of violence targeting the most vulnerable among us, from the trans and immigrant communities, to our Black and Brown neighbors and to people of all faiths,” a GLAAD spokesperson told *The Barbed Wire* in a statement. “The brutal murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti remind us that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Good, who was with [her wife when she was](https://www.them.us/story/renee-nicole-good-lesbian-queer-bisexual-ice-minneapolis-killed-ivdeo?ref=thebarbedwire.com) killed by an ICE agent, immediately became a target of [vilification by extremists](https://truthout.org/articles/queer-and-trans-activists-have-been-at-the-heart-of-anti-ice-work-in-minneapolis/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The day after she was killed, right-wing political commentator Matt Walsh, posted on X, “This lesbian agitator gave her life to protect 68 IQ Somali scammers who couldn’t give less of a shit about her.” By contrast, on the left, these highly visible murders by ICE have had the effect of inspiring activists nationwide to stand up to Trump’s forces. “It seemed like after Keith Porter and Renee Good and then Alex Pretti were murdered by ICE, that folks really felt like it was time to do something,” Reilly said. According to Cravens and his team, these connections go beyond direct violence, but to the extremists groups who increasingly hold sway in the halls of power: “They've been in the same room, both literally and figuratively, for decades now.” What were once “fringe ideas” are now “fueling public policy,” Cravens explained, adding that these connections are documented in [SPLC’s annual hate and extremism report](https://www.splcenter.org/resources/reports/year-hate-extremism-2024/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). *The Barbed Wire* had similar findings in a recent [analysis of accounts on a white supremacist dating site](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/300-texas-accounts-white-supremacist-dating-site-politics-right-now/), which showed hallmarks of far-right radicalization were prevalent in users’ biographies, self-described political views, “mindsets,” and even in the nature of the submission fields users were prompted to complete. For Cravens, understanding how anti-immigrant and anti-LGBTQ+ ideas are connected through white supremacy is vital to organizing a unified front of resistance against them. “Take that information and use that to expose it, to say this is actually what it is, and then to articulate a set of values that says, ‘You know what? We actually support pluralism. We are a country built on diversity. We value the individual contributions of all of the disparate people in our country.’” That unified front would look a lot like what’s happening in Austin’s rapid response networks. As Trump has deployed ICE and the National Guard to Los Angeles to Chicago to Minneapolis and beyond, community organizers in each city have learned from those who came before, strengthening tactics and simultaneously adapting them to the unique needs of the local landscape. On [a recent episode of the podcast “Movement Memos](https://truthout.org/audio/minneapolis-community-defense-is-riding-on-the-learning-edge-of-a-whirlwind/?ref=thebarbedwire.com),” Andrew, a 45-year-old Minneapolis community organizer, vividly called that dangerous process “riding on the learning edge of a whirlwind.” Reilly said that many in Austin’s rapid response networks were inspired by a zine (a self-published, freely available document) called “[Dispatch, Please Advise: Tactics for Fighting the Federal Occupation of Minnesota by ICE](https://drive.proton.me/urls/PT7FS7RHFG?ref=thebarbedwire.com#hYXcagFohIgu)” by the anonymous Minnesota-based collective “Red-winged Blackbird.” “For our comrades in other states and cities: what we are doing in the Twin Cities works,” the zine reads. “This isn't to say that we are winning — how can we when so many have already been abducted, murdered, and disappeared? — but internal memos leaking out of DHS tell us that our rapid response networks have shaken ICE's confidence.” According to Reilly, Austin residents have less pre-existing knowledge of their neighbors and less support from city and state governments than Minneapolis residents. Texas’ “287(g) task force” program [mandates cooperation between police and ICE](https://www.texasobserver.org/texas-dps-287g-ice-trump-abbott/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). That means Austin’s anti-ICE groups are less confrontational, and more focused on documenting incidents while getting to know their neighbors better. Although larger ICE raids sometimes occur, many incidents begin when the Texas Department of Public Safety State Troopers pull over a driver and then check their identification. As a result, many encounters with ICE are over quickly and hard to prevent. Even so, the city’s rapid response networks are doing their best. When reports come into the hotline, or directly to the encrypted chats, each potential sighting is described calmly and clearly, using the [SALUTE](https://salute.kyr.digital/en/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) system, which limits reports to easily documented, factual information. Then volunteers will travel to the location to verify the report and look for ways to help. Much like in Minneapolis, organizers are distributing dozens of 3D-printed whistles throughout the city which can be used to warn of ICE activity and discourage their raids if caught in the act. Reilly told us they’re inspired by the way these efforts have spread beyond just the usual activists and radical queers who always show up to protests. “I see a lot of collaboration happening between queer activist groups and immigrant activist groups,” Reilly said, adding they hope that cooperation is sustainable, but suspects it’s largely up to the queer groups to keep showing up for immigrants. Whistles — and guides to using them — can be found at Monkeywrench Books, North Loop’s anarchist infoshop, but they’re also being distributed at neighborhood association meetings and in coffee shops. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/260301_kit_atxlgbt_embed2.jpg) “I've seen a bunch of folks gathering at the bookstore, dropping off 3D-printed whistles, and making and folding zines, and then (other) folks just sort of like filing in, being like ‘I heard you have whistles’ and grabbing handfuls and taking them to their soccer teams, or giving them to their neighbors,” Reilly said. However, they feel some of their most important work over the past year has just been trying to get to know each other better. Reilly started by knocking on neighbors doors and shared a letter, in English and Spanish, introducing themselves and informing people about the collaboration between [Ring security cameras and police](https://www.consumerreports.org/electronics/personal-information/can-federal-law-enforcement-access-your-ring-doorbell-videos-a4894322123/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). They then grew these initial connections by inviting neighbors to a barbecue. “We got some meat, and we set up the grill, we made pies, and just had kind of a little party to get to know each other more,” they said. “Building community in that way, it doesn't have to be like this huge deal or big action to get us to start looking out for each other.” The rapid response networks growing among neighbors in Austin, queer and straight alike, are a sign of both the necessity for leaderless movements and their growing potential as we face off with fascism, both the Texan and Trumpian flavors. “We need to be building our own power, we need to be self organizing as neighbors to combat this, because it's very clear that the elected officials will not,” Reilly said. “Coming from somebody on the far left, that's not a surprise to hear me say that, I feel like we've been banging that drum for a long time,” Reilly added. “But when I go to a neighborhood association meeting and I see 58-year-olds who've been living in Hyde Park talk about helping distribute whistles and zines, something's different.” ### We Analyzed 300 Texas Accounts on a White Supremacist Dating Site. The Data Explains a Lot About Politics Right Now. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/300-texas-accounts-white-supremacist-dating-site-politics-right-now/ Last updated: 2026-07-31T17:15:28.000Z ## EXCLUSIVE At [least 30% of adults](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/02/02/key-findings-about-online-dating-in-the-u-s/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) turn to dating websites to find love these days. The largest platforms — like Match, Bumble, and Hinge — cater to a general audience. Others, like ChristianMingle and JDate, cater to specific ones. Then, there’s White Date. “Ive never joined a dating site before, so I dont know what to expect here. I decided to try this because Im tired of relationships that go nowhere,” wrote one user in a bio for the now-defunct site. (sic) That opening could have fit on any mainstream dating site. The second half, not so much. “Its very hard to find a women nowadays that is white positive and wants a traditional relationship. I absolutely despise race mixing, I think its the trashiest thing a white women can do.” *(Editor’s note: Please assume “sic” for all quotes.)* White Date, a website that has been described as [“Tinder for Nazis,”](https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/tinder-for-nazis-hacked?ref=thebarbedwire.com) catered to “Europids seeking tribal love.” (Read: white people.) In late December, a woman wearing a pink Power Rangers costume took the stage at the 39th Chaos Communications Congress, an annual conference of hackers, in Hamburg, Germany. As previously reported by [*CyberNews*](https://cybernews.com/security/investigator-exposes-white-supremacist-sites-users/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the costumed hacker went by the name Martha Root and presented findings from her successful infiltration of the White Date site. During her presentation, Root [demonstrated](https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/tinder-for-nazis-hacked?ref=thebarbedwire.com) how easy it was to obtain the website’s entire user lists by simply typing in a URL. Root remarked that the website’s cybersecurity was so poor that it “would make even your grandma’s AOL account blush” and described it as “the worst security that you can imagine.” At the conclusion of her presentation, Root ran a series of scripts to theatrically symbolize the removal of the website from the internet. But much of the leaked White Date data still lives online at a website Root created, [okstupid.lol](http://okstupid.lol/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), where impacted users can request their data be taken down. *The Barbed Wire* obtained a full archive of the data via a zip file that had been saved on a version of the site in Web Archive. The file included information that is not visible on Root’s website — such as user home addresses, email addresses, and removed profile photos. With this data, *The Barbed Wire* used tools like TruthFinder (an online background check service), PimEyes (a photo facial recognition tool), and osinst.industries (an open-source intelligence platform) to identify members of neo-fascist groups, active duty members of the military, doctors, public employees, and more. *The Barbed Wire* reviewed data from at least 300 Texas residents who’d created White Date accounts with an eye for what it could illuminate about the state of extremism in Texas and in online spaces. (For context, Texas has more than 30 million residents; White Date users account for roughly 0.0001%.) *The Barbed Wire* is only publishing the names of those who have engaged in neo-fascist activism, or who have served in the military, as their beliefs in white supremacy could directly impact community wellbeing. At publication time, the profiles of the users named by *The Barbed Wire* were publicly visible on the site Root created. *The Barbed Wire* is not publishing the names of the hundreds of additional individuals; doing so would require hours of beyond-our-budget investigative work to vet the profiles’ identities and legal determinations around potential defamation claims. Instead, *The Barbed Wire* analyzed information from all Texas users in the context of broader political trends and the rise of alt-right ideologies. The results reveal a user base concerned with finding partners who adhere to traditional gender roles and wish to have large, explicitly white families as a way to ensure the continuation of the white race, which many users believe is under threat by immigration. Beyond individuals, what we found is that White Date users do not neatly fit into any single far-right stereotype. Users range from as young as 19 to as old as 73, with more than 58% of them under the age of 40\. More than 85% of Texas accounts are registered as men seeking women. Users’ occupations include retirees, veterans, attorneys, doctors, business executives, computer scientists, and a wide variety of white and blue collar workers. Most of the accounts are based in or around major cities. Dallas had more accounts than any other Texas city, with 37 total accounts registered. ![map visualization](https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/27417129/thumbnail) However, hallmarks of far-right radicalization were prevalent in users’ biographies, self-described political views, “mindsets,” and even in the nature of the submission fields users were prompted to complete — shining a light onto what some people say and do when they think no one is looking. ## ‘Have White Babies’ Founded in 2017, White Date described itself as a platform “exclusively for Whites” that was concerned with the survival of the white race. A flyer for the platform, created by “Aryan Graphic Design,” read: “Only white people create white societies, have white babies.” Alongside demographic information, White Date asked users whether they had children, and whether they wanted children. One answer option was: “I would like to have more than 4.” In Texas, more than 10% of White Date users said they wanted four or more children. The average number of children per family in Texas is around two, close to the national average. And it has been the subject of conservative [“pro-family policy” agendas](https://www.texaspolicy.com/for-the-sake-of-the-kids/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which push for increased marriage and birth rates. The question from White Date aligns with the rise of the so-called “pronatalist movement,” which believes that [falling birthrates](https://www.npr.org/2025/04/30/nx-s1-5382208/whats-behind-the-pronatalist-movement-to-boost-the-birth-rate?ref=thebarbedwire.com) are an existential crisis for developed countries. In 2025, NatalCon, a pronatalist conference in Austin, offered [matchmaking services](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/elon-musk-natalism-conference-ut-race-science-matchmaking-austin-pizzagate/) to its audience and conference speakers, which included far-right conspiracy theorists, neofascists, and eugenicists. “I subscribe to traditional family values and desire lots of children,” wrote one White Date user in Houston who said they wanted more than four kids. “I am seeking a partner to complete part of my life that I feel has been missing.” Critics have [described](https://nwlc.org/resource/baby-bonuses-and-motherhood-medals-why-we-shouldnt-trust-the-pronatalist-movement/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) the contemporary pronatalist movement, which emphasizes [traditional gender roles](https://populationconnection.org/blog/how-the-spread-of-conservative-pronatalism-threatens-womens-hard-won-rights/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and having “the right kids,” as one built on racist, sexist, and anti-immigrant ideologies. In plain language, at NatalCon, fears of declining birth rates were secondary to the concern that “certain populations” may be reproducing faster than white populations. *The Barbed Wire* found echoes of those same fears in the White Date data. “My blonde hair and blue eyes were never made to muddle with this influx of brown immigrants and Jewish propaganda,” wrote another White Date user in Austin. “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.” White Date users were also prompted to enter their IQ scores. The field corresponds with the [far-right’s embrace of debunked eugenic “race science,”](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/08/race-science-far-right-charlie-kirk/679527/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) which falsely asserts that Black people have lower IQs than white people — ideas that have been mainstreamed in part thanks to President Donald Trump’s [obsession with IQ](https://www.statnews.com/2024/10/28/eugenics-in-political-rhetoric-open-science-movement-expert-analysis/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and use of racist tropes, as he [did earlier this month with a video](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/06/us/politics/trump-obamas-video-apes-truth-social.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) comparing former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama to apes. The obsession with IQ and the rise of the conservative pronatalist movement tie into a broader trend of [right-wing personalities](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/nov/21/great-replacement-theory-antisemitism-racism-rightwing-mainstream?ref=thebarbedwire.com) promoting the “[great replacement](https://www.isdglobal.org/isd-explainer/the-great-replacement/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)” theory, a racist conspiracy theory that a cabal of elites — in many formulations, Jews — are deliberately “replacing” white populations through birth control and immigration. News outlets [have reported](https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/03/this-is-a-war-and-natalism-is-our-sword-and-shield-my-weekend-with-the-pronatalists/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that Elon Musk [has been at the center of several episodes](https://revealnews.org/podcast/pronatalism-elon-musk-jd-vance-population-crisis/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — in 2023, he replied to a [user’s false claim on X](https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1724908287471272299?s=20&ref=thebarbedwire.com) that Jewish people were behind “hoards of minorities” flooding western countries, writing, “You have said the actual truth.” He also shared a video of a speaker at the 2023 Natalist Conference, [writing on X,](https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1784768522645889111?ref=thebarbedwire.com) “If birth rates continue to plummet, human civilization will end.” *The Barbed Wire* found that rhetoric throughout the White Date data. A man in Midland called himself “Meineehreheisttreue” — the official motto of the Schutzstaffel (SS), which means “My honor is loyalty" — and wrote in his profile description that he was “one hundred percent Aryan.” Then he quoted the 14 Words, a slogan popular among neo-Nazis: “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.” *Like our investigative journalism? *The Barbed Wire is always free to read…but investigative journalism isn’t free to make.* Support from our readers helps pay for the open records requests, document review, and travel expenses that make tough investigative reporting like this story come to life. Pitch in below — or* [*become a member of The Barbed Wire*](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/become-a-member/)*, today.* *The Barbed Wire* has chosen to highlight the language here because the rhetoric has overlap with the [Lebensborn program](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/lebensborn-program?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which was designed by the Nazis in 1935 to increase Germany’s declining birthrate, encouraging the birth of children deemed “racially valuable” in order to increase Germany’s “Aryan” population. It began with discouraging unmarried women from obtaining abortions, which had already been criminalized. Nick Fuentes, the far-right political commentator who [dined with Trump at Mar-a-Lago in 2022](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trump-defends-tucker-carlson-after-interview-with-nick-fuentes-far-right-activist-known-for-his-antisemitic-views?ref=thebarbedwire.com), said earlier this month [on his *America First* podcast](https://www.mediamatters.org/nick-fuentes/nick-fuentes-number-one-political-enemy-america-women-they-have-be-imprisoned?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that, “just like Hitler imprisoned Gypsies, Jews, communists, you know, all of his political rivals, we have to do the same thing with women … They go to the gulag first. They go to the breeding gulags.” Language employed by White Date users, and by supporters of NatalCon, has found its way into the highest levels of American government, including the White House and Naval Observatory. Christian nationalist pastor Doug Wilson — whom the [*Washington Post*](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/02/18/doug-wilson-pentagon-hegseth-christian-nationalist/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) reports has argued that women should be denied the vote and that Christian enslavers were on “firm scriptural ground” — was invited by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to [lead a worship service](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/02/18/doug-wilson-pentagon-hegseth-christian-nationalist/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) at the Pentagon last week. The ideologies dovetail profoundly with [pronatalist](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/11/what-is-pronatalism-right-wing-republican?ref=thebarbedwire.com) concepts promoted by [Vice President JD Vance](https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/j-d-vance-and-the-rights-call-to-have-more-babies?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and Trump’s administration more broadly, which has pushed an unprecedented anti-immigration campaign at the same time as a [“pro-family” agenda](https://thehill.com/video-clips/5629765-trump-announces-pro-family-initiative/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and severe restrictions on reproductive healthcare. The Heritage Foundation, which created the [Project 2025 policy wishlist](https://www.aclu.org/project-2025-explained?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — a Christian-nationalist blueprint to rebuild the federal government — is pushing the White House to create greater tax incentives for married couples, financially reward newlyweds, and open government-run “marriage bootcamps” for unmarried Americans. The Trump administration [has already implemented](https://19thnews.org/2025/12/project-2025-heritage-foundation-progress/?utm%5Fsource=partner&utm%5Fmedium=referral&utm%5Fcampaign=19th-republishing&utm%5Fcontent=/2025/12/project-2025-heritage-foundation-progress) [about half of the goals](https://19thnews.org/2025/12/project-2025-heritage-foundation-progress/?utm%5Fsource=partner&utm%5Fmedium=referral&utm%5Fcampaign=19th-republishing&utm%5Fcontent=/2025/12/project-2025-heritage-foundation-progress) from Project 2025’s nearly 1,000 page proposal in just the first quarter of his second term, *The 19th\** previously reported. Heritage Foundation’s “Saving America by Saving the Family” [framework](https://www.heritage.org/marriage-and-family/report/saving-america-saving-the-family-foundation-the-next-250-years?ref=thebarbedwire.com) says the camps would work like reeducation centers for unmarried couples, and the think tank’s documentation claims the federal government has already earmarked money for “marriage education programs,” [*Futurism* reported](https://futurism.com/future-society/trump-project-2025-marriage-camp?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “Successful completion of the program would mean that couples are ready to walk down the aisle at a communal wedding by the end of the bootcamp,” according to the framework, which also offers cash incentives. One White Date user, who identified himself as a doctor of osteopathic medicine in Fort Worth, wrote in his bio that he was “fortunate to be brought up by parents who instilled pride in our remarkable race.” He wrote that he believes “the white race is what has made the wonder that we see as the modern world” and that “without us the world would be a primitive and dismal place.” The doctor said he wants to “continue on the great legacy past down to me by my amazingly creative ancestors by having a wonderful white mate and equally gifted white children.” ## ‘Radicalization Tale as Old as Time’ White Date users were given the choice to describe their political orientation. Commonly chosen political ideologies include “Pro-White,” “Alt-Right,” “Ethnonationalist,” and “National Socialism.” Common “mindsets” include “White Genocide” and “Corona Plandemic.” Others used more innocuous language to describe their political views, such as “conservative,” “pro-white,” “traditionalism,” or “fully redpilled.” (“[Redpilled](https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/health-wellness/2025/04/17/red-pill-meaning-manosphere-misogyny-and-other-terms-explained/83098716007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)” is a term cribbed from the film “The Matrix” meant to indicate that someone has come to understand “truths” about gender roles.) Many chose no political descriptors at all. Taken at their word, some White Date users were simply seeking other white people who shared things in common — but did not view themselves as espousing hatred. One user in Dallas wrote that he is “not really into politics” and “just want(s) to meet like minded people.” Another user in Dallas without political descriptors wrote that “loving my European heritage doesn't mean I hate others, it simply means that I'm proud of my people and all of their accomplishments” — but also that they had been “redpilled.” “It isn’t difficult to see how the less extreme descriptions incorporate subtle hints or dog whistles about what some of the users might really believe,” said Luke Baumgartner, a research fellow at the Program on Extremism at George Washington University. “Describing yourself as someone who ‘loves’ or is ‘proud of my race,’ “people,’ and ‘heritage’ is a common tactic that was used by a lot of prominent hate groups in the past.” By joining White Date, these ostensibly “nonhateful” and “nonpolitical” users found themselves in the same dating pool as other users — like Midland’s “Meineehreheisttreue.” In this way, White Date served as a possible on-ramp into more extreme far-right ideologies. “It’s a radicalization tale as old as time, and frankly, the internet,” said Baumgartner. “It used to be that some conservatives would get drawn into more extreme ideologies through innocuous-enough sounding organizations like the John Birch Society — which has a long history of funneling white supremacists into more extreme circumstances. I would say White Date is comparable in that it can be considered another on-ramp in the same way that Reddit, 4chan, X, and other platforms were and continue to be.” In at least three cases, *The Barbed Wire* found that users in Texas have engaged in neo-fascist activism. One user, Patrick, provided a zip code for the Addison, Texas area. He described his political views as “Pro-White, Traditionalism.” Photos uploaded to the account depict [Kieran Patrick Morris](https://www.texasobserver.org/revealed-four-businesses-patriot-front-north-texas/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a known member of the Patriot Front, one of the largest and most influential neo-Nazi groups in the United States. Several photos uploaded to the White Date account depict Patriot Front gatherings. Several other photos clearly show Morris’ face, including two in which he is seen posing with the Patriot Front flag. In a recent [*Texas Observer*](https://www.texasobserver.org/revealed-four-businesses-patriot-front-north-texas/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)story, Morris was identified as an employee of Veteran Brothers Roofing, one of four businesses in North Texas with ties to Patriot Front. On Jan. 25, Patriot Front posted a video to its Telegram channel that the group said was taken at a recent anti-abortion demonstration in Washington, D.C. In the video, Morris is shown saying to a group of people: “You might have seen, there was a hit piece in Texas that came out last week. I’m a subject of the article, but basically North Texas Patriot Front guys have like a network of businesses — it’s like five or so — of businesses we own.” Morris did not respond to multiple requests for comment sent to his Telegram account. Another user in Austin, Texas named “Hefeweizen” described his political orientation as “Pro-White, Alt-Right, National Socialism.” The account is associated with a Gmail address linked to the LinkedIn account of a software developer named Andrew Liebenow. A photo uploaded to the White Date account matches Liebnow’s LinkedIn photo, according to facial recognition software. In 2018, Liebenow was issued [a trespassing warning, according to a police report](https://universitystar.com/21315/news/former-student-found-with-ties-to-white-supremacy-flyers-on-campus/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), for [posting white supremacist](https://web.archive.org/web/20180611153214/https://www.thedailybeast.com/marine-veteran-trains-white-supremacists-in-military-tactics) flyers around Texas State University at San Marcos. Following that incident, [antifascist researchers identified](https://latenightafa.noblogs.org/andrew-mark-liebenow-of-austin-and-round-rock-texas-posts-hitler-content-under-eurogenicist-alias/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Liebenow as a participant in a 2017 Patriot Front march in Austin. Liebenow was also identified by the antifascist researchers as a participant of the 2017 [Unite the Right](https://time.com/charlottesville-white-nationalist-rally-clashes/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) rally in Charlottesville, Virginia that drew hundreds of white supremacists — and international headlines — when one of the demonstrators rammed his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing [32-year-old civil rights activist Heather Heyer](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/aug/13/woman-killed-at-white-supremacist-rally-in-charlottesville-named?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and injuring 35 people. Liebenow did not respond to requests for comment *The Barbed Wire* sent via email and LinkedIn, and calls to a phone number associated with his name were not returned. Meanwhile, one user in Houston, Chance, used his first name and Gmail account to register on White Date. Chance did not select descriptors for his political affiliation and simply described himself as “a Christian man who is seeking traditional woman.” The osint.industries tool links Chance’s Gmail on White Date to a number of accounts under the name [Chancellor Purvis](https://www.google.com/maps/contrib/103882918282402593692/reviews?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Purvis is a resident of Houston and a [registered private security guard](https://tops.portal.texas.gov/psp-self-service/search/result/995818?type=person&ref=thebarbedwire.com) in Texas. He bills himself as the [chief](https://archive.is/bCz1l?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of Iron Legionnaire Private Security, which does not currently have a registration with the Texas Secretary of State or the Texas Department of Public Safety. Purvis also has a YouTube account where he has promoted the American Reformation Front, a Christofascist organization that the Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled a hate group, as recently as 2021\. Purvis also posted a video in 2023 in which he said he represents the “Christian Nationalist Front.” The Facebook page for Iron Legionnaire Private Security is followed by the Christian Nationalist Front, which uses fasces iconography that is popular with neo-fascist groups. In a statement to *The Barbed Wire* from his Iron Legionnaire email address*,* Purvis admitted to prior involvement with the American Reformation Front and said he left the group years ago “after concluding its members were unserious and inconsistent” with his views. “I have had no involvement with it since, and I do not support or affiliate with extremist or hate-based movements,” Purvis said. Purvis clarified that Iron Legionnaire Private Security is a “pre-formation project and is not an operating company.” He also said he lost access to his Gmail account in 2021, has been unable to recover it, and denies any involvement with White Date or any use of his Gmail account since 2021. “Any activity, registrations, or associations attributed to that account after that point were not made by me and were not authorized,” Purvis said. “I have never used, registered for, or had any knowledge of the website you reference, and I was not aware of its existence prior to your inquiry. I have no involvement with White Date. For the avoidance of doubt, any publication that attributes to me accounts, activity, or affiliations with which I was not involved would be factually incorrect.” Purvis’ Gmail account is associated with a [Google Maps account](https://archive.is/xmzw2?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which features an image of Purvis as the profile picture and includes reviews in the Houston area as recently as December, including one from October 2024 with [a photo of a receipt](https://archive.is/cUMH3?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that has his first name visible on it. When provided this information, and asked if he denies leaving the 2024 Google Maps review and whether he believes he has been impersonated online, Purvis wrote: “Please stop contacting me.” ## Former and Active Duty Military At least nine Texas-based White Date accounts described themselves as veterans or activity duty members of a military branch. One user in Bellaire, Texas, James2000, wrote that his “ideology is national socialism,” that his views on Christianity are the same as Christian Identity ([a racist and antisemitic movement](https://extremism.gwu.edu/christian-identity-reborn-evolution-and-revitalization-antisemitic-theology?ref=thebarbedwire.com)), and that he is in the Texas National Guard. The email associated with the account uses his full name and according to osint.industries is linked to multiple accounts that use his full name, James Jacoby, including a [Google Maps account](https://archive.is/mJWGh?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Multiple requests for comment from *The Barbed Wire* to email addresses and phone numbers associated with Jacoby were not returned. One user in Grapeland, TallTex, described himself as a “combat veteran” who does not approve of “miscegenation or race mixing” and wants “a pure white woman one that hasn't been tainted” The email associated with the White Date is linked to a [Google Maps user](https://archive.is/QxU8p?ref=thebarbedwire.com) named Brandon Graham who left a review of the Lufkin Army Recruiting Station in 2025: “I went through Lufkin recruiting back in 2005 it was a good place..... However now DEI is no longer part of the military thank God recruiting should see an uptick.” Multiple requests for comment from *The Barbed Wire* to Graham’s email address, LinkedIn, and phone numbers associated with Graham were not returned. ## Political Fallout There has yet to be a fully extensive reporting into the identities of the thousands of White Date users and no notable American politicians or public figures have been tied to the website. But the leak of the White Date website has not been without political consequence. Lilith Osborn, a [conservative city councillor in the United Kingdom](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cql4241dy27o?ref=thebarbedwire.com), was suspended from her political party after her White Date account was exposed. The councilor, who joined the site before she was elected, described her political orientation as “pro-white” and wrote that she was seeking a partner interested in “indigenous European spirituality.” She told the British outlet [*The Observer* ](https://observer.co.uk/news/national/article/tory-and-reform-profiles-linked-to-white-supremacist-dating-site?ref=thebarbedwire.com)that she discovered White Date while researching modern paganism, and went on it “once or twice.” Osborne also said that she has mixed-race children and only described herself as pro-white in order to be trusted on the site. Why exactly Osborn wanted to be trusted on the site, which went beyond mere matchmaking and shared links to “pro-white” films and “cultural content” curated by a self-described Aryan activist, is unclear — even if the intentions of its creator were quite apparent. White Date’s creator, a woman who goes by the name Liv Heide and claims to be from Germany, wrote in 2019 that people should “look at humans as animal breeders look at animals” and that finding a partner was a “eugenic choice.” Though the White Date website may now be gone, the reality that hundreds of Texans were drawn to it remains. ### ICE Has Considered Adding 20,000 Detention Center Beds in Secretive Expansion Across Texas, Reports Say URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/ice-expansions-texas/ Last updated: 2026-02-19T19:16:52.000Z A group of buildings in El Paso, next to apartment complexes and a pediatrician’s office. A towering office building in the Woodlands, across from a preschool. A sprawling, vacant warehouse South of Dallas. Each could be transformed into mega detention centers or headquarters for Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, according to an [investigation by *Wired*.](https://www.wired.com/story/ice-expansion-across-us-at-heres-where-its-going-next/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) The Department of Homeland Security has been covertly planning ICE expansions in dozens of states across the U.S., and Texas is their biggest target, [according to federal documents obtained by *Wired*](https://www.wired.com/story/ice-expansion-across-us-at-heres-where-its-going-next/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). At least eight Texas cities have been identified as places ICE is looking to expand by acquiring new offices or warehouses to use as detention centers, according to *Wired* and [*Bloomberg*](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2026-01-29/us-spends-hundreds-of-millions-on-warehouses-for-ice-detention-centers?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Reports on ICE expansions dropped amid increased calls to reign in the agency — and to shut down existing facilities. Earlier this month, the DHS [reported a measles outbreak](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/hundreds-of-kids-ice-facility-liam-ramos-now-theres-a-measles-outbreak/) at Dilley Immigration Processing Center near San Antonio — where [hundreds of children are](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/01/opinion/liam-ramos-ice-detention.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) being detained. Juan Nicolás, a 2-month-old, was rushed to the hospital on Monday night after spending nearly a month at Dilley. The infant was briefly hospitalized with bronchitis before he was sent back to Dilley, according to U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro. Castro, who has visited the facility, and followed Nicolás’ case, is calling for Dilley to be “shut down immediately.” And last week, as *The Barbed Wire* exclusively reported, the [Texas lawmakers joined more than 40 other state legislators](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-lawmakers-say-theyre-demanding-major-ice-reforms-because-families-and-children-are-terrified/) across the United States in demanding four major reforms to ICE, including efforts for more public oversight, like requiring agents to obtain warrants and adding body cameras to uniforms. Yet, [according to *Wired*](https://www.wired.com/story/ice-expansion-across-us-at-heres-where-its-going-next/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), DHS has asked government officials to hide lease listings and disregard typical government leasing procedures in their efforts to expand immigration operations. According to [*Bloomberg*](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2026-01-29/us-spends-hundreds-of-millions-on-warehouses-for-ice-detention-centers?ref=thebarbedwire.com), DHS or ICE did not respond to their request for comment on the warehouse acquisitions. DHS also did not respond to [*Wired’s*](https://www.wired.com/story/ice-expansion-across-us-at-heres-where-its-going-next/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) request for comment. The General Services Administration, which oversees federal buildings, told *Wired* that they have been working with ICE to acquire new properties in a lawful manner. “GSA is committed to working with all of our partner agencies, including our patriotic law enforcement partners such as ICE, to meet their workspace needs,” said Marianne Copenhaver, GSA associate administrator for communications, to *Wired. “*GSA is following all lease procurement procedures in accordance with all applicable laws and regulations.” In Eagle Pass, [a building next to Sul Ross State University](https://www.google.com/maps/place/3381+US-277,+Eagle+Pass,+TX+78852/@28.709811,-100.4606724,18.86z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x865f8deace61c329:0x235af5fa888b13a2!8m2!3d28.7098527!4d-100.4601605!16s%2Fg%2F11c5k7gvy1?entry=ttu&g%5Fep=EgoyMDI2MDIxMS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D&ref=thebarbedwire.com) that already houses the Drug Enforcement Administration is being eyed by ICE, according to *Wired*. In El Paso, [an office complex](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Epicenter+Office+Community/@31.7950433,-106.5175814,16z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x86e7581715474059:0x4eccaee9df44ecf6!8m2!3d31.7949886!4d-106.5154571!16s%2Fg%2F1tg7sggp?entry=ttu&g%5Fep=EgoyMDI2MDIxMS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D&ref=thebarbedwire.com) across the highway from a pediatrician, and next to a healthcare provider, is the site of a planned expansion. In Harlingen, a lease has been awarded for [a building that’s a block away from](https://www.google.com/maps/place/222+E+Van+Buren+Ave,+Harlingen,+TX+78550/@26.1917366,-97.6938351,18.65z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x866f821f401d83e9:0x2b57cc2e5fcb69ba!8m2!3d26.1913775!4d-97.6940709!16s%2Fg%2F11c27l0rpw?entry=ttu&g%5Fep=EgoyMDI2MDIxMS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D&ref=thebarbedwire.com) a preschool, a church, and a post office. In Irving, [a large office building](https://www.google.com/maps/place/125+E+John+W+Carpenter+Fwy,+Irving,+TX+75062/@32.8673769,-96.9415299,19.31z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x864e82be4126c13b:0x4cc9d83d9eb8959f!8m2!3d32.8677371!4d-96.9414203!16s%2Fg%2F11pf2rfvt5?entry=ttu&g%5Fep=EgoyMDI2MDIxMS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D&ref=thebarbedwire.com) off of State Highway 114 near hotels, condos, and financial offices is a planned expansion site. In San Antonio, it’s [a building that currently houses](https://www.google.com/maps/place/15727+Anthem+Pkwy,+San+Antonio,+TX+78249/@29.5882372,-98.5956366,20.23z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x865c6697b553b551:0x706395e15d2df0e4!8m2!3d29.5884498!4d-98.5955481!16s%2Fg%2F11gpg63nj1?entry=ttu&g%5Fep=EgoyMDI2MDIxMS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D&ref=thebarbedwire.com) a Methodist Healthcare office. In the Woodlands near Houston, it’s [an office building down the road from a preschool](https://www.google.com/maps/place/1780+Hughes+Landing+Blvd,+The+Woodlands,+TX+77380/@30.1735388,-95.4722237,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m6!3m5!1s0x864736d04a41fc6f:0x7530a30e9a747394!8m2!3d30.1735388!4d-95.4696488!16s%2Fg%2F11dzqg7k4r?entry=ttu&g%5Fep=EgoyMDI2MDIxMS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D&ref=thebarbedwire.com). The planned expansions aren’t confined to residential offices, either. [According to *Bloomberg*](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2026-01-29/us-spends-hundreds-of-millions-on-warehouses-for-ice-detention-centers?ref=thebarbedwire.com), ICE has also been spending millions on acquiring warehouses across the country, to be used as massive detention centers. An El Paso warehouse was recently purchased by DHS that could hold over 8,500 beds, which if completed, could make it one of the largest detention centers in the country, [according to *Bloomberg*](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2026-01-29/us-spends-hundreds-of-millions-on-warehouses-for-ice-detention-centers?ref=thebarbedwire.com). ICE was also reportedly planning a 9,500-bed facility for a warehouse in Hutchins, a 1,500-bed facility in San Antonio, and a 500-bed center in McAllen, totaling approximately 20,000 proposed detention center beds in Texas alone. Not all of the planned expansions have been followed through on, though. The plans for the Hutchins facility, a vacant warehouse just outside Dallas, appear to be in limbo after public pushback to the reported expansion. [*The Dallas Morning News* reported that](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/immigration/2026/01/29/ice-plans-mega-texas-detention-center-in-hutchins-to-hold-9500-agency-doc-shows/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Dallas city officials said they had not received any deed indicating the property had been sold as of late January. Other Dallas residents expressed discontent with the idea of the detention center. “We should not be housing human beings in a warehouse meant for packages,” said Eric Folkerth, a Dallas pastor, [to the *Dallas Morning News.*](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/immigration/2026/01/29/ice-plans-mega-texas-detention-center-in-hutchins-to-hold-9500-agency-doc-shows/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Majestic Realty Co., the company that owns the warehouse, said in a statement [posted on X](https://x.com/AaronTorres%5F/status/2023452028627022336?s=20&ref=thebarbedwire.com) by *Dallas Morning News* reporter Aarón Torres that they would not be selling the warehouse to DHS. “Majestic Realty Co. has not and will not enter into any agreement for the purchase or lease of any building to the Department of Homeland Security for use as a detention facility,” [the statement reads.](https://x.com/AaronTorres%5F/status/2023452028627022336?s=20&ref=thebarbedwire.com) If the 9,500-bed facility were to be set up there, it would be the largest detention center in the country. Currently, a 5,000-bed facility in El Paso, [known as Camp East Montana](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-west-texas-immigration-detention-facility-is-a-giant-tent-city-congresswoman-says/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), is the largest. Camp East Montana has faced allegations of mistreatment, negligence, and calls for a ceasing of operations after [the deaths of three immigrants in custody](https://english.elpais.com/usa/2026-01-21/the-black-hole-of-camp-east-montana-three-deaths-in-44-days-at-the-largest-migrant-detention-center-in-the-us.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [a tuberculosis outbreak](https://elpasomatters.org/2026/02/09/tb-tuberculosis-covid-19-camp-east-montana-el-paso-ice-detention-center/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). People detained at [Prairieland Detention Center](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/new-details-july-4-ice-attack-holes-feds-case/) in North Texas have complained of similarly bleak conditions. State Rep. Salman Bhojani, a Democrat from Euless, [said in a press conference last month](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-democrats-demand-release-of-political-prisoner-leqaa-kordia-compare-ice-facility-to-internment-camps/) that [Leqaa Kordia, who lawmakers have called a political prison after being detained in Prairieland for more than 300 days](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/leqaa-kordia-palestinian-protester-ice-detention/), didn’t have access to halal meals and proper heating, in “suffocating conditions” amid more than 60 detainees in a dorm built for 20 individuals. He said she’d been running [“a high fever for several days.](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-democrats-demand-release-of-political-prisoner-leqaa-kordia-compare-ice-facility-to-internment-camps/)” She was later hospitalized. According to a [Feb. 13 ICE memo](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-governor-nh-gov/sites/g/files/ehbemt971/files/media/media%5Fdocument/merrimack-nh-detention-reengineering-initiative-final.pdf) titled “Detention Reengineering Initiative,” the planned expansions will cost $38.3 billion and will be funded through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. “For ICE to sustain the anticipated increase in enforcement operations and arrests in 2026, an increase in detention capacity will be a necessary downstream requirement,” the memo reads. ICE intends to “activate” all of the new facilities by Nov. 30, according to the memo. The El Paso warehouses for the planned 8,500-bed facility were bought by DHS in January for almost $123 million, according to [*El Paso Matters.*](https://elpasomatters.org/2026/02/06/el-paso-texas-dhs-buys-warehouses-ice-mega-immigration-detention-center-clint/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)An industrial warehouse in East San Antonio, meant to hold the 1,500 beds, was also purchased for $66.1 million by ICE in early February, [according to the *San Antonio Express-News*](https://www.expressnews.com/news/article/ice-warehouse-san-antonio-east-side-industrial-21329611.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com), despite pushback from local officials. “We should be very concerned about what such a facility does to our image nationally,” said Tommy Calvert, Bexar County commissioner, [told the *San Antonio Express-News.*](https://www.expressnews.com/news/article/ice-warehouse-san-antonio-east-side-industrial-21329611.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) An ICE spokesperson defended the expanded facilities in Texas in a statement to the Express-News. “These will not be warehouses — they will be very well structured detention facilities meeting our regular detention standards,” [the spokesperson said](https://www.statesman.com/news/article/ice-san-antonio-detention-center-texas-21335728.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). "It should not come as news that ICE will be making arrests in states across the U.S. and is actively working to expand detention space.” ### 2-Month-Old Baby Juan Nicolás & His Mother Were ‘Abandoned Across the Border’ Hours After He Was Hospitalized With Bronchitis, Castro Says URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/2-month-old-baby-juan-nicolas-unresponsive-hospital-sent-back-to-ice-facility/ Last updated: 2026-02-18T00:11:08.000Z A recently hospitalized 2-month-old baby has been deported with his mother, father, and 16-month-old sister, U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro said Tuesday. Juan Nicolás was rushed to the hospital on Monday night after spending nearly a month in federal custody at Dilley Family Detention Center, Univision’s [Lidia Terrazas](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DUyldhnia4t/?utm%5Fsource=ig%5Fweb%5Fcopy%5Flink&igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==) first reported. In a Sunday evening social media [post](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DUyldhnia4t/?utm%5Fsource=ig%5Fweb%5Fcopy%5Flink&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==), Terrazas reported — via Juan's mother — that he had “another health episode” about 3 a.m., during which he was “choking on his own vomit.” Throughout the day Tuesday, Terrazas and Castro updated the public on Juan and his family’s plight. The infant was briefly hospitalized with bronchitis, during which he became unresponsive overnight, before he was sent back to Dilley, said Castro. Castro confirmed he was deported just hours later. “Juan Nicolás, a two month old suffering from bronchitis who spent three weeks in the Dilley Trailer Prison, has been deported by ICE along with his mother,” [Castro wrote on X](https://x.com/JoaquinCastrotx/status/2023912487544836414?s=20&ref=thebarbedwire.com). “They were abandoned across the border in Mexico.” Minutes later, Castro added that he had confirmed that Juan’s 16-month-old sister, mother, and father, were also taken to Mexico. They were given $190 — the only money they had in their commissary — and left there, he said. “To unnecessarily deport a sick baby and his entire family is heinous,” Castro posted online. “My staff and I are in contact with Juan’s family. We are laser-focused on tracking them down, holding ICE accountable for this monstrous action, demanding specific details on their whereabouts and wellbeing, and ensuring their safety.” > [](https://twitter.com/JoaquinCastrotx/status/2023922403714146442?s=20&ref=thebarbedwire.com) The news came quickly after Castro raised alarms about Juan’s wellbeing online and to the press. “Me and my team have been in contact with Juan’s family,” Castro posted on multiple social media platforms Tuesday afternoon. “Juan has bronchitis — according to his mom — and at some point in the last several hours, he was unresponsive. Juan was still discharged from the hospital despite that around midnight today.” Hours later, he was gone. Castro has told reporters that the baby had been vomiting and exhibiting respiratory issues throughout his detainment. Earlier this month, the Department of Homeland Security [reported a measles outbreak](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/hundreds-of-kids-ice-facility-liam-ramos-now-theres-a-measles-outbreak/) at the facility, which houses about 1,100 immigrants. He is the [facility’s](https://www.propublica.org/article/ice-dilley-children-letters?ref=thebarbedwire.com) youngest detainee, among hundreds of other children, Castro — who [called on Dilley to be “shut down immediately”](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/hundreds-of-kids-ice-facility-liam-ramos-now-theres-a-measles-outbreak/) weeks ago — has said. > [](https://twitter.com/JoaquinCastrotx/status/2023912487544836414?s=20&ref=thebarbedwire.com) Terrazas was the first to confirm the family’s deportation [on Tuesday evening to her Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DU4LvmjCew4/?utm%5Fsource=ig%5Fweb%5Fcopy%5Flink&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==), reporting that Juan and his mother were deported and “abandoned at the border.” That afternoon, Castro told the press that Juan’s mother had appeared before an immigration judge and told she would soon be deported. “We are all deeply concerned that Juan and his mom will be deported and that Juan’s health will continue to deteriorate,” Castro said in Tuesday’s post. “His life is in danger because of ICE’s monstrous cruelty. I will continue to provide updates, and we will keep fighting to protect them.” ### Ken Paxton Is No Stranger to Controversy. Here’s a Timeline of Nearly 20 Years of Scandals & Headlines. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/ken-paxton-scandal-timeline/ Last updated: 2026-07-27T18:27:28.000Z Early voting in Texas begins on Tuesday, and one of the most competitive races in recent Texas Republican history is about to take shape. Ken Paxton, the current attorney general and MAGA Republican, is in [full-swing campaign](https://www.kenpaxton.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) mode for a national role, gunning for the U.S. Senate in 2026 against incumbent John Cornyn and U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt. That race is too close to call, according to a [Feb. 3 poll by JL Partners](https://jlpartners.com/texas-gop-senate-primary-polling-february-2026?ref=thebarbedwire.com) showing a three-way tie between the candidates. A runoff in the March 3 primary election could tilt the scales in Paxton’s favor, as the more right-wing candidates typically prevail in Texas Republican primary runoffs, [according to *Texas Monthly*.](https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/ken-paxton-tim-dunn/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Paxton has become a huge name in state politics — not just for his popularity with staunch conservatives, but for a string of political scandals he has weathered over the years. He’s been in Texas politics for over 20 years, and he’s been making headlines for just as long. Paxton has [survived an impeachment](https://www.texastribune.org/series/ken-paxton-impeachment-texas-attorney-general/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) by the Texas Legislature, a [biblically-charged divorce](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/07/10/angela-paxton-divorce-texas-attorney-general-ken/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a decade of [securities fraud charges](https://ballotpedia.org/Securities%5Ffraud%5Fcharges%5Fagainst%5FTexas%5FAttorney%5FGeneral%5FKen%5FPaxton,%5F2015?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and he’s also [become a multimillionaire during his time in public office](https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/texas-ken-paxton-attorney-general-millionaire-a3be9c94?gaa%5Fat=eafs&gaa%5Fn=AWEtsqfmfgPFssCoaAj2D0gwrg2YbIa2yp7tPmyV89DyMJx1D1CDajdQ-GHFaNmgXS0%3D&gaa%5Fts=68f53aec&gaa%5Fsig=hgq4CGqvgdHZwUDdPcOsKA7pRZTLHlSgTLMulQ7sCrxAQlt4WcR8aRAJlUgzY34zmEJ1f6fOneAf0UR%5FFQUe6g%3D%3D&ref=thebarbedwire.com). But of course, there’s a lot more. We’ve compiled every serious scandal Paxton has faced during his political ascendancy, and somehow managed to emerge unscathed from. ## 2008: Failing to Disclose His Investments When Paxton was a Texas House member representing McKinney in 2008, the *Associated Press* reported that he and another lawmaker [had investments in a company](https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-10-16-3189557582%5Fx.htm?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that got millions from state contracts — contracts that Paxton had voted on through state spending bills. Paxton had profited from the contracts that Watchguard, a video equipment company that supplies police stations, secured while he was in office. His investment in the company came to light after a competing company sued, saying that the contract bidding was rigged in Watchdog’s favor. Paxton claimed he had no knowledge of the company’s state contracts at the time, which he would have been required to [disclose to the Texas Ethics Commission](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-ethics-state-tx-us/data/resources/guides/coh%5Fstate%5Fguide23.pdf) under state law. However, the [*Associated Press* reported](https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-10-16-3189557582%5Fx.htm?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that Watchguard’s website boasted that the company was “held by an influential shareholder group that includes three state representatives.” According to the *Wall Street Journal*, after coming under scrutiny, Paxton shifted his investments, including in Watchguard, into a blind trust in 2015\. A blind trust is [an account managed by a third party](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/blindtrust.asp?ref=thebarbedwire.com) trustee without the beneficiary’s knowledge in order to prevent a conflict of interest. However, the *Journal* uncovered [texts between Paxton and the trustee](https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/texas-ken-paxton-attorney-general-millionaire-a3be9c94?gaa%5Fat=eafs&gaa%5Fn=AWEtsqfmfgPFssCoaAj2D0gwrg2YbIa2yp7tPmyV89DyMJx1D1CDajdQ-GHFaNmgXS0%3D&gaa%5Fts=68f53aec&gaa%5Fsig=hgq4CGqvgdHZwUDdPcOsKA7pRZTLHlSgTLMulQ7sCrxAQlt4WcR8aRAJlUgzY34zmEJ1f6fOneAf0UR%5FFQUe6g%3D%3D&ref=thebarbedwire.com), who is a friend of his, concerning his stock trades in 2020, a violation of the “blind” nature of the arrangement. And Paxton received $2.2 million from his investment in Watchguard when the company was bought in 2019, the *Journal* reported. Subscribe to the Wild Texas Newsletter Texas is one big, wild place. Our weekly round up keeps you in the know. All killer, no filler. It's Texas news worth your time. Subscribe Check your inbox and click the link to confirm. Something went wrong. Try again. ## 2013: Stealing Another Lawyer’s Pen After a $1,000 [Montblac pen](https://www.montblanc.com/en-us/writing-instruments?gclsrc=aw.ds&gad%5Fsource=1&gad%5Fcampaignid=21840371487&gbraid=0AAAAADmBEK58t1GtrIFlCcr1fWcadR5ss&gclid=Cj0KCQjw9obIBhCAARIsAGHm1mTq1jnOyNQRIdCvmUoBjyb3NRlVPnt%5FKaI4StyUfK1M1pjfI8KgR3kaAg%5FXEALw%5FwcB&ref=thebarbedwire.com) was mistakenly left by one lawyer in a metal detector tray at a courthouse, it found its way into the hands of then-state senator Ken Paxton, [according to the *Dallas Morning News*](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2014/11/18/incoming-ag-ken-paxton-returns-another-lawyer-s-1000-pen-he-picked-up-at-courthouse-metal-detector/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The expensive ballpoint had been a gift to attorney Joe Joplin from his wife, and after he realized it was missing, asked a sheriff to review the security footage. The video revealed Paxton had pocketed Joplin’s pen, the sheriff told the *News.* After a phone call, Paxton returned the pen to Joplin. When asked by the *Dallas Morning News* what he thought had happened, Joplin did not speculate. “You can surmise that,” he said. ## 2015: Securities Fraud Charges The year Paxton assumed the office of attorney general also kicked off a nine-year legal saga over securities fraud felony charges. Paxton was indicted in the late summer of 2015 over accusations of defrauding investors, [according to *Chron*](https://www.chron.com/news/politics/us/article/Attorney-General-Ken-Paxton-indicted-local-media-6419389.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The charges stemmed from accusations that Paxton had encouraged other legislators to invest in McKinney-based company Servergy in 2011 without telling them he would make a commission, *Chron* reported. Paxton allegedly misrepresented himself as an investor in the company, which was [charged with fraud](https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2016-65?ref=thebarbedwire.com) by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in 2016. Paxton and Republican supporters [painted the 2015 indictment as a partisan attack by Democrats](https://www.texastribune.org/2015/08/02/paxton-no-stranger-controversial-business-deals/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Jim Henson, head of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin, told [*Chron* at the time](https://www.chron.com/news/politics/us/article/Attorney-General-Ken-Paxton-indicted-local-media-6419389.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that their argument would be difficult to uphold as the legal charges unfolded. “It's going to be a little harder to sustain the argument that this was a politically motivated persecution over time,” Henson said. “But my suspicion is that we will not see the attorney general going particularly quietly into the night.” Paxton, indeed, did not go quietly. After pleading not guilty to the charges, the case was stalled by [disputes over how much the prosecutors should be paid](https://apnews.com/general-news-c75d89a78ccb4066b73c295b81ec600d?ref=thebarbedwire.com), following pushback by commissioners in Paxton’s hometown of Collin County, according to the *Associated Press.* Back and forth changes to the legal venue between Collin County and Houston [further delayed the case](https://apnews.com/article/texas-d992b993c1b5ee6c8a6e05cec8c0a1b5?ref=thebarbedwire.com). After nine years, during which time Paxton was reelected as attorney general twice, Paxton [struck a deal with prosecutors in 2024](https://apnews.com/article/ken-paxton-texas-securities-fraud-9ed5eecc30c1f967ec51f7e58ad9d0af?ref=thebarbedwire.com), agreeing to pay about $300,000 in restitution and do community service [with local food pantry organizations in Collin County](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/03/26/ken-paxton-plea-deal-securities-fraud-felony/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to get the charges dropped, the *Associated Press* reported. Paxton continued to characterize the case as a “political prosecution” upon its settlement, [according to the *Texas Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/03/26/ken-paxton-plea-deal-securities-fraud-felony/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). ## 2020: FBI Investigation of Bribery and Abuse of Office Accusations A group of conservative attorneys who worked in Paxton’s office reported him to the FBI in October 2020, [accusing him of bribery and abuse of office](https://www.kvue.com/article/news/politics/texas-attorney-general-ken-paxton-federal-complaint-alleged-bribery-abuse-of-office/269-e5c1d64c-f1af-45ee-87ad-cd2b16f43a4f?ref=thebarbedwire.com), according to KVUEand the *Austin-American Statesman.* The FBI began looking into the claims that Paxton had misused his office to aid friend and [political donor Nate Paul](https://apnews.com/article/ken-paxton-austin-texas-crime-f8413d14842d848e69cf81bb4d2e87e2?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a wealthy Austin real estate developer. The attorneys from Paxton’s office claimed Paxton hired an outside lawyer to investigate Paul’s claims that [the FBI had improperly searched his home](https://apnews.com/article/bf05e918b1e3b8805609c38d821fd222?ref=thebarbedwire.com), according to the *Associated Press.* Paul also said in a deposition that Paxton recommended he hire a woman [with whom Paxton had an affair in 2018](https://apnews.com/article/us-news-ken-paxton-extramarital-affairs-austin-texas-dc0c309fc829e62e5132aab56bcc686f?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the *AP* reported. Paul has since been hit [with felony wire fraud charges](https://www.texastribune.org/2023/11/08/nate-paul-indictment-ken-paxton/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). After the allegations spurred an investigation and subsequent impeachment trial in 2023, the FBI investigation [changed hands from Texas federal prosecutors](https://apnews.com/article/politics-district-of-columbia-ken-paxton-texas-crime-e3cbc749a3e5ee1f75957df8a77401f4?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to Justice Department officials in D.C. And in late 2024, the Justice Department [quietly declined to continue pursuing the case](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/04/03/ken-paxton-federal-charges-dropped-biden/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), according to the *Associated Press,* putting to bed yet another high-stakes probe into the Texas politician. ## 2020: Sued for Firing Whistleblowers After reporting Paxton to the FBI in 2020, at least four of the attorneys who worked in his office were fired, and promptly sued the attorney general for violating the [Texas Whistleblower Act](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-texasattorneygeneral-gov/sites/default/files/files/divisions/general-oag/whistleblowerposter.pdf), which prohibits employers from taking action against public employees who report violations of the law. The lawsuit made its way to the Texas Supreme Court in 2023 before Paxton agreed to pay the attorneys $3.3 million and issue an apology, [according to the *Texas Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2023/02/10/ken-paxton-attorney-general-settlement-whistleblower/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)*.* However, the payment would come out of state funds, and required approval of the Texas legislature. After the agreement was made, state Rep. Jeff Leach, (R-Plano), who oversees the House Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence Committee, [told the *Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2023/02/10/ken-paxton-attorney-general-settlement-whistleblower/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) he felt “troubled that hardworking taxpayers might be on the hook for this settlement between the Attorney General and former employees of his office.” As the whistleblower case and FBI investigations led the legislature into its own impeachment trial of Paxton in 2023, the lawsuit bounced around the legal system, until in April of 2025 a judge [ruled against Paxton](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/04/04/ken-paxton-whistleblower-case-judgment/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and ordered a payout of $6.6 million to the fired attorneys, the *Tribune* reported. According to the *Tribune*, Paxton initially appealed the ruling, calling it “ridiculous judgement that is not based on the facts or the law,” but [dropped the appeal in July](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/07/03/ken-paxton-attorney-general-whistleblowers-appeal/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), leaving the legislature to once again approve to foot the multimillion bill. ## 2022: Contesting the 2020 Election Results The State Bar of Texas [sued Paxton for professional misconduct](https://www.texastribune.org/2022/05/25/texas-bar-ken-paxton-2020-election/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in 2022, after he brought a lawsuit against Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin in 2020 over discredited election fraud claims. The U.S. Supreme Court [threw out Paxton’s lawsuit](https://www.texastribune.org/2020/12/11/texas-lawsuit-supreme-court-election-results/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), saying Texas lacked the standing to sue other states over their election procedures. The Texas Bar’s lawsuit stemmed from complaints over Paxton’s lawsuit, over money and time spent investigating false claims that made up Paxton’s arguments about the 2020 election results, [according to the *Texas Tribune.* ](https://www.texastribune.org/2022/05/25/texas-bar-ken-paxton-2020-election/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)The Bar was looking to sanction Paxton with a punishment ranging from a reprimand to disbarment. The Texas Supreme Court [dismissed the Texas Bar’s lawsuit in January 2025](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/01/23/ken-paxton-texas-state-bar-lawsuit-dismiss-2020-election/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), on the grounds that the sanction would violate the Texas Constitution’s separation of powers doctrine. ## 2023: Impeachment Trial In May 2023, after the mounting FBI investigation and whistleblower lawsuit, the Texas House investigation committee unveiled 20 articles of impeachment against Paxton based on the abuse of office and bribery charges. The investigation centered around [Paxton misusing his office to aid with Nate Paul’s legal issues](https://www.texastribune.org/2023/09/16/ken-paxton-acquitted-impeachment-texas-attorney-general/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the *Texas Tribune* reported. The House voted 121-33 to [impeach Paxton](https://www.texastribune.org/2023/05/27/ken-paxton-impeached-texas-attorney-general/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), suspending him from office and marking [only the third time in history the legislative body has impeached an official.](https://www.texastribune.org/2023/05/27/ken-paxton-impeached-texas-attorney-general/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) The impeachment was then kicked to the Texas Senate, requiring a trial and two-thirds of senators’ approval to permanently remove Paxton from office. After a two-week Senate trial in September of 2023, Paxton was [acquitted of all charges](https://www.texastribune.org/2023/09/16/ken-paxton-acquitted-impeachment-texas-attorney-general/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and restored to office after none of the articles met the 21 votes necessary. The trial included witness testimony to Paxon’s alleged attempts to investigate Paul’s enemies, delay foreclosures of his properties, and dig into police investigations of Paul, as well as allegations that Paul paid for Paxton’s home renovations and covered up his affair in return, [the *Tribune* reported.](https://www.texastribune.org/2023/09/16/ken-paxton-acquitted-impeachment-texas-attorney-general/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Only two Republican senators voted in favor of Paxton’s conviction, according to the *Tribune.* Subscribe to the Wild Texas Newsletter Texas is one big, wild place. Our weekly round up keeps you in the know. All killer, no filler. It's Texas news worth your time. Subscribe Check your inbox and click the link to confirm. Something went wrong. Try again. ## 2025: Divorce and Infidelity In July 2025, the attorney general’s wife, State Sen. Angela Paxton, took to social media to announce she was filing for divorce. “Today, after 38 years of marriage, I filed for divorce on biblical grounds,” she wrote [in her post.](https://x.com/AngelaPaxtonTX/status/1943366217479393512?ref=thebarbedwire.com) “I believe marriage is a sacred covenant and I have earnestly pursued reconciliation. But in light of recent discoveries, I do not believe that it honors God or is loving to myself, my children, or Ken to remain in the marriage.” Although Angela Paxton did not expand on her “recent discoveries,” the divorce announcement came after years of publicly reported infidelity by her husband. In 2018, Ken Paxton gathered his staff, and with his wife by his side, confessed to them that he had been having an affair, and promised to recommit to his marriage, the *Texas Tribune* reported. Then, the swirling allegations concerning Paxton’s aid to Nate Paul brought his relationship with a former Senate aide into the national spotlight. [House impeachment managers alleged](https://www.texastribune.org/2023/09/04/ken-paxton-affair-impeachment-trial-marriage/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that Paxton had asked Paul to hire the woman so she could move to Austin, and that Paul and Paxton had shared a secret Uber account that Paxton used to meet with the woman. Through her husband’s Senate trial, where the affair allegations played a central role, Angela Paxton sat stoically, recused from voting but listening to the proceedings. [She tweeted biblical verses throughout the trial](https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/angela-paxton-ken-impeachment-biblical-womanhood/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). After Paxton’s acquittal, his lawyers disputed many of the allegations brought against him, but not the infidelity, [according to the *Washington Post*](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/07/10/ken-paxton-wife-divorce-texas-attorney-general/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)*.* Paxton’s messy divorce has not gone unnoticed by his Republican rivals for the U.S. Senate. In response to a Feb. 4 [post by Paxton on X](https://x.com/TeamCornyn/status/2019061141167542532?ref=thebarbedwire.com) claiming Cornyn will lose the race by huge margins, the incumbent senator’s team fired back. “Ken, when this over, you will have nothing. Which turns out to be the same thing you offered to give Angela in divorce proceedings. This after you cheated on her multiple times,” [the TeamCornyn account wrote](https://x.com/TeamCornyn/status/2019061141167542532?ref=thebarbedwire.com). ## 2025: Mortgage Fraud Investigations Two weeks after Angela Paxton announced she was filing for divorce, [an *Associated Press* investigation](https://apnews.com/article/paxton-mortgages-trump-primary-residence-homestead-deduction-bd259b6bd122afcaf4f11eac5a3a152e?ref=thebarbedwire.com) revealed that the Paxtons had been claiming three different homes (one in Dallas and two in Austin) as their primary residence, saving them thousands of dollars in mortgage loan payments. Paxton was also simultaneously collecting tax breaks on two different homes in 2018, via a homestead exemption that is only meant for a single, primary residence, according to reports from the *AP*. Other properties the Paxtons own, including a million-dollar “luxury cabin” in Oklahoma and a home in College Station, have been listed on rental sites, in violation of each residence’s mortgage, according to *AP*’s investigation. Paxton bought the Oklahoma luxury home in 2022, but failed to disclose the property in his required annual transparency report to the state, [*KUT News* reported in 2023.](https://www.kut.org/politics/2023-12-07/ken-paxton-texas-attorney-general-personal-finance-reports?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Additionally, a Tampa, Florida home the Paxtons own, as well as four other properties across Hawaii, Utah, and Florida were not disclosed by Paxton, *KUT News* said. ## 2026: Suing and Investigating Texas Organizations As he’s campaigned for U.S. Senate, Paxton has used the Texas Attorney General’s Office to file a flurry of lawsuits against everyone from doctors to tech companies and local school districts. Over the span of two days in February, Paxton [took legal action against Bexar County](https://www.expressnews.com/news/article/ken-paxton-bexar-county-lawsuit-immigrant-defense-21333464.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) over a legal defense fund for immigrants, asked a judge to [declare a Muslim civil rights group](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/02/05/ken-paxton-cair-lawsuit-muslim-brotherhood/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to be declared a foreign terrorist organization, and [demanded records from a Houston anti-fascist group](https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/houston/2026/02/06/542808/ken-paxton-screwston-antifa/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that posts information about alleged neo-Nazis online. Paxton also [launched an investigation](https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/news/releases/attorney-general-ken-paxton-demands-documents-part-investigation-austin-isd-facilitating-student?ref=thebarbedwire.com) into Austin Independent School District in early February over a student walkout to protest Immigration and Customs Enforcement, demanding documents from the district. On Feb. 16, he announced he would be investigating [three other Texas school districts](https://www.oag.state.tx.us/news/releases/attorney-general-ken-paxton-investigates-three-independent-school-districts-facilitating-student?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that also saw protests, including Dallas ISD, Manor ISD, and North East ISD in San Antonio. “I will not allow Texas schools to become breeding grounds for the radical Left’s open borders agenda,” Paxton said in a [statement](https://www.oag.state.tx.us/news/releases/attorney-general-ken-paxton-investigates-three-independent-school-districts-facilitating-student?ref=thebarbedwire.com). ### Texas Lawmakers Say They’re Demanding Major ICE Reforms Because ‘Families and Children Are Terrified’ URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-lawmakers-say-theyre-demanding-major-ice-reforms-because-families-and-children-are-terrified/ Last updated: 2026-02-13T16:42:55.000Z ## EXCLUSIVE “Families and children are terrified” of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents breaking into homes [without warrants](https://apnews.com/article/ice-arrests-warrants-minneapolis-trump-00d0ab0338e82341fd91b160758aeb2d?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Democratic state Rep. Josey Garcia, of San Antonio, told *The Barbed Wire* this week. That’s one of the reasons Garcia and 20 other Texas state representatives say they’ve [signed a letter](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/defendamericaaction-org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/letter-to-congress-on-ice-reforms.pdf) demanding that Congress enact serious agency reforms to rein in federal immigration officials. Garcia, the first female veteran elected to the Texas State House of Representatives, said the agency’s recent actions remind her of when she served in Operation Iraqi Freedom. “I’ve been overseas during conflict, I’ve been overseas during humanitarian operations,” Garcia said. “One thing that I know for sure, is that what's happening right now is something akin to wartime scenarios, and we did not sign-up for that here.” Garcia said she has been particularly affected by the cases in which uniformed members of the U.S. military [have been deported](https://www.npr.org/local/2019/06/21/733371297/deported-u-s-veterans-feel-abandoned-by-the-country-they-defended?ref=thebarbedwire.com) by the country they pledged to defend. After months of [intimidation](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/12/16/texas-immigrants-trump-administration-halts-applications/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [violence](https://www.kut.org/2026-01-28/dps-troopers-clash-with-protesters-outside-dilley-ice-detention-facility?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and [unlawful detainments](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/31/us/politics/liam-ramos-ice-release.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — along with the extrajudicial killings of both Renée Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota — the Texas lawmakers joined more than 40 other state legislators across the United States in demanding four major reforms. The four proposed reforms are: - Requiring ICE to obtain warrants before detaining, arresting, or searching a person or home - Ending “roving patrols,” which lawmakers say are empowering ICE agents to indiscriminately stop and question cars - Banning ICE agents from wearing masks and adding a body camera to their uniforms - Enforcing consistent rules of engagement for agents to follow, including a “universal code of conduct” The letter, spearheaded by the progressive organization [Defend America Action](https://defendamericaaction.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), excoriates President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans for their choices that, lawmakers wrote, have allowed ICE to become “an unaccountable paramilitary force that threatens the constitutional rights and safety of the communities we serve.” The Dilley Immigration Processing Center, the main facility for family immigration detention in the U.S., is located just an hour away from Garcia’s district. The facility houses hundreds of child detainees, including [a 2-month-old infant](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/watch-rep-castro-recounts-visit-with-liam-ramos-5-year-old-detained-by-ice?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and recently [reported a measles outbreak](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/hundreds-of-kids-ice-facility-liam-ramos-now-theres-a-measles-outbreak/). The center made headlines when it housed 5-year-old Liam Ramos, the child of asylum-seekers in Minnesota who entered the country by legal means. While Liam was released by a judge, the case highlighted the arrest and detainment of other young children. Outrage followed headlines about Génesis, an Austin-area 5-year-old U.S. citizen, who was arrested and deported after her mother, Karen, [called the Austin Police Department at 4:30 a.m. for help](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/abolish-ice-gains-traction-after-mom-shot-minneapolis/). A man — whom she had an expired restraining order against — showed up at their home before dawn, Chief Lisa Davis told the [*Austin American-Statesman*](https://www.statesman.com/news/local/article/austin-police-ice-communication-guidance-21295327.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). APD turned Karen and her daughter over to ICE, the newspaper [reported](https://www.statesman.com/news/local/article/ice-austin-police-collaboration-arrest-policy-21285832.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Democratic state Rep. Christina Morales, of Houston, told *The Barbed Wire*, “there is no accountability” for what ICE is doing. “This is security without constitutionality, and that isn't strength — it's overreach,” Morales said. “Our community, our citizens, the people of Texas believe in strength and the Constitution. So, we shouldn't be using fear and these tactics that are unconstitutional as a governing strategy.” More than 70% of her district is of Latino origin, with many people living in Spanish-speaking and mixed status households, Morales said. It was in Houston that local police called ICE instead of reuniting 15-year-old Emmanuel Gonzalez, who has an intellectual disability, with his mother [when he walked away from her fruit stand in October](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/disabled-child-federal-immigration-custody/). Within hours, she filed a missing persons report, but it took a full week before [she found him in federal immigration custody](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/disabled-child-federal-immigration-custody/). Emmanuel — whose records showed symptoms consistent with autism — remained in federal immigration custody for 48 days, despite his mother’s pleas for him to be released into her care. The tense atmosphere has been exacerbated by stories of parents getting arrested by ICE outside of schools or driving to their jobs — like 18-year-old Jonatan Pech, who was on his way to college freshman orientation when [ICE took his mom.](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/million-texas-students-undocumented-ice-mom-taken/) “ICE are supposed to be, you know, finding hardened criminals,” Morales said. “It's just heartbreaking, because guess what, when those kids get home from school, their parents aren't there,” Morales continued. “My grandson, he's 9 years old, asked me, ‘Why does Donald Trump hate Mexicans?’ And I was just very shocked by him saying that to me, and I asked him, ‘Why do you think Donald Trump hates Mexicans?’ And he said, ‘Because my friend at school, my best friend, is afraid that her parents will be deported.’” This letter is far from the only recent call for immigration reform and accountability. Also this week, Texas congresswoman Sylvia Garcia filed legislation [that would give](https://www.fox7austin.com/news/sylvia-garcia-legislation-immigration-enforcement-ice?ref=thebarbedwire.com) local police more autonomy from immigration enforcement, if passed. Separately, Morales, Garcia, Democratic state Rep. Chris Turner of Arlington, and 36 of their colleagues submitted a [signed letter](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xNurWTRw2fhiwshUTKi2RWGmHwsCgGcJ/view?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to state Rep. Cole Hefner — the Republican chair of the House Committee on Homeland Security, Public Safety, and Veterans Affairs on Feb. 10 — calling for a public hearing into allegations of widespread human rights abuses at the Camp East Montana [detention facility at Fort Bliss](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-fort-bliss-ice-detention-facility-at-site-of-wwii-internment-camp/), which was used in [World War II as an internment camp](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-fort-bliss-ice-detention-facility-at-site-of-wwii-internment-camp/). That same day, ICE acting [Director Todd Lyons and other top immigration officials](https://www.npr.org/2026/02/12/g-s1-109841/immigration-enforcement-investigations-misconduct?ref=thebarbedwire.com) testified about ICE policies, training practices, and the deaths of Good and Pretti at an oversight meeting in the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security. As a leader, Turner said that it is his obligation to speak out alongside “the millions of Americans who are outraged over what they're seeing from this administration.” “I don't believe one letter is going to, you know, solve the problem,” Turner said in an interview with *The Barbed Wire.* “I think we all have to continue to speak out, speak up, and raise our voices — whether you're in elected office or not.” “The debate around immigration has been going on for decades, and fundamentally, Congress has to pass comprehensive immigration reform,” he continued. “But what has happened in the last year since Trump came back into office, is an entirely different level.” If ICE continues to go down the path it’s on, Turner said what’s at stake is losing “what makes America, ‘America.’” That means, he said, losing the right to due process and protections against illegal search and seizure. Despite the pitfall of despair and hopelessness that can be oh-so-attractive to get lost in during dark and deeply scary times, Garcia said she remains hopeful because of the community organizing and advocacy herself and others are doing on the ground. “Everybody who is tired, everybody who is witnessing what's happening right now, we see this as un-American,” Garcia said. “We have people that are gonna stand up and fight, because what you can't do to the will of veterans or Texans is weaponize the Lord Jesus Christ against us, or take our will to fight.” ### Austin's Infamously Terrible for Dating. Is It Really That Bad? We Investigated. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/austin-dating-scene/ Last updated: 2026-02-13T07:00:00.000Z Amaya Savoy-Easton, a single 26-year-old social media coordinator, is clear on what she wants. Her near-term goals include visiting 30 countries before she turns 30, investing in a rental property in San Marcos, and getting an LLC for her freelance business. So when she asked a would-be suitor what he wanted out of life, and he said a house, she pressed him for more details. “I guess I also want a TV,” he offered. She was speechless. “I wasn’t looking for a five-year plan,” she explained. “I was looking for someone who has taken the time to ask themselves what they want and don’t want in their life.” Both heterosexual and queer people have familiar refrains around dating in Austin: Dates showing up drunk, [dates not using soap](https://www.tiktok.com/@ashleylaurenraymond/video/7593170494245850399?ref=thebarbedwire.com), dates who just want to “have fun” and “chill” and don’t check for any sort of compatibility. Austin’s dating scene gets mixed reviews compared to other cities. In [2018](https://austin.culturemap.com/news/city-life/02-02-18-data-confirms-austin-men-are-the-worst-behaved-singles-in-the-us/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Match.com ranked Austin singles the worst-behaved in the country, finding the men are 549% more likely to ghost than single men in other cities (a 2025 survey from [NumberBarn](https://www.numberbarn.com/blog/cities-where-ghosting-is-common/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) ranked Austin 4th for ghosting). *Austin Monthly* called dating in Austin “[cursed](https://www.austinmonthly.com/dating-in-austin-texas-cursed/?ref=thebarbedwire.com).” On the other hand, in 2025, WalletHub named Austin the 6th-best place to be single in the country, and Zumper ranked it [10th](https://www.zumper.com/blog/best-cities-for-singles/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), based on factors such as single population, affordability, social opportunities, and job-market strength. So what’s the deal with dating in Austin? Is it the actual worst or is there hope? To fully investigate this story, I talked with singles in Austin and those who left for greener pastures (they are all happier, by the way). I talked to the woman in charge of choosing Austin’s most eligible singles. I talked to dating event planners, a dating coach, and a therapist. All to determine: Is dating in Austin as awful as it feels? Two general complaints emerged: life in Austin is simply too fun to be in a relationship, and Austin is the city of Peter Pans. But that’s not quite the full story. The further I pressed, the more I learned that what makes the city so lively, and home to those who buck constructs of “growing up,” is also what makes Texas’ capital city a great place to meet people. So don’t swear off dating just yet — I also found plenty of reasons to hope, and expert advice to make dating more successful. ## Problem #1: Austin is too fun The biggest problem facing Austin daters appears to be that the city is too fun. Everyone I talked to for this article — including those who moved away for a better dating scene — praised Austin as a city: the temperatures that facilitate being outside, the accessible nature, the endless possibilities for entertainment on any given day. “Austin offers so much community, activities, hobbies, arts, and culture,” said AnaMichele Babyak, the cofounder of [Hidden Gems Dating](https://www.instagram.com/hiddengemsdating/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), an in-person dating event. “You can have a really full life without feeling the need to commit and settle down with one person.” “Everyone is so friendly here. You can talk to people at restaurants, at bars, you can go walk the lake and talk to people,” said Saine Wong, a [chef](https://www.toshokanatx.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) who was named one of [Austin’s Most Eligible Singles in 2023](https://www.austinmonthly.com/meet-austins-most-eligible-singles-2023/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). However, there is a downside to our temperate, margarita-filled music mecca. “When you do actually start talking to someone, you're still surrounded by so many options. People come to Austin to have fun. I don't think Austin is a place where people come to find love,” Wong said. While some [14,000](https://thedailytexan.com/2025/08/11/recent-demographic-trends-show-austins-growth-has-slowed-since-2020/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) people moved to Austin in 2024, many of them don’t consider the move permanent. [Taylor Prinson](https://taylorprinsenphotography.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a 32-year-old photographer who left her native Austin for Paris in 2024, found the city’s tech scene attracted [young](https://censusreporter.org/profiles/16000US4805000-austin-tx/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), attractive people making good money who just wanted to have fun. “They wanted to play, and Austin was their playground,” she wrote in an email. Others have noticed a change in the Austin dating pool. “The people that are moving \[to Austin\] are not the people that I'm trying to date,” said Tré Carden, a 35-year-old musician and designer. “Everyone’s a little more Joe Rogan-y than they used to be.” However, it’s hard to imagine that having too many options to go out, have fun, and possibly meet someone is actually a bad thing for dating life. [Blaine Anderson](https://www.datingbyblaine.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a matchmaker and dating coach, tells her clients the best way to find a relationship is to expand their social circle by doing things they want to do. “The best businesspeople aren't clearing their calendars to participate in random networking events; the most attractive singles aren't showing up at random singles events,” she wrote. “The best thing you can do if you're single is spend time in places where the people you want to meet spend time.” That could mean joining a sports league, a queer book club or [hiking](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/queer-community-outside-the-bar-texas/) club, or a monthly game night. In-person dating events are also on the rise, which is a boon for local businesses as opposed to our app overlords. Allison Welsh, director of operations at [Stargazer Bar](https://www.stargazerbar.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), told me the bar's singles nights are some of its most well-attended events. “There’s something refreshing about being in a room with real humans, having real conversations, and not needing a perfectly curated profile to start talking to someone,” she wrote. In the heterosexual app experience, women often complain about too many matches and guys about too few. These dynamics are usually reversed at in-person events. Wong often struggles to fill the men’s spots for his singles dinners. “Women do show up a lot stronger than men when it comes to all these events,” he said. “I think men are more nervous and don't want to get their egos hurt.” But that means the men who put in the effort to attend in-person events have an abundance of single women to talk to. Babyak estimates that at Hidden Gems events, people often leave with two matches after meeting 20 people. It is worth noting that Austin can feel more limiting to the queer community, as there’s not a “gayborhood” and only a handful of gay bars. But there’s definitely an appetite for queer single events. I attended [Chaotic Singles: Sapphic Edition](https://do512.com/events/2026/1/16/chaotic-singles-party-sapphic-edition-tickets?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which had over 150 attendees, a line out the door to get in, and was so packed that the venue opened its garage doors, and people wearing short skirts and heels spilled out into the 40-degree weather. However, the stereotype that the queer dating pool can be shallow also played out at the event: out of five people I talked to, three had exes also present at the event. ## Problem #2: The Peter Pan thing The most pervasive complaint of dating in Austin is that there’s a culture of people who want to shirk responsibility and act young forever — aka, Peter Pans. The stereotype isn’t new, though it may have looked different over the years. Austin has had a reputation as “[the velvet rut](https://www.statesman.com/story/news/2016/10/13/in-the-golden-rut-austin-filmmakers-explore-the-urge-to-hang-around/10043728007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)” since the 1970s — a place where an easy, fun life makes the years and decades slip away without any change in behavior or priorities. In that era, it may have looked like musicians refusing to get a day job or leave the city to go on tour. To be clear, Peter Pans aren’t necessarily gendered — lack of ambition or strong interests was a common complaint I heard at the sapphic dating event. But Peter Pan accusations are most strongly hurled at men. *Austin Monthly* publishes an annual list of Austin’s most eligible singles, and editor Madeline Hollern estimates that she gets hundreds more applications from women than men. “It felt like the women who were being nominated spoke multiple languages, traveled the world, sat on the boards of nonprofits, started their own companies. And the men...bake a mean ziti,” she told me. And what do the Peter Pans have to say for themselves? During my interview with Carden, the musician and designer, he spoke about wanting to seek joy, and lamented that potential male love-interests didn’t pay attention to him if he didn’t have a high-paying career. When I pointed out that he might be a Peter Pan, he said, “I'm the Peter Pan for sure. I sought out people that were stable, focused on their futures, and more grounded.” However, Carden was in two long-term relationships during his tenure in Austin — a seemingly un-Peter Pan move. Anderson, the matchmaker and dating coach, is skeptical that the Peter Pan mentality is more common in Austin than elsewhere, stating that residents of any city with a large population of affluent single men will complain about this. “At least within my social circles, the single guys in Austin seem to be more oriented toward finding long-term partners and starting families than the guys in the major coastal cities,” she said in an email. Hollern, the *Austin Monthly* editor, also doesn’t think Austin is rife with Peter Pans. “I'm sure somebody could look at me and say I'm a Peter Pan,” she said. “I'm 40\. I've prioritized my career and having fun. It's wonderful if getting into a relationship isn't your sole reason for existence. So I don't necessarily think it's a bad thing.” Furthermore, who can blame the Peter Pans? Who wouldn’t want to seek out joy and avoid burdensome responsibilities? While almost every woman I interviewed complained about Peter Pans, they all understood the appeal. Christina Bedos, a 37-year-old marketing professional, told me, “I would love to just feel joy every day in my life. But women have a ticking time bomb, and we have to make choices.” To extend her timeline, Bedos froze her eggs but ultimately left Austin, frustrated by the dating scene. She found a partner in her new city within a few months. After reporting this story, I remain unconvinced that the Peter Pan mentality is more pervasive in Austin than elsewhere. Rather, it seems to be a pervasive stereotype reflecting evolving priorities in society. “The way I think about \[Peter Pans\] is it means that people are trying to be their most authentic selves,” said [Heather Teel,](https://www.heatherteel.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) a therapist and dating coach. “Austin can attract people that want to be creative and not necessarily follow society's norms or just go along with what's supposed to happen. They’re not so focused on getting married because they’re focused on whatever it is they’re creating or their career. The things that feel good for them to do in their life.” ## Is Austin dating good, actually? So, the dating pool in Austin is likely not worse than elsewhere, and it’s a fun and friendly city to be in. This is good news — and it means there are ways to tap into a more enjoyable dating experience in Austin. Experts say a good starting point is spending less time on apps — or at least vanquishing endless chatting in favor of meeting up. “Apps can be useful ways to meet people, but they're better at creating the illusion that you're making progress toward finding your person,” Anderson said. Mariam Parker, a 45-year-old executive director, previously avoided matching with men in the military. When she started treating app dating as an experiment to see what kinds of people she clicked with, she met her current boyfriend, a military man. Dating apps also pair people who will likely never see each other again, so they face no social consequences for behaving badly. One woman told me about a date who, unprompted, got down on all fours in the bar and started snorting like a pig. I wonder: Would he have done so if he had to keep seeing her at recreational soccer every week? If you’re looking to date or find a relationship, go out and enjoy Austin more. Not only do you get a better sense of compatibility in person, you also expand your social circle. So, even if you don’t get a romantic vibe from anyone at your new run club, they might bring their friends to your post-run brunch, and you hit it off with one of them. That said, in-person events do involve asking people out in person — which one survey found [45%](https://datepsychology.com/risk-aversion-and-dating/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [of Gen Z men](https://mantalks.com/podcast/45-of-young-men-have-never-asked-someone-out-why/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) have never done. To be fair to men, asking someone out is intimidating in an era when any social misstep could end up on the internet. But, this old-fashioned method still gets the most praise from the experts — and women can do it, too. Wong advises guys to “just show up.” (Don’t forget — studies have found that doing something scary together [increases attraction](https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/love-digitally/201606/can-being-scared-make-someone-appear-more-attractive?ref=thebarbedwire.com).) “Accept that you will get rejected, a lot,” Anderson advised. “Think of it like the toll you pay to meet someone high-quality in person. Remember that if you're being respectful and friendly, and someone you approach doesn't want to chat with you, that's their problem, not yours.” Teel advises that the key to enjoying dating again is to shift away from an outcome-focused approach and redefine success. Instead of only considering a dating event successful if you meet someone, which is based on an external factor you have no control over, consider it a success if you learn something about others or yourself, and feel proud of yourself for showing up. “It's really hard to want something and just allow ourselves to move towards it without having it yet,” Teel said. “Our brains get scared and start saying things like, ‘What if it doesn't happen?’ or ‘How do I need to work harder?’ So ask, what are the feelings I’m actually having? Can I feel those feelings? And what thoughts might I need to reconstruct? For example, saying, ‘This just doesn’t exist in Austin.’ Ultimately, there are really good people in Austin.” To that end, I’d like to offer everyone a little hope. People fall in love in [all sorts of ways](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/love-texas/). Hollern told me that putting together a list of Austin’s most eligible singles makes her optimistic about the dating scene. After giving up on dating timelines, I had a child on my own — and 18 months later, [I met someone](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/my-first-kiss-18-months-postpartum-texas/) on Tinder. And one shy woman at the sapphic dating event told me she was newly out and hadn’t dated at all in Austin — but when the games began inside, she was cozied up on a picnic table with a partner, deep in conversation, holding hands. While dating in Austin may feel discouraging, it’s likely not a problem unique to this city. Some people are certainly served by a change of location — [and have even made partners they’ve fallen in love with elsewhere](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/boyfriend-doesnt-have-to-be-embarrassing/). But if you feel ready to give up on the Austin dating scene — try talking to someone first. ### Having a Boyfriend Really Doesn’t Have to Be Embarrassing. I Promise. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/boyfriend-doesnt-have-to-be-embarrassing/ Last updated: 2026-02-12T20:06:16.000Z By the time you’re reading this, I could be married. Last month, my boyfriend proposed to me before the Bears vs. Packers game. On February 14 — this coming Saturday — the bar where we had our third date will have ministers on hand to wed couples with valid marriage licenses. And my mother has already given him her blessing. In fact, she asks about her future son-in-law every day. What a wild couple of months for a girl who’d sworn off love for the rest of her life. I’m a walking stereotype: The writer in the big city who chose career over romance. Not to mention, I’m from the South, where the majority of my cousins are married with children, leaving me the only unwed woman my age. My 98-year-old grandmother prays that she’ll live long enough to see me married with children. Last Christmas, she took matters into her own hands and arranged for a young man to come over to the house for us to chat. (After she forced me to hand over my phone number, I left that man on read.) For a long time, I was content with being single. I’m surrounded by the love of my chosen family. I have many queer, trans, and gender non-conforming friends whom I consider the loves of my life. Before I signed my book deal, my trans husband and I considered getting married in the backyard of their BedStuy townhome because I needed health insurance, in addition to being platonic soulmates. This behavior is nothing new: If you ask my mother, I’ve always had a poly, queer romantic, and sexual undertone. One of the first calls she ever received about my behavior in Christian preschool was that I was allowing both boy and girl students to play doctor on me. As expected, I followed this up with a marriage to the only other Black boy in my kindergarten class during recess. Beforehand, I pledged that every single one of my bridesmaids would be my wife. And, while I’ve clearly always been a lovergirl, some types of companionship have apparently fallen out of style. In October, British writer Chanté Joseph started a ferocious online debate when she wrote, in *Vogue*, “[Is Having a Boyfriend Embarrassing Now?](https://www.vogue.com/article/is-having-a-boyfriend-embarrassing-now?ref=thebarbedwire.com)” Instantly, Joseph’s article went viral. “Where being single was once a cautionary tale (you’ll end up a “spinster” with loads of cats), it is now becoming a desirable and coveted status — another nail in the coffin of a centuries-old heterosexual fairytale that never really benefited women to begin with,” Joseph wrote. As Canadian-American author and writer David Brooks said in the *New York Times*, we are living through the [Great Detachment](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/02/opinion/americans-marriage-loneliness-love.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com)*.* The sharp decline in marriage rates, community engagement, religious involvement, and child-bearing has resulted in a nation of Americans focused on the accumulation of wealth and career advancement. “We’re seeing a systematic weakening of the loving bonds that hold society together — for community, for nation, for friends and on and on,” Brooks wrote. I’d argue it’s even worse for Black women, the group responsible for holding the [social contract](https://www.ebony.com/americas-social-contract-black-women/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of America together. According to the Economic Policy Institute, Black women suffered the [largest employment losses](https://www.epi.org/blog/black-women-suffered-large-employment-losses-in-2025-particularly-among-college-graduates-and-public-sector-workers/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in 2025\. Black women’s unemployment rate is now equivalent to white women’s unemployment during [The Great Recession](https://19thnews.org/2026/01/black-women-unemployment-rate-skyrocketed-2025/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). And Black women bear the brunt of this administration’s [harsh economic](https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/05/black-women-jobs-trump-layoffs-doge-cuts-fired/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [and anti-DEI policies](https://www.forbes.com/sites/sophianelson/2025/11/30/the-current-economic-slump--dei-backlash-are-devastating-black-women/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). These are not the Obama years of [millennial optimism](https://slate.com/podcasts/icymi/2025/12/how-millennial-cringe-became-millennial-optimism?ref=thebarbedwire.com); we are experiencing constant attacks of massive state sanctioned oppression that makes people like me and my loved ones scared for our fucking lives. [Black journalists are being arrested](https://www.npr.org/2026/01/30/nx-s1-5693756/don-lemon-arrest-cnn-minneapolis?ref=thebarbedwire.com) by federal law enforcement officials. The majority of publications that employed Black critics, writers, and fellow journalists are [being gutted with each passing media merger](https://pitchfork.com/news/rolling-stone-merges-with-vibe/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Times are tough for every American. Trust in institutions [has plummeted](https://news.gallup.com/poll/1597/confidence-institutions.aspx?ref=thebarbedwire.com). And when you don’t trust your government, your media, or the community around you, love is a much taller ask. This mess of tariffs, ongoing geopolitical conflict, and erosion of basic human rights aren’t particularly romantic, to say the least. The last thing any woman wants to do right now is sit across the table from [a man who heavily endorses the action of this presidential administration](https://www.npr.org/2025/05/22/nx-s1-5166115/politics-dating-gen-z-millennials-boomers-poll?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — let alone tell her friends about it. Sure, there are Certified Good Boys [like Glen Powell](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/glen-powell-christmas/) — or the [DoorDash driver in Chicago](https://www.tiktok.com/@bradjcho/video/7594313484859493663?%5Fr=1&%5Ft=ZT-93gev4dEjRG&ref=thebarbedwire.com) who’s picking up shifts after his regular work day in order to buy an engagement ring for his girlfriend. But generally, love and fear cannot co-exist in the same environment. Love is not the absence of fear, but the acknowledgement of it. The willingness to do what is right, even in the face of terror. What’s difficult is that — now more than ever — Americans are yearning for love. A radical, revolutionary type of love, like the [women who are providing mutual aid and support to their neighbors in Minneapolis](https://www.glamour.com/story/the-women-holding-minneapolis-together?ref=thebarbedwire.com), including ones that are [donating their own breastmilk to babies](https://19thnews.org/2026/02/minneapolis-ice-mother-donate-breastmilk/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) whose mothers were taken by ICE. [Women who are holding those accountable for the horrific actions taken against them by men in power](https://www.bbc.com/news/live/cqxdr320374t?ref=thebarbedwire.com), like Jeffrey Epstein. Luckily, all you have to do is look around, and you’ll see this kind of love; it is the [lifeblood of every social movement in history, as bell hooks tells us](https://www.lionsroar.com/toward-a-revolution-of-love/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). It’s clearly visible in the work of Zohran Mamdani, the underdog who made the world fall in love with his Democratic socialist agenda as mayor of New York City. His [emotional interviews](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xj89tYvwr6k&ref=thebarbedwire.com) with constituents — singing with [children](https://www.tiktok.com/@msrachelforlittles/video/7594134476003740983?ref=thebarbedwire.com), never forgetting [he works *for them*](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DSIaonGESih/?hl=en&ref=thebarbedwire.com) — are moving because they radiate love. All politicians are humans with flaws, but Mamdani preaches a refreshing love-centered ethos to New Yorkers and the world at large. In his [inauguration speech](https://www.nyc.gov/mayors-office/news/2026/01/mayor-zohran-mamdani-inaugural-address?ref=thebarbedwire.com), he spoke about the warmth of collectivism, in opposition to the rugged individualism that divides us, and most importantly, he thanked his wife Rama for showing him “the beauty in everyday things.” There’s a softness, but not a weakness. As Mamdani [told President Trump](https://thebarbedwire.acemlnb.com/lt.php?x=4lZy~GE4IaTODKJ.yt1LWRSh3aEiuNb1vxsyk8TMJFeaEp0ryky.zeRy242kjdQ~lfY2XnXLkqUN5H%5F5zUyLwOJ&ref=thebarbedwire.com), “To get to any of us, you have to get through all of us.” I see this love in [Bad Bunny](https://time.com/7373250/bad-bunny-super-bowl-halftime-show-immigrants-puerto-rico/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), who implemented bell hooks’ principles in his Super Bowl LX halftime show performance, which broadcast his vision of love of the Americas to over 128 million viewers. He invited people from all backgrounds, genders, ages, and ethnicities to represent the message on a football he showed a camera: “Together we are America.” We even [watched a couple get married](https://ktla.com/entertainment/couple-wed-during-bad-bunnys-halftime-show-seriously/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on the field. A week earlier, he’d said on the Grammy Awards stage: “The only thing that is more powerful than hate is love.” Pop culture shows us we are desperately in need of companionship right now. We long for love and intimacy. Or else we wouldn’t [all be binging “Heated Rivalry.”](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3edk87vqljo?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Just look at [Megan Thee Stallion and Klay Thompson](https://www.billboard.com/music/rb-hip-hop/megan-thee-stallion-klay-thompson-bone-thugs-n-harmony-1236177309/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Thompson has been relishing in his girlfriend’s soul food classics of [fried catfish and spaghetti](https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/music/articles/megan-thee-stallion-cooking-klay-014500257.html?guccounter=1&guce%5Freferrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce%5Freferrer%5Fsig=AQAAAGm2TV6ZP0P-Z5bGY-9XuE13jUFW3x%5Fb2lc4MyMyFmKF640II5GFSLb7eFUeh8oYzfkGviwOFenHB-HeWjvRSo7GrUVaL0G7u3EcgWyVfxTptAD6BPwKu22eNBLAcNz9akiFLjAaFEpnBIUA7d1puUab5uHPvbihUDbjrpCvDHZi&ref=thebarbedwire.com), BBQ chicken thighs, and baked beans. For many of us, who grew up knowing the hardships Megan has endured during her meteoric rise in the music industry, it feels good to see her be loved by her boyfriend [and his family](https://www.bet.com/article/eza479/klay-thompsons-dad-gives-megan-thee-stallion-a-huge-stamp-of-approval?ref=thebarbedwire.com). We are all deserving of this kind of love, so why is there so much shame around wanting to have it? I too want a revolutionary type of love. I want a love with a clear and distinct purpose. I want a love that inspires change. Love is not only a practice or theory, but theory in practice. I’ve always believed in the ethic of love, though I have not always been the beneficiary of it. But I am now. His love shows up in both grandiose and mundane ways, like waking up early to make coffee for me before a heavy work day or rubbing medicine onto my hands because of a carpal tunnel flare. He took a 6 a.m. flight on Christmas morning after working an overnight shift so that we could spend our first holiday season together. His love shows up in FaceTime conversations with my little brother about dating and relationships. And the way he makes space to talk to my mother without me ever asking him to. I’ve never met a man or a partner who loves all versions of me, including going to the altar and establishing a relationship with my ancestors. He loves me in all ways, always. When we first made things official, one of his friends texted him: “You need to be more Anthony Mackie in London, yo ass became Klay Thompson in Texas.” To be fair, I’ve made him my signature mac and cheese, baked beans, collard greens, cornbread, and spaghetti. In return, my boyfriend has been adamant about Texasifying himself to fit in with my mother’s side of the family. He accepted her invitation to attend a trail ride in Central Texas, which was music to her ears, because she wanted to get him a cowboy hat for Christmas. I’m ready to bring him home to Dallas, so I can take him on a tour of my childhood favorites like the State Fair of Texas. We’ll make a trip to Sunny South Dallas to stop at [Two Podners](https://www.instagram.com/twopodners/?hl=en&ref=thebarbedwire.com) for a loaded BBQ stuffed potato with piles of smoked turkey breast, butter, sour cream, green onion, and cheese, doused in their house BBQ sauce with a sweet tea on the side. Selfishly, I want to take him to SXSW or ACL, so I can eat at Canje, Sawyer & Co, and Sam’s Chicken & Ribs. It feels good to have a boyfriend that wants to learn about Black Texan culture, out of genuine love for me. In the past, I’ve had partners mock the very traditions that I hold dear to my heart. Now, I can tell all of them to [kiss my Texas ass](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/i-love-my-texas-ass/). Shortly after my boyfriend asked me to marry him, I saw a Threads [post](https://www.threads.com/@gothpixiebitch/post/DQ5ves6kTLm?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that read, “A cowboys fan marrying a Bears fan sounds like the perfect marriage match for me.” I couldn’t agree more. Plus, his father was signed to the Dallas Cowboys in the 1990s as a free agent, so it’s not even like I’m cheating on America’s team. It’s more like I’m bringing him back home with me by way of Chicago. So as it turns out, no, having a boyfriend doesn’t have to be embarrassing. Having one that acknowledges your fears and still shows up with compassion is just about the most radical love we can experience in 2026. ### Whistleblower Says Radioactive Fracking Waste Site Melted His Jaw. Now There’s an Elementary School There. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/a-whistleblower-says-radioactive-fracking-waste-melted-his-jaw/ Last updated: 2026-02-11T06:01:00.000Z ## EXCLUSIVE Sure, Lee Oldham told me, he had spread radioactive fracking waste on Texas farmland. But in his defense, he never in a million years thought anyone would put a school there. We were standing in the frigid wind on a field in Johnson County. It was January, and 52-year-old Oldham wore a heavy flannel sweatshirt pulled tight over his belly. In the early 2010s, when the region was ground zero for the biggest fossil fuel production boom in human history, Oldham worked in waste disposal for a company that helped get rid of the millions of pounds of solid waste that came out of tens of thousands of natural gas wells about two miles underground. That work, Oldham believes, exposed him to a witches’ brew of chemicals that, even now, likely lurked inside the fabric of his cells. His doctors have diagnosed him with injuries consistent with radiation exposure. Though he has no definitive proof of the cause, he believes the dust he inhaled during his time in the land farm melted the bones in his jaw and neck. He also believes it made him an accessory to what he now views as an enormous crime — albeit one that was technically legal. According to the nonprofit FracTracker — which shares maps, data, and analysis on the oil and gas industry — there were at least 21,000 oil and gas wells in the Dallas–Fort Worth area. Most of them sit in and around residential neighborhoods. Each one of those underground wells produced between 1,000 and 2,000 tons of solid waste — sometimes as much as 3,000 or 4,000 tons as the decade wore on — laden with PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as “forever chemicals”), radiation, and other toxic contaminants. In total, somewhere between 20 million and 60 million tons of hazardous waste were dumped in and around Dallas-Fort Worth — in the very hinterlands the city is now expanding into. But the public has little idea where any of it went. It could be in your mother’s backyard, or, in the case of this story, under the playground at your child’s school. Near a square of concrete in the midst of the field in Johnson County, where waste trucks used to drop off, Oldham held a small black box at ground level to track the radioactive particles pinging through the topsoil: a telltale sign of the presence of fracking waste, which is commonly disposed of by being spread on soil. A hundred yards away stood a low-slung building with a roof like a ski ramp: [Pleasant View Elementary School](https://schools.texastribune.org/districts/godley-isd/pleasant-view-elementary-school/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The school, which serves nearly 500 students from Pre-Kindergarten to 5th grade, is part of [Silo Mills](https://silomillstx.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a 2,500-home “fresh, new residential community” that opened in 2023, offering residents an affordable slice of country living, just half an hour from downtown Fort Worth. About two-thirds of students at Pleasant View are [considered economically disadvantaged](https://schools.texastribune.org/districts/godley-isd/pleasant-view-elementary-school/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/frackingsiteembed.gif) Again, the waste — drilling mud and bits of subterranean rock pulled up by drilling rigs in a part of the quest for oil — tends to be toxic: radioactive and impregnated with cancer-causing chemicals, in particular high levels of PFAS, a massive family of hormone-disrupting, never-dissolving “forever chemicals” [that are essential for fracking](https://psr.org/resources/fracking-with-forever-chemicals-in-texas/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). At ground level, Oldham’s detector began to beep faster: a sign of something that those residents hadn’t been informed of. Those beeps showed something below the surface was emitting higher than normal levels of radioactive particles. While the levels weren’t dangerous — at least, not in that spot, on the other side of the topsoil — they were a small piece of evidence in favor of his story that developers had built a whole community on a toxic waste site he’d helped cover up. His claims are now being probed by Detective Dana Ames, an investigator with Johnson County. She’s a rare rural Texas law enforcement officer with experience handling complex environmental crime cases, and she’s trying to determine whether they have a public health crisis on their hands. The next step will be to drill into the topsoil to take soil samples, looking for traces of dangerously radioactive materials, as well as PFAS. Over the coming weeks, that soil will be tested by labs specializing in environmental contamination — yielding evidence that could be used in lawsuits or, ultimately, criminal charges. For now, however, the constable’s first priority is to see if the hundreds of people living in the development are in any danger. If the levels come back normal, then residents can breathe a sigh of relief. But they can also consider themselves to have dodged a bullet. Because the most troubling part of Oldham’s story are the parts that are legal and well-understood: For decades, Texas let drillers spread staggering amounts of radioactive and PFAS-ridden waste on the fringes of the nation’s fourth largest metro area — while making it virtually impossible for the public to know where. Meaning that, as America’s fourth-largest metro area expands — the region has added more than a million people since 2015 — an unknown number of people are now living and playing, in blissful ignorance, on top of what may be toxic waste. “The whole thing operated on the honor system,” Oldham said. “And the only honor you can bank on in the oil and gas industry is there ain’t nothing honorable being done.” ## ‘Are You Guys Nuts?’ At the dawn of the 21st Century, oil and gas drillers faced terminal declines in fossil fuel production — a fact that caused leading newspapers [“to panic about a world running out of oil”](https://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/21/magazine/the-breaking-point.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and Texas Republicans like George W. Bush and Rick Perry to throw their influence [behind the solar and wind industries](https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/infocus/energy/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). This awful fate was avoided thanks to a cocktail of technologies that became known by the not-very-flattering shorthand of fracking, which reached its first flowering in the outskirts of Dallas-Fort Worth. Faced with depleted reservoirs, the early frackers like George Mitchell looked even deeper to the layers of “source rock” that the oil and gas that America burned in the 20th Century had come from. By figuring out how to blast open these layers of carbon-rich black shale, the frackers threw the peak oil saga into reverse, paving the way for the flood of cheap gas that powered cloud computing, fueling a new age of the American energy empire, and funding the rise of the modern hard-line right. This came with significant risks. Scientists and oilmen have known for decades that the source rock is radioactive. Three hundred million years before my site visit with Oldham, the land that would one day host the Dallas Fort-Worth metro area lay at the bottom of a warm, shallow sea. Year by year, huge blooms of plankton and algae died and sank into the deep silt at the bottom of the sea. Over millions of years, they were pressed by their own weight and baked by the slow cooker of the earth into a flat, stony cake of oily shale. As the seas rose and disappeared, radioactive uranium and thorium from the ground also settled by the ton down in the muck of the shallow sea. It was undisturbed until the past 20 years, when a two mile-long drill bit cut them from the surface and dragged them back into the light — the first of many waste products on the path to natural gas. The waste that comes out of the wells are full of toxins. There’s the organic trash — naturally-occurring chemicals like benzene, which blasts apart the body’s ability to make blood. Forever chemicals like PFOS and PFOA lubricate drill bits cutting through oily rock — but also disrupt our hormone systems — the chemical language that all living things use for their cells and organs to talk to each other — as well as the immune defenses, energy processing, and DNA-formation essential to all complex life on Earth. And then there are the radioactive elements like radium, which under the circumstances of oil and gas extraction can reach levels hundreds or thousands of times more concentrated — and dangerous — than the normal, low levels of radiation that form a background hum to life on Earth. Even when those levels are low, “we don’t know what happens when we lay it out in a horizontal landscape, as water moves it, and air moves it,” said Justin Nobel, an investigative journalist who has been published in *Rolling Stone* and specializes in the toxins that come out of oilfields. He is also the author of “Petroleum-238,” [a defining book](https://brazosbookstore.com/book/9798989546237?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on radiation and fracking waste. Scientists have long warned this is dangerous. When John Stolz, a Duquesne University microbiologist who studies fracking waste in Pennsylvania’s Ohio Valley region region, first heard about Texas companies doing landfarming— the technical name for spreading solid drilling waste on farmland —around the Barnett Shale, his first reaction was, “Are you guys nuts?” The Barnett Shale was the oil rich geologic layer below North Texas that served as ground zero for the state’s fracking boom. *Like our investigative journalism?* ***The Barbed Wire is always free to read…but investigative journalism isn’t free to make.*** *Support from our readers helps pay for the open records requests, document review, and travel expenses that make tough investigative reporting like this story come to life. Pitch in below — or* [*become a member of The Barbed Wire*](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/become-a-member/)*, today.* Radium, he told me, is sticky — lay it out in a field or put it in a waste pit, and water will tend to wash out soil and salts, leaving an ever-more-concentrated product behind: something like a natural reactor, releasing a radioactive plume for thousands of years. But for regulators, fracking waste is, by definition, safe. Since the 1980s, the Environmental Protection Agency has treated oil and gas waste as [“non-hazardous” by definition](https://insideclimatenews.org/news/06102014/how-oil-gas-waste-became-exempt-federal-regulation-timeline/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), allowing it to be spread on farmland without treatment. And the Texas Railroad Commission — the state’s confoundingly-named and notoriously underfunded oil and gas regulator — left operators to, as Oldham said, “self-police.” They didn’t require oil and gas operators to test their waste for radiation or PFAS or require them to line waste pits with plastic to keep contaminants from seeping into the water supply. They also didn’t offer public maps — or in most cases, [even keep track themselves](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/01/21/texas-oilfield-waste-rule-railroad-commission/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=But%20companies%20holding%20leases%20to%20drill%20on%20private%20property%20will%20still%20be%20able%20to%20bury%20this%20waste%20near%20the%20surface%20without%20notifying%20the%20landowner%20or%2C%20in%20most%20cases%2C%20lining%20the%20pit%20to%20prevent%20groundwater%20contamination.%20These%20pits%20were%20the%20subject%20of%20more%20than%20400%20public%20comments.) — of where the waste was going. And while the agency forbade polluting Texas’ land and waters, their slapdash record keeping and weak penalties offered “little deterrent effect” to bad industry actors, according to [a blistering 2016 audit](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-sunset-texas-gov/public/uploads/files/reports/railroad-commission-of-texas%5Fexecutive-summary.pdf) by the Texas legislature’s Sunset Advisory Committee. That meant drillers with radioactive waste — and drill cuttings are radioactive by definition — could either take extra time, paperwork and expense to do things the right way and send it out to a designated hazardous waste landfill, despite the fact that those loads had almost no chance of encountering a state agent with a Geiger counter. Or, he said, “You could just let it slide, and go out there and dump it on the ground.” ## ‘This Stuff Is Radioactive’ Back in the days of the Barnett Shale gas boom — the first frenzied phase of Texas fracking between 2002 and 2009 — Oldham worked in waste disposal at a Johnson County landfarm: effectivelya spread‑out dump where drilling muds and contaminated soils were plowed into open fields and left for microbes, air, and sunlight to slowly break down the pollution. In practice, that meant Oldham — like other workers at sites across North Texas — was spreading thousands of truckloads of drilling waste on farmland. Vacuum trucks would discharge their loads of drill cuttings and lubricating mud, and Oldham and his crew would spread the trash across the field to dry out, then plow it under: dump, dry, repeat. In 2012, Oldham made an unpleasant discovery. After the worn-out steel tracks for his skid-steer had been sent to a scrap yard, he overheard two other workers saying that the yard had rejected them because they were radioactive. “Those tracks were put on new,” Oldham said. “They’d only ever touched the drilling mud.” That’s when he started to put other things together: That the scrap yards in the Barnett Shale region all had Geiger counters. That a supervisor yelled at a young roughneck who was spread-eagled on a pipe to get his ass up if he ever wanted to have kids. All those metal objects, Oldham realized, had a common denominator — they had been touching the drilling mud and Barnett Shale cuttings. “I’m sitting going, ‘This stuff is radioactive, and we’re blowing it out on the ground,” he added. In 2012, he asked his boss if it would be possible to get personal protective equipment and radiation tests for the crew. After that, he told *The Barbed Wire*, everything changed. His boss told him he was “too smart for my own good” and put him on what he called “a punishment job” at an isolated ranch. Then men in a pickup ran his car into a boulder on his way home from the job, he said. He left Johnson County, he said, in fear for his life. Three years later, in 2015, he mended fences with his bosses and came back to help with the Railroad Commission-overseen project to clean up and shut down the mudfarm. Once while on that job, in the July heat, the air filters on his bulldozer filled with the dust rising off the dried-out drilling mud. Cleaning them out, he got a faceful of dust, he told *The Barbed Wire*, and he was laid out for days with agonizing pain in his throat. In the coming years, his teeth began getting loose in his jaw, and in 2023, the dentist found that his jaw bone had become seriously degraded. An orthopedic surgeon told him that — at 51 years old — his vertebrae looked like that of a 70-year-old woman with osteoporosis. (*The Barbed Wire* reviewed medical records that corroborated Oldham’s account.) While Nobel, theoil and gas journalist, said establishing direct causal connection to these health scares lies at the frontiers of science, these are characteristic impacts of radiation poisoning. Radium — which is in the same periodic table column as calcium — is what’s known as a bone-seeking carcinogen, which means the body inadvertently binds it right into bone, where it begins to kill the cells that form and repair bone. There is suggestive evidence that Barnett wells are a source of persistent radiation pollution into surrounding communities: In 2020, a study in the scientific journal *Nature* found that Fort Worth-area communities downwind of fracked wells had airborne radiation [up to 40% above average](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-18226-w?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Fort Worth, which has more than a million people living in the danger zone of fracking sites, also had the highest number of upwind oil and gas sites of any city in the country. And a 2023 study found that in the early years of the fracking boom, Tarrant County — the home of Fort Worth — had [60% more children born](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10114229/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) with serious birth defects than would have been expected for its population. Hauntingly, this data only went till 2014, though the county remains a hotbed of new drilling, and there has been no comprehensive attempt to clean up waste. Soon after Oldham received his diagnosis, Pleasant View Elementary, the school built on the mud farm Oldham said he had helped bury, opened its doors. Oldham decided he could no longer keep quiet. He began posting on Facebook, which brought him to the attention of Detective Ames. He was lucky. Almost uniquely among oil and gas whistleblowers, Oldham had made his claims in a county where officials, all staunch Republicans, were willing to dig. ## Watching Their Animals Die Ames saw Oldham’s posts in the midst of an entirely separate environmental crisis. In 2023, Johnson County made headlines [around the world](https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/pfas-in-fertilisers-blamed-for-killing-livestock-in-texas-and-wreaking-havoc/4020874.article?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [comparing the situation to](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/mar/01/texas-farmers-pfas-killed-livestock?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [Chernobyl](https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/investigations/texas-johnson-county-ranchers-forever-chemicals-pfas-fort-worth/287-85b7d4ce-c694-4c2a-b221-78bd94d6c8f6?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [when a plume of PFAS](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/12/02/texas-farmers-pfas-forever-chemicals-biosolids-fertilizer/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), or “forever chemicals,” began killing fish and cattle on two farms outside the town of Grandview. As county officials would discover, the poison had originated in sewage from the Fort Worth water treatment system that the farmer’s neighbors had spread on their fields as fertilizer. This practice was, like spreading fracking waste on farmland, entirely legal even though the sewage was dangerously high in PFAS. PFAS are ubiquitous in fracking fluid. While no source for the PFAS in the solids has been proven, it’s a fact that it came from a water treatment plant in an area of Tarrant County that's being actively and extensively fracked. We know this because Johnson County did its own investigation — outlined [in a civil complaint](https://peer.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/6%5F6%5F24%5FComplaint%5FFarmer-v-EPA%5F24-1654%5Fas-filed.pdf?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — in the face of indifference, and even opposition, by state regulators and industry lobbyists in Austin. Through that process, Johnson County’s Detective Ames learned more than she ever cared to aboutPFAS, a vast family of artificial oil-like substances treated with fluorine to give them exceptional stability — the reason that the Teflon on a nonstick pan doesn’t burn off like cooking oil. They stick tightly and irreparably to fat molecules like a drop of cooked oil dissolving on the surface of a greasy burger. Tens of thousands of varieties of PFAS can hitch a ride into virtually any system in the body, causing insidious and prolonged effects. One 2025 study in *Nature* found that PFAS [altered the sperm of male mice](https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-025-08865-4?ref=thebarbedwire.com), making them less likely to be able to conceive a viable embryo, and raising the risk that embryo would have birth defects. One such defect: the inability to have healthy children themselves. Those PFAS-induced changes in sperm can also impact the fertility of the next generation of males — and the next, and so on — said Dana Sheinhaus, a doctoral student at the University of Texas at Austin whose research specializes in PFAS and male fertility. In her lab, she said, “we are looking at the children and the grandchildren \[of affected individuals\], and we are seeing changes in those fertility genes.” Male fertility, she noted, is [falling relentlessly year by year](https://academic.oup.com/humupd/article/29/2/157/6824414?login=false&ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=The%20slope%20for%20SC%20among%20unselected%20men%20was%20steeper%20in%20a%20model%20restricted%20to%20post%2D2000%20data%20%28%E2%80%931.73%3A%20%E2%80%933.23%20to%20%E2%80%930.24%3B%20P%E2%80%89%3D%E2%80%890.024%29%20and%20the%20percent%20decline%20per%20year%20doubled%2C%20increasing%20from%201.16%25%20post%2D1972%20to%202.64%25%20post%2D2000.) — an accelerating drop some researchers [have linked to fossil fuels](https://thehill.com/policy/equilibrium-sustainability/585985-fossil-fuels-may-be-linked-to-fall-in-sperm-counts/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and chemicals made from them, like PFAS. These studies raise the possibility that men, and particularly oil workers, exposed to today’s contaminants — or, say, boys playing in the dirt of Pleasant View Elementary — may leave their children or grandchildren unable to have healthy kids of their own. It can also cause more immediate problems for this generation. For the Colemans, one of the families whose farms had been contaminated,it meant two agonizing years of watching their animals die one by one as their bodies and nervous systems failed — their cattle beginning to drool; their careful gait turning sickening and scissor-like; their eyes failing. Once gentle cattle began to attack them. “I had a yearling come straight for me with all her might trying to take me out,” TonyColeman told *The Barbed Wire*. The liver of one stillborn calf showed levels of one PFAS-family chemical at more than 100,000 times the level the Environmental Protection Agency considers safe. The story broke amid a national wave of [mass litigation around PFAS](https://www.steptoe.com/en/news-publications/pfas-lawsuits-on-the-rise-trends-risks-and-takeaways.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and in its wake [New York](https://www.wskg.org/regional-news/2026-01-05/new-york-farm-bureau-says-no-more-sewage-sludge-used-as-fertilizer-unless-tested-cleared-of-pfas?ref=thebarbedwire.com) banned the practice of spreading biosolids on farmland, and Minnesota [required them to be tested for PFAS](https://www.pca.state.mn.us/air-water-land-climate/pfas-in-biosolids-strategy?ref=thebarbedwire.com). That was the kind of change Johnson County officials — naively, two officials told me they now believe — expected in Texas. Ames turned her results over to Texas environmental regulators, and Johnson County officials asked Gov. Greg Abbott for a disaster declaration that would allow the farmers, like the Coleman family, financial support to leave their ruined farm. But Abbott never signed it**.** To the consternation of both the Coleman family and county officials, Texas state officials have refused to act. In the 2025 legislative session, a slate of bipartisan bills aimed at requiring PFAS testing of biosolids all failed — some, as *The Texas Tribune* reported, under [direct opposition from the oil and gas industry](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/06/02/texas-pfas-forever-chemicals-bills-legislation-fail/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=His%20hope%20quickly,for%20the%20bill.), which relies on both PFAS and land application as part of its business model. So when Ames saw people on Facebook beginning to panic over Oldham’s allegations, she reached out and visited the site with him. She told me shecould not speak specifically about Oldham’s allegations, considering the pending investigation, beyond saying that the county was involved in site testing of its own. And her time in environmental enforcement, from cleaning up illegally dumped construction waste and mattresses from county roadways to the Coleman’s case, had taught her two iron laws of industry. First, that Texas state regulators have refused to force polluting industries to clean up their mess. Second, that no one industry cleans up its mess unless it is forced to. Ames is waiting on preliminary results of her testing, which will take weeks; more comprehensive ones will take longer, assuming the county can come up with the money to pay to conduct them. If the 2,500 homes sold at Silo Mills turn out to have been built — without the knowledge of their buyers — on tainted land, a wave of litigation looms; for now, she is trying to determine if they have a public health crisis on their hands. There’s a still-more-troubling connection between Oldham’s allegations and the PFAS case. County Commissioner Larry Wooley said that county officials only knew about the PFAS because the Coleman family, staunch Christians, had come forward rather than quietly selling off their tainted cattle and their contaminated land — despite having no legal obligation to do so. “Everybody knows that Tony’s not selling those cattle, and he’s taking a huge financial hit because of that, because of his morals, that he doesn’t want to introduce that stuff into the food chain,” Wooley said. “But a lot of people weren’t concerned about that.” Wooley has become something of a Texas leader in the fight against PFAS contamination, and said that to this day — thanks to the expense, opposition from biosolid-using farmers, and the lack of interest from state leaders — only Johnson and Ellis County have done any testing at all. One unsettling conclusion he drew from this experience was that his county wasn’t unique in having a serious contamination problem. It was unique in investigating it. Texas legislators did consider some reform — [requiring drillers to notify landowners when waste pits are dug](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/04/17/texas-oil-drilling-waste-private-property-landowner-notification/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) or requiring pits to be universally lined. But as the *Texas Tribune* [reported](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/01/21/texas-oilfield-waste-rule-railroad-commission/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the oil and gas industry called the measures “too stringent,” and they failed. Two reforms the legislature did pass point to a wider problem. One reform, which safety advocates say was needed, will for the first time in state history require oil and gas companies to register the location of their waste pits. But that rule only takes effect going forward: underscoring the extent to which Texans simply do not, and perhaps cannot, know where the staggering amount of waste created in the fracking boom is buried. The other measure was less welcome: a bipartisan push to allow oil and gas companies to dispose of treated fracking fluid [in Texas rivers and on Texas farmland](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/05/01/texas-water-crisis-oil-gas-fracking-farming/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). It also [protects any company or landowners who sells, treats or applies this water](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/05/28/texas-fracking-water-reuse-legislative-protections/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — which has been proposed as irrigation for crops — from litigation in most cases. And though fracking fluid is ridden with PFAS, the law does not require it to be tested for PFAS. That’s caused a rift among Johnson County Republicans. “If I’m elected, we need to get that bill thrown out,” said Mary Louise Wells, a Johnson County child safety advocate running to replace state Rep. Helen Kerwin. While Kerwin herself was the only statehouse Republican to vote against the fracking waste disposal bill, recent campaign finance [filings](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/prd-tecprd-ethicsefile-com/public/cf/2026s/scrubbedreport%5F101031352.pdf) show that she received more than $55,000 in cash — and $26,500 in push polling support — from Texans for Lawsuit Reform (TLR), [a principal group advocating for it](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/capitol-texas-gov/tlodocs/89R/witlistbill/hb00049h.pdf). Those donations represented around 60% of Kerwin’s total fundraising that period. For Oldham, the prospect of liquid fracking waste — even if treated — spread on Texas crops contributed to his sense of mission. He had returned, he said, to make what he had done right. He had grown up in Cleburne, he told me, and he knew the men who had done this. “If they could walk around knowing what they did to me — well, they have to look at me. And know I'm looking right back at them.” ### ‘Political Prisoner’ Leqaa Kordia Has Been Hospitalized, DHS Says. After Calling 16 Hospitals, Her Lawyers Say They Can't Find Her. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/leqaa-kordia-political-prisoner-hospitalized/ Last updated: 2026-02-09T18:52:49.000Z A Columbia University protester who [has been deemed a political prisoner by Texas Democrats](http://google.com/url?q=https://thebarbedwire.com/2026/01/30/texas-democrats-demand-release-of-political-prisoner-leqaa-kordia-compare-ice-facility-to-internment-camps/&sa=D&source=docs&ust=1770662283822077&usg=AOvVaw0ljAORdcxmv0QHb3yjkgZD) who’ve called for her release from an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center was hospitalized over the weekend due to a seizure, [according to *The* *Dallas Morning News.*](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/immigration/2026/02/07/family-and-lawyers-seek-answers-after-ice-detainee-leqaa-kordia-is-hospitalized/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Leqaa Kordia, a 33-year-old Palestinian woman, was taken to [Prairieland Detention Center](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/new-details-july-4-ice-attack-holes-feds-case/) in North Texas last March. *The Barbed Wire* wrote [about Kordia and her case in October](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/leqaa-kordia-palestinian-protester-ice-detention/). At that point, Kordia had been detained for 220 days in Prairieland. As of Monday, Kordia has been detained for more than 325 days. State Rep. Salman Bhojani, a Democrat from Euless, has also advocated for Kordia’s release and spoken about the harsh conditions she has endured at the detention center. Bhojani and other lawmakers, several of Kordia’s family members, and an attorney from the Texas Civil Rights Project, [were turned away from a previously-scheduled visit](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-democrats-demand-release-of-political-prisoner-leqaa-kordia-compare-ice-facility-to-internment-camps/) with Kordia on Jan. 30. On that day, [Bhojani told the press](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-democrats-demand-release-of-political-prisoner-leqaa-kordia-compare-ice-facility-to-internment-camps/) that Kordia’s lack of access to halal meals and proper heating — in “suffocating conditions” amid more than 60 detainees in a dorm built for 20 individuals — has meant that she’s developed dizziness. He said she had been running [“a high fever for several days.”](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-democrats-demand-release-of-political-prisoner-leqaa-kordia-compare-ice-facility-to-internment-camps/) A week later, Kordia’s cousin, Hamza Abushaban, [told *The* *Dallas Morning News*](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/immigration/2026/02/07/family-and-lawyers-seek-answers-after-ice-detainee-leqaa-kordia-is-hospitalized/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that he heard Friday morning Kordia had fallen and hit her head in the detention center, causing a seizure, but couldn’t get information on her condition until Saturday morning. Abushaban said Kordia’s health had deteriorated last week when he visited the detention center. She was admitted to a hospital for further evaluation on Friday around 8:45 p.m., the Department of Homeland Security told the newspaper. “Her admission to the hospital was made out of an abundance of caution to ensure her health and safety,” the department said in a statement to the [*Morning News*](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/immigration/2026/02/07/family-and-lawyers-seek-answers-after-ice-detainee-leqaa-kordia-is-hospitalized/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “The hospital is monitoring her condition and ICE will continue to ensure she receives proper medical care.” According to the newspaper, her family and attorneys have received limited information about her condition and have not been able to establish contact with Kordia despite multiple attempts. Bhojani told [*The Dallas Morning News*](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/immigration/2026/02/07/family-and-lawyers-seek-answers-after-ice-detainee-leqaa-kordia-is-hospitalized/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that it took 24 hours for Kordia’s legal team to confirm she’d been hospitalized, calling the facility “a black box.” An attorney for Kordia told the newspaper that lawyers had called 16 hospitals in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, to no avail in locating her. “Every single hospital we called said she was not there,” [said](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/immigration/2026/02/07/family-and-lawyers-seek-answers-after-ice-detainee-leqaa-kordia-is-hospitalized/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Sarah Sherman-Stokes, an attorney with the Boston University School of Law Immigrants Rights Clinic. “We’re pretty despairing.” Abushaban told [*The New York Times*](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/31/nyregion/nypd-kordia-federal-cooperation.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in May that his cousin had already lost about 50 pounds in DHS custody. Kordia has been detained by immigration authorities since March 14, 2025, when she was grabbed at a routine immigration interview in [Paterson, New Jersey](https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/politics/2026/01/28/texas-lawmakers-paterson-nj-leqaa-kordia-released-ice/88383357007/?gnt-cfr=1&gca-cat=p&gca-uir=false&gca-epti=z116707p117550c117550v116707&gca-ft=91&gca-ds=sophi&ref=thebarbedwire.com), thrown into an unmarked van, and flown 1,545 miles away to [Prairieland](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/new-details-july-4-ice-attack-holes-feds-case/) in Alvarado. While ICE initially arrested Kordia for overstaying a student visa, and participating in a pro-Palestine protest at Columbia University, her continued detention has been the result of additional allegations from the DHS, which has claimed money sent to family members in Gaza as proof of terrorism and consulting a lawyer as evidence that she’s a flight risk. As *The Barbed Wire* [previously reported](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-democrats-demand-release-of-political-prisoner-leqaa-kordia-compare-ice-facility-to-internment-camps/), her protest-related charges have since been dismissed, and Kordia has been granted bond — twice — by an immigration judge who notably deemed the evidence against her insufficient, determining she is neither a threat to the community nor a flight risk. “She was lifeless,” Abushaban told [*The Dallas Morning News*](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/immigration/2026/02/07/family-and-lawyers-seek-answers-after-ice-detainee-leqaa-kordia-is-hospitalized/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “She literally feels like she’s slowly dying. And then … four or five days later, this happens.” Lawmakers, family members, and Kordia herself have objected to the conditions at Prairieland Detention Center. [In a petition for release filed last August](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/storage-courtlistener-com/recap/gov-uscourts-txnd-403535/gov-uscourts-txnd-403535-69-0.pdf), Kordia said that the guards routinely disrespected her religious beliefs, rarely provided halal food, and that the facilities were “regularly infested with cockroaches, spiders, other bugs, and, at least once, a snake.” On Jan. 30, Bhojani said that the detention center officials denied them entry, claiming that there was a large protest outside the facility, which Bhojani said was [“not true.”](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-democrats-demand-release-of-political-prisoner-leqaa-kordia-compare-ice-facility-to-internment-camps/) The attempted visit came during freezing temperatures in North Texas, which Bhojani said exacerbated the poor conditions at the detention center. “Leqaa has been forced to sleep on the floor without adequate heat and clothing to keep her warm,” [Bhojani said.](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-democrats-demand-release-of-political-prisoner-leqaa-kordia-compare-ice-facility-to-internment-camps/) Thirty four Texas lawmakers, including Bhojani, sent a [letter](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/aab91155-966e-43a7-af87-a209b39e1f8b-usrfiles-com/ugd/93f75e%5F02bc16cc2a9d4e35ab5e59b05520bc32.pdf) to Kirsti Noem, the DHS secretary, on Jan. 27, demanding Kordia’s release and calling her a “political prisoner.” Omar Suleiman, president of the Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research, has [spoken publicly about visits with Kordia](https://x.com/omarsuleiman/status/2020353015878742222?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and the conditions she faces in Prairieland. Suleiman responded to news of Kordia’s hospitalization in a post on X Sunday. “We can’t find Leqaa Kordia in any hospital. This is abduction upon abduction,” [Suleiman wrote on X](https://x.com/omarsuleiman/status/2020569079497535610?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “Please help us get the word out and pray for her. She truly is a light being kept in dark dungeons.” Her lawyers have argued against the deportation of Kordia, who was raised in the West Bank, to Gaza. Her attorneys [say that deportation would](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-democrats-demand-release-of-political-prisoner-leqaa-kordia-compare-ice-facility-to-internment-camps/) put Kordia in the hands of the Israeli government that has killed almost 200 members of her family. Other Texas detention centers have faced scrutiny for reports of poor conditions, including inadequate medical care and inedible food. Last week, the Dilley Immigration Processing Center near San Antonio — where many hundreds of children, including a 2-month-old infant are being held — [reported a measles outbreak](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/hundreds-of-kids-ice-facility-liam-ramos-now-theres-a-measles-outbreak/). In a January essay [published by *USA Today*](https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/voices/2026/01/21/leqaa-kordia-ice-detention-columbia-university-protests/88149826007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [Kordia wrote](https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/voices/2026/01/21/leqaa-kordia-ice-detention-columbia-university-protests/88149826007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of other women detained with her at the Prairieland Detention Center, many of whom she said have serious illnesses or cannot afford legal representation. “Ours is a daily battle for basic dignity,” Kordia wrote. “None of us deserve to be treated this way. All of our voices deserve to be heard.” ### Judging by TikTok, I’m Doing Wedding Planning Wrong. And I Love It. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/tiktok-wedding-planning-texas-intentionality/ Last updated: 2026-07-18T18:11:30.000Z In Mrs. Johnson’s fourth grade math class, my fellow students dreamed of big wedding dresses with extended trains, just like the one [Selena Gomez wore last fall.](https://www.theknot.com/content/selena-gomez-wedding?ref=thebarbedwire.com) At recess in Sherman, Texas, I heard them talk about big, fancy wedding parties. In my barrettes and ponytails, I rehearsed for a different future. I’d peer out the windows of my classroom — through pink glasses — daydreaming that my husband and child were waiting in the hallway for me to get off work. While my math teacher had us learning about perpendicular shapes, my mind filled with visions of a mature love, beyond the gaudy glitz and glam of an ostentatious wedding. Now that I’m planning my own wedding, it turns out I may have been ahead of my time. Call it a [recession indicator](https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/04/tech/recession-indicators-tariffs-memes-cec?ref=thebarbedwire.com), but predictions for wedding trends in 2026 have shown a shift in favor of grounded, understated celebrations of love. Though *The Knot* found in its [2026 Future of Marriage Report](https://www.theknotww.com/blog/future-of-marriage-2026-trends-to-watch-report/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that social media trends and celebrity weddings are still major influences on engaged couples, 40% said viral moments created for social media were out for 2026\. [*Martha Stewart Weddings*](https://www.marthastewart.com/2026-wedding-trends-11875676?ref=thebarbedwire.com) said that couples are forgoing the “perfect day,” and opting instead for a meaningful one. [*Vogue*](https://www.vogue.com/article/wedding-trends-2026?ref=thebarbedwire.com) went further, calling intentionality the defining theme for the year. Without even meaning to be, I’m following the new *it* trend. That is, I’m doing everything “wrong.” I’m not performing love for TikTok. [I’m not building a wedding around what will photograph best for social media content](https://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2026/01/27/10322962.htm?ref=thebarbedwire.com). I’m also Gen X, not Gen Z — the generation that is getting closer to peak marrying age and responsible for driving these changes in planning. But I deeply relate to this desire, even when it made me feel like an outlier as a kid. The instinct to find the kind of devoted love I fantasized about in grade school stayed with me as I got older, but I took the scenic route. I often chose toxic love affairs that taught painful, but necessary, life lessons. I learned what I didn’t want before I learned what I deserved. And then, after the age of 40, when I had almost given up the idea of finding Mr. Right, I met the person who changed everything. Before we get to the wedding planning, I should introduce you to my fiancé. Jay is one of the smartest people I’ve ever met. He’s a chef-turned-insurance-adjuster who, like me, loves history and moves through the world with curiosity, empathy, and an appreciation for different types of people. Our meeting wasn’t some cinematic moment reaching for the same fruit in the produce aisle. It was a very modern-day meet-cute. I became friends with his sister, Farren, on X. She messaged me one night and said she thought Jay and I might have a lot in common. She was right. ## The First Date After talking for a few weeks, we finally agreed to meet in person around Valentine’s Day 2023\. He drove from Fort Worth to Dallas to pick me up for our dinner date at a trendy Mexican restaurant, Beto & Son, in Trinity Groves. Almost immediately, we seemed to know: Okay, this is it. We’d been dating for about a year when I started imagining what an engagement with Jay would look like. I knew he was my better half even without a marriage license, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think about it. I thought about it *a lot*. Like in October 2023, when we flew to Vegas for his birthday for an Usher concert. After consuming some edibles, I saw Usher sauntering down the aisle serenading the crowd and thought, *Is he secretly guiding the spotlight towards our exact section?* *Would this be the moment? How did he get Usher on board? How would I react? Is my hair ok?* I didn’t really like my outfit enough for it to be immortalized on camera. But I’d make an exception for Usher. None of these, of course, happened in real life, but in my chemically enhanced state of optimism, I truly believed that it would. Then, during the summer of 2024, I studied in London. One afternoon, while visiting the Royal Observatory. I thought, *Now this* would be a *great spot to propose*. I secretly tried to orchestrate a return trip with Jay so that he would see how stellar my idea was. I imagined the symbolism of it — straddling time zones, hemispheres, and history. But we never made it back. (I still think the Observatory is a great proposal spot. If anyone wants to snag my idea — you’re welcome.) Eventually, I stopped looking around corners and holding my breath. That’s probably why it unfolded the way that it did. ## The Engagement It was October 2025, and I was in Birmingham, Alabama, on a press trip for the Magic City Classic — the largest HBCU football game in the country. It was overwhelming in the best way possible. Joyful. Loud. Beautiful. More than 65,000 Black people were dressed to the nines, with music everywhere, food and drinks flowing at every corner, and an energy so thick you could feel it pulsating underneath your skin. I usually don’t invite guests on work trips, but we were encouraged to bring partners. It worked out perfectly because it was also Jay’s birthday weekend. It was electric. However, it was not romantic. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/260202_mitchell_love_embed.jpg) That night, we had a sensational group dinner at [Hot and Hot Fish Club, a chic, Michelin-recommended restaurant](https://guide.michelin.com/us/en/alabama/birmingham%5F2870441/restaurant/hot-and-hot-fish-club?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in the trendy Pepper Place district. At the end of dinner, I was ready for bed and a full night’s sleep. *I was exhausted,* I complained. My feet hurt from walking all day. But Jay insisted we check out the small rooftop bar for a nightcap. That particular night it was crawling with guests all huddled together and laughing loudly, taking liquor shots and snapping pictures. There, on this ordinary and chaotic rooftop, tucked away in a quiet corner, Jay dropped to one knee and proposed. No crowd, no spectacle. No one watching. In hindsight, I don’t know how they missed him on one knee or me laughing uncontrollably from astonishment. But it was sweet, gentle, and unexpected. Exactly the way our love had developed. Jay turned to me before leaving our engagement spot and suggested we take a picture. I nodded yes, still stunned and unable to speak coherently. So we took a single selfie to commemorate the moment. That was it. I didn’t feel anxious until I returned back to Dallas and had to retell the story. “How did he propose?” my friends and family excitedly asked. But each time I answered, I felt that my delivery was landing softer than the grand spectacle everyone expected. At the same time, everyone in my circle was talking about the viral [Black influencer couple who got engaged](https://people.com/man-takes-over-dallas-airspace-with-hundreds-of-drones-for-grand-proposal-exclusive-11851173?ref=thebarbedwire.com) via drones near our downtown Dallas apartment. People couldn’t stop talking about the way the groom planned the show for his soon-to-be fiancé Erica McDowell, shut down the streets, and got permits to close the airspace. It was a spectacular sight. I thought about mine: subtle, intimate, and simple. Still, I quietly wondered if public performance had become the rubric my proposal would be graded against. ## The Ring Before I could figure that out, talks of the ring style came up. McDowell was given a square-cut diamond at least a couple carats in size. This ring choice, although stunning, aligned with what *Vogue* recently noted about [celebrity engagement ring trends](https://www.vogue.com/article/supersized-engagement-rings-trend?ref=thebarbedwire.com), where larger stones have become more common, in part because they appear dramatic in photographs. Mine was a cluster ring, which was going viral among bridal trends for all the *wrong* reasons. For the record, there are various types of cluster rings. My ring is a starburst cluster. I *love* my ring. But others apparently disagree. [Brooklyn-based TikTok creator Melissa Watkins](https://nypost.com/2023/09/06/women-warn-others-about-cluster-rings-in-shutupring-trend/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) posted a video in 2023 criticizing cluster rings, a style that includes multiple stones grouped together into one setting. Her video has more than 600k views, and helped popularize the idea that a cluster ring signals low value or lack of love from a partner. TikTok videos using #ShutUpRing have accumulated tens of millions of views, with creators warning that cluster rings are “huge red flags” and that “If someone is giving you a cluster diamond, they don’t love you.” The cruelty felt unhinged — and completely devoid of economic and historical context. https://www.tiktok.com/@theasiafrances/video/7267205392218721579?\_r=1&\_t=8fRmFjtacoA As for economics, [“if he wanted to, he would”](https://www.reddit.com/r/datingoverthirty/comments/1nhfgu4/if%5Fhe%5Fwanted%5Fto%5Fhe%5Fwould%5Fis%5Fthe%5Fadage%5Falways%5Ftrue/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) is a perfectly fine sentiment, but when introduced to real world stories in 2026 — like the [DoorDash driver in Chicago](https://www.tiktok.com/@bradjcho/video/7594313484859493663?%5Fr=1&%5Ft=ZT-93gev4dEjRG&ref=thebarbedwire.com) who’s picking up shifts after his regular weekday work schedule in order to afford an engagement ring for his girlfriend — it often becomes, “He’s trying really hard, but he’s not a professional athlete. Is that enough?” Historically, diamond rings worn as a symbol of betrothal didn’t appear until Maximillian the 1st, Archduke of Austria, [commissioned a diamond ring for his new bride](https://www.americangemsociety.org/buying-diamonds-with-confidence/the-history-of-the-diamond-as-an-engagement-ring/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Mary of Burgundy. This gift symbolizing his love in 1477 has continued to influence weddings around the globe, even now. During both Georgian (1714-1837) and Victorian eras (1837-1901), advances in craftsmanship and later manufacturing made cluster rings more available first to upper class, and later to everyday commonfolk. By this measure, rings produced in either of these eras would signal old money if you were fortunate enough to keep them in your family. “By the late nineteenth century, especially after the Industrial Revolution, they allowed people outside of royalty to wear something beautiful, meaningful, and symbolic of commitment. They weren’t lesser rings,” said antique dealer and jewelry historian Tanzy Ward on the [*Hue I Do*](https://hueido.com/evolution-cluster-ring/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)podcast[. Ward said](https://hueido.com/evolution-cluster-ring/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) the cluster ring hate is generally classist, and she insists it has historical connection to Black Victorian and Americana history. For Black American families like mine, whose ancestors were enslaved across the South, marriage was never guaranteed to those deemed chattel property. When unions did occur, the objects used to unite them in matrimony ranged from [expandable, temporary brass rings](https://www.searchablemuseum.com/illegal-to-marry/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to modest and sometimes improvised ones —[ like how Tempie Herndon’s wedding ring was carved by her husband Exeter from a shiny red button](https://savingplaces.org/stories/antebellum-plantation-weddings-among-enslaved-women-and-men?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Post-emancipation heirlooms and generational wealth were frequently disrupted. Cluster rings for them weren’t just decorative; they represented tangible expressions of their love, but also jewelry that mimicked the commitments once reserved for royalty. Seen through that lens, what’s casually dismissed today as dated or a “red flag” can also be an archive that reminds us that history survives in the material objects people choose to cherish. ## The Wedding Then comes the wedding planning. McDowell’s wedding will involve a civil ceremony this year, followed by a grand wedding in Italy in 2027, according to [*People* magazine.](https://people.com/man-takes-over-dallas-airspace-with-hundreds-of-drones-for-grand-proposal-exclusive-11851173?ref=thebarbedwire.com) But us? We’re getting married on ancestral land in the Piney Woods of Crockett — property purchased by my great-great grandmother less than two decades after enslavement ended in Texas. I want to honor and celebrate a Black woman purchasing more than 60 acres of land in the 1880s. I don’t take that extraordinary feat lightly. The land sits on a private red dirt road, unincorporated, and is for the most part rather ordinary. It’s where generations of my family were born and lived their entire lives. In fact, because the family home on our property is so tiny, we’re having our October wedding outdoors underneath century-old pine and pecan trees. Nothing about it looks “polished” by social media standards. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/260202_mitchell_love_embed2.jpg) But it is sacred. Every time I visit, I feel my ancestors, living and departed. It felt like the only place that made sense to host a wedding, and it will be blessed forever afterward with the moment and the memories of the celebration. I didn’t want my wedding to impress anyone but my ancestors, myself, and my love. I wanted it to be authentic. And to me, that’s beautiful. As this hallmark holiday month kicks off, maybe I’m putting some of this viral pressure on myself to compare my love story with the internet. Maybe I’m not. I don’t know. What I do know is this: I’m getting married in 2026 as a Black Texan, on land my ancestors fought to keep, in a way that refuses spectacle at every turn. To a “real” bride — like me — I’m celebrating with sumptuous foods and lively libations designed by my good friend, a personal chef, which incorporates elements of Jay and my Texas roots, with subtle nods to our shared cultural heritage as Black Americans. No known photos exist, but I’m also taking cues from my paternal roots in South Carolina by using [archive newspaper articles](https://www.ancestry.com/mediaui-viewer/collection/1030/tree/170380856/person/322216497334/media/b23eb057-fe3a-43fa-a192-ae866d18c757?galleryindex=1&sort=-created&ref=thebarbedwire.com) to glean what small details were important to them. We’re looking forward to seeing the faces of immediate family and close friends as we say our vows. So I’m choosing intentionality over those external pressures. We’re living in a world that appears to be collapsing into rubble — under the weight of impending war and an imploding political structure that my ancestors fought so hard against. Choosing love now, in an age of uncertainty, feels incredibly scary, but also radically romantic. But it’s that sentimental quality that I’ve been rehearsing since the fourth grade. By the social world’s standards, I’m older than the traditional first-time bride, which could explain why my approach to planning feels different than representations in magazines and online. I might be doing everything wrong. But I know the 9-year-old Deah who daydreamed about her pretend husband in Mrs. Johnson’s fourth grade class would be proud to see this love story unfold. ### ‘Communities Ripped Apart’: On Texas College Campuses, LGBTQ+ Services Have Been Completely Decimated URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/communities-ripped-apart-on-texas-college-campuses-lgbtq-services-have-been-completely-decimated/ Last updated: 2026-06-24T21:21:38.000Z ## EXCLUSIVE Dante Stetson recalled getting his first chest binder at the Pride Closet at the University of North Texas in Denton in 2023\. He was 18, and it was his freshman year on campus. “My family isn't supportive of people with transgender identities, and I've never been able to buy one and store it at my home,” Stetson, who grew up in rural Texas, told *The Barbed Wire* in a recent text message. “It was the first gender-affirming material I've ever had.” The Pride Closet, hosted by the Pride Alliance LGBTQ+ resource center at UNT, was typically stocked with gender-affirming care supplies like binders, which are compression garments that help flatten a person’s chest. “Since it was already used, it wasn't new, so you didn't have to like, stretch it out or anything,” he said. “So it was very much like, this is what it's supposed to (feel) like whenever you use it, and we had different sizes that you could choose from.” Trans and queer students could also drop off clothing that no longer fit their bodies or their identity. The binder and the closet represented far more than a simple article of clothing. Moments like this helped Stetson discover and express his true self. “Going to university gave me space to get what I needed for gender-affirming care while having a safe enough distance to figure myself out and form a way to come out to my family,” he said. Stetson found refuge in the supportive environment created by the Pride Alliance, so much so that three years later he became the communications officer for [GLAD: Queer Alliance](https://www.instagram.com/untglad?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a student organization at UNT that helped organize and promote the closet. Then, in 2024, the closet closed — along with the entire Pride Alliance resource center which hosted it — thanks to new, sweeping policies at public universities in Texas that banned any programs, services or policies associated with diversity, equity, or inclusion. Senate Bill 17 was passed by the state legislature in 2023 and [took effect the following year](https://www.keranews.org/education/2025-04-01/report-shows-impact-of-anti-dei-law-on-texas-lgbtq-college-students?ref=thebarbedwire.com). It forced Texas’ public universities to close LGBTQ+ centers, women’s and gender centers, and those designed to serve marginalized groups such as Black, Latino, Indigenous, or Asian American and Pacific Islander students. It’s just one of [many recent laws](https://www.teenvogue.com/story/texas-schools-forced-to-deadname-trans-students?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and policies designed to attack the ability of schools and public institutions to support the most vulnerable. After SB 17 went into effect, other organizations also began feeling the impacts of these policies. The GLAD: Queer Alliance had to cancel drag shows and a leadership seminar to comply with the new rules — and because funding was cut. “A lot of the student organizations are kind of in-fighting with each other to see who gets what funding,” Stetson said. The impact of Texas’ sprawling war on diversity, equity, and inclusion wasn’t just felt on the UNT campus. Across the state, public universities that were once making strides toward inclusivity and support for some of their most vulnerable students have faced devastating cutbacks amid a national, conservative cultural shift. Some queer students considered leaving their school — or Texas entirely — after institutions of higher education were forced to implement the law, [KERA News](https://www.keranews.org/education/2025-04-01/report-shows-impact-of-anti-dei-law-on-texas-lgbtq-college-students?ref=thebarbedwire.com) reported in April 2025. Two years after the law went into effect, *The Barbed Wire* used online research and hours of interviews with nonprofit workers — along with current and former students — to create a broad survey of the damage caused by this law. In brief, - At least 12 resource centers that either specialized in LGBTQ+ student life, or offered services and programs tailored to their needs, have shut down - More than 100 faculty and staff that supported LGBTQ+ people and other marginalized groups were either laid off or transferred to new positions at public universities across the state - LGBTQ+ student groups lost advisors, funding, and well as supportive venues to host events, leaving many to shut down or become newly dependent on donations - Under pressure from state and federal officials, a host of related policies have proliferated, from cutbacks to LGBTQ+ classes to bans on campus drag performances - Students have lost “safe spaces,” including gender-neutral bathrooms - As centers closed, students lost access to STI testing, mammograms, and other health care services — including flu prevention — offered in a supportive, safe environment - The cutbacks and cultural shifts caused by the anti-DEI law created an atmosphere that was more permissive of attacks on LGBTQ+ rights, students said This hostile environment has left many LGBTQ+ students considering moving out of Texas to finish their degrees and has them seriously questioning if they would ever return, according to Brad Pritchett, who has been tracking some of the aftermath as CEO of the nonprofit Equality Texas. He said the state is hurting not just its student population, but also the universities’ rank and reputation through its attacks on queer and trans students. “By targeting LGBTQ+ people, Texas is undercutting academic recruitment and alienating a significant portion of the young workforce,” Pritchett said. Now, he said, many students “are left without the tools they need to thrive.” #### ‘We Still Have So Much Important Work to Do’ It wasn’t always this way in Texas. The traces of a very different university system, one that was at least making strides towards supporting vulnerable groups, can still be seen across the web thanks, in part, to the presence of campus newspapers. Press releases and proud announcements of new DEI initiatives linger online for years after the supportive services they advertised have turned into dead links. For example, in 2016, the Office of Media Relations at the University of Texas at Dallas celebrated the 20th anniversary of the [Carolyn Lipshy Galerstein Women’s Center,](https://web.archive.org/web/20250714004200/https://news.utdallas.edu/campus-community/galerstein-womens-center-marks-its-20th-anniversar/) named for the university’s female dean. The center grew from modest beginnings as a tiny office in the student center meant to support female faculty, onto a full suite that featured services like mammograms, flu shots, and gender-neutral bathrooms. It even hosted feminist icon Gloria Steinem, who spoke to a crowd of more than 1,000 people. Four years later, the nonprofit Campus Pride, which recognizes safer college environments for queer students, named the University of Texas at Dallas as one of the [best universities for LGBTQ+ students](https://magazine.utdallas.edu/2020/10/21/ut-dallas-named-among-best-of-the-best-for-lgbtq-students/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), in large part because of the Galerstein Women’s Center. In 2020, Matt Winser-Johns, who was, at the time, assistant director of LGBTQ+ programs, told UT Dallas Magazine: “We still have so much important work to do to ensure our LGBTQ+ faculty, staff and students feel affirmed here at UT Dallas in every space, program and policy.” At first, the Galerstein Center became part of the newly renamed Office of Campus Resources and Support. Then, in March 2024, then-state Sen. Brandon Creighton, who authored SB 17, [targeted state universities](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/mcusercontent-com/97acf22aca6983d50d142ba88/files/2094d322-b63e-9c09-9f97-42b0169c58d2/3-26-24.pdf) that had tried this tactic with letters threatening to pull funding and other unspecified “legal ramifications” if universities didn’t close down these renamed [centers.](http://centers.by/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) By spring, the renamed centers and their associated services were gone. The Associated Press [estimated there were at least 100 job cuts](https://apnews.com/article/dei-texas-university-job-cuts-939b334d85108e498c0f85d2ad44ebc2?ref=thebarbedwire.com) associated with the DEI ban, but the actual number is likely higher. “Once those letters went out, that kind of spelled the end for all of the different resource centers that had attempted to stay open and serve at least some students,” Hall said. Under increased pressure from the legislature, the Galerstein Center was forced to close entirely in April 2024. The University of Texas at Austin had its own safe space for LGBTQ+ students, the Gender and Sexuality Center. That office opened in the fall of 2004 with support from the student government, the Dean of Students Office, and the student services budget committee, according to the [Knight Center for Journalism.](https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/timeline3/latest/embed/index.html?source=1DEGxFXmBgpLOK-KsFJcyVHvA09r9S-TqElDGjNNI9-Y&font=Default&lang=en&initial%5Fzoom=2&#:~:text=TimelineJS%20Embed,new%20Gender%20and%20Sexuality%20Center.) Ash Hall, policy and advocacy strategist for LGBTQ+ rights at the ACLU of Texas, said they “practically lived” at the campus Gender and Sexuality Center during their time at UT Austin during the early 2010s. “Thinking on all the books that I read there, all the people I met, the advice I got, not just about figuring out relationships and identity and solidarity, but also just practical advice for career options, and then thinking about how LGBTQIA plus students today don't have that on campus, it's just astounding to recognize what a loss that is,” Hall said. Like the Galerstein Center, at first, Austin’s Gender and Sexuality Center [became the Women’s Community Center under a](https://thedailytexan.com/2024/01/15/gender-and-sexuality-center-closes-replaced-by-womens-community-center/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) new Division of Campus and Community Engagement, in an effort to deemphasize the now forbidden ‘‘DEI.” Then, thanks to Creighton’s threats, nearly 20 years after the center opened its doors, it announced it was closing in January 2024 to comply with Senate Bill 17, [according to the student newspaper, *The Daily Texan*.](https://thedailytexan.com/2024/01/15/gender-and-sexuality-center-closes-replaced-by-womens-community-center/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=1/27/2025-,Gender%20and%20Sexuality%20Center%20closes%2C%20replaced%20by%20Women's%20Community%20Center,at%20all%20Texas%20public%20universities.) The effect was an immediate loss of faculty and staff who served as trusted advisors, as well as the loss of resources — and physical spaces formerly accessed by a wide variety of students, organizations, and nonprofits that served them. Hall noted that the law does not directly target student groups themselves. But by closing resource centers that served these populations, the infrastructure they depended on had been decimated. “A lot of those student groups received their funds to do their annual activities from those centers and from those DEI offices, and so when they closed down, those groups, either had to figure out how to continue without funding, find a new place to get funding, such as turning to public fundraising or finding somewhere else on campus that might be willing to help them, or they shut down,” Hall said. #### Which Centers and Programs Closed Down? - Lamar University, Beaumont, LU Office of Global Diversity & Inclusive Excellence - Texas A&M University, College Station, Campus Pride Center - Texas Southern University, Houston, TSU Pride Center - Texas Tech, Lubbock, Office of LGBTQIA Education and Engagement - Texas Women’s University, Diversity Inclusion and Outreach office - University of Houston, Houston, LGBTQ+ Resource Center - University of Houston–Clear Lake, Pasadena, Office of Student Diversity, Equity and Inclusion - University of North Texas, Denton, Pride Alliance - University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, LGBTQ+ Program - University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Gender and Sexuality Center - University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, Galerstein Women’s Center - University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, Office of Inclusive Excellence #### ‘Their Voice and Their Communities Ripped Apart’ One victim of the closure of the Gender and Sexuality Center at UT Austin was the Kind Clinic, a nonprofit offering sexual health services like PrEP, STI testing and gender-affirming care in Austin, San Antonio and Dallas areas, as well as virtually throughout the state.*(Editor’s Note: Kind Clinic, a program of Texas Health Action, underwrites “Big & Bright,” The Barbed Wire's coverage of queer life in Texas. All editorial decisions are made solely by The Barbed Wire's editorial team with no input from Kind Clinic or Texas Health Action.)*But for four years, beginning in 2020, Kind was able to offer testing services on a weekly basis in the Gender and Sexuality Center. Steven Tamayo, director of community health for Texas Health Action, the nonprofit that operates Kind clinics around the state, said the resource center offered an important opportunity to reach LGBTQ+ students where they already gathered on campus. Even though STI testing is available through the university’s official health services, LGBTQ+ students in particular, may hesitate to approach them. One 2024 survey by the healthcare polling nonprofit KFF found that [one-third of LGBTQ+ adults have been mistreated by medical providers](https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-health-and-wellness/1-3-lgbtq-adults-say-ve-treated-unfairly-health-care-provider-rcna146310?ref=thebarbedwire.com), compared with just 9% of the general population. The Kind Clinic helped create a safe space for its patients. “Over the four years of that partnership, that service became really a consistent and trusted access point for students, particularly for those who may have not felt comfortable accessing traditional health care settings, either because of medical mistrust, or maybe they had been misgendered or dead named at the doctor before,” Tamayo told *The Barbed Wire*. “That can be very triggering.” In addition, since sex education isn’t part of the standard curriculum at most Texas high schools, Tamayo said it was often the first opportunity to reach students with accurate information about safer sex and sexually-transmitted infections. “Not only did that reduce barriers to accessing care, but it allowed us to get in front of folks who had never been tested before, folks who had just started exploring their bodies,” said Tamayo. With the closure of the resource center, Kind lost access to the support and office space necessary to operate directly on campus. They’ve since partnered with the University Baptist Church, which neighbors the University of Texas at Austin campus, to offer testing services, but this still took them further from the student body than before. Tamayo said the consequence of cuts like these “isn’t abstract, it shows up as additional barriers. It shows up as delayed testing, missed opportunities for prevention services, and more complex access to sexual health services.” Joel Astbury is a University of Texas at Austin student who made regular use of Kind’s testing services. “They're trying to deconstruct any sort of spaces for marginalized folks, or any sort of power that they might have,” Astbury told *The Barbed Wire*. Astbury said, from an on the ground perspective, SB17 feels linked to numerous other attacks on his ability to freely express himself as a queer student, from [crackdowns on campus free speech](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/free-speech-crisis-for-black-americans-charlie-kirk/) to what he sees as an overall conservative turn in campus politics. “Their end goal, which I think is really obvious, … is to turn the college campus into a conservative powerhouse,” Astbury said. Arshia Papari, a UT Austin junior who is running for Texas State Representative in House District 49 on the Green Party ticket, who also made use of the campus’ shuttered resource centers. He told *The Barbed Wire* that students believe the administration rushed to comply, even going overboard in implementation, rather than fighting the law for their students' best interests. “It's because the basis of UT Austin's administration has always been tied to the state — and to the political winds and leanings of the state,” Papari said. “We're regarded as the most progressive university in the state, and folks think we're all very crazy socialists here in (UT) Austin, but in reality, the administration of the university is very hardcore conservative, and has become more and more conservative by the day.” Papari said students are “traumatized by having their voice and their communities ripped apart from them.” Astbury said he feels less safe on campus today than he did before the law went into effect, and thinks women, students of color, and other marginalized groups feel the same, “because if they have less resources, if they have less of an ability to advocate for themselves, that makes them easier to manipulate.” #### The Last Drag Show at UT Arlington? Even though LGBTQ+ student organizations are not technically banned, between cuts to funding and heightened public scrutiny on anyone perceived to be associated with ‘DEI,’ it often feels impossible to operate, students and experts told *The Barbed Wire*. These laws have given rise to further policies designed to limit organizations’ activities, and creates an atmosphere where they feel under heightened scrutiny for any event, students said. Campus drag bans have been the subject of multiple freedom of speech lawsuits, with one notoriously conservative judge [comparing campus drag performances to “blackface.”](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/west-texas-am-drag-show-lawsuit/) The story of the last drag show on the University of Texas at Arlington Campus, and the dissolution of the Queer Social Work Association, illustrates how these policies eliminate student legacies. When Elwim Sorto, the social work association’s cofounder and president, enrolled as an undergraduate at UT Arlington in 2023, he called the school’s LGBTQ+ Program “amazing.” But to Sorto, the school’s social work program seemed to have an obvious gap: “We have military social work, we have gerontology, you know, we have family child welfare. So what about queer social work? And so me and some friends went ahead and created the Queer Social Work Association.” The university’s LGBTQ+ Program had a years-long tradition of hosting drag shows as part of on-campus events, and Sorto didn’t want their joyful presence to disappear when the program shuttered, so the Queer Social Work Association decided to keep them going. “We were tasked right with keeping drag on campus, this tradition, to keep it moving and because it now just relied on all the powers of the student organizations,” Sorto said. As a way of helping the LGBTQ+ community find renewed strength under constant attack, the organization hosted [an empowerment fair themed around “Queer Sex and Power”](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-theshorthorn-com/news/queer-social-work-association-hosts-pride-positivity-empowerment-fair/article%5Fc9201e28-e99a-11ef-80e0-47856e294a18.html) in February 2025, which would feature safer sex resources, STI testing, storytelling, and more. It was a struggle to find funding, but Sorto made it clear that the event was supported by students and private donors, not campus funds. Still, as the event approached, other campus organizations and services, like the campus counseling department, dropped out at the last minute. Sorto said the event drew unwanted attention, including violent threats and eventually, [a letter from Tarrant County Judge Tim O'Hare to the Board of Regents](https://x.com/TarrantCoJudge/status/1900574911300522256/photo/1?ref=thebarbedwire.com), threatening the university if they continued to host drag events, which he referred to as performances designed to “denigrate women” by reducing them to “stereotypes and body parts.” As a result, the [university system instituted a ban on drag performances](https://www.keranews.org/government/2025-03-14/tarrant-county-judge-tim-ohare-drag-shows-university-of-texas?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and the Queer Social Work Association had to cancel a second, future event they had planned. Deja Dubois, the drag queen who performed at that final drag show on the UT Arlington campus, flat-out rejected the idea that her performance was either sexually charged or meant to insult womanhood, she told *The Barbed Wire*. “I didn’t think there was going to be any issues with what I was doing because I was in a full turtleneck floral gown with gloves, and I didn't have any skin showing, babe, and I had a beehive on my head … I was padded down more than your grandma’s couch,” Dubois said. For her performance, Dubois, who also works with the Dallas Opera, sang “Believe” by Cher and “Como La Flor” by Selena. Dubois graduated from UT Arlington in 2022 with a degree in music and vocal performance, and she said it’s disturbing how attitudes about her art form have changed in recent years. She’d performed on campus before, and even more frequently wore her drag makeup there, without facing issues. “We are here serving the student body and for (queer) representation, and I'm being told that I'm being too much, or that I'm being profane and that I'm inappropriate when all I'm doing is what any biological woman would do … which is … sing a song,” Dubois said. Sorto said he felt like the Queer Social Work Association faced intense scrutiny from the school administration in the wake of the Queer Sex and Power event. In October, during LGBTQ+ History Month, the group decided to shut down, publishing an open letter to the university calling its administration out for their pattern of attacks. “This was not done out of defeat but out of self respect,” the letter read. “It is a statement against the kind of surface level allyship that celebrates queer students when it's convenient and marginalizes them when it is not.” Sorto said the action was an attempt to reclaim their power by going out with dignity. “Instead of giving into the system, we were like, ‘this is what you’re missing from your system, this is what your school has lost.” Dubois, for her part, pushed back on the idea that she would be the last drag queen at UT Arlington or any other campus, when [queer people are so plentiful in Texas](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-is-a-lot-more-queer-than-you-think/). And, just as she did, they might someday duck into the music building to apply their fabulous drag makeup before a show. “The queens are still out everywhere, period, whether people like it or not,” she said. “There are gender nonconforming people, there are nonbinary people, there’re trans people that are just living their lives, walking their streets, walking the halls everywhere at UT Arlington.” #### ‘We Will Yell With You’ There’s no way to paint a rosy picture of what LGBTQ+ life is like on campus at many of our public universities today. Many services, valued advisors, and [classes](https://www.npr.org/2026/01/30/nx-s1-5694604/texas-a-m-cancels-womens-gender-studies?ref=thebarbedwire.com) have simply disappeared. But in some cases, student groups, often with support of their local off-campus community, have been able to mitigate the damage — and even reach new people. In the wake of the closure of the Campus Pride Center at Texas A&M University, the student Queer Empowerment Council, a coalition of student organizations, has worked together to pick up many of the activities the center once offered, according to Katie Stewart, executive director of [Pride Community Center](https://www.pridecc.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a virtual LGBTQ+ community hub that organizes events in the College Station area. However, after the campus resource center closed down, the school also cut funding to the Aggie Allies program, which trained faculty and staff to provide safe havens to LGBTQ+ students in crisis or facing problems at school. Those who completed the program received an ally placard they could display in their offices or classrooms as a way of showing their support. But after the anti-DEI law came into effect, the funding for the program disappeared. “It, of course, created a lot of social anxiety with the students, but it also affected the faculty and staff as well,” Stewart said. “You can tell when people are hit by this stuff and it's weighing on them. I know I have been affected by it.” The Aggie Allies program first formed over two decades ago, after the death of a queer student on campus. Stewart said, even though no one specifically told them to take it on, it was a “no brainer” for the Pride Community Center to step up to replace the program. “We were playing emotional catch up with what was happening to (students) and trying to be a supportive space, I mean, that’s what we do, but the fact is that the law created so much more need for (Aggie Allies).” Amber Mastrobattista recently became the president of the board of directors for the center, and previously worked as a graphic designer for Texas A&M, where she’d attended the Aggie Allies training. As a board member, she spearheaded the rebranding of the program from an official A&M project, including creating a new safe space placard. Nowadays, participants are drawn from both faculty and the surrounding community, and training is held during nights and weekends. “It's still Aggie Allies, because A&M doesn't own the term Aggie, and our philosophy is that Aggie is a feeling, it's a spirit, it's a value. It's more than just, you know, a mascot or being part of the university,” Mastrobattista told *The Barbed Wire*. She added that the cutbacks and cultural shift caused by the anti-DEI law created an atmosphere that was more permissive of attacks on LGBTQ+ rights, as well as queer and trans faculty, such as the recent high profile case in which a student filmed a teacher who was later [fired for teaching about trans identities](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/09/19/texas-a-m-welsh-firing-professor-gender-mccoul/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), in a scandal that ultimately led to the resignation of Texas A&M’s president under pressure from the right. “At the state and the federal level, they are looking for our young to become these whistleblowers for things that they don't agree with, not necessarily things that are being done unlawfully,” Mastrobattista said. Until laws change to allow these kinds of activities back on campus, queer and trans students will depend on the aid of groups like the Pride Community Center. “We know that you're going through the same thing that we're going through and if you want to yell into the ether, we will yell with you,” Mastrobattista said. If there’s been one benefit to the change, it’s that in taking over the “Aggie Allies,” the program is now open to everyone in the community who wants to protect their queer and trans neighbors, whether they’re part of the university or not. “We have people ask us, ‘Well, I don't attend A&M, is it okay if I still come \[to the training\] and we said absolutely, you know, being in Aggieland means that you are an Aggie,” Mastrobattista said. Despite the exhaustion that comes from supporting the LGBTQ+ community in 2026, Stewart hopes their messaging can reach an even wider audience, including students of all ages. “With Valentine's (Day) coming up, what we most want is empowering messages, not just messages of love, but messages of you are worthy, you are important.” *Like our investigative journalism?* ***The Barbed Wire i*** **s always free to read…but investigative journalism isn’t free to make.* Support from our readers helps pay for the open records requests, document review, and travel expenses that make tough investigative reporting like this story come to life. Pitch in below — or [become a member of The Barbed Wire](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/become-a-member/), today.* ### 45-Year-Old Man Beaten Up By High Schoolers After Allegedly Attacking Them During ICE Walkout URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/man-beaten-by-high-schoolers-after-allegedly-attacking-ice-walkout/ Last updated: 2026-02-05T17:09:44.000Z A 45-year-old man has been charged with two counts of assault after getting into a fistfight with a group of Texas teenagers who were protesting Immigration Customs and Enforcement. On Monday, as the group of high schoolers carried signs and walked out of school in Buda to protest ICE, a man in his truck began arguing with them, in an incident that devolved into a physical brawl, based on video from a bystander. The [video of the altercation](https://x.com/allenanalysis/status/2018658810210943335?ref=thebarbedwire.com) shows the man, identified by police as Chad Michael Watts of Kyle, Texas, with his arm raised over a girl on the ground as other teenagers run to pull him off of her. The group of high schoolers tackle and hit Watts as he fights back, before retreating to his truck. A “difference of opinion on the immigration issue” led to the initial argument, Buda Police officer Matt Schima [told CBS Austin.](https://cbsaustin.com/news/local/buda-police-cite-new-details-seek-unedited-video-as-assault-case-of-minors-continues?ref=thebarbedwire.com) “The juvenile ended up kicking the adult's truck. He got out of the truck, and that is when that physical altercation started,” Schima [said to CBS Austin.](https://cbsaustin.com/news/local/buda-police-cite-new-details-seek-unedited-video-as-assault-case-of-minors-continues?ref=thebarbedwire.com) The students were among hundreds who walked out of Moe and Gene Johnson High School in Buda to protest ICE. U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro [called for Watts’ arrest](https://x.com/JoaquinCastrotx/status/2018752347111842020?s=20&ref=thebarbedwire.com) in response to a video of the fight on Tuesday afternoon. “Have the Kyle, TX police arrested this racist white man who attacked Hispanic girls and other high school students who were protesting against ICE?” Castro [wrote](https://x.com/JoaquinCastrotx/status/2018752347111842020?s=20&ref=thebarbedwire.com). The same day, Hays County Judge Ruben Becerra [released a statement](https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1435941738543094&set=a.253754526761827&type=3&ref=embed%5Fpost) about the incident, saying the Buda Police Department was working with the District Attorney’s office to investigate the altercation. “An adult bears a clear responsibility to exercise restraint, especially in the presence of children,” Becerra [wrote](https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1435941738543094&set=a.253754526761827&type=3&ref=embed%5Fpost). “Violence or intimidation directed at a minor — particularly during a lawful, peaceful demonstration — has no place in a constitutional republic.” A few hours later, Watts was [arrested](https://x.com/FarrahWaltonTV/status/2018871990614937919?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2018871990614937919%7Ctwgr%5Eeed0f55b3647042a667601b1b045b734d33d489c%7Ctwcon%5Es1%5F&ref%5Furl=https%3A%2F%2Fcbsaustin.com%2Fnews%2Flocal%2Fkyle-man-arrested-after-altercation-with-minors-during-student-protest-in-buda&ref=thebarbedwire.com) by Buda Police and charged with two counts of assault causing bodily injury, after police determined [he was the “primary aggressor”](https://www.facebook.com/BudaPoliceDepartment/posts/1338041581685090?ref=embed%5Fpost) in the altercation. The walkout to protest ICE is one of many such demonstrations at schools across Texas, which have been met with resistance from officials. (Two minors were also arrested by police monitoring Monday’s walkout in Kyle, for allegedly assaulting a public servant, resisting arrest, and consumption of alcohol, [according to KVUE](https://www.kvue.com/article/news/local/hays-county/kyle-juvenile-arrests-walkout/269-921199bf-f27f-4d60-8ced-2f25e1d7bd00?ref=thebarbedwire.com). However, police said the arrests were [unrelated to the protest.](https://www.kvue.com/article/news/local/hays-county/kyle-juvenile-arrests-walkout/269-921199bf-f27f-4d60-8ced-2f25e1d7bd00?ref=thebarbedwire.com)) On Tuesday, Gov. Greg Abbott [posted on X ](https://x.com/GregAbbott%5FTX/status/2018725851135648107?ref=thebarbedwire.com) about the arrests, discouraging school walkouts and threatening consequences for teachers and schools who allow them to happen. “Disruptive walkouts allowed by schools lead to just this kind of chaos,” Abbott [wrote](https://x.com/GregAbbott%5FTX/status/2018725851135648107?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “Schools and staff who allow this behavior should be treated as co-conspirators and should not be immune for criminal behavior.” “We are also looking into stripping the funding of schools that abandon their duty to teach our kids the curriculum required by law,” Abbott continued. Texas Rep. Erin Zweiner, a Democrat representing Hays County, [criticized Abbott](https://x.com/ErinForYall/status/2018798637456003322?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for not acknowledging Watts’ altercation with the teenagers from Moe and Gene Johnson High School. “Instead of calling for justice against the grown man that assaulted a girl, Gov. Abbott is celebrating the arrest of students, calling for the criminal investigation of schools & teachers, & threatening the funding of our school districts,” Zweiner [wrote on X.](https://x.com/ErinForYall/status/2018798637456003322?ref=thebarbedwire.com) After an Austin ISD walkout last week to protest ICE, Gov. Abbott [said on X](https://x.com/gregabbott%5Ftx/status/2017402274054648179?s=46&ref=thebarbedwire.com) he was directing the Commissioner of Education, Mike Morath, to investigate the district. The Texas Education Agency [released new, punitive guidelines](https://tea.texas.gov/about-tea/news-and-multimedia/news-releases/news-2026/tea-releases-guidance-for-school-systems-outlining-consequences-regarding-student-walkouts-absences-and-educator-and-district-responsibilities?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on Tuesday for schools regarding walkouts. The guidelines state that students must be marked absent if they walk out, and schools could lose funding due to low attendance. They also say that teachers and schools who facilitate walkouts will be “subject to investigation and sanction,” which could include the revocation of teaching licenses or state-appointed district monitors. Eric Wright, the superintendent of Hays Consolidated Independent School District where the walkout and altercation occurred, [posted a message](https://www.hayscisd.net/article/2682283?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to the district on Wednesday. Wright told parents to encourage their children to stay in class. “If you want your children to protest, you must sign them out of school and leave school property,” Wright [said in his message](https://www.hayscisd.net/article/2682283?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “Students must understand that the ramifications of their actions using schools as their platforms probably won’t mean much to the federal government, but they will mean a great deal to our local community.” ### ‘F*cking Dumpster Fire’: What in the World Is Going on Between Colin Allred and James Talarico? URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/colin-allred-james-talarico-jasmine-crockett-texas-senate/ Last updated: 2026-02-03T21:43:15.000Z It all started when content creator Morgan Thompson posted online about the [already-tense Democratic race for U.S. Senate](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/jasmine-crockett-talarico-senate-electability-debate/) in Texas. In a TikTok video, [Thompson alleged that](https://www.tiktok.com/@morga%5Ftt/video/7602078773206338847?is%5Ffrom%5Fwebapp=1&web%5Fid=7518526706434246157&ref=thebarbedwire.com) Senate candidate and state House Rep. James Talarico told her in a one-on-one conversation he signed up to run against a “mediocre black man,” not a “formidable, intelligent black woman.” The alleged comments by Talarico referred to former U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, who dropped out of the U.S. Senate race [in December](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/12/08/colin-allred-drops-out-senate-democratic-primary-congress-33rd-district-dallas/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and Talarico’s current primary competitor, Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett. It made significant waves on social media as commentators and politicians alike rushed to voice skepticism of the claims’ validity. For others, it reignited intense debates online about identity politics and electability. Talarico’s campaign [released a statement](https://x.com/jt%5Fennis/status/2018461896035475902?s=20&ref=thebarbedwire.com) on Monday calling Thompson’s claims “a mischaracterization of a private conversation.” “I described Congressman Allred’s method of campaigning as mediocre — but his life and service are not,” he explained. Thompson, [who spoke to CNN](https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/02/politics/james-talarico-texas-senate?ref=thebarbedwire.com), said that she didn’t have a recording of the conversation and acknowledged that they had previously agreed to treat it as off the record. News organizations largely avoided covering the unsubstantiated claims. That is, until Allred — who is running for his old congressional seat — posted [a video](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DUQ9QrbAHZS/?utm%5Fsource=ig%5Fweb%5Fcopy%5Flink&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA%3D%3D) online thrusting them into newsworthiness. “We’re tired of folks using praise for Black women to mask criticism for Black men,” he said. Allred then turned the alleged “mediocre” claim on Talarico. “Maybe you used the word mediocre because there was something creeping into your mind about yourself,” Allred said. Despite not previously endorsing a Democratic candidate, Allred finished the video by telling viewers to vote for Crockett, and calling out to Talarico: “Don’t come for me unless I send for you.” As Allred freshly endorsed Crockett, the whole event appeared to spur — or at least make more timely — another fresh endorsement. [*The Houston Chronicle*](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/endorsements/article/talarico-crockett-democratic-primary-texas-2026-21329484.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the largest newspaper in the state, on Tuesday endorsed Talarico with a striking headline that once again waded into the conversation of electability: “Do you want to win or not? Democrats should make Talarico their Senate candidate.” (A week earlier, another Hearst-owned property, [*The San Antonio Express-News*](https://www.expressnews.com/opinion/editorial/article/jasmine-crockett-senate-21311156.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com), had endorsed Crockett.) https://www.instagram.com/reel/DUQ9QrbAHZS/?utm\_source=ig\_web\_copy\_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA%3D%3D But let’s go back to the beginning. What exactly was Thompson alleging that started this whole thing off? [In her video](https://www.tiktok.com/@morga%5Ftt/video/7602078773206338847?is%5Ffrom%5Fwebapp=1&web%5Fid=7518526706434246157&ref=thebarbedwire.com), Thompson said she approached Talarico at a Jan. 12 event in Plano with concerns about Democratic campaign consultant James Carville sending messages for Talarico. Carville’s November 2025 guest essay in *The New York Times* advocated for Democrats to [leave behind “woke politics,”](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/24/opinion/democrats-platform-economic-rage.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) which Thompson said would leave Black people out of the conversation. > [](https://twitter.com/laurenhtexas/status/2018424016181067784?s=20&ref=thebarbedwire.com) During the conversation about Talarico’s campaign strategy, Thompson said he made the comments comparing Allred and Crockett as opponents. Thompson expressed her support for Crockett at the end of the video, saying she had previously supported Talarico — until that private conversation. Talarico campaign spokesman JT Ennis [confirmed to CNN](https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/02/politics/james-talarico-texas-senate?ref=thebarbedwire.com) both their association with Thompson and that the two did speak before the Plano event. “The obvious intimidation of Jasmine Crockett along with the racially charged disrespect of a Black man indicates something deeper than just an overly familiar comment that is coded in a compliment for a Black woman,” Thompson said in her video. > [](https://twitter.com/emilyebytx/status/2018545769477972050?s=20&ref=thebarbedwire.com) Then the stakes rose again, with Thompson accusing Talarico’s campaign of trying to silence her, claiming that her Instagram account had disappeared and her Threads account had been suspended within minutes of when she posted a video about her claims. [She told CNN](https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/02/politics/james-talarico-texas-senate?ref=thebarbedwire.com), “It’s just too many factors in play. It’s just too many abnormalities. The timing of it was so fast.” It was not clear on Tuesday how the campaign could have obtained access to her accounts, and Ennis unequivocally denied those allegations, [telling CNN](https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/02/politics/james-talarico-texas-senate?ref=thebarbedwire.com), “No. We do not have that kind of power, nor would we ever do that.” Factions quickly formed online, with some ripping Thompson’s allegations as “conspiratorial,” while others defended her as acting in good faith. [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/screenshot_2026-02-03_at_2-49-21_pm.png)](https://www.threads.com/@howdypolitics/post/DURloJ6jJZA?xmt=AQF0aKDyaNuNV9h41rqsul1zglhQUx0CeCJq5Cz-AP6yq7TrqpQEpUJSrdfotVywjYotTnce&slof=1&ref=thebarbedwire.com) Ali Zaidi, a former Texas House staffer for Talarico, called the allegation “out of the norm for who Rep. Talarico is” — “both in substance and in form.” “The growing deluge of odd, conspiratorial, and untrue content surrounding (Talarico) is frankly bizarre,” Zaidi [said on social media](https://x.com/alizaidiTX/status/2018351066190917647?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “Disappointing that some believe this is how a primary ought to be conducted.” Peter Rothpletz, a columnist and contributor for Zeteo, [wrote on X](https://x.com/PeterTwinklage/status/2018438907465973865?s=20&ref=thebarbedwire.com), “yo @ColinAllredTX the random tiktoker whose unverified story you bought hook, line, and sinker is now claiming the GLOBAL CABAL that is team Talarico hacked and deleted her instagram account. thank you for pouring gasoline on this fucking dumpster fire of a primary!!!!!!!!” Then, Jasmine Crockett [weighed in](https://x.com/James%5FBarragan/status/2018435661737480693?s=20&ref=thebarbedwire.com) Monday afternoon with a statement in support of Allred, saying “it’s unfortunate that at the start of Black History Month, this is what we’re facing.” > [](https://twitter.com/EricMGarcia/status/2018448580135272572?s=20&ref=thebarbedwire.com) Although Crockett’s statement did not directly address Talarico’s alleged comments, she spoke to Allred’s previous political accomplishments and applauded his discussion of the double standard Black politicians face. “He drew a line in the sand,” Crockett [wrote of Allred](https://x.com/James%5FBarragan/status/2018435661737480693?s=20&ref=thebarbedwire.com)’s video. “He decided to stand for all people who have been targeted and talked about in a demeaning way as our country continues to be divided.” In Talarico’s [statement](https://x.com/jt%5Fennis/status/2018461896035475902?s=20&ref=thebarbedwire.com) Monday evening, he said he “would never” attack Allred “on the basis of race.” Then, [in an interview with CNN](https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/02/politics/james-talarico-texas-senate?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Allred claimed he believed Talarico’s statement was “an admission that he said what he said.” Kat Vargas, the political content creator known as Howdy Politics who has defended Thompson in recent days, agreed, [writing on Threads](https://www.threads.com/@howdypolitics/post/DURloJ6jJZA?xmt=AQF0aKDyaNuNV9h41rqsul1zglhQUx0CeCJq5Cz-AP6yq7TrqpQEpUJSrdfotVywjYotTnce&slof=1&ref=thebarbedwire.com) that Talarico’s statement does not deny the claim that he called Allred mediocre. “This is a statement about impact vs intent, not a denial, and based on the racial undertones of this campaign, that’s a serious conversation we need to have,” [Vargas wrote.](https://www.threads.com/@howdypolitics/post/DURloJ6jJZA?xmt=AQF0aKDyaNuNV9h41rqsul1zglhQUx0CeCJq5Cz-AP6yq7TrqpQEpUJSrdfotVywjYotTnce&slof=1&ref=thebarbedwire.com) The back and forth left journalists, political strategists, and content creators slamming one another on social media and in comment sections. “Texas Democrats should be riding off the high after flipping that Texas state senate seat in Tarrant County,” Eric Garcia, a journalist for *The Independent*, [wrote on X](https://x.com/EricMGarcia/status/2018448580135272572?s=20&ref=thebarbedwire.com). “Instead, they are mired in a petty squabble thanks to a random TikTok video accusing Talarico of calling Allred a ‘mediocre Black man’ without any sourcing.” Thompson took to TikTok in [a follow-up video](https://www.tiktok.com/@morga%5Ftt/video/7602154339192360222?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to give more details about their conversation, displaying a photo of her and Talarico as well as screenshots of messages between her and a Talarico staffer coordinating the conversation. “I quite literally have everything but an actual recording of him saying this,” Thompson said of their exchange. Whatever else comes of this, the rift between campaigns and content creators has widened. The Mothers Against Greg Abbott PAC [posted on Threads](https://www.threads.com/@momsagabbott/post/DUTXk8aDcyI?xmt=AQF0OnRmOlGyMK72vq1PpzUa76jZV9bW1gFVhLbCRkjODujHNeLeSkN-JDZ1MdsuFBvzMOQ1&slof=1&ref=thebarbedwire.com), “If there is anything to be learned from yesterday, it is this: Candidates, when you work with influencers, you need to make them sign NDA's and record your conversations. There is no such thing as off the record with them. They will stab you in the back! If you don't want to pay them 15K per month, if you wrong them, oh, there will be hell to pay! The pile-up is called Mob violence, and we saw this yesterday.” [Recent public polling](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/01/29/texas-us-senate-poll-crockett-talarico-2026-democratic-primary/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) from mid-January, as *Texas Tribune* reported, put Crockett and Talarico in a dead heat ahead of the March 3 primary. Early voting begins on February 17. ### Hundreds of Kids, Including Infants, Are Still at the ICE Facility That Released Liam Ramos. Now There’s a Measles Outbreak. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/hundreds-of-kids-ice-facility-liam-ramos-now-theres-a-measles-outbreak/ Last updated: 2026-02-02T21:59:58.000Z Liam Conejo Ramos, the 5-year-old who was pictured in a blue bunny-eared hat being taken by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, [has been released](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/02/01/texas-liam-ramos-five-year-old-m?ref=thebarbedwire.com) from a Texas immigration facility. But the conditions at Dilley Immigration Processing Center near San Antonio — and the health of the [hundreds of children](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/01/opinion/liam-ramos-ice-detention.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), including infants, being detained there — remain an urgent issue. On Sunday, Dilley reported an [outbreak of measles](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ice-dilley-center-texas-measles-cases/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Now, U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, who visited the facility last week and shared photos online of Liam [looking ill](https://www.instagram.com/p/DUEXYW%5FAE7i/?utm%5Fsource=ig%5Fweb%5Fcopy%5Flink&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==), is calling for Dilley to be “shut down immediately.” “Because of the close-quarter conditions at Dilley, lack of prompt medical response and capacity, and lack of expertise with diseases such as measles, Dilley is not equipped to combat any spread,” Castro [posted on X](https://x.com/JoaquinCastrotx/status/2018422757441085681?s=20&ref=thebarbedwire.com) Monday afternoon. “ICE confirmed that no person at Dilley is a criminal.” He added: “Children and families, who have committed no crime, should not be suffering and do not belong in prison.” ## A New Measles Outbreak Liam Conejo Ramos, and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, entered the U.S. through legal means as asylum-seekers, but were nevertheless detained in Minnesota on Jan. 20\. Images of their arrest, and of ICE agents seemingly using the child with his Spider-Man backpack [as bait ](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/02/01/texas-liam-ramos-five-year-old-minnesota-returns/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)[sparked outrage](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/31/us/politics/liam-ramos-ice-release.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) amid rising [bipartisan criticism of the agency](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-republicans-turn-on-ice-alex-pretti-killing/) following the [extrajudicial killings](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/abolish-ice-gains-traction-after-mom-shot-minneapolis/) of two Americans [in Minneapolis](https://www.startribune.com/the-unprecedented-challenge-of-prosecuting-federal-agents-for-killing-renee-good-alex-pretti/601565078?ref=thebarbedwire.com) last month. Liam and his father’s case spurred protests [both inside and outside](https://www.npr.org/2026/01/29/nx-s1-5690333/protests-break-out-at-texas-ice-facility-over-detention-of-5-year-old-minnesota-boy?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of Dilley. As condemnations grew, Castro and U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, both Democrats, visited the facility and [held a press conference](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/watch-rep-castro-recounts-visit-with-liam-ramos-5-year-old-detained-by-ice?ref=thebarbedwire.com). ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/gettyimages-2258153314.jpg) DILLEY, TEXAS - JANUARY 28: Ayaan Moledina protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement as they march toward the South Texas Family Residential Center on January 28, 2026 in Dilley, Texas. A federal judge temporarily blocked the deportation of 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, who were arrested in Minneapolis after the father had picked the boy up from school. They were then taken to the South Texas Family Residential Center, an immigration detention center outside San Antonio, where they remain. (Photo by Joel Angel Juarez/Getty Images) “Liam is not doing well,” Castro told [PBS News Hour](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/watch-rep-castro-recounts-visit-with-liam-ramos-5-year-old-detained-by-ice?ref=thebarbedwire.com) last week. “He has been sleeping a lot. He hasn’t been eating well, and he’s been very depressed. He misses his mom.” Castro and nine other members of Congress said they would inspect the facility on Feb. 6, [according to a spokesperson for the congressman](https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2026/02/02/measles-reported-in-2-people-detained-at-dilley-immigration-detention-center-dhs-says/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Then, after nearly two weeks in custody, [a judge ordered Liam and his father to be released](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/31/us/politics/liam-ramos-ice-release.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). [*The New York Times* ran a guest essay](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/01/opinion/liam-ramos-ice-detention.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on Sunday written by Elora Mukherjee, a clinical professor of law at Columbia University, and the director of the immigrants’ rights clinic there. It was titled: “Liam Ramos Was Just One of Hundreds of Children at This Detention Center. Release Them All.” That same day, spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, Tricia McLaughlin, [told CBS News](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ice-dilley-center-texas-measles-cases/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that two measles cases were discovered Friday. “ICE Health Services Corps immediately took steps to quarantine and control further spread and infection, ceasing all movement within the facility and quarantining all individuals suspected of making contact with the infected,” McLaughlin [said to CBS.](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ice-dilley-center-texas-measles-cases/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Measles is [a highly contagious airborne disease caused by a virus](https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/measles?ref=thebarbedwire.com) spread when an infected person breathes, coughs or sneezes, according to the World Health Organization. It can cause severe complications and even death. > [](https://twitter.com/JoaquinCastrotx/status/2018422757441085681?s=20&ref=thebarbedwire.com) Since none of the detainees at the center have criminal convictions, Castro argued that anyone diagnosed with measles “should be moved to a facility with the medical capacity for proper treatment and containment.” ## How Many Children Are Being Held? The Dilley Immigration Processing Center is the main facility for family detention in the U.S., and Castro [told reporters](https://www.tpr.org/border-immigration/2026-01-28/reps-castro-and-crockett-describe-conditions-at-ice-dilley-detention-center?ref=thebarbedwire.com) at the press conference that there were about [1,100 detainees](https://www.themarshallproject.org/2026/01/29/ice-kids-in-detention-numbers?ref=thebarbedwire.com) currently housed at the facility, which included a 2-month-old infant. Though state facilities that hold minors in detention, like the [Texas Juvenile Justice Department](https://www.tjjd.texas.gov/about-the-tjjd/data-and-statistics/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), have some updated data on the number of minors on their website, the Department of Homeland Security is less transparent and harder to parse. [*The Marshall Project*](https://www.themarshallproject.org/2026/01/29/ice-kids-in-detention-numbers?ref=thebarbedwire.com) conducted an analysis of data obtained by the [Deportation Data Project](https://deportationdata.org/index.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and found that by October 2025, at least 3,800 children under age 18, including 20 infants, had been detained by ICE since Trump took office. (Most reporting in recent weeks, including in the *New York Times*, has attributed any numbers related to detainees in Dilley to the nonprofit newsroom.) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/gettyimages-2258153493.jpg) DILLEY, TEXAS - JANUARY 28: Protestors react after Texas State Troopers deployed pepper balls during a protest against Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the South Texas Family Residential Center on January 28, 2026 in Dilley, Texas. A federal judge temporarily blocked the deportation of 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, who were arrested in Minneapolis after the father had picked the boy up from school. They were then taken to the South Texas Family Residential Center, an immigration detention center outside San Antonio, where they remain. (Photo by Joel Angel Juarez/Getty Images) The number of children detained by ICE in a given day has jumped sixfold in that time, [according to *The* *Marshall Project*.](https://www.themarshallproject.org/2026/01/29/ice-kids-in-detention-numbers?ref=thebarbedwire.com) The nonprofit newsroom also found that at least 1,000 children were held longer than 20 days, despite that being a court-ordered limit on child detention. Internal DHS data last month — obtained by [CBS News](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ices-detainee-population-record-high-of-73000/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — reflected that the number of detainees in ICE custody had reached a new record high. In mid January, ICE was holding about 73,000 individuals facing deportation in its custody across the country, an 84% increase from the same time in 2025, CBS reported. Six thousand were classified as family units. ## ‘Hellhole’ Children in Dilley were “despondent and depressed,” Castro [told PBS](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/watch-rep-castro-recounts-visit-with-liam-ramos-5-year-old-detained-by-ice?ref=thebarbedwire.com) after his visit with Liam last week. “We saw the whole gamut, the whole spectrum of kids, a 9-year-old who was picked up in Austin who spent New Year's Eve getting processed into this jail,” he [recalled](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/watch-rep-castro-recounts-visit-with-liam-ramos-5-year-old-detained-by-ice?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “One young girl who kept coming up to me, a little girl who was hugging my leg, asking us to help get her out of there.” https://www.instagram.com/p/DUEXYW\_AE7i/ “These kids are very traumatized,” he [added](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/watch-rep-castro-recounts-visit-with-liam-ramos-5-year-old-detained-by-ice?ref=thebarbedwire.com). In court documents, as [reported by *The Marshall Project*](https://www.themarshallproject.org/2025/12/17/children-immigration-detention-dilley-ice?ref=thebarbedwire.com), families claimed that children were given moldy, worm-filled food and undrinkable water with a foul taste. Parents even described children hitting themselves on their faces — and wetting themselves even after being potty-trained. In her *Times* guest essay, Mukherjee described the conditions of the children she has worked with, calling the facility a “hellhole.” “A 2-year-old boy was breastfeeding in detention. One 6-year-old boy had leukemia. An 8-year-old girl began wetting the bed. A 14-year-old girl engaged in self-harm,” [Mukherjee wrote.](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/01/opinion/liam-ramos-ice-detention.html?unlocked%5Farticle%5Fcode=1.I1A.6ixr.-7Sacsc5CXbU&smid=url-share&ref=thebarbedwire.com) Mukherjee [said](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/01/opinion/liam-ramos-ice-detention.html?unlocked%5Farticle%5Fcode=1.I1A.6ixr.-7Sacsc5CXbU&smid=url-share&ref=thebarbedwire.com) that the facility lacks proper medical care. DHS officials have pushed back against claims of poor conditions in immigration detention centers. After announcing the measles outbreak at the Dilley facility, McLaughlin said in a statement that the two sick detainees were receiving medical care. “This is the best healthcare \[sic\] many aliens have received in their entire lives,” McLaughlin said in a statement. The facility in Dilley was opened in 2014 under the Obama administration under the name “South Texas Family Detention Center,” [according to the *Washington Post*](https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2026/02/01/trump-immigration-children-families-detention/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The center was shut down under the Biden administration and reopened in the spring of last year after authorities began detaining families. Judge Fred Biery of the Federal District Court for the Western District of Texas condemned the actions of ICE officers in detaining Liam and his father as unconstitutional and driven by a “perfidious lust for unbridled power.” “The case has its genesis in the ill-conceived and incompetently-implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it requires traumatizing children,” [Biery wrote.](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/storage-courtlistener-com/recap/gov-uscourts-txwd-1172886492/gov-uscourts-txwd-1172886492-9-0.pdf) On Sunday afternoon, Castro [wrote on X](https://x.com/JoaquinCastrotx/status/2018087330188521760?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that he helped Liam and his father return to Minnesota after their release, thanking those who had expressed outrage. “Yesterday, five-year-old Liam and his dad Adrian were released from Dilley detention center. I picked them up last night and escorted them back to Minnesota this morning,” [Castro wrote on X](https://x.com/JoaquinCastrotx/status/2018087330188521760?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “Thank you to everyone who demanded freedom for Liam. We won’t stop until all children and families are home.” ### Texas Democrats Demand Release of ‘Political Prisoner’ Leqaa Kordia, Compare ICE Facility to ‘Internment Camps’ URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-democrats-demand-release-of-political-prisoner-leqaa-kordia-compare-ice-facility-to-internment-camps/ Last updated: 2026-01-30T18:40:19.000Z Texas Democrats are accusing President Donald Trump of holding 33-year-old Columbia University protester Leqaa Kordia as a political prisoner, and on Friday called for her release in a frigid press conference outside of Prairieland Detention Center in North Texas. Kordia, a Palestinian Muslim woman who had lived in [Paterson, New Jersey](https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/politics/2026/01/28/texas-lawmakers-paterson-nj-leqaa-kordia-released-ice/88383357007/?gnt-cfr=1&gca-cat=p&gca-uir=false&gca-epti=z116707p117550c117550v116707&gca-ft=91&gca-ds=sophi&ref=thebarbedwire.com) since 2016, has been detained by immigration authorities since March 14, 2025 — when she was grabbed at a routine immigration interview in New Jersey. She was thrown into an unmarked van and flown 1,545 miles away to [Prairieland Detention Center in North Texas](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/new-details-july-4-ice-attack-holes-feds-case/) in Alvarado. *The Barbed Wire* wrote [about Kordia and her case in October,](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/leqaa-kordia-palestinian-protester-ice-detention/) after she broke her silence to the media following months of detention. At that point, Kordia had been detained for 220 days in Prairieland. As of Friday, Kordia has been detained for more than 315 days. Now, as weeks of turmoil have followed [the deportation and](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/abolish-ice-gains-traction-after-mom-shot-minneapolis/) detainment of [young children](https://www.npr.org/2026/01/29/nx-s1-5691643/rep-joaquin-castro-visits-5-year-old-liam-conejo-ramos-at-an-ice-detention-facility?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in Texas — and [extrajudicial killing of Americans](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/renee-good-alex-pretti-shootings-spark-minneapolis-protesters-video-ic-rcna256350?ref=thebarbedwire.com) by federal authorities in Minneapolis — Texas lawmakers are pressuring the Department of Homeland Security to release her. “Texas House Democrats refuse to allow Trump to create internment camps for his political prisoners in our state,” the legislative caucus [posted on X](https://x.com/TexasHDC/status/2016985997951521062?s=20&ref=thebarbedwire.com) this week. “This woman is a political prisoner,” the post read. “Leqaa Kordia has been locked in a Texas detention facility for 10 months because she protested.” Kordia is the [last remaining Columbia University protester still in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody](https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/the-last-columbia-protester-in-ice-detention?ref=thebarbedwire.com) following a pro-Palestine protest on the school’s campus. ICE initially arrested Kordia for overstaying a student visa and participating in the protest, but her continued detention has been the result of additional allegations from DHS, which has claimed money sent to family members in Gaza as proof of terrorism and consulting a lawyer as evidence that she’s a flight risk. Her protest-related charges have since been dismissed, and Kordia has been granted bond — twice — by an immigration judge who notably deemed the evidence against her insufficient, determining she is neither a threat to the community nor a flight risk. Despite those developments, she has not been released. Her legal team has argued repeatedly that if Kordia is deported to Israel, she will be placed in the custody of the government that her lawyers say has killed almost 200 members of her family. Earlier this week, 34 Texas state lawmakers [sent a joint letter](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/aab91155-966e-43a7-af87-a209b39e1f8b-usrfiles-com/ugd/93f75e%5F02bc16cc2a9d4e35ab5e59b05520bc32.pdf) to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem demanding an end to what they called Kordia’s unlawful detainment, condemning the agency and claiming Kordia has been [“targeted for her constitutionally protected political speech”](https://muslimadvocates.org/2025/08/leqaa-kordia-raises-new-evidence/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) advocating for the lives of Palestinians. “Leqaa has been granted release on a $20,000 bond twice,” stated the letter — was signed by state senators in addition to the House caucus, including Sen. Nathan Johnson, Sen. Molly Cook, and Sen. José Menéndez. The letter argues that “the federal administration’s ongoing and shameful confinement is part of its broader crackdown on freedom of expression and its criminalization of peaceful protest, undermining the protections of the U.S. Constitution to advance their own authoritarian political agenda.” “I have never seen another legal context in which the government can detain someone for so long on the basis of so little evidence,” said Travis Fife of Texas Civil Rights Project, who is representing Kordia in a federal habeas corpus case, [in a previous interview](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/leqaa-kordia-palestinian-protester-ice-detention/) with *The Barbed Wire*. “As someone who has watched a lot of bail hearings and arraignments and plea hearings in some of the most rural parts of the state, it’s been pretty wild and jaw dropping to see just how extraordinary an amount of power the executive has to keep people like Leqaa, who they don’t like, detained,” said Fife. #### ‘Suffocating Conditions’ On Friday morning’s visit to the facility, lawmakers were turned away — along with Kordia’s legal team and family, said Texas state Rep. Salman Bhojani. Being denied entry to Prairieland raised serious concerns about “transparency, dignity, and accountability,” he said. “The visit was about Leqaa, checking on her safety and health and sharing her story to the rest of the world,” said Bhojani, who is from Euless and in 2022 was the first Muslim ever elected to the Texas Legislature. “Leqaa has been forced to sleep on the floor without adequate heat and clothing to keep her warm” as temperatures in Texas have been below freezing in recent days, said Bhojani, calling her treatment “deeply unjust,” “disappointing,” and “absolutely wrong.” On Friday, the weather in Alvarado was in the 30s, and officials at a 10 a.m. press conference outside Prairieland were wrapped in scarves and heavy jackets. “She does not even have clothing that fully covers her body,” said Bhojani. Bhojani said lawmakers were cleared to visit with Kordia in person weeks ago but were turned away “at the last minute” under the rationale that there were 200 protesters outside the facility, which he claimed was “not true.” “She was misled,” said Bhojani. “Our visit was cancelled because we came to ask hard questions about the reality that is happening inside those walls.” Hamzah Abushaban, Kordia’s cousin who flew into Texas from Florida for the visit, noted there were only 28 people outside the facility, “half of whom are from the media.” Bhojani said that Kordia’s lack of access to halal meals and proper heating — in “suffocating conditions” amid cockroaches and more than 60 detainees in a dorm built for 20 individuals — has meant that she’s developed dizziness and is running “a high fever for several days” as Ramadan approaches. Abushaban told [*The New York Times*](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/31/nyregion/nypd-kordia-federal-cooperation.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in May that his cousin had already lost about 50 pounds in DHS custody. > [](https://twitter.com/Ramos4Texas/status/2016602761115164702?s=20&ref=thebarbedwire.com) At the time of Kordia’s arrest, said Abushaban, “she was madly in love with this great country.” “I don’t think you could have found a more patriotic person,” he said. “I don't consider myself a leader or an activist,” Kordia wrote in [an opinion piece for *USA Today*](https://x.com/Ramos4Texas/status/2016602761115164702?s=20&ref=thebarbedwire.com)last week. “I am a devout Muslim who is deeply committed to my faith and community. I am a daughter, a sister and a best friend.” In her essay, as in multiple interviews with news outlets, Kordia said the conditions inside Prairieland are “filthy, overcrowded, and inhumane.” “For months, I spelt in a plastic shell,” she continued. “Privacy does not exist here.” “The federal government cannot lock someone up because they don’t like what she said at a protest,” said Texas House Democratic Caucus Chair Rep. Gene Wu, in a statement from lawmakers earlier this week. “For absolutely no legal reason, the Trump administration has detained Leqaa, held her in isolation, denied her the ability to practice her faith, and refused to release her even after a judge ordered bond,” he added. “This is un-American, illegal political persecution, and it’s happening right in our backyard in Texas.” Kordia is weeks away from spending a second Ramadan, the Islamic holy month, away from her family, Abushaban told reporters on Friday. ### PBS Was a ‘Cultural Life Vest’ for Kids Like Me Before the Internet. The Fight to Keep Public Media Alive Feels Personal. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/pbs-cultural-life-vest-for-kids-in-texas/ Last updated: 2026-01-28T16:57:04.000Z It was the ‘80s, and I was a kid who had trouble sleeping. In the wee small hours of the morning, there was one station that remained on the air: PBS. Watching on my black-and-white TV with a screen no bigger than a deck of cards, I remember wondering who the hell “Doctor Who” was. I wasn’t sure I liked it. But there was nothing else on, so I watched anyway. And then, at some point, in those cold mornings in my semi-attic upstairs room, I discovered Monty Python. It blew my mind wide open. I grew up in Wichita Falls, Texas, the kid of two public school teachers who believed — deeply, stubbornly — that education didn’t stop when the last bell rang. Money was tight, geography was tighter, and the world beyond North Texas might as well have been on another planet. Cable was spotty. The internet didn’t exist yet. Bookstores were limited. But there was KERA. Channel 13, beaming in from Dallas, felt like a small miracle. It was our cultural wormhole. While Wichita Falls was doing its best, earnest job being Wichita Falls, KERA was quietly telling us that there was more out there: stranger ideas, different voices, accents that didn’t sound like ours, humor that didn’t explain itself or apologize. For a lot of families, PBS was “Sesame Street” in the mornings and pledge drives at night. For us, it was oxygen. KERA brought in theater, science, documentaries, British comedies that felt like they’d been smuggled in past customs. Most famously, it was the station that [introduced “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” to American audiences](https://www.keranews.org/2013-09-30/watch-monty-python-stars-invade-kera-tv-studios-75-classic?ref=thebarbedwire.com). For a kid in North Texas, Monty Python wasn’t just funny; it was proof that humor could be silly, intellectual, and a little dangerous all at once. That mattered more than I understood at the time. When your parents are teachers, you absorb, by osmosis if nothing else, the idea that public institutions are supposed to expand your sense of possibility. KERA did that nightly. It was the sound of the wider world leaking into our living room, telling us that curiosity was normal and that being a little out of step with your surroundings wasn’t a flaw. I wasn’t the only one. Lawrence Sonntag grew up in Azle, watching the same public television station beam into his home. For him, PBS wasn’t just programming — it was survival. “It was a cultural life vest,” Sonntag said. “It felt like looking at the world’s vibrance and beauty through a straw, but that made it the most important straw.” Mitchell Clemons, who grew up in Allen, came to a similar realization later in life. “Thinking about it, I think I forgot how much PBS did mean to me,” he said. His memories sound like a generational mixtape. “From ‘Barney’ (and my dad knowing the OG dinosaur in the costume) in tech school, to ‘Lamb Chop’ and the ‘Song That Never Ends,’ to ‘Mr. Rogers,’ to ‘Arthur’ in grade school and the library song that’s still instilled in my brain.” But it didn’t stop with kids’ programming. PBS grew up with him — “Even stuff like Ken Burns for the history of baseball, which I still watch … and ‘Country Music’ and ‘The American Revolution.’” That’s the quiet power of public media: it doesn’t just entertain you at one age. It walks alongside you. It evolves with you. It teaches you how to care about things you didn’t know existed yet. That’s why the current moment for public media feels so personal, even decades later. And PBS is still relevant. With all the awful headlines, people are still turning to public TV icons like Fred Rogers for solace. [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/screenshot-2026-01-28-at-10-56-19-am.png)](https://www.threads.com/@jmorganrakay/post/DTilgHjANqV?ref=thebarbedwire.com) But, of course, this is America under Donald Trump, which means we can’t have anything nice. Last year, [Congress cut $500 million from public broadcasting](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/26/business/media/npr-pbs-stations-funding.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), pulling the rug out from under NPR and PBS stations across the country. Predictions were dire: dozens of radio and TV stations were expected to go dark. In Sitka, Alaska, the tiny station KCAW stared down what its general manager called a potential “doomsday” scenario after losing $187,500 from its budget. Across the system, experts warned that 78 public radio stations and 37 TV stations were at risk. And yet, at least for now, the apocalypse has been postponed. Six months after the cuts, few stations have actually closed. Donations surged. Emergency funds stepped in. Stations merged, tightened belts, and leaned hard on their communities. Austin PBS is one example of what that looks like on the ground. “In the wake of federal funding cuts, Austin PBS is now 100% community-funded,” said Sara Robertson, the station’s chief operating officer. “We’re fortunate to be in a market where the community strongly supports our mission and our programming — donations are up and membership continues to grow.” That support hasn’t just come from viewers at home. Long-running cultural institutions like ‘Austin City Limits’ have helped rally artists as well. “Acclaimed series like ‘Austin City Limits’ have sparked an outpouring of goodwill from both viewers and artists,” Robertson said. “Musicians including Billy Strings and Jason Isbell have recently supported Austin PBS through fundraising events, while longtime ACL artists such as Willie Nelson and Beck have spoken publicly about the importance of the series and public television as a whole.” Public media’s audience hasn’t disappeared; if anything, it’s migrating. Thousands are [cheering on PBS’s social media manager](https://www.threads.com/@pbs/post/DTij6MPAIe6?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for simply reminding people it still exists, and some were ready to buy merch with a [Jimmy Kimmel-approved slogan](https://www.threads.com/@pbs/post/DTij6MPAIe6?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “The streaming success of Ken Burns’ ‘American Revolution’ underscores the viewer appetite for the kind of quality, in-depth programming public television uniquely provides,” Robertson said, pointing to the growing reach of the PBS App. “Our focus is firmly on the future and on serving the community that supports us,” she said, noting that Austin PBS also plays a behind-the-scenes role as a presenting station — championing film and documentary projects, providing platforms for local and regional filmmakers, and hosting the kinds of community events that quietly build creative ecosystems. Still, this isn’t a happy ending. The [Corporation for Public Broadcasting is gone](https://cpb.org/pressroom/corporation-public-broadcasting-board-votes-dissolve-organization-act-responsible?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Much of the replacement money is temporary — stopgaps, not solutions. “We’re not out of the woods at all,” Tim Isgitt of Public Media Company, a nonprofit that has provided $30 million in [emergency funding to public TV and radio stations](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/19/business/the-race-to-rescue-pbs-and-npr-stations.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), told *The New York Times*. The system is intact, but fragile, held together by emergency funding, listener goodwill, and a lot of crossed fingers. Which brings me back to Wichita Falls, and that flickering PBS signal from Dallas. Public media doesn’t just fill airtime. In places far from cultural centers (sorry, Wichita Falls!), it fills gaps — geographic, economic, intellectual. It gives kids like me access to ideas our ZIP codes might not otherwise provide. It tells families without much disposable income that art, science, history, and yes, deeply weird British sketch comedy, belong to them, too. When funding for public media is treated as expendable, what’s really being cut isn’t just programming. It’s a quiet promise: that no matter where you live, the wider world is still allowed to reach you. KERA kept that promise for me. And for all the anxiety swirling around public broadcasting right now, that’s what’s worth fighting to preserve — not nostalgia, not sentimentality, but the simple, radical idea that culture should be public, and possibility shouldn’t depend on where you grow up. And nowadays, as a part-time comic and full-time journalist, I realize that so much of what I became was informed by PBS. A few weeks ago, I showed “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” to my 12-year-old daughter. We both loved it. Of course. ### Texas’ 2026 Winter Storm: 5 Children Died, and More Than 100,000 People Lost Power URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-2026-winter-storm-caused-more-than-6700-flight-disruptions-and-left-more-than-100000-people-without-power/ Last updated: 2026-01-27T18:38:19.000Z *UPDATE: This story was updated on January, 28, 2026 to reflect new death tolls and school closures across the state.* Texas is finally beginning to thaw out after a winter storm swept through the country over the weekend. Although the sun may be out in some cities and temperatures are inching above freezing, the storm left its mark on the state, as power outages, dangerous road conditions, and school closures persist. Here’s how the wintry weather is still affecting Texans, by the numbers. ### Flight Disruptions Across the two largest airports in the state, Dallas Fort-Worth International Airport and George Bush Intercontinental Airport, a total of 4,764 flights were canceled and 1,998 were delayed from Saturday to Monday, [according to FlightAware](https://www.flightaware.com/live/cancelled/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Delays continue Tuesday, with over 14,000 delays and 2,000 cancellations nationwide as of Tuesday morning. Major airports and airlines issued warnings to travellers about the impact of the storm. “Winter weather has impacted the region. Travelers should allow extra time, drive carefully and check with their airline for the latest flight information,” an [update](https://www.dfwairport.com/flights/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on the DFW Airport website reads. George Bush Intercontinental Airport also urged customers to check with their individual airlines for travel waivers to rebook flights. “Many airlines are offering temporary travel waivers that allow passengers to rebook flights at no additional cost if weather conditions affect operations,” an [alert](https://fly2houston.com/iah/alerts/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on the IAH website reads. “Taking advantage of these options early can help travelers adjust plans and reduce unnecessary trips to the airport during periods of disruption.” ### Deaths At least seven people died in Texas as a result of the winter storm, including five children. Late on Saturday night, [a major crash](https://x.com/TxDPSCentral/status/2015240967473811499?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on Westbound I-10 in Kimble County shut down the highway, according to the Central Texas Department of Public Safety. John Robert, 56, was killed in the crash, [according to *USA Today.*](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/weather/2026/01/26/deaths-winter-storm-states/88364939007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Two 16-year-old girls in Frisco died after[ taking part in a “truck sledding” trend](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/truck-sledding-winter-storm-dead/), in which people ride on objects pulled by vehicles along icy roads. On Sunday, the girls were riding on a sled pulled by their friends’ jeep when they hit a curb and were thrown into a tree. They were both taken to the hospital in critical condition, after which one girl, Elizabeth Angle, died from her injuries. Her friend, Grace Brito, was placed on life support, but died late Tuesday, [according to CBS News](https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/texas/news/second-teen-dies-frisco-sledding-incident-family-says/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “Please keep in mind that snow and ice can create extremely slippery surfaces and lead to serious or even deadly accidents,” the Frisco Public Information Office wrote in a statement online. “Please stay alert, stay indoors when possible, and avoid any unnecessary outdoor activity until conditions improve.” On Monday, three children died in Fannin County after falling into an icy pond, according to the [*Austin American-Statesman*](https://www.statesman.com/weather/article/children-drowning-deaths-bonham-north-texas-lake-21317620.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The children, aged 6, 8, and 9, were brothers and elementary school students in Bonham ISD. The *Statesman* reported that Bonham ISD Superintendent Lance Hamlin sent a letter to parents on Monday addressing the loss. “Our hearts go out to everyone touched by this loss, and our thoughts and prayers are with the family.” Hamlin wrote, according to the [*Statesman*](https://www.statesman.com/weather/article/children-drowning-deaths-bonham-north-texas-lake-21317620.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Austin Mayor Kirk Watson [shared on X](https://x.com/KirkPWatson/status/2015483553463636080?s=20&ref=thebarbedwire.com) Sunday that one person had died in the city due to exposure to the cold. “I am saddened to share some tragic news this morning. We have experienced the first fatality related to this winter storm. This fatality is exposure-related,” Watson wrote. “This is a sad reminder of the critically important work that is being done by our Cold Weather Sheltering and our warming centers.” Watson encouraged anyone in need of shelter to seek out the city’s warming centers. ### Power Outages As the freezing weather approached prior to the weekend, many Texans wondered about the [reliability of the electric grid](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/01/21/texas-winter-storm-watch-prepare-ercot-grid/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), considering the widespread outages in 2021 left millions without heat and power and [killed over a hundred people.](https://www.texastribune.org/2021/03/25/texas-deaths-winter-storm/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) At the height of the winter storm on Sunday morning, over 120,000 Texans were without power, out of nearly 520,000 nationwide, [according to Find Energy](https://findenergy.com/power-outage/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). That number has ebbed to approximately 35,000 people in Texas without power as of Tuesday morning. The outages are largely concentrated in East Texas related to extreme cold and ice buildup on power lines according to [KETK News.](https://www.ketk.com/news/local-news/more-than-16000-without-power-as-winter-storm-rolls-into-east-texas/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) The outages are ongoing along the Louisiana border, with Shelby County, Nacogdoches County, and Panola County reporting the highest number of outages. The companies with the highest number of customer outages are Deep East Texas Electric, Rusk County Electric Cooperative, and Southwestern Electric Power Company, according to Find Energy. On Sunday, the U.S. Department of Energy issued an emergency order, allowing ERCOT, which manages the Texas power grid, to require major energy consumers like data centers to use their backup generators in order to keep the Texas grid stable, [according to FOX 4.](https://www.fox4news.com/news/texas-winter-storm-energy-emergency-declared-keep-ercot-grid-stable?ref=thebarbedwire.com) ERCOT reflected a [well-operating grid](https://www.ercot.com/gridmktinfo/dashboards?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on its website throughout the storm and the following days, with a green color indicating normal conditions. ### Inches of Snow Snowfall varied across the state, from cities to the South receiving [none at all](https://spacecityweather.com/houston-dodges-a-bullet-with-ice-storm-but-two-very-cold-nights-remain/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to Northern Texas areas seeing several inches in their yards. A 77-year-old snowfall record was broken at DFW airport with .9 inches of snow, according to [Axios Dallas. ](https://www.axios.com/local/dallas/2026/01/27/stat-du-jour-record-breaking-snowfall?ref=thebarbedwire.com)Temperatures there stayed below freezing for 58 hours. Kelton, Texas, in the Eastern Panhandle reported the highest total snowfall, [according to ABC 7 Amarillo](https://abc7amarillo.com/news/local/winter-storm-brings-widespread-snow-to-texas-panhandle?ref=thebarbedwire.com), bringing in a total of 9.8 inches of snow. Lubbock also saw around 9 inches, [according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.](https://www.star-telegram.com/news/weather-news/article314446144.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Areas north of Dallas saw 3 to 5 inches of snow, [FOX 4 reported.](https://www.fox4news.com/news/dallas-weather-forecast-january-25?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Dallas police officers responded to a total of 151 traffic accidents over Saturday and Sunday, [according to CBS.](https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/north-texas-snowfall-ice-reports/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Austin saw a minor dusting of less than an inch, according to [the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.](https://www.star-telegram.com/news/weather-news/article314446144.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) That’s as far south as the snow fell, with San Antonio and Houston receiving only freezing temperatures with little precipitation. Still, local meteorologists with [NBC 5 in North Texas](https://www.nbcdfw.com/weather/weather-connection/freezing-fog-possible-overnight-extreme-cold-warning-continues/3974044/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) warn that anything that thaws today could refreeze overnight and they’re even warning people about possible freezing fog overnight. ### Ice Accumulation In the Austin area, one-tenth of an inch of ice accumulated, [according to KVUE](https://www.kvue.com/article/weather/severe-weather/how-much-ice-sleet-austin-central-texas-storm-winter-precipitation-totals/269-1cacd3c0-ad01-4e6c-9c7b-fd94989525ad?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which contributed in part to 69 crashes reported to the Austin Police from Sunday to Monday, and 91 reported traffic hazards. Kerrville in the Hill Country reported Sunday they received a quarter inch of ice, [according to KENS 5.](https://www.kens5.com/article/news/local/how-much-freezing-rain-and-sleet-did-san-antonio-and-the-hill-country-receive/273-f0824bff-380a-471e-ba0c-b97cc160a81b?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Regions of Southeast Texas also saw small amounts of ice build up, with College Station receiving a quarter inch, [according to KHOU 11.](https://www.khou.com/article/weather/houston-texas-ice-totals-january-winter-storm/285-172c59cd-48b9-4a45-b265-87792d780d9e?ref=thebarbedwire.com) ### School Cancellations Most school districts and colleges throughout the state had weather-related closures on Monday, and many in the Northern parts of Texas extended their cancellations into Tuesday and Wednesday, due to colder temperatures leaving roadways icy. Several North Texas school districts including Dallas ISD, Frisco ISD, and Forth Worth ISD remain closed Wednesday due to ongoing ice hazards, according to the [*Dallas Morning News*](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/education/2026/01/27/winter-storm-texas-2026-dallas-fort-worth-school-closings-wednesday/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Fort Worth Police reported that they had responded to 240 accidents and 418 stranded motorist calls from Friday to Tuesday. Midland ISD, and many other West Texas school districts were also closed Tuesday, [according to the *Midland Reporter-Telegram*.](https://www.mrt.com/news/article/midland-weather-closures-delays-21316508.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Austin ISD, and many other Central Texas schools also had closures Tuesday, [according to KVUE.](https://www.kvue.com/article/news/education/schools/school-closures-central-texas-school-districts-closed-delayed-tuesday-jan-27/269-d592937a-df8b-403e-93ec-7ee271ba9831?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Most Central Texas schools [reopened Wednesday](https://www.statesman.com/news/education/article/austin-schools-reopen-winter-weather-21317777.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Many schools in the southern parts of the state, [including Houston](https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/education/2026/01/26/541712/houston-isd-houston-area-schools-open-tuesday-cyfair-isd-katy-isd/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), re-opened Tuesday, as temperatures rose above freezing. ### Even Texas Republicans Are Starting to Turn on ICE After Alex Pretti’s Killing URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-republicans-turn-on-ice-alex-pretti-killing/ Last updated: 2026-01-27T16:54:15.000Z As a [rare storm](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/truck-sledding-winter-storm-dead/) blanketed the Texas state capital in picturesque frost on Monday, Texas Republicans joined a [chorus](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/abolish-ice-gains-traction-after-mom-shot-minneapolis/) [of](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/democrats-grow-louder-calls-kristi-noem-resign-face-impeachment-rcna255844?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [criticisms](https://www.wvtm13.com/article/ice-chief-court-appearance-minnesota-due-process/70154945?ref=thebarbedwire.com) against the Department of Homeland Security, its Secretary Kristi Noem, and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency terrorizing American cities in President Donald Trump’s second term. In short, Hell has frozen over. This past weekend, an intensive care unit nurse at a Veterans Affairs hospital named Alex Pretti was shot and killed by a federal immigration agent in Minneapolis. Like Renee Good, who was gunned down weeks earlier, he was a 37-year-old American citizen. In the hours after videos of Pretti’s extrajudicial killing began circulating online, Trump adviser Stephen Miller claimed without evidence that Pretti was “a would-be assassin who tried to murder federal law enforcement.” Noem, also without evidence, said he “committed an act of domestic terrorism.” The president referred to Pretti as a “gunman” and, on Truth Social, wrote “LET OUR ICE PATRIOTS DO THEIR JOB!” Pretti had a permit allowing him to carry a concealed firearm. While he had a gun holstered on his hip, video footage showed he was not holding it — and agents disarmed him before shooting him multiple times. He was holding only a phone when he approached officers. It was the second time this month that Americans saw the Trump administration contradict video evidence of murders that citizens could watch with their own eyes. And, coupled with the [killing of Keith Porter](https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/northridge-dhs-agent-deadly-shooting-new-years-eve-community-vigil/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in Los Angeles and [multiple other shootings](https://www.thetrace.org/2025/12/immigration-ice-shootings-guns-tracker/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) last year, it [marked a sea change](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/27/us/alex-pretti-shooting-minneapolis-reaction.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). While some Democrats have [taken up calls to “Abolish ICE”](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/abolish-ice-gains-traction-after-mom-shot-minneapolis/) and others have been peppered with criticisms of [acting without enough urgency](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskALiberal/comments/1ql0mcu/what%5Fis%5Fyour%5Fopinion%5Fon%5Fjeffries%5Fnot%5Fwhipping%5Fthe/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in response to the agency’s deadly [and unconstitutional](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/ice-entering-homes-judicial-warrants-last-summer-sources-say-rcna255619?ref=thebarbedwire.com) rampage on Minneapolis, Republicans have remained remarkably silent. Then on Sunday, as [*Texas Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/01/26/minneapolis-shooting-federal-agents-texas-republicans-respond-mccaul-investigation/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) first reported, Rep. Michael McCaul and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz became the first Texas Republicans to call for an investigation into the actions of federal immigration officers in Minneapolis. “I am troubled by the events that have unfolded in Minneapolis,” McCaul [posted to X](https://x.com/RepMcCaul/status/2015484863521136977?s=20&ref=thebarbedwire.com) Sunday afternoon. “As an attorney and former federal prosecutor, I believe a thorough investigation is necessary — both to get to the bottom of these incidents and to maintain Americans’ confidence in our justice system.” In an episode of Cruz’s [podcast](https://app.podscribe.com/episode/148753694?transcriptVersionReqId=4baac906-9d08-4b28-acab-589f85696347&ref=thebarbedwire.com) “Verdict,” he said: “There needs to be an investigation.” Cruz flatly contradicted the administration’s previous claims about both Pretti and Good, whom he acknowledged, “from all appearances are not violent criminals.” “What I think the administration could do better is the tone with which they’re describing this,” Cruz said. “Escalating the rhetoric doesn’t help, and it actually loses credibility.” U.S. Rep. Chip Roy [wrote on X](https://x.com/chiproytx/status/2015567706741756301?s=20&ref=thebarbedwire.com) that “ICE should not leave Minnesota” but that “carrying a gun & magazines is not an invitation for cops to shoot you.” Others went harder. Former state senator and former Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, also known as the Republican who authored Texas' Concealed Handgun Law, wrote a fiery op-ed for the [*Houston Chronicle*](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/outlook/article/gun-owner-pretti-minneapolis-patterson-21314996.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com), calling official comments from Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino, Miller, Noem, and the rest of the administration “outright lies — lies made even in the face of multiple videos that tell a completely different story.” “If I brandish my handgun in the presence of a peace officer, I expect to get shot. If it remains untouched in my holster, I don’t expect to get shot. Until Saturday in Minneapolis that was a pretty simple concept. What happened?” Patterson asked. “Did the victim, Alex Pretti, draw or attempt to draw his weapon? As videos indicate, was he already disarmed before a federal border patrol officer fatally shot him multiple times in the back?” “ICE is needed, but not this ICE,” Patterson wrote in his rebuke. “This ICE and its leadership need to go — now.” One of the more surprising contributions on Monday morning came from one of Trump’s [most loyal allies](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/11/24/greg-abbott-trump-presidential-power-state-rights/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. In an appearance on conservative radio host Mark Davis’ [show Monday morning](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/article/abbott-ice-minneapolis-shooting-21315704.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Abbott said immigration officials should “get back to what they wanted to do to begin with — and that is to remove people from the country who are here illegally.” “In general, we need to have respect for law enforcement officers in the country. ICE, they are law enforcement officers,” he added. “So they, being the White House, need to recalibrate on what needs to be done to make sure that that respect is going to be reinstilled. And that's not an easy task, especially under the current circumstances.” Abbott — who also blamed Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz for the bulk of the unrest — said he believed the administration was working on a “game plan” for federal immigration authorities to “go about their job in a more structured way to make sure that they are going to be able to remove these people, but without causing all the kinds of problems and fighting in communities that they are experiencing right now.” The tepid condemnation was met with raised eyebrows, including by progressive political strategist and content creator [Olivia Julianna, who posted on X](https://x.com/0liviajulianna/status/2015849477601456333?s=20&ref=thebarbedwire.com), “Do you know how badly you have to fuck up to have GREG ABBOTT say you fucked up!?” But Abbott certainly wasn’t alone. Former Vice President Mike Pence [called the shooting](https://www.forbes.com/sites/saradorn/2026/01/26/pence-and-other-republicans-break-with-trump-over-pretti-death-deeply-troubling/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) “tragic” and said a “full and transparent investigation of this officer involved shooting must take place immediately.” Even Republican Chris Madel pulled out of the Minnesota governor’s race in a video [posted to X](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-election/minnesota-governor-candidate-chris-madel-gop-immigration-enforcement-rcna255949?ref=thebarbedwire.com), writing that he "cannot support the national Republicans' stated retribution on the citizens of our state." Meanwhile, New York Republican U.S. Rep. Andrew Garbarino and Kentucky U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, chairs of congressional Homeland Security committees, [called on](https://www.foxnews.com/politics/gop-lawmaker-renews-oversight-hearing-request-dhs-agencies-following-fatal-shooting-minneapolis?ref=thebarbedwire.com) senior immigration enforcement officials to testify in the wake of Pretti’s death. Utah U.S. [Sen. John Curtis](https://www.forbes.com/sites/saradorn/2026/01/26/pence-and-other-republicans-break-with-trump-over-pretti-death-deeply-troubling/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Indiana [U.S. Sen. Todd Young](https://www.forbes.com/sites/saradorn/2026/01/26/pence-and-other-republicans-break-with-trump-over-pretti-death-deeply-troubling/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), North Carolina U.S. [Sen. Thom Tillis](https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/01/some-conservatives-veer-off-party-line-after-dhs-agents-kill-another-us-citizen/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and Louisiana U.S. [Sen. Bill Cassidy](https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/01/some-conservatives-veer-off-party-line-after-dhs-agents-kill-another-us-citizen/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) all urged investigations. Former U.S. Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene [condemned Pretti’s shooting](https://x.com/FmrRepMTG/status/2015438556789870682?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [right-wing commentator Tim Pool](https://x.com/Timcast/status/2015162979147214867?ref=thebarbedwire.com) questioned Bovino’s version of events, and [even conservative Christian broadcaster Erick Erickson](https://x.com/EWErickson/status/2015242193959522493?ref=thebarbedwire.com) called the Trump administration’s response “a bad look.” Fox News [started changing its tune](http://mediamatters.org/fox-news/after-36-hours-justifying-killing-alex-pretti-fox-news-suddenly-changes-its-narrative?ref=thebarbedwire.com) about 36 hours after the shooting, and Joe Rogan, the podcast host who endorsed Trump in 2024, compared ICE to [“the Gestapo”](https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop-culture-news/joe-rogan-criticizes-ice-tactics-podcast-rcna253931?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in a recent episode. These are significant shifts. “However gentle and equivocal the pushback might be, it is growing increasingly conspicuous as congressional Republicans privately discuss how to respond to Trump’s aggressive immigration enforcement campaign ahead of the midterm elections,” [*Politico*](https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/25/republicans-concern-minneapolis-shooting-00745707?ICID&can%5Fid=71597c61003cabad9b09c8444aa14487&email%5Freferrer=email%5F3069419&email%5Fsubject=minnesota-update-sign-if-you-agree-impeach-secretary-of-homeland-security-kristi-noem&link%5Fid=8&source=email-minnesota-update-sign-if-you-agree-impeach-secretary-of-homeland-security-kristi-noem) reported on Monday. By Tuesday morning, Trump had said border czar Tom Homan was headed to Minnesota to take over the immigration situation, according to [CNN](https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/minneapolis-ice-shooting-protests-trump-01-27-26?ref=thebarbedwire.com). *The Atlantic* first reported that [Bovino is losing his title as “commander”](https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2026/01/greg-bovino-demoted-minneapolis-border-patrol/685770/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and will return to the border in California, which was confirmed by [NBC News](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/live-blog/minneapolis-live-updates-ice-trump-rcna256077?ref=thebarbedwire.com). In Minnesota, Judge Patrick Schiltz, the chief district judge, said in a court filing Monday that the “Court’s patience is at an end.” He ordered acting [ICE Director Todd Lyons to appear in federal court](https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/minneapolis-ice-shooting-protests-trump-01-27-26?post-id=cmkwn4bgm00053b6p1j8poxm3&ref=thebarbedwire.com) this Friday to explain why he should not be held in contempt. “You know, they have criminals. And all I said, ‘Just give us your criminals. And if you give us the criminals, it all goes away.’ They’re there to pick up murderers,” Trump said in an interview Tuesday morning on the radio show [“Sid & Friends in the Morning.”](https://wabcradio.com/show/sid-and-friends/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) He told the hosts his calls with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz were “very good” and “very respectful” and even hinted at a potential compromise. Over the last year, communities have seen wedding photographers [jailed while returning from their honeymoons](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/ward-sakeik-ice-custody-beautiful-sisterh/), [journalists detained](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/how-my-friend-and-fellow-journalist-was-targeted-by-ice/), [priests threatened](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/california-priests-made-ice-scatter-can-texas-do-the-same-ministry/), and [disabled children](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/disabled-child-federal-immigration-custody/) held for weeks. Neighbors have been taken while [driving their kids to cancer treatments](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/girl-deported-brain-cancer/) and [to college](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/million-texas-students-undocumented-ice-mom-taken/). With images on all news sites and social media apps at all hours — another shooting, another [2-year-old removed despite a court order](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/2-year-old-girl-father-taken-ice-minneapolis-immigration-rcna255603?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a [5-year-old used as bait](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/federal-officers-detain-5-year-old-boy-who-a-minnesota-school-official-says-was-used-as-bait?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — the [perception](https://today.yougov.com/topics/politics/survey-results/daily/2026/01/08/2246e/2?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of the agency is changing rapidly. A recent YouGov/*Economist* poll showed that [a majority — 58% — of Americans say that ICE's tactics](https://today.yougov.com/politics/articles/53939-more-americans-support-than-oppose-abolishing-ice-immigration-minneapolis-shooting-poll?ref=thebarbedwire.com) are too forceful and that 46% of Americans support abolishing ICE now. “Americans don’t like what they’re seeing right now,” Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican, [said](https://x.com/CNNSOTU/status/2015454501084201178?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union. “We believe in federalism and states’ rights and nobody likes feds coming into their state. So what’s the goal right now? Is it to deport every single non-U.S. citizen? I don’t think that’s what Americans want.” Meanwhile, there have been many more condemnations of ICE and calls for Noem’s impeachment from Democrats, including Texans like [Congressman Greg Casar](https://spectrumlocalnews.com/tx/austin/news/2026/01/26/casar-calls-for-impeachment-of-dhs-secretary-kristi-noem?cid=share%5Ftwitter&ref=thebarbedwire.com), U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, and Texas House Rep. James Talarico. The latter two [faced off on Saturday afternoon](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/jasmine-crockett-talarico-senate-electability-debate/) before their upcoming primary election for a U.S. Senate seat, hours after Pretti was killed, which injected a sense of urgency into their responses. Crockett called ICE a “rogue organization” that’s violating American rights. “We need to clean house from top to bottom,” she said, adding that she had already signed on to legislation to impeach Noem filed by U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly, of Illinois. Meanwhile, in the Senate, Democrats are [threatening to allow a partial government shutdown](https://www.axios.com/2026/01/24/minneapolis-ice-democrats-government-shutdown-ice?ref=thebarbedwire.com) next week, holding hostage a DHS funding bill to rein in the agency. “This is the fifth-highest funded military force in the entire world, and what are they doing?” asked Crockett. “They’re killing people in the middle of the street.” “They are supposed to do immigration and customs enforcement,” she added. “Not going after U.S. citizens. Not going after people who are documented.” For his part, Talarico said it was “time to tear down this secret police force and replace it with an agency that actually is going to focus on public safety.” He added that ICE agents who abuse their power should be both unmasked and prosecuted. Both made it clear that the agency requires reform and “a crackdown” — whatever that looks like. “We should be hunting down human traffickers, not moms and babies,” Talarico said. Before this weekend, calls to abolish ICE had appeared in headlines by [Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists](https://www.forever-wars.com/either-ice-is-abolished-or-it-will-kill-many-more-renee-goods/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), on pins worn by [celebrities at the Golden Globes](https://www.threads.com/@instylemagazine/post/DTZGW2hgMt5?xmt=AQF0i02MAr03FDyOMtKlnYdYsyFblzN9xDqmZXaBVoKzenlbzQUYVh4nx0RrtMADjqo6KNU&slof=1&ref=thebarbedwire.com), and in posts online by everyone from gun-violence prevention advocate [Cameron Kasky](https://x.com/camkasky/status/2009052703180378463?s=43&ref=thebarbedwire.com) to neo-conservative Never Trumper [Bill Kristol](https://x.com/billkristol/status/2009001272104583660?s=43&ref=thebarbedwire.com) (who served in senior positions in the Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush Administrations). *The Verge* even reported this week that anti-ICE discussions were happening all over Reddit, [from r/Military](https://www.reddit.com/r/Military/comments/1qlye8t/man%5Fis%5Fshot%5Fand%5Fkilled%5Fduring%5Fminneapolis/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [cat subreddits](https://www.reddit.com/r/catbongos/comments/1qm2rl2/if%5Fyou%5Fstill%5Fsupport%5Ftrumpice%5Feven%5Fslightly%5Fyoure/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to er, [adult ones](https://www.theverge.com/news/867967/ice-shooting-minneapolis-reddit-communities-activism?view%5Ftoken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJpZCI6ImF1dDVHcWhnNWkiLCJwIjoiL25ld3MvODY3OTY3L2ljZS1zaG9vdGluZy1taW5uZWFwb2xpcy1yZWRkaXQtY29tbXVuaXRpZXMtYWN0aXZpc20iLCJleHAiOjE3Njk4ODQzMTQsImlhdCI6MTc2OTQ1MjMxNH0.gNXQHu5LNwZ51511-JIH%5Fhawd9n%5FfSOA4OxQELv7vrw&utm%5Fmedium=gift-link&ref=thebarbedwire.com). However, there’s still a contingent of Trump loyalists who appear unmoved by the deaths of American citizens in recent weeks. “Americans voted for the enforcement of our laws & strong foreign policy to counter the increasingly dangerous world we face,” said Sen. John Cornyn [in a post on X](https://x.com/JohnCornyn/status/2015865111873749026?s=20&ref=thebarbedwire.com). Cornyn has yet to receive Trump’s endorsement in his upcoming Republican primary for U.S. Senate against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. The winner of that contest will face either Crockett or Talarico in the general election. “Shutting down @DHSgov or @ICEgov solves nothing,” Cornyn added. “We must fund DHS so the men & women tasked with enforcing our laws and keeping our homeland safe & secure can continue doing their jobs.” ### ‘Truck Sledding’ Videos Went Viral During the Winter Storm. Then Two 16-Year-Old Best Friends Died. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/truck-sledding-winter-storm-dead/ Last updated: 2026-01-26T18:58:32.000Z UPDATE: January 28, 2026 Family confirms 16‑year‑old Grace Brito, died Tuesday night, after being on life support since Sunday following a sledding incident that killed her best friend, Elizabeth Angle according to [CBS News affiliate](https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/texas/news/second-teen-dies-frisco-sledding-incident-family-says/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) KTVT in Dallas. Brito’s mom said her daughter was an All‑Star cheer competitor at Express Cheer in Frisco and had just gotten her driver’s license. Her family said she was “a kind and generous soul, full of love, affection, and warmth,” according to [*People* Magazine](https://people.com/second-teenager-dies-best-friend-killed-fatal-sledding-tragedy-11894042?ref=thebarbedwire.com). ORIGINAL STORY: On makeshift “sleds” — a mattress, a folding chair, an upside-down table, a canoe — people shriek and laugh as they careen around corners and pick up speed, propelled by the moving vehicles in front of them. Videos of teens and young adults, giddy at the rare snowfall and ice-covered roads, were all over Instagram and TikTok feeds this weekend as Texans took part in a dangerous sledding trend that has left one dead already. The winter storm that swept across the U.S. over the last few days claimed at least 13 lives as of Monday morning, [according to *USA Today*](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/weather/2026/01/25/winter-storm-snow-ice-storm-live-updates/88323930007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). While many of those deaths are attributed to hypothermic conditions and exposure to freezing temperatures, others have stemmed from the icy roads, which can be incredibly dangerous for vehicles to navigate. A 20-car pileup on I-10 near San Antonio left one person dead on Saturday night, according to the [*San Antonio Express-News*](https://www.expressnews.com/news/article/icy-roads-kimble-county-pileup-crash-fatality-21314610.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Then there were the sledding accidents. On Sunday, two 16-year-old girls in Frisco were sledding behind a Jeep when their sled hit a curb and the girls crashed into a tree, [according to WFAA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBOT24XHuVY&ref=thebarbedwire.com). Police responded after the crash and found both 16-year-old girls with “life-threatening injuries,” according to [a press release](https://www.friscotexas.gov/m/newsflash/Home/Detail/2571?ref=thebarbedwire.com) from the Frisco government office. One girl died at the hospital and the other remains in critical condition. The driver of the Jeep, a 16-year-old boy, listed no injuries, [WFAA reported](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBOT24XHuVY&ref=thebarbedwire.com). “There were sirens, you usually don't hear them, and they sounded very close,” one neighborhood resident told WFAA. “Prayers to the families and whatever may have happened. It’s a very sad situation.” The Frisco sledding crash was not an isolated incident. It follows a slew of videos online of “truck sledding,” dragging a person behind a vehicle on icy roads. And other fatalities have been reported, too — a 17-year-old boy in Arkansas was being pulled by an ATV when he struck a tree, [*USA Today* reported](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/weather/2026/01/25/winter-storm-snow-ice-storm-live-updates/88323930007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Despite the emergency responders’ aid, he died from his injuries. Searches of the terms “truck sledding,” and “car sledding,” online produce a plethora of videos of people following the same trend, often with thousands of likes. “This is your sign to tie a sled to the back of your friends car while they drift,” [one video](https://www.instagram.com/p/DSDiCWLj2t2/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) with over 45,000 likes is captioned. In it, two men on sleds are sent sliding across a parking lot repeatedly as the car they’re holding on to takes sharp turns. [Another video](https://www.instagram.com/p/DRsrGj9AOFd/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), showing people sledding on a table tied to a Jeep, has nearly 200,000 likes. One Texas woman posted a video to Instagram of three people piled onto a mattress, sledding along behind a car at high speeds. “My 20-year-old daughter sends this video of her sledding on a MATTRESS in Waco, and I’m feeling TERRIFIED as a parent,” the [Instagram user wrote](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DT9BN7pDyIq/?igsh=MWNncWE2anJ1NHd1dw%3D%3D&ref=thebarbedwire.com). “At the same time, my inner 20-year-old college-girl-self is screaming “YASSS!” [Another post shows](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DT6XaIUiVBo/?igsh=MXdxNmdqb21wajlucw%3D%3D&ref=thebarbedwire.com) a truck pulling a person behind it on a chair by a rope, while yet another person “sleds” behind the chair, sitting on the icy ground. “Sledding in Texas,” the video is captioned. A Fort Worth pub also [took part in the trend](https://www.instagram.com/p/DT9WsCFETuk/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), posting a video from the perspective of someone in a canoe sledding on the ice behind a truck. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DT6XaIUiVBo/?igsh=MXdxNmdqb21wajlucw%3D%3D After the tragic sledding incident on Sunday, the Frisco government office urged people to remain indoors and not take risks on the icy roads. “Please keep in mind that snow and ice can create extremely slippery surfaces and lead to serious or even deadly accidents,” the Frisco Public Information Office [wrote in a statement online.](https://www.friscotexas.gov/m/newsflash/Home/Detail/2571?ref=thebarbedwire.com) “Please stay alert, stay indoors when possible, and avoid any unnecessary outdoor activity until conditions improve.” Other officials have followed suit, reminding Texans to exercise caution and stay off the roads if possible. The Texas Department of Transportation’s [highway conditions map](https://drivetexas.org/?ch=C&fh=C&ll=-97.199,33.502&z=6&ref=thebarbedwire.com) shows ice and snow collected on roadways in most areas north of San Antonio Monday morning. TxDOT discourages traveling in vehicles on many such roads, urging reduced speed and caution on ice. FOX 4 traffic anchor Chip Waggoner [reported](https://x.com/chipwfox4?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2015759469485920643%7Ctwgr%5Eef752ffd012dd37acba23fa273c876b8ed17657b%7Ctwcon%5Es1%5F&ref%5Furl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fox4news.com%2Fnews%2Fwinter-storm-north-texas-road-conditions-monday&ref=thebarbedwire.com) several crashes and road closures in the Dallas-Fort Worth area Monday morning, including ramp closures, a stuck 18 wheeler, and vehicles skidding off of highways. “Current conditions still dangerous on highways. Crews are already out monitoring overpasses,” Waggoner [wrote on X](https://x.com/chipwfox4?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2015759469485920643%7Ctwgr%5Eef752ffd012dd37acba23fa273c876b8ed17657b%7Ctwcon%5Es1%5F&ref%5Furl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fox4news.com%2Fnews%2Fwinter-storm-north-texas-road-conditions-monday&ref=thebarbedwire.com). “Side streets are even more treacherous. Continue to hunker down if possible.” The Texas Department of Public Safety reminded individuals to drive slowly on icy roads and leave room between vehicles [on their website](https://www.dps.texas.gov/news/dps-offers-winter-weather-safety-reminders?ref=thebarbedwire.com). ### Jasmine Crockett Was Asked About Her ‘Electability’ Again. Some Say That’s Just a ‘Pretext’ for Race. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/jasmine-crockett-talarico-senate-electability-debate/ Last updated: 2026-01-24T21:39:25.000Z U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett and Texas state Rep. James Talarico faced off in a debate on Saturday, giving Texas voters their first true glimpse at the U.S. Senate candidates’ policy proposals — and contrasting political styles — ahead of the March 3 primary election. During Saturday’s debate, moderators Daniel Marin, a KXAN news anchor, and Gromer Jeffers, a political reporter for *The Dallas Morning News*, and a select group of citizens asked about the candidates’ positions on the economy, AI, the potential impeachment of President Donald Trump, the most recent shooting by ICE in Minneapolis, the Supreme Court, gerrymandering, the cost of insulin, military aid to Israel, and more. In Saturday’s debate, Talarico, who represents Austin, repeatedly and emphatically referenced the Bible, economic populism, and his experiences as a Presbyterian seminarian and former middle school teacher in a not-ineffective-but-not-particularly-subtle appeal to relatability. By contrast, Crockett, who is from Dallas, is “defined by her reputation as a political brawler,” as the [*Texas Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/01/24/jasmine-crockett-james-talarico-debate-texas-senate-democratic-primary-2026/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) put it in a lookahead on Saturday. She’s viewed by some as the candidate best positioned to expand the electorate, since her quotability and frequent cable news appearances give her a leg up in name recognition and have inspired hopes of juicing Democratic turnout at the polls. The two Democrats debated at 2 p.m. for an hour at the Texas AFL-CIO’s political convention in Georgetown, Texas. The candidates’ positions had an unsurprising overlap on the vast majority of the issues discussed Saturday. Talarico in particular argued that the “real fight in this country” isn’t “left versus right,” it’s “top vs bottom.” In the hours after another shooting by ICE agents in Minnesota on Saturday, neither candidate would directly answer whether or not they support abolishing ICE, but both made it clear that the agency requires reform and “a crackdown” — whatever that looks like. “We should be hunting down human traffickers, not moms and babies,” Talarico said. “We need to remake this broken immigration system.” Talarico [posted on X](https://x.com/jamestalarico/status/2015126520759812436?s=20&ref=thebarbedwire.com) Saturday shortly before the debate began, “They shot Renee Good in the face. They kidnapped Liam Ramos. They just executed a man on the street.” He added, “Unmask them. Prosecute them. No more secret police.” Crockett, for her part, called ICE a “rogue organization” violating American rights. “We need to clean house from top to bottom,” she said, noting that she has already signed on to legislation to impeach Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. “This is the fifth-highest funded military force in the entire world, and what are they doing?” asked Crockett. “They’re killing people in the middle of the street.” “They are supposed to do immigration and customs enforcement,” she added. “Not going after U.S. Citizens. Not going after people who are documented.” ## ‘It’s a Way of Talking About Race Without Talking About Race’ Then Jeffers asked the candidates about the “electability” debate that has plagued Crockett in recent weeks. For context, as Crockett and Talarico prepared for their first side-by-side battle, a discourse was still simmering online: The [contention boiled down](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/23/opinion/jasmine-crockett-texas-win-las-culturistas.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to one political term — “electability” — and what it means when applied to a Black woman. Podcaster Matt Rogers of “Las Culturistas” [stepped in it earlier this month](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAodYSz02Xk&ref=thebarbedwire.com), telling listeners: “Don’t waste your money sending to Jasmine Crockett.” “She’s not gonna win a Senate seat in Texas, you guys,” he continued. “If Beto O’Rourke couldn’t do it, Jasmine Crockett is not gonna do it.” Rogers’ intent was clear — that he believes Crockett won’t win against the Republican nominee, who will likely be either incumbent Sen. John Cornyn or Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton — and Crockett herself clocked the racial implications. “I really do think that the host said the quiet part out loud, which basically was: If a white man couldn’t do it, then why would a Black woman even have the audacity to think that she could?” [Crockett said](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/01/22/jasmine-crockett-democrats-talarico-texas/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#selection-567.0-567.253) in a recent interview with *The Washington Post*. Rogers apologized (“I just want us to win,” he said) but still seemed to miss the broader context to the [backlash, and backlash to the backlash](https://www.theroot.com/why-these-2-comedians-owed-rep-jasmine-crockett-the-bi-2000083988?ref=thebarbedwire.com), over electability. When asked about her electability on Saturday, Crockett said: “I’m not a likely story.” “I hate politics,” she said. “We’re living in a time where systems are clearly rigged against us.” “I am here to fight the system, the system that is holding so many of us down,” she added. When Jeffers asked about detractors who may view her “style” as offensive — like when she called Gov. Greg Abbott “governor hot wheels” — Crockett replied: “We are not looking at politics as usual.” “I’ll do the things the political consultants will never tell you to do,” she continued, arguing that effective messaging in 2026 isn’t about polish anymore. “It’s about tapping into the rawness of this moment,” she said. “We have killings going on.” Another electability discourse [popping up around a political candidate of color](https://19thnews.org/2024/07/its-time-to-talk-about-electability-harris-biden/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) certainly isn’t new, but it also hasn’t gone unnoticed by Texas voters, academics, political experts, and content creators. “I'll be honest, I think that is pretext for discrimination,” said Erika Harrison, a political content creator and attorney. “The electability part of the argument there, to me, it doesn't fly... I think it's people wanting to placate what they believe to be racism in Texas and think that the white man is more electable.” That could be said, in fact has been said, for many a diverse candidate, according to Jeremi Suri, professor of public affairs and history at the University of Texas. “These sorts of judgements of who is electable or not, they are at some level assumptions of how people view race or religions. People said John F. Kennedy was unelectable because he was Catholic,” Suri said. “They’re always arguments used for people from a nontraditional group.” “People don’t say Paxton is an unelectable philanderer, right?” he added. Suri pushed back on the idea that the term has become a racist dog whistle, as some have opined. Rather, “I think it’s a way of talking about race without talking about race.” And, of course, there’s much to talk about in terms of race in Texas. “You’d have to be really sticking your head in the sand to think there isn't prejudice of Black women candidates in Texas,” said Suri. But candidates face all sorts of challenges, Suri said. It doesn’t make them unelectable. Just look at Kennedy. Unfortunately, once a candidate’s electability has been questioned, it can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. A number of studies have found that women, and [Black women in particular](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/392090517%5FRaced-Gendered%5FElectability%5FSupport%5FDonations%5Fand%5FDemocratic%5FDouble%5FStandards%5Ffor%5FBlack%5FWomen%5FCandidates?ref=thebarbedwire.com), are negatively impacted by the idea of electability. In one study, [Stanford scholars found](https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2022/02/groupthink-gone-wrong-assumptions-electability-undermine-women-political-candidates?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that voters withhold support for female candidates in primaries if they believe it’s not possible for them to win the general election — and support male candidates instead. Sound familiar? It gets even more interesting. The researchers, who used surveys from the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, found that simply sharing evidence that women are just as likely as men to win increased voters’ intentions to support female candidates by 3%. Crockett is in her second term in Congress. She previously worked in the Texas House and as a public defender in East Texas. ## ‘A Winning Coalition’ As the debate loomed last week, polls told conflicting stories about the race. Recent [public polling](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/01/15/emerson-poll-texas-senate-crockett-talarico-cornyn-paxton-hunt-2026/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) by Emerson College showed Talarico leading Crockett by 9 percentage points in the primary. But soon after the Emerson poll was released, Crockett’s team published competing numbers via an [internal survey](https://drive.google.com/file/d/141ZLg-IMwJhmi3iyDor4mw1-BT8dIb5l/view?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which put her up 13 points. Yet, as Harrison has watched, a similar pattern found by the Stanford researchers has played out in real time in Crockett’s Senate campaign. “All of a sudden, it's, you know, we can't elect a Black woman statewide,” Harrison said. “It's this belief that like, ‘Oh, we need some Republicans to vote for her, and Republicans won't vote for a Black woman.’” Where Crockett has earned name recognition in Texas and beyond for pointed arguments against Republicans — like [her testimony](https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/video/rep-jasmine-crockett-shares-details-former-special-counsel-129470797?ref=thebarbedwire.com) this week on former special counsel Jack Smith's report recommending charges for President Trump — Talarico has, in some ways, gone the opposite direction. He has touted an appeal to swing and red-leaning voters, and he made his first major splash on the national scene on [Joe Rogan’s podcast in July](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/joe-rogan-wants-democratic-texas-lawmaker-run-for-president/). “You need to run for president,” Rogan, who endorsed Trump in the 2024 race, told Talarico at the end of the episode. Kat Vargas, a content creator focusing on Texas politics who has amassed thousands of followers on Instagram and Threads under the handle @howdypolitics, said that the characterization of Crockett as less electable than Talarico against a Republican candidate doesn’t match the polling data. After Crockett entered the Senate race in December, a Texas Southern University survey of likely Democratic voters found her [leading Talarico by 8 percentage points.](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/12/12/texas-senate-democratic-primary-poll-jasmine-crockett-james-talarico/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) While Talarico led with white voters by 13 percentage points, Crockett had the support of nearly 9 in 10 Black voters. She also led women voters by 21 percentage points. A January Emerson College poll showed Talarico [leading by 9 percentage points](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/01/15/emerson-poll-texas-senate-crockett-talarico-cornyn-paxton-hunt-2026/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), though Vargas pointed out that it found Crockett to have a slightly greater advantage over Paxton compared to Talarico. Eighty percent of Black voters surveyed by Emerson said they planned to support Crockett, and a separate December poll by Texas Southern University found 89% of Black voters supported her. As Dallas S. Jones, a political strategist and founder of a Houston-based public affairs firm, pointed out in an opinion piece for [*The Hill*](https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/5691340-crockett-texas-senate-challenge/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) titled “White liberals are Jasmine Crockett’s biggest obstacle to the Senate,” there are [nearly 4 million](https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/black-population-by-state?ref=thebarbedwire.com) African Americans in Texas. “Mobilizing that base with others could create a winning coalition,” Jones wrote. “If the state had just a five percent increase in Black voter turnout, that would be 200,000 more votes. This surpasses margins in recent Senate races.” There’s research to support the idea that [Black female voters, historically one of the most loyal Democratic voting blocks, can sway elections](https://www.lwv.org/newsroom/news-clips/power-us-black-women-deciding-elections?ref=thebarbedwire.com). In 2020, they proved critical to former President Joe Biden’s [election win](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/bidens-vow-of-black-justice-a-nod-to-his-most-loyal-voters?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “People forget that Beto’s near-upset of Ted Cruz in 2018 was not driven only from the top of the ticket. A huge share of that turnout and margin came from an EXTRAORDINARY number of strong Black women running in local races, especially in the major cities, who pulled voters to the polls and lifted the statewide ticket with them,” Jerry Ford, Jr., an attorney and graduate of University of Houston, [wrote on Threads](https://www.threads.com/@jerry.ford.jr/post/DTQn0ZACa1%5F?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and shared with *The Barbed Wire*. Ford pointed out that [17 Democratic Black women made history](https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/09/politics/harris-county-texas-17-black-female-judges?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that year by winning judicial seats in Harris County with a campaign they called “Black Girl Magic Texas.” “That matters because in the state with the largest Black population in the country, ignoring the real voting engine in a statewide race is a strategic mistake.” Crockett is well-known for [her clapbacks](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-jasmine-crockett-comebacks/) — which are praised by supporters, who value them as the kind of authentic sharpness missing in Democratic leadership, but derided as offensive by [advocates](https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/25/jasmine-crockett-greg-abbott-reaction-027823?ref=thebarbedwire.com) aplenty. In recent weeks on the campaign trail, Crockett has had to defend herself from year-old comments she made to [*Vanity Fair*](https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/jasmine-crockett-wants-old-guard-democrats-to-make-way-for-young-freedom-fighters?ref=thebarbedwire.com), when she called Latino Texans’ anti-immigrant attitudes “almost like a slave mentality,” and separately when [she](https://abc3340.com/news/nation-world/jasmine-crockett-says-us-needs-migrants-because-were-done-picking-cotton?ref=thebarbedwire.com) remarked last year that the country needed migrants because “we’re done picking cotton.” This month, she [told the *Texas Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/01/24/jasmine-crockett-james-talarico-debate-texas-senate-democratic-primary-2026/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that “there was never an intent to actually offend somebody.” “Before I was elected, and through all of my elections, I have always stood with all people,” she added. “She leans into a cultural way of speaking that is very common for Black women,” Harrison said. Harrison said that Crockett’s firebrand method of pushing back at political opponents like Trump is rooted in her identity as a Black woman. “I think that can throw people off a bit. And so I was prepared to see that show up a little bit more in the polling, but… people are not saying that it's super unfavorable there.” Harrison noted similarities in Talarico’s comments about Gov. Greg Abbott over hot issues during debates on school voucher legislation. “You go look at his social media during the voucher time, every post he has is about Abbott. He went after Abbott the same way that she goes after Trump,” Harrison said. Why followers have different responses to Talarico’s pushback on political opponents versus Crockett’s goes back to some of the underpinnings of the electability debate, Harrison said, and our understanding of what’s professional. “We are implying there's one way to do things, and that oftentimes leans into this idea that the way that white people do it is the more appropriate way,” she said. In his book “[Know Your Price: Valuing Black Lives and Property in America’s Black Cities](http://www.brookings.edu/book/know-your-price/?ref=thebarbedwire.com),” Brookings fellow Andre M. Perry wrote that in places where Black people are the racial minority, “Black women politicians differ from their male predecessors by embracing their cultural heritage to attract non-Black voters.” Perry pointed to Ayanna Pressley, the first woman of color elected to Congress from Massachusetts, who in her election night speech in 2018 said: “Can a Congresswoman wear her hair in braids?” “Also in the 2018 midterms, Jahana Hayes won Connecticut’s 5th District; Lucy McBath claimed Georgia’s 6th, and Lauren Underwood won Illinois’ 14th,” Perry wrote. “These are all Black women who saw victory by not shying away from their Blackness in white-majority places.” Texas is no longer a white majority. And the Black voter population isn’t the same as it is in Massachusetts. Black Texans account for 13.7% of the population, while white Texans represent 38.7%, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Importantly, Hispanic and Latino Texans make up 40.3% of the population — “a crucial constituency that’ll determine not just the primary but the general election,” said Suri. Crockett has faced [criticism for previous comments](https://www.sacurrent.com/news/texas-news/crockett-tries-to-clarify-remarks-about-latino-voters-during-san-antonio-campaign-stops/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) about Latinos, although she has recently spoken on uniting Black and Latino voters. Vargas said that she would like to see a Democratic ticket reflecting that push for unity, with Crockett as the nominee for the Senate and State Rep. Gina Hinojosa as the nominee for governor. “I’m Latina, and I think there are obvious rifts between our communities,” Vargas said. “With Crockett and Gina Hinojosa at the top of the ticket, there’s a really unique opportunity to bring Black voters and Latino voters together.” Vargas said she’s looking at how both candidates hone their message to Latino voters. “How are they speaking to Latino voters in a wider frame? It’s not just immigration,” Vargas said. “We also have families, we have to pay childcare, we want to talk about jobs.” As [*Texas Tribune* reported](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/01/24/jasmine-crockett-james-talarico-debate-texas-senate-democratic-primary-2026/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Talarico has made a considerable effort to grow his support among Latino voters, buying air time for [a Spanish-language TV ad](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/01/21/james-talarico-spanish-language-tv-ad-texas-senate-democratic-primary/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) he recorded, which played in almost a dozen of Texas’ largest media markets. Last month, Talarico also reportedly rallied with congressional candidate Bobby Pulido, who also happens to be a Tejano music star, during a stop in the Rio Grande Valley. (The two candidates endorsed each other.) Similarly, Harrison said she is interested in Talarico’s message to Black voters, and his response to some of the backlash Crockett has faced. “I think he has a lot of room to grow with Black voters,” Harrison said. “I also want to see him distance himself from some of the really negative rhetoric about her online.” Earlier this week, Suri speculated that much of the race, like Saturday’s debate, will be more about style than substance — a prophecy that came to fruition. Not that both candidates aren’t impressively qualified. In fact, it’s the opposite. Both candidates have significant experience, and similar policy priorities, like on education and healthcare. Crockett “has a real talent for zingers, which a lot of people like. Talarico is more ministerial, a preacher, a storyteller, so I think we’ll see different styles,” Suri said. “We have two very good candidates,” Suri said, “for two reasons: they’re Impressive in their intelligence and policy depth, and in charisma.” “This is a good problem to have.” And this cycle of electability talk just may buck the trend. “I was tracking the online impressions in real time of what was happening,” said Vargas about the “Las Culturistas” debate. “Crockett was trending for days. I think it was about four or five days that she was trending across platforms over this. And overwhelmingly, the impressions were positive.” “And it was kind of this confirmation of this theory of, even when they attack her, it ends up being positive for her, just because it gets her everywhere.” Early voting opens for Texans on Tuesday, Feb. 17 and closes Friday, Feb. 27\. Election day is Tuesday, March 3. ### Woman Placed in Solitary After Viral Cat Fundraiser Is Back in Regular Housing, Texas Prison Officials Say URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-prison-cat-update/ Last updated: 2026-01-22T16:05:41.000Z We’ve got an update on the Texas inmate who was thrown in solitary confinement after her daughter raised money to help a sick cat ([yes, really](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/prison-cat-fundraiser/)): She’s finally back in regular housing. Texas prison officials confirmed that Sonya Reed, 53, is no longer in administrative segregation, which is a nice way to say “solitary confinement.” “She has returned to normal housing,” Amanda Hernandez, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, told *The Barbed Wire* Wednesday. Hernandez declined to provide additional details about the case, citing confidentiality rules. “Inmate disciplinary information is confidential and cannot be disclosed,” she said. Reed, who is incarcerated at the Patrick O’Daniel Unit in Gatesville, had been placed in administrative segregation during an internal investigation into a [GoFundMe created by her daughter last month](https://www.gofundme.com/f/hope-for-orange-julius-urgent-care-needed?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to pay for veterinary care for a stray cat cared for by incarcerated women at the prison. Reed’s placement in solitary confinement drew attention after *The Barbed Wire* [reported last week](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/prison-cat-fundraiser/) that she had been moved into administrative segregation. The fundraiser, which raised nearly $11,000, was intended to pay for veterinary care for Orange Julius, a cat cared for by incarcerated women, who often use their own commissary funds to care for abandoned cats in the area, according to Reed’s daughter. TDCJ officials said last week that Reed was moved during an internal investigation into possible solicitation, which Hernandez said is prohibited under prison policy. Officials have said inmates are commonly moved during investigations. Reed’s daughter, Kitti Reed, has said her mother was questioned about the fundraiser, told she was not in trouble, and then placed in isolation the following day. The move alarmed her family, who raised concerns about Reed’s medical conditions and the impact of solitary confinement on her physical and mental health. And, honestly, they’re right to be alarmed. Because lots of human rights groups consider solitary confinement to be torture. The Prison Policy Initiative warns that solitary confinement increases the risk of premature death after release. Those exposed to solitary were more likely to die from [suicide, homicide, or opioid overdose](https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2020/12/08/solitary%5Fsymposium/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the nonpartisan research group has found. “Prisons and jails are already inherently harmful, and placing people in solitary confinement adds an extra burden of stress that has been shown to cause permanent changes to people’s brains and personalities,” research associate [Tiana Herring wrote for the group](https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2020/12/08/solitary%5Fsymposium/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in 2020. [And a United Nations human rights expert warned](https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2020/02/united-states-prolonged-solitary-confinement-amounts-psychological-torture?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that U.S. prisons routinely overuse solitary confinement, saying practices like prolonged isolation, restraints, and intrusive searches may amount to psychological torture under international law. “The severe and often irreparable psychological and physical consequences of solitary confinement and social exclusion are well documented and can range from progressively severe forms of anxiety, stress, and depression to cognitive impairment and suicidal tendencies,” said Nils Melzer, UN Special Rapporteur on torture. “This deliberate infliction of severe mental pain or suffering may well amount to psychological torture,” he added. Which seems a bit overkill in the worst of cases, but solitary definitely doesn’t seem warranted because *your daughter raised money to help a sick cat*. Kitti Reed could not be reached for comment Wednesday. ### ‘Barbecue Saved My Life’: Meet Waco’s Antifascist Transgender Pitmaster URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/barbecue-saved-his-life-waco-antifascist-trans-pitmaster/ Last updated: 2026-01-21T17:15:00.000Z A [TikTok video](https://www.tiktok.com/@texas.toasted/video/7595319082086403359?%5Fr=1&%5Ft=ZT-93EQUaXaw97&ref=thebarbedwire.com) with more than 100,000 views showed Kaleb Blain, a 35-year old trans man and pitmaster, standing at a folding table gesturing to a plate of freshly prepared chickens, ready for the BBQ smoker. The caption read “politics and cooking don’t mix.” But then the video cut away to a series of photos of the late Anthony Bourdain, the infamously outspoken, unapologetically progressive celebrity chef. The text then read, “Momma said it was OK,” as Lukas Graham’s “Mama Said” played in the background. Beneath the video, Blain wrote, “Mom would burn lots of people with cigarettes rn if he could.” It has more than 28,500 likes since it was posted on Jan. 15. The video is a fiery missive from [Blain’s BBQ](https://www.tiktok.com/@texas.toasted?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the pitmaster’s small-scale enterprise in the Waco area. Blain is just getting his start slinging meat, but he’s learning from Bourdain’s legacy as a big name in food who embraced its intersection with politics. https://www.tiktok.com/@texas.toasted/video/7595319082086403359?\_r=1&\_t=ZT-93EQUaXaw97 “He just said whatever the fuck he wanted to say,” Blain told *The Barbed Wire* during a phone interview. Blain’s admiration for Bourdain, who shook the culinary world with his memoir “Kitchen Confidential,” is perhaps unsurprising after learning how the native Texan got into cooking — and his dramatic exit from one of Texas’ BBQ institutions. Blain started learning the BBQ arts in 2021\. After eight years as a 911 dispatcher, he was feeling burnt out. “I have a lot of respect for people who can answer 911 calls all the time, because it's an insane experience,” Blain said. During that time, he also began his transition and decided he needed to find a less stressful way to earn a living. “I went from the fast pace of 911 to low and slow barbecue and I loved it,” Blain said. He started honing his skills at [Helburg Barbecue](https://thewacothings.com/helberg-bbq-in-waco/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a small but popular BBQ restaurant near Waco, first as a prep cook and then working his way up to becoming a pitmaster, but his plans got cut short when the [restaurant burned down in 2023](https://www.kwtx.com/2025/03/11/refined-by-fire-helberg-bbq-owners-saw-gods-faithfulness-through-fiery-ordeal/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Then, he heard the legendary Terry Black’s BBQ was opening a location in town. “‘Man, I really want that feather in my cap,’” Blain recalled thinking when he learned the news. ”Because at that point, I decided, this is what I want to stick with.” The Texas chain first started in Lockhart in 2014\. The Black family are icons in the barbecue world, with five locations around the state and a sixth opening soon in Nashville. Blain said he had a friend who knew someone in the business’ management, so he got hired to be part of the crew who helped prepare the Waco shop in the lead-up to opening day, before settling into an overnight shift in the pit. “Nobody likes the night shift sleep schedule, but when I was a dispatcher I worked nights for years so it didn’t bother me,” Blain said. Blain enjoyed the lack of managers or customers at night and the sound of rain on the tin roof of the smokehouse. Blain was living out his barbeque dreams, but then he faced a breakup in his personal life left him searching for something new. About a year ago, he started making TikTok content as a way to refocus his energy. His videos were about his experience and that of his fellow cooks in the pit during their shifts, mixing meat with messages of solidarity. “One day, I was just playing around with editing food videos, and then I had something to say, and it kind of just went together … and then, you know, people responded to it,” Blain said. The response made him keep going. He even heard from another trans BBQ worker, who thanked him for being open about his identity. https://www.tiktok.com/@texas.toasted/video/7541095445569850655?\_r=1&\_t=ZT-93EQQcplIAB “Love is love. Gender is in the mind. No one is illegal on stolen land. This account does not support fascism,” one video caption read. In the background, he played the song, “For Whom the Bell Tolls.” The video itself showed Blain working the smokers, slathering BBQ sauce on the meat and feeding the pit flames. It was viewed [hundreds of thousands of times](https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZThByxtVQ/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Then he got a call from human resources at Terry Black’s. The catch? He’d never gotten the company’s permission. When he posted a video mocking FBI Director Kash Patel’s reaction to [Charlie Kirk’s death](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/ken-paxton-turning-point-usa-free-speech/) (Patel said he’d see Kirk again “in Valhalla,” the Norse afterlife), it fell onto the wrong side of the algorithm. “I remember watching that live, at home, on my day off, and I busted out laughing because I was like, ‘That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard,’” Blain recalled. “I made a video about that where I poked fun at it, and that’s what got me doxxed.” A message posted to Twitter, which Blain shared with *The Barbed Wire* via screenshot, identified him as a trangender Terry Black’s employee and misgendered him as “it.” The message eventually led to the phone call with human resources. “HR basically gave me a call and was like, ‘hey, … we had to talk with the (Black) family, and we don't want to be associated with you in any way,’” Blain remembered. When reached by phone, Terry Black’s in Waco said they weren’t at liberty to comment on former employees. Blain said he was part of a wave of [doxxings and firings](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/charlie-kirk-death-teachers-professors-nationwide-fired-disciplined-s-rcna230845?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in the wake of the Kirk assassination, which also led to [hundreds of complaints against educators](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/01/06/texas-education-agency-charlie-kirk-investigations-lawsuit/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and inflamed a [dangerous free speech crisis on Texas campuses](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/free-speech-crisis-for-black-americans-charlie-kirk/). Reuters estimated that at least [600 people were targeted](https://www.reuters.com/investigations/charlie-kirk-purge-how-600-americans-were-punished-pro-trump-crackdown-2025-11-19/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) nationwide, some of whom [merely quoted Kirk in his own words](https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/professor-fired-over-charlie-kirk-195230682.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Blain said that Terry Black’s didn’t immediately fire him, but the company forced him to delete some of his videos referencing Terry Black’s brand, and he said they started scheduling him for fewer and fewer shifts. Eventually, Blain said he was let go for smoking on company property. But Blain is convinced he was singled out. It’s been five months since the doxxing and, to fund what he hopes will be the next stage of his BBQ journey, Blain is now delivering freshly smoked meats throughout the Waco area, posting a rotating menu on his TikTok. Because Blain believes that BBQ should be an accessible, working class food, he’s also focused on cooking affordable meat like pork and chicken. “It's about … using my skills and my knowledge and my creativity as a pitmaster to make cheaper cuts of food to put on the table for the average family, where everybody can come in and eat once a week and have that tradition,” he told *The Barbed Wire*. “If we're going to hit a recession, I'm going to cook recession food because that's what barbecue is: It's recession food, it's poor man's food.” One of his specialties is his pork loin pinwheel, stuffed with spinach and smoked cream cheese. And while he won’t reveal his secret ingredients, he says his ribs have a unique flavor that keeps his customers coming back for more. “I don't like to cover my ribs, I want that little bit of crust … but then I finish it off with this syrup, and it sticks to the rib... and it's a perfect sweet, savory, a little bit of spice from the pepper. Things are really well balanced. But it also has this extra toasted taste,” Blain described. For now, Blain is putting his profits, and the donations from a [small GoFundMe](https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-transgender-bbq-pitmaster-escape-texas?attribution%5Fid=sl:2f8da80e-548a-4657-922e-fd3704a683b0&lang=en%5FUS&ts=1766517305&utm%5Fcampaign=fp%5Fsharesheet&utm%5Fmedium=customer&utm%5Fsource=copy%5Flink), toward buying an extra-large smoker to cook more meat and to use like a mini-food cart to sell at events. He also recently took a part-time job to help pay the rent. But has no regrets — and credits his departure from Terry Black’s for forcing him to try something new. “Being pushed out, even though it's scary and uncertain, I feel better than I ever have, because I'm already seeing what can happen if you really, really want to create something,” Blain said. He dreams of someday starting his own BBQ restaurant, where no one has to worry about being mistreated for their sexuality or gender. “They can go through being whoever they are,” he said, “without that anxiety of finding a job somewhere and working in … a cis white male-dominated space.” Part of the dream is the restaurant could one day help other queer and trans Texans embrace the healing power of BBQ the same way he did. “Barbecue, it really saved me, it saved my life, and I know that's dramatic, but finding something that I loved really did save me,” Blain said. ### So We’re Equating Drag to Blackface Now? A Texas Judge and University President Did to Ban College Drag Shows URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/west-texas-am-drag-show-lawsuit/ Last updated: 2026-01-20T21:32:14.000Z A federal judge handed down a ruling in a contentious case over drag shows at West Texas A&M University this weekend. U.S. District Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk found that the university can ban drag shows on its campus in a 46-page finding of fact that focused on minors potentially viewing sexual content at such shows. The judge’s ruling also used the word blackface 10 times. Why would a judge’s ruling on drag shows feature the term? Because [conservatives have revived](https://www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/people/2015/02/04/op-ed-hey-mary-cheney-heres-why-drag-and-blackface-are-differen?ref=thebarbedwire.com) comparisons between drag performances and minstrel shows of the 19th century, where white performers would paint their faces black and perform negative stereotypes of enslaved Africans. In a 2023 email canceling a charity drag show by Spectrum, [an organization](https://www.wtamu.edu/student-support/spectrum/index.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for LGBTQIA+ students and allies, West Texas A&M University President Walter Wendler said that drag shows were demeaning to women, and likened them to blackface. The email was titled “A Harmless Drag Show? No Such Thing,” according to [ABC 7 Amarillo](https://abc7amarillo.com/news/local/west-texas-am-president-walter-v-wendler-cancels-drag-shows-on-campus-demeaning-to-women-a-fools-drag-race-trevor-project-fundraiser-suicide-prevention-lgbtq-community-stereotype-cartoon-like-extremes-sexism-slapstick-sideshow-harassment-buff-allies?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “As a performance exaggerating aspects of womanhood (sexuality, femininity, gender), drag shows stereotype women in cartoon-like extremes for the amusement of others and discriminate against womanhood,” Wendler wrote. “As a university president, I would not support ‘blackface’ performances on our campus, even if told the performance is a form of free speech or intended as humor.” The student leaders of Spectrum, [represented by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression](https://www.thefire.org/cases/spectrum-wt-v-walter-wendler-president-cancels-student-organized-drag-show-citing-religion?ref=thebarbedwire.com), sued Wendler, claiming that their First Amendment rights were violated. The drag show had been intended to raise money for [the Trevor Project](https://www.thetrevorproject.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a nonprofit dedicated to suicide prevention for LGBTQ+ youth. Spectrum ended up hosting that year’s drag show off-campus, thanks to GoFundMe donations, according to [ABC 7 Amarillo](https://abc7amarillo.com/news/local/spectrum-wt-hosting-off-campus-drag-show-in-amarillo-amid-federal-lawsuit?ref=thebarbedwire.com). In his Saturday ruling, Kacsymaryck took it a step further by using the comparison as justification to uphold the ban and deny that drag performances meet the legal definition of free speech. The judge used Wendler’s comparisons between drag shows and blackface performances as an example of Wendler’s “viewpoint neutrality” on events he would not allow on campus. “Drag exaggerates women’s breasts, buttocks, and other physical attributes, while blackface emphasizes African Americans’ skin color and offensive cultural stereotypes,” Kacsymaryck wrote. “But the purpose is the same: to reduce an entire group to merely its sexuality (in the case of drag) or skin color (in the case of blackface). The only difference is that one performance is ‘abhorred by cultural elites’ while the other is in vogue—at least for now.” Kacsymaryck reasoned that to restrict events in a limited public forum, as the intended venue of the drag show (West Texas A&M’s Legacy Hall) is considered, Wendler’s decisions need to be viewpoint neutral and reasonable in light of the venue’s purpose. Kacsymaryck wrote that Wendler did not violate the First Amendment because he did not intend to suppress the viewpoint of Spectrum, but rather disagreed with their method of expressing their viewpoints. According to Kacsymaryck’s ruling, Wendler’s reasoning to cancel the drag performance could be equally applied to a decision to cancel “a blackface performance, a white-supremacist rally, a cisgendered striptease, or an antisemitic “Shylock” skit mocking Jews.” “In fact, President Wendler testified he may do exactly that: cancel a blackface or similar antisemitic performance,” Kacsymaryck wrote. Kacsymaryk, dubbed “one of Texas’ most notoriously conservative federal judges” by the *Texas Tribune*, was appointed by President Donald Trump as judge of the U.S. District Court for Northern Texas in 2019\. He’s gained recognition for rulings [requiring asylum seekers to remain in Mexico](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/storage-courtlistener-com/recap/gov-uscourts-txnd-346680/gov-uscourts-txnd-346680-94-0.pdf), and [invalidating the FDA’s approval](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/07/health/abortion-pills-ruling-texas.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of abortion pill mifepristone. Before he was appointed a judge, Kacsymaryk practiced at a right-wing, “religious liberty” oriented law firm, [according to *Texas Monthly*.](https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/first-liberty-abortion-pill-lawsuit/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) In previous writings, Kacsymaryk has [called homosexuality “disordered”](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/senate-confirms-trump-judicial-nominee-who-called-homosexuality-disordered/2019/06/19/a56526c4-92d2-11e9-b570-6416efdc0803%5Fstory.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and signed a 2016 letter that [claimed being transgender was a “delusion.”](https://www.regulations.gov/document/CMS-2016-0095-0135?ref=thebarbedwire.com) It may be no surprise, then, that amid such right-wing circles that Kacsymaryk emerged from, the comparison between blackface and drag is not a new talking point. In 2015, Mary Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, made [similar comments on Facebook](https://www.advocate.com/politics/media/2015/01/30/mary-cheney-compares-drag-blackface?ref=thebarbedwire.com). In 2023, the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a right-wing think tank, [lauded Wendler’s justification ](https://www.texaspolicy.com/drag-shows-are-blackface/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)for the drag show cancellation. But, a writer for the [*Advocate* noted in 2015](https://www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/people/2015/02/04/op-ed-hey-mary-cheney-heres-why-drag-and-blackface-are-differen?ref=thebarbedwire.com), there are important distinctions between the two. “Drag isn't actually an attempt to portray women in the way that blackface was a racist portrayal of African Americans. Blackface is a lie about a minority group, and drag is an exploration of gender,” the *Advocate* published in an op-ed. “And more importantly, drag queens are performing an aspect of themselves. When a man puts on a wig and heels, he's experimenting with his own relationship to ‘boyness’ and ‘girlness.’ In contrast, a blackface performer isn't expressing the fluidity of his race. He's just creating a false depiction of someone else.” If the topic of [drag show bans also sounds familiar](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-am-drag-ban/), that’s because [it is](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-am-drag-ban-lawsuit-victory/). The West Texas A&M case has been bouncing between courts since 2023, with varying outcomes, and regulations against drag shows in Texas have been hot topics for just as long. It’s also not Kacsymaryk’s first action on Spectrum’s case. In September of 2023, he [denied Spectrum’s request](https://www.texastribune.org/2023/09/22/texas-drag-show-west-texas-ruling/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for injunctive relief, which would have allowed the group to continue holding shows on campus even as the case proceeded. Kacsymaryck [wrote in his opinion](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/static-texastribune-org/media/files/1c51cf1edebce33b49f43456b46c78aa/gov-uscourts-txnd-374677-59-0.pdf) that drag shows are not necessarily protected under the First Amendment, and that Wendler was within his authority as president to cancel the show. A 2024 planned show by Spectrum was similarly cancelled. At that time, the newly-passed [Senate Bill 12](https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=88R&Bill=SB12&ref=thebarbedwire.com) restricted “sexually oriented performances” on public property or in the presence of minors and has [largely been referred to as a drag show ban.](https://x.com/GregAbbott%5FTX/status/1672817859729162240?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Kacsymaryk’s recent ruling also honed in on the question of the drag show’s sexual nature and the presence of minors at the shows. According to the lawsuit, Spectrum advertised the planned 2023 show as PG-13 and said minors could only attend with a guardian. Spectrum also said no minors would be allowed at a planned 2026 show. However, Kacsymaryk both questioned the ability of Spectrum to enforce this rule and deemed from testimony from [the case’s trial last week](http://kacsymaryk/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that previous performances hosted by Spectrum included sexually suggestive content. “Drag, by its “provocative,” “transgressive” nature, veers into sexualized content,” Kacsymaryk wrote. Although Kacsymaryk’s ruling upheld West Texas A&M’s ban on Spectrum’s shows, the legal saga of drag ban challenges is not yet over. In February of 2025, the A&M Board of Regents voted to [ban drag shows](https://thebatt.com/flipbook/resolution-2/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#1) across all of the university system’s campuses. A LGBTQ student group at the College Station campus, the Queer Empowerment Council, [sued A&M over that action](https://www.keranews.org/texas-news/2025-03-05/lgbtq-lawsuit-a-m-drag-ban?ref=thebarbedwire.com), also arguing it violated their First Amendment rights. In August of 2025, however, the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals [reversed Kacsymaryck’s 2023 ruling](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/08/18/west-texas-a-m-drag-ban-fifth-circuit-appeals/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on the West Texas A&M case, saying the drag performances are likely covered under the First Amendment and that Spectrum should be allowed to continue holding the shows on campus while the lawsuit continues. Two months later, the Fifth Circuit [vacated that opinion](https://www.bloomberglaw.com/public/desktop/document/SpectrumWTvWendlerDocketNo23109945thCirSep272023CourtDocket/1?doc%5Fid=X2BPDN73VF69AFON31QO31KC1LP&ref=thebarbedwire.com), and ordered that the case be reheard. That decision could impact the outcome of the Queer Empowerment Council’s case, according to the *Texas Tribune.* The Texas A&M System asked the Fifth Circuit to pause that case until it decides the West Texas A&M appeal, [the *Tribune* reported in October.](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/10/27/west-texas-am-drag-show-ban-lawsuit/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Oral arguments in the Fifth Circuit rehearing are scheduled for Jan. 23. ### What Can I Teach? Will Martin Luther King’s Work Be Censored Next? URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/will-martin-luther-kings-work-be-censored-next/ Last updated: 2026-01-19T06:01:00.000Z This week starts a new semester at Texas A&M San Antonio. While preparing for it to begin, I have been asking myself questions that I have never asked in my 17 years as a college professor. Questions like, can I still teach Martin Luther King Jr.’s “[Letter From Birmingham Jail](https://billofrightsinstitute.org/primary-sources/letter-from-birmingham-jail?ref=thebarbedwire.com)”? As we celebrate the national day of service in King’s honor, I have a hard time believing many professors have asked themselves that question since President Ronald Reagan established the [federal holiday in 1983](https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/15-year-battle-martin-luther-king-jr-day?ref=thebarbedwire.com). But then again, up until last week, no [philosophy professor I know of had ever been prohibited from teaching Plato, either](https://dailynous.com/2026/01/06/texas-am-bans-plato/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). I am a political science professor. I have taught at five different universities in three states, including Texas. One of the many classes that I teach is on federal government. It is a core course, meaning it is part of the required classes students must take to graduate, regardless of their major. I have taught this class close to 100 times and never, and I mean never, have I questioned whether I would be violating university policies if I assigned my students to read “Letter From Birmingham Jail.” But now I am. In November 2025, the Board of [Regents at Texas A&M passed a policy](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/11/13/texas-am-regents-race-gender-ideology-course-audit/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) stating that “no system academic course will advocate race or gender ideology, or topics related to sexual orientation or gender identity.” The exceptions are if the course is approved by the system university president. In an attempt to clarify the policy, but which just made things worse, [the A&M Board of Regents again amended their amendment in December ](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/12/18/texas-am-race-gender-courses-new-rules/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)to say those exemptions would *only* be for graduate courses and non-core classes. The fallout is beginning at the flagship campus in College Station where, at the moment, [200 plus courses have been removed](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/01/07/texas-am-race-gender-courses/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) from the core curriculum or are having their content censored to fit with the new directives. This is where the absurdity of a philosophy professor needing to drop readings from Plato as they discuss sexual identity comes from. My campus, Texas A&M San Antonio, is currently undergoing this course censorship process, but our administration has told us we won’t know whether our courses comply with the new policies for another month or so (classes begin on Tuesday). In the meantime we wait to see if we will suffer the same fate as our colleagues in College Station. This brings me back to “Letter From Birmingham Jail.” Early in my career I used to lament having to teach a core course such as federal government. As a required core course, you get many students who are just there because they need the credit to graduate and not because they have an inherent interest in the subject. As I have gained more teaching experience, I have come to see this as less of a problem and more of a challenge. I want to help students care about political science, and one way to do that is to expose them to quality readings such as “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” In his letter addressed to eight white clergymen, King lays out with characteristic moral clarity the necessity of non-violent, direct action (protests that avoid physical violence) to attack racist segregation policies in the South. One of the reasons I assign this work — alongside the fact that rhetorically it is full of fire and passion — is because it shows the strategic genius of King and the Civil Rights movement. Protests, sit-ins, boycotts, marches, and many other peaceful forms of contentious politics have a long and storied history in American politics, and teaching about them is an important part of *any* introductory federal government course. In his letter, King lays out why he and his movement have chosen these methods and what he hopes to accomplish with them. King said that non-violent direct-action manifests “creative tension” in a community which can break through the complacency of those in the middle by forcing them to take a side and propel resolution. We can still see the use of non-violent resistance today as people [march to oppose to ICE operations in their communities](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/abolish-ice-gains-traction-after-mom-shot-minneapolis/) and use innovative strategies like blowing whistles to alert people when ICE invades their neighborhoods. Creative, and confrontational, non-violent direct action is a hallmark of the Civil Rights movement and still offers us lessons for understanding our politics today. Under this description I assume the administrators at the Texas A&M system would approve of my teaching of “Letter From Birmingham Jail,” but does it really pass the test under A&M’s new censorship regime? As part of banning the “advocacy” of race and gender ideology in the classroom, the Board of Regents provided definitions for those concepts. Race ideology is defined as: > “a concept that attempts to shame a particular race or ethnicity, accuse them of being oppressors in a racial hierarchy or conspiracy, ascribe to them less value as contributors to society and public discourse because of their race or ethnicity, or assign them intrinsic guilt based on the actions of their presumed ancestors or relatives in other areas of the world. This also includes course content that promotes activism on issues related to race or ethnicity, rather than academic instruction.” Towards the end of his letter, King expresses his disappointment with what he calls the “white moderate.” King writes: > “I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizens Councillor or the Ku Klux Klanner but the white moderate who is more devoted to order than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice.” Is this statement shaming white people and accusing them of being oppressors in a racial hierarchy? Well, yes, it is. *And that is the point.* > Teaching about Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights movement without talking about white supremacy and racial oppression is impossible. Teaching about Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights movement without talking about white supremacy and racial oppression is impossible. It would be akin to discussing the Civil War without discussing slavery, or the American Revolution without addressing British imperial rule. This type of selective discussion is not just bad teaching but makes the topic nonsensical. Martin Luther King, Jr. was fighting against white supremacy and racial hierarchy and teaching about his strategic and moral leadership without discussing what he was opposed to would be outrageous. It would be as if the repression of the era was just something that happened and not something that was the result of policies and actions by individuals; and yes, they were mostly white individuals. None of these teachings are to make any of my students of any race or background feel bad or inadequate. It’s to learn the reality of what has happened, and what continues to happen, and how political processes have been marshalled by groups and individuals to redress and change it. In other words, what is happening in my class is education. What worries me is that under A&M’s new censorship policies my classes will not be sites of education but places where certain topics are taboo — leaving students worse off because of it. Education is too important to be left to the dictates of political appointees who lack relevant subject matter expertise. So as long as I can continue to teach “Letter from Birmingham Jail” I will. We will see what the new semester brings. ### After a Prison Cat Fundraiser Went Viral, Texas Officials Put His Caretaker in Solitary Confinement URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/prison-cat-fundraiser/ Last updated: 2026-01-15T23:55:06.000Z Just days after a [fundraiser to save a sick stray cat at a Central Texas women’s prison](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/i-didnt-know-so-many-people-cared-how-incarcerated-texas-women-raised-11000-for-a-sick-senior-cat/) raised nearly $11,000, Texas prison officials placed the incarcerated woman who cared for the cat into solitary confinement — despite the fact that she did not organize the fundraiser or receive any of the money. Sonya Reed, a 53-year-old woman incarcerated at the Patrick O’Daniel Unit in Gatesville, was moved into administrative segregation, also known as solitary confinement, during an internal investigation into a [GoFundMe created by her daughter](https://www.gofundme.com/f/hope-for-orange-julius-urgent-care-needed?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Kitti Reed, last month to pay for veterinary care for a beloved prison cat named Orange Julius. *The Barbed Wire* previously published two stories about OJ and the comfort he has provided Sonya, precipitating more donations and an outpouring of internet support — but did not identify her until now as a precaution in order to protect her from backlash from prison officials. “They really rely on those cats for emotional support,” she previously said, adding that the generosity from strangers has been overwhelming. “These animals don’t see their mistakes. They’re just a constant.” “Not only are these women kind of shunned by society because they are in prison, but even more so the cats,” she said earlier this week. “I didn’t know so many people cared about them.” But that positivity quickly soured. The younger Reed said she has now agreed to speak publicly — and to allow her mother’s name to be used — in hopes that public attention would protect her. “The more eyes on this, the better,” she said. “When something is under scrutiny, there’s less chance of anything untoward happening.” According to Reed, her mother was first pulled in for questioning about the fundraiser and told she was not in trouble. She was questioned twice, returned to her housing area, and then placed in isolation the following day. “We still don’t have any straight answers from the prison about it,” Reed told *The Barbed Wire*. Paperwork given to her mother lists the charge as “solicitation,” Reed said — an allegation she called “bizarre,” since her mother did not ask for money and had no access to the fundraiser or its proceeds. “I made the GoFundMe,” Reed said. “There is no way for my mother to access the money. She didn’t ask for money for herself. She doesn’t have money.” Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials told *The Barbed Wire* on Thursday the move was tied to an investigation, not a disciplinary punishment. “This incident was under investigation as it is against policy for inmates to solicit money and fundraise,” Amanda Hernandez, a spokeswoman for TDCJ, said in a statement. “The inmate was not moved ‘as punishment,’ but because of the investigation. During an investigation, it is common for inmates to be moved.” Hernandez added that an inmate’s grievance history is confidential and cannot be disclosed. Reed said she initially heard the prison might pursue an extortion charge before learning that solicitation was listed on the disciplinary paperwork. Reed said her mother has now been held in administrative segregation for several days, with limited phone access between 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., making communication difficult. She said she has only spoken to her mother once since the move. “She was crying when she called me,” Reed said. “She’s very distressed.” Reed said her mother has significant medical issues, including heart problems, anxiety, depression, and spinal conditions that require prescribed bedding. Reed said being removed from her air-conditioned housing unit is especially dangerous given her heart condition, and that she does not know whether the isolation unit is air-conditioned. Administrative segregation, Reed said, is especially concerning because inmates there can be exposed to chemical spray used on others in the unit. “When an inmate acts up, they pepper spray, and it gets into every cell,” she said. “She has eczema, which can blister and burn from chemical exposure. This is not a place my medically challenged mother should be.” Reed said her mother told her that the disciplinary paperwork was signed by a new assistant warden she does not know well, and she believes the situation may be a misunderstanding. Reed also said her mother believes the assistant warden “does not like the cats,” though she emphasized she does not have definitive answers for why her mother was placed in isolation. For now, Reed said, her mother remains in administrative segregation with no clear timeline for release. A prison representative told Reed that inmates can be held in isolation for up to 30 consecutive days — though they can be released briefly and then placed back in segregation. Reed also learned that her mother’s bed assignment has already been reassigned, meaning she does not know where her mother will be housed if and when she is released. Reed said the situation has left her anxious and fearful for her mother’s health. “This could be detrimental to her in so many ways,” she said. “Physically and mentally.” The fundraiser at the center of the investigation was created after a stray cat named OJ, who lives on prison grounds and is cared for by incarcerated women using their own commissary funds, became seriously ill. The GoFundMe was created by Reed on the outside to pay for veterinary care and to cover the cat’s medical expenses. Reed has said none of the money can be transferred to her mother. The story struck a chord for many on social media. “Nice to hear about one good thing happening at least,” [wrote one reader](https://bsky.app/profile/borlyn.bsky.social/post/3mceozgylcs2q?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “I kept expecting ‘and here's how facility administration ruined the whole thing for everybody,’” [another wrote](https://bsky.app/profile/kriscerosaurus.bsky.social/post/3mcemm5rwuc2a?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “God, this is one of those things I could never fit my thoughts into a single post, but doing a full thing would absolutely fuck my mental health. Lol In short: cats good, TDCJ bad. Keep up the great work!” For Reed, what began as an effort to save a sick cat has become a fight for her mother’s safety. “There is no reason she should be in solitary for this,” she said. “None.” ### A 5-Year-Old Disappeared in Austin. A Mom Shot Dead in Minneapolis. How Much More Violence Will It Take to ‘Abolish ICE’? URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/abolish-ice-gains-traction-after-mom-shot-minneapolis/ Last updated: 2026-07-18T17:54:29.000Z In a viral post on Instagram, 5-year-old Génesis Ester Gutiérrez Castellanos smiles brightly in front of iconic Austin street art. She’s wearing purple sneakers with pink laces. In big yellow lettering, the [post reads](https://www.instagram.com/p/DTMC42FgC5t/?hl=en&ref=thebarbedwire.com): “URGENT: 5-YEAR-OLD US CITIZEN DISAPPEARED BY ICE.” Before dawn on Jan. 5, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested Génesis and her mother, Karen, at their South Austin home. Karen had [called the Austin Police Department at 4:30 a.m. for help](https://www.statesman.com/news/local/article/austin-police-ice-communication-guidance-21295327.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) after a man — whom she had an expired restraining order against — showed up, Chief Lisa Davis told the [*Austin American-Statesman*](https://www.statesman.com/news/local/article/austin-police-ice-communication-guidance-21295327.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). APD reported no issues at the scene when they arrived, and they turned Karen and her daughter over to ICE, the newspaper [reported](https://www.statesman.com/news/local/article/ice-austin-police-collaboration-arrest-policy-21285832.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). In the days that followed, their family struggled to find out where they'd been taken. The Austin-based social justice group [Grassroots Leadership](https://www.instagram.com/p/DTMC42FgC5t/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) took an interest, sharing online pleas for help locating Génesis alongside images of her standing in her elementary school classroom on top of a colorful alphabet rug. As their family was still searching for answers on Jan. 7, another mother on the other side of the country had just dropped her six-year-old son off at school in Minneapolis when she came upon a group of ICE agents. Within minutes, one of them fatally shot 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good. Video taken by witnesses and the [agent himself](https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/09/us/ice-shooting-minneapolis-renee-good-cell-phone-invs?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and [analyzed by reporters and experts](https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/100000010631041/minneapolis-ice-shooting-video.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), contradict the Trump administration’s subsequent messaging that the agent was acting in self defense. To many Americans, it looked a lot like murder. Over the weekend, people across the country mobilized to protest against ICE in the name of Good and other victims of the [largest Department of Homeland Security operation in recorded history](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DTeYnFNESva/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Meanwhile, on Sunday, Karen and Génesis were deported to Honduras. The news devastated the family and has left their community grieving, Grassroots Leadership said in a statement. Last night, [another man was shot](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/14/us/minneapolis-federal-agent-shooting-immigration.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) by a federal agent in Minneapolis. Today President Donald Trump is threatening to [use the Insurrection Act](https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/minneapolis-ice-shooting-protests-01-15-26?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to send even more troops to the city. It’s hard to know where to begin, how to even *start* parsing through the near-constant deluge of tragedy, misinformation, and violence that has become part and parcel of life under ICE. Under the banner of Trump’s sweeping anti-immigration efforts, masked officers have been deployed onto our streets in a campaign of xenophobia-fueled terror disguised as “law and order.” Over the last year, the agency has ballooned in both budget and size — it now has [the largest budget](https://www.ms.now/top-stories/latest/ice-recruitment-trump-police-force-rcna224319?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of any law enforcement agency in the country, and the federal troops on the ground in Minneapolis [dwarf local police forces](https://www.startribune.com/how-ice-numbers-compare-to-twin-cities-largest-police-forces/601562617?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Communities have seen their neighbors [taken from their homes](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-is-now-at-the-heart-of-trumps-immigration-raids/), seized while [driving their kids to cancer treatments](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/girl-deported-brain-cancer/) and [to college](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/million-texas-students-undocumented-ice-mom-taken/), and [jailed while returning from their honeymoons](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/ward-sakeik-ice-custody-beautiful-sisterh/). They’ve seen [journalists detained](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/how-my-friend-and-fellow-journalist-was-targeted-by-ice/), [priests threatened](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/california-priests-made-ice-scatter-can-texas-do-the-same-ministry/), and [disabled children](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/disabled-child-federal-immigration-custody/) held for weeks. Immigration agents [have used banned chokeholds](https://www.propublica.org/article/videos-ice-dhs-immigration-agents-using-chokeholds-citizens?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — like the one that killed George Floyd in 2020 — on dozens of people. Americans have watched as the death tolls tick higher: 32 people died [in ICE custody in 2025](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/jan/04/ice-2025-deaths-timeline?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and another [four have died already in 2026](https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5686408-immigration-detention-deaths-early-2026/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The crackdowns have sent shockwaves throughout the country, and spurred a groundswell of resistance. A lawsuit filed by Minnesota and the Twin Cities [claim the federal immigration operations](https://www.mprnews.org/story/2026/01/12/legal-expert-new-minnesota-lawsuit-argues-ice-violates-states-rights?ref=thebarbedwire.com) are a “federal invasion” and a violation of the 10th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Communities have also used less official means. Activists, clergymen, community organizers, stay at home parents, and everyday people have become part of [“rapid response” groups](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/14/us/ice-protests-activism.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), mobilizing to help track sightings of ICE agents, [alert people to their presence](https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/twin-cities-3d-printed-ice-alert-whistles/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [film and monitor their interactions](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2026/01/13/ice-watch-minneapolis-shooting-renee-good/88142841007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [disrupt their operations](https://rochesterbeacon.com/2025/09/09/ice-raid-disrupted-by-crowd-of-opposition/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and keep their neighborhoods safe. In the midst of this patchwork of volunteers an old slogan has re-emerged: “Abolish ICE.” Almost a decade ago, I interviewed [five young activists](https://remezcla.com/lists/culture/abolish-ice-activists/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) from all over the U.S. about why they wanted to disband the agency. It was months into Trump’s “zero-tolerance” policy, and an ongoing wave of family separations that sparked national outrage. Each activist had their reasons for wanting to do away with ICE — one characterized the agency as inhumane, arguing that deploying ICE agents wasn’t the right way to go about immigration enforcement; others pointed to the growing immigration detention population, where reports of human rights abuses and poor conditions had been rampant; another characterized ICE as a means for the government to reassert control over a country with a growing Latino population. For then-29-year-old activist Greisa Martinez Rosas, the reasoning was simple: “Abolishing ICE is a long-term goal that’s part of the vision we have for our community. We want people to be able to live with dignity, thrive, and be safe. We want families to be able to exist without the fear of being killed or separated.” Though it wasn’t a new movement — calls to disband the agency have been around since the agency’s inception in 2003 — it was far from mainstream. And while a handful of progressive politicians like U.S. Rep. [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez](https://www.facebook.com/watch/?ref=embed%5Fvideo&v=10156765570219267) and Austin-area Congressman [Greg Casar](https://www.kvue.com/article/news/politics/austin-city-council-member-calls-for-abolition-of-ice/269-572828844?ref=thebarbedwire.com) began their careers adopting the slogan, it was obvious after the 2020 elections that many Democrats felt the campaign had done more harm than good, treating it like a radioactive piece of rhetoric that would only alienate more voters. “Among party strategists, the ‘Abolish ICE’ debate is remembered as an early mistake by the the first anti-Trump resistance, a slogan that Republicans used to portray Democrats as the ‘open borders’ party,” [Semafor politics reporter](https://www.semafor.com/article/04/21/2025/democrats-battle-trump-deportations-but-still-avoid-abolish-ice?ref=thebarbedwire.com) David Weigel wrote in April. The last year, however, has begun to shake the table. Large-scale ICE operations across the country have given Americans an up-close view of exactly what it takes to fulfill Trump’s promise of the “largest deportation" in U.S. history. The promise to deport “dangerous criminals” has played out as a wide-scale effort to [target protestors](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/leqaa-kordia-palestinian-protester-ice-detention/) [and dissenters](https://www.threads.com/@brennancenter/post/DTY0513iHGe?xmt=AQF0BJpqdEBYoDsgx8YTcmpCtoC9Z8OSkCfAUN9wweApQUvBulgGBDu7xT%5Fz5J%5FsZS0RIAA&slof=1&ref=thebarbedwire.com), increase surveillance through [constitutionally dubious methods](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-cops-ice-license-plate-searches/), and deport as many people as possible, regardless of their [citizenship](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/girl-deported-brain-cancer/) or [lack of criminal records.](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/she-was-a-rising-senior-on-the-honor-roll-ice-just-upended-her-life/) A review by [*The Intercept*](https://theintercept.com/2025/07/07/ice-raids-la-violence-video-bystanders/?utm%5Fmedium=email&utm%5Fsource=The%20Intercept%20Newsletter) of more than a dozen of these operations also revealed a disturbing pattern of violence. > *“Agents have aimed firearms and sprayed chemical irritants at onlookers and protesters. They have launched tear gas and flash bang grenades into crowds. They have beaten the people they detain, struck them with batons, and restrained them face down in a prone position, pressing them into the pavement and restricting their abilities to breathe.”* In Chicago, a wave of lawsuits and lasting paranoia followed an immigration crackdown that resulted in [a militarized raid of an apartment complex](https://www.propublica.org/article/chicago-venezuela-immigration-ice-fbi-raids-no-criminal-charges?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in which [naked children were zip-tied](https://www.wbez.org/immigration/2025/10/01/massive-immigration-raid-on-chicago-apartment-building-leaves-residents-reeling-i-feel-defeated?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the [deployment of tear gas at a children’s Halloween parade](https://abcnews.go.com/US/border-patrol-agents-fire-allegedly-disrupting-childrens-halloween/story?id=126900354&ref=thebarbedwire.com), and [two](https://chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/2025/11/20/operation-midway-blitz-marimar-martinez-anthony-ruiz-us-supreme-court-feds-drop-case-against-woman-shot-by-border-patrol-agent-in-brighton-park?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [shootings](https://chicago.suntimes.com/the-watchdogs/2025/09/22/ice-officer-injuries-nothing-major-deadly-franklin-park-shooting-mexican-immigrant-chicago-video?ref=thebarbedwire.com). This week, the city of Chicago joined Illinois in a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration’s actions in the area. “Border Patrol agents and ICE officers have acted as occupiers rather than officers of the law,” said [Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul](https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/mayor/press%5Froom/press%5Freleases/2026/january/immigration-enforcement-suit.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “They randomly, and often violently, question residents. Without warrants or probable cause, they brutally detain citizens and non-citizens alike. They use tear gas and other chemical weapons against bystanders, injuring dozens, including children, the elderly and local police officers.” And in Austin, Karen and Génesis’ family members have experienced firsthand how difficult it is to navigate the system after a loved one is apprehended by ICE. "It has been two days and we don’t have any information. We are so worried, especially about my little niece," [said Germán](https://www.fox7austin.com/news/ice-takes-5-year-old-mom-custody-from-texas-community?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Génesis’ uncle and a U.S. citizen, in an interview with Fox 7 Austin on January 7\. “We want to know where she is and whether she’s alone or with her mom.” “It’s a feeling of anguish and powerlessness that I wouldn’t wish on anybody,” he added. Following days of community pressure organized by Grassroots, Karen was allowed to call her brother, but “was instructed not to share their location with anyone in order to avoid alerting community and media outlets,” Grassroots said in [a statement](https://www.instagram.com/p/DTbkVEzlAdG/?img%5Findex=1&ref=thebarbedwire.com). > Even Joe Rogan, the uncritical thinker and podcast host who endorsed Trump in 2024, compared ICE to “the Gestapo” in a recent episode. Though legal experts have questioned whether Austin police were required to cooperate with ICE in this case, the city’s police chief, Lisa Davis, told [KUT News](https://www.kut.org/crime-justice/2026-01-14/ice-apd-austin-police-immigration-trump-policy-change?ref=thebarbedwire.com) she would create new department “general orders” that explicitly explain their policy: “Officers may but are not required to call ICE.” The story prompted [immediate](https://www.instagram.com/p/DTgjQojDpGs/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [fiery responses](https://www.instagram.com/p/DTgpFB6EXZ4/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) from Austin’s city leadership. Though Grassroots called her detainment and deportation [a “blatant violation of Génesis' constitutional rights,”](https://www.instagram.com/p/DTMC42FgC5t/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) it’s hard to imagine any justice for her now. With a historic number of detainees, it’s become increasingly common for individuals to [“disappear”](https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-06-27/what-to-do-if-relative-detained-immigration-officials?ref=thebarbedwire.com) within the system. Over the last year, families and legal advocates have reported [a number of roadblocks](https://afsc.org/news/how-ices-detention-system-makes-people-untraceable?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in locating their loved ones, including sudden transfers to other facilities, as well as delays and inaccuracies in the agency’s online tracker. Until someone is located, legal advocates aren’t able to assist them, and as a result, people can be deported before anyone outside the agency can confirm where they are. Last year, [two Louisiana mothers](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/14/ice-lawsuit-louisiana-immigration-deportation?ref=thebarbedwire.com) who were deported to Honduras with their children filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration arguing that they were denied due process as well as the opportunity, per ICE’s own policies, to decide whether they would be deported with their children or remain in the U.S. with family. Three of their children, including a 4-year-old with stage-four kidney cancer, are U.S. citizens. This flagrant pattern of abuse and human rights violations has emboldened more and more people to call these operations out for what they really are: a threat to democracy. As Elie Mystal argued in [*The Nation*](https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/newsletter-abolish-ice-conway/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) this week, “Every authoritarian regime throughout history has employed a roving band of armed thugs who operate outside the law to enforce its strongman’s will. Caesar had his Praetorian Guard, Francios Duvalier had his Tonton Macoutes, Hitler had his Gestapo. Donald Trump has ICE.” And [public opinion](https://today.yougov.com/topics/politics/survey-results/daily/2026/01/08/2246e/2?ref=thebarbedwire.com) isn’t far behind. In February of 2025, just after Trump took office, polling from YouGov/The Economist showed public opinion of ICE at [+16 overall](https://today.yougov.com/politics/articles/51525-donald-trump-policies-actions-elon-musk-robert-f-kennedy-jr-federal-agencies-national-mood-flying-february-2-4-2025-economist-yougov-poll?ref=thebarbedwire.com). A more recent poll conducted just last week shows their approval has soured, [plunging to -13](https://today.yougov.com/topics/politics/survey-results/daily/2026/01/08/2246e/2?ref=thebarbedwire.com) since last year. Fifty percent of American women support abolishing ICE now. Even Joe Rogan, the uncritical thinker and podcast host who endorsed Trump in 2024, compared ICE to [“the Gestapo”](https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop-culture-news/joe-rogan-criticizes-ice-tactics-podcast-rcna253931?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in a recent episode. > This much is clear: Our rights do not matter. Our citizenship does not matter. Our *lives* do not matter. And how do we contend with that? “You don't want militarized people in the streets just roaming around snatching people up, many of which turn out to actually be U.S. citizens that just don't have their papers on them,” Rogan said. In the days since Good’s death, more politicians have echoed calls to hold ICE accountable. At a crowded town hall in Plano this week, Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico reaffirmed his pledge to [launch a “full investigation” into ICE](https://www.dallasobserver.com/news/james-talarico-plano-townhall-40634587/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) before Congress if he won. His primary opponent, U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, [filed legislation](https://bsky.app/profile/rokhanna.bsky.social/post/3mcbjbg2d5c2o?ref=thebarbedwire.com) with U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna to increase oversight of the agency by requiring body cameras and visible identification, along with banning masks. “Kristi Noem has been a complete and total failure at her job,” Crockett [posted to Blue Sky on Wednesday](https://bsky.app/profile/crockett.house.gov/post/3mcfyhf2sw22x?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “She has violated her oath and has allowed ICE agents to terrorize our communities. That’s why I’m joining @robinkelly.house.gov in calling for her impeachment.” This week, several of Congress’ more progressive Democrats have called for the party to withhold DHS funding in response to the shooting. And several states like California, New York, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts have begun putting forward legislation that attempt to put guardrails up on ICE operations. But these are bandaids over bullet holes. As Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey [told *The Bulwark*](https://www.facebook.com/reel/2008715696338490), “Can our cops arrest ICE agents? Legally? Yes. Practically? It gets kind of hard when they outnumber us and have bigger guns than we do.” Good’s death and the immediate aftermath have made it crystal clear that *we* are expendable to the Trump Administration. Their agents are not. Less than two hours after the incident, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem was calling Renee Good’s attempt to flee an [“act of domestic terrorism.”](https://www.c-span.org/program/news-conference/homeland-security-secretary-noem-visits-brownsville-texas/671283?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Less than five hours after Good was shot, [the president](https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115855701696773990?ref=thebarbedwire.com) was already running cover for the agent, saying he “seems to have shot her in self defense.” In the aftermath, six federal prosecutors in Minnesota resigned over the Justice Department’s push to investigate Good’s widow — and reluctance to investigate the shooter, [*The New York Times*](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/13/us/prosecutors-doj-resignation-ice-shooting.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) reported. This much is clear: Our rights do not matter. Our citizenship does not matter. Our *lives* do not matter. And how do we contend with that? How do we live alongside a violent, paranoid agency that sees [everyday people as a threat](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/13/ice-immigration-target-minnesota?ref=thebarbedwire.com), under an administration that will tell us not to believe what we see when they step out of line? “In the eyes of the state and its agents, all of the rest of us are walking around with a standing presumption, not just of guilt, but of murderous intent,” wrote Albert Burneko in [Defector](https://defector.com/ice-agent-kills-woman-dhs-tells-obvious-insane-lies-about-it?giftLink=0e61ee0076e88d9b911cbe6d753f4276&utm%5Fsource=defector.beehiiv.com&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=ice-agent-kills-woman-dhs-tells-obvious-insane-lies-about-it&%5Fbhlid=a41b42318515e343e6214852e00d57a8e86f9050). “Anything but total and immediate submission is domestic terrorism. It's punishable by whatever the masked and unidentified government agent pointing a gun at your face decides to dish out.” Journalist and author [Spencer Ackerman wrote an opinion piece this week](https://www.forever-wars.com/either-ice-is-abolished-or-it-will-kill-many-more-renee-goods/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) called, “Either ICE is abolished or it will kill many more Renee Goods.” Similar sentiments have recently been expressed by everyone from gun-violence prevention advocate [Cameron Kasky and](https://x.com/camkasky/status/2009052703180378463?s=43&ref=thebarbedwire.com) neo-conservative Never Trumper [Bill Kristol](https://x.com/billkristol/status/2009001272104583660?s=43&ref=thebarbedwire.com) — who served in senior positions in the Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush Administrations — [to](https://x.com/billkristol/status/2009001272104583660?s=43&ref=thebarbedwire.com) [BuzzFeed.](https://www.threads.com/@buzzfeed/post/DTOM4RLjz0U?xmt=AQF0ZVaOBgae3Ne9wF4DnHPoCGejARvX4KN7fIFteYnMlCjlk0ObPSa5POWiwTgHW6woCSuE&slof=1&ref=thebarbedwire.com) [Celebrities at the Golden Globes](https://www.threads.com/@instylemagazine/post/DTZGW2hgMt5?xmt=AQF0i02MAr03FDyOMtKlnYdYsyFblzN9xDqmZXaBVoKzenlbzQUYVh4nx0RrtMADjqo6KNU&slof=1&ref=thebarbedwire.com) wore “ICE OUT” pins on their extravagant gowns and accessories, which *In Style* magazine championed on Threads. But not everyone is ready to go so far as sunsetting the agency. In [a recent memo to Democrats](https://www.thirdway.org/memo/democrats-abolish-ice-abuses-not-ice?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Third Way, a centrist think tank, advised the party to resist emotional impulses about adopting the slogan, arguing that it would risk “squandering one of the clearest opportunities in years to secure meaningful reform” and hand Republicans “exactly the fight they want.” For too long now, Democrats have allowed Republicans to run the show on immigration. They’ve caved to Republican-led moral panics about “invasions” and “open borders,” and as a result, *everyone* is less safe. But as *New York Times* opinion columnist [Jamelle Bouie argues](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/10/opinion/immigration-ice-violence-minnesota.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), while the country may need some form of immigration enforcement, it doesn’t need ICE. “It doesn’t need an agency whose institutional identity is wedded to wanton cruelty and the apparent hair-trigger use of lethal force,” Bouie writes. “It doesn’t need an agency that has been transformed into a paramilitary enforcer of despotic rule. It doesn’t need roving bands of masked thugs shooting and killing ordinary people under the cover of law.” A decade ago, an election ago, one year ago, even one week ago, abolishing ICE may have seemed out of the question. But today, we have to ask ourselves: What more does ICE have to do? How many more lives have to be ended or put in danger until we make the right call? ### The Case That Inspired the Amber Alert Was Never Solved. Will There Ever Be Justice for 9-Year-Old Amber Hagerman? URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/amber-alert-30th-anniversary/ Last updated: 2026-01-13T18:52:49.000Z Thirty years ago, 9-year-old Amber Hagerman was riding her bike in an Arlington parking lot with her 5-year-old brother Ricky when she was kidnapped by a man in a pickup truck. Four days later, her body was found six miles away in a creek. Today, [more than 1,200 missing children](https://amberalert.ojp.gov/statistics?ref=thebarbedwire.com) have been safely recovered thanks to the Amber Alert system developed in her honor. On this latest anniversary of Amber’s murder, police told *The Barbed Wire* they believe advancements in DNA technology may one day help catch her killer. **The Kidnapping** Saturday, January 13, 1996 was a sunny day with clear skies. Amber was in the third grade at Barry Elementary School, where she was a Girl Scout who loved writing and playing Barbies, according to the [National Center for Missing and Exploited Children](https://www.missingkids.org/blog/2021/still-searching-for-ambers-killer?ref=thebarbedwire.com). She smiled in her school photo. Blue eyes below brown bangs, with freckled cheeks and moon-shaped gold earrings. Her mother, Donna Williams, [reportedly told](https://people.com/who-killed-amber-hagerman-8752172?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Amber’s elementary school class that Amber and Ricky bicycled over to an abandoned grocery store parking lot at 3:10 p.m. After a few minutes, Ricky biked back to their grandparents’ home two blocks away, leaving Amber and her pink bicycle alone for mere moments. Then, at 3:18 p.m., the unimaginable happened. “I saw (Amber) riding up and down,” the only witness to come forward, Jimmie Kevil, [told CBS Dallas-Fort Worth](https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/20-years-later-detectives-have-information-to-share-on-amber-hagerman-case/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “She was by herself. I saw this black pickup. He pulled up, jumped out and grabbed her. When she screamed, I figured the police ought to know about it, so I called them.” Kevil told police he saw it all from his backyard. (He passed away in May 2016.) Despite Kevil’s account of the black pickup and decades of the family asking the public for information, Amber’s killer has never been found. “I just knew my sister was taken from us,” Ricky Hagerman [told *The Seattle Times* in 2016](https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/amber-alert-20-years-after-abduction-girls-family-reflects-on-her-legacy/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “She was my best friend, like a second mother.” Police provided a description of the possible suspect at the time of Amber’s murder: a white or Hispanic man in his 20s or 30s, under 6 feet tall with dark hair and a medium build, [according to *The Dallas Morning News.*](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/2021/01/13/this-case-will-get-solved-arlington-police-hope-dna-evidence-in-amber-hagermans-case-will-lead-to-answers/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) In an interview on Tuesday, 30 years after her kidnapping, Sgt. Richard Coleman of the Arlington Police Department told *The Barbed Wire* that Amber’s case remains active, even though decades have passed. “We receive lots of tips on the Hagerman case, so much so that it can’t be considered a cold case,” Coleman said. More than 7,000 tips since she went missing, in fact, said Det. Krystallyne Robinson of the Arlington Police Department, who was assigned to Amber’s case in 2023. **The Murder** Amber’s body was discovered half-submerged in a creek by a man walking his dog four days later, [KXAS-TV reported in 1996.](https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1939140/m1/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) A resident at the Forest Ridge apartment complex discovered her body at 11:30 p.m., he told KXAS the next morning, his voice shaking. “She was exposed from her shoulders down to her feet,” the man told KXAS. “The only part that was really submerged were like her arms and her head. But even so, I could still see the dark hair.” A medical examiner ruled at the time that Amber had died from having her throat cut, according to the local news report. --- KXAS-TV (Television station : Fort Worth, Tex.). \[News Clip: Hagerman Kidnapping\], video, January 15, 1996; Fort Worth, Texas. ([https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1939140/](https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1939140/?ref=thebarbedwire.com): accessed January 13, 2026), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, [https://texashistory.unt.edu](https://texashistory.unt.edu/?ref=thebarbedwire.com); crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections. --- Crime scene specialists and FBI investigators told KXAS they believed Amber’s body had not been in the creek for long, and had possibly been moved during the overnight rainstorm. Officers were seen the following morning collecting large bags of material from the crime scene. Investigators questioned residents of the complex door-to-door, according to the broadcast. In her interview with *The Barbed Wire*, Robinson declined to comment on the state of Amber’s body when it was discovered or the specifics of the forensic evidence APD has, in order to preserve the integrity of the investigation. **The Legacy of the Amber Alert** After watching the news coverage of the tragic murder, one Texas woman, Diana Simone, had an idea. Alongside former Tarrant County sheriff Dee Andersen, she proposed a system where local law enforcement could partner with media stations to broadcast information about missing children, [according to FOX 4](https://www.fox4news.com/news/amber-alert-misuse-changes-needed?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “Amber stands for America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response and was created as a legacy to 9-year-old Amber Hagerman,” the [Amber alert website reads](https://amberalert.ojp.gov/about?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “Other states and communities soon set up their own AMBER plans as the idea was adopted across the nation.” The alert service is now a national system, allowing information on hundreds of missing children to be sent to phones of individuals in their communities each year. The [Amber Alert website](https://amberalert.ojp.gov/about/national-strategy?ref=thebarbedwire.com) says that as of Dec. 31, 2024, 1,268 missing children have been found thanks to the program. “She’s still taking care of little children like she did her younger brother,” said Amber’s mother, Donna Williams, on the 25th anniversary of Amber’s kidnapping, [according to *The* *Dallas Morning News*](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/2021/01/13/this-case-will-get-solved-arlington-police-hope-dna-evidence-in-amber-hagermans-case-will-lead-to-answers/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “I’m very, very proud of my daughter.” To mark the occasion, the Arlington Police Department [held a news conference](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dsyb%5FR99VAg&ref=thebarbedwire.com) to give updates on the case. Williams arrived early to lay a bouquet of pink flowers in the parking lot where Amber was taken before speaking to the crowd, [*The* *Dallas Morning News*](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/2021/01/13/this-case-will-get-solved-arlington-police-hope-dna-evidence-in-amber-hagermans-case-will-lead-to-answers/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) reported. “I miss her every day,” she said. “I want to know why. Why her? She was only a little girl.” “To Amber's killer, I'm asking you today: Please, turn yourself in,” Williams continued. “Give Amber justice.” **Holding Out Hope for Justice** One of the most difficult aspects of the case, Det. Robinson said, is reckoning with the differences in technology thirty years ago as compared to today, where video surveillance and smartphones make it much easier to gather evidence. However, Robinson told *The Barbed Wire* that developments in genetic testing could still be a possible avenue for finding Amber’s killer. “We are looking at what is out there, what type of testing,” Robinson said. “Just looking constantly, and reaching out to other agencies and private labs, we’re doing that weekly for this case.” In recent years, developments in DNA testing have led to breakthroughs on cases that had remained unsolved for decades. After a string of 12 murders and more than 45 rapes in California in the 1970s, the ‘Golden State Killer’ was [finally identified in 2018](https://www.thedailybeast.com/golden-state-killer-arrested-according-to-co-author-of-ill-be-gone-in-the-dark/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), using a novel method called genetic genealogy,[ according to *Forbes*](https://www.forbes.com/sites/jvchamary/2020/06/30/genetic-genealogy-golden-state-killer/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The 1974 rape and murder of 17-year-old Carla Walker in Fort Worth was solved in 2020 using the same technology, [according to *The Dallas Morning News.*](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/2020/09/22/fort-worth-police-make-arrest-in-cold-case-murder-that-has-remained-unsolved-for-46-years/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) In September 2025, the culprit in the murder of four teenaged girls in an Austin yogurt shop in 1991 was finally identified thanks to advanced DNA technology, [according to ABC News](https://abcnews.go.com/US/haunting-yogurt-shop-quadruple-killings-solved-3-decades/story?id=126035260&ref=thebarbedwire.com). It was also linked to a cold case in Kentucky, [*The* *Austin-American Statesman* reported](https://www.statesman.com/news/article/austin-yogurt-shop-killer-kentucky-cold-case-21281189.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) just last week. Robinson said that the APD continues to follow new developments in forensic labs across the country in the hope that they can also offer answers to the mystery of Amber’s killer. “Genetic genealogy is great,” Robinson said. “It’s something we’re always looking at.” Police said in 2021 that they were preparing to build a genetic profile of the suspect, [according to *The Dallas Morning News*](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/2021/01/13/this-case-will-get-solved-arlington-police-hope-dna-evidence-in-amber-hagermans-case-will-lead-to-answers/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), but Robinson declined to give specifics on the current testing of evidence in Amber’s case. “We don’t have DNA necessarily from a suspect,” Robinson said. “We’re just looking to get forensic evidence from the case tested.” It remains unclear what evidence APD retained from the crime scene, due to rainfall prior to her body’s discovery and an effort by police to avoid providing any information to the public that might jeopardize the investigation. Robinson said that she remains in contact with Hagerman’s family to give regular updates on the case, and she keeps a framed picture of Amber on her desk to remind her of the stakes of the ongoing search for a suspect. “It’s the first thing I look at every morning,” Robinson said. “It’s been a long time, and I know that somewhere out there is the killer. I know the family just wants some peace and some closure.” ### ‘I Didn’t Know So Many People Cared.’ How the Daughter of an Incarcerated Woman Raised $11,000 for a Sick Prison Cat. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/i-didnt-know-so-many-people-cared-how-incarcerated-texas-women-raised-11000-for-a-sick-senior-cat/ Last updated: 2026-01-13T16:35:58.000Z In a place defined by razor wire, locked doors, and long sentences, a stray cat named OJ became something rare: a constant, living comfort for women who have access to very little else. And recently when [OJ fell seriously ill inside a Central Texas prison](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-prison-cat/), his survival came down to a small group of incarcerated women, a volunteer willing to pay out of pocket, and a daughter on the outside who decided to act. Kitti Reed, who lives in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, said she learned through one of her mother’s friends that OJ was in bad shape. Reed’s mother is incarcerated at the Patrick O’Daniel Unit in Gatesville, where OJ has lived alongside her for years. “When I wrote my mom about it, she’s like, yeah, he’s got a kidney infection,” Reed said. “He’s falling over when he tries to walk. Yowling, screaming.” Reed said the situation hit close to home. She previously lost a cat to kidney problems and knew how serious the condition could be — especially for senior male cats, which often require expensive treatment. OJ was taken to a veterinarian by a volunteer who periodically visits the prison. According to Reed, the volunteer had to cover the costs herself, prompting Reed to [set up a GoFundMe last month](https://www.gofundme.com/f/hope-for-orange-julius-urgent-care-needed?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to help pay the bill and reimburse the volunteer for her time and expenses. “Nobody is obligated to take care of this cat for my mom,” said Reed, who declined to identify her mother to protect her privacy. “But she’s volunteering her time and personal money to make sure that this cat can continue living comfortably.” The fundraiser initially brought in less than $100 through a few donations. Then, almost overnight, it surged, after it was shared online by ProPublica journalist Keri Blakinger. “All of a sudden it just took off,” Reed said. The fundraiser has now brought in nearly $11,000 from more than 390 donations. Reed said OJ has since received a full round of antibiotics and undergone a small procedure. While she wasn’t sure of all the medical details, she said he appears to be recovering quickly. “He’s able to walk again without falling over,” she said. “He seems to be recovering really well.” The money raised exceeded the cost of OJ’s care. Reed said once the funds are fully processed through GoFundMe, she plans to pay off the vet bill, compensate the volunteer, and set aside the remaining money for future veterinary care for the cats that live around the prison. Those cats, Reed explained, are not part of any official program. People frequently abandon cats near prison grounds, where they crawl through razor wire and remain on the property. While prison officials tolerate them, in part because they help control rodents, there is no institutional support for their care. While there’s not an official program at this Texas prison, there are many examples of [official](https://prisonjournalismproject.org/2025/08/12/cats-can-live-their-whole-lives-at-this-prison/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) programs [elsewhere in the U.S.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUb1I571BXo&ref=thebarbedwire.com) where [cats live in prisons](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9FUKcqKCQ8&ref=thebarbedwire.com) with inmates — including Indiana, Michigan, and South Carolina. Meanwhile in Gatesville, incarcerated women use their own limited commissary funds to feed them. “They get very little commissary money usually, and they still use it to feed the cats, over getting something that they could enjoy,” Reed said. Over time, many of the cats become affectionate and familiar, forming close bonds with the women inside. Reed said OJ, in particular, has been a constant presence for her mother, even accompanying her while she tends a small flower garden. “He’s been with her through most of it,” Reed said of her mother’s sentence. “So he’s been her lifeline as well as the lifeline of a lot of other women in there.” Reed said the emotional support these animals provide is especially important given the lack of mental health resources available in women’s prisons. “They really rely on those cats for emotional support,” she said. “These animals don’t see their mistakes. They’re just a constant.” Reed said the outpouring of generosity has been overwhelming. “Not only are these women kind of shunned by society because they are in prison, but even more so the cats,” she said. “I didn’t know so many people cared about them.” For Reed, that response — and OJ’s recovery — made the effort worthwhile. “A little bit of positivity,” she said. ### The Daughter of an Incarcerated Woman Is Crowdfunding a Vet Visit for Her Beloved Cat Named Orange Julius URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-prison-cat/ Last updated: 2026-01-08T20:51:02.000Z This may be the sweetest [GoFundMe ever created](https://www.gofundme.com/f/hope-for-orange-julius-urgent-care-needed?ref=thebarbedwire.com): The daughter of an incarcerated woman in Texas is trying to raise money to save a very sick orange cat who’s been keeping one of them going. Orange Julius, or OJ, is a cat suffering from a kidney infection and urgently needs veterinary treatment, according to the fundraiser. The GoFundMe from someone identified as “Kitti Reed” says the senior cat has “been very very sick with a kidney infection, and has been unable to walk without falling over, straining to pee, and desperately needs treatment!” The exact prison is unclear but the GoFundMe states: “My mom has someone taking him to Coryell Veterinary Clinic in Gatesville, TX for her, as inmates aren't able to take their emotional support animals to get care themselves.” The GoFundMe drew wider attention after being [shared Wednesday night by ProPublica journalist Keri Blakinger](https://x.com/keribla/status/2009137813636432217?ref=thebarbedwire.com), who said it stood out from anything she’d seen before. Blakinger covers criminal justice with a focus on prisons and told *The Barbed Wire* she’d been sent the link by a woman at the prison. On Thursday the fundraiser ballooned to more than $6,000, from 237 donations meant to give the aging cat a chance at recovery. All but two of the donations came in the hours after Blakinger shared the post. “I have never seen a GoFundMe quite like this,” Blakinger wrote on X. “The women at one Texas prison are trying to pay for a vet for one of the stray cats that they clandestinely take care of at the facility.” OJ belongs to a woman who is currently incarcerated, according to the fundraiser, and he has become her emotional support and lifeline during that time. Someone outside the facility is bringing Orange Julius to Coryell Veterinary Clinic in Gatesville for treatment. According to the fundraiser, OJ has helped his owner “not lose her hope or her spark” during incarceration. “Anything is greatly appreciated,” Reed wrote. ### RAICES Raised Millions to Protect Minors from Deportation. Then It Dropped Them ‘Like It Was Nothing,’ Ex Staffers Claim. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/raices-drops-child-immigration-clients/ Last updated: 2026-01-07T06:00:00.000Z ## EXCLUSIVE Yamirla Chavez’s last two months at the Refugee & Immigrant Center for Education & Legal Services, or RAICES, are a blur to her now. She’d been a senior staff attorney for the nonprofit organization’s Unaccompanied Children’s Program, fighting in court on behalf of children who fled violence and poverty in other countries to start new lives in the United States. “I was incredibly blown away by the mission,” she said. “I was just trying to get my foot in the door and then move on, but five to six years later it turned out to be a job that I didn’t want to leave.” Then in late March, RAICES told her that she and 157 of her colleagues would lose their jobs. The Trump administration had canceled their funding. Chavez was devastated at the news. But she was even more devastated by the timeline. She and her colleagues had 60 days to wind down their case loads. For Chavez, that meant closing more than one case a day. She attempted to meet with each of her child clients to explain that she could no longer represent them in their fight to stay in the country. Some were as young as 9, but many were on the precipice of turning 18 and entering the adult immigration system. Most did not have family in the U.S. They came from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador fleeing the clutches of powerful gangs. A small contingent of her clients fled because they identified as LGBTQ+ and faced violence and discrimination in their home countries. Others were the victims of labor trafficking. Many were still in detention shelters in San Antonio. “Wrapping everything up in two months was ludicrous,” Chavez said. The stakes were incredibly high for her clients. If a child missed a response to the court or the government, it could have grievous effects on the child’s ability to stay in the country. Now they had to navigate finding a new attorney, too. Chavez, now 34, said she filed motions with immigration courts to get the children special immigrant juvenile visas — a pathway to a green card given to children who are the victims of abuse or neglect — and other types of relief from deportation. She took meticulous notes for each case, hoping someone would take them over. She and her colleagues worked 12, 14, 16- hour days, seven days a week, she said. She lost her appetite and eventually stopped eating. Showers were a thing of the past. Chavez, who once served in the U.S. Army, said she would rather do basic training over again than relive those last months at RAICES. Chavez’s bosses told her there was no more money to support the children’s program: The Trump administration had slashed it, so what was there to do? But that wasn’t true, she said. Eleven other impacted nonprofits sued the administration, and a federal judge issued a restraining order followed by a preliminary injunction until the case was resolved, restoring the funding. In all, funding was paused for two weeks. “It just sucks that after going through all of that — the funding was there. The contract was offered and RAICES denied it — they rejected it,” Chavez said. RAICES chose to continue with its planned layoffs despite the injunction, and to end its subcontract with the Acacia Center for Justice, the nonprofit that distributed the government contract. Through interviews with more than a dozen former employees and the review of internal documents and court records, *The Barbed Wire* found: - After funding was restored, RAICES voluntarily declined the $19.5 million annual contract from the federal government, which accounted for roughly half of the organization’s more than $43 million budget in 2024. - More than 1,000 youth across Texas were affected by the decision to effectively end the children's program, according to a recording of a February staff meeting. - RAICES had child clients sign acknowledgements that the organization’s attorneys were withdrawing from their cases because of a loss of funding that was “beyond the control of RAICES,” even after a court order that restored the funding. - After the funding was restored, RAICES falsely represented the same explanation to employees and immigration courts, including in court motions into November of this year. - Many former employees said they felt misled by executives at the organization about the program shuttering and some said they felt compelled to mislead their own clients. Such representations, mandated by RAICES directors, could have violated Texas’ legal ethics code. RAICES rose to national prominence during President Donald Trump’s first term with a reputation for protecting children from deportation — and raised record-setting amounts of money with that reputation in 2018. Trump’s second term has been marked by mass deportations and attacks on immigrant communities. His Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, quickly targeted asylum, refugee, and migration programs. It attempted to cut funding to programs like RAICES’ Unaccompanied Children’s Program in February — a move advocates[ called a violation of the 2008 Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act](https://acaciajustice.org/coalition-of-legal-organizations-denounce-governments-termination-of-unaccompanied-kids-program/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which dictates that children have access to lawyers “to the greatest degree practicable.” When *The Barbed Wire* requested an interview about the end of RAICES’ Children’s Program, RAICES declined. > “They just left all those minors,” said Nadia Perez, a former legal assistant in RAICES’ San Antonio office. “Just dropped them like it was nothing.” “This year has been one of extraordinary and unprecedented circumstances for not only service recipients but also service providers in the humanitarian aid landscape,” Faisal Al-Jubari, RAICES’ vice president of external communications, wrote in an email. “RAICES underwent a reduction in force earlier this year resulting from federal subcontracts and subgrants impacted by the current administration, including funding for unaccompanied children’s services that yielded an eight-figure funding gap for the organization,” he continued. Al-Jubari did not respond to questions about why RAICES declined the $19.5 million contract, why it continued to blame government cuts after funding had been restored, or allegations that it abandoned or misled child clients. In a subsequent email, Al-Jubari wrote: “Skepticism regarding the administration’s intentions for unaccompanied children’s legal aid was and remains well-founded, following its multiple attempts to subvert lawful obligations.” Al-Jubari also noted that the Acacia Center for Justice didn’t communicate terms and conditions of the renewed, short-term contract before expecting legal service providers to continue their work. Acacia Center executive director Shaina Aber said in an interview earlier this year that RAICES didn’t want to endure the economic uncertainty of the current administration’s attacks on their funding. “There could be legitimate operational reasons for winding down this program early,” said Laurie Styron, CEO of CharityWatch, a nonprofit watchdog. If the organization sees that it is in for a protracted fight with the Trump administration — and even if the contract is renewed now, it may not be later — that could be a legitimate reason to bow out early, according to Styron. The unaccompanied minor program was the second to see layoffs this year. RAICES let go 60 others who worked with the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP), after those contracts were cancelled in February. USRAP funding is also in litigation. “But from a gut check perspective, it is unusual for a nonprofit to leave this much money on the table,” Styron concluded. A source with knowledge said RAICES was one of as few as two legal service providers that ended their Acacia contracts rather than continue. Many of the former employees praise their former colleagues and those who continue at RAICES for their passion for the work, and said they believe if the situation had been explained, staff would have tried to make it work even with the uncertainty. “We probably would have said ‘It’s ok — at least we can still have a job for now and we can still provide services for the kids and they’re not going to be by themselves,” said Ana Del Rio, a former legal assistant at RAICES. “But they didn’t want to deal with it.” “They just left all those minors,” said Nadia Perez, a former legal assistant in RAICES’ San Antonio office. “Just dropped them like it was nothing.” ## The Rise of RAICES RAICES was founded in San Antonio in 1986 and for years was focused on social services for immigrant families. The organization pivoted towards legal representation when John Blatz arrived in 1990\. His wife had founded the organization, and the two of them had worked in immigration services for years. For the next two decades RAICES was a small legal operator — at times it was just Blatz. “I didn’t want to take government money,” Blatz said. It wasn’t until 2008, when attorney Jonathan Ryan joined the nonprofit as CEO and convinced Blatz to take government money, that the organization started growing quickly. > “We absolutely believe that no child…should ever go to court by themselves.” In 2014, a massive surge of people fleeing violence in Honduras and El Salvador at the southern border — including masses of unaccompanied children — catapulted the nonprofit legal service provider into the national spotlight. Its name would soon grace the pages of multiple national news publications and bring them to Washington, D.C. to testify at [congressional hearings](https://www.c-span.org/program/public-affairs-event/meeting-on-unaccompanied-immigrant-children/357286?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The group’s reach grew across Texas along with its budget. It went from two offices helping detained children in 2009 to five in 2014 then six in 2018, working in a dozen or more detention shelters across the state. The organization exploded in growth after the first Trump administration started separating parents from their children at the border. [Images of kids in cages](https://www.businessinsider.com/migrant-children-in-cages-2014-photos-explained-2018-5?ref=thebarbedwire.com) captured the national consciousness and money poured into the organizations that served them. RAICES was a leading beneficiary. In 2018, a California couple’s Facebook fundraiser intending to raise $1,500 for the nonprofit instead netted $20 million, shattering records. Millions of dollars more poured in after. The organization went from a budget of less than $8 million a year in 2017 to one of more than $52 million a year in 2018. Mayra Jimenez, then-director of the Unaccompanied Children's Program, gave thanks for the donations in 2018, [publicizing ](https://nonprofitquarterly.org/raices-takes-the-reins-of-a-wild-fundraising-ride-17-million-and-counting/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)one of the organization’s tenets: “We absolutely believe that no child…should ever go to court by themselves,” she said. “I don’t think it was lofty rhetoric,” said Sara Valdes, a former co-director of the Children’s Program, of the pledge to not abandon children in court. “That was real.” Valdes said the organization took risks back then, bucked authorities. But that changed when leadership did. Jimenez, who didn’t comment for this story, moved to another refugee serving agency in 2022\. Former CEO Jonathan Ryan was forced out in 2021 after a period of intense growth, internal dissent over spending priorities, and battles with his board. Several former employees who spoke with *The Barbed Wire* pointed to this time period as pivotal. Employees said the board of directors committed to a national search for a new CEO through a third-party organization. Instead, the RAICES union said the board hired its own former chair, Dolores Schroeder, to run the organization in April 2022. The RAICES union staged a “sick out,” with 150 members walking off the job to protest the board’s maneuvers. They were highly critical of the selection of Schroeder, a real estate attorney with no experience practicing immigration law. At the time, the board said it was prioritizing fiscal responsibility and Schroeder’s ability to reign in spending. Schroeder earned more than $250,000 for the remainder of 2022\. Her compensation was more than $430,000 a year in 2023, according to IRS tax forms. That wage put Schroeder in rarified air for a nonprofit leader in San Antonio — where the [median household income](https://datausa.io/profile/geo/san-antonio-tx/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#economy) was $62,917 — another point of contention for employees. After Schroerder’s appointment, the organization restructured, adding a layer of directors between its C-suite and its rank and file, according to employees. Unlike Ryan, who often held monthly and quarterly all-staff meetings, there were none from Schroeder. Communications between Schroeder and staff were few and far between in person or via staff-wide emails, former staff said. Many spoke of the “corporatization” of the culture. “The passion went out when Jonathan went out,” Blatz said. “But he was not popular when he left. They \[employees\] felt he was getting perks that they were not getting. Money creates problems. When I was there, there was no money, so there was no problem.” Blatz, who had continued to work as an attorney for RAICES after leaving leadership, retired in the weeks after Schroeder was made CEO. Schroeder resigned from RAICES in December, shortly after *The Barbed Wire* reached out for an interview. Schroeder said in an email to staff that her contract had been up at the beginning of 2025, but she stayed on due to the turbulent developments from the Trump administration. ## ‘Do Not Say Anything’ Congress has funded legal representation for unaccompanied minors in immigration proceedings for more than a decade. The most recent appropriation was for $5 billion through at least Sept. 30, 2027. But the Trump administration has attempted to subvert it, [starting in February under DOGE](https://www.tpr.org/government-politics/2025-02-18/trump-administration-orders-lawyers-for-vulnerable-unaccompanied-minors-to-stop-their-work?ref=thebarbedwire.com). In a Feb. 19 staff meeting, RAICES supervisors told their attorneys to assess where their cases were in the process, according to a recording reviewed by *The Barbed Wire*. After the second attempt in late March, attorneys say they were told to break their cases down by need and begin withdrawing from the ones that needed little or no assistance. Legal assistants were told to not discuss the future plans of the organization with their counterparts in detention shelters, where RAICES had been conducting “Know Your Rights" presentations and maintaining relationships with children. All that stopped. “RAICES pretty much told us ‘do not do anything,’” said Ana Del Rio, a former RAICES legal assistant. “‘Do not talk to anyone, do not say anything.’” Del Rio would later quit, citing the workplace atmosphere and the inability to help children. An online manual was distributed to staff attorneys mandating how they should close or transfer their cases. Links to pre-approved template motions for courts and acknowledgement letters for clients were included. The letters all cited the government funding cuts as the reason for the end of their representation. But when other nonprofit subcontractors sued the Trump administration, staff started asking questions about whether RAICES would forgo layoffs until the outcome was certain, said Chavez. They got few responses. When Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín issued a nationwide injunction against the government, restoring the funding pending the outcome of the litigation on April 29, some RAICES attorneys questioned the language the organization was using to describe why they were ending their representation to kids. “Due to the recent termination of federal contracts and the subsequent loss of funding for RAICES, it has become unreasonable and impractical for RAICES to continue providing legal representation in my case,” reads one document reviewed by*The Barbed Wire.* > “It felt like we were lying,” said Yamirla Chavez. “The minute I found out, I modified that closing letter… ‘What are you gonna do fire me?’” These were the documents attorneys said they were mandated to use. But some felt it was misleading. One attorney called the State Bar ethics hotline only to be told they were getting many calls from RAICES staff. Chavez said she was going to call, but had heard from colleagues that they already had. “I think it was very untruthful and unethical the way that they forced us or guided us to tell our clients that we no longer had the funds to continue the service to them,” said M. Vaneza Alvarado, a former senior staff attorney. “When in fact, it was the decision of RAICES to shut down the program despite the availability of funds.” RAICES descriptions in financial audits of the nonprofit appear more transparent than those given to the court: "RAICES did not renew the Unaccompanied Children's Program with the federal government due to a termination for convenience notice received on March 21, 2025\. The annual value of this contract was approximately $19.5 million," reads an audit on its website. > “Generally speaking you shouldn’t lie to your clients about things. That’s pretty clear,” said Bob Schuwerk, a former professor specializing in legal ethics at the University of Houston Law School. A termination of convenience is the right to cancel a contract, often by the federal government, without being in breach of contract. The statement spells out that they received the March 21 notification but then voluntarily did not renew it when funding was restored. When it became clear that funding would continue, some staff pushed back on the language being used, asking for updated documents. None were provided, according to multiple former staff. “There were a couple times where we would try to voice our concern or pushback — and the higher ups would say, ‘Ok, we’ll get back to you on it.’ And they would never get back to us,” said Karen Hernandez, a former legal assistant at RAICES in San Antonio. Some declined to use the language. Most communicated directly with their clients that they were being let go, and that was the reason they were unable to continue as their attorneys. Some modified the templates, despite directives not to. “It felt like we were lying,” said Yamirla Chavez. “The minute I found out, I modified that closing letter… ‘What are you gonna do fire me?’” But some didn’t know until after they had left the organization that the funding had been restored, and now feel like they were compelled to mislead their clients. The language could be a violation of state legal ethics rules for attorneys, said an expert. “Generally speaking you shouldn’t lie to your clients about things. That’s pretty clear,” said [Bob Schuwerk](https://www.law.uh.edu/faculty/main.asp?PID=41&ref=thebarbedwire.com), a former professor specializing in legal ethics at the University of Houston Law School. If lawyers knew they were making untrue claims to their clients, they could violate ethics rules around candor, said Shuwerk. If they didn’t know, but their supervisors who are lawyers knew, those violations fall on supervisors — including the CEO if they practice law. The same is true if nonattorney staff like legal assistants are being directed by an attorney to make the representations. In an email, Faisal Al-Jubari, RAICES’ communications vice president, said that for all actions regarding their unaccompanied children’s services, “RAICES established internal guidelines leveraging extensive research and advisement from the Texas Center for Legal Ethics, Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct, American Bar Association, American Immigration Lawyers Association, and Executive Office for Immigration Review Immigration Court Practice Manual.” Al-Jubari did not answer follow-up questions on when or how those organizations were consulted. The organization was also making the claims in motions to courts. The representations were also being made in person in immigration courts to judges. Attorneys for RAICES have for months continued to show up to these court dockets to withdraw from cases, citing the cuts to federal funding. “Due to the recent elimination of funding for the program under which the Respondent was receiving legal assistance, counsel is no longer able to provide representation in this matter. Recently, the Trump administration notified the termination of the unaccompanied children program,” reads a template letter provided to *The Barbed Wire* that RAICES asked an attorney to file in immigration court this November. Schuwerk called the descriptions in the federal motion inaccurate because funding had been restored. “If they made those statements to the court that's a whole other (potential) violation,” he said. The potential penalties for such an action could be severe, including a suspended law license. But beyond that, the damage done to children’s cases. Immigration laws are very difficult to understand even for English speaking attorneys. They aren’t intended to be navigated by children. “I would think that basically that lawyers in positions of knowing what’s going on are probably liable for just about all the trainwrecks that happened,” said Schuwerk “It’s certainly foreseeable that the clients are going to suffer hardships that they won’t be able to mitigate.” ## The Fallout On the final day of M. Vaneza Alvarado’s time with RAICES she was still struggling to find other attorneys for about half of her more than 60 clients. She knew she wasn’t going to make it but she hoped to keep trying. But at the end of business both her RAICES-issued laptop and phone stopped working. Her email was shut down. “There wasn't even an opportunity to say, ‘Hey I wasn't able to get to this client, like I really need this client to be taken care of.’ There was nobody.” It was just another betrayal — she said — from an organization she strived to help and it wouldn't be the last. Months later she heard the cases she was told RAICES would retain to help children were being left without any representation. “They're fighting against an administration and the Department of Homeland Security who have become 100 times more aggressive than they were during the first administration of Trump,” she said. She choked up speaking about the impact on her former clients. In emails to *The Barbed Wire*, RAICES claimed to still be representing some children, saying the organization has “approximately 2,500 open immigration legal cases.” It is unclear what that representation looks like. Former attorneys say that RAICES attorneys are simply showing up to withdraw from cases. Chavez said she had been contacted by desperate former clients who said no RAICES attorney had appeared. One former RAICES client, Miguel Angel Otoniel, traveled to the U.S. when he was 16 from Guatemala. When he turned 18, the government tried to deport him despite being in proceedings for a visa to stay in the country. Without an attorney, Otoniel failed to file all the proper documentation in the case. An immigration court judge suspended the deportation proceedings despite the lack of full documentation. An appeals court disagreed. “We otherwise have no way of knowing whether the respondent is subject to a juvenile court order that satisfies the regulatory requirements,” read the ruling. The court also found the length of time to establish his status as a reason to overrule the lower court, making it unclear if an attorney would have made a difference. “The way it \[RAICES\] was closed down left a lot of people without representation who thought they had it,” said Hannah Eash-Gates. “And it left a big legal services gap.” She and a few other former RAICES alumni started RISE, For Immigrants, another legal service provider. It's been picking up clients left behind by RAICES. Advokato, another nonprofit formed by former RAICES employees, took over the subcontract from Acacia to represent children in several San Antonio detention shelters and foster care. Thinking back now, Yamirla Chavez gets emotional about the kids she once served. During those last weeks she thinks she lost 15 pounds. There was stress in her relationship, as her partner said they didn’t understand her devotion to an organization that clearly didn’t value her. But it wasn’t for them. “Not once did I feel like I was working for RAICES — it was just the vehicle that got me into the work with the kids,” she later said. She spoke with a handful of old clients recently and was again overwhelmed by emotions. She has avoided looking up what happened to the rest of her former clients. “I don’t think I could handle it, to check and find a removal order. Or being detained,” she said. “I think it could break me, emotionally.” *Like our investigative journalism?* ***The Barbed Wire i*** **s always free to read…but investigative journalism isn’t free to make.* Support from our readers helps pay for the open records requests, document review, and travel expenses that make tough investigative reporting like this story come to life. Pitch in below — or [become a member of The Barbed Wire](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/become-a-member/), today.* ### 376 Officers Responded to the Uvalde School Shooting. Why Are Only Two Facing Charges? URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/uvalde-officer-gonzales-trial/ Last updated: 2026-01-06T20:10:13.000Z Just past 11:30 a.m. on May 24, 2022, four Uvalde school district police officers entered Robb Elementary School. Officers Adrian Gonzales and Donald Page stepped in first, followed by Police Chief Pete Arredondo and Sergeant Daniel Coronado. They heard gunshots coming from two fourth grade classrooms. Over the next 77 minutes, a total of 376 officers from various law enforcement agencies converged on the scene — yet none entered the classrooms the shooter occupied until 12:50 p.m., according to a [Texas House Investigative Committee report](https://www.house.texas.gov/pdfs/committees/reports/interim/87interim/Robb-Elementary-Investigative-Committee-Report-update.pdf?ref=thebarbedwire.com) from 2022\. Nineteen fourth graders and two teachers were killed in the shooting. Two of those 376 responding officers are now set to go on trial, in the only criminal charges stemming from the delayed and heavily condemned police response: former chief Arredondo and officer Gonzales. Gonzales’ trial began Tuesday in Corpus Christi, after a judge [ruled in October](https://news4sanantonio.com/news/local/trial-for-former-uvalde-cisd-officer-adrian-gonzales-moved-to-corpus-christi?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that it was unlikely for the officer to receive a fair trial if held in Uvalde. Gonzales faces [29 counts of child endangerment and abandonment.](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/spectrumlocalnews-com/content/dam/News/statics/tx/adrian%5Fgonzales%5Findictment.pdf) He is accused of failing to engage, distract or impede the shooter, and failing to advance towards the shooter — despite hearing gunshots and knowing his general location — until after multiple children were shot at. Gonzales has pleaded not guilty to the charges, and his attorney has said he tried to save children on that deadly day. If he’s convicted, he could face a maximum of two years in prison. Arredondo, whose trail date has not yet been set [according to ABC 11](https://abc11.com/post/robb-elementary-school-shooting-trial-begins-officer-adrian-gonzales-accused-failing-protect-children-uvalde-tx/18355184/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), is facing [10 counts of child endangerment and abandonment](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24781964-arredondo-indictment/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Arredondo was fired from his position in August of 2022, and the entire five-person Uvalde school police force was later suspended and replaced, [according to the *New York Times*.](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/07/us/uvalde-police-suspended.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) According to the the 2022 Texas House Investigative Committee report, Arredondo was the chief of the Uvalde school district police force and made the decision when responding to the shooting to treat the attacker in the classroom as a barricaded subject, which [usually requires negotiation and less aggressive action](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-in-gov/isp/files/active-shooter-or-barricaded-person-hostage-response.pdf), rather than an active shooter, which usually requires immediate entry to stop the threat. The decision to charge Gonzales, who was not in a position of command, has proven less clear and has elicited questions from the public about why he has been singled out from the crowd of more than 300 other officers. Requests for comment from *The Barbed Wire* to Uvalde County District Attorney Christina Mitchell asking why Gonzales has faced charges other responding officers have not were not immediately answered on Tuesday. Sam Bassett, a criminal defense attorney based in Austin, told *The Barbed Wire* it is possible that prosecutors are trying to test the success of their charges against Gonzales before attempting to hold other officers accountable. “To prosecute the very first officer on the scene is probably a good measure of whether or not other prosecutions might succeed,” Bassett said. “I think they started with the most obvious possible defendant to see how that would go through the court system and what the outcome might be. That will instruct them on how aggressive to be with regard to Arredondo or any other officers that might be charged.” As prosecutors began laying out their case this week, more insight has already been gleaned about the focus on Gonzales: Prosecutor Bill Turner’s opening arguments were emotional and left him on the verge of tears, marking the first time authorities explained their rationale for charging the officer, [ABC News reported](https://ruralradio.com/kneb-am/abc%5Fnews/uvalde-officer-was-told-location-of-gunman-but-he-failed-to-act-prosecutors-say-abcid83ce855c/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). A teacher was “face-to-face” with the gunman Salvador Ramos before he even entered the school and told Gonzales his location, but Gonzales failed to act, Turner told jurors. “She says, ‘He’s over there,’” Turner said. “She urges him to go get him.” “He gets on the radio and says, ‘Shots are fired, he’s wearing black, he’s in the parking lot,'” Turner continued. “He knows where he is, but Adrian Gonzales remains at the south side of the school.” Ramos “fired shots into a classroom full of children … Adrian Gonzales remains,” Turner said. Beyond Gonzales and Arredondo, families of the victims have been vocal in their frustration that more officers have not been charged, the *Associated Press* previously reported. Velma Duran, whose sister Irma Garcia was a teacher killed in the shooting, [told the *Associated Press*](https://apnews.com/article/uvalde-school-shooting-charges-police-1ad3983d191136be50a1780ef0a27cb7?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that she wanted legal action against more of the responding officers after the charges were brought against Arredondo and Gonzales in 2024. “I want every single person who was in the hallway charged for failure to protect the most innocent,” Duran said to the *Associated Press. “*My sister put her body in front of those children to protect them, something they could have done. They had the means and the tools to do it. My sister had her body.” Charging officers for inaction in the line of duty is somewhat uncharted legal territory, Sandra Guerra Thompson told *The Barbed Wire*. Thompson is a professor of criminal law at the University of Houston Law Center. “You’re talking about behavior that is ostensibly negligent, where there should have been some action taken that wasn't taken, so we really don't have a lot of precedent for it,” Thompson said. “The argument can be made that the length of time should have given officers time to realize the need for action.” One of the only parallel cases is that of Scot Peterson, a Florida police officer who failed to enter Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018 during a shooting that left 17 dead. Peterson was charged with felony child neglect, but a jury found him not guilty in 2023, [according to PBS](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/florida-deputy-acquitted-of-all-charges-for-failing-to-intervene-in-parkland-school-shooting?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Bassett said the prosecutions of Gonzales and Arredondo for child endangerment present a unique use of the charge that may be difficult to prove. “Endangerment cases are typically prosecuted against parents or caregivers, and their duties are obvious, but this case is more of a challenge,” Bassett said. “The first thing the prosecution needs to do is to create a framework for the jury’s understanding of the duty that the officers had to protect the children. That was his job as a police officer in that situation.” Gonzales’ attorney has argued that he is being scapegoated for a police response the Texas House report called a broad systemic failure. “The entirety of law enforcement and its training, preparation, and response shares systemic responsibility for many missed opportunities on that tragic day,” [the report reads](https://www.house.texas.gov/pdfs/committees/reports/interim/87interim/Robb-Elementary-Investigative-Committee-Report-update.pdf?ref=thebarbedwire.com). One former Robb Elementary student, AJ Martinez, who was shot in the leg during the 2022 shooting, will be attending the trial of Gonzales, his mother Kassandra [told *The New York Times.*](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/05/us/politics/uvalde-school-shooting-trial-robb.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) “He survived this and that officer did not go in,” Kassandra Martinez said to the *Times*. The presiding judge said Gonzales’ trial is expected to last approximately two weeks, according to [6 ABC Philadelphia](https://6abc.com/post/robb-elementary-school-shooting-trial-begins-officer-adrian-gonzales-accused-failing-protect-children-uvalde-tx/18355184/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). ### We Asked About Your New Year’s Resolutions. Y’all Are Trying Your Best. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/new-years-resolutions-trying-your-best/ Last updated: 2025-12-31T07:19:00.000Z Every year around this time, people make New Year’s resolutions with the same confidence you hear right before someone says, “No, it’s fine, I know exactly where I’m going” and then immediately misses their exit To get a sense of what we *actually* resolve to do (and never quite pull off) I asked people to share their recurring New Year’s resolutions. What I got back was not a collection of goals so much as a support group transcript. Take the respondent who has spent “probably a decade now” preparing to dunk a basketball. “Every December for probably a decade now, I spend a couple of hours online reading about how to increase my vertical jump so I can slam dunk a basketball,” they wrote. Not practicing. Not training. Reading. They can already touch the rim. They’re inches from greatness. And yet, year after year, the routine tops out at “buy a basketball” and “do one lower body workout” from a six-to-eight week program that never makes it to week two. Still, the optimism remains intact. “Maybe 2026 will be the year I take it all the way!” they said. (And maybe *this* time the lottery ticket will hit.) Another popular resolution: reading books. A timeless classic. One respondent explained: “Having two kids 18 months apart killed my ability to focus on anything,” they said. “I always tell myself I am going to start reading again.” “I never pick up a goddamn book because effort.” This is the most honest literary criticism ever written. Not “lack of time.” Not “burnout.” Just: Effort. The books sit there, untouched, quietly judging while we scroll our phones and absorb fifteen half-articles we immediately forget. Health and fitness also made a strong showing, particularly the kind that sounds impressive but collapses under mild scrutiny. “I’ve had years where I succeeded at rock climbing at least once a week or doing hot yoga at least once a week, but I’ve never been able to get myself reliably outside for walks, which are very good for my brain.” This person can scale walls and endure heat like a lizard, but stepping outdoors for a casual walk? Impossible. They once managed 10,000 steps a day, for *months*, before giving up, which is frankly more follow-through than most of us achieve. They’ve tried everything to stay motivated including “a Fitbit, an Apple Watch, an Oura Ring…” Unfortunately, they hit a snag. They wrote: “As the Department of Defense has started doing deals with these companies, I’m not quite sure how to track my own exercise responsibly anymore.” A fair concern. You set out to improve your mental health and suddenly NORAD knows when you skipped leg day. Some resolutions are less funny and more existential, like this person who wants to “try more seriously to learn how to talk to women and understand dating.” They went on: “I never make any progress and always end up more confused and discouraged. No one seems to have any answers and I don't think it's possible for me to do this.” This is not a resolution. This is a haunting short story. Not all recurring resolutions are failures, though. One reader reframed theirs after years of falling short. “For years, I made a resolution to read 52 books in a year,” they wrote, “even though I repeatedly failed to reach that goal, they were still the years where I read the most books.” They landed around 30 books each time, which is objectively great, and wisely adopted a “shoot for the moon, land among the stars” philosophy, proving that sometimes failing consistently is still wildly better than not trying at all. Then there are the aspirational personality upgrades. “I tell myself to have more patience for too-slow walkers, people who stand on the wrong side of escalators, and parents who allow their children to run around being loud and obnoxious in fine art museums.” A noble goal. Tragically, they included this postscript: “But I never quite get there ;)” No one ever does. The second someone stops at the top of an escalator, all resolutions evaporate. Other honorable mentions include promising to save for a drum kit and get back into playing (“never follow through”), getting back into *“insert healthy activity”* (the most versatile resolution of all), and this masterpiece of self-sabotage: “I try to drink less but if I'm successful at it I reward myself by drinking.” Which perfectly captures the New Year’s resolution experience: Set goal, almost achieve goal, immediately undermine goal to celebrate achievement. If there’s a lesson here, it’s not that we should stop making resolutions. It’s that we should accept what they really are: annual check-ins with our better selves, followed by twelve months of doing our best under extremely predictable circumstances. Will anyone dunk a basketball in 2026? Probably not. Will we read more than zero books? Maybe. Will we walk outside, learn dating, practice patience, save money, drink less, and finally buy that drum kit? Also probably not. But we’ll think about it. In December. For a couple of hours. And honestly? That might be enough. ### The Kindness That Got Us Through The Year URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-kindness-that-got-us-through-the-year/ Last updated: 2025-12-29T06:01:00.000Z This year was a year to remember, and for (mostly) the wrong reasons. Our [voting power was diluted](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-republicans-gerrymandering-maps-trump/), [disabled children were locked up](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/disabled-child-federal-immigration-custody/), [mothers were grabbed while taking their kid’s college](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/million-texas-students-undocumented-ice-mom-taken/), a [midwife was arrested for doing her job](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/ken-paxton-houston-abortionist-arrested/), it got [more dangerous to have a baby](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-women-invisible-labor-abortion-bans/) and to simply live as a [trans Texan.](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/houston-removes-rainbow-pride-crosswalk-abbott/) If Texas politics felt unhinged this year, that’s because the hinge was intentionally removed. Oh and the [governor is taking orders from hate-mongering content creators](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/greg-abbott-libsoftiktok-lgbtq/). Nothing says leadership like chasing clicks. What a time to be alive. But, as an eternal optimist, I know that for every shitty thing that happened to Texans, there were more good things. In a year defined by manufactured outrage, the most radical act turned out to be showing up anyway. Like the [women at the capitol who tried to fight facism](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/how-five-women-at-the-texas-capitol-stood-up-against-fascism/), or the [Texas judge who planned a big gay wedding party](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/big-queer-wedding-party-in-texas/) as a protest against anti-LGBTQ laws. And the woman who spent [141 days in ICE custody](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/ward-sakeik-ice-custody-beautiful-sisterh/) and is now fighting for women like her. Of course, being a journalist, I wanted to ask others about the moments that got them through the year. I’ve compiled our favorites below. #### Hannah J. Langenfeld, Operations Fellow at *The Barbed Wire* For me, 2025 was filled with the ups and downs. My highest moment was attending the All Things Go music festival in D.C. in September with my best friend, Maria. We’d waited four long years to go — worth it because we saw Noah Kahan perform live! Kahan is one of my favorite musicians (I have a tattoo inspired by his songs, shhh!) and I turned Maria into a fan quickly. His lyrics contain deep emotion, and have helped me get through and process quite a bit. When Kahan sang “Homesick,” I felt carefree and transcended, albeit with a sore throat from screaming at the top of my lungs. That tends to happen when you LOSE your MIND for your favorite musician. Which is why following the set with the best soft-serve ice cream in D.C. was the cherry on top of a memorable day with someone who has been *through it* with me. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/251218_gifts2025_hannah_embed.jpg) #### Brian Gaar, Senior Editor, *The Barbed Wire* It's been a tough year. My best friend got me tickets to see John Mulaney in Austin and it was one of the best shows I've ever seen. In contrast to a lot of the mean-spirited comedy that has suffused our culture lately, Mulaney was light-hearted and fun, without ever punching down. A total pro, and it was a joy to watch! #### Olivia Messer, Editor in Chief, *The Barbed Wire* Spots of brightness for me this year included Sabrina Carpenter’s \*whole thing,\* the time I said I needed “flour” and my 4-year-old nephew handed me a bouquet of crocheted sunflowers, the catharsis of [writing vulnerably and feeling seen](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-is-a-lot-more-queer-than-you-think/), and the fact that *The Barbed Wire’s* whole team made space for me to take a much-needed medical leave in the spring after something really bad happened to me. I feel more than ever that doing good journalism and spotlighting important stories is actually good business. That makes me really excited for how we’re going to build out our team in 2026. When we were covering the July 4 floods in Kerrville, the stories of strangers donating their time, money, and attention to the families in need were so impactful to me. One couple, Daric and Heidi Easton, told CNN they own a restaurant and [immediately started making food for the first responders at Camp Mystic](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/camp-mystic-campers-grieve-magical-place-100-years-flood-texas-guadalupe/). “I think hospitality and service is uniquely equipped to handle situations like this,” Daric Easton, who has a daughter around the age of the missing girls, told the cable news station. “I can’t imagine what these parents are going through, and I don’t need to. I just need to make sandwiches.” Cara, our managing editor, wrote about her own family’s efforts to save people during Hurricane Helene, using just a canoe — and how [the majority of search and rescue folks during natural disasters are volunteers, in fact](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-flood-volunteers-fema-climate-change/). Amid all the adversity and hardship this year, it’s too easy to forget how many people dedicate their lives to public service, whether they’re working an unpaid side job doing search and rescue work, raising rescue dogs from a puppy mill, doing pro bono legal aid for immigration clients, or making sandwiches for grieving parents. What if we’re actually all more generous, understanding, and compassionate than we give each other credit for? #### Darryl Golden, Journalist and Producer My favorite moment(s) this year have come from people who took the time to speak life into me by celebrating, LOUDLY, my wins, accomplishments, and accolades. ([Golden is an Emmy-award winning journalist who was recognized for his coverage of South Dallas history and civic engagement in Black communities.](https://dallasweekly.com/2025/12/lone-star-emmy-golden-moncrease/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)) These people created space for me to acknowledge the cool and wonderful work I’ve been able to create. It’s an experience that was foreign and it was a good reminder to always celebrate ourselves! I’m thankful to receive my flowers and I’m thankful for the opportunities to smell them. I am grateful! ☺️ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/251218_gifts2025_darryl_embed.jpg) #### Karla “DJ KICKIT” Rendón, DJ, Entrepreneur, Speaker and Author This year tested my confidence in ways I didn’t expect. On paper, my DJ career was thriving — but internally, I was questioning whether I had the right to pursue something bigger: public speaking. Around the same time, I was unexpectedly terminated from a job, and the blow to my self-esteem lingered far longer than I wanted to admit. I felt unsteady, unsure, and disconnected from the version of myself I knew I could be. Then I went to a speakers retreat hosted by one of my favorite motivational speakers and pianist, [Jade Simmons](https://jadesimmons.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — and everything shifted. Jade didn’t just teach us how to speak; she helped me *remember who I was*. As I shared vulnerable, painful experiences from my past, she gently reflected something back to me that I had lost sight of: my purpose. Jade helped me see how so many moments from my childhood — the rhythm, the storytelling, the connection — were early callings of the work I do today as a DJ and entertainer. Nothing was random. Nothing was wasted. When she prayed over me, I broke down. Not from sadness, but from release. I didn’t need advice or validation — I needed to be seen. I needed someone from the entertainment world to understand the weight we carry behind the scenes and remind me that my gifts weren’t accidental. That moment reminded me how powerful kindness can be when it comes in the form of listening, belief, and a genuine embrace. Sometimes what gets us through isn’t a grand gesture, but a reminder of who we are — paired with a hug at exactly the right time. Oh yea… and we performed together at her all women’s conference a few months afterwards! ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/251218_gifts2025_karla_embed.jpg) Screenshot #### Amanda McCoy, Social Media Fellow, *The Barbed Wire* It’s rough out here, from world conflicts to the government’s conservative agenda in the glorious state of Texas, we call home. Not to mention my personal life and “adulting” (even though I barely classify myself as an adult, I'm a baby adult). It's crucial to ground myself while I stay informed and for me, music is my personal solace. What got me through this year was one specific 1975 tune: “Dreamboat Annie” by Heart. Heart is a rock band fronted by sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson, formed in Seattle. There’s something about that rainy city that produces most of my favorite rock/grunge musicians. As a sister myself, I feel connected to their music and appreciate their bond. It warms my *heart* in the best way. So when the news notifications keep coming through, and it's all intensely negative, my anxiety often requires more than a peppermint tea to calm me. There’s also my stress about my (adult) future that, knock on wood, may not live up to my many Pinterest boards. Still, in the midst of all the chaos, I can always count on the two minutes and one second of “Dreamboat Annie” to be my cure-all. Listen to it, maybe it can help you, too. #### Kit O’Connell, Big and Bright Contributor, *The Barbed Wire* There’s a young man I’ve been checking in with all year because I’m working on a developing story with him about legal trouble and the right to protest. This guy has been through it with the system, and was even placed on house arrest for minor charges. The last time we spoke, as we were wrapping up the formal interview, he said to me, “I don’t know how this works, am I allowed to ask about you?” He then conducted a mini-interview with me about my work and how I’m doing. It was so refreshing to have this guy, with troubles of his own, take a moment to simply say “Hey, I see you, how are you doing?” It reminded me of how we all carry burdens and yet time and again we find just a little more capacity to reach out to others. It was a small moment but stuck with me. #### Last but not least, me! Like many American families, I’m dealing with the reality that current events these past few years have [drastically changed](https://www.teenvogue.com/story/estranged-how-to-find-community-after-going-no-contact-with-family?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [family dynamics](https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/david-litt-response-no-contact-parents-maga.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). But I believe that when good things fall apart, it’s because better things come into place. That’s what I witnessed most of all this year. This past summer I spent a wonderful 10 days galavanting with girlfriends in the jungles, beaches, and cities of Colombia with my friend Manuela who planned the trip to her home country. I met Manuela in Jamaica on a retreat in 2023 and immediately knew we were destined to be the best of friends. She lives in New York City, so most of our friendship has been nurtured via text, scheduled zoom dates, occasional plane rides, and road trips to visit each other. This year, I got a chance to experience the beauty of her country. In the midst of me writing about a lot of traumatic stories happening in the U.S. (see first paragraph), I was reminded of the beauty and culture of Latin America. The trip was meant to be a reminder to celebrate life and the little things. While we had fabulous experiences in Colombia and even got to dance at Karol G’s bar(!), it’s the daily life moments that stay with me. The moments of us singing and dancing to Bad Bunny and Karol G in the car. The moment we greeted each other at the airport. When I met her best friends growing up and we all collectively bonded. But perhaps the most magical moment was when she officially gifted me her sisterhood. On one of our last days in the beautiful country, we each got a secret person from our group (like a secret santa) to give them something small. The day before we had spent time at a local artisan market in the country’s oldest city, Santa Marta. I was fascinated with the cultural similarities of indigenous life from my parent’s home counties of Mexico and Guatemala. I told her that for some reason Colombia felt like home, like an ancestral memory. A woman in one of the booths looked at us and said we had a special friendship, like soul sisters. We smiled, teared up and embraced each other then went about our trip. The day before we all departed, I opened up a small gift wrapped in newspaper from Manuela. It was a beautiful black artisan mask with a sun at the top made by the lovely Tayrona woman we met at the Santa Marta market. The woman had told us that, in Tayrona indigenous culture, such pieces are shared as gifts upon being welcomed into a chosen family. That moment stays with me. We don’t always get the choice of what situations we’re placed in, but we always get the choice to surround ourselves with people who see us for the magic we are. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/251218_gifts2025_leslie_embed.jpg) ### Yes, Everything’s on Fire. But People Are Still Helping Each Other. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/yes-everythings-on-fire-but-people-are-still-helping-each-other/ Last updated: 2025-12-26T06:01:00.000Z If you’re reading this, congratulations!!!! You survived 2025\. Truly, an achievement on par with running a marathon, passing calculus, or navigating I-35 through Waco without crying. The world right now feels like a group project where half the participants insist that gravity is a hoax, another quarter is [trying to monetize](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-stock-exchange-sec-approval/) gravity [with crypto](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-bitcoin-dan-patrick-charles-schwertner/), and the rest of us are just attempting to turn in *something* before the planet gets repossessed. And yet. Here we are. Heading into 2026 with the stubborn optimism of a Texan who believes *this* is the [Cowboys’ year](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/jerry-jones-cowboys-documentary/). (It’s not, but God bless that spirit.) Hope isn’t easy lately. [Awful violence grips the headlines](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/12/14/bondi-beach-shooting-australia/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on a seemingly daily basis. Rob Reiner and his wife were murdered and our president [attacked him before their bodies were cold](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/15/us/politics/trump-rob-reiner.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Oh, and our government is [taking money away from blind kids](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/15/us/trump-dei-funding-deaf-blind.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Here in Texas, our lieutenant governor wants to hand the check for running the state to [everyone under 55](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/12/09/texas-dan-patrick-school-property-tax-cuts-homestead-exemption/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), part of our leadership’s long-running strategy of “let the kids pay for it.” You can’t open the news without a story jumping out like “EVERYTHING IS BAD (find out precisely *how bad* behind our paywall)!” By most available metrics — economic, political, environmental, spiritual, and even “vibes” — things look pretty bad right now. The news cycle has become a relentless carousel of crises, [scandals](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/john-cornyn-ted-cruz-vote-epstein-files/), and phrases that sound like they were generated by a malfunctioning dystopia generator. Every morning brings a fresh reminder that the adults are [not in charge](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/greg-abbott-libsoftiktok-lgbtq/), the systems are creaking, and the future has been subcontracted to the lowest bidder. If optimism were a stock, it would be trading somewhere between Bed Bath & Beyond and [Pets.com](http://pets.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). And yet. Annoyingly. Hope refuses to die. This is not the inspirational, Instagram-quote version of hope. There will be no softly lit stock photos of people standing on mountaintops with their arms outstretched. This is the stubborn, dented, slightly sarcastic hope that survives out of pure spite. The kind that says, “Yes, everything is on fire, but I’m still not letting the worst people win *everything*.” Because here’s the thing about bleak eras: People have lived through worse ones. Often without Wi-Fi, or air conditioning, or the ability to mute their least favorite public figures. History is basically one long reminder that humans are spectacularly bad at managing power, but surprisingly good at surviving, adapting, and occasionally doing something decent when it matters. Even now, beneath the screaming headlines and algorithmic outrage, people are still helping each other. They’re organizing, creating, [caring](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/big-queer-wedding-party-in-texas/), laughing, making art, telling jokes, falling in love, raising kids, and [showing up](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/queer-community-outside-the-bar-texas/) in small ways that will never trend but still count. No one’s writing breaking news alerts about neighbors checking on neighbors or strangers quietly doing the right thing, but it’s happening anyway. In Texas, we’re [feeding hungry people out of our kitchens](https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/video/north-texas-woman-starts-mobile-pantry-in-her-kitchen-to-feed-the-hungry-in-need/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [saving our neighbors during floods](https://abcnews.go.com/US/navy-seals-search-recovery-efforts-after-texas-floods/story?id=123703548&ref=thebarbedwire.com), and raising money to [help vulnerable LGBTQ youth](https://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/fort-worth/article309384465.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Our high schoolers are [building apps to help senior citizens avoid cyber scams](https://time.com/7315024/kid-of-the-year-2025/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Good people are suing for their rights and the rights of others. [Communities are organizing](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/disabled-child-federal-immigration-custody/), and some of us are still delivering Meals on Wheels. Hope, going into 2026, doesn’t mean pretending things are fine. They are very much *not fine*. Instead, hope means recognizing that cynicism is easy, surrender is tempting, and disengagement is exactly what the worst actors are counting on. It means choosing, every day, to stay a little bit human in a system that increasingly rewards being a monster. So yes, the future looks uncertain. The road ahead is bumpy, poorly lit, and full of people insisting the potholes are a hoax. But we’re still here. We’re still paying attention. We’re still capable of kindness, solidarity, and the occasional miracle disguised as basic decency. That’s not nothing. Going into 2026, maybe the goal isn’t blind optimism or total despair. Maybe it’s grit. Maybe it’s humor. Maybe it’s the radical act of believing that things can get better. Not automatically. Not easily. But because people decide to make them better. History shows us that progress is slow, fragile, and deeply annoyingly elliptical. But it also shows that it’s possible. Inevitable, even. And honestly, at this point, spite-fueled hope might be the most realistic plan we’ve got. ### Gutsy, Fearless Journalism Isn’t Dead. Don’t Let Bari Weiss Convince You It Is. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/2025-in-review/ Last updated: 2025-12-23T10:14:00.000Z Look, I’m a crier. I get misty-eyed at adorable babies and beautiful brides, so you can imagine what a nightmare it is to sit near me when I report on tragedies. Still, I was gobsmacked when I began to write my year-in-review piece — *a simple assignment!* [*I’ve done dozens of them*](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/best-of-the-barbed-wire-2024-video-games-peyote-gardens-and-millennial-revolutions/)[*over*](https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-golden-state-killer-the-cleveland-stranger-and-the-gardner-among-the-serial-killers-caught-this-decade/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)[*my career!*](https://www.thedailybeast.com/giving-tuesday-from-el-paso-to-hurricane-dorian-dont-forget-these-2019-causes/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)— and found myself weeping into a voice memo to our managing editor and sending a late-night, saccharine message to our all-staff Slack channel. See, it was miraculous when we scraped together enough money to launch a newsroom [16 months ago](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/are-you-there-texas-its-me-olivia/). I had a [clear vision](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/are-you-there-texas-its-me-olivia/) of what [*The Barbed Wire* could be](https://depthperceptionbyll.substack.com/p/barbed-wire-texas-journalism-olivia-messer), but it required a lot of things to go right. By the grace of God, I somehow managed to convince a handful of people who’d largely decided to leave this toxic ouroboros of an industry to try *just one more time*. I did not even dare to dream that with a roll of duct tape, some shoe string, and *a full-time editorial staff of five*, our little newsroom would [publish the](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/she-voted-for-trump-then-she-had-two-terrifying-miscarriages-in-texas/) [most important](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/disabled-child-federal-immigration-custody/) [stories](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/anti-trans-laws-houston-ordinance-bathroom-bill/) [of my career](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/san-antonio-police-officers-melissa-perez-murder-trial/). You already know 2025 has been a hard one for Texans. Our headlines were filled with more [horror](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/children-doctor-left-his-heart-in-gaza-palestine/), [tears](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/enjoy-these-liberal-tears/), and [blood](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/i-almost-died-after-giving-birth-texas-just-made-that-more-likely-for-everyone/) than [joy or exuberance](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/big-queer-wedding-party-in-texas/). Since we’re [reporting from inside](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-makes-no-sense/) our own [communities](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/transgender-journalist-living-in-texas/), we have a personal stake in the stories we tell — a journalistic tradition the best [local newspapers acknowledge](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/outlook/article/evan-mintz-chronicle-opinion-bias-20784692.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Having [a team](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/about/) that purposefully includes marginalized voices means our work and lives have been impacted by the intensity of the news cycle, too. We published stories on the [free speech crisis for Black Americans](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/free-speech-crisis-for-black-americans-charlie-kirk/) and the [journalists who’ve been seized by ICE](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/how-my-friend-and-fellow-journalist-was-targeted-by-ice/) while [David Ellison](https://newrepublic.com/post/204166/paramount-ceo-trump-secret-promise-cnn-warner-bros?ref=thebarbedwire.com) was [promising President Donald Trump](https://newrepublic.com/post/204166/paramount-ceo-trump-secret-promise-cnn-warner-bros?ref=thebarbedwire.com) he’d revamp CNN and installing [Bari Weiss at CBS News](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/bari-weiss-cbs-rise-of-fascism/). When I wrote this draft, I didn’t even know she’d soon spike a [“60 Minutes” story](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/21/business/60-minutes-trump-bari-weiss.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) about the men Trump’s administration sent to a brutal prison in El Salvador. Likewise, when [Condé Nast](https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/health-wellness/2025/11/05/teen-vogue-vogue-tween-spaces/87104821007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) decimated *Teen Vogue* — once a [home for young, diverse writers](https://missingperspectives.com/posts/teen-vogue-closes/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to produce incisive content — we were strategizing on a more robust pipeline for journalists of color in Texas. After [NBC eliminated](https://www.hrgrapevine.com/us/content/article/2025-12-15-journalists-of-color-question-recent-media-layoffs-amid-dei-purge?ref=thebarbedwire.com) the teams behind NBC BLK, NBC Latino, and NBC Out, we launched a [queer vertical.](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/big-bright/) My most passionate, unshakeable belief is that our diversity, vulnerability, and tenacity defines our journalism for the better — and makes for wrenching, impactful storytelling that can change lives. Still, I wasn’t sure who else believed. Then I looked back at how we’ve supplemented our *extremely* *modest* resources through partnerships and collaborations, from [MSNBC](https://www.ms.now/opinion/msnbc-opinion/house-rep-julie-johnson-texas-rcna185481?ref=thebarbedwire.com) (sorry, I still need to call it that) and [*The 19th\**](https://19thnews.org/2025/09/ice-custody-immigration-detainment-sisterhood/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to [*The Contrarian*](https://contrarian.substack.com/p/we-gave-tax-cuts-to-the-rich-and) and the [Pulitzer-winning Investigative Reporting Workshop](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/anti-trans-laws-houston-ordinance-bathroom-bill/) at American University. We even received a grant from the Pulitzer Center. Those places clearly believe too. It turns out, so do y’all. Because you opened and read our stories *more than a million times.* That number is, frankly, insane. It’s also proof that people still want journalism that tells the truth, even when it’s upsetting or holds powerful people to account. The fact that we're getting recognized isn’t just about vanity. It’s validating because we’re taking real risks by [going against the grain](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/bari-weiss-cbs-rise-of-fascism/) of corporate, mainstream media. To be completely candid, there were more times than I’d like to admit when we weren’t sure how to keep the lights on. Times [I had to take a medical leave](https://x.com/OliviaMesser/status/1925238282947789045?s=20&ref=thebarbedwire.com), and my team kept *The Barbed Wire* going. Times powerful people threatened to sue us for exposing their own wrongdoing. To keep us afloat, there’s almost nothing I wouldn’t do: I will continue [drawing your pets on Bluesky](https://bsky.app/profile/oliviamesser.bsky.social/post/3lx3lqiithk2a?ref=thebarbedwire.com) until journalism is saved or my wrist gives out, whichever comes first. [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/newsletter-300x250-1.png)](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/subscribe/) ### Subscribe to the Wild Texas Newsletter! Make no mistake, we are in a battle for survival. To put it bluntly, [supporting independent journalism](https://www.thehandbasket.co/p/independent-journalism-gift-guide?ref=thebarbedwire.com) has never mattered more than it does at this moment. Especially gutsy, fearless reporting with grit like we produce at *The Barbed Wire*. We believe that in order to inform, journalism must remain accessible to everyone. That’s why our stories and newsletters are free. We have no corporate overlords pushing us towards fascism, but we also have no pile of cash to weather a recession (or [vibe-cession](https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/12/18/opinion/larry-edelman-recession-say-more-podcast/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) or whatever is making [corny dogs cost](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-state-fair-inflation-attendance-prices/) more). So if you’re able, please support us by [becoming a member](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/become-a-member/) or by gifting our hard-working journalists some coffee money (there’s no Keurig in our fully remote office). Whatever you can give, know that we’ll put it to exceptional use. Keep reading for proof that we operate like a journalism version of “Chopped,” except the mystery basket isn’t Cheeto dust and old lemons. Instead it’s grants, fellows, public information requests, and raw panic. ## The Barbed Wire’s 2025 We started the year with a bang: In January, Managing Editor Cara Kelly’s story on the impact of [abortion bans](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-true-cost-of-texas-abortion-ban-rising-deaths-abandoned-babies-fewer-doctors/) detailed how mothers and babies have been harmed by new laws. It also earned her a spot on *The Daily Beast*’s podcast, [The New Abnormal](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-new-abnormal/id1508202790?i=1000683880576&ref=thebarbedwire.com). A week later, we published [an extraordinary essay](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/i-cant-believe-its-not-heroin/) from contributor Jake Rhodes on the experience of taking — and becoming addicted to — synthetic heroin that can be purchased at gas stations in Texas. It was later cited by the [*Houston Chronicle*](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/columnists/tomlinson/article/kratom-addiction-texas-laws-20158844.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in a policy-focused editorial, then legislation was proposed to regulate synthetic heroin and close legal loopholes. I’ve never read anything else like it. That same month — our fifth in existence — *The Barbed Wire* cohosted [a forum](https://secure.actblue.com/donate/wtl-tpd-dncchair?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in Austin, where I asked tough questions of the candidates vying to lead the Democratic National Committee. This was my very last question: > *The Democratic coalition is not exactly represented on this stage today; none of the candidates here are people of color, all are men, the youngest is in his 40s, and none of y’all have worked a service industry or building trades jobs in a long, long time. How are you the right people to lead the Democratic coalition, and ensure that experiences, values, and priorities of young people, people of color, working class folks, queer folks, and women – all of whom the Democratic Party must engage in order to win – are reflected in the Party’s work?* Afterward, Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley walked off stage abruptly, while Ken Martin — who won the chairmanship — shook my nervous, sweaty hand and thanked me. In February, we published [a heavyweight investigation by Riya Misra](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/houston-horn-player-harrassed-rice-students/), who was still a senior at Rice University. She interviewed a whopping 26 former students and industry insiders, revealing a pattern of accusations spanning 30 years against famed horn professor William VerMeulen — claims they say Rice administrators knew about and failed to act on.⁠ Today, VerMeulen remains the principal hornist and an endowed chair at the Grammy Award-winning Houston Symphony, where former students say he still teaches privately.⁠ That story was part of an innovative partnership between *The Barbed Wire* and the editorially independent student publication *The Rice Thresher*, where copies were printed all over campus*.* Riya’s reporting was picked up by myriad publications and cited in [*The Washington Post*](https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/2025/10/19/she-spurned-concertmasters-advance-now-shes-classical-musics-metoo-vigilante/?ref=thebarbedwire.com).More importantly, we were inundated with dozens of messages and comments from women who thanked Riya for her work and corroborated the allegations. After Riya left us for *Politico* magazine, a man I’d never met approached me at the Texas Tribune Festival in November to tell me that another story of hers was the best he read on the [Summer Willis Act](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-law-didnt-recognize-summer-williss-rape-but-it-does-now/), which closed loopholes in rape prosecutions in Texas. That piece was also shared on Instagram [by Monica Lewinsky](https://bsky.app/profile/oliviamesser.bsky.social/post/3ly4mc2jlzc26?ref=thebarbedwire.com) (!!!). Senior Editor Brian Gaar made his mark this year too, covering everything from [Elon Musk’s video game cheating](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/elon-musk-admitted-to-cheating-at-video-games-gamers-are-aghast-why-did-he-do-it/) and the scam of Texas’ [school voucher bills](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-school-voucher/) to [Austin’s comedy scene](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/tony-hinchcliffe-duncan-carson-kill-tony/) and [Texas’ 17 new constitutional amendments](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/we-gave-tax-cuts-to-the-rich-texas-17-constitutional-amendments/). Brian’s biting political analysis is only matched by his sentimentality, humor, and gigantic heart. That means he can produce both [a scathing review of Texas’ official history museum](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/bullock-history-museum/) (which was shared online by U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro) and a thoughtful, hilarious [essay about “King of the Hill.”](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/king-of-the-hill/) The latter got him invited [on the podcast City Cast Austin](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/city-cast-austin/id1750493817?i=1000722922897&ref=thebarbedwire.com) to chat about the show and what it means to Texans. Reading it might just heal your complicated relationship with our strange state. But my favorite from Brian this year was the sweet memory he shared about meeting [Hollywood legend Rob Reiner](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/rob-reiner-memory/), who was murdered in his home this month. It was filled with light in a time of darkness. Readers called it [“unique and candid and beautiful”](https://bsky.app/profile/frozenpbr.bsky.social/post/3ma2wfe46kk25?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [“exactly the sort of story we needed to hear today.”](https://bsky.app/profile/txdede.bsky.social/post/3ma2jmms7pk2i?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Leslie Rangel, our deputy managing editor, has cemented herself as a force for good in the world through her investigative chops, deep well of empathy, and passion for telling hard truths — about [abortion](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-women-invisible-labor-abortion-bans/), [growing up Latina in Texas](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/journalism-helped-me-fight-against-the-white-washed-texas/), and immigration. She spent [weeks reporting out the story of Emmanuel Gonzalez](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/disabled-child-federal-immigration-custody/), a 15-year-old with an intellectual disability who walked away from his mom’s fruit stand in October. Though his mom filed a missing person’s report within hours, Houston Police called ICE instead of reuniting them. After 48 days, three editorials [from ](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/editorials/article/teen-autistic-missing-houston-police-hpd-whitmire-21155829.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com)[*The Houston Chronicle*](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/editorials/article/maria-garcia-emmaneul-immigration-judicial-order-21201629.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com), repeated requests for comment from *The Barbed Wire*, grueling legal work by attorneys and the advocacy organization FIEL, contentious city council meetings, tearful press conferences, and intercessions from politicians like Congressman Al Green, Emmanuel was finally released. It turned out that his mother’s anguish and anger were unstoppable forces. Emmanuel’s story, which we copublished with *The 19th\*,* was republished by *The Contrarian*, shared online by Flipboard, featured in Apple News’ top stories, linked in *The Washington Post*’s [Early Brief newsletter](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/11/25/house-wont-stop-punishing-itself/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and [cited by *Politico*](https://www.politico.com/newsletters/women-rule/2025/12/05/will-a-lapse-in-aca-subsidies-imperil-black-maternal-health-00678283?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “The way she wrote this is honest, mindful, and poetic,” said Cathi Rae, a member of Autism Moms of Houston, on Instagram. “She told the story through my eyes and carried the weight of what happened to a special needs boy who should’ve been brought straight back to his mother. I’m grateful she wrote it the way she did. The article is beautiful because it refuses to look away from the truth.” When immigration agents began [disappearing the families of kindergarteners and college freshmen](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/million-texas-students-undocumented-ice-mom-taken/), Leslie reported on the nearly one million students in Texas who have at least one undocumented parent. Somehow, amid the cruelty, Leslie managed to make that piece about hope, and about community members volunteering their time to help strangers. In August, during the redistricting battle and Democrats’ quorum break, Leslie and I [wrote about](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/how-five-women-at-the-texas-capitol-stood-up-against-fascism/) Rep. Nicole Collier’s Texas House protest, which [one reader called](https://bsky.app/profile/clancyny.bsky.social/post/3lwrivckeq22l?ref=thebarbedwire.com), “Hands down, the best piece on the swirl of events around Rep. Nicole Collier, the threat to arrest her, and the wellspring of support that has emerged.” When I took medical leave, Cara led our newsroom as interim editor, publishing a [devastating investigation](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/murder-amarillo-felita-bailey/) in June by contributor Sam Judy about the death of Felita Bailey in Amarillo. She’s also [the reason we presented a panel at the Investigative Reporters and Editors conference](https://schedules.ire.org/ire-2025/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) later that month called “Me Too isn’t over: Lessons from both sides of sexual harassment and violence investigations.” Sam went on to write impactful story after impactful story for us, including one on Palestinian protester Leqaa Kordia, [who remains in ICE detention even now](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/leqaa-kordia-palestinian-protester-ice-detention/), and one on Ward Sakeik, a Palestinian wedding photographer [who was held in detention for 141 days](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/ward-sakeik-ice-custody-beautiful-sisterh/) despite an order of supervision that allowed her to legally stay in the country. Cara, who formerly worked at the Investigative Reporting Workshop, brought years of research with her that turned into this [profoundly important reporting](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/anti-trans-laws-houston-ordinance-bathroom-bill/) on the history of anti-trans legislation across the country. With the help of many interns and fellows, Cara paints a clear picture of how a since-forgotten city ordinance in Houston turned into anti-trans laws in 19 states. Director of Operations Billy Begala has [written several sharp stories](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-republicans-gerrymandering-maps-trump/), and his father (and a legend in his own right) Paul Begala penned a heartfelt tribute to University of Texas superfan [Scott Wilson](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/longhorns-remember-superfan-scott-wilson/), who attended 594 football games in a row before he passed away this year. The piece was [featured in the UT athletic director’s newsletter](https://texaslonghorns.com/news/2025/11/4/forty-acres-insider-november-4?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Legendary football coach Mack Brown, Quarterback Colt McCoy, and other members of Longhorn Nation shared memories of a fallen friend with Paul. Contributor Steven Monacelli has done excellent work for us, from essays and analysis to investigations. That includes this [thorough review of the federal investigation](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/new-details-july-4-ice-attack-holes-feds-case/) into an attack on an ICE facility near Dallas. Steven found that there were repeated changes to the official narrative, a rush by officials to blame an entire group for what appeared to be the actions of one man, and claims by defendants of political persecution. He was rightfully recognized as Dallas’s [Best Reporter](https://www.dmagazine.com/guides/best-of-big-d-2025/detail/steven-monacelli/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) by *D* *Magazine* this year. Contributor Cat Cardenas [wrote about how she’s spent most of her adult life](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/july-4-latino-immigrants-celebrate-country-love-you-back/) watching Texas lawmakers villainize Latino immigrants like her grandparents — and how strange it feels to celebrate a country that doesn’t love you back. Taylor Crumpton, another contributor, wrote about how [everything we love in America was made by Black people](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/july-4-everything-you-love-about-america-is-because-of-black-people/) — and about how watching Olandria Carthen and Nicolas Vansteenberghe, also known as Nicolandria, [on Love Island USA](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/nicolandria-love-island-balm-black-women-in-the-south/) might just have helped heal some of our national wounds around interracial dating. When contributor Paul Flahive brought us a pitch on [an historic trial of police officers in San Antonio](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/san-antonio-police-officers-murder-trial/), nearly nobody — statewide or nationally — was paying attention. We published his first piece in October. By the time we published [the second one](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/san-antonio-police-officers-melissa-perez-murder-trial/) in November, we were competing with *The New York Times*. This fall, we launched our first vertical, [Big & Bright,](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/big-bright/) showcasing the joy and resilience of LGBTQ+ Texans, of which there are 1.8 million. In my opening essay for the section, I came out publicly for the first time in an extremely vulnerable essay. It was our first to be featured [by Longreads](https://longreads.com/2025/10/29/queer-texas/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/bigandbright_v10_glitterstars-1.png) ### Subscribe to the Big & Bright Newsletter! We then hired contributor Kit O’Connell to lead that section, which they kicked off with a moving essay about working in Texas as a trans journalist. It [was shared online by GLAAD](https://www.instagram.com/p/DRxqw1sEqeG/?img%5Findex=1&ref=thebarbedwire.com). (Yeah, that’s the place [Taylor Swift wrote about](https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/taylor-swift-pride-anthem-leads-influx-glaad-donations-n1017746?ref=thebarbedwire.com)!) Since launching, we’ve covered [queer weddings](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/big-queer-wedding-party-in-texas/), [queer line-dancing](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/queer-community-outside-the-bar-texas/), [gay campgrounds](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-gayest-campground-camp-nackte-rainbow-ranch/), the [erasure of Pride crosswalks](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/houston-removes-rainbow-pride-crosswalk-abbott/), the [success of queer pop stars](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/everybody-say-thank-you-khalid-for-reviving-the-male-pop-star/), the [history of gay cowboys](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/more-gay-cowboys/), [drag queen activists](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-drag-queen-legislation/), [powerhouse wrestlers](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/pro-wrestling-elite-texas-brick-savage/), and [gay proposals on the floor of the Texas House of Representatives](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/one-of-the-first-black-gay-men-to-serve-in-the-texas-capitol-just-proposed-on-the-house-floor/). “As Gov. Abbott and others try to marginalize and erase anyone who isn’t a cis white man in Texas, it’s important to remember just how diverse and vibrant the state and its people really are,” one reader told us. “Texas needs more of this,” she added. “Texans deserve more of this.” There’s another reader email I still think about, months after it arrived in my inbox. Right when I returned from my aforementioned medical leave, disaster struck in Kerrville on July 4 weekend, and it hit us all hard. Leslie, Riya, and I worked around the clock on a series of [gutting pieces](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/camp-mystic-campers-grieve-magical-place-100-years-flood-texas-guadalupe/) [on the floods](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/camp-mystic-alum-remembers-past-flood/) that weekend. Then I received this message. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-3.png) If, as that reader said, our reporting has helped you understand Texas or “recover your humanity,” please consider helping us stay alive. Thank you so much for your support. We love you, and we’re endlessly grateful that we get to continue publishing a mix of impactful investigations, witty personal essays, and incisive political analysis. No corporate capitulation; just clarity and plain language. I’ll even keep drawing your pets if you’ll let me. Xoxo, Olivia ### What Do I Want for Christmas? Two Words: Glen Powell. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/glen-powell-christmas/ Last updated: 2025-12-23T06:01:00.000Z Let me start with Michelle Randolph. Congratulations on securing Cuffing Season’s #1 Draft Pick. I saw you [in that TikTok](https://www.tiktok.com/@edosedaily/video/7576677140460997909?ref=thebarbedwire.com) two stepping with Glen Powell at Donn’s Depot. It feels like a scene out of one of the *many* romantic comedies, thrillers, and action films that Powell has starred in. “Twisters” is the first one that comes to mind because who can forget the [wet t-shirt](https://variety.com/2024/film/columns/twisters-glen-powell-wet-t-shirt-scene-1236068920/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) moment that caused theatergoers to audibly gasp? The thirst trap — which was covered by [*Entertainment Weekly*](https://ew.com/glen-powell-wet-t-shirt-scene-almost-cut-twisters-director-8679765?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [*Out* magazine](https://www.out.com/film/glen-powell-wet-tshirt-scene-twisters?ref=thebarbedwire.com#rebelltitem1) (we love a heartthrob that is LGBTQIA+ friendly) — further cemented his claim as Matthew McConaughey’s heir apparent. The irresistible charm he oozed in “Hit Man” helped, as did “Anyone But You” and its dozen shirtless scenes. I don’t know what it is about Texas that produces the finest leading men, but I’m not mad at it. In fact, in the immortal words of Mariah Carey, all I want for Christmas is for a hot Texas movie star to fall in love with me. (My boyfriend *will not mind*.) I, like many women and girls who came of age during McConaughey’s reign as the [king of rom-coms](https://decider.com/2014/11/04/matthew-mcconaughey-romantic-comedy-king/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), fell in love with his Texan drawl as he bewitched an assortment of Hollywood’s leading ladies, such as Kate Hudson, Jennifer Lopez, and even Jennifer Garner. Cardi B made a reference to McConaughey’s [dashing looks](https://www.chron.com/culture/article/cardi-matthew-mcconaughey-wanna-be-21054876.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on her verse for Megan Thee Stallion and Gloria’s “Wanna Be” remix. When the Grammy Award-winner had a chance to explain her [viral lyric](https://www.complex.com/music/a/alex-ocho/cardi-b-matthew-mcconaughey-discuss-my-toes-white-lyric?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to him in-person on “Today with Jenna & Friends,” she blushed like a nervous school girl. The same could be said for Jake Shane, who became an honorary Texan when he spent a [college gameday](https://people.com/jake-shane-gushes-about-glen-powell-friendship-exclusive-11820543?ref=thebarbedwire.com) at the University of Texas with Powell. According to Powell, there is nothing more romantic than [college football](https://www.tiktok.com/@cfbplayoff/video/7554784446189260062?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which explains why he’s been seen with a who’s who of beautiful women on his arm at UT games. Maybe it’s his Texas roots, but Powell is more accessible than our other [internet boyfriends](https://www.vogue.com.au/culture/features/internet-boyfriend-trend/image-gallery/f118040df9b2fb5b89f49bacb0bd0d2b?page=1&ref=thebarbedwire.com). Yes, there is a place for Timothée Chalamet and Jacob Elordi in our hearts. But Powell is the boy that every mom dreams of her daughter bringing home for the holidays after her first semester at college. *(Editor’s note: Our editor in chief* [*literally got this suggestion*](https://x.com/OliviaMesser/status/1845862487482134556?s=20&ref=thebarbedwire.com) *from her mother.)* This is evident by Powell’s recent “Saturday Night Live” skit, [I Miss My Ex’s Dad](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYmSuZHDTdg&ref=thebarbedwire.com), where two male characters sing about and lament Powell’s absence in their lives. Although the premise is fictional, the impact is felt, because I *too* would mourn over the departure of Powell’s fine ass from my daily affairs. > [](https://twitter.com/OliviaMesser/status/1845862487482134556?s=20&ref=thebarbedwire.com) To the best of my knowledge, there is no universal name that unites Powell’s fanbase. But he is aware of our existence and has read all of our [thirsty comments](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJHlUT-ZPt0&ref=thebarbedwire.com), including the one about him resembling a [capybara](https://www.tiktok.com/@fallontonight/video/7315149133436718379?lang=en&ref=thebarbedwire.com). To be crystal clear, this (accurate) comparison isn’t a slight, but rather places him in the canon of [hot rodent boyfriends](https://www.elle.com/uk/life-and-culture/culture/g61080396/hot-rodent-boyfriends/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) like Jeremy Allen White and Josh O’Connor. He’s a smokeshow in all realms of the internet. Except for *People*’s Sexiest Man Alive. He was allegedly in contention for the title in 2024, where [John Krasinski](https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/glen-powell-trends-missing-sexiest-122401183.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) took the top prize. And again in 2025, when [Jonathan Bailey](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiJ-zAsm7-E&ref=thebarbedwire.com) made history as the first openly gay man to receive the title. It is rumored that Powell turned [down the offer,](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-14079715/Glen-Powell-Pedro-Pascal-begged-Peoples-Sexiest-Man-Alive-John-Krasinski-crowned.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) according to the *Daily Mail*. (We love a humble king.) If there was an award that Powell would be a shoo-in for, it would be Texas Man of the Year at *The Barbed Wire*’s version of Las Culturistas Culture Awards (which does not yet exist but for which we would *welcome* sponsors). Las Culturistas’ [award ceremony](https://slate.com/culture/2025/08/las-culturistas-culture-awards-bowen-yang-matt-rogers-podcast-bravo-peacock.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), hosted by Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, has emerged as one of the best things in pop culture. This year’s event honored A-listers like Sarah Michelle Gellar and Allison Janney, along with the cast of “Real Housewives of Salt Lake City”and [Ben Platt](https://www.them.us/story/las-culturistas-culture-awards-bowen-yang-matt-rogers-best-moments?ref=thebarbedwire.com)’s heart-crushing rendition of “Diet Pepsi” by Addison Rae. I can think of no better place for Glen Powell, a titan of hot Texan culture, to be honored among his peers. (Big Money Players Network and iHeartPodcasts, you’re welcome in advance.) I look forward to Powell’s eventual “[I don't think so, honey](https://www.npr.org/2019/07/19/742617223/bowen-yang-and-matt-rogers-i-dont-think-so-honey?ref=thebarbedwire.com),” when he appears on the awards’ namesake podcast during his next press tour. Furthermore, Powell has a notable queer fan base. Name another Hollywood heartthrob that is regularly covered by *Out* magazine, [*Queerty*](https://www.queerty.com/glenn-powells-gluteus-maximus-is-the-real-star-of-the-running-man-the-internet-cant-look-away-20251113/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and[*Pride*](https://www.pride.com/culture/celebrities/glen-powell?ref=thebarbedwire.com). (I’ll wait.) Blakely Thornton said it best: Glen Powell’s nipples do [award-worthy work](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DCVRYwZy1Ow/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). In case you haven’t caught on, it is the Christmas season, and I will not be shy about telling Santa what I want. Two words: Glen Powell. No, this is not an essay or year in review round-up. It’s a plea to the big man upstairs. Not God, though if he is listening, I’d be grateful. Now, I know what you’re going to say. “Taylor, aren’t you better than this?” The answer is no, I’m not. I was raised in a “closed mouths don’t get fed” household, with a side of “Jesus is on the mainline, tell him what you want.” Blame the programming I received as a little Black girl in Texas from the 1990s to 2010s. Or the [manifestation trend](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/oct/28/manifesting-the-problem-with-2020s-biggest-wellness-trend?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of the 2020s. Though the real culprits are [Bim Adewunmi and Nichole Perkins](https://www.npr.org/2019/11/04/776093088/getting-thirsty-with-thirst-aid-kit?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of [Thirst Aid Kit](https://slate.com/podcasts/thirst-aid-kit?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a pop culture podcast from *Slate* that was the first of its kind to go in-depth about Black women’s desire in relation to their celebrity crushes. I spent many nights in graduate school and at my first job listening to them talk about Penn Badgley and Chris Evans — but also Mahershala Ali and John Boyega. They laid the foundation for Black women like myself to feel unbeholden to guilt or shame, and to feel liberated in our pleasure and longing of others. So this request isn’t just a swing for the fences of my romantic desire: It’s political, actually. “There is a way of looking at the world where anything a woman likes is instantly frivolous or lacking in rigor,” Adewunmi said [in an interview.](https://slate.com/culture/2019/09/thirst-aid-kit-interview.html?pay=1765918464762&support%5Fjournalism=please&ref=thebarbedwire.com) “I think desire is important. A lot of us use the wider culture to determine what we want for ourselves, and if we can complicate that a bit by taking a critical look at why we like what we like, that’s something we get a lot of joy and fulfillment from.” I get fulfillment from writing about Glen Powell online. I also get fulfillment from my boyfriend, and while I love that Yoruba man from Chicago very much, he’s got nothing to do with this. Anyway, Glen Powell, sir: If you would like to do literally anything, hit us up. Feel free to send us an assortment of your new Smash Kitchen condiments for Christmas or invite us to a movie premiere or college gameday. We would love to double date. May the grand tradition of Texas men as leading romantic figures never die. As the great [Tim Riggins](https://www.theringer.com/2018/01/24/tv/tim-riggins-friday-night-lights-best-moment?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of “Friday Night Lights” once said, Texas forever. ### Dear Santa, Can You Give Texas a Break? We’ve Tried Nothing and We’re All Out of Ideas URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/santa-christmas-list-for-texas/ Last updated: 2025-12-19T06:01:00.000Z Dear Santa, Howdy from Texas, big man. Hope things are well up at the North Pole, where I assume the ice hasn’t melted, the [power grid](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-grid-operator-promises-state-can-handle-winter-cold-no-really-this-time/) works, and y’all haven’t [deported](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/trump-deportation-constitutional-crisis/) any elves. I’m writing because I have a few tiny Christmas wishes for next year. Nothing huge. Just small, achievable miracles on par with, say, turning water into [Lone Star](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/trump-tariff-beer-cost-texas/). First, I’d like a Texas Legislature that can go one full session without [inventing a new culture war](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-furries-ban/). I know that’s asking you to violate several known laws of physics, but you’ve pulled off harder stuff (after all, you hit like a billion houses in one night). Also, I’d like a summer that doesn’t feel like I’m being slow-roasted in a giant cast-iron skillet. Maybe just a tiny break, a day where the sun isn’t personally offended by the idea of human survival. I’m not picky. I’ll take an afternoon where my steering wheel isn’t hotter than Satan’s Yeti tumbler. Oh, and could you give us a mosquito population that chills out a little? I’m not asking you to wipe them out entirely, but maybe just knock them down to “annoying” instead of “armed militia.” I’d also love a Texas road system that doesn’t treat every drive like Rainbow Road in Mario Kart. And if you could have TxDOT stop announcing a brand-new I-35 improvement plan every six months like it’s a new [Beyoncé album](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/beyonce-cowboy-carter-tour-houston/) drop, that’d be great. Maybe you can make the traffic better without doing any construction? While you’re up there tinkering, could you also send us a cold front that lasts more than 11 minutes? The kind where everyone runs outside in hoodies — *we’re not even asking for jacket weather!* — yelling “FINALLY” instead of watching it vanish like its rent is due. On a more personal note, I’d like [H-E-B to open even more stores](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/heb-mexico-regios-monterrey/), ideally one inside [my current H-E-B](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/heb-cheapest-eggs-in-the-country/). Or maybe just a dedicated checkout lane for people buying nothing but tortillas, Topo Chico, and that weird salsa that looks like it was brewed in a witch’s cauldron. You make miracles happen, so feel free to go wild. Also, if you could have ERCOT behave like a power grid and not a nervous raccoon in a lightning storm, that’d be lovely. I’d like to go one winter without wondering if my pipes are about to reenact “Frozen” (and not the fun sing-along parts). And, Santa, if you’ve got any magic left, maybe you could do something about Texas wildlife acting like they pay property taxes now. I’m tired of rats digging holes in walls, raccoons treating my porch like a Buc-ee’s restroom, and coyotes walking through neighborhoods like they’re checking Zillow listings. A little boundary-setting would be great. If you’ve still got bandwidth after all that, I’d appreciate a year where the [wildest thing about Texas is the wildlife](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/tarantulas-coyotes-and-rattlesnakes-put-some-respect-on-their-names/), like an armadillo waddling through a Whataburger parking lot, instead of everything happening at the Capitol, the border, and whatever fresh nonsense someone posts on Nextdoor. Thanks for listening, big guy. I’ll leave out some cookies (Texas-shaped, natch) plus a [Dr Pepper](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-most-delicious-winter-beverage-is-actually-hot-dr-pepper-lemon/) and a kolache for the road. If the reindeer want their own kolaches, you know where the Czech Stop is. Yours in Lone Star survival, Brian PS: Oh, and if you could deliver a functioning [Texas high-speed rail system](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/why-doesnt-texas-have-high-speed-rail-will-we-ever/), that’d be awesome. The trains don’t even have to go fast. Just faster than I-35 at 5 p.m. ### Who Could’ve Guessed I Was Queer? Six ‘Glass Closet’ Letters to Santa URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/who-couldve-guessed-i-was-queer-six-glass-closet-letters-to-santa/ Last updated: 2025-12-17T06:01:00.000Z The purest expression of a child’s heart must be the [wishes sent to an imaginary man](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-best-christmas-ever-and-the-gift-of-a-lifetime/) wearing a red coat with white fur. In all my childhood yearnings, I could not have foreseen just how queer my own future would be, full of genderbending shows, vivid parades, and loud protests. But when I look back at what I asked Santa to bring me, the clues were all there. My favorite Christmas tradition was, in fact, a trail of proverbial bread crumbs to my own identity. Allow me to take you on a sacred tour of my gayest impulses and deepest childhood desires — as they evolved from the age of 6, when I thought I invented the idea of queerness, to 29 — when all I want to do is protect it. ## A Life-Size Barbie All I want for Christmas is a Barbie. The year is 2002, and I’m six years old. I live in a suburb of Dallas-Forth Worth with my parents, my baby sister, and a floppy-eared dog named Oreo. She’s black and white, so the name was a stroke of pure innovation on my part. I have almost everything I need: my own bedroom populated with books about fairies and a backyard where I can catch rollie-pollies. Except I’d like one more thing. Ideally I’d like a Life-Size Barbie — blonde with a permasmile — but any Barbie will do. Not to ask for too much, but if she had Barbie friends or a Barbie house, that would be really great. I’d like Barbara and her coterie to help me work out some of life’s greatest mysteries. I’m relatively new here, so I have a lot of questions about the world that I’m not quite sure how to ask. Questions like “When I get older, will I want to wear dresses?” and “What does being a woman mean?” and “Is having a husband a good thing?” I would surely be the first kid in the world to put Ken’s clothes on Barbie, a bit of artistic genius I came up with over some Kraft Mac and Cheese while watching “Dragontales.” I think she would look great in moss-colored cargo pants and an orange, oversized tank top! Ken won’t be using them anyway because he’ll constantly be at work; my Barbie doesn’t like the idea of him being home very often. Unclear why; I refuse to examine that further. However, I can imagine my Babs spending her days with a best friend, sharing her greatest highs and lows. They’ll play in the Barbie Dreamhouse, where every night’s a sleepover. They’ll gallop on Barbie horses, and they’ll take turns driving the Barbie car. They’ll own everything equally, by the way. I would really like a friend like that in real life, but that seems like a big ask for Christmas. Maybe through the years, playing God with Mattel plastic can help me explore the social dynamics of being different, something I’m already feeling somehow in Texas. I’ll make my Barbie and her best friend kiss each other, which I’m certain has never happened before. Anyway, I have to go. There’s a “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” special on TV. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/img_9420-1.jpg) Courtesy of August Ponthier ## A Computer for a ‘Twilight’-Obsessed Horse Girl I’m 12, and it’s 2008\. All I want for Christmas is a computer. I know, I know. The internet is dangerous, they told us at school. But a year ago, my parents got divorced and I’ve been having trouble making friends and finding hobbies. There’s been a lot of talk lately about the “sanctity” of marriage, and I’m not really sure what that means. I’d like to explore a website called [Horseland.com](http://horseland.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which is essentially Myspace for horse girls, which I am now and will be for approximately two more years. And this might not sell you on the idea of getting me a computer, but I think I’ll eventually meet Miley Cyrus on that website. Well, someone who *says* they’re Miley Cyrus. I’d believe it, because I feel weirdly warm about her in a way that I don’t understand yet. I’d really like Miley Cyrus to think I’m special. I’d like her to come to my middle school and prove to everyone that I’m secretly very cool, and I’d like Miley to teach me how to sing like her. One thing Miley Cyrus would never do is offer to sell me her autograph on Horseland and force me to block her when I realize she is not actually Miley Cyrus. If that happened, that would be an internet safety lesson that’d follow me the rest of my life. I think a computer will help me develop a community, and I’ve been hearing about Tumblr. When I look around, there’s something about me that makes it difficult to relate to the makeup-knowledgeable girls in my class who wear Soffe shorts. I feel like everyone has a North Star right now, and my own sky is clouded over. I feel unusually bad at being a girl, and I don’t know anyone like me. If I had a computer, maybe I’d know they’re out there. Plus, I’m really into “Twilight,” so I could make an official fan club for my class. I feel like Kristen Stewart and I have a lot in common. If I get a computer, I promise I won’t Google “girls kissing.” ## A Skateboard for Sick Ollies All I want for my 14th Christmas is a skateboard. It’s 2010, and in case you haven’t heard, horses are so over. Sure, “girly stuff” like ponies and Barbies were my thing for a while, but I’m not like other girls anymore. That feeling I had in 2008? I figured it out. I don’t fit in; I stand out. And how am I going to convey the ultimate distinction between me and my peers? Easy. I came up with this plan while enjoying “Glee,” my new obsession. I watched the pilot seven times when it premiered. Picture this: Everyone is walking into the cafeteria. They’re all sitting at the big windows inside by the water fountains, gossiping and eating a snack before the first class of the day. They have a perfect view outside. The bell is minutes away from breaking up the scene. Then here I come, effortlessly skating up to the building with *no* helmet and *no* kneepads. I can hear them now. They’ll say “Wow, she’s so cool!” and “I didn’t know she could skateboard!” “She contains multitudes, we really shouldn’t judge her!” As they stand slack-jawed in awe of my moves, I kick the board into the air and tuck it underneath my arm. I don’t even notice that everyone is blown away by my grand entrance, because I’m too into my skateboard to care. In fact, they’re so impressed that I’m not worried about the fact that I’ve heard the word “lesbian” for the first time this year. I don’t even think about Elaine from theatre class, the one who told jokes that everyone laughed at until she got the “L” label. They talk about her like she is dying, or worse, like she is already dead. But I don’t think about that. ![A Christmas ornament in the Shape of a rainbow on a festive Christmas tree](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/251210_queer-christmas-hero.jpg) Credit: Getty Likewise, I don’t worry about the sick-but-wonderful feeling I get around my best friend, a soccer player who only wears clear mascara. I don’t need to wonder if I am the same as Elaine. I’ll just do a sick ollie and everyone will cheer. A skateboard is the best idea for me right now, and when you give it to me, I’ll want to go outside immediately to try it out. After being on it for a total of thirty seconds, I’ll fall off immediately and watch in slow-motion as it rolls straight down a storm drain. In that moment, I’ll realize two things: Good things can be gone in an instant, and skateboards don’t fix everything. ## A Trip to New York City to See “Wicked” All I want for Christmas 2012 is a trip to New York City. Since I was little, my mom and I have dreamt about seeing the big city for my sweet 16\. I’ve mostly seen places within driving distance of Texas — Louisiana, North Carolina, Georgia. But I’ve never wanted to go anywhere more than New York. I’ve never seen a Broadway play, and *God*, I can’t get enough of those right now. I’m spending most of my nights up late singing YouTube karaoke versions of my favorite musicals; not able to fully decide between Elphaba or Galinda’s parts in “For Good” or “Defying Gravity.” Next spring, I’m auditioning for our high-school production of “The Wizard of Oz,” so this is *actually* research. I want to see the Empire State Building, eat bagels from the local deli, and ride the subway. I’ll insist that all of the home-brewing bearded hipsters of Brooklyn are future husband material. Around the fourth or fifth time I take the subway, it won’t be any of those handsome passersby that leave an impression on me that I’ll remember for years. Instead, I’ll see two women holding hands. They’re both bundled in what look like hand-knit scarves and hats; the taller brunette one brushing a stray curl out of her traveling companion’s face. I’ll wonder if maybe they’re really good friends? Sisters, perhaps? I won’t know why, but my eyes will be glued to them while my mom is distracted by reading the subway map. They will smile at each other, and I’ll still deny what I know to be true. The subway doors will open, they’ll stand, and then one of them will grab the baby stroller that was previously obscured from my vision. As the announcement warns us to “stand clear of the closing doors,” I’ll watch them share one, really meaningful kiss before they exit the scene with their baby. I’ve never seen a family like theirs before. If I had money to go to New York City, I’m certain I’d see a lesbian couple — and it will change the trajectory of my life. ## A Candle for My First Girlfriend, Who Loves Fiona Apple All I want for Christmas 2017 is a perfect gift for this girl I met. I’m 21, and I’ve been seeing her for a few months now. I’ve never had a girlfriend before. At the beginning, I was clear: We could be together, but in no way would I ever tell my parents that I’m gay. Even though [same-sex marriage has been legal](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/big-queer-wedding-party-in-texas/) for two years, being out and proud is just not my path. I planned to live my life like distant family members before me, when no one ever acknowledged it. But things changed quickly. She’s introduced me to so many new things: punk shows, Fiona Apple, breakfast in bed as a regular practice. I didn’t know I could feel like this; not just in a romantic sense, but alive. I was worried about the people who watched me grow up — that their faces would scrunch in disgust once they knew. But living, and I mean *really living my life with her*, has melted my fear and turned it into a need to be wholly understood. How can I exist on the outskirts of society when I’ve never felt more connected to love? So I’ve already come out to my parents. This girl never pressured me to do so, and admittedly, she knew that I wasn’t the type of person to ever keep my heart tucked away forever. She knows me so well. When I shared my greatest secret with my family, I knew I would care about their reactions, but even more deeply, I knew that no matter what happened, she would be there — and she was. She has given me so many things: reassurance, patience, strength, and love, to name a few. So, this year I have one question: What do you get for the girl who has given you everything? Maybe a fancy candle, or a pair of gloves? ## Safety for All I’m 29, and it’s 2025. Forget all those other gifts. Forget chic, organic skincare and forget groupons for neon mini-golf outings. I live in New York, where I work as a touring musician and artist, and all I want for Christmas is safety. Not just for myself, but also for my loved ones back in Texas. Despite the joy I have found, it has still been nerve-racking to come to terms with being queer: as a lesbian, and as a newly out non-binary person. I wonder sometimes if I’d have had an easier life if I had been raised somewhere else. I’ve made wonderful friends in the Lone Star State — where [more queer people live than all of New York](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-is-a-lot-more-queer-than-you-think/) — but this year has been difficult. Laws have been enacted like Senate Bill 8, a [“bathroom bill” that bars trans people](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/anti-trans-laws-houston-ordinance-bathroom-bill/) from using the right restrooms in public buildings. It’s scary to come out at a time like this. It seems like every day, we are forced to read countless headlines about attempts to jeopardize the safety — and [deny the existence](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/houston-removes-rainbow-pride-crosswalk-abbott/) — of LGBTQ+ people. I want Texas to be better because it sets the tone for the rest of the country. Everyone is watching my home to see what happens next: Not just on LGBTQ+ rights, but for the treatment of any community that feels unsafe, unprotected, or other. I’m spending the holidays thinking about the Texans fighting to survive and live authentically even when legislation or prejudice tells them otherwise. Programs like the Transgender Education Network of Texas or Everybody Texas have changed my life, saved my life, and shown me what truly matters. In the process, they’ve become family. And isn’t that what this season is all about? So what I want for Christmas is simple: I want transgender teens to be able to walk into a classroom and be referred to by the name and pronouns they know in their heart. I want immigrants, regardless of status, to be treated with respect and to not have to live with the fear that they may be ripped away from their families. I want everyone to be able to choose the bathroom that best matches their gender identity, whether it’s in the state house or at a Buc-ee’s, and to only have to worry about how clean it is — not about getting attacked. I want reproductive care to not be seen as something shameful, but as a resource that uplifts and protects everyone’s bodily autonomy. I want struggling parents to have the [support they need in providing for their families](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-parents-kids-autism-services-paxton-tylenol/). I want everyone to remember that Texans are not a monolith — that we are a complex composite of cultures and families that persist in a place like no other. I know those might be bigger asks than a Barbie that helps you play-act the future, a computer that teaches you not to get catfished, and a skateboard lost in Pennywise’s domain. But now that I’m older, I know that objects can’t fix everything. Only people can, together. All I want for Christmas is a Texas that returns the love of the people who make it special. ### Texas Is Leaving Autistic Kids Without Necessary Services, Parents Say. Ken Paxton’s Tylenol Lawsuit Isn’t Helping. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-parents-kids-autism-services-paxton-tylenol/ Last updated: 2025-12-16T06:01:00.000Z When Nayeli Calderon’s son Sebastian was 2 years old, a daycare teacher suggested she get him tested for autism. That’s when she said the work, and the waiting, began. Sebastian joined a month-long waitlist for a neurologist, who saw him for a few months and then diagnosed him with autism. After the diagnosis came the search for therapists — speech, occupational, physical, behavioral. Calderon was able to get Sebastian into [Early Childhood Intervention](https://www.hhs.texas.gov/services/disability/early-childhood-intervention-services?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a statewide program that helps children and families address developmental delays. But those services ended when Sebastian turned 3\. Calderon had to start all over again. “It just takes making so many phone calls and getting him into the right clinic,” Calderon said. “It all takes so much time, and by the time he turned 3, I still couldn’t get anything done.” Calderon and other parents told *The Barbed Wire* that having a child on the spectrum is like a full-time job. They must be caregivers, therapists, advocates, and organizers. There’s never enough assistance; securing resources is never simple; insurance is a quagmire. Not on their long list of concerns? Tylenol. Yet, somehow, the state of Texas is [suing](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/10/28/texas-tylenol-johnson-lawsuit-rfk-ken-paxton-autism/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Tylenol’s parent company over [unproven claims](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/09/22/trump-autism-tylenol-rfk-live-updates/86289238007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) pushed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and President Donald Trump in a [September press conference](https://abcnews.go.com/news/story/trump-admin-links-tylenol-pregnancy-increased-risk-autism-125802080?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Kennedy and Trump shared a theory [inconsistent with current medical standards](https://health.clevelandclinic.org/can-you-take-tylenol-while-pregnant?ref=thebarbedwire.com): that use of the painkiller during pregnancy is linked to autism. [Existing research](https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2025/the-evidence-on-tylenol-and-autism?ref=thebarbedwire.com) does not suggest that acetaminophen, the ingredient in Tylenol, causes autism. In a study published earlier this month in the [British Medical Journal](https://www.bmj.com/content/391/bmj-2025-088141?ref=thebarbedwire.com), researchers concluded that the [evidence doesn’t support a link](https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/nov/10/no-link-between-paracetamol-tylenol-in-pregnancy-and-autism-or-adhd-in-children-review-finds?ref=thebarbedwire.com) between acetaminophen use in pregnancy and autism and ADHD. “Acetaminophen is still the safest known drug to take during pregnancy for problems like fever and pain,” said Ob/Gyn [Salena Zanotti, MD](https://my.clevelandclinic.org/staff/14748-salena-zanotti?ref=thebarbedwire.com), in a fact sheet released in October by Cleveland Clinic. “It’s OK to turn to medication for help when symptoms are making your daily life difficult.” Zanotti’s assertion is supported by the [American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists](https://www.acog.org/news/news-releases/2025/09/acog-affirms-safety-benefits-acetaminophen-pregnancy?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the [Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine,](https://www.smfm.org/news/smfm-statement-on-acetaminophen-use-during-pregnancy-and-autism?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and the [American Academy of Pediatrics. W](https://www.aap.org/en/news-room/fact-checked/acetaminophen-is-safe-for-children-when-taken-as-directed-no-link-to-autism/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)hen used properly, acetaminophen is safe to take during pregnancy — both for the pregnant person and the developing fetus, all of those organizations have said. In fact, left untreated, fevers themselves can cause significant harm to a fetus: risks include miscarriage and birth defects. Despite the science, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has [accused](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/10/28/texas-tylenol-johnson-lawsuit-rfk-ken-paxton-autism/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Johnson and Johnson, and its corporate subsidiary Kenvue, of failing to warn consumers about the risk of taking Tylenol while pregnant. In early November, Paxton [asked](https://abcnews.go.com/Health/texas-asks-judge-restraining-order-tylenol-maker-stop/story?id=127244547&ref=thebarbedwire.com) a federal judge for a restraining order to block the company from advertising to consumers that the drug is safe for use during pregnancy. Paxton also tried to block Kenvue from paying its shareholders, a move that could have encouraged the company to settle the lawsuit. A [judge denied the request](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/11/06/ken-paxton-tylenol-lawsuit-block-shareholder-payments/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). RFK Jr. has [walked back](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/10/29/health-chief-insufficient-data-tylenol-causes-autism/86972118007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) some of his earlier claims on Tylenol, but Paxton has [marched on](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/11/06/ken-paxton-tylenol-lawsuit-block-shareholder-payments/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), frustrating many in the autism community. “The focus is in the wrong place,” said Jolene Pohl, advocacy director at Coalition of Texans with Disabilities. “We’re going to spend a whole lot of taxpayer dollars on suing a company because there’s this myth about causation, instead of actually investing that money in services and supports to help people.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/251215-embed2.jpg) Jolene Pohl and her son The majority of Texas counties, primarily in rural areas, do not have access to a therapist certified to provide [applied behavior analysis](https://www.autismspeaks.org/applied-behavior-analysis?ref=thebarbedwire.com), or ABA, a widely used research-based therapy. (Once considered a standard in treatment, ABA has more recently [come under scrutiny](https://www.newyorker.com/science/annals-of-medicine/the-argument-over-a-long-standing-autism-intervention?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for claims of [exaggerated impact](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9114057/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and even [allegations of abuse](https://www.the74million.org/article/americas-most-popular-autism-therapy-may-not-work-and-may-seriously-harm-patients-mental-health/?ref=thebarbedwire.com).) Texas waitlists for long-term care stretch for [years](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/investigations/article/texans-disabled-waiting-care-services-17300909.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and insurance coverage [varies](https://www.propublica.org/article/unitedhealthcare-insurance-autism-denials-applied-behavior-analysis-medicaid?ref=thebarbedwire.com) by plan; even insurance that does cover autism services often leaves families waiting for approvals, as *The Houston Chronicle* and *ProPublica* have reported. The Trump administration’s coming [Medicaid cuts](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/60-years-after-medicaid-was-signed-into-law-trumps-one-big-beautiful-bill-is-chiseling-it-back?ref=thebarbedwire.com) could also mean [cuts to essential services](https://www.americanprogress.org/article/federal-medicaid-cuts-would-force-states-to-eliminate-services-for-disabled-adults-older-adults-and-children/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for individuals with autism. “What’s suing Tylenol going to do? Is it going to help the kids? Is it going to bring more awareness? Is it going to get our kids diagnosed more early?” Calderon said. “If it’s not affecting the kids on the spectrum in the least bit, then what’s the point?” ### “It often feels, in the early stages, like begging” Cathi Rae first expressed concerns to her son’s doctor when he was 18 months old. She noticed that Noah didn’t seem to remember things like bumping his head, and he wasn’t using as many words as other kids his age. “Early intervention is the key to success when it comes to autism,” Rae said. “The earlier that you can catch it, the earlier that you can provide services, the earlier that you can get these accommodations, the odds of those children being successful increases dramatically.” Rae said she tried to advocate for her son, but Noah’s doctor wanted to wait and observe more signs. By the time Noah was 4, he had undergone multiple hearing tests to ensure that his lack of words wasn’t due to his hearing. That’s when Rae’s insurance finally allowed for Noah to receive speech therapy, where he got a partial diagnosis with a language barrier. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/251215-embed1.jpg) Cathi Rae’s family, including Cathi and Noah (left), her husband and Noah’s siblings He started receiving some services, but due to both pandemic closures and clinic waitlists, Noah didn’t receive a full autism diagnosis until he was 6. Research has shown that [early intervention](https://www.nichd.nih.gov/health/topics/autism/conditioninfo/treatments/early-intervention?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which could start at age 2, is more likely to have long-term positive impacts for kids with autism as they progress and develop later skills. But for many families, the process of obtaining a diagnosis, getting approval through insurance and accessing these necessary services can take months or even years and many children miss that early intervention phase. The average age of autism diagnosis in Texas is 4.8 years old, on par with the national average, according to Autism Speaks’ [National Survey of Children’s Health](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/cdn-brandfolder-io/KAUK00LP/at/f5g3jzn4w87533fs2b28j5p7/abn%5Ftexas%5Fstate%5Fstreet.pdf) in 2021\. However, 14% of parents in Texas reported their child experienced unmet healthcare needs, higher than the national average of 11%. After Noah received a diagnosis, he was able to start [applied behavior analysis](https://www.autismspeaks.org/applied-behavior-analysis?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Most [insurance companies](https://www.magnetaba.com/blog/insurance-coverage-for-aba-therapy?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=medical%20necessity%20letter.-,Autism%20Diagnosis%20Requirement,tailored%20to%20their%20specific%20requirements.), as well as [Texas Medicaid](https://www.hhs.texas.gov/services/disability/childrens-autism-program?ref=thebarbedwire.com), require a full autism diagnosis to cover these therapy services. In a 2023 survey from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, nearly two-thirds of autism specialty centers [reported](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-cms-gov/files/document/wait-times-and-processes-autism-diagnostic-evaluations-first-report-survey-autism-centers-us.pdf) wait times longer than four months for autism evaluations. > “All this about suing pharmaceuticals, it’s about money. It’s about politics.” “Parents are the experts on their kids, and it often feels, in the early stages, like begging,” Pohl said. “‘There’s something going on here, please, lead me in the right direction.’” Pohl’s son was 3 when he was diagnosed with autism. “The process was literally doing an assessment and then handing me a sheet of paper that says, ‘Okay, your son has autism. We’ll see you in six months,’” Pohl said. “I didn’t know what to do with that.” Pohl knew that getting him early services was critical, but it’s hard to follow all of the right steps when there’s no navigator to help families, especially because autism services are not one-size-fits-all. “It takes a whole lot of advocacy on the part of the parents, first to get up to speed and realize I need to have this level of education in special education and then advocating,” Pohl said. “It becomes a full-time job.” The recent focus on Tylenol, and the previous and inaccurate focus on [vaccines](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/12/rfk-jr-autism-comments-blame-parents?ref=thebarbedwire.com) as the cause of autism, centers the conversation around finger-pointing and assigning blame, even though autism is far more likely to have [developed](https://www.autismspeaks.org/what-causes-autism?gad%5Fsource=1&gad%5Fcampaignid=10453988541&gbraid=0AAAAAD02pYuSB1p4Aep5GUajEltgAGt6l&gclid=CjwKCAiAz%5FDIBhBJEiwAVH2XwJQyDDpryFisTZvRrqJx8UDvwdgf76VcHM%5FBrrI0bw4tbFL1E7nmQRoC%5FpcQAvD%5FBwE&ref=thebarbedwire.com) from genetic and environmental factors. This does nothing to support families, Pohl said, but only doubles down on what she describes as the “suffocating” feeling of blame that many parents of children with autism are already familiar with. “The first thing that hits you (when your kid is diagnosed) is, what did I do? Did I do something? Did I eat something? Did I, like, leave a heating pad on my leg too long?” Pohl said. “You go down a rabbit hole of guilt or trying to figure out what happened.” Rosamarie Ibarra, a Houston mom, didn’t know much about autism when her son Hector was diagnosed at the age of 3, but she felt like she needed answers. “I did all these blood tests, trying to blame somebody. Then I blamed God. But the thing is, they don’t know,” Ibarra said. “All this about suing pharmaceuticals, it’s about money. It’s about politics.” ### “Insurance, insurance, insurance” Texas law has [required](https://www.ncsl.org/health/autism-and-insurance-coverage-state-laws?ref=thebarbedwire.com) state-regulated healthcare plans to cover services for children with autism since 2007, including some types of therapy and medications. But that did not cover behavioral therapy until [2022](https://www.autismspeaks.org/advocacy-news/new-texas-aba-medicaid-benefit?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — after years of [advocacy](https://kffhealthnews.org/news/despite-federal-directive-texas-denies-medicaid-coverage-for-an-autism-therapy/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Calderon’s family is on Medicaid. She knows they have been lucky that Medicaid has approved all of Sebastian’s services, but it’s often a long wait. “I share that with so many moms — ‘Oh, insurance, insurance, insurance’ We have been waiting so long for our kids to get the help that they need,” Calderon said. “We don’t have time to be waiting around for the insurance to get on top of it.” Although Texas has made significant progress, Pohl said the state still has a long way to go, noting remaining challenges like growing an adequate provider pool, increasing reimbursement rates, and ensuring access for Spanish-speaking families. But as [Medicaid cuts](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/60-years-after-medicaid-was-signed-into-law-trumps-one-big-beautiful-bill-is-chiseling-it-back?ref=thebarbedwire.com) are coming, Pohl is afraid that the state will be going backwards. “It’s kind of like we climbed up this very steep mountain and we didn’t live there very long, and now we’re going back down,” Pohl said. Calderon said cuts to services or increased premiums could make a big difference for her family. “It scares me. It’s a really big concern,” Calderon said. “We need so much help. We need so many things. We can’t get him certain things because of these cuts.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/251215-embed3.jpg) Nayeli Calderon, her husband Jose, Sebastian (right) and Gabriel (left) on Gabriel’s first birthday Many other families, like Rae’s, are on employer or self-funding insurance plans, which are federally regulated and do not have to comply with the state standards. After two years of attending the ABA center full-time, Noah was ready to transition to public school this year at the age of 8\. Rae wanted him to continue receiving ABA therapy, and the school and center agreed on a plan for an ABA therapist to accompany Noah at school. But insurance denied it. It was in a school setting, and services considered educational are [not typically covered](https://prosperahealthcare.com/texas-autism-insurance-law/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “They denied my child, with an intellectual disability, services because it’s going to be in an educational setting,” Rae said. “For them to put those types of barriers is unfair and unethical.” At the advocacy group Texans Care for Children, senior policy associate for early learning, Lauren McKenzie, is working on another way for children with disabilities to receive earlier care, no insurance required. McKenzie hopes to get [legislation](https://txchildren.org/include-tx-children-with-disabilities-in-pre-k-eligibility/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) passed that would make kids with disabilities eligible for Texas public pre-K, a program that is currently limited to a few [eligibility categories](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/txchildren-org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/hb-1996-two-pager-march-25.pdf) including children who are low-income, homeless, emergent bilingual, or in foster care. The provision received bipartisan support in the House last session and was included in the big school finance bill, but it was not included in the Senate version of the bill that ultimately passed. “If you have a 4-year-old who has a language delay, they're absolutely going to benefit from really targeted intervention with a speech language pathologist,” McKenzie said. “And they're also probably really going to benefit from being in a classroom where everyone is talking, they're with their peers who are using appropriate language, they have a teacher who's speaking with them for the full day of instruction.” ### “We’re still on the waitlist” After Ibarra’s son Hector was diagnosed with autism, she threw herself into learning about the services he would need, but she didn’t learn about [Medicaid waivers](https://www.navigatelifetexas.org/en/insurance-financial-help/texas-medicaid-waiver-programs-for-children-with-disabilities?ref=thebarbedwire.com#Texas) for long-term care until she connected with a social worker who told her she needed to sign Hector up immediately. Most Texans rely on Medicaid waivers to cover the enormous costs of long-term services like in-home care, group homes, residential services and day programs. The waivers let states use Medicaid funds for these services for individuals with disabilities while waiving certain Medicaid requirements like family income. People who receive these waiver services also get full Medicaid health care benefits. A 2023[*Austin American-Statesman*](https://www.statesman.com/story/news/state/2023/06/05/texas-medicaid-waiver-investigation-disability-services-waitlists/70229367007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) investigation found that about 158,000 people were on Texas’ waitlists for these waivers, with just 1,550 spots available for the year. Some lists have more than a 15-year wait, according to [Navigate Life Texas](https://www.navigatelifetexas.org/en/insurance-financial-help/texas-medicaid-waiver-programs-for-children-with-disabilities?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a resource site for families of children with disabilities. They recommend that families add their child to every list as soon as they receive a diagnosis. The hope is that by the time their child is old enough to need these long-term services, they will have reached the top of the list. Ibarra put Hector on three lists and called every year to update his information and check on his place. That was when Hector was 3\. He reached the top of the lists when he was 19, when he was able to receive [Home and Community-based Services](https://www.hhs.texas.gov/providers/long-term-care-providers/home-community-based-services-hcs?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Through the program, Hector is able to attend a day program that Ibarra said he loves, and she was able to afford to quit her job to take care of Hector and her younger son full-time. “When I know a parent whose kid has just been diagnosed, I immediately tell them: ‘Put them on the list,’” Ibarra said. “Maybe you don’t know what it is right now, but in the long run it’s going to help you.” Although Pohl’s son was diagnosed with autism when he was 3, she didn’t know about the Medicaid waivers until he was 8\. She immediately put him on all the interest lists, not knowing what he might need a few years down the line. “My son is 21 now,” Pohl said. “And we’re still on the waitlist.” Most states screen individuals for eligibility before adding them to waitlists, but the eight states that do not, including Texas, account for [over half](https://www.kff.org/medicaid/a-look-at-waiting-lists-for-medicaid-home-and-community-based-services-from-2016-to-2024/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of all people on waiver waiting lists nationwide. “It keeps getting longer and longer the less that our legislature funds it,” Pohl said. “That is complete failure by decision-makers at the state level to just ignore it and not address it.” Ibarra’s son is 25 now, and she said she doesn’t have any spare energy for lawsuits against medications that may not have even caused harm. “Right now, I’m just concentrating on my son being happy,” Ibarra said. “He needs to learn life skills, and he needs a place where he can work a couple of hours and be more independent.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/251215-embed4.jpg) Rosemarie Ibarra’s son, Hector, at his equine therapy. Early on in Noah’s journey with autism, Rae promised herself that when he reached a stable place with his services, she would work to help families coming up behind her. This year, after he started at public school, she transitioned to working as a [special needs advocate](https://www.cathirae.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) full-time, hoping to provide parents with younger kids the same advice and support she received. She knows that the Tylenol lawsuit won’t change the time that families have to wait for services, the challenges of getting a diagnosis, or the threat of Medicaid cuts. “Autism seems to be a buzzword right now,” Rae said. “People only seem to care about autism when it fits their political agenda. But these are our lives. We have to live this every single day.” *This story has been updated with additional context on [Applied Behavioral Analysis](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9114057/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and recent pushback on the once popular treatment.* ### A Moment With Rob Reiner That Meant Everything URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/rob-reiner-memory/ Last updated: 2025-12-15T19:41:34.000Z The year was 2015\. I was not in a good place. I had quit my lucrative (ha) job in newspaper journalism to enter the equally lucrative world of local television, hosting a late-night comedy show on The CW in Austin. It was exhilarating, but I had no idea what I was doing. I was the host and one of three writers, working long hours as we cobbled together a daily program. After hours, I sold ads for the show too. We were all burned out, or at least I was. Living your dream is hard. One night, I was asked to host a comedy show at Cap City Comedy Club in Austin. It was a showcase of TV journalists who were attempting standup for the first time, appropriately called “The Funniest Reporter in Texas.” *Good luck,* I thought. Doing standup is one of the hardest things in the world, because it’s so obvious when you fail. When you succeed, you can’t imagine doing anything else. When you bomb, it’s unbearable. At the time, I was about eight years into comedy. I happily accepted the job because I needed the ego boost (and the $50). It turned out to be one of those nights that I’d never forget, as trite as that sounds. While my life had been hectic and hard, the show was magic. All of the reporters had great sets, and I was on my game. (“Don’t date your cameramen, ladies!” I warned the participants. The room exploded in laughter.) I got off stage, exhausted but happy. Then I saw Rob Reiner. He was approaching me with a big smile. “Great job!” he said, extending a hand. I couldn’t believe it. The director of “This is Spinal Tap,” “When Harry Met Sally,” and “The Princess Bride” liked me. I was floating. Was this what heaven felt like? “Hey thanks!” I replied, mentally noting every detail so I could remember this moment forever. Of course, he wasn’t talking to me. You know that old trope of thinking someone’s talking to you, but they’re really addressing the person behind you? That’s what happened. Reiner’s grandson had been one of the participants, and he was congratulating *him*. Reiner looked at me, slightly annoyed. “Not YOU, you’re a pro,” he snapped. Somehow, life had gotten even better. No, he wasn’t talking to me, but *Rob Reiner thought I was a pro*. At *comedy*. I asked him later if we could get a photo, and he graciously accepted. It’s one of my favorite memories, ever. And it came flooding back to me this morning when I heard the awful news of [Reiner and his wife’s deaths](https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/12/15/us/rob-michele-reiner-dead?ref=thebarbedwire.com). My show got cancelled a few months after I met Reiner. It happens. But on a night when I needed a little encouragement, I got it from a show business icon. ### Feuding Neighbors, 800 Onlookers, and $25,375 in Crowd Control: Inside Texas’ Wildest Holiday Light Displays URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-drama-christmas-light-displays-dallas-houston/ Last updated: 2025-12-15T06:01:00.000Z Everything is bigger in Texas, including holiday decorations. Millions of families across the state string up lights and inflatables in their yards for all to see — and can even achieve thousands in cash prizes or TikTok virality for extravagance. While some yard displays are beloved community staples, others can spark the ire of the neighbors around them. From viral displays requiring police-escorted traffic to Grinch-themed signs pointing fingers at neighbors, here are some of the weirdest and most heartwarming Texas holiday display stories — by city. ### Dallas There’s a $6 million palatial mansion in Dallas’ quiet Preston Hollow neighborhood. For the better part of the year, you wouldn’t notice anything unusual about the gargantuan home with a gray roof on Deloache Avenue, but the holidays see it lit up in a radiant, pulsing display of lights. TikTok [videos](https://www.tiktok.com/discover/the-viral-house?lang=en&ref=thebarbedwire.com) of “The Viral House” gather millions of views, prompting people each year to line up in their cars, some driving for over an hour to see the decorations, [NBC DFW previously reported](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMlzUSI141g&ref=thebarbedwire.com). But with great crowds comes great hassle. Onlookers stop their cars next to No Parking signs, and the city’s code compliance department has issued the home repeated notices for light glare and noise violations, [*The Dallas Morning News* ](https://www.dallasnews.com/arts-entertainment/holidays/2025/10/23/viral-preston-hollow-dallas-mansion-owner-halloween-christmas-lights-decorations/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)has reported. Homeowner Ryan De Vitis has been locked in an escalating war with his neighbors — and a city council member — over his right to cover every inch of his property in bright red bows and frolicking reindeer, [*Chron*’s Gwen Howerton has reported](https://www.chron.com/culture/article/dallas-homeowners-christmas-display-21220869.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). One neighbor put up a large fence to block the light and protect their lawn from passersby, according to [NBC DFW](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMlzUSI141g&ref=thebarbedwire.com). In January, Dallas City Council member Gay Donnell Willis [told KDFW Fox 4](https://www.fox4news.com/news/dallas-the-viral-house-christmas-lights-traffic-concerns?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that the high volume of traffic led to calls for the Dallas Police Department to help control the crowds. Willis said she requested a breakdown of how much dispatching officers to the neighborhood cost taxpayers last year, and she returned with a number of $25,375\. She told KDFW Fox 4 that 71 officers were sent to the display over eight nights. “Instead of being able to answer 911 calls, they were managing a Christmas lights traffic situation,” Willis told KDFW. De Vitis, the owner of the home, did not offer a response to the cost of traffic enforcement, according to KDFW. (Nor did he reply to requests for comment from *The Barbed Wire*.) “We observed a profound sense of community, with families gathering in holiday pajamas to take photos and share smiles. While some neighbors expressed differing views, we chose to focus on the positives,” De Vitis told the TV station. This year, however, the De Vitises took a different approach. They changed their display, but not to be more modest. Instead, [dozens of Grinch inflatables and figurines line the yard](https://www.facebook.com/reel/1584885986014955), in a not-so-subtle nod to the complainers. De Vitis called his neighbors, who’ve reportedly told the city the lights are keeping them up at night, the “the real-life Grinch,” per [*Chron*](https://www.chron.com/culture/article/dallas-homeowners-christmas-display-21220869.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “I’ve got folks who live almost a mile away who normally don’t pull down a shade at night but have to when this home is lit up to the extent that it is,” Willis, the city council member, [said at a September meeting](https://www.chron.com/culture/article/dallas-homeowners-christmas-display-21220869.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Around Halloween, [*The Dallas Morning News*](https://www.dallasnews.com/arts-entertainment/holidays/2025/10/23/viral-preston-hollow-dallas-mansion-owner-halloween-christmas-lights-decorations/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) reported that the city cited the home for obstructing visibility at the intersection of a street and driveway. Another home, in McKinney, was met with less division. The house’s yard held 75 inflatables including bears, giant ornaments and nutcrackers, as well as over a million lights, [KDFW reported in 2024](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9fAAOzYT3c&ref=thebarbedwire.com). It was even featured on ABC’s “The Great Christmas Light Fight” show, homeowner Nasheel Joules [told WFAA](https://www.wfaa.com/video/entertainment/television/programs/good-morning-texas/local-couple-shines-on-the-great-christmas-light-fight-show/287-18dca99f-f81a-4076-a8d7-d60080245e80?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Joules called her display atop her stone and red brick home “the gift of light.” Joules has an autoinflammatory disease that worsens in cold temperatures, which has led her to develop stage three heart failure, she told KDFW. She and her husband, Mark Cornetti, initially began the yard decorations as a way for Joules to see a holiday display without having to go out in the cold, they told the news station. Now, they want the display to raise awareness for heart disease. “This display is our way of reminding people of the reason for the season,” Jones said to KDFW. ### Houston In Pearland, the Corbello Family’s [pulsing front yard reportedly features](https://www.facebook.com/reel/1872137363389267) nearly 62,000 lights, a 22-foot Ferris Wheel, and a 26-foot “mega tree” this year. In Spring Branch, one popular longtime holiday display brought hordes of visitors in previous years from all over the world — until it was cancelled over neighborhood drama in 2021. That year, a yard [sign sat](https://www.reddit.com/r/houston/comments/r7lwog/popular%5Fchristmas%5Fdisplay%5Fin%5Fspring%5Fbranch%5Fremoved/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in its place, [FOX 26 Houston reported](https://www.fox26houston.com/news/well-known-spring-branch-christmas-display-canceled-over-traffic-concerns?ref=thebarbedwire.com): “How the Grinches stole our Christmas display.” “It’s Christmas we know, but we’re sorry to say some in the neighborhood have stole our display,” the sign reportedly read. “We think that the most likely reason of all may have been that their hearts were two sizes too small.” The increasing traffic caused by the Johnson family’s display led to complaints from neighbors, according to FOX 26\. One neighbor, Linda Voges, said that the traffic brought on by the display made it difficult for residents to get to their homes. “On Christmas Day, there were 800 cars that came through," Voges said to FOX 26\. “It’s one way in and one way out.” The neighborhood homeowners association told FOX 26 that the decision to not decorate the yard was made by the homeowners themselves. “This decision was made solely by the homeowner and was not guided by the Spring Shadow Civic Association,” the association said to FOX 26. This year, [*Houstonia* magazine](https://www.houstoniamag.com/news-and-city-life/where-to-see-the-best-christmas-lights-in-houston?ref=thebarbedwire.com) wrapped up the most festive, impressive displays in the area — from local zoos, parks, and city halls to botanic gardens. ### San Antonio There’s a plethora of Christmas displays in San Antonio, including glittering, larger-than-life nutcrackers in Terrell Hills, giant yard snowmen in Monte Vista, and a Converse home whose [website](https://converselightshow.remotefalcon.com/remote-falcon?ref=thebarbedwire.com) lets you vote what Christmas song plays along with synchronized lights, according to the [*San Antonio Express-News*](https://www.expressnews.com/lifestyle/article/san-antonio-neighborhoods-best-christmas-lights-18532732.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). San Antonio’s Westside neighborhood began a new tradition this year, lighting a community Christmas tree for its first-ever "Miracle on 37th Street." Then, the tree was stolen a mere four days after it was lit along Old Highway 90, according to [*My San Antonio*](https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/stolen-christmas-tree-san-antonio-21230740.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Yvonne Pena, who organized the event, told the outlet that the community tree was meant to be a bright spot in a rough time for the neighborhood. "Everything has been so awful. I mean ICE is everywhere,” Pena said to My SA. “The event was supposed to be a highlight in our community to welcome people and give them a bit of hope.” Although the stolen tree has not been recovered, Pena said the community has rallied despite the setback, and plans to replace it soon. The Windcrest neighborhood, which locals know is ideal for viewing holiday displays, has had its own drama. “Light Up,” the neighborhood’s annual Christmas display competition, brings out thousands of dollars worth of decorations, paid actors for front-yard performances, and plenty of neighborly competition. [According to *Texas Monthly*](https://www.texasmonthly.com/style/inside-most-cutthroat-christmas-light-contest-in-texas/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the competition dates to 1959, and residents go all out to win bragging rights by placing in the competition’s various award categories. One couple, Scott Lee-Ross and his husband, told the magazine that after five years of gunning for first place in the Clark Griswold award category (named for the classic “National Lampoons” movie), their yard, complete with inflatable characters from the Disney movie *Encanto*, won the prize. “Some people golf; some people garden; we buy Christmas lights,” Lee-Ross told [*Texas Monthly*](https://www.texasmonthly.com/style/inside-most-cutthroat-christmas-light-contest-in-texas/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Other, less-friendly spats over decorations have gained national attention in recent years: In 2019, Claudia Simonis was pregnant. With a due date near Christmas, she and her husband decided to put up their decorations on Nov. 1 outside their San Antonio home, so her two young sons could enjoy the holiday spirit before her delivery, [Simonis told NBC](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/texas-family-told-take-down-snowman-because-too-early-christmas-n1082106?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Days later, she received a letter from the neighborhood’s homeowner’s association. “Please remove the snowman until closer to the holiday season,” the letter read, [according to WOAI.](https://news4sanantonio.com/news/local/too-soon-festive-family-told-to-take-down-christmas-decorations?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Simonis and her family refused to comply. According to WOAI, other families in the neighborhood also decorated early in solidarity. While the Simonis family was chastised for their display, others won big. Two San Antonio families took home $50,000 in prize money as winners of ABC’s “The Great Christmas Light Fight” in 2021. The Wilson couple in Windcrest [told the *San Antonio Express-News*](https://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/Windcrest-couple-win-Great-Christmas-Light-Fight-16663188.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com)that they have been decorating together for 20 years. Their display of an elf smore’s bonfire, an express train, and a reindeer flight school took home the top prize over three other Texas families. A few months later, the Hinojosa family of Boerne [stole the show as well](https://www.expressnews.com/entertainment/movies-tv/article/Boerne-family-is-second-in-San-Antonio-area-to-16698756.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com), claiming another $50,000 prize for their display, which included a light show set to music, a train that blows bubbles, and a ‘river’ of blue Christmas lights. “When I think of all the people who helped us put it together, we were winners already,” Hinojosa [said to the *Express-News.*](https://www.expressnews.com/entertainment/movies-tv/article/Boerne-family-is-second-in-San-Antonio-area-to-16698756.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) ### Austin If you’re looking for dazzling displays with Austin’s signature weird twist, look no further than Round Rock, Cedar Park, and 37th Street, according to [Do 512’s best holiday lights list](https://do512.com/p/best-neighborhoods-for-holiday-decorations?ref=thebarbedwire.com). One crowd-drawing display includes an eclectic collection of dressed up sock monkeys, [KVUE reported in 2023.](https://www.kvue.com/article/life/holidays/37th-street-lights/269-98eb36af-d9c6-4fe9-844f-e22a5e3cae2b?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Tracy Firsching’s house on 37th Street had monkeys dressed up as elves, the artist Prince, and soccer players. She even has a sock monkey nativity scene. Her neighbors, she said, embraced a similar unique holiday spirit — one house had a godzilla inflatable wrapped in lights. Firsching told KVUE she moved to 37th Street in the 90’s, inspired by the quirky Christmas displays she had seen there. “This street is one of the reminders of what the old Austin was like,” Firsching told the local news station. Some displays, though, have even been shocking in their creativity. In 2018, a pedestrian began to panic when he saw what appeared to be a man dangling from the roof while attempting to hang Christmas lights at one decorated house in Austin. Chris Heerlein [told KVUE](https://www.kvue.com/article/news/video-shows-austin-passerby-freaking-out-over-fake-clark-griswold-christmas-display/269-619247866?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that his family bought a dummy and dressed it up as Chevy Chase’s character in the film “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation,” imitating a scene when his ladder falls from underneath him as he tries to string lights on his roof. However, the family’s doorbell camera caught Alfred Norwood Jr., who had been passing by, frantically trying to come to the dummy’s aid, attempting to bring him a ladder and calling 911 when the dummy did not respond to him. “I thought, ‘Oh my God I hope he's not dead, lemme call 9-1-1,’” Norwood told KVUE. After an officer arrived, he told Norwood he had seen the display before and that the man hanging off the roof was fake. The Heerlein family said they felt bad about Norwood’s panic, and told KVUE they reached out to him and gave him a gift card. They also decided to add a sign to their display saying not to call 911. In another holiday mixup, the bright lights on one Georgetown home had some in the community wondering if they were seeing aliens, [KXAN reported in 2023](https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/just-a-christmas-nerd-texas-familys-home-light-show-mistaken-for-aliens-draws-out-crowd/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Chris Hartgraves’ holiday decorations include four beams of light that project into the sky above his roof. He said his display in total has about 13,000 lights, and caused some confusion on social media. “People thought it was Elon Musk and his Starlink,” Hartgraves said to KXAN. “Some people said it was aliens coming down to land.” Hartgraves said his decorations include animations, recorded voices, and a programmed light show that runs every 15 minutes. “I grew up in apartments, so I’d never had a house to decorate for Christmas,” Hartgraves said to KXAN. “I didn’t want the same experience for my kids growing up.” ### Remember the ‘War on Christmas’? I Kinda Miss It. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/missing-the-war-on-christmas-simpler-times/ Last updated: 2026-07-18T17:34:26.000Z Remember the “War on [Christmas](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-best-christmas-ever-and-the-gift-of-a-lifetime/)”? Yes, that early-2000s fever dream when Fox News convinced half the country that “Happy Holidays” was basically Sharia law in a festive font. A time when the right blamed “secularists” for everything, but everyone understood the subtext: post-9/11 panic, a dash of Islamophobia, and a preview of the endlessly escalating culture war machine we’d all be trapped in forever. It felt like a joke at the time, before the Overton Window shifted so far to the right that it’s now basically on Mars. For a brief, shimmering moment, the biggest [culture-war](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/bullock-history-museum/) emergency was whether saying “Merry Christmas” loudly enough could protect the republic from the creeping menace of inclusive greetings. Accused serial sexual harasser Bill O’Reilly was [one of the creators](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/19/us/war-on-christmas-controversy.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of the “War on Christmas” nonsense, but now it’s [become a forever war](https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/12/18/war-on-christmas-525273?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Honestly? I miss that absurd little era — not because it was harmless (it wasn’t), but because it was, in hindsight, the training-wheels version of what was coming. Fox News would dedicate entire programming blocks to a random elementary school renaming its Christmas pageant a “Holiday Celebration,” treating it like an ISIS recruitment tape with craft-store budgets. They weren’t attacking policy; they were soft-launching a worldview. A prototype for “bathroom safety” panics and anti-DEI crusades and whatever fresh authoritarian nonsense they’re road-testing this week. And yet, compared to now, it feels almost cozy — a simpler time when the panic du jour was a Starbucks cup that didn’t feature enough Christian symbolism. When the scariest chyron you’d see was something like: “WAR ON CHRISTMAS INTENSIFIES; NORTH STAR REPLACED WITH ENERGY-EFFICIENT LED.” Back then, the culture-war machine at least had the courtesy to be stupid on a small scale. You could roll your eyes at the guy in Walmart shouting about how the cashier’s “Enjoy your holiday” was proof America was circling the drain, and then go about your day. Now? We’re drowning in apocalyptic headlines. Abortion [illegal in basically half the country](https://reproductiverights.org/maps/abortion-laws-by-state/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). [Diversity programs dismantled](https://www.npr.org/2024/04/24/1246780909/texas-universities-cut-jobs-after-texas-bans-dei-programs?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Trans people [targeted by bathroom bills designed to unleash vigilantes](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/anti-trans-laws-houston-ordinance-bathroom-bill/). Fox pundits [bend over backwards to avoid criticising white nationalists](https://ca.news.yahoo.com/fox-news-pundit-brett-cooper-155326161.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Oh and we’re on the [verge of another elective war](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/10/us/politics/oil-tanker-seized-us-venezuela-trump.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). It makes the old holiday hysteria look like a Hallmark movie compared to the political Mad Max franchise we’re currently living in. Today, when someone says “Merry Christmas,” I feel a pang of nostalgia so strong it might qualify as a medical episode. I picture a Fox anchor getting red-faced over a “Season’s Greetings” sign — and for a fleeting second, I long for that version of America, where the outrage was fake but the stakes felt survivable. What I wouldn’t give for Tucker Carlson to come out of retirement and yell at me about a snowflake pattern on a coffee cup instead of whatever democracy-eroding nightmare he’s [promoting with Nick Fuentes this week](https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/nick-fuentes-conservative-media-carlson-uproar-1235479858/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Let’s go back to arguing about whether Santa should be allowed to say “ho ho ho” without a parental advisory warning. Let’s return to a flavor of stupid that doesn’t overtly threaten the structural integrity of the nation. Because now? We’re living in a scorched-earth timeline where mayors get accused of being part of coup plots before breakfast, public servants sport [white-supremacist tattoos](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/jason-lee-van-dyke-unapologetic-fascist-despises-democracy/), and Elon Musk is out here doing [Sieg Heils](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/21/the-gesture-speaks-for-itself-germans-divided-over-musks-apparent-nazi-salute?ref=thebarbedwire.com) at presidential celebrations like it’s an off-brand Renaissance fair. So yes, the War on Christmas was fake. Manufactured. A myth. Christmas was never in danger. But it was also one of the last moments when a culture-war freak-out could still feel like a sitcom subplot instead of a constitutional crisis. It was America’s final sweet, delusional, low-stakes meltdown. A Norman Rockwell painting rewritten by people who thought the real threat to the nation was a barista offering them inclusive cheer. And in these bleak, turbocharged, democracy-optional times? God help me, I miss it. Even if in hindsight, it’s like a frog missing the times when the water was only lukewarm. ### ‘Love Is the Only Motherf****** Way’: Big Queer Wedding Party Celebrates LGBTQ+ Joy and Resilience in Texas URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/big-queer-wedding-party-in-texas/ Last updated: 2025-12-10T10:00:00.000Z At a bustling venue on Sunday, the speakers boomed with a remix of “Stayin’ Alive.” Heather Schenk and Ty Linhardt had traveled from Chickasha, Oklahoma, for the Big Queer Wedding Party in Austin, where ten couples came to get married and renew their vows in the sanctuary of a former Baptist church. Guests stepped carefully around the flowing train of Schenk’s white gown on their way to the bar. The dress’s low-cut back framed her tattoos and long blonde braids. She was overjoyed to finally be wearing it. Schenk and Linhardt’s original wedding plans went awry when Linhardt fell down a flight of stairs the night before their 2024 destination wedding in St. Croix. She spent the next 10 days in the hospital and, since they hadn’t yet exchanged vows, Schenk wasn’t guaranteed the right to visit. By the time they were able to get married, their whole wedding party and even Schenk’s dress had been sent home. They got married anyway, even if it wasn't how they had imagined it. “We had people that we met on the island just meet us on the beach, and our officiant got COVID the night before,” Schenk said. In Austin on Sunday afternoon, the chilly winter weather seemed far from the warm sandy beaches where they’d first wed. Yet the pair seemed relieved to be surrounded by the happy chaos, lace, sequins, and rainbow glitter. After they renewed their vows, Schenk shared a message of perseverance for others in the LGBTQ+ community. “Keep showing up,” she said, “use your voice and love who you love.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/big_queer_wedding_02.jpg) Ty Linhardt, left, and Heather Schenk, right, from Chickasa, Oklahoma, pose for portraits before renewing their vows at the Big Queer Wedding Party at The Cathedral ATX on Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025 in Austin, Texas. The Big Queer Wedding Party was a group vow renewal and wedding ceremony organized by Judge Denise Hernández, Noah Day, and Becky Bullard, founder of Democrasexy. The queer community has held a collective breath, waiting to see which rights will be stripped away next. In October, the right to wed was chipped away in Texas thanks to a rule change, [approved by the Texas Supreme Court](https://cbsaustin.com/news/local/texas-supreme-court-allows-judges-to-decline-performing-gay-marriage-ceremonies?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which now allows judges to decline performing marriages based on their religious beliefs. Then, about a month ago, the U.S. Supreme Court weighed if it would take up an appeal by Kim Davis, the former Kentucky county clerk and opponent of LGBTQ+ rights, to overturn [*Obergefell v. Hodges,*](https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/10/politics/supreme-court-same-sex-marriage-obergefell-kim-davis?ref=thebarbedwire.com) the 2015 decision that set a constitutional right to same-sex marriage. That’s when Noah Day, an Austin resident, approached Becky Bullard, the creator of the civic education and progressive political event planning company [Democrasexy](https://www.democrasexy.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Day has two kids from a former marriage and only has legal custody of them thanks to the same marriage rights they feared others might soon lose. “We need to show up for each other and protect each other and send each other love, because we all belong, and I want all of us here, and I will not be quiet about that,” Day said*.* The two teamed up with Denise Hernández, a queer Latina judge who oversees Travis County Court #6, to plan what would be a protest if the right to same-sex marriage was under threat. On Nov. 10, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to revisit the landmark decision — though judges may still decline to perform same-sex marriages in Texas. Schenk and Linhard discovered the event thanks to [an Instagram reel posted by](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DRK5cLZkmUF/?igsh=d2ZwazQzdXZ2cWR2&ref=thebarbedwire.com) Hernández. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/big_queer_wedding_04.jpg) Judge Denise Hernández poses for a portrait after officiating a group vow renewal and wedding ceremony at the Big Queer Wedding Party at The Cathedral ATX on Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025 in Austin, Texas. The Big Queer Wedding Party was organized by Judge Denise Hernández, Noah Day, and Becky Bullard, founder of Democrasexy. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/big_queer_wedding_06.jpg) A group takes a selfie at the Big Queer Wedding Party at The Cathedral ATX on Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025 in Austin, Texas. The Big Queer Wedding Party was organized by Judge Denise Hernández, Noah Day, and Becky Bullard, founder of Democrasexy. With marriage equality secure, at least for now, The Big Queer Wedding Party at the Cathedral, East Austin’s church-turned-art gallery, was an act of joyous defiance to show that LGBTQ+ Texans are still here — and still loving each other. The happy couples — along with their friends, family and many curious community members — poured into the Cathedral under a heart-shaped balloon arch to fill the former church with celebration. The entire event was free, with food and drinks donated by local companies and luscious wedding cakes from [Sugar Mama’s Bakeshop](https://sugarmamasbakeshop.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). District 3 City Council Member José Miguel Anwar Velásquez stopped by to share that the city of Austin had formally declared Dec. 7 to be “Big Queer Wedding Party Day.” “The Bible tells us that love is patient and love is kind, and it doesn't envy, it doesn't boast, it is slow to anger, it's not proud ... yada yada yada, right?” Velásquez told the crowd in plush green velvet chairs. “I'm reading this to remind the people that abuse those words, that abuse the words of love ... the words of togetherness, that love is the only motherfucking way.” The event attracted couples from all across the state to make or renew their vows to each other under the guidance of Hernández. In all, eight couples got married, and two renewed their vows along with live music, DJ sets, drag performers, and free snacks and libations. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/big_queer_wedding_08.jpg) Wedding cake at the Big Queer Wedding Party at The Cathedral ATX on Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025 in Austin, Texas. The Big Queer Wedding Party was organized by Judge Denise Hernández, Noah Day, and Becky Bullard, founder of Democrasexy. Judge Denise Hernández officiated multiple queer wedding ceremonies and vow renewals. During the four years she’s been in office, Hernández believes she’s officiated more than 100 weddings, including group weddings held every Pride month. She said she began hearing from LGBTQ+ couples in Texas within days of the approval of the rule change by the state’s highest court. “There's just so much fear and shame that comes from going to a courthouse in hopes to celebrate your marriage and then being turned away just for being who you are. And I think that that's a huge fair access issue for our court system,” Hernández said by phone before the party. Hernández admitted that even with her “deep legal knowledge of the constitutional rights around marriage and marriage equality,” she’d been afraid for the future of this important human right while waiting to hear if the U.S. Supreme Court would reconsider it. “You could feel the stress, the fear, the overwhelm in our communities.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/big_queer_wedding_03.jpg) Christa Osborn, left, and Dean Osborn, right, walk down the aisle after get married at the Big Queer Wedding Party officiated by Judge Denise Hernández at The Cathedral ATX on Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025 in Austin, Texas. The Big Queer Wedding Party was a group vow renewal and wedding ceremony organized by Judge Denise Hernández, Noah Day, and Becky Bullard, founder of Democrasexy. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/big_queer_wedding_07-1.jpg) Dean Osborn wears a boutonniere to get married at the Big Queer Wedding Party officiated by Judge Denise Hernández at The Cathedral ATX on Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025 in Austin, Texas. The Big Queer Wedding Party was a group vow renewal and wedding ceremony organized by Judge Denise Hernández, Noah Day, and Becky Bullard, founder of Democrasexy. According to Brian Klosterboer, a staff attorney for the ACLU of Texas, the U.S. Supreme Court at least appears reluctant to undo the legal precedent it set with the 2015 Obergefell decision. Doing so would potentially upset a decade of legally binding marriages and related adoptions, inheritances, and other ramifications from the decision. In addition, same sex marriage remains [popular in the United States](https://apnews.com/article/samesex-marriage-acceptance-polling-lgbtq-bcaa1e606e5d2e498247b027683f6e68?ref=thebarbedwire.com). However, Klosterboer was troubled by the state’s ruling enabling Texas judges to refuse to perform certain marriages. “Allowing them to openly express discriminatory beliefs does set a dangerous precedent, and hopefully the vast majority of our judges remain neutral and impartial to everyone who comes into their courtroom or seeks their public services.” Standing under a trellis decorated with delicate bouquets of autumnal flowers, Judge Hernández called each couple forward for their turn. One newlywed couple from Austin and San Antonio, Nicollette Lemkuhl and Olivia Acosta, brought along Lemkuhl’s four-year-old son, Niam, who wore a dark suit matching Acosta’s, and clung to her throughout the ceremony. While Lemkuhl expressed frustration that we’re still fighting for marriage equality, she said, “that we can do this in a church setting, without fear, we’re very proud to be here.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/big_queer_wedding_05.jpg) Nicollette Lemkuhl, left, kisses Olivia Acosta, right, after the couple got married at the Big Queer Wedding Party officiated by Judge Denise Hernández at The Cathedral ATX on Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025 in Austin, Texas. The Big Queer Wedding Party was a group vow renewal and wedding ceremony organized by Judge Denise Hernández, Noah Day, and Becky Bullard, founder of Democrasexy. Speaking to the crowd, Bullard invoked the memory of the late U.S. Representative Barbara Jordan, the first Black woman elected to the Texas Senate since reconstruction. Jordan lived with her partner, Nancy Earl, for 20 years before she died in 1996, almost two decades before marriage equality. “I like to think that Barbara, her partner, and all those other partners who were never able to be accepted by the system are here with us in spirit tonight, and I just want to acknowledge them,” she said. “It's really important to celebrate wins when we get them, but they don't mean that we can stop, unfortunately,” Bullard said. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/big_queer_wedding_09.jpg) Olivia Acosta, center, holds Niam Lemkuhl, 4, left, after she married Nicollette Lemkuhl, right, at the Big Queer Wedding Party officiated by Judge Denise Hernández at The Cathedral ATX on Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025 in Austin, Texas. The Big Queer Wedding Party was a group vow renewal and wedding ceremony organized by Judge Denise Hernández, Noah Day, and Becky Bullard, founder of Democrasexy. To cheers, her co-organizer Day declared: “Love is an act of resistance, and our community is so brave and resilient.” “Although you shouldn't have to be brave or resilient to be yourself, we are and we will always continue to hold each other up,” they continued. Ximena Arevalo and Nicole Kohn drove in from Houston. They had decided to get married after an October trip to Austin for a Reneé Rapp concert, and the pair discovered the event by googling LGBTQ+ friendly judges. When Hernández wed the pair, in one of the day’s most charming moments, she declared the two to be “wife and lad.” “Marriage is between two people,” the “lad,” Arevalo, said*.* “It doesn't matter who they are, what it is, what you identify as, as long as you’re happy with your person.” Judge Selena Alvarenga from the 460th District Criminal Court, the first openly LGBTQ+ judge elected in Travis County, and Judge Laurie Eiserloh from the 455th Civil District Court, joined Hernández for the final weddings. Eiserloh recounted how, before Obergefell*,* she and her wife of 36 years depended on another Travis County judge to approve her adoption of her own children. “It was a strange moment, but that’s what had to happen before marriage equality,” she recalled. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/big_queer_wedding_10.jpg) Jenna Sullivan, left, kisses Camila Montoya, right, after the couple got married at the Big Queer Wedding Party officiated by Judge Denise Hernández at The Cathedral ATX on Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025 in Austin, Texas. The Big Queer Wedding Party was a group vow renewal and wedding ceremony organized by Judge Denise Hernández, Noah Day, and Becky Bullard, founder of Democrasexy. “It is a deep honor to get to serve alongside these phenomenal women,” Hernández said. “They lead in a guiding community, but as a young judge, I get to feel very inspired to work with them and to lead and guide alongside them, and to stand so true in our identities together.” Each of the judges took a turn in leading the ceremony for the two couples, with Eiserloh declaring, “What we create here together is ... a reminder that love not only collides between two people, but expands outward to strengthen our communities.” As she finished one set of weddings, Hernández reminded the crowd of the importance of being present when our community is under attack. “I want to take a moment just to acknowledge that if you are queer or you are an ally, your presence here is so important today, as we are navigating the state of Texas, as we're navigating safety in our communities, by showing up, you bring power to all of us.” ### Jasmine Crockett Is Running for U.S. Senate. Let’s Revisit Her Most Viral Quotes, Clapbacks, and Provocative Alliterations. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-jasmine-crockett-comebacks/ Last updated: 2025-12-08T21:02:59.000Z U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett announced her highly-anticipated [run for U.S. Senate on Monday](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/12/08/jasmine-crockett-texas-senate-democratic-primary-2026/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) after weeks of rumors, guessing, and national headlines. “Turning Texas blue is what I want to talk to y'all about today. Now, there are those that say ain't no way,” Crockett said to a crowd of supporters as she officially announced her run at an event in Dallas. “But they have no idea what Crockett's crew will do. So I just want to be clear for all the haters in the back, listen up real loud. We gonna get this thing done.” Crockett told supporters there is no roadmap, blueprint or cheat code, but she’s ready to win the Senate seat for Texas Democrats. “The data says that I can win,” the Dallas Democrat [told MS Now](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjfw6zUSVCE&ref=thebarbedwire.com) last week. “I am very formidable, regardless of what people want to put out into the atmosphere. The numbers are the numbers.” She’s not wrong; Crockett, 44, has been [out-polling](https://www.statesman.com/news/politics/state/article/jasmine-crockett-talarico-allred-senate-poll-21091289.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) her Democratic primary competitors, state Rep. James Talarico of Austin and former U.S. Rep. Colin Allred — who [dropped out of the race](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/12/08/colin-allred-drops-out-senate-democratic-primary-congress-33rd-district-dallas/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Monday morning before Crockett’s announcement. Allred, who has served as congressman for Texas’ 32nd district for nearly six years, will instead run for Texas’ newly drawn 33rd Congressional District in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area. As many will remember, 42-year-old Allred unsuccessfully challenged U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz in the 2024 election and has been heavily criticized for his [lack of visibility in recent months](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/james-talarico-fundraising/). “I’ve come to believe that a bruising Senate Democratic primary and runoff would prevent the Democratic Party from going into this critical election unified against the danger posed to our communities and our Constitution by Donald Trump and one of his Republican bootlickers Paxton, Cornyn, or Hunt,” [Allred said](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/12/08/colin-allred-drops-out-senate-democratic-primary-congress-33rd-district-dallas/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) about his decision to withdraw. The winner of the Democratic primary will face either incumbent [Sen. John Cornyn](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/cornyn-paxton-senate-texas/), Texas [Attorney General Ken Paxton](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-senate-republican-primary-cornyn-paxton/), or U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt of Texas’ 38th Congressional District, who are also locked in a tight primary race. “Execution matters,” Crockett said in her MS Now interview — and strategy depends on a full slate of other candidates “up and down the ballot.” Crockett, who has served Texas’ 30th Congressional District since 2023, has said that she would let the polls [guide her decision](https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/democrat-jasmine-crockett-says-polling-160827067.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to run, and they suggest that Texans are looking for a fighter in the second Trump era. One October poll showed Crockett with a six-point lead over Talarico and a two-to-one advantage over Allred, the *Austin American-Statesman* [previously reported](https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/democrat-jasmine-crockett-says-polling-160827067.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Crockett’s reputation for speaking plainly and passionately is a contrast to Allred and Talarico. Allred was criticized for running a [moderate and bland](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/08/12/allred-texas-senate-lessons-learned/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) campaign in 2024\. Talarico is a former seminary student who preaches a “[politics of love](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/01/opinion/james-talarico-religious-left.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com)” message. *The New York Times* [ran a glowing op-ed](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/01/opinion/james-talarico-religious-left.html?campaign%5Fid=39&emc=edit%5Fty%5F20251001&instance%5Fid=163587&nl=opinion-today®i%5Fid=53145919&segment%5Fid=206948&user%5Fid=1cac7cb5d40e9fcd519e50c50fd9079e&ref=thebarbedwire.com) in October asking if 36-year-old Talarico is “the savior Democrats have been waiting for,” and he’s earned praise from both former President [Barack Obama](https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/texas-democrat-wins-obamas-approval-202628435.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and talk-show host [Joe Rogan](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/joe-rogan-wants-democratic-texas-lawmaker-run-for-president/). In just three weeks of campaigning, Talarico pulled $6.2 million, [*Axios* reported](https://www.axios.com/2025/10/01/james-talarico-raises-62-million-for-texas-senate-bid?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Talarico may be electrifying rallies, but Crockett — a former public defender, civil rights attorney, and Texas House representative — has also made headlines since she was elected to Congress in 2022\. The Representative herself has dubbed her barbs “[Crockett Clapbacks](https://x.com/JasmineForUS/status/1791662562821435456?lang=en&ref=thebarbedwire.com).” And while she’s made news, she’s also drawn criticism for what some have called unprofessional or [inappropriate language](https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/rep-jasmine-crockett-defends-governor-hot-wheels-comments/story?id=120167133&ref=thebarbedwire.com), while others have found her authenticity refreshing. In November, as [CNN put it](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX%5F0z8d276Q&ref=thebarbedwire.com), “Rep. Jasmine Crockett’s saying what others won’t.” Appearing with Wolf Blitzer to discuss the latest batch of files related to late financier and convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, [Crockett said](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX%5F0z8d276Q&ref=thebarbedwire.com) anyone [voting against the release](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/john-cornyn-ted-cruz-vote-epstein-files/) of those documents was “complicit in protecting pedophiles.” “If you can have this honest conversation about Epstein now, let’s just go ahead with this lame duck president and be honest about everything that the American people care about,” [she said on Capitol Hill](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ZgKMwCR8ffE?ref=thebarbedwire.com) after the two-month shutdown, making a joke about Vice President JD Vance and [a couch cushion](https://www.npr.org/2024/07/31/nx-s1-5055854/vance-harris-social-media-rumors-jokes?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “They care about affordability. They care about the fact that literally people are starving in this country.” When asked about her approach, Crockett told [*Roll Call*](https://rollcall.com/2025/01/13/jasmine-crockett-take-five/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) ahead of President Donald Trump’s second term, “We have transitioned into a space where authenticity is valued so much more than being proper or polite.” In case you missed them, here are Crockett’s most newsworthy moments since she stepped onto the national stage. ### ‘Fuck Off’ In February 2025, at the height of Elon Musk’s efforts to [dismantle the federal government](https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/elon-musks-government-dismantling-fight-stop/story?id=118576033&ref=thebarbedwire.com), a reporter [asked](https://x.com/CalltoActivism/status/1894443125701071316?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1894443125701071316%7Ctwgr%5E3992ccd988a7692b4cdf8b3a87d0959499730c12%7Ctwcon%5Es1%5F&ref%5Furl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fox5dc.com%2Fnews%2Fcongresswoman-crockett-elon-musk-f-off&ref=thebarbedwire.com) Crockett, “If you could speak directly to Elon Musk, what would you say?” Crockett’s message was succinct: “Fuck off.” ### ‘Bleach Blonde, Bad-Built Butch Body’ Crockett never takes an insult lying down, especially not from the likes of soon-to-be-former U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the infamous congressional [pot-stirrer](https://www.advocate.com/politics/2021/2/25/rep-marjorie-taylor-greene-hangs-sign-trolling-pol-trans-child?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [conspiracist](https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/marjorie-taylor-greene-qanon-wildfires-space-laser-rothschild-execute.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). In May 2024, when a House Oversight Committee hearing grew testy, Greene threw a [barb](https://www.latimes.com/politics/newsletter/2024-05-21/beach-blonde-bad-built-butch-body-brilliance-politics?ref=thebarbedwire.com) at Crockett, telling her, “I think your fake eyelashes are messing up what you’re reading.” U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez jumped in to [defend](https://www.nj.com/politics/2025/05/theres-a-new-chapter-in-jasmine-crockett-vs-majorie-taylor-greene-feud.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Crockett, labeling Greene’s comment a “personal attack.” Crockett responded by asking Chairman James Comer, “If someone on this committee then starts talking about somebody’s bleach blonde, bad-built butch body, that would not be engaging in personalities, correct?” “Bleach blonde bad-built butch body” immediately took on a life of its own, spawning [songs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjBzeZTxxig&ref=thebarbedwire.com), [remixes](https://www.tiktok.com/@bhlogicondabeat/video/7370048280073342250?%5Fr=1&%5Ft=8mRWNPXFyCU&ref=thebarbedwire.com), and [t-shirts](https://www.amazon.com/Bleach-Blonde-Built-Butch-Retro/dp/B0D4KQMJP2?ref=thebarbedwire.com), including one worn by [singer Reneé Rapp](https://www.statesman.com/story/entertainment/music/2024/10/06/renee-rapp-austin-city-limits-2024-acl-fest-review/75497448007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) a few months later during her set at Austin City Limits. “I know that I had to work 10 times as hard as they did just to get into this seat,” [Crockett said](https://www.tiktok.com/@jasmineforus/video/7478509572471131423?lang=en&ref=thebarbedwire.com) on CNN. “When you look and you compare me to Marjorie Taylor Greene or me to Lauren Boebert, there is no comparison … The only people that are crying are the mediocre white boys that have been beaten out by people that historically have had to work so much harder.” After Trump [announced](https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115551127714537339?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that he’d no longer support Greene after her [recent criticism](https://www.npr.org/2025/11/16/g-s1-98038/trump-mtg-maga-republicans?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of the Republican Party’s handling of the Epstein files, Crockett had some additional words of advice. “I’m here for you girl… I told you not to trust him,” Crockett [posted](https://x.com/JasmineForUS/status/1989520641729466618?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on X. “All he cares about is HIMself (and protecting pedos) he never loved you. My granny always said ‘be with the man that loves you more than you love him.’ Trust me, sis, you are better off without him.” ### ‘Draft Dodging Dumb Dupe’ Trump himself has targeted Crockett before, calling her “low-IQ” on [multiple](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-jasmine-crockett-insult%5Fn%5F68d6b896e4b085d511c62936?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [occasions](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-jasmine-crockett-davy-crockett%5Fn%5F68920550e4b06ab33894519d?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Ever a fan of alliteration, Crockett made a short-form video in April [listing the five most](https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1EczXg3pV5/) “diabolical, disastrous, deplorable, detrimental dumb decisions” Trump had made in his second term. In early October, Crockett appeared on [MSNBC](https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/jasmine-crockett-searing-4-word-192706304.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and called out the Trump administration’s targeting of oppressed groups, including immigrants and trans people. She said that “while you thought the enemy was the immigrant, or you thought the enemy was the trans person, or you thought the enemy was the Black folk, or you thought the enemy were the women, the reality is that the only person that is harming you … is the old, white nepo baby that is sitting in the White House.” In other moments, Crockett has also referred to Trump as a predator and a bully. She’s also called him a “[mean manic mad mango man](https://x.com/JasmineForUS/status/1977578004193911056?s=20&ref=thebarbedwire.com),” “[a draft dodging dumb dupe](https://x.com/JasmineForUS/status/1895701910868672975?ref=thebarbedwire.com),” and “[Putin’s hoe](https://www.instagram.com/buzzfeed/p/DHC-1wAM%5FNP/?img%5Findex=1&ref=thebarbedwire.com).” Following his March [primetime address](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/04/donald-trump-congress-address-speech?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to Congress, Crockett claimed Trump was “really psychotic” after he declared his intention to take over Greenland. “I don’t even know why we’re fighting with Greenland,” Crockett said on [MeidasTouch Network](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/jasmine-crockett-trump-speech-nightmare%5Fn%5F67c7d666e4b0ccdfda040891?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “Why are we fighting with Greenland? We’re fighting with Canada, we’re fighting with Mexico, yet we’re in love with Putin? What is happening? Like, this is not America. This is a terrible nightmare. Somebody slap me and wake me the fuck up because I’m ready to get on with it.” In early October, Crockett [posted](https://x.com/JasmineForUS/status/1975693071515066704?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1975693071515066704%7Ctwgr%5E50e1e72d2f6c4923e0d10be88074f44a71e85c77%7Ctwcon%5Es1%5F&ref%5Furl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thedailybeast.com%2Frep-drags-trump-79-for-his-stumbling-and-blundering%2F&ref=thebarbedwire.com) a GIF on X of Trump tripping on the walk up to Air Force One, saying she had “finally” figured out why Trump kept going after her: “He can’t stop saying my name because it’s possibly the only one that he can pronounce… other members’ names trip him up like those stairs on Air Force 1 or like Acetaminophen.” (Weeks earlier, he had [struggled to say the generic name](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DT7Scg2okMs&ref=thebarbedwire.com) for Tylenol during a press conference.) Crockett used the opportunity to condemn the “childish contemptible cowardice corruption in the White House.” “I’m so infuriated by how Trump is trashing our country, tearing our democracy apart, & trying tyranny,” Crockett [wrote on X](https://x.com/JasmineForUS/status/1981214341786391038?s=20&ref=thebarbedwire.com) on Oct. 22, “The demolition of the east wing is an outward manifestation of what he’s doing to us, in general.” In recent weeks, Crockett has also [called the president](https://x.com/JasmineForUS/status/1978542281079615759?s=20&ref=thebarbedwire.com) “truly unintelligent or experiencing a mental health crisis… or both.” ### ‘Governor Hot Wheels’ Crockett is no friend to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and has [frequently criticized him](https://x.com/JasmineForUS/status/1990858194390831423?s=20&ref=thebarbedwire.com) as a “flunky” for President Trump. In March, at a Human Rights Campaign dinner in Los Angeles, Crockett went one step further. She [quipped](https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/25/jasmine-crockett-greg-abbott-reaction-027823?ref=thebarbedwire.com), “Y’all know we got Governor Hot Wheels down there. Come on now. And the only thing hot about him is that he is a hot ass mess, honey.” Crockett’s remarks drew immediate [criticism](https://x.com/NRCC/status/1904552610100625890?ref=thebarbedwire.com) from Republicans, with some calling for her [censure. Crockett’s supporters who stepped in to defend her amid the backlash noted that the](https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/texas-news/house-censure-resolution-filed-against-jasmine-crockett-greg-abbott-comments/3801287/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [term dates back decades and has been used by Texans](https://www.tiktok.com/@ahbeeolah/video/7486698571257875742?ref=thebarbedwire.com) who’ve voted both for and against Abbott — despite criticisms that the language is ableist. Initially, Crockett told [*Politico*](https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/25/jasmine-crockett-greg-abbott-reaction-027823?ref=thebarbedwire.com) reporters that her statement “speaks for itself,” but later clarified in a [post](https://x.com/RepJasmine/status/1904620222008472021?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on X that she wasn’t thinking about Abbott’s use of a wheelchair when she spoke. “I was thinking about the planes, trains, and automobiles he used to transfer migrants into communities led by Black mayors, deliberately stoking tension and fear among the most vulnerable,” Crocket wrote. “At no point did I mention or allude to his condition. So, I’m even more appalled that the very people who unequivocally support Trump — a man known for racially insensitive nicknames and mocking those with disabilities — are now outraged.” Some disability rights activists still saw Crockett’s words as a slight on Abbott’s disability and expressed disappointment in her choice of language, [*Politico*](https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/25/jasmine-crockett-greg-abbott-reaction-027823?ref=thebarbedwire.com) reported at the time. “Governor Abbott sometimes has policies that are harmful to people with disabilities, and that’s terrible,” Josie Byzek, senior communications and digital experience director at the United Spinal Association, said to [*Politico*](https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/25/jasmine-crockett-greg-abbott-reaction-027823?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “Representative Crockett has a history of protecting the programs and rights of people with disabilities, and that’s wonderful. At the same time, the stigma is real.” ### ‘I Can’t Hang Out With the KKK’ In January 2024, Rep. Nancy Mace [criticized](https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4401086-ocasio-cortez-crockett-call-out-mace-hunter-biden-white-privilege-dig/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Hunter Biden after he made a surprise appearance at a House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing as they worked on a resolution to hold him in contempt of Congress. “My first question is who bribed Hunter Biden to be here today? That’s my first question. Second question, you are the epitome of white privilege. Coming into the Oversight Committee, spitting in our face, ignoring a Congressional subpoena to be deposed. What are you afraid of? You have no balls to come up here,” [Mace said](https://x.com/therecount/status/1745104940924641730?s=20&ref=thebarbedwire.com). Later in the hearing, Crockett called out the Republican representative for weaponizing white supremacy. “I just want to run it back through to the very beginning, because this is something that I just can’t get over. I just can get over the gentlelady from South Carolina talking about white privilege,” Crockett said. “It was a spit in the face, at least of mine as a Black woman, for you to talk about what white privilege looks like, especially from that side of the aisle.” In August, Crockett took extra heat from Trump supporters [after a panel discussion](https://youtu.be/o1Ua9sI5c-w?si=kDZQSGI-VAR73sJb&t=2242&ref=thebarbedwire.com) at the Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival went viral, during which she argued the president is a “fool” and “king of distractions,” then pointed to a history of racism in the GOP. “Listen, most Black people are not Republicans simply because we just is like, ‘Y’all racist. I can’t hang out with the KKK and them.’ That’s really what it is,” she said on stage. “When we think about who we are as Black people, and we think about where we come from, most Black people have very conservative values, right? But the reality is that we just can’t side with the neo-Nazis and them. We like, ‘We not-, we not dealing with y’all like that,’ right?” This was not the first time that Crockett had drawn ire for tying Republicans — and MAGA more specifically — to extremism. Six months earlier, on the Betches News podcast [“American Fever Dream,”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9Y4qGTcx5k&list=WL&index=4&t=2s&ref=thebarbedwire.com) she said: “Baby, y’all got the white supremacists galore, okay? Like all of ’em.” “You got the Proud Boys, you got the neo-Nazis, you have people that literally should be classified as domestic terrorists, because a lot of times that is what they are doing — they’re engaging in domestic terrorism,” she continued. “And guess what? They all align with your side, including the KKK.” ### ‘I Worked My Ass Off’ Notably, Crockett’s direct language isn’t always pointed outward. In advance of the nationwide “No Kings” protests on Oct. 18, Crockett [posted a photo of herself and Vice President Kamala Harris on X](https://x.com/JasmineForUS/status/1979596642283123039?s=20&ref=thebarbedwire.com) — along with a plain-spoken admission. “I worked my ass off on behalf of the American people to make sure that we didn’t fumble the bag… but we did,” she wrote. “So here we are preparing to take to the streets.” “We could’ve had class, compassion, rule of law, intellect, respect, fairness, and well DEMOCRACY, BUT so many chose to critique her & ignore him,” she continued. “All to our collective detriment. Let today be a reminder that we are all in the same sinking ship & it’s important to stand united for Progress instead of being divided with or by PETTY.” Only time will tell if that unity will hold now that she’s officially in the race for U.S. Senate. As she [said in August](https://x.com/JasmineForUS/status/1960073316191940677?s=20&ref=thebarbedwire.com) about the battle shaping up between Cornyn and Paxton, “This Senate primary is going to be (a) reality show that unfortunately is actual reality instead of just entertainment. Get your 🍿ready.” ### An ‘Over-the-Top’ Megachurch Christmas Show Has Divided Social Media, Again URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/prestonwood-church-christmas-show/ Last updated: 2025-12-08T17:15:19.000Z Over the weekend, thousands gathered to watch approximately [1,200 volunteers](https://www.fox4news.com/news/plano-church-1200-member-christmas-production?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in[17,000 costumes](https://www.texasmonthly.com/being-texan/behind-scenes-extreme-christmas-pageant-prestonwood-plano/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a 50-piece orchestra, and [21 animals](https://www.texasmonthly.com/being-texan/behind-scenes-extreme-christmas-pageant-prestonwood-plano/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) take the stage at Prestonwood Baptist Church’s Christmas show in Plano, among beaming lights and angels ‘flying’ on harnesses. The holiday show, titled “Gift of Christmas,” has been a tradition of the church for about 40 years, [according to *Texas Monthly*](https://www.texasmonthly.com/being-texan/behind-scenes-extreme-christmas-pageant-prestonwood-plano/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The magazine has dubbed it “America’s Most Extreme Christmas Pageant,” and in recent years, as it’s been picked up on TikTok and Instagram, the large performance has incited debate [online](https://www.chron.com/culture/religion/article/texas-megachurches-christmas-shows-19990537.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) over its extravagance. Ticket prices have come under scrutiny, as have sources of funding and proceeds. But according to FOX DFW, church officials said the performance [is funded from its own ticket sales](https://www.fox4news.com/news/plano-church-1200-member-christmas-production?ref=thebarbedwire.com), not church donations. [Tickets for ‘Gift of Christmas”](https://prestonwoodgoc.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) range from $20 to $60. Andy Pearson, a worship minister at Prestonwood and creative director of “Gift of Christmas,” told *Texas Monthly* that the show has long been a big event. “Back in the day they had an elephant onstage,” Pearson [said to the magazine.](https://www.texasmonthly.com/being-texan/behind-scenes-extreme-christmas-pageant-prestonwood-plano/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Now, no elephant is featured in the nearly two-hour retelling of the birth of Jesus. But, performers still share the stage with eight sheep, three camels, three peacocks, two donkeys, two zebras, two alpacas, and one horse. Pearson also told the outlet that he keeps a close eye on baby showers in the months leading up to the performance for babies to play the infant Jesus across the various productions, and that 10 babies were selected from the congregation this year. “We have a SignUpGenius,” Pearson [told Texas Monthly](https://www.texasmonthly.com/being-texan/behind-scenes-extreme-christmas-pageant-prestonwood-plano/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The show opened for its two-weekend run Dec. 5, and users online have already posted their reactions after the first shows. The performance draws tens of thousands of enthusiastic attendees. Johnny Quinn, a former U.S. Olympic bobsled team member, [shared videos on social media](https://x.com/JohnnyQuinnUSA/status/1997867330890608662?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of flying drummer boys, live animals in the nativity scenes, and strobe lights from the performance. “It’s probably illegal to have recorded this short clip of the ‘drummer boy’ set but you HAVE to see it,” Quinn wrote[ on X.](https://x.com/JohnnyQuinnUSA/status/1997867330890608662?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Other users on social media said they disagreed with the elaborate nature of the church’s production, and the fact that Prestonwood charges for admission. “Churches should never be able to ‘sell’ anything, tax the churches who ‘sell’,” user fullberries wrote on [a Tiktok post ](https://www.tiktok.com/@fox4newsdallasfortworth/video/7579796389060693278?embed%5Fsource=121374463%2C121468991%2C121439635%2C121749182%2C121433650%2C121404359%2C121497414%2C121477481%2C121351166%2C121811500%2C121960941%2C121860360%2C121487028%2C121679410%2C121331973%2C120811592%2C120810756%2C121885509%3Bnull%3Bembed%5Fcomment%5Fbutton&refer=embed&referer%5Furl=www.chron.com%2Fculture%2Freligion%2Farticle%2Ftexas-megachurch-christmas-show-prestonwood-21220794.php&referer%5Fvideo%5Fid=7579796389060693278&ref=thebarbedwire.com)by FOX DFW about the production . “We are warned about this in the Bible,” user Nonix2 [also commented.](https://www.tiktok.com/@fox4newsdallasfortworth/video/7579796389060693278?embed%5Fsource=121374463%2C121468991%2C121439635%2C121749182%2C121433650%2C121404359%2C121497414%2C121477481%2C121351166%2C121811500%2C121960941%2C121860360%2C121487028%2C121679410%2C121331973%2C120811592%2C120810756%2C121885509%3Bnull%3Bembed%5Fcomment%5Fbutton&refer=embed&referer%5Furl=www.chron.com%2Fculture%2Freligion%2Farticle%2Ftexas-megachurch-christmas-show-prestonwood-21220794.php&referer%5Fvideo%5Fid=7579796389060693278&ref=thebarbedwire.com) https://www.tiktok.com/@johnnyquinnusa/video/7581323423184358686?q=prestonwood%20gift%20of%20christmas&t=1765205295989 On one attendee’s Tiktok video, users commented on the accuracy of the recreation of the biblical events. The video showed a sequence where drummers lit by strobing pink and green lights hang from harnesses above the audience. “I don’t think any of that was in Bethlehem,” [user lilpeege wrote](https://www.tiktok.com/@johnnyquinnusa/video/7581323423184358686?q=prestonwood%20gift%20of%20christmas&t=1765205295989&ref=thebarbedwire.com). Pearson told FOX DFW that the performance should be viewed as a different experience from their regular services, which are free of charge. “Social media has changed the game because it allows people to speak of things they’ve never been to or been a part of,” Pearson said to FOX DFW in the video. “The Christmas show here is extraordinary, it’s over the top and it’s designed that way as an outreach for people to come into the church.” ### Where Did Anti-Trans Laws Start? How a Forgotten Houston Ordinance Turned Into a Massive, Nationwide Culture War URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/anti-trans-laws-houston-ordinance-bathroom-bill/ Last updated: 2025-12-05T05:37:33.000Z *This story is a collaboration between The Barbed Wire and the [Investigative Reporting Workshop](https://investigativereportingworkshop.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)— a nonprofit newsroom at American University that trains student journalists on in-depth reporting.* When she was elected mayor of Houston in 2009, Annise Parker became the [first openly gay mayor of a major American city](https://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/13/us/politics/13houston.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). In 2014, Houston was one of the few such cities without an anti-discrimination ordinance, so five years into her term, she put one together using wording from the [200 or so existing laws](https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2014/07/21/fact-sheet-taking-action-support-lgbt-workplace-equality-good-business-0?ref=thebarbedwire.com) across the country. Parker proposed the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance, or HERO, to ban discrimination over gender identity, sexual orientation, and other federally protected characteristics like race and religion. Then the public comment period took a turn. Opponents focused on a single paragraph in the [34-page](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/web-archive-org/web/20140423233046/https-/www-houstontx-gov/ordinancefeedback/equalrights%5Fordinance.pdf) ordinance — which would allow people to use restrooms fitting their gender identity — claiming it would open the door to sexual assault by men pretending to be women in women’s only facilities. “At first I laughed,” Parker said in an interview in 2023, and echoed to *The Barbed Wire* this week. “The sexual predators language, men in women's bathrooms, goes way back.” Over the last century, every time a marginalized group has demanded equitable access to public services and facilities, conservatives have responded with messaging about threats to public safety, with little — if any —evidence to back the claims. In that way, [restrooms have long been a barometer](https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/05/2016-bathroom-bills-politics-north-carolina-lgbt-transgender-history-restrooms-era-civil-rights-213902/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for the state of civil rights in the U.S., and as [*Politico*](https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/05/2016-bathroom-bills-politics-north-carolina-lgbt-transgender-history-restrooms-era-civil-rights-213902/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) reported, the fight to separate transgender individuals has parroted the rhetoric of segregationists. Nowhere more so than Texas. What Parker witnessed in Houston in 2014 was an opening salvo in what would become a raging national war over what protections are afforded to transgender Americans — with Texas at the epicenter of a 10-year battle over laws to control who is allowed in what restroom all over the country. On Thursday, Texas’ first law dictating what facilities transgender and gender non-conforming Texans can use went into effect — the first of 19 attempts to have successfully made it to the governor’s desk, and only after the governor called for a second special legislative session. The legislation has [left many confused](https://www.sacurrent.com/news/texas-news/days-before-texas-bathroom-bill-becomes-law-questions-remain-about-how-it-will-be-enforced/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) about how the law will be implemented, since it is limited to bathrooms in public schools and state government buildings, enforced with a vigilante component and state investigations, and can result in fines on noncompliant public entities (not individual bathroom users). But its clumsiness as a policy belies the fact that it is the culmination of a herculean, decade-long push by legislators to limit the facilities used by transgender individuals. Nationally, many Americans associate bathroom bills with North Carolina — where House Bill 2 was the first to become law. Yet, the movement got its start in earnest in Texas, buoyed by the defeat of HERO. Though the Houston City Council voted in favor of HERO in 2014, it was short-lived. Within weeks, a group of pastors with the backing of prominent social conservative groups started a campaign to overturn it, running ads and distributing signs with the slogan: “No Men In Women’s Bathrooms.” A bruising legal battle led to a Texas Supreme Court ruling that put the ordinance on a ballot, where it was voted down. Over the next year, Republican state legislators in Texas proposed at least nine separate bills restricting the rights of LGBTQ residents, including [four](https://legiscan.com/TX/bill/HB2802/2015?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [that](https://legiscan.com/TX/bill/HB2801/2015?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [would](https://legiscan.com/TX/bill/HB1748/2015?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [make it illegal](https://legiscan.com/TX/bill/HB1747/2015?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for people to enter restrooms that didn’t match their sex at birth. None made it into law for more than a decade. That is, until September, when Gov. Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 8, which carries the highest financial penalty [of any existing bathroom bill in the nation](https://www.lgbtmap.org/img/maps/citations-bathroom-facilities-bans.pdf?ref=thebarbedwire.com). *The Barbed Wire* has reconstructed the law’s evolution — from objections over a city ordinance to a new strategy that weaponized the issue of women’s safety to fight a broader, ever-sprawling culture war — to better understand why Texas politicians have spent more than a decade obsessing over the bathroom rights of roughly [1% of the population](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/20/trans-people-us-data?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Reporting showed no problem to be solved: There’s [no evidence](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13178-018-0335-z?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of a [public safety threat](https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/publications/safety-in-restrooms-and-facilites/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to women or children by allowing trans individuals to use the bathroom of their preference. There is, however, [substantive research](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12147-017-9197-6?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that these bills negatively [impact trans individuals](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12147-017-9197-6?ref=thebarbedwire.com), leading to medical complications from restroom avoidance, harassment, and even assault. Work for this story began in 2023 as part of a project by the Investigative Reporting Workshop, a nonprofit newsroom at American University. Journalism students, interns, and editors over the past two years combed through more than 1,600 bills filed across multiple states since 2015 that targeted the rights of transgender Americans. Reporting for the project included interviews with advocates, academics, politicians, and activists on all sides of the measures. The Workshop’s reporting showed that, in the decade since it became commonplace for anti-discrimination ordinances to include gender identity, there’s been a sustained backlash of proposed laws eroding the rights of transgender and gender non-conforming people. In the last five years, the country has seen thousands of bills restricting everything from who can play on which high school sports teams and what healthcare trans teens can receive to how teachers can interact with students who prefer gender neutral pronouns — with more than 1,000 filed in 2025 alone. Behind many of them is messaging that the Workshop and *The Barbed Wire* have traced back to the 2014 HERO battle. Our findings indicate that conservatives’ 2014 win became a blueprint for right-wing groups, religious organizations, and Republican politicians trying to outdo primary opponents. “This is not communities spontaneously rising up against protecting trans folks,” said Parker in 2023, noting that “the messaging piece, the legislative piece that has come since then… has been from the right wing think tanks that have poll-tested and created language and shared it with legislators.” “They are trying to pump it out,” she said. ### Houston Was a Case Study After the public comment period in 2014, Parker pulled the restroom section of HERO. It wasn’t enough for some opponents like Dave Welch, who spoke with the Investigative Reporting Workshop in 2023 before his death earlier this year. Welch first entered the public policy arena in 2003 with the launch of the Houston Area Pastors Council, and later the U.S. Pastors Council, a coalition of like-minded religious leaders who Welch said believe in civic engagement to advance a Biblical worldview. He had concerns over the 2014 Houston Equal Rights Ordinance from the start. “The reality is that it was one of the progressing steps forward of what we now know as the LGBTQIA+ movement to deconstruct the traditional order of male and female marriage, as well as a direct assault on personal freedom and religious liberty,” Welch said. “It demanded that we speak to the issue.” To understand the strategy used to pass these types of legislation across the country requires a quick study of the tactics used by Welch and his national counterparts back then. Welch, along with four other pastors and conservative donors, launched a petition to send the ordinance to voters. The local coalition, called Campaign for Houston, had help from national players. The Alliance Defending Freedom, an influential Christian legal group behind more than a dozen conservative Supreme Court victories including the overturn of Roe v. Wade, had worked with the Pastors Council in Houston on similar issues over the years, Welch said, and provided a key element in the fight against HERO — supposed cases of violence in bathrooms by transgender individuals. The Alliance Defending Freedom did not reply to the Investigative Reporting Workshops requests for comment in 2023, or *The Barbed Wire*’s this week. Behind the scenes, the Alliance turned to the American College of Pediatricians, a small group of conservative doctors considered a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center for its use of discredited anti-LGBTQ science. According to a copy of emails left public in a data breach, [first reported by *WIRED*](https://www.wired.com/story/american-college-pediatricians-google-drive-leak/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the Alliance’s senior counsel wrote to the American College of Pediatricians’ executive director asking for white papers — reports conveying expertise often used by policymakers — on pressing LGBTQ+ topics. At the top of the list: substantiating long-term psychological harm to women and girls “by having their right to bodily privacy invaded by males.” In essence, the [Alliance Defending Freedom asked](https://www.splcenter.org/resources/hatewatch/documents-reveal-adf-requested-anti-trans-research-american-college-pediatricians/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) the American College of Pediatricians for proof of claims the Campaign for Houston was making in marketing that HERO would compromise the safety and privacy of women and girls. According to a 2015 report by [*The Daily Beast*](https://www.thedailybeast.com/houstons-anti-lgbt-campaign-was-led-by-wingnut-who-would-expel-all-gays/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the Alliance Defending Freedom and the other national groups also changed the initial campaign slogan from “Unequal Rights” to “No Men in Women’s Bathrooms.” The city secretary certified that Welch and the others collected enough signatures for a ballot referendum, but a city attorney disagreed, finding many of the signatures invalid. Parker rejected the petition, and the Campaign for Houston sued with firepower from the Family Research Council, another prominent Christian-right advocacy group. As lower courts ruled in the city and the ordinance’s favor, the Alliance Defending Freedom sent letters to school districts across the country with a recommended policy requiring transgender students to use bathrooms that matched their birth sex, and proposed [model legislation](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-leg-state-co-us/CLICS/CLICS2015A/commsumm-nsf/b4a3962433b52fa787256e5f00670a71/4f3a48ec0a54330687257de2005e3f8c/FILE/15housestate0204attachc-page-5.pdf) with similar restrictions to state assemblies. Then, in 2015, the Texas Supreme Court ruled the city had to repeal the ordinance or put it to a vote. Proposition 1 made it onto the November ballot and into national headlines, thanks in part to prominent conservatives like [former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee](https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-nation/mike-huckabees-dangerous-campaign-smear-houstons-non-discrimination-ordinance?ref=thebarbedwire.com) “No Men in Women’s Bathrooms” was printed on yard signs, repeated in radio spots, and in numerous TV ads. In one, former Houston Astros star Lance Berkman, who is [related by marriage to Tucker Carlson](https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna9796431?ref=thebarbedwire.com), referenced his wife and four daughters, before claiming Proposition 1 “would allow troubled men to enter women’s public bathrooms” and “put them in harm’s way.” In another, a young girl was followed by a man into a restroom stall behind text reading “any man any time” and “registered sex offenders.” The Investigative Reporting Workshop found no evidence of crimes against women in restrooms by men posing as transgender as the result of anti-discrimination policies in the last ten years. [One case](https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/10/05/loudoun-sexual-assault-stone-bridge/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) referenced by conservative activists involved a male student in a skirt sexually assaulting a female student in the girls bathroom of a Virginia high school in 2021, though the assault occurred before a policy allowing transgender students to use the bathroom of their choice was put in place. The progressive research group [MediaMatters](https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-nation/debunking-big-myth-about-transgender-inclusive-bathrooms?ref=thebarbedwire.com) contacted experts in a dozen states with such policies, and later school systems, and found no instances of sexual assault. It did find a case of supposed harassment that was debunked. [PolitiFact](https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2016/apr/01/chris-sgro/equality-nc-director-no-public-safety-risks-cities/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), run by the Poynter Institute, similarly said it could find no instances of criminals convicted of using transgender protections as a cover in the U.S. Houstonians voted against the ordinance 61% to 39%. It was a crucial win for social conservatives less than five months after the Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage. “That's really when opponents of LGBTQ rights realized that there was very little they could do to convince the public to restrict the rights of gays and lesbians. That proverbial ship had sailed as America became more accepting of same-sex sexuality,” said Marie-Amelie George, professor of law at Wake Forest University. “But trans rights issues were a really successful wedge issue that could bring people to the polls and lead to restrictions on not just trans rights but also gay, lesbian, bisexual rights.” ### The Spread of an Effective Anti-Trans Message In 2018, *Rolling Stone* and *Type Investigations* co-published a story identifying [“the secret history of bathroom bills”](https://www.typeinvestigations.org/investigation/2018/01/22/secret-history-bathroom-bills/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — diving into the way “a small band of far-right activists in Houston sparked a movement against transgender rights.” As reporter Sarah Posner wrote: It started in Houston. A key takeaway from the [effective Campaign for Houston](https://www.thedailybeast.com/houstons-anti-lgbt-campaign-was-led-by-wingnut-who-would-expel-all-gays/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) was messaging. Opponents had flipped a debate on legal protections to one on the safety of women and girls and [resuscitated anxieties](https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/05/2016-bathroom-bills-politics-north-carolina-lgbt-transgender-history-restrooms-era-civil-rights-213902/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) dating back to at least the early 19th century. In the ‘50s and ‘60s, amid the fight for racial desegregation, conservatives spread the false idea that Black men were rapists and Black women were apt to spread venereal disease. In a 1961 court case, the city of Memphis argued public welfare required the city to maintain separate facilities “for reasons of health, sanitation, and related factors.” Around the same time, police crackdowns on same-sex sexual activity in men’s rooms stoked fears of child predators hiding in toilet stalls. Officials sent out pamphlets and public service announcements warning kids to be on guard for sexual deviants in bathrooms. In the ‘70s, prominent conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly drew on those lingering fears in her fight against the Equal Rights Amendment, which would have guaranteed legal gender equality, telling the *New York Times* it would lead to coed bathrooms and “coed everything — whether you like it or not.” The women’s liberation movement, she added, was “an antifamily movement that is trying to make perversion acceptable as an alternative life-style.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/screenshot-2025-12-04-at-7-18-13-pm.png) Around the same time, Parker got her start as a gay and lesbian activist in college in the mid-1970s, and she went on to work for the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund, a political action committee. The safety-in-bathrooms messaging was a hallmark of the Schlafly and ERA fight, she remembers now. “It truly was that the Equal Rights Amendment was going to drop all the barriers and women wouldn’t be safe,” she told *The Barbed Wire*, pointing out the irony of targeting one marginalized group under the guise of helping another. “Let’s discriminate by saying, ‘Let’s protect women.’” In essence, the Campaign for Houston transferred old fears to a small subset within the LGBTQ+ umbrella that many Americans knew little about. “Fewer than 30% of Americans actually know a trans person,” said Rob Todaro, communications director for the progressive [think tank Data for Progress](https://www.dataforprogress.org/blog/2025/3/27/americans-are-divided-on-issues-related-to-transgender-people-but-often-dont-want-the-federal-government-involved?ref=thebarbedwire.com), “so that whole environment was ripe for a lot of fear mongering and misinformation to spread.” George, the Wake Forest professor who specializes in LGBTQ rights, agreed, noting that “once conservative groups debuted that argument, it really galvanized people and led to a widespread repeal of gender identity protections in cities and towns around the country.” After the November vote against HERO, standalone bathroom bills, modeled off the Alliance’s legislation — and promoted with messaging that had worked in Houston — began proliferating across [state governments from Nevada to Kentucky](https://www.mediamatters.org/alliance-defending-freedom/religious-freedom-legal-powerhouse-leading-national-fight-against?ref=thebarbedwire.com). In 2015, the first Texas bathroom bill proposals came from former state Rep. Debbie Riddle (R-Tomball), in which she said that it should be a crime for people to enter a bathroom or locker room that does not match their assigned sex at birth. Riddle filed two bills that session, and former Rep. Gilbert Peña (R-Pasadena) also filed two in a similar vein, [according to the *Texas Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/08/20/texas-legislature-transgender-bathroom-bill-history/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). [One of Peña’s proposed bills](https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=84R&Bill=HB2801&ref=thebarbedwire.com) would have allowed students to sue their school over sharing bathrooms with transgender students. The four bills were never heard by the legislature, [according to the *Texas Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/08/20/texas-legislature-transgender-bathroom-bill-history/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)*,* andPeña’s bill was removed from the agenda by the chair of the House State Affairs Committee due to its harsh language, [according to the *Associated Press*.](https://www.kxan.com/news/texas-lawmaker-delays-transgender-school-bathroom-bill/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Across the country in 2015, lawmakers from nine states had introduced 17 bathroom bills. That tally jumped in 2016, with 30 bathroom bills proposed across 18 states. In early 2016, the city of Charlotte, North Carolina, passed an anti-discrimination ordinance with protections for gender identity. Within days, state lawmakers responded with a special session to pass a bill, known as House Bill 2, overriding local anti-discrimination ordinances and requiring all public school and government facilities be restricted to sex assigned at birth. Again, the messaging was about safety. The bill’s full name was “Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act.” Then-Gov. Pat McCrory signed it the same night it passed. It became the first law in the country prohibiting people from using bathrooms that do not match their assigned sex at birth. A wave of backlash followed. The NCAA [pulled its championship games](https://www.ncaa.org/news/2016/9/12/ncaa-to-relocate-championships-from-north-carolina-for-2016-17.aspx?ref=thebarbedwire.com) from the state, companies like Paypal [withdrew from expansions](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/apr/05/paypal-cancels-north-carolina-center-charlotte-law-lgbt-discrimination?ref=thebarbedwire.com) planned there, and artists like [Bruce Springsteen](https://shorefire.com/releases/entry/a-statement-from-bruce-springsteen-on-north-carolina?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [Ringo Starr ](https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/ringo-starr-cancels-north-carolina-concert-bathroom-bill/story?id=38372365&ref=thebarbedwire.com)cancelled concerts. Overall, the *Associated Press* estimated the bill would [cost North Carolina $3.76 billion in lost business](https://apnews.com/article/e6c7a15d2e16452c8dcbc2756fd67b44?ref=thebarbedwire.com) over a dozen years. Texas saw significantly less pushback from local artists and independent businesses — but the stances taken in North Carolina helped ensure the version in the Lone Star State failed to pass. That same year, another [proposed bathroom bill](https://senate.texas.gov/news.php?id=20170307a&ref=thebarbedwire.com) in Texas by Sen. Lois Kolkhorst (R-Brenham) failed after backlash both from advocates for transgender rights and for businesses. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick was [a strong proponent of such a bill](https://www.danpatrick.org/patrick-signals-his-support-for-a-statewide-bathroom-bill/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), but then-House Speaker Joe Straus rallied against it, arguing that it would bring Texas similar economic consequences to the ones faced in North Carolina. Straus’s position [was backed by top business executives](https://www.texastribune.org/2017/08/16/after-months-controversy-texas-bathroom-bill-dies-quiet-death/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), according to the *Texas Tribune*. The bill died quietly after the Senate advanced it but it failed to garner enough House support for a hearing before the legislative session ultimately came to a close. Still, the bills spread, as did the messaging. During the race for governor in North Carolina later that year, McCrory faced a heated challenge from Democrat Roy Cooper. A conservative activist group [recreated the Campaign for Houston’s ad](https://archive.thinkprogress.org/north-carolina-bathroom-ad-d496b7af4664/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), frame-by-frame, swapping Houston for Cooper, claiming he’d allow “any man at any time” to enter a women’s bathroom “simply by claiming to be a woman that day.” Cooper went on to win the governor’s seat and repeal House Bill 2\. But other politicians picked up the messaging. U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, seeking a way to outpace President Donald Trump in the polls in the 2016 presidential election, seized on what the [*New York Times*](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/30/us/politics/indiana-republican-transgender-rights-bathroom.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) called a “once-obscure issue with a proven power to inflame conservatives.” On [social media](https://x.com/tedcruz/status/723487122267594755?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=thebarbedwire.com) and on campaign stops, he repeated much of the language that came out of the Campaign for Houston. “In leveraging the issue, Mr. Cruz has raised the specter of sexual predators in women’s restrooms, which conservatives around the country have effectively invoked to defeat anti-discrimination laws — and which gay rights advocates denounce as a myth,” the *Times* wrote. ### A New Norm: 1,000+ Bills Targeting Trans People Per Year Kyle Riley was in high school in Amarillo in 2017, when another wave of bills on issues targeting transgender Texans hit the 85th Legislature. A group of Republican senators proposed [a bill restricting bathrooms to biological sex](https://legiscan.com/TX/bill/SB6/2017?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that cleared the Senate but failed to pass the House. As a young trans man, Riley said watching the attacks on trans rights from the conservative Panhandle was unsettling. “Things felt very out of my control and scary,” Riley told *The Barbed Wire* this week. (Riley is now an ordained minister with the United Church of Christ and a [public witness mobilizer](https://texasimpact.org/about-texas-impact/our-team/kyle-riley/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for Texas Impact, a political advocacy organization for faith leaders.) But as conservative groups were galvanizing, so too were trans advocates and progressive lawmakers. In 2017, then-state senators Sylvia Garcia (D-Houston) and José Rodríguez (D-El Paso) proposed two bills that would allow users to choose the bathroom that matched their gender identity, rather than their biological sex. State House Rep. Gina Hinojosa (D-Austin) filed a similar gender-identity bill in the House, but none of the Democrats’ three measures made it through their respective chambers. In 2017, the American Civil Liberties Union identified 28 bills involving “single-sex facility restrictions,” and [according to MediaMatters](https://www.mediamatters.org/alliance-defending-freedom/many-ways-alliance-defending-freedom-fighting-against-transgender?ref=thebarbedwire.com), 10 of those contained language resembling the Alliance Defending Freedom’s model legislation. Even though a small portion of the proposals passed, those championing the movement made it clear their aim was as much about manipulating public sentiment as crafting law. “For all its recent success, the LGBT alliance is fragile,” Meg Kilgannon, a longtime conservative activist, would explain later, during a 2017 panel discussion featuring other key leaders in the movement to restrict LGBTQ rights. “Trans activists need the gay rights movement to help legitimize them. Gender identity on its own is a bridge too far. Separate the T from the alphabet soup.” In 2017, 54% of Americans polled by the Pew Research Center said they believed that gender is fixed to what is assigned at birth. By 2022 that had grown to 60%. That same 2022 [survey](https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2022/06/28/americans-complex-views-on-gender-identity-and-transgender-issues/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#a-rising-share-say-a-person-s-gender-is-determined-by-their-sex-at-birth) found 43% of Americans — and 70% of Republicans — said societal views on gender identity are changing “too quickly.” Two years later, during Texas’ 2019 legislative session, Patrick said there was no need to revive the bathroom bill, [according to the *Texas Tribune*.](https://www.texastribune.org/2019/01/09/texas-lt-gov-dan-patrick-dismisses-need-bathroom-bill-2019/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) “Sometimes a bill doesn’t pass, but you win on the issue,” Patrick said at the press conference. “There aren’t any school districts forcing students — as one school district was — to share showers, lockers and bathrooms.” Despite Patrick’s statements, experts [told the *Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2019/01/09/texas-lt-gov-dan-patrick-dismisses-need-bathroom-bill-2019/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that accommodations were still made for transgender students on a case-by-case basis. The number of bathroom bills introduced in state houses slowed for several years — but the movement behind anti-trans legislation did not. A record number of bills targeting the rights of transgender people were filed in 2020, extending beyond bathrooms and instead focusing on healthcare, sports, and education. Every year since has seen a new threshold. The 2021 legislative session in Texas went by without a bathroom bill, but legislation was passed [preventing public school students from competing on sports teams](https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/Text.aspx?LegSess=873&Bill=HB25&ref=thebarbedwire.com) that do not match their assigned sex at birth. Then 2023 hit a fever pitch. Two measures levied against transgender individuals in Texas were passed: a [restriction of college sports teams](https://legiscan.com/TX/drafts/SB15/2023?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to sex assigned at birth, and [a ban on gender-affirming care ](https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=88R&Bill=SB14&ref=thebarbedwire.com)for minors. That year, the Investigative Reporting Workshop found hundreds of individual pieces of legislation in all 50 states that would dictate the rights of transgender citizens. The [Trans Legislative Tracker](https://translegislation.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) identified more than 600\. That number grew to 700 in 2024. The following year, the Tracker identified 59 bathroom bills nationally and more than 1,000 anti-trans bills more broadly. Both numbers shattered all previous tallies. By the first few days of the 89th Legislature early in 2025, a Texas-based GLAAD representative told *The Barbed Wire* that GLAAD and Equality Texas, nonpartisan statewide political advocacy organization, counted more than 30 anti-trans bills filed in Texas alone. By mid-February, Equality Texas had tracked [more than 50 anti-LGBTQIA+ bills](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/anti-trans-bills-texas-2025/). The Trans Legislative Tracker ranked Texas as the leader in the country for anti-trans bills this year, with 139 by the end of all of the legislative sessions. *The Barbed Wire* reported that [11 variations of a bathroom bill](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/anti-trans-bills-texas-2025/) were proposed. Six bills were filed in the regular session, two in the first special session, and three in the second special session. One of those three was Senate Bill 8. The “Texas Women’s Privacy Act,” or Senate Bill 8, was authored by state Sen. Mayes Middleton (R-Galveston) and sponsored in the House by state Rep. Angelia Orr (R-Itasca) during the 2nd special session. It was passed after [hours of debate and protest](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/08/22/exas-house-transgender-bathroom-senate-bill-8/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). It was signed into law by Abbott in September. [The bill says that](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/capitol-texas-gov/tlodocs/892/billtext/sb00008f-navpanes-0.pdf) multiple-occupancy private spaces — such as restrooms, locker rooms, and changing rooms — fall under the new restrictions. State government entities, including school districts and county authorities, must designate these spaces in their buildings as restricted to one sex only, according to the bill. It does not apply to private businesses, and it does not specify how institutions should monitor compliance other than to “take every reasonable step” to ensure only members of the designated sex are using the correct facilities. The bill provides some exceptions: A member of the opposite sex can enter these spaces for custodial purposes, for a medical or law enforcement emergency, to accompany someone who needs assistance, or if they are a child aged 9 or younger. The bill also does not prohibit institutions from having single occupancy private bathrooms or changing rooms that anyone may use. Also included is a provision that inmates in correctional facilities be separated by sex, and that domestic violence shelters designated for women may only provide services to those of the female sex and minors in their care. The bill also states that institutions found in violation of the complaint can be initially charged up to $25,000 and an additional $125,000 for every subsequent day they do not comply with the bill. That means this bill carries the highest financial penalty [of any existing bathroom bill across the nation](https://www.lgbtmap.org/img/maps/citations-bathroom-facilities-bans.pdf?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Texas’ law brings the total to 19 states — including Wyoming, South Dakota, Arkansas, West Virginia, Idaho, South Carolina, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Montana — that now have restrictive bathroom bills in effect, [according to *Stateline*.](https://stateline.org/2025/06/26/more-states-pass-laws-restricting-transgender-peoples-bathroom-use/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Many conservative lawmakers said they viewed the bill as a culmination of their previous efforts to restrict gender divisions by biological sex. “We protected girls’ sports, we protected women’s sports, we passed the bill to define male and female … and now the last piece of this equation is putting the penalties in the law,” said state Sen. Mayes Middleton (R-Galveston) on the legislative floor in August, according to the [*Texas Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/08/20/texas-legislature-transgender-bathroom-bill-history/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). ### ‘Towards the Far Right Edge’ A lot has changed in the LGBTQ+ rights space, and the country writ large, since the battle over Houston’s bathrooms began in 2014. Dave Welch, the Houston pastor who helped form the campaign against the Houston rights amendment and pioneer messaging behind bathroom bills, died in June. The Texas Legislature [honored him with a resolution](https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/89R/billtext/html/SR00719I.htm?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for being at “the forefront of interactions between the church and members of government at the city, state, and national levels; many leaders in Texas government, including state senators and the lieutenant governor, worked with Pastor Welch for the better part of two decades, and his commitment to faith, family, and freedom reflected the highest ideals of the Lone Star State.” Trump has won and lost and won the presidency again. He issued a series of [executive orders](https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/defending-women-from-gender-ideology-extremism-and-restoring-biological-truth-to-the-federal-government/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) against trans people, including one “defending women from gender ideology extremism.” Parker thinks that’s one of the many reasons Texas Republicans were successful in finally getting a bathroom bill passed after failing for the previous five legislative sessions. That and Texas’s march further right as Abbott and other state leaders have pushed out moderate Republicans. “They primaried folks to really drive the legislature more towards the far right edge. Then you had Trump coming in and suddenly no more trans folks in the military and so forth, legitimizing these efforts,” Parker said. “I think the combination is why it passed. With no care about the pain and the impact on people’s lives.” A [survey by Data for Progress](https://www.dataforprogress.org/blog/2025/3/27/americans-are-divided-on-issues-related-to-transgender-people-but-often-dont-want-the-federal-government-involved?ref=thebarbedwire.com) published in March looked at opinions around the policies and their impact. Eighty five percent of transgender adults said anti-LGBTQ+ policies and rhetoric negatively impacted their mental health. “A lot of people right now especially feel very helpless,” said Kyle Riley, who has now been at Texas Impact for three years. “That was the feeling that I had, and one of the main things that has helped me alleviate that feeling has been being able to do something about it, working towards something.” Part of that is focusing on creating good public policy. He said it's become more and more apparent that many proposed laws on gender identity are not, in fact, good policy. As with the new bathroom law, Riley has found many lack the fundamentals: guidelines for implementation, clear outcomes, or ways to collect data or assess effectiveness. “They’re policy approaches meant to sow fear,” Riley said. “That’s not public policy, that’s a form of violence.” So, they’re going back to basics, turning heavy feelings into action. Some wars are not fought and won in 10 years. Parker, for her part, tried to retire. Then Trump was elected, and she got tired of sitting at home. Now she’s [running for Harris County Judge](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/06/11/harris-county-judge-lina-hidalgo-annise-parker-2026/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “I was like, ‘What am I good at? I’m good at this.’ I’m going to run.” *The Investigative Reporting Workshop’s data editor, Aarushi Sahejpal, contributed to this report. As did IRW interns Andy Tallman, Helena Milburn, Daniela Lobo, Mirika Rayaprolu, Hamed Ahmadi, Madison Moore, Hayden Godfrey, and Isabel Del Mastro.* *Correction: This story previously, erroneously referred to Democratic North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper as Roy Moore. It has been corrected in the text. The Barbed Wire regrets the error.* ### Texas’ New Abortion Ban Aims to Stop Doctors From Sending Abortion Pills to the State URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-abortion-banstop-doctors-from-sending-abortion-pills/ Last updated: 2025-12-04T06:01:00.000Z *[This story](https://19thnews.org/2025/12/texas-abortion-law-abortion-pills-mail?utm%5Fsource=partner&utm%5Fmedium=referral&utm%5Fcampaign=19th-republishing&utm%5Fcontent=/2025/12/texas-abortion-law-abortion-pills-mail) was originally reported by Shefali Luthra of [The 19th](https://19thnews.org/?utm%5Fsource=partner&utm%5Fmedium=referral&utm%5Fcampaign=19th-republishing&utm%5Fcontent=/2025/12/texas-abortion-law-abortion-pills-mail). [Meet Shefali and read more of their reporting on gender, politics and policy](https://19thnews.org/author/shefali-luthra?utm%5Fsource=partner&utm%5Fmedium=referral&utm%5Fcampaign=19th-republishing&utm%5Fcontent=/2025/12/texas-abortion-law-abortion-pills-mail).* Texas’ massive new abortion law taking effect this week could escalate the national fight over mailing abortion pills. House Bill 7 represents abortion opponents’ most ambitious effort to halt telehealth abortions, which have helped patients get around strict bans in Texas and other states after Roe v. Wade was overturned. The law, which goes into effect December 4, creates civil penalties for health care providers who make abortion medications available in Texas, allowing any private citizen to sue medical providers for a minimum penalty of $100,000\. The bill’s backers have said it would also allow suits against drug manufacturers. It would not enable suits against the people who get abortions. Though other states have passed legislation targeting abortion medications — classifying them as a controlled substance, for instance — the Texas law is novel in its approach to targeting the people who distribute them and its reliance on civil suits. Medical providers say the law won’t stop them from providing abortions to people in Texas. Three major telehealth practices confirmed that they intend to keep prescribing and mailing abortion medications to patients in Texas, citing other states’ laws that would shield them from Texas-based suits. Elisa Wells, the director of Plan C, which lists abortion options for people across the country, said she has not heard from any providers about plans to stop offering telehealth abortions to Texans. “If anything, the implementation of this law makes people more determined to help folks in Texas access abortion pills,” Wells said. Pharmaceutical companies have not clarified how they will respond. Danco, one of the principal manufacturers of the abortion medication mifepristone, declined to comment. GenBioPro, which manufactures a generic version of the drug, also declined to comment. However, anti-abortion activists who championed the law say they plan to launch civil lawsuits against health care providers who continue to mail medications to Texas. Those private suits could accelerate a clash between state abortion laws that is widely expected to be resolved by the conservative U.S. Supreme Court. At issue is the conflict between individual state abortion restrictions and shield laws in other states that protect abortion providers from out-of-state prosecutions. Those laws say that state governments will not comply with extraterritorial efforts to punish health care providers for offering services legal in the state where they reside — including abortions. Almost half of all states have some form of shield law, [though only eight](https://www.kff.org/state-health-policy-data/state-indicator/shield-laws/?currentTimeframe=0&sortModel=%7B%22colId%22:%22Location%22,%22sort%22:%22asc%22%7D&ref=thebarbedwire.com) explicitly protect providers no matter where a patient is located. Under those laws, medical professionals living in states where abortion is legal have continued to mail medications patients can use to end their pregnancies from home — a method that is well-studied and effective with rare complications. Research suggests that 1 in 4 abortions are now done through telehealth, with about half of those in states with bans or restrictions. The method’s popularity has made telehealth a top target for abortion opponents. No state has effectively halted the provision of telehealth abortions into states with bans, but HB 7’s implementation introduces a new tool for anti-abortion activists to leverage. “We are building partnerships, we are educating our friends and other Texans about what the law is and what would be needed — and putting a team in place for if we actually need to bring one of these lawsuits at the end of the year,” said John Seago, head of the anti-abortion group Texas Right to Life, who played a leading role in shepherding HB 7\. That has involved meeting with abortion opponents across the state, including those who run anti-abortion centers, organizations that resemble medical clinics but instead deter people from terminating their pregnancies. Many also market services such as “post-abortion counseling.” Those offerings can put them in touch with people who have used telehealth for an abortion, and who could be sources for potential suits — especially given the dearth of dedicated reproductive health facilities in the state. Anti-abortion centers were a key source of support for HB 7\. “These contacts have the potential to come into contact with someone who had ordered these pills, or these pills were given to them, and they would have firsthand experience of how the pills got into Texas,” Seago said. “Those are the types of individuals we need to partner with to bring these lawsuits most effectively. We are definitely building that network out.” Already, health professionals mailing abortion pills to Texans have been sued. The state Attorney General Ken Paxton has brought a case against Margaret Carpenter, a physician in New York, for mailing abortion pills to the state. (In New York, state officials have cited the shield law in declining to enforce a Texas court’s ruling that fined Carpenter $113,000.) Jonathan Mitchell, a prominent lawyer who has helped craft many of the state’s anti-abortion laws, has brought wrongful death lawsuits — typically used to sue someone for a death caused by negligence or recklessness — against multiple telehealth providers, arguing an abortion is the death of a person. Those cases are still making their way through court. The new law could strengthen Texas’ case against telehealth. Mitchell has indicated in court documents that he intends to amend at least one civil case — a wrongful death brought against California-based Dr. Remy Coeytaux — after the law takes effect. He did not respond to a request for an interview. Health care providers are watching that case closely, with some saying it could provide key insight into whether and how the new law could affect their risk. “That will give us some information about what this is going to look like and how that moves through the courts,” said Dr. Angel Foster, who founded the Massachusetts Medication Abortion Project, a major telehealth practice. “And again, it’s going to be an opportunity for us to see shield laws in action.” HB 7 closely resembles a 2021 Texas law that effectively outlawed abortions after six weeks of pregnancies — the majority of abortions — months before the fall of Roe v. Wade. That law pioneered the use of private civil suits to stop the provision of most abortions. Though the law halted abortion providers from operating in the state, there were no successful lawsuits against health care providers. That reality, coupled with the rise of blue state laws to protect health care providers, has left many who offer telehealth skeptical that the new Texas law will immediately reach them. “We are confident this is exactly what the Massachusetts shield law is meant to protect us from: civil penalties related to providing legally protected reproductive health care, which is what we’re doing,” Foster said. “I’m not naive that there could easily be suits, and that means our lawyers will have to be involved in handling that. There's energy involved in ignoring something. But we’re not changing anything about our practice and not anticipating any changes to our practice in regard to HB 7.” ![](https://pixel.19thnews.org/2025/12/texas-abortion-law-abortion-pills-mail) ### He’s an Unapologetic Fascist Who ‘Despises’ Democracy. He Still Wants You to Vote for Him. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/jason-lee-van-dyke-unapologetic-fascist-despises-democracy/ Last updated: 2025-12-03T05:47:00.000Z “If a fascist is merely someone who opposes democracy, then let me be clear: I oppose democracy — and have always opposed democracy,” Jason Lee Van Dyke wrote. That was a part of a lengthy response I received after I’d emailed the North Texas lawyer to ask a few questions because on Nov. 11, he filed paperwork to become a Republican candidate for the open [Justice of the Peace, Precinct 1 seat in Wise County.](https://www.co.wise.tx.us/201/Justice-of-the-Peace-Precinct-Number-1?ref=thebarbedwire.com) I wrote about [Van Dyke for *The Barbed Wire*](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/court-appointed-attorney-white-nationalist-tattoo-jason-van-dyke/)back in August, breaking the news that the attorney — who has a white nationalist tattoo, a history of involvement with far-right extremist groups and of using racist, and threatening language — was working as a court-appointed defense attorney for primarily clients of color. Then, a few weeks ago, I saw a [Facebook post](https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1GGTtdJ8oT/) announcing he intended to run for public office. His candidacy was first reported in the [*Wise County Messenger*](https://www.wcmessenger.com/articles/jp1-opening-draws-early-interest/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), but the article didn’t include his associations with far-right extremist groups, the $100 million libel lawsuit he once filed after being called a Nazi and a pedophile, or the alleged “assassination plot” that killed his accuser-slash-legal-opponent. Nor did it include the fact that Van Dyke once pleaded no contest to making a false police report and was sentenced to 24 months’ deferred adjudication. Considering that history, as a reporter, it seemed in the best interest of voters that I write an update on Van Dyke’s new political aspirations — [and his political views](https://www.co.wise.tx.us/201/Justice-of-the-Peace-Precinct-Number-1?ref=thebarbedwire.com). So, I sent over an email asking about his platform and his X account, where he has repeatedly declared himself a fascist, in addition to posting racist threats and slurs, including the n-word and an image of a noose. He replied with his campaign platform, and a noted objection: “With respect to your other questions, your last article proved that you aren’t going to tell the truth anyway so — while I am happy to discuss my platform and my candidacy — [your other questions are a waste of my time](https://www.co.wise.tx.us/201/Justice-of-the-Peace-Precinct-Number-1?ref=thebarbedwire.com).” Then followed a three-part answer, with a biting preface: “This is a stupid question because the word ‘fascist’ is meaningless. It’s a generic political insult.” Fascism is not, of course, meaningless. As defined by places like the [Council on Foreign Relations](https://education.cfr.org/learn/reading/what-fascism?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and the [Holocaust Memorial Museum](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/fascism-1?ref=thebarbedwire.com), it is an ultranationalist, authoritarian political philosophy with elements of militarism and totalitarianism. It opposes individual rights, equality, and democratic government. It doesn’t have a stellar track record on press freedoms, either. This shorthand definition helps decode another part of what Van Dyke wrote to me — that he is a fascist “to the extent that democracy is inconsistent with the Constitution.” Van Dyke continued: “The Constitution establishes — and commands that the states — have a *republican* form of government (not a *democratic* one). Please note my use of the small letter “r” and “d” in the previous sentence. The electoral college, the makeup of the Senate, and the manner of selection and confirmation of every federal judge in America is undemocratic. I do not wish to make these things ‘more democratic’ as some have proposed.” This became a [talking point of ultra conservatives](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/15/magazine/arizona-republicans-democracy.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) around President Donald Trump’s loss in 2020, arguing that American democracy has become too democratic — with some going so far as to [seek the repeal](https://19thnews.org/2025/08/pete-hegseth-doug-wilson-women-voting/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of the 19th amendment, which grants women the right to vote. Except, the U.S. is [both](https://www.npr.org/2022/09/10/1122089076/is-america-a-democracy-or-a-republic-yes-it-is?ref=thebarbedwire.com) a republic *and* a democracy, one that has become more multi-racial and inclusive through the passage of amendments to the Constitution, which our founders considered imperfect and created with amendment in mind. American history aside, Van Dyke has a long history of referring to himself as a fascist online — references that aren’t as cloaked in the Constitution as this wave of talking points, are nowhere to be seen on his official campaign Facebook page, and have largely been scrubbed from his social media presence. (I also asked whether he was banned from X, to which he said: “No. I didn’t enjoy it anymore.”) In a now-deleted [blog post](https://web.archive.org/web/20241109163326/https://texasmarksmen.blogspot.com/2024/11/i-was-wrong-about-elections-but-here.html) following Trump's election victory in 2024, Van Dyke wrote that he was “tickled to death that we are going to see fascism in the United States as I have been a proponent of American fascism on my Twitter and Facebook for some time.” He continued: “I could write a whole article on American fascism but I view it basically as a return to the Constitution as it existed at the time of the founding but with a few important tweeks \[sic\]: (a) a guarantee of a few additional human rights so that the worst impulses of fascism can be checked; (b) citizenship by blood rather than by land; and (c) a guarantee of one-party rule by the right.” However, in his email to *The Barbed Wire*, Van Dyke hedged. “If a fascist is someone who: (a) believes in putting America first; (b) believes ‘hate speech’ is protected by the 1st Amendment; (c) believes the 2nd Amendment includes the right to own ‘assault weapons’; (d) believes that the USA should have borders and that illegal aliens should be deported; (e) believes that there are only two genders; and (f) voted for Donald Trump in 2016, 2020, and 2024 — then yes — that’s exactly what I am,” he wrote. Anyone familiar with National Socialism, the close kin to fascism also known as Nazism, will recognize the scrubbing of select words from his earlier post. Don’t just take my word for it. “His response reads like he’s been called what he wants to be called and is trying to backtrack because he knows the connotations that fascism carries,” said Luke Baumgartner, a Research Fellow at the Program on Extremism at George Washington University. “The statement ‘citizenship by blood rather than by land’ is basically half of the [‘blood and soil](https://www.cnn.com/2017/08/12/us/charlottesville-unite-the-right-rally?ref=thebarbedwire.com)’ line we’re all so used to hearing from neo-Nazis.” As *The Barbed Wire* [reported](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/court-appointed-attorney-white-nationalist-tattoo-jason-van-dyke/) in August, Van Dyke has an extensive history of personal involvement with far-right extremist groups, which he calls the “dissident right.” He was at one time the national chairman of the Proud Boys, a neo-fascist militant group whose members and leaders were involved in the Jan, 6, 2021 insurrection of the U.S. Capitol. As we previously reported, he also once attempted to join The Base, a neo-Nazi accelerationist organization Van Dyke later claimed he was infiltrating because he believed the man with whom he was engaged in that [lengthy — and vicious — $100 million legal feud](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/court-appointed-attorney-white-nationalist-tattoo-jason-van-dyke/) was somehow involved. In recent years, I’ve reported that Van Dyke has [attended a Texas neo-Nazi conference](https://www.texasobserver.org/patriot-front-jason-lee-van-dyke/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), hosted members of the white nationalist neo-Nazi group Patriot Front [at his home](https://www.texasobserver.org/patriot-front-jason-lee-van-dyke/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), gotten a [tattoo](https://bsky.app/profile/jtischauser.bsky.social/post/3lwcv4xekpc2r?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of an eagle with a Patriot Front slogan on his shoulder, trained Patriot Front members [to fight](https://www.splcenter.org/resources/hatewatch/extremist-lawyer-appears-training-patriot-front-members-fight/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and participated in their private chat room [under a pseudonym](https://www.texasobserver.org/patriot-front-jason-lee-van-dyke/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). He has also represented members of white nationalist and neo-Nazi groups, including the leader of a neo-Nazi fight club in North Texas that is linked to Patriot Front and is a part of a larger network of “active clubs,” one of which has posted photos of Van Dyke with members of the group. Neo-fascist white nationalist groups like Patriot Patriot Front and the Aryan Freedom Network promote the idea of a homogenous, white ethnostate in the United States and view multiculturalism, immigration, and diversity as existential threats to this vision. Historically, these are views shared by German Nazis, who established a centralized one-party dictatorship, suppressed their opposition with violence, and demonized racial outgroups. Their rise shattered Europe, resulting in World War II and the Holocaust. Today, historians see [troubling parallels](https://news.berkeley.edu/2024/09/09/fascism-shattered-europe-a-century-ago-and-historians-hear-echoes-today-in-the-u-s/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), noting the rise of far-right ultranationalist politics in the United States and [abroad](https://www.vox.com/world-politics/2024/3/12/24080074/germany-afd-far-right?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Regarding his platform, Van Dyke wrote that he’s running on his legal knowledge (“as of right now, I am the only attorney running for this position”); to hold scammers and debt-buyers to account in honor of his late mother (“I will never forget all the scam calls I had to deal with people – who were all pure evil — trying to scam a sweet and innocent woman suffering from dementia into handing over her credit card information”); and to ensure people know they’re being sued (“If elected, I will be a stickler when it comes to service of legal process.”) The seat Van Dyke hopes to fill is a lower-court position that handles minor crimes, small claims cases, marriage licenses, and a number of other administrative duties. While it is a judicial position that involves legal service and small claims debt cases, it does not have criminal jurisdiction over scam calls. It only has civil jurisdiction over allegedly fraudulent debts under $20,000 that are challenged. Two other candidates will be opposing Van Dyke in the Republican primary: Bill Hogg, a retired law enforcement officer, and Edualdo Villa Jr., a resident of Decatur who did not respond to *The Barbed Wire’s* inquiries and about whom little information was publicly available. “I am certain that the vast majority of Wise County voters, specifically in this case Precinct 1 voters, are going to research to their satisfaction the candidates in this race,” Hogg told *The Barbed Wire*. “And I'm convinced that they'll be informed voters, and they will vote according to their beliefs and their value system and what's important to them.” James Duncan, chairman of the Wise County Democrats, told *The Barbed Wire* that as of this writing, no one had filed to run in the Democratic party primary for the seat, meaning that whoever wins the Republican primary will be the presumed Justice of the Peace. Regarding the possibility of a fascist winning the election, Hogg told *The Barbed Wire*: “If a candidate who describes themselves as a fascist were to win, that would be concerning to me because I don’t think the majority of the population in Wise County would agree with that philosophy.” ### Mexico Publicized a New Strategy to ‘Embrace’ Deportees. Instead, Many Have Found Danger and Unemployment. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/mexico-new-strategy-deportees-danger-unemployment/ Last updated: 2025-12-02T06:01:00.000Z Luis Valentan spent more than three decades in the United States. He arrived as a young man from México in the 1990s and worked in construction and landscaping as a day laborer for years before becoming a host for [*Radio Jornalera*](https://radiojornalera.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a show on the [National Day Laborer Organizing Network](https://ndlon.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that advocates for the rights of immigrants and the working class. He built a life with his family and worked as a labor and community organizer in California, Arizona, and Utah. Then came the second Trump administration. As [an activist](https://www.tiktok.com/@radiojornalera1/video/7528445015241018679?ref=thebarbedwire.com) who lacked permanent legal status, Valentan told *The Barbed Wire* he endured mounting intimidation and feared retaliation after he spoke out about how day laborers should defend themselves from police harassment. A sheriff from Utah threatened him, police stopped both him and his wife, and unmarked vehicles began circling their home, he said. By August, he felt he had no choice but to leave. The Valentans sold off everything they owned, said goodbye to their friends, and began the long drive south from Los Angeles to the Mexican border. “Lo que realmente sentía era ese cansancio de luchar contracorriente. Yo quería vivir tranquilo y sin esos temores, ya no estaba dispuesto a darle a este país lo que me queda de vida y de energía,” Valentan told *The Barbed Wire*. “What I truly felt was exhaustion from fighting against the current. I wanted to live in peace and without fear; I was no longer willing to give this country what’s left of my life and my energy.” When they crossed into Tijuana, Valentan remembers feeling emotional but relieved as he looked up and saw an enormous Mexican flag. He was hopeful about what he’d heard about support being offered through the Mexican government’s new strategy for deportees, “México te abraza” (Mexico embraces you). Since the [Mexican Repatriation](https://immigrationhistory.org/item/%E2%80%8Bmexican-repatriation/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) during the Great Depression in the 1930s, large-scale deportations from the United States have challenged the Mexican government’s capacity and political will to help people like the Valentans start over. For nearly a century, each Mexican president has laid out a strategy promising a dignified reception and opportunities for those coming back. Recently it was “[Somos Mexicanos](https://forbes.com.mx/pena-nieto-promete-empleo-mexicanos-repatriados-eu/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)” under Enrique Peña Nieto and the “[Estrategia de Protección al Migrante](https://www.gob.mx/sre/es/articulos/el-canciller-marcelo-ebrard-presenta-la-estrategia-de-proteccion-al-migrante-del-gobierno-de-mexico-193226?ref=thebarbedwire.com)” under Andrés Manuel López Obrador. President Claudia Sheinbaum’s “México te abraza”is the latest in a long list of attempts to fulfill that promise. The strategy was announced on Jan. 20, coinciding with Trump’s second inauguration. It was a direct response to [Trump’s threats to carry out massive deportations “very quickly” after taking office.](https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/18/politics/trump-interview-first-week-priorities?ref=thebarbedwire.com) At risk are more than 14 million unauthorized immigrants living in the U.S., including an estimated 4.3 million Mexicans, according to an [August report from Pew Research](https://www.pewresearch.org/race-and-ethnicity/2025/08/21/u-s-unauthorized-immigrant-population-reached-a-record-14-million-in-2023/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=From%20January%20to%20June%202025,population%20stood%20at%2014%20million.). Texas has the second largest unauthorized population in the U.S., with 2.1 million undocumented people living in the state. They work in nearly every sector of the economy, including farming, construction, and hospitality. The Sheinbaum government assured Mexicans in the U.S. that[“no están solos”](https://www.gob.mx/presidencia/prensa/no-estan-solos-hay-que-guardar-la-calma-presidenta-presenta-la-estrategia-mexico-te-abraza-en-atencion-a-migrantes-mexicanos?ref=thebarbedwire.com) (“they are not alone”) and that their country was ready to welcome them home[“con los brazos abiertos” ](https://www.gob.mx/presidencia/prensa/no-estan-solos-hay-que-guardar-la-calma-presidenta-presenta-la-estrategia-mexico-te-abraza-en-atencion-a-migrantes-mexicanos?ref=thebarbedwire.com)(“with open arms”). They explained that federal agencies would work together to issue deportees identity documents and ensure they have access to social security and jobs. Returnees would also receive a “Tarjeta Paisano,” a prepaidcardworth 2,000 pesos (about $108 USD) to cover immediate expenses. In interviews with immigration lawyers, watchdogs, and deportees, *The Barbed Wire* found that hardships for detained migrants do not end after deportation — and word has spread among migrant communities in the U.S. of the dangers they can expect when they arrive in Mexico, including targeting by cartels. After returning to Mexico, the Valentan family headed to [Flamingos*,* an event hall on Tijuana’s south side, which has been adapted into a reception center and temporary shelter](https://www.facebook.com/ImagenTVNoticias/videos/convierten-sal%C3%B3n-de-fiestas-en-albergue-para-migrantes-mexicanos-repatriados/1003398455179148/) as part of the “México te abraza” strategy. Those who leave the U.S. are offered a meal and a bed for the night at Flamingos and can receive help obtaining identification documents, orientation about social programs, transportation to their home states, and limited financial aid. Valentan appreciated the effort but soon noticed gaps in the assistance: His family didn’t qualify for certain government programs, and no one followed up after that initial contact at Flamingos. Though he knows he has advantages over many others — he is fluent in English and Spanish, has digital skills, and has relatives he can lean on — rebuilding has been harder than he expected. “Es difícil. He conocido gente que lleva tiempo acá y está tratando de adaptarse porque uno no se halla,” he reflects. “It’s difficult. I’ve met people who have been here for some time and are trying to adjust, because you feel like you don’t belong.” The Valentans’ experience highlights contradictions at the heart of “México te abraza.” The strategy appears ambitious on paper and has earned wide praise for its humanitarian approach, but advocates and experts say it’s undermined by a flawed design, a lack of coordination, and no follow-up, which means that, for many deportees, the assistance provided is little more than a stopgap. Valentan says they were offered only one Paisano card — “según era una tarjeta por familia” (“they said it was only one per family”) — and only received an additional one for their adult son after they pressed the authorities at the reception center in Tijuana. Their daughters, who are minors, did not receive cards. The family was issued CURPs (Mexico’s Population Registration Code) and birth certificates but was not registered for social security. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/251125_barbara_deported_embed-1.jpg) The Mexican government claims the strategy has been working according to plan. In September, [Secretary of the Interior Rosa Icela Rodríguez informed the Mexican Congress that more than 591,000 “services,”](https://www.gob.mx/segob/prensa/secretaria-de-gobernacion-rosa-icela-rodriguez-durante-su-comparecencia-en-el-senado-de-la-republica?idiom=es-MX&ref=thebarbedwire.com) including food, shelter, medical care, and Paisano cards, had been delivered through the strategy’s [nine reception centers](https://www.facebook.com/nmas.com.mx/videos/m%C3%A9xico-te-abraza-estos-son-los-9-centros-de-atenci%C3%B3n-para-migrantes-en-el-pa%C3%ADs/613096684603520/). [Videos ](https://www.tiktok.com/@browntears/video/7474162893051677982?%5Ft=ZS-90QFDhoF9ai&%5Fr=1&ref=thebarbedwire.com)produced by the Mexican government show deportees arriving in the country and being greeted by personnel and mariachis. Rossy Antúnez, an advocate with the [Instituto para las Mujeres en la Migración (IMUMI)](https://imumi.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a Mexican civil society organization that defends the rights of migrant women, gives the Sheinbaum government credit for a few noticeable improvements compared to previous administrations. “Sabemos que ahora les dan alimentos calientes, anteriormente era puro sándwich, y les dan la tarjeta Paisano de dos mil pesos,” Antúnez told *The Barbed Wire*. “We know that they now give them hot meals, previously it was just sandwiches, and they give them the Paisano card with two thousand pesos.” Still, she insists, problems remain: “México te abraza” has no dedicated budget and draws from whatever the federal government agencies involved can spare; there is little room for long-term planning, said Antúnez, who has been monitoring the strategy since it was launched. “Todavía se está tratando a esto como una emergencia, pero se necesita que sea una política pública,” she said. “They are still treating this as an emergency, but it needs to be public policy.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/251125_barbara_deported_hero.jpg) Immigration expert Eunice Rendón, who coordinates [Agenda Migrante](https://x.com/agendamigrante?s=21&t=SqELeMQjhEsD7AJhc3mKgA&ref=thebarbedwire.com), a coalition of pro-migrant organizations, agreed. She told *The Barbed Wire* she viewsthe strategy as an opportunity to do right by deportees but also believes that significant changes are needed. “Esto no debería ser un programa de recepción; tiene que ser un programa de reintegración porque no es lo mismo recibir a la gente y darle agua, un abracito y unos pesos que reintegrar a las personas en su sociedad,” Rendón said. “This should not be a reception program; it has to be a reintegration program because it’s not the same to receive people and give them water, a little hug, and a few pesos as it is to reintegrate them into their society.” Since the strategy’s launch in January, Rendón has been working to connect deportees to job opportunities. Rendón has witnessed firsthand what deportees experience at the reception centers and says processes need to be simplified and personnel need to be trained to assist deportees, many of whom have been subjected to mistreatment, with appropriate sensitivity. Since Trump returned to power, Immigration and Customs Enforcement detentions have surged in the U.S. [An analysis of ICE enforcement data by *The Texas Tribun*e](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/11/03/texas-trump-immigration-crackdown-ice-arrests-deportation/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) shows that [daily detentions in Texas have doubled from 85 under Biden to 176](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/11/03/texas-trump-immigration-crackdown-ice-arrests-deportation/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) under Trump when comparing the last 18 months of the Biden administration to the first 6 months of the Trump administration and that from Trump's inauguration to the end of July,[ the state accounted for 24% of all arrests made by ICE nationwide](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/11/03/texas-trump-immigration-crackdown-ice-arrests-deportation/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Additionally,[ September data from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a Syracuse University research ](https://tracreports.org/immigration/quickfacts/detention.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com)center, shows that Texas is the state with the highest number of detainees at ICE facilities, [with over 17,500 out of 65,135 held nationwide.](https://tracreports.org/immigration/quickfacts/detention.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Trump said he would be targeting [“the worst of the worst,”](https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-trump-immigration-crime-ice-criminal-dangerous-violent-99557d9d68642004193a9f4b7668162e?ref=thebarbedwire.com) but, according to the same ICE enforcement data analyzed by *The Texas Tribune,* [less than half of those arrested have criminal convictions.](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/11/03/texas-trump-immigration-crackdown-ice-arrests-deportation/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) People are being taken [during asylum case check-ins, while dropping their kids at school](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/11/03/texas-trump-immigration-crackdown-ice-arrests-deportation/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and at [construction sites](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyE46SFjpeI&ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [restaurants](https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/texas-news/texas-restaurant-gives-away-food-after-ice-detains-owner-employees/3863284/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “Everyone is being treated like a criminal and there is really no differentiation of who came here two years ago or who’s been here for 20 years,” said Amanda Aguilar, an immigration lawyer at the San Antonio office of [American Gateways](https://www.americangateways.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a Texas nonprofit that provides free and low-cost immigration legal services*.* She’s noticed a shift in terms of who is being targeted, including immigrants with established jobs, families, and years of paying taxes. “I’m representing Mexican nationals who have been here forever, entered lawfully, have car insurance, their own homes,” Aguilar said. “To me it just feels so un-American to try to remove them from America because they've just been contributing to this community for so long. And I think it's so important to know that this administration does not care about that. And their goal is to swiftly remove as many people as they possibly can.” Conditions at detention centers have come under scrutiny, with a recent [Senate investigation reporting them as shocking](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/06/physical-sexual-abuse-pregnant-women-children-immigration-centers?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and uncovering allegations of sexual and physical abuse, mistreatment of women and children, overcrowding, and medical neglect. In Texas, advocates have been sounding the alarm over poor conditions at the facilities, with detainees, including children, [lacking access to clean water and essential medical care, according to testimonies documented by the Associated Press in June](https://apnews.com/article/migrants-child-supervision-texas-e4994b2b6786717ea79a4be230e476bf?ref=thebarbedwire.com). There are also concerns that Camp East Montana in El Paso, the largest ICE detention center in the country, fails to meet minimal standards; a report by *The Barbed Wire* notes that[local officials have warned about detainees not having access to air conditioning, running water, showers, and hot meals.](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-fort-bliss-ice-detention-facility-at-site-of-wwii-internment-camp/) Mexican authorities estimate that [between January and October more than 116,000 Mexicans have been deported from the U.S](https://www.lapoliticaonline.com/mexico/politica-mx/la-cancilleria-reporto-10-muertes-de-migrantes-mexicanos-bajo-custodia-del-ice/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The state of Tamaulipas, which borders South Texas, [ranks first in Mexico in the number of returnees](https://elefanteblanco.mx/2025/05/27/tamaulipas-encabeza-repatriaciones-en-mexico-suma-casi-10-mil/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), with crossings concentrating in the Laredo-Nuevo Laredo, Brownsville-Matamoros, and Hidalgo-Reynosa land ports. According to the Instituto Tamaulipeco para los Migrantes, a Tamaulipas state agency that assists migrants, [over 30,000 Mexican nationals have been repatriated via the Texas border with Tamaulipas between January and September](https://minutounotamaulipas.com/baja-numero-de-repatriados-en-tamaulipas/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). But hardship does not end after deportation. Word has spread among migrant communities in the U.S. of the dangers they can expect when they arrive in Mexico, and in border states like Tamaulipas in particular. “My clients will say, ‘Can you please ask them not to drop me off in Tamaulipas?” Aguilar said. “And I do ask, but ICE just doesn’t care.” Aguilar says that cartels held one of her recent clients for ransom immediately after his deportation to Mexico via the Tamaulipas border. She only found out, she says, because her client’s wife, who is still in Texas, reached out to her. Rossy Antúnez from the Instituto para las Mujeres en la Migración (IMUMI) told *The Barbed Wire* that transportation from the border to deportees’ home states is often perilous, that bus stations there are particularly dangerous, and that criminals in Mexico know how to spot deportees. “Saben cómo se ve una persona deportada que viene con su bolsa o morral y conocen la vestimenta de los centros de detención,” Antúnez explained. “They know what a deported person looks like with their bag or backpack, and they know what the clothing from the detention centers is.” Antúnez described a case her organization handled that illustrates the gaps in care for returnees: A Tojolabal woman of Mayan descent from Chiapas was deported to Ciudad Juárez, across the border from El Paso. There were no interpreters at the reception center there and the woman was referred to IMUMI because she needed to locate her husband, who had been detained with her in the U.S. The woman told case workers at IMUMI that she had been bleeding and was placed on a bus for a long journey to Chiapas without receiving medical attention. “Es un trayecto como de 40 horas desde (Ciudad) Juárez a Chiapas, y estás enviando a una persona que posiblemente tiene un aborto activo. Eso no lo detectaron y tampoco contactaron al INM (Instituto Nacional de Migración), que es el que recopila toda la información de las personas deportadas para encontrar al esposo. No hay coordinación entre las propias instituciones que están en los albergues,” Antúnez said. “It’s a journey of about 40 hours from (Ciudad) Juárez to Chiapas, and you’re sending someone who may be having an active miscarriage. “They didn’t detect that, and they also didn’t contact the INM (National Institute of Migration), which is the one that collects all the information on deported people to find the husband. There is no coordination between the institutions in the shelters.” Jobs for deportees are a key pillar of “México te abraza.” The message is clear: People left Mexico for the U.S. because there were no decent jobs, but now they can get them after being forced to return. In June, “México te abraza”’s business allies [announced that 70,000 job openings had been made available for returnees](https://www.infobae.com/mexico/2025/06/16/mexico-te-abraza-anuncian-mas-de-70-mil-vacantes-con-sueldos-de-hasta-40-mil-pesos/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), with some jobs paying up to 40,000 pesos per month (about $2,170). However, those working directly with migrants and returnees have identified roadblocks. “La oferta y la demanda no se conectan en automático; tienen que hacer un trabajo más territorial y más cercano,” Rendón said. “Supply and demand don’t connect automatically; they need to do more on-the-ground and locally focused work.” Rendón has been working to bridge deportees and job opportunities and recognizes the government and businesses want to help, but the process of trying to connect returnees with employers is rushed. According to Rendón, returnees at the reception centers are asked about their job interests as soon as they arrive, but the jobs posted to the [dedicated website](https://mexicoteemplea.gob.mx/Micrositio/Home.aspx?ref=thebarbedwire.com) often don’t match returnee skills or are far from their home states or where their families live. [Only 4% of deportees have actually secured employment through the strategy](https://www.elfinanciero.com.mx/mundo/2025/06/11/deportaciones-de-donald-trump-en-el-sureste-afectan-al-programa-mexico-te-abraza-no-pueden-dar-empleos/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and the government has yet to disclose what salaries the jobs that returnees get are paying, according to a recent *Bloomberg* investigation. Two months after leaving their life in the U.S., he and his family are still struggling to settle in. Because Valentan was not officially deported, those in his family’s situation might not qualify for programs like unemployment benefits from local governments. Some programs, he has found out, require both the carta de repatriación(repatriation letter) and the carta de vinculación (affiliation letter) that Mexico’sInstituto Nacional de Migración (National Migration Institute) gives to deportees; however, those documents are not always issued to those who self-deport. Valentan believes returnees like him and his family should be included. “Son retornos forzados y eso le debe quedar claro al gobierno mexicano,” Valentan contends. “These are forced returns and the Mexican government needs to see that.” “Es una deportación porque tienen miedo con todo lo que está sucediendo allá, no tienen cómo ir a trabajar o cómo pagar la renta,” Valentan said. “It’s a deportation because they are scared with everything that is happening over there; they can’t work or pay the rent.” Valentan has been talking to other returnees and says that many are not getting the assistance they need. He says the Mexican government doesn’t seem to grasp the severity of the abuse endured by those who were detained in the U.S. “Me dicen ‘es que nos trataron mal y lo que me cuentan son violaciones de derechos humanos.’ Desde ahí el gobierno mexicano tiene que ver por los derechos de nuestra gente,” Valentan said of people like him who’ve shared similar paths. “They tell me that we were mistreated and what they're telling me are human rights violations. The Mexican government has a responsibility to protect the rights of our people.” Today, Valentan continues his work as an activist and shares information on social media that he believes could empower people who are being targeted in the U.S. He told *The Barbed Wire* he is currently helping a returnee who had been working with *Radio Jornalera* in Houston. “El era un trabajador de la construcción allá, lo estamos ayudando a conseguir sus papeles y servicios sociales,” Valentan explained. “He was a construction worker over there; we are helping him get his (Mexican) papers and social services.” ### F*ck Walmart and Target. Get Your Presents at These Texas Small Businesses. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-small-business-black-friday/ Last updated: 2025-11-28T06:01:00.000Z This year, for the holidays, we’re making a list of places to buy our gifts, and checking it twice. Because businesses like Amazon, Walmart, and Target have been more naughty than nice. Target and Walmart [quickly rolled back their diversity, equity, and inclusion](https://www.cnbc.com/2025/01/24/target-rolls-back-major-dei-initiatives.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) initiatives at the beginning of the year, jumping ship after President Donald Trump’s hasty [“Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs And Preferencing”](https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-radical-and-wasteful-government-dei-programs-and-preferencing/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) executive order. [Amazon was one of 37 companies](https://fortune.com/2025/10/26/37-white-house-ballroom-donors-funding-300-million-build-tech-ceos-trump/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to donate to Trump’s White House ballroom project; its CEO, Jeff Bezos, has been [wreaking some havoc at his newspaper](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/05/26/is-jeff-bezos-selling-out-the-washington-post?ref=thebarbedwire.com). And Sephora is on thin ice for its ad with Mariah Carey, which sparked [backlash to perceived flippancy over elf-worker protections](https://www.blackenterprise.com/mariah-careys-sephora-ad-backlash/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). So, instead of putting more money in billionaires’ pockets, we’re shifting our patronage to our fellow Texans’ small businesses. ### For the Fashionistas We all have that Texan in our lives who walks into a room and turns everyone’s head. If you’re having trouble finding them a gift, let us point you to [Ozzirys Boutique](https://www.instagram.com/shopozzirys?igsh=dGR5NHVtY29vamYx&ref=thebarbedwire.com) in Houston’s Eastwood neighborhood. The shop is owned by 22-year-old Margery Ozzirys Benitez, a Latina chingona. Her store has the cutest clothes, perfect for the upcoming holidays, and “cositas bonitas” to liven up your desk and work bag situation. Ozzirys’ inventory is available online, so if you can't get to H-Town, you can still get this cow-print dress (I mean, how much more Texas can we get?!) for the Texan in your life who is in need of a fit for rodeo season. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/screenshot-2025-11-26-at-11-17-40.png) If you’re shopping for an accessories girlie, try their adorable [Brigitte espresso-colored](http://shopozzyris.myshopify.com/products/brigitte-espresso-recycled-vegan-bag-charm?ref=thebarbedwire.com) woven microsized vegan leather bag. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-2.jpg) Oh, and if you like Benitez’s vibe, check out her [second business](https://www.instagram.com/casitabakes?igsh=MTgybHN4a2xicDd3Yg==&ref=thebarbedwire.com) — a pop-up bakery that sells tres leches cakes, croissants, cookies, and other sweets. Moving right along to gifts for the theys and thems in our lives. We know Texas can be[ a hellscape ](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/thereve-been-93-anti-lgbtq-hate-crimes-in-texas-since-2022-data-shows/)for our queer friends, but the [LGBTQIA+ community is big and bright](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/transgender-journalist-living-in-texas/), you can’t dim their shine. The Little Gay Shop in Austin is a must-shop for those needing more sparkle in their lives. It’s owned by married couple Justin Galicz and Kirt Reynolds, and they’ve made it a point to dedicate their business to queer culture and artists. The shop started in a shipping container and expanded to a larger store on 12th Street in 2023. The couple shared their previous life in New York surrounded by queer culture, and “were a bit surprised at the lack of dedicated queer space outside of the nightlife scene,” Galicz and Reynolds told *The Barbed Wire*. [This shirt from The Little Gay Shop](https://thelittlegayshop.com/collections/shirts/products/dont-mess-with-queer-texans-t-shirt-preorder?ref=thebarbedwire.com) is great for your queer bestie, or anyone looking to show their support for the community in a Texan-esque fashion. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image.jpg) For the plant parents in your life, look no further than this [chic, two-tone oatmeal brown corduroy hat](https://www.wtryourplants.com/product-page/wyp-corduroy?ref=thebarbedwire.com) embroidered with “WYP.” Water Your Plants, owned by married couple Tamuka and Jazmine Simango, is aimed at making intentional spaces for people to connect and build community. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-3.jpg) Courtesy of Water Your Plants “We started off making shirts that said ‘Water Your Plants’ to serve as a reminder that the relationship you have with yourself and others is similar to plants,” Tamuka told *The Barbed Wire.* “When you nurture, cultivate, and water your plants they flourish — and we want that for people.” The couple both still work in the tech industry and work on Water Your Plants outside of their 9-to-5\. Applying the business skills picked up from their corporate roles, they wanted to “put that into something more personally meaningful and connected to a larger community.” They host plenty of [community events](https://www.wtryourplants.com/events-2?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in downtown Austin and have a select few in Houston to bring people together for meaningful, genuine connections. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-1.jpg) Courtesy of Water Your Plants HBCU grads stand up! [DC Apparel by Donecia’s Crafts](https://www.instagram.com/d%5Fcapparel/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) is owned by Tuskegee and Prairie View A&M University Alum Donecia Abate. Abate always had a passion for the arts and fashion, which led her to making game-day shirts. The wife, mom, and CEO was working out of a little room in her house, and as she got licenses to legally produce apparel for seven HBCUs. There are 107 HBCUs in the U.S., and Abate now has licenses for 15 of them, including Houston Tillotson in Austin, Texas Southern in Houston, Prairie View A&M in Prairie View, and some Louisiana schools, like Southern in Baton Rouge and Xavier University in New Orleans, and of course, Abate’s alma mater, Tuskegee University in Alabama. Abate’s brick-and-mortar location opened outside of Houston in July. She said on Instagram, “it’s more than a store. It’s a love letter to HBCUs. A tribute to legacy. A celebration of BLACK CULTURE. And a reminder that we really can do anything.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/screenshot-2025-11-26-at-12-59-15.png) ### For the Booklovers Kris Owens opened the Feisty Collective in 2024 in Houston to bring the LGBTQ+ community together to share and sell their art. Owens told [ABC](https://abc13.com/videoClip/16715467/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), "That's important to us as a community to try and help one another out but also create a space where queer artists and makers can thrive." [The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish, Swish, Swish](https://thefeistycollective.com/products/hips-on-the-drag-queen-go-swish-swish-swish-the?ref=thebarbedwire.com), written by Lil Miss Hot Mess and sold at the Feisty Collective, encourages audiences, young or old, to be themselves, loud and proud. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-5.jpg) Shopping for a Beyoncé stan who can't put down a good book?. RodeoDivaDio, a self-described Trans TexMex artist based in Texas, has an online shop selling discography-themed placeholders. The Renaissance bookmark is technicolor and encapsulates the ballroom vibe Beyoncé paid homage to with her 2022 Renaissance album. Queen B is front and center, in all her silver glory. For extra flair, there's a dangling disco ball. The Cowboy Carter bookmark depicts Beyoncé's Southern American roots, showing off her rodeo fashion. Not a Beyoncé super fan? No worries, we don't judge. RodeoDivaDio has prints, keychains, and [stickers](https://rodeodivadio.shop/products/untitled-aug30%5F00-43?ref=thebarbedwire.com) with political commentary to support trans Texans. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-6.jpg) ### For the Homebody This candle is a dream come true for anyone who wants to lie in a field of our beautiful blue state flower, the Texas Bluebonnet. The best part? You can smell the flowers, and you won’t get eaten by bugs. Clay House Candles is based in Austin, where they make small batches of handmade candles. All of their products are entirely vegan, according to the company’s [website](https://www.clayhousecandles.com/pages/faqs?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The owner, Tai Clay, started Clay House Candles after losing her pastry chef job during the pandemic. She moved to Texas and began candle-making as a temporary project, but it eventually became her full-time business. [Texas Bluebonnet Container Candle from Clay House Candles](https://www.clayhousecandles.com/products/texas-bluebonnet-container-candle?ref=thebarbedwire.com) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-7.jpg) Are you traveling for the holiday season? Or maybe just sitting somewhere in Texas traffic? Let's take a deep breath together, and let us introduce you to the car diffusers from Peace of You Aromatics. The car diffusers are tiny and aesthetically pleasing scent boosters that can hang from your rearview mirror. Pumpkin spice is a holiday-limited edition scent and essential for those who can't wait for the temperature to finally drop. [Other scents ](https://peaceofyouaromatics.com/collections/diffusers?srsltid=AfmBOornEIc0H7%5FiNDQokeUi2E14AOgfFFp%5FXtWAzksn64Np7LPCmgBr&ref=thebarbedwire.com)are Cranberry Radiance, Safe Space, The Awakening, Vanilla Dream, and Beach House. If you can’t tell, the common theme is peace and serenity, which we can all use as we drive these Texas roads. Peace of You Aromatics was founded by Brittany Young in 2023\. Young describes her business as a “sensory journey” while also “fostering wellness and mindfulness.” Young has a degree in health care management and has worked as a purpose and wellness life coach. After starting candle making as a hobby, she noticed the positive impact her candles had on her mental health and wanted to help do the same for others. Let’s be honest, after these past few years, anyone living in Texas needs some whimsical aromatic magic in their morning commute. [Car Diffusers from Peace of You Aromatics](https://peaceofyouaromatics.com/products/beach-house-copy?ref=thebarbedwire.com) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-8.jpg) Matcha lovers, this one is for you! This Deep Sea Matcha Bowl from We Are 1976 is what’s missing from your life. This matcha bowl is painted in the calmest blue and seafoam green, which the artist said is meant to mimic the colors of the ocean, hence the name. Handcrafted by Iguchi Kiln in Kyoto, using traditional Kyo (Kiyomizu) techniques, this pick not only supports a small Texas business but also the authentic practices of Japanese pottery. We Are 1976 is a family-owned Asian-American gallery boutique founded by Vynsie, Jully, and Derek Law in 2009\. Vynsie and Derek are brother and sister, and Jully is formerly married to Derek. This boutique is a one-stop shop for cards of all occasions, stationery, home decor, jewelry, and other trinkets. We Are 1976 is also a creative hub in the heart of Dallas's historic Bishop Arts District, “dedicated to showcasing and supporting independent artists, designers, and exceptional craftsmanship,” according to the company’s website. Luckily, for non-Dallas natives, their shop is available [online](https://weare1976.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). [Deep Sea Matcha Bowl | Iguchi Kiln (Kyo/Kiyomizu Ware, Japan) from We Are 1976](https://weare1976.com/collections/matcha-bowl/products/deep-sea-matcha-bowl-iguchi-kiln-kyo-kiyomizu-ware-japan?ref=thebarbedwire.com) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-9.jpg) If you’re like us and your eyes aren’t fully open until that first sip of caffeine, you need this gorgeous mug. Hot or iced, caffeinated or not, these 1978 Vandor heart handle mugs from Very Cherry Vintage are the perfect whimsical touch to your morning routine. And *if* the temperature drops, this is even the perfect vessel for hot chocolate and mini marshmallows. These vintage porcelain heart handle coffee mugs are in excellent condition, but for dishwasher users, don’t stick on the top rack; these are hand-wash only. With a red rim on the cup and a cherry-red heart handle, these transport you back to the vibrant 70s. Even if you weren’t born yet, you can enjoy the 70s glamour with these mugs. Founded in 2022, this Austin-based vintage shop is funky, maximalist, meets vintage. Ashley Martin is the creative designer and vintage curator of the secondhand shop “for lovers of the weird and whimsical,” Martin wrote on[ Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/p/CYoxpsqrMvZ/?igsh=NWRzNXRuYXltMTN3&ref=thebarbedwire.com). Very Cherry Vintage is curated with love and an eye for pieces to sparkle up your home. When scrolling through their website, it's apparent. If you’re on a budget, we recommend clicking the link directly, or you may find your cart full of more items than the vintage mugs. You can shop from Very Cherry Vintage [online](https://www.verycherryvintage.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) or in person at the Lady Collective or Potluck Vintage on South Lamar. [1978 Vandor Heart Handle Mugs from Very Cherry Vintage](https://www.verycherryvintage.com/shop-all/p/1978-vandor-heart-handle-mugs-9z5zh?ref=thebarbedwire.com) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-10.jpg) We hope these gifts resonated with all Texans in one way or another. Cheers to shopping small! ### The Most Thoughtful, Unusual Gifts We Received This Year URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/thoughtful-unusual-texas-gifts-we-received/ Last updated: 2025-11-26T20:37:13.000Z It is time once again to break out the [Bonne Maman advent calendar](https://bonnemaman.us/?gad%5Fcampaignid=21526423562&gad%5Fsource=1&gbraid=0AAAAABeX6gNkCCBVuTJHI3yXHzXmOiC0o&gclid=Cj0KCQiAxJXJBhD%5FARIsAH%5FJGjgyXsbPmzrdMtRfrqtV3Y5BEnIYK%5FQcb9ujp35z7VZqJjQM08VWGvoaAuomEALw%5FwcB&utm%5Fadgroup=163370997777&utm%5Fcampaign=21526423562&utm%5Fmedium=cpc&utm%5Fsource=google), host festive dinner parties, and snuggle up on your [green Joybird couch](https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/joybird-sebastian-sofa-review?ref=thebarbedwire.com) with a chic, overpriced blanket. With the holidays inevitably come [gift guides](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/holiday-gift-guide/). While we’re no *Wirecutter* (yet???), I’ve been an avid gift-guide consumer for most of my adult life. And you, dear reader, can’t stop me from making my own. Last year, I recommended [10 perfect gifts for the single, childless women](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/10-perfect-gifts-for-the-single-childless-women-in-your-life/) in your life. It truly included everything your daughter or ex-girlfriend (please don’t text her!!!) needed to babysit her nephews and save the world. I still stand by all those recommendations. Especially the [“undiagnosed but i’m pretty sure” baseball cap](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/10-perfect-gifts-for-the-single-childless-women-in-your-life/) and the matching pet owner sweater set. But I’m thinking bigger this year. As you pop that [Hot Dr Pepper with lemon into the microwave](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-most-delicious-winter-beverage-is-actually-hot-dr-pepper-lemon/) (you heard me) and get ready to watch “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York,” you can rest easy knowing I’m covering more than just your ambitious sister who’s recently deleted Hinge, *again*. To assist me in this effort, I asked folks at *The Barbed Wire* and online what they absolutely loved receiving in 2024 and 2025 — and why. (Preferably in Texas, or from a Texas store, but these were loose restrictions.) It’s not always what you’d expect. Oh, me? …Sure, I’ll start! Last Christmas, my mom gifted me a membership to the [Wild Vine Flower Club](https://wildvinefloral.com/wild-vine-flower-club?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The Austin-based business offers $50 for monthly bouquet deliveries of wildflowers. They are fresh, colorful, and change by the season. It’s important to me to feel good about the businesses I’m supporting, and this one is committed to composting, recycling, and organic gardening. They also choose flowers carefully — harvesting from their own local gardens and supplementing that with the best blooms from local, organic growers. You can pay extra to get the delivery more often (once a week even!), and you can cancel, skip, or reschedule at any time. It’s been truly lovely. Every month I forget about it, and every month I’m both surprised and delighted to find a bouquet of flowers on my front porch in fresh water and a mason jar. One year I was given a [spa gift certificate](https://www.aceofcupsaustin.com/?gad%5Fsource=1&gad%5Fcampaignid=14701667230&gbraid=0AAAAADAhNmOcMozCqL-dLnvje2t4lNkP4&gclid=CjwKCAiA55rJBhByEiwAFkY1QBjCS62Yhc7YIAdzYYhFgYzgv1cHIDwLwaEFbN1bsuejtw95s-oPfRoCS38QAvD%5FBwE&ref=thebarbedwire.com) at Austin’s Ace of Cups, which hit both my love of massages and my growing interest in Tarot. Chicago-based artist and comedian Winslow Dumaine did some of our *Barbed Wire* [merch](https://thebarbedwire.com/product/my-other-truck-bumper-sticker/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), like our “my other truck is an even larger truck” bumper sticker, but he also gifted me one of his [hand-drawn and deeply spooky Tarot decks](https://www.winslowdumaine.com/shoplander?ref=thebarbedwire.com). I’ve been proud of a few unusual gifts I’ve given in recent years, too, including [an actual royal title to the Principality of Sealand](https://sealandgov.org/en-us/products/become-a-baron-or-baroness?variant=44774425067817&ref=thebarbedwire.com) for my mom, who is now a baroness. My dad loved this [cordless screwdriver](https://www.bespokepost.com/store/hoto-tools-3-6v-cordless-screwdriver?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [designed by Hoto Tools](https://hototools.com/pages/hoto-black-friday-sale?gad%5Fsource=1&gad%5Fcampaignid=22028181493&gbraid=0AAAAAoUK7OgWQ1P5bmHIBM5Sos7I4zEwK&gclid=CjwKCAiA55rJBhByEiwAFkY1QDg8Qtud%5FGvRcvCAsBVvkgI83M%5FyQmn8lY5%5FD3nhJpH8dTYHYIcLKhoCv4sQAvD%5FBwE&ref=thebarbedwire.com), which combined his hobby of home improvement with his appreciation for sleek design. Last year, I had some Etsy artists create items for the [kitchen of my mom’s vintage dollhouse](https://www.etsy.com/listing/4409321645/112-scale-holiday-pastries-basket-for?sr%5Fprefetch=1&pf%5Ffrom=shop%5Fhome&ref=shop%5Fhome%5Factive%5F6&sts=1&logging%5Fkey=c343408a7ce287177a1bbae54647bc87b9a6e96d%3A4409321645), like a tiny charcuterie board and bottle of wine. For my brother, I found this [handmade mosaic wooden serving tray with mother of pearl](https://www.etsy.com/listing/1734051625/handmade-mosaic-wooden-serving-tray-with?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and a piece of quartz that matches his counters for a too-heavy-for-a-toddler-to-lift large-scale coaster for his living room, also on Etsy. There, I’ve also had my late grandmother’s handwritten pecan pie recipe printed on a [ceramic pan](https://www.etsy.com/listing/1207626772/personalized-pie-pan-with-your-loved?ls=s&ga%5Forder=most%5Frelevant&ga%5Fsearch%5Ftype=all&ga%5Fview%5Ftype=gallery&ga%5Fsearch%5Fquery=handwritten+recipe+ceramic+pie&ref=sr%5Fgallery-1-1&sr%5Fprefetch=1&pf%5Ffrom=search&frs=1&bes=1&sts=1&content%5Fsource=60be8153-c5c3-4386-a83c-3316670cc4a6%253ALTef7a049a3a415cc5b6f8b971b0e841ef929fd2d6&organic%5Fsearch%5Fclick=1&logging%5Fkey=60be8153-c5c3-4386-a83c-3316670cc4a6%3ALTef7a049a3a415cc5b6f8b971b0e841ef929fd2d6). (It could even go [on a tea towel](https://www.etsy.com/listing/4405811263/shark-and-scuba-diver-ocean-resin-lamp?ls=s&ga%5Forder=most%5Frelevant&ga%5Fsearch%5Ftype=all&ga%5Fview%5Ftype=gallery&ga%5Fsearch%5Fquery=shark+night+light&ref=sr%5Fgallery-1-2&sr%5Fprefetch=1&pf%5Ffrom=search&pro=1&sts=1&nob=1&content%5Fsource=87992460-4d51-4538-9034-50d02962c25f%253ALT2d0ed0566fcc6d2f59243dab1fa9bede7fa6a847&organic%5Fsearch%5Fclick=1&logging%5Fkey=87992460-4d51-4538-9034-50d02962c25f%3ALT2d0ed0566fcc6d2f59243dab1fa9bede7fa6a847)!) Since then, I’ve put photographs of friends' pets on everything from [stamps](https://www.etsy.com/listing/1417001255/custom-pet-portrait-stamp-custom-cat-dog?ls=a&ga%5Forder=most%5Frelevant&ga%5Fsearch%5Ftype=all&ga%5Fview%5Ftype=gallery&ga%5Fsearch%5Fquery=stamp+pet&ref=sc%5Fgallery-1-2&sr%5Fprefetch=1&pf%5Ffrom=search&pro=1&bes=1&sts=1&plkey=LT04efe3d2752ce35eb6f26ec3a4067bd6b1eb64bd%3A1417001255) to pillows and [baseball caps](https://www.etsy.com/listing/4296343389/custom-embroidered-pet-hat-using-pet?ref=yr%5Fpurchases). You can even make [legos out of family photos](https://www.etsy.com/listing/1414106237/personalized-customized-photo-rectangle?ref=sidebar%5Fcart%5Fview%5Flisting) and [monogrammed ice cubes](https://www.etsy.com/listing/894645347/initials-on-ice-custom-personalized-2?ref=yr%5Fpurchases). And you, my holiday angels, received some great gifts. Like me, y’all enjoyed items or activities that unexpectedly combined two or more of your interests at once. For example, Jennifer, 52, received a framed portrait of Willie Nelson taken by Scott Newton, from [Modern Rocks Gallery](https://www.modernrocksgallery.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The store is dedicated to rare, iconic rock n’ roll photography and curated shows, and you can shop by musician — David Bowie, The Beatles, Dolly Parton, The Rolling Stones — or famed photographer. Jennifer calls it “an incredible place to pick up other limited edition and iconic images, plus great music books, [PBS Austin City Limits posters](https://www.modernrocksgallery.com/shop-acl-poster-archive?ref=thebarbedwire.com), etc.” (The unique, screen-printed posters benefit Austin PBS directly.) She calls the gallery her “very favorite cool Shop Local place.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-4.jpg) Courtesy of Jennifer Harris At *The Barbed Wire*, we’ve written gift guides for [outdoor lovers](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-best-gifts-for-texans-who-love-the-outdoors/) — hikers, climbers, and campers — and for discerning, [handsome millennial men](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/gifts-for-the-discerning-handsome-millennial-in-your-life/) who want a sophisticated dress shirt to wear to film screenings. But many of the gifts folks told me they most enjoyed receiving were not just practical or stylish — they were also sentimental and profoundly meaningful. J.B. Sauceda, the host and executive producer of [*Texas Country Reporter*](https://tcr.texasmonthly.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and founder of [Texas Humor](https://www.instagram.com/texashumor/?hl=en&ref=thebarbedwire.com), said his wife, who “has an uncanny ability to give gifts that are unbelievably thoughtful and sentimental” got him an all-time favorite for his 40th birthday. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-11.jpg) Courtesy of J.B. Sauceda His wife “had quietly reached out to my dad and asked for something I'd almost forgotten existed: a handwritten prayer my mom wrote for me years ago,” he said. I’ll let J.B. tell the rest himself: > *She wrote it during a season of life when the business I'd founded was growing faster than I could keep up with, and I was as busy as I had ever been. It was during this period that she began showing the earliest signs of what would become her long fight with Alzheimer’s. One that has, unfortunately, today robbed her of most memories.* > > *I was incredibly close with her, yet I didn’t go home nearly as much as I wish I had. Looking back, I know some of that “busyness” was really a reluctance to face what was happening to the parent I was closest to. It’s something I still carry a lot of guilt about.* > > *So when I opened that envelope and saw her prayer that was steady, hopeful, and full of the kind of faith only a mom can have in her kid, it hit me harder than anything I’ve unwrapped in years. It was a reminder of the love she could no longer profess for me, her understanding that knew no bounds, and her belief that I would find my way, no matter how chaotic life felt at the time.* > > *The gift wasn’t just the prayer itself. It was the feeling of being understood by my mom, years ago, and by my wife now. It was a moment that brought both of them together for me in the best possible way.* Last year, Brian, senior editor at *The Barbed Wire,* [wrote a whole beautiful essay](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-best-christmas-ever-and-the-gift-of-a-lifetime/) about the 1987 gift he never forgot unwrapping (a Nintendo) and a gift guide for [people who miss Texas](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/ten-texas-gifts-for-people-who-miss-texas/), including bluebonnet seeds, H-E-B candles, and spicy ketchup from Whataburger. More recently though, he received a lava lamp from his daughter. Bespoke Post [has a really chic one](https://www.bespokepost.com/store/ash-fir-liquid-motion-lamp?b=true&b=&a=m%5Fgoogle%5FPLA&utm%5Fsource=google&utm%5Fmedium=cpc&utm%5Fcampaign=plas%5Fother&utm%5Fterm=175307&gad%5Fsource=1&gad%5Fcampaignid=22474704690&gbraid=0AAAAADy8S1rnCyngMsbvwwz76Eo87c0aI&gclid=CjwKCAiA55rJBhByEiwAFkY1QBmNzmcIez7eoR4aR56bPi3auhA2rLS%5FTZJncQjUh-awSWv0WrYzahoCQp0QAvD%5FBwE), and you can [find](https://www.etsy.com/listing/4393637211/multicolor-lava-lamp-great-color?ls=s&ga%5Forder=most%5Frelevant&ga%5Fsearch%5Ftype=all&ga%5Fview%5Ftype=gallery&ga%5Fsearch%5Fquery=lava+lamp&ref=sr%5Fgallery-1-1&sr%5Fprefetch=0&pf%5Ffrom=market&pro=1&content%5Fsource=13b601d9-2eff-47fa-aa09-f70f38df5e92%253ALT82658467be951b532ce171fcc608d5ac6a195b29&organic%5Fsearch%5Fclick=1&logging%5Fkey=13b601d9-2eff-47fa-aa09-f70f38df5e92%3ALT82658467be951b532ce171fcc608d5ac6a195b29) [tons](https://www.etsy.com/listing/4393637211/multicolor-lava-lamp-great-color?ls=s&ga%5Forder=most%5Frelevant&ga%5Fsearch%5Ftype=all&ga%5Fview%5Ftype=gallery&ga%5Fsearch%5Fquery=lava+lamp&ref=sr%5Fgallery-1-1&sr%5Fprefetch=0&pf%5Ffrom=market&pro=1&content%5Fsource=13b601d9-2eff-47fa-aa09-f70f38df5e92%253ALT82658467be951b532ce171fcc608d5ac6a195b29&organic%5Fsearch%5Fclick=1&logging%5Fkey=13b601d9-2eff-47fa-aa09-f70f38df5e92%3ALT82658467be951b532ce171fcc608d5ac6a195b29) of vintage lava lamps on Etsy. “I have loved lava lamps since seeing one at my grandfather's lakehouse cabin, years and years ago,” he said. “They're so relaxing, and it's great to have a little one on my desk as I go about my day.” Relatedly, I’d like to recommend these incredible night lights of sci-fi and fantasy scenes — like [this spaceship](https://www.etsy.com/listing/1731082798/space-galaxy-lamp-made-of-resin-and-wood?ls=a&ga%5Forder=most%5Frelevant&ga%5Fsearch%5Ftype=all&ga%5Fview%5Ftype=gallery&ga%5Fsearch%5Fquery=lava+lamp&ref=sc%5Fgallery-1-5&sr%5Fprefetch=0&pf%5Ffrom=market&pro=1&sts=1&plkey=LT09f947b0090395445750891492d43ecb8a4c5278%3A1731082798), [this fire-breathing dragon](https://www.etsy.com/listing/4296820833/exclusive-handmade-fire-dragon-resin?ls=a&ga%5Forder=most%5Frelevant&ga%5Fsearch%5Ftype=all&ga%5Fview%5Ftype=gallery&ga%5Fsearch%5Fquery=lava+lamp&ref=sc%5Fgallery-1-2&sr%5Fprefetch=0&pf%5Ffrom=market&pro=1&plkey=LTb6eebf3de77f1d7468e1c0cc591cbbc5b2735274%3A4296820833), or [this xenomorph](https://www.etsy.com/listing/1778392906/xenomorph-lamp-alien-epoxy-lamp-custom?ls=a&ga%5Forder=most%5Frelevant&ga%5Fsearch%5Ftype=all&ga%5Fview%5Ftype=gallery&ga%5Fsearch%5Fquery=lava+lamp&ref=sc%5Fgallery-1-3&sr%5Fprefetch=0&pf%5Ffrom=market&pro=1&sts=1&plkey=LT8b3a7c2e76abcfa69760ce028550bb6408943e33%3A1778392906) from the Alien universe. Do you know a kid who [loves sharks](https://www.etsy.com/listing/4405811263/shark-and-scuba-diver-ocean-resin-lamp?ls=s&ga%5Forder=most%5Frelevant&ga%5Fsearch%5Ftype=all&ga%5Fview%5Ftype=gallery&ga%5Fsearch%5Fquery=shark+night+light&ref=sr%5Fgallery-1-2&sr%5Fprefetch=1&pf%5Ffrom=search&pro=1&sts=1&nob=1&content%5Fsource=87992460-4d51-4538-9034-50d02962c25f%253ALT2d0ed0566fcc6d2f59243dab1fa9bede7fa6a847&organic%5Fsearch%5Fclick=1&logging%5Fkey=87992460-4d51-4538-9034-50d02962c25f%3ALT2d0ed0566fcc6d2f59243dab1fa9bede7fa6a847)? (I’ve been mulling that one for my nephew.) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-13.jpg) Courtesy of Brandon Lamb Brandon, 50, was given tickets to see “Wemby and the Spurs play the Nuggets” in Denver, when his family spent a year as Texpats there. When he was homesick, his wife delivered him the experience of watching the San Antonio-based NBA team win dramatically in the last few seconds. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-16.jpg) Courtesy of Desiree Echevarria Desiree, 39, has been feeling this set of blue geode bookends she got from [Austin Gift Company](https://www.austingiftcompany.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which sells all kinds of cool rocks and crystals. I also recommend [Nature’s Treasures of Texas](https://naturestreasuresatx.com/?TRS1&gad%5Fsource=1&gad%5Fcampaignid=22898560536&gbraid=0AAAAAC8xFboAn9WNHQaio2DKAoFUSqxvB&gclid=CjwKCAiA55rJBhByEiwAFkY1QHD8s5iifNJzpbTeVc-Nh%5FAQIYz5k5JiCP%5FwX4XAL41lZtGkJpvLkBoCt-wQAvD%5FBwE&ref=thebarbedwire.com) for folks looking to populate their shelves with shiny objects. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-18.jpg) Courtesy of Juliana Lightsey Juliana, one of *The Barbed Wire*’s Trending News Fellows, loved the gourmet gift basket a friend gave her from [Agnes Cafe & Provisions](https://www.agneshtx.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in Houston, which she visits routinely. The shop is co-owned by life-long friends Carolyn and Molly. “It was a special gift because I love to cook,” Juliana said. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-12.jpg) Courtesy of Karin Karin, 37, is an avid birder from Dallas who received a several-hundred-dollars-nice pair of binoculars from her partner by Vortex, the same brand as these $239 Diamondback HD binoculars [at Cabela’s](https://www.cabelas.com/p/vortex-diamondback-hd-binoculars?ref=thebarbedwire.com). [Nocs Provisions](https://www.nocsprovisions.com/pages/black-friday-bundle-2025?gad%5Fsource=1&gad%5Fcampaignid=20061683934&gbraid=0AAAAACr%5FxzjMFwGVtcplHzvGUjQrnE67b&gclid=CjwKCAiA55rJBhByEiwAFkY1QOEoqSlVph37WXBvC7EaK9fpVTsw-dSxxSydYZF8hOss5o7jcFJFlRoC9FEQAvD%5FBwE&ref=thebarbedwire.com) also has some really cool-looking ones. “I take it with me on all my walks so I can get clear IDs on birds, who are notorious about wanting to be far away from us!” Karin said. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-15.jpg) Courtesy of Cara Kelly Cara, our managing editor at *The Barbed Wire*, is the only member of the editorial team who doesn't live in Texas. She travels down a fair amount, which can be hard to explain to her 5-year-old son. “I usually try to pick up a peace offering that won't add clutter to my house, and is educational (dream big),” she says. “That's how I ended up with the book [‘This is Texas, Y'all! The Lone Star State from A to Z,’](https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/this-is-texas-yall-misha-blaise/1125756693?ref=thebarbedwire.com) by Misha Maynerick Blaise. It's full of colorful illustrations and clear labeling, which my son loves. So much so that I've since hit a parental right of passage of hiding it once or twice when I couldn’t read it one.more.time.” “It’s been a gift to learn more about Texas alongside him, like we’re on this journey together,” says Cara. “I appreciate the variety and diversity Blaise included. There's a quote from Eva Longoria about the border crossing her family in South Texas, not the other way around — which I didn’t know before I started editing here. And a blurb on Sweatt v Painter, which saved me from embarrassment when *The Barbed Wire* published a story with the headline: [‘If You Don't Already Know Heman Sweatt's Name, It's Time to Learn It.’](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/sweatt-v-painter-75th-anniversary-desegregation/) I could thankfully say that I did, and so did my son.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-2.png) Courtesy of Isabella Zeff Isabella, another Trending News Fellow at *The Barbed Wire*, said she and her mom bought these handmade ceramics from [Nelly Home Goods](https://nellyhomegoods.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) at an arts market in Dallas. “All of her pieces are handmade and hand-painted, and we loved the unique style of the mug and the cup!” she said. The owner named the business after her abuela and wanted to inspire “Third Culture Kids, like myself, to find a connection with their spaces,” she says on her website. She produces small-batch ceramic goods that combine traditional Latin American and modern touches. Leslie, our Deputy Managing Editor at *The Barbed Wire*, [wrote a gift guide](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/fck-amazon-this-year-give-your-holiday-money-to-texas-businesses-of-color/) last year for shoppers who’d rather give their money to 22 businesses owned by Texans of color than Amazon. https://thebarbedwire.com/2024/11/29/fck-amazon-this-year-give-your-holiday-money-to-texas-businesses-of-color/ Since we are a remote newsroom, her daily work uniform is throwing on a sweatshirt over her workout clothes, and she can’t get out of the [Take Care Crew](https://cuidateatx.com/products/take-care-crew?ref=thebarbedwire.com) from Austin-based Cuídate, a Latina-owned business. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-14.jpg) She also just discovered [Dollface Accessories](https://www.instagram.com/dollfaceaccessories/?hl=en&ref=thebarbedwire.com), which is owned by Melynda Rivas. She’s been wearing their gold charm bracelet with evil eye protection charms. (In this era — and in this economy — we need all the protection we can get.) Billy, our Director of Operations, got married in March, so he’s had a year chock full of gifts. The most memorable he received was also the most unexpected: A day before his wedding, he was running around trying to make sure every last detail was in order. In the midst of the pre-wedding chaos, he got a call from his Uncle Dave. “Make sure you’re home in 15 minutes,” Dave instructed without context. Then, to his great surprise, a man in a pickup truck pulled into his driveway with a giant, full-sized freezer in tow. “Where is this thing going?” the man asked a visibly-confused Billy. “The garage, I guess…” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-17.jpg) While it may have been totally out of the blue (and not remotely close to anything on the wedding registry), that freezer is now filled to the brim with wild game Billy was able to harvest on a recent hunt in South Texas, fittingly accompanied by his Uncle Dave. If you’ve made it this far, I hope you’ve found an unusual, spooky, or creative gift idea for someone in your life. I’m committed to endlessly scrolling for the perfect, customized item in order to watch someone’s face light up on Christmas morning. But when they actually use it for the rest of the year? That’s the real magic. Happy shopping. xo ### I’m a Trans Journalist Choosing to Live in Texas. Here’s Why That Matters. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/transgender-journalist-living-in-texas/ Last updated: 2025-11-25T15:33:41.000Z I was probably 13 years old. It was near the end of middle school, during a wintry holiday vacation back home in Connecticut. I was at my best friend Kate’s house, sitting in her bedroom, and listening to her dish with other girls from my class. Honest, unfiltered talk. Complaints about boys. “Wait a minute,” I asked. “What about me? Aren’t I one of the boys?” *Oh Kit, don’t worry, you don’t count,* they all assured me. I remember later, when I returned home, I asked my mother, “What do they mean I don’t count as a boy?” I don’t even remember what advice she gave me, but we both recalled this incident recently, when I called my mom to tell her I’d started taking estrogen. That remembered question, “What do they mean I don’t count?” had popped back into both of our heads 34 years later. Now it’s taken on a new shape. I’ve had the chance, in the intervening years, to assemble moments like the one at Kate’s house into a narrative. Each one as if connected by a bright red string. The times I stood out from others. Ones where I made a choice to be different, or sometimes when others simply recognized that difference in me, no matter how hard I tried to fit into the box I’d been assigned at birth. I remember laying under a giant tent at Burning Man in 2002, hiding from the unrelenting sun, wind, and dust. I was with a friend from Austin. “Where,” I asked him, “did you get that fabulous leopard print catsuit?” *Kit, you need to start shopping in the women’s section*, he replied*.* It was like a lightbulb clicked on in my head: I’m allowed to do that? No one will stop me? I started following his advice as soon as we got back to Texas. I quickly became agile at finding fabulous or cute things in thrift stores. But it took a while longer to realize that the reason I felt bored, frustrated, and uncomfortable with men’s fashion was because I’m not a man at all. For me, these moments transform in retrospect. Transitioning didn’t begin when I decided to start estrogen, but decades ago, when I realized — one revelation at a time — that I was becoming an adult free to make my own choices about my identity and its expression. Small moments which led me to be here now, writing to you. Even with all the queer life — joy, discrimination, and everything in between — I’ve experienced, there’s still an intrusive little voice in the back of my head that questions whether y’all will think I’m trans enough, Texan enough, or a real enough journalist to be here, writing to you. But if [Olivia can be brave](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-is-a-lot-more-queer-than-you-think/) in this space, so can I. My name is Kit O’Connell. I’m a transgender [enby](https://www.merriam-webster.com/slang/enby?ref=thebarbedwire.com), usually a femme, and I use they/them pronouns. Starting this week, I’ll be covering queer and trans life in Texas for Big & Bright — *The Barbed Wire*’s first underwritten vertical. I’ll be your host as the section’s newsletter writer, contributing two pieces per month. Look for pop culture takes, news features, and personal essays like this one. I’m so excited to be a part of this new project because Texas desperately needs a place where we can tell our stories, where we can be ourselves, mourn our losses, and celebrate our victories. As I mentioned, I’m originally from Connecticut. I moved to Austin at age 19 because I’d fallen for a woman on the internet; after two whole visits to Texas, I packed up my metaphorical U-Haul to follow her here. Our relationship fell apart about a month after my plane landed, but I have remained unceasingly in love with Austin. The possibilities, the vibrancy of its culture, and its embrace of open queerness turned a crush into a long-term relationship with this city. I did spend a while bouncing around other parts of the state, including Houston, before I returned to Austin just in time for the kickoff of the Occupy Wall Street movement in 2011, and its satellite branch in our city. Another inflection point for my life came one night in February 2012, as I live-tweeted the city’s sweep of the Occupy Austin encampment. My coverage of the arrests, the marches, and the police’s destruction of the tents led to the start of my journalism career at a now-defunct political blog. As years passed, I stayed in Texas despite the [hostile laws](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/anti-trans-bills-texas-2025/) against LGBTQ+ residents and even [the death threats](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/thereve-been-93-anti-lgbtq-hate-crimes-in-texas-since-2022-data-shows/). I was the editor in chief of a website about industrial hemp, then worked as the digital editor at *Texas Observer* from 2023 to 2024\. My reporting has been profiled in the [*Columbia Journalism Review*](https://www.cjr.org/the%5Fprofile/kit-oconnell-austin-movement-journalism.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Particularly in Austin, I have found belonging in the ecofeminist pagan coven I joined, the festival where I found my first skirt at a costume swap, the [Little Gay Book Club](https://www.advocate.com/news/lgbtq-book-clubs?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and so much more. As I documented in Big & Bright two weeks ago, there’s everything from [hiking clubs to Magic: the Gathering nights](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/queer-community-outside-the-bar-texas/) geared towards the rainbow umbrella. Even with [gay campgrounds](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-gayest-campground-camp-nackte-rainbow-ranch/), it’s not easy living in Texas. If you're part of the LGBTQ+ community and reading this, I don’t need to tell you that. I have covered [bomb threats over gender inclusive bathrooms](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/thereve-been-93-anti-lgbtq-hate-crimes-in-texas-since-2022-data-shows/) and written about the [aftermath](https://deceleration.news/queer-ecology-trans-attack-barton-springs-polish-rivers/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of a [violent anti-trans attack](https://austinfreepress.org/barton-stings/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) at Barton Springs — and the way the [community gathered afterward](https://www.texasobserver.org/protect-trans-joy-barton-springs/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). I worry, too, about the [new “bathroom bill](https://www.texasobserver.org/texas-bathroom-bill-weaponizes-transphobia/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)” that bans transgender people from using their preferred bathroom in certain public buildings, and whether it will make random strangers accost me when I’m just trying to go in peace. I’m scared of the [targeting of our healthcare](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/black-queer-trans-man-pregnant/) and worry about how I’ll keep getting my E. The [rise of fascism](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/elon-musk-new-fascism-trump-texas/) keeps me up at night. Still, I can’t escape from the feeling that this state is where I belong, and it’s where my community lives. If I eventually do leave, I want it to be because I’ve found that same kind of community elsewhere, not because I’m driven out. As [Gwen Howerton](https://www.chron.com/author/gwen-howerton/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the Chron’s transgender Texas culture reporter, told [OutSmart](https://www.outsmartmagazine.com/2025/11/gwen-howerton-chron-reporter/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) magazine: “This is my home ... I want to leave on my own terms, not because some people don’t like who I am.” Journalists and queer folks have a lot in common, including our propensity for piecing together disparate moments and making a narrative out of them. For queer people, it’s usually the story of our coming out, our transition, or our journey to finding a place where we belong. Belonging can mean any number of things: Seeing yourself represented in your community, feeling supported by allies, finding someone whose journey here mirrors your own. As a journalist, I’m not covering the community from the outside. And I’m not pretending to — instead, I understand the weight of hostile legal and policy decisions, hate crimes, and discrimination because I am directly impacted by them. But I’ve never had any pretense of being neutral when it comes to issues that matter to us all, including supporting LGBTQ+ rights. For that reason, I’ve always been more at home in progressive publications, where I can be a movement journalist — “a journalist in service to liberation,” to [quote the Press On collective](https://www.presson.media/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — while disclosing my perspective, and backing it all up with solid, fact-based reporting. It hasn’t escaped me that the parts of the media we’d previously carved out for queer voices, and the voices of other marginalized groups, are rapidly disappearing. Earlier this month, just a couple of weeks after I’d finally been published in [*Teen Vogue*](https://www.teenvogue.com/story/texas-schools-forced-to-deadname-trans-students?ref=thebarbedwire.com)*,* a personal bucket list goal, Conde Nast announced it was [abandoning the title as a stand-alone magazine](https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2025/nov/22/teen-vogue-closure-feminist-media?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The company laid off six employees, mostly BIPOC women plus the nonbinary politics editor, Lex McMenamin, who had pushed *Teen Vogue’s* progressive news coverage to international prominence. Last month, NBC News eliminated teams that covered [queer, Black, Latino, and Asian communities](https://www.advocate.com/news/nbc-cuts-nbc-out?ref=thebarbedwire.com). According to GLAAD, queer and trans characters are [rapidly disappearing from TV](https://deadline.com/2025/11/nearly-half-lgbtq-tv-characters-canceled-glaad-1236608720/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), too. I would never begrudge someone for leaving a state where they feel unsafe, but the more that marginalized voices disappear from legacy outlets, the more it matters to fight for our corner instead of abandoning it. It matters to have places in journalism, in media, where we belong and where we can see ourselves. I had brunch with a transmasculine friend recently, hiding from overcast skies under an umbrella at the Vegan Nom Food Court in East Austin. He laughed when I told him about that afternoon in Kate’s bedroom, because he’d had a nearly identical moment to mine, except with the genders reversed: *Don’t worry, you’re just like one of the boys.* It reminded me how important it is to share these smaller, sometimes overlooked parts of our journeys with each other, because so often they’re actually the common experiences that bind us together. They help us remember that we aren’t alone. I hope everyone will enjoy what we publish in Big & Bright. But I’m also glad it’s a space for *our* stories: stories of our struggle to survive, but also about our resilience, our joy, and our journeys of self-discovery — stories other publications sometimes reject because they aren’t sad or “serious” enough. This is a space where we can be our biggest and brightest, messiest and most complex selves. I look forward to sharing that with you. *Do you have a story about queer Texas survival, joy, or even hardship? Do you think nobody else will tell it? Send me tips to* [*kit@thebarbedwire.com*](mailto:kit@thebarbedwire.com)*.* ### A Disabled Child’s Mom Reported Him Missing. He Was Locked Away by Federal Immigration Authorities for 48 Days. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/disabled-child-federal-immigration-custody/ Last updated: 2026-09-22T13:38:24.000Z *This article was published in partnership with* [*The 19th\* News.*](https://19thnews.org/2025/11/disabled-child-federal-immigration-custody/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Maria Garcia couldn’t bear to attend the nightly meals near Triangle Lake, where for several weeks, the smell of pinto beans, turkey necks, and other soul food staples filled the air outside a federal children’s detention facility in southeast Houston. The Southern home-cooked meals had become a supportive ritual, one that Garcia appreciated but was too difficult for her to take part in. Garcia’s son, who has an intellectual disability, remained locked inside for 48 days. Other mothers of children with neurological and development disorders stepped in. “We need to be there *every night.* Because while the world scrolls and moves on, there’s still a baby waking up in a place that isn’t his home,” Cathi Rae, a member of Autism Moms of Houston, wrote in an October blog post. “A baby who can’t make sense of where his mom went or why she hasn’t come to get him.” On Oct. 18, Rae started the nightly dinners from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the park bench across the street from the facility. She and other mothers knew that though he couldn't see them, it was a way to show 15-year-old Emmanuel Alexander Gonzalez Garcia that he was not alone. “As a mother of a child with autism, that thought breaks me,” Rae wrote. “My son, Noah, is 8, but developmentally he’s closer to 5\. If he were in Emmanuel’s shoes, he would think he did something wrong. He’d believe I sent him away. Every time he called and I didn’t come, he’d lose a little more trust in the world.” Some nights she was joined by several other mothers and their children, but as time passed and Emmanuel remained in custody, Rae said she was often alone. In those moments of quiet, she couldn’t help but think of Emmanuel and his mom. In early October, Emmanuel walked away from his mom’s fruit stand to find a bathroom. Garcia looked for him all over the city, and after several hours of coming up empty handed, she filed a missing person’s report with the Houston Police Department. The boy was found by Houston firefighters nearly 24 hours later. But instead of reuniting him with his mom, the police department turned him over to immigration authorities, and Emmanuel ended up in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), where he remained for 48 days, despite his mother’s pleas for him to be released into her care. Immigration-related arrests and detentions have surged under the Trump administration, particularly in Texas. According to [analysis by the *Texas Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/11/03/texas-trump-immigration-crackdown-ice-arrests-deportation/?%5Fbhlid=a04cdf8098af9189909db37dcd6178beadc0199b&ref=thebarbedwire.com), daily arrests have risen roughly 30 percentage points in ICE regions including Houston, and the Harris County Jail leads the country in ICE detainers — requests from immigration agents to hold a person for deportation. The *Houston Chronicle* found [police calls to ICE have surged 1,000%](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/immigration/article/houston-police-ice-calls-surge-21080950.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). [The vast majority](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/26/immigrants-criminal-record-ice-detention?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — [more than 70%](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/21/opinion/ice-immigration-green-card-detention.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — of those arrested haven’t committed any crime. And, in an increasing number of cases, calls for help to the Houston Police Department have resulted in the caller or a family member winding up in federal detention. In one case, a woman from [El Salvador called Houston police to report an abusive ex-husband](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/immigration/article/houston-police-ice-domestic-violence-20382891.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — instead officers called ICE on her. Emmanuel’s story enraged many Houston residents as community members grappled with the cruelty of keeping a disabled child locked away from his mother. In the 48 days since he left her side, Garcia was only allowed to see Emmanuel three times. Once when he needed emergency surgery. The second time was during a scheduled visit facilitated by her legal team and U.S. Rep. Al Green. In that case, Garcia and her son got to hug each other and share a meal. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/251105_emmanual_embed1.jpg) “Se quería ir a casa y pregunto si se podía ir conmigo,” Garcia said tearfully during a press conference at Green’s office. “He wanted to go home and asked if he could come with me.” Garcia said she was able to see her son for a third time last week. “Estoy devastada, porque yo sé que esto es alegría para él, le encantan los regalos, y él sabe que estos días pues son son días alegres y incluso yo el lunes pedí un permiso para ver si él podía pasar conmigo el Thanksgiving pero me dijeron que no iba a ser posible,” Garcia told *The Barbed Wire* during an emotional phone call a week before the holiday. “I’m devastated because I know that this (season) is happiness for him, he loves presents and he knows these days are supposed to be joyful. On Monday I asked for permission to see if he could spend Thanksgiving with me but they told me ‘It wouldn’t be possible.’” Garcia said she asked if she could at least visit Emmanuel on Thanksgiving, which would have marked 54 days in custody. But the answer was the same. “Ese día es el cumpleaños de su hermanita y yo quería ver si podía pasar con él aunque sean unas horitas pero no me lo permitieron — no me lo permitieron,” Garcia said. “That day is also his little sister’s birthday and I wanted to see if it would be possible to spend even just a few short hours with him, but they didn’t allow me to — they didn’t allow me to.” ## ‘Why did they instead decide to call ICE?’ Garcia stood on the corner of Hempstead and Clay Road in northwest Houston on Oct. 4\. The sun was high in the sky. Temperatures were in the 80s, mild for Texas, but warm enough to entice people driving by the Spring Branch neighborhood to stop for a refreshing mango cup drizzled with tangy chamoy. “Estábamos con mis niños porque yo siempre los camino conmigo, yo no los dejo con nadie pues ellos son mi prioridad,” Garcia told *The Barbed Wire* in Spanish. “We were with my children because I always have them with me. I never leave them with anyone because they’re my priority.” Garcia relies on her fruit sales to feed herself and her two children. In 2021, they came to Texas from Nicaragua in hopes of better opportunities and medical care. Her 13-year-old daughter, Angela, has a condition that is causing her to go blind. Emmanuel has significant learning disabilities, a speech impediment, and is hard of hearing. He is in special education classes at Spring Branch ISD. Garcia explained that she believes her son is autistic, but he has not received a diagnosis from a doctor because it requires money they do not have. Researchers say it's also [common for an autism diagnosis to get delayed](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9584143/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=These%20barriers%20are%20complex%20and,identification%20and%20treatment%20of%20ASD.), especially in Hispanic and Latinx families due to limited English proficiency, cultural barriers, and low-income status. “Cuando él se siente frustrado porque tal vez tiene mucho estrés acumulado o la escuela hay algo que él no entiende, él se me ha hecho popó, se me ha hecho pipí, es algo como de que no no puede contener,” Garcia told *The Barbed Wire.* “When he feels frustrated because maybe he has accumulated stress or there’s something at school he’s not understanding, he has pooped, he has peed, it’s something that he can’t contain.” Garcia provided 90 pages of school records that were independently reviewed by *The Barbed Wire* and detailed the boy’s qualifications for an Individualized Education Plan, or IEP, and show that he received services from a deaf education teacher, an audiologist, and a special education teacher. Evaluations dating back to 6th grade show the lowest possible scores in English language proficiency for listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Records indicated that he is enrolled in the district’s life skills program, and an evaluation signed by a nine-person committee from last school year shows “he has a limited vocabulary in both languages and experiences difficulty expressing his wants and needs.” “Mucha gente no lo comprende, no lo entiende, dicen pero si ya está grande cómo le va a pasar eso pero son cosas que por su misma discapacidad es pues él no lo comprende verdad,” Garcia said. “A lot of people don’t comprehend it, they don’t understand, they say, ‘If he’s older, how is that going to happen to him?’ But they’re things that due to his disability he doesn’t understand.” Emmanuel’s challenges in language comprehension and vocalizing his needs are why Garcia believes her son walked away from her. “Él me dijo ‘mami, quiero ir al baño.’ Entonces yo le dije ‘espérame un momento amor, ya te voy a llevar.’ Le dije ¿oíste? Entonces dijo ‘sí,’” Garcia said. “He told me, ‘Mami, I want to go to the bathroom,’ so I told him, ‘Wait one moment, love, I’ll take you.’ I asked him, ‘You hear me?’ and he said, ‘Yes.’” As Emmanuel waited for his mom to take him to the bathroom, a customer drove up. They wanted mangos, so Emmanuel had to wait for her to prepare the fruit snack. But by the time she turned around to take her son to the bathroom, her daughter told her in Spanish, “Mami, no está el niño.” “Mom, the boy isn’t here.” Garcia began searching frantically for her son. “Empecé yo a buscarlo a buscarlo a buscarlo y a buscarlo. No lo encontré, anduve por todo el área buscándolo gritándole, ‘Emmanuel, Emanuel’ y no lo encontré,” Garcia recalled. “I started to search and search and search and search. I did not find him. I went around the whole area looking for him and screaming, ‘Emmanuel, Emmanuel!’ And I didn’t find him.” Garcia filed a missing persons report with the Houston Police Department. She got a case number and continued her search while police told her they would do their own. Desperate, she turned to her community. FIEL Houston, an immigration rights group, held a press conference on Oct. 10, six days after Emmanuel went missing, to help get the word out. The [day of the press conference,](https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1CnAbKDBng/) Garcia got a call from Houston police. Officers called to let her know they found her son on Oct. 5, the day after she reported him missing. She wanted to know where to pick him up, but police told her she wouldn’t be able to. He was in federal custody with the ORR and considered an “unaccompanied minor.” Houston Police Chief J. Noe Diaz later said at a city council meeting that firefighters found Emmanuel, and afterwards, police officers tried finding his legal guardians. But because Emmanuel told officers his name was “Manuel,” they didn’t connect him to the missing person’s case. The chief said officers then called CPS, which then “referred” Houston police to the ORR. The ORR is a federal department that was [rebuilt under the Biden administration](https://apnews.com/article/refugees-resettlement-immigration-biden-trump-93cd3b6408fd45907645849da91e23bb?ref=thebarbedwire.com) after Donald Trump’s first presidency. Under President Joe Biden, it was set up as a humane way to intake refugees and oversee children who entered the country alone, without proper documentation. Almost immediately after Trump took office, ICE officials were brought in to lead the office. “In terms of the ORR process, or the unaccompanied minor process, we have gone through it with other families, but we hadn't seen a case where a child gets picked up, and instead of being returned to mom, he gets sent to ORR,” Cesar Espinosa, the executive director of FIEL Houston, told *The Barbed Wire*. Garcia and her two children lack permanent legal status, which complicated Emmanuel’s case. The family secured two legal teams: one to help reunite Emmanuel with his mother, and another to ensure Garcia gets the proper documentation to stay in Houston. Sandra Gomez, the attorney handling Emmanuel’s federal custody case, said the case has been unique because it’s legally clear that Garcia is Emmanuel’s biological mother — and that her son is not an unaccompanied minor. They planned to file a petition to reunite the two, but the government shutdown caused delays. While with ORR, Emmanuel developed appendicitis and was rushed to Texas Children’s Hospital for surgery. Garcia was allowed to stay with him during some portions of his recovery, but he was quickly taken back to the ORR facility after his mother left the hospital to speak at a Houston City Council meeting. Then, on Oct. 14, Espinosa and Garcia went to the city council meeting to plead for help with Emmanuel’s case, and to better understand how the Houston Police Department was working with ICE. “Instead of looking for the missing persons report, instead of trying to find his mom, because Emmanuel is not an unaccompanied youth, his mom is right here, your office, your department, your police department, Mayor Whitmire, decided to call ICE instead of just making the call to the missing person’s report,” Espinosa said at the meeting. The following day, Houston Mayor John Whitmire brought in Diaz, the police chief, to give the department’s side of the story. Diaz made a point that Garcia called police five hours after Emmanuel went missing. “So you can gauge the hours when she decided to call us,” he told council members. The chief went on to tell council members that “although the mother stated in this incident that Emmanuel was autistic, detectives reviewed the prior incidents and identified Emmanuel as not being autistic with any medical or cognitive issues.” He went on to say that Emmanuel told officers his name was Manuel, and thus his department did not make the connection that he was the subject of Garcia’s missing persons report. As the council took a recess to view camera footage Diaz brought for council members, Espinosa interrupted, “Why do you lie? Why do you lie? Chief, we've been trying to meet with you, you have yet to be with us. Why do you lie?” Officers [escorted Espinosa](https://www.khou.com/article/news/local/fiel-houston-police-chief/285-d918c86b-79c4-481a-b13f-5c71babcff93?ref=thebarbedwire.com) out of the council chambers. *The Barbed Wire* called the Houston Police Department and were told by an employee in the communications department that they weren’t familiar with Emmanuel’s case, then said any public information about it was given by the police chief at the Oct. 15 city council meeting. *The Barbed Wire* also emailed a list of questions to the department and to the mayor’s office and did not receive a response. There’s a reasonable fear that the media attention surrounding Emmanuel’s case could result in ICE detaining his mother, her attorneys have said. “We're in contact with the authorities, and we're diligently working to ensure that the parent and child are reunited as is proper, and to ensure that no federal authorities take advantage of this situation to turn it into an enforcement action,” Ross Miller, an attorney part of Garcia’s legal team handling the immigration status of the family, said during a [press conference at FIEL](https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1FLarpcF2V/) on Oct. 28. Still, questions remained, and community members were outraged that Houston police called federal officers instead of reuniting the teen with his mother. Whitmire has equivocated on the city’s cooperation with ICE, initially rebuffing allegations that the police department called immigration services, only to reverse course [at an event earlier in November,](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/immigration/article/whitmire-houston-ice-21149859.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) saying, “I'm not going to say that we're not cooperating with ICE, because that's frankly not true.” A few days later, [at another city council meeting](https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/police/2025/11/12/535874/ice-police-houston-mayor-city-council-immigration/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Whitmire again defended the Houston Police Department, claiming they only call the agency when they have a warrant for an arrest. “Don’t politicize this,” Whitmire said. “We enforce state and city laws, not immigration, not ICE.” The responses did little to settle community uproar, particularly over Emmanuel’s case. “Instead of doing their due diligence and connecting the dots that this was the missing kid that we were looking for, why did they instead decide to call ICE?” Espinosa asked in a call with *The Barbed Wire*. ## ‘He Doesn’t Understand; He’s a Kid’ “Our main concern is this poor autistic boy, this poor baby who has the mental capacity of a four year old, being held,” Cathi Rae, the member of Autism Moms of Houston, told *The Barbed Wire* earlier this month. “As far as immigration and what her legal status is, or any of those things, that is not our main concern.” Rae heard about Emmanuel’s case through a family member who was at a Houston City Council meeting for a separate issue on Oct. 14 and 15, the same hearing where Diaz was accused of lying to the public about Emmanuel’s intellectual abilities. “He doesn't understand; he's a kid,” Rae continued. “I don't care how old, how many years it says that he is, he is essentially just barely above a toddler.” During the city council meeting, Diaz questioned whether Emmanuel was autistic or not. But school records indicate there's no question the young teen shows signs of a disability. That’s why Rae and the other mothers in Autism Moms of Houston began holding nightly dinners with Emmanuel at the park bench across the street. “The city could have a little bit of compassion and move him into a facility that is going to take care of him properly so the mother and the son can, at the very least, be together while they sort out whatever is going,” Rae added, noting that it was clear the Garcia family had been caught in the crossfire of escalating tensions “on a political scale that has nothing to do with either one of these two individuals.” Despite all of this, Garcia refused to give up. “Me siento triste, porque ya es un mes que no tengo a mi niño conmigo… tengo fe de que mi niño va a regresar pronto…. Este mes ha sido durísimo para mi, pero sigo en espera….,” Garcia said in an Instagram video posted to FIEL’s account. “I feel sad because it’s been a month that I don’t have my boy with me … I have faith that my boy will return to me quickly … this month has been incredibly hard, but I’m holding onto hope.” During the visit organized by Rep. Green, Emmanuel requested flautas filled with beef and a donut, so his mom obliged. She brought him the home-cooked meal that she was allowed by government officials at ORR. She said during an [Oct. 29 press conference at Green’s office](https://www.facebook.com/share/v/17FB9wVPKH/) that her son was biting his nails and fingers, a sign she recognized to mean that he was desperate and overwhelmed. Garcia’s legal team told *The Barbed Wire* that ORR had begun protocols to release the boy back to his mother in October, meaning federal authorities had to make sure Garcia was able to take care of her son, including a background check, a physical and mental health check, updated vaccines, and verifying that he has a home and school to return to. Still, attorneys said they had no answers for the 48-day-long delay. “Asi como me paso a mi, le puede pasar a muchas madres, a muchas personas, a muchos ciudadanos, no nos quedemos callados, protejámonos unos a otros,” Garcia said, fighting back tears during the same press conference. “Just like it’s happened to me, it can happen to many mothers, many people, many citizens, we can’t stay quiet, we must protect each other.” As Garcia’s visit in early November came to a close, she said Emmanuel had another request: to bring him gallo pinto — a traditional Nicaraguan rice and bean dish — with chopped green plantains and fried cheese. And he asked her if she would come back soon. Not knowing for sure, she said she told him, “Creo qu si.” “I think so, yes.” ## ‘They Failed My Son’ Last week, after her third visit to see Emmanuel, Garcia asked if she could see her son on Thanksgiving. The answer was no. Then, as this story went to press on Friday, a miracle happened. After 48 days, three in-depth pieces [from the editorial board](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/editorials/article/teen-autistic-missing-houston-police-hpd-whitmire-21155829.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [of *The Houston Chronicle*](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/editorials/article/maria-garcia-emmaneul-immigration-judicial-order-21201629.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com), repeated requests for comment from other outlets — including *The Barbed Wire* — grueling legal work by multiple attorneys and the advocacy organization FIEL, contentious city council meetings, tearful press conferences, and intercessions from politicians like Congressman Al Green, Garcia’s son was finally released. Mother and son were reunited around 7:30 p.m. on Friday. “Emmanuel should have never been detained, but now that he is we are elated that he shall be returned to his biological mother, where he belongs,” said Espinosa, FIEL’s executive director, in a statement. “We thank all the people who have shown an outpour of support, and we continue to support this family in navigating our very complex immigration system.” Maria walked out of the holding facility with her young son, hands interlocked tightly. A slew of TV news cameras captured the moment. He wore a navy blue polo shirt and a bright red rosary around his neck. “Aqui les presento a Emmanuel Gonzalez,” Garcia said proudly, tears in her eyes. “Here I present to you Emmanuel Gonzalez.” Reporters asked the teen several questions, but he mostly shook his head yes or no. He was quiet except to say in Spanish that he was ready to go home and rest — and that this reunification was unexpected. Reports [from the nonprofit National Center for Youth Law](https://youthlaw.org/news/two-new-reports-reveal-harms-prolonged-custody-unaccompanied-children?ref=thebarbedwire.com) released in September indicate that each additional day in ORR custody “compounds the risk of psychological harm” for all minors. To other moms, Garcia said: “No tengamos miedo, hablemos, luchemos por nuestros hijos, no nos quedemos callados en ninguna situación que sea, busquemos ayuda.” “Don’t be afraid,” she said. “We need to fight for our children,” she continued. “Don’t stay quiet no matter what the situation. Ask for help.” And before the cameras turned off, Garcia addressed Houston’s city leaders directly. “Delante de todo el mundo, quisieron hacer creer que yo era una mala madre. Me fallaron a mi familia, me fallaron a mi hijo, me fallaron a mí, nos están fallando a todos,” Garcia said. “In front of the entire world, they tried to make others believe I was a bad mother,” she said. “They failed my family, they failed my son, they failed me, and they’re failing all of us.” ### Cowboys Are Cool Again, According to Jordan Peele's New Doc 'High Horse: The Black Cowboy' URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/high-horse-black-cowboys-jordan-peele/ Last updated: 2025-11-21T21:06:56.000Z Everybody wants to be a cowboy now. [Cowboy core — ](https://www.cntraveller.com/article/how-cowboy-core-became-the-biggest-travel-hype-of-2025?ref=thebarbedwire.com)the Western aesthetic that prioritizes travel experiences in places like Montana, Wyoming, and Utah, where guests can participate in horseback riding, mountain climbing, and birdwatching — was the biggest trend in travel for 2025\. Cowboys boots have become commonplace in [luxury fashion](https://www.vogue.com/article/western-boot-outfit-ideas?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “Yellowstone” is one of the [most valuable franchise](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2025-04-27/how-yellowstone-became-a-3-billion-franchise-and-where-it-goes-next?ref=thebarbedwire.com)s on the silver screen. And country music is [surpassing rap](https://www.hitsongsdeconstructed.com/hsd%5Fwire/country-music-is-now-the-leading-genre-in-the-hot-100-top-10/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in audio streams. Every industry is trying to cash in on the new gold rush of country’s revival in the mainstream. But, what about those who were country before it was trendy? What about the generations of Black farmers and ranchers whose lands were seized from them by [eminent domain](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/08/us/black-americans-family-land-reparations.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com)? What about the [Black rodeos](https://texashighways.com/culture/black-rodeos-are-a-storied-texas-tradition/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that provide a platform for Black cowboys and cowgirls to showcase their talents? Where are their forty acres and a mule? Are they not deserving of the same spotlight afforded to their white counterparts, who have been seen as stewards of the genre and lifestyle? “High Horse: The Black Cowboy,” the new docuseries produced by Jordan Peele now streaming on Peacock, attempts to answer those questions and more. The 3-episode season starts with a critique of the American cowboy myth, transitions to the historical and ongoing attacks against Black land ownership and ends on the reclamation of cowboy culture by Black Americans. There are obvious mentions of “[Cowboy Carter](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/legacy-of-black-cowboys-west-texas/),” Beyoncé’s award-winning album that ignited conversations about Black women in country music. Tina Knowles, Beyonce’s mother, is one of the many Black academics, cowboys, farmers, ranchers, journalists, and industry professionals featured in the project. In episode three, she recalls a harrowing experience at the Kentucky Derby, where she was racially mistreated by an employee at the horse race. Knowles’ sentiments are echoed by [Courtney and Nicole Mallery](https://www.denverpost.com/2023/02/18/black-ranchers-colorado-courtney-nichole-mallery/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a rancher couple that were subjected to racial discrimination, by their neighbors in Colorado. And [the Alexander family](https://www.texastribune.org/2022/05/31/texas-black-owned-farm-historic/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), who are fighting the Texas Department of Transportation to protect their family farm from being taken over by the state for a highway expansion project. The Black cowboy, who the docuseries positions as a proxy for Black people, is the focal point for the Jason Perez-directed visual. In an interview with the *Texas Standard*, Perez spoke highly about [Bun B’s involvement in the series](https://www.texasstandard.org/stories/high-horse-black-cowboy-jordan-peele-peacock-series/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The prolific rapper, who was one-half of southern rap duo UGK, makes his debut in episode one, titled “F\*ck Westerns,” a 40-minute episode that details the erasure of Black cowboys in popular culture. The episode shows that erasure was an intentional move that facilitated the growth and development of the American cowboy myth in the United States and the world. It was in Port Arthur, about 25 miles from the Louisiana border, that Bun B was introduced to the country lifestyle. Though he calls Houston home, Bun’s family ties have been in Trill City for years. His family settled in the small Southeast Texas town after they moved away from Louisiana. He told *The Barbed Wire* that their way of life gave him an amazing perspective on Black cowboy culture — an ideology that he brings to life every year at the Houston Livestock and Rodeo. Although his first performance at the sporting event was in 2007, Bun B’s takeover of the festival started a few years ago in 2022\. Since then, he has transformed the rodeo into a celebration of Black western country with performances from some of the biggest names out of Texas and the South. “People are coming to the Rodeo to learn. There are many different points of interaction. The rodeo has consciously made an effort to diversify itself on the stage in the same way they’ve diversified the stands, and they’re not shying away from that,” he said. “Black Heritage Day will always be available for different representations of Black music, Black culture, and Black country western to be seen, heard, and appreciated.” As a child, he never saw anyone that looked like him on the rodeo stage. The same goes for presence on the radio. It felt impossible. Now, his hope for others to stand on the “shoulders of greatness we stand on,” and continue to work to educate others about the Black country experience. Bun B described the modern day Black Cowboy in two ways: First, by showing up as unapologetically Black, especially in spaces that were previously unwelcoming. He said it’s important to have the confidence to not only go into that space, but to thrive and prosper. Second, be as Black as you feel you need to be without being a caricature of yourself. Authenticity is a central theme of “High Horse.” The real life stories from Black jockeys and equestrian professionals — about their fight to be seen and recognized as equal, if not better than their white counterparts — follows the Black colloquial saying about being twice as good to get half as much. But the docuseriesattempts to rectify that gap through the medium of popular culture. If television and film are one reason why cowboys are seen as white, why not use streaming to combat the erasure? Why not give audiences different representations of Black cowboys and cowgirls to see in real time? In a sense, it is an act of defiance. Because pop culture would be nothing without the cultural productions of Southern Black culture, particularly Black Texan culture. Look no further than Bun B, though he and Pimp C of UGK had to combat the idea that [hip hop only came out of New York](https://thenostalgiamixtape.com/creative/the-bun-b-episode/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “When we were in our earlier days, one of Chad’s monikers was J.R. Ewing and I was Bobby,” said Bun B in an interview with *The Barbed Wire.* “That was our way of saying that we know. We get it too.” For all the setting-straight that “High Horse” accomplishes by painting an accurate and elaborate portrait of Black America, there’s an ironic undertone. Country was once used as a pejorative term to shame Black Texans. Now everybody wants to be like us. Ain’t that ‘bout a bitch. ### Come Inside Texas’ Gayest Campground URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-gayest-campground-camp-nackte-rainbow-ranch/ Last updated: 2025-11-20T20:29:13.000Z While ghosts and goblins haunted courtrooms — casting their wicked spells on queer Texans — a small haven in the woods of Stockdale leisurely gathered around a campfire on Halloween weekend, naked and unafraid. Camp Nackte, one of four currently functioning LGBTQ+ campgrounds in Texas, sits nestled between farmland and in a thicket of mesquite brushland down a rural road off State Highway 123\. About an hour southeast of San Antonio, past the cattle and the memorial to Charlie Kirk in the town’s center, the camp could be entirely overlooked by the unsuspecting passerby. Follow the caliche road and you’ll find music hums over the speakers around the pool and hot tub. The fauna at this clothing-optional camp (in certain areas) sport Pikachu tails, pup masks, and Winnie the Pooh ears. Sometimes nothing at all. On this particular weekend, one man blows out birthday cake candles, in his birthday suit, as friends cheer. The nights are cooler now — and they’re getting chillier. The city drone fades into the crackle of firewood and the stirrings of nighttime creatures. ### Pitching a Tent My expectations were somewhere in between circuit party cruise and Austin’s Hippie Hollow, but instead it was more like an intimate hangout at a friend’s house. A naked man asked if I was checking in as I arrived. No pretense or shame, just leisure. The queerest thing was that I felt overdressed. Opened in April 2023, Camp Nackte — from either German or Yiddish translation of “naked” — began as not much more than overgrowth and a pool surrounded by dirt. “I can’t believe how far we’ve come since then,” said Joseph “Joe” Boyd, the founder and co-owner of Camp Nackte, in an interview with *The Barbed Wire*. “The community came out and supported us and kept supporting us.” Boyd, a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, first visited San Antonio when stationed there for six months with the U.S. Air Force. Twenty-two years later, he returned, in part because of the affordable cost of living. He also found an underserved community: queer naturalists. “There are a lot of natural parks in this part of Texas, but there aren’t any specifically queer-friendly, or LGBTQIA+ friendly,” said Boyd. “Dallas had a gay campground, and Houston had a gay campground, but San Antonio and the Valley were extremely underserved.” There are three other LGBTQ+ campgrounds in Texas: [Rainbow Ranch](https://www.rainbowranch.net/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) outside of Groesbeck in Limestone County, south of Dallas; [Grizzly Pines](https://grizzlypines.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in Navasota, northwest of Houston; and [Circle J Guest Ranch](https://circlejguestranch.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in East Texas. All are similarly structured to Camp Nackte and host the same kind of events; some are also clothing optional. Camp Nackte and Rainbow Ranch are the only two open to women and the trans community. They all host holiday events for campers to find community in nature throughout the year [away from the traditional bar scene that cities offer](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/queer-community-outside-the-bar-texas/). They’re getaways where queer people can escape the demands of everyday life, without missing out on modern day amenities. The camps have swimming pools, traditional campsites with glamping options, cabins and fire pits. Circle J Guest Ranch, the oldest camp celebrating its 20th anniversary, has a spring-fed pond where campers can fish and swim. Camp Nackte is the smallest of the four camps, but they can be over 600 acres like Rainbow Ranch. A streak of green has always been in the pink economy. The first rainbow pride flag created by Gilbert Baker used green to signify nature. Across the country, LGBTQ+ communities are rediscovering the peace of camping, hiking and [building spaces that feel both safe and restorative](https://www.outsideonline.com/culture/essays-culture/daily-rally-podcast-pattie-gonia/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) outside of the epicenter of stereotypical bustling of city gay bar life. San Antonio hosts at least two walking or hiking groups — [You Better Walk](https://www.instagram.com/youbetterwalksa/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and a private Facebook hiking group that visits state parks. Queer organizers in the [Rio Grande Valley organized their own run club](https://www.instagram.com/rgv.queerrunclub/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). There’s the [ATX Sapphic Hiking Crew](https://www.instagram.com/atxsapphichikingcrew/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in Austin. In 2023, Nackte acted as a weekend getaway and housed a bunch of chickens, but it started slowly expanding and improving. Soon, a pool house and bathhouse with showers were erected, along with toilets and a laundry room. Then a pavilion. Then the Ira Descent Theater — named after a local drag entertainer who would swing by and look after the chickens when Boyd couldn’t make it to the camp. The view, and the company, is popular. Queer getaways like this are redrawing the state’s cultural map. They prove that LGBTQ+ Texans don’t just belong in Austin lofts or Dallas nightclubs. Camp Nackte typically sees anywhere from 30 campers on slow weekends and up to 100 on weekends with big events. Two years later, it also hosts a cabin and four-bed bunkhouse, eight RV hookups, and fifty tent spaces that bring regulars from San Antonio, Houston, and the Rio Grande Valley. It’s rural Texas reimagined. Nearly entirely built by themselves. “Joe and I do 99 percent of the work,” said Corey Dodd, who joined as a business partner after visiting the camp. “Unless it comes to like, licensed electrical work, or something like that.” Joe and Corey were alternating compacting decomposed granite into the area under the pavilion to create an elevated space covered in Astroturf next to the pool, when I arrived. Guests lounged in the pool and hot tub. “This was all just ranchland, and we kinda came in and cleared some of it out,” making “little niches in all the trees and everything, and put a few buildings here and there.” By day, the pool is the heartbeat. Campers mingle; others relax and serve themselves another drink. It’s a different world here. While state politics rages against the queer community outside of Camp Nackte’s gates, the locals in this part of rural Wilson County have taken a different tone. “We'll barbecue out here for the neighbors,” Dodd said. “They'll come over and swim and eat with us. Everybody's been really accepting here in Stockdale.” His favorites are the coffee at Sylvia’s for breakfast, the beef enchiladas at a Mexican restaurant in town for lunch, and the Salty Slab for “the best chicken fried around.” The camp’s bees didn’t make it through the summer, which paused Nackte’s honey operation, but they’ve ordered more hives. Their theater takes center stage for drag shows, DJs, movie nights and the occasional fire spinner. There are trails on the property rope, and they’re currently working on building two ponds. Events range from Oktoberfest, where Dodd says Nackte serves Bratwurst and German potato salad, to a lumberjack weekend with saw-cutting competitions and axe-throwing. Success has come, Boyd says, from “laser focusing on the underserved community and the Valley — who you never see on the front covers of gay magazines.” Under a sky wide enough to swallow their worries, people re-learn that their bodies belong. Here, nudity — literal and metaphorical — isn’t spectacle; it’s trust. A lot is happening on the ten-and-a-half-acre camp. ### ‘We’re Being Attacked’ From [drag bans](https://www.advocate.com/news/texas-drag-ban-ruling-reversed?ref=thebarbedwire.com#toggle-gdpr) to [same-sex marriage equality](https://www.advocate.com/news/texas-judges-same-sex-marriages?utm%5Fsource=equalpride&utm%5Fcampaign=8bf83969c6-EMAIL%5FCAMPAIGN%5F2025%5F10%5F29%5F10%5F17&utm%5Fmedium=email&utm%5Fterm=0%5F11dd7c7578-8bf83969c6-361561161&mc%5Fcid=8bf83969c6&mc%5Feid=2dec31e2a2) and attacks on gender-affirming care, the queer community is facing an assault in public spaces on every [rainbow corner](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/houston-removes-rainbow-pride-crosswalk-abbott/). In this political climate, a simple weekend swimming and sunbathing can feel subversive. Outside of polls, political flyers, and speeches, Camp Nackte functions as quiet resistance. “We're in a very dangerous place right now,” said Boyd. “We're being attacked from the federal government, from the right-wing side of American politics, from the Republican Party as a whole. From MAGA as a whole. Basically, any person in the United States who holds any lever of power right now has the bullseye on the backs of the LGBTQ plus community.” “They're using it to divide us,” Boyd added. “It's very heartbreaking.” “I just want to make sure that we're taking care of those that can't take care of themselves.” Kibsaim “Kib” Rebollar, a sign-language interpreter from Austin on his second visit to Camp Nackte, emphasized the importance of allyship. “If you're not queer, please talk about it,” he said. “Don't be afraid to bring it up and speak up.” “I really enjoy looking at the stars, like looking up and seeing the free space,” Rebollar said. “I’ve forgotten how many stars there are,” said Boyd “ “You can just be your true self; have a good time, get dirty, hang in a hammock, and not worry about who's seeing you or who's going to try to judge you,” said Dodd. As night settled Saturday, a brief rainstorm sent campers fluttering into the pool house and their campsites, giving them an opportunity to get dressed for the costume contest. Once the clouds cleared, Boyd and Dodd prepared the bonfire by the pool, and the colored lights in the trees created a glowing rainbow aura. The winner of the costume contest was a young man from Houston in a blue pup mask. They liked his dimples, I was told. Camp Nackte doesn’t advertise revolution. But the freedom to strip down, crack a beer, and exist without apology might be as radical as it gets. Even in Texas. ### This Viral Video of a Texas Mom in Labor Is a ‘Textbook Example’ of the Horrors Black Pregnant People Face in Hospitals URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/video-of-a-texas-mom-in-labor-black-pregnant/ Last updated: 2025-11-18T19:59:19.000Z UPDATE, Nov. 19, 2025: State legislators are planning their own investigation of a viral video showing a Texas Black mother in labor at a Mesquite hospital, they said this week after several news outlets covered the disturbing footage. Rep. Linda Garcia and Rep. Rhetta Bowers, who both represent parts of Dallas County, called a meeting to meet with the CEO of Dallas Regional Medical Center and the mayor of Mesquite to discuss the incident. This is an ongoing investigation, said Garcia, who also acknowledged the need to reform Black maternal healthcare. In a post on Instagram, she said, “We expect a thorough review, full transparency.” Meanwhile, Texas continues to fail Black women. According to a report by [*ProPublica*](https://www.propublica.org/article/texas-abortion-ban-tierra-walker-preeclampsia?ref=thebarbedwire.com), another Black pregnant woman in Texas named Tierra Walker died after being denied abortion care. “Walker, a 37-year-old mother, was told by doctors there was no emergency before preeclampsia killed her,” *ProPublica* reported. According to data from the[ Gender Equity Policy Institute,](https://thegepi.org/maternal-mortality-abortion-bans/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) maternal mortality in Texas rose 56% in the first year of abortion bans, which have disproportionately affected Black women, who are 3.3 times more likely to die than white women in states with such laws. ORIGINAL STORY: Medical professionals and activists are sharing outrage on social media as a viral video of a pregnant Texas woman being denied care at a Dallas-area hospital continues to make the rounds on TikTok. [In the video](https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTME4ThEj/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — viewed more than 54 million times since it was shared last week — Karrie Jones is seen screaming and writhing in pain in a wheelchair at Dallas Regional Medical Center in Mesquite, Texas. She says her due date was “right now” as a nurse seems to ignore Jones’ pain while asking administrative questions and making a phone call. Text overlayed on the video, shared by Jones’ mother, says her daughter gave birth “12 minutes later” and that the “delivery was AWFUL.” Many viewers across social media have responded with the same sentiment: Jones’ experience is not an outlier. “These are not isolated incidents. They stem from structural racism in our healthcare system. Black women are too often dismissed and denied dignity, safety, and timely care,”[ wrote](https://www.threads.com/@ucheblackstockmd/post/DRIEG1BEev6?xmt=AQF0BItGjK10p6azhh640csNurC8aqKlOVbcYPV6gtt42t70z2IfZYUI2i-cdp5i-OSXqwmN&slof=1&ref=thebarbedwire.com) Dr. Uché Blackstock, author of “Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine,” on Threads. “A textbook example of how pregnant women’s pain and health are dismissed,”[ wrote Dr. Nisha Patel](https://x.com/drplantel/status/1989519265171419357?s=46&ref=thebarbedwire.com), an internal medicine and obesity medicine physician based in San Francisco, on X. “And then we wonder why women suffer such devastating health consequences. 😢 And on top of that, it happened in Texas, a state that severely restricts women’s reproductive rights, makes it even more infuriating.” In Texas, the Black [maternal mortality rate](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-true-cost-of-texas-abortion-ban-rising-deaths-abandoned-babies-fewer-doctors/) is nearly three times higher than it is for white women, according to the state’s data analyzed by the [Texas Women’s Healthcare Coalition](https://www.texaswhc.org/activities/black-maternal-health-week/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Research has found that Black people face systemic barriers, like medical racism and a lack of access to health insurance. And the standard is already low — with [worsening health outcomes for all pregnant people](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-true-cost-of-texas-abortion-ban-rising-deaths-abandoned-babies-fewer-doctors/) and babies as [abortion bans](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-abortion-laws-national-ban/) have remained in effect. Several nonprofit and research organizations have ranked Texas one of the worst states for women’s healthcare. In 2024, the Commonwealth Fund, which supports independent health policy research, developed state scorecards to track trends and policy impacts on women’s healthcare. Texas ranked 50 overall, second only to Mississippi. The video sparked conversations in the Black community, affirming skepticism of the health care system. Several people called for the nurse to be fired. In a statement provided to *The Barbed Wire,* a Dallas Regional Medical Center spokesperson would not confirm the nurse’s employment status. The statement said, in part, “We are committed to providing compassionate, high-quality care to every person who comes through our doors, and we are reviewing this situation to understand what occurred. Due to patient privacy laws, we cannot share further details at this time, but our focus remains on ensuring that every patient receives the attentive, respectful care they deserve.” Several professionals and advocates used the video as a teaching moment. Dr. Jennifer Lincoln, an OB-GYN based in Oregon, posted her thoughts on[ TikTok](https://www.tiktok.com/@drjenniferlincoln/video/7572566166116338975?%5Fr=1&%5Ft=ZT-91U1WvJsQmc&ref=thebarbedwire.com). In her video, Lincoln called on healthcare workers to be a “safe space” for patients. https://www.tiktok.com/@drjenniferlincoln/video/7572566166116338975?\_r=1&\_t=ZT-91U1WvJsQmc Other users have been galvanized. “Use your voice.Use your platforms.Use social media to demand better, expose harmful culture, and empower women - especially women of color - to know this treatment is NOT normal and NEVER acceptable,” [wrote](https://www.threads.com/@ladyspinedoc/post/DRFPYqAjmgZ?xmt=AQF0vTnb7MTB%5FvkDZs14iHQzRO1VjK8VCZNUz%5F0wWpYFTdsicqxeb9DiHf9L5e%5FQLdul6hyR&slof=1&ref=thebarbedwire.com) Dr. Betsy Grunch, a neurosurgeon based in Georgia, on Threads. “We can’t fix what we’re unwilling to confront.” View on Threads ### For the Record, Both John Cornyn and Ted Cruz Voted Against Releasing the Epstein Files URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/john-cornyn-ted-cruz-vote-epstein-files/ Last updated: 2025-11-17T19:22:13.000Z Texas is in for a bruising primary season — or as we’ve previously called it: [The Republican Death Match You Didn’t Know You Were Waiting For](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/cornyn-paxton-senate-texas/) — as U.S. Sen. John Cornyn is fending off a challenge from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt of Houston. A little more than three months out, and the race appears to be neck–and–neck, [according to CBS](https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/cornyn-paxton-hunt-battle-gop-primary-texas-senate/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)*,* with Hunt closely trailing Cornyn and Paxton in polls. Each of the three GOP candidates have touted their support for President Donald Trump as a crucial aspect of their campaign and suggested their opponents are not as loyal to the president, [vying for an endorsement](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/article/cornyn-paxton-trump-endorsement-21143791.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to push them ahead in the close race. One issue of particular relevance to Trump is the release of files detailing the investigation of Jeffrey Epstein, the late financier and convicted sex offender who died in prison in 2019\. Last week, thousands of Epstein’s emails were released by House Democrats, including exchanges in which Epstein said Trump “[knew about the girls](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/12/us/politics/trump-epstein-emails.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com)” and “spent hours” at his house with Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s victims who had previously said that she had not witnessed Trump [sexually abusing minors](https://abcnews.go.com/US/virginia-giuffre-trump-jeffrey-epstein/story?id=127468657&ref=thebarbedwire.com) at Epstein’s home. During his 2024 campaign, Trump said multiple times he would release the Epstein files if elected president, [according to ABC News.](https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-jeffrey-epstein-years-including-2024-campaign-trail/story?id=123778541&ref=thebarbedwire.com) “It'd be interesting to find out what happened there, because that was a weird situation,” Trump said [in an interview with Fox News](https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:cxrua73vvgqw4lel4nkccky7/post/3ltxev2k7uk27?ref%5Fsrc=embed&ref%5Furl=https%253A%252F%252Fwww.ms.now%252Frachel-maddow-show%252Fmaddowblog%252Ftrumps-pre-election-comments-epstein-files-resurface-edited-fox-news-i-rcna218840&ref=thebarbedwire.com). “I'd go a long way toward that one." However, the president appeared to reverse course after taking office, deflecting calls for the release of the files and saying he didn’t understand the interest in what he called [“pretty boring stuff”](https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/15/politics/video/trump-epstein-files-boring-vrtc?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in an interview with CNN. Cornyn and Hunt appeared to follow Trump’s lead on the issue. In September, Cornyn joined Sen. Ted Cruz (who isn’t up for reelection until 2031) and the majority of Senate Republicans in tabling a measure which would have compelled Attorney General Pam Bondi to release the files, according to the [*San Antonio Current.*](https://www.sacurrent.com/news/texas-news/u-s-senators-ted-cruz-and-john-cornyn-of-texas-voted-against-releasing-epstein-files/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) The amendment to release the files was tabled after a 51 to 49 vote. Only two Republican senators, Josh Hawley of Missouri and Rand Paul of Kentucky, voted for the amendment to continue. In a July Senate hearing, Cornyn pushed back on Democratic calls for the Epstein files to be released, instead turning the focus of discussion to Trump’s enforcement of border security. “To our colleagues, the intrigue and salacious details of the Epstein case are a great distraction from the issues that make a meaningful difference in the lives of ordinary Americans,” Cornyn [said at the hearing](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QitPcAB5Mik&ref=thebarbedwire.com). “What do the American people really care about? That President Trump is doing exactly what he promised to do, and what he campaigned on.” Paxton has largely been silent on the matter of the Epstein files. Hunt chose to sit out a vote in a July measure to release the files. (It was blocked by Republicans, [according to MSNBC](https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/epstein-files-house-republicans-vote-rcna218971?ref=thebarbedwire.com).) However, on Sunday evening, Trump appeared to reverse course yet again, calling for House Republicans to release the files. The move came as [dozens of House Republicans had already said they ](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/16/us/politics/trump-epstein-files-release-vote.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com)would support the release — and after he [seemingly failed](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/16/us/politics/marjorie-taylor-greene-trump-epstein-files.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to convince either [Congresswoman Lauren Boebert](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/12/us/politics/trump-epstein-vote-boebert.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) or Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene to change sides. “House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide, and it’s time to move on from this Democrat Hoax,” Trump [wrote on Truth Social.](https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115562626931599548?ref=thebarbedwire.com) The U.S. House is slated to vote on the release of the files Tuesday*.* Texas has 38 seats in Congress, and some members have made their positions more clear than others. Republican Congressman Keith Self said in a July town hall with constituents that he supported the release of the files, [according to NPR.](https://www.npr.org/2025/07/29/nx-s1-5482896/texas-congressman-takes-questions-on-epstein-and-social-security-during-town-hall?ref=thebarbedwire.com) “I don't mind pushing back against the leadership because, as I said, all of y'all have been promised this for so long,” Self said to his constituents. “We've got to make it happen.” In August, [footage from a meeting in Houston](https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/maga-rep-caught-epstein-firestorm-183849107.html?guccounter=1&guce%5Freferrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce%5Freferrer%5Fsig=AQAAAD%5FRL8S4akojIxe8gK3quqsnxSaAgg2uyQB97EZ2ohmLSKfpl0Qv74QXclN3S3z12lMik9n-iFkKcj6x-JMrbB3mDqkUtQpZwTc5ZjKofDSQ2jHCKFKy%5F1UDiZV-7Bal8LbYUtifNMbDLmec9BuonwBIAdY0QcY6dk8-QAKH%5FxmK&ref=thebarbedwire.com) showed constituents heckling Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw to “release the files” and “answer our questions” about the late financier’s crimes. U.S. Senate candidate and current U.S. House member Colin Allred [has advocated](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6g5Ho2tVj2M&ref=thebarbedwire.com) for the release of the files. Meanwhile, State Rep. James Talarico (D-Austin), who is [also running for Sen. Cornyn’s seat](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/james-talarico-fundraising/), criticized Republicans on the issue in an appearance at the Texas Tribune Festival on Friday. “When did pedophilia become a partisan issue?” Talarico said. “If there’s one thing we should all be able to agree on — Democrats and Republicans, conservatives and progressives — it’s that no one, including the President of the United States, should be able to cover up crimes against children.” ### Texas National Guard Spent About $4 Million to Never Activate in Chicago. Now They’re Going Home for the Holidays. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-national-guard-chicago-returning-ice/ Last updated: 2025-11-17T17:21:21.000Z Texas National Guard troops are finally returning home from Chicago after a little over a month, [*CNN*](https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/15/us/national-guard-troops-chicago-portland?ref=thebarbedwire.com) reported. The troops could not carry out operations due to ongoing [legal holds](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/10/08/texas-national-guard-abbott-deployment-chicago/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). On Oct. 8, 200 Texas troops [arrived](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-national-guard-illinois-civil-war/) in Illinois, called by President Donald Trump to “safeguard” federal agents carrying out deportation efforts. Trump has used protests against ICE’s increasingly aggressive deportation efforts to call Chicago a “[hellhole](https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/02/trump-chicago-national-guard-00540357?ref=thebarbedwire.com),” a “[death trap](https://www.axios.com/2025/09/16/trump-pritzker-national-guard-chicago-crime-memphis-ice?ref=thebarbedwire.com)” and “[the most dangerous city in the world](https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/trump-chicago-dangerous-city-data/?ref=thebarbedwire.com),” and to justify the deployment of Texas and federal troopers. A federal judge immediately [blocked](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/10/08/texas-national-guard-abbott-deployment-chicago/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) the troopers from activating in the city but allowed the guard to remain in Illinois as the legal fight continued. (The case between Illinois and the federal government has reached the Supreme Court, where it remains [pending](https://www.supremecourt.gov/search.aspx?filename=/docket/DocketFiles/html/Public/25A443.html&ref=thebarbedwire.com).) Over the last five weeks, the troops have drawn [nationwide ridicule](https://www.ms.now/top-stories/latest/texas-national-guard-fitness-troops-chicago-rcna237618?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for both [being in Chicago at all](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-national-guard-illinois-civil-war/) — and looking less than ready for combat. [*CBS News*](https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/national-guard-troops-in-elwood/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)reported that the troops were seen “running, walking and training” on the base. Their presence in Chicago has cost taxpayers at least $4 million dollars, according to estimates by [*San Antonio Express-News*](https://www.expressnews.com/politics/article/texas-guard-chicago-trump-21138683.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). In an Oct. 7 [letter](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/castro-house-gov/imo/media/doc/abbott%5Ftexas%5Fnational%5Fguard%5Fdeployment.pdf), eight Texan members of Congress urged Abbott to withdraw the Texas National Guard from deployment out of state. “Texans did not join the National Guard to be used as a political weapon aimed at fellow American citizens in another state,” they wrote. “Turning them into a domestic police force in another state – especially over that state’s objections – erodes public trust and undermines the Guard’s core mission.” The 200 California National Guard troops who were sent to Portland are also [returning](https://www.opb.org/article/2025/11/07/portland-oregon-national-guard-trump-politics-karin-immergut/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to their home state, but U.S. officials have signaled their intention to keep some federal enforcement in these cities. U.S. Northern Command, part of the Department of Defense, [posted](https://x.com/usnortherncmd/status/1989555770091037084?s=46&ref=thebarbedwire.com) Friday that, “the Department will be shifting and/or rightsizing our Title 10 footprint in Portland, Los Angeles, and Chicago to ensure a constant, enduring, and long-term presence in each city.” Gov. Greg Abbott authorized the Texas National Guard for an initial 60-day period, [*Fox News*](https://www.foxnews.com/politics/pritzker-joke-texas-gov-abbott-mocks-sanctuary-governor-opposing-national-guard-troops?ref=thebarbedwire.com) reported, but due to the legal holds they never actually deployed to the streets of Chicago, remaining stationed at the Army Reserve Center in Elwood, Illinois. The return of Texas and California troopers probably doesn’t reflect a change in attitude from the federal government — a U.S. official told the [*The New York Times*](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/16/us/politics/national-guard-withdrawal-chicago-portland.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that with the Guard’s deployment still on court-ordered hold, top Pentagon officials decided to withdraw the out-of-state soldiers “rather than have them continue to sit in a costly limbo separated from their families during the holiday season.” Meanwhile, more than [3,000 people](https://www.npr.org/2025/11/08/nx-s1-5567185/ice-crackdown-in-chicago-causes-many-immigrants-to-alter-routines-even-missing-church?ref=thebarbedwire.com) have been arrested so far by immigration agents in Chicago, where a national spotlight has resulted in stories of [Black Hawk helicopters](https://www.propublica.org/article/chicago-venezuela-immigration-ice-fbi-raids-no-criminal-charges?ref=thebarbedwire.com) descending on apartments in midnight raids and [“nearly naked” children being zip-tied](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/05/us/politics/pritzker-chicago-immigration.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) by federal officers. ### Just When the Texas Hemp Industry Breathed a Sigh of Relief, It Faces Another Extinction-Level Event URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-hemp-industry-extinction-level-event/ Last updated: 2025-11-12T16:58:29.000Z Here’s the good news: THC is still legal in Texas. Now, the bad news: Some Republicans in Congress still want to ban it — and they might get their wish. Yes, despite attempts by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick to rip weed gummies out of the mouths of his constituents, it didn’t happen, and hemp advocates breathed a sigh of relief. Then, while guards were down, the U.S. Senate on Monday agreed to language in a spending bill that would ban almost all THC-containing hemp products nationwide, [according to the *Houston Chronicle*](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/article/thc-ban-congress-21162625.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). As for the federal level, “momentum has been gaining for Congress to take action to ban hemp products,” Katharine Neill Harris, the Alfred C. Glassell III Fellow in Drug Policy at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, told *The Barbed Wire*. “The ban still has to pass the House, where it could potentially be watered down, but if it does pass, many open questions will remain,” she said. “As written, it wouldn’t take effect for a year. When it does, who handles enforcement? If it’s a mixture of federal and state agencies, who and how will online sales be restricted?” Sen. Rand Paul tried to fight it, proposing an amendment to remove language that [he said would “destroy” the hemp industry](https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/11/10/congress/senators-reject-pauls-hemp-plans-00646064?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Paul and Sen. Ted Cruz (!!!) were the only Republicans to support the measure, which would have stripped a provision tightening restrictions on intoxicating hemp products legalized under the 2018 farm bill. And, yes, you read that right, *Ted Cruz* might be the only hope for the state’s $8 billion hemp industry. He tweeted on Monday that hemp regulation should be left up to the states. And, he even sided with Gov. Greg Abbott, who has been leaning against banning THC and in favor of regulation. “There is a vital need to protect children by, at a minimum, requiring that purchasers be 21 and prohibiting synthetics and dangerous foreign imports marketed to kids,” Cruz said. “That’s the approach Governor Abbott has taken in Texas, and I urge other states to follow Texas’s example.” > [](https://twitter.com/SenTedCruz/status/1988052874534781280?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Sadly, Paul and Cruz were on the losing end, and the spending bill now moves to the U.S. House. The vote caps a [months-long feud between Paul and senior appropriators](https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/11/10/congress/senators-reject-pauls-hemp-plans-00646064?ref=thebarbedwire.com), including Sen. Mitch McConnell, who backs new limits aimed at curbing the spread of synthetic THC products. McConnell, an [83-year-old prone to falls](https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/sen-mitch-mcconnell-falls-capitol-hallway/story?id=126586619&ref=thebarbedwire.com) who is somehow still in the Senate, argued the restrictions are needed to protect children. He argued on the Senate floor Monday that children are “being sent to the hospital at an alarming rate” due to the hemp products, [per Politico](https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/11/10/congress/senators-reject-pauls-hemp-plans-00646064?ref=thebarbedwire.com). ## How Did We Get Here? How is THC still legal in Texas despite so many conservatives who’ve made it their pet project to eradicate? In June, [Abbott vetoed Senate Bill 3,](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/greg-abbott-thc-ban/) which would have banned Delta-8, THC seltzers, and other hemp-derived products. The move was a major win for the hemp industry here, which employs about 53,000 Texans, as well as for veterans and other advocates who argued a ban would devastate small businesses and fuel the black market. Abbott called for a regulatory framework to protect public safety and restrict sales to minors. His veto set up a political clash with Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who led the push for a total ban and [accused Abbott of undermining Republican lawmakers and law enforcement](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/dan-patrick-thc-rules-abbott/). In response, Patrick threw a public fit, raising his voice and even [throwing hemp products](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ny1vy9OMMyg&ref=thebarbedwire.com) at reporters in the Texas Capitol. But that fight would be a moot point if it’s outlawed federally. And that’s what could happen. The Texas Hemp Business Council, an industry trade association, [warned recently that](https://texashempbusinesscouncil.com/industry-killing-language-hidden-in-federal-funding-bill/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) “federal funding bills are moving quickly through Congress and buried within them is language that could wipe out the entire hemp industry nationwide.” For his part, Paul agreed. “Every hemp seed in America will have to be destroyed, and 100 percent of the hemp products that are sold will no longer be allowed to be sold,” he said, [per Politico](https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/11/10/congress/senators-reject-pauls-hemp-plans-00646064?ref=thebarbedwire.com). ## ‘Hundreds of Thousands of American Jobs’ At Hometown Hero, an Austin-based manufacturer of hemp derived THC products, chief strategy officer Cynthia Cabrera said they’re “cautiously optimistic,” crediting Abbott and a “strong regulatory framework” in Texas. Still, threats like the federal spending bill “remain a concern, as they could undermine state programs, invalidate compliant genetics and jeopardize hundreds of thousands of American jobs,” Cabrera told *The Barbed Wire*. In short, producers are operating on a high-wire act to comply with regulations that do exist while they await uncertainty as politicians duke it out. “Hometown Hero and other compliant businesses are continuing operating responsibly under Texas law,” she said. “The industry has stabilized somewhat following the recent legislative sessions, but ongoing advocacy is needed to ensure future rules are implemented fairly.” Overall, she said, “our goal is to maintain a thriving, legal hemp market that balances public safety with business sustainability.” As for THC’s future in Texas, it’s probably going to remain legal, Harris said. “The governor and House held firm against the ban through two special sessions. The ([Compassionate Use Program](https://guides.sll.texas.gov/cannabis/compassionate-use?ref=thebarbedwire.com)) is being expanded in a meaningful way,” she told *The Barbed Wire*. “That said, Texas could move the way several states are: banning chemically converted cannabinoids, limiting product potency to under 5mg per serving.” Meanwhile, as all this is happening, marijuana reforms are going on, too. Harris noted that 24 states have legalized marijuana for recreational use, despite federal prohibition. “And there is truly a need for national standards for hemp products, just as we need for marijuana products,” she said. “I think a blanket ban is too blunt an instrument to address a complex issue; however, I do think that federal leadership is needed on this and that it’s time to start talking about, and regulating, THC in a consistent way, regardless of which kind of cannabis plant it comes from.” In short, sit tight. We’re not out of the woods yet. ### A Woman Asked 43 Churches If They'd Feed a Starving Baby. The Texas Ones Failed Her Test. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/tiktok-woman-calls-churches-baby-formula-snap-texas/ Last updated: 2025-11-11T14:51:55.000Z UPDATE, Nov. 20, 2025: On Nov. 18, a spokesperson from First Baptist Church told [*D Magazine*](https://www.dmagazine.com/micropost/first-baptist-church-says-more-to-tiktokers-claim/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that prior to the call that Monroe recorded in her TikTok, she had previously contacted the church and hung up after they provided information about available resources. The spokesperson also said that the church had been alerted about similar calls and had reason to believe it was not a genuine inquiry. “At First Baptist Dallas, we have several programs in place to meet these very needs, including assistance for mothers, access to baby formula, and referrals to our crisis pregnancy center, which is especially equipped to respond to these types of requests. In fact, we regularly provide baby formula and other essential resources to mothers in need,” the church spokesperson told [*D Magazine*](https://www.dmagazine.com/micropost/first-baptist-church-says-more-to-tiktokers-claim/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). ORIGINAL STORY: “I’m calling your church to test if they would help feed a starving baby,” Nikalie Monroe says at the start of each video in her series. Monroe, based in Kentucky, has been phoning churches and other religious institutions across the country since October, asking for formula to feed her — fictional — baby, then documenting the calls on her [TikTok](https://www.tiktok.com/@nikalie.monroe?ref=thebarbedwire.com) page. The majority do not offer to help her — as of Monday, Monroe had recorded 10 offers of assistance and 33 refusals. Three of the refusals were from Texas churches in videos that have over 2 million views combined. Her entire series has received millions of views and grown her TikTok following to over 400,000\. *The Barbed Wire* reached out to Monroe but has not received a response. Although Monroe’s situation is hypothetical, there are [real families](https://abcnews.go.com/US/video/mom-relies-snap-babys-formula-asks-social-media-127034350?ref=thebarbedwire.com) unable to afford baby formula as benefits of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as, SNAP, remain in [limbo](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/11/05/texas-snap-food-stamp-families-hunger/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) due to the Trump administration’s efforts to [withhold](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly9pggxydeo?ref=thebarbedwire.com) emergency funding during the government shutdown. SNAP is the country’s largest anti-hunger program, serving 42 million people. Experts and [advocates have been warning](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/you-cannot-crowdsource-8-billion-heres-what-to-know-about-the-lapse-in-snap-benefits?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of dire consequences if the program isn’t funded. On Friday, Monroe posted a [video](https://www.tiktok.com/@nikalie.monroe/video/7569696153378360590?ref=thebarbedwire.com) calling Abundant Church, a megachurch in El Paso. She played an audio of a crying baby in the background and explained the same situation that she describes in every video — she ran out of formula for her two-month-old last night, so the baby had gone all night and day without anything to eat. Could the church help her? “Unfortunately the food pantry is only available on Sundays, and I don’t know if we have any baby formula at the moment,” said the woman who answered the phone. When Monroe asked about how to get formula from the pantry, the woman clarified that the pantry didn’t have any items for babies. https://www.tiktok.com/@nikalie.monroe/video/7569696153378360590 “I actually don’t even have a baby, this was a social experiment to see which churches would actually help feed a hungry baby,” Monroe said. The woman hung up on her. Abundant Church’s lead pastor Jared Nieman [addressed](https://www.instagram.com/p/DQ2rUIID1Hi/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Monroe’s video, which received nearly 1 million views on TikTok, in his Sunday service, adding that the church did not handle the call with the urgency a situation like Monroe’s would require. “I’ve been mortified by it, embarrassed by it,” Nieman said. “We made a mistake and I apologize. I hope you know the heart of our church, and I think all of you know the heart of our church. Our church is to help people. We would never deny helping a desperate mom or baby, and I hope you know that.” Nieman said the church has addressed the issue internally and is reviewing its protocols and responses. Abundant Church did not respond to *The Barbed Wire*’s request for comment. On Nov. 5, Monroe posted a [video](https://www.tiktok.com/@nikalie.monroe/video/7568904115338710286?ref=thebarbedwire.com) calling Lakewood Church in Houston, televangelist Joel Osteen’s church. The woman who answered the phone told her that she could take Monroe’s information and put in a request with their Benevolence Ministry. “How long would that take?” Monroe asked. “It could take a couple days or a couple weeks,” the woman responded. “If approved.” As several people pointed out in Monroe’s comments, Lakewood initially [closed their doors](https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/hurricane-harvey/joel-osteen-defends-not-opening-megachurch-harvey-victims-n797036?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to victims of Hurricane Harvey in 2017\. Several commenters suggested Monroe would have had better luck with [Mattress Mack](https://www.fox7austin.com/news/texas-flooding-mattress-mack-gallery-furniture-mattress-giveaway?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the Houston celebrity and avid philanthropist who owns the Gallery Furniture retail chain. “He’d probably have a warehouse pallet of formula dropped off,” someone commented. “Immediately started crying when you called with the crying audio in the background cause that’s literally someone’s reality,” another commenter wrote. Monroe posted another [video](https://www.tiktok.com/@nikalie.monroe/video/7570108474856656142?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on Sunday after calling First Baptist Church in Dallas. The woman who answered told her that she was not aware of any programs the church has to help. Then Monroe informed her she was conducting a social experiment to see which churches would help feed a hungry baby. “So, what would you like for me to say?” the woman asked. “Honestly, my next question is, are you pro-life? Is your church pro-life?” Monroe asked. The church hung up. https://www.tiktok.com/@nikalie.monroe/video/7570108474856656142 Lakewood Church and First Baptist Dallas also did not respond to *The Barbed Wire*’s requests for comment. “I did not expect this social experiment to go viral at all,” Monroe said in a [video](https://www.tiktok.com/@nikalie.monroe/video/7570574248146652430?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on Sunday. “I literally had 300 followers. I did not expect this at all and neither did the people who said yes.” The churches and other religious institutions that offered to help Monroe have been flooded with donations and goodwill online, while people have started leaving one-star reviews for the churches that denied assistance in Monroe’s calls. In another [video](https://www.tiktok.com/@nikalie.monroe/video/7570822148009348407?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on Sunday, Monroe discouraged her followers from retaliating against the churches and encouraged people to instead focus on creating change within their own communities. “I don’t want to bring division. I don’t want to bring judgement and hate. I want to bring positivity and change,” Monroe said. “The churches that said yes to a liberal, tattooed lesbian were a MAGA church, a Hispanic church, a Black church, a Catholic church, and an Islamic mosque. That should tell you everything.” She added: “This was to bring us together, not divide us.” ### Looking For Queer Community Outside the Bar? There’s a Walking (and Hiking and Yoga and Line-Dancing) Club For That. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/queer-community-outside-the-bar-texas/ Last updated: 2025-11-11T05:58:00.000Z It was the summer of 2024\. Ash Gordon, a barber from Austin, was ready to hit the road for Queer Camp, when all of his friends and campmates backed out at the last minute. “I was really terrified because I was going to this event alone, there were projected to be 100 people there, and I already had my car packed,” he recalled. Despite his anxiety, Gordon decided to tough it out and told himself he could leave if he got scared. Instead, he found himself almost instantly welcomed, and at home, among the group. “Within minutes of setting up (my tent), I was fully immersed in the group of people that were starting to show up.” By the end of camp, he’d bonded with the event’s organizers, and even met someone who would become his romantic partner. So when the Austin nonprofit behind the campouts, the [Local Queer Foundation](https://www.instagram.com/localqueeratx/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), called for volunteers a few months later, Gordon was eager to step up. He proposed that they come up with low stakes ways to encourage members to exercise together on a regular basis. “Austin has a lot of that ‘fitfluencer’ vibe, and that’s something personally I don’t want to gravitate toward, because it can turn people away,” he told *The Barbed Wire.* That’s what planted the seed for “Strut,” Local Queers’ weekly walking club, which celebrated its first year of regular gatherings in October. Gordon wants the walking club to be one where you can show up in your comfiest sweat pants, regardless of your fitness level or ability, and enjoy the outdoors. “Come as you are, come walk with us, come hang out, and you hopefully make some really good friends out of the whole process.” ## Walk? No, Strut. Though we often refer to the term “queer community,” it can be hard to connect with people in our increasingly online, and isolating, world. Particularly in Texas, where attacks on our rights — and a rampant culture war — can make it hard to even leave the house. Showing up to a club or event to discover you’re the only transgender man, disabled person, or BIPOC queer can send you scurrying right back out the door again, heading home to another night of doomscrolling with your cat. Social clubs like the Local Queer Foundation have stepped in to try to fill in the gaps in LGBTQ+ spaces that some queer and trans folks slip through. Thus, unique events have popped up across the state, from [queer line-dancing](https://austinfreepress.org/queer-country-where-texas-two-step-makes-worlds-collide/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to [Queer Soup Night](https://www.instagram.com/p/DQDbOlODlnv/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which is set for Sunday, Nov. 16 in Austin and will feature platonic speed dating, dancing, and live music — along with featured chefs from top-tier restaurants like la Barbecue. (Queer Soup Night has a suggested $20 donation, which will benefit the local [Refugee Collective](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/this-texas-farm-gives-refugees-a-new-beginning/), but no one’s turned away.) Other similar events in the area include the [Little Gay Book Club](https://www.advocate.com/news/lgbtq-book-clubs?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [Queer Craft Night](https://www.instagram.com/queercraftnight/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and a Queer Magic: The Gathering draft every Sunday night at [Dragon’s Lair](https://www.dlair.net/austin/events/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Meanwhile, the Local Queer Foundation has made its mark in Austin too. “Our main focus is on things that don't involve alcohol,” said Caleb Armstrong, one of the group’s two co-founders. “I think people are resonating with that now.”. Texas has plentiful, gorgeous gay clubs in most major cities. But recent research suggests that the popularity of drinking among adults is at [an all-time low](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/adults-drink-alcohol-record-low-new-poll-decline/%5C?ref=thebarbedwire.com) (especially after the [federal government acknowledged that alcohol is cancer-causing](https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/risk-factors/alcohol.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com)). Although clubs and bars have been a historic hub of LGBTQ+ culture and organizing, they aren’t always a perfect fit for a diverse, and [increasingly sober queer scene](https://www.advocate.com/voices/gay-and-sober?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “(Austin’s) such a drink-heavy city,” said Gordan, there’s “all these expectations to fit into that box or that binary community.” The group also focuses on parts of the rainbow umbrella that sometimes get overlooked. “We were formed with the intention of creating and always holding space for sapphic and trans folks, because a lot of queer spaces are actually primarily gay spaces, so they're focused on CIS gay men,” agreed Local Queers’ co-founder Chase Brunson. Local Queer originally began in 2022 as an offshoot of the pre-existing Queer Campouts, to help sapphic, trans and queer Austinites reconnect after the isolation of the pandemic’s early years. Now, the group hosts as many as a dozen events per month, from full moon circles to sober happy hours and singles’ nights. The camps have grown as well, with the event recently renamed CampOUT and expanding to twice a year, in summer and fall. Campers take part in arts and crafts, tug of war, talent shows and bonfires, among other activities. “It's your childhood dream camp, but for your whimsical inner child now,” Brunson said. After Gordon started volunteering, together with Brunson and Armstrong, he started the “Move Series,” which offers folks a new way to exercise each month, from bowling to dance lessons. Then, he got inspired to start a LGBTQ+ run club. “I thought it would be really neat to have a very inclusive space where everyone could show up and get their steps in together,” Gordon told *The Barbed Wire*. He explained that the group really became a success when they dropped the running altogether, partnered with [OutWellness](https://outwellnessatx.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — an inclusive gym — and became “Strut,” the weekly walking group. They meet every Monday and, when the weather is at its nicest, it’s not uncommon for 70 or 80 people to show up. Each week, the group takes the same gentle three-mile circuit around Austin’s Town Lake, then wraps up the evening at a juice bar near the starting spot. Themed walks, like “glow night” or December’s upcoming “festive feet” help add variety. Gordon typically leads the group, with volunteers always at the back to ensure no one gets left behind. “We go to the pedestrian bridge, we hang out there for a minute, ooh and awe at the city, and come back ... it’s just really nice, it’s very calm.” As Armstrong said, “We hear people say that they come alone and make friends, they come back next week for the same friends, and (now) they’ve made friends who walk every week together.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/groupstrut_2.jpg) ## Dallas Disco Javier Enriquez, one of the founders of the [Dallas Social Queer Organization](https://www.instagram.com/dsqodallas/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), said he believes groups like these are essential to improving the mental health of queer and trans people. “Sometimes, a sense of belonging can genuinely be lifesaving,” said Enriquez. For him, community building means “bringing everyone together and tearing down these walls that, over time, have gradually gone up between the L, the G, the B, the T and the Q.” In particular, he sees it as a way to resist the bigoted push to divide us by [separating transgender folks](https://www.yahoo.com/news/no-lgb-without-t-queer-183030138.html?guccounter=1&ref=thebarbedwire.com) from queer spaces. Similar to the Local Queers, DSQO, or “disco” as it’s affectionately known, hosts mostly sober events which are usually free. “When they're not free, it is because we are raising money for a cause or wanting to make sure that the artists that we have performing are getting paid adequately,” Enriquez said. DSQO holds monthly support groups around topics like aging or “being queer enough.” There are yoga nights, educational workshops, “hella gay trivia,” and either a mixer or a dating event each month, among other activities. “Any time we have performers or we have guest speakers in a panel, that is always going to be at least 50 percent people of color.” Since needs differ, DSQO organizers try to ensure that there are a wide variety of events in different spaces so that anyone can find something accessible to attend. “With every event we share, we have a blurb on accessibility information, and this could look like, how many flights of stairs are there? Are there going to be flashing lights? What's the music volume going to feel like?” Parking and ease of access to public transit are also included. They also offer events where masks are required to support the immunocompromised. Like their Austin counterpart, DSQO is a nonprofit, allowing access to grant funding and donations that can support the multiple events they host each month. “We got really far with a lot of gay gumption and audacity,” Enriquez told *The Barbed Wire.* “But you know, it can only get you so far before burnout comes and bites you in the ass, so (being a nonprofit) definitely helps with capacity building and also like, frankly, it also helps other people take you seriously.” As both the state and the federal government ramp up their attacks on LGBTQ+ folks, Enriquez believes finding opportunities to celebrate each other are vital for our survival, and that DSQO, and other LGBTQ social groups, enable those moments. “Anger and sadness and grief can definitely be drivers and help push the community forward, but they're definitely not sustainable, and we believe that the work that we do, the work that we've been able to achieve, has been sustainable for so long because of our queer, joyful resilience.” ### ‘They Were Very Sorry for Your Loss’: Ex-San Antonio Officers Found Not Guilty in City’s First Murder Trial for Police Shooting URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/san-antonio-police-officers-melissa-perez-murder-trial/ Last updated: 2025-11-10T23:39:15.000Z Monday’s verdict in an historic case — [San Antonio’s first-ever murder case](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/san-antonio-police-officers-murder-trial/) in a police shooting — followed a month-long trial of the former officers. Five women and seven men deliberated for less than two hours. They found Nathanial Villalobos, Alfred Flores, and Eleazar Alejandro not guilty on all counts. Alejandro’s small frame leaned into his attorney Mario Del Prado as he tried to hold back tears. A crowded defense bench flanked all three clients. In closing arguments, the half-dozen attorneys all made references to the tragic loss of life. One gave the family a small gift, an inuksuk, an arctic trail marker meant for navigation. After the verdict was read and the jury released, 379th District Court Judge Ron Rangel turned to the family of slain 46-year-old Melissa Perez, including her four children. “The jury wanted me to tell the family they were very sorry for your loss,” said Rangel. Perez was killed in the early hours of June 23, 2023 after three officers shot her through a locked glass door. She was one of 22 people shot by San Antonio Police that year, according to [reporting from KSAT](https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2023/12/29/sapd-officers-shot-22-people-in-2023-killing-14-at-least-8-officers-were-shot-on-duty/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Perez’s 26-year-old daughter, Alexis Tovar, [previously told *The Barbed Wire*](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/san-antonio-police-officers-murder-trial/) that she simply couldn’t see how her 130-pound mother posed a threat to three physically fit policemen. Eventually, the family stood and exited the courtroom in silence. It was a quiet end for a killing that made national headlines and drew intense scrutiny for the San Antonio police force over how it treats the mentally ill. The trial was the first one to see murder charges levied against police officers for using deadly force in the city, the seventh largest in the country. It involved more than a hundred hours of testimony and hours of body camera footage. Prosecutors continued to argue the police were the architects of the scenario that led to Perez’s death. “They set up a situation where it was a dangerous game of chicken,” said David Lunan, chief of the Felony Criminal Trial Division for Bexar County, in his closing argument. Ultimately, the jury determined that Lunan’s team failed to meet the high threshold to prove the three officers did not fear for their lives as Perez rushed at them with a hammer, despite being behind a locked glass door. Police are given wide latitude in the use of deadly force in “split-second” decisions. As *The Barbed Wire* [previously reported](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/san-antonio-police-officers-murder-trial/), [police are rarely charged](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-bgsu-edu/content/dam/BGSU/health-and-human-services/document/Criminal-Justice-Program/policeintegritylostresearch/9-on-duty-shootings-police-officers-charged-with-murder-or-manslaughter.pdf) in such shootings and even more rarely convicted. In the early hours of that night in June 2023, Perez was found cutting the fire alarm wires at her apartment complex, triggering an alarm that evacuated her building; she told fire personnel that she believed the FBI was using the fire alarm equipment to surveil her. Perez was schizophrenic, which she disclosed to officers on the scene. After a brief interaction with fire and police responders, she fled to her ground-level apartment. During those early interactions, as police attempted to get into her apartment to arrest her for criminal mischief, she struck one by throwing a prayer candle through an open window at him. Other officers then responded, including Flores, Alejandro, and Villalobos. Defense attorneys argued that police had a duty to enter the home as she had committed a felony, then struck an officer. The three men arrived more than two hours into the police call. During the trial, prosecutors argued that the response up until that point had only made things worse, aggravating a woman suffering from a mental health episode, which they said should have been clear to the three officers. Their attorneys claimed it was never communicated by first responders. Perez was shot to death by the three officers as she rushed at them with a hammer. The men were trying to enter a back glass patio door that was locked. They fired their weapons into the home. Alejandro and Flores’ bullets struck and killed her. All three men were arrested within 24 hours for murder, a charge that was later dropped against Villalobos, whose bullets missed. Defense attorneys were able to use the quick arrest and mistaken initial charge to their advantage, claiming the police were railroading the officers over a politically fraught situation. “Police Chief McManus didn’t like that a mentally ill woman got shot…neither did we,” said Jason Goss, one of Villalobos’s attorneys. The San Antonio mayor and city council also condemned the shooting — publicly — at the time. He argued that the desire to distance the department from the tragedy led to a botched investigation. They presented multiple experts to expand on their narrative that the shooting was justified and the men’s fear from the woman was reasonable. The prosecutors’ team dismissed the experts as union-backed — and attempting to maintain the status quo, where police decisions are not challenged. The prosecution did not present an expert witness on the use of deadly force to counter the defense's perspective, however. Several of their witnesses on SAPD policy were blocked after defense attorneys argued that the policy did not influence whether the men committed a crime. The family filed a civil wrongful death lawsuit two weeks after the shooting against the three officers, the police department, and the city of San Antonio. It was dismissed in September, but their civil attorney said they filed an appeal on Nov. 5\. “I feel robbed because I didn’t get to say bye,” Perez’s daughter told *The Barbed Wire* in October. “I didn’t get to hug her. Talk to her one last time.” ### The Government Shutdown Caused Thousands of Flight Delays This Weekend. Even Sen. Cornyn Wasn't Safe. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-airport-flight-delays-government-shutdown/ Last updated: 2025-11-10T17:38:33.000Z Texas airports were hit with [thousands of delays](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/tsa-lines-texas-airport-delays-government-shutdown/) and hundreds of flight cancellations over the weekend after the Federal Aviation Administration announced last week it would be [cutting flights at the top 40 airports](https://www.transportation.gov/briefing-room/us-transportation-secretary-sean-p-duffy-faa-administrator-bryan-bedford-outline?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in the nation. Dallas Love Field, Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, George Bush Houston Intercontinental Airport, and Houston’s William P. Hobby Airport saw more than 3,700 combined delays from Friday to Sunday, and 552 flights cancelled, [according to FlightAware](https://www.flightaware.com/live/cancelled/today?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The reductions began last Friday and will gradually increase this week, [the FAA said](https://www.transportation.gov/briefing-room/us-transportation-secretary-sean-p-duffy-faa-administrator-bryan-bedford-outline?ref=thebarbedwire.com), barring an end to the ongoing government shutdown. Even lawmakers attempting to end the shutdown have been inhibited by the airport chaos — Sunday night, Sen. John Cornyn [arrived hours late to a Senate vote](https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/11/09/us/trump-news?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on a bill that would fund the government through the end of January, due to [a delayed flight](https://x.com/hjessy%5F/status/1987717005017809223?ref=thebarbedwire.com) from Texas. A spokesperson for Cornyn [confirmed to *Chron*](https://www.chron.com/politics/article/cornyn-holds-up-key-budget-vote-21151815.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that airport delays caused his tardiness to the vote, casting blame on Democrat and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for the ongoing government shutdown. (Cornyn [officially filed to run for re-election](https://www.msn.com/en-us/politics/government/u-s-sen-john-cornyn-officially-files-to-run-for-re-election/vi-AA1Q45DQ?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in Texas over the weekend.) "The senator was held up by flight delays \[Sunday\] night caused by Chuck Schumer," the spokesperson said. The measure passed the Senate with a vote of 60 to 40, after eight Democrats joined with Republicans. The legislation would reverse layoffs made during the shutdown and ensure furloughed workers receive backpay, but does not extend health insurance subsidies under the Affordable Care Act, a crucial measure Democrats had been rallying for, [according to *the New York Times*](https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/11/10/us/trump-government-shutdown-news?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois [said in a statement](https://www.durbin.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/durbin-statement-on-the-continuing-resolution-and-minibus-spending-bills?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that airport staff –who have been without pay during the shutdown — motivated him to join with the Republicans in supporting the bill. “For 40 days — the longest shutdown in U.S. history — federal workers went without paychecks. This includes our air traffic controllers, whose towers were already understaffed,” Durbin said. “They continued to work 10 hours days, six days per week to keep our airspace safe, with this additional stress at a life-saving job.” The reductions in flights come after staffing shortages in air traffic controllers and TSA agents, who are not being paid during the government shutdown, caused [many airports to be overwhelmed last week](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/tsa-lines-texas-airport-delays-government-shutdown/). Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy [told CNN](https://x.com/CNNSOTU/status/1987550909132317067?s=20&ref=thebarbedwire.com) Sunday that the flight disruptions were only going to get worse as the holiday season approaches. “I look to the two weeks before Thanksgiving, you’re going to see air travel be reduced to a trickle,” Duffy said. The bill pushed forward by the Senate will still need to clear many hurdles to reopen the government, including passing the Senate in another vote, winning House approval, and being signed by President Trump. However, even if the shutdown ends, experts say that the squeeze on airports won’t let up immediately. Hayley Berg, an analyst for travel booking platform Hopper, told [*USA Today*](https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/airline-news/2025/11/10/government-shutdown-end-resolve-flight-issues/87191879007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that the flight reductions from the FAA may linger while airports work on bumping up their staff. “It's not that the day the shutdown ends, this capacity restriction is lifted," Berg [said](https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/airline-news/2025/11/10/government-shutdown-end-resolve-flight-issues/87191879007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). "They're not going to lift this capacity reduction until air traffic control and the FAA are operating at the staffing level they need — and that might not happen immediately." According to CNN*,* the FAA also [prohibited most private planes](https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/government-shutdown-snap-flights-senate-11-10-25?post-id=cmht231kq0000356nbedprxgq&ref=thebarbedwire.com) and business jets from 12 major airports around the country to help with staffing shortages, including George Bush Houston Intercontinental Airport and Dallas Fort Worth International Airport. Some Texans are turning to alternate methods of transportation as airport delays and cancellations ramp up. A luxury Texas-based bus service saw its business jump by more than 30% last week, attributing the surge in riders to airport flight reductions, [according to *KHOU-11*.](https://www.khou.com/article/news/local/texas-bus-company-travel-avoid-airport-alternative-drive-houston-dallas/285-ae661884-e976-43d2-ac92-6c67d93adc24?ref=thebarbedwire.com) ### Vergil Ortiz Jr. Might Just Be the Most Thoughtful Fighter of the Century URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/vergil-ortiz-jr-thoughtful-fighter-this-century/ Last updated: 2025-11-07T05:57:00.000Z Professional boxer Vergil Ortiz Jr. is standing in the serene, swanky lobby of a five-star hotel in late February. He orders a cup of coffee, his bruised face looking slightly out of place amid the gold accents. It’s the morning after the 27-year-old won a career-defining fight against Israil Madrimov. After 12 rounds, Ortiz Jr. retained his World Boxing Council interim super welterweight title. For the unfamiliar, at 154 pounds, [“The Texas Machine”](https://www.dazn.com/en-US/news/boxing/vergil-ortiz-jr-vs-serhii-bohachuk-fight-highlights-watch-erickson-lubin/koroj79abxjv15fl9wea3jmde?ref=thebarbedwire.com) is [widely regarded as the division’s top fighter](https://www.tennessean.com/story/sports/2025/11/05/vergil-ortiz-erickson-lubin-fight-date-time-watch-undercard/87010571007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com); reporters have [called his technique](https://sports.yahoo.com/boxing/article/beterbiev-bivol-2-results-vergil-ortiz-jr-outlasts-israil-madrimov-to-retain-wbc-interim-super-welterweight-title-202312719.html?guccounter=1&guce%5Freferrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce%5Freferrer%5Fsig=AQAAAGTdyh4I68gWnlbd5u4ElRUUnRH0BTgyuCTjv5jkPxDQUZXlY6m3aGOpirALnjPfN59Q6G5Fsdu6Bs9bpqI1aA4%5FYtWH-Hobf%5FDjgbN-5VC%5FZ-uVekmtbxP4prlXE04j4BB7hemlkX46%5Fxbo2kevfliT9tzTER%5Fou%5FeIy5l8iWen&ref=thebarbedwire.com) “relentless” and “thrilling.” If this was another city — say Las Vegas or even his hometown of Grand Prairie, Texas — Ortiz Jr. might have been mobbed by throngs of fans. Instead, we’re in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, thousands of miles away in a very different desert. Still, he’s wearing a black baseball cap embroidered with the word “Dallas.” Ortiz Jr. is following a well-defined path blazed by legendary professional boxer and promoter Oscar De La Hoya, the charming and handsome Mexican-American superstar. He will take on a tough test on Saturday, Nov. 8, when he must defend the interim WBC super welterweight title in a fight against Erickson Lubin at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth. “Vergil Ortiz Jr. is the most ducked fighter in boxing — period,” De La Hoya, now Golden Boy Promotions CEO, [said in a recent news release](https://www.tennessean.com/story/sports/2025/11/05/vergil-ortiz-erickson-lubin-fight-date-time-watch-undercard/87010571007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “Big names talk tough until Vergil’s name comes up, then suddenly the phone goes silent. I commend Erickson Lubin; he has the guts that these fighters nowadays lack.” De La Hoya blazed the trail with Hollywood looks, charm, and fluency in both Spanish and English. He was also deep-feeling: De La Hoya locked himself in a room after his mother died in 1990, refusing to talk to anyone. He was just 17 years old. Then he channelled his grief into the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, where [he earned gold](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aU52n8kJgv0&ref=thebarbedwire.com) for Team USA. His story grabbed international and national recognition. It also launched a massively successful boxing career. He was ringside for [Ortiz Jr.’s victory in Riyadh](https://www.si.com/fannation/boxing/exclusive-vergil-ortiz-jr-breaks-down-the-madrimov-fight-video?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which I covered for *Sports Illustrated.* Ortiz Jr. will be the next generation of this phenomenon, as his profile builds with every fight. Yet, he breaks the mold in many ways: In conversations, he’s one of the most thoughtful fighters of this century. His tempo is different. The false bravado and aggressiveness often necessary for selling a fight isn’t there with Ortiz Jr. Instead, Ortiz Jr. has the quiet confidence of an old Texas gunslinger who knows he can both talk the talk and walk the walk. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/gettyimages-2201319743-1.jpg) RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA - FEBRUARY 22, 2025: Vergil Ortiz Jr walks to the ring prior to the WBC Interim World Super Welterweight Title fight between Vergil Ortiz Jr and Israil Madrimov as part of Beterbiev v Bivol 2: The Last Crescendo at Kingdom Arena. But while many a-fighter has quotable opinions on boxing, Ortiz Jr.’s are interesting far outside of the squared circle. He plays guitar and dabbles in piano. He writes music. He listens to heavy metal; his favorite guitarist is Randy Rhoads. In Saudi Arabia, he tells me his hobbies include reading, mathematics, and space. He tells me he listens to audiobooks while stuck in traffic. He has a passion for muscle cars. Of course, like any other young man of his generation, he plays video games like “Call of Duty” and “Rocket League.” Boxing games frustrate him because the tactics don’t align with those necessary to succeed in the ring, he says. Oftentimes, though, he quits for long-periods of time. “Why am I playing these games?” he asks himself. “I could be learning something.” In that marbled lobby in Saudi Arabia, Ortiz Jr. passes a veritable glen of mini palm trees, where he runs into Mauricio Sulaimán, the President of the World Boxing Council — one of boxing’s alphabet soup sanctioning organizations and a scion of one of Mexico’s great Lebanese families. They chat, not about boxing, but about music. Sulaimán, who is a massive AC/DC fan, has seen Vergil Ortiz Jr.’s guitar videos. They joke about one day jamming together. “We have a plan to one day meet together and maybe play together,” Sulaimán tells me. The two men also share an incredible path to success blazed by their fathers. The elder José Sulaimán forged the World Boxing Council into the most dynamic of boxing’s sanctioning organizations. “The relationship with the WBC and its champions is more than just boxing,” Sulaimán says. “It’s always personal. It's like a family. His father is a great inspiration to him just like my father was a great inspiration to me.” Vergil Ortiz Sr. is one of his son’s best trainers. He got his son involved in boxing at the age of five. “It was just in him,” Ortiz Sr. told [*The Athletic*](https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/1714735/2020/04/02/this-kid-is-just-different-how-vergil-ortiz-jr-became-boxings-next-star/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)*.* “I’d take him with me and he’d train hard every day, to the point that some days he’d come home and go flat to sleep.” Ortiz Jr. went on to hold a 140-20 record and win a Junior Olympic gold medal, not to mention becoming a seven-time national champion. His success has, of course, continued into the professional ranks, where he holds an impressive undefeated record 23 wins and no losses. He is a powerful fighter, with 21 of those wins coming by knockout. A knockout was never on the cards when he faced Israil Madrimov, a tough-as-they-come fighter from Uzbekistan, in Saudi Arabia. Ortiz Jr. saw his opponent fading just enough in the second half to assert himself and win the rounds. “A lot of fans think that he won the rounds; he hardly landed anything,” he says afterward. “He was trying to get around my gloves…I felt I was in control.” Madrimov was a hard fighter who was given multiple warnings for throwing the shoulder repeatedly. But Ortiz Jr. was sanguine about the rough house tactics that left his face pink and purple, with a brutal cut over his left eye and another on his nose. “He’s not a dirty fighter,” says Ortiz Jr. “Maybe a little sloppy.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/gettyimages-2201329915-1.jpg) RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA - FEBRUARY 22, 2025: Vergil Ortiz Jr celebrates victory with the title belt after the WBC Interim World Super Welterweight Title fight between Vergil Ortiz Jr and Israil Madrimov as part of Beterbiev v Bivol 2: The Last Crescendo at Kingdom Arena. Ortiz Jr. shrugs off the bloodshed with the same composure that has defined his rise. He’s battled not just opponents, but serious health scares — including rhabdomyolysis, which once threatened his career. His calm seems hard-won. In a sport where social media jabs are increasingly as sharp as those in the ring, Ortiz Jr. has learned to tune out distractions and instead view each setback as another round to endure and overcome. Last Sunday, he [shared a screenshot on X](https://x.com/VergilOrtiz/status/1985093163485475182?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of a DM in which a fan wrote, “DIE BITCH.” Another said, “YOU GETTING KO AND I HOPE YOU END UP AT THE HOSPITAL.” In response, Ortiz Jr. wrote, “This is why, at the end of the day, I will always do what’s best for me. I stopped caring about what y’all said and what y’all think about me a long time ago.” > [](https://twitter.com/VergilOrtiz/status/1985093163485475182?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Ahead of the weekend’s fight, Ortiz Jr. is focused not on fans, but on Erickson Lubin. Lubin, who’ll face Ortiz Jr. on Saturday, is 27-2 with 19 wins by knockout. One of those knockouts was a stoppage of Jorge Cota in which Lubin bends his knees and then springs up to close the distance and drops his opponent with a reaching punch. Lubin’s two losses shouldn’t fool anyone into thinking this will be an easy fight. He’s on a three-fight win streak. His last loss was a 2022 war with Sebastian Fundora in which both fighters were dropped and at points Lubin appeared to be winning. It was a minor classic in the 154 pound division. “It’s going to be one of those real historical matchups,” Lubin told [*The Ring*](https://ringmagazine.com/en/news/erickson-lubin-ready-to-replace-vergil-ortiz-jr?ref=thebarbedwire.com) magazine. “After this fight, they won’t be talking about Vergil. They’re going to be talking about The Hammer.” A victory over Lubin would build Ortiz Jr.’s stature and lead to bigger fights down the road. In the present era, many fighters are tempted to take the short-cut with fights against non-boxer celebrities. (See: [Jake Paul](https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/boxing/2025/11/05/why-was-paul-vs-davis-boxing-fight-canceled/87112556007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com).) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/gettyimages-1147015854-1.jpg) LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - MAY 04, 2019: Vergil Ortiz Jr. (R) celebrates his third round KO of Mauricio Herrera during their welterweight fight at T-Mobile Arena. Floyd Mayweather, a former undefeated welterweight champion, is considering a fight against former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson [in 2026](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tyson-mayweather-fight-what-we-know/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Surely, that’s less about sport and more about spectacle. By contrast, Ortiz Jr. makes it clear his heart is in old-school pugilism. He has a maturity beyond his years inside the ring and out — and at times a [self-effacing humility](https://www.instagram.com/p/DQMrxERgZbC/?hl=en&ref=thebarbedwire.com). “The only exhibition I would entertain would be something like me vs Magnus Carlsen in chess boxing, but he’s getting 10 seconds on the clock and I’m getting the full 10 minutes 😭,” he said in [a post on X](https://x.com/VergilOrtiz/status/1958999602532950522?ref=thebarbedwire.com) referencing the Norwegian chess great. Considering the emojis, that was probably a joke, though [chess boxing *is* a very real thing](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MBcs5Z4KC4&ref=thebarbedwire.com). There are only a handful of boxers who are even familiar with chess players like Magnus Carlsen. It’s spot on, however, for one of the most thoughtful fighters of this era. It is entirely coincidental that Vergil Ortiz Jr. shares a name with Virgil, the famed Latin poet whose famed epic “Aeneid” became the founding document of the Roman Empire. But as Ortiz Jr. builds his own empire one punch at a time, he may find one particular line from the Aeneid to be comforting. “Mens agitat molem,” also known as “mind over matter.” It’s pure sports psychology from 2000 years ago, but it somehow fits the very modern Vergil Ortiz Jr. ### ‘We Gave Tax Cuts to the Rich and Made Life Sh*t for the Poor.’ Texas Just Passed 17 New Constitutional Amendments. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/we-gave-tax-cuts-to-the-rich-texas-17-constitutional-amendments/ Last updated: 2025-11-05T19:11:06.000Z Fewer than 3 million Texans bothered to vote this week, but that didn’t stop them from rewriting the state’s constitution — again — mostly in ways that make life easier for property owners, business interests, and the already comfortable. In a turnout so low it barely qualifies as “consent of the governed,” [voters approved 17 new amendments](https://www.kut.org/2025-11-04/texas-election-results-constitutional-amendments-propositions?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that collectively read like a love letter to the state’s tax-averse elite. If you’re wondering, [that’s a total of 547](https://lrl.texas.gov/legis/constamends/index.cfm?ref=thebarbedwire.com) since the Constitution was adopted in 1876. This year’s ballot was a [buffet of property tax cuts](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-sos-state-tx-us/elections/forms/november-2025-ballot-language-17.pdf). Homeowners get a bigger homestead exemption ([Prop 13](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-sos-state-tx-us/elections/forms/november-2025-ballot-language-17.pdf)), seniors and disabled Texans get an extra $60,000 off ([Prop 11](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-sos-state-tx-us/elections/forms/november-2025-ballot-language-17.pdf)), landlords and business owners get a discount ([Prop 9](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-sos-state-tx-us/elections/forms/november-2025-ballot-language-17.pdf)), and even borderland property owners building “security projects” get a tax break ([Prop 17](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-sos-state-tx-us/elections/forms/november-2025-ballot-language-17.pdf)). All told, these new breaks (along with other recent efforts to reduce property taxes), will cost [Texas around $50 billion](https://www.texasstandard.org/stories/texas-election-proposition-results-2025/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) next budget cycle — money that could’ve gone to, say, public schools or infrastructure, but instead will help fund slightly nicer second homes. Jon Taylor, chair of the political science department at the University of Texas at San Antonio, told *The Barbed Wire* that the constitutional amendments passing wasn't a complete surprise. In the past 30 years, he noted, only 15 amendments have failed. “Texas voters tend to default to a yes vote unless they encounter organized opposition or are convinced that the amendments are flawed or inadequate,” he said. Others online were … angrier than Taylor’s measured tone. As one commenter [wrote on Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/p/DQrwCNPDuA5/?img%5Findex=1&ref=thebarbedwire.com), “Wooo we gave tax cuts to the rich and made life shit for the poor! Go us!” “Boomers can’t seem to pull the ladder up behind them fast enough,” wrote [another](https://www.instagram.com/p/DQqIW3SDp18/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “Hard to believe Texans actually voted to protect the wealthy freeloading class from paying their fair share of taxes,” a user [posted on Blue Sky](https://bsky.app/profile/grb-01.bsky.social/post/3m4vjmlg4qk2u?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “I expect some voters had NO idea what their vote was supporting,” wrote [another](https://bsky.app/profile/original-cynn.bsky.social/post/3m4u7b75inc2r?ref=thebarbedwire.com). > [](https://twitter.com/NilsHeadley/status/1985925299461296396?ref=thebarbedwire.com) In the end, a few measures did pass that actually invest in Texas’ long-term wellbeing. Just enough to say we care! [Proposition 4](https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/prop-4-texas-voters-to-decide-on-20-billion-in-state-water-projects/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) puts $1 billion a year toward fixing our water system before it crumbles (though there are apparently some arguments to be had about data centers expanding across arid West Texas), and [Proposition 14](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/11/04/texas-election-dementia-fund-dprit/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) establishes a $3 billion Dementia Prevention and Research Institute. So yes, Texas is doing something about brain health, which is a relief, since so many voters seem to have forgotten there are things worth funding beyond tax cuts. Texans also took time to outlaw taxes that don’t exist. [Proposition 2](https://www.fox4news.com/election/texas-bans-unrealized-capital-gains-tax-proposition-2?ref=thebarbedwire.com) bans a capital gains tax we don’t have. [Proposition 8](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/11/04/us/elections/results-texas-proposition-8-prohibit-tax-on-estates.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) bans inheritance taxes, which have never existed here. [Proposition 6](https://www.kristv.com/news/local-news/in-your-neighborhood/corpus-christi/we-broke-down-all-17-texas-ballot-props-so-you-dont-have-to?ref=thebarbedwire.com) prevents Texas from ever taxing stock trades or on people and companies that work in finance. And it’s about danged time somebody looked out for finance dudes! And Proposition 5 exempts animal feed from taxes, meaning cows are now possibly getting more tax relief than renters. It’s all part of the state’s grand economic strategy: Make sure rich people and livestock both stay extremely comfortable. [Proposition 3](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-sos-state-tx-us/elections/forms/november-2025-ballot-language-17.pdf) toughens bail rules for violent and sexual offenses, requiring judges to deny bail if there’s clear evidence someone’s a danger or might flee. [Proposition 12](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-sos-state-tx-us/elections/forms/november-2025-ballot-language-17.pdf), meanwhile, expands the power of the State Commission on Judicial Conduct to discipline shady judges, so at least one amendment might actually make the system more accountable. [Prop 15](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-sos-state-tx-us/elections/forms/november-2025-ballot-language-17.pdf) enshrines “parents’ rights” into the state constitution, ensuring that every parent with a Facebook account now has constitutional backing to tell teachers how to do their jobs. Critics warn it could complicate child welfare cases, but supporters can now wave pocket constitutions during school board meetings, so who’s to say who won? [Prop 16](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-sos-state-tx-us/elections/forms/november-2025-ballot-language-17.pdf) reaffirms that only U.S. citizens can vote, a law that already exists but now exists *extra hard.* > [](https://twitter.com/DiegoBernalTX/status/1986113837402116243?ref=thebarbedwire.com) > [](https://twitter.com/emilyebytx/status/1986136969294844020?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Meanwhile, Austin voters [overwhelmingly rejected Proposition Q,](https://www.kut.org/politics/2025-11-05/austin-tx-prop-q-failed-election-results-explained?ref=thebarbedwire.com) a plan to raise $100 million for homeless services and city projects. The “Save Austin Now” crowd celebrated at their victory party, reported KUT, denouncing City Hall’s “million-dollar logos” and “trips to Japan,” as if the council’s real crime was acting too cultured. Even Mayor Kirk Watson got the message, admitting the council needs to rebuild trust with voters. As Taylor told *The Barbed Wire,* the vote was a “decisive no across Austin’s political spectrum, with affordability driving the vote.” So while Texas voters statewide opened the constitution like a Black Friday sale at the Tax Cuts Depot, Austin voters just slammed their wallets shut entirely. But then again, there’s San Antonio’s North East Independent School District, one of the few bright spots in this sea of austerity. Voters there approved [three of five bond propositions](https://www.tpr.org/education/2025-11-05/north-east-isd-voters-approve-three-out-of-five-bond-propositions?ref=thebarbedwire.com), unlocking most of the $495 million the district requested for basic maintenance, technology, and athletic renovations. And Bexar County voters [narrowly approved Proposition B](https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6779065/2025/11/05/spurs-arena-vote-new-downtown-hemisfair/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), securing the Spurs’ long-term future in San Antonio with plans for a $1.4 billion downtown arena as part of the city’s massive “Project Marvel” redevelopment. The measure raises hotel and car rental taxes to fund $311 million in public financing, alongside $489 million from the city and $500 million from the Spurs. Supporters say the project will revitalize downtown and anchor the team’s next era, while critics argue public arena funding rarely delivers promised economic benefits, according to *The* *New York Times.* The measure went to a vote after the city’s debate over the matter got so contentious it resulted [in a death threat](https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2025/08/13/man-arrested-for-allegedly-making-online-threats-against-san-antonio-mayor-gina-ortiz-jones/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) toward San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones. Meanwhile, there was also a (much-needed) glimmer of hope for Democrats in the Fort Worth area, which held a special election for the Texas Senate District 9 seat. Democrat Taylor Rehmet [got almost 48 percent of the vote](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/11/04/texas-senate-district-9-special-election-tarrant-county/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), far ahead of his Republican opponent Leigh Wambsganss. The two are [headed to a runoff](https://www.star-telegram.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article312730646.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), since no one got more than 50 percent. That’s significant, Taylor said, because Trump carried the district by more than 17 points last year. “The last Democrat to run for Texas Senate in (Senate District 9) got 40 percent against Kelly Hancock in 2022,” Taylor told *The Barbed Wire*. “This is an 8-point swing to the Democrats in a deeply Republican suburban part of Texas. My guess is that it's setting off alarm bells among the Texas Republican leadership.” Oh, and that turnout of fewer than 3 million Texans voting? That’s actually an *improvement* over 2023, and it’s the best turnout since 2005, Taylor said. “Those are pretty good numbers for an off-year election,” he said. Of course, outside of Texas, California voters [approved their own new U.S. House maps last night](https://apnews.com/article/california-redistricting-prop-50-gavin-newsom-839193bfc2a817086acca7365315f26f?ref=thebarbedwire.com) as a response to our state’s own mid-decade redistricting. “Definitely not a good night for Governor Abbott,” Taylor said. ### When Storytelling Is Called ‘Terrorism’: How My Friend and Fellow Journalist Was Targeted by ICE URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/how-my-friend-and-fellow-journalist-was-targeted-by-ice/ Last updated: 2025-11-05T05:57:48.000Z I remember meeting [Ya'akub Vijandre](https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/28/us/texas-daca-recipient-ice-deportation?ref=thebarbedwire.com) a little more than two years ago. We were at the first Dallas protest held in the aftermath of [Israel’s bloody siege of Gaza](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/7/world-is-watching-fears-grow-of-a-massive-gaza-invasion-by-israel?ref=thebarbedwire.com) following the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas. This was back when I was still working with *Dallas Weekly* and Ya'akub was gathering content for his already-lush social media presence. Like always, we were there to record history. When we saw each other again at subsequent demonstrations, we exchanged the kind of pleasantries that are typical between protest photographers: comparing shots, guessing crowd sizes, etc. Ya'akub is a great photographer; I usually asked him for pointers. Before I knew it, a year had passed, and we’d embrace upon seeing each other. Ya'akub is a relatively short 38-year-old guy with massive energy. This isn’t to say that he’s loud or domineering. In fact, he’s quiet, considerate, honorable, genuine, and respectful. What makes Ya'akub’s presence feel large is a sense of substance — a weight of purpose. He’s become one of my most trusted colleagues, and he texted to check in, as a support, when my mom was in the hospital with health issues. Our jobs have brought us closer together. As Ya’akub is a human rights advocate and photojournalist and I’m a civil rights and criminal justice reporter, our work has considerable overlap. Ya'akub, whose legal name is Jacob Ira Azurin Vijandre, is a native of the Philippines. His parents brought him to the U.S. in 2001 when he was 14, under his father’s H-4 nonimmigrant visa. He was granted protection under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals for the first time in 2013\. He is a martial artist, he used to breakdance when he was younger, and his taste in clothing and fabrics is immaculate. He’s a big Bruce Lee fan, a teacher, and a skilled creative. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/yaakub1.jpg) On Oct. 7, Ya'akub was arrested by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents steps outside his home in Arlington. At least six vehicles with armed officers arrived as he was leaving for work, according to a [statement from his attorneys](https://mlfa.org/statement-by-yaakub-vijandres-legal-team-ice-detains-daca-recipient-and-pro-palestinian-photojournalist-yaakub-vijandre-for-social-media-posts-in-critical-free-speech-test-case/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). In a [recorded call](https://www.instagram.com/freeyaakub/reel/DQS9CmJDARy/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) from the Dallas ICE office, Ya’akub explained that, after leaving his home, he was greeted with a handgun drawn in his face before being taken into custody. Ya'akub was taken to Bluebonnet Detention Facility near Fort Worth. No judicial warrant, just a swift arrest. Ya'akub isn’t being accused of breaking immigration law — his DACA protection doesn’t expire until May 2026\. In fact, Ya'akub’s lawyers say he hasn’t been accused of any crime. Rather, the Trump administration is alleging he’s “glorifying terrorism” via social media posts. However, Ya’akub’s online history instead reflects a consistent belief in favor of human rights and solidarity through community activism. Just the day before he was detained, Ya'akub had recorded and participated in a city council meeting in the Dallas suburb of Richardson, where he spoke out in support of local community leader Marwan Marouf who was detained by ICE, according to [a court filing from his legal team last week](https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/28/us/texas-daca-recipient-ice-deportation?ref=thebarbedwire.com). In a video [posted to his Instagram account](https://www.instagram.com/p/DPgnzj4js8S/?hl=en&ref=thebarbedwire.com) on the day of his arrest, Ya’akub captured emotional testimony by another community member from the city council meeting. Soft-spoken in a blue button-up and wire-frame glasses, the man invoked Mark Twain’s words, “It’s never the wrong time to do the right thing,” in a plea for Marouf’s freedom. The Department of Homeland Security has moved to terminate his DACA status — his lawyers said that a notice of intent to terminate dated Sept. 22 was found in his mailbox after his arrest — and issued a statement saying he “was a subject of interest in the Dallas Joint Terrorism Task Force following social media posts glorifying terrorism.” The notice alleged Ya’akub supported “organizations and individuals who are known to engage in acts of terrorism,” which “presents public safety, national security concerns, and is a significant negative discretionary factor under the totality of the circumstances analysis,” according to his legal team’s habeas filing. However, Ya’akub’s legal team has countered that DHS is conflating supporting terrorism with Ya’akub’s “opposition to U.S. foreign policy, the policies of the Israeli government, and abuse of prisoners,” according to the filing. “What Respondents characterize as support for terrorism actually consists of opposing perceived violation of detainee rights, including at black site prisons like Guantanamo Bay and Bagram Air Force Base,” the habeas petition states. “Equating such speech to ‘terrorism’ to justify detention would risk criminalizing a broad array of protected speech critical of U.S. government policy engaged in by citizens and non-citizens alike.” The government’s targeting of Ya’akub wasn’t a complete shock, as Trump’s DHS has expressed outright disdain for DACA. In July, DHS [encouraged DACA recipients](https://www.npr.org/2025/07/29/nx-s1-5482923/dhs-daca-recipients-self-deport?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to self-deport, with DHS assistant press secretary Tricia McLaughlin saying recipients “are not automatically protected from deportations.” Additionally, the Trump administration has made no bones about its suppression of free speech. Just look at the detention of [Mahmoud Khalil](https://abcnews.go.com/US/mahmoud-khalil-government-immigration-court-control-process-remove/story?id=126720894&ref=thebarbedwire.com) for his role in the Columbia University protests; Tufts University’s [Rümeysa Öztürk](https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/09/us/rumeysa-ozturk-tufts-bail-release?ref=thebarbedwire.com), who spent six weeks in ICE detention over an op-ed in the student newspaper; or British commentator [Sami Hamdi](https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/26/us/sami-hamdi-british-commentator-detained?ref=thebarbedwire.com)’s detention in the middle of his speaking tour, for pro-Palestine advocacy. The Trump administration has laid a continuous groundwork to establish a legal precedent against Palestinian activists — and anyone who supports them. This suppression has only grown in recent months, to encompass any expression of speech that is critical of the federal government and its allies. The U.S. State Department announced last month that it had [revoked the visas](https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/15/state-department-visas-revoked-charlie-kirk-criticism-00608817?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of six individuals from Argentina, South Africa, Mexico, Brazil, Germany, and Paraguay, over social media posts following the death of Charlie Kirk. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/yaakub2.jpg) Ya'akub’s arrest is not unlike the arrest of Marouf, the Palestinian community leader, just weeks earlier. The PR and fundraising director for the Muslim-American Society of Dallas was [surrounded by ICE agents](https://breakthroughnews.org/marwan-marouf-texas-ice-community-leader-deportation-palestine/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) after dropping his son off at school in Richardson, the same day his legal team says that his green card was denied. The federal government later filed a civil complaint against Marouf, alleging that he supported a terrorist organization because he donated to the Holy Land Foundation in 1994 and 2001\. The Holy Land Foundation was a charitable organization that was found guilty of terrorism after a lengthy legal battle in the early 2000s. During the trial, the government [pointed](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/2008/10/07/fbi-cair-is-a-front-group-and-holy-land-foundation-tapped-hamas-clerics-for-fundraisers/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to the organization's operations providing financial sponsorship to Palestinians as proof of support for Hamas. Human Rights Watch has [criticized](https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/03/11/after-israels-designation-human-rights-groups-terrorists-biden-should-release?ref=thebarbedwire.com) evidence submitted in the case as hearsay, as well as a lack of a direct link to violence in the prosecution’s argument. In Ya'akub’s case, like in Marouf’s, the government specifically pointed to his alleged support of the Holy Land Foundation. Ya'akub has echoed the same skepticism expressed by Human Rights Watch over the Holy Land Foundation case. He’s also interviewed Holy Land member Shukri Abu-Baker’s daughter, Nida, about her father’s imprisonment. Along with posts regarding the Holy Land Foundation, the government also pointed to posts expanding on the story of Aafia Siddiqui as indicative of support for terrorism. I take offense to this, especially because [one of the videos](https://www.instagram.com/p/DCCetd7v59a/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on Siddiqui is [cross-published between mine and Ya'akub’s Instagram pages](https://www.instagram.com/p/DCCetd7v59a/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). [Siddiqui](https://prismreports.org/2025/01/07/aafia-siddiqui-clemency-biden/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) is a Pakistani neuroscientist who is serving an 86-year prison sentence in Texas after she was found guilty for the attempted murder and assault of military officers, despite forensic evidence contradicting military accounts. Her case is intertwined with the aftermath of 9/11 — she’s even [been called the racist moniker of “Lady al Qaeda.”](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/aafia-siddiqui-federal-prisoner-center-texas-hostage-situation-rcna12381?ref=thebarbedwire.com) She was accused of terrorism, and her lawyers say, one of the few women subjected to [enhanced interrogation techniques](https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/11/21/excluding-faith-us-deny-imprisoned-dr-aafia-siddiqui-visits-from-an-imam?ref=thebarbedwire.com) at various CIA blacksites. The Pakistani government has repeatedly called for her release, and an increasing number of supporters have called her imprisonment one of the great mistakes of the U.S.’s war on terror. Both Ya'akub and I have pointed out discrepancies in the government’s case against Siddiqui, who is now imprisoned at FMC Carswell in Fort Worth, where she’s said [she’s been subjected to repeated sexual assault](https://www.keranews.org/criminal-justice/2024-09-25/aafia-siddiqui-carswell-pakistani-prisoner-sexual-assault-fort-worth-federal-prison-lawsuit?ref=thebarbedwire.com). This is journalism. Full stop. https://www.instagram.com/p/DCCetd7v59a/ *Washington Post* journalist Karen Attiah was [fired for quoting Charlie Kirk’s own words](https://karenattiah.substack.com/p/the-washington-post-fired-me-but). In Chicago, ICE officers allegedly [shot pepper bullets into a CBS reporter’s](https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/feds-fire-pepper-ball-at-cbs-chicago-reporters-truck/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) vehicle unprompted, causing her to vomit. In New York, they [shoved journalists to the floor, resulting in at least one hospitalization](https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/ice-officer-journalist-altercation-nyc/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). White reporters that were born in the U.S., like myself, are not currently under as great a threat of arrest for journalism and advocacy work. Current examples are scarce, though they do carry significant implications. Steven Held, an independent reporter and co-founder of *Unraveled Press* was briefly [detained](https://thetriibe.com/2025/09/chicago-journalist-detained-while-covering-protest-outside-broadview-immigration-facility/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) after filming an arrest during a protest in Broadview, Illinois. Protest photographer Alexa Wilson was [charged](https://hyperallergic.com/1045489/activists-condemn-arrest-of-nyc-protest-photographer-alexa-wilkinson/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for a felony hate crime for her social media coverage of vandalism of the *New York Times* building. It’s becoming clearer to me that the government is attempting to lay a foundation for dissenting political beliefs as grounds for terrorism. And people like Ya'akub — non-white, non-Christian — have been made its primary examples. Both journalists; like Mario Guevara, [an Emmy Award-winning Atlanta-based Salvadoran reporter](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/28/journalist-mario-guevara-trump-ice-deportations?ref=thebarbedwire.com) who was deported last month; and civilians, like [Leqaa Kordia](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/leqaa-kordia-palestinian-protester-ice-detention/), who has remained in detention for over 230 days after her participation in protests at Columbia University. “They see the media as an enemy,” Guevara told [The Freedom of the Press Foundation](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Hqf%5Fld8woI&ref=thebarbedwire.com). “They have the power. They can do everything they want. It can be dangerous for us.” You may have missed the [trial](https://www.texasobserver.org/tarrant-county-prosecution-palestine-israel-activist-graffiti/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of Bangladeshi-American activist Raunaq Alam. The state accused Alam and two other protesters of a hate crime for spray painting “Fuck Israel” on the side of a non-denominational church in Euless that was raising funds for the Israeli military. What was initially a graffiti charge blew up into a case that attracted national attention, as the prosecution argued that criticism of a foreign country could be grounds for hate speech, elevating the potential sentence to 10 years in jail. The state failed to convince the jury, however, and Alam was found guilty on a lower charge of criminal mischief and granted probation. Covering Alam’s trial for the [*Texas Observer*](https://www.texasobserver.org/tarrant-county-prosecution-palestine-israel-activist-graffiti/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) opened my eyes to the way this administration is further twisting legal principles to punish dissent. And make no mistake, Ya'akub’s detention is about his opinion, in favor of human rights, diverging from that of the U.S. government. Ya'akub says that the FBI approached him in 2023 and tried to persuade him to become an informant. According to the habeas filed by his lawyers, agents told Ya'akub he was “a poster child for the way you’re supposed to do it.” He declined. The First Amendment exists in order to protect our ability to criticize the government — whether you’re a citizen or not. Yet somehow, a man who was the “poster child” for immigration and community activism is now in danger of deportation and facing accusations of supporting terrorism. When I told Ya'akub’s team that I had written a first draft for this piece, I asked them what I could include to convey the full gravity of what’s happening to him. One of his lawyers, Maria Kari, told me it was about instilling fear. “In so many ways, we're facing the same overreach post-9/11 that led to individuals being detained without warrant, without evidence, and indefinitely held in black sites,” Kari told me. “The very stuff that Ya'akub talked about, the same stuff that led to his being jailed. It's like being in the upside-down.” Marium Uddin, director of Muslim Legal Fund of America and a member of his legal team, said the conditions of Ya'akub’s detention are not only “cruel and inhumane” but also “calculated to break his spirit — a spirit that only ever sought to illuminate.” “In this situation, who is the person committing the crime?” she continued. “And, why must he pay this price for telling the truth? What, then, is the cost of truth in America today?” “We can talk about the law and politics all day long, six ways to Sunday, but the essential question is whether or not truth itself has lost its standalone value,” said Uddin. “These are not rhetorical questions. They are the measure of our moral decline.” Ya'akub’s legal team says that the government is testing its limitations by attempting to restrict the speech of a noncitizen. And that has very real and drastic implications for the free speech rights of the rest of us. After finishing my first draft for this, Ya'akub was transferred to Folkston ICE Processing Center near Jacksonville, Georgia. His legal team wasn't given a reason. If the Trump administration removes Ya'akub from the country, he’ll be the second journalist deported from Folkston, following Atlanta’s Mario Guevara. Ya’akub’s potential deportation breaks my heart. The thought of not seeing him again at a protest leaves me horribly dispirited and, to put it plainly, depressed. But beyond this, Ya’akub’s freedom of speech being disregarded so flagrantly indicates something incredibly dangerous: An effort from this administration to slowly dismantle every protection of the First Amendment, as well as the progression of immigrant rights in the United States. Reporters should be terrified. But it’s bigger than that. Every single person in this country will be affected by these policies, whether direct or peripheral. So for his sake and the sake of all of us: Free Ya’akub Vijandre now. ### Gov. Abbott Was ‘Just Joking’ About That ‘100% Tariff’ on New Yorkers Fleeing a Mamdani Win URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/abbott-new-york-mamdani-tariff-texas/ Last updated: 2025-11-04T16:40:01.000Z Zohran Mamdani is favored to win New York City’s [mayoral race](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3rjjdvx5r5o?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on Tuesday, and a few Texans are not happy about it. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott took to X yesterday with a conservative talking point implying that New Yorkers will flee the city if Mamdani is elected. “After the polls close tomorrow night, I will impose a 100% tariff on anyone moving to Texas from NYC,” Abbott [posted](https://x.com/GregAbbott%5FTX/status/1985417851037991321?ref=thebarbedwire.com). > [](https://twitter.com/GregAbbott%5FTX/status/1985417851037991321?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Mamdani’s Democratic socialist’s platform of [raising taxes](https://drive.google.com/file/d/14-aM9DKG337SDMilmfQtLRR-pDwyWSTc/view?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on the wealthy to fund [measures](https://www.zohranfornyc.com/platform?ref=thebarbedwire.com) like free buses, city-owned grocery stores and no-cost childcare, has led to a wave of [predictions](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15235135/Mamdani-New-York-exodus-mayoral-race.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that his victory will lead to a mass exodus of the richest New Yorkers. Challenger Andrew Cuomo, the former governor who already lost to Mamdani in the Democratic primary, told [Fox News](https://www.foxnews.com/media/cuomo-warns-nobody-left-new-york-city-mamdani-becomes-mayor?ref=thebarbedwire.com) a few weeks ago there would be “nobody left” in New York if taxes on businesses and wealthy residents increased. In a last-minute [endorsement](https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115488077072288045?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of Cuomo last night, President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social that “New York City will be a Complete and Total Economic and Social Disaster should Mamdani win.” It goes without saying that Abbott can’t really impose a tariff on people moving states (shout out to the [Commerce Clause](https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/artI-S8-C3-7-4/ALDE%5F00013310/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of the Constitution), and several Texans voiced their confusion online. “Is (the tariff) based off air fare from LaGuardia?” one person [commented](https://www.reddit.com/r/texas/comments/1onp7pb/comment/nn0hfa1/?utm%5Fsource=share&utm%5Fmedium=web3x&utm%5Fname=web3xcss&utm%5Fterm=1&utm%5Fcontent=share%5Fbutton) on r/Texas. “The cost of gas? Is he going to try to tax UHaul, Pods, and other moving companies?” Another [asked](https://www.reddit.com/r/texas/comments/1onp7pb/comment/nmzh2ke/?utm%5Fsource=share&utm%5Fmedium=web3x&utm%5Fname=web3xcss&utm%5Fterm=1&utm%5Fcontent=share%5Fbutton), “So people fleeing from the type of government he hates.... get punished?” “I thought NYers moving to TX already had Abbott tariffs? Like: 5x chance your children are shot to death in school. 168.4x chance the books in your kids’ school are censored,” another commenter [posted](https://www.reddit.com/r/texas/comments/1onp7pb/comment/nmzmxap/?utm%5Fsource=share&utm%5Fmedium=web3x&utm%5Fname=web3xcss&utm%5Fterm=1&utm%5Fcontent=share%5Fbutton). [CBS News](https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/video/texas-gov-abbotts-nyc-mayor-race-tweet-sparks-online-reaction/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)reported this morning that the governor’s office said Abbott was “just joking” based on the assumption that New Yorkers would want to move if Mamdani became mayor. Regardless, the fact that Abbott is talking about an unconstitutional tariff is “significant and it’s problematic of the governor’s leadership,” political influencer Aaron Parnas [said in a video](https://www.instagram.com/p/DQnRL7MDAzQ/?hl=en&ref=thebarbedwire.com). This isn’t the first time Texas politicians have felt the need to weigh in on New York City’s mayoral race. Sen. Ted Cruz posted an [image](https://x.com/tedcruz/status/1985552701816455173?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on X yesterday that called Mamdani “an actual communist Jihadist” and U.S. Rep. Brandon Gill from North Texas told Mamdani to “go back to the Third World” in a viral [X post](https://x.com/RepBrandonGill/status/1939489434983883116?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in June. It’s also worth noting that Abbott is continuing the great Texas tradition of saying and doing everything Florida does a little bit later and a lot louder. After Mamdani [won](https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/01/zohran-mamdani-ranked-choice-results-00435184?ref=thebarbedwire.com) the Democratic primary in July, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told [Fox News](https://www.foxbusiness.com/media/desantis-says-florida-may-need-entry-tax-socialist-nyc-mayoral-candidate-threatens-exodus?ref=thebarbedwire.com) he might have to charge an “entry tax” to Florida because they might not “be able to absorb everyone that’s going to flee his poor rule.” But Abbott can rest easy knowing that millionaires will probably not try to New York his Texas. Although the wealthy fleeing in droves from the socialist takeover of New York City makes for a good scary story, [*Rolling Stone*](https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/zohran-mamdani-tax-rich-new-york-city-1235414327/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) reported in August that history and data has shown that the rich will most likely stay right where they are. They wrote, “higher taxes make millionaires flap their wings, not fly the coop.” ### ‘Hell on Earth’: Texas Airports Are Slammed With Hours-Long TSA Lines and 1,000 Flight Delays URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/tsa-lines-texas-airport-delays-government-shutdown/ Last updated: 2025-11-03T15:38:17.000Z *Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the number of flight delays at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. There were 1,000 delays over the weekend into Monday, not 10,000\. The Barbed Wire regrets the error.* Three-hour wait times. Missed flights. TSA lines stretching out the doors. Texas airports are starting to feel the pressure of the federal government shutdown, which is nearing the five-week mark. Several major airports have struggled with staffing issues as [air traffic controllers and TSA agents are furloughed](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/government-shutdown-pain-air-traffic-control-snap-wic-benefits-tsa-rcna240244?ref=thebarbedwire.com) or working without pay while the government has ceased operations. "The longer the shutdown goes on, the more severe the impact on our TSA workforce who have expenses they must pay for, making it harder to show up for work when not being paid,” a TSA spokesperson [said to *USA Today.*](https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/2025/10/28/flight-delays-air-traffic-control-government-shutdown/86949441007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Lines for TSA stretched out the door [yesterday](https://x.com/GageGoulding/status/1985096041067401439?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and early [this morning](https://x.com/ABC13CourtneyC/status/1985326552804929600?ref=thebarbedwire.com) at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport. The airport’s website [stated in an alert](https://fly2houston.com/iah/alerts/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that only two out of its five terminals are open for TSA screening due to the government shutdown. “At times, TSA wait times may extend beyond 3 hours,” the website read. Many took to social media in frustration over the long lines. “My son is going to miss his flight back to college from Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston because the lines to check in are backed up for HOURS,” user LanceZierlein [wrote on X.](https://x.com/LanceZierlein/status/1985150039862264238?ref=thebarbedwire.com) “I've been in line 3 hours and not even past the actual security entrance,” user [edpettittmph wrote.](http://edpettittmph/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) “If you're flying out of the Houston airport, allow 6 hours to go through security. I am not kidding. I saw people today who waited more than 3 hours and still hadn't gotten to the front of the line,” [user JennRHubbard wrote.](https://x.com/JennRHubbard/status/1985215804833411528?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Other users expressed their gratitude for the workers who did show up to the airports. “Kudos to all the TSA agents who are showing up to work without pay. You guys and gals are American heroes!” user Chusidel [wrote on X.](https://x.com/Chusidel/status/1985119081603748176?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Jim Szczesniak, the director of aviation for Houston Airports, [released a statement](https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1114514624182025&set=a.192083513091812) on behalf of Bush Airport on Sunday. “The federal government shutdown has impacted TSA staffing and operations nationwide, and Houston Airports is doing everything possible to support our TSA partners and keeping passengers moving safely and efficiently,” Szczensniak said. The Austin-Bergtrom International Airport also faced delays. A temporary pause on inbound and outbound flights was issued Sunday due to air traffic control staffing constraints, according to the [*Austin-American Statesman*](https://www.statesman.com/news/article/austin-airport-ground-delay-faa-november-2-sunday-21133922.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Travelers at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport are also feeling delays. The airport saw over 1,000 flight delays over the weekend and into Monday, according to data from [Flight Aware](https://www.flightaware.com/live/cancelled/yesterday?ref=thebarbedwire.com), as well as two ground delays last week, [according to the *Dallas Morning News*.](https://www.dallasnews.com/business/airlines/2025/10/30/faa-issues-ground-delay-at-dfw-airport-for-second-time-this-week/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) “I’ve found hell on earth and it is Dallas-Fort Worth airport,” user TallDarkAwkward [wrote on X.](https://x.com/TallDarkAwkward/status/1985095914801754432?ref=thebarbedwire.com) The delays at airports nationwide come after air traffic controllers and TSA workers missed their paychecks late last monthThursday, Oct. 30, [according to *Forbes*](https://www.forbes.com/sites/tedreed/2025/10/31/air-travel-breakdown-nears-as-unpaid-atc-and-tsa-workers-face-stress/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). One Houston TSA worker, [according to *KPRC*](https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2025/10/31/tsa-worker-facing-eviction-finds-relief-after-kprc-2-story-sparks-community-support/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), was facing eviction after the lost paychecks left him unable to pay his rent. He was only able to avoid homelessness after sympathetic viewers pitched in with donations. Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, [told *Forbes*](https://www.forbes.com/sites/tedreed/2025/10/31/air-travel-breakdown-nears-as-unpaid-atc-and-tsa-workers-face-stress/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)that she thinks the ensuing stress on the air transportation system from workers not showing up will prompt lawmakers to end the government shutdown. “We know what happens when the planes stop,” Nelson said. “We see the impact of the shutdown there the most. Some people don’t get medicine. The economy stops. The country stops. We will see the shutdown impact that, as early as this weekend or early next week.” The pressure on lawmakers by airlines is mounting. Last week, United, Delta, American, and Southwest airlines threw their support behind a "continuing resolution, a Republican-backed measure that would fund the government through Nov. 21 and not address Democrats’ concerns over rising healthcare costs under the Affordable Care Act, according to [*USA Today*](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/10/30/united-delta-american-southwest-airlines-clean-bill-government-shutdown/86993687007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). A bill to [pay air traffic controllers and TSA workers](https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/23/cruz-pay-air-traffic-controllers-shutdown-00619804?ref=thebarbedwire.com) during the shutdown was introduced by Sen. Ted Cruz on Oct. 22, and [an accompanying bill in the House](https://www.cbsnews.com/detroit/news/michigan-rep-john-james-introduces-bill-to-pay-tsa-faa-employees-during-shutdown/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) was introduced last week. Neither have been voted on yet. During the last government shutdown in 2019, flight delays due to staffing issues led the 35-day shutdown to come to a close, according to [*USA Today*](https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/airline-news/2025/11/02/faa-tsa-air-traffic-controllers-government-shutdown/86988170007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). ### ‘Our No. 1.’ Longhorns Remember Superfan Scott Wilson, Who Never Missed a Game. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/longhorns-remember-superfan-scott-wilson/ Last updated: 2025-11-01T04:55:00.000Z President George H.W. Bush was fond of [saying](https://www.nytimes.com/1989/07/12/opinion/mr-bush-and-the-other-10-percent.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), “90 percent of life is just showing up.” If that’s true, Scott Wilson knew the meaning of life. Wilson, who [died Friday at 74](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/sports/college/longhorns/article/scott-wilson-texas-fan-21131811.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com), showed up. A Texas Longhorn superfan, Wilson spent decades attending UT games. Every one of them for 25 years. Five hundred and ninety-four football games in a row — home and away. He attended 1,564 straight baseball games — home and away. Countless basketball games, volleyball games, golf tournaments, tennis matches, cross-country — both men’s and women’s. Hell, if Texas had had a curling team, Wilson would have skidded across the ice to cheer them on. He was in Razorback Stadium as a member of the Longhorn band in 1969 when Darell Royal’s Texas Longhorns beat Arkansas for the national championship 15-14\. He was there when Earl Campbell scored four touchdowns to lead the Horns to a 1977 Cotton Bowl title over the University of Houston, when Vince Young ran for the roses in 2005, and when Ricky Williams broke Tony Dorsett’s rushing record. He was there for every one of the 241 college strikeouts Roger Clemens notched. And he was there when a skinny kid from Maryland named Kevin Durant first walked out on the college basketball court. I met Wilson more than 40 years ago. It was the early 80s, and I hung out at UT baseball games with an obnoxious, hilarious brotherhood of knuckleheads who called themselves the Wild Bunch. Wilson was already a veteran, having begun his remarkable streaks in the 70s. Wilson was deeply knowledgeable, wholly irascible, funny as hell, and passionate about supporting the team. He got to know hundreds of players, their parents, girlfriends, and, in time, their kids. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/wilson_seat_at_disch.jpg) Scott Wilson’s seat. When my son, *The Barbed Wire*’s own Billy Begala, attended games and shot off Smokey the Cannon as one of the Texas Cowboys, he got to know Wilson too. By then, Occupy Left Field had replaced the Wild Bunch, but no one replaced Wilson. He and Billy became friends: two generations forged in the shared agony and ecstasy of college sports. Wilson — I rarely called him by his first name, and he rarely used mine — had a burnt-orange Cadillac with Longhorn horns mounted on the hood. His car, and his presence, became famous all over the country. His home in Northeast Austin was a shrine to UT athletics. If Longhorn Nation had a Capitol building, Wilson’s living room would be the rotunda. Back in the dark ages before beer was sold in Longhorn stadiums, Wilson would lead a parade of lifelong friends and folks at their first game out to the parking lot, where he’d have a cooler full of beer stashed in his trunk. Yes, the word “fan” is short for fanatic. But Wilson always kept the humanity of the players and coaches at the top of his mind. If a shortstop muffed an easy grounder, Wilson would forgive and encourage. He was a Pied Piper of fanhood, and I was honored to be one of his followers. Wilson was what’s best in sports, especially college sports — and extra-especially Texas sports. He lived by an essential truth: That the meaning of life is found in devoting yourself to a cause larger than yourself. For Wilson, like millions of folks, that cause was found in sports. But it wasn’t merely sports; it was community. It was family. It was the transcendent feeling of experiencing the same intense emotions with a hundred thousand other people at the exact same moment. Wilson makes me think of perhaps the greatest speech ever given in a movie. Henry Fonda, as Tom Joad in “The Grapes of Wrath,” is trying to explain to his mother his philosophy of life — and why he has to leave and risk his life to help his fellow migrant farmworker unionize: “Well, maybe like Casey says, a fella ain’t got a soul of his own, but only a piece of a big one. An’ then… it don’t matter. Then I’ll be all aroun’ in the dark. I’ll be everywhere — wherever you look.” Wilson was a burnt orange piece of a great big soul. His seat at UFCU Disch-Falk field — Section 3, Row 8, Seat 1 — will forever be hallowed ground. As of Friday, that throne is now covered in flowers and notes. There is a plaque with his name. Wilson’s bleacher seat at DKR is haunted by nearly a half-century of hollering and heartache. It breaks my heart that on Saturday, for the first time in decades, the Longhorns will take the field without Scott Wilson cheering them on. But in the Tom Joad sense, he’ll be there. Wilson never married, never had kids. But he damn sure had a family. It extended beyond UT fans. I’d walk around Omaha with him during the College World Series, which he would attend even when Texas didn’t qualify. Walking around a sporting event with Wilson was like walking around the Vatican with the Pope. There were no strangers for Wilson; if you were a fan, you were a friend. That applied to TSU and TCU; Texas Tech and UT Rio Grande Valley. Not sure it applied to Aggies or Sooners, though. There are limits, you know. At a time when we seem more atomized than ever, Scott Wilson’s life stands for community. It stands for family — the bigger, the louder, the messier the better. It stands for the ineffable joy of shared experiences — IRL, as the kids say. Wilson stands for screaming at a game with 100,000 friends, rather than streaming it alone. Above all, he stands for showing up, Scott Wilson was a big part of something bigger than himself. And his spirit will always show up… til Gabriel blows his horn. *Wilson, a lawyer by trade, [was hospitalized](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/sports/college/longhorns/article/scott-wilson-texas-fan-21131811.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) while traveling to see the Texas football team play at Florida on Oct. 4\. It would have been his 595th game. The following tributes were shared by John Bianco and Josh White of UT Athletics.* ## Legendary football coach Mack Brown “One of the things that truly separates college athletics is the passion, pride, and spirit of its fans. There is no greater fan anywhere than Scott Wilson. He has supported his Longhorns since he was a kid, through all the Coach Royal era and beyond. You could always count on seeing him in burnt orange with his Horns Up high every Saturday at home and away. Just an incredibly caring fan and person who will always be remembered for the love and support he gave to all Texas sports for generations.” ## Quarterback Colt McCoy “There’s nothing like playing for the Longhorns, running out to the roar of more than 100,000 fans at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. It’s those fans that make wearing the burnt orange and white so special and Scott Wilson is one of those that really stands out among the most passionate and supportive. He was front and center every game — home and away — always cheering his heart out and whether it was a pregame, during the game or postgame he’d flash you that Hook ‘Em and a smile and you knew he had your back.” ## Wide receiver Quan Cosby “Scott — aka ‘the standard’ as I call him — is arguably the best Longhorn fan we all know. Good, bad, or indifferent, he showed up, and he supported multiple sports in an unwavering way. The run of players and coaches he built friendships with and the group of fans he loyally joined every game to cheer on his Longhorns is pretty remarkable. I’m truly in awe of his dedication and been personally so blessed by his support." ## Pitching legend Huston Street “Scott Wilson was a leader. He was the unofficial mascot, the ringleader and the most loyal fan — a true friend always with hope. He became a tradition, a rite of passage to know him and to earn his respect. He was always there, Horns Up, and loving every second of it — not for himself but for the Texas Longhorns family. He is a Longhorn legend and a tradition to be remembered forever.” ## Head baseball coach Jim Schlossnagle “When you think about what makes Texas Baseball so special, it always comes back to the people — and Scott Wilson is one of those people who truly embodied everything this program stands for. Scott’s been there through it all — from Opening Days to national championship runs — always wearing his burnt orange, always supporting our players and coaches with the same energy and love for the game. You could always count on seeing him in the stands, cheering, smiling and leading the Eyes of Texas. Scott Wilson will always be remembered for his unwavering loyalty and support, as a member of our Texas Baseball family.” ## Longhorn legend Keith Moreland *The Major League Baseball veteran and television commentator interviewed Wilson when he attended his 1,500th game. He shared the following:* “No one person was more passionate about Texas Longhorns Athletics than Scott Wilson. He was always there, cheering, supporting and doing everything he could to help the team. Scott didn’t just attend games, he lived every moment of Texas sports with genuine pride and heart. You could always count on seeing him in burnt orange and making everyone around him feel part of something special. His love for this University and its teams was constant and contagious. Scott Wilson will forever be a Longhorn legend, remembered not just for his incredible streak of support, but for the person he was.” ### Thanks to Texas Law, Her Baby’s Death Was Agonizing. Día de los Muertos Is Helping Her Cope. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/dia-de-los-muertos-ofrenda-mothers-grief-abortion-ban/ Last updated: 2025-10-31T05:00:00.000Z In Samantha Casiano’s house, Sundays are for family. And for the last two years, that’s included a trip to the cemetery. Every week, they visit her daughter Halo’s gravesite. It sits in the middle of their small East Texas hometown. A gray placard lies on the ground with Halo Hope Villasana written in pink script, along with an engraved photo of the tiny infant with angel wings and her brief lifespan: March 29, 2023 (11:47 a.m.) - March 29, 2023 (3:30 p.m.). This week, their Sunday visit falls on Día de los Muertos. Day of the Dead is a multi-day celebration that honors souls who have passed on from the living and dates back to [Aztec and Mayan](https://americanart.si.edu/blog/dia-de-los-muertos-united-states?ref=thebarbedwire.com) cultures. In most Latin American traditions, an altar is set up with photos and offerings of food, trinkets, and candy as a way to remember what loved ones enjoyed while they were alive. The belief is that for one night, the souls visit their families to let them know they’re OK in the afterlife. Casiano didn’t grow up recognizing the tradition. But as she’s grieved her daughter, her family has helped her lean into her Mexican culture, including Día de los Muertos. “I probably wouldn't have really understood it unless my mother-in-law told me, it's a really big thing to embrace death as it's a natural part of life, you know, something that is going to happen, but you acknowledge that with love and respect,” Casiano said. Casiano’s suegra (mother-in-law), Rosalinda Gomez, is from Michoacán, a state along the western coast of Mexico that is recognized by [UNESCO for its celebrations the week ](https://visitmichoacan.com.mx/experiences/noche-de-muertos/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)leading up to and on Día de los Muertos. The family first built an ofrenda for Halo last year. It was a small one, with just a few family photos of Casiano’s grandparents who have died and a picture of Halo. This year, they plan to go bigger. Casiano’s mother-in-law sent her an encouraging note ahead their preparations: *Remember you was crying because you did not know how you can honor Halo so we talk about it and you told me you feel like a part of you died that day. So I told you in Mexico we do the ofrenda to honor the familia we lost. I do it always, every year.* *I told you es okay to cry. The part of you that died es with Mija and will come and smile with us this day.* ### Why Halo died an agonizing death Halo was diagnosed with anencephaly, a fatal fetal anomaly, during a 20 week anatomy scan. Despite being told by doctors that the [baby girl would die at birth](https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2024/03/health/texas-abortion-law-mother-cnnphotos/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Casiano was not allowed to choose an abortion to stop her daughter’s suffering due to [Texas’ strict abortion laws](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-women-invisible-labor-abortion-bans/). In 2021, Texas banned abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected, usually around six weeks. It became the first state in the country with a bounty hunter abortion ban, which incentivizes citizens with a cash “bounty” if they succeed in suing anyone who has helped a person get an abortion. Texas also has a trigger ban in place that outlawed almost all abortions in the state when *Roe v Wade* was overturned. This year, state legislators [walked back some of the previous laws, saying they were too restrictive](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/abortion-clarity-texas-laws/), and have allowed doctors to choose abortions if “the mother’s life is at risk.” But that does not include fatal fetal anomalies like Halo’s. “I can vividly remember her gasping for air. I can remember the colors that she changed as if it was just yesterday. I can remember seeing her without a skull,” Casino said. “I should have had that right to give her mercy and compassion, and it was stripped from me as a mother, and that makes me angry.” Casiano joined a group of mothers in *Zurawski v. State of Texas*, a lawsuit against the state arguing that denied abortion care resulted in risks to their health, fertility, and lives. Though they lost their case, Casiano still joins the other plaintiffs for panels, rallies, bus tours and conferences to advocate for reproductive rights. Despite the time that’s gone by, Casiano still feels pain from her daughter’s loss because of the suffering she says she was forced to go through. “The grieving sneaks up all the time. One day we're just going, having a great day, and then it just kind of comes our way,” Casiano said. “I still get random phone calls from the hospital like the checkups. It's been two plus years, and they'll say, ‘Hey, we're just checking on mommy and baby and see if you guys have such and such appointments.” The World Health Organization recognizes that [many mothers do not receive appropriate and respectful care when their baby dies](https://www.who.int/news-room/spotlight/why-we-need-to-talk-about-losing-a-baby?ref=thebarbedwire.com) during pregnancy or childbirth, despite comparatively high[ infant mortality rates](https://www.marchofdimes.org/peristats/data?reg=99&top=6&stop=92&lev=1&slev=1&obj=1&ref=thebarbedwire.com) in the U.S. versus other developed countries, and the [commonality of miscarriages](https://www.marchofdimes.org/find-support/topics/miscarriage-loss-grief/miscarriage?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=It's%20estimated%20that%20between%2010%20to%2020,before%20a%20person%20even%20knows%20they're%20pregnant.). “The dominant culture in the U.S. does not want to focus on sorrow and loss, grief, illness, aging or death. People who are grieving frequently report receiving messages that they need to ‘move on,’ achieve ‘closure’ or ‘get over it’ more than they are invited to continue sharing the story of their loss,” [Taryn Lindhorst, director of the Center for Oncology and Palliative Care Social Work](https://rightasrain.uwmedicine.org/life/relationships/dia-de-los-muertos-grief-loss?ref=thebarbedwire.com) at the University of Washington School of Social Work, told UW Medicine. Researchers in Denmark looked to [understand how parents grieve the loss of a pregnancy or newborn.](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022395623004971?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Their study, published in 2023, found that parents who had a stillbirth or a newborn die were more likely to be in a chronic grief group a year later, compared to parents who had a miscarriage or ended a pregnancy due to medical reasons. While organizations like the [Center for Reproductive Rights](https://reproductiverights.org/zurawski-v-texas-plaintiffs-stories-remarks/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [Abortion in America](https://abortioninamerica.org/stories/forced-to-carry-a-dying-baby-this-texas-mother-of-four-says-she-didnt-think-it-could-happen-to-her/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [Free & Just](https://www.freeandjust.us/012125-roe-anniversary-texas?ref=thebarbedwire.com) have stepped up to support Casiano in her journey as an advocate, turning to her ancestral traditions with ofrendas has helped bring a sense of emotional healing, even if only temporary. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/photo-2025-10-30-22-45-59.jpg) “I never really did this until, you know, my suegra was like, ‘No, you need to understand that this is what this is for. We do this so that way they know that they're loved and we remember them,’” Casiano said. As with many Indigenous-rooted cultural traditions, the wisdom in ofrendas has been carried through generations of lived experiences. Science is now beginning to document what families have known and practiced for centuries. Canadian researchers studied parental grief after an infant death in the NICU. Their work, [published this summer](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40738634/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), shows that parents’ coping improved with memory-making activities like taking pictures, making handprints, and creating keepsakes. Or in Sam’s case, building out her ofrenda with pictures and colors that honor Halo. “Pink and green are her colors,” Casiano said. “Pink because she's a girl, and green because of anencephaly. Anencephaly is the green ribbon, so we tried our very best to bring awareness to anencephaly.” ### Honoring Halo through advocacy Casiano has found some solace and a purpose in advocating for greater reproductive rights. “I want Texas to make it right,” she said. “I want Texas to make the laws better for other women like myself.” Empathy would have made her loss easier to handle, she said. Empathy for her, carrying a baby deemed incompatible with life. And empathy for Halo. That’s still the part that stings the most, and what leads to some of the hardest questions Casiano gets from people who don’t understand her view that abortion can be the compassionate option. “I have this cousin,” Casiano said, “She's autistic, but she's very blunt. And she's always asking me the best questions. And, you know, she says stuff like, ‘Why do you go over there? She's dead.’ And I'm just like, ‘Yeah, she's gone, but she's in a better place, and we honor her, and we thank her for having to go through that.’” “Even if we did get an abortion, she's still our daughter,” she continued. “But it would be different, though, if we got, if we were able to release her sooner.” She’s been able to communicate some of that through Halo’s ofrenda, thanks to the push from her mother-in-law. “She's like, ‘You don't understand how big it is, Samantha, you need to be able to honor her, and know she's there in spirit. And she knows that you love her and that you're fighting for her, and that you want mercy and compassion for her,’” Casiano said. Those lessons — in how her ancestors handled grief, and how they accepted death as a part of life — have been helpful as Casiano figures out the path ahead. “It's like another life when someone dies, it's another life that you have to learn,” she said. “You have to learn certain traditions and I'm learning and I'm honored to have my suegra Rosie help me with that, because I didn't understand before, but now I'm forced to understand.”. The journey is not easy, but reminders from her mother-in-law about how her Mexican ancestors handled death keep her going: *“We celebrate her after death where she is not in pain because she's free and will visit con tus abuelos.* *You make them proud mijita you are her madre, you know her pain. This day we honor her. The world knows her story because of you, people know she suffer. Your ancestors are proud of your work you doing. Her sangre fluye a través de ti. (Her blood flows through you) On this day you visit the old, you and remember the crying and why you fight.”* ### My Late Dad’s Memory Was an Open Wound. Then I Built My First Ofrenda. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/ofrenda-dads-memory-dia-de-los-muertos/ Last updated: 2025-10-30T13:09:58.000Z I built my first ofrenda in 2018. The base is a set of nesting tables rescued from our garage and given a place of honor between our kitchen and living room. An old black, white, and magenta serapethat lived in my car's trunk acts as cover. The colorful blanket smells like my dad José’s laundry soap; it was a casual inheritance. A gold crucifix rests on a bed of coarse salt, which purifies and protects the souls who visit my altar*.* My never-ending Goth phase meant that I have plenty of skull and skeleton trinkets. Before he died from cancer in 2018, my dad used to teasingly call me Wednesday Addams. Now, seven years later, his photo sits in a dark wood frame, eternally smiling in a denim flat-cap and an orange polo shirt. Next to him is a potted cactus and a Snickers bar, his favorite candy. Those were things he liked in life. He’s been joined by his mother, my husband’s grandma, and other loved ones who have since died. Pan de muerto, a traditional sweet bread placed on altars for the Day of the Dead, sits on the ofrenda along with mugs, white sage, a brown beaded rosary, tealight candles, Campasúchil — also known as Mexican marigolds — and colorful papel picado. “On the Day of the Dead, it’s believed that the veil between the spirit world (the world of the dead) and the tangible world (the world of the living) dissolves,” Luis Gavito, Cultural Ambassador with [M.E.C.A., Multicultural Education and Counseling through the Arts](https://www.meca-houston.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), told *The Barbed Wire.* M.E.C.A. is a Houston-based nonprofit that helps keep underrepresented groups connected to arts and culture. Gavito is the curator of [M.E.C.A.'s *Ofrendas* ‘25 exhibit](https://www.meca-houston.org/ofrenda-exhibition.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “During this brief period the souls of the dead awaken and return to the living world to feast, drink, dance and play music with their loved ones,” Gavito said. Ofrendas honor the souls who return to the earthly plane for the yearly celebration on Nov. 1 and Nov. 2\. The first day of celebration traditionally recognizes deceased children, whereas the second is for deceased adults. Though my family is Mexican-American, we never built ofrendas growing up in Houston. Then, my dad passed away. There was a lot to be done, and, as the first-born Tejano daughter, I had to buy the flowers, hire the mariachi, and book a venue big enough to fit my large, extended family. I took care of my mom, tried not to fight with my dad’s oldest sister, and remembered to thank my uncle — the one who loaned us money for the funeral — during the praying of the rosary. But after my dad was laid to rest, and the socially acceptable grieving time of a couple of months passed, I found myself feeling unmoored. I followed the same grieving patterns I did when I lost a pregnancy a decade before. I wrote about his death, upped my therapy appointments to every week, planted a fig tree in his memory, and tried to accept that I’d live with the loss for the rest of my life. But a few months later I was hurting, and the person who used to make me feel better wasn't around to comfort me. His memory had become an open wound. So I set out to change how I felt when I remembered my dad. My dad had always been my sole connection to my Latinidad. He taught me the importance of hard work and service to others, especially family. He was my translator in Spanish-speaking spaces. He cultivated my love of Mexican cooking and sang Reggaeton, Cumbia, and Mariachi songs. I hoped his ofrenda would connect me to a culture I was terrified of losing — and to keep his spirit alive. “Everyone seeks a way to understand death and cope with grief,” Gavito told *The Barbed Wire*. “Creating an ofrenda can be very therapeutic since it requires reflection and thought.” As I built my altar for my dad, I thought about what made him who he was. A chef by profession, he spent his life feeding people. He was an artist, a singer, and a man who could fix anything. He had a green thumb, a biting wit, and a giving heart. Remembering those things about him helped refocus my grief on his life. He loved chickens, Disney movies, and being a grandfather. So I added those reminders to the ofrenda. According to Gavito, M.E.C.A builds a community ofrenda each year for friends and neighbors. The shared grief helps communities connect through a common bond. However, at a time when Latine communities need solidarity more than ever, the [fear of immigration raids is interfering with public celebrations of Día de los Muertos](https://share.google/5t5i0WA4KOlnfXxaB?ref=thebarbedwire.com)*,* resulting in the cancellation of planned festivities. There seems to be a surplus of grief in the world this year. Countering that grief with celebration, community, and reminiscence is a radical act of resistance*.* Though ofrendas are culturally Mexican, Latine folks aren't the only ones who embrace the traditions of Día de los Muertos. Ofrendas have been built for communities who’ve faced a shared tragedy, like the [Central Texas July 4 floods](https://share.google/m88SetUu2JBAMNP45?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that claimed the [lives of at least 135 people](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DPpzAFhj1p4/?igsh=ejlkM2Y1Njllc3Zq&ref=thebarbedwire.com) and the [victims of the Palestinian genocide](https://www.instagram.com/p/DQAjeBJEkE9/?igsh=dDFkMW5uYnkzODlq&ref=thebarbedwire.com). It's a way of showing both respect for a community's pain while including the living and deceased in a celebration of life. “Cultural heritage is not only about going to museums and seeing artifacts or even going to an ofrenda exhibition, it is about actually sharing and experiencing the stories of our ancestors who have shaped our understanding of life and death,” Gavito told *The Barbed Wire.* This year, as I add handmade alebrijes — colorful papier-mâché spirit guardians — to my ofrenda, I'll think of my dad, the man who passed on to me so much of who I am. I'll remember his smile and the songs he used to sing. I'll remember his laugh and him calling me Sea Monkey, a nickname he gave me at birth. And, as these memories flow, my grief will ebb just a little more. ### Texas Is a Lot More Queer Than You Think. I Am Too. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-is-a-lot-more-queer-than-you-think/ Last updated: 2026-07-18T17:36:10.000Z I think I need to start at the beginning, because I’ve never talked about this publicly. During freshman orientation at McGill University, I ended up on a pedestrian-only stone street strung with pink decorations: The Gay Village in Montreal, Canada. There’s a Saint-Pierre-Apôtre Church with a Chapel of Hope dedicated to AIDS victims. Rainbows. Murals. When I was last there, more than 10 years ago, there were cute boutiques and hair salons, tattoo parlors, and a McDonalds for post-dancing McFlurries. It’s where I saw my first-ever drag performance, and it’s where I shared my first kiss with another woman in 2009. I was barely 18, and I realized one day that I had a massive, ridiculous, world-ending crush on an older girl in my (you guessed it) Introduction to Women’s Studies class. And also a bespectacled brunette editor on the school paper. And this girl in the waiting room of my counselor’s office. And one who lived in the all-girls dormitory with me. And this — anyway, you get it. I wore increasing amounts of plaid from Urban Outfitters. I got my ear cartilage pierced. I saw Tegan & Sara perform live. I had a lot of questions, so I spent hours on [AfterEllen.com](http://afterellen.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). I watched “The L Word” and “Queer as Folk,” and then I texted with friends who’d come out to me years earlier. It was the first real secret I ever told my brother. This one night, after dancing to Lady Gaga at a gay club that charged a cover, my date and I experienced a rite of passage. We were in a post-dancing haze walking back toward the dorm at McGill, when we stopped and kissed at a street light. Two dudes yelled “dyke!” from across the otherwise empty street. It paled in comparison to what I’ve experienced in my life since, but I felt shamed — like we hadn’t been careful enough, despite the fact that gay marriage had been legalized in Canada more than four years earlier. (For what it’s worth, Facebook tells me that she and her wife just had a baby boy this past summer.) I came out as bisexual to the neighbors on my dorm room floor using glitter-covered postcards. I had a serious boyfriend in college, too, which is probably why in November 2011, I reported a feature on bisexuality, biphobia, and its place in the queer world for [*The McGill Daily*](https://www.mcgilldaily.com/2011/11/%E2%80%9Ci%E2%80%99m-not-about-being-men%E2%80%99s-sexual-dream-come-true%E2%80%9D/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Please be forewarned, it’s like a parody of itself. And today feels dated, which is a real relief. When I graduated, I took the first opportunity I was offered: an internship covering the Texas Capitol in Austin. I grew up in Texas, but I had never heard that [“Cowboys are frequently secretly fond of each other,”](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/more-gay-cowboys/) which is, of course, a song written by Lubbock musician Ned Sublette in 1981 and covered by Willie Nelson in 2006. I wasn’t sure what I was in for, how comfortable I would be expressing this newly discovered part of my identity, or whether that brief street harassment I experienced as a freshman might look bigger and scarier in a place like Texas. Even after moving back, I was woefully ignorant about how queer Texas is. As it turns out, Texas is one of the queerest states in the country. Only California has more LGBTQ+ identifying residents. Texas is home to more queer people than [all the queer people in Canada.](https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/12-581-x/2023001/sec6-eng.htm?ref=thebarbedwire.com) And [more than double](https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/press/lgbt-msa-press-release/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) the number of queer New Yorkers. I had a Brooklyn roommate — a fabulous Italian cook, now a [phenomenally talented drag queen](https://www.instagram.com/bigxatlas/?hl=en&ref=thebarbedwire.com) — who used to enter my room with the greeting, “Hey, sweaty!” Now multiply that energy by [1.8 million](https://www.ppic.org/blog/californias-lgbt-population/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Texas is home to vibrant gay, lesbian, and drag scenes. And not just in Austin, Houston, and Dallas, but in many, many smaller areas. Gay and trans mayors run cities — Annise Parker was one of the first openly gay mayors of a U.S. city when she was elected in Houston in 2009 — but a lot of queer people in small towns have not come out to their constituencies. When I graduated and moved back to Austin at 21, I spent my nights drinking Redbull-vodka slushies while dancing to Robyn during “Tuesgays” at Barbarella’s on Red River. The night a drag queen at Oilcan Harry’s looked at my outfit and told me I “better work, bitch” was a formative experience. It was 2013, so naturally I was dating a segue tour guide who performed stand-up jokes about me. She’s the first woman I ever said “I love you” to romantically. I handled it poorly, which is a generous way of putting it. Of course, when I moved to Waco for work, I didn’t stop being queer. I dated a bartender whom I would literally pick up and spin around at her workplace — the way people do [on “The Bachelor.”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2PV2BEou8c&ref=thebarbedwire.com) She was funny, clever, and kind. She kept me company when I was sick. Like a lot of failed lesbian relationships, we’re still good friends. A queer colleague at *The Waco Tribune-Herald* was the first person to introduce me to the question, “Are you [family](https://www.reddit.com/r/lgbt/comments/2x3b75/a%5Ffinger%5Fto%5Fthe%5Fpulse%5Fof%5Flgbt%5Fculture%5Fare%5Fyou/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)?” Then, on the morning of June 26, 2015, I was about to head to the office with my police scanner when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in *Obergefell v. Hodges*, legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide. At the time, I was a local crime reporter — but this story was big, and we had only a handful of full-time staff. So I was assigned to cover it. McLennan County was one of 16 counties out of 254 in Texas to issue marriage licenses that day. It was one of the profound joys of my life to [witness 10 couples commit to each other](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/wacotrib-com/news/local/crime-courts/article%5F2e33fb9f-5827-55d8-afb5-9edae3e9203c.html) in the county clerk’s office. Unlike covering a pride protest or a march, this was the first time I was interviewing queer Texans who were not part of a demonstration of any kind. Just regular Texans from small towns who loved their partners. --- ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/tbw_bigandbright_pillheader-1.png) *Subscribe to the *Big & Bright 🌈⭐👏* newsletter, where we’ll be covering the good, the bad, and the joyful aspects of queer life in Texas* --- When the news broke, 32-year-old Jessica Preciado and her fiancée, 31-year-old Jaclyn Owens, were at an OB-GYN appointment checking on the health of their baby girl, whom Jaclyn was carrying. The baby was due in three months, they told me. They’d been together eight years, and they had a commitment ceremony in Las Vegas four years earlier. But they didn’t know how long they’d have to wait to get legally married where they lived, in Hewitt. “I just really wanted it to happen before the baby comes,” Jaclyn told me that day. They were worried about the cost and logistics of having a baby — and being in the hospital — while not being married. By 11 a.m., they had a marriage license, beginning the 72-hour mandatory waiting period before a Texas wedding. They were the third same-sex couple to ever receive a marriage license in Waco. “Now we can do it like everyone else,” Jessica told me about becoming a parent. An hour later, I watched Sylvia Ramirez, 44, and Rachel Segers, 35, who lived in Mart, get their license too. “We’re going to get married now before they change their minds,” Rachel told me. Another woman, Mary, said she had a fear that we’d wake up the next day and Texas would find a way to prevent her and her soon-to-be-wife Tammy from getting married. She wasn’t willing to provide her last name for the newspaper, out of fear of discrimination at work. “I never thought it would happen in my lifetime,” said Tammy. To my delight, and because we had great photographers, one of the couples I interviewed appeared on the cover of [*The New York Times*](https://x.com/nytimes/status/614609906323337216?ref=thebarbedwire.com) the next morning. Forty-seven-year-old Michael Crow wore a burnt orange University of Texas baseball cap. His soon-to-be-husband, 44-year-old Robert Woodcock, was wearing a hat too, along with a SpaceX t-shirt. Both men wore cargo shorts and beards. On our front page, both men were [beaming with joy](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/wacotrib-com/news/local/crime-courts/article%5F2e33fb9f-5827-55d8-afb5-9edae3e9203c.html). In the *Times,* they were kissing on the lips. > [](https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/614609906323337216?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Robert saw the news of the ruling online around 9 a.m. from his desk at his office. “I started crying right there at work and called Michael,” he told me that day. They received their marriage license in front of my eyes, around 1 p.m., standing right between framed Texas and American flags. They told me they were planning their wedding for July 4. Before the news broke, Robert told me he worried he’d never be able to legally marry his partner of two years. Then, in an instant, that all changed. It meant everything, he said. “To be able to stand and say, ‘I love this guy with everything that’s in my heart,’” Robert said. “It doesn’t matter what other people might think.” He turned to his soon-to-be husband and said: “I love you and will always love you.” ## You Already Know How Hard It Is Of course, there’s the bad too. A few months ago, we wrapped up the 2025 legislative session(s) and, as has become a cruel habit of Texas politicians, lawmakers have [once again](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/08/28/texas-house-bathroom-bill-transgender/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) made the lives of LGBTQ+ Texans materially harder. In 2020, the Supreme Court ruled that employers cannot discriminate against LGBTQ+ Texans on the basis of their sexuality or gender identity. But, in 2022, after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton [made our state a plaintiff](https://www.texastribune.org/2022/10/06/texas-lawsuit-lgbt-workers/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in a suit against the federal government, a Trump-appointed judge ruled that Texas [employers can](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/article/Federal-judge-rules-Texas-can-discriminate-17491622.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) fire you on the basis of how you dress, your pronouns, or the bathroom you use. That same year, the state’s department of health [removed](https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/texas-continues-remove-lgbtq-suicide-prevention-resources-state-websit-rcna18376?ref=thebarbedwire.com) resources for LGBTQ youths from its [suicide prevention webpage](https://www.hhs.texas.gov/services/mental-health-substance-use/mental-health-crisis-services/suicide-prevention?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — sending a stunning signal about its apparent apathy for the death of queer children. “We’re talking about a group of young people who are more than [four times as likely](https://www.thetrevorproject.org/research-briefs/estimate-of-how-often-lgbtq-youth-attempt-suicide-in-the-u-s/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to attempt suicide compared to their peers,” a director of advocacy and government affairs at The Trevor Project told NBC at the time. To be queer in Texas is to be enraged, joyful, desperately frustrated, emboldened by solidarity, sometimes scared for yourself and your friends, and other times grateful for a thoughtful, sparkling community. In Texas, and in America at large, I know this personally, and I have witnessed it professionally. I’ve edited or reported on the full gamut. [Marriage proposals on the Texas House floor](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/one-of-the-first-black-gay-men-to-serve-in-the-texas-capitol-just-proposed-on-the-house-floor/). [The erasure of Pride crosswalks.](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/houston-removes-rainbow-pride-crosswalk-abbott/) [Bomb threats at drag shows.](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/an-austin-drag-brunch-received-a-bomb-threat-did-cops-do-enough-to-help/) [Threats of violence at schools.](https://www.thedailybeast.com/im-going-to-fucking-kill-your-kids-california-woman-charged-over-voicemails-to-catholic-school/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [HIV diagnoses.](https://www.thedailybeast.com/queer-eyes-jonathan-van-ness-reveals-he-is-hiv-positive/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [Trans Texans killed by violence.](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/40-texans-honored-for-trans-day-of-remembrance-amid-concerns-of-more-violence/) [The Pulse nightclub shooting.](https://www.thedailybeast.com/killer-cool-and-calm-while-negotiating-from-pulse-bathroom/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) And so many other [hate incidents.](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/thereve-been-93-anti-lgbtq-hate-crimes-in-texas-since-2022-data-shows/) In July 2024, Joshua Ybarra was harassed with anti-gay slurs while he was beaten [so severely](https://www.kxan.com/investigations/few-hate-crimes-are-prosecuted-in-texas-attack-against-austin-gay-man-could-be-one-of-them/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) by three men that he went unconscious after leaving a gay club in Austin. In March 2025, Travis County [declined to prosecute](https://www.kxan.com/investigations/few-hate-crimes-are-prosecuted-in-texas-attack-against-austin-gay-man-could-be-one-of-them/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) the case. In 2023, Akira Ross was gunned down in Cedar Park by a man yelling homophobic slurs in a violent attack that was caught on video. “It was a hate crime,” her father told the[ *Austin American-Statesman*](https://www.statesman.com/story/news/local/2023/06/07/akira-ross-bradley-stanford-austin-cedar-park-tx-partner-father-say-killed-because-she-was-gay-lgbtq/70294695007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Ross’s alleged shooter was arrested on murder [charges](https://www.kxan.com/news/crime/affidavit-23-year-old-man-shot-killed-woman-after-calling-her-a-gay-slur/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), with a bail set at $1,000,000. Chaya Raichik, better known as [“Libs of TikTok](https://www.advocate.com/hate-crimes/stochastic-terrorism-libs-tiktok-gop?ref=thebarbedwire.com),” was tied to 10 hate incidents in Texas between June 2022 and June 2024, including bomb threats at four Planet Fitness locations, after she highlighted their trans-inclusive locker room policies. A Fort Worth middle school also faced bomb threats in March [after a post by Raichik](https://www.keranews.org/education/2024-03-18/northwest-isd-teacher-subject-of-libs-of-tiktok-posts-targeted-by-hoax-bomb-threat?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Then, in June, another bomb threat forced the [temporary cancellation of a drag show](https://austinfreepress.org/queens-gambit-performers-vow-to-return-after-bomb-threat-shutters-drag-queen-show/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in Austin. As our contributor Kit O’Connell reported in the [*Texas Observer*](https://www.texasobserver.org/anti-lgbtq-incidents-texas/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a Midland drag show scheduled to take place in January was canceled over threats. In September, Austin police [issued arrest warrants](https://www.kut.org/crime-justice/2025-09-18/barton-springs-assault-hate-crime-transphobic-arrest-warrant-austin-police?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for two men who were accused of a transphobic Barton Springs assault. Queer people have always lived here. [According to](https://www.brandeis.edu/writing-program/write-now/2021-2022/miller-hana/index.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [historians](https://books.google.com/books/about/Queer%5FCowboys.html?id=WuQYDAAAQBAJ&ref=thebarbedwire.com), on the 19th-century Western frontier, men lived in a primarily homosocial society — and sometimes, men turned to each other for physical intimacy. Unfortunately, as long as there have been queer Texans, they have faced discrimination. There’s only one time in its history that the Texas Senate has officially investigated anyone for sexual harassment — and it wasn’t Charlie Wilson or any of the men you’ve read headlines about. It was in 2001, when [three women were accused of “lesbian recruitment](https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/texas-senate-sexual-harassment/?ref=thebarbedwire.com),” then fired, in a case that [*The Austin Chronicle*](https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/capitol-chronicle-11710187/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) called “The Senate’s Witch Burning.” “In my heart of hearts I think (she) got fired because she was gay,” one of the women’s’ friend and lawyer, Karl Bayer, told us when we were reporting for [*Texas Monthly*](https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/texas-senate-sexual-harassment/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), “and the whole thing could have exposed, ‘Oh my god, the Senate has hired gay people.’ ” ## Big & Bright 🌈⭐️👏 There’s a reason that I’ve only really hinted online about my bisexuality until now. I know Texans can be conservative. I’m from here. My extended family lives here. I’ve been trying to avoid giving my aging grandparents a heart attack. And I have always been vaguely afraid of the lack of job protections for queer Texans. (See: the Texas Senate.) Mostly it’s been about fear and privilege. There’s privilege in the fact that I appear straight, and I’m bisexual — which means anytime I have dated men, I’ve been sort of invisibly queer. For a long time there was fear of discrimination at work, but now I’m very lucky to work somewhere that isn’t an issue. But frankly, I’m starting to get sick of this narrative of disenfranchisement, hate crimes, discrimination, and threats being the only one. With how we talk about it, it’s easy to feel Texans — not just Texas politicians — are more conservative than they are. In 2023, [Texas Politics Project](https://texaspolitics.utexas.edu/set/should-same-sex-marriage-be-legal-texas-april-2023?ref=thebarbedwire.com#overall) asked more than 1,000 registered voters whether they thought same-sex marriage should be legal and found an almost even split on the issue. (Nationally, about [71% of Americans](https://news.gallup.com/poll/506636/sex-marriage-support-holds-high.aspx?ref=thebarbedwire.com) support same-sex marriage, a fact I hope we all remember if Obergefell ever gets struck down.) “Public opinion in Texas supports the passage of non-discrimination protections for LGBT people,” according to [an employment discrimination study](https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/publications/employ-discrim-sogi-tx/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) published by UCLA in 2015\. “In response to a national poll conducted in 2011, 73% of those polled in Texas said that Congress should pass a federal law to prohibit employment discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.” That means there are more queer Texans and queer allies in Texas than conservative lawmakers and commentators want you to think. At *The Barbed Wire*, we believe in mischief, joke-making, and the importance of the [fourth estate](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fourth%20estate?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Embracing the truth, even when it isn’t convenient. And acknowledging our viewpoint instead of pretending not to have one. My fulfillment of that ethos, which is essential to my understanding of ethical storytelling, has been incomplete until now. I’m a millennial woman journalist with no husband, no children, and a small dog who might as well be a cat. If you’ve been paying any attention, you know that basically makes me Vice President [JD Vance’s worst nightmare](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OC66LWCBjlg&ref=thebarbedwire.com). Now that [Libs of TikTok convinced Gov. Greg Abbott](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/greg-abbott-libsoftiktok-lgbtq/) to threaten every city’s funding if they don’t erase rainbow crosswalks, I feel an imperative to remind us all that *there are a lot of us.* We’re everywhere. Luckily, we’ve got help on that score. The Kind Clinic and Texas Health Action are underwriting queer coverage from *The Barbed Wire* in what will be our first sponsored vertical. It’s called Big & Bright, and it’ll include a newsletter delivered right to your inboxes every two weeks with original reporting and curation of queer Texas culture and news. All essays, reporting, and analysis will be editorially independent. We’ll be writing about the good, the bad, the joyful. Queer people in Texas aren’t always the victims of a tragedy. Sometimes we’re the artist, the hero, the performer, the jokester, the observer — or the leader of a digital newsroom, in my case. It’s important to me that I’m transparent in this moment, because I’m not just an ally, as I have often portrayed myself online. I’m family. And because I’m about to ask queer people in Texas to tell us their stories, I want to be absolutely clear that I’m in it with you — alongside rockstars, politicians, and celebrities that surprised me, frankly. I read [Tig Notaro](https://www.houstoniamag.com/arts-and-culture/2017/12/tig-notaro-netflix-special-the-heights-theater-houston?ref=thebarbedwire.com)’s books and listen to her podcasts. I’ve watched [Sha’Carri Richardson](https://www.outsports.com/2024/12/30/24105550/shacarri-richardson-olympics-track-field-paris-relay-team-usa-bisexual-gold-medal/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=But%20in%20a%20performance%20that,I'm%20better.%E2%80%9D) race. If you’re a fan of St. Vincent, Demi Lovato, or Maren Morris, they too are queer Texans. There are historical figures like [Congresswoman Barbara Jordan](https://www.businessinsider.com/black-lgbtq-women-congress-black-history-month-pride-month-2023-2?ref=thebarbedwire.com), but also gubernatorial candidate [Sheriff Lupe Valdez](https://www.texastribune.org/2018/05/22/texas-democratic-gubernatorial-runoff-results-lupe-valdez-andrew-white/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and [Congresswoman Julie Johnson](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxxPA6aFkVs&t=6s&ref=thebarbedwire.com), along with several out, gay state representatives currently serving in the state legislature. Also [San Antonio’s current mayor, Gina Ortiz Jones](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/07/us/gina-ortiz-jones-elected-san-antonio-mayor.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Maybe you knew Alyssa Edwards, the famous drag queen, lived in Dallas. But did you realize that “Queer Eye”’s Bobby Berk and Karamo Brown are both from Texas? And that Jonathan Van Ness moved to Austin after filming a season here? That means at one point a *majority* of the “Queer Eye” guys were Texans. As Eric Webb [once wrote for us](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/more-gay-cowboys/), “Is Beyoncé gay? No, but also, yes.” Same goes for San Antonio’s Joan Crawford. We’ll be cooking up in-the-moment cultural coverage of what’s happening both online and irl — like [reviewing Khalid’s new album](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/everybody-say-thank-you-khalid-for-reviving-the-male-pop-star/) when it dropped earlier this month. There’s a whole history of [gay cowboys](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/more-gay-cowboys/), if you know where to look. There’s [queer line-dancing,](https://neonrainbowstx.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and there are [gay rodeos](https://www.nbcdfw.com/video/news/local/a-look-at-the-texas-gay-rodeo-in-denton/3514655/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Adult summer camps. Churches. Roller derby leagues. Queer fight clubs. Filmmakers. Scientists. Academics. Police officers. Pastors. Ballroom dancers. Candle makers. Two bearded guys in cargo shorts getting marriage licenses in Waco on a random weekday. *These are the normies.* The people in the Capitol who are obsessed with which bathrooms we use, what we do in our own homes, and what kind of art we make? The feds who want to strip away retirement benefits from [trans Air Force veterans](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/u-s-air-force-to-deny-retirement-pay-for-transgender-troops-being-separated-from-service?ref=thebarbedwire.com) being forcibly removed from their positions? *Those are the weirdos.* They’re invested in erasing our stories, our presence, and our lives because it makes them look like they’re winning a culture war — and that is how they’re maintaining power. But that’s villain shit. And not the camp kind. So, if you’ve made it this far, please subscribe to our [free newsletter](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/subscribe-big-bright-newsletter/), buy [our pride merch](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/shop/), and send us your absolute gayest Texas stories. Welcome to a new Big & Bright era in Texas. I bet they’ll hate it. ### After 220 Days, Leqaa Kordia Is the Last Columbia Protester in ICE Detention. She’s Still Fighting for Freedom. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/leqaa-kordia-palestinian-protester-ice-detention/ Last updated: 2025-10-27T13:32:59.000Z Leqaa Kordia, 32, attended her asylum hearing via webcam on Thursday, Oct. 23\. The blue light of the monitor displayed multiple windows framing her lawyer, the judge, and the government prosecutor. Her team laid out an argument it had made multiple times already: If Kordia, who is Palestinian, is deported to Israel, she will be placed in the custody of the government that her lawyers say has killed almost 200 members of her family. She attended the Webex hearing from the crowded women’s wing of [Prairieland Detention Center in North Texas](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/new-details-july-4-ice-attack-holes-feds-case/), where she’s been detained for over 220 days. Immigration and Customs Enforcement initially arrested her for overstaying a student visa and participating in a pro-Palestine protest at Columbia University. But her continued detention has been the result of additional allegations from the Department of Homeland Security, which has claimed money sent to family members in Gaza as proof of terrorism, and consulting a lawyer as evidence that she’s a flight risk. Kordia has been granted bond — twice — by an immigration judge who deemed the evidence against her insufficient, and determined that she isn’t a threat to the community or a flight risk. Yet, the Trump administration has repeatedly maneuvered to keep her detained. Under past presidential administrations, Kordia likely would have been free to carry out her immigration case from the comfort of her home, according to her legal team. That, however, has changed as the Trump administration has used previously extreme measures like overnight transfers and automatic stays to overrule judges and carry out an aggressive anti-immigration agenda. [Ward Sakeik](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/ward-sakeik-ice-custody-beautiful-sisterh/), a fellow stateless Palestinian who became friends with Kordia while they were both held in Prairieland, was detained while returning from her honeymoon. DHS argued that she wasn’t a U.S. citizen and traveled over international waters as grounds for detention, despite an order of supervision allowing her to stay in the U.S. Sakeik was detained for five months. The treatment of Palestinians and those who have spoken out about the war in Gaza has been particularly stark as President Donald Trump came into office declaring protesters anti-semitic and supporters of terrorists. Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist and legal U.S. resident who gained prominence as the first person arrested for protesting at Columbia University in 2024, was detained at LaSalle Detention Center in Louisiana for 104 days before his release in June. In September, [a judge ordered](https://apnews.com/article/mahmoud-khalil-trump-palestinian-deportations-96781307b487e7f616578352b1d94d01?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that he be deported to Syria or Algeria for failing to disclose information on a green card application and for being a security risk; his legal team has [continued to fight the decision](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/21/mahmoud-khalil-appeals-ice-detentions?ref=thebarbedwire.com). But unlike Sakeik and Kahlil, Kordia is still languishing in detention. “I have never seen another legal context in which the government can detain someone for so long on the basis of so little evidence,” said Travis Fife of Texas Civil Rights Project, who is representing Kordia in a federal habeas corpus case. “As someone who has watched a lot of bail hearings and arraignments and plea hearings in some of the most rural parts of the state, it's been pretty wild and jaw dropping to see just how extraordinary an amount of power the executive has to keep people like Leqaa, who they don't like, detained.” Following a request for comment, DHS provided a statement to *The Barbed Wire:* “On March 13, 2025, HSI Newark arrested Leqaa Kordia, from the West Bank (Palestine), for immigration violations related to overstaying her expired student visa. She violated the terms of her student visa. Previously, in April 2024, Kordia was arrested by local law enforcement for her involvement in pro-Hamas protests at Columbia University in New York City. \[sic\] “Korida was also found to be providing financial support to individuals living in nations hostile to the U.S. \[sic\] “On August 28, a judge granted Korida \[sic\] bond. On September 11, DHS filed a stay to the Board of Immigration Appeals to ensure that she is not released from ICE custody during the appeal process.” Kordia’s lawyers have called her “the last one standing.” Muslim community leader Imam Omar Suleiman called her “the forgotten prisoner,” in an [op-ed](https://mondoweiss.net/2025/06/leqaa-kordia-the-forgotten-prisoner/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) published by *Mondoweiss*. Yet, Kordia has begun to make herself known. In recent weeks, her case has been picked up by the [Associated Press](https://apnews.com/article/leqaa-kordia-trump-palestinian-protests-campus-crackdown-ed4bf05659d889a2a9a36e7181786971?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [*The Intercept*](https://theintercept.com/2025/10/02/gaza-remittance-wire-transfer-hamas-ice/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and the [*New Yorker*](https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/the-last-columbia-protester-in-ice-detention?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “I am not forgotten by my people,” Kordia said in a statement to *The Barbed Wire*. “I do agree, though, that there are a lot of people here that the outside world doesn't know about. I was one of them.” Kordia’s reason for speaking with *The Barbed Wire* and other outlets, she said, is the same one that brought her to the protest at Columbia in the first place. “We deserve to live in free land,” Kordia said of Palestinians. “I'm going to be always advocating for their rights and my civil rights as long as I live.” **‘The Racism Underlying All of This Is Just So Blatant’** Kordia was born in Jerusalem and grew up in the nearby West Bank city of Ramallah, living with her father after her parents were divorced. She came to the United States in 2016 on a tourist visa to visit her mom, who is a U.S. citizen and lives in Paterson, New Jersey. She took the opportunity to enroll in an English program, first at Uceda Paterson and later at Bergen County Career Advancement Training, and she got a student visa. Later, Kordia’s mother filed a visa petition for her to remain in the U.S. as a family member of a citizen. The petition was approved though a visa wasn’t yet available. That’s when, in 2022, Kordia said she withdrew from school — a violation of her student visa — after receiving bad advice from a teacher-turned-friend. “I dropped out of school thinking that, ‘Now I have a lawful status in the United States.’ I thought that was enough for me to stay legally,” she said. “Unfortunately, I overstayed, but not intentionally.” Outside of school, Kordia took care of her mom and half-brother, who has mental disabilities, according to her lawyers and court records. She stayed in touch with relatives in Gaza, and was distraught after Israel’s military offensive following the attacks on Oct. 7, 2023 by Hamas. She’s since lost around 175 family members who have died from what the [U.N. has found to be a genocide](https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/09/israel-has-committed-genocide-gaza-strip-un-commission-finds?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Wanting to do something for her family, Kordia said she took to the streets to protest. She attended several, including one in D.C. in January 2024 calling for a ceasefire. In April 2024, Kordia was arrested with 100 other protesters at Columbia University. The charges were dismissed and sealed. That was the end of it — until Trump’s inauguration. In his first few days, the president issued an [executive order](https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/additional-measures-to-combat-anti-semitism/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) directing agencies to find ways to deport pro-Palestinian activists. In March, immigration agents began questioning Kordia’s mother and uncle, according to court records, and requested the sealed records from New York police. HSI also put traces on her WhatsApp account and subpoenaed Western Union records. Kordia got a lawyer, then voluntarily met with ICE. She was arrested and taken from New Jersey to Prairieland. Kordia has been in Prairieland ever since, as DHS has taken one rare move after the next. In April, DHS argued in immigration court that Kordia was a danger to the public and had ties to terrorism. Their argument hinged on payments Kordia had sent to family in Gaza. However, the judge found no evidence that the remittance payments were connected to terrorism and ordered her release on $20,000 bond. In what her attorneys described in court records as “a departure from prior agency practice,” DHS appealed the bond decision to the Board of Immigration Appeals and also exercised an automatic stay — keeping her in detention “despite her lack of criminal history and the agency’s own rating of her as low risk.” “The racism underlying all of this is just so blatant,” said Sarah Sherman-Stokes, Kordia’s immigration lawyer and a professor at Boston University’s immigrants’ rights clinic. “I think the implication that doing something that immigrants do every single day in this country, and frankly, that keeps, like the global economy afloat — that is sending remittances to their families and people they love — suggesting that that is some kind of mysterious or dangerous act I think is deeply racist and Islamophobic.” In tandem with bond proceedings, Kordia’s legal team filed a habeas petition arguing that her First Amendment rights and her right to due process had been violated. In June, a magistrate judge agreed, but a district judge sent it back to the magistrate to hear further arguments. In August, the Board of Immigration Appeals also sent the case back to an immigration judge for further fact-finding on the remittance payments. “We provided, basically, an affidavit from everyone to whom she has sent money, with each person explaining, ‘She sent me money because I needed surgery,’ ‘She sent me money because I couldn't afford my bills,’ ‘She sent me money to buy gifts for her nieces,’” Sherman-Stokes told *The Barbed Wire*. Each family member also attested that they aren’t a member of Hamas or any other terrorist organization. In September, the judge again ruled that the government didn’t have enough evidence to hold her in detention. And DHS appealed again, and again filed for an emergency stay to prevent her release, which the Board of Immigration Appeals granted. **‘More Vulnerable’** At her most recent asylum hearing, Kordia’s team contested deportation on the grounds of her safety. She now awaits the judge’s decision. Her lawyers estimate that may come in November, though that’s uncertain, given the repeated legal pushback from the prosecution. Even compared to other pro-Palestinian protesters who have been detained by the Trump administration — including Khalil and eight others mentioned in Kordia’s habeas petition — Kordia’s case stands out. “I think she is in some ways more vulnerable. She's not a student at Columbia,” said Sherman-Stokes. “She's just a young woman who happens to be of Palestinian descent, trying to live her life in Paterson, New Jersey.” Sherman-Stokes believes that “DHS wants Leqaa to give up and accept removal,” so the administration can celebrate it as a win. “I fear that it will deter others from speaking out about things that they care about and things that they believe in,” she said, “and I think that's really scary.” As litigation continues, Kordia remains singularly focused on raising awareness of the ongoing genocide in Palestine, which could have already claimed over 680,000 lives, according to a [UN briefing](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/0547CTY7xj4?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Israel has killed almost 100 Palestinians and wounded over 200 since the most recent ceasefire brokered by the U.S. earlier this month, according to [reporting from *Al Jazeera*](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/10/20/has-the-gaza-ceasefire-been-broken?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “I'm trying my best to shed the light on what's happening in Palestine in general, and specifically the Gaza genocide. The occupation, mass arrests and everything,” Kordia said. “When I chose to go to the protest it was my way of shedding the light on what's happening to my people, my family, beloved Palestine.” To Kordia’s team, the lengths to which the Trump administration has gone to keep her detained amounts to silencing dissent — and should concern anyone who wants to voice disagreement with the government. “If a young Palestinian woman cannot show up and mourn the loss of her family and celebrate her Palestinian identity in a demonstration with other people, then to me we've lost the game on civil society,” Fife said. “Leqaa’s confinement is a symbol of what the state can do when they disagree with the message you're announcing.” ### Your Local Ballot Actually Matters More Than the Presidential One URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/voting-local-elections/ Last updated: 2025-10-24T15:35:56.000Z Early voting is underway for the Nov. 4 election, and you may be asking yourself, *what’s the point?* Don’t worry, you’re in good company. Texans love to gripe about property taxes, potholes, and school funding, but when it’s time to vote for the people who actually fix (or ignore) those things, most folks suddenly remember they’ve got laundry to do. Sure, we show up for the flashy stuff: presidents, senators, maybe governors if the attack ads are spicy enough. But the elections that decide your water rates, your kid’s school, and whether your street gets paved? Crickets. Jon Taylor, chair of the political science department at the University of Texas at San Antonio, tries to hammer that point home to his students. Unlike federal elections, those “at the state and local level — particularly the local level — often have far more direct impact on citizens’ lives,” he told *The Barbed Wire*. “From taxes to infrastructure to education to water to public safety to quality of life, these elections’ potential for immediacy regularly ignites great passion and usually end up suffering from low voter turnout anyway,” he said. Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston, put it even more directly. “Decisions made at the local level affect people’s day-to-day lives,” he told *The Barbed Wire*. “Local officials set policy on education, policing and public safety, water supply and drainage, local taxes, and road maintenance.” “These policies are often more influential on life than federal decisions,” he added. And yet, almost no one shows up. Oklahoma City just [approved a $2.7 billion bond package for civic improvements](https://www.okc.gov/News-articles/OKC-voters-approve-2025-bond?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — the largest in its history. Sounds like a big deal, right? Less than nine percent of voters bothered to participate, Taylor said. Texas isn’t much better. Taylor said off-year elections for state constitutional amendments typically draw [fewer than 10 percent of registered voters](https://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/historical/70-92.shtml?utm%5Fsource=chatgpt.com). Even hot mayoral races in big cities rarely crack 20 percent, he said. (Austin’s an exception — it moved its mayoral elections to even-numbered years, and turnout shot up to around 51% in 2024, he said.) But that apathy has a silver lining: It gives even more power to those who *do* vote. “A voter’s vote carries more weight in local elections because turnout tends to be smaller … so each individual vote has a bigger influence on the outcome,” Rottinghaus said. And it’s not like this year’s ballot is boring. There’s plenty for Texans to weigh in on. In Austin, [Proposition Q would raise the city’s property tax rate by 20 percent](https://www.texasobserver.org/austin-property-tax-rate-election-prop-q/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to maintain basic city services. San Antonio voters are considering two proposals — [Propositions A and B](https://sanantonioreport.org/what-is-prop-a-prop-b-bexar-county-venue-tax-election-ballot-language-explainer/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — that would increase the hotel and car rental taxes to fund a new Coliseum Complex and Spurs arena. Meanwhile, Houston and Tarrant County are holding special elections to fill vacant seats [in Congress ](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/10/20/texas-18th-congressional-district-special-election-voter-confusion/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)and the [state Senate](https://fortworthreport.org/2025/10/18/2-southlake-republicans-a-fort-worth-democrat-race-to-win-texas-senate-election/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Statewide, there are [17 proposed state constitutional amendments](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-nov-election/) and dozens of local measures on the table this fall — representing billions of dollars and major policy choices. When I asked Taylor if this election feels any different, he said there are a few shifts worth watching. “I definitely see a few differences this time,” he said. “Austin asking for a tax increase to fund municipal services is definitely one where tax cuts and tax caps by the Legislature have starved local governments.” In Austin, the aforementioned [Proposition Q](https://www.texasobserver.org/austin-property-tax-rate-election-prop-q/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) would raise the city’s property tax rate by 20 percent to maintain basic city services. The $110 million increase would cover both existing needs, like fire department overtime and low-income housing assistance, and new initiatives, including expanded mental health programs, park maintenance, wildfire prevention, and a more than doubling of the Homeless Strategy Office budget. That measure has generated some backlash, though, as various anti-tax groups have been railing against the increase. (Case in point: As I was writing this story, I got an anti-Prop Q text. It urged me to vote no, saying, “Austin is already too unaffordable for so many.”) And early anecdotal evidence doesn’t look good for the measure. CBS Austin [reporter Vinny Martorano interviewed in-line voters](https://x.com/VinnyMartorano/status/1980318166300684457?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on the first day of early voting on Monday. “Everyone I’ve spoken with is voting no,” he wrote on X. > [](https://twitter.com/VinnyMartorano/status/1980318166300684457?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Meanwhile in San Antonio, [North East ISD is holding an election for a whopping $495 million bond proposal](https://www.neisd.net/About-NEISD/District-Details/Critical-Updates/Bond-2025/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Taylor said that is a response to “state property tax cuts and the budget fight between Abbott and the Legislature in 2023 that led to budget shortfalls and (staff cuts) in a lot of school districts across the state.” Rottinghaus agreed that the local level is where the state’s biggest political fights now play out. “In particular for Texas, school boards and municipal officials are all elected locally, so battles over budgeting, curriculum, and bond proposals are all on local ballots,” he said. And local elections are often about more than potholes and property taxes — they’re a way for voters to push back against state overreach. “State laws in Texas often seek to limit the power of cities and counties,” Rottinghaus said. “When voters vote locally, they can express their willingness to embrace those limits or to resist those changes.” Similarly, when local officials are up for reelection, voters have the chance to deliver a verdict. “Holding local leaders accountable lets voters reward good governance or punish mismanagement,” Rottinghaus said. So that’s why state and local elections matter. The bad news is that most people don’t care. Taylor predicts turnout will once again be dismal — somewhere between 8 and 15 percent. For context, he said, the last time Texas broke 20 percent turnout in an off-year amendment election was way back in 1991 — the year voters created the state lottery. Taylor’s advice? Stop treating local elections like the junior varsity game. “Given that, on occasion, it literally comes down to a handful or even one vote, your vote really matters in local elections,” he said. So yeah — your local vote doesn’t just count. It’s where the real power is, hiding in plain sight. ### Gov. Abbott Admitted to Purging ‘Leftist’ Professors. People Are Calling It the ‘Definition of Fascism.’ URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/gov-abbott-admitted-to-purging-leftist-professors/ Last updated: 2025-10-21T17:40:57.000Z Gov. Greg Abbott admitted in [an X post](https://x.com/GregAbbott%5FTX/status/1979953044977598674?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on Sunday that Texas is purging professors with “leftist ideologies” — and people are *not happy*. Abbott’s directive fits into a pattern of faculty changes and government interference on campuses across the state, including the [University of Texas at Austin](https://www.statesman.com/news/education/article/ut-leadership-turnover-fired-provost-21104397.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [Texas A&M University](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/09/10/texas-am-professor-fired-melissa-mccoul-statement/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and [Texas State University.](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/09/10/texas-state-university-professor-fired/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) “Texas is targeting professors who are more focused on pushing leftist ideologies rather than preparing students to lead our nation,” Abbott wrote in his post. “We must end indoctrination and return to education fundamentals at all levels of education.” September saw the firing of a professor and resignation of the president at Texas A&M over a lecture that included gender ideology, as well as the termination of a Texas State professor for remarks at a socialist convention. And the increasing political interference in higher education has prompted [many professors to look for jobs in different states](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/09/05/texas-faculty-university-political-climate-survey/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the *Texas Tribune* reported in September. Art Markman, senior vice provost for academic affairs at UT Austin, was [fired from his role in mid-September](https://www.statesman.com/news/education/article/ut-leadership-turnover-fired-provost-21104397.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and replaced with an interim leader. It’s become a trend at UT: one-third of their dean positions are currently held by interim or departing leaders, and the school was appointed a [new president](https://www.statesman.com/news/education/article/jim-davis-ut-austin-system-president-john-zerwas-20822511.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [provost](https://www.statesman.com/story/news/education/2025/06/03/ut-interim-president-stuns-faculty-with-sole-provost-finalist-announcement/84016852007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) over the summer with little faculty input, according to the *Austin-American Statesman*. In a [LinkedIn post](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/art-markman-93aa6a22%5Fthis-is-a-longer-post-than-i-usually-write-activity-7383895951809286145-2Jcn?utm%5Fsource=share&utm%5Fmedium=member%5Fdesktop&rcm=ACoAABaGnRMBbtBDj4sSgooSxOPRixZteHEHVf0) last week, Markman told colleagues that he was removed from the role “due to ideological differences.” > [](https://twitter.com/GregAbbott%5FTX/status/1979953044977598674?ref=thebarbedwire.com) The shakeups have sparked an outcry from students and faculty who see the terminations as an assault on free speech. Online, replies included earnest declarations that Abbott’s actions are [unAmerican](https://x.com/shannonrwatts/status/1980044602813116860?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [violations of the First Amendment](https://x.com/brian%5Fis%5Ftired/status/1980200849247961276?ref=thebarbedwire.com), as well as [gifs](https://x.com/xianb8/status/1980657404787454251?ref=thebarbedwire.com), outrage, and [claims of corruption](https://x.com/GinaHinojosaTX/status/1980237357329899923?ref=thebarbedwire.com). One [woman commented](https://x.com/PiperK/status/1979962419553153484?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on Abbott’s post: “This is a good quote for this professor’s lawsuit.” “In a dictatorship, you can have only one ideology,” wrote one [X user](https://x.com/rocha%5Fearl/status/1980088042426708225?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “The head of our state government openly saying he wants to root out opposing viewpoints is the definition of fascism,” [said another](https://x.com/rdhesselbrock/status/1980076210798428553?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “I don’t want the government involved at all in determining what is or isn’t an acceptable ideology for a professor,” former Republican U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh, who is from Illinois, [posted on X](https://x.com/WalshFreedom/status/1980269402802249874?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “I don’t want the government targeting professors of any ideology.” > [](https://twitter.com/xianb8/status/1980657404787454251?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Abbott’s confirmation of the ideological firings on Sunday was in response to Markman’s claim, but his post makes it clear that the trend extends beyond UT Austin. Thomas Alter, the Texas State professor who was also [fired](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/09/10/texas-state-university-professor-fired/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) recently, was accused of advocating for “inciting violence” after [a video of him speaking](https://x.com/drkarlynb/status/1965074589928796538?s=46&t=YZuiF1ApnRwua3jTcc%5FZ2w&ref=thebarbedwire.com) at an online socialism conference was circulated. He [filed a lawsuit](https://www.kvue.com/article/news/local/texas-state-fired-lawsuit-free-speech-thomas-alter/269-ee44b72e-3bf3-4b3b-84bf-b7217033d2bb?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and a court reinstated him — but then the university [fired him again](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/09/26/texas-state-university-fired-professor-court-reinstatement/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Texas A&M professor, Melissa McCoul, was [fired in September](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/09/10/texas-am-professor-fired-melissa-mccoul-statement/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) as well, after a video of her teaching gender ideology in an upper-level children’s literature course went viral on social media. The video eventually led to A&M President Mark Welsh to [step down from his role ](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/09/18/texas-am-university-president-mark-welsh-resigns/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)after harsh criticism of the situation. [Mark Zoran](https://www.chronicle.com/article/a-classroom-clash-over-course-content-went-viral-texas-a-m-fired-the-instructor-and-removed-2-administrators?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a former head in the College of Arts and Sciences at Texas A&M University, and Emily Johansen, a former English department head at Texas A&M University, [were also fired](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/09/10/texas-am-professor-fired-melissa-mccoul-statement/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Texas students and professors have not been silent in the face of the new trend, however. Texas State students and faculty gathered to protest less than 24 hours after Alter’s firing, holding signs reading “uphold the constitution” and “protect free speech”, according to [*The University Star*](https://universitystar.com/33311/news/students-faculty-protest-termination-of-history-professor/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “I think (Alter’s termination) is a travesty, and I think we’re heading into very dangerous territories,” Texas State Philosophy professor Eric Crawford said to *The Star*. “I think the Texas State administration is upholding tyranny.” A similar sentiment was seen at UT Austin last week, as nearly 200 students took to the streets to protest in favor of free speech, after the Trump administration [invited the school to join a compact](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/us/politics/trump-college-funding.html?unlocked%5Farticle%5Fcode=1.qU8.UTOI.%5FIZAaVHmIUAQ&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&ref=thebarbedwire.com) offering funding advantages in exchange for capping international students and strictly defining gender. UT officials were said to be “enthusiastically” [reviewing the proposal](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/10/02/university-texas-austin-trump-administration-compact-2/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), according to the *Texas Tribune.* Students chanted “do not sign” as they protested the compact last week, according to [*The Daily Texan.*](https://thedailytexan.com/2025/10/13/student-organizations-protest-trump-administrations-compact-offered-to-ut/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) “This is clearly a continuation of a trend in Texas higher education, of professors being targeted and persecuted for their speech,” UT student Kira Small said to *the Daily Texan*. “It’s horrifying.” ### ...So Was It the Price of Turkey Legs? State Fair of Texas Attendance Dropped by 400,000 URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-state-fair-attendance-drop-high-prices/ Last updated: 2025-10-21T15:17:07.000Z It turns out that attendance at the State Fair of Texas was not [doing just fine](https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/families-say-cost-is-keeping-them-from-state-fair-of-texas/?sfnsn=mo&fbclid=IwY2xjawNQoxNleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETFnYlNiWXpocjRHb1p3ZHpLAR7Cie7CrVRFZWSbYJcoKhPAorDdejtbcuXL1hn6KR7LZk2Dm0z6pnaiGKIlkQ%5Faem%5Fq-eXo%5FnUuEMVBN0lSr3HRA&ref=thebarbedwire.com) this year. After viral posts at the beginning of the month showed [fewer crowds](https://www.facebook.com/reel/1423692068698017) at the fair and many online commenters blamed [higher prices](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-state-fair-inflation-attendance-prices/), State Fair representatives downplayed concerns and assured Texans that fair attendance *always* [picks up](https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/state-fair/viral-posts-spark-debate-over-state-fair-of-texas-attendance-costs/287-4994d76c-ddb1-45af-9f93-61ebab6ec5e0?ref=thebarbedwire.com) after the first week. But after the fair closed up shop on Sunday, official attendance numbers show that at 2 million visitors, 2025 had the lowest fair attendance in seven years, excluding the drive-through fair of 2020\. Attendance dropped by 400,000 people compared to last year. "We always plan the fair for around somewhere in between 2 million and 2.5 million, so we’re within that range," State Fair spokesperson Karissa Condoianis told [*Fox4*](https://www.fox4news.com/news/fewer-people-visited-state-fair-texas-year?ref=thebarbedwire.com). "You know, there’s a lot of things going on in the world right now and so we expect also that that is going to have an impact on the attendance at the fair." While Condoianis preferred to keep things vague, U.S. Senate nominee and current Texas state Rep. James Talarico got right to the point. Yesterday, Talarico [posted](https://x.com/jamestalarico/status/1980341774540509189?ref=thebarbedwire.com) a video from the fair highlighting its rising costs and placing the blame squarely on the Trump administration’s tariffs. He compared current food prices with earlier years, holding up deep-fried Oreos that now cost $14 but used to be just $6. “Tariffs drive up the price of ingredients so if small businesses like these vendors want to stay in business, they have to pass that cost along to us,” Talarico said. “I don’t blame the State Fair, I blame the D.C. politicians who are pushing tariffs and raising the cost of everything.” > [](https://twitter.com/jamestalarico/status/1980341774540509189?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Vendors have also bemoaned increases in the cost of food and labor this year, according to the [*Dallas Observer*](https://www.dallasobserver.com/food-drink/state-fair-of-texas-vendors-walloped-with-higher-prices-in-2025-40602893/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)*.* Vendor Mark Zable told the *Observer* that his family has had a stand at the State Fair since 1964, and he’s seen costs increase in earnest in the last few years. Since last year’s State Fair, “shrimp went from $62 a case to $74,” Zabel told the *Observer,* and he felt he had no other option but to raise prices. The cost of tickets (about $35, depending on day and deals) plus parking ($25) meant dropping $85 for two people before even purchasing coupons for food and rides. Turkey legs ran around $25, and Fletcher's Corny Dogs were $8, reported our own *The Barbed Wire* staff. Water ran from $2 to $6. Vendors set their own prices, but fair officials said they plan to discuss pricing with them during the off-season, according to [*Fox4*](https://www.fox4news.com/news/fewer-people-visited-state-fair-texas-year?ref=thebarbedwire.com). One longtime State Fair vendor told [*Fox4*](https://www.fox4news.com/news/fewer-people-visited-state-fair-texas-year?ref=thebarbedwire.com)that the heat, not prices, was to blame for the low turnout. Dallas has experienced a [hotter October than normal](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/weather/2025/10/15/texas-heat-has-overstayed-its-welcome-and-could-break-a-record-soon-whats-causing-it/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), But many commenters online still say cost was the deterrent. “Pfffff. The weather my arse. No freaking way I was paying those prices,” wolfhoundjack [commented](https://www.reddit.com/r/texas/comments/1oc1jzp/comment/nkjgtob/?utm%5Fsource=share&utm%5Fmedium=web3x&utm%5Fname=web3xcss&utm%5Fterm=1&utm%5Fcontent=share%5Fbutton) on r/Texas. “Listen we could either have groceries for a week or two or spend a day at the fair,” another person [commented](https://www.reddit.com/r/texas/comments/1oc1jzp/comment/nkjnh9y/?utm%5Fsource=share&utm%5Fmedium=web3x&utm%5Fname=web3xcss&utm%5Fterm=1&utm%5Fcontent=share%5Fbutton). “It’s too expensive for a lot of people. I’d have love\[d\] to have gone but none of us could justify the cost of it this year.” Other commenters agree with Talarico that the State Fair is just a symptom of bigger problems, pointing to nationwide affordability issues: “The funny thing \[is\] it’s always been that expensive, only a tiny price increase has happened, but we’re all suffering with less money and people are now realizing, Holy Shit I can’t afford this anymore!,” Reddit user Invisi-cat [commented](https://www.reddit.com/r/texas/comments/1oc1jzp/comment/nkjr5ja/?utm%5Fsource=share&utm%5Fmedium=web3x&utm%5Fname=web3xcss&utm%5Fterm=1&utm%5Fcontent=share%5Fbutton). Whether the State Fair can turn things around next year remains to be seen, but Talarico hopes Texans hold on to one thing from this year. “When you walk into the voting booth next November, remember this $25 turkey leg,” Talarico [said](https://x.com/jamestalarico/status/1980341774540509189?ref=thebarbedwire.com). **Read more at** [***Fox4***](https://www.fox4news.com/news/fewer-people-visited-state-fair-texas-year?ref=thebarbedwire.com)***.*** ### Houston Erased Texas’ First-Ever Gay Pride Crosswalk in the Middle of the Night URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/houston-removes-rainbow-pride-crosswalk-abbott/ Last updated: 2025-10-20T16:54:23.000Z A pile of broken, colorful concrete pieces was all that remained of Houston’s rainbow crosswalk as the sun rose on Monday. Construction crews tore up Texas’ [first gay pride crosswalk](https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Gay-pride-crosswalk-makes-debut-in-Montrose-11228741.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a beloved feature of the [historically LGBT](https://kinder.rice.edu/urbanedge/mapping-montroses-gay-history?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Montrose neighborhood, in the early hours of the morning. The crosswalk, which [originated](https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Gay-pride-crosswalk-makes-debut-in-Montrose-11228741.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) as a memorial for a cyclist killed there in a 2016 hit-and-run, first [came under fire](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/greg-abbott-libsoftiktok-lgbtq/) a few weeks ago when the city [repainted it following construction](https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/local/2025/10/01/532385/montroses-rainbow-crosswalks-are-being-reinstated-after-temporary-removal-for-construction/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in the area. Online right-wing account Libs of TikTok ripped a video from the *Chron* covering the repainting and [called](https://x.com/libsoftiktok/status/1974872017347489989?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1974872017347489989%7Ctwgr%5E081498b04d4cc346a29537ee419ab5c1646148e8%7Ctwcon%5Es1%5F&ref%5Furl=https%3A%2F%2Fthebarbedwire.com%2F2025%2F10%2F09%2Fgreg-abbott-libsoftiktok-lgbtq%2F&ref=thebarbedwire.com) for the crosswalk’s removal, tagging Gov. Greg Abbott and seemingly kickstarting his crackdown on rainbow crosswalks across the state. Now, the colorful crossing has been torn up yet again, after Gov. Abbott directed TxDOT on Oct. 8 to [withhold funding](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/greg-abbott-libsoftiktok-lgbtq/) from cities who did not remove “political ideologies” from roadways. TxDOT [doubled down](https://drive.google.com/file/d/16lFus%5FC0ziiraV0fLZfxS3jIi1kK-yDr/view?stream=top&ref=thebarbedwire.com) on Abbott’s order, instructing cities to remove any of these installations within 30 days. “Them coming back and taking it all up just seems a bit ridiculous,” said Tessa Freeman, owner of FIX Coffeebar on Westheimer, a few storefronts down from the crosswalk. “People love the crosswalk,” Freeman told *The Barbed Wire*. “I think it had an impact on other states wanting to do the same thing.” After the Montrose rainbow crosswalk was painted in 2017, [many](https://www.kut.org/politics/2025-10-10/austin-tx-gov-greg-abbott-rainbow-crosswalk-black-lives-matter?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [more](https://www.keranews.org/news/2025-10-19/oak-lawn-dallas-governor-abbott-directive-rainbow-crosswalks?ref=thebarbedwire.com) sprung up around the state that are now in various stages of [removal](https://www.galvnews.com/news/galvestons-rainbow-crosswalks-painted-over-at-abbotts-direction/article%5F93d78af2-ef61-511f-a5aa-42f54319f32a.html?fbclid=IwVERFWANWA9JleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHkdL-v1R121kpmLYikoHnIB31ANVxh9HN1zRO5YfDJC-MWT7OUzqVLmXhZqd%5Faem%5FmSpG2zuGPE9IG6RI4bp%5FOw&ref=thebarbedwire.com). Houston advocacy groups [posted](https://www.instagram.com/p/DQAroQgDhF2/?hl=en&ref=thebarbedwire.com) last night that the crosswalk would be removed between 1:00 and 2:00 a.m and called for community members to come “guard the intersection and mourn its removal.” Protestors gathered and refused to move from the rainbow crosswalk as work crews prepared machinery, according to [*Chron*](https://www.chron.com/culture/article/houston-rainbow-crosswalk-protest-arrest-21109412.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com)*.* Houston Police and METRO Police were on the scene, *Chron* reported, but no arrests were made until the arrival of Houston Police’s [Special Response Team](https://www.houstontx.gov/police/divisions/special%5Foperations/special%5Fresponse%5Fgroup.htm?ref=thebarbedwire.com), officers that are specially trained in large crowd dispersal, disaster preparedness and chemical munitions. Officers arrested four protestors for blocking the roadway, HPD Public Information Officer Shay Awosiyan confirmed to *The Barbed Wire*. Officers first zip-tied a woman in a folding chair who, according to [*Chron*](https://www.chron.com/culture/article/houston-rainbow-crosswalk-protest-arrest-21109412.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com), had been reading Herbert Marcuse's “Counterrevolution and Revolt” throughout the protest. They also arrested activist Ethan Hale, a long-shot Houston City Council candidate, according to [*Chron*](https://www.chron.com/culture/article/houston-rainbow-crosswalk-protest-arrest-21109412.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and two other unknown individuals. Despite the arrests — and fevered opposition to the removals across the state, which is home to [1.8 million queer people](https://www.texastribune.org/series/lgbtq-texans/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — the removals are happening because of Abbott’s funding threats. But also because of messaging from the Trump administration, which has become [increasingly hostile](https://19thnews.org/2025/10/trump-anti-lgbtq-transgender-evolution/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to queer [and trans Americans](https://19thnews.org/2025/03/trump-anti-trans-executive-orders/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) as it has waged culture wars against vulnerable communities. As that messaging has taken hold, some Texans cheered on the decision online. Richard Rathbun, who lives in Katy but regularly visits the historically queer Montrose area, told *The Barbed Wire* that the crosswalk “doesn’t bother me, but I don’t appreciate it.” Speaking from the nearby coffeeshop, he said, “I’m a Christian, and I really don’t like celebrating homosexuality.” Similar [sentiments online were](https://x.com/wolla93593/status/1980257575573541004?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [met with ire](https://x.com/brozebub/status/1980273544413024387?ref=thebarbedwire.com), from “Sad responses on here by even sadder people who likely call themselves Christians” to “Yeah let’s literally scrape away one of the few things still fighting the ‘Houston is flat and beige allegations.’” “Montrose’s rainbow crosswalk is more than a symbol of LGBTQ community pride,” State Rep. Gene Wu, who represents Houston, [said last week](https://x.com/GeneforTexas/status/1978881897590604255?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “Our communities will not stay silent,” Wu added. “We will fight back against this attack on local control and vulnerable communities who deserve safety, dignity, and visibility.” Former Houston Mayor Annise Parker, one of the first openly LGBTQ mayors of a major American city, [told NBC News](https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/texas-governor-calls-removal-rainbow-crosswalks-calling-safety-issue-rcna236929?ref=thebarbedwire.com) she was “surprised that the governor has so little to do that erasing rainbow crosswalks has become his priority.” Libs of TikTok, which [seemed to instigate Abbott’s funding threats](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/greg-abbott-libsoftiktok-lgbtq/), was tied to ten hate incidents over two years in Texas, including bomb threats that were lobbed at four Planet Fitness locations after she highlighted their trans-inclusive locker room policies, according to GLAAD’s [ALERT Desk (Anti-LGBTQ Extremism Reporting Tracker)](https://glaad.org/anti-lgbtq-extremism-reporting-tracker/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Across the country, as rainbow crosswalks [are painted over](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9YRdA-Vj2Y&ref=thebarbedwire.com), hate crimes [against the LGBTQ+ community](https://abcnews.go.com/US/hate-crimes-lgbtq-community-rise-fbi-data/story?id=113962673&ref=thebarbedwire.com) have continued to rise. And queer Texans have voiced disappointment that local leaders aren’t stepping up in their defense — at least [outside of San Antonio](https://sanantonioreport.org/san-antonio-txdot-rainbow-sidewalk-fight-erupts/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). After the city’s METRO department announced the impending removal, Houston Mayor John Whitmire called Abbott’s order “counterproductive” in a city council meeting, [according to *Chron*.](https://www.chron.com/culture/article/houston-rainbow-crosswalk-john-whitmire-21102191.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) However, the mayor ultimately said that the city could not afford to risk losing their funding over the crosswalk. “We can use other means to show our support for those that support and are passionate about the symbol of the rainbow,” Whitmire said [at the meeting](https://www.chron.com/culture/article/houston-rainbow-crosswalk-john-whitmire-21102191.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Other Montrose residents seem to share the belief that the fight for LGBT representation in Houston is far from over. Next to the ravaged crosswalk this morning remained messages chalked in rainbow by the protestors on the adjacent sidewalks, reading “don’t erase us” and “we are lucky to witness queer love.” “I think the people of Montrose are resilient,” Freeman, the coffeeshop owner, told *The Barbed Wire*. “It will be interesting to see what comes after this.” ### Oscar Wyatt Was Houston’s Oil-Slicked Gatsby. Step Inside His ‘Tower of Terror.’ URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/oscar-wyatt-tower-of-terror/ Last updated: 2026-06-25T18:59:50.000Z Late last week my mom texted me, “Only the good die young.” Then, “Oscar Wyatt.” The 101-year-old oil tycoon was primarily famous for turning an $800 loan in 1955 into a pipeline company that became the Coastal Corporation — a national energy conglomerate that earned him billions. He passed away in Houston last week [“peacefully of old age and natural causes,”](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/article/oscar-wyatt-dies-101-21091028.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) which, I’ve been told, wasnot at all how he lived*.* “Who puts his own plane into a dive [while proposing marriage](https://www.texasmonthly.com/arts-entertainment/river-oaks-77019/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to scare his lover into saying yes? Who shoots feral hogs from a helicopter at his South Texas ranch to entertain (or shock) his wife’s hoity-toity guests?” Mimi Swartz wrote last week in [*Texas Monthly*](https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/oscar-wyatt-dead-101-tycoon/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)*.* “I’m sure there are a lot of folks who will only attend Oscar Wyatt’s funeral to make sure he’s dead.” My mom, Carol Messer, worked as in-house counsel for several subsidiaries of Coastal from 1986 until it was acquired by El Paso Corporation in 2001\. She was based in Houston’s 9 Greenway Plaza — also known as The Coastal Tower, or, as employees in the building used to call it: “The Tower of Terror.” That was all Oscar, she said. Larger than life, hilarious, terrifying, sentimental, and offensive. Some called him [“amoral.”](https://archive.vanityfair.com/article/1991/4/oscar-wyatts-private-war?ref=thebarbedwire.com) He was an infamous scoundrel whose exploits were so wild that they were nearly impervious to exaggeration. That particular euphemism — “Tower of Terror” — has never been reported, as far as I can tell. And it sent me down a rabbit hole of research. In the process, I learned more about my own family. Oscar shaped the lives of millions of Texans, including mine. But if I’d heard his name before last week, I didn’t remember it. It turns out mine and Oscar’s worlds were more closely linked than I could have guessed. In his life, Oscar was the subject of weighty features in *Vanity Fair* and *Texas Monthly*. In his death, he was given a lengthy obituary in *The New York Times*. But outside of the oil industry, Houston, and the highest tiers of government, the general public wasn’t particularly familiar with Oscar. What’s more, I found that very little has been publicly shared by his former colleagues and employees who worked alongside him in the building. It’s easy to see why. I reached out to a dozen former lawyers, executives, and managers after his death. Seven declined to speak about him at all. Three preferred anonymity. Two were willing to use their actual names. In part, as my mom will tell you, “Nothing in today’s anti-woke employment environment could touch the oil and gas business in the early ‘80s and ‘90s in Houston.” Mimi Swartz’s piece was titled, [“Oscar Wyatt Typified the Texas Tycoon. We May Never See His Like Again.”](https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/oscar-wyatt-dead-101-tycoon/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) The more research I did, the more I wondered about that second half. I was ready to say we’re not likely to see such a larger-than-life, archetypal, rabble-rousing figure again — one who defies presidential orders, broke the law, and made billions — but frankly our president fits a lot of those descriptors. Donald Trump’s just not as cunning or sentimental. And he doesn’t hunt whitetail deer in South Texas. In truth, from what I can gather, Wyatt was less like Trump and more like the love child of Jay Gatsby, Anna Wintour, and J.R. Ewing — the ruthless oil baron from “Dallas.” He enjoyed riding horses, carrying guns, and hunting. He also [hosted](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/09/business/oscar-s-wyatt-jr-dead.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) luxurious parties with guests like Grace Kelly, Truman Capote, Mick Jagger, Andy Warhol, Liza Minelli, and John Travolta. He employed [“his own ad hoc intelligence community,”](https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/world-of-oilman-oscar-wyatt/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) public relations executives, lawyers, and detectives. In his obituary last week, [*The New York Times*](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/09/business/oscar-s-wyatt-jr-dead.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) called Oscar “one of the last of the storied wildcatters” whose “hydra-headed empire” became a conduit for oil imported from the Middle East into the Americas, raising him to immense power, with which he “courted presidents and dictators, dabbled in foreign intrigue, and went to prison for paying kickbacks to Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi government under the cover of a United Nations oil-for-food program.” His business was huge. In the 1990s, Coastal’s revenues exceeded $12 billion and had 20,000 employees, 962 gasoline stations in 33 states, and fleets of oil tankers and trucks, according to the [*Times*](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/09/business/oscar-s-wyatt-jr-dead.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), but he also reportedly “reneged on contracts, left municipalities short of power, raided corporate rivals, battled lawsuits and hostile takeovers, paid fines and civil misconduct penalties, and left a trail of enemies.” My mom and several other former colleagues I spoke to over the last week observed that Oscar enjoyed that his spotlight enabled him to get close to presidents and dictators — and he was prepared to subject everyone else in his company to scrutiny, too. A government relations manager who worked for Coastal in the 1990s told me that all Coastal employees were expected to do work travel on personal time and only through Coastal’s in-house travel service. If you failed to comply, your name was put on a list and published to the division and corporate president as a warning. In one story, Oscar wandered around the floors asking random employees what they were doing, my mom said. If he wasn’t satisfied with their answer, he’d fire them. It wasn’t unusual, the government relations manager noted, to have Oscar interrupt a conversation between two colleagues and admonish them to “get back to work.” According to employee urban legend, if you were on the tower’s elevator and he got on, you were expected to get off — or you might wish you had. The first time my mom met Oscar, she was leaving for lunch in that same crowded elevator in 1987 when it stopped on the executive floor. Oscar, whose jowls she said were unmistakable, got on. “No one was moving,” my mom said, “so I breathed a sigh of relief.” Then, Oscar looked back at my mom in mock horror and said loudly, “Honey, how much weight have you gained?” She was 5’2,” seven months pregnant with my older brother, and worried she looked like she was carrying twins. She mumbled that she didn’t know the answer. The rest of the crowd in the elevator snickered. “Seriously, how far along *are* you?” he asked again. “Seven months,” she muttered. He shook his head and said, “Well, you’re in for a world of hurt.” https://www.instagram.com/p/B7KHJ9Yhd2m/?hl=en ## ‘The Only Woman in the World I Truly Trust’ In the pantheon of Oscar stories, that one is “pretty tame,” my mom admits. But it’s a classic example of how he regularly engaged even lower-level employees whom he didn’t know. A few years later, in April 1991, *Texas Monthly*’s Jan Jarboe Russell crafted a profile of Wyatt titled [“Meaner Than a Junkyard Dog.”](https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/world-of-oilman-oscar-wyatt/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) In photographs, he appears lumbering with [shrewd eyes](https://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/the-day-oscar-wyatt-caved/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), wearing pinstripes and combed-back hair. Russell wrote that he was “paunchy, with skin the color of biscuits and jowls the shape of hams.” He was 66 at the time. I wouldn’t be born for another two months. In that interview, Oscar told Russell, “I’m a male chauvinist.” He added, “If you don’t like it, sorry.” He had no qualms about commenting on women’s bodies, including my mom’s, but she also pointed out that Wyatt was far ahead of the curve at a time when it was extremely difficult to even get hired as a female lawyer. “It was not for sissies, but if you could hold your own, you could get promoted,” my mom said, noting that many of the women who graduated in her law school class had a hard time getting a position as a lawyer at all. “It was better than most places where we didn’t even have a chance,” she added. Oscar allowed women a seat at the table, even if it meant being subjected to his jokes and barbs. My mom was born in 1950s Georgia to a family with three boys, so the fact that she eventually had a tremendously successful career in corporate law meant that she had to learn how and when to pick fights, how to handle demeaning and inappropriate comments, and how to stand up for herself when she was underestimated. It makes sense that her years in Oscar’s tower were where she was most challenged and forced to rise to the occasion. “It was not an environment for the faint of heart,” my mom says. “There were things that were maddening about it, but at the end of the day, it was probably a huge benefit to me.” How much do I — the rare female head of a Texas newsroom, who has built a portfolio of sexual harassment investigations holding politicians of all stripes to account — owe to men like Oscar and the legacies they left? With his immense wealth, his personal life rivaled his professional — at least in terms of intrigue. He split his time between a villa in the south of France, his [River Oaks mansion](https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/world-of-oilman-oscar-wyatt/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and his 9,000-acre South Texas ranch in Duval County called Tasajillo, the *Times* reported. https://www.instagram.com/p/DNbGiBxNGnF/?hl=en “If Oscar were marooned in Alaska,” his fourth wife, Lynn Wyatt, said in a 1984 interview with [*The Wall Street Journal*](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/09/business/oscar-s-wyatt-jr-dead.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=%E2%80%9CIf%20Oscar%20were%20marooned%20in,d%20probably%20be%20doing%20business.%E2%80%9D), “he’d survive somehow and by the next week he’d probably be doing business.” Lynn was a beautiful and glamorous international socialite who charmed Jordan’s King Hussein with her homemade zucchini bread, per [*Texas Monthly*](https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/world-of-oilman-oscar-wyatt/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which reported that the couple, who married in 1963, were known in Houston society as “Beauty and the Beast.” Lynn covered *Town & Country* and was featured in *Vanity Fair*, where photos showcase her voluminous blonde hair, gigantic glistening diamonds, and piercing green eyes. They were married for 62 years, and Lynn herself was the subject of constant gossip — including an alleged affair with Prince Rainier of Monaco in the 1980s. Her polished and privileged life will be given [the documentary treatment](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/entertainment/movies%5Ftv/article/round-top-film-festival-lynn-wyatt-21097383.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) at Round Top Film Festival next month. In 1991, Oscar gave one particular jaw-dropping quote about his wife I’ve been turning over in my head. He [told *Texas Monthly*](https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/world-of-oilman-oscar-wyatt/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that his “favorite” rumor about himself was easy to pick out. “Years ago, there was a story making the rounds that I threw Lynn down the stairs when she was seven months pregnant,” he said. “Can you imagine anything more ridiculous? For one thing, just think how expensive that would have been.” According to my mom, Oscar also kept a suite at the hotel next door to the office and was often seen going in between the buildings with his two German Shepherds and one or two blondes in tow. (He once told [*Vanity Fair*](https://archive.vanityfair.com/article/1991/4/oscar-wyatts-private-war?ref=thebarbedwire.com) he had nine pet German shepherds, some of which were trained to attack on site.) His first wife [told Russell](https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/oscar-wyatt-dead-101-tycoon/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), “Oscar is the only man I know that has a mattress strapped to his back for convenience.” And later, when she asked about the rumor that he once had cancer, Wyatt mischievously answered his interviewer, “Cancer. Hmmm. Maybe I have. What was her last name?” One of Oscar’s German shepherds was named Lady of Tasajillo, after the family ranch. “She’s the only woman in the world I truly trust,” he told the *Monthly*. “Tasa” appeared beside him on the magazine’s cover, as she often did in breakfast meetings and at his office. “Oscar’s German Shepherds were his emotional support animals long before that was a thing,” my mom said. “There was another urban legend that one of the dogs bit a pizza delivery man when being walked by the mail boy, and — when animal control services arrived to take the dog to get tested — he swapped her for a dog from the pound.” https://www.instagram.com/p/BWnzJKPgDP0/?hl=en ## A Man of Contradictions The more I looked, the more strange and contradictory stories I found. And it turned out that my 91-year-old grandpa — my dad’s father, Henry Messer — also worked with Oscar in the 1960s. They met at an offsite well when my grandpa was in his 20s. In my dad’s telling, my grandpa, who was later with Mokeen Oil Company, ran a gathering plant for gas fields close to Baffin Bay near the coast. The oil and gas wells were metered there — measuring what came down the well and sent to the market, via Coastal. “Coastal tended to manipulate the measurement on their end to look like they were buying less gas, but dad was careful to compare input to output and catch those manipulations,” my dad said about Oscar’s employees’ dealings. “He didn’t really think much of it. Shenanigans seemed a normal part of the business, and he was always on the watch for inconsistencies.” “He always watched Oscar because he was tricky,” my dad said. He was in third grade and used to play on the equipment, sometimes bonking his head after being warned to be careful. Former colleagues tell me Oscar was somehow both tough as nails and a gentle giant. An [angry lion](https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/world-of-oilman-oscar-wyatt/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) who called nearly everyone [“baby,”](https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/world-of-oilman-oscar-wyatt/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) including *Texas Monthly*’s Russell and *Vanity Fair*’s Marie Brenner. Tense and moody, with an outrageous sense of humor. Sentimental, even an emotional crier — but also boorish, brutish, and unapologetic. He wanted to be liked, but he was prepared to make an audience angry. Though Coastal’s employees whispered from inside his Tower of Terror, so, too, did many come under his loyal protection. Stories swirled of Oscar helping strangers pay their rent or hospital bills, sometimes after reading about them in the newspaper. At an Aruba refinery, one former executive at Coastal who worked with Wyatt for many years told me that a strike was being threatened over multiple issues, including a requirement that all workers wear steel-toed boots. Employees were struggling to acquire them outside of the U.S. When Wyatt learned of the problem, he personally ordered them for everyone and ensured they were worn, according to the former executive. He was also known to offer his private jet to fly employees to Houston to receive medical care from his friend Michael DeBakey, whom he believed to be the best doctor in the country, the former executive said. I’m told that he enjoyed sharing a Kroger rotisserie chicken and coleslaw on his jet, and his *Houston Chronicle* [obituary](https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/houstonchronicle/name/oscar-wyatt-obituary?id=59756488&ref=thebarbedwire.com) claims he sent thousands of smoked turkeys to his employees. But he also had a habit of forcing his employees to bend to his most arbitrary whims. Ron Milam, now a history professor at Texas Tech University, worked for the Coastal Corporation and its affiliates from 1973 to 1999\. Milam shared one memory of a meeting that Oscar had catered with his favorite food: rice cakes. “We finished the important meeting and had to go act quickly as the futures markets were closing, but he made us stay and eat those damn rice cakes,” said Milam. Oscar believed his salary as CEO should never be more than 10 times the salary of his workers, Milam said. At the time, this was remarkably rare. Many of Oscar’s former colleagues attribute his ambitiousness, his sense of empathy, and his fear of failure to his humble beginnings. Oscar was born in Beaumont in 1924. When his father left, he was raised by his mother Eva in Navasota, where he was on his own financially from the age of 13, according to several news reports. He worked on a farm and as [a physician’s driver and assistant](https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/world-of-oilman-oscar-wyatt/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — even [helping deliver babies](https://archive.vanityfair.com/article/1991/4/oscar-wyatts-private-war?ref=thebarbedwire.com). He also reportedly worked in a gas station before earning his pilot’s license at just 16\. He was a star tackle on the Navasota High School football team. Then, during World War II, he volunteered at the age of 17 to serve as an Army Air Forces bomber pilot. In 1945, Oscar’s plane [crashed in the Pacific](https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/world-of-oilman-oscar-wyatt/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) while delivering supplies to an air base; his jaw was broken, both of his legs were crushed, and his head was fractured in seven places. “On one occasion, he was presumed dead, covered with a white sheet, and transported with deceased service members until discovered alive,” said his [obituary in the *Houston Chronicle*](https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/houstonchronicle/name/oscar-wyatt-obituary?id=59756488&ref=thebarbedwire.com)*.* Once he recovered, he worked on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico before earning a mechanical engineering degree in 1949 from Texas A&M University, according to the *Times.* The following year, he began selling drill bits on oil fields — then he started buying natural gas and selling it to pipeline operators. Five years later, he founded Coastal. But he didn’t stop at oil. Within ten years, he’d started a cattle operation that eventually grew to include five cattle ranching divisions across seven counties, according to his obituary. Alongside rumors of misdeeds, investigations, legal violations, and later criminal convictions, Oscar also was rumored to have made large anonymous contributions to myriad causes, including the families of slain police officers. Noblesse oblige [has seemingly fallen out of fashion](https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/noblesse-without-oblige/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for the wealthiest among us — when was the last time you heard about Elon Musk donating to a hospital instead of [secretly funding a political effort](https://www.wsj.com/us-news/elon-musk-texas-da-jose-garza-oust-atempt-206db043?gaa%5Fat=eafs&gaa%5Fn=AWEtsqeLQxF6Z1SGFfLFoNV%5FrSv5mrnFCwgnzWrJzcHcpmHYZhx2-%5Ffg6D-FIggFrQ%3D%3D&gaa%5Fts=68f11e4f&gaa%5Fsig=OZtmsJzeYPho0QsAEseT%5F6kh4V4M2XBOdI7Bj%5Fyrqv4Ci3sUZVBIzG6AoIgyD-tnJXYYAAS-iqHNRBDJHy%5F2uw%3D%3D&ref=thebarbedwire.com)? The way Oscar discussed [“Arabs” and “white slaves”](https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/world-of-oilman-oscar-wyatt/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) offended many. It’s also true that in 2024, he [received a lifetime achievement award](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/article/oscar-wyatt-dies-101-21091028.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) from the founding chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens in Corpus Christi in recognition for his civil rights advocacy. ## ‘I Didn’t Give a Damn’ Of course, Oscar’s most notorious relationship — the one that ultimately sent him to prison — was with former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Oscar met him in 1972 and soon became one of the largest importers of Iraqi oil in the country. Over the years, he publicly and privately urged both the first President Bush and his son not to invade Iraq. Then, in 1990, 21 American oil workers were taken hostage by the Iraqi government. Incredibly, Wyatt took it upon himself to travel to Baghdad with $500,000 worth of medical supplies — over the direct objections of then-President Bush. He secured their release [by negotiating with Hussein personally](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1990/12/10/21-americans-held-hostage-by-iraq-arrive-in-houston-with-connally/a244ba68-7095-4c94-b57e-ff024445b919/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), *The Washington Post* reported at the time. At the end of the negotiations, [Hussein reportedly held Oscar’s hand](https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/world-of-oilman-oscar-wyatt/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and told his cabinet, “You see there are Americans who tell the truth.” None of the hostages worked for Coastal, but all the same, Oscar brought them home to Houston just before Christmas on the corporate jet, where his crew made them [Texas chili in a crockpot](https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/world-of-oilman-oscar-wyatt/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — and wept in relief with their families. The following January he warned in a speech to the Corpus Christi Chamber of Commerce that a war in the Middle East would become [a “meat grinder” for America’s sons](https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/world-of-oilman-oscar-wyatt/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). He choked back tears; people stormed out. Afterwards, according to the *Monthly*, Wyatt was about as popular in Corpus Christi as was Saddam himself. By 2007, Oscar was indicted on federal charges of paying millions in bribes to Hussein. During the scandal, [NBC News](https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna20270050?ref=thebarbedwire.com) reported that Oscar had provided the Iraqi government with information about when the United States would invade and how many soldiers would be sent. His legal team [argued the documentation of that alleged tipoff ](https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna20270050?ref=thebarbedwire.com)— in the form of an Iraq State Oil Marketing Organization employee’s diary — should be excluded from his trial, writing, “This document essentially alleges that Wyatt has committed the deplorable crime of treason and aided an enemy of the United States.” Many have theorized over the years that Oscar’s position on Iraq came down to his time in World War II, and subsequent nightmares of war, just as much as it had to do with his business interests. “He never believed Saddam was anything but the dictator he was, but he believed it was in the best interest of the United States to maintain a relationship with an Arab country hostile to Iran in the region,” said one of the former executives who spoke to me this week. “Many criticized him because of it, but Wyatt believed — as much as he wanted their oil — that Iraq was a vital counterweight to the Ayatollah in Iran,” he added. Hussein was executed in Baghdad a year before Wyatt was tried in New York, where he [pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to commit wire fraud](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/09/business/oscar-s-wyatt-jr-dead.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). He served 9 months in prison before being released in 2008. It was one of his last legal scandals — but certainly not the first. The earliest was in 1960, according to the Wyatt Ranches Foundation, when he was jailed for disturbing the peace in Abilene. More than a decade later, when Coastal failed to fulfill gas contracts to Austin and San Antonio in the 1970s, [it was sued and ordered to refund](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/09/business/oscar-s-wyatt-jr-dead.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) more than $1.2 billion to customers. It was a scandal so meaty that it [knocked Watergate off the airwaves](https://archive.vanityfair.com/article/1991/4/oscar-wyatts-private-war?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The following decade, Wyatt pleaded guilty to federal oil-pricing violations, for which he paid $9 million to the Treasury and another $1 million in penalties, according to the [*Times*](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/09/business/oscar-s-wyatt-jr-dead.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The thing is, he always seemed to find a way to earn that money back later — through his frugality, international exploits, and rabid commitment to his business interests above all else. As Oscar told reporter Marie Brenner in [*Vanity Fair*](https://archive.vanityfair.com/article/1991/4/oscar-wyatts-private-war?ref=thebarbedwire.com)’s April 1991 issue: “Remember, baby, your Texas buddy told you that bullshit walks and money talks.” I’m sure we’ll see that belief embodied in a larger-than-life Texan again. Just maybe not in the form of a man who also gave so much to others, openly cried over the deaths of soldiers, insulted my mom, and knew my grandpa. ### ‘The Video Speaks for Itself.’ An Historic Murder Case Puts San Antonio Officers on Trial. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/san-antonio-police-officers-murder-trial/ Last updated: 2025-10-16T05:01:00.000Z The 379th Criminal District Court in San Antonio was bulging with people last Friday, so filled with journalists, police, attorneys, and staff that bailiffs shooed those without a seat out the door. People wanted to see, first-hand, the unprecedented trial that was set to begin. Before the judge called the room to order, Bexar County Assistant District Attorney Darly Harris leaned over the bannister separating the gallery from the prosecutors’ table. He brought his face level with that of the young woman seated there. He quietly appeared to tell her what was coming up, and he reminded her about the gaggle of press just a few aisles behind her. While outwardly calm, Alexis Tovar, 26, had been nervous about the morning’s events for two years. “I'm on high alert all the time waiting for this trial. So mentally, it's exhausting,” Tovar told *The Barbed Wire* a few days prior. Before long, Tovar was wiping her eyes with a tissue as attorneys gave their opening statements. The prosecution’s and defense’s arguments charted different realities of what led to the death of Tovar’s mother, Melissa Perez. The prosecution, through Harris, made the case that over the course of two and a half hours, San Antonio police officers escalated a once-calm situation and murdered Perez. Defense attorneys for those officers argued the unstable woman repeatedly threatened the police, nearly striking them with a deadly weapon. Perez was killed in the early hours of June 23, 2023 — one of 22 people shot by San Antonio Police that year, according to [reporting from KSAT](https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2023/12/29/sapd-officers-shot-22-people-in-2023-killing-14-at-least-8-officers-were-shot-on-duty/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Unlike the other shooting cases that year, in which 14 people died, Perez’s case resulted in the termination of San Antonio Police officers. Days later, they were arrested for her murder. The murder charges were unheard of. Never in the history of San Antonio, the seventh largest city in the country, has an officer been charged with murder for an on-the-job shooting. No charges were filed against SAPD Sgt. David Perry when he shot Hannah Westall in a shopping center parking lot on March 20, 2019\. The 95-lb woman had a BB gun shaped like an UZI submachine gun shoved into the back of her pants. Dash camera footage showed that Perry shot her within 15 seconds, though Westall never pointed the weapon at the officer, and told him it was fake, according to court documents from Tovar’s lawsuit. John Montez was shot twice in the chest while holding a knife in his kitchen. His wife had called the police, worried the combat veteran who was suffering from mental health problems might hurt himself. Police say he lunged at them, but court documents from Tovar’s lawsuit allege his family saw body camera footage showing no lunge on that fateful March day in 2021. Both shootings were investigated, and police in Montez’s death were brought before a grand jury, but neither resulted in charges, both qualifying as a genuine threat to the officers lives. Perez’s case stretched the definition of “credible threat.” Can a woman in her own apartment behind a locked glass patio door with a blunt object really be a threat to police officers? According to experts at the [Police Integrity Research Group](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-bgsu-edu/content/dam/BGSU/health-and-human-services/document/Criminal-Justice-Program/policeintegritylostresearch/9-on-duty-shootings-police-officers-charged-with-murder-or-manslaughter.pdf) and Bowling Green University, police are hardly ever prosecuted for bad shootings. Their analysis of 15 years of data between 2005-2019 found only 2% of police were charged with murder in fatal encounters nationwide. “Few officers are convicted because juries and courts are reluctant to second-guess split-second life-or-death decisions of police officers in potentially violent street encounters,” the study’s authors wrote. **A Life Cut Short** Melissa Perez grew up in San Antonio. She had Tovar, her oldest of four children, when she was 22. The family moved from apartment to apartment, Tovar said. They didn’t have much but her mother was quick to give to others. Perez was a good cook and anything Tovar mentioned wanting her mother would make the next day. “There will be times where she would go work on a roof as a roofer to feed us, get us school clothes,” she said. Still, Perez struggled with her mental health. She was diagnosed with schizophrenia in her 40s. Defense attorneys hinted at another, darker version of reality in their opening statements. They said evidence from Child Protective Services would show the woman’s "psychosis" had impacted her for decades and that all four of children were removed from her home. Child Protective Services was a part of the family’s life, Tovar said, but declined to elaborate, adding only that Perez was never violent and she and her brothers are proof of her ability to parent. “We are all four of us pretty great kids,” she said, rattling off academic and extracurricular accolades for her brothers. Dylan, 11, has straight A’s and is also a solid clarinet player, she said. Jayden, 17, is in all Advanced Placement courses as a sophomore. Aiden, 18, is an accomplished football player. In the years before her death, Perez’s behavior grew more erratic. None of her children lived with her anymore. Jayden and Aiden lived with their father and her youngest, Dylan, lived with Tovar. In 2021, Perez was hospitalized for schizophrenia and placed on powerful drugs to help her navigate the condition. She moved in with Tovar after being discharged, and for months she shared a room with her grandson. Perez held down a job working from Tovar’s home as a customer service representative in the medical field. She seemed to be doing well, her daughter said. That’s when she wanted to get her own place. Tovar was skeptical, but she said her mother was excited when she moved into Rosemont at Miller’s Pond Apartments, a public housing complex on San Antonio’s southwest side. Perez did well for a while. But Tovar believes that without her and her husband’s help, her mother wavered with her medication. Eight months after moving in, Perez was found cutting wires to the exterior fire alarm at the apartment complex. The tampering triggered the alarm causing her building to evacuate. Multiple neighbors called 911\. Recordings played in court heard one exasperated neighbor complain that a woman (Perez) admitted to it and said she owned the building. The San Antonio Fire Department sent a unit to respond. Police body camera footage shows Perez telling fire and rescue personnel that the FBI was using the fire alarm equipment to surveil her. A toxicology report would later show she was intoxicated. The initial police response was limited. Two officers — Jesus Rojas and Robert Ramos — arrived in separate cars. After speaking briefly with Perez, Rojas attempted to get her to come to his car to speak more. As he walked in front of her towards the patrol car, body camera footage shows she fled to her apartment. Another unit arrived and the three officers attempted to talk her out of her apartment, body camera footage would show. Prosecutors said Perez refused. In his opening arguments, Harris said that at that point, 48 minutes had passed, and that the officers were told by detectives downtown that they could write up the incident and leave. Someone would follow up at another time. But when the apartment maintenance man told the officers the estimated damage was several thousand dollars, a felony amount, the officers decided to try to arrest Perez again, Harris said. They knocked and kicked on the door for the next 30 minutes. At one point an officer tore the screen on an open window and attempted to unlock the patio door, according to body camera footage and court testimony. Perez picked up a hammer and ran at the officer, swinging it and striking the window frame. She then threw a vigil candle out the window striking the officer, who called for additional units. Another dozen San Antonio police officers showed up, including the accused Sgt. Alfred Flores, Ofc. Nathaniel Villalobos, and Ofc. Eleazar Alejandro. According to prosecutors, Flores, the ranking officer on the scene, rejected plans to breach the home in a way that would allow for a less lethal response. Defense attorneys would argue Flores and the other officers weren’t notified that they were responding to a mental health case. Body camera [footage showed that Flores](https://journaliststudio.google.com/pinpoint/document-view?collection=7d3c192dd7204bc4&docid=548d4f76b10401ca%5F7d3c192dd7204bc4&dapvm=1&highlight=a4d303bd69afd024&utm%5Fsource=highlight%5Fdeep%5Flink) said they must enter because a second person was in the home. Given the mental state Perez was in and the fact that she had threatened officers with a hammer — they felt the man may be at risk. The man was a known transient, according to the San Antonio Fire Department, whom Perez had taken in. After two and a half hours, Flores and Villalobos again tried to get in the apartment through the patio door, while Alejandro spoke to the woman through the open window. During the final attempt, Perez was shot while wielding a hammer and, police said, rushing the three men. They fired through the closed — and locked — glass patio door. **‘I Didn’t Get to Say Bye’** Within hours, the San Antonio mayor, the city council, mental health professionals, and the Chief of Police condemned the shooting. Flores, Alejandro, and Villalobos were suspended and, days later, arrested for murder. The charges against Villalobos were later reduced to aggravated assault with a deadly weapon because the bullets from his gun did not strike Perez. Defense attorneys have repeatedly attacked the investigation, saying police filed murder charges within a day, calling it the result of pressure from senior police leadership and the public rather than police work. The family filed a wrongful death lawsuit two weeks after the shooting against the three officers, the police department and the city of San Antonio. It alleged, among other things, that SAPD fostered a culture of excessive force, maintained poor oversight and training and questioned policy and practices of its Mental Health unit — which it argued was severely limited at night. But the civil rights lawsuit was thrown out last month. “Given all these circumstances, the presence of a glass door between Perez and the Officer Defendants does not make the use of deadly force excessive,” wrote U.S. Magistrate Judge Henry Bemporad in his recommendation, echoing hundreds of judgments of officer-involved shootings past. Tovar disagreed that her 130-pound mother posed a threat to three, physically fit policemen behind a glass door. “I don't know how you watch that (body camera footage), and someone could say something like that, because I feel like the video speaks for itself,” Tovar said. She didn’t tell her youngest brother, Dylan, who lives with her, about the civil court ruling. The 11-year-old has taken things hard in the past. “I don’t update him too much. It does affect him a lot,” said Tovar. Her mother’s death affected her profoundly as well. The oft-bubbly and optimistic woman was waylaid by depression that made it difficult to get out of bed in the months that followed her mother’s shooting. “I feel robbed because I didn't get to say bye. I didn't get to hug her. Talk to her one last time,” she said. Caring for her own two children and helping her brothers while finishing a nursing program meant she had to ask for help. She credits therapy, running, and her faith for keeping her on track after losing the woman she has called her best friend. Tovar finished her nursing program, though with a slight change in focus. Initially, she hoped to work in mental health, so she could help her mother. In the aftermath of Perez’s violent death, her studies brought back too much of the pain. She is scheduled to start working as a labor and delivery nurse later this month. **‘Burn It Down’** In the two years since the shooting, the case has been delayed by motions alleging prosecutorial and judicial impropriety filed by a high-profile defense team boasting several former prosecutors, including former Bexar County District Attorney Nico LaHood. The case was originally set for trial late last year, but was removed from the 187th District Court after the defense team successfully argued Judge Stephanie Boyd showed bias against their clients. The trial of the three men is expected to last through the week, and Tovar has said she will be there as much as she can. “I feel like these are gonna be some of the hardest days that are coming,” Tovar said. The defense team has been largely silent in the media, so opening arguments presented the first public defense of the three officers' actions. Jason Goss, one of Villalobos’ attorneys, argued the officers had a right to make it home safely that night and Perez’s actions were a threat. He said that leaving without arresting her would have left other people at risk. “You can’t destroy the fire alarm at the apartments, endangering hundreds of lives…run away from the detention and make it home and you're safe,” he said. “That’s not how it works.” What happens next depends on days of testimony, the arguments of more than ten attorneys, and ultimately a decision reached by 12 Bexar County residents. If the prosecution is victorious, the criminal trial could result in the unusual situation rendering criminal liability in a case that a civil court, with a lower threshold, found spurious. The family is waiting to see what happens in the criminal trial before they decide whether to appeal in civil court. “Accountability?” Tovar responded to a question about what result she wants. “I just need something — some sort of change, some sort of awareness.” A historic murder conviction would again shine a spotlight on when police respond to mental health calls — and, very likely, years more of trials and appeals from this tragedy. For the defense, the case amounts to order versus chaos. If the jury finds his clients guilty, Goss said it would upend how police are able to make basic arrests, leading to chaos. “Just wait and see what kind of community we live in, if we convict these men of murder and aggravated assault,” Goss said. “Burn it down.” *Correction & Clarification: An earlier version of this story misstated Melissa Perez’s age at the time her daughter was born. It has been corrected;* The Barbed Wire *regrets the error. This story has also been updated to clarify that the San Antonio Police officers charged in Perez’s death were terminated.* ### ‘Are We in a Civil War?’ Texas Troops Are Still in Illinois, but It’s Getting Messy URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-national-guard-illinois-civil-war/ Last updated: 2025-10-13T18:39:06.000Z While politicians and judges debate the legality of Texas National Guard troops’ presence in Illinois, columnists and creators are wondering: “Are we in a civil war?” Here’s some background to that terrifying question: About 200 Texas troops [arrived in Illinois](https://www.northcom.mil/Missions/Homeland-Defense/Federal-Protection-Mission/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Oct. 8 after they were called by President Trump to assist in protecting federal agents carrying out his deportation efforts, Gov. Greg Abbott [told *Fox News*](https://www.foxnews.com/politics/pritzker-joke-texas-gov-abbott-mocks-sanctuary-governor-opposing-national-guard-troops?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The escalating tension has sparked legal battles and personal insults, with Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker calling Abbott [a “tool of Donald Trump” and “his lackey”](https://x.com/GovPritzker/status/1976081996540412031?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and Abbott calling Pritzker “a joke.” As [Chicagoans and](https://blockclubchicago.org/2025/09/05/sorry-trump-chicago-is-not-the-murder-capital-of-the-world-not-even-close-data-shows/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [local reporters debunk](https://chicago.suntimes.com/illinois-governor/2025/10/10/jb-pritzker-appearance-jimmy-kimmel-show-donald-trump-national-guard?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [inaccurate claims about rising violent crime](http://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wisn.com%2Farticle%2Fchicago-and-memphis-national-guard-troops%2F68915293%3Futm%5Fcampaign%3Dsnd-autopilot%26fbclid%3DIwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAYnJpZBExUmlPZmVCVnV4aXJ3UjIybAEeXQ3a%5FM%5FHlB-VtLhMDEBkLdHbFReVO3XoK7a7CRCDcfQZ3K6GV8fqID878M8%5Faem%5FffOoilDUijqyqgkgetPj6g&h=AT0LHfMMwb2peeZcd5aJG3Oa77dtQVimpG0Ftq423wtFRlqJbmPflmskS%5Ft3i3zqdGZogdcKGy9-OjKyxV6csPCEVzcrbYUr0M5UDrEyLPdsNjf22v4FUjnAZNgCMPRcNtcWXVcF%5Fg%5FRNYDI4fY&%5F%5Ftn%5F%5F=%2CmH-R&c[0]=AT2gJ0ulihu5L2tVveOSRrMlSUsuQs2Dgpb0KacJMWOC7fJbf0Et-4r8UHq8SdfqD6ZqbOvlUMMr-noltpD3dIi2rwSy1eOIUOEsYOYtyoSaL3xE9XUBrLj%5Fn2N4hGWrmQXhEmsSmlaAcy%5FVnzJ0Z%5F8EJPrg2fLru70CKO%5F9Hk8eZXRsmm4raKY3lN8Lohs&ref=thebarbedwire.com) in the country’s third largest city, Trump has maintained a …different narrative. “There’s no place in the world, including you can go to Afghanistan. You can go to places that you would think of. They don’t even come close to this,” Trump [said last month](https://chicago.suntimes.com/illinois-governor/2025/10/10/jb-pritzker-appearance-jimmy-kimmel-show-donald-trump-national-guard?ref=thebarbedwire.com) (sic). “Chicago is a hellhole right now.” Appearing on Jimmy Kimmel’s late night show, Pritzker joked: “We’ve seen people being forced to eat hot dogs with ketchup on them, and our deep dish pizza, well, has gone shallow.” “There’s no hellscape that I’d rather be in,” he added. Amid the satire and mockery were very real threats: Trump has [suggested jailing both Gov. Pritzker and Chicago’s mayor](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/us/politics/trump-pritzker-chicago-ice.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Brandon Johnson, over their alleged failure to protect the ICE agents on the ground. In [addition to](https://www.tiktok.com/@hannah.is.over.this/video/7559352548046556447?q=civil%20war&t=1760370890477&ref=thebarbedwire.com) [creators](http://tiktok.com/@valentivideos.alt/video/7558914678194326798?%5Ft=ZT-90OHvGS4uf9&%5Fr=1&ref=thebarbedwire.com) [and commentators](https://www.tiktok.com/@totalhypocrisy/video/7558980549445012749?q=civil%20war&t=1760370890477&ref=thebarbedwire.com) [on TikTok](https://www.tiktok.com/@liut196/video/7559194888311442743?q=civil%20war&t=1760370890477&ref=thebarbedwire.com), opinion columnists from [*The New York Times*](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/07/opinion/trump-miller-kirk-aftermath.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and the [*San Francisco Chronicle*](https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/portland-chicago-texas-trump-national-guard-antifa-21090815.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to [*Roll Call*](https://rollcall.com/2025/10/08/civil-war-national-guard-midterm-elections/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) have grappled with the question of an impending actual civil war. “When you combine all this performative military activity with Trump’s gambit of punishing blue states in the latest government shutdown farce, it’s hard not to hear a not-so-faint declaration of war,” wrote Jack Ohman in the [*Chronicle*](https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/portland-chicago-texas-trump-national-guard-antifa-21090815.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “Throw in [Trump’s open musing about invoking the Insurrection Act](https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trumps-threat-invoke-insurrection-act-escalates-showdown-with-democratic-cities-2025-10-07/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which is specifically designed to stop a foreign invasion or extreme internal unrest, and we’re not just whistling ‘Dixie,’ we’re cosplaying it.” [*New York Times* columnist Thomas Edsall](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/07/opinion/trump-miller-kirk-aftermath.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) wrote last Tuesday: “Over the past four weeks, (Trump) has initiated what amounts to a unique form of partisan civil war designed to amass power in a nominal democracy and defang, decimate, and defund the opposition.” For his part, Pritzker has called the presence of National Guard troops [“Trump’s invasion.”](https://www.foxnews.com/politics/pritzker-joke-texas-gov-abbott-mocks-sanctuary-governor-opposing-national-guard-troops?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Things aren’t going smoothly for Trump’s effort, however. An [*ABC News* photo](https://abcnews.go.com/US/texas-national-guard-headed-illinois-gov-pritzker-calls/story?id=126283676&ref=thebarbedwire.com) of Texas National Guard members earned ridicule on social media, after Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth recently [lamented “fat troops”](https://www.war.gov/News/Transcripts/Transcript/Article/4318689/secretary-of-war-pete-hegseth-addresses-general-and-flag-officers-at-quantico-v/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in a speech to military leadership. But it wasn’t just the guard members’ physical appearance at issue. Commenters also pointed out that one member carried his rifle in an unsafe way. “He’s got that barrel sweeping any and everyone to his left…which means all his own fellow troops,” Reddit [user Hayduke\_2030 wrote.](https://www.reddit.com/r/texas/comments/1o1qvdq/is%5Fanyone%5Fhere%5Fin%5Fthe%5Ftexas%5Fguard/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) After the criticism of the troops in the photo, the Texas Military Department [said to *Task & Purpose*](https://taskandpurpose.com/news/texas-national-guard-chicago-standards/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that “a small group” of the guardsmen in Illinois were replaced after they failed to meet standards. “Soldiers and Airmen are required to meet service-specific height, weight, and physical fitness standards at all times,” the National Guard Bureau said [in a statement](https://www.nationalguard.mil/News/Press-Releases/Article/4322684/ngb-statement-on-fitness-standards-for-mobilization/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). On Thursday, a federal judge also issued a [two-week block on the troops’ deployment](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/11/us/national-guard-chicago.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) while finding that the Trump administration misrepresented the facts in Chicago in order to justify National Guard presence, as the [*San Antonio Express-News*](https://www.expressnews.com/politics/article/chicago-federal-judge-partially-blocks-texas-21093194.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) first reported. “Not even the Founding Father most ardently in favor of a strong federal government believed that one state’s militia could be sent to another state for the purposes of political retribution,” Judge April Perry, a former prosecutor and a Biden appointee, wrote [in a fiery 51-page ruling](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/storage-courtlistener-com/recap/gov-uscourts-ilnd-487574/gov-uscourts-ilnd-487574-70-0%5F1.pdf). She said that Trump’s decision to bring in the military last week was “likely to lead to civil unrest.” The White House appealed Perry’s ruling, but the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals said Saturday that the Texas troops [did not have to return to their home state](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/storage-courtlistener-com/recap/gov-uscourts-ca7-54985/gov-uscourts-ca7-54985-8-0.pdf) while waiting for the decision on the appeal. Even other Republican leaders have criticized what they see as an overstepping by Trump, including fellow Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma. “Oklahomans would lose their mind if Pritzker in Illinois sent troops down to Oklahoma during the Biden administration,” Stitt said [in an interview with the *New York Times*](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/09/us/politics/oklahoma-governor-national-guard.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on Thursday. According to [*Texas Monthly*](https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/what-texas-national-guard-deployments-say-about-greg-abbott/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)*,* Abbott’s change of heart on federal interference ([see:](https://www.texasobserver.org/how-greg-abbott-got-played-by-the-russians-during-his-jade-helm-freakout/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [Jade Helm](https://www.texastribune.org/2018/05/03/hysteria-over-jade-helm-exercise-texas-was-fueled-russians-former-cia-/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)) could come down to a much simpler political motivation: getting back at Pritzker for [helping harbor Texas Democrats in August](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/08/04/texas-redistricting-democrats-quorum-break-what-need-know/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) during their quorum break over congressional redistricting maps. “Pritzker embarrassed Abbott and resisted Trump’s gerrymandering efforts, so now Abbott is embarrassing Pritzker by sending troops to his state with Trump’s blessing,” Christopher Hooks [wrote](https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/what-texas-national-guard-deployments-say-about-greg-abbott/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “In practice, the soldiers, who are most likely none too happy to be called away from their normal lives, will probably mill aimlessly around the Bean until the headlines thin out and someone tells them to come home, and we should all hope it gets no more serious than that.” Let’s pray he’s right. ### Everybody Say ‘Thank You, Khalid!’ for Reviving the Male Pop Star URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/everybody-say-thank-you-khalid-for-reviving-the-male-pop-star/ Last updated: 2025-10-10T21:49:01.000Z Today is a good day to say, “thank you, Khalid!” for [saving male pop music](https://www.tiktok.com/@thegr8khalid/video/7550412953137237279?is%5Ffrom%5Fwebapp=1&sender%5Fdevice=pc&web%5Fid=7558606953632728631&ref=thebarbedwire.com). His latest album, “after the sun goes down,” which dropped at midnight on Friday, Oct. 10, has earned him the crown of *least problematic favorite* in a genre populated with headline-grabbing [“this is going to ruin the tour” DUIs](https://www.forbes.com/sites/danidiplacido/2024/06/22/justin-timberlakes-ruin-the-tour-meme-explained/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), monkeys [getting confiscated at the airport](https://people.com/pets/justin-bieber-opens-up-about-his-confiscated-monkey-it-was-the-farthest-thing-from-fine/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and [other unsavory scandals](https://variety.com/2025/music/news/nick-carter-fourth-sexual-assault-lawsuit-std-cervical-cancer-1236369949/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The impetus for the project came only *three months* after the release of his last album — “Sincere,” which dropped in August 2024 — when he [was outed as gay online](https://au.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/khalid-interview-after-the-sun-does-down-85139/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “I think what’s so nasty about it all is that my own story got stripped away from me,” the 27-year-old [told PEOPLE](https://people.com/khalid-says-being-outed-was-blessing-in-disguise-but-nasty-exclusive-11821978?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Still, Khalid let what he called a “blessing in disguise” fuel his music, both to regain control of his story and to publicly step into who he’s always been — and who he’s always wanted to be. The resulting album is “a huge ode to just the beautiful icons that come before me,” he went on to say. “I’ve always dreamt of being this pop star. I really tapped into that little boy and gave him his shine that he always wanted.” It’s resonating with fans because of the project’s full embrace of pure pop à la the 2000s and 2010s. Texans quickly claimed Khalid as one of our own after learning [he lived in El Paso as a teenager](https://www.elpasotimes.com/story/entertainment/music/2017/12/22/history-behind-khalids-2017-rise-fame/962026001/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “Undoubtedly, this is a new era for Khalid,” wrote Neil Griffiths in [*Rolling Stone*](https://au.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/khalid-interview-after-the-sun-does-down-85139/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). It’s “breezy, fun and danceable,” one fan said on [Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/popheads/comments/1o2l3vl/comment/nis4p75/?utm%5Fsource=share&utm%5Fmedium=web3x&utm%5Fname=web3xcss&utm%5Fterm=1&utm%5Fcontent=share%5Fbutton). As another user [declared](https://www.reddit.com/r/popheads/comments/1o2l3vl/comment/nirob33/?utm%5Fsource=share&utm%5Fmedium=web3x&utm%5Fname=web3xcss&utm%5Fterm=1&utm%5Fcontent=share%5Fbutton), “This has main pop boy written all over it, I fear.” In other words, there’s been a drought in the male pop star market, and with “after the sun goes down,” Khalid lays out ample evidence to support the case that he’s the full package with all the right visual and aural references in tow. A part of tapping into his pop stardom is owning his queerness directly and proudly, (“You're my type, fly, dark, and handsome,” he sings in the 13th track, “momentary lovers”) but it’s also about allowing himself to creatively revel in a fantasy that gendered and racialized expectations so often preclude. What these expectations have produced is an oversaturation of male performers rewarded even when their act feels underwhelming or contrived. One [flip off a piano in a sparkly unitard and Benson Boone’s Grammy-nominated.](https://www.thecut.com/article/benson-boone-flip-jimmy-fallon-desk.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) When he covered Adele’s “When We Were Young” months later, people were genuinely shocked and [delighted to discover he had actual vocal chops](https://www.tiktok.com/@much/video/7543067199196499207?ref=thebarbedwire.com). One commenter, who got more than 23,300 likes in agreement, wrote: “He’s wasting his voice on goonbeam ice cream songs.” Perhaps the most succinct visual representation of this phenomenon was when Beyoncé performed alongside Ed Sheeran at the Global Citizen Festival in 2018\. [We’ve all seen the pictures.](https://www.businessinsider.com/beyonce-ed-sheerans-contrasting-outfits-prompt-gender-standards-debate-2018-12?ref=thebarbedwire.com) She stuns in a hot pink sculptural couture dress and he’s…there in a black T-Shirt and jeans — the event started an [entire online debate](https://www.businessinsider.com/beyonce-ed-sheerans-contrasting-outfits-prompt-gender-standards-debate-2018-12?ref=thebarbedwire.com) about gender standards in performances. We’d be remiss not to talk about Harry Styles’ [Whole Thing](https://www.eonline.com/news/1094171/why-harry-styles-is-the-male-pop-star-we-need-right-now?ref=thebarbedwire.com) (congrats on [that marathon](https://people.com/harry-styles-runs-the-2025-berlin-marathon-11814064?ref=thebarbedwire.com), by the way!), but his last album was released in May 2022\. And it’s hard to find an example of a male pop musician in this world who isn’t exhausted after coming up through millennial capital b Boy Bands. As [*Dazed*](https://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/66749/1/where-are-all-the-gen-z-pop-boys-music-harry-styles-justin-bieber-one-direction?ref=thebarbedwire.com) wrote in May: “Where are all the Gen Z pop boys?” With his fourth album, Khalid’s given us our answer. And in his fantasy, the bar for male pop stars is higher. Khalid already had seven Grammy Award nominations ahead of this week’s release, including Best New Artist in 2018 when he was just 19 years old. Throughout “after the sun goes down,” he’s liberated from expectations, reintroducing himself as a reminder that he’s evolved since his shy “American Teen” days in 2017\. He’s grown and, as seen in the music video for the second single, “out of body,” he’s sweaty and sexual, dancing to a Darkchild-produced track that samples Britney Spears’ “Outrageous” in both melody and energy. For fans, this seems to be a welcome departure from Khalid’s previous projects, of which some have said came across too homogeneous. “This is a surprisingly good album and definitely Khalid's best,” one fan [wrote on Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/popheads/comments/1o2l3vl/comment/nipjig0/?utm%5Fsource=share&utm%5Fmedium=web3x&utm%5Fname=web3xcss&utm%5Fterm=1&utm%5Fcontent=share%5Fbutton). “I think Khalid's biggest problem was that all of his songs sounded the same.” That’s no longer the case. Especially not for “after the sun goes down,” which effortlessly blends pop with tastes of R&B and dance. “Given the pivot in sound and direction, it’s fair to say Khalid has tapped into something new and exciting,” Griffiths wrote for [*Rolling Stone*](https://au.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/khalid-interview-after-the-sun-does-down-85139/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). As much as the album meditates on Khalid’s real life love, lust, relationships, and desire, it’s also itself a love letter, written and addressed to pop music, to those who shaped it throughout the 2000s and 2010s, and to those who continue to remind us of what it could and should be today. Chief among those who shaped pop music as we know it is Darkchild, who’s produced everything from Brandy and Monica’s “The Boy Is Mine” to Beyoncé’s “Déjà Vu,” making it all the more clear how the fifth track “out of body” was able to nail the early aughts pop sound so well. Other collaborators include co-writers Tove Lo, Julia Michaels, and Ryan Tedder, all of whom are responsible for some of the biggest pop songs of the last decade. Producer ILYA, best known for his myriad of hits with Ariana Grande, contributes to most of the album, while Oscar Görres — who worked on Troye Sivan’s introspective “Something To Give Each Other,” a dance-heavy, synth-pop album — jumped in on a few records. “out of body” is certainly a standout on the album, particularly because of its direct reference to Spears. Songs like “tank top” and “instant” offer feel-good pop moments similar in vibe to Tate McRae’s “Sports car” or Zara Larsson’s “Midnight Sun,” while Khalid’s smooth vocals flow with ease on tracks like “nah,” “rendezvous,” and “angel boy.” In “whenever you’re gone,” I can’t help but hear whispers of both Jay Sean’s 2009 hit “Down” and Taio Cruz’s electro-pop sensibilities (if you get it, you get it?). Based on the catchy percussive instrumentals riding through “impulsive” and “yes no maybe,” I wouldn’t be surprised if you told me Timbaland produced the tracks. An obligatory reference to cell phones seems to be true to trend for an album infused with recession pop influences, evidenced by the likes of “Telephone” by Lady Gaga, Soulja Boy’s “Kiss Me Thru the Phone,” and “Hotline Bling” by Drake, and Khalid’s latest entry is no different with the earworm, “please don’t call (333).” [Recession pop](https://time.com/7276586/recession-pop-benefits-essay/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) has been back for a while now — thanks to new entries from established artists like Kesha, Lady Gaga, and Charli XCX. But while the sound running through “after the sun goes down” isn’t new as a phenomenon, it is new for the public to hear *from Khalid*. That’s not to say it’s new for Khalid as a listener, who has made clear that female pop stars have long served as a guiding inspiration for him, looking up to icons like Britney Spears and Rihanna since he was a kid. Some of us have long been waiting for someone to take that camp and express it in a new way. Not only is Khalid tapping into those sonic qualities, but he’s interpolating them with the joys, nuances, and complexities of life as an openly gay Black man who is also a part of Gen Z. While Khalid is filling a noticeable void in the industry, he’s also setting an example for other male artists to meet a higher caliber of performance — performance that is well-researched and intentional, that is original but also rich in reference, and that, importantly, cites its sources. In doing so, might Khalid encourage more male acts to be less afraid of embodying the pop star persona in its totality? I’m sure the pop queens who’ve been holding down the fort would welcome the company up there on the stage. “after the sun goes down” doesn’t just answer the question of where all male pop stars have gone, it also provides a road map for where they should go next. Maybe Khalid can send them his location. ### The 13 Spookiest Texas Ghost Stories We Could Find URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-spooky-ghost-stories-halloween/ Last updated: 2025-10-10T05:01:00.000Z A state as vast as Texas is home to all sorts of frights: [rattlesnakes](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/tarantulas-coyotes-and-rattlesnakes-put-some-respect-on-their-names/), [U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-weirdest-worst-things-ted-cruz-has-ever-done/), and [many, many ghosts](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-spookiest-texas-ghost-stories-we-could-find/). We interviewed Texas historians and ghost tour guides — and combed the internet — to round up the scariest ghost stories from across the state. *(Editor’s Note: Some of the responses have been edited for brevity and clarity.)* ## La Llorona *Sue Owen,* [*Texas Ghost Tales*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWfNXdlKyL0&ref=thebarbedwire.com) It was two in the morning on a warm, dark night in the summer of 2021. A man named Martin Godines was driving back home from a friend's house. He passed near Father McNabo Park on the banks of the Rio Grande, in Laredo. The fields and playground were empty, as expected in the early morning hours while the sun still slept. As his headlights lit up the empty roads, he didn’t know he was about to become part of [a series of reports](https://www.lmtonline.com/news/article/None-other-than-La-Llorona-Ghost-sightings-16341099.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of eerie sightings in this area. But Martin had a camera on his car. “I was driving around 2 a.m. leaving a friend’s house,” Godines told the [*Laredo Morning Times*](https://www.lmtonline.com/news/article/None-other-than-La-Llorona-Ghost-sightings-16341099.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “So as I was driving, I hadn’t noticed what my camera had captured until after I reviewed the video.” When he got home, he found a video resembling a figure known for centuries and generations across Texas and Central and South America: a glowing woman in white who wails in the night. La Llorona — the wailing woman — is [a story about a woman ](https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/c06d5f719b7a4ca89fb80eb3606e6cbb?ref=thebarbedwire.com)who roams by waterways, crying out for her children: “Mis hijos, my children.” She’ll never be reunited with them because legend has it she drowned them. The history of La Llorona is very long, with different regional renditions from Texas to Mexico to Guatemala and Venezuela. There are mentions of her as [early as the 1800s](https://www.cervantesvirtual.com/obra-visor/el-pozo-de-la-llorona-1134103/html/5c92faab-5d13-4aca-ac89-bb317d227919%5F2.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). In 2019 there were even two major films made, one from [Shudder](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVf8in0dj9s&ref=thebarbedwire.com) and the other from [Warner Bros.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOV-xMYQ7sk&ref=thebarbedwire.com) In the version [told in California](https://www.sfgate.com/mexico/mexicomix/article/Mexico-s-legend-of-La-Llorona-continues-to-3933072.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a beautiful young woman named Maria marries a wealthy rancher, who starts to neglect her after their two sons are born, then lavishes attention on the boys. In a fit of rage, she drowns their sons. Regretting what she’s done, she wanders evermore by the water’s edge, screaming for her children to return. When she’s spotted, she’s typically seen wearing a white burial gown. But more often, she’s heard. The story of La Llorona is sometimes used to scare children into behaving — or staying away from the water. But the horror is not just that she’s a wailing wraith in white. One of the 2021 Laredo reports described her as walking calmly — a woman with long, dark hair who seemed sad. The horror is the betrayal. In some versions, a mother whose love turned to murder, then madness. ## The Ghosts of Millermore House *Sarah Crain, executive director of* [*Preservation Dallas*](https://preservationdallas.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) *and former Chief Operating Officer of* [*Old City Park*](https://www.dallasparks.org/684/City-Park?ref=thebarbedwire.com) From 2019 to 2024, I worked for [Old City Park](https://www.dallasparks.org/684/City-Park?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and we have a lot of buildings that are old and historic on that property, in the heart of downtown Dallas off Harwood St. off Interstate 30\. There are a lot of stories specifically about the [Millermore building](https://dallasterrors.com/the-haunted-millermore-mansion/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). It looks like your pretty standard, architecturally significant plantation-style home, right? But a lot of the Millers lived there up until the 60s, when that home was purchased and then moved to Old City Park, so from 1857 until the 1960s you have over 100 years of Miller family lore. I have not personally had a scary experience, but a lot of my team has. I have a big familiarity with the fact that a lot of these older buildings have squirrels and raccoons in them. I'm not going to say that ghosts don't necessarily exist, but I've had more experience with a raccoon in a vent than I've had with a ghost. But I will say that my personal first experience realizing that something was interesting at Millermore was a very normal day at the park. I'm doing my rounds in the early evening, and we had this amazing cleaning crew at the time that were a husband and wife team. And I see the husband walking very quickly out of Millermore, and he said, “Hey, who's in there right now?” I said, “No one should be in there right now.” And we'd occasionally have issues with break-ins to some of our buildings, so I'm thinking, oh my gosh, is this a giant raccoon, or did someone break in the back? So I go in and we search the house, and there’s nothing. And he said, “No, when I was cleaning downstairs, there was very clearly someone upstairs. I heard footsteps. It sounded like a heavy footstep. I heard them go up the stairs. I called out to them, and no one was there.” He was like, “I will continue to clean this building. But boy, that gave me the creeps.” Since then, I’ve had many team members — from educators to janitorial service team members — come to me looking so frightened, hearing noises upstairs and thinking that there is definitely a person in that building …only to find nobody there. The figure everyone seems to see at Millermore is a lady in a brown dress. A lot of people have attributed that to Minerva, one of the wives of the original owner William Brown Miller. I couldn't tell you who this lady is. I can tell you that a former executive director of the park thought it was a guest who had stayed too late in this building and watched this lady go up the stairs and went up the stairs after her, only to see that no one was there. I will say there is something to the history of Millermore, whether it's the lady in the brown dress or not. In my opinion, what makes it a creepy building is the history of enslavement at Millermore. It's a plantation building, and maybe the spirits we're seeing are not spirits of the Miller family, but they could easily be spirits of the enslaved people who lived there during that time. There was also a history of other situations that happened at Millermore, including a family member who killed themselves there. Since that building moved to Old City Park in the 60s, there have been repeated stories of ghosts. In the1960s there wasn't a lot of understanding about preservation work, and they took the house apart piece by piece and labeled it like Legos. It sat in storage for a couple years and then it was rebuilt on the site. There's a creepy element to dismantling a plantation home and then re-building it in a new location. That kind of brings these stories back to life. ## Room 1009 *Paris Smith,* [*Dallas Terrors*](https://dallasterrors.com/the-downtown-dallas-holiday-inn-express/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) *guide* The Holiday Inn Express in downtown Dallas opened in 1925 as the Scott Hotel, and almost immediately drew all sorts of unsavory people to its rooms, including Bonnie and Clyde and Benny Binion, the owner of the Horseshoe casino in Las Vegas. At the time, the Scott Hotel was also run as an illegal casino. Violence spread throughout the hotel. There were reports of a woman who was thrown off the 10th floor of the hotel. It was labeled as a suicide because she was a sex worker, but she was actually murdered by her john on that floor. Just down the hall on the same floor is room 1009, the most haunted room in the whole hotel, which a lot of people can still rent to this day. There were two murders that occurred in that room. The first was Jack Smiley, a mobster whose girlfriend was at the bar, chatting it up with a guy. The man started getting aggressive and threatened her. Smiley didn’t like that and when that other man went up to his room, Jack went down to the front desk to get the key — to room 1009\. He planned to go in there to kill him. During the attack, the bar guy managed to stab Smiley, killing him in his room. Another mobster later stayed in that same room. His name is unknown, but the story goes that his throat was slit by another mob member. Ever since then, people that have stayed in that room have felt strange presences. They report seeing a figure stand over them at night and whisper in their ear with the smell of alcohol on their breath. Guests get locked in or out of that room often. Back in the 1980s, there was an older couple staying in the room, and they ended up locked out of their room for an hour and 45 minutes. A lot of women report feeling the presence of a man standing outside of the shower or sitting in the corner of the room in a chair. The window in room 1009 is also different from any other window in the hotel. The hotel would get reports of ashtrays being thrown out of the window and windows breaking even when there were no guests in the room. There were also reports of birds flying into the window to try and get into the room. Eventually, the window was reinforced, but the spirits that haunt that room still remained. ## ‘Something Grabbed My Ear’ [*Historic Galveston Ghost Tour*](https://historicgalvestonghosttours.com/?utm%5Fsource=localiq&utm%5Fmedium=cpc&utm%5Fcampaign=semhistoricgalvestonghosttours&scid=4680408&kw=32123660&pub%5Fcr%5Fid=706477543125&device=c&network=g&targetid=kwd-463940985734&loc%5Finterest%5Fms&loc%5Fphysical%5Fms=9027580&tc=Cj0KCQjwl5jHBhDHARIsAB0YqjzA1rXXxG%5Fgh0LVFY6p3myxW-YQ8pRTxdB8vNjLgZfdQR57iQHJFh0aAup8EALw%5FwcB&rl%5Fkey=d4b46ac81bdbab54a7672389bfcf22fa&gad%5Fsource=1&gad%5Fcampaignid=21492938111&gbraid=0AAAAAobHFcvVxdj9lBQUqdGjdv8u3D0lV&gclid=Cj0KCQjwl5jHBhDHARIsAB0YqjzA1rXXxG%5Fgh0LVFY6p3myxW-YQ8pRTxdB8vNjLgZfdQR57iQHJFh0aAup8EALw%5FwcB) *guides* About three years ago, Galveston ghost tour guide Tyler Jenkins stopped his group at an abandoned boarding house [plagued by stories of hauntings](https://www.galvestonmonthly.com/homes/smith-perry.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and satanic rituals. “While I was talking, a drunk couple on the tour snuck into the house. I went in and got them out — not a big deal. But I dropped my wallet,” Jenkins told *The Barbed Wire*. The tour guide, realizing his wallet was missing later that evening, returned to the abandoned house around midnight to retrieve it. “After I picked it up, something grabbed my ear and yanked me back, and I fell down. Nothing was there. I don’t think I’ve ever been that scared,” Jenkins said. Another tour guide, Dave Warner, said giving the haunted walkthroughs in Galveston have convinced him of the town’s supernatural haunts. “There’s no doubt in my mind that Galveston is haunted,” Warner wrote to *The Barbed Wire*. “I’ve heard story after story from locals who swear their homes are occupied, and they’re convincing enough to make a skeptic think twice.” Warner said that on three separate tours, different guests have stopped him and pointed out the same upstairs window at [Ashton Villa,](https://www.visitgalveston.com/directory/ashton-villa/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) a historic mansion. “They all described a woman standing there, listening to the story I was telling. One of them even brought thermal imaging equipment and picked up a hot spot in that exact window,” Warner said. Warner believes it was a spirit of [Rebecca Ashton “Bettie” Brown](https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/brown-rebecca-ashton-bettie?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a rich socialite who inherited the family mansion in the late 19th century and died in the Villa at 65 of an illness. “I haven’t seen her myself, but after that, I’m convinced the ghost of Bettie Brown listens from above,” Warner said. ## The Donkey Lady Nathaniel Scharping, [*Atlas Obscura*](https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/ghost-women-why-are-there-so-many-female-ghosts?ref=thebarbedwire.com) By the Old Applewhite Bridge, a small crossing over the lush river south of San Antonio, an urban legend of a quirky phantom, dubbed the ‘Donkey Lady,’ has grown. As Nathaniel Scharping [reported for *Atlas Obscura*](https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/ghost-women-why-are-there-so-many-female-ghosts?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the story goes that a woman who lived in the area nearly a century ago spent her time raising donkeys on a farm by herself, until she met her tragic end in a fire. Robert Johnson (also for *Atlas Obscura*)offers [another popular telling](https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/donkey-lady-bridge?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of the story: that the woman and one of her donkeys drowned, and their souls became intertwined in the afterlife. However she met her end, the reports that followed hold a common threads: the sound of hoofbeats and screams echoing through the forest as you cross the bridge and, or visions of a disfigured ghostly woman. Reports range from hoofprints found on cars to the sight of a person with a donkey’s face. The eerie encounters have made the bridge, nicknamed “Donkey Lady Bridge,” a popular attraction for tourists and locals alike. “When I moved to San Antonio in 2002, the first stop that my friends brought me to (was) not to the Fiesta, or the Riverwalk, or even the Alamo, it was the Donkey Lady bridge,” Marisela Barrera told *Atlas Obscura*. Scharping wrote that the Donkey Lady [represents a trend among spiritual folklore](https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/ghost-women-why-are-there-so-many-female-ghosts?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of ghosts being predominantly female. [Barrera said](https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/ghost-women-why-are-there-so-many-female-ghosts?ref=thebarbedwire.com) she resonates with the enduring nature of the Donkey Lady’s spirit. “The Donkey Lady stands her ground,” she added. “She’s so strong-willed that she could survive despite her circumstances.” ## Bouldin *Brian J. Easley, submitted September 2025* My family has never publicly told the story of our home in South Austin. My grandmother was a widow from far west Texas. After the premature and tragic passing of my grandfather from leukemia, she moved to Austin with their three small children to start a new life. My grandmother’s mansion, as I suppose it would be called nowadays, was a compound of stone buildings somewhere between I-35 and MoPac, nestled on a forested hillside just south of downtown Austin. The house consisted of an eerie stone cottage connected to a massive and eccentric barn-type main building. There was a rumor that both structures were built with the remains of one of Austin’s original stone homes, structures demolished long ago for unknown reasons. A few small outbuildings were connected by stone pathways, a winding network dotted by works of art, sculptures and concrete slabs featuring the intense bearded faces and swooped helmets of Spanish conquistadors. I’m 44 years old now, but for a normal kid from Comal County, my grandmother’s home in Austin was a place out of time — a setting from a fantasy novel, or a horror movie. My mother loved the home for its stature and beauty, but in all the years I knew her, she never stepped foot in or near the south-facing wing of the home: the old stone cottage. The final time had been in the late 1970s, a story she told me just once. One day, she was standing in the hallway in the center of the cottage when the whole world went dark. She felt a frozen hand firmly grasp the back of her neck, paralyzing her with fear. She couldn’t move or speak. It was as if someone held her there, waiting. Suddenly the cold and firm grip gave way to a branding iron-hot sensation, and the next thing my mother knew she was free and running from the home, screaming. She never went into that part of the house again. She wouldn’t even look in the direction of the cottage. When she arrived on the property, she kept her eyes averted down and away as she darted to the main house. Years later, my sister, then in her teens, thought she would investigate. She was in the cottage kitchen when the house became quiet, and the whole world went white. No birds chirped outside the window. No sounds entered the building. Total silence. A low and booming voice entered her head, not even giving her ears a chance to listen to the unnatural sound saying slow, menacing and clear: **“LEAVE.”** A few years and several similar events later, one of two passages to the old stone cottage, from the entry hall to the kitchen, was sealed by construction workers, after multiple sightings of a menacing shadow lurking in the passage. Only the door to the living room remained. The rumor was an Austin priest was brought in to perform a blessing in that sealed passageway, “a cleansing of the old stone cottage,” as my Catholic mother described it. Still other family members, under their breath, say there was an *exorcism*. The time came after my grandmother’s death to consider selling the property. My mother wouldn’t go near the house anymore, and as the eldest sibling, had no intention of living there. During the inventory and listing of the home, it was determined that the primary bathroom in the eccentric stone cottage was the final resting place of what we thought were two ornate swinging glass doors. The doors had apparently been sourced from an authentic early-Austin hearse carriage. I thought, “How many bodies, how many souls, had passed through those glass doors?” The home sold for millions. Rumor had it the house was to be one of the many wings of a wealthy family’s compound. Then, suddenly and without warning, the property was mysteriously razed to the ground. No explanation was given to our family by the new owners. Only the oak trees remained. My grandmother’s home, that she had spent the last 50 years living in, had been wiped clean from this earth, seemingly along with whatever presence was inside living with her all those years. On a recent trip back to Austin, I drove past the site. I got out of the rented Dodge Ram, and walked to the driveway, the property encircled with construction fence barriers. Up the hill, off to the south side of the property, I could just make out something cropping out of the rubble by the fence line: a conquistador’s bearded face and swooped helmet emerging at a diagonal; the one eye still visible — staring at me. ## Marfa Lights *Sue Owen,* [*Texas Ghost Tales*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhBO7NMr3zc&ref=thebarbedwire.com) One thing makes this story different from other ghost stories. The Marfa Lights are absolutely real and I’ve seen them myself. So have many West Texans. And you can too. But even after more than a hundred years, no one has succeeded in explaining these glowing orbs that float above the West Texas plain. Nowadays, they’re often said to be car headlights, even though car headlights don’t dance, swoop upwards, split apart, and join together. Folks who saw them in the 1880s, 1910s, and 1920s assumed they were campfires, even though, ‘It didn’t act anything like a campfire at all,’ legendary rancher Hallie Stillwell said about the lights she saw in 1916 as a teenager. Others have said the lights are related to the ghost of Alsate, the last leader of the Chisos Mescalero Apaches, who was killed in 1882. You can see the Marfa Lights for yourself. Drive out Highway 90, east of Marfa and park at the little viewing area. Look across Mitchell Flat toward the Chinati Mountains. As it grows dark, you’ll start to see headlights sweeping along the curve of Highway 67 off in the distance. But if you’re lucky, you’ll see something else too. The Marfa Lights I’ve seen appeared larger and closer than the distant highway lights. They moved above the brush and danced erratically, divided and merged. It’s tough to judge distance and motion in the dark, but I consider myself a pretty skeptical observer and highway headlights don’t cover what I saw. Most observers agree: there’s something out there. ## Ghost on the Ranch *Reddit user* [*HellishMarshmallow*](https://www.reddit.com/r/texas/comments/1f2v8m4/comment/lkf5pqm/?utm%5Fsource=share&utm%5Fmedium=web3x&utm%5Fname=web3xcss&utm%5Fterm=1&utm%5Fcontent=share%5Fbutton) “When I was about 8, I encountered a ghost,” wrote [HellishMarsmallow](https://www.reddit.com/r/texas/comments/1f2v8m4/comment/lkf5pqm/?utm%5Fsource=share&utm%5Fmedium=web3x&utm%5Fname=web3xcss&utm%5Fterm=1&utm%5Fcontent=share%5Fbutton) last year. “This would have been about 1990\. My dad was working on a ranch in deep South Texas. Middle of god’s nowhere. Mesquite trees and cactus as far as the eye could see. We were a mile from the highway down a dirt road and 13 miles from Freer (right in between Laredo and Corpus Christi), a little one-stoplight town. Remote and isolated is putting it very mildly.” “One summer afternoon, my dad sent me out to the truck to get some papers out of his glovebox,” they wrote. “As I sat in the passenger side of the truck, I saw the silhouette of a man in a cowboy hat walk by the window. Which was odd, because the sun was shining from the other side of the truck. I freaked and ran inside and told my dad what I saw.” “Dad wasn’t like most cowboys. He’d seen some stuff and he believed in the supernatural,” they continued. “He listened carefully and believed I saw what I saw. He gave me hugs and reassured me ghosts couldn’t hurt me. An avid journal keeper, he wrote everything down.” “About six weeks later, we were driving in a back part of the ranch. The ranch was huge, 80,000 acres, and we hadn’t been to that part of the ranch in a while,” they wrote. “Suddenly, Dad slams on the brakes and throws it in reverse. There by the side of the dirt road, a hundred miles from anything, is a grave. It was a little cross made of branches tied together and stuck in the ground. There was a little piece of wood with a name, a date and a town scratched into it.” “(We) called Border Patrol and the county sheriff on the CB radio. Near as they could tell, a group of migrants crossed the border on foot and one of them died,” they continued. “They buried him right there. … They took the remains and shipped them back to the man’s family in Mexico.” “That night, my dad sat me down and told me the date on the marker was the same date I had seen the ghost,” they wrote. “He showed me the journal entry. Then he pointed out to where he parked his truck. The road that ran right next to the truck, right where the ghost had been walking, was the same one, many miles away, where the man had been buried. Dad said he thought the man had been trying to tell someone, maybe the nearest person, where he was buried.” ## The Most Haunted Town in Texas There’s a small town in East Texas northeast of Longview, not far from the Louisiana border, called Jefferson. Founded in 1841, at its peak it was the sixth largest city in Texas, a trading hub situated on a bayou that connected it to ports like St. Louis and New Orleans. But by the end of the 19th century, the bayou had drained out and so had the town, but its history still lingers — and some believe more than that. Austin Ghosts calls it the [most haunted town in Texas](https://austinghosts.com/jefferson-the-most-haunted-town-in-texas/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), with stories of ghost sightings across the town. The [Jefferson Palace Hotel](https://www.historicjefferson.com/pages/about-us?ref=thebarbedwire.com), initially built as a cotton warehouse in 1851, has so many reported ghost experiences that the front desk keeps a “Book of the Dead” for guests to record their supernatural encounters. There are stories of child laborers dying in the old warehouse and women who were killed when the building was turned into a brothel. Some believe their spirits have stuck around. Modern-day hotel guests have reported moving objects and furniture, disembodied voices, apparitions appearing in mirrors or floating through walls, and messages on bathroom mirrors. One block behind the Palace hotel is the [Excelsior House Hotel](https://theexcelsiorhouse.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). It’s home to ghosts so terrifying that a visit from director Steven Spielberg allegedly gave him the inspiration for the film “Poltergeist.” The story goes that when Spielberg arrived at the hotel, he set down his luggage on a rocking chair in his room and the chair threw the suitcase back in his face. Then, in the late hours of the night, Spielberg was awakened by a little boy in old-fashioned clothing, who asked him if he was ready for breakfast, according to [*Houstonia Magazine*](https://www.houstoniamag.com/travel-and-outdoors/2019/09/separating-facts-from-phantoms-at-jefferson-s-excelsior-house-hotel?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Spielberg checked out the next day. [The Grove](http://thegrove-jefferson.com/index.htm?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a historic Victorian home built in 1861, is also said to be home to more than its fair share of ghosts. [*USA Today*](https://10best.usatoday.com/awards/best-haunted-destination/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) even voted it this year as the fourth best haunted destination in the U.S. Ghost stories there go back over a century, beginning with a man named T.C. Burke, who moved his family into the house in 1882 and moved them out the next day, saying only that, “We couldn’t live in that house.” Miss Louise Young, who lived in the house from the early 1900s until her death in the 1980s, told people often about the ghosts who shared the building with her. “Common sightings include a lady in a white dress, a man walking through the lily beds in the garden, and a mischievous, possibly flirty entity in the den,” reported *USA Today*. But there are stories about Jefferson that concern real terror too, stories that often aren’t included in ghost tours. Asher Elbein reported in the [*Texas Observer*](https://www.texasobserver.org/the-ghosts-of-jefferson/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)the town’s deep history of white supremacist violence against Black townspeople, particularly in the 19th century. “(In Jefferson), the television turns on by an invisible hand; the rocking chair rocks in the absence of rocker; an invisible foot sounds upon the stair,” Elbein wrote. “Reality is affected without an apparent cause, and that cause is inferred and uncanny, a hole in things visible purely by its negative shape. Like the question of who precisely grew the cotton that made Jefferson rich, or the names of the many, many who were murdered by its white supremacists and then denied even the dignity of a ghost story, of being allowed to reach back into the world.” ## The Walls Unit *Reddit user* [*Ok-Two-5429*](https://www.reddit.com/r/Paranormal/comments/1hc4lyr/comment/m1lrhoz/?utm%5Fsource=share&utm%5Fmedium=web3x&utm%5Fname=web3xcss&utm%5Fterm=1&utm%5Fcontent=share%5Fbutton) The oldest state penitentiary in Texas, nicknamed the “Walls Unit,” is rife with stories of hauntings, especially surrounding its execution chamber, which is the [most active chamber](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/facts-and-research/data/executions?state=Texas&federal=No&sort=dateString/desc&ref=thebarbedwire.com) in the country. During her time working for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Michelle Lyons witnessed 278 executions, as was reported by Pamela Colloff in her National Magazine Award-nominated [*Texas Monthly* profile](https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/the-witness/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The unit [no longer houses](https://www.tdcj.texas.gov/death%5Frow/dr%5Ffacts.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) death row prisoners, and [executions by electric chair (once called “old sparky”)](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/16/old-sparky-texas-prison-electric-chair-capital-punishment-1976?ref=thebarbedwire.com) are no longer carried out in the building, but for decades they were — adding to the sinister nature of the unexplained noises and visions many report experiencing there. Reddit user Ok-Two-5429 posted on the r/paranormal subreddit last year [about the facility](https://www.reddit.com/r/Paranormal/comments/1hc4lyr/comment/m1lrhoz/?utm%5Fsource=share&utm%5Fmedium=web3x&utm%5Fname=web3xcss&utm%5Fterm=1&utm%5Fcontent=share%5Fbutton), which is located in Huntsville. “There are stories that the Huntsville (Walls) Unit is haunted. It's where the execution chamber is, so there's no shortage of death there,” they wrote. “Apparently you can still hear doors clanging shut in there, and there's a full body apparition on the top catwalk.” On [a forum for haunted sites in Texas](https://www.texashauntedhouses.com/real-haunt/texas-state-penitentiary-at-huntsville--walls-unit.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), one user commented last year that he served as a correctional officer in the unit and had several paranormal encounters in the execution chamber. “I have been in this area by myself around 3 in the morning and have (heard) angry yelling, things slamming with no explanation nor source,” the user wrote. “This is by far ghost-wise the scariest unit the state of Texas has to offer.” Staff and inmates alike have long been spooked by mysterious activity within the prison’s walls. In 2002, Michael Graczy of *The Plainview Herald* reported on the [experiences of Charles Carter](https://www.myplainview.com/news/article/Huntsville-s-Walls-Unit-home-of-ghosts-ghost-8970463.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com), who served six years as an inmate in the Walls Unit in the 1980s. "There (were) several times I'd wake up at night and feel like something was staring at me," Carter told the *Herald*. "I'd see things go past my cell late at night, down the run. There'd be nobody out there. All of a sudden your hair is just standing up on end. There's nothing you can do." ## San Antonio’s Ghost Tracks *Sue Owen,* [*Texas Ghost Tales*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQIYntLRDV8&ref=thebarbedwire.com) Generations of San Antonio residents can tell you the story: Go to the railroad crossing where the school bus full of children was killed. If you put your car in neutral, the children’s ghosts will push your car across the tracks and out of harm’s way. The proof? Their handprints on the back of your car. Over the decades, many have been drawn to the site. It even appears on [Google Maps.](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Ghost+Tracks+-+San+Antonio/@29.3173525,-98.4460667,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m6!3m5!1s0x865cf976a9d54d07:0x752da3a0306df64d!8m2!3d29.3173478!4d-98.4434864!16s%2Fg%2F11t51l9gkk?entry=ttu&g%5Fep=EgoyMDI1MTAwNy4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D&ref=thebarbedwire.com) There is just one problem: the story was transplanted from over a thousand miles away. But there are still grains of truth, and a genuine local phenomenon behind the legend of the ghost tracks. On [a snowy morning in 1938](https://issuu.com/utah10/docs/uhq%5Fvolume81%5F2013%5Fnumber2/s/10422271?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a school bus was making its way through the winter cold. The driver stopped at a railroad crossing, but his windows were fogged, and he couldn’t see anything. He pulled forward onto the tracks, where the bus was struck by a freight train. Wreckage was strewn over half a mile, and bodies lay scattered in the snow. 23 children and the bus driver were killed. Oddly enough, it happened not in San Antonio, but Salt Lake City. But the story was reported nationwide the next day, including on the front page of the San Antonio Express-News. Somehow, according to a city library archivist, the story became [attached to the Shane Road crossing in San Antonio](https://sanantonioreport.org/say-goodbye-to-the-ghost-tracks-at-least-for-now/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Perhaps it’s because for years that crossing had its own mystery: a phenomenon called a “gravity hill.” These spots, where an optical illusion creates the appearance of your car rolling uphill when you’re actually moving downward, [seem to attract spooky stories around the world](https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/I-went-to-the-most-confusing-road-in-the-Bay-Area-15631568.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Until 2018, San Antonio’s ghost tracks were just such a spot. Many who came to test the phenomenon would sprinkle baby powder across the backs of their cars, to record the ghostly handprints. And sure enough, they would appear. But the more likely explanation was that the prints were already there, from the last time people closed the trunks of their cars. In 2018, the entire dangerous location [lost its gravity illusion](https://www.ksat.com/news/2018/10/20/san-antonios-ghost-tracks-will-be-history-after-next-week/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), when the railroad leveled the crossing. This hasn’t harmed the story, which still wins [best urban legend each year](https://community.sacurrent.com/best-of/2023/around-town/best-urban-legend-32249385?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in the San Antonio Current, but it has surely preserved the safety of curiosity-seekers. ## The Black-Eyed Children *Emma Cieslik,* [*Atlas Obscura*](https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/black-eyed-children-urban-legend?ref=thebarbedwire.com) The first reported sighting of the black-eyed children was in Abilene, Emma Cieslik reported in [*Atlas Obscura*](https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/black-eyed-children-urban-legend?ref=thebarbedwire.com)*.* In 1996, after finishing a late shift at the local newspaper, Brian Bethel was sitting in his car outside a strip mall, writing a check to pay his cable bill. “Suddenly, the hair on the back of his neck stood up,” Cieslik wrote. “He noticed a group of teenagers standing close to his car. The teens asked for a ride to their mother’s house to get money for tickets — they wanted to catch a late-night showing at the mall’s movie theater.” “But something struck Bethel as odd,” Cieslik continued. “The movie they wanted to see had already started—45 minutes ago, in fact—and the teenagers sounded much older than they appeared to be. Then, in the dim light of the parking lot, he saw: Their eyes were completely black. He threw his car into reverse and sped away. When he glanced back, the children were gone.” Bethel wrote about this encounter in the *Abilene News-Reporter*, and in the years since, stories about black-eyed children have come from all over the world. “Some details change from one account to the next, but scholars and urban legend enthusiasts alike agree that the figures are an example of death personified as a child,” Cieslik wrote. “Defenses lowered, their victims allow them inside, inviting death and destruction upon themselves.” Some people have reported seeing teenagers like Bethel while others see younger children, but in all of the stories the children’s eyes are completely and totally black. According to *Atlas Obscura,* the children speak in a mature, monotone voice, often repeating the same phrase and insisting on being let into someone’s house or car. “It’s scary because we don’t know what they want,” said author Jason Offutt to [*Atlas Obscura*](https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/black-eyed-children-urban-legend?ref=thebarbedwire.com), who has been researching the black-eyed children for over a decade. “We don’t know what they’re going to do when we let them in.” There are stories of disasters, like fatal accidents and cancer diagnoses, befalling people who let in the black-eyed children, said Brigid Burke to *Atlas Obscura*, an adjunct professor of religion at Montclair State University. “Bethel’s tale of the parking lot encounter nearly 30 years ago was the first known mention of the black-eyed children, but the creepy concept has spread like ghostly wildfire online, even as hard evidence remains elusive,” Cieslik wrote. “Still, when there’s a knock at the door or a pleading figure suddenly at your car window, it’s best to get a good look at their eyes before letting them in.” ## The Lady of White Rock Lake *Sue Owen,* [*Texas Ghost Tales*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fN3VrWd8t5o&ref=thebarbedwire.com) In 1943, or thereabouts, in northeast Dallas a couple was driving at night, along White Rock Lake, when their headlights picked up a figure in white. A young woman with blonde hair. She was dripping wet and her elegant dress was soaked through. She asked the couple for help, to take her to an address on Gaston Avenue. They agreed, and the woman got in the car. But before they reached the address, they found she had disappeared, leaving only lake water on the car seat where she was. Those are the first written reports of the Lady of White Rock Lake. She is usually described as blonde, always in distress, and asks to be taken to Gaston Avenue and is always gone before the car arrives. Some accounts claim she’s left her wrap behind, and in a particularly Dallas touch, the dress is sometimes said to be a beautiful Neiman Marcus gown in a 1920s style. She’s one of the more famous Texas ghosts, but she’s also a classic type of urban legend, the vanishing hitchhiker, common across the United States. These stories differ, but the key is always that the traveler doesn’t realize they’re a ghost until they vanish. Such tales go back to the horse and carriage days, but as automobiles took over American roads, phantom hitchhiker stories grew and spread. But they’re usually surprisingly local, with specific details such as the Gaston Avenue reference. Our Dallas lady wears a white party dress like many of the others, but the description of her as soaking wet and drowned in the lake is unusual. In the early stories of the lady, the couple is said to have actually gone to the address on Gaston Avenue. A man answers the door, only to tell them that his beautiful blonde daughter drowned some time ago in White Rock Lake. *Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that The Walls Unit no longer carries out executions via electric chair.* The Barbed Wire *regrets the error.* ### Cool! It Really Looks Like Greg Abbott is Taking Orders From Libs of TikTok URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/greg-abbott-libsoftiktok-lgbtq/ Last updated: 2025-10-09T17:41:49.000Z Fellow Texans, it’s our sad duty to report that our governor appears to be taking his marching orders from a right-wing social media account (and, yes, we’re talking about … sigh … Libs of TikTok). While it’s a well-known fact that Gov. Greg Abbott lives in fear [of being flanked](https://www.texastribune.org/2021/10/14/greg-abbott-2022-don-huffines/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [on the right](https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/texas-gov-greg-abbott-seemingly-safe-gop-incumbents-attack-right-wing/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), in these hyper partisan times, he seems even more worried about getting crossways with the deepest red elements of his party. Which brings us to Chaya Raichik, the [notorious online hatemonger](https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/02/24/libs-tiktok-oklahoma-nonbinary-teen-death/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) better known as Libs of TikTok, who was [described by the Southern Poverty Law Center](https://www.splcenter.org/resources/extremist-files/chaya-raichik/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) as spreading “the anti-LGBTQ+ conspiracy theory that ‘groomers’ have infiltrated every social institution with the intent of ‘sexualizing’ children.” Every day, Raichik targets LGBTQ people, [anyone who didn’t mourn Charlie Kirk’s](https://www.wired.com/story/right-wing-activists-are-targeting-people-for-allegedly-celebrating-charlie-kirks-death/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) death quite hard enough, and whoever else happens to cross her radar — then rallies her millions of followers to go after them. *The Barbed Wire* [previously reported](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/thereve-been-93-anti-lgbtq-hate-crimes-in-texas-since-2022-data-shows/) that from June 2022 to 2024, GLAAD’s [ALERT Desk (Anti-LGBTQ Extremism Reporting Tracker)](https://glaad.org/anti-lgbtq-extremism-reporting-tracker/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) showed that ten hate incidents over those two years in Texas were tied to Raichik, including bomb threats that were lobbed at four Planet Fitness locations after she highlighted their trans-inclusive locker room policies. As [Human Rights Campaign put it](https://www.hrc.org/press-releases/as-libs-of-tiktoks-chaya-raichik-linked-to-even-more-bomb-threats-ryan-walters-doubles-down-on-his-support-for-his-appointee?ref=thebarbedwire.com): “Raichik’s posts have repeatedly been linked to harassment and bomb threats against children’s hospitals, medical providers, schools, teachers, drag performances, and more.” Anyway, on Sunday, Raichik was dutifully bemoaning the fact that the city of Houston repainted a Montrose neighborhood crosswalk decked on in LGBTQ+ rainbow colors. Tagging Abbott, Raichik wrote that the crosswalk “must be removed immediately.” > [](https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/1974872017347489989?ref=thebarbedwire.com) And our governor dutifully complied. Just days later, he directed the Texas Department of Transportation “to ensure Texas counties and cities remove any and all political ideologies from our streets.” “To keep Texans moving safely and free from distraction, we must maintain a safe and consistent transportation network across Texas,” he said, [per Texas Public Radio](https://www.tpr.org/government-politics/2025-10-08/gov-abbott-directs-txdot-to-withhold-funding-from-cities-with-roadway-markings-like-san-antonios-rainbow-crosswalk?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “Any city that refuses to comply with the federal road standards will face consequences including the withholding or denial of state and federal road funding and suspension of agreements with TxDOT.” Yes, our fiercely independent Texas governor couldn't move fast enough when ordered to by his new apparent boss, a [former real estate agent from Brooklyn](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-congress-gov/118/meeting/house/115561/documents/hhrg-118-if16-20230328-sd069.pdf). Texas has similar pride-themed crosswalks in San Antonio, Dallas, and Austin, so we guess that masked ICE agents will soon be spray-painting Punisher logos over them. Oh, and we also paint streets with lots of stuff: It remains to be seen if the orange “TEXAS” on Guadalupe Street in Austin will get removed, too. > [](https://twitter.com/isaacyu%5F/status/1976002965216645164?ref=thebarbedwire.com) This nonsense fits right in with the anti-rainbow crosswalk crusade happening at the federal level. Back in July, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy urged [governors to keep crosswalks](https://www.transportation.gov/briefing-room/us-transportation-secretary-sean-p-duffy-governors-roads-are-safety-not-politics?ref=thebarbedwire.com) “free of distractions.” “Roads are for safety, not political messages or artwork,” Duffy harrumphed. A few months earlier, in March, the federal government also intimidated Washington, D.C.’s mayor [into removing its “Black Lives Matter” mural](https://www.npr.org/2025/03/10/nx-s1-5323911/black-lives-matter-mural-washington-dc?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — again, using the threat of funding cuts. Down in Harris County, [it already looks like](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/article/greg-abbott-rainbow-crosswalks-21091021.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [Texas’ local leaders are capitulating](https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/transportation/2025/10/09/532968/metro-will-re-stripe-montrose-rainbow-crosswalks-following-direction-from-abbott-txdot/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to Abbott’s — er, Libs of TikTok’s — orders. Anyway, it’s all very stupid. And perfectly in character for a governor who does whatever the MAGA crowd tells him to, including [sending Texas National Guard troops](https://x.com/GregAbbott%5FTX/status/1975027635295007073?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to other states to handle whatever phantom crisis the president’s cooked up that day. ### We’re Claiming Arden Cho of ‘K-Pop Demon Hunters’ as a New Texas Icon URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/k-pop-demon-hunters-arden-cho-texas/ Last updated: 2025-10-09T15:12:45.000Z If you haven’t seen “K-Pop Demon Hunters” by now, it may be time. The movie, first released on Aug. 26, is now the [most watched movie ever on Netflix](https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/kpop-demon-hunters-most-popular-netflix-film?ref=thebarbedwire.com) with more than [325 million views](https://www.netflix.com/tudum/top10/most-popular?ref=thebarbedwire.com) globally and streamed for more than 500 million hours (we did the math and that equals to more than 61,000 years). Everyone, we mean *everyone*, is talking about KDH from [Bad Bunny on SNL](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LW9QJIT%5FT-A&ref=thebarbedwire.com) to [Jimmy Fallon](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y-ViyUk7Dk&ref=thebarbedwire.com) to former Dallas Cowboy’s defensive end [Marcellus Wiley](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/DlWGI2wBkWA?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The animated film is about a K-Pop superstar trio Rumi, (Arden Cho), Mira (May Hong), and Zoey (Ji-young Yoo) who are secret demon hunters who use their music to protect their fans from supernatural danger. But one thing we think more people should be talking about is that Arden Cho — the voice of Rumi, the superstar with the long purple braid who will likely be on every front door step this Halloween — is Texan. Cho was born in Amarillo. Her family spent two years in West Texas, where [her dad taught Taekwondo](https://ipmnewsroom.org/kpop-demon-hunters-lead-actress-arden-cho-talks-about-her-days-at-the-university-of-illinois/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), before they moved to San Antonio, Dallas, and then Plano, according to a 2022 interview with [*The Backstage Experience*.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkKtnkznNRs&t=11s&ref=thebarbedwire.com) Cho said her father has an entrepreneurial spirit, so they moved a lot, spending half of her younger years in Texas before moving to Minnesota during her high school years. Cho is the eldest daughter and first-born child of Korean immigrants. She said her birth order has impacted who she is as a person and as an actor. “You feel this burden of responsibility to be great, to do something amazing,” Cho said on the [*Still Watching* Netflix podcast.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0rhWo%5FA%5Fo0&ref=thebarbedwire.com) Like many Asian American families, Cho said her parents weren’t sure about her choice to pursue acting when she moved to Los Angeles. Early in her career, Cho said she was told she “needed to go back to her own country” if she ever wanted to be the lead in a movie but was left confused because she’s from Texas, she said in a recent podcast interview with [*Nerd Reactor*,](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Ns68irXsvuY?ref=thebarbedwire.com) “I feel like the heart is always going to be southern,” Cho said about her upbringing. “When I’m down South, the y’alls come right back.” Although these days she lives in L.A., you know what they say, you can take the girl out of Texas, but you can’t take Texas out of the girl. Which comes in handy because aside from being a part of the number one film on Netflix ever, Cho is a [world champion poker player](https://www.cardplayer.com/poker-players/258748-arden-cho?ref=thebarbedwire.com) whose game of choice is Texas Hold ‘Em. “I've actually learned a lot about life in poker. It's a game where it doesn't matter who you are, what size you are, what gender you are, you just sit down at the table and you have chips and the goal is to win all the chips,” Cho [said](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0rhWo%5FA%5Fo0&ref=thebarbedwire.com) on [*Still Watching*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0rhWo%5FA%5Fo0&ref=thebarbedwire.com). ### Ken Paxton Compared Charlie Kirk to Jesus — Then Used Him as an Excuse to Crush Free Speech URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/ken-paxton-turning-point-usa-free-speech/ Last updated: 2025-10-08T19:50:05.000Z In the conservative Christian movement, Charlie Kirk was more than a far-right activist — to [many](https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/texas-youth-summit-charlie-kirk/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [including Attorney General Ken Paxton](https://www.them.us/story/texas-ken-paxton-transgenderism-antifa-investigation-terror-cells?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the self-described free speech advocate who founded Turning Point USA was a martyr who died for his cause. That sentiment was on full display Tuesday night at an event organized by the Texas Tech University chapter of the youth activist group, where Paxton gave the keynote speech — just hours after announcing the launch of “undercover operations to infiltrate and uproot leftist terror cells in Texas.” Texas Tech’s newly elected chancellor, former Republican state Sen. Brandon Creighton, also spoke at the event, on the same day the [*Texas Tribune* reported](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/10/07/texas-tech-university-system-faculty-gender-identity/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that the university issued new requirements that faculty remove words like “transgender, “DEI,” and “affirmative action” from their curricula. The announcements of the day — and the seemingly [contradictory free speech heralding](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/free-speech-crisis-for-black-americans-charlie-kirk/) at the Turning Point event — made it clear that the Republican leaders in attendance think speech should only be free when it aligns with conservative Christian values. And Kirk’s death is being used to justify power grabs. “Charlie only had 31 years,” Paxton said at Cooks Garage, a car-themed bar and venue in Lubbock. “It doesn't matter that he only had 31 years, even though we're sad that he's gone, some of our most impactful people in the history of the world lived about the same amount of years. Matter of fact, Jesus Christ. 33 years…Look at history after Jesus.” Paxton continued: “The turning point was the death and resurrection of Jesus. The turning point, I believe, for Charlie Kirk's life, was not the 31 years. The turning point was the horrific death of Charlie Kirk.” > [](https://twitter.com/KenPaxtonTX/status/1975758193545650659?t=spD64PGyHiMYDfMvIjTNIg&s=19&ref=thebarbedwire.com) For whatever reason, Paxton did *not* mention his new initiative against the “clear and present danger” of “leftist political terrorism.” But Paxton’s bombshell statement from earlier in the day cited “the martyrdom of Charlie Kirk” as a leading example of the sort of alleged leftist terror cell violence he intends to root out, despite there being [no evidence](https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/20/politics/fact-check-charlie-kirk-murder?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=Nobody%20has%20provided%20any%20proof,is%20clear%20Robinson%20acted%20alone.) Kirk’s assassin was a part of a broader left-wing conspiracy. “Corrupted ideologies like transgenderism and Antifa are a cancer on our culture and have unleashed their deranged and drugged-up foot soldiers on the American people,” Paxton claimed in the release. “The martyrdom of Charlie Kirk marks a turning point in America. There can be no compromise with those who want us dead.” Despite the fact that [far-right extremists commit ‘far more’ violence](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/17/justice-department-study-far-right-extremist-violence?ref=thebarbedwire.com) than other groups, including those on the left, the news was welcome for many in the crowd on Tuesday night. “It’s fantastic,” Preston Parsons, the president of the Texas Tech chapter of Turning Point USA, told *The Barbed Wire*. “Kirk’s [last text to the deputy chief](https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/3806525/charlie-kirks-last-message-to-stephen-miller-dismantle-the-radical-left/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of the White House was that we need to find the funding source for these far left organizations that are spewing hate. To see Ken Paxton come out with a statement that follows Charlie’s final wish is outstanding. It’s a wonderful sign.” Kirk, whose ideas critics have described [as racist,](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/11/charlie-kirk-quotes-beliefs?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [exclusionary, and harmful](https://www.naacpldf.org/news/legacy-civil-rights-organizations-condemn-house-resolution-glorifying-charlie-kirks-record-and-call-for-meaningful-action-to-address-hate/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), was known for his public debates on college campuses. Ironically, his death — during the middle of one such debate — has led to [free speech crackdowns on campuses](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/free-speech-crisis-for-black-americans-charlie-kirk/) across the state, including at Texas Tech, where a student was arrested and expelled after making a derogatory remark at a vigil for Kirk. “How did that work out for her,” remarked Sara Gonzales, a Blaze TV host, during her speech at the event in Lubbock. “She gone!” In contrast, Creighton's speech, one of his first as chancellor elect, emphasized what he saw as Kirk's legacy: free speech. “It's incredible to see…so many coming together in this event, on this particular night, to have a united message that free speech is paramount,” Creighton said, “that the free exchange and civil discourse of ideas is what this nation was founded upon, and that we can do that, and that we can promote that, and we can protect that without harassment and without intimidation and without violence.” Creighton’s words fell on a receptive standing-room only audience, who were there at the invitation of the Texas Tech chapter of Turning Point USA, a student group that only started in July of this year but has already amassed over 400 members in the wake of Kirk’s assassination. As a state senator, Creighton [authored sweeping higher education legislation](https://www.insidehighered.com/news/government/politics-elections/2025/09/03/senator-who-banned-dei-named-texas-tech-system?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that restricted free speech on campuses and banned diversity, equity, and inclusion in public colleges and universities. He resigned from his seat just days prior to the Turning Point USA event in order to accept his new role as chancellor of Texas Tech, a perch from where he plans to continue restricting the speech of his own faculty members, he said in an interview with *The Barbed Wire*. “We have academic freedom and we have the First Amendment,” Creighton said. “Of course we have to respect the delicate intersection there. When we talk about sharing about the free exchange of ideas in civil discourse on campus, in those forums anything related to gender can be discussed. But in a classroom setting on a curriculum path that’s tied to the specific goal of trying to reach a degree of value for these students to go out into the free market and to provide a career and profession that really supports them and meets their expectation?” He went on: “At the end of the day, there’s going to be an expectation of Texas families, moms and dads, parents and grandparents, and taxpayers in general, that core values are inherently a part of the culture of the academic institution.” Exactly whose core values Creighton did not say. Presumably, he meant the sort of values that attract young conservatives to Turning Point USA rather than allowing professors to teach settled [scientific fact](https://medicine.yale.edu/news-article/what-do-we-mean-by-sex-and-gender/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “The growth of Turning Point USA…it's incredible across the country,” Creighton said during his speech. “It's not just the nation that's watching, it's the world that's watching this effort. As Charlie would have mentioned, this is a revival.” On that score, Creighton is aligned with the facts. Nationally, Turning Point USA [claims it has members](https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/charlie-kirk-turning-point-students-sign-up-b2828294.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on more than 3,500 high school and college campuses — and that more than 54,000 students have asked to join the movement in the weeks since Kirk’s death. Creighton’s push to ban the use of the word “transgender” mirrors the backwards logic of Republican “consequence culture.” Of course you’re free to talk about the reality of transgender people in the United States while on Texas Tech’s campus, just as long as you’re not a professor teaching a class. Nevermind that the professors themselves are saying this will hurt their students, who’ll graduate with a completely different understanding of biology and sociology than their peers at non-Texas schools — what matters most is that the core values of the majority are not offended. That worldview was front and center in Cook's Garage on Tuesday, where politics and prayer collided for an event that can only be described as part political rally, part Christian revival meeting. The event captured the character of the contemporary conservative youth movement, which Kirk helped shape prior to his death. It opened and closed with prayer and featured an additional prayer halfway through. Speakers talked of “spiritual warfare” and condemned “evil” leftist ideology while invoking their faith and quoting the Bible. One young woman sitting within earshot explained to her friend that “the point of all of these subcultures is to fight against what’s normal, which is Christian and conservative.” Kirk’s assassination sent a shockwave through the conservative political movement. It gave the movement a martyr figure, inspired Republican politicians to support [Turning Point’s recruitment efforts](https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/how-charlie-kirks-turning-point-usa-is-expanding-its-reach-to-k-12-schools/2025/09?ref=thebarbedwire.com), fueled [a specious narrative](https://time.com/7317383/political-violence-america-trump-crackdown-right/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) about out of control left-wing political violence, and even reversed the polarity around so-called “cancel culture.” At the national level, it also provided a new opportunity — in good faith or bad — to squash dissent and mockery, not just of Kirk [but also of President Donald Trump](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/17/business/media/abc-jimmy-kimmel.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and his team, like in the case of Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension. “Cancel culture as it existed up until recently was wrong because it cancelled people for telling the truth,” wrote Bo French, the chairman of the largest GOP county party in the state, Tarrant County, in a recent [post on X](https://x.com/BoFrenchTX/status/1967368112019575117?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “Canceling people for celebrating assassination is an entirely different prospect. One was bad and the other is good. Know the difference.” (To be clear, even Jimmy Kimmel never celebrated Kirk’s assassination.) French has extended this logic in a series of X posts haranguing Texas Christian University in Fort Worth for allegedly canceling a Turning Points USA event featuring Paxton. (The university has [denied the accusations](https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/education/schools/tcu-denies-canceling-turning-point-usa-event/287-36a9a967-9072-46fa-9720-7ac2a523154d?ref=thebarbedwire.com), stating that a large and secure space could not be found in short notice.) In response, Paxton said on [X he’d “look into this.”](https://x.com/KenPaxtonTX/status/1973281771421835329?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1973281771421835329%7Ctwgr%5E624642b1c9ba17fd87dd85df5357e9a074c8cda7%7Ctwcon%5Es1%5F&ref%5Furl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.keranews.org%2Ftexas-news%2F2025-10-02%2Ftexas-ag-paxton-to-investigate-tcu-over-turning-point-event-school-says-was-not-booked&ref=thebarbedwire.com) The First Amendment specifically [prevents the government from infringing upon American citizens’ rights](https://knightcolumbia.org/blog/institute-joins-first-amendment-groups-scholars-and-litigators-to-condemn-fcc-chairman-brendan-carrs-attacks-on-media?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to free speech, meaning it *doesn’t* protect citizens from facing consequences for things they say on the internet. But it is supposed to protect citizens from people like Paxton, who in his capacity as a government official, has [demanded an investigation into students](http://google.com/url?q=https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/texas-ken-paxton-unt-student-kicked-out-of-class-kirk-killing/3921396/&sa=D&source=docs&ust=1759951937811299&usg=AOvVaw2Zu6GF7dH%5FuNzcgXcKtw4k) who reportedly celebrated Kirk’s death. For Paxton to publicly announce his intention to infiltrate unnamed leftist organizations who are allegedly funding organized political violence indicates he intends to use the power of the state to go after anyone whose rhetoric is deemed unacceptable. Regardless of whether there is any evidence of a crime. Notably, none of the examples Paxton cited in his press release were of political violence conducted by an organized group. The only one that included a supposed “ambush” was the July 4 shooting at the Prairieland ICE facility. In that case, in-depth review of the court records and interviews with defendants and their supporters, *The Barbed Wire* found [holes that called into question the government’s narrative](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/new-details-july-4-ice-attack-holes-feds-case/). In recent weeks, such government narratives have fallen apart [more and more often](https://www.reuters.com/world/us/police-records-witness-accounts-complicate-dhs-narrative-fatal-chicago-area-ice-2025-09-24/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Although different in the particulars, both Paxton and Creighton’s actions reveal a common thread: All this talk about free speech and freedom of expression on campus is about power, plain and simple. Free speech is meant to protect even the most heinous speech from government intervention, including the celebration of someone’s murder. As J. Oliver Conroy wrote in [*The Guardian*](https://www.theguardian.com/news/ng-interactive/2025/sep/21/us-right-free-speech-charlie-kirk?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the political right has long claimed free speech was sacred, but Kirk’s killing has inspired a broad right-wing crackdown on speech — and a new generation of young conservative activists. “Thank God that we have these Christian these conservative sentinels nowadays, like the martyr Charlie Kirk,” Carlos Sanchez, a Texas College Republicans representative, said. ### Hey, New York Times? Stay Out of Texas Football Family Business. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/hey-new-york-times-stay-out-of-texas-football-family-business/ Last updated: 2025-10-08T17:07:22.000Z Hey, *New York Times*, leave Arch Manning alone. This is family business. Has the University of Texas’ starting quarterback underperformed? [Obviously](https://bleacherreport.com/articles/25257146-arch-mannings-continued-struggles-worry-cfb-fans-florida-upsets-no-9-texas?ref=thebarbedwire.com). But is he “college football’s first flop,” as *Times* asked yesterday? Is he now a “[man synonymous with failure](https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6694360/2025/10/07/arch-manning-texas-nfl-draft-nil/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)?” Not really! He’s been … just okay! Reporter Will Leitch compared Manning to, among other things, Beto O’Rourke’s presidential campaign, Katy Perry’s recent album and the defunct streaming platform Quibi, strong language for what has been just a largely unremarkable start. No, Manning hasn’t reached the great heights that were predicted for him before the season started, when commentators all but [engraved his name on the Heisman](https://x.com/GetUpESPN/status/1940039961182454105?ref=thebarbedwire.com), but the call is coming from inside the house, with the *Times* all but assuring readers of Manning’s domination. Just days before UT’s season opener against Ohio State, which they lost 14-7, *The New York Times* speculated about the different ways Manning’s start could go: “Though Arch Manning never asked for this buildup, it’s a safe bet one of two things is going to happen here,” Ian O’Connor [wrote](https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6571956/2025/08/27/arch-manning-texas-ohio-state-longhorns-hype-week-1/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “1) He’s going to live up to the hype. 2) He’s going to exceed it.” Of course, neither of those two outcomes came to pass. A quick scan of *Times’* sports arm, *The Athletic*, shows at least six stories from the summer alone centered around Manning. They interviewed [his parents](https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6448919/2025/06/25/arch-manning-texas-football-parents-cooper-ellen/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) about how his football prowess was evident from an early age, his [uncle Peyton Manning](https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6465537/2025/07/01/peyton-arch-manning-texas-college-football/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) about the advantages he’ll bring to the field and Manning himself about [attention](https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6496401/2025/07/15/arch-manning-texas-sec-media-days/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [expectations](https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6581516/2025/08/29/arch-manning-texas-ohio-state-week-1-cfb/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [all the money he’s making](https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6649100/2025/09/23/arch-manning-texas-nil-money/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Manning, for his part, tried to manage expectations, telling [*The Athletic*](https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6581516/2025/08/29/arch-manning-texas-ohio-state-week-1-cfb/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) prior to the season opener, “I’m not really sure how they get these opinions. I’ve only played what, two games? … Talk is cheap, I’ve gotta go prove it.” Maybe it’s the fact that Manning didn’t ask for any of this that has brought all corners of the college football world to his defense, with many people accusing *The New York Times* of going [too far](https://x.com/jdpickell/status/1975736998968369391?s=46&t=2EMy375DZpVEMW9D6ApC-Q&ref=thebarbedwire.com). “This tweet is a bigger failure than Arch Manning will ever be,” ESPN analyst Josh Pate [posted](https://x.com/joshpatecfb/status/1975658702670585864?s=46&t=2EMy375DZpVEMW9D6ApC-Q&ref=thebarbedwire.com) in response to the *Times* article. > [](https://twitter.com/joshpatecfb/status/1975658702670585864?s=46&t=2EMy375DZpVEMW9D6ApC-Q&ref=thebarbedwire.com) Texas fans naturally sprung to [Manning’s](https://x.com/orangebloods%5F/status/1975663647071613198?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [defense](https://x.com/AmandaMAtwell/status/1975678315449970982?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and decried the Times’ [change of tune](https://x.com/TexasEx10/status/1975662559685394515?ref=thebarbedwire.com), but support also came from more surprising places. “I cover Oklahoma and know this is juuuuuuust a tad much. Yikes, NYT,” college sports correspondent Eddie Radosevich [posted](https://x.com/eddie%5Frado/status/1975656764826910851?s=46&t=2EMy375DZpVEMW9D6ApC-Q&ref=thebarbedwire.com). > [](https://twitter.com/eddie%5Frado/status/1975656764826910851?s=46&t=2EMy375DZpVEMW9D6ApC-Q&ref=thebarbedwire.com) OU sports commentator Travis Davidson [wrote](https://x.com/TravisSkol/status/1975662454777536688?ref=thebarbedwire.com), “This is so unfair. NYT reeks.” > [](https://twitter.com/TravisSkol/status/1975662454777536688?ref=thebarbedwire.com) It’s unlikely that this charity will extend through this weekend’s Red River Showdown, but it’s heartwarming to know that in these divided times, a few things can still bring Oklahoma and Texas fans together — like a common enemy. ### Supporters Say ‘God Has Forgiven’ Ex-Megachurch Pastor Robert Morris, Who Admitted to Sexual Abuse of a 12-Year-Old URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/supporters-forgive-texas-pastor-robert-morris-pleads-guilty/ Last updated: 2025-10-08T16:18:24.000Z Supporters of Robert Morris, founder of [one of the largest church congregations](https://outreach100.com/largest-churches-in-america/2025?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in the country, appear unshaken in their devotion to the former Texas pastor — despite the fact that he pleaded guilty on Thursday to charges that he sexually abused a 12-year-old girl in the 1980s. Morris, 64, built Gateway Church near Dallas in 2000, a business that has since ballooned to tens of thousands of weekly attendees, sermons broadcast around the world, and evangelical bestselling books. Morris, who served as a faith adviser to President Donald Trump, admitted last week to five counts of lewd or indecent acts to a child. Morris was given a negotiated plea agreement and will [serve six months in jail as part of a 10-year suspended sentence](https://www.oscn.net/dockets/GetCaseInformation.aspx?db=osage&number=CF-2025-00060&cmid=11711930&ref=thebarbedwire.com). As part of his plea deal, Morris must register as a sex offender for life and pay for the cost of his incarceration, as well as restitution for the victim. All the same, his supporters online have kept the faith: A Facebook post on Morris’ sentencing by [the 700 club](https://www.facebook.com/700club), a Christian news outlet, has garnered over 1,300 comments — many of which make excuses for his conduct or absolve him of sin. “He was also young himself. God has forgiven him,” Rirhandzu Manganyi wrote. “AND HIS MINISTRY WILL BE BIGGER THAN EVER,” user Shannon Liddle wrote. “I still will listen to him! He’s still a man of God,” Pam Ullo wrote. > [](https://twitter.com/NancyAFrench/status/1975431971691261952?ref=thebarbedwire.com) In 2024, Cindy Clemishire [publicly claimed](https://thewartburgwatch.com/2024/06/14/i-was-12-years-old-and-wearing-my-pink-pajamas-when-robert-morris-now-of-gateway-church-began-to-molest-me-the-alleged-abuse-lasted-for-4-1-2-years-churchtoo-arctoo/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that Morris had sexually abused her in the 1980s, when she was 12 and he was 21\. Clemishire said the abuse lasted for over four years and only ended when she told her parents. Following her allegations, Morris stepped down as a senior pastor at Gateway and acknowledged his [“moral failure.”](https://x.com/watchkeep/status/1801982382628606157/photo/2?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Morris’ public-facing role in the church has given rise to a devoted congregation and community, many who wish to support him even after his guilty plea. Despite his admission to the crimes, doubt and criticism of Clemishire’s accusations also proliferated in the comments of social media posts on the story. A reel of [Morris being escorted in cuffs](https://www.facebook.com/reel/800110156094200) out of the courthouse, posted by the *Dallas Morning News,* received 12 thousand comments and nearly 50 thousand likes. “Why would anyone wait so long before coming forth with this? Smells like Money, money, money,” user Kimberly Ott wrote on the post. Notably, community support of Morris in the face of the sexual abuse scandal isn’t just confined to comment sections. A secret recording, [obtained by NBC News](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/gateway-church-leader-announces-robert-morris-resignation-audio-rcna158026?cid=sm%5Fnpd%5Fnn%5Ffb%5Fma&utm%5Fcampaign=trueanthem&utm%5Fmedium=social&utm%5Fsource=facebook&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR4ePFan8ZwsmQbmz6NbrTbswqb0VxR1MRfTr6uTRH8x38yXnFaA8TauVzhPDg%5Faem%5FYrsCEimG5AxEqZKp0%5FZgyg&%5Fbranch%5Fmatch%5Fid=1439063004656220214&%5Fbranch%5Freferrer=H4sIAAAAAAAAAwXB3QqCMBgA0LfpMo1KJIgYZj%2BIUmOZ7Ub21dyktvRbMeuiZ%2B8c%2FXp1bhEEFq5WejcWXTd%2BtPYenPKyz4uGkgxWDVwf7W2597zSIahC83OY5CwlhM7kYSNszL0zRzDfqABk4HwPYTnQSU4bhtGb0V08TONPZTeCxEy8y68%2BrFUtpKkv6JK0Nds5GdKeZ11Yc%2FVRox%2FKRiK2VtWAT%2B8kLhONTyP%2Ff%2F9ZprEAAAA%3D), of the church’s board after Morris stepped down in 2024 revealed one leader in tears while discussing their acceptance of his resignation. “This has been one of the most difficult decisions in my life,” he said. Under a Fox 4 News Facebook post on the sentencing, user Keith West, whose profile describes him as a founder and lead pastor of a [Christian ministry](https://www.growyourfaithstore.com/pages/who-are-we?ref=thebarbedwire.com), also expressed a mixed reaction of sympathy and support for the sentence. “We all have our sinful past. Obviously he repented and changed his life,” West wrote. “Still not immune to the consequences.” Other commenters defended Clemishire, and expressed disagreement with Morris’ six-month jail sentence. “It took me until I was 18 to tell anyone about my abuse. Don’t judge the timing of someone coming forward,” user Toni Hansen wrote. “People get longer sentences for weed possession…” user Cory Allen Singer wrote. Clemishire [told the *Dallas Morning News*](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/faith/2024/10/09/woman-who-accused-gateway-church-founder-of-sexual-abuse-says-recovery-has-been-lifelong/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that it took years for her to come to terms with the sexual abuse and to be ready to speak publicly about it. “Allowing yourself to feel that kind of pain and anger can be difficult, I think,” Clemishire said. ### Texas Is Asking Voters to Protect the Rich and Punish the Poor. Will They Do It? URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-nov-election/ Last updated: 2025-10-07T05:01:00.000Z Why legislate the messy way when you can just etch your politics into the bedrock of the state forever? This is why Texans love a good constitutional amendment, and on Nov. 4, [we get to vote on *17* of them](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-sos-state-tx-us/elections/forms/november-2025-ballot-language-17.pdf). Buckle up, it’ll be a veritable buffet of tax breaks and tough-on-crime chest thumping. Let’s start with the shiny tax cuts. Do you own stocks? A family trust? Maybe a spare ranch house in Aspen? Congratulations: Proposition 2 (capital gains ban) and Proposition 8 (inheritance tax ban) are here to make sure Texas *never, ever* taxes that wealth (because we wouldn’t want child healthcare or public schools ever getting their grubby mitts on it). Yes, even though the state doesn’t tax it now, lawmakers want to double-pinky-swear that they’ll never try it in the future. Jon Taylor, chair of the political science department at the University of Texas at San Antonio, told *The Barbed Wire* that Prop 2 is “a reward to wealthy GOP donors,” and Prop 8 is “another gift to GOP donors and the wealthy by banning the possibility of a wealth tax.” In other words, solutions in search of a problem — unless your “problem” is that Texas might someday consider taxing your third vacation home. The message is clear: Die rich, stay rich, and pass it all down untaxed. It’s trickle-down economics, except the only thing that trickles is champagne at the family estate after the will is read. Meanwhile, Proposition 3 on bail reform offers the flip side of that generosity. If you’re accused of certain felonies, judges would be required to keep you locked up with no bail at all. Yes, you’re still legally innocent, but good luck fighting your case from an overcrowded cell. Taylor notes that this amendment “essentially enshrines — and expands — pre-trial detention without conviction” and even echoes Texas’ Jim Crow era. It also “ties the hands of judges by reducing judicial discretion.” Currently, only defendants accused of capital murder can be denied bail. This would extend that to other crimes, including aggravated assault and indecency with a child. The state would have to demonstrate that bail is not enough to prevent the defendant from being a flight or public safety risk, [according to the *Texas Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/09/22/texas-statewide-propositions-november-ballot-election/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston, frames it more bluntly to *The Barbed Wire*: “This is an effort to redirect the legal process of the bail system which has been partially settled through prior litigation but, more importantly, a way to show voters that Republicans are tough on crime.” In other words, the ballot box is doing double duty: rewriting due process *and* serving as a campaign ad. The rest of the ballot reads like a legislative yard sale. There are the feel-good props: money for water projects (Prop 4, which Taylor calls “critical to Texas’ future”), dementia research (Prop 14), and technical colleges (Prop 1, which Taylor calls a “no-brainer” that still managed to irk some fiscal hawks). A couple of “family values” throw-ins, like enshrining “parental rights” in the Constitution and reminding us that, yes, you really do have to be a U.S. citizen to vote (Props 15 and 16 — or as Taylor put it, a “Trojan horse” for the culture war and a “useless, symbolic” nod to xenophobia). Then there are the hyper-specific carve-outs: tax breaks if your house burns down, if you’re an un-remarried veteran’s spouse, or if you happen to sell cattle feed (Props 5, 7, 10). Businesses, of course, get their share — because it wouldn’t be a Texas ballot without some corporate welfare. Props 6, 9, 11, 13, and 17 all chip away at local tax bases by exempting various inventories, securities trades, or property tied up in Gov. Greg Abbott’s border wall theater. As Taylor noted, Prop 6 in particular is “a nice payoff to GOP donors,” while Prop 12 (restructuring judicial oversight) risks becoming a weapon against judges who aren’t conservative enough for Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, or Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. “Many of these amendments are an easy way to get Texans to commit to core Republican principles like low or no taxes,” said Rottinghaus. “More than most years, we’re seeing this amendment cycle as messaging.” So here’s the ballot in plain English: If you’re wealthy, the state promises to protect your fortune forever. If you’re poor and unlucky enough to be accused of a crime, the state promises to protect the public from *you* (whether or not you’ve been convicted). For everyone else, there’s a smattering of small perks, patriotic gestures, and pothole-filling promises designed to sweeten the deal. Texans will soon decide whether we want a Constitution that doubles as a billionaire’s prenup and a jailer’s dream. But let’s be real. We’ll probably pass most of these anyway. After all, this is Texas, where protecting inherited wealth is sacred, but protecting your right to bail is negotiable. ### It Might Actually Be Time to Take the Texas Stock Exchange and ‘Y’all Street’ Seriously URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-stock-exchange-sec-approval/ Last updated: 2025-10-06T17:13:01.000Z “Y’all Street” is gearing up for a bull market — with longer horns. Last Tuesday, the Texas Stock Exchange (TXSE) [announced it received](https://www.txse.com/press-releases/txse-group-inc-announces-sec-approval-of-texas-stock-exchange?ref=thebarbedwire.com) approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to operate as a national securities exchange. The SEC go-ahead means that the stock exchange is gearing up to begin trading in early 2026, according to a [news release](https://www.txse.com/press-releases/txse-group-inc-announces-sec-approval-of-texas-stock-exchange?ref=thebarbedwire.com), joining the sprawling avenues of [big-name Fortune 500 companies](https://www.wsj.com/finance/welcome-to-yall-street-texas-burgeoning-financial-hub-29b712f4?gaa%5Fat=eafs&gaa%5Fn=ASWzDAg5gZqs8nTxls83GbO7ZuQ1EoNY6yU5k2gobYUBVKXKwgYFBKS50qDNPEmLbuo%3D&gaa%5Fts=68e3c00e&gaa%5Fsig=xJqVzIT5ScJr-g0gzTp2hauLsOeSua2tuh3wW1AQ1NP6SuJcLgZfDYN7%5Fu6%5Fcl%5Fcs1jqQPMYNaSkZCdj%5F7eXGg%3D%3D&ref=thebarbedwire.com) in Dallas. The nickname “Y’all Street” — a southern riff on Wall Street — came about in early 2024, after Dallas was named the No. 2 city in the country for financial jobs, second only to New York, [according to *Bloomberg*](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-12-28/wall-street-s-seismic-shift-propels-dallas-ahead-of-chicago-la?sref=MTy2GeXk&ref=thebarbedwire.com). Financial big names are flocking to the city: In 2020, [Charles Schwab moved its headquarters](https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/charles-schwab-to-officially-move-headquarters-to-denton-county-on-jan-1/2514658/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) from San Francisco to Dallas; Deloitte plans to open [an expanded new campus there this year](https://www.deloitte.com/us/en/about/deloitteuniversity-leadership-center.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com); and a $500 million [Goldman Sachs facility](https://www.goldmansachs.com/pressroom/press-releases/2023/goldman-sachs-breaks-ground-on-dallas-campus-at-northend?ref=thebarbedwire.com) is in the works. The growth in financial-sector jobs in the Lone-Star state since 2019 was more than six times the growth in New York and the nation as a whole, [the *Wall Street Journal* reported](https://www.wsj.com/finance/welcome-to-yall-street-texas-burgeoning-financial-hub-29b712f4?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in 2024. So is it time to take Y’all Street seriously? Here’s where it stands. **Can Dallas become a financial rival to New York?** Texas Stock Exchange’s founder and CEO James Lee [said in a press release](https://www.txse.com/press-releases/txse-group-inc-announces-sec-approval-of-texas-stock-exchange?ref=thebarbedwire.com) last week that the exchange is ready to lead Texas’ pro-business environment. “Real competition for corporate listings in the United States has finally arrived,” Lee said. Major national stock exchanges such as the New York Stock Exchange appear to see TXSE as a potential rival: NYSE announced it would move its Chicago branch to Dallas two weeks after the Texas exchange filed for SEC approval in January, [the *Dallas Morning News* reported](https://www.dallasnews.com/business/2025/02/12/nyse-comes-to-dallas-with-rebranded-branch-as-texas-stock-exchange-eyes-launch/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Nasdaq also [announced in March](https://www.nasdaq.com/newsroom/nasdaq-deepens-its-commitment-texas?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that it would be opening a new headquarters in Dallas. And the TXSE’s financial backing is nothing to scoff at: the exchange boasts $161 million in funds from Blackrock, Charles Schwab, and other banking giants, [according to the *Dallas Morning News*.](https://www.dallasnews.com/business/2024/06/06/how-the-texas-stock-exchange-could-reshape-dallas-and-the-national-stock-market/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) **Republican leaders push back at “woke” stock markets** Republican politicians have also celebrated the promising development of the Dallas-based exchange — and are using it against Democratic rivals. President Donald Trump, in [a Truth Social post Saturday](https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115317676598981431?ref=thebarbedwire.com) about the New York attorney general Letitia James, said that her policies would make few companies want to use the New York Stock Exchange, or the NASDAQ. “The new Texas Exchange will be taking ALL of this business away,” Trump wrote. Texas Republicans such as [Gov. Greg Abbott](https://x.com/GregAbbott%5FTX/status/1974994526121943510?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and Sen. Ted Cruz shared similar sentiments about the new stock exchange’s potential as an alternative to the New York exchanges. “If you don’t want a woke stock exchange, and just want an avenue to raise capital, Texas will be the place to do it,” Cruz [wrote on X](https://x.com/tedcruz/status/1973499501215359176?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Wednesday. Cruz accompanied the post with a clip of himself on the Fox Business show suggesting that New York politicians, such as mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, were driving business leaders from their state to Texas. **Building momentum: What’s next for TXSE** Texans will have to wait until the end of 2026 to see if “Y’all Street” can truly rival Wall Street. TXSE indicated it will go live at the beginning of the year, with corporate listings in the second half. The success of the exchange — which will be fully digital — hinges on companies deciding to list themselves, as well as the health of the state’s economy, Sriram Villupuram, a UT Arlington associate professor of finance, [told the *Texas Tribune*.](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/10/06/texas-stock-exchange-dallas-txse-sec-approval/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) He said that interested investors will be watching closely to see how quickly TXSE can attract its first 50 to 100 companies. “It gives those that are thinking about listing an idea about what it takes to get on the exchange, and it could snowball from there,” Villupuram said to the *Tribune*. Along with the increase in companies moving their headquarters to Texas, the stock exchange could mean something big for Texans. “What it means for local people, of course, is job creation,” Kirti Sinha, a University of Texas at Dallas assistant professor of accounting, told the [*Dallas Morning News*](https://www.dallasnews.com/business/banking/2025/10/02/after-sec-approval-its-time-to-learn-what-the-texas-stock-exchange-is-made-of/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). ### Even Corn Dogs Aren’t Safe from Inflation. Now Some Texans Are ‘Done With the State Fair.’ URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-state-fair-inflation-attendance-prices/ Last updated: 2025-10-06T17:04:13.000Z Inflation has come for our corn dogs. Reviews are flowing in from the State Fair of Texas as it enters its second week, and one thing is clear: Big Tex hasn’t been spared from the nation’s cost of living increases. “We are done with the state fair after this year,” Reddit user Lane8323 [posted](https://www.reddit.com/r/texas/comments/1ny6muh/state%5Ffair%5Freview/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to r/texas Saturday. They added: “Paid $16 for two tiny fried tacos,” and lamented the expensive rides and games (“It’s $10 per play basically”). “Overall I’d say it’s just not worth it anymore,” they wrote on a post that has gained hundreds of upvotes. “It wasn’t always this way, but I can’t emphasize enough just how expensive it has actually gotten, to the point where it’s hard to really enjoy the day without thinking about how much it’ll cost.” DRIA, a Dallas food influencer, [posted](https://www.threads.com/@driaeatsdtx/post/DPMe74%5FjgFG?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on Threads that opening weekend was emptier than she expected, and said she spent $72 on entrance, parking and coupons. “The fair should be AFFORDABLE!!!!” she wrote. [ ![Profile](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/544343580_17900833956260425_1508134390267096371_n.jpg) **@driaeatsdtx** Threads.net Opening weekend for the fair is not what I expected... it was lowkey empty with little to no lines. And honestly, I understand why. $17 - $27 for entrance $20 - $30 for parking $10 - $40 for ONE FOOD/DRINK ITEM I spent $72 alone between entrance, parking, and $30 coupons. Not to mention, $30 coupons is not enough to enjoy the visit. One turkey leg is $25... Realistically, one would need $100+ The fair should be AFFORDABLE!!!! TX STATE FAIR HAS LOST THEIR DAMN MIND @statefairoftx ](https://www.threads.com/@driaeatsdtx/post/DPMe74%5FjgFG?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [View on Threads → ](https://www.threads.com/@driaeatsdtx/post/DPMe74%5FjgFG?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Texas content creator Jared Guynes shared a now-viral [video](https://www.facebook.com/reel/1423692068698017) on his Facebook page on Oct. 1 of a sparsely populated Midway, the central stretch of the fair that contains most of the games and rides. “Did the economy do this?” Guynes asked under his video. Many commenters said yes, sounding off on everything from $25 turkey legs to overpriced games. “What I ended up accidentally cracking open was a lot of frustration that people have that they can’t go to the fair because of how much it costs,” Guynes told [*WFAA*](https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/state-fair/viral-posts-spark-debate-over-state-fair-of-texas-attendance-costs/287-4994d76c-ddb1-45af-9f93-61ebab6ec5e0?ref=thebarbedwire.com)*.* “$150 for one day for food, drinks and parking … not including the cost (of the) season pass we bought months ago,” Allen Cabreros commented on Guynes’ post. “Yeah, it's slightly getting out of control on the pricing, but we still go.” [*WFAA*](https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/state-fair/viral-posts-spark-debate-over-state-fair-of-texas-attendance-costs/287-4994d76c-ddb1-45af-9f93-61ebab6ec5e0?ref=thebarbedwire.com) estimated that a family of four could spend as much as $350 with tickets, parking, food and attractions. There are [discounts](https://bigtex.com/buy-tickets/discounts/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to help with expenses if families have the time to spare to research cost-cutting techniques and then plan their trip around them. Early in September, the State Fair announced that it would no longer give away free tickets to high school students as it had for years, citing “rising costs, low redemption rates and increased safety concerns,” [*KERA News* reported](https://www.keranews.org/news/2025-09-08/state-fair-texas-ends-free-tickets-high-school-students?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Instead, the fair is offering discounted high schooler tickets Monday through Thursday, and tickets remain free for students from pre-K through 8th grade and for teachers at all levels. “Of course we’ve seen the posts, and it’s disheartening,” said Taylor Pulfer, director of communications for the State Fair, to [*WFAA*](https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/state-fair/viral-posts-spark-debate-over-state-fair-of-texas-attendance-costs/287-4994d76c-ddb1-45af-9f93-61ebab6ec5e0?ref=thebarbedwire.com)*.* “The State Fair of Texas isn’t immune to whatever is going on in the world, and that includes inflation and the economy. Our vendors set their own prices for things, and they have to make from a business perspective what makes sense for them.” In another [comment](https://www.facebook.com/jguynes/posts/10163679012314516) on his Facebook post, Guynes said that Pulfer left out the fact that the fair charges the vendor to be there, an expense that plays a role in determining what vendors must charge to make a profit. “It’s choose your own adventure,” Pulfer continued, pointing out that to cut down on costs families could simply not do anything at the fair that costs money. She suggested families could bring in their own food and water and focus on free activities like live shows and music rather than rides or games. Still, adult admission [costs](https://bigtex.com/buy-tickets-new/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) between $19 and $29, depending on the day, and [parking](https://bigtex.com/plan-your-visit/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) costs $30. Another fair spokesperson told [CBS News](https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/families-say-cost-is-keeping-them-from-state-fair-of-texas/?sfnsn=mo&fbclid=IwY2xjawNQoxNleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETFnYlNiWXpocjRHb1p3ZHpLAR7Cie7CrVRFZWSbYJcoKhPAorDdejtbcuXL1hn6KR7LZk2Dm0z6pnaiGKIlkQ%5Faem%5Fq-eXo%5FnUuEMVBN0lSr3HRA&ref=thebarbedwire.com) that despite online chatter, fair attendance this year is doing just fine. “The first eight days of the fair are usually our slowest days,” she said. On Saturday, Oct. 4, a few days after his video and one week before the Texas-OU game descends on the fair, Guynes attended the fair again and [posted](https://www.facebook.com/jguynes/posts/10163688642124516) photos of a packed Midway. “EVERYONE IS HERE,” he said. **Read more at** [***WFAA***](https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/state-fair/viral-posts-spark-debate-over-state-fair-of-texas-attendance-costs/287-4994d76c-ddb1-45af-9f93-61ebab6ec5e0?ref=thebarbedwire.com)**.** ### Bari Weiss Doesn’t Want You to Read This URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/bari-weiss-cbs-rise-of-fascism/ Last updated: 2025-10-03T20:57:28.000Z Fascism doesn’t start by kicking down the door. Sometimes it demands a settlement, manipulates a corporate merger, cancels a comedian, or silences the press. Some thought it couldn’t happen here. But the evidence is all around us. Yesterday news broke that CBS is reportedly [appointing Bari Weiss as editor-in-chief](https://www.mediaite.com/media/news/paramount-officially-acquiring-the-free-press-and-making-bari-weiss-cbs-news-editor-in-chief-report/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of its news division — part of parent company Skydance Media’s [plan to appease Trump](https://www.npr.org/2025/09/12/nx-s1-5537152/cbs-news-ellison-steps-appease-trump?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Weiss has [little reporting experience](https://bsky.app/profile/nhannahjones.bsky.social/post/3m2aezrui2c26?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — she worked in the opinion sections of the *New York Times* and *Wall Street Journal* — but has had a long history of [empowering rightwing voices while silencing progressive dissent](https://www.theguardian.com/media/ng-interactive/2025/sep/10/bari-weiss-cbs?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Weiss rage quit the *Times* in 2020 claiming censorship and went on to found the substack *Free Press*, which as David Klion wrote for [*The Guardian*](https://www.theguardian.com/media/ng-interactive/2025/sep/10/bari-weiss-cbs?ref=thebarbedwire.com), she’s used to attack “wokeness” and carve out a role as the Trump administration’s de facto ally. “Weiss will be an ideological commissar situated within the highest levels of the media business, wielding her considerable platform to help the White House enforce compliance in spaces that fostered resistance during Trump’s first term: the media, academia and civil society,” said Klion. On Tuesday, President Trump stood in front of an [unprecedented](https://www.npr.org/2025/09/30/nx-s1-5557232/hegseth-generals-trump?ref=thebarbedwire.com) gathering of top military brass flown in from around the world. “I told Pete,” he bragged, referring to Secretary of Defense Hegseth, “we should use some of these dangerous cities as training ground for our military.” On Monday, the *Wall Street Journal* reported that [YouTube has agreed to pay $24.5 million](https://www.wsj.com/us-news/law/youtube-to-pay-24-5-million-to-settle-lawsuit-brought-by-trump-808f6823?gaa%5Fat=eafs&gaa%5Fn=ASWzDAigJo5LgmDfMgcwppoIjNkMO00wK3gy6u3-8pTdCWCkq6VjYAyPYC8a2EGORiw%3D&gaa%5Fts=68db0e4d&gaa%5Fsig=Ot3MKSHij6lY%5FYLBzlYWvd3FhZjM%5FiBHR5f2tHwsIBZwCYyJbHb596CZigrrX-cl5SYc1NDzmkxLJXLbXbFk4w%3D%3D&ref=thebarbedwire.com) for suspending Trump’s account after his Jan. 6 attempted coup. Meta [already paid](https://www.npr.org/2025/01/29/nx-s1-5279570/meta-trump-settlement-facebook-instagram-suspensions?ref=thebarbedwire.com) $25 million. [X paid $10 million](https://www.npr.org/2025/02/18/nx-s1-5295068/x-musk-trump-settlement?ref=thebarbedwire.com). And just before that, ABC suspended Jimmy Kimmel for mocking Trump and his supporters. The president himself said the quiet part out loud: “They’re giving me all this bad press, and they’re getting a license. I would think maybe their license should be taken away.” The FCC chair, Brendan Carr, added on a right-wing podcast: “We can do this the easy way or the hard way.” Hours later, Disney caved. These capitulations and bribes [haven’t bought](https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/problems-kristi-noem-accusing-cbs-deceptively-editing-interview-rcna228552?ref=thebarbedwire.com) these companies relief from the consequences of enabling a fascist president, and only empower him to expand the scope of his rapacious greed and malevolence. This is how fascism works — one capitulation at a time. Meanwhile, government intimidation is out in the open. Vice President JD Vance singled out one of us personally — senior advisor Elizabeth Spiers — calling her “soulless and evil” for [a column in *The Nation*](https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/charlie-kirk-assassination-maga/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on Charlie Kirk’s legacy, and telling an absurd lie that she was paid by Open Society and the Ford Foundation to write it, unleashing doxxing and death threats. He also encouraged Americans to report anyone critical of Kirk to their employers, punishment for exercising their right to free speech. Trump has filed unsuccessful lawsuits against [*The New York Times*](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/03/nyregion/donald-trump-new-york-times-lawsuit.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [CNN](https://www.npr.org/2023/07/30/1190983801/a-federal-judge-has-dismissed-trumps-defamation-case-against-cnn-over-the-big-li?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and famed [investigative reporter Bob Woodward](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/07/18/trump-bob-woodward-lawsuit-dismissed/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Charlie Kirk’s murder gave Trump cover to persecute his critics under the guise of preventing the kind of [harassment and violence Kirk himself was happy to unleash](https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2025/09/12/charlie-kirk-higher-education?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on anyone who wasn’t white, Christian, straight, and male. Black students and professors have been [expelled, fired or suspended](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/free-speech-crisis-for-black-americans-charlie-kirk/) for comments about Kirk. More than [350 Texas teachers remain under investigation](https://www.keranews.org/texas-news/2025-09-29/texas-charlie-kirk-assassination-teachers-firing-tea-education?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for the same. A *Washington Post* journalist was [fired for quoting Kirk’s own words](https://karenattiah.substack.com/p/the-washington-post-fired-me-but), after Jeff Bezos had already corrupted the paper’s opinion section by [dictating which opinions](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/26/business/media/washington-post-bezos-shipley.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) it could and couldn’t hold. ABC [paid Trump](https://www.npr.org/2024/12/16/nx-s1-5230274/abc-settles-with-trump-for-15-million-now-he-wants-to-sue-other-news-outlets?ref=thebarbedwire.com) a $15 million settlement, despite having [a robust First Amendment case](https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2024/abc-news-first-amendment-deposition-trump-settlement/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). CBS paid Trump [$16 million](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/02/business/media/paramount-trump-60-minutes-lawsuit.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to settle a lawsuit over a “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris to get their merger approved. *Los Angeles Times* owner Patrick Soon-Shiong has [interfered with the paper’s coverage](https://www.npr.org/2024/10/24/nx-s1-5163293/la-times-editor-resigns-trump-msnbc-washington-post?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=Los%20Angeles%20Times%20editor%20resigns,says%20he%20wanted%20something%20different.). All of these acts were committed by organizations that are, in theory, devoted to defending free speech. They have failed us. Journalists still trying to do their jobs have been targeted, too. In Chicago, ICE officers allegedly [shot pepper bullets into a CBS reporter’s](https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/feds-fire-pepper-ball-at-cbs-chicago-reporters-truck/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) vehicle unprompted. In New York, they [shoved journalists to the floor](https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/ice-officer-journalist-altercation-nyc/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Emmy-winning Atlanta journalist [Mario Guevara](https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/mario-guevara-journalist-ice-deportation-rcna234023?ref=thebarbedwire.com) has been held in ICE custody for more than 100 days “in retaliation for livestreaming law enforcement activity,” [according to the ACLU](https://bsky.app/profile/aclu.org/post/3m2amuhfuls2m?ref=thebarbedwire.com). News broke on Thursday that he would be deported this week to El Salvador. Corporate outlets aren’t resisting fascism. They’re enabling it. All the president’s men aren’t breaking into the Watergate; they’re buying up the media and firing anyone who won’t toe the line. [Sinclair Broadcasting Group and Nexstar Media Group](https://apnews.com/article/jimmy-kimmel-sinclair-affiliates-40489e9058a609029ebcb2ef894221e9?ref=thebarbedwire.com), responsible for much of Kimmel’s local distribution, pushed for Kimmel’s suspension, and continued a blackout of his show days after Disney and ABC capitulated to public pressure. Nexstar, based in Irving, Texas, operates 28 ABC stations and is trying to acquire Tegna, which owns another 64 stations. Meanwhile, [Sinclair has offered](https://www.reuters.com/en/sinclair-offers-merge-broadcast-tv-business-with-rival-tegna-source-says-2025-08-18/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to merge with Tegna. The consolidations would require the FCC and Carr to change its rules on the number of stations a single company can own. And in Texas print journalism, the corporate takeover is nearly complete. *The Dallas Morning News* was, until last week, [one of the last papers in Texas](https://www.keranews.org/business-economy/2025-09-23/dallas-morning-news-sold-to-hearst?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that still operated like a family-owned company — or at least a locally owned one. Hearst now owns the *Morning News*, the *Austin-American Statesman*, the *Houston Chronicle*, the *Beaumont Enterprise*, the *Laredo Morning Times*, the *Midland Reporter-Telegram*, the *Plainview Herald*, and the *San Antonio Express-News*. That’s a lot of control over the journalism being read by a state with a population of about 30 million people. While corporate media consolidates and collaborates, the right has built a self-sustaining propaganda machine. Fox News is only the tip of the iceberg. The real engine is online: Breitbart, The Federalist, PragerU, The Daily Caller, [journalist-turned-plagiarist](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/30/business/media/trump-benny-johnson.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com)[\-turned-unwitting-Russian-asset](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/well-known-right-wing-influencers-duped-to-work-for-covert-russian-operation-u-s-prosecutors-say?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Benny Johnson, influencers like Ben Shapiro and Megyn Kelly, and thousands of podcasters, YouTubers, TikTokers, and meme factories. This is the asymmetry: The forces of fascism are on the march and the opposition dithers. “I thought we’d be met with fury on the left, but they're sort of giving up, I must be honest with you,” Trump [told the gathered generals on Tuesday](https://x.com/kenklippenstein/status/1973072263898362189?s=43&ref=thebarbedwire.com). “I really thought that we were gonna have to sort of fight it through. There's been no fight.” Fascism is here, and we need to act. Corporate media has demonstrated that they’re not willing to hold those in power accountable, and we need media organizations that will not be intimidated into doing the president’s bidding. Independent, pro-democracy outlets are doing the work, but they’re subscale, underfunded and hanging on with duct tape and paperclips. Digital startups are clawing for an audience, trying to reach younger readers abandoned by legacy outlets. But we can still tell the truth. We can call fascism what it is. We do not have to display fealty. In fact, dissenting voices are at the heart of the American experiment. A year ago we founded *The Barbed Wire* because it’s not too late to do something. But we need support, and so do other independent news outlets. If we do not build an alternative media ecosystem that is still dedicated to telling the truth, corporate media isn’t going to do it for us. And if we wait much longer, it will be too late. ### U.S. Senate Hopeful James Talarico Raised Millions More in 3 Weeks Than Colin Allred Did in 3 Months URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/james-talarico-fundraising/ Last updated: 2025-10-01T17:47:24.000Z If political fundraising is supposed to be a marathon, U.S. Senate hopeful James Talarico just showed up, sprinted past fellow Democrat Colin Allred, and then jogged a victory lap while counting $100 bills. In just three weeks, Talarico — the 36-year-old Texas state rep turned Senate hopeful — pulled in a cool $6.2 million, [*Axios* reported](https://www.axios.com/2025/10/01/james-talarico-raises-62-million-for-texas-senate-bid?ref=thebarbedwire.com). That’s a lot more than the [$4.1 million that Allred](https://www.axios.com/2025/10/01/colin-allred-texas-senate-primary-fundraising?ref=thebarbedwire.com), his primary opponent and last year’s Democratic nominee, managed to scrape together in *three months.* Think of it this way: Allred is the guy who brings a six-pack to the party, and Talarico’s the guy who shows up with a refrigerated truck. Talarico’s haul came from 125,000 donors across all 50 states, which is either proof of a national movement or just confirmation that people outside Texas enjoy watching Lone Star Democrats fight like roosters in a political cockfight. He’s branding himself as the fresh-faced outsider who can appeal to Christian voters, which, in Texas politics, is like saying you’re really good at breathing oxygen. And now the national press is eating it up, too. Especially since [Talarico](https://time.com/7304119/joe-rogan-james-talarico/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [garnered](https://www.wired.com/story/james-talarico-texas-democrats-gerrymandering/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [a ton of coverage](https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/5434522-talarico-fights-trump-redistricting/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) during the House Texas Democrats’ [quorum break battle](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/how-five-women-at-the-texas-capitol-stood-up-against-fascism/) for the redistricted congressional maps — while Allred, who is known for his history as a civil rights attorney, was nowhere to be seen. The *New York Times* [just ran a glowing op-ed](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/01/opinion/james-talarico-religious-left.html?campaign%5Fid=39&emc=edit%5Fty%5F20251001&instance%5Fid=163587&nl=opinion-today®i%5Fid=53145919&segment%5Fid=206948&user%5Fid=1cac7cb5d40e9fcd519e50c50fd9079e&ref=thebarbedwire.com) asking if he’s “the savior Democrats have been waiting for,” *Politico* magazine is name-dropping him [in Obama gossip](https://www.politico.com/news/2025/08/29/obama-democrats-trump-talarico-00535507?ref=thebarbedwire.com), saying that the former president “praised Talarico as an effective spokesperson for showing up on different media and platforms.” > [](https://twitter.com/msleen1970/status/1958281220619391065?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/screenshot-2025-10-01-at-12-43-50-pm.png)](https://www.threads.com/@blackgirlswhobrunch/post/DMwUQsTNvI4?xmt=AQF0MgOw0ivmeN95-ViPZT-cUlDDsiFPKxqdv8UAhRhF5A&ref=thebarbedwire.com) That’s a nod to Talarico’s substantial social media presence, where he’s been carving out a spot for himself as a faith-based progressive. He’s got 3.2 million followers across [TikTok](https://www.tiktok.com/@jamestalarico?lang=en&ref=thebarbedwire.com), [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/jamestalarico/?hl=en&ref=thebarbedwire.com), and [X](https://x.com/jamestalarico?lang=en&ref=thebarbedwire.com). And he’s absolutely skunking Allred in follower count, who, by comparison, has about 363,000 across [those](https://www.instagram.com/colinallred/?hl=en&ref=thebarbedwire.com) [three](https://www.tiktok.com/@colinallredtx?lang=en&ref=thebarbedwire.com) [platforms](https://x.com/colinallredtx?lang=en&ref=thebarbedwire.com). When Talarico announced he was running on Sept. 9, folks online were [quick to take sides](https://x.com/wendydavis/status/1965443031588630806?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Former Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis [wrote on X](https://x.com/wendydavis/status/1965443031588630806?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that she was with Allred “all the way.” Meanwhile, Texas politics commenter Kat Vargas, also known as “Howdy Politics,” accused Allred of being too low-profile, especially during recent redistricting hearings. *(Disclosure: Davis is an advisor for The Barbed Wire Media,* The Barbed Wire’*s parent company, and Vargas has previously co-hosted an event with* The Barbed Wire*.)* “Colin Allred does not deserve to be the nominee,” Vargas [wrote on Threads](https://www.threads.com/@howdypolitics/post/DMt0ZLsM51B?xmt=AQF0MgOw0ivmeN95-ViPZT-cUlDDsiFPKxqdv8UAhRhF5A&ref=thebarbedwire.com). [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/screenshot-2025-10-01-at-12-43-56-pm.png)](https://www.threads.com/@howdypolitics/post/DMt0ZLsM51B?xmt=AQF0MgOw0ivmeN95-ViPZT-cUlDDsiFPKxqdv8UAhRhF5A&ref=thebarbedwire.com) > [](https://twitter.com/itsJenRamos/status/1965425634446065807?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Even [Joe Rogan has given him the presidential nudge](https://time.com/7304119/joe-rogan-james-talarico/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). That’s the kind of coverage money can’t buy (though $6.2 million probably helps get it delivered to your doorstep faster). “James Talarico, you need to run for President,” Rogan [said in a recent podcast](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/joe-rogan-wants-democratic-texas-lawmaker-run-for-president/). “We need someone who is actually a good person.” Meanwhile, Allred, who [already lost to Ted Cruz by more than 8 points last time around](https://www.politico.com/2024-election/results/texas/senate/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), looks increasingly like the guy stuck with yesterday’s leftovers. For context, as[*Texas Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/10/01/texas-senate-democratic-fundraising-james-talarico-colin-allred/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) reported, “Beto O'Rourke, who set a new standard for Democratic fundraising in his 2018 run against Cruz, needed nine months to raise that same amount.” National Democrats are nervously eyeing this cage match, because it’s not just about who survives the primary, it’s about who will take on either U.S. Senator [John Cornyn or fellow Republican Ken Paxton](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-senate-republican-primary-cornyn-paxton/) in *their* messy primary. Democrats, for their part, [are quietly hoping Paxton wins](https://www.politico.com/news/2025/06/08/texas-senate-dems-paxton-cornyn-00393332?ref=thebarbedwire.com), given his history of scandals. Meanwhile, [top Republicans told *Axios*](https://www.axios.com/2025/09/24/paxton-texas-senate-house-seats?ref=thebarbedwire.com) they’re worried Paxton may cost them a majority in the House. But for now, the story is money. And Talarico just proved he can raise it faster than Allred can spell “Q3.” ### Texan Visits Maine, Immediately Becomes Insufferable About Lobster URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-maine-lobster-brisket/ Last updated: 2025-09-30T16:50:42.000Z If you live in or have just *heard* of Texas, you know about our barbecue — particularly [brisket](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/1gib%5FCze-sw?ref=thebarbedwire.com). It’s one of the foods most strongly associated with the state. Heck, it may as well be on our flag. And of all the other states with a strong identification with a particular food (Wisconsin and cheese curds, Maryland’s crabs, or maybe even Florida’s key lime pie), I’d argue that just one other state is as joined at the hip to a specific food as Texas is to smoked meats. Of course, I’m talking about Maine lobsters. In my opinion, no other state is as psychotic about centering its entire personality around something they eat. So, in the interest of journalism, a friend and I ventured to New England to investigate whether or not Maine feels the same way about lobsters as we do about our beloved barbecue. Short answer, from my three days’ experience: They do. Long answer: Theyyyyyy dooo. First up, their license plates. They may as well be shaped like lobsters. The crustacean is everywhere, all at once. My favorite plate just had a picture of a lobster on the side, with the simple inscription *“Lobster”* at the bottom. Short and to the point! Like if Texas plates just said *“Cow.”* Honestly, I’d respect it. *Texas Monthly* food writer Paula Forbes also noticed that lobsters were ubiquitous, while visiting family during summers in Maine. “I remember being shocked there was a lobster roll on the menu at McDonald's,” she told *The Barbed Wire.* Meanwhile in Texas, our McDonald’s just gets the ice cream machine working every third Tuesday and we call it a miracle. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/250924-garr-mainetexasfood-embed1.jpg) “There's a lot of pride to both” lobster and brisket, Forbes said. “I think that's the case with most regionally beloved foods. I think it's interesting that both affinities — beef, lobster — stem from agricultural industries that both states are known for.” And, boy, is Maine known for lobster. Have I mentioned? It’s everywhere. From the decor in roadside bathrooms to the actual scenery (they have lighthouses and oceans everywhere!), Maine is a lobster’s paradise. Except, of course, for the ones that get trapped and eaten. On our recent weekend trip, we flew into Portland, where we — of course — had dinner at a seafood place. The lobster rolls were listed at “market price,” which is code for “you may need a home equity loan for this.” I half expected the waiter to ask for my FICO score before handing me the menu. Turns out, I wasn’t far off. They were $35\. But damn if they weren’t worth it. If you haven’t had one, it’s basically like a piece of heaven in a buttered roll. (And in Maine, they sometimes use mayonnaise — it’s a whole beef with Connecticut, which uses butter. At least, that’s what I think, but what would I know, I’m an out-of-towner.) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/250924-garr-mainetexasfood-embed2.jpg) But you can’t beat the hometown making its own dish. Forbes said: “There's also something to it where, when a population of diners is generally highly knowledgeable about a type of food, the baseline is higher than it would be otherwise. You can't serve Texans terrible barbecue or you'll go out of business. Same with Mainers and lobster.” The next day, my friend and I drove up the coast, to the Five Islands area, where we ate at a total of two lobster shacks. These were basically restaurants situated on working docks (as the signs informed us), where lobster traps were piled nearby. We could see fishing boats in the distance, hard at work. I told my friend, as we cracked into lobsters so red they looked artificial, that the best part about the trip was that, when we returned to Texas, we could be completely insufferable whenever lobsters came up. Because we’d had the real deal. (At least, I think so. Who knows, they may have had a big freezer full just for folks like us who were wearing jackets when it was 80 degrees and breezy.) Nonetheless, they were delicious. I can’t quite describe WHY fresh lobster tastes better, it’s just that they’re … lighter? More flavorful? If I were a better writer or was raised on this stuff, I could articulate it better. All I can tell you is that fresh lobster makes you feel like God himself has blessed you with a darned good meal. Plus, the atmosphere can’t be beat — with the aforementioned fishing boats, but also the locals in their bucket hats and LL Bean jackets and those accents. Nothing like being told your lobster’s “wicked fresh” by a guy who looks like he wrestles seagulls for sport. (That didn’t happen, but it could have!) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/250924-garr-mainetexasfood-embed3-1.jpg) Lobster, like a lot of famed regional dishes, started out as something far different from a $35 roll. Back in the early 20th century, they were plentiful and cheap and [considered a working-class meal](https://getmainelobster.com/blogs/insights/the-history-of-lobster-rolls-from-humble-origins-to-delicacy-status?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Over time, that changed. “It might take awhile, but it's common for working class foods to become the coveted ‘cultural’ foods of a region, in part, because they are the hyper-specific foods that you can't necessarily make easily or buy straight from the grocery store but that can use up ingredients that the ruling class isn't interested in,” longtime Austin food writer Addie Broyles told *The Barbed Wire.* “So, from lobsters, which were once considered a food only worthy of people who are incarcerated, to brisket or barbacoa cooked by the Black and Mexican cooks in the South or fish tacos in LA, there's a long history of food becoming an object of wide, and often exacting, obsession only after it has spent generations being appreciated by a much smaller group of people who are then frequently outpriced to buy it or left out of the narrative behind its history.” Food is the one thing in America that can go from “prison slop” to “$35 artisanal entree” faster than you can say “farm-to-table.” Over the years, lobsters spread to the rest of the country and have become an integral part of Maine’s identity — again, similar to barbecue and Texas. You eat that particular dish, or even *think* of it (and the accompanying smells and tastes), and there’s that accompanying sense of place. Lobsters and a brisk breeze and a view of water stretched out to eternity. Brisket and the wide open spaces of Texas, a cowboy and a horse, both sweating their asses off because it’s 100 degrees in September. Meanwhile in Maine, the only thing sweating is me, trying to crack open a lobster with dignity while an 8-year-old local does it in two seconds flat. Which is better? That’s a matter of your own personal preference and, probably more than anything, your state pride. Both are delicious, while being completely different. Although there is one clear winner, when it comes to which food will require a cleanup after you eat it. “Lobster for sure is messier,” Forbes said. And that’s true. With lobster, you’re wearing a bib, wielding tools, and looking like you’re auditioning for a construction job. With brisket, you just need some paper towels and a forgiving waistband. So maybe that’s the real difference between Maine and Texas: One state makes you break out the lobster crackers, the other just makes you unbutton your jeans. Either way, you’ll leave full, proud of your state — and probably smelling like smoke or shellfish for the rest of the day. ### Micah Parsons’ Dallas Return Resulted In a… Tie? And More Texas Football Talk URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/micah-parsons-return-cowboys-texans-win/ Last updated: 2025-09-29T12:01:18.000Z If you weren’t actively rooting for the [Cowboys](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/jerry-jones-cowboys-documentary/) or [Texans](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/houston-texans-dallas-cowboys-loss-week-1-nfl/) to make it all the way this year — we have new motivation to unlock your inner armchair coach. [Bad Bunny is headlining](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/28/arts/music/bad-bunny-super-bowl-halftime.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) the Super Bowl halftime show in February. That’s right, Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio will succeed Kendrick Lamar as the headliner of the annual concert in which the powers that be gather the best professional football teams to play as opening and closing acts. And we’ve got less than 18 weeks to ensure a Texas team is there for it. > [](https://twitter.com/sanbenito/status/1972480343489012090?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Welcome back to [*The Barbed Wire* does football](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/cowboys-loss-simone-biles-fit-ceedee-lamb/), in which our team of completely unqualified-to-write-about sports writers recap what everyone shouted at their TVs and phones this weekend. Let’s get into it, starting with our chances at being front row for “Me Porto Bonito.” **Micah, Micah, Micah** Sunday night football in Dallas was supposed to be about one thing: Micah Parsons returning in a Packers uniform to face his old team. Instead, it turned into absolute chaos: a [40-40 tie that felt like a 12-round boxing match where both fighters just collapsed at the bell](https://www.espn.com/nfl/recap/%5F/gameId/401772921?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Despite all the drama surrounding Parsons, the quarterbacks provided most of the fireworks. Dallas’ Dak Prescott threw for 319 yards and three touchdowns, plus a rushing score. But every answer from Prescott seemed to get matched by Packers quarterback Jordan Love, as the teams traded *seven straight touchdowns* in regulation before Green Bay tied it at the buzzer with a 53-yard field goal. > [](https://twitter.com/TampaTones/status/1972502344027062387?ref=thebarbedwire.com) While both offenses were throwing haymakers, the defenses mostly stood around like “good luck, buddy.” In overtime, Dallas had a chance to win after Prescott’s 34-yard strike to Jalen Tolbert set up first-and-goal. That drive stalled when Parsons sacked his former teammate Prescott, and the Cowboys had to settle for a short field goal. Green Bay answered with a field goal of its own, and that was that. It goes in the books as Dallas’ first tie since 1969, a historic shootout but a frustrating finish for a team that wanted more than just “not losing.” > [](https://twitter.com/Pick6PackFB/status/1972521384002941042?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Meanwhile, the Houston Texans [walloped the lowly Tennessee Titans](https://www.espn.com/nfl/game/%5F/gameId/401772738/titans-texans?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in a 26-0 blowout at home. That’s right, Tennessee scored exactly zero points, which in football is sort of frowned upon. They were led by quarterback C.J. Stroud, who had a very solid two-touchdown performance. Stroud has been shaking allegations all year that he was just a one-year wonder and, while the Texans only got their first win of the season Sunday, hey, one is still a lot better than zero. And speaking of the devil, the Titans, who used to be the Houston Oilers back in the day before moving and breaking Houston’s heart, fell to 0-4 for the season after their much-hyped rookie quarterback Cam Ward went 10-for-26 with one interception. Translation: he threw it to the wrong team once and to no one at all, a lot. Hang in there, buddy. Rookie years are rough. **Aggies 4.0 & TCU Turnovers** Next, let’s go to college where Lone Star State teams had a wild weekend. Texas A&M leaned on its defense to [grind out a 16-10 win over Auburn](https://www.espn.com/college-football/recap?gameId=401752724&ref=thebarbedwire.com) and move to 4-0 for the first time since 2016\. That’s so long ago that TikTok didn’t even exist yet. Le’Veon Moss powered the offense with 139 rushing yards and a touchdown, even while battling a stomach bug. (So he basically ran a half marathon while feeling like he had food poisoning. Respect.) Quarterback Marcel Reed added 207 passing yards, but it was the Aggies’ defense that stole the show: Auburn had 0-for-12 on third downs, and quarterback Jackson Arnold was sacked five times — imagine trying to send a text and getting shoved into the ground every single time you pull out your phone. https://www.tiktok.com/@hbic\_favfinds/video/7554926821045751054?\_r=1&\_t=ZP-908DZzaO0nW It wasn’t always pretty, A&M had 13 penalties and threw a late interception that nearly blew it, but they closed it out with a field goal and two defensive stops. Coach Mike Elko reminded everyone afterward that ugly or not, 4-0 is 4-0. As for Baylor, the Bears [spoiled Oklahoma State’s first game without longtime coach Mike Gundy](https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/%5F/id/46402583/oklahoma-state-opens-post-gundy-era-18-point-loss-baylor?ref=thebarbedwire.com), rolling to a 45-27 win in Stillwater. Quarterback Sawyer Robertson lit it up with 393 passing yards and four touchdowns to four different receivers, plus a rushing score for good measure. The Bears racked up 612 total yards, which is the kind of number you usually see when you accidentally leave the difficulty on “rookie mode” in Madden. Oklahoma State hung around early, trailing just 28-20 at halftime, but Baylor’s offense kept answering. After the Cowboys cut it to 35-27 in the third, Robertson and company slammed the door with two more touchdowns. Let’s move on to TCU, and this loss really stings. The Horned Frogs jumped out to a 17-0 lead in Tempe, [only to watch it all slip away as Arizona State stormed back](https://www.espn.com/college-football/recap/%5F/gameId/401756902?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Quarterback Josh Hoover got sacked six times (he’s probably still peeling himself off the turf), the run game managed just 10 yards. Yes, 10, you could walk that during a commercial break. Three TCU turnovers, including a late fumble, set up the Sun Devils’ winning field goal. Final: ASU 27, TCU 24\. A big “oops” for a team that had the game in hand most of the night. Meanwhile, the University of Houston looked completely cooked, down 24-10 in the fourth quarter, but the Cougars [pulled off some late-game magic to stun Oregon State 27-24 in overtime](https://www.espn.com/college-football/recap?gameId=401752939&ref=thebarbedwire.com). Conner Weigman shook off a rough start and hit two huge touchdown passes late, a 27-yarder to Stephon Johnson and a 50-yarder to Tanner Koziol, to tie it. Oregon State had a chance to win in regulation, but Houston blocked a 46-yard field goal to force overtime. (Blocking a kick is the football version of yanking the tablecloth off without the dishes breaking: rare, risky, but awesome when it works.) From there, the Cougar defense stuffed a fourth-and-1, and kicker Ethan Sanchez, already perfect on the day, nailed the 24-yard game-winner. **What the WAGs Wore** Another week, another custom jersey for Haley Cavinder (Cowboys tight end Jake Ferguson), which she cropped and paired with wide leg pants from Shopbop and stilettos. She also added a bag charm from Kendra Scott to her little denim Louis, according to TikTok. https://www.tiktok.com/@cavindertwins/video/7555244696814030093?\_r=1&\_t=ZP-908EbtzpyIx Always trend spotting, we also noticed Brandi Yvonne (Dallas safety Juanyeh Thomas) adding a few blue charms to her silver bag. And making long Fashion Nova jorts look better than we ever could. https://www.tiktok.com/@brandiyvonne/video/7555349055124163853?\_r=1&\_t=ZP-908E42TpPeJ Though UT didn’t play this week we checked in on Loreal Sarkisian (coach Steve Sarkisian). Her Insta didn’t disappoint, there was another lesson in making burnt orange more of an everyday staple than gameday costume. Just try it in a silk top and add Gucci loafers for a dinner date. https://www.instagram.com/p/DO9TGtcEWnK/?img\_index=2 **Glen Powell Watch** Glen Powell has continued his second-coming-of-Matthew-McConaughey bit, and you know what? We’re into it. Last week, Jake Shane of Therapuss went to Austin and apparently stayed in Powell’s house and got the whole tour from the *Twisters* star. Oh, and Kaia Gerber was there too. If somehow you missed it or the resulting billion memes, it’s worth a watch. Powell goes through his first role and all the ones he auditioned for and didn’t get. But most importantly, Powell confirmed burnt orange is the new black. https://www.instagram.com/p/DPCj1jAiRtn/?igsh=M2w4OTFuOXlvbWV3 Hook ‘em, and see ya next week. https://www.instagram.com/p/DO460UnjBWh/?hl=en&img\_index=5 ### The Free Speech Crisis for Black Americans Is Worse Than You Think URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/free-speech-crisis-for-black-americans-charlie-kirk/ Last updated: 2025-09-26T16:16:05.000Z America, we have a problem. In the weeks since the assassination of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk, historically Black colleges and universities have experienced [terroristic threats](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/09/11/hbcus-lockdown-threats/86094019007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Black students have been [expelled](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/09/16/texas-state-university-student-charlie-kirk-comments/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) or withdrawn for expressing their first amendment rights, and [prominent Black journalists](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/24/business/media/washington-post-karen-attiah.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) have been fired for social media posts. That’s a big news story, and one that I set out to tell for *The Barbed Wire*. In its infancy, the story was about how HBCUs should not be held accountable for Kirk’s death. Except I struggled to get anyone to talk. Now, it’s an essay about how — and why — that initial piece never came to pass. Because a failed first attempt led me to another big story: In all my years of journalism, I've never seen so much fear from subject matter experts. Since President Donald Trump took office, his administration has restricted Associated Press access to the [Oval Office](https://www.npr.org/2025/04/08/nx-s1-5342369/ap-white-house-court-ruling-oval-office-gulf-of-mexico-america?ref=thebarbedwire.com), threatened to [revoke foreigners’ entry](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/24/world/americas/charlie-kirk-visas-speech.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to the United States because of their commentary on Kirk, and withheld funding from higher education institutions because of their alleged [“antisemitism and ideological indoctrination.”](https://www.nytimes.com/article/trump-university-college.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Despite positioning himself as a champion of free speech, [Trump](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/10/06/review-free-speech-books?ref=thebarbedwire.com) has reignited a war on not only freedom of speech, but academic freedom as well, with many left in fear of backlash and retaliation. More than 50% of American voters are pessimistic about [freedom of speech](https://poll.qu.edu/poll-release?releaseid=3932&ref=thebarbedwire.com) being protected, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released on Wednesday. Almost 80% of those respondents said the nation is in a [political crisis](https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5520112-survey-political-crisis-in-us/?tbref=hp&ref=thebarbedwire.com). Jimmy Kimmel’s return to his late-night show on ABC this week has dominated much of the conversation. [Kimmel was suspended](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/sep/18/jimmy-kimmel-live-suspended-indefinitely-after-hosts-charlie-kirk-comments?ref=thebarbedwire.com) after Brendan Carr, the chair of the [Federal Communications Commission,](https://www.npr.org/2025/09/19/nx-s1-5546764/fcc-brendan-carr-kimmel-trump-free-speech?ref=thebarbedwire.com) urged broadcasters to stop airing the show, saying they were “running the possibility of fines or licensed revocation from the FCC.” When he returned to the screen on Tuesday night, Kimmel encouraged the American public to be mindful of the privileges of living in a country with free speech. He described the actions taken against his show by the FCC, along with [Nexstar Media Group](https://www.axios.com/2025/09/23/jimmy-kimmel-return-sinclair-nexstar-abc?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [Sinclair Broadcasting Group](https://www.newsweek.com/jimmy-kimmel-live-map-sinclair-broadcast-2134012?ref=thebarbedwire.com) (which [together own](https://sbgi.net/tv-stations/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [more than 300 TV stations](https://www.nexstar.tv/stations/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) across the country), as [“un-American” ](https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/24/business/monologue-transcript-kimmel-return?ref=thebarbedwire.com)and [“dangerous.”](https://time.com/7319907/jimmy-kimmel-live-returns-monologue-trump-administration/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) He made a triumphant return to air, and his Wednesday night monologue got stellar ratings and [has racked up more than 20 million views on YouTube](https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/25/media/jimmy-kimmel-abc-ratings-viewers-youtube?ref=thebarbedwire.com). But Nexstar and Sinclair both refused to air the late night show on their respective affiliate television stations throughout the U.S. Kimmel has garnered the support of [several Republican senators](https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/fcc-kimmel-ted-cruz-first-amendment-rcna232900?ref=thebarbedwire.com), such as Mitch McConnell, Rand Paul, and Ted Cruz, who warned fellow conservatives that continued actions by the Trump administration against free speech could result in future retaliation by Democrats in the event they regain control of the White House: [“They will silence us, they will use this power, and they will use it ruthlessly.”](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/19/us/politics/ted-cruz-fcc-abc-jimmy-kimmel.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) But, there is already a group of Americans that are actively being silenced over fears of professional and institutional retaliation. They are worried about the future of their careers. They are afraid of their words being used against them. In the first 20 hours after Kirk’s assassinations, multiple HBCUs were placed on lockdown, which led me to reach out to Black professors at both HBCUs and predominantly white institutions to inquire about conversations being held on campus about safety. That week, I reached out to numerous experts in the fields of capitalism and politics, Black women’s history and political violence, race and political ideology, race and democracy, and civil rights law. Only one responded; after talking on the phone, she agreed to let me use one quote about the fear of reprisals. That professor, author, and expert on racial politics who teaches at a public university in Texas told *The Barbed Wire*: “We are very much in a conundrum right now. I'm very much in a personal conundrum about how I manage the rest of my career that I thought would be spent teaching and working with students for the rest of my life, and I am no longer sure that's going to happen.” “What do you do? That’s the question I think everybody's asking right now,” the professor continued. “What do we do? The thing that's really sad about it is you wanna stay in the trenches with these kids as long as you possibly can, but you also want to get out before you drown. These kids deserve better.” [Devion Canty Jr.](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/09/22/texas-free-speech-college-campus-charlie-kirk-greg-abbott/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a former student at Texas State University, withdrew from the university after he received backlash for his behavior at an on-campus vigil for Kirk. Gov. Greg Abbott called for his immediate removal from the student body. [Camryn Giselle Booker](https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/09/15/texas-tech-charlie-kirk-camryn-booker/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a former student at Texas Tech University, was arrested by university police and charged with simple assault after videos of her conduct at a wake for Kirk went viral online. Once news of her arrest went public, Abbott celebrated on [social media](https://x.com/GregAbbott%5FTX/status/1967387427112395178?ref=thebarbedwire.com): “This is what happened to the person who was mocking Charlie Kirk’s assassination at Texas Tech. We don’t know the racial makeup of the [more than 350 complaints filed against Texas teachers](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/09/15/texas-education-teacher-comments-charlie-kirk/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for alleged comments on the killing of Kirk — but I’d be willing to take a guess. Six school districts have already taken disciplinary measures against staff: Klein Independent School District [fired](https://www.facebook.com/KleinISD/posts/pfbid0YiWdk9bdd1haAG3QV8ZASw666yXJnsgavUSw2vsGoQWuLF2Dpn5ek11Pz6sCu6YWl?rdid=7UNn6a0cq2WP5wjO#) a teacher, and Ector County Independent School District fired a part-time tutor and placed another employee on administrative leave, according to [*Texas Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/09/15/texas-education-teacher-comments-charlie-kirk/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “What started with lawmakers weaponizing their platforms against civil servants has morphed into a statewide directive to hunt down and fire educators for opinions shared on their personal social media accounts,” Zeph Capo, president of the Texas’ American Federation of Teachers union, told the *Tribune*. It’s not just in academia and education, either: In Cleveland, Ohio, [a Black fire chief ](https://capitalbnews.org/trump-crackdown-free-speech-kirk/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)was placed on paid leave over his social media posts, which included a political cartoon. Meanwhile Karen Attiah, [an award winning *Washington Post* editor and columnist](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/24/business/media/washington-post-karen-attiah.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), was fired from the publication because of her social media posts about Kirk. She and the *Post’s* labor union have filed grievances against her former employer. Her grievance states that “she should have been allowed to share her views on news events under the company’s labor agreement and social media policy.” “The First Amendment is only as good as the people who decide to defend it, particularly journalism institutions that depend on that First Amendment,” Attiah said in a podcast interview with “[What Next](https://slate.com/podcasts/what-next/2025/09/karen-attiahs-freedom-of-speech-as-a-member-of-the-press?ref=thebarbedwire.com)” at *Slate*. “I’m watching Jimmy, but I’m also still fighting my own case. There is still this climate of intimidation against media broadcasting networks, against anyone who criticizes, whether it’s Trump or Charlie Kirk’s legacy... That threat is still there, even though Kimmel is back.” The *Washington Post* has expressed no plans to reinstate Attiah. When I followed up with the one professor who agreed to speak with me off the record, they told me that they questioned whether or not it was a good idea to talk to the press. That certainly doesn’t speak well for the current state of the country. How are we supposed to write about free speech when people are scared to talk to journalists? Are we not afraid of the precedent this creates for our constitutional rights? [Thomas Alter](https://www.chronicle.com/article/heartbreaking-and-cruel-a-texas-state-professor-on-his-firing-and-why-hes-suing?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a former associate professor of history at Texas State University, was dismissed from teaching at the public university after a complaint was filed against him over his participation at a virtual socialist conference. He’s suing — and [has inspired protests](https://www.statesman.com/news/education/article/texas-state-university-professor-alter-protest-21061810.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Alter’s firing should scare you. [Mark Zoran](https://www.chronicle.com/article/a-classroom-clash-over-course-content-went-viral-texas-a-m-fired-the-instructor-and-removed-2-administrators?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a former head in the College of Arts and Sciences at Texas A&M University, and Emily Johansen, a former English department head at Texas A&M University, were fired over classroom discussions of gender and sexuality. Their terminations should be of great concern to you. Whether you agree with the actions of the current presidential administration, the fear of retaliation, and the censorship birthed from it, is dangerous to all Americans, but especially those who are not represented in the demographics of the current White House. The truth of the matter is that freedom of speech has never been a constant for those who are not born white and male in the United States. Black Americans have always had to exude a God-like aura of [civility](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/24/opinion/civility-fantasy-power-kirk.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and patience in order to get their point across, in the midst of intense violence by the state and the government. The majority of [banned](https://www.aclum.org/en/banned-books-black-authors?ref=thebarbedwire.com) books are by Black authors — a [University of Colorado Boulder study](https://www.colorado.edu/today/2024/07/02/women-color-disproportionately-targeted-book-bans-study-finds?ref=thebarbedwire.com) found that authors of color were 4.5 times more likely to be banned than white authors. But, who cares? Where is the uproar? Where is the concern? I grow weary of hearing that Black Americans are the canaries in the coal mine. There are more dead canaries than coal at this point. The lack of empathy for Black voices, like Attiah’s — but also the students, teachers, professors, and first responders who haven’t been vindicated like Kimmel — is the clearest and coldest indicator of what’s to come. And what is here. There are no birds left to sing, just a clear and cold silence in the air and the spirit of submission. ### ‘None of It Makes Any Sense’: New Details in the July 4 ICE Attack Show Holes in Feds’ Case URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/new-details-july-4-ice-attack-holes-feds-case/ Last updated: 2025-09-24T20:19:16.000Z On July 12, Amber Lowrey arrived at her sister’s apartment in Fort Worth. The FBI had raided it days earlier, Lowrey said, and she surveyed the wreckage: shattered windows, broken doors, damaged floorboards from a flash bang. Agents seized four “pages of map documents,” according to a property receipt reviewed by *The Barbed Wire*. Lowrey’s sister, Savannah Batten, had been arrested a week before for allegedly participating in what federal prosecutors have described as a “coordinated and targeted attack” against an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center and an act of terrorism. But the debris of her sister’s belongings — abandoned hermit crabs in their habitat, clothes laid out for work but never worn, a cherry cobbler left in the microwave to mold over — told Lowrey a different story. “This is not a person who walked out of her apartment to do what they claim that she went to do,” Lowrey told *The Barbed Wire* in a phone interview. “Common sense tells us that if she had left her apartment to go and do that, she might not come home alive.” “None of it makes any sense,” she added. Batten was part of a protest on July 4 outside Prairieland ICE Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, that some participants and their supporters said was intended to be a noise demonstration and instead turned violent when a police officer was shot. Batten is one of 11 individuals charged with multiple counts of attempted murder of a federal officer and of discharging a firearm during a violent crime. Six more individuals are charged with concealing evidence, helping other defendants evade arrest, or hindering the prosecution of terrorism. The defendants, some of whom have ties to anarchist and anti-fascist circles, [were arraigned](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/2025/09/22/suspects-in-attack-at-north-texas-ice-detention-to-be-arraigned-two-months-after-shooting/?utm%5Fmedium=social&utm%5Fsource=twitter%5Fdallasnews) earlier this week. All remain in custody, with multi-million dollar bonds. The event — a protest-gone-wrong to defendants, a planned ambush to federal prosecutors — is part of an environment of heightened political violence, and escalating tensions around the Trump administration's deportation agenda. Federal prosecutors were still crafting their case against the July 4 defendants when another shooting at a Texas ICE facility happened on Wednesday morning. The Department of Homeland Security said a sniper opened fire on an ICE field office in Dallas. The shooter, who authorities identified as 29-year-old [Joshua Jahn](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15130133/Joshua-Jahn-Dallas-ICE-sniper-migrants-Texas.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), died from a self-inflicted gunshot. Three detainees were shot, according to a statement from DHS. Initially, authorities said that two detainees died and that [one remained in critical condition](https://www.fox4news.com/news/dallas-ice-shooting?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Later, [that changed](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/live-blog/dallas-ice-facility-shooting-rcna233385?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to one dead and two in critical condition. No [law enforcement](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/live-blog/dallas-ice-facility-shooting-rcna233385?ref=thebarbedwire.com) personnel were injured. As the number of dead changed, FBI Director Kash Patel suggested the attack was ideologically motivated in a [statement on X](https://x.com/FBIDirectorKash/status/1970877754221498599?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1970874124454019204%7Ctwgr%5E321fc2f8997a28aae9a5fb8ab852ec02f9f89eec%7Ctwcon%5Es1%5F&ref%5Furl=https%3A%2F%2Fiframe.nbcnews.com%2Fxcy1G0G3%3F%5Fshowcaption%3Dtrueapp%3D1&ref=thebarbedwire.com), accompanied with a photo of bullets — one of which has the words “ANTI-ICE” written on it. “These despicable, politically motivated attacks against law enforcement are not a one-off. We are only miles from Prarieland (sic), Texas where just two months ago an individual ambushed a separate ICE facility targeting their officers,” Patel wrote. “It has to end and the FBI and our partners will lead these investigative efforts to see to it that those who target our law enforcement are pursued and brought to the fullest extent of justice.” Vice President JD Vance also [posted on X](https://x.com/JDVance/status/1970836609219358844?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that the “obsessive attack on law enforcement, particularly ICE, must stop.” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said, “The epidemic of leftist political violence must end. Democrats have fostered an environment of evil, emboldening radicals to kill, steal, and destroy.” Since the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk earlier this month, President Donald Trump has stepped up attacks on perceived political foes. On Monday, he signed [an executive order](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/22/us/politics/trump-antifa-order-terrorism.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) labeling “antifa” — a disparate anti-fascist [ideological movement](https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-ap-top-news-elections-james-comey-politics-bdd3b6078e9efadcfcd0be4b65f2362e?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — a domestic [terrorist group](https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-presidential-memo-memphis-national-guard-2130334?ref=thebarbedwire.com), even though the U.S. doesn’t have a domestic terrorism law and antifa isn’t a specific organization. His administration has also been quick to place blame on leftist groups in the immediate aftermath of recent attacks, mirroring finger pointing and misinformation shared from all sides on social media. A Sept. 8 [press release](https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/09/08/dhs-blasts-national-public-radios-disgusting-race-baiting-smears-against-americas?ref=thebarbedwire.com) from DHS claimed without evidence that ICE officers “are facing a more than 1000% increase in assaults against them.” Yet, the fact patterns that have emerged in several cases prove more complicated. A [*Washington Post*](https://archive.is/tR1M3?ref=thebarbedwire.com) review of 79 assaults on ICE officers between January and June found that “the vast majority involve verbal threats — in person or online — or physical altercations during ICE arrests of immigrants that turned violent.” In one example, federal agents — including Border Patrol — set off an explosion, [blasting their way into a California home](https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/huntington-park-border-patrol-agents-door-explosion/3734095/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in tactical gear alarming a woman named Jenny Ramirez, her 1-year-old, and her 6-year-old in June. Agents said they were looking for her boyfriend, whom they claimed had rammed his Jeep into federal agents a week earlier during an immigration enforcement operation. Ramirez [told reporters](https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/huntington-park-border-patrol-agents-door-explosion/3734095/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that her boyfriend had accidentally bumped the truck in a fender-bender, after which he stopped, and federal agents told him he was free to go. Border Patrol did track him down, and [the case against him was dismissed](https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/huntington-park-raid-immigration-explosion/3752904/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) about a month after he was arrested. *The Barbed Wire* conducted an in-depth review of the court records and statements thus far in the July 4 Prairieland case and found holes that call into question the government’s narrative. Though Nancy Larson, the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, [described](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/08/texas-ice-agents-ambush?ref=thebarbedwire.com) the incident during a July 7 press conference as an “ambush” and an “egregious attack,” the state’s initial allegation of multiple shooters has been changed to one. Assertions of 20-30 rounds fired have dropped to less than a dozen. The defendants’ use of Signal, an encrypted app, has been referenced as evidence of organized crime — yet no details of what was said or planned in those messages have been released. Despite being behind bars for several weeks, none of the defendants have been formally indicted, a requirement for felony cases. Some of the defendants were at one point members of the Elm Fork chapter of the John Brown Gun Club, an anti-fascist group named for the Civil War-era abolitionist, and several were involved in a Dallas-Fort Worth area anarchist book club. Several are also transgender women. The way that Lowrey sees it, the felony murder and terrorism charges against them — including her sister, who has a history of [protest-related arrests](https://www.keranews.org/news/2025-07-11/prairieland-detention-center-alvarado-u-s-immigration-and-customs-enforcement-shooting-alvarado-police-officer-questions?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — is a form of political repression. “When I first got the call that she had been arrested, it wasn't altogether surprising,” Lowrey said. “She does a lot of activism. So none of this surprised me. I assumed it would be another quick in and out, but it now has turned into the biggest ordeal of our lives as they've tried to trump this up into a way bigger and more nefarious sounding thing than it ever was.” ## ‘Violent Extremists’ or Protest Gone Wrong? When news of the Prairieland attack first broke, government press releases and headlines in many outlets painted a harrowing picture. A July 7 [article](https://www.fox4news.com/news/texas-ice-detention-center-attack-alvarado?ref=thebarbedwire.com) from the Dallas area Fox station repeated government officials' description of the event as an “ambush” and “planned attack” on an ICE facility. A July 8 [press release](https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/10-suspects-charged-july-4-attack-texas-ice-detention-facility?ref=thebarbedwire.com) from ICE stated that “nearly a dozen violent assailants equipped with tactical gear and weapons attacked the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Prairieland Detention Facility” — a stark contrast to Patel’s use of the word “individual” on Wednesday to describe the same event. The names and faces of the 11 defendants charged with attempted murder were widely distributed along with descriptions of them as “vandals” and “violent extremists.” Multiple defendants, either in interviews or through their attorneys, have denied any foreknowledge of violence or plans for an ambush. The glaring divide between prosecutors’ and defendants’ accounts make the story particularly difficult to parse. According to court records, a dozen protesters arrived outside the Prairieland Detention Center after nightfall on July 4 and began to set off fireworks around 10:37 p.m. Ten minutes later, two individuals broke off from the group and spray painted “ICE Pig” and “Traitor” on cars and a guard structure. Around 10:56 p.m., ICE officers called local police, and an Alvarado police officer arrived on the scene three minutes later. According to the original criminal complaint, two unidentified people hidden in the nearby woods began to shoot at the Alvarado officer and correctional officers, firing between 20-30 shots of 5.56 ammo, a caliber used in the high-powered AR-15 style rifles found on the scene. However, a revised complaint now says: “Based on updated information learned during the course of this investigation, evidence suggest (sic) one shooter.” Additionally, the complaint was updated with a note that only 11 shell casings were recovered from the scene, “leading investigators to believe the initial 20-30 shell casings to be an inaccurate amount of spent rounds fired.” Both complaints note that an Alvarado police officer was shot twice in the neck and torso, but they do not specify his name or the severity of his injuries — both details that are usually conveyed to the press in the immediate aftermath of an officer-involved shooting. An Alvarado police officer is named in the probable cause affidavit for the case, but whether he is the officer who sustained the injury is unclear. Local news reports state the Alvarado police officer was shot in the neck area, treated, [released](https://www.fox4news.com/news/alvarado-officer-shot-neck-while-responding-suspicious-person-call?ref=thebarbedwire.com) within 24 hours, and is [expected to recover](https://www.yahoo.com/news/details-emerge-prairieland-detention-center-035900322.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). No other individuals were injured during the shooting. Police stopped one car that was driving away from the scene and arrested its driver. Officers also stopped and arrested seven others, including Batten, around 11:10 p.m. as they were walking a couple hundred yards from where the alleged shooting occurred. Nine were arrested as law enforcement made traffic stops and conducted raids to serve search warrants. One defendant, Benjamin Song, was identified as the [owner of multiple guns](https://www.keranews.org/news/2025-07-15/benjamin-song-arrested-fbi-ice-shooting?ref=thebarbedwire.com) found at the scene, and is named in a [press release](https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndtx/pr/fbi-captures-alleged-prairieland-shooter-benjamin-hanil-song-dallas-texas?ref=thebarbedwire.com) from the United States Attorney’s Office as an “alleged shooter.” Song, a former Marine reservist with a history of involvement in anti-fascist activism in North Texas, was arrested on July 15\. Attorneys for two of the defendants have singled out Song as the likely shooter who had a secret agenda, stating that their clients had no intention to participate in violence. Six others arrested in the days and weeks after July 4 are charged with allegedly concealing evidence, helping other defendants evade arrest, or engaging in organized criminal activity: John Thomas, a roommate of Song’s, is accused of smuggling Song from Alvarado to Dallas with the help of Lynette Sharp and Susan Kent. Thomas and Sharp have been charged with accessory after the fact for allegedly helping Song evade arrest. Kent has been charged with engaging in organized criminal activity and hindering the prosecution of terrorism for meeting with Thomas and Sharp at a hotel, according to the criminal complaint. Daniel Rolando Sanchez Estrada is accused of tampering with evidence after moving a box of documents from another defendant’s house that included what is described as “a handwritten training, tactics, and planning document for civil unrest with anti-law enforcement, anti-government, and anti-Trump sentiments” and paired with photos of anarchist publications that can be found for free online such as “[Another Critique of Insurrectionalism,](https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/anonymous-another-critique-of-insurrectionalism?ref=thebarbedwire.com)” “[It’s Vacant, Take It](https://www.sproutdistro.com/catalog/zines/direct-action/its-vacant-take-it/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)” and [“War in the Streets.”](https://itsgoingdown.org/war-streets-tactical-lessons-global-civil-war-2009-16/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Dario Emmanuel Sanchez is accused of tampering with evidence after removing Thomas from Signal group chats; and Rebecca Morgan is accused of hindering prosecution of terrorism. In total, 17 people have been arrested, [including one member of the DFW Support Committee](https://www.keranews.org/news/2025-08-14/17-people-now-charged-and-arrested-in-connection-with-alvarado-ice-facility-shooting?fbclid=IwY2xjawNAH-FleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETFLVHJ2RXY4WTcwQzZReGJ2AR7ViveHlqtz%5FBswGkSTe6Edg3N9ClCdlbOWi3JyG0QB5PFLE6N1i5di1WTkYw%5Faem%5FEfseHRH866jHCYifDk0y1Q&ref=thebarbedwire.com), a group composed of family and friends of the others charged in the shooting, who was arrested weeks after the incident. In public statements and filings, the state suggests it is cracking down on a criminal conspiracy. The DFW Support Committee characterizes it as political repression. "To arrest someone well over a month after the July 4th event signals the state’s dogged attempt to tear through this community," the committee said in [a statement](https://dfwdefendants.wordpress.com/2025/08/13/public-statement-august-13-2025/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) last month. “We denounce this escalation by the state in its desperate attempts to criminalize people showing solidarity with those being kidnapped by ICE and to undermine dissent against rising authoritarianism.” ## ‘They Want to Make an Example’ In the aftermath of Kirk’s death, the Trump administration has also spread misinformation about what it has called a rise in “trans violence.” At the White House on Tuesday, [Press Secretary Karoline Leavett](https://www.instagram.com/dailymail/reel/DO6lwcCjs0c/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) said “it’s worth looking into” and that “anyone who denies that at this point is being willfully ignorant.” Trans people make up [roughly 1% of the American population](https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/publications/trans-adults-united-states/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and have committed [only 0.1% of all mass shootings since 2013](https://www.factcheck.org/2025/09/few-mass-shooters-have-been-transgender/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), according to data from the Gun Violence Archive, an independent organization that tracks gun violence in the U.S. Over that same period, men committed over 95% of those shootings, and over 54% of the perpetrators were white. Several of the defendants in the July 4 Prairieland attack were transgender women who initially united around trans and queer identity issues, as [*The Washington Post*](https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2025/08/17/alvarado-shooting-transgender-antifascist-immigration/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) reported. The trans defendants’ dead names — names they were given at birth but do not use after transition — were entered into the court records. Forty-one-year-old Meagan Morris told [KERA News](https://www.keranews.org/criminal-justice/2025-09-10/protest-or-ambush-woman-arrested-in-alvarado-ice-facility-shooting-says-it-started-peacefully?ref=thebarbedwire.com) she parked half a mile away from Prairieland that night to attend the noise demonstration and, while waiting on the people who’d rode with her, played her Nintendo Switch. She hadn’t even gotten out of the car when she heard a gunshot, she told the NPR affiliate. “I don't know what happened,” Morris [said](https://www.keranews.org/criminal-justice/2025-09-10/protest-or-ambush-woman-arrested-in-alvarado-ice-facility-shooting-says-it-started-peacefully?ref=thebarbedwire.com) from the Johnson County Jail. “We sure did not plan for any sort of violence or anything to go wrong like that.” As a trans woman living in Texas, Morris told the [*Post*](https://archive.is/tR1M3?ref=thebarbedwire.com#selection-1371.0-1371.147), “I feel like there is a target on my back whenever I’m out in public,” which motivated her to dedicate herself to activism. That said, she added, “I have a home, dogs, and a found family I love more than breathing. I would never agree to something so outrageous that would put them in danger.” She’s being held in a segregated room in the jail’s men’s facility, according to the newspaper. Morris was the driver whose car police stopped near the scene. Police found a pistol, an AR-15 style rifle, and a handheld radio in her car, according to court records. Along with ten others, she faces state charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon on a peace officer and terrorism, along with federal charges of discharging a firearm during a violent crime and attempted murder of a police officer. In [court documents, prosecutors claim](https://www.keranews.org/news/2025-07-11/prairieland-detention-center-alvarado-u-s-immigration-and-customs-enforcement-shooting-alvarado-police-officer-questions?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that Morris’ home in Oak Cliff was the staging location for the alleged ambush. The charges against her — despite her distance from where the shooting occurred — indicate the government may pursue a conspiracy case against the defendants. “The original intent was just to show solidarity with the detainees who hopefully lift their spirits with a fun fireworks display and go home,” she told KERA. “If the officer got shot by someone, that person was acting alone. But they want to punish all of us.” Supporters of the defendants describe the charges — and the[ treatment](https://www.keranews.org/criminal-justice/2025-09-10/protest-or-ambush-woman-arrested-in-alvarado-ice-facility-shooting-says-it-started-peacefully?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of some defendants in state custody in Johnson County, including the [failure to conduct checks every 30 minutes](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EPA%5F9ITt%5Ff1EFV4o4MwvWb%5F2CrNRxFWN/view?usp=sharing&ref=thebarbedwire.com) on a defendant on suicide watch and holding trans women in men’s jail facilities — as a case of political persecution. “In the first couple weeks, they weren't doing strip searches,” Lowrey said. “Then all of a sudden they started doing strip searches. They're just trying to break everyone. There's no reason for this. Savannah has been in solitary in a medical cell for over two months with no access to other human beings, no possible way for her to ever have any sort of contraband.” When asked if she believes her sister is being targeted for her beliefs, Lowrey did not equivocate. “Absolutely,” Lowry said. “They want to make an example of them. They want people to look at them and see that this is what happens when you speak up and when you show dissent.” *Correction:* The Barbed Wire *first reported that Savannah Batten*’s *hermit crabs were dead. In fact, they were left for dead — but survived after burrowing into the sand. The story has been updated to reflect the change.* The Barbed Wire *regrets the error.* ### This Weekend in Texas Football: Cowboy Tears, a Camp Mystic Tribute & a Texas Tech Victory URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/cowboys-loss-simone-biles-fit-ceedee-lamb/ Last updated: 2025-09-22T12:49:22.000Z Well, it turns out that even the great Brandon Aubrey couldn’t kick his way out of a slightly cringe-y weekend for Texas football. Welcome back to [*The Barbed Wire* does football](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/cowboys-brandon-aubrey-arch-manning-aggies/), in which our team of completely unqualified-to-write-about sports writers recap the highlights (and lowlights, and baby lights) of Texas teams. After the thrill of last weekend, this weekend left us feeling whelmed. However, we did learn that the Cowboys will need more than a beatified Aubrey to get to the Super Bowl, Texas Tech is standing on business, and [Arch Manning has big feelings](https://sports.yahoo.com/college-football/breaking-news/article/arch-manning-stands-over-sam-houston-defender-after-first-quarter-td-run-against-the-bearkats-010022288.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), too. Let’s get into it. **We See You Texas Tech** Well, well, well, if it isn’t money buying results. Kidding. But Texas Tech did prove everyone at College Game Day wrong by stomping Utah on Saturday. > [](https://twitter.com/texastechfb/status/1969487437354451390?s=46&t=4XqvZ3hakcjav1mmxlza-w&ref=thebarbedwire.com) Backup quarterback Will Hammond threw for 169 yards ([which we’re told is impressive](https://www.dallasnews.com/sports/tcu-horned-frogs/2025/09/22/best-in-texas-college-football-rankings-texas-tech-texas-texas-am/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)) and two touchdowns after Behren Morton was injured. The Red Raiders won 34-10 and took the No. 12 position in the [Associated Press Top 25 college football poll](https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The Red Raiders also silenced some haters who’ve side-eyed the team for using NIL opportunities and the transfer portal to buy a better chance at Big 12 dominance (they’ve never won a title in the conference, so we hear). But as the poet laureates of our time have said, don’t hate the player, hate the game. “There’s a lot of things said about our team and a lot of things written about the cost of the roster and this and that. I would challenge anybody to have a closer locker room, guys that care more about wearing the Double-T than care about themselves, and that shows up in tight games,” coach Joey McGuire said after the game, according to the [Associated Press](https://apnews.com/article/ap-top-25-college-football-eee6f51ab5ca44c4c5678f889f93401e?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Translation? A winning team is great for camaraderie, no matter how you get there. **A Touching Camp Mystic Tribute** TCU and SMU honored 9-year-old Lila Bonner, [who died in the July 4 floods at Camp Mystic](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/camp-mystic-campers-grieve-magical-place-100-years-flood-texas-guadalupe/), at the start of their rivalry game Saturday. The [*Dallas Morning News*](https://www.dallasnews.com/sports/tcu-horned-frogs/2025/09/20/tcu-smu-lila-bonner-tribute-camp-mystic-central-texas-flooding/?sailthru%5Fid=6268115f4f757f64badddc05&utm%5Fsource=Sailthru&utm%5Fmedium=email&utm%5Fcampaign=weekend%5Froundup%5F09212025&utm%5Fterm=NR%20-%20Newsletter%20-%20Weekend%20Roundup)reported that the Bonner family took the field ahead of the opening kickoff. One of Lila’s sisters, wore a TCU jersey with Lila’s name and the No. 9, the paper reported. The Bonner house is divided — dad is a TCU alum; mom an alum of SMU — and according to the schools’ social media accounts, Lila rooted for both teams. > [](https://twitter.com/TCUFootball/status/1968751887915626790?ref=thebarbedwire.com) What may be the [final Battle for the Iron Skillet](https://www.dallasnews.com/sports/tcu-horned-frogs/2025/09/17/smu-tcu-iron-skillet-mustangs-horned-frogs-sonny-dykes/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) battle resulted in a win for TCU. The Horned Frogs rallied at the end of the fourth quarter to overtake a brief lead held by the Ponies, er, we mean Mustangs. That’s right: [SMU leadership decided the ‘Pony Up’](https://www.dallasnews.com/sports/smu-mustangs/2025/09/16/smu-is-phasing-out-its-pony-up-catchphrase-and-leadership-is-surprised-by-the-reaction/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) marketing slogan that became a beloved catch phrase has ‘died a natural death,’ angering fans who actually prefer brand synergies with Ginuwine. **Insult to CeeDee Lamb’s Injury in the NFL** The Dallas Cowboys had an embarrassing 14-31 loss to the Chicago Bears. Adding insult to literal injury, wide receiver [CeeDee Lamb rolled an ankle](https://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/breaking-news/article/cowboys-star-wr-ceedee-lamb-ruled-out-of-blowout-loss-to-bears-early-with-ankle-injury-220947069.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and hobbled off the field in the first quarter. His attempt to return in the second quarter did not go well and he left the game early — which is really not great since the Cowboys are set to play against the Green Bay Packers and former Cowboy’s beloved linebacker [Micah Parsons](https://bleacherreport.com/articles/25251378-cowboys-jerry-jones-open-trading-draft-picks-micah-parsons-deal-help-team?ref=thebarbedwire.com). > [](https://twitter.com/DarthWakko%5FTHF/status/1969866687114596470?ref=thebarbedwire.com) For the unfamiliar, Parson’s was shipped to Green Bay less than two weeks before the start of the regular season and not because he wanted to, he wanted to stay in Dallas. Parson’s asked daddy Warbucks, err Jones, for a hefty payday like [Dak](https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/%5F/id/41176649/sources-dak-prescott-cowboys-agree-record-240m-deal?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [Ceedee](https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/%5F/id/41003743/sources-cowboys-ceedee-lamb-agrees-four-year-136m-deal?ref=thebarbedwire.com), but it appears [negotiations got messy](https://www.espn.com.au/nfl/story/%5F/id/46043382/jerry-jones-cowboys-offer-parsons-was-richest-non-qb?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and in the end, Jerry didn’t want to pay up. (Although some say it’s just Jerry being Petty Jerry.) https://www.tiktok.com/@theshotclockshow/video/7544810052981378335 As we count down the days to Sunday night’s game in [Dallas against the Packers](https://www.si.com/nfl/cowboys/news/dallas-cowboys-open-major-underdogs-green-bay-packers-nfl-week-4?ref=thebarbedwire.com), it remains to be seen if Jones was right about the trade which he said, “[was a move to get us successful in the playoffs,](https://www.dallascowboys.com/news/jerry-jones-explains-why-cowboys-traded-micah?ref=thebarbedwire.com)” and “to be better on defense, stopping the run.” Which, if we look at what happened in Chicago Sunday, well, you can be the judge, but Sports Illustrated already says the Cowboys are the underdogs going in. **What the WAGs Wore**: The Cowboys vs. Bears game did give us one treat. Here at *The Barbed Wire*, we’re as concerned with fashion plays as play calls. Call it the Swift effect, but wives and girlfriends are under as much pressure for their fits as a QB on his back foot in the pocket. And we appreciate the hustle. Biles showed us on her Insta story that her bedazzled accessories have range. On Sunday, she paired a pleated denim mini with matching button down and cream leather boots with golden Owens down the side. > [](https://twitter.com/whosaid%5Fwhat4/status/1969983621479154104?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Maybe more impressive is how she’s made the most of stadiums’ clear bag policies — covering a vinyl tophandle with a golden Biles, Olympic rings, and a silver goat. The GOAT indeed. Meanwhile, the Cavinder twins (Haley, fiancee to Cowboys tight end Jake Ferguson, and Hanna, who dated Miami Hurricanes quarterback Carson Beck) took an enviable looking boat ride in Chicago. Haley, apparent Abercrombie & Fitch promo partner at least that’s what we think she said, we must be missing something with this pronunciation), wore a custom hockey jersey with Ferguson’s number on the back. https://www.instagram.com/p/DO3pXh2jbu\_/?hl=en You know what else impresses us? Subtlety. Loreal Sarkisian, wife of Longhorn’s coach Steve Sarkisian, did UT pride without word art. Her head-to-toe Chloe bubble-hem look did the communicating for her, as did her Chanel bag that’s just close enough to burnt orange. https://www.instagram.com/p/DO35JV1kTXe/?hl=en ### She Survived 141 Days in ICE Custody Thanks to a ‘Beautiful Sisterhood.’ Now She’s Fighting for Those Still Inside. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/ward-sakeik-ice-custody-beautiful-sisterh/ Last updated: 2025-09-22T05:01:00.000Z On the evening of Feb. 11, 22-year-old Ward Sakeik sat on a plane from the U.S. Virgin Islands to Miami. She and her husband, Taahir Shaikh, were returning from their honeymoon, but he was sitting a few rows away. She didn’t look back at him — her handlers told her that even smiling at him could be considered a crime. Sakeik, a wedding photographer who’s lived in Texas since the age of 9, hadn’t slept for two days. She’d spent nearly 36 hours confined to a small intake room at the Cyril E. King Airport in St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Tired, she kept her eyes on the book she’d brought on board. It was about marriage and relationships. Behind her, a woman made small talk. “You look like you’re so sleepy,” Sakeik remembered the woman saying before offering her a pillow. “Here, borrow this.” The woman — along with almost every other passenger on the plane — was unaware that Sakeik and three others were in ICE custody. Sakeik had been on her honeymoon one day and detained the next. After arriving in Miami, Sakeik and her fellow detainees were ushered to the back of the plane to deboard. Sakeik was searched and handcuffed while her new husband, a U.S. citizen who was not detained, was free to go back to their new home alone. “I was just so filled with anger, it’s like human trafficking,” Sakeik later told *The Barbed Wire*. “Everything happened behind the airport, under the airport, on the side of the airport, I felt like I was being trafficked.” Sakeik spent the next 141 days in ICE detention. Her release in July made [national](https://time.com/7302384/ward-sakeik-ice-detention-honeymoon-taahir-shaikh/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [international headlines](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/02/stateless-palestinian-woman-deportation-ward-sakeik?ref=thebarbedwire.com) as a dragnet of [immigration crackdowns](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-cops-ice-license-plate-searches/) has caught immigrants on legal paths to citizenship alongside those with criminal histories who were the supposed targets. As a Palestinian woman born in Saudi Arabia — a country with no birthright citizenship — she is stateless. Last week, [Israel launched ground invasions](https://www.reuters.com/world/israel-hamas/gaza-live-israeli-military-begins-operation-occupy-gaza-city-2025-09-16/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on Gaza City as a [United Nations inquiry](https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/un-inquiry-finds-top-israeli-officials-incited-genocide-gaza-2025-09-16/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) found Israel has committed [genocide in Palestinian territories](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/children-doctor-left-his-heart-in-gaza-palestine/). Sakeik has nowhere to be deported to — though that didn’t stop the Trump administration from trying. In addition to her husband and legal team, Sakeik said a sisterhood she formed while detained with other women helped her to survive the trauma of her experience in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody. Now, she is using her platform to bring attention to the plight of women in detention, including the case of 32-year-old Palestinian [Leqaa Kordia](https://www.keranews.org/immigration/2025-03-18/palestinian-leqaa-kordia-arrested-ice-north-texas?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the second [Columbia University](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3rnzp4ye5zo?ref=thebarbedwire.com) protester arrested this spring, who has since been dubbed [“the forgotten prisoner”](https://mondoweiss.net/2025/06/leqaa-kordia-the-forgotten-prisoner/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) while sitting in ICE detention for nearly six months. *The Barbed Wire* spent several days with Sakeik. The following is reconstructed from her memory, as well as interviews with her husband, Shaikh, and her lawyers. Sakeik spoke in-depth about her time in detention to shed light on some of [ICE’s increasingly scrutinized](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/09/16/outh-korea-hyundai-lg-ice/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [and legally dubious](https://www.vox.com/scotus/417612/supreme-court-bivens-ice-law-enforcement-donald-trump?ref=thebarbedwire.com) practices, which she described as stripping her of her humanity. “Being detained was one of the hardest, most difficult challenges that I’ve had to face in my entire life. Physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually challenging,” Sakeik said. “I wouldn’t wish this upon anybody, not even my worst enemy.” In a statement, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said “any claim that there is a lack of food or subprime conditions at ICE detention centers are false.” The statement continued: “Meals are certified by dieticians. Ensuring the safety, security, and well-being of individuals in our custody is a top priority at ICE. Why does the media continue to fall for the sob stories of illegal aliens in detention and villainize ICE law enforcement?” ## ‘There’s No Place Else That Ward Can Call Home’ The United States once seemed to Sakeik like a break from conservative Saudi Arabia, where she spent the first few years of her life before her family moved to Texas seeking asylum in 2010\. Her parents’ asylum request was denied, but the family was granted an order of supervision, which allows noncitizens awaiting deportation or other immigration proceedings to stay in the U.S. without being held in detention. Their order required annual check-ins, among other conditions. In Garland, Sakeik, who is Muslim, had “the most beautiful, craziest childhood,” with her tight-knit Middle Eastern family. As a middle child, Sakeik said she “wanted to do everything that my older sister did.” “I wanted to breathe the same air she was breathing.” Sakeik was a model student. She took an interest in photography in the 9th grade, when a teacher, who she affectionately called Mamma Donna, handed her a camera. She stayed late to use a school laptop to learn Photoshop and attended football practice and games, taking action shots she’d sell to the players and their parents for $1. Sakeik graduated early from University of Texas at Arlington in 2023, with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a minor in Arabic, to build her photography business. All the while, her annual check-ins with ICE had become routine: She went to the same ICE processing center every year for 13 years. ICE officers there remembered her. One even congratulated her on graduating from college. Sakeik met Shaikh briefly in college. He later hired her to take professional head shots for his job at Fidelity Investments. “Headshot sessions take me like, max, 25 minutes. This took two hours,” Sakeik said. They got engaged in September 2024, then wed in Dallas in January in front of more than 300 guests. The happy couple beamed at each other, hands interlocked underneath twinkle lights as their families looked on. ![Ward Sakeik on her honeymoon in St. Thomas. (Handout)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/ward1.webp) Ward Sakeik on her honeymoon in St. Thomas. (Handout) They chose the U.S. Virgin Islands for their honeymoon destination. Sakeik said she picked it because of the gorgeous turquoise views. But it also kept her in line with one of the conditions of her order of supervision — she must remain in a U.S. territory. In a photo taken in St. Thomas, Sakeik smiles, relaxed, on the edge of a pier in a white silk dress. After nine days of watching glorious sunsets over the water, Sakeik and Shaikh packed and headed out from their hotel, back home. But when they arrived at the St. Thomas airport, Sakeik was flagged by a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agent who asked if she was a U.S. citizen. Sakeik tried to explain that she had an order of supervision that allowed her to legally stay in the country, and had been in compliance with ICE for years. She said she showed him notice of her next reporting date with ICE as proof. It didn’t seem to matter. When she asked why she was detained, Sakeik said the agent told her it was because she’s not a U.S. citizen. Photos of Sakeik’s life — her graduation, wedding, and honeymoon — were soon splashed [across](https://www.newsweek.com/ward-sakeik-detained-ice-honeymoon-2088505?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [news sites](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14831711/Newlyweds-Texas-detained-ICE-honeymoon-Virgin-Islands.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) the world over, as her husband pleaded for her release. ![Ward Sakeik and her husband, Taahir Shaikh. The couple wed in January 2025. (Handout)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/ward2.jpg) Ward Sakeik and her husband, Taahir Shaikh. The couple wed in January 2025\. (Handout) During her detainment, Sakeik was shuttled between three facilities, each of which she said suffered from overcrowding and hygiene issues. In some, there were cockroaches, ants, grasshoppers, and spiders, which bit the women, Sakeik [said](https://abcnews.go.com/US/newlywed-released-ice-detention-lost-5-months-life/story?id=123455920&ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=Sakeik%20said%20the%20conditions%20of,Girls%20will%20get%20bit.) after she was released. Sakeik’s legal team argued that the U.S. government did not have the right to deport her due to protections offered to Palestinians under a deferred enforced departure memorandum [enacted by the Biden administration](https://bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2024/02/14/memorandum-on-the-deferred-enforced-departure-for-certain-palestinians/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Because of the Israeli response to the Oct. 7, 2023 attack carried out by Hamas, the Biden administration determined that civilians were in danger in Gaza and deferred the removal of Palestinians in the United States until Aug. 13 of this year. Yet, the Department of Homeland Security [said](https://www.fox4news.com/news/stateless-palestinian-woman-released-after-months-ice-detention?ref=thebarbedwire.com) they had the authority to detain her. “Ward Sakeik chose to fly over international waters outside the U.S. customs zone and was then flagged by CBP trying to renter (sic) the continental U.S.,” McLaughlin, the assistant secretary, said in a statement. Sakeik’s lawyers disagreed. Maria Kari, an attorney on Sakeik’s legal team, emphasized that her client had a right to travel to U.S. territory. “We all have these documents that we take for granted that allow us to get on flights and see the world, but this is something that Sakeik has never had,” Kari added. “There is no country that claims her to be a citizen of that country. There is no place else that Sakeik can call home.” ## ‘This Is Just the Beginning’ By the time the van reached what seemed to be an old pink adobe hotel, Sakeik was indignant. Only later did she learn she was at the Broward Transitional Center in Pompano Beach, Florida. The staff, Sakeik said, were disrespectful — “they literally bullied us.” The food was disgusting. “I wouldn’t even feed it to dogs,” she said. And it was freezing cold. “I started getting extreme depression. I couldn't walk, I couldn't talk, I felt paralyzed,” Sakeik said. “I would cry the entire time. I started having panic attacks.” By her third week in Broward, Sakeik said she realized she needed to get into a routine. She started working out with old dance DVDs. And she made friends: She bonded with a woman from Slovakia and two Muslim women in her dorm. Meanwhile, Sakeik and her legal team filed a green card application, and a writ of habeas corpus in federal district court. They argued she was being wrongfully detained, in violation of the Biden administration’s deferred enforcement memo. As her lawyers continued to work on her case back in Texas, Sakeik began making preparations for Ramadan, a sacred time for Muslims that typically involves fasting, communal prayer, and reflection. She said she got the OK from officers and the art department to hang lanterns and a banner she made that read, “Ramadan Kareem.” Later, she was instructed to take it all down. “I'm celebrating the holiday that's supposed to be the closest with families alone in a place that I don't know, I don't have family around me, and you took down my decorations,” Sakeik said. “I started crying, but I didn't let it get to me.” Instead, she decided to host a dinner. Sakeik used commissary funds for ingredients, and with help from a friend from Taiwan, she made sushi from crushed Doritos, tortillas, and uncooked Maruchan noodles. That same night, Sakeik said she was told to pack her bags. “Baby, you are going back home! You're going to Dallas,’” Sakeik remembered an officer telling her. She left her shampoo and conditioner along with her remaining food as a parting gift to her roommates. But as she waited with a handful of other women downstairs, a friend turned to her: “I don’t think we’re going home. We’re being transferred. This is just the beginning.” ## ‘Just Like Human Trafficking’ Sakeik and her friend spent two days in handcuffs as they were transferred to Texas, first to a facility in Harlingen, then El Valle Detention Center outside of McAllen. The facility was packed, Sakeik said, and covered in dust. Every day, more women were shuffled in, processed, and then taken away, “literally, just like human trafficking.” By the time she left, Sakeik said there were 100 detained women in each of the three women’s dorms. There was no privacy, even in bathrooms where they showered six at a time. She faced a greater language barrier at El Valle since many detainees only spoke Spanish. Still, she managed to make friends. She got close with another Muslim woman. They cooked together, ate together, prayed together. “It's very normal to bond off of trauma. So a lot of friendships are being made in there,” Sakeik said. “You have to now make family there, because God knows how long it's gonna take for you to see your actual family.” On June 11, Sakeik was told she was being transferred, though not where. “I didn't even pack my stuff. I was too busy saying goodbye to all the girls,” she said. Her newfound friends cried, cheered her on, and helped her gather her things: “It was a beautiful sisterhood.” She was put in a van and taken to Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, where other women told her they’d already spent four days in an overcrowded intake room. Later, she was shuffled to another room, where Sakeik said she slept on the ground. The next day, Sakeik said ICE agents wrote numbers on their wrists — she was #4 — then boarded them onto a bus to Alliance Airport in Fort Worth. When Sakeik saw that the Palestinian woman next to her had a #3 on her wrist, she said she knew she was being deported. She had only $45\. She turned to the woman and said, “‘Can I please stay with you until my husband comes? Please?’ She's like, ‘Absolutely. We have enough to buy a shawarma and to make a phone call.’” However, with no explanation, Sakeik and the Palestinians on the bus were brought back to Prairieland. She later heard that Israel’s airspace may have been closed following their bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities. Back at Prairieland, Sakeik met 32-year-old [Leqaa Kordia](https://www.keranews.org/immigration/2025-03-18/palestinian-leqaa-kordia-arrested-ice-north-texas?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Like [Mahmoud Khalil](https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/columbia-gaza-leqaa-kordia-arrest.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Kordia was arrested after protesting at Columbia University over the war in Gaza last year. Prosecutors later dropped the charges against Kordia, who wasn’t a student at the school. Then, after President Donald Trump came into office threatening to deport protesters who are foreign students, Kordia was arrested in March in New Jersey. The Department of Homeland Security said she’d overstayed an expired student visa; [her lawyers said](https://www.keranews.org/immigration/2025-06-27/palestinian-leqaa-kordia-immigration-detention-columbia-university-protests-student-visa?ref=thebarbedwire.com) she's been detained for her pro-Palestinian activism. Just a week earlier, Kordia had been confined to her cell while a federal court hearing in her case went on without her. Both cases had made national news. “I saw you on TV!” Kordia later said to Ward when the pair first met. Ward said she could tell that Kordia — wrapped in a sweater — was sick. The fact that she was still so friendly was endearing to Sakeik. The pair became fast friends. They talked about growing up in Middle Eastern households, their favorite dresses, “girl talk, all that good stuff.” For Sakeik, Prairieland was both the closest to — and furthest from — home. After the failed effort in mid-June, ICE attempted to deport Sakeik again on June 30. By then, her lawyers had filed an emergency motion to keep her in the country, as well as another habeas petition in federal court for the Northern District of Texas. They asserted that the government had violated Sakeik’s due process by trying to deport her while deferred enforcement for Palestinians was still in effect. A judge in the case granted a temporary restraining order prohibiting her from being deported. Sakeik’s husband and lawyers said that, despite the order, they had to argue with Prairieland staff over the phone to stop them from moving her again. “Two days later, I was released,” Sakeik said. She later found out she had been, once again, only a hair’s breadth away from being deported. ## ‘They’re Mothers, Daughters, Sisters, Grandmothers’ Sakeik and her lawyers spoke at a press conference from the Wyndham Hotel in Irving on July 3 — fewer than 36 hours after she was finally released. The hotel was familiar; she’d done photoshoots at its wedding venue. The specifics of Sakeik’s legal status are complex. She had a final order of deportation stemming from her parents’ asylum application years ago — which DHS said was part of the reason she was detained. However, her lawyer, Maria Kari, said that the final order was issued when she was a child, and that it doesn’t mean immediate deportation. “You won’t be removed if there’s no place that accepts you, and there is no place that accepts Ward and her family,” Kari told *The Barbed Wire*. “They are stateless.” ![Ward Sakeik and her attorney, Maria Kari, speak at a press conference at the Wyndham Hotel in Irving, Texas on July 3, 2025.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/press-conference-3.jpg) Ward Sakeik and her attorney, Maria Kari, speak at a press conference at the Wyndham Hotel in Irving, Texas on July 3, 2025. Additionally, Kari said Sakeik has never had a credible fear interview — part of the asylum process allowing applicants to explain why they fear persecution or torture were they to be deported. Sakeik said she fears, in part, that no country will take her. DHS said that “following her American husband and her filing the appropriate legal applications for her to remain in the country and become a legal permanent resident, she was released from ICE custody." Kari countered — “we don’t accept that statement, what they did was unlawful” — noting that Sakeik got preliminary approval on her green card application days before DHS tried to deport her for the second time. Still, she should be protected as her green card application process plays out, Kari said. At the press conference, Sakeik summed up her case a different way: “I was criminalized for being stateless,” she said. “I didn't choose to be stateless.” Then she pivoted to her sisters — the women she met in detention, and who she is now focusing her efforts on supporting. “I want to share with you the honor of those who I left behind,” Sakeik told reporters. “Women who come here for better lives are voiceless and helpless. A lot of these women don't have the money for lawyers or media outreach. They come here to provide for their families.” “They're mothers, daughters, sisters, grandmothers,” she continued. “They're superheroes. There are humans, and their lives hold value, and I will continue to fight with them.” Sakeik’s return home was accomplished through the proper legal channels, but her wellbeing was only ensured by her friendships with the women who kept her company during detention. These women, from backgrounds both similar and wildly different from Sakeik’s, provided her a network of support. “We bonded over trauma, over this thing we share,” Sakeik said. When Sakeik was detained, her husband and attorneys started a social media page and a petition to present to their local congresswoman, which grew to [more than 4,000 signatures](https://www.change.org/p/demand-justice-for-ward-sakeik-urge-rep-jasmine-crockett-to-speak-out?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Shaikh also gathered testimonials from Sakeik’s mosque, professors, friends, teachers — anyone they could think of. Imam Omar Suleiman, the founding president of the Yagqeen Institute for Islamic Research, also [shared ](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DLLEeCLMh0k/?igsh=b3VodXJ1cGJnbGc%3D&ref=thebarbedwire.com)Sakeik’s [story](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DLLEeCLMh0k/?igsh=b3VodXJ1cGJnbGc%3D&ref=thebarbedwire.com) to millions. Since her release, Sakeik has paid that work forward. She has become an outspoken critic of Trump’s immigration policies, namely relating to the broad criminalization of immigrants across ethnicities and backgrounds. But she’s also become an outspoken advocate for Leqaa Kordia, whom she calls her best friend, and whose case has been platformed by organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center and the [Texas Civil Rights Project](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/immigration/2025/06/05/palestinian-womans-attorney-argues-for-her-release-from-north-texas-immigration-detention/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). In May, Kordia’s legal team [told reporters](https://www.thecity.nyc/2025/05/07/leqaa-kordia-jessica-tisch-homeland-security-investigations/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that she hadn’t had access to halal meals, which meant she had lost nearly 50 pounds since her arrest in mid-March. In June, Korida’s attorneys filed a petition to the court citing the “miserable conditions” in the Prairieland detention center, which was so crowded upon her arrival that she slept on the floor and developed “a severe rash,” reported [*The Dallas Morning News*](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/immigration/2025/06/05/palestinian-womans-attorney-argues-for-her-release-from-north-texas-immigration-detention/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Kordia’s attorneys have said the lack of hygiene at Prairieland “makes her feel unworthy of God,” the newspaper reported. That same month, U.S. Magistrate Judge Rebecca Rutherford [issued an opinion](https://www.keranews.org/immigration/2025-06-27/palestinian-leqaa-kordia-immigration-detention-columbia-university-protests-student-visa?ref=thebarbedwire.com) recommending that Korida be released from federal custody. ![Ward Sakeik, a stateless Palestinian who was held in ICE detention for more than 140 days, organized a letter writing event in late August at a coffee shop in Irving, Texas. Nearly 100 supporters attended and wrote letters of support to Leqaa Kordia, a Palestinian woman from New Jersey who has been in detention since March. Sakeik and Kordia met at Prairieland Detention Center. (Photo by Sam Judy / The Barbed Wire)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/dsc04522.jpg) ![Ward Sakeik, a stateless Palestinian who was held in ICE detention for more than 140 days, organized a letter writing event in late August at a coffee shop in Irving, Texas. Nearly 100 supporters attended and wrote letters of support to Leqaa Kordia, a Palestinian woman from New Jersey who has been in detention since March. Sakeik and Kordia met at Prairieland Detention Center. (Photo by Sam Judy / The Barbed Wire)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/dsc04776.jpg) ![Ward Sakeik, a stateless Palestinian who was held in ICE detention for more than 140 days, organized a letter writing event in late August at a coffee shop in Irving, Texas. Nearly 100 supporters attended and wrote letters of support to Leqaa Kordia, a Palestinian woman from New Jersey who has been in detention since March. Sakeik and Kordia met at Prairieland Detention Center. (Photo by Sam Judy / The Barbed Wire)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/dsc04525.jpg) Still, as summer turns to fall, Kordia remains in detention. In late August, Sakeik held a letter-writing event on Kordia’s behalf, which drew almost 100 supporters to a coffee shop in Irving. “Inside, you hold onto the smallest things that can give you hope,” Sakeik said in a video posted on Instagram two weeks ago, urging others to send messages of support to Kordia. With no phones inside, letters matter more than ever, Sakeik explained. “To know that you have voices behind you” can make all the difference in the world, she continued. “People assuring her that they care for her and she’s not alone — and that she will never be alone. There’s people behind her.” ### If You Don’t Already Know Heman Sweatt’s Name, It’s Time to Learn It URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/sweatt-v-painter-75th-anniversary-desegregation/ Last updated: 2025-09-19T05:01:00.000Z This fall semester is my first time teaching college history. Incidentally, it also marks the 75th anniversary of the first time Black students were admitted into formerly segregated colleges and universities in this nation. As a Black adjunct professor, one of my goals is to teach younger generations how long ago events impact the lives of real people. These aren’t just abstract narratives from our textbooks. Last week, for example, we studied the Reconstruction era and its bittersweet advances. To make this history personal, I asked my students to think of an ancestor, if known, and trace that person’s life through each passing decade. It has become a remarkable exercise in demonstrating how laws and policies shape not only society, but also people. Our people. Weeks ago, when the editors at *The Barbed Wire* asked me to write a piece about the landmark [*Sweatt v. Painter*](https://utincontext.la.utexas.edu/sweatt-v-painter-gallery-and-entry/sweatt-v-painter-gallery-and-entry/sweatt-v-painter/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) U.S. Supreme Court ruling — which in 1950 held that the University of Texas Law School must enroll Heman M. Sweatt and other Black students for the first time, paving the way for the end of lawful segregation at all levels four years later — I didn’t realize how personal it would get. Despite regularly showing my students how profoundly historical events have shaped our lives, I worried this pivotal point in American history would be a challenge to do justice precisely because of its impact and complexity. Then I started the research. I began the way I always do — by combing through as many books and articles as I could find. While reading“Before Brown: Heman Marion Sweatt, Thurgood Marshall, and the Long Road to Justice,” [by Gary Lavergne](https://utpress.utexas.edu/9780292742956/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), one line caught my attention: “To ensure local input, William J. Durham, a Black attorney from Sherman, was retained as Texas’s resident counsel.” The name was instantly familiar. I had grown up hearing about Durham because of the [1930 lynching of George Hughes](https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/sherman-riot-of-1930?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that took place in my North Texas hometown, Sherman. I knew this story intimately, having been for years surrounded by descendants of George Hughes, the Black man whose lynching scarred my tiny town and shaped the trajectory of men like Durham. I had always assumed Durham’s work was confined to local lawsuits that plagued Grayson County afterwards, but here he was, his name mentioned beside the likes of giants like Thurgood Marshall and Heman Sweatt and their legal fight that was carried to the U.S. Supreme Court. Durham was a leading Black Texan civil rights lawyer who, with Marshall and James M. Nabrit Jr. and the Legal Defense Fund of the NAACP, waged a long and arduous legal battle to change the course of history. As an historian, I already knew that *Sweatt v. Painter* was not just a victory for Black Texans — it was the first step towards desegregating America. Excited about this connection, I called my cousin Kenji, whose paternal family descends from Durham, to share what I had just found. It was a Friday night in Texas, so of course he was at a high school football game and promised to call me later. The next day, we spoke at length about his great grandfather William’s legacy — and for the first time, I began to see just how interconnected these stories are. “We all grew up knowing my great grandfather, William Durham, played an important role in Texas civil rights history, but I don’t think most people today, even my family, really understands the weight of what he and Heman Sweatt carried,” Kenji Griffin Walton, my cousin and Durham’s great-grandson, told *The Barbed Wire* in a phone interview. ## The Weight of What They Carried As a young boy, Heman Marian Sweat — known to family and friends as “Bill” — was surrounded by heroes in the Civil Rights movement. Born in December 1912, he idolized his father, James Leonard Sweatt, who was [a founding member of the Houston Chapter](https://utincontext.la.utexas.edu/sweatt-v-painter-gallery-and-entry/sweatt-v-painter-gallery-and-entry/sweatt-v-painter/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of the National Advancement for the Association Colored People. Bill grew up watching him hold strategy sessions in his living room. According to the [University of Texas](https://utincontext.la.utexas.edu/sweatt-v-painter-gallery-and-entry/sweatt-v-painter-gallery-and-entry/sweatt-v-painter/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Bill’s barber was Richard Grovey from [*Grovey v. Townsend*](https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/295/45/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and his dentist was Lonnie E. Smith from [*Smith v. Allwright*](https://www.naacpldf.org/case-issue/landmark-smith-v-allwright/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — both U.S. Supreme Court cases helped end all-white voting primaries in Texas. The Sweatt family’s neighborhood was also integrated, which was unusual for the time period in Houston, and Bill has said his father stressed that each of his kids would be educated academically. But he also taught them history at home: Bill considered his father a historian. Bill swiftly followed in his parents’ footsteps. He graduated [from Wiley College](https://utincontext.la.utexas.edu/sweatt-v-painter-gallery-and-entry/sweatt-v-painter-gallery-and-entry/sweatt-v-painter/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [in 1934](https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/sweatt-heman-marion?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and became an educator in Cleburne, where he taught and then served as the grade school’s acting principal in 1936\. He entered medical school and [matriculated in biology](https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/sweatt-heman-marion?ref=thebarbedwire.com) at the University of Michigan in 1937. After his second semester, Bill left Ann Arbor and returned to Houston, where he married his high school sweetheart, Constantine Mitchell, in 1940\. In his late twenties and early thirties, Bill was friends with legendary civil rights activists like [Lulu B. White](https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/white-lulu-belle-madison?ref=thebarbedwire.com), who was president of Houston’s local chapter of the NAACP. The pair worked together during voter-registration drives in the early 1940s and raised funds for impending lawsuits their organization would help fund for members. He also sometimes wrote columns for the Black newspaper, the [*Houston Informer*](https://utincontext.la.utexas.edu/sweatt-v-painter-gallery-and-entry/sweatt-v-painter-gallery-and-entry/sweatt-v-painter/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Around this time, Bill became a postal worker and continued challenging discriminatory practices as he stepped into the role of secretary of the National Alliance of Postal Employees. An attorney helped document that discrimination, and the process piqued Bill’s interest in the law. According to the [Texas State Historical Association](https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/sweatt-heman-marion?ref=thebarbedwire.com), it was William J. Durham — my cousin’s great grandfather — who advised Bill to apply to the University of Texas School of Law. However, Lavergne’s book contends that Lulu White had the idea and introduced the men. In either case, not only did Bill agree to seek admission, but he agreed to serve as the NAACP’s plaintiff if he was rejected on the basis of race. But first, he had to apply. In 1946, an NAACP delegation — including Bill and Lulu White — met with then-University of Texas President Theophilus Shickel Painter to debate the state’s segregationist policies. During that meeting, Bill presented his transcript and asked for admission to the law school. Painter, whose staff tried to persuade Bill to retract his application, [told the state’s attorney general](https://utincontext.la.utexas.edu/sweatt-v-painter-gallery-and-entry/sweatt-v-painter-gallery-and-entry/sweatt-v-painter/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that Bill was qualified “save and except for the fact that he is a negro.” Thus began a complex and contentious four-year legal battle, which involved multiple courts at various levels, as well as $2.5 million in legislative appropriations in a last-ditch attempt by the state to create and fund a two-room law school specifically for Black students. Together, Thurgood Marshall, William Durham, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and the man from the third ward successfully sued the prestigious university. A case that was eventually heard in the U.S. Supreme Court. The long journey of testimonies and late-night strategy sessions in Durham’s family home in Sherman became one of the most groundbreaking cases in American history. There in Durham’s modest two bedroom home on East Brockett Street, he selflessly turned his place of refuge into a planning ground for himself, Marshall, and the remaining lawyers who sacrificed their safety for the greater good. Ada Anderson, an early Black graduate student at UT, [said that her family and other community members](https://utincontext.la.utexas.edu/sweatt-v-painter-gallery-and-entry/sweatt-v-painter-gallery-and-entry/sweatt-v-painter/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in East Austin housed the Sweatts, but also the NAACP lawyers who couldn’t stay in local, segregated hotels. They wrote briefs at neighbors’ homes. In 1949, Black students [organized a mass registration protest](https://utincontext.la.utexas.edu/sweatt-v-painter-gallery-and-entry/sweatt-v-painter-gallery-and-entry/sweatt-v-painter/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in a show of support for Bill’s case. ## The First Domino Each of these interactions lead him to that fateful day — Sept. 19, 1950 — when he successfully registered for classes at the University of Texas Law School. It was warmer than usual in the state capital, Texas was experiencing a severe drought. Despite the 93-degree heat, Bill stood in line with other incoming students wearing wool slacks and a crisp, starched white shirt fastened at the throat and secured with a necktie. In a now iconic image by Austin photographer Neal Douglass for Life Magazine, 37-year-old Bill had removed his sports jacket and casually folded it over his left wrist, pens peeking from his breast pocket while gripping his fedora hat in the same hand. In a now iconic photo, 37-year-old Bill had removed his sports jacket and casually folded it over his left wrist, pens peeking from his breast pocket while gripping his fedora hat in the same hand. One can only wonder what emotions filled him that day. The weight of knowing that you had just played a pivotal role in kicking the sturdy legs out from beneath ol’ Jim Crow in a state that had, ironically, experienced its [first racially motivated bombing just seven months prior](https://blog.smu.edu/engagedallas/resource-library/history-of-south-dallas/february-1950-first-racially-motivated-south-dallas-bombing/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). That had happened in South Dallas simply because white families didn’t want Black families moving into the neighborhood. All these years later, the policy landscape for higher education in Texas is once again being shaken. In 2023, [Gov. Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 17 into law](https://compliance.utexas.edu/sb17?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which prohibits public institutions of higher education from engaging in diversity, equity, and inclusion activities as defined by the state. It’s hard to see these “anti-DEI” policies as anything other than a return to segregation. And in fact, school segregation is surging 70 years after *Brown v. Board of Education*. The data shows[ gaps in public school funding, teacher shortages and fewer resources](https://www.axios.com/2024/05/14/school-segregation-brown-eudcation-ruling-70th?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — all sharply divided by race. On the surface, this legislature seeks to eradicate anything labeled as “DEI activities” such as programming and training designed to encourage inclusivity. D[ata](https://ecoactivetech.com/diversity-equity-and-inclusion%5F-measuring-impact-beyond-numbers/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [reveals](https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffraikes/2024/04/23/ignore-the-provocateurs-dei-is-good-for-business-and-good-for-america/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) how [short-sighted](https://www.milwaukeeindependent.com/syndicated/dei-programs-rolled-back-even-research-shows-substantially-increase-corporate-profits/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) this eradication is: When diversity is intentionally fostered, corporations are substantially more profitable. If diversity, equity, and inclusion can have such a profound impact on corporate structures, imagine the benefits of championing diversity within our educational institutions. The *Sweatt v. Painter* case was monumental for many reasons — like the first domino slammed onto the table of equality. The loud clack of that tile set others in motion. UT’s attempt to avoid integration by creating a separate law school — at first the Texas State University for Negroes, [later renamed Texas Southern University](https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/sweatt-heman-marion?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — was quickly exposed as unequal, given the drastic differences between the schools’ resources. But that’s how the school began. Bill’s case paved the way for many other exceptional Black students to enroll at UT’s graduate schools who then used their degrees to do more good, including [William Astor Kirk](https://utincontext.la.utexas.edu/sweatt-v-painter-gallery-and-entry/sweatt-v-painter-gallery-and-entry/sweatt-v-painter/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), who began his studies at UT on the same day that Bill did. Kirk received his PhD in Government in August 1958 and then taught civic engagement to his students, leading the effort to integrate the Austin Public Library, the Methodist church, and facilities like Zilker Park and Barton Springs. The Supreme Court’s ruling became a blueprint for dismantling segregation nationwide. Without it, those later victories might have been delayed for years — if they happened at all. But there are many lessons we can learn from Bill and his legal team, 75 years later. The rot of racism posing as meritocracy via “anti-DEI” initiatives is just one of the myriad — and relentless — ways that systemic biases get repackaged as normal. This isn’t specific to Texas or to education. The Trump administration’s curbing of federal diversity initiatives and cutting of essential jobs disproportionately affected Black women, according to multiple reports from [*ProPublica*](https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-dei-black-women-minorities-careers-jobs-dismissed?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [*The New York Times*](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/31/us/politics/trump-federal-work-force-black-women.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Earlier this month the [U.S. Supreme Court rolled back restrictions on federal immigration ](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/supreme-court-ends-restrictions-on-la-immigration-stops-set-after-agents-swept-up-u-s-citizens?ref=thebarbedwire.com)enforcement tactics in California. Translation? [Immigration experts say](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/09/supreme-court-immigration-los-angeles-reaction?ref=thebarbedwire.com) we’ve effectively legalized racial profiling. These rollbacks in progress parallel laws and practices from the 1940s. In 1944, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the hardwon case of [*Smith v. Allwright*](https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/321/649/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that states must make voting in primary elections equally accessible to all races. Two years later, Bill was declined admission to UT Law in 1946\. Ten years later, after *Brown v. Board of Education*, Texas [Gov. Allan Shivers](https://www.mansfieldtexas.gov/1359/Crisis-In-Mansfield?ref=thebarbedwire.com) deployed state troopers to stop Black students from entering Mansfield High. Public schools in Mansfield, Texas weren't officially desegregated for another almost 10 years with the Civil Rights Act of 1964. ## The Long Road to Justice The fight never stopped, and today is no different. Let this serve as your wakeup call: This is the exact moment we should be strategizing. “My father, Heman Marion Sweatt, seldom spoke to me about the landmark Supreme Court case that bears his name,” wrote Bill’s daughter, Dr. Hemella Sweatt, in Gary Lavergne’s book. “Nor did he ever dwell on the price he paid so that all Americans could have access to institutions like The University of Texas Law School,” she added. That silence echoes in the Durham family as well; he rarely spoke of his own sacrifices. When I interviewed Durham’s great-niece — the Honorable Judge MaryEllen Hicks — she recalled how her uncle inspired many other relatives to become successful entrepreneurs and lawyers. “His legacy lives on,” Hicks said. “I saw him, and he made me believe that I could be an attorney too,” Hicks continued, remembering his charm and kindness. “He had what you might call *swagger*! He was Obama before Obama!” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/img_0883-1.jpg) Seated left: Thurgood Marshall; seated right: William Durham; Photo courtesy of Kenji Griffin Walton As a college student, her dream was to work for her famous uncle after graduating law school, but Durham died before she finished her degree. His absence didn’t stop her determination. If anything, it fueled her. Hicks was the first Black person and first woman to serve as a justice on the Texas Second Court of Appeals, according to the [Black Women Lawyers Association of Tarrant County](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DOmqbu9jd2u/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). She was also the first and only Black woman to serve as a state district judge in Fort Worth from 1983 to 1993, when she presided over the 231st State District Court, and she was the first-ever Black Probate Court Master in Tarrant County, beginning in 1983. It’s clear that she carries the legacies of William Durham, Thurgood Marshall, and Heman “Bill” Sweatt, who are forever linked for their relentless fight for equality. Bill may have been the face of one of the nation’s most famous cases, but he never graduated from UT Law. He risked everything and sacrificed even more. The photographs from that September day in 1950 don’t show the toll it took — the exhaustion, both emotional and physical, that weighed heavily on Sweatt. The strain also fractured his first marriage, which ended in divorce shortly after the Supreme Court ruled in his favor. By 1952 — after enduring racial harassment and threats at UT, [according to the Texas State Historical Association](https://utincontext.la.utexas.edu/sweatt-v-painter-gallery-and-entry/sweatt-v-painter-gallery-and-entry/sweatt-v-painter/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — Sweatt left law school. But his actions had already changed the nation. He went on to earn a master’s degree in social work from Atlanta University in 1954, returned briefly to work with the NAACP, and he later built an extensive career with the National Urban League in Atlanta. Sweatt also found love again, later marrying Katherine Gaffney and raising two daughters before his death in 1982\. Because of him, and others named and unnamed who broke barriers, students across America now sit shoulder to shoulder in classrooms that once would have shut them out. As the Supreme Court observed in his case, equality in education depends on more than facilities — it requires “those qualities which are incapable of objective measurement but which make for greatness in a law school… reputation of the faculty, position and influence of the alumni, standing in the community, traditions and prestige.” “The criteria used by the court in the application of the separate but equal doctrine gave legal experts cause to believe that the doctrine was virtually dead,” according to the [Texas State Historical Association](https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/sweatt-v-painter?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “It was clear from the opinion that a good-faith effort to supply equality of treatment without integration was insufficient; rather, it must be equality in fact.” The dominoes that Sweatt tipped continue to fall, reshaping not only education, but the very meaning of equality. And while I may be new to teaching, when I look at the varied faces of my students, I see them learning that the trajectory of their lives were shaped by the actions of their ancestors. In the same way, our country can trace the turning point closer to equality back on that fateful September day. Heman “Bill” Sweatt’s legacy stands as proof that the struggles of ordinary people, bolstered by the support of advocates and community, have always shaped the course of history — and will continue to do so long after we’re gone. ### Former Texas Speaker Calls Out His Party for Charlie Kirk Hypocrisy URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/dade-phelan-charlie-kirk/ Last updated: 2025-09-16T18:19:52.000Z Turns out the only thing keeping Dade Phelan from speaking his mind was … his job. Who knew? The former Texas House Speaker announced last month [that he wouldn’t seek reelection](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/08/21/dade-phelan-texas-house-former-speaker-retiring/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). And since then, he’s gone from buttoned-up politician to that one relative at Thanksgiving who’s too old to care what anyone thinks. And honestly? It’s a lot more fun this way. Take his musings on “free speech,” a favorite phrase of the right until Charlie Kirk’s death (now every Texas politician is [hard at work](https://x.com/GregAbbott%5FTX/status/1967387427112395178?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [grandstanding](https://x.com/tedcruz/status/1967339731546526023?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in the wake of the tragedy). Since Kirk’s death, Republicans have been [calling for people to be fired and prosecuted](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/12/us/politics/charlie-kirk-shooting-firings-celebration.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for anything perceived as celebratory or disparaging of the right-wing activist’s death. After U.S. [Attorney General Pam Bondi said authorities](https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/16/pam-bondi-first-amendment-hate-speech-prosecution-00566424?ref=thebarbedwire.com) will “target” and “go after” people for alleged “hate speech,” Phelan warned that the party is on a slippery slope. “'Hate speech' is still free speech,” he wrote. “The cure for ugly words is stronger ideas, not censorship.” > [](https://twitter.com/DadePhelan/status/1967766699735977986?ref=thebarbedwire.com) He also retweeted a number of other posts defending free speech. Translation: You can’t call yourself the “party of free speech” and then try to muzzle people because they said something gross. And when Fox News morning slug Brian Kilmeade [casually suggested the state kill homeless people with lethal injection](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/15/business/media/fox-host-homeless-comment-brian-kilmeade-apology.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), our boy Dade — now liberated from the shackles of office — suggested they “lethally inject Kilmeade's contract” instead. > [](https://twitter.com/DadePhelan/status/1967034266480763249?ref=thebarbedwire.com) That’s the sound of a man resisting the urge to type, “are you kidding me?” Because again: the same crowd lecturing about “free speech” is fine with murder proposals getting airtime. He also weighed in on the whole THC controversy, saying that a [ban championed by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/dan-patrick-thc-rules-abbott/) “isn’t about safety – it’s about government overreach.” > [](https://twitter.com/DadePhelan/status/1950758333050212698?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Nothing but net from the Dadester! (Also, damn, where was this Dade Phelan when he had actual power?) Of course, we know why he’s suddenly this unfiltered. Someone wrote, “Not running for reelection sure does free a guy to speak his mind.” And Phelan nodded vigorously. > [](https://twitter.com/DadePhelan/status/1967342709888422362?ref=thebarbedwire.com) But don’t get it twisted: Phelan hasn’t turned into a bleeding heart vegan watercolor artist. About nine months ago, he was still speaker of the Texas House, where he helped to [ban abortion](https://www.texastribune.org/2022/07/26/texas-abortion-ban-dobbs/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [DEI initiatives at state universities](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/04/19/texas-colleges-dei-ban/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and [medical care for transgender kids](https://www.texastribune.org/2023/06/02/texas-gender-affirming-care-ban/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). But he [bowed out of the race in December](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-house-speaker-bows-out-under-pressure-from-fellow-republicans/), after criticism from fellow Republicans for being insufficiently right-wing (Texas politics is wild these days). Still, since [he announced his full retirement](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/08/21/dade-phelan-texas-house-former-speaker-retiring/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), he’s gone from “measured politician” to “burn book with a verified checkmark.” So here we are: Dade Phelan, unlikely truth-teller. Once tasked with herding cats in the Texas House, now standing outside the barn saying, “Man, these cats are insane.” And the best part? He doesn’t have to care anymore. After years of half-smiles and pre-packaged quotes, it’s refreshing to watch a politician hit the “retirement snark” phase. You almost wish more of them would quit just so we could get the uncut version. Because if this is what Phelan’s like off the leash, maybe the Texas GOP’s biggest mistake wasn’t ousting him. It was setting him free. ### I Learned a Whitewashed Version of Texas History in School. Journalism Taught Me the Stories That Got Left Out. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/journalism-helped-me-fight-against-the-white-washed-texas/ Last updated: 2025-09-16T11:56:15.000Z I still remember my last high school football game on the Red Oak Hawkette drill team. I was 17, and our dance group had spent hours rehearsing in our maroon leotards and bright white ankle boots with mini silver bolo ties on the side. We wore nude dance tights and white hats with matching maroon lipstick. Big white smiles, rosy cheeks, and fake eyelashes. That was my favorite uniform. I loved the way I could swing my hips side to side and feel the fringe on my legs during high kicks to rival any [Dallas Cowboy’s cheerleader](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/dallas-cowboys-cheerleaders-netflix/). The sequins and sparkles refracted the glow from the Friday night lights. That last game of the season, our varsity boys played at the old Dallas Cowboys’ Texas Stadium in Irving. It was the first time our varsity football team had made it to playoffs in at least a decade, and it seemed like the whole of Red Oak — then population 7,000 — was in the stands. We lost the game, but those memories stayed with me. As a Latina and a child of immigrants, I didn’t always feel like I belonged in my small, mostly white town. But in that uniform, I did. I grew up just south of Dallas, and my parents — who were originally from Mexico and Guatemala — turned to assimilation for survival. My mom and (step) dad taught me to blend in and to embrace being Texan. Not Mexican. That was hard for a brown-skinned girl who didn’t look white passing at all. I remember the look on my parents' faces when I told them I was dating a Mexican kid from band class instead of a white church boy like my sister. Now I see that they were trying their best to protect me: It was normal to see confederate flags on lifted pickups in the high school senior parking lot. At lunchtime, the kids at school self-segregated. Just last week, the [Supreme Court made it legal to discriminate against people who speak Spanish](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/immigrants-southern-california-go-high-alert-supreme-court-ruling-rcna229920?ref=thebarbedwire.com) or look brown. In grade school, kids are taught that Texas rebels stood their ground at the Alamo. But not that Mexico invited Texas settlers onto their land under the promise that the colonists wouldn’t enslave people — a promise they broke. Despite the myth that Alamo defenders valiantly fought to the death (to defend the right to own slaves), historians now agree that many, including Davy Crockett, [probably surrendered and were executed](https://www.npr.org/2021/06/16/1006907140/forget-the-alamo-texas-history-bryan-burrough?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Schools and museums [leave out the stories of Texans of color](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/bullock-history-museum/), including Mexicans and Indigenous people who were on this land first. They often excuse and sidestep slavery. Many of us never learned that the state was the home of multiple [internment camps during World War II](https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/world-war-ii-internment-camps?ref=thebarbedwire.com) (one of them about 20 minutes northeast from Red Oak in Seagoville), which housed detainees of Japanese descent, as well as immigrants from Germany and Italy. And American-born civilians. (Just weeks ago, that site reopened as [the largest ICE detention facility](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-fort-bliss-ice-detention-facility-at-site-of-wwii-internment-camp/) in the country’s history.) The Texas I knew in my high school years, after we moved from Dallas to the suburbs, was a watered-down and whitewashed version of reality. It seemed quaint — far removed from the homeless shelter where we lived when I was 10 years old. It wasn’t until I left the dome of life in Red Oak that I realized that there was more to the story of Texas. That assimilation veil was lifted the moment I set foot in Dr. Maggie Rivas Rodriguez’s Latino Media and Policy class at the University of Texas. There, I learned our state is home to generations of Latinos who’ve molded our culture — George I. Sánchez, who helped end Texas’ segregated schools for Latinos; the [Hispanic golf team that won the Texas state championship in 1957](https://www.texasstandard.org/stories/in-1957-this-team-of-hispanic-golfers-shocked-texas-by-winning-state/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — despite the fact that they weren’t even allowed into the local golf course; and the [Chicana cheerleaders in Crystal City](https://www.learningforjustice.org/magazine/spring-2009/walkout-in-crystal-city?ref=thebarbedwire.com) who were denied spots on the high school squad and helped start the Latino Civil Rights movement in 1969. At the University of Texas at Austin, Rodriguez is a professor in journalism and media, director of the Center for Mexican American Studies and the director of the Voces Oral History Center, which is dedicated to recording, preserving and disseminating the stories of Latinas and Latinos in the U.S. Her class is where I learned about the League of United Latin American Citizens, or LULAC, the nation's largest and oldest civil rights volunteer-based organization. She also taught me about MALDEF, the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund, which also champions civil rights. Her class is where I learned about La Matanza, or the “The Massacre,” a brutal period of sustained violence against Mexicans in Texas from 1910 to 1920\. Cattlemen, U.S. Army soldiers, and the Texas Rangers [lynched hundreds Mexicans during La Matanza](https://truchargv.com/rio-grande-valley-la-matanza/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Some, like migrant worker Antonio Rodríguez, were burned alive. Other mobs hanged, shot, or whipped Latino U.S. citizens who just also happened to be Mexican, [*The New York Times*](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/02/us/porvenir-massacre-texas-mexicans.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) has reported. In the Porvenir Massacre in 1918, Texas Rangers woke landowners and farmers in the middle of the night and executed 15 men and boys, according to the [Texas State Historical Association](https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/porvenir-massacre?ref=thebarbedwire.com). While La Matanza [isn’t taught in grade school](https://abc13.com/post/texas-history-la-matanza-de-the-massacre-mexican-american/11263153/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a group called [Refusing to Forget](https://refusingtoforget.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) is committed to increasing awareness about state-sanctioned violence against Latinos in Texas. In Rodriguez’s class, I also learned that — in the face of discrimination and fear — Tejanos, Mexicans and Black people worked together in the name of freedom. Communities in the Rio Grande Valley helped [enslaved east Texans escape to Mexico](https://www.utrgv.edu/newsroom/2019/02/19-utrgv-researchers-uncovering-south-texass-part-in-the-underground-railroad.htm?fbclid=IwAR2OgcrjITAkar0v1c0GImyS8pFyqw4jIKP7uJDneuXzRNLLgcsGUQMHBZ8%20&ref=thebarbedwire.com), which had outlawed slavery in 1837, more than 30 years before the U.S. Civil War. I learned, too, about the Latinos who [fought for civil rights](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/at-18-he-had-to-pay-a-poll-tax-paxtons-illegal-raids-dont-scare-him/) when under the thumb of poll taxes, segregation, and corporal punishment for speaking Spanish in schools. I learned what it really meant to protest — and why people do it. Learning about these hidden Texan stories cracked open a world where I saw myself not as an outsider, but as a real Texan. A Texan like [Jovita Idar](https://jovitaidar.utsa.edu/jovita-idar/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the Mexican American journalist and activist from Laredo; Congresswoman [Barbara Jordan](https://nmaahc.si.edu/barbara-jordan?ref=thebarbedwire.com), who was the first Black state senator since the 1800s; [Opal Lee](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mePorWiEDY&ref=thebarbedwire.com), who fought for Juneteenth to be recognized as a federal holiday; Gov. Ann Richards and her daughter Cecile; Beyoncé and Tina Knowles. It’s that legacy and Texas spirit that has made this past year at *The Barbed Wire* feel like one of the most impactful experiences in my career as a journalist. If journalism is the first draft of history, then who and what we cover — in what context, with which words — matters more than ever. The stories that working journalists tell today will be in those same history books and museums that shaped my understanding of my home, and my place in it. Before I helped launch our newsroom, I spent 12 years as a television journalist. I was a morning news anchor for the last five of them. Months into that job, a pandemic and the murder of George Floyd drastically changed the reality that we knew. As I saw the world shift, I had a hunger to do more and say more. For many journalists of color like myself, it felt like we could finally talk about racism and microaggressions out loud in a way that was often only whispered in break rooms amongst ourselves. But that was short lived. It wasn’t long before I was reminding coworkers that using the term “illegal” to describe immigrants was dehumanizing. I heard one of my TV colleagues defend photos showing [border patrol agents on horses terrorizing Haitian immigrants](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/dhs-report-says-border-patrol-agents-used-unnecessary-force-haitians-t-rcna36992?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The same colleague went as far as to say “not everything is about race Leslie” when I challenged why we didn’t have more positive stories about people of color. I left that newsroom, thinking I’d take a break from the news. Then Olivia, *The Barbed Wire’s* editor in chief, came to me with a vision of a Texas newsroom that felt akin to the spirit of professor Rodriguez’s class. Olivia spoke about elevating voices that were underrepresented and not buying into the sugar-coating of racist or sexist behavior. That's how I knew this newsroom would be different. Texas [isn’t the monolith the rest of the country thinks it is](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-makes-no-sense/), but it’s also not the myth we tell ourselves and our children. It’s not just platinum blonde hair, football, cowboy hats, and pickup trucks. Texas has the second largest Latino economy in the U.S. with businesses like [Chasing Camilla](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/chasing-camilla-rio-grande-valley-mexican-roots-texas-mother-love/) and [JZD](https://shopjzd.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) generating thousands of dollars each year. At *The Barbed Wire*, we’ve covered [Rosita Fernández](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-trail-blazing-tejana-singer-who-performed-for-kings-and-presidents/), who Lady Bird Johnson once called “San Antonio’s First Lady of Song.” And the Houston DJ collective Bombón, which started out of exclusion from other Houston nightclubs and was tapped as the producer for the [2026 FIFA World Cup official song](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/fifa-houston-sonic-id-bombon-screwmbia-collab/). And [Tashara Parker,](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/tashara-parker-news-anchor-loud-women-lead-dallas/) a former fellow TV news anchor, who was instrumental in helping pass the Crown Act in Texas, which aims to ban hair discrimination from the workplace. I edited our contributor Cat Cardena’s piece, “[How Do You Celebrate a Country That Doesn’t Love You Back?](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/july-4-latino-immigrants-celebrate-country-love-you-back/)” thinking about my own family members who crossed the Rio Grande to get here. One of my favorite pieces was from a [Pakistani teenager growing up on the borderlands of El Paso](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/love-letter-texas-borderland-el-paso/) and seeing what life has been like through her eyes after a racist man murdered 23 people at an El Paso Walmart in the name of an “invasion.” I’ve personally reported on what it’s like to be an immigrant — or a child of immigrants in Texas today. Sometimes those stories involve trauma, but they include more than just hardship. Take, for example, the Refugee Collective’s farm in Elgin, which helps Austin-area refugees and immigrants by providing land to farm, fair wage jobs, and a sense of community. While reporting that story, I learned that Texas saw more newly arrived refugees than any other state from 2023 to 2024. Did you know that the [first-ever Mexican American Civil Rights Museum](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/first-ever-mexican-american-civil-rights-museum-to-be-built-in-san-antonio/) will be built in San Antonio? Or that there are a set of [Latino chefs leading the state’s vegan taco revolution](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/meet-the-latino-chefs-leading-the-vegan-taco-revolution/)? Still, it’s been a hell of a time being a Latina journalist in Texas. In October, I shared a story about my sister who [voted for Trump and then had two terrifying miscarriages](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/she-voted-for-trump-then-she-had-two-terrifying-miscarriages-in-texas/). Her story resonated with many people both in the state and out. That story prompted the late Cecile Richards to make sure our publisher Jeff Rotkoff shared a message with me, “This is excellent and incredible and heartbreaking. Congratulations.” It felt like a testament to the marginal stories other outlets were not telling. Real stories about real Texans. In November, we reported on the story of a [63-year-old San Antonio woman named Lulu Francois](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/who-owns-the-dead-inside-a-texas-familys-fight-to-honor-its-ancestors/) who set out to learn about her Mexican great-grandmother and the fight to get access to her ancestor’s burial lands. We told the story of 197 students from Houston’s HBCU, Texas Southern University and their epic performance with [Texas icon Beyoncé for Beyoncé Bowl on Christmas day](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-soul-that-carried-beyonce-bowl-the-show-was-electrifying-to-the-students-who-shared-the-stage/). We also reported on how [maternal and infant deaths are rising because of the state’s abortion bans.](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/pregnancy-care-texas-abortion-miscarriage/) We shared the stories of Texas [mothers, doctors and midwives begging lawmakers to not ban modern medicine](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-women-invisible-labor-abortion-bans/). This past summer I told [Jonatan Pech’s story](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/million-texas-students-undocumented-ice-mom-taken/). He’s an aspiring architect studying at Texas A&M University on an academic scholarship. His mom, Teresa, was taken by ICE while enroute to Jonathan’s freshman student orientation. Teresa, a Guatemalan native was living in Houston for more than 20 years, has no criminal record. The reality is living in Texas is truly heartbreaking, but it’s also the place where communities are resisting. Texas [communities are organizing](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/how-five-women-at-the-texas-capitol-stood-up-against-fascism/) not in spite of the oppression, but because of it. Texans [create joy](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/nicolandria-love-island-balm-black-women-in-the-south/) even in the midst of the [tragic headlines](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/camp-mystic-alum-remembers-past-flood/). And as journalists, it’s our job to tell the full story — to tell the truth about injustice and violence and success and jubilation, and everything in between. We can’t do this work alone, we need you and this storytelling work keeps us seen. If you’re like to support our work, please subscribe to our [newsletter](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/subscribe/), buy our [merch](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/shop/), or become a paying [member](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/become-a-member/). It’s been a hell of a time to fight against the half-truths I grew up with, and if resistance can live in Texas, it can live anywhere. [Become a Member](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/become-a-member/) ### Heartache for Texans Fans, Boos for Arch, Brandon Aubrey’s Golden Leg, and More Texas Football URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/cowboys-brandon-aubrey-arch-manning-aggies/ Last updated: 2025-09-15T12:30:21.000Z Are you football-curious? Want to know what your coworkers are talking about but don’t know who Kirk Herbstreit is (or he gives you the ick)? We’ve got you covered. We’re trying out a new approach to football coverage at *The Barbed Wire* in which we share some of our internal dialogue, text exchanges, and jokes we found on the internet. So join our team of completely unqualified-to-write-about sports writers as we recap the highlights of Texas teams — in college and the pros (and maybe the occasional high school team if we’re feeling spicy). You won’t find stats for every player — ESPN and all 1,000 other sports outlets have that covered. We’re here for a good time, if not a serious one. Also, don’t be mad if we get something wrong, we’re new at this. And here as much for the food and gossip as we are play-by-play. Now, we’re ready to rumble. This weekend’s Texas football games delivered everything a fan could want: blowouts, drama, and enough face-palms to make even seasoned fans question their life choices. **Texas Drop a Gutwrencher** Tampa Bay quarterback Baker Mayfield broke Houston hearts on Monday Night Football, [leading the Buccaneers to a wild 20-19 comeback win](https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/%5F/id/46274741/texans-buccaneers-mayfield-late-drive-stroud?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The Texans thought they had sealed it when Nick Chubb blasted in a 25-yard touchdown with just over two minutes left, but Mayfield wasn’t done. On fourth down with the game on the line, he scrambled for a first down, then strung together a series of completions, including two huge catches by rookie running back Bucky Irving, to set up Rachaad White’s game-winning score. > [](https://twitter.com/KingJosiah54/status/1967771758049812960?ref=thebarbedwire.com) For Mayfield, it was his second straight last-minute drive to steal a win and his first-ever prime-time victory with Tampa Bay after starting 0-6 in those slots. For Houston, it was more heartbreak — a night that started with promise ended with fans muttering what-ifs over late defensive breakdowns. In short: the Texans cued up their happy ending, but Mayfield rewrote the script with his own last-second twist. **Brandon Aubrey and the Leg that Saved the Dallas Cowboys** Let’s start with the NFL and the Dallas Cowboys aka the team your dad loves to hate. They [beat the Giants in a game](https://www.espn.com/nfl/recap?gameId=401772834https://www.espn.com/nfl/recap?gameId=401772834&ref=thebarbedwire.com) that was less “football” and more “Marvel movie where Iron Man and Thor just keep blasting each other with bigger and bigger lasers until the stadium’s about to collapse.” This was all offense, all the time, as Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott and the Giants’ Russell Wilson threw for more than 800 yards combined, and the fourth quarter turned into a straight-up action sequence. Prescott hit George Pickens for a touchdown, Wilson dropped a pinpoint bomb to Malik Nabers with 25 seconds left, and just when it looked over, Cowboys kicker Brandon Aubrey leveled up and booted a 64-yard nuke (ok, it was a really long field goal) to force overtime. > [](https://twitter.com/P1HurkleDurkle/status/1967323174204522687?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Overtime felt like a video game where both players kept mashing the wrong buttons, until Wilson tossed an interception that gave Dallas new life. Prescott scrambled like a guy spamming the “sprint” button in Madden, setting up Aubrey for the game-winning 46-yarder. Cowboys win, 40-37. It was messy, it was chaotic, it was cinematic and if you’re new to the sport, this was football at its most fun: two quarterbacks trading highlight-reel shots until somebody finally dropped the controller. Now with the NFL out of the way, let’s move on to college ball, where there was LOTS of drama. **Aggies’ Answered Prayers** The highlight by far was #17 Texas A&M vs #8 [Notre Dame, which turned into a total heart-stopping classic](https://www.espn.com/college-football/recap/%5F/gameId/401752707?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The underdog Aggies trailed for most of the game, but just when fans started texting their group chat for comfort, A&M pulled off a last-minute miracle. With only 13 seconds left, Aggie quarterback Marcel Reed threw a touchdown on 4th down, and the Aggies snatched a wild 41-40 win right out from under Notre Dame’s nose. If you’re new to college football? Here’s the deal: emotions go from “Oh no, it’s over” to “DID WE JUST WIN?!” in about two seconds. Fans screamed, the team piled on Reed like he just announced free tacos at Kyle Field, and Aggies everywhere are now telling anyone who’ll listen that “THIS is our year.” Sometimes college football can be a bit ho-hum but sometimes (like tonight!) it’s absolutely legendary. **Arch Manning Gets… Booed?** Meanwhile the Longhorns, led by the (sorry this is mean but also true) [extremely disappointing Arch Manning, beat UTEP 27-10](https://www.espn.com/college-football/recap/%5F/gameId/401752706?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Manning looked more like a deer in LED headlights every time UTEP’s defense blitzed. > [](https://twitter.com/jaybsauceda/status/1966971875491557821?s=46&ref=thebarbedwire.com) The crowd booed in the first half, proving Austin fans expect fireworks at all times, preferably with pyrotechnics and a guitar solo. Manning’s stat line was … pretty bad: 11-of-25 for 114 yards, with one touchdown and an interception. But the eye test was even uglier. He held the ball too long, floated a few wobbly passes, and looked jittery. His confidence seems shaken, and head coach Steve Sarkisian has simplified the offense to help Manning as much as possible. But clearly, something needs to change. The Manning haters were out in full force. And, not to pile on, but the nepo jokes really write themselves. > [](https://twitter.com/TrillBroDude/status/1966978082394566677?ref=thebarbedwire.com) **Beat Coats and a Win For the Red Raiders** And in Lubbock, [Texas Tech destroyed Oregon State](https://www.espn.com/college-football/recap?gameId=401752938&ref=thebarbedwire.com), 45-14, powered by Tech quarterback Behren Morton tossing 4 TDs like he was playing Madden on Rookie mode. Texas Tech stayed unbeaten and confirmed there’s basically nothing to do in Lubbock on a Saturday except win by a billion. And finally, Baylor rolled Samford 42-7, and it was [essentially over after the first quarter](https://www.espn.com/college-football/recap/%5F/gameId/401756891?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Baylor running back Bryson Washington ran for 135 yards and two TDs, and quarterback Sawyer Robertson threw three touchdowns. The highlight of the game, if you ask us, was the “bear coat” photo op — where Baylor defenders celebrated takeaways on the sideline by putting on a furry coat from one of their strength coaches. Yes, the sideline swag was better than Samford’s offense. **Osa Odighizuwa and a Little Time to Touch Grass** And now to our light-hearted segment, Osa Odighizuwa, the Cowboy’s defensive lineman, was [named community MVP this week](https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/cowboys-dl-osa-odighizuwa-is-the-nflpa-community-mvp-for-week-2?ref=thebarbedwire.com) after hosting a baby shower for 20 single mothers and their families in Dallas. The moms reportedly received more than $500 in gifts for their children, and information about local services. We love to see it. > [](https://twitter.com/AdamSchefter/status/1966517255266550049?ref=thebarbedwire.com) And the Cowboys were finally covered by our favorite sports analyst of all time — the 2-year-old viral sensation who bust into “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” after seeing the Dallas logo. So, will the Cowboys be good this year? “Maybe.” https://www.tiktok.com/@gdun/video/7548830425205050679?\_r=1&\_t=ZT-8zedk8t49q1 ### Dan Patrick Loses It Over Abbott’s New THC Rules (But Swears It’s Not Personal) URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/dan-patrick-thc-rules-abbott/ Last updated: 2025-09-12T17:12:05.000Z Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is furious that Gov. Greg Abbott won’t go full prohibition on THC, unloading a [2,000-word tirade Friday](https://www.ltgov.texas.gov/2025/09/12/lt-gov-dan-patrick-statement-on-the-governors-thc-executive-order/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that makes D.A.R.E. pamphlets look subtle. But don’t worry — Patrick insists this is not “a personal fight with the governor,” just a “disagreement on extremely important policy.” Yep, just a completely normal, not-at-all-personal rant accusing Abbott of greenlighting what he essentially described as dangerous, brain-melting “irreversible damage” to children’s brains… via gummies. For background, [Abbott this week issued an executive order banning THC sales to minors](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/abbott-thc-ban/), directing state agencies to tighten enforcement, and setting the stage for a regulatory framework. Basically: Card kids at the counter, slap some labels on gummies, and let agencies figure out the rest. “The governor mentions in his executive order that he wants people 21 and over to ‘enjoy’ THC,” Patrick wrote, in his tirade. “For most people who buy these products, ‘enjoy’ means getting high. If they are not getting high, why are they buying any THC product?” Patrick has called THC products a [“poison in our public](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/06/22/texas-thc-ban-bill-greg-abbott-veto-senate-bill-3/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)” and wants nothing less than a scorched-earth ban. In his release, he accused the governor of giving the THC industry the “state seal of approval” and warned that kids will still be gobbling mislabeled Delta-8 sold at shops conveniently near schools — despite the fact that [many retailers in the state already prohibited sales to minors](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/09/10/texas-thc-executive-order-greg-abbott-weed-cannabis/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and check identification for that express purpose. Patrick, however, also cited undercover cops in Dallas who claimed smoke shop clerks warn customers the products could literally kill them. Patrick rattled off all the ways Abbott’s order supposedly fails: no ban on Delta-8 or Delta-10 THC products, no ban on smokables, no limit on potencies, no restriction on location. “We have age limits on alcohol and cigarettes, but we know that does not stop kids from getting them either,” said Patrick, with no evidence. “The difference here is that one highly potent THC product can cause irreversible damage to a young person’s mind forever.” It’s the latest clash between the state’s top two Republicans. Abbott wants regulation, [Patrick wants prohibition](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-thc-ban-dan-patrick/), and the Legislature couldn’t agree on anything despite three separate Senate-passed bans dying in the House. THC folks, however, are thrilled. One producer, Hometown Hero, even called Abbott’s order “huge for our industry.” Legislation on age restrictions had received significant backing from the industry, including the The Texas Hemp Business Council, according to the [*Texas Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/09/10/texas-thc-executive-order-greg-abbott-weed-cannabis/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). > [](https://twitter.com/HometownHeroATX/status/1965825037870510483?ref=thebarbedwire.com) So Texans are left with the same hemp loophole, Abbott gets to pose as a problem-solver, and Patrick gets another chance to swear he’s *totally not fighting with the governor* while … fighting with the governor. Stay tuned! ### Texas’ Official History Museum Hides More Than It Shows URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/bullock-history-museum/ Last updated: 2025-09-11T06:00:00.000Z The Bullock Texas State History Museum is an impressive piece of Texana, a hulking granite-faced structure across the street from the University of Texas campus. Step inside and you’re confronted with a giant mural of longhorns, horses, and cowboys that promises to tell you “The Story of Texas.” There are equally oversized quotes from famed author Larry McMurtry and others, telling you what an amazing state you’re currently standing in. It’s an impressive introduction to the [state’s official history museum](https://www.thestoryoftexas.com/about/annual-reports?ref=thebarbedwire.com), projecting an aura that feels akin to the great history museums of New York and Washington, DC. But after taking the tour, I’m here to tell you that the story of Texas, as told by the Bullock museum, leaves a lot to be desired. It is, literally and figuratively, a whitewash. A (mostly) warts-free story told by people who want you to know that Texas is a great place and that almost nothing bad ever happened here. That’s a problem when state leaders are doing their best to erase the reality of slavery from [public schools](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/ken-paxton-crt/), universities, and [libraries](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/they-just-dont-want-authors-latine-writer-uninvited-from-speaking-at-texas-school/). The late lieutenant governor’s passion project hasn’t been spared from an agenda that values spin over truth. The Bullock Museum is, to put it bluntly, a beautiful facade for public relations copy. I’m not alone in my assessment: Just a few years ago, celebrated *Houston Chronicle* journalist Chris Tomlinson [called it “a propaganda outlet.”](https://www.texastribune.org/2021/07/01/texas-forget-the-alamo-book-event-canceled/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) (More on that later.) “Historical accuracy really matters, especially around slavery, racism, and the displacement of indigenous people,” said David DeMatthews, a professor at the University of Texas’ College of Education and a former history teacher, in an interview with *The Barbed Wire.* “Because if students don’t understand the past injustices, it’s hard for them to make sense of what might be some present-day realities.” Of course, this problem isn’t specific to Texas. The fight against so-called “woke” exhibits has been a national issue, too, with [President Trump recently trying to influence the Smithsonian Institution’s framing of history](https://apnews.com/article/smithsonian-trump-history-museum-teachers-3bfba38c574e9b72824f5b4c4f633d52?ref=thebarbedwire.com). But Texas often sets the tone for the conservatism that spreads to rest of the country and, [with more than 9 million visitors](https://www.thestoryoftexas.com/about/about-the-museum?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the Bullock Museum plays a prominent role in showing how those in power view our state’s history. Or, at least, how they want it taught. \*\*\* As I walked in on a recent Friday morning, a college-aged student was buying a ticket. The ticket seller asked where she was from. “Germany,” she said. Cologne, in particular. Soon after entering, she buried herself in her phone. In fairness to her, the first floor is pretty dry. It’s devoted almost entirely to the remains of a French ship, the “La Belle,” part of explorer Robert La Salle’s [mission to establish a French colony on the Mississippi River](https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/la-salle-expedition?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The La Belle sank off the coast of Texas in the late 1600s and the museum shows a large part of the remaining hull. If you want to see thousands of glass beads, or axe heads, or ammunition, recovered from the wreckage, they’re on display. The ground level nods to Texas’ Indigenous peoples — and early colonizers. A touchscreen “Bison Matching Game,” challenges visitors to pair “American Indian objects” with the body parts they’re made from. If the first floor represents a high point of historical accuracy, the climb upstairs takes you somewhere else entirely. On the second floor, the story shifts. Here, Texas is glorified as the noble project of freedom-loving colonists who were practically saints — and while slavery is (very briefly) acknowledged, it’s treated as little more than a historical footnote. We learn about the “Father of Texas,” Stephen F. Austin, and other colonists who settled in Texas in the 1820s. The fact that they [owned slaves](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/31/us/stephen-f-austin-renaming.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a major reason for their decision to revolt against Mexico, was only barely alluded to. The closest you get to the S-word is a display about the beginnings of the colonists’ discontent with the Mexican government. “While they envisioned a Texas that functioned and prospered like the American South, they were content to do so as Mexican citizens,” a display read. “Frustrated with their lack of representation in the Mexican government, they proposed Texas become a separate state in Mexico.” As I got closer to the Texas Revolution I was informed that “men like (former Texas governor) Sam Houston and (Alamo commander) William Travis were independent minded and impatient with Mexico’s inability to provide adequate resources and defense of the Texas frontier.” (Presumably from Indigenous peoples who weren’t happy that they were there.) It went on: “They wanted Texas to separate from Coahuila and then move toward complete independence.” As I said, slavery was briefly acknowledged. In another placard about daily life in Texas, I was told that “many colonists still saw themselves as Americans, and were determined to build a slave-based farming economy in Texas.” But we’re never told who the “many colonists” were. Did they include Austin? Houston? Travis? The museum is quiet on that subject. Finally, we come to the Texas Revolution. The Texans, it said, wanted “more autonomy” away from the “centralist government” that was being formed by the government in Mexico (which had [outlawed slavery](https://caamuseum.org/learn/600state/black-history/blackhistory-on-september-15-1829-afro-mestizo-mexican-president-vicente-ramon-guerrero-issued-the-guerrero-decree-which-prohibited-slavery-in-most-of-mexico?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the museum didn’t point out). As a result, “Texans, both Anglo and Tejano, feared their liberties, property, economy, and way of life would soon be threatened. They knew revolution was inevitable.” There was no mention of what that “property” was. The museum portrays the six-month Texas rebellion that ended in 1836 as a fight for patriotism and freedom, while omitting the fact that the state’s new [Constitution explicitly legalized slavery](https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/slavery?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — seven years after Mexico had abolished it. The fact that Texans fought largely to preserve slavery was not just downplayed — it was essentially left out, even though it was a main cause of the rebellion. The museum treated the subject like an alcoholic family member who couldn’t make it to Thanksgiving (best not discussed around the dinner table). Nonetheless, enslaved people couldn’t be completely ignored; they were a huge part of Texas’ growing population. According to the museum, Texas’ enslaved population totaled more than 182,000 people in 1860\. That was about 30% of the state’s total [604,000 residents](https://www.tsl.texas.gov/ref/abouttx/census.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) at the time. Still, while in the Bullock museum, I heard or saw virtually nothing from that third of the state’s population. Only one small exhibit was devoted to enslaved people in Texas, or “enslaved craftsmen,” as the exhibit called it. It contained no photos, just some pottery, a brick, and a pair of handmade chairs. “Enslaved life was physically, emotionally, and mentally demanding,” a sign read. “Enslaved men and women worked long hours in poor conditions, suffered brutal treatment, and could be taken from their family at any time.” There was never a mention of *who* *owned* the enslaved people. Then the exhibit got inexplicably cheery: “Despite this, their work laid the foundations for Texas’s modern economy …. Some men and women later applied their skills in sewing, metalwork, pottery, building, and other crafts to become small business owners.” According to the Bullock museum, while slavery may have been rough, it taught valuable entrepreneurial skills. There are many drawbacks to teaching such revised versions of history, said DeMatthews, the professor at the University of Texas’ College of Education. Leaving out the experiences of Black, Latino, or Indigenous communities sends a harmful message to students, he said. “It sends a message to them that they don’t really exist, and they don’t really matter, their voices are not heard,” he said. I reached out to the Bullock museum last week with questions about how certain subjects — like slavery — seemed to be downplayed in “The Story of Texas.” As of press time, I did not receive a response. In lieu of direct answers, the Bullock’s website states that the museum's core values include “leadership, excellence, accessibility, diversity, engagement, and relevance.” “We believe that the exploration of our history nurtures personal and collective identity in a diverse world, that it teaches vital skills, that it is the foundation for strong, vibrant communities, and is a catalyst for economic growth,” it states. “History helps people envision a better future, inspires leaders, and when saved, preserved, and shared, becomes the legacy from which future generations expand their opportunities for growth in a civil society.” There are, to be sure, attempts from the museum to celebrate the history and culture of Texans of color, like a [2021 event](https://www.kut.org/texas/2021-10-28/how-structural-racism-hinders-efforts-to-preserve-texas-black-history?ref=thebarbedwire.com) called [Reclaiming Our Stories: Preserving Texas' African American Placemaking History](https://www.thestoryoftexas.com/visit/calendar/education/reclaiming-our-stories-20211030?ref=thebarbedwire.com) or a celebration of [American Indian Heritage Day](https://www.thestoryoftexas.com/visit/calendar/programs/american-indian-heritage-day-20250926?ref=thebarbedwire.com) later this month. Still, the fact remains that the museum’s central display repeatedly minimizes hardships that marginalized groups faced. Who controls the Bullock Museum? Pretty much who you'd think. The museum is a division of [The State Preservation Board](https://tspb.texas.gov/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which also oversees the Texas State Capitol and grounds. The board of directors includes chairman Republican Gov. Greg Abbott; co-vice chairman and Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick; co-vice chairman and Republican Speaker of the Texas House, state Rep. Dustin Burrows; and Republican Texas state Sen. Charles Schwertner. Texas has long presented a [revised version of its own history](https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/battle-rewrite-texas-history/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — and lawmakers have worked hard in recent years to further sanitize its slave-owning origins. Last year, Texas [approved a Bible-infused curriculum](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-passes-jesus-heavy-slavery-ignoring-curriculum/) that critics said downplays the country’s slave-holding origins. For example, a kindergarten lesson tells students that George Washington and Thomas Jefferson “realized that slavery was wrong and founded the country so that Americans could be free,” omitting that both men enslaved people. Meanwhile a second-grade lesson says “slavery was wrong, but it was practiced in most nations throughout history,” while ignoring the [uniquely race-based system](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/1619-america-slavery.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [in America](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/1619-america-slavery.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). That has effects on not just students, but teachers, too. “It constrains teachers, it creates confusion… and has this overall chilling effect, discouraging teachers from teaching anything that’s complex or controversial, even when it’s historically grounded,” DeMatthews said. This has serious consequences for our ability to self-govern in the future. “If students are not learning an accurate history, they’re not as prepared to engage in our democracy, they’re not necessarily able to fully understand certain policy debates,” DeMatthews said. “They may not know what justice should look like if they don’t understand some of the civil rights victories that happened in the 1960s and ’70s.” Texas, of course, is famous for mythologizing itself, as generations of schoolkids are taught about historical events like the Battle of the Alamo, sometimes with little context. Despite every Texas gradeschooler going through Texas History classes, the state was largely disregarded by the elites writing history during the country’s early years. For decades, prior to the discovery of oil in the early 1900s, Texas was a backwater and ignored by prominent American historians, DeMatthews said. In that vacuum, it made up its own stories. “Historians from 100 years ago weren’t really focused on Texas history,” he said. “I think what’s happened is, we missed a full accounting of historical truth and instead, myth has replaced it.” But Texas was good at concocting exciting stories to fill the void. Texas’ myths can be captivating, said Jason Stanford, co-author of the book “Forget the Alamo,” which examined the role slavery played in the famous battle. And they’re adopted by longtime residents as well as newcomers, he told *The Barbed Wire*. “You come to a place and you want to be accepted,” he said. “It’s just part of being human… And it’s a very seductive myth. It’s a lot of fun.” As a result, though, “kids are gonna get on school buses and they're gonna go to the Alamo and be taught this heroic Anglo narrative… and it has been happening for generations.” Which can easily lead to ingrained narratives that persist into adulthood. For instance, Stanford said his book didn’t contain anything that historians didn’t already know about Texas history. One example: Despite the myth that Alamo defenders valiantly fought to the death, historians now agree that many, including Davy Crockett, [probably surrendered and were executed](https://www.npr.org/2021/06/16/1006907140/forget-the-alamo-texas-history-bryan-burrough?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “But to regular people who had been raised on fourth-grade Texas history, they were like, ‘What the hell?’” he said. Teaching kids incorrect information may sometimes come from good intentions, Stanford said, but there’s a significant downside. “The problem is when the historiography of an event … matures to a point where historians are saying, ‘Yeah, that's not actually how it happened,’” he said. “And the politicians are saying, ‘Shut up.’ That’s what’s happening now.” And that’s what happened when Stanford’s book was released in 2021\. GOP politicians quickly lost their minds after being confronted with pesky historical facts, no matter that they were widely accepted by historians. Reviews from [*The Wall Street Journal*](https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/books/forget-the-alamo-review-legends-of-the-fall-11622821618?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [*The Washington Post*](https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/what-people-today--including-phil-collins--get-wrong-about-the-alamo/2021/06/24/950b4426-9095-11eb-a74e-1f4cf89fd948%5Fstory.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) agreed that it built on widely accepted academic research. Texas leaders, on the other hand, were enraged. A promotional event for the Penguin Press book — coincidentally at the Bullock Museum — was cancelled [on the orders of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick](https://www.texastribune.org/2021/07/01/texas-forget-the-alamo-book-event-canceled/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). On social media, [he called the book](https://x.com/DanPatrick/status/1410997053371654145?ref=thebarbedwire.com) a “fact-free rewriting of Texas history” that had “no place” at the museum. The controversy rocketed the book to the top of the Amazon sales charts. Some statewide candidates even mentioned it in their stump speeches, Stanford said. Chris Tomlinson, one of the book’s co-authors, [claimed the move](https://www.texastribune.org/2021/07/01/texas-forget-the-alamo-book-event-canceled/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) proved the Bullock Museum “is a propaganda outlet.” At the time, Texas leaders were riding a right-wing backlash to the 2020 social justice protests that arose from the murder of George Floyd. [In 2021, Texas lawmakers passed the 1836 Project](https://www.texastribune.org/2021/06/09/texas-1836-project/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a state-appointed advisory committee tasked with promoting a “patriotic” version of Texas history. [(Sound familiar?)](https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/03/restoring-truth-and-sanity-to-american-history/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) It was a response to the [Pulitzer Prize-winning “1619 Project,”](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/1619-america-slavery.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) which examines U.S. history from the date when enslaved people first arrived on American soil. (It also sparked a widespread backlash from the right, including in Texas.) The 1836 Project’s main product was a [pamphlet](https://tea.texas.gov/academics/subject-areas/1836-pamplet-v-7.pdf?ref=thebarbedwire.com) now given to new Texas drivers, highlighting themes like economic prosperity, opportunity, and iconic moments in state history. It portrays Texas settlers as heroic pioneers, devotes little space to the Alamo, and briefly acknowledges slavery without detailing its central role in the state’s founding conflicts — or the brutality enslaved people faced. [Historians, though, say the pamphlet largely sanitizes or omits the perspectives](https://www.texastribune.org/2022/09/26/texas-1836-project-pamphlet/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of Indigenous people, Tejanos, Black Texans, and women, presenting a celebratory and incomplete story of Texas’ past. Such minimization is found throughout the Bullock Museum. The Civil War portion focused mostly on military glories, safeguarding the Texas coast from the Union navy, as well as lots of guns and Confederate uniforms. I also noticed a big cannon, ostensibly pointed at Union troops. Slavery was acknowledged as a cause of the war, but it was also excused to a degree. A display tells visitors that “countries without slavery also profited from enslaved labor in the United States,” singling out Britain which outlawed slavery in 1833 but “its textile industry needed Southern cotton.” The implication was that slavery, while not great, was a necessary evil at the time. Deeper in, there was a video called “Civil War Diaries,” in which we heard the words of people who lived through the cataclysm. Most focused on the lives of Southern whites, their military service, and struggles in their daily lives as the “Yankees” invaded. Enslaved people got two short clips at the end. Equal time was given to a young girl who was preparing a pet turkey for the arrival of a Confederate general. It was a common theme: very little about root causes, lots of ink spilled on guns and military valor, limited to no input from the people who actually experienced the atrocities. Elsewhere, whenever subjects like civil rights came up, the museum let passive voice do the heavy lifting. “Texans have experienced discrimination and oppression, sometimes violent, based solely on their race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, or disability,” one display read. “It is a struggle that continues today.” Left unsaid was *who* was doing the oppressing. Perhaps the museum’s curators thought it was impolite to mention that the oppressing force was often the [Texas government](https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/civil-rights?ref=thebarbedwire.com). \*\*\* On the third floor, the museum got into more comfortable Texas territory, with big exhibits on the space program, the oil and gas industry, and the much-loved “Austin City Limits” live music show. I learned that oil and gas are “integral in all parts of our modern lives” and was treated to a full wall display of petroleum based products, like Crocs, basketballs, kayaks and frisbees. A display informed me that 96% of manufactured products contain derivatives from natural gas and crude oil. If the museum mentioned climate change at all, I missed it. Under a section about environmental impacts, it assured us that oil spills, explosions and habitat damage “were not uncommon” in the early days. However, “today’s oil and gas industry is working to limit environmental impact by learning from past mistakes,” it said. It’s probably just a coincidence that [some of the major donors to the museum](https://www.thestoryoftexas.com/donors?ref=thebarbedwire.com) are oil companies like Chevron and Hunt Consolidated. The museum also featured far more voices of color in its Austin City Limits exhibit, complete with a walk-in theater with lots of clips from the show. The message was clear: If you are a person of color who can play the guitar, the Bullock Museum was happy to show you off. But if you are a person of color who was victimized by Texas, you were almost invisible. I’d seen enough. While the Bullock Museum wasn’t exactly one of those creationist museums with a life-sized [Noah’s Ark](https://arkencounter.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), it was still too invested in its own mythology, presenting Texas as a paradise, settled by saintly white figures with few (if any) blemishes. It doesn’t outright ignore events like slavery, but it minimizes them as much as possible and ignores almost all nuance. Mostly, it felt like I’d paid $17 for propaganda. But there are serious consequences to teaching history like this — and to ignoring the truths of Texas’ origins. Telling the truth may be harder, but it’s necessary. “Telling someone that Mexicans were essentially dispossessed in Texas, which was Mexico at the time, and that South Texas ranchers were kicked off their land by white Anglos, that changes what we have to do now,” Stanford said. “Unfortunately, it also makes people feel attacked. Because we’re kind of immature in this country about history,” he added. “We think of it as good or bad, and that it reflects well or badly on you, something that happened 200 years ago.” As I left the museum, I passed a group of school-aged kids examining a large buffalo statue on the first floor. The adults in charge were trying to get them to head up to the next floor. “Come on boys!” one woman gently urged them. “Come on!” ### After a Year of Covering Texas, It Still Makes No Damn Sense URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-makes-no-sense/ Last updated: 2025-09-10T05:01:00.000Z In this tumultuous American moment, Texas is still unique in its mind-boggling extremes. Texas loves to pick on queer kids. At least, the Texas Legislature does. We just wrapped up the 2025 legislative session(s) and, as has become a cruel habit of Texas politicians, lawmakers have [once again](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/08/28/texas-house-bathroom-bill-transgender/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) made the lives of LGBTQ+ Texans harder. And yet, Texas is one of the queerest states in the country. We have more queer residents than almost any state [at 1.8 million](https://www.ppic.org/blog/californias-lgbt-population/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), second only to California. [More than double](https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/press/lgbt-msa-press-release/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) the number of queer New Yorkers. Texas is home to vibrant gay, lesbian, and drag scenes in Austin, Houston, and Dallas. But many, many smaller Texas towns boast their fair share of underground gay scenes (ask those in the know!). You may be surprised to find drag shows in Waco, but that’s only if you’ve never been. Everyone knows that Texas has a thriving immigrant community. In fact, nearly 20% of our state’s residents were [born in another country](https://map.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/locations/texas/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Out of all 50 states, we have the [second-most immigrants](https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2024/04/where-do-immigrants-live.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) (again, second to California) and [fourth most people of color](https://www.census.gov/library/visualizations/interactive/race-and-ethnicity-in-the-united-state-2010-and-2020-census.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). We wage digital wars over which city is [home to the best taco scene](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-taco-wars-forgot-the-most-important-player-the-rio-grande-valley/). There are two places in the world where you can buy a kolache: the Czech Republic and Central Texas. Houston and its booming suburbs look more like a UN hearing than a backwater Deep South town. It is [the seventh most diverse city](https://www.usnews.com/news/cities/slideshows/the-10-most-racially-diverse-big-cities-in-the-the-us?slide=5&ref=thebarbedwire.com) in the country by race and ethnicity, but sometimes it ranks much higher, depending on the year and who’s counting. [Celebrity chef David Chang](https://www.gq.com/story/david-chang-houston-food-city?ref=thebarbedwire.com) once claimed Houston also has the best Vietnamese food in the country, writing in *GQ* magazine: “I've always wondered where the food in a *Blade Runner*\-like future would appear first and what it would taste like — and I genuinely believe it's here.” Despite this, the fearmongering and vilification of undocumented immigrants has also found its roots in Texas. Our land commissioner offered up our public land for [immigrant detention centers](https://www.keranews.org/news/2024-12-20/texas-trump-explainer-immigration-border-land-detention-center?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Polling [routinely finds](https://texaspolitics.utexas.edu/polling/search?t%5B0%5D=13&ANDtext=Trend&ref=thebarbedwire.com) that immigration ranks atop Texans’ list of biggest issues. We are a state that has been made great by generations of immigrants — each member of diverse communities moulding and adding to our culture; yet we have vehemently turned our backs on the immigrants who’ve made homes here. Texas was the home of multiple internment camps during World War II, which housed detainees of Japanese descent, as well as immigrants from Germany and Italy, along with American-born civilians. Just weeks ago, that same site reopened as [the largest ICE detention facility](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-fort-bliss-ice-detention-facility-at-site-of-wwii-internment-camp/) in the country’s history. It is so easy to see Texas as [a caricature of itself](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/court-appointed-attorney-white-nationalist-tattoo-jason-van-dyke/). National media paints us as a backwards, bigoted, conservative monolith that dreamt up every bad idea that is now infecting our national politics. Local propagandists throw themselves at the altar of the politician who manages to be the most corrupt, the most hate-filled, and the most fringe. But we are much, much more than that. More than [4.8 million Texans voted for Kamala Harris or Jill Stein](https://apps.texastribune.org/features/2024/texas-2024-general-election-results/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) during the 2024 presidential election (read: Not Donald Trump). That’s more people than live in Oregon (no offense to Oregon, the lavender farms seem lovely). But Texas isn’t just big, it’s also a place with a rich history of progressives fighting an often thankless uphill battle — largely, to the benefit of the rest of the country. Is [your state](https://mynews13.com/fl/orlando/news/2025/09/09/central-floridians-among-members-of-the-state-s-mid-decade-redistricting-committee?ref=thebarbedwire.com) about to get redistricted? You likely know about that because of Texas Democrats’ quorum-busting in the Texas House. Before the overturning of Roe, it’s likely you read about former state Sen. Wendy Davis’s 13-hour filibuster to protect Texans’ abortion rights. Yes, conservatives have had their boots to the neck of progressives in Texas for decades — but liberal Texans get up and fight, time and again. Republicans may rule Texas now, but there was a time they didn’t, too. Gov. Ann Richards ran roughshod over the good-old-boy politicians of the 1990s. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 were passed thanks to the sheer political might of LBJ. The deeply progressive ([but politically independent](https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/texas-observer?ref=thebarbedwire.com)) *Texas Observer* was founded by Ronnie Dugger in 1954 before it became a magazine in the 1970s, when it was helmed by fearless legendary (later-syndicated) columnist and public speaker Molly Ivins. The *New York Review of Books* once called it, “That outpost of reason in the Southwest.” “Today, it’s almost hard to remember just how different the Texas government was back in the 1970s,” NPR’s[*Weekend Edition*](https://www.npr.org/2019/09/15/760632698/a-portrait-of-molly-ivins-maverick-texas-journalist-in-raise-hell?ref=thebarbedwire.com) wrote in 2019\. “That’s when Molly Ivins scorched a trail through good-ol’-boy politics like a flamethrower through a cactus patch.” As long as there’s been corrupt politicians working to sell out the people’s government, there has been someone like Molly writing the first draft of history with verve, [telling a man in power](https://www.npr.org/2019/09/15/760632698/a-portrait-of-molly-ivins-maverick-texas-journalist-in-raise-hell?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that he “ran on all fours, sucked eggs, and had no sense of humor.” And Molly Ivins was never alone. For every Sen. Ted Cruz, there’s a Congresswoman Barbara Jordan or a [Cecile Richards](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/cecile-richards-did-not-quit-neither-can-we/). For every Joe Rogan and Alex Jones, there’s a Simone Biles or a Beyoncé. For every Ken Paxton or Joel Osteen, there’s a Willie Nelson or a Wes Anderson. In 1946, Heman Marion Sweatt, a Black man from Houston, applied for admission to the University of Texas School of Law and met all eligibility requirements for admission — except for his race. With help from NAACP lawyers, he sued the state and eventually won the right to enroll. The Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling in 1950’s [*Sweatt v. Painter*](https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/339/629/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which effectively started the [desegregation of the university](https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/sweatt-v-painter?ref=thebarbedwire.com), but importantly also paved the way for *Brown v. Board of Education* four years later. “The criteria used by the court in the application of the separate but equal doctrine gave legal experts cause to believe that the doctrine was virtually dead,” according to the [Texas State Historical Association](https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/sweatt-v-painter?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “It was clear from the opinion that a good-faith effort to supply equality of treatment without integration was insufficient; rather, it must be equality in fact.” There’s a rabid fight for the heart of Texas between our state’s older, whiter, conservative politicians desperately clinging to power in the face of a young, diverse, forward-looking future. But as time marches on, pumpjacks will continue to be replaced with solar fields and wind turbines. The old, rich, conservative class of elites who run our state will be challenged and (God willing) be defeated by a younger generation that reflects the progressivism and diversity that has been fighting for decades to take hold across the state. When we launched *The Barbed Wire* in August of last year, we promised to become part of a long, venerable state tradition of nonpartisan, progressive journalism. For one whole trip around the sun, *The Barbed Wire* has been covering the good, the bad, the beautiful, the hideous, the ridiculous, and the wonderful that is everyday life in Texas. We have covered jubilation and heartbreak; heroes and villains; we have celebrated the beauty of our state, and we have cursed its ugliness. Here at *The Barbed Wire*, we only have a handful of full-time staff, but nonetheless we seek to be the ones who can cover the sum of all of Texas’ parts. We want to levy mockery and ridicule at the countless buffoons who rightfully earn our derision and scorn. And, more importantly, we want to uplift and celebrate the people who find joy, happiness, love, and purpose despite the ample warts our state boasts. We do our best here at *The Barbed Wire* to make sense of it all because we love Texas, we love Texans, and we *are* Texans. We have real skin in the game. Thank you so much for being a reader for this past year. And if you, like us, want to do your part towards bringing about a future Texas that’s as bright as the folks who live here, I hope you’ll consider joining us as a member. We aim to show you a Texas that is more human than caricature. A place filled with grit and hope — even when there are boots on our neck. [Become a Member](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/become-a-member/) ### Gov. Abbott Is Apparently About to Ban THC for Texans Under 21 URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/abbott-thc-ban/ Last updated: 2025-09-09T15:13:13.000Z *UPDATE: Gov. Greg Abbott issued an [executive order](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/gov-texas-gov/uploads/files/press/eo-ga-56%5Fhemp%5Fand%5Fhemp-derived%5Fproducts%5Fregulation%5Fimage%5F2025-09-10.pdf) Wednesday directing state agencies to ban THC product sales to minors, though he didn't specify an age threshold. He also directed agencies to strengthen enforcement of existing regulations, while also launching a review of labeling, testing, and licensing rules. The order calls for agencies to work together on a broader regulatory framework modeled on recent legislation.* Texas lawmakers spent weeks fighting over THC like it was the last brisket plate at Franklin’s, only to adjourn their special session with nothing to show for it but [Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s sulk-face](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/thc-texas-ban/). Now, Gov. Greg Abbott has decided to issue an executive order and pretend it was all part of the plan. According to the *Texas Tribune*, [Abbott is preparing to slap age restrictions](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/09/09/greg-abbott-thc-executive-order-21-texas/?%5Fbhlid=26403b8c837bcf2590043ec09b88d042fa12c32c&ref=thebarbedwire.com) and other rules on THC products after the Legislature failed to deliver. The outlet reported that sources within Abbott’s office confirmed the order would come down “soon,” but the governor has declined to comment on the record. [Patrick wanted an outright ban](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-thc-ban-dan-patrick/), but that has failed repeatedly to pass. Now Abbott is angling for a “regulatory framework” like the one he hinted at in his [June veto letter](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/greg-abbott-thc-ban/). So what’s in the new rules? - Minimum age of 21 to buy THC (sorry, college sophomores). - ID checks at the counter (because nothing says “Texas freedom” like showing your license for a watermelon gummy). - Distance requirements from schools (though liquor stores are still welcome to hang out across the street). - Testing, labeling, and new fees (because someone’s gotta pay for this charade). In short, Abbott wants THC regulated like liquor, which would keep THC products out of supermarkets and other stores. Consider it a bailout for Big Booze, just in time for [declining alcohol sales](https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/us-alcohol-consumption-record-low-health-concerns-rise-survey-finds-2025-08-13/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “[Stay tuned](https://www.fox7austin.com/news/greg-abbott-texas-special-session-thc-ban?ref=thebarbedwire.com),” Abbott teased last week when asked whether he’d wait until 2027 for a THC bill. Translation: Abbott wasn’t willing to give Patrick his ban, but he also wasn’t about to let lawmakers leave town without some kind of moral victory. So instead, Texans get new hoops to jump through, college kids lose their gummy stash, and the governor gets to say he solved a problem no one outside the Capitol was really asking him to fix. ### After Week 1, the Cowboys & Texans Look Messier Than a Postgame Tailgate URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/houston-texans-dallas-cowboys-loss-week-1-nfl/ Last updated: 2025-09-08T11:19:01.000Z Week 1 of the NFL season reminded us of two truths about professional football in Texas: the [Cowboys are still louder](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/jerry-jones-cowboys-documentary/) than their results; and the Texans are still trying to turn [potential into power](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/c-j-stroud-has-the-best-selling-jersey-in-the-nfl/). Which means the state’s NFL bragging rights are as messy as a Sunday tailgate after last call. Fresh off back-to-back AFC South titles, [C.J. Stroud and the Houston Texans](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/houston-quarterback-c-j-stroud-may-be-texass-new-favorite-adopted-son/) entered Week 1 with their sights set higher. “A lot better,” is how Hannah McNair, wife of owner Cal McNair, [described Houston’s goal](https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/%5F/id/46079208/houston-texans-owners-cal-hannah-mcnair-close-super-bowl?ref=thebarbedwire.com) entering the season. Translation? It’s time to stop settling for division banners. The divisional round wall has tripped them up in each of their last three postseason appearances (2024, 2023, 2019). Meanwhile, 250 miles north, the Dallas Cowboys still cling to the “America’s Team” brand. Why? Well, it probably has less to do with wins and more to do with the fact that no matter how they play, you can count on a Netflix docuseries, a behind-the-scenes special, or at minimum a new spotlight on[ Jerry Jones](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/jerry-jones-cowboys-documentary/) to keep them in the [public’s bloodstream year-round](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/dallas-cowboys-cheerleaders-netflix/). Jones remains both the Cowboys’ greatest salesman and their most[ persistent obstacle](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/cowboys-owner-threatens-to-fire-radio-hosts-because-his-team-sucks/). He can market the brand better than anyone in sports, but the on-field results keep telling a different story. And yet, Cowboys fans march into every season belting out the same familiar anthem: “This is the year the Cowboys are going to win the Super Bowl. Clock it.” It’s been the soundtrack for almost three decades now, which makes it about as fresh as a box of pizza I forgot on my counter four days ago. But let’s be honest. What’s an NFL season without the Texans seeking to become the most popular and prominent team in the state of Texas while the Cowboys are still taking center stage? The Texans spent the offseason trying to protect Stroud from reliving 2024, when he was pressured on nearly 39% of his dropbacks and sacked 52 times. They rebuilt the offensive line and handed the playbook to new offensive coordinator Nick Caley, a Sean McVay–Bill Belichick hybrid by résumé. The goal was simple. Don’t let your franchise quarterback look like he’s running from a burning building every Sunday. But in Sunday’s opener against the Rams in Inglewood, those plans didn’t exactly pan out. Houston slogged through a 14-9 loss that looked more like a preseason scrimmage than a statement win. Stroud went down three times, faced pressure on half of his dropbacks, and spent most of the afternoon dodging defenders like he was trying to escape a crowded freeway. Part of that was bad luck, part of it was a line in constant flux. Offensive lineman Ed Ingram was out with an abdomen injury, which shuffled Cam Robinson to left tackle and pushed rookie Aireontae Ersery to the right side. Tytus Howard, the lone returning starter, slid inside to right guard. Robinson briefly left with an injury, center Jake Andrews exited for good with an ankle, and suddenly the Texans were playing offensive line roulette. Stroud still managed to throw for 188 yards on 19-for-27 passing, but he also threw a pick and rarely looked settled. The low point came late, when Dare Ogunbowale coughed up the ball inside the Rams’ 20 with under two minutes to play, smacked clean by linebacker Nate Landman. Nick Chubb, making his Texans debut, was solid but not spectacular — 60 yards on 13 carries — but with 11 penalties and a patchwork receiving corps missing Christian Kirk (hamstring) and Tank Dell (still out from last December’s knee injury), Houston didn’t have the firepower to overcome its own mistakes. The defense? Solid, as expected. But Caley’s debut as offensive coordinator was nothing to frame and hang on the wall. And with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers — fresh off a road win in Atlanta and chasing a fifth straight NFC South crown — coming to Houston for Monday Night Football next week, the Texans need to clean things up fast. Otherwise, that offseason promise of being “a lot better” could quickly turn into “same old Texans.” Meanwhile, “America’s Team,” as longtime NFL Films producer Bob Ryan loves to remind us, marched into a rowdy Lincoln Financial Field on Thursday night, hoping to spoil the reigning Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles’ banner party. For all the Cowboys postseason frustrations — three 12-win seasons in the last five years, only to bow out twice before even reaching the divisional round, plus two losing seasons sprinkled in — they still own the best record in season-opening wins in NFL history, going all the way back to 1960\. Oh, and they also carried a 3-1 edge against Philly in Week 1 matchups heading into Thursday. Not a bad little nugget of motivation, a historical “feather in the cap,” for Brian Schottenheimer in his debut as head coach. The son of the late, legendary Marty Schottenheimer got bumped up by Jones from offensive coordinator this offseason, becoming the franchise’s 10th head coach. Thursday’s NFC East clash gave Dallas plenty of chances to swipe an opening-night win. But hanging over everything was the storyline no Cowboys fan could ignore: life without Micah Parsons. The four-time Pro Bowl defensive end — the heartbeat of that defense — was shipped to Green Bay less than two weeks ago in exchange for three-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Kenny Clark and a pair of future first-round picks in 2026 and 2027\. ESPN [reported last week](https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/%5F/id/46128962/micah-parsons-trade-dallas-cowboys-green-bay-packers-2025-nfl-season?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that Parsons, in a bid to stay on the team he loved, made one final overture to Jones, which was [flatly denied](https://www.si.com/nfl/micah-parsons-trade-is-proof-jerry-jones-should-no-longer-lead-cowboys?ref=thebarbedwire.com). It was a blockbuster that didn’t just shake up Dallas’ defense, it rattled the fanbase too. Was Jerry Jones playing the long game with some brilliant roster strategy, or was he just giving the ol’ Magic 8-Ball another shake and hoping for “Outlook good”? Cowboys fans have been staring at the same answer for nearly 30 years, and somehow it always comes back “Reply hazy, try again.” Instead, the Cowboys walked out of Philly with a 24-20 loss, their fourth in the last five meetings. The game itself? Pure NFC East chaos. It had a little bit of everything. Highlight-reel plays, nonstop jawing, missed chances, rain and enough shoving matches. And just when you thought that was enough drama, the cameras caught a couple of unsanitary bonus moments — yes, actual spits flying. Then, Mother Nature decided she wanted in, tossing in a 65-minute lightning delay that stretched a three-hour football game late in the third quarter into a four-hour marathon. The first half turned into a track meet, seven possessions, seven straight scores. The Cowboys’ defensive line looked lost without Micah Parsons, while the Eagles’ defense showed the scars of an offseason exodus. No Josh Sweat (now with Arizona Cardinals), Milton Williams (New England Patriots), Darius Slay (Pittsburgh Steelers), C.J. Gardner-Johnson (Houston Texans), or Brandon Graham (retired). Linebacker Nakobe Dean is still sidelined from that torn patellar injury he suffered in January. But the most damaging absence for Philly wasn’t about who left in free agency. It was about who got himself tossed before the game even started. Let’s talk about the spit heard round the world. Eagles defensive tackle Jalen Carter didn’t make it past the opening kickoff. Cameras caught [Dak Prescott](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/money-doesnt-mean-sht-dak-prescott-says-true-blessing-is-his-daughter/) spitting near the Eagles’ huddle. Prescott later swore he “spits a thousand times” during games but never *at* someone. But Carter didn’t buy it. Instead, he got in Prescott’s face and fired back with his own glob of spit, landing square on Prescott’s collar. Carter’s meltdown didn’t just get him tossed. It lit up the internet. Fans blasted him across social media, while pundits lined up to pile on. ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith didn’t hold back, calling the spit incident “disgusting”[ while others](https://sports.yahoo.com/article/national-reaction-jalen-carter-being-004716966.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) referred to it as “stupid,” and “disrespectful.” Hard to argue that. As Carter was ejected, Philly fans booed, and the Cowboys suddenly faced a defense missing its best interior lineman. That opened the door for Prescott, who was coming off a hamstring tear in Week 9 last season, to actually look comfortable in the pocket. He finished 21-for-34 with 188 yards but no touchdowns (more to come with that). It also made room for Javonte Williams to make a splashy debut of two rushing touchdowns, becoming the first Cowboys running back to score multiple TDs in his debut since before Jerry Jones even bought the team in 1989\. Dallas had six rushing scores all of last season. They had two before the first quarter was complete. Prescott delivered throws that should’ve been touchdowns, but CeeDee Lamb picked the worst possible time to go butterfingers. Lamb reached 503 career receptions, making him the third-youngest player ever to hit 500\. But his night will be remembered for the fourth quarter. First, a drop on a routine first-down catch. Then a deep ball that would’ve put Dallas in a good position to score. And finally, a diving miss on fourth-and-3\. According to ESPN Research, it was Lamb’s second game with three drops since Week 13 of last season against the Giants. Wrong kind of consistency. That left Brian Schottenheimer — only one game into his tenure — joining Tom Landry, Jimmy Johnson, Bill Parcells, Jason Garrett and Mike McCarthy in the not-so-exclusive club of Cowboys coaches who lost their debut. Before kickoff, Schottenheimer said his goal was simple: starting the process of finishing what his father Marty never could and win a Super Bowl. After the loss, he still insisted Dallas has the pieces to hoist a Lombardi this season. But he’ll need fewer drops, a strong run game and a pass rush that finds life without Parsons to make that believable. For now, the Cowboys still wear the “America’s Team” crown, even if it feels a little dusty. But if the Texans clean up their Week 1 mess, find a way to break through the divisional round wall, and keep trending upward, Houston could make a real case for bragging rights in Texas. Of course, both franchises lost their openers, which means nothing actually changes — at least not yet. Same script, different season. The [Cowboys will still flood](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/cowboys-superstar-ceedee-lamb-becomes-second-highest-paid-non-qb-in-nfl-history/) your TV screens, [hijack social media](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/dallas-cowboys-cheerleaders-season-2-netflix-tryouts/), and clog up every podcast feed. The Texans? They’ll have to win their way into the conversation. Until then, it’s status quo in the Lone Star State. ### Texas Law Didn’t Recognize Summer Willis’s Rape. But It Does Now. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-law-didnt-recognize-summer-williss-rape-but-it-does-now/ Last updated: 2025-09-04T18:38:11.000Z Summer Willis’s fifth marathon was in New York City, in March 2024, with a 45-pound mattress strapped to her bare shoulders. Less than a year — and dozens of marathons — later, she tackled another race in Austin. Dropping to her hands and knees, Willis crawled for the first 13 miles as a demonstration of strength and resilience. It was mere yards from the street where she said she was sexually assaulted a decade prior. These physical displays of grit were part of a two-year effort to embrace her own visceral form of advocacy — running, crawling, and fighting for change. In 2023, she founded Strength Through Strides, an [advocacy and awareness nonprofit](https://strengththroughstrides.org/mission-and-vision/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) aiming to “reframe the narrative around sexual violence” and “empower survivors to reclaim their stories.” “Not a lot of people want to talk about sexual assault,” the 30-year-old told *The Barbed Wire*. “I felt like I had to do these big, crazy things.” And it worked. Advocates, survivors, and lawmakers began engaging with her. More survivors told their stories — about what needs to change, about grit in the wake of trauma. Then, in February, state legislators sat her down for a talk. They were about to introduce a bill that would, hopefully, close the legal loopholes that had denied her justice for so long. They wanted to name it after her. “It was a great honor,” Willis said, “but it also felt like the weight of 8.5 million survivors was now on my back.” This week, the Summer Willis Act took effect. Before Sept. 1, the state’s sexual assault laws only defined what was *not* consent via a list of 14 scenarios, such as cases where a perpetrator uses or threatens “physical force, violence, or coercion,” or intentionally incapacitates someone “by administering any substance without the other person’s knowledge.” The law also defined assault in terms of power dynamics, recognizing instances in which healthcare professionals, coaches, tutors, and clergymen wield coercion tactics. But even as advocates, lawmakers, and prosecutors fought to expand the state’s definition of assault over time, the enumerations weren’t comprehensive. And if a victim’s sexual assault didn’t fall neatly within the statute’s lines, their case would be that much more difficult to prosecute. Like Summer Willis’s. In 2014, as a sophomore at University of Texas at Austin, Willis said she was raped at a college party. The assault, like countless others, fell within a loophole: Because she was drugged by one attacker and raped by another, none of the 14 specific “non-consent” clauses applied to her. “What happened to me, the rape that changed me, that haunted me, and nearly broke me, wasn’t even considered rape in Texas,” Willis said in her [March 25 testimony](https://www.facebook.com/SAFEatx/videos/today-sexual-assault-survivor-summer-willis-testified-before-the-texas-house-com/1010760850380493/) to the House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence. “The law didn’t recognize my assault.” Now, prosecutors are ready to test it in court. “We know it when we see it,” prosecutor Janna Oswald, division chief of the Adult Sex Crimes Division in Harris County, told *The Barbed Wire*. “When you hear a fact pattern of sexual assault, you say, ‘Yeah, she didn't consent. That was rape.’ And then (needing to take) whatever that fact pattern is and being like, ‘Okay, was she intoxicated? Did he use force? Physical force? Was he unaware that she was unaware?’” Such legal hoop-jumping, Oswald said, makes prosecuting assault “very difficult, sometimes.” “It would just be nice to say ‘she didn’t consent,’ and then be able to present the fact pattern to a jury, and they say: ‘She didn’t consent, therefore it is sexual assault.’” ### ‘Intoxication Is a Weapon’ The Summer Willis Act ushers in two significant changes to the state’s sexual assault statute, attorney adviser Kerri New told *The Barbed Wire*. New works for AEquitas, a national nonprofit that aids prosecution practices for sexual assault, stalking, and domestic violence, “with the goal of improving the criminal justice response to those particular crimes,” New said. She previously was a prosecutor in Dallas and Rockwell counties, specializing in sexual, domestic, and family violence cases. The first major change? Consent is defined. At the bottom of the act, an amendment clarifies that the sexual assault laws will incorporate the state’s [legal definition of consent](https://codes.findlaw.com/tx/penal-code/penal-sect-1-07/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — “assent in fact, whether express or apparent” — which was defined elsewhere in the penal code. Just not for assault. “It looks like (it’s) not that big a deal. It's like, 10 words in a sentence … But what that looks like, from a practical sense, could be really profound,” New told *The Barbed Wire*. “It's an opportunity to say for the first time that this is what consent looks like.” Under the Willis Act, the burden of proving consent might shift from the victim to the offender. The other change finally recognizes “alcohol-faciliated” assaults, which have become increasingly common in recent years, New said. The previous law accounts for assault via involuntary intoxication, such as a perpetrator drugging someone without their knowledge. But, it overlooked cases in which a victim voluntarily drank alcohol, “a gaping hole in our law,” New said. Now, prosecutors can charge offenders for taking advantage of someone who is intoxicated, without necessarily causing it themselves. “Alcohol and drug intoxication is a weapon, so to speak, that perpetrators use,” New said. “(It is) an incredibly successful one, an easy one to find … and one that leaves no lasting mark.” Over the past 20 years, New has observed alcohol-facilitated assault evolve into something “that is very much the norm.” Previously, it could dismantle an entire case, she said. by decreasing a victim’s chances of reporting the assault, diminishing their ability to accurately relay details to police, and assassinating their character in front of a jury. Voluntary intoxication is a “very successful exit strategy” for offenders, New said. “Why would you use a gun or a knife if you don’t need to?” ### ‘We Did the Impossible’ The contents of the Willis Act are [hardly novel](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/24/style/antioch-college-sexual-offense-prevention-policy.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — affirmative consent is a decades-old concept, which found its birthplace on the campus of a small-town Ohio liberal arts college at the turn of the century. In 1990, a group of students successfully lobbied Antioch College to codify explicit, verbal consent into the school’s policy. “Though the college did accept our demands, the broader culture did not,” Bethany Saltman, one of the first champions of affirmative consent, [wrote for *The Cut* in 2014](https://www.thecut.com/2014/10/we-fought-for-affirmative-consent-in-the-90s.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “In fact, we became laughingstocks. And the Antioch College Sexual Offense Prevention Policy (SOPP) became a stand-in for Ridiculous PC Bullshit, mercilessly mocked by pundits, reporters, family members, and even ‘Saturday Night Live.’” But the movement kept its momentum, even in Texas. In 2017, a proposed bill asked for higher education institutions to [adopt an affirmative consent standard](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/capitol-texas-gov/tlodocs/85R/billtext/sb00970i-navpanes-0.pdf) in their sexual assault policies. It died in the House. In 2021, state Rep. Nicole Collier, a Democrat, introduced a [nearly identical version](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/capitol-texas-gov/tlodocs/87R/billtext/hb00302i-navpanes-0.pdf) of the Willis Act, which recognized affirmative and withdrawn consent in the penal code. It died in the Senate. Then, in February, House Bill 3073 was introduced by state Rep. Donna Howard, also a Democrat, who authored the bill alongside fellow Democratic Reps. Ann Johnson, Ellen Troxclair, and Collier. But it was also championed in the Senate by its main sponsor, state Sen. Angela Paxton, a Republican, who, this year, also passed a law banning the use of [non-disclosure agreements for sexual abuse survivors](https://www.texastribune.org/paid-post/treys-law-frees-sex-abuse-victims-to-tell-their-stories/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Willis credits much of this bill’s success to a massive social media campaign, which drew endorsements from women like [Monica Lewinsky](https://www.instagram.com/p/DJtwI5LO4xx/?hl=en&ref=thebarbedwire.com), Katie Couric, and Christy Turlington. Also standing behind her: Sky and Amanda Roberts, the brother and sister-in-law of the late Virginia Giuffre, one of the most vocal survivors of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. And part of the momentum, of course, came from Willis herself. “Change takes time,” Willis told *The Barbed Wire*, “but if you have a story, that can ignite change. I kept on asking myself, ‘How can I be a story to carry this bill forward?’” By the time it passed, House Bill 3073 had amassed swaths of bipartisan support. In late May, on the very last day the Senate could consider House bills, legislators had heard 22 of the 88 pending bills; Willis’s was not one of them. The Senate had 30 minutes until it would adjourn for the night and all unheard legislation would die with it. Willis and her sons, waiting by the television, had been watching the whole day. And then, right down to the wire, the bill was read. And it passed — unanimously. “That made me really, really proud to be a Texan,” Willis said. “We did the impossible, I think.” And while Gov. Greg Abbott would sign it into law just weeks later, the bill didn’t progress without a series of edits and compromises first. In particular, two introduced changes were struck from the final version of the law: withdrawal, which would have clarified that consent can be withdrawn at any point, and a legal precedent called the “reasonable person standard.” The “reasonable person standard” asks the jury to place themselves at the scene of the crime, in the shoes of a reasonable person. It’s a legal precedent often used in self-defense cases like robberies or home invasions. In sexual assault cases, this standard would prompt juries to weigh whether an offender took advantage of a victim — or, if a reasonable person should know they hadn’t received consent. “Why do we define reasonable standards for all these other legal definitions, but not for sexual assault?” Oswald, who testified alongside Willis in support of the bill in March, told *The Barbed Wire*. “My wallet and my purse have more protections than my genitalia,” she continued, “because you've already defined consent from there, but not for me.” But, Oswald said that neither of these eliminations will have significant consequences for how state prosecutors operate. For example, a myriad of previous cases have already set a legal precedent that consent can be withdrawn anytime — but the challenge is getting that practice written into law. “A lot of these things don't change the way that we're prosecuting here in Harris, because right now, we find ways around,” Oswald said. “We just look at the way that (laws are) worded and say, ‘I can argue it this way.’” She continued: “Will this change in wording “hopefully make it a little bit more streamlined? Sure. Did it make it perfect? No.” It’s a similar case for the reasonable person standard, where New says the burden of proof won’t look too different either way: “How do you prove what someone knew?” Whether or not that particular provision passed, prosecutors would still have to pinpoint specific evidence of outward intoxication — such as slurred speech or difficulty walking — to prove, “beyond a reasonable doubt,” that the offender knew his victim couldn’t consent. “The standard is just a little higher,” New said. ### ‘Is That Going to Be Enough?’ Prosecutors’ next task is in a courtroom: litigating cases under the brand-new statute and testing the waters in front of a judge or jury. “In the cases (that don’t) neatly fit into an enumeration, and I go forward under ‘consent didn’t exist,’ is that going to be enough?” Oswald said. “Or is the appellate court going to say, ‘No, this isn’t sufficient.’” “That’s always a scary process, to try a case under an un-litigated statute,” she continued. “You don’t know if it’s going to get punted back … Then I have to come back and tell a Summer Willis, or my complainant, ‘Hey, it didn’t work.’” “I met many survivors who have gone through the hard crawl (of) depression and PTSD and finding healthy relationships again,” Willis said. “It’s just so important to make sure that even if sexual assault happens to this next generation … they don’t have to go through the same thing that I went through.” But, concerns about current attitudes toward sexual assault loom large — and, despite legislative wins like the Summer Willis Act, may still dissaude victims from pursuing justice. “I just don’t feel like this administration, in the state or the nation, is all that friendly to women,” Oswald said. “Sexual assault victims are looking at large cases, the Epstein case … the way the P. Diddy case was tried. I’ve had at least three complainants mention that to me.” “Over the last several decades, people report more often than they used to,” Harris County assistant district attorney Jay Gordon told *The Barbed Wire*. “Not because of necessarily changes in the law, but changes in attitudes.” In the immediate aftermath of the MeToo movement’s zenith in 2017, sex crime reports spiked 14% across 24 countries, and 7% in the U.S., according to a [Yale University-funded study](https://download.ssrn.com/2025/5/25/3496903.pdf?response-content-disposition=inline&X-Amz-Security-Token=IQoJb3JpZ2luX2VjEOL%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2FwEaCXVzLWVhc3QtMSJGMEQCIHYPhkR7uCA7d7nn0j%2B997SiJhcqEGwDrMhsXA0M79PqAiBZFOZDBVpa7E3mqoNrZQ7ic7LEYQXTOR1ATDajheQ3Iyq9BQhLEAQaDDMwODQ3NTMwMTI1NyIMlUwKHeYdK44O67O%2FKpoF4K4B8oa8WEeNY%2Flscqoy1C6s7HJ5y8wLJaqq%2Folx8i0YABsRwejEQuJ0VGlV0qmY4FkG9zbnk7drf67Wenh4yDL3%2Ba10t%2BHvxG0kpazIbYqFiAfwyvUovS0IzdNsPj6ySf4lVWdu%2FNWGDDTgErqrBBR1kHOW3sVyAaXFXdj6aexEVVqArU%2BhdQZc7eG82fbg2TxBancCdnByYDfylJAqvSfJEbgtWKRZaa32LyGvPzBuqvb1kT%2BbdIFCeljc6zGazXb4ZvN2y4HPDJHVuQ9EE0FnqMoa3DaeC3nbdiBm30kyUqgS81FZ%2FEMSr8ilhki%2FRC%2FfCbpOdL2Hz5nNbAEf5S1mEfN6VCwzetbPb%2Br3I3XhuAMztTqbjkKA7MlcRsmajqpHLG%2FxJLTF3yV8DX4j9Z7E%2FCZ84Ps6lcNTCGcMh8qpxctgfL8wD1ib1aKtHJY8q0XlnhX%2F9mzFvY8CZHQ2HKMAazpmm4j1%2Bbjd%2FFgvjdL86eVLIkpkE%2BHo9iZL6c9AMBVvtCv31d52972rOklJ9geccDlgHVm9wbqW363x39d3KFVu8924ew6A0S98i5RV0kO2uqHmkTFzLwZ%2Biv4TVQ7qn9M1f1vnvoh%2Bno3Rzj%2F65qvDtnS442zlp1BOVKoKK23cKHFexlU6gStHcUHPD9f4oucBaSweFCFAgoKw8jUyI8DbE04J6%2Bkgn47TCJbiRswITuErPrlqj%2B3jo2%2FxFi8wr2w7VWT1nbvjpJ5f9lxQzOJsdlE6DGU%2FMh7yUXrI26RnkIZxsnK6iQyC1K5qdOuitYR9G1qnvNuxR0x3Rk10srNDr7RshMyGwdS1OwuEWSC%2BFTbOgqvDw6kxvoRlI%2FeRSy29JbrneH7vVZdFE5EQnd4Zv%2FZwcS1bMLj64cUGOrIBL3wPain0Lo5HV2pUlmkOs1QMHKypwfbc1qVLeyxO5I%2F%2F0DE1mB79jtE2n4TvvckL60WiXSjK6J3Ly431QWq%2B%2BZQVkY05HosNGq5vBJp0PKGj7XyujpqaSsrepURLe8ADMkVYrtkAb5aMeLS%2BSapgVTkED%2BGu1jC%2Fc64GBAwD7DldjGAQhVkSBBufsfk2A3thhpl2bQq4PEWMrixOKHv8DJjg9Yywyw18PtoMiyaXVhv5sQ%3D%3D&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Date=20250903T183209Z&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Expires=300&X-Amz-Credential=ASIAUPUUPRWEXQNLOMAX%2F20250903%2Fus-east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4%5Frequest&X-Amz-Signature=05eab73838215f6be461841e794d0a15a3f90625c417c0d606a291be5d3ebdbd&abstractId=3496903&ref=thebarbedwire.com) published in 2019\. Those numbers reflect a much larger reality about sexual assault, misconduct, and pursuing justice: It happens in the public eye. Optimistically, Willis accepts this reality. “I think that people are good and they want to do good,” she said. “They just don't necessarily know what's going on, especially at state politics. And by letting the everyday person know that this is happening, that was our biggest success. Getting the community behind us.” She recounts a story from one of her interns, whose grandmother broke into tears when she learned about the bill. “After a lifetime,” she finally confessed to her family that she had been assaulted when she was young, Willis said. “Having a win, having a victory for survivors,” she added, “gives a lot of people hope that there will be change.” ### ‘Nanny Dan Lost, Y’all’: Texans Celebrate THC Ban’s (Third) Failure URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/thc-texas-ban/ Last updated: 2025-09-04T15:27:06.000Z Apparently banning weed gummies is harder than outlawing women’s rights, because THC is still legal in Texas. State lawmakers wrapped up their latest special session Wednesday night without passing the Senate’s proposal to ban nearly all THC products, leaving hemp-derived cannabis on shelves across the state — at least until Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick convinces Gov. Greg Abbott to drag everyone back for another round of “Reefer Madness: Texas Edition.” Patrick, [who rarely loses a legislative battle](https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/dan-patrick-texas-senate-2023/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), announced that the ban wouldn’t make it out of the recently concluded special session. “After long discussions last night between the Governor, Speaker, and me on THC, and continued hours of discussion today, we were not able to come to a resolution,” Patrick said [in a social media post](https://x.com/LtGovTX/status/1963421835485229067?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Wednesday night. Online, people welcomed the bill’s [“incredible”](https://x.com/Jayyaye1403001/status/1963484270560792746?ref=thebarbedwire.com) failure as a [“victory,”](https://x.com/johnburk39/status/1963430504931250631?ref=thebarbedwire.com) noting [that](https://bsky.app/profile/rariel81.bsky.social/post/3lxzcutbmd22v?ref=thebarbedwire.com) “sometimes incompetence is welcome” and celebrating by [announcing](https://bsky.app/profile/lightzowtvt.bsky.social/post/3lxyhrzo7q22d?ref=thebarbedwire.com), “lemme smoke a lil more before bed.” > [](https://twitter.com/EvilMopacATX/status/1963448615491227715?ref=thebarbedwire.com) But the anti-good times forces may not be done yet (they never are). Patrick has said that he expects Abbott to call another special session to deal with unfinished business (namely, flood relief), [according to Capitol reporter Scott Braddock](https://x.com/scottbraddock/status/1963472453838971388?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The fight over THC has become one of the sharpest disagreements between Patrick and Abbott. [Patrick and the Senate have repeatedly pushed for a full ban](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-thc-ban-dan-patrick/) on products containing any trace of cannabinoids [other than CBD and CBG](https://legiscan.com/TX/text/SB6/id/3265619?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the non-intoxicating compounds in cannabis. Abbott, meanwhile, [vetoed the ban](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/greg-abbott-thc-ban/) after the regular session and has argued instead for limiting THC sales to people 21 and older while keeping the market regulated for adults. The Senate has passed its version of the ban three times this year, most recently during the second special session. But when the [bill landed in the House, it stalled](https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/texas-thc-ban-fails-to-advance-in-2nd-special-session/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). > [](https://twitter.com/RealTomPetrini/status/1963428103612489920?ref=thebarbedwire.com) That delay leaves thousands of CBD shops across Texas still in business, for now. Over the past decade, retailers have flourished by selling hemp-derived cannabis products with varying amounts of THC. Patrick [has harrumphed about those products, calling them unsafe](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-thc-ban-dan-patrick/) and accusing shops of targeting both children and adults. In May, he threw them at the Capitol press corps in anger (which was hilarious). For now, the standoff means Texas law remains unchanged and THC products derived from hemp remain widely available, [save for vape pens](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/09/02/texas-thc-vape-pen-sale-ban/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). > [](https://twitter.com/KnightTimeTX/status/1963424827072520642?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Still, THC consumers and advocates reveled in the news. “NANNY DANNY LOST YALL, HEMP THC IS SAFE IN TEXAS FOR ANOTHER 2 YEARS, LETS FUCKING GOOOOOO,” [one user posted](https://x.com/KnightTimeTX/status/1963424827072520642?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “Next step is to see if @GregAbbott\_TX calls a special session 3 for hemp thc,” [the pro THC group Texas Cannabis Collective posted on X](https://x.com/txcannaco/status/1963462730964201569?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “If they couldn’t negotiate over a regular and two special sessions, a third is incredibly unlikely.” > [](https://twitter.com/SallyForTexas/status/1963585996387127479?ref=thebarbedwire.com) ### I Almost Died After Giving Birth. Texas Just Made That More Likely for Everyone. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/i-almost-died-after-giving-birth-texas-just-made-that-more-likely-for-everyone/ Last updated: 2025-09-04T00:40:52.000Z I remember the moment my world went sideways: My daughter had just been born, warm against my chest, when the room shifted from joy to panic. I was hemorrhaging. My placenta was not delivering as it should. I kept asking, “Are we going to the OR?” Minutes stretched into an hour. Cabinets slammed. People rushed. I thought, *I am going to die, and I won’t even get to name my child.* I survived — barely. I needed a procedure that, in normal circumstances, is routine and fast. Instead, I waited while blood gushed out on my hospital bed. Afterward, I learned what many Texans already know: Care that should be straightforward becomes confusing and delayed when politics wedges itself between doctors and their patients. That day turned me from a grateful new mom into a reluctant witness. It shouldn’t take nearly dying to understand that [in Texas, the simplest reproductive care](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-women-invisible-labor-abortion-bans/) — care used for miscarriages, for preventing hemorrhage, for clearing the uterus — [is treated with suspicion](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-women-invisible-labor-abortion-bans/) by politicians with zero medical training. And now lawmakers led by the Texas GOP want to supercharge that fear. [Let’s call House Bill 7](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-women-invisible-labor-abortion-bans/) what it is: an attack on maternal health. House Bill 7, The Women and Child Protection Act, does not protect anyone. Instead, it will cause clinicians to second guess if they can use the very tools needed to keep patients alive — the same medications and procedures used every day to control bleeding after delivery, manage miscarriages, and avoid sepsis. If you punish the people who prescribe, dispense, or even discuss those tools, care gets slower and sloppier. In obstetrics, [delays are critical](https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2025/08/abortion-ban-maternity-care/683957/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). They result in blood loss, infection, hysterectomies, and funerals. What does that mean in real life? A pharmacist hesitates and a postpartum mom bleeds longer. A hospital lawyer needs to sign-off and a D&C gets delayed. A miscarriage patient is told to “come back sicker” so the paperwork is cleaner. House Bill 7 doesn’t create safety — it creates second-guessing in the hour when minutes matter most. I’ve heard people say, “Well, abortion doesn’t affect me.” It’s hard to hear that and not think of the blood pooling under my body while I waited for a basic procedure. This isn’t theoretical. The same medications and techniques labeled “abortion” are often the fastest, safest way to treat complications after childbirth and miscarriage. If you’ve ever needed care after birth — control a hemorrhage, remove retained placenta, treat an incomplete miscarriage — you’ve already relied on the very care House Bill 7 puts under threat. I’m writing this not only as a mother who almost didn’t make it home, but on behalf of the families across Texas who have carried trauma we never asked for: dads who watched partners fade to gray while lawyers debated; grandparents who stood in neonatal units, praying their daughters would be believed; siblings who learned too early what words like “hemorrhage,” “sepsis,” and “D&C” mean. We are signing our names to say we will not accept another law that multiplies fear, confusion, and delay in the moments where every second counts. That’s why families across Texas have joined me in signing a letter to Gov. Greg Abbott begging him to veto this bill — families who know firsthand what it means to live under Texas’s abortion bans. You can read that full letter [here](https://www.freeandjust.us/letter-to-gov-abbott?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Gov. Abbott, I wish I could take you into the room with me — to smell the antiseptic, to hear the monitors, to feel the tilt from wonder to terror. I wish you could meet the nurse who squeezed my hand, the anesthesiologist who cracked a joke that didn’t land because I couldn’t stop shaking. I wish you could see my husband’s face as they wheeled me out of the delivery room not knowing if he’d ever see me again. I wish you could know the miracle of waking up and hearing someone say the words, “You’re okay.” But I also wish you could see what happens after: the bills, the nightmares, the way ordinary errands — pharmacy, pediatrician, obstetric follow-ups — start to feel like checkpoints you have to clear. The way your mind rehearses what you’ll say if someone questions your prescriptions or your intentions: I’m a mom. I’m trying to stay alive. Please just let me take care of my family. Some Texas leaders have tried to patch the holes the bans ripped open, offering “clarifications” that doctors don’t have to wait until we’re at death’s door. If that were enough, I wouldn’t be writing this. The reality on the ground — the second-guessing, the paperwork, the fear of litigation — doesn’t vanish with a press release. HB 7 hard-codes hesitation into maternal care, and hesitation is the enemy of safe obstetrics. I love this state. My friends are here. My family is here. My daughter will grow up here. Loving Texas means telling the truth about what our laws are doing to us — and refusing to add another one that turns neighbors into informants and medical care into a courtroom exhibit. Gov. Abbott, I am begging you to not sign House Bill 7\. Veto the bill — not just to protect privacy or pharmacy counters, but to protect maternal health in Texas. Let doctors treat bleeding without a lawyer. Let pharmacists fill prescriptions without a courtroom in the back of their minds. Let families bring parents home from the hospital. I nearly died bringing my daughter into the world. I’m grateful I didn’t. I’m also determined that no other parent, no other grandparent, no other sibling, will ever have to wonder if the law is the reason their loved one didn’t make it home. Veto this bill. Let families live. *Editor’s note: The views and opinions presented by guest contributors to The Barbed Wire do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the company, the newsroom, its staff, advisers, or advertisers.* ### A Study Concluded There’s No ‘Rainy Street Ripper.’ People Still Don't Believe It. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/no-rainey-street-ripper-conspiracy/ Last updated: 2025-09-02T21:25:01.000Z After years of speculation and international headlines, [a new study](https://digital.library.txst.edu/items/86182f1f-3e7f-4ee5-8f41-ab446c35aeb5?ref=thebarbedwire.com) by Texas State University criminologists and the Austin Police Department has concluded the “Rainey Street Ripper” — a purported serial killer targeting Austin men on the edges of Lady Bird Lake — isn’t real. At least 21 bodies have been recovered from the lake since 2018, reported the [*Austin American-Statesman*](https://www.statesman.com/news/crime/article/lady-bird-lake-rumored-serial-killer-study-20784851.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). As more bodies were pulled from the lake over the years, the rumor of a serial killer became widespread and passionate, resurfacing [in 2023](https://www.statesman.com/story/news/local/2023/04/04/austin-police-say-no-evidence-of-foul-play-in-lady-bird-lake-deaths/70078998007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) before spreading in recent months to [Fox News](https://www.foxnews.com/us/serial-killer-fears-grip-texas-community-after-dozens-bodies-pulled-from-lake-cannot-ignored?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [Nancy Grace](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nKLjIVah6I&ref=thebarbedwire.com), [*BuzzFeed*](https://www.buzzfeed.com/crystalro/serial-killer-austin-texas?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [*Newsweek*](https://www.newsweek.com/texas-serial-killer-fears-after-38-bodies-found-lake-2081826?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and at least *three* stories in [*The Daily Mail*](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13373887/Rainey-street-ripper-austin-serial-killer-ghb-survivor.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com)*.* MySA [reported](https://www.mysanantonio.com/lifestyle/article/lady-bird-lake-rainey-street-ripper-austin-20276786.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that an Arkansas woman created a Facebook group called [“The Lady Bird Lake Serial Killer”](https://www.facebook.com/groups/778776520635146) in February 2023, which has now grown to more than 92,000 members. Various viral TikTok [videos spotlighting](https://www.tiktok.com/@tyler.oliveira/video/7407948782400179486?ref=thebarbedwire.com) the theory of the “Rainey Street Ripper” have garnered [more than 44,000 likes](https://www.tiktok.com/@crimewithkourt/video/7381166501895621931?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and hundreds of comments. Despite the spread of the theory online, Austin police have for years remained consistent that there was no evidence of a serial killer. Now, Texas State’s study has concluded the same — that there is “neither direct evidence nor indirect warning signs of a serial murderer.” Texas State’s Center for Geospatial Intelligence and Investigation analyzed 189 drowning cases from 2004 to 2025, and the report found they match historical patterns and the average risk of drowning in a growing city the size of Austin. “The theory that a serial killer is drowning men from Austin’s Rainey Street District has been advanced by social and mainstream media for over two years now,” the study’s authors wrote. “Much of this coverage has criticized the failure of authorities to recognize the threat of a violent offender. But while police must properly respond to the risk of a predator, it is also important they not waste limited resources pursuing a criminal who does not exist.” While the report required the team to work in cooperation with the Austin Police Department, the analysis was completely independent and involved an “evidence-based and scientific study of the data, for the purpose of understanding the nature and cause of these incidents and any possible connection to a serial killer,” according to its abstract. “There is no serial killer,” said Sgt. Nathan Sexton, of Austin Police Department’s homicide unit, [in an interview with KXAN](https://www.kxan.com/investigations/serial-murder-researcher-dispels-lady-bird-lake-drowning-rumors/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) this week. “The unfortunate deaths that happen for a city this size are consistent with a population this size and a body of water that runs right down the middle of it.” One of the study’s authors, serial killer expert Dr. Kim Rossmo, [told the station](https://www.kxan.com/investigations/serial-murder-researcher-dispels-lady-bird-lake-drowning-rumors/?ref=thebarbedwire.com): “Hopefully, this will allow for a more moderate and rational discussion. That’s going to get us as close to the truth as possible.” Judging by social media traffic, that’s not likely, even after the study. In [the comments section](https://www.instagram.com/p/DOGtA76DAWY/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for the *Statesman*’s story on Instagram, dozens of people remained unconvinced. In fact, the majority of the nearly 100 comments expressed an unwillingness to believe the new study — and a reassertion of the conspiracy that police might themselves be involved. “That’s because it’s a cop,” wrote @lamandamb. In just five hours, more than 200 people had liked her comment. “We have investigated ourselves and determined we’ve done nothing wrong,” wrote @3lucyd. “That’s because the call is coming from inside the house,” wrote @justbaugh. On X, [@BaronVnOttomatc wrote](https://x.com/BaronVnOttomatc/status/1962889943207776526?ref=thebarbedwire.com), “Of course, that's what they want you to believe.” Others wrote “Sure, Jan…” or posted [the meme from “The Brady Bunch.”](https://www.vulture.com/2015/01/20-years-after-its-release-a-very-brady-meme.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) In KXAN’s [Instagram comments](https://www.instagram.com/p/DOG%5Fj5YDzcg/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the tone was much the same. “I’m not saying this doesn’t make sense, but I am saying that throughout history, police and city officials have deliberately lied about a serial killer in order to not cause a panic,” wrote @mr.silveira98. “I’m not buying what you’re sellin sir,” wrote @csnively. Others referenced the show “Dexter,” the series about a blood splatter expert who solves murders — and also commits them. “I think there have been enough instances in high profile cases where the police, quite frankly, have screwed up, that it makes people very suspicious already,” UT professor and crime historian Kate Winsler Dawson [told MySA](https://www.mysanantonio.com/lifestyle/article/lady-bird-lake-rainey-street-ripper-austin-20276786.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com), when rumors of a serial killer were flying around in April of this year. “But I certainly think over the years the trust in the police has eroded for many different reasons.” But not everyone turned on the Austin Police Department. In fact, some pointed their skepticism toward Texas State and the study’s authors. As [@JeffOnVacation wrote on Blue Sky](https://bsky.app/profile/jeffonvacation.bsky.social/post/3lxuhyeps2s2x?ref=thebarbedwire.com), “So, the 'Rainey Street Ripper' works at Texas State.” That same sentiment was shared by [@wise\_sarcasm on Threads](https://www.threads.com/@wise%5Fsarcasm/post/DOGq-LQDlyU?xmt=AQF0cxvcG4xlvQzYRtMrgXC8-%5Fp-8ysdE4UIk5uVaLiH4A&ref=thebarbedwire.com), who wrote, “Murderer must have just started classes at Texas state this fall.” The study’s authors reported that the number of drownings was largely a result of the city’s growing population, the popularity of visiting Lady Bird Lake, and the boom in nearby bars and nightclubs. “While the shores of the Colorado River are not being stalked by a serial killer, the hazards of drowning in Texas remain a concern,” said the report. “Online forums and media headlines have exaggerated the number of deaths by using longer time periods, larger geographic areas, and vaguer definitions of ‘suspicious,’” the study’s authors wrote. “But any analysis lacking information integrity has little validity.” The authors also noted that news reporting on the story, particularly by Fox News and *The Daily Mail*, had been both sensational and reliant upon “the opinions of unqualified experts and others who ignored due diligence,” with too little attention paid “to the dangers of revictimization of family members” of the people killed in the drownings. “These fabrications have costs in the real world, wasting valuable resources that could be deployed to help solve actual crimes,” said the study. “To provide perspective, the cost of a serial murder investigation is typically in the tens of millions of dollars. Currently, Texas has 23,000 cold case homicides — actual crimes that have not been solved.” Despite all that evidence, for the commenters who disbelieve the police and the study’s authors, the prevailing opinion seemed to be that a serial killer was still lurking in Austin. But it wasn’t completely unanimous. As @olvera\_mista wrote on KXAN’s [Instagram post](https://www.instagram.com/p/DOG%5Fj5YDzcg/?ref=thebarbedwire.com): “Alll these comments. Y’all want serial killer clout so bad for the city.” ### I Can’t Believe I’m Saying This, But the Cowboys Documentary Made Me Like Jerry Jones URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/jerry-jones-cowboys-documentary/ Last updated: 2025-09-02T17:02:41.000Z I grew up hating the Dallas Cowboys. Actually, “hate” is not a strong enough word. Detested? Loathed with the heat of a thousand suns? If you were around in the ’90s, you had no choice but to have a strong opinion about them. They were cocky, they were very good at football, and worst of all, they were inescapable. In Texas, they were bigger than Jesus Christ, capitalism, gun ownership, and a lifted Ford F-150 all rolled into one. If you lived on Texas soil, you couldn’t escape them. You could try, but “HOW ‘BOUT THEM COWBOYS” would still track you down, hogtie you, and demand tribute. As a kid, every fiber of my just-moved-to-Texas soul despised them. But hating them was like hating a mountain. You could do it, but who cares? Enter the new Netflix documentary, “America's Team: The Gambler and His Cowboys.”I watched all eight hour-long episodes, fully primed for some delicious hate watching, only to realize how inextricable they were from my formative years. Even worse, I sincerely regret to report that, as the years have gone by, my feelings toward the Cowboys have actually *softened*. The things I used to detest — especially their stupid drawling owner, Jerry Jones — I’ve come to begrudgingly appreciate, like a loud uncle who’ll give you a swig of his Coors if you don’t tell your mom. They’ve been there my whole life, at least the parts that stand out the most. I have so many memories tied to this team. Let me take you back to the glorious late ‘80s, when the Cowboys sucked. The Super Bowl teams of a decade prior were long gone, replaced with the “Cowgirls,” as every adult around me called them. One season, I bet a friend that they’d win, max, a single game. I won. It was in this halcyon environment that Jerry bought the team in 1989, when I was in junior high. This was not popular, to put it mildly. People were furious; they complained endlessly about him. I’m 49 now, and people are *still* complaining about Jerry Jones. He’s been with us forever. Steadfast, and extravagantly wealthy, no matter how hated. He’s basically our Queen Elizabeth. But Jerry Jones’ kingdom is the Cowboys, which makes him far more powerful than any British monarch. This despite the fact that he’s an interloper [from Arkansas](https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/nov/30/jerry-jones-little-rock-and-the-photo-the-cowboys-owner-juked-for-decades?ref=thebarbedwire.com) who bought the team, swept away the old guard (including beloved coach Tom Landry), and brought in his own people. He didn’t care that people hated him. He was busy making moves. The best move he made was hiring coach Jimmy Johnson, who replaced Landry and promptly built a dynasty out of scrap metal. The team traded star running back Herschel Walker to Minnesota in exchange for a mountain of draft picks, giving them the ammo to build one of the greatest teams of all time. And boy, howdy, did it work. They quickly started winning, culminating in two Super Bowls, back to back in 1993 and 1994. Seemingly overnight, the Cowboys were everywhere: commercials, talk shows, video games, grocery store checkout lines. I can still name almost every player on those damned teams. I still remember that Troy Aikman’s favorite last-ditch target was tight end Jay Novacek, who always came though on a third down conversion, specifically to crush my Cowboy-hating soul. And success, as always, has a million parents. Who gets credit for building that Cowboys dynasty is still a matter of debate. Jerry says it was him. Jimmy feels otherwise. And judging by the documentary, they’re *still* arguing about it. Their partnership started to show cracks when Jerry mouthed off to reporters, saying that [500 coaches could have coached the Cowboys](https://www.jacksonville.com/story/sports/nfl/2010/04/18/after-covert-video-cowboys-owner-jerry-jones-damage-control-mode/15949357007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Naturally, Johnson did not appreciate this. Which led to an old interview, dug up for the documentary, where the two are uncomfortably sitting side by side. The reporter asks Jimmy, “Do you respect Jerry Jones’ football knowledge?” And Jimmy, God bless him, basically said, “Nope.” And that was that. Jerry’s pride couldn’t take someone working for him who wasn’t forever in ass-kissing mode. So, in one of the dumbest, most self-destructive moves in sports history, he ran off the coach who had just won him *two straight Super Bowls*. From then on, Jerry was in full control, free to make every dumbass football decision that Jimmy would have blocked. It’s like when you finally move out of your parents’ house and realize you can eat ice cream for dinner every night. It’s fun until you gain 20 pounds. Jerry’s been eating ice cream for dinner since 1994. It’s Shakespeare. The clearest possible case of “be careful what you wish for.” (That’s not Shakespeare, but you know what I mean). An ego devouring everything until there was nothing left to eat. Case in point: News broke last week that Jones had traded the team’s best player, superstar rusher Micah Parsons, because he didn’t want to pay him. In fact, ESPN [published a report](https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/%5F/id/46128962/micah-parsons-trade-dallas-cowboys-green-bay-packers-2025-nfl-season?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Tuesday revealing that Parsons made one final effort to stay with the Cowboys, which was flatly denied [by Jones.](https://www.si.com/nfl/micah-parsons-trade-is-proof-jerry-jones-should-no-longer-lead-cowboys?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Anyway — shocker — most people think the trade was a [terrible deal](https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6582767/2025/08/28/micah-parsons-trade-grades-packers-cowboys/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)! Still, in the immediate aftermath of Johnson’s departure, the team was so good, they *still* managed to win another ring with Johnson’s leftovers in 1996\. Three Super Bowls in four years. Everyone hailed them as the next big dynasty. But without Johnson running things, the center could not hold. Everything spectacularly went to shit: [cocaine trials](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-07-16-sp-24622-story.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [assaults](https://keyj.com/michael-irvin-once-stabbed-a-teammate/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [tabloid chaos](https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/1997/08/05/switzer-arrested-after-pistol-found-in-bag-at-dfw-airport/62306811007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), you name it. For his part, Johnson went on to a cushy broadcast career, and while he participated in the documentary, he has said he thinks it’s [skewed towards Jerry’s interpretation of things](https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/jimmy-johnson-hints-that-netflix-cowboys-documentary-skews-in-favor-of-jerry-jones-version-of-the-truth/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Still. There’s always been that haunting “what if.” How many could they have won together? Five? Six? Twenty? Since then, the Cowboys have had good seasons but never great ones. A handful of playoff wins, no more. So why do I feel for Jerry Jones now? Because, despite him being a shitty rapacious billionaire who [cannot stand dissent](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/cowboys-owner-threatens-to-fire-radio-hosts-because-his-team-sucks/), I understand his point of view. *It’s his fucking team*. He’s the one who mortgaged his family’s future to buy a floundering NFL franchise. He’s the one who turned it into a [global juggernaut](https://www.si.com/nfl/cowboys/news/dallas-cowboys-most-google-searches-international?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — the most [valuable team in all of sports](https://www.forbes.com/sites/brettknight/2024/12/12/the-worlds-50-most-valuable-sports-teams-2024/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), in a league the rest of the world doesn’t even care about. And it would take another 1,500 words to get into the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, which Jones and his daughter Charlotte have turned into a [$50 million](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/dallas-cowboys-cheerleaders-show-value-1236347899/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) brand entity all their own. Jones is the one who turned [$140 million of borrowed money into $13 billion](https://dallas.culturemap.com/news/entertainment/cowboys-value-13-billion-forbes/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Sure, has he [paid a (suspected) love child money, instead of taking a paternity test](https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/dallas-cowboys-jerry-jones-paternity-case-resolution/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)? Has he [cavorted with strippers](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2721817/Married-Dallas-Cowboys-owner-Jerry-Jones-insists-photos-showing-strippers-five-years-ago-misrepresented-breaks-silence-scandal.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) as a married man? As the saying goes, there are no good billionaires. But I love that he’s a Southern-fried huckster at heart — the dude grew up dancing for customers in his parents’ grocery store, got a master’s degree in business, and never looked back. He understood before anyone that the Cowboys weren’t just a football team, they’re a brand. That’s why they’re always in the headlines, always in the spotlight. Other teams have drama too ([I’m a Saints fan, trust me](https://www.si.com/nfl/2016/05/20/ap-us-benson-deposition?ref=thebarbedwire.com)), but Jerry makes sure the cameras are rolling when it happens. And boy, does it work. The Cowboys are still the [most popular football team](https://www.sacbee.com/sports/article294706504.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in the U.S., despite being aggressively mid for the last 30 years. Stephen A. Smith will spend time every day talking about the Cowboys, even if they have a grand total of two wins. That's because of Jerry Jones. So, why shouldn’t he call the shots? It’s his room, his toys, and we’re just the kids he invited over. If he wants to fire the coach, then by God and Jesus and Ronald Reagan, he gets to fire the coach. He gets to make the fuckups even if he’s still dealing with the fallout of his original fuckup all these years later. Which brings us to now: both Jerry and Jimmy are 82\. And they’re still themselves, but less so. Time dulls the edges. And the grudges don’t seem as sharp when you’re staring down the end of the road. They make up at the end of the documentary. (And yet, even decades later, you still hear Jerry grumble about who really pulled off the Herschel Walker trade. And I love that so much.) Because that’s life. We all get old, we all have regrets, and we all wonder about the mountains we almost climbed. If you’re Jerry Jones, you’re left alone in a room, surrounded by your trophies and toys, with a building full of people still telling you how great you are — and a lifetime of “what ifs” you’ll never quite shake. And while I’ll never love the Cowboys, I don’t hate them anymore, either. I’ve gotten older, too. ### Texas Is Already Dangerous for Pregnancies. This New ‘Bounty Hunter’ Law Will Make It Even Worse. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-women-invisible-labor-abortion-bans/ Last updated: 2025-09-01T15:36:06.000Z *UPDATE: On Tuesday, the Texas Senate approved House Bill 7, which will incentivize people to bring $100,000 lawsuits against anyone who makes, sends, or transports abortion medication in Texas, regardless of where they’re located. The bill is headed to the governor to be signed into law. This story has been updated to reflect the development.* Five years ago, when Felisa Yzaguirre became a licensed certified professional midwife in Texas, she couldn’t imagine a time when she wouldn’t deeply connect with the ceremony of birth, as she calls it. The Xicana indigenous El Paso native felt it was her ancestral calling to step into the practice after having her own child. She was excited to support Spanish-speaking providers as a community midwife rooted in traditional indigenous practice and focused on de-colonizing midwifery. She began attending births in 2014 as part of her studies, helping pregnant patients through hours and hours of labor. But working as a midwife for the last three years in Texas — under some of the [country’s most restrictive abortion bans](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-abortion-laws-national-ban/) — has meant taking on a new invisible labor. Every woman and femme understands the weight of invisible labor. The little unpaid tasks that live rent-free in your brain: knowing what’s in the fridge, locating that piece of paper that was on the counter for months, cleaning the forgotten place behind the toilet, making grocery lists, remembering everyone’s schedules (not just your own), watering the plants, planning the family’s birthday presents, researching doctors, building community and friends. “Invisible labor” is a term coined to describe the countless, often unnoticed, necessary duties (primarily) women take [on both at home](https://www.oprahdaily.com/life/a64781694/what-is-invisible-labor/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [in the workplace](https://www.inc.com/kit-eaton/why-womens-invisible-labor-is-costing-businesses-billions/91218487?ref=thebarbedwire.com). It often takes the form of unrewarded and unrecognized emotional work and project management that quietly prevents the home and office from falling apart — and it’s why so many women, particularly working moms, are run ragged. Reproductive healthcare, including abortions, has been increasingly described as “invisible labor” to “highlight the critical work undertaken by abortion providers not only to comply with regulations, but also to minimize the burden that new laws impose on patients,” according to [one study in the National Library of Medicine](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4999072/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “This labor provides a crucial bridge in the preservation of abortion access.” As the writer Hannah Giorgis said in [*The Atlantic*](https://www.theatlantic.com/books/archive/2024/06/invisible-labor-book-review/678723/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)*,* Rachel Somerstein’s book “[Invisible Labor: The Untold Story of the Cesarean Section](https://bookshop.org/p/books/invisible-labor-the-untold-story-of-the-cesarean-section-rachel-somerstein/20370218?ref=thebarbedwire.com)” posits “that the U.S. health-care system has come to devalue the importance of human touch, relationship building, and interpersonal support.” In Texas, that invisible labor is even heavier. In recent years, anxiety, confusion, and legal fears have left many women wondering if the risk of pregnancy is worth their own lives. And many midwives and other healthcare providers have questioned if they can keep going in Texas. “I've had to take a break because of the extreme level of need and witnessing so much that people are living through has really, just like left me in a place of burnout,” Yzaguirre said*.* “The need is so high.” This Labor Day, typically a day of rest for America’s workers, represents a chance to spotlight the quiet, grueling work reproductive healthcare workers — and their patients — have taken on [under Texas abortion bans](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/abortion-conference-texas-motherhood/). It is just one of the consequences of a cruel conservative movement: The more dangerous pregnancy is for Texans, the more laborious. And the more of a professional and emotional toll caregiving takes on healthcare providers. Coincidentally, Monday also marks four years since the state banned abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected, usually around six weeks. The law, passed in 2021, made Texas the first state in the country with a bounty hunter abortion ban, which [incentivizes citizens with a cash “bounty”](https://www.npr.org/2022/07/11/1107741175/texas-abortion-bounty-law?ref=thebarbedwire.com) if they succeed in suing anyone who has helped a person get an abortion. Last week also marked three years since Texas’ trigger ban outlawed almost all abortions in the state when Roe v Wade was overturned. In the years since those laws were enacted, data, research, and reporting have shown that [infant deaths rose considerably](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-true-cost-of-texas-abortion-ban-rising-deaths-abandoned-babies-fewer-doctors/), as did the maternal mortality rate, cases of sepsis, and [mental health distress in women and teens](https://www.axios.com/local/san-antonio/2025/06/25/texas-abortion-ban-mental-health-jama-study?ref=thebarbedwire.com), not to mention the [$15 billion in expected economic losses for women and businesses](https://iwpr.org/texas-abortion-ban-and-other-restrictions-cost-the-state-economy-almost-15-billion-per-year/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=Texas%20Abortion%20Ban%20and%20Other%20Restrictions%20Cost,for%20women%20and%20businesses%20in%20the%20state.). And yet, Republicans are moving to add another ban on reproductive healthcare. Last week, the Texas House passed House Bill 7, essentially replicating the bounty hunter law, this time for abortion medication like mifepristone and misoprostol. The House version, as it stands, would restrict the manufacture, prescription, and distribution of abortion-inducing drugs in Texas. It would incentivize people to bring $100,000 lawsuits against anyone who makes, sends, or transports abortion medication in Texas, regardless of where they’re located. Late Tuesday evening, the Senate passed the bill, after which it heads to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk. “This bill only works if we turns Texans against each other,” said state Sen. Carol Alvarado, a Democrat, while speaking against it. “Imagine living in fear of the man standing behind you at the pharmacy... every word every conversation could be twisted into evidence. It's surveillance in isolation. This bill will put women in impossible and life-threatening situations.” "It’s an attempt to turn a Texas abortion ban into a nationwide abortion ban,” she added. “Women are already begging for basic care. This bill only makes it harder.” State Sen. Molly Cook, also a Democrat said, “It is my honor to fight for the rest of my life to repeal these bills.” State Rep. Jeff Leach, the bill’s Republican author, said it would shield licensed hospitals and licensed physicians in the state, and anyone who manufactures or distributes the drugs for “legitimate medical reasons,” the [*Texas Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/08/22/texas-abortion-pill-restrictions-lawsuit-manufacturer/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) reported. But many of those working in this space don’t buy it — and doctors disagree with the use of “legitimate” in this context. “The words that are written on the paper often don't match exactly what's going on. It is going to restrict the ability to have access to the medications that we need to provide good care for people who are pregnant and non pregnant,” said Houston-based gynecologic and obstetrics specialist Dr. Anitra Beasely. What does that look like? According to Beasely, that means “people who have miscarriages, who go to the pharmacy, have to prove the fact that they are having a miscarriage and not an abortion in order to get the medications that they need.” “That is happening right now,” she said. For Beasely, that means spending additional — and unnecessary — time on the phone with pharmacists, rewriting prescriptions, and figuring out how patients can get the drugs that they need. A delay in this type of care is not simply an inconvenience, it [could be deadly](https://www.ama-assn.org/about/leadership/reducing-access-mifepristone-would-harm-patients?ref=thebarbedwire.com). This will undoubtedly get worse if the bill is passed into law. “Those particular laws aren't in place right now, so I know that with [SB 7](https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=892&Bill=SB7&ref=thebarbedwire.com), it's going to be even worse,” Beasely said. If Texans lose access to abortion medication like mifepristone and misoprostol, it means doctors like Beasely won’t be able to offer their patients the standard of care expected in a developed country. Dr. Austin Dennard, a Dallas-based OB-GYN, told *The Barbed Wire*: “I myself (prescribe) misoprostol daily in my life at work for aid of preventing hemorrhage during a delivery, whether that is on labor and delivery, or whether that's in management of miscarriage care.” Restrictive abortion laws in Texas didn’t just start, it’s been a more than [20-year fight](https://www.aclutx.org/en/recent-history-restrictive-abortion-laws-texas?ref=thebarbedwire.com), but for Dennard and Beasely, the exacerbation feels compounded. “If I can't stop the bleeding, there's not enough blood in the world to transfuse to help someone who's continuing to bleed, and that would just be utterly devastating to have to watch someone die for something that should be treatable,” Beasely said. [Porsha Ngumezi died in 2023](https://www.propublica.org/article/porsha-ngumezi-miscarriage-death-texas-abortion-ban?ref=thebarbedwire.com) at a Houston hospital because she lost too much blood and doctors delayed giving her abortion care after a miscarriage, *ProPublica* found. So far in Texas, there have been three documented deaths, but experts say it’s a gross undercount because [the state refuses to investigate maternal mortality rates](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/12/19/texas-congress-maternal-mortality/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), leaving [journalists or independent researchers alone in tracking any data](https://www.propublica.org/article/texas-maternal-mortality-analysis-methodology?ref=thebarbedwire.com) they can get access to. Dennard and Beasley have stayed to care for Texas patients so far, but both admit that they have thought about what it would be like to leave Texas. They’re just two examples of the [44% of doctors in the state who feel the same](https://www.manatt.com/insights/white-papers/2024/texas-obgyn-physician-workforce-study?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “Texas Republicans have taken a lot from me, professionally, but also personally, because of [how these abortion laws have affected my own life](https://reproductiverights.org/zurawski-v-texas-plaintiffs-stories-remarks/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and my own fertility journey and my own journey with my husband building a family,” Dennard said. “Feeling so judged and feeling so abandoned by a state where I have lived my entire life, where my family has been for six generations, is a type of pain that is hard to describe, and the distress and cruelty of having to navigate getting standard medical care and fleeing your state is just absolutely unacceptable.” “If all of the doctors who felt like me, all of the providers, who felt like me left? Who would remain to take care of the patients we already know live in maternity deserts and reproductive health care deserts,” Beasley said. “If everyone left, what I mean, what would that be like?” In another five years, Texas is expected to have 15% fewer OB-GYNs than is needed to keep up with demand. Already more than 45% of Texas counties are considered maternity care deserts, meaning there’s no doctor to see during pregnancy and nowhere to give birth, according to the[*Texas Tribune.*](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/10/08/Texas-obstetrics-gynecology-abortion-survey/?utm%5Fcampaign=trib-social-buttons&utm%5Fsource=copy&utm%5Fmedium=social) As a community midwife, Yzaguirre is part of a small solution to rural maternity care deserts. She’s seen a drastic increase in midwifery needs at the same time she’s been legally restrained in the ways she can help a growing number of clients. “Having access to just general life saving medications that we use as home birth community midwives is harder because there's this notion that it's going to be used in a ‘wrong way,’” Yzaguirre said. “But the truth is, having access to those meds really helps us save people in emergency situations, which feels silly to be looking at one thing and talking about being pro-life and then totally denying this spectrum of realities that exist.” Today, Texas women have a 155% higher risk of maternal death than those in California, according to a report from the [Gender Equity Policy Institute](https://thegepi.org/maternal-mortality-abortion-bans/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Maternal mortality rose 56% in Texas in the first full year of the state’s abortion ban; up 95% among white women and Black mothers, who are 3.3 times as likely to die as white mothers. For Texas Latinas, the risk is nearly tripled. This, too — the increased risk of dying in pregnancy, and the resultant fear — [is additional emotional labor](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/abortion-conference-texas-motherhood/). But the cost to Texas women doesn’t stop there. Terrifying pregnancy stories like the one about Joseli Barnica, a [28-year-old immigrant mother from Honduras who died during a miscarriage](https://www.propublica.org/article/josseli-barnica-death-miscarriage-texas-abortion-ban?ref=thebarbedwire.com) at a Houston hospital, weigh heavily on families who seek help from Yzaguirre. The extra layer of an increase in immigration enforcements have also brought a lot of fear to communities Yzaguirre works with. This past December, [a Mexican mother was deported along with her two newborn baby girls](https://abc13.com/post/houston-father-fights-bring-wife-children-back-us-wife-misses-immigration-hearing-emergency-section/15678681/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) because she missed an immigration appointment due to an emergency c-section at a Houston hospital. “So many people are either choosing home birth or choosing care out of midwives, not because they maybe truly desire that, but out of fear of what would happen,” Yzaguirre said. “The policing of bodies has always been happening, but now it seems to be ramped up.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/gettyimages-500414664.jpg) An immigrant from El Salvador, seven months pregnant, she said, stands next to a U.S. Border Patrol truck after turning herself in to border agents on Dec. 7, 2015 near Rio Grande City, Texas. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images) If it seems the stakes are ramped up, that’s because they are. In 2023, after a successful IVF journey, Kaitlyn Kash delivered a healthy baby girl [but nearly died in the moments after](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-abortion-law-clarifications/), while her husband was holding their baby.[](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-abortion-law-clarifications/) “What I really want women to understand is, you may think that this issue isn't about you, but you need to understand that a D&C, misoprostol, mifepristone, all of these things are billed under abortion,” Kash said. A placenta is typically [delivered within 30 minutes of birth](https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/labor-and-delivery/in-depth/stages-of-labor/art-20046545?ref=thebarbedwire.com), but Kash had a retained placenta, a common cause of major hemorrhaging and obstetrical morbidity, according to [research from Harvard Medical School](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6789409/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Kash had to wait nearly two hours to get a minor abortion procedure called suction dilation and curettage to remove the placenta from her uterus. “I almost died because of a completely preventable thing,” Kash told *The Barbed Wire.* “If you think (all) abortion means ending an unwanted pregnancy, you are wrong,” she said. But, with more restrictions on these medications, it’s only going to get worse. “When it does happen to you, you're going to have even less access to care than I did.” House Bill 7 was quickly passed through committee and through the House, but not before members of the Texas Medical Association pleaded with lawmakers to vote down the bill. “‘This bill as filed runs the risk of having a chilling effect on our physician's ability’ to make the best health care decisions for patients,” said Dr. Zeke Silva, the chair of the association’s council on legislation, according to the [*Texas Tribune*.](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/08/22/texas-abortion-pill-restrictions-lawsuit-manufacturer/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) “Abortion medication should be renamed pregnancy aiding medication,” Dennard told *The Barbed Wire*. “The terminology is stigmatized and can be very triggering for people, because they might not realize how universally these medications are needed to keep pregnant people safe.” It’s unknown what the far-reaching implications of yet another abortion ban will mean for the safety of Texas families and their children, but it *is* clear that this is yet another consequence of unscientific legislation that people with a uterus will have to bear. And the next generation is defiantly against it. “As scary as it is and as difficult as it is to navigate this space as a 20-year-old, it gives me a lot more freedom, and I am able to unapologetically do my work,” DakotaRei Frausto, a San Antonio-based full spectrum doula, told *The Barbed Wire.* She said she had to [flee the state to get an abortion](https://oregoncapitalchronicle.com/2024/03/09/before-and-after-dobbs-questions-of-when-and-where-affect-abortion-access/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) when she was 17\. Most of her clients are teenagers with unplanned pregnancies, many of them as a result of family abuse. Doctors point out that these laws and policies disproportionately impact [people of color](https://www.texastribune.org/2023/08/29/texas-maternal-mortality-black-women/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [minors](https://www.texasstandard.org/stories/texas-abortion-ban-teens-children-travel-out-state/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [people in the LGBTQ community](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/black-queer-trans-man-pregnant/), people who live in rural areas, and people with low incomes. “It is scary especially as an indigenous queer person. That comes with even more levels of uncertainty and even more levels of danger,” Frausto said. “I owe it to everyone before me to resist in that way.” “My grandma wasn't able to continue her high school education because she got pregnant and was kicked out of her house and forced to marry a man who was way too old for her and was physically, emotionally and sexually abusive to both her and her children,” Frausto added. “That went on to impact my mother, who then also got in a domestically violent relationship and was trapped in that and so for me, I feel like I owe it to break that cycle for myself, but also break that cycle for other people.” Real Texans, like Frausto and those who come after her, will continue to pay the price of these laws. Yzaguirre is on sabbatical from birth work, incorporating rest and joy. But she’s also working with local public health departments to discuss midwifery models of care as a public health solution to the increase in maternal mortality rates. There are only about [500 certified nurse midwives](https://www.dshs.texas.gov/center-health-statistics/health-professions-resource-center-hprc/supply-distribution-tables-state-licensed-health-professions-texas/certified-nurse-midwives?ref=thebarbedwire.com) practicing in the state, though studies from the World Health Organization show that [investing in more midwives](https://www.who.int/news/item/18-06-2025-who-calls-for-global-expansion-of-midwifery-models-of-care?ref=thebarbedwire.com) could prevent about two-thirds of maternal deaths, newborn deaths, and stillbirths by 2035. “We're always looking for someone to save us, and it might sound harsh, but no one's going to come to save you,” Yzaguirre said. “I'm always going to be a community advocate for birth, and I am going to continue to create systems where we can gather as people, whether that is organizing, making equity centered collaborations as part of my mission, and expanding what it means to be a midwife, because midwives don't only attend births.” “Beyond sustainability, I want to thrive in my life, so that if I choose to go to birth, I'm well,” she said. We can only wish the same for all Texas women. ### Can Arch Manning Really Cash in on All This Hype? URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/longhorns-arch-manning/ Last updated: 2025-08-29T05:33:00.000Z The University of Texas has never been here before. At least, not exactly. The Longhorns have had really (really) good football teams in the past, but as we kick off the 2025 season Saturday, Texas is the top dog and boasting the biggest celebrity quarterback in the country. The hype around this season isn’t just loud — it’s deafening. The Longhorns enter 2025 as the No. 1 team in the country for the first time ever, and they’re opening against No. 3 Ohio State in Columbus. National analysts are picking UT to not only [win the SEC](https://www.si.com/college/texas/football/kirk-herbstreit-has-high-expectations-texas-longhorns-this-season?ref=thebarbedwire.com) but to [win another championship](https://www.si.com/college/texas/football/cfb-analyst-awards-lofty-prediction-for-texas-longhorns?ref=thebarbedwire.com). It all revolves around Arch Manning, the latest scion of the famed NFL quarterback dynasty that includes Archie Manning (his grandfather) as well as Peyton and Eli Manning (uncles). After sitting for two years, Arch is ready to start. And everyone is paying attention. UT graduate and Austin comedian Danny Goodwin said he’s feeling *too* good about the season, which makes him nervous, given the program’s last 15 years of ups and (mostly) downs. “I think Arch will be great,” he told *The Barbed Wire*. “I think he just has *it* in a way that our quarterbacks haven’t had in some time.” Lots of others feel the same. Even the *New York Post*, of all places, ran a [story headlined](https://nypost.com/2025/08/25/sports/arch-manning-ready-to-tackle-unprecedented-expectations-at-texas-helm/?ref=thebarbedwire.com): “We have never seen anything like Arch Manning’s Texas hype.” If that sounds like uncharted territory, that’s because it is. *Austin American-Statesman* sportswriter Danny Davis told *The Barbed Wire* that it even surpasses the expectation of the Vince Young-led 2005 Longhorns, which won UT’s last national championship. “I think as far as expectations go, you'd be hard-pressed to find a season in Austin that resembles this one,” Davis said. “Even ahead of the 2005 season, there was some hope for the Longhorns, but I think that most people thought that USC (winning the championship) was inevitable.” The difference now? Texas enters the year not just hoping, but expecting, to be the best team in college football. Davis pointed to the program’s recent success, the returning talent, faith in head coach Steve Sarkisian, that shiny No. 1 ranking, and a massive opener against the Buckeyes. Of course, the biggest storyline is Arch Manning. After two years of buildup, the most famous last name in football is finally front and center as Texas’ starting quarterback. He’s only started two games — wins over University of Louisiana at Monroe and Mississippi State last year — but as Davis notes, “Nobody would confuse the ULM and Mississippi State teams that he beat last year with Tom Brady's New England Patriots.” “That doesn't mean that he can't be good, though,” he added. “And if he's as good as advertised, then Texas fans will be watching football well into January.” *Chron.com* sportswriter Leah Vann agreed that Manning is the right guy to lead this offense, but she’s a little more cautious about everything else. “I think my expectations rank about on par with last season — though I'm more confident in Arch Manning than (last year’s quarterback) Quinn Ewers because of his ability to extend plays with his legs and stronger pocket presence (and) decisiveness, I'm not as confident as last year about the talent around him on both sides of the ball,*”* Vann said. She points out Texas lost 16 starters, including four offensive linemen. The good news? Running back C.J. Baxter is back from injury, which should give the Longhorns a more reliable ground game. But, as Vann sums up: “Simply put: I don't know what I don't know about this year's team, like a lot of fans.” So why are the Longhorns ranked at the top? “I think the reason Texas is No. 1 right now is everyone is moreso thinking: who else?” Vann said. She adds that voters probably saw Texas as the safe choice: two straight playoff semifinal appearances, the sport’s most hyped QB, and other football bluebloods like Georgia and Ohio State breaking in new signal-callers. But Vann cautions against assuming a coronation. “I get why Texas and Manning are getting the hype — but I also would caution everyone because there are always stars and teams that emerge in ways that we least expect,” she said. Back to Arch. Off the field, he’s already living the double life of superstar and college kid. Sure, he’s plastered across ad campaigns and is the favorite to win the Heisman Trophy, but he’s also fighting Austin’s brutal parking reality. According to his dad, [Arch has racked up at least 10 parking tickets](https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/the-unavoidable-fame-of-arch-manning-life-in-austins-fishbowl-as-texas-starting-quarterback/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and even had a few boots slapped on his car. And then there’s the fame. Arch can’t eat lunch without phones snapping pics from across the room. He’s had photo requests with dogs, though cat owners are out of luck — he’s firmly anti-cat. On campus, one student compared his level of [recognition to Bevo](https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/the-unavoidable-fame-of-arch-manning-life-in-austins-fishbowl-as-texas-starting-quarterback/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). (That’s the mascot, not a player.) *Texas Monthly* wrote about “[The Unbearable Weight of Being Arch Manning](https://www.texasmonthly.com/arts-entertainment/arch-manning-ut-football-quarterback/?ref=thebarbedwire.com).” Never has a quarterback in the entire state had this much expectation on him. Which he seems to get. "People are probably tired of seeing my face everywhere," Arch told CBS Sports. But all of this will fade into the background Saturday in Columbus. The Longhorns aren’t short on talent. The defense boasts Anthony Hill Jr., Michael Taaffe, and Colin Simmons, one of the top freshmen in college football last season. On offense, Arch has Ryan Wingo as his go-to receiver, with DeAndre Moore Jr. and Cal transfer Jack Endries in the mix along with a plethora of highly-touted freshmen. Still, the season boils down to one question: Can Texas finally cash in on the hype? Will their most famous quarterback ever deliver? “It really is a perfect storm in 2025,” Davis said. One thing’s certain: All eyes, nationwide, will be on Arch Manning this weekend. If he’s as good as advertised, Texas could finally [silence decades](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-football-is-back-we-swear-this-time/) of “[We’re back](https://www.statesman.com/story/sports/college/longhorns/football/2024/10/19/texas-is-back-sugar-bowl-georgia-sam-ehlinger/75692259007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)” jokes and give Austin the season it’s been dreaming about for the last 20 years. ### When the School Year Starts in Texas, So Do the School Stabbings. Parents Have Had Enough. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-school-stabbings-killeen-denton/ Last updated: 2025-08-28T17:47:47.000Z Children were back on campus for just under two weeks when a student at Ryan High School in the Dallas suburb of Denton allegedly stabbed a classmate. It happened at 9:10 a.m. Friday, reported [*The Dallas Morning News*](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/2025/08/23/denton-high-school-student-arrested-for-stabbing-classmate-on-campus-friday-police-say/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Both students were boys under the age of 17\. The injured student suffered non-life-threatening wounds, while the alleged stabber has [reportedly](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/2025/08/23/denton-high-school-student-arrested-for-stabbing-classmate-on-campus-friday-police-say/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) been charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. For many Texas parents, it was déjà vu. In early April, just weeks before the school year ended, then-17-year-old Karmelo Anthony, a student at Frisco Centennial High School, allegedly stabbed 17-year-old Austin Metcalf to death in the bleachers at a track meet. The story made [national headlines](https://www.keranews.org/news/2025-05-07/frisco-track-meet-stabbing-austin-metcalf-divisive-online-debate-on-race-misinformation-disinformation-karmelo-anthony?ref=thebarbedwire.com). That same month, a student at [Killeen High School](https://www.fox44news.com/news/local-news/bell-county/student-attempts-to-bring-knife-to-killeen-high-school/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) also tried bringing a knife to campus; the next day, another from [Creekside Elementary](https://www.kristv.com/news/creekside-elementary-secure-after-student-brings-knife-to-school?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in Corpus Christi was caught carrying a kitchen steak knife. Weeks earlier, in Harris County, a [Cypress Springs High School student](https://abc13.com/post/cypress-springs-high-school-student-stabbed-during-altercation-campus-restroom-cy-fair-isd-says-suspect-taken-custody/16086729/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) was hospitalized after being stabbed in a restroom. And, after [years of warnings](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/killeen-isd-parents-bullying-concerns-march-stabbing/) from parents about bullying and physical violence in Killeen Independent School District, 14-year-old Serenity Baker was fatally stabbed by another student at Roy J. Smith Middle School on March 10. The school district’s response angered parents who said administrators failed to communicate directly with them — and failed to take action on longstanding safety issues. One parent told *The Barbed Wire* that, a year earlier, she’d [warned the district](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/killeen-isd-parents-bullying-concerns-march-stabbing/) that a child could die. “They were going to lose a child if they didn’t fix the bullying issue,” that parent told *The Barbed Wire* in April. “And yet, almost exactly a year later, look what happens.” Another said he helped plan a town hall meeting after Baker’s death and invited district administrators — but none of them showed up. Baker’s mother, Glenda Jacobs, said no one from Killeen ISD immediately contacted her and that she’d learned about her own daughter’s stabbing from another parent. “Nobody reached out to me,” she said, as the [*Killeen Daily Herald*](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/kdhnews-com/news/education/school-board-hears-from-parents-outlines-revised-safety-plans/article%5Fffcae6b1-b2ca-45bf-ad10-0cb44f2b7fc5.html) reported. “Everybody’s on social media. No one here at KISD reached out to me and said anything.” Now, months later, and some 200 miles north of Killeen, Denton parents have united under a similar rallying cry, concerned about not just the uptick in violence — but also the alleged lack of communication from the school district. Several Denton parents [told KDFW FOX 4 News](https://www.fox4news.com/news/denton-isd-stabbing-parents-concerned-over-lack-district-communication?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that, after last week’s stabbing, a community-wide email about a student “in need of medical attention” left out crucial information — and many parents only learned there had been a stabbing through social media. At a meeting this week, parents showed up to voice their concerns, but the school board [didn’t address the stabbing](https://www.fox4news.com/news/denton-isd-stabbing-board-meeting?ref=thebarbedwire.com) at all. [In a statement](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/dentonrc-com/education/denton-isd-releases-a-few-more-details-on-friday-stabbing-at-ryan-says-proper-protocol/article%5Fd9fa7668-0753-4c2b-b09f-2bfadd2ca7fe.html), the Denton school district said the incident happened in a classroom of five students outside of the main building, and the guardians for those students were contacted directly. “At no time was the broader student body placed at risk,” the statement continued. Yet, the stabbings reflect a growing prevalence of physical violence in schools after the COVID-19 pandemic. In the 2023-2024 academic year, there were 54,303 recorded incidents of fighting or mutual combat between students statewide, nearly 11% higher than pre-pandemic numbers from 2018 to 2019, according to data from the [Texas Education Agency](https://rptsvr1.tea.texas.gov/adhocrpt/Disciplinary%5FData%5FProducts/statewidediscipline.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). In a November 2024 [board meeting](https://live.myvrspot.com/index.php/showcase/view-showcase?sid=fOTMwMmUzM2ZmZTc1ZTJmMTdlMTVlYzllNzI3OTliYzQ&ref=thebarbedwire.com), Killeen ISD reported that at least 174 of its employees had been physically injured by a student since August. During this year’s legislative session, Texas lawmakers filed several bills on these issues, including [banning the use of cellphones in schools](https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=89R&Bill=HB1481&ref=thebarbedwire.com), which has largely gone into effect. [House Bill 6](https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/89R/billtext/html/HB00006I.htm?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which was signed by Gov. Greg Abbott in June, [gives Texas schools](https://kfoxtv.com/news/local/texas-schools-gain-flexibility-in-student-discipline-under-new-house-bill-6?ref=thebarbedwire.com) the discretion to discipline students — regardless of age — who repeatedly engage in behavior that threatens the safety of others in the classroom. [Previous state law](https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/85R/billtext/html/HB00674S.htm?ref=thebarbedwire.com) prohibited the suspension of students in pre-K through second grade, except for serious offenses such as bringing weapons to school. The laws haven’t done much to quell parental concerns, however. Gambrielle Montgomery-Seaton, who lives in Killeen, withdrew her child from Roy J. Smith following Baker’s death. Her sixth-grade son, now homeschooled, would repeatedly tell her about the fights he witnessed in the school bathroom, hallway, and the nearby creek, she told *The Barbed Wire*. Now, a few weeks into a new academic year, she feels like the district has done little to address parents’ fears from the spring. And as students return to classrooms, Montgomery-Seaton — who has another son still in the district, studying at Chaparral High School — is worried. “I have not seen or heard of any progress or changes that have been made to address the initial concerns,” Montgomery-Seaton told *The Barbed Wire* in an email. “NO kid should be afraid to go to school, and no parent should fear sending their children to school.” Montgomery-Seaton said she read about the Denton stabbing: “It’s happening everywhere, and it’s a growing concern.” What’s worse, because of the state’s newly-implemented cell phone ban, parents said they were unable to reach their children once the news broke. “If you want to take my children’s phone, I want full transparency. Period,” one mother told [KDFW FOX 4 News](https://www.fox4news.com/news/denton-isd-stabbing-parents-concerned-over-lack-district-communication?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “Stop shutting parents out, stop covering up important information,” Montgomery-Seaton said. “Let's come together as a community to really figure out how to address and fix the safety concerns.” ## ‘Imagine Walking Down the Hallway Where One of Your Fellow Classmates Was Killed’ Killeen ISD, situated in Central Texas about an hour drive north from Austin, serves [over 43,000 students](https://www.killeenisd.org/about%5Fkisd?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=Welcome%20to%20the%20Killeen%20Independent,reach%20their%20maximum%20learning%20potential.). In recent years, Killeen has been ranked as the second fastest-growing city in the U.S. and among the best places to live in Texas, according to the [U.S. News & World Report](https://www.instagram.com/cityofkilleen/p/DDPpiVXp%5F-o/?%5F%5Fd=1&ref=thebarbedwire.com). Thousands of military employees and veterans from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds call Killeen home, largely due to its proximity to Fort Hood, one of the biggest Army installations in the U.S. Yet, some of the recent shimmer around Killeen, which still radiates the atmosphere of a small country town, has masked entrenched problems. At the beginning of the 2023-2024 school year, Killeen ISD reported that [over 61%](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-killeenisd-org/cms/lib/TX02205734/Centricity/Domain/7161/000%5F-killeenisddip.pdf) of its students were economically disadvantaged. One mother in Killeen, who requested anonymity in speaking with *The Barbed Wire* to protect her 17-year-old daughter, said the city is promoted as a family-friendly working town and, as such, many issues get overlooked (*The Barbed Wire* independently confirmed her identity and affiliation with the district). For her, the district treated the stabbing at Roy J. Smith as a “one-and-done problem” and has a history of parental exclusion. “I don't know how many parents have (come) to me and told me, ‘Hey, I want to be involved in the school, but the staff keeps me out of the school,’” she said. The issues of the greater Killeen community spill into the district and vice versa, said Aya Fubara Eneli, a Killeen resident of more than 15 years whose five children all went through the local public schools. A decade ago, Eneli was a football mom for the varsity team at Harker Heights High School. She noticed that parents weren’t responding to her emails, so she spoke with their children to reach them. “I found out that their parents sometimes don't have internet access, so they're not going to get that email. The phones are turned off. The water is turned off,” Eneli said. “There are other life issues that are happening, so they're not focused on, ‘What is the football mom sending us about how we need to plan for senior night?’” Eneli said students’ circumstances at home impact how they show up and behave in school, describing it as a “vicious cycle” that can lead to outcomes such as truancy and failing grades. Darante Simmons, the father of the student accused of fatally stabbing Serenity Baker, posted a message to the community on social media explaining that his daughter “has lived a life filled with hardship.” As the [*Killeen Daily Herald*](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/kdhnews-com/news/crime/girl-accused-of-stabbing-fellow-student-was-bullied-says-father/article%5F6115ea7e-0128-11f0-a967-ff95e6c83c87.html) reported, Simmons said her mother had substance abuse issues, which meant that she spent time in foster care. Simmons also said she never had new clothes or regular meals — things that “made her a target for bullying.” Simmons told the newspaper he’d filed numerous reports with Killeen ISD and with the Killeen Police Department about the ongoing bullying and that nothing was done. The district’s board of trustees called for an emergency meeting the day after the stabbing, but it left parents with more questions than answers. The board heard public comments — several parents mentioned the lack of security and communication between the school and students’ families when the incident happened — before going into closed session for an hour. Days later, around 170 parents in Killeen ISD attended a town hall to voice their safety concerns. They gathered in a room at Douse Community Center, a facility on the campus of Anderson Chapel AME Church in Killeen. There, they sat on cushioned chairs, taking turns speaking into a microphone. They nodded with somber expressions and listened to each other closely. One man, wearing a maroon dress shirt, questioned why the school’s metal detectors weren’t functioning on the day of the incident. Rodney Duckett, a community facilitator at IMPAC Outreach who helped plan the meeting, had invited the district’s superintendent, board members, and administrators — but none of them showed up. Killeen ISD Superintendent Jo Ann Fey, Deputy Superintendent Terri Osborne, and board member Susan Jones attended subsequent town halls of the parent advocacy group, Duckett said. But the damage was already done. “I will forever be non-forgiving for that,” Duckett told *The Barbed Wire* in April. “They didn't have to say anything. They could have just listened to the concerns of the parents and made a recording of it for themselves. But the absence and silence show that they're disconnected.” The three district leaders, along with Karen Rudolph, the district’s executive director of communications, did not respond to *The Barbed Wire’s* requests for an interview. In a statement, Rudolph said: “KISD has been intensely reviewing all safety measures, has taken a number of steps and is constantly considering what else can be done to create the safest possible learning environment,” and pointed reporters to the district’s website. After seeing the frustrations in the community, Duckett started an advocacy group to help parents collaborate on solutions and deliver them directly to district leadership. “I'm a soldier affected by PTSD from seeing other soldiers being killed,” Duckett said. “Imagine walking down the hallway where one of your fellow classmates was killed.” ## ‘There Is Nothing I Can Do’ Last year, students knocked on Montgomery-Seaton’s door to alert her about a fight that broke out in the creek. A group of students surrounded another with a disability, she said. When Montgomery-Seaton went to check on the student, he was bleeding. Montgomery-Seaton said she called the police, but they never showed up. The following week, she contacted the school. “They told me it was a (Killeen Police Department) problem because it was off campus, so they weren’t even trying to do anything about it,” Montgomery-Seaton told *The Barbed Wire* in April. She said there was no clarity on how parents should navigate these situations. At a Texas House Committee on Public Education [meeting](https://house.texas.gov/videos/21394?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on March 20, then-KISD Superintendent Fey said House Bill 6 would “restore order” by allowing schools to discipline students for “significant misdemeanors that happen off campus.” “Imagine telling scared students, a scared staff member, a scared parent who is bringing this to your attention, ‘I'm so sorry. It happened off campus, and there is nothing that I can do,’” Fey said, noting that campus leaders’ “hands (were) tied.” House Bill 6 included [several amendments](https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/89R/amendments/html/HB00006H27.HTM?ref=thebarbedwire.com), such as requiring affected students’ access to behavioral support services outside of the classroom. But most of the attention and policies have been focused on discipline and bans. After the stabbing at Roy J. Smith, KISD implemented the following disciplinary actions: - “Any student involved in fighting or assaults on campus will face disciplinary placement ranging from 45 days to 180 days, following Texas Education Code and Manifestation Determination Review (MDR) Guidelines.” - “Any student who assaults a staff member will be placed in the District Alternative Education Program (DAEP) for a minimum of one school year.” - “If an off-campus incident leads to or is linked to a disruption at school, the student involved will face disciplinary placement ranging from 45 days to 180 days, in accordance with state guidelines.” KISD also enforced a [clear or mesh backpack policy](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-killeenisd-org/site/default-pagetype-3-amp-domainid-4-amp-moduleinstanceid-29551-amp-viewid-070dccb8-a53f-43fd-a714-5764441a973a-amp-renderloc-0-amp-flexdataid-94093-amp-pageid-1.aspx) across campuses on May 1\. Eneli, who has two children attending Harker Heights High School, found the new measure ineffective. Her fourth youngest, a senior, was approaching graduation. “That's a kind of tone deafness that, sometimes, I see from the administration,” Eneli said. “Because depending on what family it is, your budget, and how many children you have, you're not trying to buy a new backpack with three weeks left in the school year.” Lan Carter, whose child is a junior in the district, agreed that policy is an example of the district focusing on the wrong priorities. “You can hide (a weapon) in a clear backpack,” Carter said. “It’s kind of a slippery slope. You put all these metal detectors in, you put these clear backpack policies in, and things like that. (But) you also don’t want to feel as if our kids are going to prison.” Carter, who taught at Copperas Cove ISD years ago, is now a child and adolescent therapist. She said several of her clients are shifting their children to private schools or homeschools because they “do not feel better about safety.” Carter recently campaigned for a position on the Killeen School Board, [running on a platform](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSpxDqXI6Lo&t=3s&ref=thebarbedwire.com) of improving mental health support for students. She lost to incumbent Oliver Mintz. After the stabbings in both Killeen and Denton, Carter believes districts across the state should adopt a uniform definition of bullying and keep detailed records of students at high-risk, or who have a history of being bullied. She proposed legislators draft a state-wide bullying law — or that the Texas Education Agency codify a standard for educators to respond to bullying, which is not currently included in the Texas Administrative Code’s [ethical guide for teachers](https://texas-sos.appianportalsgov.com/rules-and-meetings?$locale=en%5FUS&interface=VIEW%5FTAC%5FSUMMARY&queryAsDate=08%2F28%2F2025&recordId=192646&ref=thebarbedwire.com). On June 25, Superintendent Fey announced that an internal investigation into the stabbing had concluded. Fey said the third-party investigator’s findings revealed gaps in student oversight and resulted in immediate action, [per KWTX](https://www.kwtx.com/2025/06/26/killeen-isd-concludes-independent-investigation-into-fatal-stabbing-roy-j-smith-middle-school/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The investigation involved hundreds of student records and emails, interviews with 25 members of Killeen ISD staff, and hours of surveillance video, the news outlet reported, and it has prompted the district to bring in additional security, including more metal detection and more adults supervising students outside of classes. According to the district, none of the students involved in the stabbing used the district’s [Bully and Threat Reporter form](https://forms.killeenisd.org/Forms/BullyReporter?ref=thebarbedwire.com), though both girls’ parents have reported that their daughters [endured years of bullying](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/kdhnews-com/news/crime/girl-accused-of-stabbing-fellow-student-was-bullied-says-father/article%5F6115ea7e-0128-11f0-a967-ff95e6c83c87.html) or [felt unsafe in school](https://live.myvrspot.com/index.php/showcase/view-showcase?sid=fOTMwMmUzM2ZmZTc1ZTJmMTdlMTVlYzllNzI3OTliYzQ&ref=thebarbedwire.com). Fey told the station: “There may be information we don’t know about, but we want to be transparent in saying that to our current knowledge no bullying took place in this case.” *The Barbed Wire* filed a public information request in April for complaints filed through KISD’s bullying reporting tool, as well as police records and email communication between district staff and parents regarding bullying and violence. In May, the district sent letters to the Office of the Attorney General asserting that the records were prohibited from disclosure. The office upheld the district’s assertion, and said the district must withhold the information because criminal records involving a child may not be disclosed. In local news interviews, Fey said the district acknowledged “parents want one place to get their information” and that “we’re working towards that moving forward.” To that end, [KXXV reported](https://www.kxxv.com/news/local-news/in-your-neighborhood/bell-county/killeen-isd-launches-new-parent-teacher-communication-tool-after-student-tragedy?ref=thebarbedwire.com) last week that Killeen ISD is piloting a new feature called “Rooms” inside the district’s mobile app, where teachers can send class updates and parents can reply one-on-one with questions and concerns. Right now, it’s available at Harker Heights Elementary School and Eastern Hills Middle School. “We listened and heard from a lot of families and community members about the need for more communication with teachers,” Rudolph, the communications director, told the news station. “This is a tool that gives families one location where they can go, have access to the teacher, and increase that communication.” Over the summer, former Superintendent Fey resigned, just two years into the job. Fey, citing family reasons, accepted a deputy superintendent position in the much-larger Northside ISD, according to a July 23 [KISD press release](https://www.killeenisd.org/o/manor/article/2322883?ref=thebarbedwire.com). ## ‘The District Needs Leadership’ Parents who spoke to *The Barbed Wire* say the district still needs to improve parent engagement and include them in discussions about safety and security measures. Additionally, some parents feared retaliation from the district if they spoke publicly about their family’s experiences. In September 2023, Joseph Baez, who requested to transfer his son out of Skipcha Elementary School after concerns about alleged bullying from a teacher, received a letter from the district’s legal counsel urging him to “cease and desist any further defamation” of the teacher and the school’s administrators. Baez’s claims were called “completely baseless and untrue” after the district conducted an investigation. He was also put under a two-year criminal trespass ban, which prevented him from going to board meetings and other events on district property. *The Barbed Wire* reviewed these documents that Baez shared, including emails between him and administrators. Now, with the return to campus, Baez told *The Barbed Wire* he believes the district still has work to do, which may be harder without a steady superintendent helming the district (as of Aug. 11, Sheldon ISD superintendent King Davis took over as interim). “For an individual in this position to leave just prior to the beginning of a new school year, to me, that’s unacceptable,” Baez told *The Barbed Wire*. “This is when the district needs leadership the most.” But Baez also says parents must shoulder some of the responsibility, describing a student’s education as a “partnership” between their parents and their school. As KISD returns to school, fresh off a summer that saw parents more active than ever, one of Baez’s biggest concerns is momentum. If parents don’t continue to voice their concerns and be active in the district’s community, he said, any progress “just starts fizzling away.” “We can have these things. Let’s have the town halls. Let’s organize these groups,” Baez said. “But if we’re going to do it, let’s do it and stay with it. “If you don’t,” he continued, “how is the other side going to take you seriously?” ## ‘There Was Never Any Mental Support’ Elizabeth Jennings, who has two teenagers at Harker Heights High School, provides mental health resources and mentorship geared toward male youth through her nonprofit [Boys Matter 2 Men](https://www.rememberyoumattercoaching.com/boys-matter-to-men?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Jennings has attended all of the parent advocacy group’s town halls so far and collaborated with KISD at mental health fairs. Still, she and other community members mentioned a lack of counseling services and believe that current initiatives, such as the [Capturing Kids’ Hearts](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-killeenisd-org/cms/lib/TX02205734/Centricity/ModuleInstance/34360/capturing-kids%5Fhearts%5Fparent-handout-%5F-information-sheet-google-slides.pdf) program, do not directly tackle the district’s bullying issues. “A lot of times, we give up when we see multiple incidents, when really, there was never any mental support to the root of what's going on,” Jennings said. “It was only discipline.” Susan Honaker Schenck has lived in Killeen since 1999 and said she still sees groups of children fighting as she drives down the road. Schenck said her daughter also endured physical violence from other students while attending a KISD school over 20 years ago. Now, she has one grandkid in elementary school. Schenck said talking about bullying with her grandkid is inevitable. “It's following a natural progression of violence, and it's serious. It's frustrating to me that the sweet baby lost her life,” Schenck said, referring to the tragedy at Roy J. Smith. “I never wished harm on any of the children that beat up my daughter. I never once wanted to deal with the children. I wanted the school to facilitate a meeting between me and a parent.” For Eneli, it’s imperative that KISD and parents engage in dialogue and create committees with community members who can give their honest input. When Eneli was part of a committee over a decade ago, she never felt encouraged to ask questions, she said. “These are not easy problems,” Eneli told *The Barbed Wire*. “They're not easy challenges, and they're challenges that are being faced by many communities that are not unique to Killeen ISD.” Over the summer, Jennings has kept her momentum. In the past few months, she said she pitched a mental health committee and city-wide “kindness initiative” to school administrators. The initiative is pending approval from the district, which will meet in early September. If passed, Jennings said, the program will be housed under the [School Health Advisory Council](https://www.killeenisd.org/o/kisd/page/shac-school-health-advisory-council?ref=thebarbedwire.com). With this new kindness program, Jennings hopes to change the tone around bullying in the district, at least in how it’s messaged to the students. “A lot of times we set rules and consequences,” Jennings said, “and that only creates more anger, frustration, (and) fear.” ## ‘We Need Your Partnership’ Brand new Interim Killeen ISD Superintendent Dr. King Davis, who started his position on Aug. 11, reached out to parents [in a letter on Tuesday](https://www.kwtx.com/2025/08/26/killeen-isd-warns-parents-pornographic-material-circulated-by-students/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). But he wasn’t sharing good news — or even welcoming children back to Killeen campuses. “We must make you aware of a very serious matter impacting our schools this week,” Davis wrote. “A pornographic video involving minors that was created outside of school has been circulated among students.” King asked parents to inform their children about the fact that possession or distribution of child pornography is a felony, even if the kids sharing the images are themselves underaged. “We need your partnership in stopping the spread of this harmful content and in reinforcing the seriousness of the law with your children,” said Davis. “Our top priority is the safety and well-being of students,” he continued. ### Religious Leader Who Calls Himself ‘Jesus’s Best Friend’ Made $50M from Human Trafficking, DOJ Says URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/religious-leader-david-taylor-human-trafficking/ Last updated: 2025-08-27T16:32:12.000Z Another day, another false prophet. Two self-professed religious leaders — including 53-year-old David Taylor, who calls himself “Apostle” and “Jesus’s best friend” — made approximately $50 million through forced labor at sites in Texas, Florida, Michigan, and Missouri, according to a grand jury indictment announced on Wednesday. The scheme was sprawling, but simple: The ministry allegedly ran call centers across multiple states in which people were forced to work, sleep, and hit certain monetary goals. Then, the money was spent on a lavish lifestyle peppered with luxury properties and vehicles for the ministry leaders, according to federal officials. Both Taylor and 56-year-old Michelle Brannon, the leaders of Kingdom of God Global Church, were arrested on Wednesday. Brannon was executive director of the ministry, said a Department of Justice [press release](https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/two-self-professed-religious-leaders-who-used-physical-and-psychological-abuse-coerce?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Taylor was arrested in North Carolina, and Brannon was arrested in Florida. A federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Michigan returned a [ten-count indictment](https://www.justice.gov/opa/media/1412161/dl?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for the pair’s alleged roles in a forced labor and a money laundering conspiracy. “The Lord has given David E. Taylor a special teaching ministry to empower His people and bring them into the fullness of intimacy with Him,” according to [the ministry’s website](https://facetofaceappearances.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “God has personally taught David E. Taylor, face to face, the mysteries of the Kingdom of God!” The ministry’s Houston site, at 12701 North Freeway, was one of several businesses raided by the FBI on Wednesday in the case, including at locations in Missouri and Florida, as was first reported by [KHOU](https://www.khou.com/article/news/crime/jmmi-houston-fbi-raid-interstate-45-north-freeway/285-c9032542-2f6c-40a1-b5e1-2b6e33629008?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and the [*Houston Chronicle*](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/trending/article/fbi-activity-north-freeway-21017598.php?sid=683602d42c73b539c50e729b&ss=P&st%5Frid=null&utm%5Fsource=newsletter&utm%5Fmedium=email&utm%5Fterm=breakingnews&utm%5Fcampaign=hcrn%20%7C%20breaking%20news). Nine men and eight women were escorted out of the building by officers on Wednesday morning, some in handcuffs, [Fox 4 News reported](https://www.fox4news.com/news/jmmi-global-raided-fbi-nationwide-houston-david-e-taylor?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The ministry ran call centers, which solicited donations in multiple states, including Texas. At sites like the one in Houston, according to the indictment, Taylor and Brannon allegedly compelled their victims to work as “armor bearers,” or personal servants, required to sleep in the facility. They were not allowed to leave without permission, said the 23-page document. Taylor allegedly demanded that his “armor bearers” work long hours on the phones without pay, as well as transport women from ministry houses, airports, and other locations to Taylor’s location and ensure those same women took Plan B emergency contraceptives, according to the indictment. The money — approximately $50 million in donations since 2014 — was used to purchase luxury properties, luxury vehicles, and sporting equipment. That included a boat, jet skis, and ATVs, the department said. Those who disobeyed orders or failed to reach lofty monetary goals were punished “with public humiliation, additional work, food and shelter restrictions, psychological abuse, forced repentance, sleep deprivation, physical assaults, and threats of divine judgment in the form of sickness, accidents, and eternal damnation,” said the department’s press release. “Money laundering is tax evasion in progress, and in this case, the proceeds funded an alleged human trafficking ring and supported a luxury lifestyle under the guise of a religious ministry,” said Special Agent in Charge Karen Wingerd of IRS Criminal Investigation, Detroit Field Office. “IRS-CI stands committed to fighting human trafficking and labor exploitation, and pursuing those who hide their profits gained from the extreme victimization of the vulnerable.” If convicted, the pair face hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines and decades in prison. ### They’re Making Texas Poorer, Meaner, and Less Free. You Don’t Have to Take It. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/theyre-making-texas-poorer-meaner-and-less-free-you-dont-have-to-take-it/ Last updated: 2025-08-26T05:02:00.000Z What a difference a year makes. Twelve months ago, when we launched *The Barbed Wire*, it felt like we were finally crawling out of the wreckage of Trump’s first term, maybe even headed toward a slightly less-shitty future. Sure, Texas was still Texas — stubborn, messy, allergic to progress — but wasn’t the [arc of the moral universe](https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2011/10/21/arc-moral-universe-long-it-bends-toward-justice?ref=thebarbedwire.com) supposed to bend toward justice? Turns out, that arc snapped in half. We’re not just back in the hole; in Texas, we brought a bigger shovel. A year ago, Texas politics was already a disaster. The Republican machine had been grinding since the ’90s, but at least there were some guardrails — [flimsy, sure](https://www.texastribune.org/2023/09/17/ken-paxton-impeachment-trial-scandal/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), but enough to slow their worst instincts. Things were bad. We didn’t yet know how much worse it could get once they gave themselves full permission to indulge. Now, Trump is back in the White House, barking orders at our state’s leadership like a mob boss with a tan line, and Texas lawmakers are free to be as cruel as possible to the poor and as generous as possible to the rich. If Trump says, “I want five more congressional seats,” Republicans in Austin don’t just salute — they deliver. “One of the very real struggles of the last year has been trying to find ways to describe the changes in the culture at the Texas Capitol without sounding hyperbolic. It is nearly impossible for veterans of the building,” [wrote Scott Braddock](https://quorumreport.com/quorum%5Freport%5Fdaily%5Fbuzz%5F2025/the%5Ftriumph%5Fof%5Fthe%5Fsore%5Fwinners%5Fin%5Ftexas%5Fbuzziid32843.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for the longtime Capitol insider publication *Quorum Report*. Texas is unrecognizable. Rules aren’t just bent; they’re shattered. Our leaders aren’t even pretending to govern for the people anymore. They’re governing for Trump, billionaires, and whatever Facebook meme has the most shares that week. Of course, the Texas Legislature has always been a circus. Now it’s a prison yard. Democrats returned from their gerrymandering walkout [only to be handed “permission slips”](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-capitol-minimum-security-prison/) and assigned DPS officers to follow them everywhere — to lunch, to their offices, [even to the bathroom](https://cbsaustin.com/news/local/texas-rep-collier-allegedly-forced-off-dnc-call-threatened-with-felony-charge-at-capitol?ref=thebarbedwire.com). State Rep. Nicole Collier, from Fort Worth, refused to play along and ended up [locked inside the chamber overnight](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/how-five-women-at-the-texas-capitol-stood-up-against-fascism/), as if skipping homeroom was now a felony. This isn’t democracy. It’s what you get when you embolden people who want power above everything else. You get cops as hall monitors — and duly elected lawmakers treated like kids who won’t stop passing notes in math class. Democrats in the [Texas Senate](https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/dan-patrick-texas-senate-2023/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) weren’t even allowed to carry out the filibuster they’d planned on the redistricting maps last week. [Instead, they were blocked by the GOP](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/08/22/texas-redistricting-democrat-senate-filibuster-alvarado/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in a procedural vote. And while officers were babysitting Democrats, Republicans were busy making the state actively worse. Their crown jewel: [school vouchers](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-school-vouchers-2/), Gov. Greg Abbott’s white whale. That means $1 billion *taxpayer dollars* now go to private tuition and home-schooling, while public schools limp along with a funding bump that experts say won’t stop closures or deficits. Translation: Your neighborhood school gets a bake sale, while the private school down the road with its own royal crest gets a water polo team. But vouchers were just the opening act. Republicans also torched [diversity, equity and inclusion in K-12 schools](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/08/18/texas-public-education-new-laws/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [banned LGBTQ+ student clubs](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/05/31/texas-house-tempers-flare-gay-club-ban/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), because what better way to prove your commitment to “education” than by banning empathy and safe spaces for marginalized kids? Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick got his prize too, [with a THC ban passing both chambers](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-thc-ban/). Though Abbott vetoed it during the Legislature’s regular session, the Senate [passed a similar bill](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/08/18/texas-senate-second-special-session-thc-disaster-relief-bathroom-bills/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) during the (second) special session. All it needs now is for Abbott to sign off, which he probably will. Veterans and chronic pain patients who found relief in edibles? Sorry — back to [opioids](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/i-cant-believe-its-not-heroin/) and Jack Daniel’s, the way God intended. Add [Ten Commandments posters](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/judge-blocks-law-requiring-ten-commandments-in-classrooms/) in every classroom ([whether the courts like it or not](https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/education/schools/texas-schools-instructed-display-ten-commandments-despite-court-ruling-affecting-some-districts/287-f00fb3ee-bafb-4c14-aa2c-76543238bb86?ref=thebarbedwire.com)), new [laws targeting transgender Texans](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/06/02/texas-legislature-ends-session-republican-agenda/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and another round of property tax cuts big enough to destabilize the budget, and you’ve got a session where our endless culture wars mattered far more than governance. Sure, [lawmakers threw money at water infrastructure](https://www.kxan.com/news/texas-politics/texas-approves-20-billion-for-water-infrastructure-pending-voter-approval/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), but the real headline wasn’t “Texans won’t run out of water.” It was “Texans won’t run out of culture war.” And if all this wasn’t enough, Abbott now wants to make Ivermectin (a medication used to treat parasitic worms in horses) [available over the counter](https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/abbott-special-session-penalties-lawmakers-fleeing-texas/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Why? [Because his lunatic base thinks it can treat COVID](https://www.bbc.com/news/health-58170809?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and, as usual, Abbott goes along with such idiocy because he’s scared of being primaried. Of course, Ivermectin’s efficacy in treating COVID-19 is completely unsupported by scientific evidence. Meanwhile, Texas has the [highest rate of uninsured children](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/02/26/texas-children-chip-medicaid-uninsured/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in the country, and it’s getting worse. It’s salt on the wound that these policies don’t even work in boosting the economy. Whenever they’ve been fully unleashed, they fail. [Look at Kansas](https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-kansas-tax-cut-experiment/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). And, sure enough, thanks to deportations and trade wars, [Texas’ economy is “slowing down.”](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/08/13/texas-economy-slowing-dallas-federal-reserve-bank-report/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) “Certainly from the private sector, this volatility obviously creates uncertainty,” according to Ed Hirs, an economist and energy fellow at the University of Houston, in an interview with [*Texas Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/08/13/texas-economy-slowing-dallas-federal-reserve-bank-report/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “It’s pretty clear the economy is on a path to recession.” So here we are: One year later, Texas is poorer, meaner, and less free. Public schools are being gutted, diversity is a dirty word, weed is about to be banned, and elected officials can’t walk down a hallway without a police escort. Republicans still call themselves the party of liberty, but Texas [actually ranks last in personal freedoms](https://www.statesman.com/story/news/2024/01/03/states-freedom-texas-tax-marijuana-school-choice-incarceration-abortion-laws/71936221007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) (according to *Libertarians,* no less). Last year, the Texas government was dysfunctional. This year, it’s dystopian. And the worst part? Twelve months from now, it’ll be worse. When I helped start *The Barbed Wire* a year ago, I hoped the work would be about accountability. Maybe even a little hope. Lately, it feels like screaming into a void filled with Ten Commandments posters. But here’s what keeps me going: Texans are paying attention. You’re paying attention. We’ve built this community from nothing because people like you want the truth served straight (ok, with some sarcasm on the side). *The Barbed Wire* isn’t just here to chronicle Texas’ decline into a right-wing fever dream. We’re here to remind you that democracy, decency, and basic reality still matter. Maybe not to the people in the state Capitol, but to the rest of us. We believe Texas can be better — but only if we fight for it. So if you value this work, help us keep going. Sign up for our [free newsletter](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/subscribe/) — it’s written by me, every week. Or, even better, become [a paying member](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/become-a-member/) and keep independent Texas journalism alive. Texas doesn’t have to be like this. We can fight for a better tomorrow together. ### Nicolandria’s Love Is a Balm for Black Women from the South URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/nicolandria-love-island-balm-black-women-in-the-south/ Last updated: 2025-08-25T05:01:00.000Z When I first read 27-year-old Olandria Carthen’s post-“Love Island USA” interview in [*Vulture*](https://www.vulture.com/article/love-island-nic-olandria-season-7-interview-still-together.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com)*,* I knew exactly what she was trying to communicate to the American public about being in a highly visible, interracial relationship with Nicolas Vansteenberghe, 24. The couple, deemed “Nicolandria” by throngs of obsessed fans, went viral on the seventh season of the must-watch reality dating show. Since the season wrapped on July 13, Carthen and Vansteenberghe have become a full-fledged [“cultural phenomenon”](https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/16/entertainment/nicolandria-love-island-reality-couples?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and “beloved part of reality television history.” There’s no doubt the pair will be in the spotlight again when the “Love Island USA” Season 7 reunion airs on Peacock at 8 p.m. CT on Aug. 25. Per Lisa France at CNN, they’ve spent the past two months sparking headlines, fan accounts, and long-overdue [cultural reckonings](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CwYDnSKgUQ&ref=thebarbedwire.com) about interracial relationships — and what it means to be a supportive partner. As a dark-skinned Black girl from Texas, I’m glad everyone else has finally joined this conversation. I was only 13 years old when I was first pulled aside and told about the ways I had to navigate dating differently than my fair-skinned classmates. One of the first pieces of advice I received was not to date Black men. And this came from the mouth of a Black man, my older brother. His words were not rooted in anti-Black sentiment; they were about my protection. The year before I started high school, a Black male classmate propositioned me in the band hall for my DSL (dick sucking lips). As one of the few Black students in a predominantly white school district in North Texas, I did not share what happened to me, out of fear of [disciplinary action](https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-24-106787?ref=thebarbedwire.com) by school administrators. Black girls experience [higher levels of sexual harassment](https://www.nbwji.org/post/for-many-black-girls-school-elicits-fear-anxiety-about-gender-based-violence-criminalization?ref=thebarbedwire.com) than their white counterparts, and when they do come forward about their mistreatment, they are often met with opposition or subjected to [punishment](https://blackrj.org/step-forward-opening-the-dialogue-on-sexual-violence-and-black-girls/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), such as expulsion. When I told my mother and older brother what happened, they sat me down for a talk about my body, in relation to sex and dating. My brother, who is seven years older than me, said young boys, specifically Black young boys, would be interested in being sexually intimate with me, but nothing more. My dark skin rendered me undateable, but highly fuckable. Like many teenage girls, I neglected my older brother’s advice. I was defiant. My first high school relationship was with a Black teenage boy in the 10th grade. He brought me gifts, such as a plush animal from the State Fair of Texas. We had the same extracurricular activities, like marching band. Our teenage relationship was good, until he started to pressure me sexually. First, over text. Then, in-person, until I complied. Unbeknownst to me, he shared this with his friends on the track & field team, who jokingly made fun of my sexual experience — or lack thereof. Then in Kanye “Ye” West à la “Gold Digger” fashion, he left my ass for a white girl. As I cried my eyes out to my mother, my older brother had a few words for me: I told you so. Then proceeded to play “Gold Digger” at full blast as a way to put salt in my wound. The next person I dated after that was a white teenage boy, who eventually became my high school sweetheart. He was kind, patient, and understanding. He loved me in public, and he established a relationship with my mother. Most importantly, he got my older brother’s approval, which meant the world to me. Although I did not have the language at the time to articulate it, I was highly aware of how I was perceived as a dark skin Black girl, in relation to sex and dating. According to teenage boys, and later men, my value was based on my fuckability. My purpose was to prepare them for the white woman who they would later marry. Sex and dating is not an apolitical act. For Black women, specifically dark-skinned Black women from the South, whose sexuality and bodily perception is deeply rooted in the [racial and gendered stereotypes](https://jimcrowmuseum.ferris.edu/jezebel/index.htm?ref=thebarbedwire.com) left behind from Jim Crow and Antebellum slavery, dating is an extremely risky endeavor. Author, philosopher, and scholar Amia Srinivasan says the “sexual marketplace is organized by [a hierarchy of desirability](https://english.elpais.com/culture/2022-12-06/amia-srinivasan-philosopher-we-must-create-a-sexual-culture-that-destabilizes-the-notion-of-hierarchy.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) along axes of race, gender, disability status, and so on.” In a piece aptly titled “Does Anyone Have the Right to Sex?” she argues the “personal preference” one has in dating is influenced by [“racism, ableism, transphobia, and every other oppressive system.”](https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v40/n06/amia-srinivasan/does-anyone-have-the-right-to-sex?ref=thebarbedwire.com) It’s the reason why users on Grindr, the LGBTQ dating app, had [“No fats, no femmes, no Asians,”](https://www.reuters.com/article/world/gay-dating-app-announces-zero-tolerance-of-racism-transphobia-idUSKCN1LY2TN/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in their dating profiles. (In 2018, the app announced a zero tolerance policy towards racism, transphobia, and discrimination on the platform.) It turns out, all [dating apps are racist](https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/dating-apps-grindr-ethnicity-filters-1047047/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — even when they are trying not to be. There’s evidence everywhere you look, and even reality television isn’t exempt. As I watched the seventh season of “Love Island USA,” episode after episode took me back to this awareness. That women like me must be hypervigilant when we’re dating. “Even if I would have met him in high school, being that I’m from Alabama — a very traditional state, if you know what I mean — I wouldn’t have felt that he was going to be into me,” Carthen said in that *Vulture* interview. “A lot of guys at my school weren’t into people that looked like me. Which is why I decided to go on the show. I was like, *I’m going to open my mind to this experience. Let me stop writing myself off.*” Hidden within her words are the remnants of an antiquated ideology that dictates that a dark-skinned Black woman, like Carthen, would not be seen as desirable by a physically attractive white man, such as Vansteenberghe. Texas shares a lot of similarities with Carthen’s “traditional” home state. Alabama still engages in [racial segregation](https://www.al.com/news/2024/05/segregation-academies-still-operate-across-the-south-one-alabama-town-grapples-with-its-divided-schools.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) within its school system, contrary to federal legislation. The University of Alabama, the state’s first public university, [prevented Black women from joining white sororities ](https://nation.time.com/2013/09/16/university-of-alabama-moves-to-end-segregated-sorority-system/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)until 2013. In Texas, school segregation is *growing* and at last check [36% of Texas schools are intensely segregated](https://www.axios.com/local/austin/2024/05/17/school-segregation-growing-in-texas?ref=thebarbedwire.com), *Axios has* reported. Greek organizations at schools like [the University of Texas are also segregated](https://www.axios.com/local/austin/2024/05/17/school-segregation-growing-in-texas?ref=thebarbedwire.com) based on the populations they serve. The Deep South, a geographical region that consists of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina, historically have been hubs of political conservatism, rooted in the maintenance and upliftment of colonial beliefs around race, gender, and class. While Texas is not technically a part of the “deep south,” it shares many beliefs with states in the deep south, like trying to [rewrite history to omit slavery](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/slavery-what-slavery-texas-leaders-want-new-problematic-curriculum/) and [cutting back on diversity, equity and inclusion programs](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/abbott-threatens-to-fire-texas-am-president-over-a-conference-invitation-for-black-latino-and-native-american-students/). We may not all be part of one distinct region, but we can all agree there’s significant overlap. Texas does differ slightly when it comes to interracial dating in that the Lone Star State’s [slightly above the national rate](https://www.texasstandard.org/stories/despite-its-diversity-houston-isnt-the-texas-city-with-the-highest-rate-of-interracial-marriage/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). But even nationally, journalists and readers are still grappling with what interracial dating looks like — [the ethics](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/14/magazine/interracial-dating-antiracism-ethics.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the [diversity of experiences](https://www.npr.org/2025/05/23/g-s1-68211/loving-day-virginia-interracial-marriage?ref=thebarbedwire.com) \~60 years after interracial marriage became legal, and [“the shadow of modern politics.”](https://www.ebony.com/interracial-love-in-the-shadow-of-politics/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) But the Birmingham, Alabama metropolitan area — where Carthen is from — has [one of the lowest rates of interracial marriage in the United States](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2017/05/18/in-u-s-metro-areas-hu?ref=thebarbedwire.com), according to Pew Research Center. Carthen’s alma mater, Tuskegee University, a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) has a predominantly Black student body, so the likelihood of dating someone outside of her race was highly unlikely. Her reluctance was made clear during her time on “Love Island.” “Although I liked what I saw, I didn’t really know if Nic liked what he saw. Some guys that don’t look like me, they don’t mind being physical with you, but actually valuing you as a woman, actually taking it to the next level and being in a relationship with you and marrying you is something totally different,” Carthan said on the [*Sorry We’re Cyrus* podcast.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CwYDnSKgUQ&list=PLoQKamfXxbGJYnk4o9H2tgj2Qc9nHywbe&ref=thebarbedwire.com) “Dating outside of my race has always scared me because am I a fetish to you? Are you fetishizing me?” Her fear is valid. Racial fetishization, colorism, and misogynoir are commonplace for Black women in the pursuit of love. On reality television, these societal and cultural norms are exemplified by heightened conditions and implicit bias from their fellow participants, thus giving the outside world an inside look into the dating conditions that plague Black women. Carthen isn’t the only Black woman who’s had reservations on how vulnerable to get in dating shows. In their time since the villa, Serena Page and JaNa Craig (Season 6 of “Love Island USA”)have expressed their experiences of colorism on the reality dating show, such as being overlooked by Islanders in pursuit of fair-skinned contestants. Rodriguez, Craig’s ex-boyfriend — who placed third with her on the Peacock series — was accused of being an alleged [racist](https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/celebs/a65549333/what-was-found-on-kenny-rodriguez-phone/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). There were also reportedly messages on his phone expressing his disdain towards Black women. “With more ‘Love Island USA’ fans gravitating towards Black women — and the cultural fetishizing and appropriation they face — they’ve become central players on the show the past two seasons,” wrote Taryn Finley in [*R29Unbothered*](https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2025/07/11923428/jana-craig-love-island-kenny-rodriguez-breakup?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “But still, they experience the same misogynoir they would’ve otherwise and face double standards and ridicule when they stray outside of the boundaries others want to keep them in. In other words, it’s cool to be a Black woman until it’s time to be *with* a Black woman.” “Nicolandria,” as the couple has been lovingly called by their fans, may be different. It’s clear that Vansteenberghe wants to be with Carthen. He wants to be with a Black woman. I see the way he has already helped her reach her goals and aspirations. Whether that be taking her to Disneyland for the first time or incorporating her into his latest brand campaign for Kulani Kinis in Greece, his consistency and prioritization of her is evident. “I’m so happy that I was blessed with this guy who allows me to bask in my femininity, you know what I mean? Allows me to be soft. You know what, he takes the wheel. Usually I’m a control freak; I let him do everything. The support that I have from this guy is unreal. It allows me to be the soft woman I’ve always wanted to be, so I’m so grateful,” Carthen said on *Watch What Happens Live*. Call me sick, but I love to see a Black woman being loved out loud. This is the reason why the world has fallen in love with Nicolandria. The support she’s received from Vansteenberghe — and the world’s embrace of it — has felt like a balm to the wounds that many Black women like myself have experienced in our pursuit of love. Dating a white man is not the solution to generations-long mistreatment and dehumanization of Black women. (If it was that easy, our world would look a lot different.) Nor is that what fans should take away from the overwhelmingly positive reception and response to Carthen and Vansteenberghe in the media. The reality is that Black women are worthy of a healthy, genuine outpouring of love by an individual who values and sees their humanity — and acknowledges and intervenes when people push back. For many, “Nicolandria” is a glimmer of hope, and that is the one thing that is more powerful than all of the systems of oppression combined. ### Need a Court-Appointed Lawyer in North Texas? You Might Get One With a White Nationalist Tattoo. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/court-appointed-attorney-white-nationalist-tattoo-jason-van-dyke/ Last updated: 2025-08-22T05:01:00.000Z ## EXCLUSIVE *Editor’s note: This story includes quotes in which the subject uses offensive racial slurs and references to racial terror.* The Barbed Wire *does not condone the use of such language, but believes them to be newsworthy, important context. Any racist language has been censored with hyphens.* This is a story about white nationalism, taxpayer money, and the right to fair representation. But it’s also about the rabbit-hole of right-wing extremism, a $100 million libel lawsuit, and an alleged “assassination plot.” Let’s start with the basic facts: A North Texas lawyer notorious for his involvement with far-right extremist groups — and his legal representation of members of white nationalist and neo-Nazi groups — is working as a court appointed attorney in Denton County, according to records reviewed by *The Barbed Wire.* Forty-five-year-old Jason Lee Van Dyke lives in Decatur, about 40 minutes northwest of Fort Worth. Van Dyke has taken at least three dozen clients as a court appointed defense attorney in the Dallas suburb of Denton County in recent years. In addition to being the preferred lawyer for Patriot Front, a North Texas-based neo-fascist white nationalist group known for their [public marches](https://www.texasobserver.org/homegrown-neo-fascist-movement-marches-in-austin/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [racist propaganda vandalism](https://www.stlpr.org/government-politics-issues/2023-10-05/racist-propaganda-antisemitic-acts-spiked-in-illinois-last-year-report-shows?ref=thebarbedwire.com) targeting marginalized communities, Van Dyke has an extensive history of personal involvement with far-right extremist groups: He was at one time the national chairman of the Proud Boys. He also pled “no contest” to a prior criminal charge for lying to a law enforcement officer and has past disciplinary actions from multiple state bar associations. Despite this background, court records indicate Van Dyke began to work as a court appointed attorney representing criminal defendants in Denton County at least as early as 2024\. Many of the cases were assigned in 2025\. Out of all those cases, 17 of the clients are white, ten are Black, four are Latino, one is Asian, and three are of unknown ethnicity. At least 17 of those cases are ongoing. *The Barbed Wire* was only able to reach two of Van Dyke’s clients, both of whom declined to speak on the record, citing his ongoing representation of their cases. The Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution provides that people accused of crimes have the right to legal representation, including having a publicly appointed attorney if they cannot afford one. (Those rights were strengthened in 1963 in the Supreme Court ruling on *Gideon v. Wainwright*.) Denton County does not operate a full-time public defender’s office, and court appointed attorneys like Van Dyke are brought in to represent clients who cannot afford a lawyer. But Van Dyke’s direct involvement in and close association with far-right extremist groups that espouse racially discriminatory ideologies, his past use of racial slurs, and his prior “no contest” plea for a crime involving what the state calls “moral turpitude” all raise concerns about his suitability for the role of a court appointed defense attorney — particularly one representing clients who are people of color. “That's a major concern and it should raise a red flag,” said Gabriel Rosales, state director of Texas LULAC — the nation’s oldest civil rights volunteer-based organization, which “empowers Hispanic Americans and builds strong Latino communities.” “Someone should go in and investigate these cases,” Rosales told *The Barbed Wire.* For his part, Van Dyke dismissed the concerns. “You could pull as many cases as you want,” Van Dyke told *The Barbed Wire* in an hour-and-a-half-long interview by phone on Wednesday*.* “You could try to figure out which ones are white and which ones are not. I guarantee you're not going to find me treating those clients any bit differently than how I treat everybody else, because it doesn't matter.” In fact, Van Dyke told *The Barbed Wire* he’s working as a court appointed attorney in multiple counties — not just Denton — though he would not identify which others, and we were not able to independently verify his claim by press time. ## Slurs, Threats & Involvement in Far-Right Extremism Van Dyke describes himself as a “strong constitutionalist and conservative who has also gained notoriety for representing the so-called ‘dissident right’ in a variety of ways.” On his law firm’s [website](https://www.maganavandyke.com/our-firm/jason-van-dyke?ref=thebarbedwire.com), he distances himself from the viewpoints of some of his clients, stating that “his representation of a particular client does not constitute his endorsement of that client’s views or activities” and that “he views it as his sacred responsibility to protect the right of unpopular groups to peacefully speak, assemble, organize, and petition.” But Van Dyke has a history of making racist statements and [violent threats](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/lawyer-anti-fascist-lawsuit%5Fn%5F5a0aefbee4b0b17ffce028fe?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “I don't waste my breath on n------ like you,” Van Dyke [posted](https://web.archive.org/web/20141230134518/https://twitter.com/meantxlawyer/status/549706857615720449) on his now-banned Twitter account on December 29, 2014 in response to another user. “I hang them.” *(Hyphens added by* The Barbed Wire*.)* In another [post](https://web.archive.org/web/20141230024109/https://twitter.com/meantxlawyer/status/549607144669331457), Van Dyke shared an [image of a noose](https://x.com/antichud/status/1943844583655583833?t=Vv7VflL8WKhqZXXqWBGIwA&s=19&ref=thebarbedwire.com) and said, “Look good and hard at this picture you fucking n-----. It's where I am going to put your neck.” When another user asked Van Dyke why he hates Black people, [he defended himself by saying](https://web.archive.org/web/20141230134411/https://twitter.com/meantxlawyer/status/549706603017285633) “I don't hate black people. I hate n-----. There is a difference.” When asked about these statements on Wednesday, Van Dyke disavowed them, stating that they have been cited out of the context of a legal battle and online feud between [Van Dyke and a group of hackers](https://www.vice.com/en/article/what-happens-when-a-lawyer-takes-on-a-hacker/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) engaged in revenge porn. “I’m not excusing what I said,” Van Dyke told *The Barbed Wire.* “What happened is I lost my temper…This was not me going around finding African American people and calling them the n-word. I was provoked.” In addition to his personal use of racial slurs and racist threats, Van Dyke’s involvement with far-right extremist groups goes further than the typical attorney-client relationship. This is particularly true for Patriot Front, the white nationalist organization founded in 2017 following the deadly “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. He has [hosted members of Patriot Front at his home](https://www.texasobserver.org/patriot-front-jason-lee-van-dyke/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), has a [tattoo](https://bsky.app/profile/jtischauser.bsky.social/post/3lwcv4xekpc2r?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of an eagle with a Patriot Front slogan on his shoulder, has [trained Patriot Front members to fight](https://www.splcenter.org/resources/hatewatch/extremist-lawyer-appears-training-patriot-front-members-fight/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and [participated in their private chat room](https://www.texasobserver.org/patriot-front-jason-lee-van-dyke/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) under a pseudonym. And he has [represented the leader of a neo-Nazi fight club in North Texas](https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2024/02/15/texas-active-club-leader-blurred-his-face-but-forgot-to-scrub-his-socials/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that is [linked to Patriot Front](https://www.splcenter.org/resources/hatewatch/patriot-front-active-clubs-network-influence/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and is a part of a larger network of “active clubs,” one of which has posted [photos](https://bsky.app/profile/whiteroseafa.bsky.social/post/3lwcqgkd62s2w?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of Van Dyke with [members](https://bsky.app/profile/jtischauser.bsky.social/post/3lwcea3xrec2d?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of the group. “I mean, generally, you don't get tattoos unless you're personally involved,” said Scott Ernest, a former white nationalist who now runs the Center for Extremism Prevention and Intervention, in an interview with *The Barbed Wire*. “I wouldn't, for example, get a tattoo of the Democratic Party because I’m not a member.” Van Dyke was also a one-time leader and previously the general counsel for the Proud Boys, a fascistic street gang the FBI has described as an “extremist group with ties to white nationalism” that saw [several of its members charged with crimes](https://www.start.umd.edu/publication/proud-boys-crimes-and-characteristics?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and two leaders [sentenced to prison](https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/two-leaders-proud-boys-sentenced-17-and-15-years-prison-seditious-conspiracy-and-other?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for their involvement in the January 6, 2021 breach of the U.S. Capitol. “I am unapologetically fascist. I despise democracy,” Van Dyke [posted on X](https://archive.is/htnQv?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in June. (Though his previous account was banned by Twitter, he was able to create a new one, which is verified with a blue check.) “We need less democracy, not more.” He has represented the leader of the Aryan Freedom Network, a Texas-based neo-Nazi organization, in a lawsuit against anti-fascist activists who [spied on the organization’s 2022 conference in De Kalb](https://www.texasobserver.org/aryan-freedom-network-jason-lee-van-dyke-drone/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which [Van Dyke attended](https://www.texasobserver.org/patriot-front-jason-lee-van-dyke/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “The friends that I have and my alleged political involvements on my own personal time have absolutely nothing to do with my law practice,” Van Dyke told *The Barbed Wire.* Van Dyke also [previously attempted to join The Base](https://www.vice.com/en/article/a-proud-boys-lawyer-wanted-to-be-a-nazi-terrorist/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a neo-Nazi accelerationist organization the FBI labeled a terror group and was the subject of several federal convictions for [firearm crimes](https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/pr/two-members-violent-extremist-group-base-each-sentenced-nine-years-federal-prison?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [hate crimes](https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/white-supremacist-sentenced-federal-hate-crimes-conspiracy-targeting-black-and-jewish-people?ref=thebarbedwire.com). In a conference call with Base leaders that was first reported by [*Vice*](https://www.vice.com/en/article/a-proud-boys-lawyer-wanted-to-be-a-nazi-terrorist/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Van Dyke said “there’re plenty of people in the Proud Boys who don’t believe that Jews have a place in this country and they want to put a stop to it, and whenever someone talks about doing something, they’re immediately shut down or banned from the band, from the group, because, you know, the boys don’t want to have that image.” In his interview with *The Barbed Wire* this week, Van Dyke claimed that he was attempting to infiltrate The Base because he believed a man with whom he was engaged in a lengthy — and vicious — legal feud was somehow involved. At the time, Van Dyke was [under probation for a criminal charge](https://www.star-telegram.com/news/state/texas/article226590399.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for making a false police report. “I didn’t get off probation until February of 2021,” Van Dyke said. “This is stuff that would have happened while I was on probation. So obviously I had to be very careful about what I said in that article. What I’m at liberty to say now, which I was not at liberty to say then, was that I was trying to infiltrate The Base. Because at the time, my entire life at that time was devoted to beating Thomas Retzlaff.” (There is no mechanism for retroactively penalizing someone for violating the terms of their probation, if that is, in fact, what Van Dyke was admitting to.) Who is Thomas Retzlaff? Great question. In March 2018, Van Dyke sued Retzlaff, a man with his own [criminal past](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/dentonrc-com/news/who-is-the-man-who-led-to-jason-van-dykes-recent-arrest/article%5F037f93d8-c541-54ef-a6ff-24648c4a51cc.html), in a $100 million libel lawsuit over accusations that Van Dyke was a Nazi and a pedophile. In a filing in that case, Retzlaff’s attorney argued that Van Dyke had attempted to orchestrate an “assassination plot” to kill Retzlaff, citing a police report that discusses an [audio recording](https://www.splcenter.org/resources/hatewatch/police-proud-boys-used-surveillance-part-violent-plot/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) obtained by the FBI. The recording features Van Dyke saying he had “members of the Proud Boys Arizona Chapter” surveilling Retzlaff. “I’m not going to sugarcoat it — this man in the course of the past year has completely dismantled my life,” Van Dyke told the [*Denton Record-Chronicle*](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/dentonrc-com/news/who-is-the-man-who-led-to-jason-van-dykes-recent-arrest/article%5F037f93d8-c541-54ef-a6ff-24648c4a51cc.html) in 2019\. “All I want is this man to leave me alone.” The libel case was dismissed in November 2020. Then, in September 2021, police [found Retzlaff dead and ruled it a homicide](https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/tom-retzlaff-found-dead-proud-boys-jason-van-dyke-el-mirage-12117784?ref=thebarbedwire.com) but never identified a suspect. Van Dyke, who publicly [celebrated the news](https://www.yahoo.com/news/man-complained-ex-proud-boy-171949773.html?guccounter=1&guce%5Freferrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce%5Freferrer%5Fsig=AQAAANJ5lioFp05UelhMkr4T-XqXPj2eglPhyZIJR77ZrtPgooFsdwdEamgTsfEAqrvu3gUQINSKzW-WtpmQBDB2BahqDb3QL20LvH2Rro-poDOXHSi1%5FdZXvA56u7b7s2Ozl1QeKX1DgLtaWH7ZuUU2nt8QSTORytFIWFBR00kWxhdv&ref=thebarbedwire.com) of Retzlaff’s death, has repeatedly denied any accusations of involvement. No arrests have been made [in the case](https://www.cleveland.com/court-justice/2024/08/ex-proud-boys-attorneys-past-is-focus-of-hearing-in-lawsuit-over-geauga-church-firebombing.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “Every September 2, I would celebrate,” Van Dyke told *The Barbed Wire.* “That was the day that he died. I'm not doing that anymore. I'm commemorating that day with nothing now, because I've moved on.” ## Criminal History & Legal Disciplinary Actions In 2019, the State Bar of Texas [suspended Van Dyke’s license](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/proud-boys-lawyer-jason-lee-van-dyke-suspended-by-texas-bar-after-threats%5Fn%5F5c6eeb8ae4b0e37a1ed5feae?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for three months with probation after he threatened to kill Retzlaff. At the time, the pair were still engaged in a lengthy legal and personal feud. In April 2020, Van Dyke received an 18-month partially probated suspension from the Texas Bar as a result of his 2019 [nolo contendere](https://law.justia.com/cases/georgia/supreme-court/2021/s20y0631.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) plea on a 2018 charge of making a false police report. He was sentenced to 24 months’ deferred adjudication community supervision, with special conditions, which means he never served jail time. In December 2020, the District of Columbia Bar [issued an order of reciprocal discipline](https://www.dcbar.org/Attorney-Discipline/Disciplinary-Decisions/Disciplinary-Case?docketno=2019-D075&ref=thebarbedwire.com) related to that same criminal case, backdated to be effective in May 2020\. In April 2023, Van Dyke’s [law license](https://www.gabar.org/member-directory/?id=3418087E38E12B5A5F5CF9D5017ABAEB&ref=thebarbedwire.com) was also the subject of a disciplinary action in Georgia for the same reason, but because he voluntarily stopped practicing law in Georgia in 2019, and was also disciplined in Texas, his suspension was deemed retroactive to February 2020 and he was immediately reinstated. The question of whether that history — or Denton County’s rules — precludes him from representing court appointed clients is a complex one, to say the least. Because Denton County does not have a full-time public defender’s office, indigent clients are provided court appointed attorneys. All lawyers who’d like to represent those clients in exchange for taxpayer money must apply and meet the minimum qualifications in order to be approved. In Denton County, the [Indigent Defense Plan](https://www.dentoncounty.gov/DocumentCenter/View/2567/2023-to-2024-Statutory-County-Courts-Indigent-Defense-Plan-PDF?ref=thebarbedwire.com) states “attorneys must not be currently under indictment or charged with a criminal offense involving moral turpitude.” Per a 2023 Georgia [Supreme Court filing](https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/ga-supreme-court/2197152.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) regarding the suspension of Van Dyke’s license to practice law in Georgia, Van Dyke’s 2019 no contest plea on a criminal misdemeanor count of filing a false police report was “a crime involving dishonesty and moral turpitude, and relates to his fitness to practice law.” In Texas, lying to a police officer or making a false report is also considered a crime of moral turpitude, according to the *Robertson v. State* decision. The Denton County Indigent Plan’s use of the word “currently” indicates that only a charge in an ongoing case could make an attorney ineligible, not prior admission of a crime of moral turpitude like Van Dyke’s. Another qualification is that “an attorney may not have been the recipient of any public disciplinary action by the State Bar of Texas or any other attorney licensing authority of any state or the United States within the last three years.” Van Dyke contends that his history does not put him in violation of those rules, since he is not currently charged with a crime of moral turpitude — and since his first client as a court appointed attorney in Denton came more than three years after his last bar disciplinary action. “The misdemeanor court judges vote as to whether to put somebody on the court appointed wheel,” Van Dyke said. He told *The Barbed Wire* that at least one of the judges is aware of his prior criminal conviction. “That case from 2018 to 2019 that was in Denton, it was with Denton County criminal court number five, with Judge Coby Waddill,” Van Dyke said. “Waddill is still a judge in County criminal court five, so he would have had a say when they voted on whether they add me to the wheel.” According to the [Denton County Indigent Defense Plan](https://www.dentoncounty.gov/DocumentCenter/View/2567/2023-to-2024-Statutory-County-Courts-Indigent-Defense-Plan-PDF?ref=thebarbedwire.com), court appointed attorneys may be removed or suspended by a majority vote of the judges for a number of reasons, including when an attorney “no longer meets the Misdemeanor Qualification Requirements” or fails “to act in compliance with the rules of ethical conduct or the Lawyers Creed.” The Denton County Indigent Defense Office responded to *The Barbed Wire* in a written statement: “To the best of our knowledge, all of the attorneys currently on the Denton County Court appointment list meet the Minimum Attorney List Qualifications in the Denton County Statutory County Courts Indigent Defense Plan.” In essence, technically Van Dyke appears to be eligible to serve as a court appointed attorney in Denton. However, his apparent conflict of interest in representing people of color whilst espousing racist views raises serious concerns about whether he can fairly take on clients without discriminating against them. ## A Matter of Trust “Trust is the foundation of any attorney-client relationship, especially when a person is facing jail or prison,” said Jessica Brand, a former public defender and founder of the Wren Collective. “To fight their case at trial and sentencing, the accused has to provide their lawyer with deeply personal, often traumatic, information about their life and background. Establishing that kind of trust is going to be extremely difficult, if not impossible, for someone with a lawyer so closely intertwined with a far-right group that spews racist rhetoric.” Van Dyke told *The Barbed Wire* that he treats all of his clients equally, that he works to get the best outcomes for them, and does not mistreat them on the basis of race. During his interview, Van Dyke even offered to put one of his employees on the phone to prove his point. “I’ve got one of the people that works for me right here,” Van Dyke said. “Her name is Miss Sloan. She's an African American woman. Why don't I put her on the phone, and I'll step out of the room, and you can ask her whether I mistreat any clients on the basis of race.” When asked if Van Dyke’s history of involvement with far-right groups has ever been an issue for his court appointed clients, or if any of them have perceived to have been mistreated by Van Dyke, Sloan said, “No, I don't think so.” (To be completely clear, Van Dyke was well aware that Sloan’s on the record account as his professional subordinate would likely be printed in this story, and it’s hard to imagine that Sloan didn’t know that.) Though neither of the clients who spoke to *The Barbed Wire* were willing to comment on the record out of fear that doing so would impact their representation, it’s also true that we did not uncover any evidence that Van Dyke’s personal and political beliefs have materially influenced his interactions with his court appointed clients or the outcomes of their cases. Van Dyke said he hasn’t gotten complaints, and that if he did, he would agree to request a different court appointed attorney. “And the reason I'm going to do that is because I cannot effectively represent a client that doesn't trust me,” Van Dyke said. “And at that point, if a client wouldn't trust me, then that means that I can't effectively do my job.” On that point at least, he and Brand seemed to agree. From the perspective of Scott Ernest, the former white nationalist who now runs the Center for Extremism Prevention and Intervention, Van Dyke’s apparent ongoing involvement in far-right extremism doesn’t necessarily mean his work is compromised. “His personal views potentially affect his work, but not necessarily,” Ernest said. “When I was a white nationalist, I worked in hospitals, and I regularly had to take care of undocumented immigrants.” Nevertheless, Ernest is concerned by Van Dyke’s position in Denton County. “Jason used to be a lot more outwardly racist, outwardly white nationalistic,” he said. “Maybe he’s gotten to a point where he is taking a step back and thinking that because of his employment and future he needs to clean up his act. But that's not becoming a former extremist. If he actually takes a stand against it, that would be a different story, but I’m not seeing anything in him that tells me that he's moved on.” “I wouldn’t be comfortable having him as my court appointed lawyer,” Ernest said. *Deputy Managing Editor Leslie Rangel contributed to this report.* *Correction: This story previously stated that Van Dyke was convicted on a criminal charge. In fact, he pled no contest to making a false police report and was sentenced to 24 months’ deferred adjudication.* ### Finally Texas A&M Wins Something! Buc-ee’s Will Sell Its Goods on Campus URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/finally-texas-am-wins-something-buc-ees-will-sell-its-goods-on-campus/ Last updated: 2025-08-21T15:52:15.000Z Finally, a win! Texas Aggies don’t have a lot of exciting things to talk about (yes, I’m a [Longhorn](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-disdain-is-palpable-longhorn-aggie-game-reignites-an-ancient-feud/)), so when they start selling Buc-ee’s Beaver Nuggets at their campus student marketplaces, you better believe it’s going to be a big deal. Texas A&M University announced Wednesday that they’re the first university in the country to partner with the Texas-sized convenience store and gas stations. College kids moving in this week will have more than 45 beaver-themed products to choose from including the Beaver Nuggets, signature beef jerky, snacks and branded merchandise, according to a press [release from the university.](https://stories.tamu.edu/news/2025/08/20/buc-ees-items-now-available-at-texas-am-university/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) For those of you planning out your campus routes before classes start on Monday, these snacks will only be available at the university’s main campus in College Station, more specifically, at Aggie Express Commons, Aggie Express Hullabaloo, and Creekside Market through Aggie Dining. “As an Aggie, it’s incredibly special to bring Buc-ee’s to the heart of the campus,” Arch “Beaver” Aplin III, founder and CEO of Buc-ee’s told the university. Aplin III graduated from A&M in 1980 and founded the first Buc-ee’s two years after that in Lake Jackson on the promise of clean bathrooms and plenty of fuel pumps. Now, 43 years later, the beaver brand has developed a cult following with locations in Florida, Georgia, and Colorado. “We’re thrilled to share a little piece of Buc-ee’s with the Aggie Family every day,” Aplin III said about the new collaboration. And, to be fair, Buc-ee’s needed the good press. The son of one of the Buc-ee’s cofounders was indicted in May 2024 on 21 felony counts after being accused of [secretly recording house guests in a bathroom](https://www.fox7austin.com/news/son-buc-ees-co-founder-indicted-secretly-recording-house-guests-bathroom?ref=thebarbedwire.com) “using the toilet, showering, changing clothes, and/or having sex.” In March of this year, following that investigation, he was also charged with possession of child pornography, [*USA Today*](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/03/03/mitchell-wasek-child-pornography-charges-texas/81145951007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) reported, after a search warrant of his devices allegedly led officials to discover images of prepubescent girls as young as 7 years old. A girl in the images was reportedly identified after detectives shared them with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, who have a database of known victims. In Colorado, a non profit, [Stop Buc-ee’s](https://www.stopbuceespalmerlake.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), was formed in January amid environmental concerns with the Texas-based chain. That same month, the group [filed a lawsuit](https://www.trilakespreservation.org/bucees?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to try and stop the company’s commercial development. In Katy, three Black women filed a lawsuit accusing Buc-ee’s of racial discrimination. Court filings say the women were in the process of paying for their items on April 13, 2024, when they were stopped, accused of shoplifting and asked to leave, according to *[MySA](https://www.mysanantonio.com/business/article/buc-ees-racial-discrimination-lawsuit-20059250.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com).* ### Judge Blocks Texas Law Requiring Ten Commandments in Classrooms, Calling It Religious ‘Coercion’ URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/judge-blocks-law-requiring-ten-commandments-in-classrooms/ Last updated: 2025-08-20T17:37:31.000Z A federal judge in San Antonio issued a ruling on Wednesday temporarily halting the controversial Texas law that would require all public schools to display donated [posters of the Ten Commandments](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/religion/article/ten-commandments-texas-lawsuit-20813957.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in every classroom. In a comprehensive, sometimes cheeky 55-page [ruling](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/26066008-federal-judge-blocks-ten-commandments-law-in-texas/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) first reported by [*The Houston Chronicle*](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/religion/article/texas-ten-commandments-law-blocked-20825618.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com), U.S. District Judge Fred Biery sided with [several faith leaders](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2025/06/24/dallas-activist-group-sues-to-block-display-of-ten-commandments-in-texas-classrooms/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and 16 parents who sued the state claiming the requirement harmed their children’s religious development. The faith leaders and families were represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas and other religious freedom organizations, reported [*Texas Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/06/26/texas-schools-commandments-requirement-lawsuit/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which noted that Biery’s ruling only applies to the 11 school districts named in the lawsuit. In a statement on Wednesday, the ACLU [called the ruling](https://www.aclutx.org/en/press-releases/federal-court-temporarily-blocks-texas-law-requiring-ten-commandments-every-public?ref=thebarbedwire.com) “a victory for religious freedom and church-state separation.” Senate Bill 10, which was authored by state Sen. Phil King of Weatherford, passed during the last legislative session at the Texas Capitol. It declared that public schools must display either a 16-by-20-inch poster or a framed copy of the Ten Commandments in every classroom. It was signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott in June — despite a ruling one day earlier from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that found similar legislation in Louisiana to be “plainly unconstitutional” — and would have gone into effect on Sept. 1. “The Supreme Court has held that the posting of the biblical Ten Commandments on a public school wall is unconstitutional,” wrote Biery, who ruled that “S.B. 10 crosses the line from exposure to coercion.” “There are ways in which students could be taught any relevant history of the Ten Commandments without the state selecting an official version of scripture, approving it in state law, and then displaying it in every classroom on a permanent basis,” he continued. But as the law is currently written, it’s likely, Biery wrote, that “minor-child Plaintiffs, will be unconstitutionally coerced into religious observance, meditation on, veneration, and adoption of the state’s favored religious scripture, and they will be pressured to suppress expression of their personal religious and nonreligious beliefs and practices, especially in school, to avoid the potential disfavor, reproach, and/or disapproval of school officials and/or their peers.” In his ruling, Biery also seemed to be aware that he was stepping into the political fray. “For those who disagree with the court’s decision and who would do so with threats, vulgarities and violence,” he wrote, “grace and peace unto you. May humankind of all faiths, beliefs and non-beliefs be reconciled one to another.” As for the plaintiffs, Rabbi Mara Nathan [said in a statement](https://www.aclutx.org/en/press-releases/federal-court-temporarily-blocks-texas-law-requiring-ten-commandments-every-public?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on Wednesday: “Children’s religious beliefs should be instilled by parents and faith communities, not politicians and public schools.” “It is gratifying to see the federal court honoring our First Amendment, with the wisdom to understand how wrong it would be to impose bible edicts on public students as young as kindergartners,” said Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, also in a statement. There’s little doubt that this will be a relief to teachers in the dozen Texas school districts where Biery’s ruling applies. At best, schools [were confused](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/education/2025/08/13/teachers-confused-over-how-to-meet-state-law-requiring-ten-commandments-in-classrooms/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) about how to implement the law ahead of the academic year, *The Dallas Morning News* previously reported. Brinda Gurumoorthy, a math teacher at Sunset High School in Dallas, [told the newspaper](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/education/2025/08/13/teachers-confused-over-how-to-meet-state-law-requiring-ten-commandments-in-classrooms/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that instructing students on religion is simply not part of her job — and a role she isn’t comfortable with. “Religious belief isn’t really my job to instruct students, that’s between them and their family or them and their church,” Gurumoorthy reportedly said. “I feel like it would be inappropriate to include.” In his ruling, Biery agreed. For teachers specifically, Biery noted that while the Ten Commandments wouldn’t be “affirmatively taught,” teachers would “feel compelled to answer” the likely questions that would come up, calling it a “classic example of the law of unintended consequences in legislative edicts” and one that is unfair to “overworked and underpaid educators.” Biery also noted that “children can be cruel to their classmates perceived to be ‘the other.’” “Ultimately, in matters of conscience, faith, beliefs and the soul, most people are Garbo-esque,” Biery wrote, referencing a 1932 film line spoken by actress Greta Garbo. “They just want to be left alone, neither proselytized nor ostracized, including what occurs to their children in government-run schools.” In his ruling, Biery even offered some alternatives to the Ten Commandments, should legislators feel compelled to provide moral teachings in public school classrooms. He wrote, “to avoid religious rancor and legal wrangling,” the Texas Legislature could mandate any other commonly accepted best-practices or shorthands, including the Moral Precepts of Buddhism — “abstain from killing, stealing, engaging in sexual misconduct, lying, and intoxicants” — and the classic Golden Rule of “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” He even provided the teachings of “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten” as an example, which includes “clean up your own mess” and “don’t take things that aren’t yours.” Frankly, we could all use some of these reminders — and not just in schools. ### ‘Women Have Always Been on the Front Lines.’ How Five Women at the Texas Capitol Stood Up to ‘Fascism.’ URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/how-five-women-at-the-texas-capitol-stood-up-against-fascism/ Last updated: 2025-08-19T17:25:40.000Z Tuesday morning, state Rep. Nicole Collier awoke from her seat on the floor of the Texas House, “bonnet and all,” after spending the night locked in the Capitol. It’s an image that will go down in history. In a photo posted online, the Fort Worth Democrat is wearing a dark blue eye mask and white and red blankets. They match her Texas flag, which marks a page in the book “African Founders: How Enslaved People Expanded American Ideals.” Next to her lies a pink-tasseled pillow that reads, over a rainbow, “Y’all means all.” It’s immediately clear: None of these items were placed there by accident. Collier — an attorney, a mother, and the first woman to represent Tarrant County’s House District 95 in North Texas — was protesting the decision by the Texas House to order 24/7 monitoring by DPS state troopers of Texas Democrats who broke quorum over the past two weeks. More than [50 Texas Democrats left the state](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/steal-election-texas-democrats-weigh-walkout-over-trump-redistricting/) last month for Illinois, New York, and Massachusetts to protest [racist redistricting efforts by Texas Republicans](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-democrats-warn-racist-redistricting-fight/). In addition to creating five more Republican seats in Congress, the Texas GOP’s redistricting map would substantially reduce the representation available to Black and brown Texans. View on Threads “If I’m telling you that there’s 26 seats and there are 11 million white residents, that breaks down to 430,000 white residents per congressional seat,” [said state Rep. Vince Perez, a Democrat from El Paso](https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/politics/2025/08/07/528214/latino-black-voters-are-big-losers-from-proposed-texas-redistricting-map-house-democratic-deputy-whip-says/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), according to *Houston Public Media*. “So, what does it take for Latinos? Well, there’s one congressional seat for every 1.2 million Latinos, and there’s one Black seat for every 2 million Black voters. That’s why the value of a Latino resident in Texas is one-third of the political power of that that a white resident in Texas delivers, and again, for Black residents in Texas, it’s one-fifth.” During those weeks, Republicans increasingly escalated rhetoric, court filings, and threats of felony arrests, while the Democrats in Illinois were forced to evacuate their hotel over [a credible bomb threat](https://www.msnbc.com/weekends-with-alex-witt/watch/texas-democrats-face-arrest-and-bomb-threats-amid-their-standoff-with-republican-gerrymandering-244657733785?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Still, the goalpost has kept on moving, even after their return to the Capitol. There’s no question that the House’s latest decision — to [force returning Democrats to sign](https://apnews.com/article/texas-redistricting-democrats-police-california-3459806da6c593d5ffcbe6891551fd7e?ref=thebarbedwire.com) what the lawmakers described as [“permission slips”](https://apnews.com/article/texas-redistricting-democrats-police-california-3459806da6c593d5ffcbe6891551fd7e?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — was unprecedented. The slips of paper were agreements to be under 24/7 surveillance to ensure they return to the Capitol on Wednesday at 10 a.m. according to [NBC News.](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/texas-democratic-legislator-stay-state-capitol-refusing-law-enforcemen-rcna225730?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Dozens of Democrats lined up to sign the permission slips and were paired with plainclothes DPS agents, the [*Houston Chronicle* reported](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/article/house-democrats-redistricting-20822719.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Rep. Mihaela Plesa, who represents suburban Dallas, [said her officer followed her everywhere](https://apnews.com/article/texas-redistricting-democrats-police-california-3459806da6c593d5ffcbe6891551fd7e?ref=thebarbedwire.com): to lunch, to her office couch, down the hallway for bathroom breaks, and even on her drive home. “They told me, ‘I have to stay glued to your hip,’” said [state Rep. John Bryant](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/article/house-democrats-redistricting-20822719.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — after asking who his escort was — and if they were going to Dallas with him. “I think most people were not taking it that seriously because it’s so performative,” state Sen. Sarah Eckhardt told *The Barbed Wire* on Tuesday morning. “But what is it performing? It’s authoritarianism.” The only holdout was Collier, who wouldn’t sign the slip. ## ‘I Refuse to Sign Away My Dignity’ “I refuse to sign away my dignity as a duly elected representative just so Republicans can control my movements and monitor me with police escorts,” Collier said in a statement. “My community is majority-minority, and they expect me to stand up for their representation. When I press that button to vote, I know these maps will harm my constituents — I won't just go along quietly with their intimidation or their discrimination.” Texas Democrats even posted a livestream overnight from the House floor, which showed other lawmakers, including some Democratic senators and state Rep. Gene Wu, visiting Collier with provisions. Social media exploded overnight, as activists, civilians, and lawmakers — like U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett and former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke — called Texas Republicans “fascists” using “some old Jim Crow playbook.” “Texas Republicans have lost their damn minds,” Crockett [posted on X](https://x.com/RepJasmine/status/1957579671731593641?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Texas Congresswoman Julie Johnson called Collier a “badass” for “holding her ground.” “This situation says it all,” Johnson added. “Republicans holding a Black woman hostage so they can finish their business of rolling over Texas voters for Trump. Disgusting, racist, and shameful.” > “Republicans holding a Black woman hostage so they can finish their business of rolling over Texas voters for Trump. Disgusting, racist, and shameful.” Meanwhile, in the face of such authoritarianism, Democrats like Collier have shown “genuine vulnerability,” Eckhardt said. “She invented a form of protest in that moment,” Eckhardt added. “The House members have taken real risk,” she said. “Real risk, professionally, personally, and politically. They have put themselves on the line, and people are responding to that.” At the beginning of the evening, Collier appeared to be alone in her demonstration. But that didn’t last long. Dozens of members of the public — who had seen news reports of the situation — appeared at the Capitol to defend the representative on Monday evening. “People just started spontaneously showing up for Nicole,” Eckhardt said, describing 50-75 people chanting “Let Her Out!” on Monday evening and past 10 p.m. They were enraged, Eckhardt said. “That particularly a woman, and particularly a Black woman, would be held captive,” Eckhardt continued. “They were just shocked that in a modern democracy, you could hold a duly elected representative on a civil warrant regarding a quorum break in a session that sine died.” (For the unfamiliar, “sine die” means the end of a legislative session.) “The rules keep changing to their authoritarian power play,” said Eckhardt. “If the call to arrest legislators was for quorum break, that was in the last special session, and quorum is established now.” Thus, Democratic lawmakers are asking: What right does the House have to hold a member when quorum has already been established? “When they change the rules inside the building to assure that dissent loses, dissent’s only option is to take the argument outside,” she said. ## ‘The More They Try to Push Us Down, the More We Rise Together’ As for the demonstrators outside the chamber, “they didn’t have a plan,” said Eckhardt, but they wanted to help. By the time law enforcement officers were determined to clear the building at 10:30 p.m., some of the protesters agreed to pack it up and return later. But four women remained, Eckhardt said, who told *The Barbed Wire* she acted as their attorney “for the purposes of having gotten them out of jail this morning.” The four arrested women were Angel Carroll, organizer of last night’s protests and president of the Black Austin Democrats; Megan Chopra, a political content creator; Jessica Cohen, with Stonewall Democrats of Austin; and Jill Van Voorhis, President of Westlake Eanes Democrats. The women were finally released from the Travis County Jail at 5 a.m. “Had a girls night at the county jail,” Chopra wrote [in a video of the four women](https://www.instagram.com/p/DNiLwH7uw%5Fv/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in the jail’s lobby. One commenter wrote underneath the video: “BAD BITCHES WHO NEED 20 COPS TO DETAIN THEM.” “This is NOT what democracy looks like, but it is what RESISTANCE looks like and this is only the beginning!” Carroll said [in a separate video posted to Instagram. ](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DNiTR3sNVmx/?utm%5Fsource=ig%5Fweb%5Fcopy%5Flink)“We are looking straight in the face of fascism and we cannot back down✊🏾” Along with Eckhardt, Pooja Sethi, an attorney and community advocate, spent most of the night at the Travis County Jail waiting for the four women to be released. Ultimately it was a cascade of support. Collier stood up for her constituents, the women who protested stood up for Collier, and Eckhardt and Sethi supported *them* in turn. “I was there to offer legal guidance, but more importantly, to stand in solidarity with the women taking this brave action,” Sethi told *The Barbed Wire*. “My presence was rooted in support, care, and deep respect for their courage.” Sethi said at least three of the women are mothers — and were still willing to leave their children for the evening to fight what they saw as an abuse of power. And after their arrest, the women have been banned from the Texas Capitol grounds for a full year. For now, they said, in the video of their release, “It’s up to you all to keep it going.” “The more they try to push us down, the more we rise together,” Sethi said. “Women have always been on the front lines of justice movements.” Hours into her detention, Collier reportedly filed a habeas corpus petition in Travis County, according to *[Courthouse News Service](https://www.courthousenews.com/texas-house-democrats-met-with-police-surveillance-upon-return-to-state-capitol-after-quorum-break/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)*. In the [court filing](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-courthousenews-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/texas-democrat-collier-habeas-corpus-petition.pdf), Collier requested that a judge declare her restraint illegal and argued that, while the House has the authority to compel the attendance of absent member, she is present. Thus, there’s no need for Collier to be held in the House’s custody, she said. By 6:17 a.m. Collier posted a video with Wu. Both agreed that it was “real cold” on the House floor overnight. As for the lawmakers who did sign, all wasn’t smooth: Rep. Sheryl Cole posted on X that her DPS escort “who was forced upon me to track my every movement” accompanied the lawmaker on her morning walk in her Mueller neighborhood. But after the officer lost her on the trail, the lawmaker said he “threatened to arrest me” and “made a scene in front of my constituents.” > [](https://twitter.com/SherylCole1/status/1957851386193805329?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Several hours later, just before 11 a.m., Collier thanked her supporters. “I’m still here on the floor of the house chamber,” [Collier said in a live video. ](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DNisncjt%5Flp/?utm%5Fsource=ig%5Fweb%5Fcopy%5Flink)“Thank you for standing up for our democracies, for taking a stand against our oppressor. Join us in resisting.” Fellow lawmakers took her live video feed and showed demonstrators lining the capitol hallways holding signs that read “Liberation” and “No justice, no peace.” More than 24 hours after her detainment began, the crowd again chanted, “Let her go!” ### Congratulations, Republicans! The Texas Capitol Is Now a Minimum-Security Prison. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-capitol-minimum-security-prison/ Last updated: 2025-08-19T14:42:02.000Z After years of shouting about “limited government,” “personal freedom,” and “tyranny,” Texas Republicans have finally decided to embrace their inner Big Brother. Turns out the best way to stop democracy from working is to treat your Democratic colleagues like middle schoolers on a field trip. Here’s the scene: Texas Democrats ended their [walkout over gerrymandering](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/quorum-busting-texas-democrats-stand-up-to-abbott-legal-threats/) by returning to Austin on Monday, only to be greeted by law enforcement officers shadowing their every move. Not because they committed a crime (unless “standing in the way of Donald Trump’s racist House maps” now qualifies as felony obstruction). No, they were *assigned babysitters* by the GOP so they wouldn’t dare leave again. And this wasn’t subtle. Republicans [forced Democrats to sign](https://apnews.com/article/texas-redistricting-democrats-police-california-3459806da6c593d5ffcbe6891551fd7e?ref=thebarbedwire.com) what the lawmakers described as[ “permission slips](https://apnews.com/article/texas-redistricting-democrats-police-california-3459806da6c593d5ffcbe6891551fd7e?ref=thebarbedwire.com),” literal agreements to be under 24/7 surveillance by DPS officers. Rep. Mihaela Plesa, who represents suburban Dallas, [said her officer followed her everywhere](https://apnews.com/article/texas-redistricting-democrats-police-california-3459806da6c593d5ffcbe6891551fd7e?ref=thebarbedwire.com): to lunch, to her office couch, even on her drive home. Oh, and don’t worry, an officer even walked with her down the hallway for restroom breaks. Rep. Nicole Collier of Fort Worth wasn’t having it. She flat-out refused to sign, [saying she wouldn’t](https://www.facebook.com/ProgressTexas/posts/i-refuse-to-sign-away-my-dignity-as-a-duly-elected-representative-just-so-republ/768503742543476/) “sign away my dignity” so Republicans could micromanage her bathroom schedule. She was forced to camp out overnight on the House floor after being locked inside. Protesters who showed up to support Collier’s defiance were [arrested outside the chamber](https://kfoxtv.com/news/nation-world/texas-rep-nicole-collier-remains-on-house-floor-after-refusing-law-enforcement-escort?ref=thebarbedwire.com). And needless to say it’s not a great look for a state with a [history of voter discrimination](https://everytexan.org/2024/10/16/texas-has-a-long-history-of-voter-discrimination-based-on-the-pretext-of-voter-fraud/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to pull stuff like this — particularly when the maps themselves blatantly disenfranchise millions of Black Texans. > [](https://twitter.com/NicoleCollier95/status/1957770013449789870?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Why all the theatrics? Because [Trump wants more Republicans in the U.S. House](https://www.politico.com/news/2025/08/05/trump-texas-redistricting-00493624?nid=00000150-384f-da43-aff2-bf7fd35a0000&nname=california-playbook&nrid=92f9cc58-6550-4c1c-add9-c2de75b3ce63&ref=thebarbedwire.com). That’s it. Gov. Abbott and his loyal majority are falling over themselves to deliver a map that will send five more GOP seats to Washington. Democrats already hold just [13 of Texas’ 38 House districts](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/07/30/texas-redistricting-congressional-maps-house-republicans/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), but apparently that’s not lopsided enough. Lots of national Dems rallied to Collier’s side. Former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke called her a “true hero” who is “fighting these fascists.” > [](https://twitter.com/betoorourke/status/1957626312513749357?s=46&ref=thebarbedwire.com) U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, also a frequent target of the deranged right, wrote: “Forcing elected officials to sign ‘permission slips’ and take police escorts to leave? That’s not procedure. That’s some old Jim Crow playbook.” > [](https://twitter.com/RepJasmine/status/1957579671731593641?ref=thebarbedwire.com) We’ve been here before. Texas Dems walked out in 2021 to [protest restrictive voting laws](https://www.npr.org/2021/05/31/1001811919/texas-democrats-walk-out-stop-republicans-sweeping-voting-restrictions?ref=thebarbedwire.com). And in 2003, more than 50 House [Democrats fled Texas to block a GOP redistricting plan](https://www.npr.org/2025/08/04/nx-s1-5492114/quorum-break-texas-democrats-walkout?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — much like today’s standoff. They holed up for a week in Oklahoma, long enough to run out the clock on the legislative deadline. The victory was short-lived. Then-Gov. Rick Perry kept calling special sessions, prompting more Democratic walkouts. He even dispatched law enforcement to chase them to the state line. After a month, one Democrat broke ranks and returned, restoring quorum. The redistricting plan eventually passed in a third special session. Which brings us back to today. Instead of debating fair representation, Texas is spending taxpayer dollars on human ankle monitors with badges. Troopers have been assigned to stake out Democratic offices, trail them through the hallways, and, if necessary, escort them into the House chamber like misbehaving kindergartners being dragged back to math class. This is authoritarian cosplay. Republicans love to brand themselves as guardians of liberty, but right now they’re running the Legislature like a parole board. (Except, the Democrats haven’t even committed any crimes.) Meanwhile, Democrats are pointing out the obvious: This is a colossal waste of money. Just looking for the quorum-breakers — who were pretty easy to find, considering they were holding televised press conferences — [cost the state six figures](https://www.facebook.com/KXANnews/posts/speaker-of-the-house-dustin-burrows-said-texas-dps-racked-up-at-least-six-figure/1212878574213399/) over the past two weeks, according to Rep. Dustin Burrows, the Speaker of the House. Plesa [called it](https://apnews.com/article/texas-redistricting-democrats-police-california-3459806da6c593d5ffcbe6891551fd7e?ref=thebarbedwire.com) “performative theater.” Which is generous. Theater at least requires some skill. This is more like a community college improv class where everyone’s playing “cop tailing a state rep” and nobody knows the scene is supposed to end. And here’s the kicker: All this surveillance and chest-thumping isn’t even about passing legislation that helps Texans. It’s not flood relief, not healthcare, not education. No, the Republicans’ top priority is satisfying Trump’s demand for a redistricting map that rigs Congress in their favor. Texans flooded out of their homes? Sorry. We’ll get to you right after we redraw a district line through some minority neighborhoods. Republicans like Rep. Matt Shaheen [keep saying](https://x.com/MattShaheen/status/1957580602347331709?ref=thebarbedwire.com), “We aren’t playing around.” Yeah, no kidding. They’ve gone from voter suppression to legislator suppression, turning the Capitol into a minimum-security prison instead of a democracy. What’s next? Curfews? Random locker checks? Maybe ankle monitors that buzz if a Democrat gets within five miles of an airport? Texas: Where the GOP insists on small government if you want healthcare or decent schools, but they’ll assign you a full-time government chaperone for your lunch break. ### Aproximadamente Un Millón de Estudiantes en Texas Tiene Al Menos Un Padre Indocumentado. ¿Quién los protegerá cuando llegue el ICE? URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/aproximadamente-un-millon-de-estudiantes-en-texas-tiene-al-menos-un-padre-indocumentado-quien-los-protegera-cuando-llegue-el-ice/ Last updated: 2025-08-19T05:01:00.000Z Jonatan Pech, de dieciocho años, iba de copiloto en el carro de su familia, mientras la luz del coche alumbraba la oscuridad la mañana. Cristian, su hermano mayor, agarraba el volante firmemente. La música cambiaba entre el rap de Houston, la salsa y el R&B, que servían de canciones de cuna para su hermana Esme quien dormía en el asiento de atrás, mientras su madre, Teresa, miraba por la ventana pensando en lo que le esperaba a su hijo en esta nueva etapa de su vida. Los cuatro habían salido de Houston después de las 4 de la mañana de ese martes para iniciar el viaje de tres horas y media hasta el campus de Texas A&M en Corpus Christi. Jonatan tenía que registrarse antes de las 8 de la mañana del 8 de julio para asistir a la orientación para estudiantes de nuevo ingreso “Islander Launch” llamada así por la universidad Las vacaciones familiares no eran algo que ellos disfrutaran con frecuencia, así que Jonatan tuvo una idea. “Le dije: ‘Después de la orientación, ¿podemos quedarnos un poco más tiempo para conocer la ciudad?’. Su madre, a la que Jonatan dice «Ma», dijo que sí. Su madre emigró a Estados Unidos desde Guatemala en busca del ilustre “sueño americano” siendo una soltera adolescente, embarazada de Cristian. Teresa, de 51 años, lleva más de 20 años viviendo en Houston con su familia. Después que su padre los dejara, los dos hermanos tuvieron que buscar trabajos extra para ayudar con los gastos. De los tres hermanos, Cristian fue el primero en ir a la universidad. Ahora le tocaba a Jonatan, con ayuda de las becas que recibió por sus excelentes calificaciones y su liderazgo. Quería celebrarlo con una visita al museo de Selena, que está como a 20 minutos al noroeste del campus, luego ir a la playa, para que las tensiones familiares desaparecieran en las aguas del Golfo de México. Estaban manejando por el condado de Refugio, todavía les faltaba como una hora para llegar al campus universitario, cuando Jonatan se despertó al ver luces rojas, azules y blancas en el espejo retrovisor. “A mi hermano lo habían parado porque sus luces ‘eran muy altas’, es lo que dijo el agente, y luego le pidió su licencia, el seguro e identificación”, dijo Jonatan a *The Barbed Wire*. “Y entonces, en ese momento, el agente está hablando con nosotros, supongo que, tratando de entablar una plática casual, haciendo preguntas como: ‘Oh, ¿a dónde van?”. Jonatan dijo que el agente se llevó los documentos de identificación de todos y luego volvió y les dijo que podían irse. Le dio una advertencia por las supuestas luces altas. Pero antes de que pudieran irse, hubo algo más. “Fue cuando les dijo a mi hermano y a mi mamá que salieran del vehículo. Estaba un poco confundido, pero no le di mucha importancia”, recordó Jonatan. Podía ver a su hermano por las ventanillas del coche leyendo los papeles que le había dado el agente. Su hermano se veía triste cuando volteó y le dijo algo a su mamá. “Básicamente tuvo que traducirle a su propia madre que se la iban a llevar” dijo. “Eso destrozó a mi hermano”. Mirando por la ventana trasera, Jonatan se preguntaba cuál podría ser el motivo del retraso. Los minutos pasaban y se acercaba la hora a la que tenía que estar en el campus. “Ella regresó llorando y decía: ‘Que me van a llevar’, es decir que se la iban a llevar”, dijo Jonatan. “Se la llevaron, recogió sus cosas, luego llegó otro coche, le pusieron esposas de plástico y se la llevaron”. “Esa fue la última vez que vi a mi madre. Ni siquiera pude abrazarla, darle un beso de despedida, nada”. ## Texas tiene 111,000 estudiantes indocumentados de K-12. En todo Texas, los estudiantes regresan a la escuela mientras sigue existiendo la amenaza de las medidas de control migratorio, independientemente si los estudiantes o sus padres son ciudadanos estadounidenses, si están en proceso de obtener la ciudadanía o sin han cometido algún delito. Según *[FWD.us](http://fwd.us/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)*, una organización bipartidista 501(c)(4) que se enfoca en la reforma migratoria y en la justicia penal, aproximadamente el 15% de los estudiantes de K-12 en Texas, o sea, 890,000 niños, tienen al menos un padre indocumentado. De acuerdo con los datos de esta organización, se estima que [111,000 niños de Texas son indocumentados](https://www.fwd.us/news/k-12-undocumented-students/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). De acuerdo con la publicación de *[El Texas Observer](https://www.texasobserver.org/ice-task-force-galveston-beaumont-tyler/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)*, se estima que en julio 1.5 millones de tejanos “viven en jurisdicciones donde los sheriffs o jefes de policía han estado de acuerdo en entrenar a algunos de sus oficiales para que actúen como agentes de inmigración en las calles de sus comunidades”. El condado de Refugio, de donde se llevaron a la madre de Jonatan, fue uno de los primeros condados del estado en firmar este tipo acuerdo en relación con las medidas de inmigración del nuevo gobierno presidencial. “El gobierno está tratando de hacer hincapié en que, ‘solo perseguimos a los delincuentes, perseguimos a los criminales, a esas personas despreciables que cometen actos ilícitos”, dijo César Espinosa a *The Barbed Wire*, quien es director ejecutivo y fundador de *FIEL Houston*, una organización de derechos civiles dirigida por inmigrantes. “Pero, en realidad, se observa que solo hay un porcentaje muy pequeño de personas (con antecedentes penales)”. Espinosa dijo que recibió una llamada de la familia de Jonatan poco después del incidente de su madre, una llamada de las cada vez más numerosas que ha recibido este año sobre deportación de familiares. "Durante este tiempo, el año pasado recibíamos en promedio, una o dos llamadas al mes. Ahora estamos recibiendo de 15 a 20 llamadas al día de personas que están siendo detenidas, que tienen familiares detenidos, que están lidiando con este sistema de inmigración", dijo Espinosa. “Lo hemos visto todo”, dijo Espinosa. La historia de Jonatan se destacó por la rapidez con que ocurrieron los hechos, pero en general fue similar a muchas otras. Al igual que la gran mayoría de los detenidos, la madre de Jonatan no tiene antecedentes penales, dijo su abogada Karina Jiménez. Jiménez dijo a *The Barbed Wire* que, incluyendo el caso de la madre de Jonatan, sus clientes se han triplicado o cuadruplicado y estima que "tres cuartas partes (de sus nuevos clientes) no tienen antecedentes penales" y dijo que "son personas comunes". Las últimas cifras del [Proyecto de Datos sobre Deportaciones, de la Universidad de California en Berkeley](https://deportationdata.org/index.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), la primera recopilación centralizada de datos individualizados sobre la imposición de la ley de inmigración, muestran que, en todo el país, las personas sin antecedentes penales, ni condenas, representan un promedio del 47% de las detenciones diarias del ICE. A principios de junio, esa cifra aumentó un 21% comparado con principios de mayo, antes de la decisión del Gobierno de Trump tomada el 21 de mayo de triplicar el porcentaje de detenciones del ICE, conforme al análisis de datos y [los informes de Axios](https://www.axios.com/local/houston/2025/07/21/houston-ice-arrests-noncriminals?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “En el caso de la madre de Jonatan, fue un golpe inesperado que cambió repentinamente uno de los días más felices de la vida de esta familia, ya que llevaban a su hijo pequeño a la orientación de estudios por los que obtuvo una beca totalmente pagada, y cuando detuvieron a su madre, todo se volvió una pesadilla”, dijo Espinosa. Independientemente de su estado migratorio, los investigadores afirman que [el impacto de las redadas y detenciones del ICE constituye un riesgo para todos los niños de Texas](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-srcd-org/sites/default/files/2025-03/child-policy-brief%5Fdeportation%5F032025.pdf). Los proveedores de salud del país están pidiendo [reformas para proteger la salud mental de los niños ](https://news.ucr.edu/articles/2025/08/08/child-mental-health-crisis-tied-immigration-enforcement?ref=thebarbedwire.com)que sufren las consecuencias de ver cómo se llevan a sus padres y de presenciar cómo se destroza la vida de sus amigos. “Hemos recibido llamadas de tíos que están cuidando de sus sobrinos, debido a que uno de los padres se fue a trabajar y nunca regresó a casa”, dijo Espinosa. Los titulares sobre detenciones y deportaciones —como el [caso del padre de tres niños pequeños que fue detenido en junio por el ICE ](https://www.telemundohouston.com/video/videos/videos-noticias/padre-hondureno-es-arrestado-por-ice-frente-a-su-casa/2499202/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)en una parada de tráfico mientras hacía un trabajo de techado de la compañía de la que es propietario— han desatado rumores en las redes sociales de que el ICE se enfocará en las escuelas cuando se reanuden las clases. Las denuncias anónimas han fomentado las especulaciones, incluida una publicación del centro de Texas, que afirmaba que las actividades de inmigración se intensificarán “para enfocarse en las familias que preparan a sus hijos para la escuela” y que ha sido compartida y ha recibido miles de “me gusta”. Aunque en California los [distritos escolares han sido más proactivos en responder a los temores de la comunidad](https://www.telemundo.com/shows/la-mesa-caliente/inmigracion/video/distrito-escolar-de-los-angeles-refuerza-seguridad-ante-posibles-redadas-de-ice-en-tmvo12986444?ref=thebarbedwire.com), los titulares nacionales de esta semana han señalado con dureza las acciones de los funcionarios federales quienes el lunes detuvieron a punta de pistola a [un adolescente de 15 años con descapacidad](https://www.telemundo.com/noticias/noticias-telemundo/inmigracion/video/un-menor-con-discapacidad-fue-detenido-punta-de-pistola-por-agentes-de-ice-en-california-tmvo12986253?ref=thebarbedwire.com)—y posteriormente lo liberaron- esto sucedió afuera de una escuela en Los Ángeles en un caso de “confusión de identidad”. Simplemente había ido con su abuela para ayudar a matricular a un familiar en la escuela. “El hecho de que haya sido puesto en libertad no significa que vaya a olvidar lo que ha vivido”, dijo en rueda de prensa Alberto Carvalho, superintendente del Distrito Escolar Unificado de Los Ángeles. “El trauma perdurará. No desaparecerá. Es inaceptable, no solo en nuestra comunidad, sino en cualquier lugar de Estados Unidos”. Los distritos de California, que han hecho frente a la preocupación de los padres y los miembros de la comunidad, han ofrecido opciones como el [aprendizaje virtual](https://lapublicpress.org/2025/08/lausd-families-switching-to-online-school-scared-of-ice-raids/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), mientras que los distritos de Texas se han mostrado más reservados en sus acciones a la crisis de temor que los agentes de inmigración han creado en todo el país, a pesar de que a principios de este año, [una niña de 11 años del norte de Texas se quitó la vida ](https://abc7.com/post/nina-de-11-anos-texas-se-suicida-tras-ser-acosada-por-el-estatus-migratorio-su-familia-segun-madre/15934473/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)después de que sus compañeros de clase la acosaran amenazándola con denunciar a sus familias al ICE. Aun así, el Distrito Escolar Independiente de Austin afirmó que no había cambios recientes en ninguna de sus políticas y refirió a *The Barbed Wire* a [una página de preguntas frecuentes sobre inmigración y apoyo a los estudiantes](https://www.austinisd.org/refugee-immigrant-services/resources?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Según su sitio web, el distrito no proporciona información sobre el estado migratorio a los funcionarios federales. Sin embargo, el sitio deja claro que las agencias federales pueden “llevar a cabo actividades de cumplimiento de la ley en las escuelas” después de que el gobierno de Trump revocara una directiva del DHS de 2011 que restringía a los agentes el cumplimiento de la ley en escuelas, iglesias y hospitales. El sitio web afirma que “el Distrito Escolar Independiente de Austin está evaluando el impacto de este cambio de política”. El Distrito Escolar Independiente de Fort Worth envió una declaración a *The Barbed Wire* en la que afirma que “no pide ni recopila información sobre el estado migratorio de los estudiantes o sus familias. Todos los expedientes de los estudiantes están protegidos por la ley federal, incluida la Ley de Derechos Educativos y Privacidad de la Familia”. De todas formas, se recomienda a las familias que mantengan actualizada la información de contacto de emergencia y que compartan cualquier inquietud con los consejeros escolares o los directores de los centros educativos. “En caso de que un padre sea detenido durante el horario escolar, garantizamos la seguridad del estudiante hasta que un adulto autorizado pueda recogerlo, de conformidad con las leyes de bienestar infantil”, dijo Jessica Becerra, administradora de noticias e información del Distrito Escolar Independiente de Fort Worth. “El Distrito Escolar Independiente de Fort Worth seguirá atento a los cambios y compartirá la información actualizada pertinente en apoyar el bienestar de todos los estudiantes y sus familias”. El Distrito Escolar Independiente de Dallas refirió a *The Barbed Wire* a una declaración de enero del 2017 que dice: “En 2017, la junta escolar de Dallas ISD tomó la valiente decisión de aprobar por unanimidad una resolución que designaba a todas las escuelas de Dallas ISD como hospitalarias y protectoras EN LA MEDIDA EN QUE LO PERMITE LA LEY. Creemos que TODOS los estudiantes merecen la oportunidad de salir adelante, y nos comprometemos a garantizar que TODOS dispongan de los recursos que necesitan para triunfar. Estamos aquí para educar a TODOS los estudiantes para que logren el éxito.” El Distrito Escolar Independiente de San Antonio y el Distrito Escolar Independiente de Houston no respondieron a nuestra petición para comentarios. Un administrador escolar de un distrito de Texas, que solo quiso hablar con *The Barbed Wire* de forma anónima, dijo que muchos distritos tienen miedo de decir lo que piensan por miedo a represalias directas del gobernador Greg Abbott y [amenazas de más recortes de fondos esenciales](https://www.keranews.org/education/2025-02-18/were-running-out-of-areas-to-cut-fort-worth-area-school-districts-brace-for-no-state-funding-bump?ref=thebarbedwire.com), especialmente después del [programa de vales escolares fuera aprobado](https://www.telemundohouston.com/noticias/local/nueva-ley-en-texas-te-pagaria-hasta-2000-para-educacion-de-tus-hijos-en-casa/2487816/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) esta primavera y la disminución de la financiación de las escuelas públicas. El administrador dijo que algunas personas pueden tener miedo de hacer comentarios en su área porque podría alertar a las autoridades de inmigración o a las autoridades locales en sus escuelas. Otros líderes escolares dijeron a *The Barbed Wire* que no retrocederían ni tendrían temor al proporcionar seguridad, educación y protección a sus alumnos. “Pueden intentar recortar el apoyo a la educación pública y todas esas cosas que quieren, pero nosotros seguimos aquí. Seguimos trabajando para que todo salga adelante”, declaró a *The Barbed* Wire Jarvier Peeples, asesor de preparación profesional universitaria del centro de Texas. Peeples lleva al menos una década dedicado a la educación, asesorando a estudiantes de onceavo y doceavo grado de preparatoria sobre sus planes profesionales y guiándolos en el proceso de solicitud de ingreso a la universidad. Peeples afirmó que, al intensificarse las medidas de control de inmigración en mayo, muchos de sus alumnos tenían miedo de solicitar ingreso a la universidad o incluso de ir a la escuela. “Aunque son las últimas semanas de clase, algunas familias han decidido no enviar a sus hijos a la escuela por el riesgo de sentir que un día su hijo va a la escuela y al día siguiente reciban la noticia de que ha pasado algo” —dijo Peeples— “Tengo otro estudiante con el que, debido al trabajo de verano, solo pudimos reunirnos virtualmente, porque sus padres y toda la familia decidieron que no saldrían de casa excepto para hacer lo estrictamente necesario”, dijo. “Seguimos esforzándonos para garantizar que los objetivos y los sueños que estas familias y estos estudiantes quieren alcanzar se hagan realidad”. ## ‘No podemos ignorar ese dolor’ No solo los educadores están haciendo un esfuerzo por ayudar a los niños de familias inmigrantes y de estatus mixto, sino también los miembros de la comunidad. “Creo que muchos de nosotros, los de primera generación, sentimos ese dolor y no podemos ignorarlo. Lo sentimos”, declaró Monica Maldonado, fundadora de MAS Cultura, una organización sin fines de lucro que promueve a los artistas Latinx, dijo a *The Barbed Wire*. Maldonado fundó MAS Cultura en 2021 con el objetivo de brindar a la comunidad latina representación, oportunidades y orgullo cultural, aspectos que, en su opinión, se les niegan con demasiada frecuencia. Tras el mortal tiroteo de 2022 en la escuela primaria Robb de Uvalde, Maldonado ayudó a organizar a artistas, recaudar fondos y supervisar la [creación de murales comunitarios en tributo a las 21](https://www.telemundo.com/noticias/edicion-noticias-telemundo/estados-unidos/video/pintan-murales-con-las-victimas-de-uvalde-para-que-nadie-se-le-olvide-lo-que-paso-aqui-tmvo10626290?ref=thebarbedwire.com) víctimas del sur de Texas, todo ello con el fin de facilitar el duelo a través del arte. Ahora, en Austin, su ciudad natal, se enfoca en devolver a su comunidad todo lo que ésta le ha dado, en cualquier forma posible. “Hay esperanza y no podemos rendirnos. Cuando estás con estos niños, te aseguro que sientes alegría y esperanza”, dijo Maldonado. Durante las entrevistas con *The Barbed Wire*, ella trató de contener las lágrimas. A finales de mayo, una empresa local del centro de Texas le pidió a Maldonado apoyo organizativo después de que niños de familias con estatus mixto, de un complejo de apartamentos cercano, empezaran a ir a su oficina para pedir material para colorear. “¿Conoces alguna organización que ayude a las familias que han sido separadas por las redadas del ICE?, decía un mensaje de texto enviado a Maldonado el 21 de mayo y revisado por *The Barbed Wire.* “Se han llevado a varias personas”. “Tienen miedo hasta de salir,” decía el mensaje. “En medio de la pobreza en la que viven, la desgracia de no tener a sus padres, ni a su abuela, ni a su familia, ni a nadie, los niños siguen siendo felices y tienen esa alegría que el mundo realmente necesita” —dijo Maldonado—. “Tienen el corazón lleno de algo que nos falta a muchos de nosotros”. Los voluntarios de su organización se están movilizando para colectar mochilas y otros útiles escolares para dárselos directamente a las familias necesitadas en un evento de regreso a clases que se llevará a cabo en agosto. Ella dijo que ha sido difícil conseguir donaciones y subvenciones, especialmente porque muchas empresas grandes han eliminado gastos debido a los recortes presupuestarios en diversidad, equidad e inclusión (DEI por sus siglas en inglés). “Chingado, es bien difícil”, dijo Maldonado. “Estamos funcionando con lo mínimo”. Después de visitar uno de los complejos de apartamentos locales, Julio Herrera, director de programación de MAS Cultura, le dijo a Maldonado “‘No podemos abandonarlos. Tenemos que hacernos presentes. Tenemos que asegurarnos de que sepan que no los vamos a abandonar”. “En el este de Austin, Jeannette Valdez Durán, directora ejecutiva y presidenta de *Mobile Blessings from the Heart*, a principios de agosto, organizó una fiesta comunitaria de regreso a la escuela, en la que se atendió a más de 300 niños de primaria, secundaria y preparatoria. Se donaron mochilas, cortes de pelo, libros y comida. Tanto ella como Maldonado afirman que ayudan a llenar el vacío que dejan otras organizaciones que requieren documentos de identidad a las familias, para poder recibir ayuda y apoyo”. ## ‘Increíblemente brutal’ El día en que se llevaron a su madre esposada con ataduras de plástico, Jonatan y sus hermanos continuaron hacia Corpus Christi para que él pudiera asistir a la orientación para estudiantes de nuevo ingreso. “Estuve en la orientación, traté de mantenerme concentrado”, le dijo a *The Barbed Wire*. “Traté de no pensar mucho en ello, pero obviamente, hubo momentos en los que los presentadores de la orientación decían: ‘Quiero asegurarme de que todos ustedes den las gracias a sus padres por haber venido’. Me hicieron llorar”. “Aún así, estaba agradecido de haber podido estar allí con o sin mis padres”, añadió. Después de la orientación, los hermanos no fueron a la playa ni visitaron el museo de Selena. Por el contrario, regresaron a Houston y en una conferencia de prensa pidieron con humildad ayuda a la comunidad para recaudar fondos y reunirse con su madre. Mientras que la mayoría de los estudiantes universitarios de primer año han estado planeando la decoración de sus dormitorios y comprando canastas para ropa sucia y organizadores para los artículos de baño, Jonatan ha estado haciendo turnos extra en Pluckers, trabajando sin descanso para [recaudar $20,000 para los gastos legales de su madre](https://www.gofundme.com/f/protect-our-family-keep-mom-with-us?ref=thebarbedwire.com), con la esperanza de poder traerla de vuelta a casa. También está trabajando para ahorrar dinero para sus propios gastos universitarios y para ayudar a criar y mantener a su hermana de 15 años, que está empezando el décimo grado en Houston. “Mi hermano y yo hemos estado trabajando más, hemos estado ayudando con la casa, haciéndonos cargo de comprar el mandado, solo para mantener la casa en marcha, que todo siga funcionando, asegurándonos de que todos mantengan el ánimo y la moral alta, y que no nos desanimemos”, dijo Jonatan. “Puedo llorar todo lo que quiera, pero llorar no va a cambiar nada. No va a arreglar nada, ¿verdad? Hay que actuar. Así que he estado intentando contactar prácticamente a todos, hablar con todas las personas que puedo, tratar de contar mi historia, supongo, para que así se preste atención no solo a mi historia, sino a las innumerables historias de niños que han sido separados de sus familias”. El 8 de agosto, exactamente un mes después de que se llevaran a su madre y poco más de dos semanas antes de que Jonatan comenzara las clases, su madre tuvo una audiencia ante el tribunal. Ese día, Jonatan envió dos mensajes de texto con una actualización. “perdimos” “Podemos apelar, pero es un proceso de unos tres meses y cuesta dinero” Por ahora, su madre se encuentra recluida en un centro de detención en Río Grande Valley a la espera de juicio, en palabras de su abogado de familia. Karina Jiménez declaró a *The Barbed Wire* que, a su clienta, el juez le negó la libertad bajo fianza a pesar de no tener antecedentes penales. Jiménez dijo que “negarle la libertad es absolutamente brutal”. La negación de la fianza es debido a una orden de Trump —emitida el mismo día en que fue detenida la madre de Jonatan— [que impide a los jueces conceder la libertad bajo fianza a cualquier persona detenida por el ICE](https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=767108495769926) que haya entrado a Estados Unidos sin documentación. Jiménez dijo a *The Barbed Wire* que cree que se trata de una táctica para presionar a las personas a que abandonen voluntariamente el país. Por ahora, Jonatan y su familia aún están decidiendo si seguirán luchando contra la política migratoria de Trump —y arriesgarse a que su madre de 51 años permanezca más tiempo detenida en condiciones potencialmente inhumanas— o si optarán por la deportación con la esperanza de que pueda reunirse con su familia en Guatemala. “Mi madre nos había dicho que, si pasaba algo, ya fuera hoy o más adelante, mantuviéramos una actitud positiva, que nos teníamos los unos a los otros, a nuestros hermanos, y que íbamos a estar bien, y que no nos preocupáramos por ella si la deportaban”. El 20 de agosto es el día que Jonatan se tiene que mudarse a Texas A&M Corpus Christi. Estudiará Arquitectura. “Quiero poder crear cosas que perduren en el tiempo y sigan ayudando y transformando el mundo para convertirlo en un lugar mejor”, dijo Jonatan. Recuerda haberle dicho a su madre cuál era la carrera de sus sueños. “Ella siempre me decía que le diseñara su casa cuando terminara la universidad y, en cierto modo, eso me anima a seguir esforzándome” le dijo a *The Barbed Wire.* Jonatan debe mantener un promedio de calificación de 3.25 como parte de su programa universitario para garantizar el poder trasladarse a College Station después de un año en Corpus. “Todos hemos pasado por nuestras propias dificultades, nuestras propias luchas, nuestras propias batallas, y entonces nos preguntamos: “¿Vas a convertirte en una víctima de tu pasado y tus traumas, o vas a convertirte en la persona que quieres ser, en la persona con la que has soñado, en la persona que quieres ser para construir tu futuro?’” No tiene ninguna duda de que lo conseguirá. “Ella tuvo que hacer sacrificios para que yo llegara a donde estoy ahora y, obviamente, no puedo dejar pasar por alto esos sacrificios”. *Translation by Alejandra Rios* ### A ‘Shameful’ Legacy: Texas Has Officially Opened an ICE Detention Facility at Site of WWII Internment Camp URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-fort-bliss-ice-detention-facility-at-site-of-wwii-internment-camp/ Last updated: 2025-08-18T22:43:22.000Z In El Paso on Sunday, the Trump Administration opened the doors to Camp East Montana, the [largest ICE detention facility](https://www.newsnationnow.com/us-news/immigration/trump-largest-detention-center/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in the country’s history. It reportedly cost $1.2 billion under a U.S. Defense Department contract. The new facility is at Fort Bliss, one of five sites where Texas held detainees of Japanese descent, as well as immigrants from Germany and Italy — including American-born civilians — [during World War II](https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/preserving-wwii-internment-history-in-texas.htm?ref=thebarbedwire.com), according to the National Parks Service and [*The El Paso Times*](https://www.elpasotimes.com/story/news/immigration/2025/07/23/fort-bliss-timeline-from-refugee-shelter-to-ice-deportation-hub/81969515007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Camp East Montana is just one of multiple sites that will be opening or expanding in the coming months, according to [*The Washington Post*](https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2025/08/15/ice-documents-reveal-plan-double-immigrant-detention-space-this-year/?pwapi%5Ftoken=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJyZWFzb24iOiJnaWZ0IiwibmJmIjoxNzU1NDg5NjAwLCJpc3MiOiJzdWJzY3JpcHRpb25zIiwiZXhwIjoxNzU2ODcxOTk5LCJpYXQiOjE3NTU0ODk2MDAsImp0aSI6IjI3NGY5NTgwLTBmMzAtNGZkMC1iZTUwLWVjZmVmMzBiOWY5YSIsInVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lndhc2hpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbS9pbW1pZ3JhdGlvbi8yMDI1LzA4LzE1L2ljZS1kb2N1bWVudHMtcmV2ZWFsLXBsYW4tZG91YmxlLWltbWlncmFudC1kZXRlbnRpb24tc3BhY2UtdGhpcy15ZWFyLyJ9.HleTlsjMlyGtjOo7zItU%5F763v5LmzYLIJZtgxtk-Y9A&ref=thebarbedwire.com). The newspaper reported that Texas alone will house 37,649 new beds this year, which marks a 105% increase in the state’s capacity. To be clear, as of June, [65% of people taken by ICE](https://www.cato.org/blog/65-people-taken-ice-had-no-convictions-93-no-violent-convictions?ref=thebarbedwire.com) had no convictions of any kind, according to the CATO Institute, a nonpartisan and independent public policy research organization. Immigration attorneys say most of these facilities are filled with people who have [no criminal records](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/million-texas-students-undocumented-ice-mom-taken/) at all. Local leaders in El Paso are [worried about the lack of transparency](https://www.ktsm.com/news/county-commissioner-pushes-resolution-opposing-fort-bliss-migrant-center/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in the facility. At least one worker, 38-year-old Hector Gonzalez, died [during its construction. ](https://kvia.com/news/abc-7-alert-center/2025/07/23/civilian-contractor-dies-in-incident-on-ft-bliss/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)Gonzalez’s death is currently under investigation by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division, according to [NBC News](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/trump-administration-hits-hurdles-builds-key-immigrant-detention-facil-rcna224608?ref=thebarbedwire.com). [Local officials have also raised](https://kvia.com/news/abc-7-alert-center/2025/07/23/civilian-contractor-dies-in-incident-on-ft-bliss/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) concerns about detainees’ access to air conditioning, running water, showers, and hot meals. Per [NBC News](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/trump-administration-hits-hurdles-builds-key-immigrant-detention-facil-rcna224608?ref=thebarbedwire.com), court settlements require that facilities used by ICE meet certain standards, including many of those provisions. Deon Lewis, a 43-year-old man from Trinidad, made headlines from a detention center in Houston last week when he begged to be deported, according to [*The Houston Chronicle*](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/immigration/article/houston-ice-immigrant-sickle-cell-deportation-20812511.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Lewis told the newspaper that federal officials have refused to provide his medication for sickle cell disease, for which he’s experienced excruciating pain. Lewis, the newspaper reported, has been in the United States as a legal permanent resident or green card holder since 1993. While Camp East Montana currently holds about 1,000 beds, [according to KTSM News](https://www.ktsm.com/news/migrant-detention-center-at-fort-bliss-officially-opens/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), ICE has said the facility will accommodate 5,000 beds by 2027, according to [*The Post*](https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2025/08/15/ice-documents-reveal-plan-double-immigrant-detention-space-this-year/?pwapi%5Ftoken=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJyZWFzb24iOiJnaWZ0IiwibmJmIjoxNzU1NDg5NjAwLCJpc3MiOiJzdWJzY3JpcHRpb25zIiwiZXhwIjoxNzU2ODcxOTk5LCJpYXQiOjE3NTU0ODk2MDAsImp0aSI6IjI3NGY5NTgwLTBmMzAtNGZkMC1iZTUwLWVjZmVmMzBiOWY5YSIsInVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lndhc2hpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbS9pbW1pZ3JhdGlvbi8yMDI1LzA4LzE1L2ljZS1kb2N1bWVudHMtcmV2ZWFsLXBsYW4tZG91YmxlLWltbWlncmFudC1kZXRlbnRpb24tc3BhY2UtdGhpcy15ZWFyLyJ9.HleTlsjMlyGtjOo7zItU%5F763v5LmzYLIJZtgxtk-Y9A&ref=thebarbedwire.com)*.* At least 18 other new or expanded Texas facilities are part of this plan, include Reeves County Detention Center in Pecos, with the capacity for 3,700 people; Brownsville Family Detention, with the capacity for 3,500 people; Big Spring Complex, with the capacity for 2,300; and more than a dozen additional sites, [*The Post*](https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2025/08/15/ice-documents-reveal-plan-double-immigrant-detention-space-this-year/?pwapi%5Ftoken=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJyZWFzb24iOiJnaWZ0IiwibmJmIjoxNzU1NDg5NjAwLCJpc3MiOiJzdWJzY3JpcHRpb25zIiwiZXhwIjoxNzU2ODcxOTk5LCJpYXQiOjE3NTU0ODk2MDAsImp0aSI6IjI3NGY5NTgwLTBmMzAtNGZkMC1iZTUwLWVjZmVmMzBiOWY5YSIsInVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lndhc2hpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbS9pbW1pZ3JhdGlvbi8yMDI1LzA4LzE1L2ljZS1kb2N1bWVudHMtcmV2ZWFsLXBsYW4tZG91YmxlLWltbWlncmFudC1kZXRlbnRpb24tc3BhY2UtdGhpcy15ZWFyLyJ9.HleTlsjMlyGtjOo7zItU%5F763v5LmzYLIJZtgxtk-Y9A&ref=thebarbedwire.com) reported. “President Trump’s use of Fort Bliss for the nation’s largest immigrant detention site is cruel and a reminder of a shameful detention legacy,” said Sarah Mehta, deputy director of government affairs, Equality Division at the American Civil Liberties Union, in a [statement.](https://www.aclutx.org/en/press-releases/aclu-texas-aclu-statement-trump-administrations-use-fort-bliss-military-base?ref=thebarbedwire.com) “Thousands of people, including our neighbors and loved ones, will be torn from their communities while this administration enlists the military to rubberstamp its abusive agenda.” During Trump’s first term in 2016 and in 2021, when the Biden administration also housed children who came across the border without guardians at Fort Bliss, whistleblowers [decried the conditions inside](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/whistleblowers-allege-poor-care-migrant-kids-contractor-specializing-disaster-cleanup-n1273124?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — and alleged the facility was mismanaged, [NBC News](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/trump-administration-hits-hurdles-builds-key-immigrant-detention-facil-rcna224608?ref=thebarbedwire.com) reported. A federal [watchdog report](https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/3663768-watchdog-report-details-distress-of-migrant-children-housed-at-fort-bliss/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) later detailed the distress experienced by children in the facility. Civil rights organizations are deeply concerned about what these ever-expanding facilities will mean for the basic human rights of the people who are detained, said Savannah Kumar, a staff attorney at the ACLU of Texas. “From the internment of Japanese Americans to the family separation crisis under (Trump’s) first administration,” she said, “people detained there will almost certainly have their basic rights violated while caged in tents under the brutal West Texas sun, with extreme heat that puts their lives at risk. This is not just dangerous — it's cruel.” ### Journalists Are Just as Fucked Up as Everyone Else. Admitting It Might Help Us Save Democracy. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/journalists-actually-can-save-democracy/ Last updated: 2025-08-18T05:01:00.000Z I was sitting in the florescent haze of a conference room in New Orleans this June when something snapped in my chaotic brain. Thousands of journalists had descended like locusts on a Canal Street Marriott for the annual Investigative Reporters & Editors conference which, in my opinion, is the best (if most pretentious) gathering in the news business. It was a small coup for our little *Barbed Wire* contingent to take our rightful place on panels and at the hotel lobby bar alongside an untold number of Pulitzer winners — and to explain to our esteemed colleagues [*The Barbed Wire* ethos](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/are-you-there-texas-its-me-olivia/) that, just maybe, infusing style and a point of view into journalism isn’t a mortal sin. Maybe (cue jazz hands) it’s the future. Along with trading FOIA tips and organizational techniques like rare wines (Have you tried the table sorting option in the new Trello vintage? Sublime.), the conference gave us an opportunity to address an elephant in the room — yes, we were the ones in [that sexual predation in the media story](https://www.cjr.org/feature/wesley-lowery-sexual-assault-journalists-attest-experiences.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that you all read; yes, it was *that* bad. Before I get any further, I should probably say hi, [I’m Cara](https://thebarbedwire.com/author/cara/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). I’ve worked at *The Washington Post* and *USA Today*, and I’ve taught journalism at American University. That mini media scandal is how *The Barbed Wire*’s [editor-in-chief Olivia Messer](https://thebarbedwire.com/author/olivia/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and I met — a fact I’ve been scared to say publicly before now. I was at a nonprofit investigative newsroom at American when Olivia was searching for a partner on a [*Texas Monthly* story](https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/texas-senate-sexual-harassment/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) about how the state legislature buries sexual harassment complaints and enables bad actors. The nonprofit’s then-director, who was my boss, connected us because sexual harassment and violence investigations are my wheelhouse. I’ve written dozens of front page stories about such problems in [Boy Scouts](https://witness.usatoday.com/article/85532649007?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Uber and Lyft, the [massage industry](https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/investigations/2023/01/19/human-trafficking-laws-enforcement-impact-victim-experience/10392339002/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), etc. Then, while uncovering sexual misconduct in the Texas Senate, we found ourselves on the other side of the story. Bizarre doesn’t begin to describe it. That former boss also wrote a seminal *New York Times* [op-ed](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/23/opinion/objectivity-black-journalists-coronavirus.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) positing that “moral clarity” is a better journalism framework than “objectivity,” before he was accused of serial sexual assault. The critique was right, but oh, the irony. Perhaps my newly visceral understanding that our industry can be as fucked up as any other was what pushed me over the edge while sitting in the audience of that fateful panel discussion. I went because I agree with the premise — that investigative reporting can save the industry — and because a friend of mine was on the panel alongside other names I admire. But a prevailing notion in journalism made its way into the conversation and hit a raw nerve. There is an absolute certainty among some of our elder statesmen that Journalism means disembodied fact regurgitation, as if impartiality is next to godliness. They believe that, to weather our impending doom, we must stay the course and tell the people who no longer trust or even like us that much that they *simply don’t understand how much they need us*. Not for the first time, hearing it articulated made me want to shout that we’d lost the plot. We’ve all fucked up, and we can’t admit it. To ourselves or anyone else. Instead of screaming like the possessed woman I may be, I leaned over to a former colleague and mouthed, “This is all bullshit.” And bless him, he stood up and asked the deeply unsettling question lurking at the back of our minds: How much of this (gestures wildly at the general state of affairs in the U.S.) is our fault? If you are reading this thinking, “Quite a bit,” I don’t blame you. I, too, think we bear responsibility, and I don’t think it’s Catholic guilt or an eldest daughter trauma response (though I’m working on those with my therapist). The problem with “objectivity,” and “moral clarity,” and even “fairness” as doctrines is… who the hell are we to decide what is objective, moral, or fair? We aren’t moral referees. We are as fallible as anyone else, simply better researched. That notion feeds into the condescending position — one that readers have clearly picked up on — of thinking we’re above society when we’re part of it. We have power as journalists. It’s frankly what makes the job so much fun. At least if you’re the type of person who enjoys forcing someone like Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick [to answer questions](https://www.statesman.com/story/news/politics/state/2024/07/15/texas-senate-sexual-harassment-complaints-new-investigation-report/74380542007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) about his farce of a sexual harassment policy. Which, of course, I am. With such power comes responsibility. And what *is* a journalist’s responsibility? Glad you asked. Because it seems we’ve gotten sidetracked by a desperate attempt to be perceived as fair, as if that’ll stave off bad faith attacks. There’s a great 2001 text by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel called “The Elements of Journalism.” In the first chapter, the authors provide a pretty conclusive answer: Journalism is giving people information so they can be free and self-governing. In other words, it’s democracy. “The news media help us define our communities as well as help us create a common language and common knowledge rooted in reality,” the authors wrote. In the 25 years since that text was published, we’ve experienced a relentless assault on facts by politicians and billionaires seeking unfettered power. And we have not figured out what to do about it. Instead, we’ve contorted ourselves to make the old rules fit a changed game with participants who publicly proclaim they were never going to follow the rules anyway. In the post-fact era, it is nearly impossible to check people in real time or cancel out misinformation with a footnote. (\*See Kristen Welker’s not one but two [forehead-palming interviews](https://www.azcentral.com/story/entertainment/media/2024/12/08/trump-meet-the-press/76794389007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) with President Donald Trump on “Meet the Press.”) Recently, I found myself white-knuckling my steering wheel waiting for an NPR host to stop a Republican lawmaker from repeating a false claim about Medicaid. *Interject, dude! Work requirements already exist! The* [*vast majority of people on Medicaid are working*](https://www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/understanding-the-intersection-of-medicaid-and-work-an-update/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)*, or are exempt because they’re disabled or caregivers!* If you can’t push back or add in the correct information, what’s the point? Conservative politicians will insist NPR is liberal propaganda no matter how many [far-fight personas they invite](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/10/business/media/charlottesville-jason-kessler-npr.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on their shows. Their public funding was always going to be slashed. > We are running our own newsroom now. We have an obligation to do better. Meanwhile, what happened to speaking truth to power? What about making them sweat a little? What does it say about us, the [intrepid Fourth Estate](https://cs.stanford.edu/people/eroberts/cs181/projects/2010-11/Journalism/index7f0d.html?page%5Fid=16&ref=thebarbedwire.com), when the [creators of “South Park”](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/jul/24/south-park-most-furious-episode-ever-the-jaw-dropping-satanic-takedown-of-donald-trump?ref=thebarbedwire.com) are more willing to push back on threats to democracy than [executives at “60 Minutes”?](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/02/business/media/paramount-trump-60-minutes-lawsuit.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Call me crazy, but saying “We’re nonpartisan, and thus the good guys!” louder for the people in the back isn’t going to stop a would-be authoritarian from suing us out of existence. Just ask CBS. To clarify, I’m not blaming any one person or outlet or panel (I revere these people, truly). The rhetoric of staying the course is simply dysregulating when you missed out on the [Graydon Carter at *Vanity Fair* era](https://yalereview.org/article/burrough-vanity-fair-graydon-carter?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — and spent the bulk of your career dodging layoffs like a game of Russian Roulette. My bullet finally came at the end of 2022 after 15 years. Thankfully, the shot was nonfatal, and I’m still a working masochist. I mean journalist. Debriefing with Olivia on our last afternoon of the conference, we got to the core of the issue. Frustration is easier to confront than the heady weight of responsibility. But we are no longer underlings griping about foolhearty executives who got us into this mess. We are running our own newsroom now. We have an obligation to do better. When I got home from New Orleans, I slept for 16 hours, chugged some liquid IVs, and — after a year of contract editing — signed my offer letter to be the managing editor of *The Barbed Wire*. Now, as we are approaching a year since launch on Aug. 26, we are taking stock of what’s working and what isn’t. I’m the first at bat, but in the coming weeks, everyone on our staff will be publishing their own analyses. It hasn’t surprised me that much of our most popular content is investigative (I did go to that panel for a reason). Our most-read stories include our [investigation into sexual misconduct allegations](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/houston-horn-player-harrassed-rice-students/) against a former Rice University professor, which was part of an innovative partnership with the student-run paper *The Rice Thresher*; our exposé on [the murder of Felita Bailey](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/murder-amarillo-felita-bailey/); and a deep-dive into [the rights of Texans](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/who-owns-the-dead-inside-a-texas-familys-fight-to-honor-its-ancestors/), primarily Latino and Black families, whose relatives are buried in cemeteries on private property. These stories have [provided catharsis](https://www.facebook.com/KatherineNeedlemanOboist/posts/thank-you-to-myrna-meeroff-for-telling-your-story-to-the-public-i-am-sorry-for-w/1009096781034926/) to grieving families and abuse survivors. They have empowered people to [petition institutions](https://www.change.org/p/reform-houston-symphony-2nd-horn-auditions-demand-safe-and-unbiased-auditions?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for reform, including the Houston Symphony. Bail has been reduced for Kanye Bailey, Felita’s cousin, though his family is still waiting to hear what evidence is keeping him in jail. https://www.facebook.com/myrnameeroff/posts/pfbid02umF6Rhu85xgW1n1th6gBAYzaSJ1UEB1LcPMPW77SZrfZ2ize9xZ3HoUEdmex4GaPl Those stories, and the others that make up our top 10 (like first-person accounts of [life under abortion bans](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/she-voted-for-trump-then-she-had-two-terrifying-miscarriages-in-texas/) and quitting the crazy-[addicting drugs sold at gas stations](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/i-cant-believe-its-not-heroin/)), exemplify some of the best of what we can do as a profession. They feature relatable characters, contain clear story arcs, shed light on new information presented with care and nuance, and inform the way we live — or want to live. When done right, stories can make us understand what it feels like for a grieving mother to be treated with disregard by police officers — even if we’ve never had a child, lost a loved one, or lived anywhere close to smalltown Texas. That’s because telling the truth in a compelling way has the ability to infuse empathy and critical thinking into spaces that desperately need it, expose wrongdoing, and drive people to change laws and end corruption. At *The Barbed Wire*, we get to say the quiet parts out loud, without apology. We also get to write “fuck” in headlines and, when we have evidence that someone misrepresented the truth when they knew otherwise, say that people have lied (the pearl clutching in newsrooms over the word “lie” is still mind-boggling to me). The funny thing about our old journalism rules? Investigations have never been subjected to both-sidesism. Turns out, when you have reams of public records, dozens of witnesses, a handful of experts, and months of shoe-leather reporting indicating the sky is blue, you don’t need to give airspace to someone claiming it’s green. This hit home for me about a week ago when *The New York Times* [published an investigation ](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/06/business/uber-sexual-assault.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com)into continued sexual assault problems at Uber. Three-quarters down, there’s a mention of reporting I’d done with a colleague at *USA Today*. [We found that Uber was using a third-party claims company](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2019/10/04/uber-uses-claims-company-for-settlements-sexual-assault-cases/3857008002/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to try to force women who reported being sexually assaulted into settlements. We found one instance where a claims adjuster showed up at a victim’s father’s house. A family friend, who had answered the door, told me that the guy had offered him $10,000 to work with Uber against the victim. I had the task of confronting Uber with the things we found. Now, thanks to the *Times*, I know for certain that the Uber spokesperson was trying to manipulate me by trashing rape victims — and that he’d probably sold his soul for a cushy PR job. Anyway, *Barbed Wire* readers, what does that mean for you? Consider this my promise that in our second (and hopefully third, fourth, 20th) year of existence, that I will try my best to speak truth to power, to publish stories that articulate what you are thinking, and to provide accurate information that isn’t pandering to any party or agenda. I will try to do it with verve, and in a way that you actually want to read. In return, I hope that you will follow along, [subscribe to our free newsletter](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/subscribe/), [buy some merch](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/shop/), and [become paying members](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/become-a-member/). Unfortunately, the best journalism is also the most expensive. That’s life, isn’t it? I hope, too, that we can have a meaningful exchange — so that we can help you tell your stories from inside your own communities. Whether you’ve seen something you think deserves our attention or want to write an essay about your own experiences, we want to hear from you. Send us tips, direction, or just heart emojis. Help us find a path forward, together, in this little democracy we call home. ### Nearly a Million Texas Students Have an Undocumented Parent. Who Will Protect Them When ICE Comes? URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/million-texas-students-undocumented-ice-mom-taken/ Last updated: 2025-08-14T05:00:00.000Z Eighteen-year-old Jonatan Pech sat in the passenger seat of his family’s sedan as their headlights pierced the morning darkness. His older brother, Cristian, gripped the steering wheel. The music shuffled between Houston rap to salsa and then R&B, lullabies for his sister Esme who slept in the backseat while his mom, Teresa, looked out the window, towards her son’s new life chapter. The four had left Houston shortly after 4 a.m. that Tuesday for the three-and-a-half-hour drive to Texas A&M’s Corpus Christi campus. Jonatan had to check in by 8 a.m. for his July 8 freshman student orientation, dubbed “Islander Launch” by the university. Family vacations weren’t a privilege they often came by, so Jonatan had an idea. “I was like, ‘After orientation, can we stay a little longer so we can, like, explore the city for a bit?’” His mother, Ma as Jonatan calls her, said yes. A single mom, she immigrated to the U.S. from Guatemala as a teenager, pregnant with Cristian, in search of the illustrious “American Dream.” Teresa, 51, has lived in Houston with her family for more than 20 years. The two brothers had stepped up to take extra jobs and help with bills after they became estranged from their father. Out of the three siblings, Cristian was the first to go to college. Now, it was Jonatan’s turn, with the help of scholarships he received for outstanding grades and leadership. He wanted to celebrate with a visit to the [Selena Museum](https://www.visitcorpuschristi.com/listing/selena-museum/5/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which is about 20 minutes northwest of campus, and then the beach, to let family stressors float away in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. They were driving through Refugio County, still about an hour away from the university campus, when Jonatan woke up to red, blue, and white lights in the rearview mirror. “My brother had gotten pulled over because his beam lights were ‘too bright’, that's what the officer had said, and then he asked my brother for his license, insurance, and ID,” Jonatan told *The Barbed Wire*. “And then at this point, the officer is talking with us, I guess creating small talk, asking, like, ‘Oh, where are you going?’” Jonatan said the officer took everyone’s IDs and then came back and told them they were good to go. His brother got a warning for the alleged high beams. But before they could drive off, there was something else. “Then he tells my brother and my mom to step out the vehicle. I was a little confused, but I didn't think much of it,” Jonatan remembered. He could see his brother through the car windows reading paperwork from the officer. His brother looked emotional as he turned and said something to their mom. “He pretty much had to translate to my own mom that they were taking her,” he said. “It broke my brother.” Watching from the rear view window, Jonatan wondered what the hold-up could be. The minutes ticked by and it was getting closer to the time he had to be on campus. “She came back later crying, and she was saying, ‘Que me van a llevar,’ meaning that they were going to take her,” Jonatan said. “They took her, she grabbed her stuff, and then another car came, and then they put the zip ties on her, and then they took her.” “That was the last time I saw my mom. I couldn't even hug her, kiss her goodbye, nothing.” ## Texas Has 111,000 Undocumented K-12 Students Across Texas, students are returning to school as immigration enforcement remains a threat — whether or not students or their parents are U.S. citizens, on legal pathways to citizenship, or have ever committed a crime. About 15% of K-12 students in Texas — or 890,000 children — have at least one undocumented parent according to [FWD.us](http://fwd.us/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a bipartisan 501(c)(4) organization that focuses on immigration and criminal justice reform. Their data shows an estimated [111,000 Texas kids are undocumented ](https://www.fwd.us/news/k-12-undocumented-students/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)themselves. As of July, nearly 1.5 million Texans “live in jurisdictions where sheriffs or police chiefs have agreed to train some of their officers to act as immigration agents in the streets of their communities,” [the *Texas Observer* first reported](https://www.texasobserver.org/ice-task-force-galveston-beaumont-tyler/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Refugio County, where Jonatan’s mom was taken, was one of the first counties in the state to sign such an agreement with the new presidential administration’s immigration efforts. “The administration is trying to push, ‘We're only going after criminals, we're going after the bad guys, these despicable people that do bad things,’” Cesar Espinosa, executive director and founder of FIEL Houston, an immigrant-led civil rights organization, told *The Barbed Wire*. “But in reality, when you look at the numbers percentage wise, there are a small number of folks (who have criminal records).” Espinosa said he got a call from Jonatan’s family about his mom shortly after the incident — one of an increasing number of calls he’s gotten this year about family deportations. “This time last year, we were getting one or two deportation calls a month, if any. I mean on average, it was one or two a month. Right now we're getting 15 to 20 calls a day of people who are getting picked up, who are having family members picked up, who are dealing with this immigration system,” Espinosa said. “We've seen it all,” Espinosa said. Jonatan’s story stood out because of how quickly the events unfolded, but the general contours were consistent with many others. Like the vast majority of those who’ve been detained, Jonatan’s mom has no criminal record, according to her attorney Karina Jimenez. Jimenez told *The Barbed Wire* that including Jonatan’s mom’s case, her clients have tripled or quadrupled and estimates that “3/4th’s (of her new clients) have no criminal record” and said “it’s normal everyday people.” The latest numbers from [U.C. Berkley’s Deportation Data Project](https://deportationdata.org/index.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the first centralized collection of individualized immigration enforcement data, show that across the country, people without criminal charges or convictions made up an average of 47% of daily ICE arrests. In early June, that number was up from about 21% in early May, before the Trump administration's decision on May 21 to triple ICE's arrest quota, according to [Axios’ data analysis and reports](https://www.axios.com/local/houston/2025/07/21/houston-ice-arrests-noncriminals?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “In Jonatan’s mom's case, it was the brisk turn of events where it’s one of the happiest days of this family's life — they're going to take their the young kid to the orientation for a fully paid scholarship — and turns into a nightmare for them when their mom gets detained,” Espinosa said. Regardless of status, [researchers say the impacts of ICE raids and arrests](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-srcd-org/sites/default/files/2025-03/child-policy-brief%5Fdeportation%5F032025.pdf) pose a risk to all Texas children. Providers nationwide are calling for [reforms to protect children’s mental health](https://news.ucr.edu/articles/2025/08/08/child-mental-health-crisis-tied-immigration-enforcement?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in the fallout from watching their parents taken to other students witnessing their friends’ lives upended. “We've gotten calls from tios and tias who, maybe a parent went to work, and they just never came home and now they're taking care of their children,” Espinosa said. Headlines of arrests and deportations — like the [father of three young children who was detained by ICE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VerL9CM1S%5Fo&ref=thebarbedwire.com) during a traffic stop in July while working a job for the roofing company he owns — have sparked social media rumors suggesting ICE will target schools once classes resume. Anonymous tips have fueled speculation, including one post in the Central Texas area, which claimed that immigration activities will be ramping up “to target families getting kids ready for school” and had been shared and liked by thousands of people. While school districts in California have been more [proactive in addressing community fears](https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-08-13/fear-competes-with-joyous-ritual-as-new-school-year-begins-in-l-a?ref=thebarbedwire.com), national headlines this week drew sharp condemnation onto the actions of federal officials who on Monday detained — and later released — a [15-year-old teen with disabilities at gun point](https://ktla.com/news/local-news/disabled-teen-detained-ice-outside-school/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) outside a school in Los Angeles in a case of “mistaken identity.” He’d simply gone with his grandmother to help enroll a relative at the school. “The release will not release him from what he experienced,” Los Angeles Unified School Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said during a news conference. “The trauma will linger. It will not cease. It is unacceptable, not only in our community, but anywhere in America.” California districts facing down worried parents and community members have offered options like [virtual classroom learning](https://lapublicpress.org/2025/08/lausd-families-switching-to-online-school-scared-of-ice-raids/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), while Texas districts have been more tight-lipped in their responses to the crisis of fear immigration officers have created across the country — despite the fact that earlier this year, an [11-year-old in North Texas took her own life](https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/19/us/jocelynn-rojo-carranza-gainesville-texas-death/index.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) after classmates bullied her by threatening to report their families to ICE. Still, Austin ISD said there were no recent changes to any policies and pointed *The Barbed Wire* to an [immigration and student support FAQ page](https://www.austinisd.org/refugee-immigrant-services/resources?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on their website. According to their site, the district does not give immigration information to federal officials. However, the site makes it clear that federal agencies *are allowed* to “conduct enforcement activities at schools” after the Trump administration walked back a 2011 DHS directive that limited agents from enforcement at schools, churches, and hospitals. The site said that “Austin ISD is assessing the impact of this policy change.” Fort Worth ISD sent a statement to *The Barbed Wire* saying they “do not ask about or collect information on the immigration status of students or their families. All student records are protected under federal law, including the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.” Still, families are encouraged to keep emergency contact information updated and to share any concerns with school counselors or campus principals. “In the event a parent is detained during school hours, we ensure the safety of the student until an authorized adult can pick them up, in accordance with child welfare laws,” Jessica Becerra, news and information manager with Forth Worth ISD, said. “Fort Worth ISD will continue to monitor developments and share relevant updates to support the well-being of all students and families.” Dallas ISD pointed *The Barbed Wire* to a January statement that read, “in 2017, the Dallas ISD board of trustees took the bold step of unanimously approving a resolution to designate all Dallas ISD schools as welcoming and protective TO THE FULLEST EXTENT OF THE LAW. We believe that ALL students deserve the opportunity to succeed, and we are dedicated to ensuring that they ALL have the resources they need to thrive. We are here to educate ALL students for success.” San Antonio ISD and Houston ISD did not respond to requests for comment. One school administrator from a Texas district who would only speak with *The Barbed Wire* anonymously said many districts are afraid to speak up, for fear of direct retaliation from Gov. Greg Abbott and threats of [more essential funding cuts](https://www.keranews.org/education/2025-02-18/were-running-out-of-areas-to-cut-fort-worth-area-school-districts-brace-for-no-state-funding-bump?ref=thebarbedwire.com), especially after the [passage of the school vouchers](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-school-vouchers/) program this spring and dwindling public school funding. The administrator said some people may fear speaking up in their area because it could alert immigration authorities or law enforcement to their individual campuses. Other school leaders told *The Barbed Wire* that they would not back down or shy away from providing safety, education, and protection for their students. “They can try to scale back on supporting public education and all those things that they want to but, we're still here. We're still making things happen,” Jarvier Peeples, a Central Texas college career readiness advisor, told *The Barbed Wire*. Peeples has been in education for at least a decade, advising high school juniors and seniors on career paths and guiding them through the college application process. As immigration enforcement ramped up in May, Peeples said many of his students were scared to apply to college or even show up to school. “Even though it's the last few weeks of school, some families decided not to even send their kids to school because of the risk of feeling that one day, my student is going to school, and the next thing I'm hearing they're gone,” Peeples said. “I have another student where, with summer work, I could only meet with them virtually, because their parents and the whole family decided, ‘We're not going out except to do the most essential things,’” he said. “We're still pushing forward to make sure that the goals and the dreams that these families, these students, are wanting to make happen, happen.” ## ‘We Can’t Ignore That Pain’ It’s not only educators stepping up to help vulnerable kids in immigrant and mixed-status families, it’s community members. “For many first gen, I think we feel that pain, and we can't ignore that pain. We feel it,” Monica Maldonado, founder of MAS Cultura, a non-profit elevating Latinx artists, told *The Barbed Wire*. Maldonado started MAS Cultura in 2021 to give the Latino community the representation, opportunities, and cultural pride she said are too often been denied. After the deadly 2022 shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, she helped [organize artists, fundraise, and curate community murals for the 21 victims in South Texas](https://atxwoman.com/2024/06/01/monica-maldonado-for-the-culture/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in an effort to enable healing through art. Now, in her hometown of Austin, she’s focused on giving back to her community by whatever means necessary. “There's hope that we can't give up. And when you're around these kids, I'm telling you, you can feel joy and you can feel hope,” Maldonado said. Throughout interviews with *The Barbed Wire*, she fought back tears. In late May, a local Central Texas business reached out to Maldonado asking for organizational support after kids from mixed-status families from a nearby apartment complex started showing up at their office asking for supplies to color. “Do you know any orgs helping families separated by the ICE raids happening?” said a text from May 21 sent to Maldonado and reviewed by *The Barbed Wire*. “They've taken several people.” “They're scared to even go out,” the text read. “In the midst of the poverty they're living in, the disparity of not having their parents, or their grandma, their family, anyone, the kids, they still are happy and have this joy that the world needs honestly,” Maldonado said. “Tienen el corazon lleno de algo que nos falta a mucho de nosotros,” she explained in Spanish. In English, that’s “They have their heart full of something that is missing from a lot of us.” Volunteers with her organization are mobilizing to collect backpacks and other school supplies to deliver directly to families in need for a [back-to-school event this August](https://www.instagram.com/p/DMK9jlNsICX/?img%5Findex=1&ref=thebarbedwire.com). She said it’s been tough to get donations and grants, especially since many major companies have cut back on spending due to DEI cuts. “It’s fucking hard,” said Maldonado. “We’re running on ‘E.’” “‘We can't abandon them. We have to show up,’” Julio Herrera, MAS Cultura’s programming director, told Maldonado after they did a site visit to one of the local apartment complexes. “We gotta make sure that they know, like we're not gonna abandon them.” In East Austin, Jeannette Valdez Duran, CEO and President of Mobile Blessings from the Heart, hosted an early August back to school block party serving more than 300 high school and elementary school aged children. They donated backpacks, haircuts, books, and food. Both she and Maldonado say they help fill the gap left behind by other organizations that require families to have IDs in order to get help and support. “I tell the people that this is a safe haven for them. This is not a place where we judge each other. It's a place where you are welcome,” Valdez Duran said. “We're not about hate, we're not about race. We are about hope, love, faith, and kindness — and helping each other out with whatever someone's needs are.” ## ‘Absolutely Barbaric’ The day his mom was taken away cuffed in zip ties, Jonatan and his siblings continued onto Corpus Christi so he could make freshman orientation. “I went through my orientation, I tried to stay present,” he told *The Barbed Wire*. “I tried not to really think about it much, but obviously, there'll be times when the orientation presenters said, ‘I want to make sure that y'all give thank you to y'all parents for coming out here,’ Like, they made me tear up.” “I was still grateful I was able to make it with or without my parents,” he added. After orientation, the siblings didn’t make it to the beach or to visit the Selena museum. Instead, they went back to Houston, and spoke at a press conference humbly asking the community for help to raise funds and reunite with his mom. While most freshman college students have been planning dorm room decorations and shopping for laundry baskets and shower caddies, Jonatan has taken extra shifts at Pluckers, working around the clock to [raise $20,000 for his mom’s legal expenses](https://www.gofundme.com/f/protect-our-family-keep-mom-with-us?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in hopes they can help bring her home. He’s also working to save money for his own college expenses, and to help raise and provide for his 15-year-old sister who’s starting 10th grade in Houston. “Me and my brother have been working more, we've been helping out with the house, grocery shopping on our own, just to keep the house going, keep everything going, making sure that all the spirits are high, that we have good morale, and that we just don't get down,” Jonatan said. “I can cry all I want, but crying is not going to change anything. It's not going to fix anything, right? It takes action. So I've been trying to reach out to pretty much anyone I can, try to speak with anyone I can, try to put, I guess, my story out there, that way, like it, can bring attention to it, not just my story, but all the countless other stories of kids splitting up with their families.” On Aug. 8, exactly one month after his mom was taken, and a little more than two weeks before Jonatan was set to start classes, his mom had a court hearing. That day, Jonatan sent two texts with an update. “we lost” “we can appeal but its a like 3 month process and takes money” For now, his mom is stuck in a detention center in the Rio Grande Valley awaiting trial, according to their family attorney. Karina Jimenez told *The Barbed Wire* that her client was denied bail by the judge despite having no criminal record. Jimenez said that being “denied release is absolutely barbaric.” Her bail denial comes after a directive from Trump — issued the same day Jonatan’s mom was arrested — that [prevents judges from granting bond to anyone held in ICE detention](https://www.vera.org/news/ice-is-denying-people-bond-to-keep-them-locked-up?ref=thebarbedwire.com) who came to the United States without documentation. Jimenez told *The Barbed Wire* she believes it’s a tactic to pressure people to voluntarily leave the country. For now, Jonatan and his family are still deciding if they’ll keep fighting Trump’s immigration game — and risk their 51-year-old mom being held longer in potential inhumane detainment conditions —or choose deportation in the hope she can reunite with family in Guatemala. “My mom had told us if anything does happen, whether today or later on, that just to keep ourselves positive that we have each other, our siblings, we have one another, and we're gonna be okay, and that to not worry about her if she does get sent back.” Jonatan’s move in day at Texas A&M Corpus Christi is Aug. 20\. He’s majoring in architecture. “I want to be able to create things that can outlast time and continue to help and reshape the world for a better place,” Jonatan said. He remembers telling his mom about his dream career. “She would always tell me to design her house whenever I finish with school and in a way, it makes me want to keep pushing,” he told *The Barbed Wire.* Jonatan must maintain a 3.25 GPA as part of his college program to guarantee he’ll be able to transfer to College Station after a year in Corpus. “Everybody has gone through their own struggles, through their own fights, own battles, but then it's just like, ‘Are you going to become a victim to your past and trauma — or are you going to become the person who you want to be, or the person that you've dreamed about, the person who you want to build a future for yourself?’” He has no doubt he’ll get it done. “She had to make sacrifices to put me where I am today and obviously I can't just let those sacrifices go by.” ### In First Lawsuit After July 4 Floods, 22-Year-Old Texas Woman’s Grieving Family Sues Campground for $1 Million URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-odessa-family-first-sue-july-4-floods-kerr-county/ Last updated: 2025-08-13T18:45:06.000Z In the weeks since devastating floods hit Central Texas, killing [119 people in Kerr County](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/08/08/texas-hill-country-floods-victims-names/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — including [39 children](https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2025/08/08/117-kerr-county-flood-victims-identified-by-local-officials/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — much has been made of [various](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/projects/2025/kerr-county-floods-camp-mystic-fema-maps/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [investigations](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/investigations/article/texas-hill-country-flood-history-20771630.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [legislative proposals](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/08/05/texas-house-committee-flood-response-bills/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and [potential lawsuits](https://www.expressnews.com/business/article/texas-floods-lawsuits-thomas-j-henry-20770609.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) over what went wrong in the early morning hours of July 4\. Questions remain over where exactly to place blame for the high death toll, and to what extent. A new lawsuit, [filed in Kerr County](https://gvilaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Jayda-Floyd%5FLawsuit.pdf?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on Tuesday, appeared to be the first to make a direct claim. The eight-page complaint was filed on behalf of the family of Jayda Christeel Floyd, a 22-year-old from Odessa, Texas, who died after floodwaters swept through a luxury RV park — or “glamping resort” — and campground on the Guadalupe River in Kerrville. The suit was first reported by [KSAT](https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2025/08/13/texas-family-sues-hill-country-resort-after-couple-killed-in-july-4-floods/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [KENS5](https://www.kens5.com/article/news/local/texas/kerr-county-kerrville-texas-hill-country-july-4-flood-htr-resort-campgrounds-odessa-victim-jayda-floyd-family-lawsuit/273-cb36907b-b7da-456e-bd7d-982179f10f04?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and seeks at least $1 million in damages, claiming gross negligence against the investors, owners, operators, and general manager of the HTR TX Hill Country Resort. Floyd was staying at the resort with her fiancé, 23-year-old Bailey Martin, a City of Odessa police officer, and his family when the river swelled [26 feet in 45 minutes](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/2025/07/05/what-we-know-about-the-kerr-county-and-camp-mystic-flood-victims/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) before dawn that Friday morning. Entire homes and RVs full of families were carried off all along the river, where the extraordinary [“once in a century”](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/camp-mystic-campers-grieve-magical-place-100-years-flood-texas-guadalupe/) event also swept through cabins full of eight-year-olds at a private all-girls camp. The youngest victims were 1 year old. Like dozens of other Texans spending the holiday weekend on the river, Floyd and Martin were awoken suddenly by the sound of rising waters, then helped Martin’s teenage step-siblings climb onto the roof of the RV, saving their lives, according to a press release issued by attorneys on Tuesday. The couple were swept away with their RV, according to the lawsuit. ## ‘She Was... Going to Make a Difference’ “She was someone who was going to make a difference in the lives of people, particularly kids,” said Jayda’s father, David Floyd, in Tuesday’s release. Floyd said his daughter, a juvenile probation officer in Ector County, was pursuing her master’s degree in psychology at the University of Texas Permian Basin, after which she wanted to “change the course of young lives.” After Floyd’s body was found, she was returned home in what [local reports](https://www.newswest9.com/article/news/local/as-seen-on-tv/odessa-honors-jayda-floyd-texas-floods-procession/513-87236de4-b3cd-4a14-a5a1-403865b5cc02?ref=thebarbedwire.com) called an “emotional procession” organized by the Ector County Sheriff’s Office. A spokesperson for HTR TX Hill Country responded to the lawsuit [in a statement to Fox 7 Austin](https://www.fox7austin.com/news/texas-flooding-kerr-county-lawsuit-jayda-floyd?ref=thebarbedwire.com) by saying that the company had not yet been served with the complaint but had reviewed a copy, rejected its “fundamental thrust,” and “will be prepared to vigorously defend ourselves in court.” “Our hearts go out to Ms. Floyd’s family, her fiancé, and other loved ones — and to all of those who were impacted by the flooding that devastated the Kerrville community,” the statement said. “As has been widely acknowledged by state and local authorities, meteorologists, and other experts, no one could have anticipated the unprecedented severity and rapid onset of the flooding that occurred and that exposed serious failures in public warning systems and emergency response protocols.” Seventeen people died at the HTR TX Hill Country Resort during the July 4 floods, attorney Jon Clark, who is representing the family, [told KENS5](https://www.kens5.com/article/news/local/texas/kerr-county-kerrville-texas-hill-country-july-4-flood-htr-resort-campgrounds-odessa-victim-jayda-floyd-family-lawsuit/273-cb36907b-b7da-456e-bd7d-982179f10f04?ref=thebarbedwire.com), adding that he hopes the lawsuit will raise awareness and add to the growing demands for accountability in the wake of the tragedy. “Businesses operating campgrounds along the river have known about its flooding history for decades,” said Clark in a press release. “We will investigate what steps — if any — were taken to monitor conditions and warn guests of the danger they were in.” The complaint alleges the campground failed to warn guests or provide an evacuation plan. “The flood waters scraped the structures from the HTR TX Hill Country Resort, leaving a barren wasteland,” according to the lawsuit, which claims that the company had “awareness of the risk of flooding, including catastrophic flooding,” but continued to use the site without warning vacationers of the risk. The suit also claims the resort “lacked proper plans, protocol, and equipment” to respond to the floods. “Surviving guests of the HTR TX Hill Country Resort campground report that it was someone honking a car horn that awoke them, and they were barely able to escape with their lives as the water rose from ankle deep to waist deep in minutes,” the lawsuit claims. “The family wants answers and accountability,” attorney Kevin Glasheen said in Tuesday’s release. ### The ‘King of the Hill’ Reboot Will Heal Your Complicated Relationship With Texas URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/king-of-the-hill/ Last updated: 2025-08-13T17:10:12.000Z If you live in Texas, you probably have a complicated relationship with the state. As in: You love Willie Nelson, but you hate Ted Cruz. You’re proud of Buddy Holly, but then you remember Joe Rogan moved here and started talking like he invented barbecue. We gave the world Beyoncé, Selena, and Wes Anderson — but we *also* gave the world Alex Jones, Ken Paxton, and Joel Osteen. Lately, most [Texas headlines](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-democrats-warn-racist-redistricting-fight/) read like a dystopian comedy written by someone who [hates women](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/she-needs-to-have-a-democracy-to-grow-up-in-the-moms-who-left-texas-to-defend-its-future/), [minorities](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-republicans-gerrymandering-maps-trump/), and the [concept of basic decency](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-politician-giovanni-capriglione-abortion-allegations/). We’ve got [abortion bans that kill people](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/02/20/texas-abortion-ban-impact-death-hospitalization/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [gerrymandered districts](https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/gops-texas-map-austin-residents-sharing-district-rural/story?id=124425447&ref=thebarbedwire.com) that look like abstract art made of spite, and the [triumphant return of Confederate names](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/08/11/midland-texas-high-school-confederacy-robert-e-lee/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) nobody asked for. If Texas were a person, it’d be the relative you still invite to Thanksgiving but politely ignore after beer #3. And yet, there’s still stuff worth loving. Which brings us to this month’s rare good news: The “King of the Hill” reboot is here, all 10 episodes are on Hulu, and it's good. It’s the first time in 16 years we’ve gotten new episodes of the most Texas show ever made. For the uninitiated, the show follows propane salesman Hank Hill and his wife Peggy, a substitute teacher, in the fictional town of Arlen. The original series, which ran from 1997 to 2009, ended after Fox unceremoniously cancelled it. The reboot finds an older Hank (who still has a narrow urethra) and Peggy Hill back in Arlen after a stint in Saudi Arabia selling propane and propane accessories (upon their return to Texas, Hank immediately kisses the airport carpet). Making everyone older, an unusual move for an animated series, allows new life to be breathed into the show. Hank and Peggy are struggling to adapt to retirement. He’s still into household chores, ands he’s mainlining reality shows. Bobby is now a 20-something running a German-Asian fusion restaurant and has somehow grown into the best version of himself. Bill is a shut-in, Dale is still a paranoid conspiracy theorist, and Boomhauer still talks an iconic mile a minute. And while revivals can be hit or miss, this one is a hit. The premiere [brought 4.4 million views](https://deadline.com/2025/08/king-of-the-hill-season-14-premiere-viewership-disney-1236484916/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to Hulu and Disney+, making it the most-viewed adult animated season premiere across both platforms in five years. As of Wednesday, the new season was sitting at a [98% on Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/king%5Fof%5Fthe%5Fhill/s14?ref=thebarbedwire.com). As [IGN said, the show](https://www.ign.com/articles/king-of-the-hill-season-14-review?ref=thebarbedwire.com) “recaptures the unassuming and understated brilliance of the previous seasons, all while doubling down on the heart that helped make the show the touchstone it is.” And boy, did the reboot have a lot to live up to, because the original has already reached legendary status. *Texas Monthly* [called it](https://www.texasmonthly.com/arts-entertainment/king-of-the-hill-texas-season-14-hulu/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) “the most significant work of Texas culture in the past 30 years.” That’s because the show knows Texas on a granular level. Back in the day, it did a [tribute to Wichita Falls](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYFtskeZrNg&t=9s&ab%5Fchannel=AreaEightyNine&ref=thebarbedwire.com), which is like making a song about your third-favorite cousin. But they got it right, expertly noting that, near the Red River, people are just as likely to love Oklahoma as they do Texas. ## An Old Flame We Can’t Quit But mostly, “King of the Hill” is about Hank. And its magic has always been that he’s conservative, but not a jerk. He’s skeptical of change but open to it in a begrudging way that feels downright progressive by modern Texas standards. When confronted with new technology, like a TaskRabbit-style app to clean the gutters, he grumbles, then ends up enjoying himself. Hank doesn’t know what poke or boba tea are, but he’ll try them. His neighbors may look different from him, but Hank offers them a beer, rather than calling ICE. In today’s Texas, that level of flexibility is basically a Pride parade. For those of us on the left, Texas is an old flame we can’t quit. We love the music, the food, and the charm of small towns that have a Dairy Queen, a high school football stadium, and a ghost story. But it’s hard to not be horrified by the politics, the cruelty, and the fact that somewhere, a state lawmaker is introducing a bill that begins with “Any books with [the word ‘slavery’ in the title](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/slavery-what-slavery-texas-leaders-want-new-problematic-curriculum/)…” “King of the Hill” is a reminder that Texas isn’t *only* that. It’s also family, neighbors, and people who mean well even when they don’t understand the thing they’re trying to mean well about. It’s block parties, state fairs, and barbecue joints where the owner calls you “darlin’” whether you’re 25 or 75\. It’s people on jet skis [rescuing their neighbors after a hurricane](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-flood-volunteers-fema-climate-change/). The reboot captures that perfectly, showing Hank rediscovering Texas in a way that’s as sweet as it is funny. It’s “Ted Lasso” for those of us who tried, and failed, to get into soccer (then again, Hank ends up trying his hand at soccer refereeing). Hank is the relative you have no-go areas of conversation with, but you still love them. Some accuse him of being an opiate for the masses. *The New Yorker* [argued that](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/08/18/king-of-the-hill-tv-review-hulu?ref=thebarbedwire.com) “for every left-leaning fan comforted by Hank’s fundamental decency, another might see his brand of conservatism as a nostalgic gloss on an increasingly ugly movement.” Maybe. But for those of us in Texas, it’s not news that things have gotten ugly. We live that reality every day. Our state is run by people who treat cruelty like it’s a campaign promise and culture wars like they’re Monday Night Football. But “King of the Hill” lets us see the most hopeful version of Texas: a Texas where disagreements happen over a cold Alamo beer in the alley, where kindness matters more than outrage, and where you can be set in your ways without using that as an excuse to be an asshole (or elect someone to be an asshole on your behalf). Maybe that Texas is more myth than reality, nowadays. But for 25 glorious minutes, the “King of the Hill” reboot reminds us why we stick around, not just in Texas, but in the fight to make it better. ### Wrongful Death Suit Filed by ‘Extremist’ Anti-Choice Lawyer Claims Man Hid Abortion Pills in Hot Chocolate URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/wrongful-death-abortion-lawsuit-hot-chocolate-pills/ Last updated: 2025-08-11T21:30:12.000Z On Monday morning, Texas abortion advocates and lawmakers were preparing for a public hearing on a bill that would allow wrongful death lawsuits against anyone who manufactures, mails, prescribes, or delivers abortion pills. At the same time, the architect of Texas’ original “vigilante” abortion ban filed a wrongful death lawsuit alleging — in an explosive, emotional, 33-page complaint — that a man had secretly dosed a woman with at least 10 abortion pills in her hot chocolate, causing the death of her fetus. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, was first reported by [*Autonomy News*](https://www.autonomynews.co/texas-wrongful-death-suit-abortion-pills-fetal-personhood/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a new worker-owned reproductive rights and justice publication co-founded by investigative reporters Garnet Henderson and Susan Rinkunas. The plaintiff in the case is represented by former Texas Solicitor General Jonathan Mitchell, [the architect of Senate Bill 8](https://www.npr.org/2023/05/07/1174672358/jonathan-mitchell-the-legal-mind-behind-the-texas-abortion-ban?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which gives private citizens the right to sue anyone who aids in an abortion. Mitchell is considered by many fellow constitutional lawyers to be “an extremist, hell-bent on erasing fundamental rights,” [*The Washington Post*](https://www.washingtonpost.com/post-next/interactive/2025/jonathan-mitchell/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) previously reported. Mitchell associate and anti-abortion advocate Mark Lee Dickson posted on social media that he learned about the case from a “local pregnancy center director” — read: [crisis pregnancy center](https://www.guttmacher.org/journals/psrh/2012/09/public-health-risks-crisis-pregnancy-centers?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — after speaking at a May event on “Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn” and [Senate Bill 2880](https://www.instagram.com/p/DI19fZeBMZp/?img%5Findex=1&ref=thebarbedwire.com), the version of Monday’s bill that failed to pass during the regular legislative session in the spring. Dickson claimed he connected the plaintiff to Mitchell. Dickson and Mitchell have, per *Autonomy News*, worked together for years on anti-abortion efforts, including their initiative to compel local governments to pass anti-abortion ordinances. “This great injustice had to be addressed,” Dickson wrote on X. “This wrongful death lawsuit is a step towards that end.” Dickson also repeatedly noted online Monday that lawmakers at the Texas Capitol were hearing [Senate Bill 6](https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=891&Bill=SB6&ref=autonomynews.co). “I hope these stories drive us to see more protections pass,” Dickson wrote on Monday. ## ‘Don’t Mess with Texans’ Rights’ Of course, others disagreed. “The Texas Legislature already tried — and failed — to pass a bill this year that would have violated Texans’ constitutional rights under the guise of stopping abortions,” said Sarah Corning, an attorney at the ACLU of Texas, in a statement. “Now they’re back, trying again. Let’s be clear: The state has no authority to control where or how we make personal decisions, whether we’re seeking abortion care or not. Our message to lawmakers is simple: Don’t mess with Texans’ rights.” [Anti-abortion activists have been public](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-abortion-laws-national-ban/) in their quests for cases that would fit their efforts to halt the distribution of abortion pills. Much of the focus has been on finding “wronged men” to sue women for making decisions about their own reproductive healthcare. [Groups like Texas Right to Life](https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2025/01/17/texas-abortion-pills-lawsuit/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) have spoken openly about the fact that they are actively recruiting men to file such claims. In June, the [first criminal case](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/06/30/texas-abortion-pill-capital-murder-charge-fetal-personhood/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) involving a murder charge over abortion was filed in North Texas. Within weeks, Mitchell filed a wrongful death suit [on behalf of a Texas man](https://www.jezebel.com/texas-man-sues-california-abortion-pill-provider-for-wrongful-death-over-girlfriends-alleged-abortion?ref=thebarbedwire.com) against a California doctor who had prescribed abortion pills to the man’s girlfriend. Meanwhile, Mitchell’s newest client is suing for compensatory and punitive damages from the father of her fetus, as well as Aid Access — an online mail-order service where he allegedly procured the medication — and its founder, physician Rebecca Gomperts. Clinicians working for services like Aid Access are currently protected under so-called “shield laws” from civil and criminal action in states with bans like Texas. This is part of what Mitchell has been working to change, per [Autonomy News](https://www.autonomynews.co/texas-wrongful-death-suit-abortion-pills-fetal-personhood/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). *The Barbed Wire* requested an interview and statement from Mitchell, as well as from Aid Access but had not heard back from any of the involved parties by press time. The federal complaint alleges that the plaintiff became pregnant in early 2025 with a baby she expected to raise alongside her three children from a previous marriage, but she claimed it became a “daily source of contention” that the defendant “wanted the baby dead.” On April 2, despite escalating arguments between the couple — including many text exchanges that devolved into personal attacks over the pregnancy — the plaintiff’s partner asked if the pair could hang out and catch up on the TV show “Reacher.” “I could make us some warm relaxing tea instead of alcohol,” he wrote, “and we could go to bed at a reasonable hour. Call it a ‘trust building night’ if you have to…..” The plaintiff, who allegedly “viewed this as a last-ditch opportunity to get on reasonable terms with the father of her daughter,” accepted the invitation. Three days later, the defendant “brought his own hot chocolate from his apartment” and, while the plaintiff was distracted, “lac(ed) her drink with the abortion pills that he had obtained from Aid Access,” the lawsuit claims. In the civil complaint, the plaintiff claimed she was eight weeks pregnant when she was allegedly drugged by her partner, after which she began hemorrhaging and cramping. A neighbor drove her to the hospital, where she was told her fetus did not survive, according to the complaint. The Corpus Christi Police Department [told *NBC News*](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/texas-woman-sues-marine-claiming-spiked-drink-abortion-pills-rcna224297?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that there were no active investigations involving the defendant on Monday. ### California Priests Said They’ve Made ICE Agents ‘Scatter.’ Can Clergy Do the Same in Texas? URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/california-priests-made-ice-scatter-can-texas-do-the-same-ministry/ Last updated: 2025-08-11T14:35:36.000Z In early July, an asylum seeker from Nicaragua arrived for a routine hearing at the immigration court in Harlingen, Texas. Inside the nondescript, tan brick building, Carlos went through his case, explaining that he’d been in the U.S. for the last five years. In that time, he’d attended every court date, every ICE check-in, and followed every requirement asked of him by the government. The judge listened to his claims, and outlined what he’d need to build a case for his next court date in August of 2026\. But just as the hearing was set to adjourn, everything fell apart. His case was dismissed, and as he stepped outside, he was pulled away by two masked ICE agents. In a matter of minutes, Carlos had gone from an asylum seeker moving through the proper legal channels, to a nonresident at risk of immediate deportation. “Just like that, everything we feared came true,” said Brian Strassburger, S.J., a Jesuit priest and director of Del Camino Jesuit Border Ministries in Brownsville. “They put him in handcuffs, put him in an unmarked vehicle, and took him away.” Strassburger was one of three religious volunteers who had accompanied Carlos to his hearing that day. Since June, he and his colleagues had been hearing reports of courthouse arrests playing out at immigration hearings across the country. “I wanted to see if it was happening in our own backyard,” he said. As Carlos’ experience showed, it was. A multi-pronged effort to deliver on President Donald Trump’s [threats of mass deportation](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/july-4-latino-immigrants-celebrate-country-love-you-back/) has led to similar scenes from California to Maryland. The strategy is simple and effective: Department of Homeland Security attorneys attend immigration hearings and move to dismiss a noncitizen’s case. If the motion is granted, that individual is then eligible for expedited removal. Outside, ICE officers are ready to arrest and detain them while they await deportation. In response, volunteers like Strassburger have begun attending immigration hearings. They come from varying backgrounds — some are members of [faith-based groups](https://www.christianitytoday.com/2025/07/immigration-court-observation-ice-arrests/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), others are [teachers](https://apnews.com/article/immigration-court-arrests-ice-bd145fae56c0d493ba52418cc66ef3b7?utm%5Fsource=onesignal&utm%5Fmedium=push&utm%5Fcampaign=2025-07-20-Protection+from+ICE), [veterans](https://www.kpbs.org/news/border-immigration/2025/06/30/hundreds-of-veterans-volunteer-to-attend-asylum-hearings-with-afghans?ref=thebarbedwire.com), or [community organizers](https://timesofsandiego.com/life/2025/07/03/san-diego-community-bears-witness-as-ice-continues-courtroom-arrests/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — but their goal is the same: to provide support and bear witness. “Our congregants might not know how to plug in in this moment — but this is one way,” Ashley Hiestand, a minister from Mount Hollywood United Church of Christ in Los Angeles, told [*Christianity Today*](https://www.christianitytoday.com/2025/07/immigration-court-observation-ice-arrests/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The vast majority of [immigrants facing deportation](https://www.christianitytoday.com/2025/03/america-deport-10-million-christians-gordon-conwell-study/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) today are Christian, and as the [magazine](https://www.christianitytoday.com/2025/07/immigration-court-observation-ice-arrests/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) reported last month, more Christians — and Catholics specifically — have signed up for court-observation training across the country, including in Los Angeles and New York. In May, [a Queens pastor observing immigration court in New York was arrested](https://www.thecity.nyc/2025/05/28/ice-arrests-migrants-26-federal-plaza-pastor/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). (He was later released.) In recent weeks, more and more clergy have stepped into the fray. And it’s working. Just days ago, [Bishop Michael Pham launched](https://www.ncronline.org/news/san-diego-diocese-assembles-volunteers-accompany-immigrants-court?ref=thebarbedwire.com) a new ministry in the San Diego Diocese after he and other clergy reportedly saw masked ICE agents “scatter” at their immigration court presence [on World Refugee Day in June.](https://www.ncronline.org/news/san-diego-faith-leaders-say-their-presence-made-difference-deportation-hearings?ref=thebarbedwire.com) The diocesan ministry implemented a calendar for sign-ups and held an orientation bringing volunteers up to speed on the immigration system — and what they should expect to see in court. “I’m inspired by Bishop Pham and my brother Jesuit priests who have launched the courthouse accompaniment ministry in San Diego,” Strassburger said. “We have had a rotation of priests and women religious accompanying at immigration court in Harlingen, and I could definitely see us expanding that and formalizing it like they’ve done.” ## ‘It’s Unlike Anything I’ve Seen’ Immaculate Heart of Mary Sister Rose Patrice Kuhn was part of the rotation in Harlingen in July. She was there with Strassburger when Carlos was detained, and had met and prayed with him and other immigrants awaiting their court hearings earlier that day. “We just wanted them to know that they had somebody who cared,” she said. “Even though we can’t do anything for them legally, we can be there to support them.” For Kuhn and Strassburger, their ministry on the border has been rapidly evolving, adapting to constant changes in policy. Just a few years ago, immigrant advocates and nonprofit groups were making routine visits to shelters on the U.S. side of the border, or to the encampments on the Mexican side in Reynosa. Then, in January of this year, the [CBP One app was shuttered](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/trump-shuts-cbp-one-immigration-app-dashing-migrants-hopes-entering-us-rcna188448?ref=thebarbedwire.com) the day of Trump’s inauguration, effectively closing off one of the last remaining pathways that hundreds of thousands of people have used at the border to seek asylum. (The app later relaunched as CBP Home, with a feature that would help migrants “self deport.”) Since then, Strassburger says the border has been eerily quiet. “It’s unlike anything I’ve seen in my four years here,” Strassburger told *The Barbed Wire*. He continues to make twice-weekly trips to visit shelters in Mexico, but the populations have dwindled there, too. Some migrants have resettled in safer cities like Monterrey, while others have repatriated back to their home countries. “It's a small population that’s left, but it's the most vulnerable,” he says. “It’s mostly single mothers with small kids. Some have family in the U.S., but they can’t get to them. That’s the population we continue to serve.” Kuhn has observed the same thing. During visits to the shelter in Reynosa, she mostly encounters people who know there isn’t a path forward for them right now, but who also don’t have the option to go back home. “At this point, you’re trying to offer support to people who are in limbo,” she told *The Barbed Wire*. “They’re trying to figure out what to do with their lives, because they sold everything they had when they left their countries, and in most cases, they left because of fear of violence.” One woman she spoke with told her that she was separated from her husband when they arrived at the border because of his tattoos and because they came from Venezuela. Soon after, she learned he had been detained and sent to El Salvador. “These are people who presented themselves at the border because they wanted to make their appointments and go through the process,” said Kuhn. “Even if they had been waiting six months or eight months, there was always that hope that they would make it through.” Now, it’s a whole different atmosphere. Everyone she encounters is paralyzed by uncertainty. Their colleagues also make regular visits to the adult detention facility in Port Isabel. Joe Nolla, S.J., a Chaplain at Del Camino Jesuit Border Ministries, told *The Barbed Wire* that many of the men there are struggling because they’ve done nothing wrong. “They entered legally, but they had the horrible misfortune of having tattoos and being from Venezuela or El Salvador, and automatically getting profiled as a gang member,” Nolla said. “These are people who had no criminal history whatsoever in the United States.” During his visits to Port Isabel, Nolla typically delivers a service, and then he sets up two chairs in the back of the room for one-on-one conversations. Without fail, people eagerly line up to talk. “It’s difficult to see them suffering unjustly, but they’re trying their best to carry on.” Throughout their community, Nolla and Strassburger have watched as threats of ICE raids and an increase in anti-immigrant rhetoric have created a culture of panic. “People in our parish are living in fear because they’re being criminalized, detained and deported to fulfill some promise of mass deportation,” Strassburger said. “Now, we’re not hearing as much from people in shelters, but from people who have court cases coming up, who don’t know if their case might be abruptly closed, and they’ll be on a flight or taken by ICE the second they step out of the courtroom.” The tactic has sparked multiple [lawsuits](https://justiceactioncenter.org/case/chirla-v-noem-expedited-removal/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), including a [class action suit](https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/federal-lawsuit-stop-ice-agents-arresting-people-immigration-courts/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) filed last month by several immigration advocacy organizations, arguing that it's a violation of due process. “We are witnessing an authoritarian takeover of the U.S. immigration court system by the Trump administration,” said Keren Zwick, director of litigation at the [National Immigrant Justice Center](https://immigrantjustice.org/press-release/unlawful-ice-arrests-at-immigration-courthouses-prompt-lawsuit-by-advocates-and-immigrants/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), in a press release. “People who attend their hearings to seek permission to remain in this country and comply with U.S. immigration law are being rounded up and abruptly ripped from their families, homes, and livelihoods. Meanwhile, the administration is issuing directives telling immigration judges to violate those same immigration laws and strip people of fundamental due process rights.” After witnessing Carlos’ detainment, they’ve put out a call to other religious organizations and volunteers to attend hearings, accompany people to the courthouse, and pray with them before they enter. “It’s a scary environment to walk into for anybody, and certainly for migrants who feel out of place and in another world,” Strassburger said. “We want to be a familiar presence for them, but we also want to be a deterrent to the DHS representatives and ICE agents to remind them of their own values, and what they’re called to do by their own faith. Perhaps that could serve as a deterrent for some of the more nefarious acts that are taking place in immigration courts around the country.” Kuhn will return to Texas later this month, where she’s prepared to do what she can to meet the needs of the local migrant population — whether that’s accompanying them to court, visiting with them in shelters, or bearing witness to the next intimidation tactic directed their way. She has hope that things will change for the better, but until then, she also keeps the members of Congress in her prayers. “I pray that they will have the courage to stand up for what’s right.” ### The Day Austin ‘Lost Its Innocence’: HBO’s Newest Crime Doc Tackles Haunting Unsolved Murder URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/hbo-crime-doc-tackles-unsolved-yogurt-shop-murders-austin/ Last updated: 2025-08-07T15:39:37.000Z For tried and true Texans, HBO’s newest docuseries might hit close to home. “The Yogurt Shop Murders” digs into a 33-year-old cold case in Austin — a murder so haunting, the then-mayor proclaimed it the day Austin [“lost (its) innocence.”](https://www.texasmonthly.com/true-crime/under-the-gun/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) In December 1991, when Austin was still a relatively small college town, not yet on the cusp of the country’s technology boom, firefighters responded to flames at a frozen yogurt shop in north Austin . What they found inside was haunting: the bodies of four local teenage girls, who had been tied up and shot in the shop’s back room. Their bodies were badly burned, and police believed that the fire had been set “in an attempt to cover the slayings,” the [*Austin-American Statesman* reported](https://www.statesman.com/story/news/2021/11/30/archives-grisly-scene-revealed-amid-austin-yogurt-shop-fire/6348128001/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) at the time. Despite the arrest of two suspects, the case remains unsolved nearly 35 years later. Eight years after the crime, four men were questioned. Charges were dropped against two, but the other two (who confessed, and later recanted) were convicted — but then released after 10 years in prison, exonerated by new DNA testing, according to [*CBS News*](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/yogurt-shop-murder-case-dna-sample-austin-texas/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)*.* “The story of the yogurt shop investigation is, in part, about how a police force with a small-town mentality found itself confronted with a big-time urban crime and tried its best to solve it,” *Texas Monthly* reporter Michael Hall [wrote in 2001.](https://www.texasmonthly.com/true-crime/under-the-gun/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) “But it’s also a tale of how intense political and social pressures brought out, or merely confirmed, the worst instincts in some officers on a police force that was determined to get convictions.” “The result: a tragedy with even more victims and a police department reeling from mistakes. “The Yogurt Shop Murders” focuses on the crime’s aftermath — decades’ worth of trauma, prosecutors’ ongoing quest for justice, and a community’s attempt to reconcile its grief. Director Margaret Brown spent three years interviewing the victims’ families and the crime’s investigative teams, pulling interrogation room footage and archival interviews from an incomplete 2009 documentary from filmmaker Claire Huie (“it consumed her, and she had to quit,” Brown told *Variety*). The docuseries premiered in March at the SXSW film festival and is being produced by A24, an independent distribution company known for mega-hits like “Everything, Everywhere, All At Once,” “Midsommar,” and “Moonlight.” The show first pitched by Academy Award-winning actress Emma Stone and her husband, who briefly lived in Austin. “It’s something you can’t really get away from in Austin,” Brown [told *Variety*](https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/yogurt-shop-murders-hbo-traumatic-a24-paid-for-therapy-1236475577/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)*.* “I just remember in the 90s and up to this day, just sort of being at parties in Austin and people would just start talking about the yogurt shop murders and theories and what really happened,” [she later told *CBS Austin*](https://cbsaustin.com/features/we-are-austin/trevor-scott-chats-with-the-yogurt-shop-murders-hbo-docuseries-director-margaret-brown?ref=thebarbedwire.com)*.* “People remember it so viscerally.” Brown hasn’t viewed the extent of the crime scene documents herself (“they will haunt you for the rest of your life,” her editorial team said to her) — and the real-life story is so disturbing that A24 actually paid for the team’s therapy, *Variety* reported. “I think that there's just something about the desensitization of crime, how it's just constant, constant, constant,” she told *CBS Austin*. “And I really wanted to make something that you really felt the impact of.” For decades, Austin has carried the impact. 1,500 mourners attended the victims’ mass, in the immediate wake of the murders; six months later, 1,200 marched in front of the state capitol, brandishing a “We Will Not Forget” banner. “Austin reacted to the murders of the four girls with disbelief, and its citizens came together as if they had all known the victims,” Hall wrote in *Texas Monthly*. New episodes of the four-part docuseries premiere [Sunday evenings on HBO](https://www.hbo.com/the-yogurt-shop-murders?ref=thebarbedwire.com). ### ‘She Needs to Have a Democracy to Grow Up In’: The Moms Who Left Texas to Defend Its Future URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/she-needs-to-have-a-democracy-to-grow-up-in-the-moms-who-left-texas-to-defend-its-future/ Last updated: 2025-08-07T15:19:19.000Z *This story was originally written by* [Amanda Becker](https://19thnews.org/author/amanda-becker?ref=thebarbedwire.com) *and published by [The 19th\* News](https://19thnews.org/2025/08/texas-democratic-mothers-lawmakers-defend-democracy/?ref=thebarbedwire.com).* When Erin Zwiener finished taking the bar exam last Wednesday afternoon and walked out into the Texas heat, the aspiring lawyer was looking forward to one thing: Enjoying the final days of summer vacation with her daughter before she begins second grade. Then she checked her phone. Zwiener is a Democrat in the Texas House of Representatives, where since 2019 she has represented a district south of Austin that includes most of Hays County. She saw missed messages about Texas Republicans’ [release earlier that day of a new voting map](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/07/30/texas-redistricting-congressional-maps-house-republicans/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) designed to flip five seats in the U.S. House currently held by Democrats — satisfying a demand that [came from Republican President Donald Trump’s White House](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/09/us/politics/trump-texas-redistricting.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&ref=thebarbedwire.com). Zwiener would need to head to the state Capitol, where her caucus would convene that evening to discuss how to respond. The meeting extended late into the night, and party leaders presented their options, given their minority status. After weighing the pluses and minuses, more than 50 Democratic lawmakers decided they would leave the state they represent to deprive Republican leaders of the quorum needed to approve the new Trump-requested congressional map. With a special legislative session already underway, most traveled together to Illinois, while others headed to New York and Massachusetts. They would close their summers by playing canaries in the coal mine, delivering the message to key Democratic-led states that GOP redistricting efforts in ruby-red Texas would soon arrive at their doorsteps if they do not take action. “We can’t go gently, we have to fight,” Zwiener told The 19th earlier this week from New York, where she decamped after holding a Saturday [town hall on the proposed redistricting](https://www.haysfreepress.com/article/25466,central-texas-leaders-hold-town-hall-on-redistricting?ref=thebarbedwire.com) with her constituents. “I haven’t gotten to have much of a summer with \[my daughter\] because I’ve been studying for the bar,” she added, “but I had made her a big promise that we would go to a water park after I finished the bar, and I was able to do that this weekend before leaving — so I’m grateful we got to have our big summer adventure.” The Texas lawmakers are now at the center of a national debate about how Democrats should respond to the White House-driven push to shore up Republicans’ slim and endangered U.S. House majority with unprecedented, mid-decade redistrictings that many believe run afoul of state constitutions. Though leaders in the Democratic Party are more likely than Republicans to favor nonpartisan redistricting done by commissions and other independent entities, Texas lawmakers like Zwiener are warning that if Democrats do not respond by redrawing maps in Democratic-led states like Illinois, Massachusetts and New York with large left-leaning populations, the GOP will be able to cement a House majority that does not reflect the electorate. It would also allow the Trump administration to avoid accountability: The presidential impeachment process, for example, begins in the House. “If Texas is going to try and break the democratic process in this way, then other states are going to have to counterbalance that in order for our democracy to survive,” Zwiener said. As they began what she described as “outreach” in their chosen states, [Republicans in Missouri indicated they are considering](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-08-05/missouri-republicans-weigh-joining-texas-in-house-redistricting?ref=thebarbedwire.com) redrawing maps there as well. “Make no mistake about this,” Zwiener said: “This is an attempt for Donald Trump to avoid accountability in Congress.” \*\*\* This [isn’t the first time](https://19thnews.org/2021/07/texas-democrats-walkout-voting-rights/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that Zwiener has left Texas as part of a legislative Hail Mary by Democrats to prevent the passage of GOP bills that they see as threats to democracy. [Texas House Democrats fled to Washington](https://19thnews.org/2021/07/texas-democrats-walkout-voting-rights/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in 2021 on the front end of another special session called by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott to consider legislation that included a restrictive voting measure, new prohibitions on abortion and a ban on transgender students participating on sports teams that matched their gender identities. They met with their Democratic counterparts in the U.S. Congress, along with then Vice President Kamala Harris, whose portfolio included voting rights, and she compared the Texas lawmakers to the slavery abolitionist Frederick Douglass, saying: “Defending the right of the American people to vote is as American as apple pie.” Zwiener’s daughter was 3 then, and it was earlier in the summer, so she brought her along to the nation’s capital. She colored quietly during meetings, her pint-sized presence a reminder of the future they were fighting for. The standoff lasted five weeks; the GOP bills were enacted once enough lawmakers returned to Texas. This year, with back-to-school looming, Zwiener made the difficult decision to leave her daughter at home with her father, not knowing how long she might be gone. > **I can’t think of any other thing that would pull me away from my kid right now, but this is important — she needs to have a democracy to grow up in.** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/gettyimages-1328695044.jpg) WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 14: Lark Kennedy Zwiener, the daughter of Texas State House Democrat Erin Zwiener (TX-45), waits as U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) speaks to the Texas State House Democrats as they meet with Senators on Capitol Hill on July 14, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images) “I’m sad that I won’t be there to see her after her first day of school,” Zwiener said, noting she hoped to use video calls to help pick out an outfit and get the post-first-day download. “I can’t think of any other thing that would pull me away from my kid right now, but this is important — she needs to have a democracy to grow up in.” There is a lot at stake for the Texas Democrats who know, on some level, that they will be unable to delay the vote on the map forever. The Texas House on Monday [voted 85-6 to issue arrest warrants](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/08/04/texas-democrats-house-warrants-arrest-quorum-break/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for their return. The move was mostly symbolic since the lawmakers do not face civil or criminal charges and the warrants only apply within Texas — until U.S. Sen. John Cornyn [asked Trump’s FBI](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/05/us/politics/california-texas-redistricting-maps.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to intervene. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said that if the Democratic lawmakers do not return by Friday, he will [ask a court to declare their seats vacant](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/08/05/texas-democrats-ken-paxton-court-vacate-seats-quorum-break/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), even though the Texas Supreme Court affirmed in 2021 that the state’s constitution allows for quorum breaks, albeit with some consequences. The lawmakers face a $500 fine for every day they do not show up for the special legislative session — it must be paid from personal funds, and their base salaries for serving are $7,200 a year, with per diems for added legislative days. When state Rep. Linda Garcia, a first-term Democrat who represents parts of east Dallas and nearby Mesquite, decided that she would bring her 9-year-old son with her to Illinois — she thought being away from him for the regular, 140-day legislative session was already too much — she “did my absolute best to prepare him for any possible scenario that would take place,” she said. Garcia is prepared to enroll her son in school in Illinois or home school him if the lawmakers remain outside of Texas as the school year begins. “If we get to the airport, there may be people with cameras; there may be flashing lights. You may be printed on paper or on TV, and your friends might see it, and people may criticize what we’re doing. They’re going to say I’m a criminal; I could get arrested in front of you,” Garcia told him. “I went through the best and the worst, absolute worst case scenario, which the ultimate worst case would be getting removed as a member — and he turned and looked at me, and he’s like: ‘That doesn’t really sound like the worst case to me.’” Still, Garcia said, she did not hesitate to commit to leaving Texas when it became clear it was their best option to draw attention to what is happening in her state — or about bringing her son along for a real-life lesson in civics and democracy. “I really understood that this isn’t about me, and that I will have to face those consequences when those consequences come. This is about my constituents, but also the state of Texas, and it is about the United States of America and where it is headed,” Garcia said. “I cannot live in a world where I think out into the future and look back and didn’t take this step over money.” ### Reenact ‘The Fugitive,’ Dodge Warrants & Catch the Cubs: 10 Things Texas Dems Can Do While on the Lam URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-democrats-redistricting-chicago/ Last updated: 2025-08-06T05:01:00.000Z As you probably know, more than 50 [Texas House Democrats](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/quorum-busting-texas-democrats-stand-up-to-abbott-legal-threats/) have skipped town to stop Gov. Greg Abbott and the Legislature from turning Texas’ congressional map into a [racist](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-democrats-warn-racist-redistricting-fight/) GOP fever dream where every district somehow ends in Ted Cruz’s driveway. Most of our blue-shirted fugitives have landed in Illinois, land of deep-dish pizza, wind, and hot dogs without ketchup. And while the Dems are holed up dodging civil warrants, fines, [Texas Supreme Court rulings](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2025/08/05/gov-greg-abbott-asks-texas-supreme-court-to-remove-house-democratic-chair-gene-wu/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and (maybe) [the FBI](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/05/us/politics/fbi-texas-democrats.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), they’ve got some time to kill. So here are 10 things they could be doing while [Abbott tries to extradite them](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-democrats-warn-racist-redistricting-fight/) like it’s an episode of “Walker, Texas Ranger: Felony Map Edition.” **1\. Take a Group Photo at the [Lincoln Home](https://www.nps.gov/liho/index.htm?ref=thebarbedwire.com)** This one’s a no brainer: Politicians love being in photos. But as Illinois’ favorite son (Abraham Lincoln, if you’re nasty) once said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” Then again, his gangly ass once [jumped out of a window](https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/abraham-lincolns-leap-from-a-window-and-4-other-ways-lawmakers-have-fled-votes/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to break quorum, so. **2\. Visit the Obama Library** Sure, Former President Barack Obama’s library is still [under construction](https://news.wttw.com/2024/03/07/opening-obama-presidential-center-delayed-again-until-spring-2026?ref=thebarbedwire.com) but at least one Texas Rep. — Jessica Gonzalez — [interned at his White House](https://jessicafortexas.com/about?ref=thebarbedwire.com), so maybe they could get a sneak peek? And if they can’t get a full sit-down, maybe Obama can at least record a voicemail: “Hi, you’ve reached Rep. James Talarico. He can’t take your call right now because he’s hiding from a process server. But here’s a quick word from President Obama…” **3\. Reenact ‘The Fugitive’ at Every Chicago Landmark** Texas Democrats have done more to dodge capture than Harrison Ford. Someone get Rep. Gene Wu a fake ID and a waterfall — it’s method acting *and* political protest. **4\. Audition for Season 5 of ‘The Bear’** The stress, the chaos, the yelling — it’s basically the Texas Legislature with better lighting and more knives. After surviving a special session, getting screamed at in a fictional kitchen might actually feel like a vacation. (Or, maybe re-enact an episode of “Survivor,” since Rep. Jolanda Jones [is an alum](https://survivor.fandom.com/wiki/Jolanda%5FJones?ref=thebarbedwire.com).) **5\. Eat a Hot Dog** What’s more Chicago than a hot dog? You can grab one pretty much anywhere, there’s even [lots of vegetarian options](https://blockclubchicago.org/2021/07/28/want-a-hot-dog-without-the-beef-here-are-22-veggie-dog-options-in-chicago/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) (these ARE Democrats, after all). But don’t put ketchup on them, or you might find yourself renditioned back to Austin. **6\. Reflect on Democracy at the Bean** That [big shiny bean in Chicago’s Millennium Park](https://www.choosechicago.com/articles/tours-and-attractions/the-bean-chicago/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)? Perfect place to gaze into the distorted reflection of America’s soul, which, let’s be honest, still looks less grotesque than whatever the Texas GOP just Sharpie’d onto a congressional map at 3 a.m. after a Fox News binge. **7\. Practice Catching [‘Arrest’](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/08/04/texas-democrats-house-warrants-arrest-quorum-break/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Warrants at a Cubs Game** Nothing says “summer in Chicago” like watching a Cubs game. Just bring gloves for foul balls and potential arrest warrants flung from the governor’s office. And someone can buy Lauren Simmons a beer for [saving us from former state Rep. (and current transphobe) Shawn Thierry](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/05/23/shawn-thierry-lauren-simmons-texas-house-democrats/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). **8\. Host a Fundraiser at [Manny’s](https://www.mannysdeli.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to Pay Those $500-a-Day Fines** Because nothing says “we’re being punished for defending democracy” like Venmoing brunch money to your state rep. Bonus points if Abbott shows up demanding extradition and someone hands him a menu instead. **9\. Take a Bus Tour and Pretend You’re in a Functioning Democracy** Chicago’s got those cute [double-decker tours](https://www.choosechicago.com/listing/big-bus-tours-chicago/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Climb aboard, sip a LaCroix (or a Rambler if you can find it), and pretend you’re living in a world where elected officials aren’t actively trying to eliminate their constituents’ voices because Trump said to on Truth Social. **10\. Tour the Chicago Federal Center** It’s good practice. The skyscraper — and beacon of Mid-Century Modernism — in the downtown Chicago Loop has been a part of the city’s skyline since 1974\. If Abbott’s “extradition” threats ever materialize, [this is where they could end up filing appeals](https://www.architecture.org/online-resources/buildings-of-chicago/federal-center?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Might as well get comfy with the layout! Maybe pick up a souvenir mug that says, “I dodged a quorum and all I got was this federal injunction.” (Admittedly, that’s a lot to fit on a mug.) So hang in there, Texas Dems. The stakes are high, the pizza’s thick, and if Abbott tries to come get y’all — just remember: You’re in a state where political stunts come with mustard, not arrest warrants. ### ‘If They Get Away With It in Texas,’ You're Next. Democrats Sound the Alarm on Racist Redistricting Fight. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-democrats-warn-racist-redistricting-fight/ Last updated: 2025-08-05T20:38:42.000Z Texas Democrats have a message for *all* American voters: You’re in the [redistricting fight](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/quorum-busting-texas-democrats-stand-up-to-abbott-legal-threats/), whether you know it or not. “This is a real stress test for democracy, and if they get away with it in Texas, then it's likely to come to a state near you,” said Rep. Rafael Anchía, a Democratic member of the Texas House, in an interview with *The Barbed Wire* from Chicago, Illinois*.* Anchía and more than 50 other Texas House Democrats have decamped to Democratic-led states — namely Illinois, Massachusetts, and New York — to break the quorum needed for the special session of the Texas Legislature to advance an explicitly partisan redistricting bill. The measure, introduced at Trump’s demand, would disenfranchise minority voters and [carve up majority Democratic areas](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-republicans-gerrymandering-maps-trump/) — creating five new Republican-leaning districts, which President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that [Republicans were “entitled” to](https://www.politico.com/news/2025/08/05/trump-texas-redistricting-00493624?ref=thebarbedwire.com). With few options left to stop the bill from becoming law, Texas Democrats chose to flee the state for the third time in thirty years, deploying a tactic that Texas politicians have [utilized since 1870](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/08/03/texas-quorum-breaks-history/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). One question since their departure on Sunday has been: What will it accomplish? There are a few possible outcomes. One is for the bill to be killed — an unlikely scenario. It could also end in a compromise — though that seems unlikely, considering the escalations and arrest threats already in motion from Texas Republicans. What does that leave? A public throwdown that has thrust Texas into the national spotlight for what it is: The beginning of a high-stakes fight for Democratic representation across the country, which will very likely lead to federal lawsuits and trigger new maps in [California](https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/05/politics/california-illinois-new-york-redistricting-texas?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [Illinois](https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/pritzker-illinois-district-map-texas-democrats/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and [New York](https://www.newsweek.com/texas-redistricting-2025-gerrymandering-new-york-kathy-hochul-2108669?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which could *in turn* trigger right-leaning states to do their own redrawing. ## Texas Democrats Can Delay, But They Can’t Kill the Bill “A quorum break can significantly delay passage of a bill, but it doesn't change the numbers in terms of who's in the legislature,” Rep. Chris Turner, one of the quorum-breakers, told *The Barbed Wire* in a phone interview from St. Charles, Illinois. Turner was a part of the prior quorum-breaking attempts and knows firsthand that Texas Democrats have thus far failed to use this strategy to actually stop Republicans in the Texas Legislature from passing conservative legislation. Previous attempts to kill a redistricting bill in 2003, and an election law bill in 2021, only delayed the inevitable. “When the legislature does eventually have a quorum, the legislative outcome is known,” Turner said. “Everyone understands that Abbott's going to call another special session. For a quorum break to stop passage of any bill, that means you have to break quorum indefinitely, for months or years, even. That's obviously not realistic.” Texas’ House Democratic Caucus may have the 51+ necessary commitments from lawmakers to stay out of the state through the end of this special session, but for months? Many of them have families and children. To halt the passage of the bill, enough of them must remain out of state indefinitely — but Turner told *The Barbed Wire* that the quorum-breakers had only made a commitment to remaining out of state for the current special session. ## Negotiation Is Unlikely Another possible outcome is a negotiated bipartisan compromise on redistricting. “We are all for bipartisan redistricting bills that respect the Voting Rights Act,” Anchía said. “But when Donald Trump calls Greg Abbott out and says, ‘Get me five more seats out of Texas,’ there's absolutely no way to do that without trampling on the voting rights of people who are already underrepresented — so protected by the Voting Rights Act.” ![Texas Rep Rafael Anchia (C) speaks during a news conference with California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Texas lawmakers at the Governor’s Mansion.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/gettyimages-2227025028.jpg) Texas Rep Rafael Anchia (C) speaks during a news conference with California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Texas lawmakers at the Governor’s Mansion on July 25, 2025 in Sacramento, California. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) Passed in 1965, the Voting Rights Act established protections intended to undo racially discriminatory Jim Crow laws that disenfranchised Black voters after the abolition of slavery and ensure that states follow 15th Amendment’s promise that the right to vote not be denied because of race. Since 2013, Supreme Court decisions made by conservative majorities have [weakened the law’s protections](https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/voting-rights-act-explained?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Despite that dreamy prospect, compromise frankly seems unlikely. For their part, Texas Republicans have only escalated the redistricting fight, exploring options to [fine the quorum-breaking Democrats](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/07/29/texas-democrats-quorum-break-fundraising-fines-redistricting/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [arrest them](https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/state/texas-democrats-leave-state-legal-republicans/287-07a007c7-555c-44a4-a11a-2dc64d232662?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [charge them with felony bribery ](https://gov.texas.gov/news/post/governor-abbott-directs-texas-rangers-to-investigate-delinquent-texas-house-democrats?ref=thebarbedwire.com)(despite a lack of evidence), and even [remove them from office](https://www.politico.com/news/2025/08/04/greg-abbott-texas-democrats-redistricting-00492100?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The Texas House does have authority to direct State Troopers and the Sergeant at Arms to conduct civil arrests and bring the quorum-breakers to the House floor, they do not have authority to order arrests out of state. It is possible that Gov. Greg Abbott could seek to remove the quorum-breakers from office, but [there is no legal precedent for him to do so](https://www.kxan.com/news/texas-politics/texas-governor-greg-abbott-vacate-house-seats-redistricting-quorum/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). And even if he attempts it and the courts were to side with Abbott, it is still a time-sensitive strategy that would require Republican candidates to win special elections — an unlikely feat in districts currently controlled by Democrats. But the quorum breaking effort in 2021 did succeed in one respect: It raised the national profile of election issues in Texas. In doing so, it spurred the U.S. House of Representatives to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, which would have superseded Texas’ electoral reforms had it not died in the Senate. The John Lewis Voting Rights Act aimed to restore a requirement for states with a history of voting rights violations to seek preclearance from the federal government before altering election laws — something that had been struck down in the 2013 Shelby County v. Holder Supreme Court decision. ## Using the Spotlight Although Democrats are unlikely to convince the Republican-controlled U.S. House to consider legislation to quash the ongoing redistricting attempts, the strategy deployed in 2021 points to a third possible outcome: Texas Democrats can once again use the current moment to encourage a larger, national redistricting fight to change how Democrats draw up electoral maps across the country. “We’ve been sending delegations to meet with governors to talk to them about what's happening in Texas,” Anchía, who has served on the redistricting, said. “States like California and New York and Illinois and others are prepared to hold the line against Donald Trump's illegal redistricting in Texas.” Leaders such as California Gov. Gavin Newsom have come out swinging, promising redistricting of their own if Texas Republicans plow ahead with their plans. Newsom has [floated a redistricting plan](https://www.politico.com/news/2025/08/04/california-fires-back-at-texas-redistricting-00493314?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for California that would create five new Democratic seats, canceling out the proposed Republicans gains in Texas. “Governor Newsom said he's been meeting with legislative leaders to do this as soon as November,” Anchía told *The Barbed Wire*. https://www.instagram.com/p/DM80ZJQS7DN/ Illinois Lt. Gov Juliana Stratton sent a similar message during a [recent press conference](https://thehill.com/video-clips/5436240-watch-live-jb-pritzker-ken-martin-texas-democrats-redistricting/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “In Illinois, we don’t sit on the sidelines,” said Stratton, who is running for Senate next year. “In Illinois, we don’t take kindly to threats, and in Illinois, we fight back. If Trump and Texas Republicans won’t play by the rules, we will look at every option available to stop their extreme power grab, and nothing will be off the table,” Texas typically redraws its electoral district boundaries every 10 years, but this mid-cycle effort came after Trump, whose [approval ratings have cratered](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/08/04/approval-rating-trump-epstein/85402761007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in recent months, pushed Texas Republicans to create five more Congressional seats favorable to his party. Last month, the Texas GOP issued [a statement](https://x.com/TexasGOP/status/1943062442826719517?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that laid bare the explicitly political motivations behind the redistricting effort, calling it “an essential step to preserving GOP control in Congress and advancing the President Trump’s America First agenda.” In more than 30 states, legislatures draw up both national and state level electoral district lines. Nine states utilize commissions — some featuring politicians — to draw congressional district lines, while two states have hybrid systems, in which legislatures share redistricting authority with commissions. The remaining states do not have to deal with redistricting because they only have one congressional district each. In states where partisan legislatures draw the maps, they’re more likely to favor the party in power. This is what political scientists call “gerrymandering.” Many large Democratic states use independent, non-politician commissions to draw their maps — a practice that [some liberal critics and Democratic politicians](https://www.forbes.com/sites/saradorn/2025/08/04/could-democrats-turn-to-gerrymandering-after-texas-redistricting-fight-heres-what-to-know/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) argue provides an unnecessary advantage to Republicans, who have aggressively gerrymandered in states where they have the power to pass redistricting legislation without Democratic votes. One way to challenge gerrymandering is in court. “The battle on this map is not over,” Turner told *The Barbed Wire.* “Once this front in this war is done in however many weeks, then the next front is in front of some federal judges and I think whenever that happens, Republicans behind this plan are going to have a lot of difficult questions to answer.” To Turner’s point, the sooner the maps pass, the sooner Democrats can sue in federal court. But there is reason to temper hopes that the judiciary will save the day. Majority conservative Supreme Court decisions in the last two decades have [made political gerrymandering easier](https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/supreme-court-just-made-gerrymandering-even-easier?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Meanwhile, a [looming Supreme Court case](https://www.politico.com/news/2025/08/01/supreme-court-louisiana-redistricting-order-00490390?ref=thebarbedwire.com) could upend longstanding Civil Rights-era protections against the sort of racial gerrymandering being proposed in Texas, shutting down the potential for judicial challenges and opening the door for all sorts of political chicanery. The Texas GOP’s unabashedly political attempt at gerrymanding, in this national context, has cast a spotlight on the Texas Democrats who seek to stop it — and other Democratic politicians across the nation are watching closely. If Texas Republicans choose to plow ahead with their plans, Texas Democrats told *The Barbed Wire* they will continue to push other liberal lawmakers to set off a wave of retaliatory Democratic redistricting around the country in order to cancel out the gains Republicans would make in places like Texas. “There's one way for this stuff to end tomorrow,” Anchía said. “And that's for Donald Trump to say: ‘Yes, this is bad for democracy. I'm not going to try to pass an illegal gerrymander,’ and to recognize that this will start a domino effect that isn't particularly good for the country.” Since Trump isn’t particularly known for considering the consequences of his ideas and thinking better of them, Democrats are preparing themselves for a nationwide fight. “I'm for independent redistricting commissions,” Anchía said. “But we can't unilaterally disarm, regrettably.” Thus, Democrats have one real remaining strategy: To fight fire with fire. “You don’t show up to a gunfight with a butter knife,” said Anchía. ### What Has Abbott’s $100 Million in Border Security Bought Taxpayers? Office Renovations and Expensive Trucks. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/what-abbotts-multimillion-border-money-bought-taxpayers/ Last updated: 2025-08-05T16:18:01.000Z Six $83,000 pickup trucks. K-9 dog food. A pink-trimmed concrete office jokingly described as the Taj Mahal. Since 2021, Gov. Greg Abbott’s highly-touted Operation Lone Star has sent more than $100 million to Texas counties, in grants earmarked for border security purposes — but in reality, the funding has also covered items like office renovations and equipment seemingly unrelated to immigration enforcement. An investigation from [the *San Antonio Express-News* and the *Houston Chronicle*](https://www.expressnews.com/news/texas/article/operation-lone-star-greg-abbott-waste-border-texas-20780050.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com)found that Abbott’s taxpayer-funded, multimillion-dollar border crackdown has financed counties far from the state’s southern border, has been inconsistently managed, and vaguely justified. And as border crossings decline, the stream of money has stayed relatively steady. In Maverick County, where Eagle Pass is, the new county attorney’s building was funded by Operation Lone Star. It was introduced as a way to help prosecute misdemeanors when suspected undocumented immigrants trespassed on private property. The building has pink trim and is complete with showers, a workout room and also serves as an office for Maverick County Attorney Jaime Iracheta’s private legal practice, according to the report from the *Express*. In statements to the newspapers, county officials were unapologetic about the extra cash; they said they welcome the upgrades, despite the county auditor's concerns that courtrooms built with the money are being used for non-border related cases. Operation Lone Star launched in 2021, when Abbott issued a disaster declaration, and deployed hundreds of Texas National Guard troops to the border — to the tune of “four middle- finger emojis,” according to a leaked morale survey from January 2022, first reported by [*The Texas Tribune* and *Military Times*](https://www.texastribune.org/2022/02/24/national-guard-Texas-border-morale-survey/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “I’m wasting time watching the grass grow at my (observation) point (along the border),” one trooper wrote in their anonymous feedback form. While [questions started to arise](https://www.texastribune.org/2022/04/18/texas-border-security-spending/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) about Abbott’s [border](https://www.texastribune.org/2022/03/16/texas-national-guard-king-ranch/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [operations](https://www.texastribune.org/2022/04/04/texas-border-operation-imprisons-thousands-accused-only-of-trespassing/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a March 2022 investigation from *The Texas Tribune*, *ProPublica* and *The Marshall Project* discovered that Operation Lone Star was costing taxpayers a mind-boggling [$2.5 million per *week*](https://www.texastribune.org/2022/03/21/operation-lone-star-lacks-clear-metrics-measure-accomplishments/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “Operation Lone Star personnel work around-the-clock with federal partners to deter and repel illegal crossings, arrest human smugglers and cartel gang members, and stop the flow of deadly drugs like fentanyl into our nation,” according to [Abbott’s website](https://gov.texas.gov/operationlonestar?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Operation Lone Star was launched in response to “the Biden Administration’s reckless open border policies,” according to [Abbott’s website](https://gov.texas.gov/operationlonestar?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — but even as border crossings have dropped months into the new Trump administration, the operation’s grants went[ “largely untouched,”](https://www.expressnews.com/politics/texas/article/ols-spending-investigation-takeaways-20790216.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) as reported by *the San Antonio Express-News* and the *Houston Chronicle.* Texas’ mega-spending bill, which was approved by the Legislature in May, will allocate $3 billion of the state’s $338 billion budget toward border security, and will allow Abbott to keep up Operation Lone Star’s grant costs. Meanwhile, counties with “minimal or no surge in migrant crossings” have become increasingly reliant on Lone Star funding, using grant money to pay salaries and maintain necessary operations — losing that state funding “could cripple us,” a councilman from Eagle Pass told *Chronicle* and *Express-News* reporters. Goliad County, about 200 miles from the Mexican border, has used its $3 million of Lone Star money to purchase “six pickups, a van and an eighth vehicle for which no description was available in state records,” [according to the reporting](https://www.expressnews.com/news/texas/article/operation-lone-star-greg-abbott-waste-border-texas-20780050.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “The justification for about $900,000 of the county’s Lone Star spending was redacted from state records,” according to the reporting. “That spending included $281,000 for ‘surveillance equipment and accessories,’ $342,000 for ‘specialized equipment and software’ and $140,000 on items identified only as ‘equipment.’” Not everyone is on board with the free flow of money. Maverick County Commissioner Jerry Morales has spoken up about the years-long delays of trying to get basic roads and water infrastructure in some of the poorest parts of his Texas county. “You don't have any oversight there,” Morales said of Operation Lone Star to the *Express*. “But man, when I'm applying for a sewer connection grant, you want me to dot every single i and cross every single t.” ### ‘He’s Making Up Some Sh*t:’ Texas House Issues Arrest Warrants in Quorum-Bust as Democrats Counterattack URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/quorum-busting-texas-democrats-stand-up-to-abbott-legal-threats/ Last updated: 2025-08-04T17:13:33.000Z UPDATE: The Republican-led Texas House voted 85-6 to track down and arrest more than 50 Democratic lawmakers who left the state to break quorum and were not at the Capitol when the chamber gaveled in at 3 p.m. Monday, [*The Texas Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/08/04/texas-democrats-house-warrants-arrest-quorum-break/?%5Fbhlid=ecc53826de9806863f5d73dbfc756f89350211c5&ref=thebarbedwire.com)reported. To be clear, the move is largely bluster, since the civil warrants that House Speaker Dustin Burrows promised for each absent member only apply to the chamber’s sergeant-at-arms and state troopers inside the Lone Star State. The representatives who left for Illinois, New York, and Massachusetts are not facing any criminal *or civil* charges. During a press conference Monday morning in New York with Gov. Kathy Hochul, state Rep. Jolanda Jones, a Democrat and Houston-based attorney said Gov. Greg Abbott, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, and Rep. Burrows — who’ve threatened felony charges, arrests, and financial consequences — are all bark and no bite. “It would be bribery if any lawmaker took money to perform or to refuse to perform an act in the legislature,” Abbott [said on Fox News](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c93dkwnx94ro?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on Monday — despite providing no evidence any Democrats had engaged in crimes. > [](https://twitter.com/JonesJolanda/status/1952418983837131050?ref=thebarbedwire.com) “I’m a lawyer and part of my practice is criminal defense work,” Jones said Monday “There is no felony in the Texas Penal Code for what (Gov. Abbott) says. There is no felony in the Texas penal code, for what he says. So, respectfully, he's making up some shit.” “He's trying to get sound bites, and he has no legal mechanism,” Jones continued. “And if he did, subpoenas from Texas don’t work in New York, so how’s he gonna come and get us. How? Subpoenas in Texas don't work in Chicago. How’s he gonna come get us? So let me be clear. He's putting up smoke and mirrors, and I'm hopeful that the media doesn't follow that.” ORIGINAL STORY: “Come and take it.” That’s [the response](https://cbsaustin.com/news/local/gov-abbott-threatens-texas-house-democrats-with-removal-from-office-for-fleeing-state?ref=thebarbedwire.com) from Texas House Democrats after Gov. Greg Abbott threatened to remove lawmakers breaking quorum from their legislative seats if they don’t return to Austin. Dozens of Texas House Democrats left the state on Sunday afternoon to block [Republican-proposed redistricting maps](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-republicans-gerrymandering-maps-trump/), which could add up to five new GOP seats in the U.S. House. At President Donald Trump’s behest, the Texas GOP released new proposed congressional maps last week during a special legislative session. That was unusual, given that Texas maps are typically redrawn every decade with updated data from census counts. The maps represent an aggressive gerrymander that, if passed, would strip nearly a quarter million Black voters out of a congressional district in Houston; pack liberals in Dallas, Austin, and San Antonio into as few districts as possible; and hack up Fort Worth and McAllen. https://thebarbedwire.com/2025/07/31/texas-republicans-gerrymandering-maps-trump/ “The tool they're using is a racist gerrymandered map, a map that seeks to use racial lines to divide hardworking communities who have spent decades building up their power and strengthening their voices,” said Rep. Gene Wu, chair of the Texas State House Democratic Caucus, in a [Sunday night press conference from Illinois](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14LaOrK7WG4&ref=thebarbedwire.com), where lawmakers were joined by Gov. JB Pritzker. Most of the House’s 62 Democrats have traveled to Chicago, though some have also gone to Boston and [Albany](https://abc7ny.com/post/governor-hochul-meet-texas-democrats-amid-redistricting-standoff/17427722/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Thousands of people showed up to hearings at the Texas Capitol last week, and the vast majority of citizens who testified did so to speak out against the proposed measure. Still, Republicans advanced the maps on Saturday with plans for a vote on the House floor on Monday. > [](https://twitter.com/KenPaxtonTX/status/1952128515236860287?ref=thebarbedwire.com) “Governor Abbott is doing this in submission to Donald Trump so that Donald Trump could steal these communities’ power and voice,” Wu said. “We will not be complicit in the destruction of our own communities.” “We will hold people accountable, and we will defend our state to the absolute best of our abilities,” he added. “We are not here to play political games. We are here to demand an end to this corrupt process.” Quorum-busting — denying the minimum amount of lawmakers needed to conduct business, effectively halting any House actions — is decades-old tradition for Texas Democratic lawmakers, who walked out of office in 2003, and again in 2021, to protest Republican-backed redistricting and voting access bills. Both ultimately passed. Former state Rep. Jim Dunnam (D-Waco), who participated in the 2003 quorum-busting, [told WFAA](https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/politics/former-lawmaker-jim-dunnam-broke-quorum-in-2003-says-texas-democrats-echoes-the-past/287-6640399d-a8d8-4ec9-acc0-0d08b6056394?ref=thebarbedwire.com): “People remember (the walkout) not as a failure, but as something that got out a message nationally.” This latest special session, quorum-busting has [been on the table for weeks](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/steal-election-texas-democrats-weigh-walkout-over-trump-redistricting/). With a Republican majority in both chambers of the Texas Legislature, Democrats appear to have determined that a walkout was the most effective way to block the new maps, which Democrats have called [“racist” and “gerrymandered.”](https://www.youtube.com/live/14LaOrK7WG4?si=UqrB2BXCTWY5f0n-&t=3968&ref=thebarbedwire.com) > [](https://twitter.com/hutchinson/status/1952390106108608778?ref=thebarbedwire.com) “Right now, it feels like we’re going to hell and it doesn’t seem like we have a way back,” U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Dallas), who participated in the walkout, [told MSNBC on Monday.](https://youtu.be/Qbv7-GC4D1k?si=gdSwfuKwA7REkPe0&t=450&ref=thebarbedwire.com) “This isn’t just about the five seats in Texas. This is about a power grab.” Abbott responded to the quorum break with outsized posturing in a letter Sunday night, threatening to consider it justification to remove them from office. “Democrats hatched a deliberate plan not to show up for work, for the specific purpose of abdicating the duties of their office and thwarting the chamber’s business,” Abbott said in a statement on Sunday, despite the fact that denying quorum has [been a Texas political strategy since 1870](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/08/03/texas-quorum?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “That amounts to an abandonment or forfeiture of an elected state office.” > [](https://twitter.com/byjayroot/status/1952396415700791596?ref=thebarbedwire.com) In July, when House Democrats first started mulling over another walkout, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton [said his office](https://x.com/KenPaxtonTX/status/1945173661704708547?ref=thebarbedwire.com) was prepared to “hunt down” lawmakers who vacate their seats for “cheap political theater.” He doubled down on Sunday, writing on X that the Democrats should be [“found, arrested, and brought back to the Capitol immediately.”](https://x.com/KenPaxtonTX/status/1952114350153490634?ref=thebarbedwire.com) He added, “We should use every tool at our disposal to hunt down those who think they are above the law.” On the likelihood of arrest, Wu said at Sunday’s press conference that it’s “a topic of serious concern,” adding: “We know the governor has no authority to send state troopers over here but we don’t know what Donald Trump’s going to do.” What’s more, Texans jumped into Paxton’s comments on X to remind him that he himself [fled his home to avoid being served a subpoena in 2022](https://www.texastribune.org/2022/09/26/texas-attorney-general-ken-paxton-subpoena-abortion-lawsuit/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). (Paxton was also [facing securities fraud charges](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/03/25/ken-paxton-plea-deal-securities-fraud-felony/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) before prosecutors agreed to drop them in exchange for community service.) “I support the immediate arrest of these rogue lawmakers who’ve fled their duties,” Paxton wrote Sunday on X. “These radical Democrats are spitting in the face of every Texan they swore to represent. This is cowardice and dereliction of duty, and they should face the full force of the law without apology.” > [](https://twitter.com/isaiahrmartin/status/1952206151589769348?ref=thebarbedwire.com) “Real Texans do not run from a fight. But that’s exactly what most of the Texas House Democrats just did,” Abbott wrote in a Sunday [press release](https://gov.texas.gov/news/post/governor-abbott-statement-on-house-democratic-quorum-break?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Republican state Rep. Dustin Burrows, speaker of the Texas House, said “all options will be on the table” if his Democrat colleagues are not on the House floor by the time the chamber convenes at 3 p.m. CT on Monday. If the missing lawmakers don’t return to the Texas Capitol by the time the House reconvenes, Abbott said he’d pursue legal action to “swiftly fill” their vacancies. The Democrats’ response? “The Republican governor of Texas is out of his mind,” U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries [told CNN on Monday](https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/04/Tv/video/sitroom-blitzer-hakeem-jeffries-texas-redistricting-greg-abbott-trump-hochul?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “There is no basis to charge these House Texas Democrats, who have refused righteously to vote on an extraordinary map that would hurt their constituents that they are privileged and sworn to represent.” “Governor Abbott,” Jeffries continued, “is making idle threats. He is all hat, no cattle.” ### Inside a South Texas Drug-Trafficking Scheme: Kilos of Cocaine, a Middle School, and Two Disgraced Mayors URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/inside-south-texas-drug-trafficking-scheme/ Last updated: 2025-07-31T17:10:10.000Z The former mayor of a south Texas town is facing nearly four years in prison for his role in a nine-person cocaine trafficking ring — which was operating out of a local middle school. The cinematic conspiracy involved now-disgraced former Progreso Mayor Gerardo “Jerry” Alanis, who was sentenced last week alongside his brother, former Progreso ISD school board president Frank Alanis. Also sentenced was Jerry’s predecessor, former Progreso Mayor Arturo Aleman, and six others, [*MySA* first reported](https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/south-texas/article/jerry-alanis-progreso-mayor-cocaine-sentence-20789875.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Progreso is a 5,000-person town just three miles north of the Mexico border. Frank received a [12-year sentence](https://www.valleycentral.com/news/former-progreso-school-board-president-sentenced-to-12-years-in-prison-for-smuggling-drugs/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), while Aleman was sentenced to [nearly three](https://www.valleycentral.com/news/local-news/former-progreso-mayor-sentenced-to-nearly-3-years-in-prison-for-smuggling-drugs/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) years, local newspaper *ValleyCentral* reported. Even a former Progreso [school bus driver](https://www.valleycentral.com/news/former-progreso-isd-bus-driver-sentenced-to-nearly-4-years-in-prison-for-smuggling-cocaine/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) was involved in the scheme, according to the paper. Authorities found the smuggling ring lasted from 2020 to 2022, according to a [July 24 press release](https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdtx/pr/former-mayor-sentenced-nearly-four-years-cocaine-conspiracy-involved-use-school?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Over those years, the defendants would “smuggle kilograms of cocaine into the United States from Mexico,” re-package them in the country — sometimes in the IT room of Progreso’s Dorothy Thompson Middle School — then transport them outside state lines, the press release said. “It is unthinkable that a public official would allow a school of all places to be used as a storehouse for cocaine,” [wrote](https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdtx/pr/former-mayor-sentenced-nearly-four-years-cocaine-conspiracy-involved-use-school?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Nicholas Ganjei, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas. Jerry Alanis was prosecuted for “financially investing in multiple cocaine loads,” [*MySA* reported](https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/south-texas/article/jerry-alanis-progreso-mayor-cocaine-sentence-20789875.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com), while Aleman was charged with purchasing tractor trailers. Jerry Alanis was first arrested in March 2024; just a few weeks later, he resigned as mayor. In February of this year, Alanis reportedly [pleaded guilty](https://www.valleycentral.com/news/local-news/former-progreso-mayor-admits-to-financially-investing-in-cocaine-shipments/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), confessing to “financially investing” in multiple cocaine shipments. “I acknowledge that my actions were wrong,” Alanis [said in court](https://www.valleycentral.com/news/local-news/timeline-drugs-and-corruption-at-progreso-city-hall/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) last week. “I am sorry. I am not asking you to forgive me,” [Aleman said in a March court appearance](https://www.valleycentral.com/news/local-news/former-progreso-mayor-sentenced-to-nearly-3-years-in-prison-for-smuggling-drugs/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). He also reportedly asked for lenience in his sentencing, though he acknowledged: “I did this to myself.” The two men are just the latest Progreso mayors to be prosecuted, and they join a [decades-long pattern](https://www.valleycentral.com/news/local-news/timeline-drugs-and-corruption-at-progreso-city-hall/?fbclid=IwY2xjawL4a0xleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETAwMnlGOGRMQWVwMGJGbVg3AR6HbwnF4FJ06xIBckzpWxx7wf%5F03DQtxa6XBrTWuZOgOSgVufq9eigKdiCMxQ%5Faem%5FDgCsiIMq0YXl%5Fn%5FIdFYIWg&ref=thebarbedwire.com) of corruption in the small town. Before Alanis was mayor, Aleman presided over Progreso for three years. He took over after the disgraced Vela brothers — former Mayor Omar Vela and former City Councilman Orlando Vela — who pleaded guilty to public corruption charges. The Velas’ father was a prominent member of the school board too, and he served prison time for “smuggling marijuana,” [according to *ValleyCentral*](https://www.valleycentral.com/news/former-progreso-school-board-president-sentenced-to-12-years-in-prison-for-smuggling-drugs/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Aleman and his friends, the Alanis brothers, filled the vacuum left behind by the Velas; they quickly rose to power in Progreso as publicly elected officials. Aleman stepped down when his mayoral term ended in 2017, and Alanis ran unopposed for the role — at just 25 years old. Meanwhile, Frank Alanis had just won a seat on the school board, where he remained until his [resignation](https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdtx/pr/progreso-official-charged-drug-trafficking?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in May 2024, [seven months after his arrest](https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdtx/pr/progreso-official-charged-drug-trafficking?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “I respect the (12-year) sentence, but I don’t agree with it,” Frank’s lawyer, Carlos Garcia, said at a hearing earlier this month, [as per *ValleyCentral*](https://www.valleycentral.com/news/former-progreso-school-board-president-sentenced-to-12-years-in-prison-for-smuggling-drugs/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “The only reason, in my estimation, that Mr. Alanis received the sentence that he received is because of the position that he held as a politician within the city of Progreso.” ### Republicans Are Planning to Carve Up Texas Like a Christmas Ham. We Should All Be Pissed. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-republicans-gerrymandering-maps-trump/ Last updated: 2025-07-31T05:01:00.000Z We should all be pissed. At President Trump’s behest, the Texas GOP released new proposed congressional maps Wednesday, and on the surface, they’re exactly what Republicans seemed to be hoping for: an aggressive gerrymander that, if passed, would more than likely deliver five additional seats to Republicans in Congress. To oversimplify a complicated process, Republicans’ proposed maps would accomplish this by stripping nearly a quarter million Black voters out of Congressional District 9 in Houston and packing them into two neighboring districts. Dallas, Austin, and San Antonio liberals would be stuffed into as few districts as possible, while Fort Worth would be split into bits small enough to be offset by large swaths of rural Republicans. The so-called “Fajita Strip” districts of South Texas would get a makeover, too, cutting the still-progressive city of McAllen in half and leaving South Texas Democrats without a favorable seat. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/map-image-2024-president-1.png) The proposed Texas congressional districts, shaded to reflect the 2024 presidential results. But any Republicans gleefully spiking the football should be careful what they wish for. Success for the GOP depends on a few important variables. Namely, the U.S. Supreme Court’s willingness to abide by the disenfranchisement of Black voters, and Republicans’ ability to hold onto gains with Latino voters. To the first point, the justices’ stomach for disenfranchisement seems high. During a 2006 challenge to a *different* Texas gerrymandering spree, Chief Justice John Roberts characterized the Voting Rights Act’s protections of minority voters as a “[sordid business.](https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/548/399/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)” And in 2013, the Supreme Court effectively gutted the voting protections of the VRA, opening the floodgates to... well, what we’re seeing this week. However, continued Republican popularity among Latino voters in Texas is — to put it mildly — not a sure thing. It’s no secret that President Donald Trump [performed well with Latino voters in Texas in 2024](https://texaspolitics.utexas.edu/blog/trends-latino-attitudes-texas-foreshadowed-trump%E2%80%99s-gains-2024?ref=thebarbedwire.com). This was largely driven by his promises to combat the rising cost of living and to deal with illegal immigration, both issues Latino voters care deeply about. Yet, Trump’s approval rating on immigration, once his bread-and-butter issue, is [now underwater](https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-approval-rating-immigration-emerson-college-poll-2104367?ref=thebarbedwire.com) (for reasons that [should be obvious](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/july-4-latino-immigrants-celebrate-country-love-you-back/)). And if tariffs shoot the cost of living through the roof, it won’t be a surprise if Latino voters start swinging the other way. More immediately, Republicans will have to survive a few knock-on effects of an obvious power grab. Namely, voting Texans of all political affiliations who are sick of this shit. Texans ought to be pissed. Hell, even non-Texans. There is no honest reason Republicans are gerrymandering Texas other than pure power politics. The Texas Legislature recently completed a radically conservative legislative session, [gutting public schools and passing private school vouchers](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-school-vouchers/), forcing teachers to [display the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-voted-to-mandate-schools-display-the-ten-commandments-this-bite-me-greg-activist-wants-them-in-arabic-with-a-dash-of-satanism/), and (of course) [picking on trans kids](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/anti-trans-bills-texas-2025/). But even in this Ayn-Rand-wet-dream of a legislative session, the Texas GOP didn’t consider redrawing congressional districts — something that has historically only followed a decennial census. That is, until Trump called Gov. Greg Abbott, the [*Texas Tribune* reported](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/07/22/texas-redistricting-abbott-republicans-resistant-trump/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Then, Abbott and Texas Republicans were more than happy to follow [Trump’s demand for five more Republican seats in the U.S. House,](https://apnews.com/article/trump-congress-house-republicans-texas-redistricting-d18e8280a32872d9eefcbb26f66a0331?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and set out to carve up Texas’ congressional districts like a Christmas ham. It doesn’t take a PhD in political science to figure out why Trump is so desperate to hold onto control of Congress. Trump needs to hold a Republican majority in the House to enact an agenda which, it turns out, is bipartisanly unpopular with voters. His “big, beautiful bill” narrowly passed — by four votes in the House and a tie-breaking vote by Vice President JD Vance in the Senate. A majority of Americans (70%) see the tax cuts in the law as a boon for rich people, according to a [*Wall Street Journal* poll](https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/trump-wsj-poll-tax-bill-support-ee51c67e?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and more than half think it’ll hurt poor and working class people. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DM0VlF3xJFH/?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ%3D%3D Then there are the Epstein files. Trump has [angered his fan base](https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/gaslight-joe-rogan-slams-trump-administrations-handling-epstein/story?id=124175021&ref=thebarbedwire.com) for teasing, then not delivering on, the release of investigative files into the former financier and accused sex trafficker who died in prison. Trump’s abrupt change in tune has fueled speculation that [his name is in the files](https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/23/politics/bondi-trump-epstein-list-files?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — so much so that House Democrats have attempted repeatedly to force their release — something they ought to be able to accomplish should they win a majority in 2026. There are myriad reasons why redrawing congressional districts at the whim of the president is a terrible idea. But at its core, this hurried usurpation of the will of the voters is an affront to the most basic tenets of democracy and an insult to the intelligence of every voter in Texas — regardless of partisan stripes. The beauty of democracy is that it grants us — the voters — with the ultimate ability to wield power as we see fit. If a political party does something wildly unpopular (like, hypothetically, [kicking 17 million people off of health insurance](https://www.kff.org/quick-take/about-17-million-more-people-could-be-uninsured-due-to-the-big-beautiful-bill-and-other-policy-changes/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to pay for a tax cut for the richest people in the country), we get to rake those politicians over the coals when the next election rolls around. Once politicians are able to choose who their voters are for any given election, they no longer have any incentive to serve you. They will have carte blanche to abuse their power, cater to the elites they pal around with, and screw you over while doing it. And if you don’t like it, they’ll redraw their district to find enough new voters who do. We the voters will no longer have the ability to choose our politicians if our politicians can, on a whim, choose their voters. Then there’s the [gerrymandering arms race](https://www.axios.com/local/san-antonio/2025/07/28/texas-redistricting-abbott-republicans-risk?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that’s likely to ensue. Should Texas Republicans follow through with their plan to redraw congressional maps, Democrats in California, Oregon, Washington, Illinois, New York, and New Jersey have threatened to gerrymander *their* districts in retaliation. The most important of those states — California — drew their current congressional maps via an [independent redistricting commission](https://wedrawthelines.ca.gov/about-us/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Meaning that, should California create new districts that are drawn to favor Democrats, the Democratic seats [picked up in California alone](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/17/california-newsom-texas-voter-maps?ref=thebarbedwire.com) could offset *and even outweigh* Republican gains made in Texas. This more than likely explains why Abbott and Texas Republicans were hesitant to take up redistricting — that is, until Trump gave them a directive. The redistricting process has gotten off to a rocky start for the Texas GOP. The Republican-led House Redistricting Committee spent five hours getting [chewed out by pissed off Houstonians](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/07/26/texas-houston-redistricting-maps/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) who showed up to testify, despite there not being any maps available for the public to view. Thousands showed up to an [anti-gerrymandering rally in East Austin](https://www.kvue.com/article/news/politics/special-session/texas-democrats-rally-supporters-austin-republicans-redistricting-push/269-2db95be5-d75e-4a3f-8de1-b400a09b0a94?ref=thebarbedwire.com). A new [poll from the Texas Politics Project](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/texaspolitics-utexas-edu/files/202506-poll-topline-oyms.pdf), a project out of the University of Texas at Austin, showed that the most important issue for Texas voters right now is political corruption. It’s hard to think of anything more overtly corrupt than a mid-decade power grab at the behest of the president. Democrats, smelling blood in the water, have already launched a massive [effort to call Republican voters](https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/abc-dnc-ramps-anti-redistricting-efforts-texas-calls/story?id=124117765&ref=thebarbedwire.com) who are rightfully pissed off. And the elephant in the room in this whole conversation is that *Texas isn’t as conservative as it used to be*. Yes, it’s true that Democrats haven’t won a statewide election since 1994\. However, in 2018, Sen. Ted Cruz received only [50.9% of the vote statewide](https://www.texastribune.org/2018/11/06/ted-cruz-beto-orourke-texas-midterm-election-results/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). In 2020, [Donald Trump got 52.1%](https://www.cnn.com/election/2020/results/state/texas?ref=thebarbedwire.com). And just last year, [Cruz got 53.1%](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-elections/texas-senate-results?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of the vote in an election cycle that was widely viewed as a massive success for Republicans. In a state where they receive between 51-53% of the vote, Republicans are seeking to control *79% of the congressional districts*. In other words, Republicans are spreading themselves thin. And they’re doing so right before a midterm election in which their president is historically unpopular — so it might just come back and bite them in the ass. ### ‘Love Is Blind’ Is Coming to Austin, Home of Horribly Behaved Singles URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/uh-oh-love-is-blind-casting-austin/ Last updated: 2025-07-30T15:08:52.000Z Tech bros, it’s your time to shine — “[Love is Blind” is casting](https://www.instagram.com/p/DMtiI1fM5Wl/?hl=en&ref=thebarbedwire.com) in Austin. The mega-popular show, where faceless singles meet behind a screen, fall in love, and get engaged (to varying degrees of success), bases itself out of one city for each season. The eight-season show has already had its moment in Dallas and Houston, and has yielded one successful match from each city. “Love is Blind” operates on a hyper-accelerated timeline, where candidates spend 10 days “dating” (having hours-long conversations with love interests) in sectioned-off pods, unable to see or meet each other. To make it out of the pods, couples need to first establish a connection, commit to each other, and get *engaged*, yes, to a partner they’ve known for a mere 10 days. Then, the newly-minted fiancées will meet in person. It might be a lofty goal to cast in the [slightly male-dominated](https://www.neilsberg.com/insights/austin-tx-population-by-gender/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Austin, whose men earned [Match.com](http://match.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)’s 2018 label of “worst behaved singles” in the country — and, in that same study, were statistically deemed 549% more likely to ghost their dates, [KVUE reported at the time](https://www.kvue.com/article/features/trending-today/austin-men-notorious-for-ghosting-breadcrumbing-dates-study/269-513538702?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=According%20to%20Match.com%2C%20Austin,someone's%20life%20as%20a%20zombie.). In 2024, [writer Rose McMackin](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/hot-cowboy-fantasy-competence-texas/) penned an [essay for *Austin Monthly*](https://www.austinmonthly.com/dating-in-austin-texas-cursed/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) about the city’s “cursed” dating scene — a sort of “real world Never Never Land,” McMackin wrote. “Especially when deep-pocket tech employers like Tesla and Google are here to bankroll it.” But as a whole, “Love Is Blind” is not the most reliable matchmaker out there; across eight seasons and 42 couples, the show has produced just nine successful marriages. So while it may not be great dating in Silicon Hills, it’ll sure be great television. ### 'This Is a Big Deal': Texas Lawsuit May Test Nationwide Telehealth Abortion Access URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-telehealth-lawsuit-abortion-access-pills/ Last updated: 2025-07-29T18:21:03.000Z *This story was originally written by* [Shefali Luthra](https://19thnews.org/author/shefali-luthra?ref=thebarbedwire.com) *and published by [The 19th\* News](https://19thnews.org/2025/07/telehealth-abortion-texas-lawsuit-federal-court/?ref=thebarbedwire.com).* A new lawsuit filed in Texas could force federal courts to weigh in on the legality of telehealth abortions, which people have increasingly used to terminate their pregnancies since Roe v. Wade was overturned. The case, a civil complaint filed in the federal court for the Southern District of Texas, alleges that a California physician violated state and federal law by mailing abortion pills to a Texas woman seeking to terminate her pregnancy. As the first individual complaint to be filed in federal court, this case has the potential to end up in front of the U.S. Supreme Court — the opportunity that abortion opponents have been waiting for. “This is a big deal no matter what happens with this lawsuit,” said Mary Ziegler, an abortion law historian at the University of California, Davis. “We’re back to the same ‘can one state force another state to bend to its will’ question we’ve been at from the beginning.” The plaintiff, Jerry Rodriguez, is arguing that Dr. Remy Coeytaux sent medication to Rodriguez’s girlfriend for two separate abortions and is responsible in multiple instances for the wrongful death of an “unborn child.” The suit claims that the doctor’s actions are a violation of both Texas state law and an 1873 federal statute called the Comstock Act, which prohibits the mailing of material “intended for producing abortion, or for any indecent or immoral use.” The federal law has not been enforced in decades, but abortion opponents — including Rodriguez’s lawyer, former Texas Solicitor General Jonathan Mitchell — have sought to revive and enforce it. Rodriguez is seeking damages of at least $75,000 and a court order to bar Coeytaux from mailing medications. Mitchell did not respond to a request for comment. Rodriguez argued the suit should be certified as a class action suit on behalf of “all current and future fathers of unborn children in the United States.” The case fits into a larger [anti-abortion strategy](https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2025/01/17/texas-abortion-pills-lawsuit/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that [relies on finding men](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/10/11/texas-abortion-assistance-lawsuit-dropped/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) willing to sue over abortions done for their partners or ex-partners. The stakes are significant. About a quarter of all abortions involve receiving abortion medication in the mail, and half of those are for people trying to get around bans in their home states, like Rodriguez’s Texas. The telehealth method — which includes virtual care from a health provider — is safe, effective and often substantially cheaper than traveling to another state for an abortion. Medical providers involved in telemedicine abortions practice in states where abortion is legal, relying on an extra level of protection from their own states: shield laws that say their state will not cooperate with efforts to prosecute them over telehealth abortions legal in the place where the health provider practices. There have been various efforts to block telehealth abortions and challenges to these shield laws. The Supreme Court dismissed a case last year that sought to reverse the Food and Drug Administration’s decision to allow mifepristone, one of the two drugs used in medication abortions, to be prescribed and taken through telehealth. Anti-abortion groups [are also pressing](https://19thnews.org/2025/07/new-strategy-abortion-nationwide-restrictions/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) the Trump administration to leverage the FDA or Department of Justice to restrict when and how mifepristone can be prescribed. So far, the federal government has taken no action, though Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has promised a federal review of the drug . In Texas, anti-abortion lawmakers sought to pass legislation that would empower private citizens to sue anyone who provides telehealth abortions to Texans; the bill failed to pass, though it is expected to be considered in the state’s ongoing special session. Anti-abortion state lawmakers have now [turned to individual lawsuits](https://19thnews.org/2025/02/new-york-doctor-mailing-abortion-pills-shield-laws/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to attempt to shut down the virtual care model. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a civil suit against New York-based physician Dr. Maggie Carpenter. A grand jury in Louisiana also indicted Carpenter, and in May, the state attorney general, Liz Murrill, [said her office ](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/13/louisiana-abortion-pills-ny-doctor-investigation?ref=thebarbedwire.com)has opened another investigation into the physician. Those cases, the first to test the strength of states’ shield laws, have so far been unsuccessful in blocking abortion. [In February,](https://www.npr.org/2025/02/14/g-s1-48889/texas-judge-fines-new-york-doctor-abortion-pills?ref=thebarbedwire.com) a Texas judge found Carpenter guilty of breaking the state’s abortion ban and ruled that she must pay $113,000\. But since then, the case has been at a standstill. In March, a county clerk in Texas [refused to file](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/03/27/new-york-texas-abortion-doctor-pills/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) the Texas-based judgment, citing New York’s shield law. Paxton’s office made the same attempt earlier this month and [received another refusal](https://apnews.com/article/abortion-pills-lawsuit-texas-new-york-carpenter-2601c059ed475f97e8c8bdd722cce7da?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry has sought to have Carpenter extradited to his state to stand criminal trial. But New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat and supporter of abortion rights, has refused to comply, saying that she ordered state law enforcement not to comply with those out-of-state efforts. Louisiana and Texas attorneys general have not asked a federal court to weigh in on the matter, the next legal step to settling this type of interstate dispute. The new Texas case offers a new avenue for court-imposed restrictions on telehealth abortion. “They’re separate tracks, but I think they’re both strategies to undermine shield statutes for the states like California that define legally protected reproductive health care,” said Rachel Rebouché, dean of the law school at Temple University, who has helped advise states on crafting shield laws. “This is both to test a claim under a wrongful death statute, but it also tests what the federal court does, given that California has a shield statute.” The federal case offers another chance for abortion opponents to force courts to consider the Comstock Act. Depending on how the district court rules, this case could then be heard by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, one of the nation’s more conservative appeals courts and one that has frequently ruled in favor of arguments for restricting abortion. The next court after that would be the U.S. Supreme Court. Two of its members — Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito — [have expressed openness ](https://19thnews.org/2024/03/supreme-court-expresses-skepticism-that-anti-abortion-doctors-have-standing-to-challenge-abortion-drug-mifepristone/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)to the idea that the law applies to mailing abortion pills. “It’s part of an effort to take down shield laws and also to bypass some of the obstacles that were being posed by both the Trump admin vis-à-vis Comstock and Texas and Louisiana not appealing” their cases to federal court, Ziegler said. “The goal was obviously to get this to the Supreme Court.” ![](https://pixel.19thnews.org/2025/07/telehealth-abortion-texas-lawsuit-federal-court) ### Thousands of Democrats Pour into Texas to Combat ‘Extreme Republican Gerrymandering’ URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/democrats-pour-into-texas-combat-extreme-republican-gerrymandering/ Last updated: 2025-07-28T15:53:42.000Z As redistricting efforts ramp up in Texas, all eyes are on the Lone Star State. Last week, [Houston congressional candidate Isaiah Martin](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/isaiah-martin-texas-sylvester-turner-sheila-jackson-lee-congress/) went viral online after he was arrested at the Texas Capitol, where he was protesting the Republican-led [“gerrymandering scam.”](https://www.instagram.com/p/DMoq2E7NkUn/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Martin, a 27-year-old Democrat, was removed from a redistricting hearing for refusing to cede the microphone during his testimony, after he exceeded his allotted two minutes to speak. A video that has [amassed 1.6 million views on X](https://x.com/isaiahrmartin/status/1948559120526901513?ref=thebarbedwire.com) shows Martin falling to the ground while being escorted out by Texas Capitol police officers. “History will not remember you kindly for what you have done,” Martin told the Texas House redistricting committee. “As a matter of fact, history might not remember you at all.” Martin has since been released from Travis County jail. He was facing three misdemeanor charges — disrupting a meeting or procession, criminal trespass, and resisting arrest — that have since been dropped, a spokesperson for Martin told *The Barbed Wire*. > [](https://twitter.com/isaiahrmartin/status/1948559120526901513?ref=thebarbedwire.com) “The Republican party threw me in jail because I refused to sit idly by as they seek to redistrict our state,” Martin said after his release, in a [video posted to his Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/p/DMjtvxdsxWM/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Martin was arrested on Thursday and released late Friday night, his spokesperson confirmed. “They did this because I had the audacity to speak up.” Less than a day later, Martin was met with applause when he arrived at a jam-packed hearing in Houston, where he testified in front of the same lawmakers who witnessed his arrest just hours ago. The Texas House’s redistricting committee was in town to solicit feedback on their plans — but, during the [seven-hour hearing](https://house.texas.gov/videos/22389?ref=thebarbedwire.com), committee members faced intense scrutiny over the absence of any proposed maps for the public, [reported by *The Texas Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/07/26/texas-houston-redistricting-maps/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). > [](https://twitter.com/jen%5Frice%5F/status/1949287734897504256?ref=thebarbedwire.com) This comes nearly two weeks after President Donald Trump said he’s hoping to [gain an additional five Republican seats](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/steal-election-texas-democrats-weigh-walkout-over-trump-redistricting/) in the U.S. House. Texas answered the call through a rare redistricting session, which is raising concerns about “[racial gerrymandering fears.](https://defendernetwork.com/news/local-state/texas-redistricting-racial-gerrymandering/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)” "I refuse to obey the childish whims of a tyrant," Martin said in a statement to *The Barbed Wire*. "Texas is not for sale. I'm going to stand up and fight for my community. The people will not be silenced." Now, Democrats across the country are pouring into Texas by the thousands — and gathering funding by the millions — to regain their political edge. The Democratic National Committee said it will send 30,000 volunteers to Texas to "take action against Texas Republicans," according to a [July 28 DNC press release](https://democrats.org/news/dnc-launches-distributed-organizing-program-deploys-grassroots-activists-to-contact-voters-in-texas-to-fight-trump-and-abbotts-gerrymander/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). These volunteers will identify and lobby "persuadable" Republican and independent Texas voters, the DNC said, spreading the word about lawmakers' efforts to "rig the Texas maps at the behest of Donald Trump." And as redistricting looms closer, the House Majority PAC, a Democrat super-fund, unveiled a $20 million plan to support Democratic campaigns in Texas and funnel money into outreach efforts. The new initiative, dubbed the Lone Star Fund, is "designed to flip Republican-held seats in gerrymandered districts," the PAC [wrote in a July 28 press release](https://www.thehousemajoritypac.com/news/house-majority-pac-announces-lone-star-fund?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Redistricting is a [controversial](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/steal-election-texas-democrats-weigh-walkout-over-trump-redistricting/), albeit top priority in Gov. Greg Abbott’s special session, which convened last week to discuss hot-button issues like flood infrastructure, disaster relief, and [THC bans](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-thc-ban-is-back/). ### Richard Linklater’s Indie Classic ‘Slacker’ Is a Time Capsule of a Bygone Austin URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/richard-linklater-slacker-time-capsule-austin/ Last updated: 2025-07-28T14:29:32.000Z *Texas hasn’t gotten its due as a major piece in the complex puzzle of American art. We’re here to rectify that. Every three weeks, H. Drew Blackburn will conduct a thoroughly scientific analysis of the 254 integral (one for every county) books, movies, tv shows, albums, podcasts, songs, and magazine articles — you name it — that best exemplify the Texas spirit. These texts, products of immense talent, dig into the marrow of our being. When it’s all said and done and we’ve built The Texas Voyager collection, we’ll (figuratively) head to the Johnson Space Center in Houston and shoot it beyond the atmosphere, into the cosmos. A wise person once posed the question: “What if the aliens are hot?” Hold onto that hope — this is our chance to impress ‘em.* A few things are certain in life — death and taxes, a billionaire’s quest to evade both, and locals bemoaning the death of a city they once knew. You’ve heard this song before: “This place has lost its charm,” or “The energy’s gone.” Yet whenever the old guard catches a glint of nostalgia in their eye, you often have to consider that just maybe the catalyst of those halcyon days was youth. That old man yelling at the cloud could be lamenting fading memories of a time when friendship was effortless, and vitality and adventure felt endless. Anyway, that’s true of many cities. But if the gripe’s about Austin, fair play — after all, with age comes wisdom. Today’s Austin is almost unrecognizable from the town of legend — the one where [dive bars](https://www.austinmonthly.com/the-mostly-true-story-of-the-hole-in-the-wall/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) weren’t always a hair's breadth away from closure, and earnest misfits and cheap housing reigned supreme. Enter Richard Linklater’s “Slacker,” shot in spring 1989 and now marking the [35th anniversary of its initial theatrical run on one of the now-defunct Dobie Theater’s two screens on July 27, 1990](https://www.austinchronicle.com/screens/2020-07-24/in-1990-austin-audiences-watched-slacker-and-saw-themselves/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The film was shot on a shoestring ($23,000) budget and radiates endless vitality and adventure. Linklater eschews convention, as “Slacker” does not unfold like any (or at least for the time) conventional narrative feature and instead plays out more like a guided tour through the city and its denizens. Film historian and former University of Texas lecturer Alison Macor (and author of “*Chainsaws, Slackers, and Spy Kids: Thirty Years of Filmmaking in Austin, Texas*”) was right in the thick of this lo-fi portrait of Austin life. “In the month that ‘Slacker’ was filming, I moved to West Campus to start my graduate work at UT. On the next street or the next corner, they were filming,” she told *The Barbed Wire*. “I was moving into my little house and had no clue.” That Macor, who would one day chronicle three decades of Austin filmmaking, hardly noticed history being made in her backyard is both serendipitous *and* a testament to the film’s guerrilla ethos. “Slacker” didn’t blend into its environment; it *was* the environment. With no real script, just a loose outline, the film was pieced together by improvised vignettes in cinéma vérité style, blurring the line between truth and fiction. (For true Linklater fans, this will all sound very familiar.) Macor points to the DIY bona fides of “Slacker” as an element that elevated the film. “It really got a conversation going about how you tell a story, about the narrative structure,” she said. “Do those things still work? Do they feel stale? I think ‘Slacker’ got people talking about what makes a movie good, appealing, and interesting.” One of the most resonant DIY approaches from the “Slacker” playbook was Linklater’s choice not to use trained actors, instead opting for friends, acquaintances, and random people he saw as beacons of strangeness. As he said in an honest-to-God [interview with *himself* in the *Austin Chronicle*](https://www.austinchronicle.com/screens/2020-07-24/from-the-archives-linklater-on-linklater/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) from 1991, the not-so-much actors were incredibly “creative and courageous,” because “it's not easy to be yourself on purpose take after take.” Even tougher than acting natural in front of a camera for multiple takes is what “Slacker,” itself, achieved — altering the course of independent cinema. “As a historian, I'm always hesitant to point the first, but I do think ‘Slacker' and then ‘Pulp Fiction’ captured a feeling — a sense of play and exploration,” Macor said. “I'm not saying it hadn't been done before. I'm just saying perhaps it was a rejuvenation at that time, especially as the landscape was changing, you know, financially, from a business perspective.” Indie film had a rich history before “Slacker” was released. Stateside, people like John Cassavetes, Robert Downey Sr., Jim Jarmusch, and Spike Lee helped forge a culture of telling boundary-pushing stories outside the studio system. Then, the 1990s — in my opinion, cinema’s greatest decade — brought a vibe shift. By the mid-’90s, Linklater, Tarantino, Kelly Reichardt (“River of Grass”), Kevin Smith (“Clerks”), Steven Soderbergh (“Sex, Lies, and Videotape”), Julie Dash (“Daughters of the Dust”), and Cheryl Dunye (“The Watermelon Woman”) had all produced vital works that redefined what independent film could look like. As far as indie film in the Lone Star State, 1974’s “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” blazed a trail, but “Slacker,” as Macor put it, brought Texas film to a larger audience and evolved the idea of it. “‘Slacker’ made it more contemporary; it showed how it was still about place. I feel like ‘Chain Saw,’ ‘The Whole Shootin' Match,’ and other films made by Texas filmmakers were about place too,” she said. “It might not have been the primary element, but it was definitely there.” It also helped pave the way for another Texas-bred indie sensation, Robert Rodriguez, who maxed out credit cards to fund his iconic 1992 shoot-em-up, “El Mariachi.” Thirty-five years later, Texas’ film scene is in good shape. In June, [the legislature passed a law that will see $1.5 billion in incentives funneled into the industry](https://www.kut.org/politics/2025-06-24/a-1-5-billion-investment-in-texas-film-industry-has-become-law?ref=thebarbedwire.com). [Festivals](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/sxsw-music-festival-gen-z/) like SXSW and community hubs thrive — including the [Austin Film Society](https://www.austinfilm.org/our-story/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which Linklater founded in 1985\. It’s hard to point to a more consequential Texas filmmaker than him, whose filmography is the definition of range, spanning everything from thought-provoking philosophical dramas to earnest coming-of-age stories to boundary-breaking dramas, like “Boyhood,” which was filmed over 12 years — a hell of a feat. There are many memorable things about “Slacker.” Of course, the poster woman Teresa Taylor of [Butthole Surfers](https://www.texasstandard.org/stories/butthole-surfers-movie-sxsw-2025-tom-stern/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) fame’s unhinged scene where she tries to sell an alleged Madonna Pap smear comes to mind. The old-man anarchist and the JFK conspiracist are delights, too, but the star of the show is truly the city of Austin. The second film we added to [The Texas Voyager collection, “Office Space,”](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/office-space-original-severance-texas-film/) was also set in Austin, but dressed up as an Anywhere, USA version. This makes sense. Judges' movie was a premonition, rather than a celebration, like Linklater’s. Judge is a cynical artist and Linklater a romantic one. What’s celebrated on the screen is now an artifact of a mythical town populated by lovable misfits. “It used to be horizontal, and now it's vertical. I know that sounds really childish and simplistic, but that, to me, is the difference,” Macor said of how Austin’s changed in the 30-plus years since Linklater shot “Slacker” and she landed on West Campus. “As you move through the city, there's a different feeling,” she added. “People can't afford to live here anymore.” I’ve heard tales woven about the days of Austin yore from OGs, about how its spirit was a little oasis smack dab in the middle of Texas where hippies and rednecks might share some reefer or go [topless at Barton Springs](https://www.statesman.com/story/news/state/2024/07/11/topless-in-texas-state-law-city-law-varies-austin-el-paso-fort-worth-dallas-houston/74352734007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). That spirit has been chased away by cranes (and [exploding rockets](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDAzBSndPG0&ref=thebarbedwire.com)) in the sky. But, if you want a little taste, there’s always “Slacker.” ### Author of Texas Abortion Ban Denies He Paid for Abortions Amid Bombshell Allegations from Former Exotic Dancer URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-politician-giovanni-capriglione-abortion-allegations/ Last updated: 2025-07-25T17:25:06.000Z State Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, who authored [Texas’ “trigger ban” on abortion](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-abortion-laws-national-ban/), said in a statement on Friday that he has never paid for an abortion. The statement, [posted on X](https://x.com/renzodowney/status/1948765916495282259?s=46&t=nnc0kma9oHvCrYKPRrdKGA&ref=thebarbedwire.com), came after Alex Grace — who describes herself as a mother of four, political news curator, and exotic dancer — alleged that the Southlake-based Republican has “funded several abortions for his own personal gain.” The bombshell allegations were first reported on Friday by [*Current Revolt*](https://www.currentrevolt.com/about?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a far-right publication hosted by Substack that has published some statewide reporting scoops and commentary that has referred to COVID and Black Lives Matter as “hoaxes.” *Current Revolt* claims it is “dedicated to delivering fact-based news and covering a wide range of political events, news, and topics relevant to Texans,” according to its website. In a video interview, Grace answered questions about what she described as a long-term affair with the married state representative. She said she met Capriglione around 2004 when she was 18 and a young mother and was starting out as an exotic dancer. She said their intimate relationship began to crumble after more than a decade as “certain moves he was making politically” caused her “to question him as a man.” “He was someone that portrays himself to be so anti-abortion. Yet he has funded several abortions for his own personal gain,” she said. Asked how she knew that, she said, “I think on this one, you're just going to have to go with my word.” Grace did not specify whom the alleged abortions were for — herself or others. *The Barbed Wire* has attempted to contact Capriglione for comment. He has denied the claim in [a statement](https://x.com/RenzoDowney/status/1948765916495282259/photo/1?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [posted to X](https://x.com/VoteGiovanni/status/1948773619653361946?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “I have never, nor would I ever, pay for an abortion,” said Capriglione in the statement. Capriglione, who also serves as Texas House DOGE Chairman, did acknowledge [in the same statement](https://x.com/RenzoDowney/status/1948765916495282259/photo/1?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — first provided to *Texas Tribune*’s Renzo Downey — that he “selfishly had an affair” earlier in his marriage but said the remainder of *Current Revolt’s* story was “categorically false and easily disproven.” “In holding the wealthy, the powerful, the corporate elites, and the Austin insiders to account, I knew I would face serious blowback,” said Capriglione. “I knew they’d attack me.” “Unfortunately, this is the state of our world, and the price of serving in government.” The reporter and publisher of *Current Revolt*, Tony Ortiz, was at Michael Quinn Sullivan’s [*Texas Scorecard*](https://texasscorecard.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — a publication launched by conservative advocacy group Empower Texans in 2015 — before setting up *Current Revolt* in 2020. “Giovanni has a 100% pro-life voting record and will protect innocent life at all costs,” according to [the representative’s website](https://votegiovanni.com/issues/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “Giovanni voted to defund Planned Parenthood and authored the Abortion Trigger Ban Bill, which banned abortion in Texas when Roe v. Wade was overturned.” Texas’ “trigger ban,” House Bill 1280, took effect soon after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, making providing an abortion a felony punishable by up to life in prison, license revocation, and a $100,000 fine. Since then, [researchers and reporters have found](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-true-cost-of-texas-abortion-ban-rising-deaths-abandoned-babies-fewer-doctors/) that infant and maternal mortality rates have increased, as have rates of sepsis and STDs. Grace described the relationship she said she had with Capriglione as private and consensual. She said he mentored and encouraged her — and that she trusted him. But after some of his intimate fantasies grew darker, she said she began to feel he was being dishonest in his public persona and political actions. “The reason for my wanting to expose this now is because he is no longer in control of influencing only the lives of his friends and family, but he now has the power to influence the lives of so many people and potentially in a massively negative way,” she said. “To continue the lies to the masses, this is what I was discontent with,” she continued. “If you are using abortions for your personal gain, if you are using women for your personal gain, why announce to the world that this isn't who you are?” In addition to the interview with *Current Revolt*, Grace — who has 95,000 followers on a [personal TikTok account](https://www.tiktok.com/@alaskaunicornco?ref=thebarbedwire.com), posted [a video](https://www.tiktok.com/@alaskaunicornco/video/7530879864954539295?ref=thebarbedwire.com) about the story, saying: “Let the judgement begin.” “I caution you against trying to ruin this man’s career,” Capriglione’s attorney Rogge Dunn said, according to a report two days earlier in the longtime Texas Capitol insider publication [*Quorum Report*](https://quorumreport.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)*.* “Well-respected and well-funded news organizations …paid $16 million to settle a defamation lawsuit.” “Representative Capriglione is not looking for a fight, but I can assure you he will not stand by idly and have you or anyone else spread falsehoods about him and try to trash his good reputation, which he spent years to build – and will vigorously defend,” Dunn reportedly said. The threats — and widespread speculation about what story might be coming — followed Capriglione’s [announcement on Tuesday](https://www.facebook.com/VoteGiovanni/posts/statement-from-state-representative-giovanni-capriglionejuly-22-2025to-my-friend/1133556111930505/) that he would not be seeking re-election to Texas House District 98\. (Capriglione had reportedly said in June he would seek [reelection for the District 98 seat.](https://www.facebook.com/VoteGiovanni/posts/pfbid0ue8iPwC1ps8H6jejS7VGkvmd7xb553H23zwCVyMzouV5NGbVEGSpS6ThzBKDhxnyl?rdid=nncdDEiGxHBdyCjB#)) Capriglione has another year and a half left in his seventh term, reported the [*Texas Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/07/25/giovanni-capriglione-affair-texas-house-republican/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “After much reflection, prayer, and conversation with my family, I’ve decided that I will not seek re-election to the Texas House of Representatives,” Capriglione posted on Facebook. “Serving you in the Texas Legislature has been one of the great honors of my life,” he continued. “When I first ran, I had a clear purpose: go down to Austin, work hard, and fight for the principles and values that make Texas strong. Over the years, I’ve done exactly that. And while I’ve given this work everything I have, I also feel in my heart that I’ve accomplished what I set out to do. It’s time for a new chapter.” “Over the years, we’ve accomplished things that many once thought impossible,” he continued. “I led the fight to pass the Human Life Protection Act, which ensured that Texas would stand for life in the post-Roe era.” “Throughout this journey, I’ve been blessed with more support than I ever could have imagined. First and foremost, I owe everything to my wife, Elisa. She gave me the courage to run that very first time and has stood by me through every challenge and every long night. Her strength, grace, and unwavering belief in me made it all possible. I also want to thank our three daughters, who gave up so much time with their dad so that I could serve. I’ve always carried them in my heart on the House floor, fighting to ensure that they grow up in a state that protects their freedoms, their dreams, and their future.” “This has been a journey of faith, service, and relentless effort. I don’t yet know what the future holds, but I trust that God is still writing my story. For now, I look forward to spending more time with my family, returning to life back home, and continuing to serve in whatever way I can, just not in this same role.” State Rep. Briscoe Cain [reportedly called](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/07/25/giovanni-capriglione-affair-texas-house-republican/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for Capriglione’s resignation on Friday shortly after the story began circulating online. Several powerful conservative Texans seemed to know the news was coming days before it was published, including [former state Sen. Konni Burton](https://x.com/KonniBurton/status/1948083917958909988?ref=thebarbedwire.com), who now runs *The Texan* news outlet. “These elected officials who proclaim faith & family values, but then break their most sacred covenants with God & their families are disgusting,” Burton posted to X on Friday. “Their families deserve better and so does the R party. Deciding not to run again is the correct move. Get right with God & your family.” “The allegations made against Giovanni Capriglione are deeply disturbing and chronicle a pattern of behavior incompatible with the values of the Republican Party,” Bo French, the embattled chair of the Tarrant County GOP also [said in a post on X](https://x.com/BoFrenchTX/status/1948728788394651854?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on Friday. (French, for the unaware, [recently came under national scrutiny](https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/texas-republicans-tarrant-county-bo-french-social-media-poll-jews-muslims/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for posting a poll online asking his followers whether Jews or Muslims posed a bigger threat to the United States.) “If Capriglione has an ounce of sense or shame he will resign from the Texas House before he is thrown out.” And though Capriglione has already declared he won’t run for reelection, he also appeared to be positioning himself for a legal fight. “I’m not above scrutiny, even for years-ago events that involved only my private life, not my public duties,” Capriglione said in his statement on Friday. But going forward, there are two things I want to make very clear: Lying and defaming me, twisting and manipulating old events for political purposes, is wrong, and I will be pursuing my legal remedies.” “I’ve learned that fear of false personal attacks must not deter us from doing our jobs,” he continued. “Thank you for the opportunity to serve, and God Bless Texas!” ### I Watched a Woman Nearly Die in a Cell Across From Mine. Texas Prisons Need Air Conditioning. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-prisons-need-air-conditioning/ Last updated: 2025-07-25T05:01:00.000Z *Editor’s note: Lanae Tipton is an incarcerated journalist in Texas whose work is supported by* [*Empowerment Avenue*](https://www.empowermentave.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)*, an organization that seeks to increase and normalize the inclusion of incarcerated writers in mainstream publications.* Back in May, through the metal-plated mesh cutouts of my cell door in solitary confinement, I watched the gigantic terrorizer being rolled into the dorm. The industrial fan’s appearance meant the Texas Department of Criminal Justice was gearing up for the summer. Here in the Dr. Lane Murray Unit in Gatesville, the fan doesn’t cool anything down as temperatures rise outside. It circulates the scalding hot air already within. That’s because TDCJ usually commits its most sadistic act around the same time: screwing our [cell windows shut](https://www.msnbc.com/podcast/into-america/transcript-texas-one-hottest-states-country-people-state-prisons-are-n1280385?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Doing so cuts off any chance of natural air circulation. (TDCJ declined to answer questions from *The Barbed Wire* about the practice.) Other units at TDCJ also have sealed windows and are painted black, which turns the closet-sized cells into [smoldering furnaces](https://www.austinchronicle.com/columns/2024-06-14/opinion-i-fought-for-air-conditioning-in-solitary-confinement-now-i-have-to-do-it-again/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The windows in my solitary dorm aren’t black, which in some ways, makes us the lucky ones. More than two-thirds of Texas’ 100 prisons don’t have air conditioning, though temperatures routinely break 100-degrees, as they already have in some parts of the state. As of Thursday, North Texas was facing its hottest day of the year yet — [it was placed under a heat advisory](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/dang-texas-heat-advisories-are-back/) as temperatures threatened to reach at least 105 degrees. In late March, U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman ruled that housing incarcerated Texans in life-threatening heat with no air conditioning is unconstitutional. However, his ruling failed to advocate for the installation of air-conditioning. The 91-page opinion is part of a lawsuit originally filed by Bernie Tiede, a former mortician whose murder case inspired the movie “Bernie,” [alleging](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CZtljm5CDh%5Fxq3YDD1U3CBwbhtDdIZSf/view?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that he suffered a stroke from heat exposure inside a TDCJ facility that left him with permanent injuries and that TDCJ was not doing enough to keep incarcerated people safe in extreme Texas heat. Three organizations focusing on advocating for the rights of incarcerated people have joined the suit, including Lioness: Justice Impacted Women's Alliance. Marci Marie Simmons, who served 10 years for felony theft and is now Lioness’ outreach coordinator, testified last year that in summer, she “was in complete survival mode. I felt like a caged animal.” TDCJ declined to answer any questions from *The Barbed Wire* citing pending litigation. In their response in the Tiede case, TDCJ blamed the legislature for not installing air conditioning at every TDCJ unit, saying there’s not enough money. The court found that the executive director of TDCJ, Bryan Collier, “is well aware of the substantial risk of harm from extreme heat, given the numerous lawsuits that have been filed against him, his predecessors, and TDCJ itself over the last twenty-five years for deaths and serious illnesses caused by extreme heat.” Meanwhile, lawmakers are led to believe that there are [protocols in place](https://www.tdcj.texas.gov/offender%5Finfo/enhanced%5Fheat%5Fprotocols.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to prevent heat-related issues like heat exhaustion, delirium, seizures, and death from occurring inside prisons. Yet, the facilities’ preventative measures like the industrial fan hardly make a dent in the ever-present, all-consuming heat — researchers have found that [fans don’t help](https://time.com/5644737/fans-can-make-you-hotter/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) when the heat index is above 99 degrees, and in fact they actually elevate the risk of heat related illness. The [*Texas Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2023/08/21/texas-prison-heat-deaths/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) found that at least 41 Texas prisoners died during a heat wave in 2023\. That was a remarkable increase from the deaths of 23 people in state prisons due to excessive heat between 1998 and 2012, as was reported by the [*Dallas Morning News*](https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/editorials/2025/07/24/texas-prisons-are-still-too-hot/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). In 2023, the agency reportedly received $85 million for air conditioning, enabling its various facilities to add 2,902 air-conditioned beds. It received another $118 million this year. But as the [*Dallas Morning News*](https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/editorials/2025/07/24/texas-prisons-are-still-too-hot/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) put it in an editorial this week: “The state is making progress. It’s just doing so without the kind of urgency this issue deserves, and it has a very long way to go.” Internal policy says TDCJ provides respite in the form of fans, cold showers, and ice to those in prison but only when the heat index is above 90 degrees. But according to an [internal investigation](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-prison-falsified-temperature-records/) ordered by Pitman in August as part of the Tiede case, employees from at least one Texas prison forged temperature records that the agency uses to decide what conditions are dangerous to those who are incarcerated. The investigation focused on the temperature logs from a unit in Beaumont during the summer of 2022\. It found that unit staff would “recreate” missing or “defaced (e.g., doodles, stick figure cartoons, etc.)” logs by estimating hourly temperatures based on records from different dates or other local units. In Pitman’s March ruling, he wrote that inmates filed 450 formal grievances. Relief won’t come when compassion towards the people in need of help remains nonexistent. I've witnessed staff [fail or refuse to apply their training](https://dallasexaminer.com/broken-system-behind-bars-texas-prisons-part-1-inm/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) during active crises and even outright ignore protocol to intervene. This is even more perplexing, considering the effects of the heat are felt by staffers too. “In 2022 and 2023, TDCJ staff filed nearly 80 workers’ compensation claims related to the heat,” Pitman said. One employee reported: “I got overheated, very weak, confused and unable to respond. Also, I was dry heaving and felt nauseated, I vomited blood.” One afternoon late last June, as all of the windows had been sealed, and the scorching heat had set in, I heard the sound of screaming reverberate through the open expanse of the humid dorm. I peeled my overheated body off the cement floor, which I had flooded with [water from my sink](https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2023-08-11/texas-prisons-are-cooking-people-alive-are-we-okay-with-that/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to help cool down my cell. I stood at the locked door and peered out, clad in the common summertime loungewear for women who are incarcerated in solitary at TDCJ: a bra and panties. I watched as the building’s janitor, also incarcerated, scrambled up the stairs, drenched in sweat. (The janitor essentially acts as a helper or errand girl for the officers working in the segregation building, undertaking a wide variety of tasks around the building.) There was no officer in sight as the deafening screams continued. Apparently, the screaming was someone having a seizure and calling for help before the attack totally consumed her. The helper made a beeline for the “picket,” which is an air-conditioned control center that the officers often disappear to. After almost stumbling down the dorm’s staircase, tripping once again at the threshold of the locked entrance to the dorm, the helper banged wildly against the plexiglass in an attempt to catch the attention of the officers hidden inside, asking them to release the lock from the picket so she could exit the dorm. Springing into the vestibule, the helper spoke with urgency, gesturing to the top-tier cell to a seemingly unconcerned officer. Minutes later, the unpaid incarcerated employee raced back into the dorm at breakneck speed, carrying a pitcher filled with water, splashing some on the ground as she sprinted. Meanwhile, the officers in the picket didn’t even budge. Rivulets of sweat ran down my neck, since I was no longer laying in the man-made pond I had created on my floor. The water on my body immediately started to dry up in the hot air. I gulped down some ice water, splashing a little on my chest, feeling utterly useless as I continued to watch the worker run to and fro. Out of breath and panicky, the helper scaled the top floor landing, frantically reached the cell, threw the remaining water from the pitcher onto the seizing woman through the mesh of the closed cell door, then raced back down the stairs, feet gaining surety with each determined step as she refilled the pitcher once again. She made the trip three more times, resulting in labored breathing and a sweat-soaked uniform. After throwing the last dash of water through the mesh, she stood protectively in front of the cell, concerned eyes peering inside. Worry lines wrinkled her forehead, a war clearly raging within her due to the limited help she could actually offer. I couldn’t hear the words she slowly mouthed into the cell, but I inferred by her calm demeanor that she was praying over the woman. About ten minutes later, a face appeared on the other side of the mesh. The seizing woman looked dazed, but held an expression of gratitude toward the worker. Who, by that time, had tamed her erratic breathing but remained profuse with sweat. Speeding back downstairs, the helper fetched the woman more ice water. She made the journey two more times — each time returning to converse with the woman in the cell in what looked like an attempt to keep her calm, and to prevent another seizure. The helper began to pray again for the woman, this time aloud and with an enhanced fervor. How many more have to suffer for the courts and our politicians to realize that this is not true? Even as incarcerated people continue to suffer, our lawmakers won't act — this legislative session, four bills were proposed to address life-threatening heat in TDCJ facilities. Only one — requiring prisons to have air conditioning by the end of 2032 — advanced out of committee before the deadline. However, [it wasn’t signed into law before the end of session](https://www.eenews.net/articles/texas-legislators-bury-prison-cooling-bill-risking-court-fight/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). It’s the [latest in a string](https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=89R&Bill=HB3006&ref=thebarbedwire.com) of bills filed since 2018, when the state settled a lawsuit over its failure to sufficiently prevent heat-related illness and death, and when the House Corrections Committee flagged [in a report](https://lrl.texas.gov/scanned/interim/85/C817.pdf?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that more needed to be done. Why can’t members of the Texas Legislature get enough support to [require prisons to have air conditioning](https://legiscan.com/TX/bill/HB1315/2025?ref=thebarbedwire.com)? Or keep the temperature [between 65 and 85 degrees](https://legiscan.com/TX/text/HB2997/id/3128616?ref=thebarbedwire.com)? Is it because carceral stereotypes deem this kind of torture as a reasonable punishment? Suddenly, the dorm’s front door banged open as an officer barged in and bellowed at the incarcerated worker in an irritated voice, “Aren't you supposed to be working? Get the fuck away from the doors!” Ironic, I thought. The person who has the power to actually help, instead berates the only person who actually did something helpful. On any given summer day, someone incarcerated in a TDCJ facility could have a heat-induced stroke or seizure — the state has had to pay [millions in wrongful death](https://www.texastribune.org/2022/08/24/texas-prisons-air-conditioning/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and civil rights lawsuits over the last decade, and [one study](https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2798097?ref=thebarbedwire.com) found approximately 13% of deaths in Texas prisons in warm months could have been caused by extreme heat. Who lives and who dies can depend on who is around to help. Many seize, reorientate, and recover alone. The woman I heard screaming last summer was lucky that her seizure commenced during the work hours of the building’s helper. Others like 37-year-old [Elizabeth Hagerty](https://www.kxan.com/news/inmate-dies-friday-morning-at-tdcj-prison-in-gatesville/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — who [died at my unit in June](https://www.texasstandard.org/stories/texas-prison-heat-deaths-lawsuit/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), less than a month before her release date — have not been so privileged. ***Reporting note:* The Barbed Wire *submitted a Public Information Act request to TDCJ in late May for medical incident reports or notices involving both TDCJ staff and people*** ***incarcerated at the Lane Murray Unit related to heat, dehydration or seizures, as well as other heat-related complaints filed to TDCJ, and email communication between TDCJ staff regarding concerns about heat that prompted investigations or TDCJ response last summer. TDCJ has asserted that information about inmates is exempt from public information requests; and that the other records requested are exempt because of pending or potential litigation. TDCJ has requested a decision from the Texas Attorney General’s office. That request was still pending at the time of publication.*** ### Dang, Texas Heat Advisories Are Back. Shocked? Neither Are We. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/dang-texas-heat-advisories-are-back/ Last updated: 2025-07-24T14:35:58.000Z And we almost made it to August without triple-digit temperatures. North Texas is facing its hottest day of the year yet, and has been [placed under a heat advisory](https://www.weather.gov/fwd/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) as temperatures threaten to reach 105 degrees. According to the National Weather Service, a heat advisory means you should reconsider outdoor activities, primarily during peak heat hours. As always, drink plenty of water and take frequent breaks in the shade. At this point, Texas could practically trademark summer heat — but this time, the soaring temperatures are a direct result of a [huge heat dome](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/heat-domes-extreme-heat-and-humidity-triggers-alerts-across-eastern-u-s/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), affecting swaths of land across the Southeast, including Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Georgia, and Florida. While there’s no formal advisory in Austin, meteorologists at [*KXAN News*](https://www.kxan.com/weather/forecast/todays-forecast/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) say the area has gone 70 days with no triple digit heat, but that will likely end today. They forecast Austin, San Marcos, and Georgetown to hit 100 degrees or higher Thursday. San Antonio is not far behind Austin —they’ve gone 64 days since their last hundred plus degree day, according to the [*San Antonio Express News*](https://www.expressnews.com/san-antonio-weather/forecast/article/triple-digits-texas-100-degree-heat-thursday-20782710.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The good news is there's a weak tropical system brewing in the gulf, which means clouds and rain could help drop the temperatures back into the 90s. “With the high moisture we are seeing, there will actually be quite a few record-high minimum temperatures,” meteorologist Bryan Jackson told [*Scientific American*](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/heat-domes-extreme-heat-and-humidity-triggers-alerts-across-eastern-u-s/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The Dallas-Fort Worth area has yet to hit 97 degrees this summer, WFAA meteorologist [Pete Delkus wrote on X](https://x.com/wfaaweather/status/1948363474989379744?ref=thebarbedwire.com). This last time the city was that “cool” (or, at least, not cursingly hot) this time of year? 2002. And, it would mark the first time since 2021 that North Texas staved off the triple-digit temperatures until July. The past few years saw hellish temperatures by June — and while we *nearly* made it to August this year, we’ll take what we can get. It could always be worse. At least we don’t have the [corn sweats](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/humidity-from-corn-sweat-intensifies-extreme-heat-wave-in-midwest-u-s/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The even better news? Today is National Tequila Day, so responsibly do what you will with that. ### Ozzy Osbourne Once Urinated On the Alamo. Texas Forgave Him (But Didn’t Forget). URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/ozzy-osbourne-urinated-alamo-texas-forgave-him-didnt-forget/ Last updated: 2025-07-23T18:40:15.000Z Forty-three years ago, rockstar Ozzy Osbourne drunkenly urinated on the Alamo. What ensued afterward was a strained, decades-long relationship between the Grammy Award winner and the sacred Texas landmark — including an arrest, a 10-year ban, two apologies, a tenuous reconciliation, and, now, a tribute in light of Osbourne’s death. “At the Alamo, we honor history in all its complexities,” the landmark wrote in a [statement posted to Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/p/DMa6Z8lpERQ/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “We extend our condolences to his family, friends, and fans around the world. May he rest in peace.” Not one to let things go, the Alamo also noted that its relationship with Osbourne “was marked initially by a deeply disrespectful incident in 1982.” https://www.instagram.com/p/C3ful3AxeBi/?utm\_source=ig\_web\_copy\_link Osbourne, also known as the Prince of Darkness (or the man who once bit the head off a bat onstage), was in town for a concert in San Antonio that day. He was arrested after publicly urinating on the Alamo Cenotaph, a memorial honoring the heroes who defended the fort in 1836 — but made it to his concert on time after [getting bailed out for $40](https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/ozzy-osbourne-alamo-tribute-urination-incident-1235392155/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Osbourne was then banned from performing in the city for 10 years, and was pardoned after later donating $10,000 to the group responsible for the landmark’s upkeep. “This act profoundly and rightfully upset many who hold this site sacred,” the Alamo wrote on July 22. It was “one of his lifetime goals,” *The San Antonio Light* [reported at the time](https://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/ozzy-osbourne-urinated-alamo-plaza-16918295.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Not to be confused with his main goal, though, which was to relieve himself on the White House steps (which he never accomplished). The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee died July 22, at age 76, five years after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. Often dubbed the “godfather of heavy metal,” he gained notoriety as the leading man of English rock band Black Sabbath before pivoting into the world of reality television. “It is with more sadness than mere words can convey that we have to report that our beloved Ozzy Osbourne has passed away this morning,” his family wrote in a [statement](https://www.instagram.com/p/DMa7gaKSb11/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “He was with his family and surrounded by love.” ### Guess Who’s Back, Back Again? Texas’ THC Ban URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-thc-ban-is-back/ Last updated: 2025-07-23T14:24:12.000Z Exactly one month after Gov. Greg Abbott vetoed a bill that would ban all THC and hemp-based products, the Texas Senate has introduced — and advanced — a [nearly identical measure](https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/Text.aspx?LegSess=891&Bill=SB5&ref=thebarbedwire.com). Second time’s the charm, right? “Feels a little like Groundhog Day,” Sen. Charles Perry (R-Lubbock), who introduced Senate Bill 5, said at a [July 22 hearing](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1XRFOk49Yk&ref=thebarbedwire.com). Just days ago, the lawmakers convened for a special legislative session, called by Abbott to address two major priorities: flood infrastructure, in the aftermath of the devastating crisis that has now killed [over 135 people](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/officials-say-3-people-still-missing-from-deadly-july-4-texas-floods-down-from-nearly-100?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=The%20flash%20floods%20killed%20at,kilometers%29%20northwest%20of%20San%20Antonio.) in Central Texas; and the [ever-controversial redistricting](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/steal-election-texas-democrats-weigh-walkout-over-trump-redistricting/). But also on Abbott’s hefty agenda: legislation to “comprehensively regulate” THC-based products, “all without banning a lawful agricultural commodity.” Abbott seemingly walked back his desire to keep hemp legislation strictly regulatory, though — just yesterday, he reportedly told [*Community Impact*](https://communityimpact.com/austin/south-central-austin/texas-legislature/2025/07/22/gov-abbott-texas-must-ban-intoxicating-thc-products-in-special-session/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in an interview that “the way that we protect the lives of children is to completely ban any type of THC product, any type of hemp and any type of marijuana from \[children\] being able to use it.” > [](https://twitter.com/HannahDNorton/status/1947702160600211467?ref=thebarbedwire.com) The bill won’t target CBD and CBG-based products because they’re non-intoxicating. Forget about the gummies if this passes though, this new legislation will still target goods with THC concentrations exceeding the federally-legal 0.3%. This new legislation proposes yet another near-total ban on hemp goods, and would criminalize the manufacturing, delivery, or distribution of these products. Possession would be considered a misdemeanor offense. THC has been a bit of a sore spot for Abbott, who has butted heads with fellow Republicans — namely, his lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick — over the best answer to a rapidly growing industry. Abbott insists on treating THC like it’s alcohol, [including strict regulation](https://www.fox4news.com/news/greg-abbott-thc-cannabis-ban-redistricting?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and banning use among children. Meanwhile, Patrick, Perry, and other lawmakers firmly believe that a total ban is the only viable solution. “I hear the comparison all the time, ‘Is (THC) worse than (alcohol)?’” Perry [said at the Senate hearing](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=I1XRFOk49Yk&ref=thebarbedwire.com) this week. “I think it’s kind of having the argument, ‘Do I want to get bit by a cobra or do I want to get bit by a rattlesnake?’ They both kill you.” “We’ve literally allowed an industry to spring up underneath our feet, screaming it’s legal when it’s not,” Perry continued. “It is not a regulatable situation. There is no way to stay ahead of the chemistry.” "We'll regulate it," said Sen. Bob Hall (R-Edgewood), [as per *CBS News*](https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/texas-senate-votes-to-ban-thc-products-amid-gop-showdown-and-industry-concerns/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). "We'll regulate it by banning it. Because we already tried regulating it." Law enforcement officials [also testified at the hearing](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDL7oZAu0cY&ref=thebarbedwire.com), saying regulation would be “unattainable” and perhaps even tantamount to legalization. “No amount of personnel or resources in a state this large, with this many locations, will ever be effective in regulating these dangerous products,” said Allen Chief of Police Steve Dye, who testified on behalf of the Texas Police Chiefs Association. Senate Bill 5 passed the Senate State Affairs Committee with sweeping support, and now advances to the full chamber. ### Babies Burned to Death & Pregnant Women Bombed in Tents: What a Dallas ER Doctor Saw in Gaza URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/children-doctor-left-his-heart-in-gaza-palestine/ Last updated: 2025-07-22T18:50:35.000Z When Dr. Adil Husain finally reached the hospital in Gaza, he told the staff he didn’t mind working 12-hour shifts. They laughed. “You’re not going to survive more than four-hour bursts,” they told him. Husain, a 32-year-old emergency room doctor who lives in Dallas, was part of a group that called themselves “the Gaza Six”: six doctors from around the world who’d traveled to volunteer at Nasser Hospital — the last fully functioning facility of its kind in the area. His team did as recommended. Husain worked four hours at a time with brief breaks in between, always surrounded by the sound of bombs and the site of bloodied bodies anywhere there was room: on beds, the floor, and propped against walls. Almost every day included a mass casualty incident. On the morning of June 12, the day Husain’s team crossed the border into the West Bank, 24 civilians were killed and 200 were wounded in an attack by the Israeli military near a humanitarian aid distribution center, [*Al Jazeera* reported](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/6/12/live-israeli-troops-kill-13-wound-200-in-gaza-in-latest-aid-seeker-attack?ref=thebarbedwire.com). That night, 28 people — including four children —- were [killed by Israeli airstrikes,](https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/several-palestinians-including-children-killed-in-israeli-airstrikes-in-gaza-on-june-12-2025/article69804482.ece?ref=thebarbedwire.com) while another 24 were shot trying to get food. The next day, [20 were killed by more airstrikes](https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-hamas-war-news-06-14-2025-20f4e4bcb928eebf4e06f2fd4bb0af22?ref=thebarbedwire.com). When mass casualty incidents hit fully-staffed hospitals in the United States, they [overwhelm doctors](https://www.aamc.org/news/never-the-same?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and nurses, [deplete blood supplies](https://fox11online.com/news/nation-world/red-cross-dc-washington-donate-blood-important-mass-shooting-philadelphia-entertainment-district-tennessee-chattanooga-bar-uvalde-texas-hospital-school-shooting-victims-health-pandemic-need-help-accident-crashes-america-blood-centers?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and [cost billions per year](https://www.aha.org/costsofviolence?ref=thebarbedwire.com). But those doctors have a wealth of resources — and safe homes to return to at night — that Nasser’s doctors don’t. What’s more, the [World Health Organization has warned](https://www.who.int/news/item/22-05-2025-health-system-at-breaking-point-as-hostilities-further-intensify--who-warns?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that Gaza’s health system is on the brink of collapse after “relentless and systematic decimation of hospitals.” Reports from the [United Nations](https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/01/1158741?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Gazan health authorities, and [watchdog groups](https://healthcareworkerswatch.org/press-releases/twenty-eight-physicians-from-gaza-are-currently-unlawfully-detained-by-israel-2/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) say Palestinian healthcare workers have been targeted, killed, detained, and tortured. And in June, as Husain’s team arrived, the [WHO said the Nasser Medical Complex](https://www.who.int/news/item/05-06-2025-who-calls-for-urgent-protection-of-nasser-medical-complex-and-al-amal-hospital-in-the-gaza-strip?ref=thebarbedwire.com) was at risk of becoming non-functional. [Many experts](https://www.bu.edu/articles/2024/is-israel-committing-genocide-in-gaza/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — [including the UN](https://press.un.org/en/2024/gapal1473.doc.htm?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — have called Israel’s 21-month war in Gaza a genocide. In the first year, [more than two-thirds](https://www.un.org/unispal/document/fao-press-release-03oct24/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=Rome%20%E2%80%93%20The%20latest%20assessment%20using,Institute%20for%20Training%20and%20Research.) of Gaza’s cropland was damaged, the UN found. The food and medical supplies that reach Gazans often can’t meet the demand, and nearly every day, dozens of people are killed at the aid sites. [Nearly 100](https://www.npr.org/2025/07/20/nx-s1-5474123/100-killed-seeking-aid-gaza-palestinian?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=Hourly%20News-,Nearly%20100%20people%20killed%20seeking%20aid%20in%20Gaza%20on%20Sunday,months%20for%20those%20seeking%20assistance.) were killed as recently as Sunday while grabbing sacks of flour from UN World Food Programme trucks, per NPR. “This is a man-made starvation,” Husain told *The Barbed Wire* (a claim backed up by [human rights organizations,](https://doctorsoftheworld.org/blog/26-ngos-reveal-extent-of-israeli-authorities-action-against-humanitarian-response-a-year-since-icj-ruling/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) including [Amnesty International](https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2025/07/gaza-evidence-points-to-israels-continued-use-of-starvation-to-inflict-genocide-against-palestinians/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)). Most of the mass casualty incidents Husain experienced happened in the morning, when people — including more children than Husain could count — were shot trying to get a meal for their family. “A lot of times they would have empty bags in their shirts or in their pants so that they could just fill it and then come back home,” he said. “But not only do they have empty bags with no food, but they're left with life-threatening injuries or death.” The Israel Defense Forces say they try to avoid killing civilians, and they’ve chalked up some of the deaths to “[technical error](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0rvxjnvv71o?ref=thebarbedwire.com).” But this — to put it mildly — contradicts what Husain and other doctors have seen. Doctors like Husain are experiencing a reality few can imagine and many continue to [deny exists](https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-gaza-rafah-un-world-court-2f739ad4f64ff3a8186a423ad8f350e8?ref=thebarbedwire.com), despite first-person accounts, photos, and videos of the violence. As the few remaining journalists in Gaza — including [Pulitzer Prize finalists](https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20250506-afp-gaza-photographers-shortlisted-for-pulitzer-prize?ref=thebarbedwire.com) working for the Agence France-Presse — [face the brink of starvation](https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20250722-hungry-and-exhausted-afp-journalists-document-gaza-war?ref=thebarbedwire.com), visiting physicians are thrust into roles as messengers while coping with the horrors they witnessed. They’re sharing their stories with the world, and for Husain, that means focusing on our shared humanity. There was the ER nurse who traveled an hour and a half on his day off to give Husain a parting present: a bottle of cologne. There were the children who smiled wide when given chocolate, then licked the foil clean. And there was the grieving mother who, after a horrific loss, extended a grace toward Husain he’ll never forget. “I felt honored to even be there, to be around these types of people,” Husain said. After returning to Texas, Husain told *The Barbed Wire* about the people he met — the ones he lost and the ones he saved. He can’t stop thinking about all of them. ## ‘Our Last Phone Calls. Just in Case.’ Husain moved to Texas just two years ago after completing his medical residency in New York. He likes working in the ER at Medical City Dallas Hospital, and he likes Dallas. The suburbs north of the city feel like a great place to raise a family, and six months ago, he and his wife welcomed their first child: a baby girl. He’s happy, but ever since October 2023, when the war in Gaza began, he’s also felt called to do something more. “Just seeing all these people suffer for so long, I knew I wanted to go,” Husain told *The Barbed Wire*. Then in April, he saw a volunteer opportunity with Rahma Worldwide, an international humanitarian organization, and his application was promptly accepted. He was going to be sent, for two weeks in June, to Nasser Hospital, which has been [attacked](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/3/24/israeli-strike-on-gaza-hospital-kills-hamas-leader-teen-officials-say?ref=thebarbedwire.com) multiple times [by Israeli forces](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Po3KnexWtA&ref=thebarbedwire.com). “Nasser truly is the last quaternary care hospital in Gaza, as in, someone comes through that door, and any service that's needed can be done,” said Aziz Rahman, a 36-year-old interventional radiologist from Milwaukee and another volunteer with the “Gaza Six.” “God forbid, Nasser gets invaded, you're just pretty much looking at little urgent care clinics everywhere,” he added. The “Gaza Six” was originally much larger. More than a dozen doctors flew into Jordan and met up at a hotel the night of June 11, though none of them knew for certain if they’d be allowed to travel any further. Israeli authorities ultimately decide which medical personnel can enter the West Bank. All but six of Husain’s original group were told to go home without a clear reason why. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/gaza-six-courtesy-adil-husain.png) Photo courtesy Adil Husain “They were distraught,” Husain said of those who couldn’t go any further. “They just flew back home.” In addition to Husain and Rahman, the “Gaza Six” included an internal medicine doctor from Chicago; a cardiothoracic surgeon from Jordan; an ER doctor from Eugene, Oregon; and an anesthesiologist from Algeria. Mark Brauner, the ER doctor from Eugene, told *The Barbed Wire* he took out a life insurance policy and activated it the moment he knew he was moving on from Jordan to Gaza. It comforted him to learn that Husain, a fellow emergency physician, was part of his group. It also helped that Husain, in Brauner’s words, is an “affable, sweet person.” “He's got this great balance of being very humble, but being assertive at the same time,” Brauner told *The Barbed Wire*. “And it was really cool to watch, because he practices at a much higher level than you would expect with somebody with the number of years of experience that he has.” Husain is just two years out from having completed his residency, the training program all doctors finish after medical school. Brauner, 60, had been on medical service trips before, including a stint in Haiti after the earthquake in 2010\. This service trip was Husain’s first, though he’s not sure if having more experience would have made a difference. Many doctors who have returned home from similar trips to Gaza have said nothing could have prepared them for what they saw, regardless of how long they’ve worked in medicine. [Doctors told *Politico*](https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/07/19/gaza-hospitals-surgeons-00167697?ref=thebarbedwire.com) they were forced to do things they would’ve never done in the U.S., including operate on children without consent. Other physicians, like [Dr. Nick Maynard from Oxford, England](https://www.npr.org/2025/07/21/nx-s1-5471424/gaza-hospitals-british-surgeon-israel-attacks?ref=thebarbedwire.com), have made several trips to Gaza since October 2023\. Each time, he said, conditions have worsened. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/adil-husain.jpg) Photo courtesy Adil Husain Even before he got to Nasser Hospital, Husain called his wife, his college sweetheart, for what he feared was the last time. He and the other volunteers were at the King Hussein Bridge crossing, a busy border between Jordan and the West Bank, when their volunteer coordinator texted to say almost all of Khan Younis was under evacuation notice: Bombs could be on the way. That’s where they were headed. “We’re like, ‘Holy crap. We’re about to drive through that. In the dark. At night.’” Everyone in the group made what Husain describes as “our last phone calls, just in case.” He called his wife, who was initially hesitant about her husband volunteering in Gaza. As he recounted their conversation weeks later in a coffee shop north of Dallas, Husain’s eyes slowly filled with tears. A few fell down his face, where his cheekbones had become more pronounced after losing 13 pounds in two weeks. On the phone at the border crossing, he tried to convey how much he loves his daughter and his wife. “I was just thinking about how I wished I was more present with my loved ones and grateful for the beautiful life I have been given,” he said. When he hung up, one question came to mind: “Am I ready to leave this world?” Then he boarded a vehicle bound for Khan Younis. Husain’s group was escorted by a convoy of Israel Defense Forces, UN personnel and staff members of Rahma Worldwide as it arrived at a wall separating Israel from Gaza. Then the UN and Rahma Worldwide staffers pulled away to assist at other relief sites, leaving Husain and the other doctors surrounded by Israeli soldiers armed with assault rifles. “You know in movies, where there’s drug deals that happen and stuff?” he said. “That’s what it looked like.” The doctors were told if they moved they could be shot, so they tried to sit completely still while the soldiers awaited confirmation that all security clearances were in order. After about an hour and a half, the medical team was allowed to keep moving toward the hospital, and they entered Gaza surrounded by gunfire and thundering bombs — some far away, others closer. “You’re hearing poof on your right, poof on your left. All of us were definitely scared.” Husain, who is Muslim, began to pray. He couldn’t make out much through the car windows, but what he saw looked like “pure rubble.” Cars destroyed. Homes turned to rocks. Everything was deserted, until they passed through the tents housing people who’ve lost their homes. Among those tents, he knew, were his temporary coworkers. “No one has homes anymore,” he said. “So even in the hospital, all the doctors, the nurses, the techs, and along with the civilians, the normal civilians, everyone lives in tents. The director of the hospital has broken slippers and lives in a tent.” They reached Nasser Hospital after almost 16 hours of travel from Jordan, and the next day they got to work. ## ‘God Helped Us Save a Lot of People’ In the coffee shop in Dallas, Husain pulled out his phone, opened his photo library, and scrolled through images of his patients. Every single photo had a story. One boy, a 9-year-old wearing a black athletic shirt and gray sweatpants, was shot in the head, the neck, and the abdomen. There’s a word for this: “polytrauma.” In Dallas, Husain has seen plenty of gunshot wounds. But not like this. Not so many, all at the same time. When the boy arrived at Nasser, Husain said he had to act fast. The child’s heart rate was plummeting, and he was bleeding out from the pelvis. Meanwhile, there were dozens of other bodies lying on the floor, some dead, others in desperate need of emergency care. Husain and the other doctors often had to decide in a matter of seconds if and how they could save a patient. “It still haunts me,” Husain said. “I feel regret, almost like we gave up on him. But I made the decision to push ketamine to give him a peaceful death. And he's a 9-year-old boy. In what world is that natural? What world is it natural to just let kids die and be shot at the food aid distribution site, trying to get food?” According to the UN, [875 Gazans have died trying to access food in recent weeks](https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/07/1165396?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The majority of those people were killed “in the vicinity” of sites run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an organization backed by the U.S. and Israel. Recently, over 170 nonprofits and aid organizations [called](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn5kk1w00xyo?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for the foundation to be shut down over persistent concerns that, when people arrive at the food sites, Israeli forces shoot them. Husain said he saw mostly young children at the sites trying to get food for their families. Bloodshed is happening elsewhere in Gaza, too — Husain said another patient, a young woman who was 16 weeks pregnant, was trying to sleep in her tent when her family said a quadcopter opened fire from above. Bullets cut through their tent, he said. One entered the woman’s abdomen and her uterus. At the hospital, using a portable ultrasound machine, Husain realized there was blood amassing in her belly. Then, with a probe, he checked the fetal heart rate and saw it dropping fast. The woman was rushed to the operating room, where surgery saved her life. But her baby didn’t make it, and the bullet’s wreckage forced doctors to remove her uterus. She lost one child, and now she can’t have another. On his phone, Husain showed *The Barbed Wire* a photo of his patient’s 16-week-old fetus. In the middle of the picture, you could make out a tiny hand. “This is just one out of thousands and thousands, hundreds and thousands of lives,” Husain said. “We talk about the deaths, right? We say, ‘50 were killed.’ And that's horrific. Every day, 50, 60 are killed. But we don't talk about the thousands and hundreds of thousands of lives that have been changed forever.” Brauner said something similar. It was difficult for him to watch patients leave the hospital, knowing that they may not survive because of an infection or a lack of nutrition. And if they do survive, their lives will likely be altered by the lack of access to any kind of rehabilitation. “There's this immediate death, there's this disability, and then there's a slow death,” Brauner said. “I have friends who have worked special operations of surgery and emergency medicine in the military and Iraq and Afghanistan. And when we compared notes, they said, ‘Well, that is just absurd. The volume and the intensity that you saw was 10 times what they saw.’” Husain told *The Barbed Wire*, again and again, that he doesn’t have a political agenda. In fact, when he thinks about what he saw in Gaza, he doesn’t think about politics at all. “What I want to convey is that this is not political,” he said. “It's not controversial, it's not complicated. This is a humanitarian issue at the end of the day. Anyone who has a conscience, anyone who has a soul, should understand that no one, even the worst enemy, should go through what they're going through.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/gettyimages-1736596567.jpg) KHAN YUNIS, GAZA - OCTOBER 15: An injured Palestinian child is seen in an intensive care unit at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, Gaza.(Photo by Ahmad Hasaballah/Getty Images) Even after returning on June 27, he thinks about his patients constantly. Especially the children he couldn’t save. So does Rahman, who told *The Barbed Wire* how the experience made him both deeply sad and deeply angry. “The first time I cried there was when I saw a school of kids, like 30, 40 kids in a circle just singing songs with their teacher,” Rahman said. “And I was like, man, this is the most beautiful thing I've seen.” That memory exists alongside the “nightmare” of patients arriving in bundles like clockwork every morning, afternoon, and night. “It was so systematic,” said Rahman. “It was precise. It was almost like they needed a hundred on their quota and they got a hundred on the quota and they need 300 injured on their quota and they got 300 injured on the quota.” Rahman said, “I'm like, ‘How can this be an accident?’” Dr. Nick Maynard similarly told [NPR](https://www.npr.org/2025/07/21/nx-s1-5471424/gaza-hospitals-british-surgeon-israel-attacks?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that the clustering of injuries he’s seen at Nasser Hospital is beyond coincidence. Still, the Israel Defense Forces denied intentionally harming people or firing at minors to NPR. Many of Husain’s coworkers were young doctors or medical students, and he marvels at the fact that, on the first day he got there, the students were taking the board exams they must pass to become licensed physicians. Throughout the exams, bombs were shaking the windows around them and the ground beneath their feet. The bombs were the endless score for Husain’s time in Gaza; they were there when he woke up and when he went to sleep. They startled him every time, especially when they got close, but the students and local doctors never flinched. They’d been used to them for a while, Husain said. It’s still too soon to describe exactly how the experience has changed him, but he said: “My heart is definitely there.” The scale of what he witnessed is difficult to imagine: In the two weeks he was in Gaza, [an open source estimate](https://data.techforpalestine.org/docs/killed-in-gaza/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) says more than 1,200 people were killed. So when Husain thinks about Gaza, which he does throughout the day, every day, he tries to focus on the success stories. “God helped us save a lot of people,” he said, including a man shot through the face and chest at a food distribution site. The man was minutes away from bleeding out, but with help from a medical student, Husain kept enough pressure on his wounds to stave off serious arterial bleeding and roll him into surgery, just in time. Still, despite those sources of hope, he can’t stop his mind from drifting to the stories that bring fresh tears back to his eyes. Like the 1-year-old boy with burns on 80% of his body, and the mother Husain will never forget. “Just imagine being burnt where your skin is just peeling off,” he said. When the boy’s mother arrived and saw her son’s face, she collapsed and hit her head on a stretcher. “We had to take her out, pick her up, and get her out,” Husain said. “I tried to get him to survive. I tried to resuscitate him. He wasn't doing better.” They declared him dead, and Husain felt compelled to record part of the conversation where the doctors delivered the news. He wanted the world to see and hear as much of his experience as possible. In the video, reviewed by *The Barbed Wire*, the mother is told her son hasn’t survived, and she screams. Husain, roughly a week and a half later and 7,000 miles from that hospital room, paused the video as tears rolled down his face. Then he continued the story. The boy was wrapped up and taken to the morgue just outside the hospital. Rahman saw the boy’s father, wearing a black shirt and a backwards Yankees ballcap, carrying his son in a wrapped-up heated blanket about three feet long. He took a video of the man because he wanted the world to know “this is not normal,” and he showed it to Husain, not realizing his new friend had treated the boy wrapped up in the blanket. Later, Husain saw the mother at the morgue, surrounded by friends and family, all kneeling in prayer. Husain knelt next to the mother and told her how sorry he was. He tried so hard to save her boy, he said, but he couldn’t. While he was talking, the mother kept saying “Alhamdulillah,” an Arabic phrase meaning “praise be to God.” But after several moments, she stopped and turned to Husain. She told him, “I’m going to be praying for you.” ### Joe Rogan Wants This Democratic, Pro-Choice Lawmaker from Texas to Run for President URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/joe-rogan-wants-democratic-texas-lawmaker-run-for-president/ Last updated: 2025-07-21T14:44:01.000Z Who would’ve guessed that Joe Rogan would heartily endorse a Texas Democrat? As state Rep. James Talarico (D-Austin) [mulls a bid for the U.S. Senate](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/06/16/texas-democrats-candidates-2026-midterms-senate-governor/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the 36-year-old aspiring preacher may have stumbled upon an ace in his sleeve: a guest slot on The Joe Rogan Experience. Talarico recently appeared on the comedian and UFC commentator’s ultra-popular podcast to discuss a new bill requiring Texas public schools to [display the Ten Commandments](https://legiscan.com/TX/text/SB10/id/3247430?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Talarico, who studies at the Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, is staunchly against this bill — and was invited on the show after going viral on TikTok, where he amassed nearly one million followers, for speaking out against it. > [](https://twitter.com/joeroganhq/status/1946656010271100958?ref=thebarbedwire.com) “This bill, to me, is not only unconstitutional, it’s not only un-American, I think it is also deeply un-Christian,” Talarico said in a 2023 legislative session, in a TikTok pinned to his profile that has garnered 6.8 million views. Lawmakers tried to pass a version of the Ten Commandments bill in 2023, but it died in the House. This time, it sailed through to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk, where it’s been signed and will take effect soon. In their 2.5-hour-long talk ([Who is watching all that?](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/20/style/podcast-video-audience.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Apparently, half a million people.), the two men broach theology and policy, discussing the Ten Commandments, abortion bans, Christian nationalism, the spirituality of AI, and student loan forgiveness (“I am a big fan of that,” Rogan says). “You need to run for president,” Rogan, who endorsed Trump in the 2024 race, told Talarico at the [end of the episode](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=%5FjOGPvMftb8&ref=thebarbedwire.com). “We need someone who’s actually a good person.” > [](https://twitter.com/sproutchamp/status/1946941842601259390?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Rogan has become something of a figurehead for an increasingly young, aggressively online generation of men. Not explicitly political, his podcast describes itself as “a destination for open dialogue,” [according to Rogan’s website](https://www.joerogan.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and tackles subjects like comedy, science, sports, and lifestyle. He’s hosted a mind-boggling array of guests over the years, from politicians like Sen. Bernie Sanders and President Donald Trump, to scientist Neil deGrasse Tyson and rock singer Anthony Kiedis — and has been hailed as an [“unlikely political influencer.”](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/24/us/politics/bernie-sanders-endorsement-joe-rogan.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) “(Rogan) speaks for a lot of people who don’t feel like they belong in either political party, and are rightly suspicious of a corrupt political system,” Talarico [told *POLITICO* on Saturday](https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/07/19/james-talarico-texas-democrat-joe-rogan-interview-00441989?ref=thebarbedwire.com)*.* This is, in part, because the Joe Rogan Experience has over 14 million Spotify followers, [70% of which are male](https://www.mediamonitors.com/audience-demographic-variations-specific-to-genre/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=According%20to%20our%20survey%20respondent,of%20his%20listeners%20was%2024.). The cabal of podcast “bros” like Rogan and Theo Von find young male viewers “in the vacuum left behind by liberal media,” [*POLITICO* reported in November](https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/11/11/how-trump-won-the-podcast-bros-00188518?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “(Rogan) and his podcasting compatriots reach a wider audience of potential political converts by de-emphasizing politics.” During his campaign, Trump tapped into Rogan’s hyper-masculine base, and it proved fruitful. In the election, young male [voters swung sharply to the right](https://apnews.com/article/trump-young-men-voters-election-latinos-democrats-ff30e38698a41132cf90345fffabe579?ref=thebarbedwire.com). And as Democrats [puzzle over finding a liberal counterpart to Rogan](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskALiberal/comments/1h3hlah/whats%5Flefts%5Fanswer%5Fto%5Fjoe%5Frogan%5Fsupposed%5Fto%5Fbe/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Talarico seems to offer a new answer: If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. ### She Helped Get Rid of Measles in Her County. This Is Her Advice on Stopping its Spread. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/lubbock-measles-vaccine-cases/ Last updated: 2025-07-21T05:01:00.000Z *This story was originally written by* [Barbara Rodriguez](https://19thnews.org/author/barbara-rodriguez?ref=thebarbedwire.com) *and published by [The 19th\* News](https://19thnews.org/2025/07/katherine-wells-measles-outbreak-lubbock-county/?republish&ref=thebarbedwire.com).* Katherine Wells still remembers finding out that measles had hit West Texas. It was late January, and Wells, the director of the Lubbock Health Department, was notified that a child from nearby Gaines County was being treated for the respiratory disease at one of the local hospitals in Lubbock County. At [that point](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/01/30/texas-measles-vaccinations-schools/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Lubbock County had not recorded a measles case in more than 20 years. Neither Wells nor her staff had seen measles in their careers. “I started talking to people from Gaines County and realized that there were a lot of sick people on the ground, that measles was already spreading,” she said. “So it was that moment where we realized that this was much bigger than one measles case.” Gaines County was the epicenter of an outbreak that is still spreading around the United States. As of July 15, there have been [1,309 confirmed measles cases around the country this year](https://www.cdc.gov/measles/data-research/index.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the highest number of cases in [more than 30 years](https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00020688.htm?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Most cases in 2025 are among [unvaccinated children](https://www.cdc.gov/measles/data-research/index.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The bulk of the measles cases this year have been in Texas, which to date includes [more than 760 confirmed cases](https://www.dshs.texas.gov/news-alerts/measles-outbreak-2025?ref=thebarbedwire.com). More than half have been in Gaines County. While Lubbock County has reported just over 50 measles cases, it’s intertwined with Gaines County due to their close proximity. Gaines County has a small hospital, so children hospitalized for measles were typically transferred to Lubbock County’s free-standing children’s hospital or another hospital with a children’s unit, according to Wells. Wells has seen this outbreak up close, and her experiences trying to stop measles in her county — which Texas removed recently from its list of active outbreaks, along with Gaines County — hold lessons for other communities. She hopes some of her department’s work in mitigating the spread can be a blueprint for public health officials elsewhere who are now recording their first cases. Still, Wells also worries about how expected federal funding cuts could impact her efforts to keep Lubbock County residents protected from future outbreaks. “It’s so important that we have local people on the ground that understand our communities, that can respond to these things — and I do worry that the ability to continue to do that work is at risk with [some of the federal cuts](https://apnews.com/article/hhs-covid-pandemic-trump-cdc-309fedec9383dc4fdacba6e9ca2b5309?ref=thebarbedwire.com) we’re seeing to money that flows down to local public health,” she said. With six months left in the year, public health officials and experts say it’s hard to predict how this outbreak, which consists of cases in more than 35 states, will evolve. Measles was declared eliminated from the United States in 2000, due in part to widespread vaccination. [Researchers believe the United States, like some other countries with increasing cases, could soon lose its status](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11288340/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). While the number of reported cases [has slowed in recent months](https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2025-05-31/texas-measles-outbreak-is-starting-to-slow-the-us-case-count-climbs-slightly-to-1-024-cases?ref=thebarbedwire.com), upcoming back-to-school activities in the fall typically bring together large groups of children. Measles, which is not a seasonal disease, is highly contagious and spreads when an infected person breathes, coughs or sneezes. The outbreak comes at a time of [heightened distrust in government officials](https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2024/06/24/public-trust-in-government-1958-2024/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and a proliferation of [disinformation and misinformation online about vaccines](https://19thnews.org/2025/04/rfk-jr-measles-nonprofit-vaccine-safety/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). And amid proposed federal budget reductions, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. [has mischaracterized the safety](https://www.factcheck.org/2025/03/rfk-jr-misleads-about-measles-vaccine-in-hannity-interview/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of [the highly effective measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine](https://19thnews.org/2025/03/measles-outbreaks-vaccine-parents-children/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Those dynamics, along with [declining vaccination rates](https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/73/wr/mm7338a3.htm?ref=thebarbedwire.com), spell new challenges for public health officials. “I think local public health department directors have an uphill battle — responding to measles and trying to get people vaccinated with a vaccine that we’ve had for over 50 years. You’d hope people would trust and believe that that’s what we need to do,” Wells said. “It’s going to be a challenge for public health officials to get those messages out to the right individuals.” At the height of the measles outbreak in late winter and early spring, the days were long for Wells, who said she worked seven days a week. She coordinated lab testing to confirm cases. She organized contact tracing to help stop the spread. She spoke to the public through news releases and the press about the ebbs and flows of the disease. She watched as national attention heightened with [the deaths of two children](https://19thnews.org/2025/04/rfk-jr-measles-nonprofit-vaccine-safety/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). With no new dollars, Wells said she offered comp time to eligible staff to address the extra hours they were working. “I think measles felt worse than COVID, and suddenly it brought back some of the trauma that we went through with COVID,” she said. Wells has some advice for other public health officials who are now just starting to see their first cases: Reach out to community stakeholders and make a plan. That means being in contact with school superintendents, camp directors and day care staff — any place where children gather. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/gettyimages-2202122508.jpg) LUBBOCK, TEXAS - Mother and daughter read a book about immunizations at a vaccine clinic put on by Lubbock Public Health Department on March 1, 2025\. (Photo by Jan Sonnenmair/Getty Images) “Make sure that you have those relationships in case measles enters one of those settings,” she said. Wells also recommended that public health officials look at geographical data to try to figure out where there are pockets of low vaccination rates to reach out to those potentially skeptical communities. “Where you see low vaccination rates, engage with them and talk to them about measles and how we’ve hit this 30-year high, and is there anything that the public health department can do to support those groups getting vaccinated?” she said. Chrissie Juliano is the executive director of the [Big Cities Health Coalition (BCHC)](https://www.bigcitieshealth.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), an organization that represents the country’s largest metropolitan health departments, which cover about 61 million people. She said federal funding cuts — those being challenged [via litigation](https://apnews.com/article/trump-covid-federal-money-lawsuit-e2fcacccfda994500ce92be94d1ada7d?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and proposed cuts in future budgets — will make it more difficult for local public health departments to respond to measles and other infectious diseases. The federal government has been central to funding a lot of public health. [More than 70 percent](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-apha-org/getcontentasset/2aa4d970-7016-447e-94be-b779f2763985/7ca0dc9d-611d-46e2-9fd3-26a4c03ddcbb/200611%5Fcdc%5Fhrsa-language-en.pdf) of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s domestic budget goes to state and local communities. Wells said she expects her department’s budget to be impacted, as [news reports](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/06/12/texas-dshs-public-health-funding-cuts/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) indicate at least $100 million in federal dollars will not be available again for Texas public health departments to use on disease detection and prevention efforts. “I don’t know exactly what will be impacted, but I’m planning for cuts to our department,” she added. In Dallas County, Texas, just a few hundred miles from Gaines and Lubbock counties, officials said they cancelled vaccine clinics to administer MMR vaccines because federal dollars had been rescinded. “This was a really specific impact of a local health department trying to be proactive, to use the data, make decisions, reach out to the community to fill a gap among people who needed vaccines — and then could not because of resources taken away,” Juliano said. The impact of federal funding cuts is popping up elsewhere. In Minneapolis, public health officials announced in March that they had [halted their vaccination program](https://www.minneapolismn.gov/news/2025/march/immunization-funding/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which included administering vaccines to young children. In Columbus, Ohio, public health officials [laid off 11 employees in April](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/local/2025/04/16/rfk-hhs-cuts-remove-250-million-from-columbus-ohio-health-efforts/83088333007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), many of whom were infectious disease specialists. Kennedy [has defended proposed HHS budget cuts](https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/5219280-robert-f-kennedy-jr-hhs-job-cuts/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) by claiming that critical staff have not been cut and other key programs will be consolidated. Adam Ratner is a pediatric infectious diseases physician who treated children with measles during the outbreak in New York. He used that experience to write: [“Booster Shots: The Urgent Lessons of Measles and the Uncertain Future of Children’s Health.”](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/670274/booster-shots-by-adam-ratner-md-mph/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Ratner noted that it took almost 40 years after a measles vaccine was developed to reach the eradication status that the United States reached in 2000\. During that time, public health officials and policy makers worked toward supporting school vaccine mandates and making vaccines more accessible, especially to families of low-income children. Ratner worries that [Kennedy’s messaging on vaccines](https://19thnews.org/2025/04/rfk-jr-measles-parents-mixed-messages/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — which has included spreading disinformation about one of the two children who died earlier this year from measles — could preview more limited federal resources to combat the spread of disease. Kennedy sent some temporary personnel from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to West Texas at the height of its outbreak. “We’re in a situation where the priorities from HHS and just generally in terms of federal funding for public health are to decrease funding, decrease emphasis on vaccination, and that’s a very dangerous situation,” he said. In Lubbock County, Wells said the federal government and state health department brought in some additional temporary staff at the height of the outbreak, noting the CDC personnel. But she added that these contractors typically had to work 40 hours a week. Without new dollars in her department’s coffers, she was limited in her financial flexibility as a public health official to build the very trust experts say is needed right now. “I would have preferred to bring in local nurses that would have been happy with very flexible hours to be administering the vaccine — ‘I’m a retired school nurse, and I’m giving you this vaccine’ is much better than having a nurse coming in from outside of our community,” she said. “I just think it brings that trust factor in.” While the end of measles cases in Lubbock and Gaines counties were marked unceremoniously when the locations were removed from a state website with active areas, Wells just took her first real vacation of the year. “I took a real week off, stepping away from work,” she said. “I’m also requiring all of my managers that worked through all of this to take some time off.” Wells said measles can easily reemerge in Lubbock. This time, she feels more equipped. She has her staff ready for surveillance. She now has a local public health laboratory for the region to test more quickly for measles. All the providers are well aware of measles protocols to help stop transmission. She is staying vigilant — while also planning for potential federal funding cuts to her department. “We’re such a mobile society that it would just take one unvaccinated person to drive to another area of the state or the country that has a measles outbreak and bring it back into Lubbock,” she said. ![](https://pixel.19thnews.org/2025/07/katherine-wells-measles-outbreak-lubbock-county) ### Is This the Year Texas Republicans Finally Blow It In the Senate? URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-senate-republican-primary-cornyn-paxton/ Last updated: 2025-07-18T06:02:00.000Z If you were worried that Texas politics was getting a little boring, worry no more: The upcoming Republican Senate primary between incumbent John Cornyn and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is here to inject a full dose of chaos, betrayal, biblical divorce filings, and party-wide panic. This race has everything: A four-term U.S. senator trying to fend off a scandal-slicked attorney general. Big-money super PACs unloading cash like it’s an oil boom. And the GOP’s favorite kingmaker, Donald Trump, refusing to pick a side just yet — because apparently even *he* wants to watch the drama unfold before weighing in. Let’s start with the basics. [Cornyn has raised nearly $4 million this quarter](https://www.axios.com/2025/07/14/texas-senate-fundraising-cornyn-paxton?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and has $8.5 million in cash on hand. He’s got a super PAC [that's hauled in $11 million](https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/07/01/congress/john-cornyn-fundraising-texas-senate-primary-ken-paxton-00434713?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and a consultant team stacked with senior Trump advisers. By comparison, Paxton [raised $2.9 million](https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5396312-ken-paxton-second-quarter-3m-fundraising/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in the latest quarter, while a pro-Paxton super PAC took in $1.85 million. Currently, Paxton’s campaign has [$2.5 million on hand](https://www.axios.com/2025/07/14/texas-senate-fundraising-cornyn-paxton?ref=thebarbedwire.com). So, financially speaking, Cornyn is loaded and battle-ready. But here’s the kicker: He’s still trailing Paxton. [By *15 points*.](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/07/11/ken-paxton-john-cornyn-texas-senate-fundraising-campaign-finance/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) That’s not a polling gap, that’s a canyon. And in a plot twist that probably made Cornyn’s campaign staff spit out their coffee, those same polls show that while Paxton is leading in the primary, he’s [*losing* to a generic Democrat in the general election](https://www.axios.com/2025/06/17/texas-senate-race-polling-cornyn-paxton?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Meanwhile, Cornyn — establishment, suit-and-tie Cornyn — actually beats the Democrat by seven points. This has Republicans sweating through their [solid gold Trump pins](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/news/content/ar-AA1CIy1T?ocid=sapphireappshare&apiversion=v2&noservercache=1&domshim=1&renderwebcomponents=1&wcseo=1&batchservertelemetry=1&noservertelemetry=1&ref=thebarbedwire.com). Or as one senior GOP Senate aide put it more bluntly [to *Axios*](https://www.axios.com/2025/06/17/texas-senate-race-polling-cornyn-paxton?ref=thebarbedwire.com): “The problem is nobody with the necessary gravitas seems to be willing to state the obvious: this is shaping up to be a f\*\*\*ing disaster.” Well, someone just did. Let’s not forget who Paxton is. He’s the guy who was impeached by the Texas House on bribery and corruption charges and then [acquitted by the Texas Senate](https://www.texastribune.org/2023/09/16/ken-paxton-acquitted-impeachment-texas-attorney-general/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). And speaking of family values: Angela Paxton, Ken’s wife of 38 years and a state senator, just filed for divorce on “[biblical grounds](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/07/10/angela-paxton-divorce-texas-attorney-general-ken/?ref=thebarbedwire.com).” If you're wondering what chapter and verse that comes from, it appears to be somewhere between “Thou shalt not embarrass me on national television” and “Thou shalt not have a [mistress during impeachment hearings](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53n%5FFj122Qo&ref=thebarbedwire.com).” The timing of her announcement is either divine intervention or brutal campaign strategy (maybe both). Either way, it’s given Cornyn and his allies their first real opening to attack Paxton on something that even MAGA voters might find hard to spin. The GOP establishment wasted no time. One [National Republican Senatorial Committee staffer posted a Bible verse about prostitutes](https://x.com/Alex%5FLatcham%5F/status/1943411166824264154?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Cornyn allies posted photos of him with his wife [looking like the cover of a Hallmark card](https://x.com/sgallz%5F/status/1943378100034900020?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Suddenly, Cornyn isn’t just a senator — he’s a *husband who stays*. And *not* a [“con man and a fraud”](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-election/con-man-vs-anti-trump-years-republican-fighting-fuel-nasty-senate-prim-rcna200479?ref=thebarbedwire.com). But don’t count Paxton out. He’s still pulling in millions and hovering [above 50% in some private polls](https://www.axios.com/2025/07/11/texas-senate-race-cornyn-paxton-trump-divorce?ref=thebarbedwire.com). His base is loud, loyal, and doesn’t seem fazed by little things like 20+ articles of impeachment and a very public ex-mistress, who after the divorce news [updated her Instagram bio](https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/articles/laura-olson-ken-paxton-ex-143922634.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to read: “You can’t always get what you want. But I can.” Still, Cornyn’s camp is betting that once they start unloading their war chest — and remind voters that Paxton's office once handed taxpayer-funded grants to left-wing orgs — they can close the gap. Maybe even get that Trump endorsement. Speaking of the orange elephant in the room, Trump met with Senate Majority Leader John Thune and reportedly said he’s staying neutral for now. Not that Cornyn hasn’t been trying. “I’ve talked to him about it a number of times. He is not ready to make that endorsement,” [Cornyn told NBC News this week](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-election/john-cornyn-appeals-trump-faces-primary-headwinds-rcna217747?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “I think as we start advertising and closing the gap in the polls, hopefully he’ll see fit to make that endorsement, but we can’t wait.” (Is it a good sign when your state’s senior senator sounds like he's refreshing Trump's texts like a teenager waiting for a “u up?”) And while Republicans fight among themselves, Democrats are eyeing the wreckage like buzzards spotting roadkill. [Colin Allred is in](https://www.kut.org/politics/2025-07-01/texas-democrat-colin-allred-joins-u-s-senate-race-where-he-could-face-gop-heavyweights-paxton-or-cornyn?ref=thebarbedwire.com). [Terry Virts](https://www.terryvirts.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a literal astronaut, is in. [Beto O’Rourke is circling](https://www.chron.com/politics/article/beto-o-rourke-senate-race-20298042.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com), because of course he is. (Fun fact: It’s been seven years since Beto made Ted Cruz sweat. In political time, that’s only slightly longer than the average Ken Paxton legal battle.) Democrats haven’t won a statewide race here since 1994, but this might be their best chance in a generation. Polls show [Trump’s approval in Texas slipping into negative territory](https://texaspolitics.utexas.edu/blog/june-2025-university-of-texas-texas-politics-project-poll-economic-concerns-drag-trump-s-job-approval-underwater-in-texas-while-most-texans-oppose-ban-on-thc-products-dividing-gop-leadership?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and the GOP infighting isn’t helping. “Trump’s habit of attempting to directly influence state politics and governance has made him a much bigger factor in Texas politics than most of his predecessors (with the possible exception of the presidents from Texas),” according to a [report from the Texas Politics Project](https://texaspolitics.utexas.edu/blog/june-2025-university-of-texas-texas-politics-project-poll-economic-concerns-drag-trump-s-job-approval-underwater-in-texas-while-most-texans-oppose-ban-on-thc-products-dividing-gop-leadership?ref=thebarbedwire.com). So here we are. A race that should’ve been a Republican layup has turned into a slow-motion implosion. Cornyn’s money might not matter if the base stays glued to Paxton, and Paxton might win a primary only to crash and burn in the general. And all of us? We get to watch the whole thing like it’s a season finale — one with campaign finance reports, subpoena drama, and a touch of televangelism. Texas, baby! ### Austin Firefighters Ring the Alarm Over $8.3M in Funding Cuts After Controversial Flood Response URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/austin-fire-department-budget-cuts-flooding/ Last updated: 2025-07-17T19:15:44.000Z The Austin Fire Department is facing another blow after a chaotic two weeks. Austin’s city manager released a [proposed budget](https://www.statesman.com/story/news/politics/government/2025/07/16/with-balanced-3b-budget-on-the-table-austin-city-council-members-raise-concerns-about-potential-gaps/85244066007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on Tuesday that includes a $8.3 million overtime funding cut for the Austin Fire Department as the Central Texas region is still reeling from [catastrophic July 4 flooding](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-flood-volunteers-fema-climate-change/) that took at least 134 lives. The announcement came days after 93% of Austin Firefighters Association members voted to approve a [vote of “no confidence”](https://www.kut.org/austin/2025-07-11/austin-fire-department-no-confidence-vote-chief-joel-baker-kerrville-flood-response?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in Austin Fire Chief Joel Baker. Baker had issued a nondeployment order that union leaders say prevented a better, early response to the epicenter of the floods. The proposed cuts and infighting are happening at a critical time — President Donald Trump has plans to further downsize agencies that manage weather warnings and emergencies as experts warn of a greater likelihood of deadly weather events. The Austin Fire Department frequently serves as a critical lifeline to communities facing climate disasters in the capital and beyond — raising concerns about future disaster response in the region. The City of Austin said in a statement that the reduction in sworn overtime is due to a planned restructure of the fire staffing model. There’s a lot to unpack here. Let’s start with the Austin Fire Department's flood response. ## What Was Austin’s Role in the July 4 Floods? Located between flood-prone river valleys and hurricane territory, Austin has one of the best trained flood response and swiftwater rescue teams in the state, and regularly deploys crews to disasters. For example, in June 2024, Austin Fire Department deployed 10 crew members to parts of Texas that were expected to be hit by Tropical Storm Alberto. This is a relatively regular occurrence, given that smaller municipalities lack the budget to train and maintain substantial emergency response teams. Bob Nicks, president of the Austin Firefighters Association, told *The Barbed Wire* that some personnel were contacted on July 2 and July 3 by the state task force that manages swiftwater response ahead of large-scale disaster events. Austin firefighters didn’t respond due to the standing order that suspended deployments through Oct. 1 due to budgetary reasons. “The whole nature of emergency response is to anticipate problems and pre-deploy,” Nicks told *The Barbed Wire*. “So you have resources on scene when it happens, rather than reacting when it's already occurred, and then trying to get there eight hours behind.” On July 4, as the flood waters were already raging, the Austin Fire Department deployed a team of three rescue swimmers, and further personnel were deployed in subsequent days. ## Austin Firefighters Association’s Mutiny On July 7, the Austin firefighters union published a [Facebook post](https://www.facebook.com/AustinFirefightersAssociation/posts/pfbid0VP4iFUEJxT16LesXJphhbPHr5i3fsqSivhRxrABEKJkqtVwcNTLuf4cWELC9TLKJl?rdid=E1GGs03tuUYDYAdW#) accusing Baker of delaying the deployment of swiftwater response teams for budgetary reasons. At the root of the issue is the aforementioned standing order from AFD leadership, which said deployments were suspended through Oct. 1. “My frustration is that Chief Baker had a standing order to not deploy,” Nicks told *The Barbed Wire*. “We would have had our boat teams on site the afternoon of the third we had accepted the first request.” “The fire chief, in my professional assessment … caused lives to be lost.” On July 11, 93% of members [cast a vote of no-confidence](https://www.facebook.com/AustinFirefightersAssociation/photos/-austin-firefighters-vote-no-confidence-in-fire-chief-joel-g-baker-on-71125-an-o/1136202125204294/) in Baker, with only 4% in opposition. Baker said in a [statement shared with multiple news outlets](https://www.fireengineering.com/technical-rescue/water-rescue/austin-tx-fire-union-rips-chief-over-refusal-to-deploy-amid-deadly-floods/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that Austin Fire Department had to “prioritize having sufficient resources in our own community” given the risk for flooding in Austin during that time, and that it did send three rescue swimmers and would continue to support the response to the floods in Central Texas. Baker also said that the department deployed three rescue swimmers on July 4 to serve with the Texas Task Force 1 helicopter search and rescue team, and that eight more personnel were deployed on July 5 and 6. Randell Nations, a retired Austin firefighter who was a swiftwater expert and trainer, told *The Barbed Wire* that teams that answer deployment requests are typically backfilled with people from other shifts. “The city of Austin is never, ever left uncovered,” Nations said. “The type of flooding that came in less than an hour, to not have those assets there and pre-deployed,” Nations said, was “unbelievable.” City leaders have criticized the union’s public denouncement as politicization of the disaster, and questioned the timing, which [overlaps with ](https://www.kut.org/austin/2025-07-08/austin-tx-firefighters-union-joel-baker-no-confidence-kerr-county-flooding?ref=thebarbedwire.com)the union’s final stretch of labor contract negotiations with the city. On July 8, Austin Mayor Kirk Watson issued a statement, saying “I'm very disappointed in Bob. In this awful time, he shouldn't be politicizing this horrible loss by making it part of budget negotiations and the collective bargaining with the union.” But that’s not how Nations sees the situation. “This is pure and simple mismanagement at the highest levels that in all the way up to the fire chief, the city manager and the Mayor of the City of Austin,” Nations told *The Barbed Wire*. “Some of the pushback we've gotten is people asking why are y'all doing this now, when this is all still going on?” “Because we're still affected,” Nations added, “and because the city is coming out, making these statements, trying to cover their ass when they get some of the state's best first responders in house.” ## Austin Fire Department’s Budget Woes On July 15, Austin City Manager T.C. Broadnax announced the proposed 2026 city budget, which includes an $8.3 million cut to the Austin Fire Department overtime funding. In recent years, the department has [exceeded its allocated overtime budgets](https://www.kvue.com/article/news/local/new-budget-details-how-austin-spends-millions-on-overtime-pay/269-c0d8ff1d-7357-48cb-8a8f-8c114bafb2a5?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and this April the City of Austin [projected a $33 million deficit for 2026](https://austinmonitor.com/stories/2025/04/city-facing-a-33-million-deficit-for-2026/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The budget deficit is thanks to [costs rising faster than revenue sources](https://cbsaustin.com/news/local/austin-faces-growing-budget-deficit-as-federal-funding-becomes-uncertain?ref=thebarbedwire.com). One of the largest revenue sources, sales tax, has slowed amid inflation and economic uncertainty. Compounding the issue is the Trump administration’s delay or cancellation of federal grants and reimbursements. The proposed cuts to firefighter overtime would almost certainly impact disaster deployments, even if Austin Fire is able to increase the number of personnel. Per a 2023 audit, “overtime expenditures go up when \[Austin Fire Department\] tackles these low frequency, high risk situations throughout the community and the region.” The City of Austin said “the $8.3 million reduction in sworn overtime is due to a planned restructure of the fire staffing model,” in a statement from Kimberly Moore, a business process consultant with the city, to *The Barbed Wire*. The statement continues: “This restructure will ensure 24 personnel are available at the scene, which stays above the national standard of 17 personnel. This model will not impact the effectiveness and response of the Austin Fire Department" ## What Do Cuts To Austin Fire Department Mean for Texans? The timing of the proposed funding cuts — paired with [proposed federal funding cuts](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/13/climate/floods-trump-cuts-disaster-preparedness-fema.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to weather science and disaster response — raises significant questions regarding future disaster preparedness in Texas. Less resourcing for one of the largest fire departments in the state, at a time when climate disasters are increasing in frequency, bodes ill for smaller communities that have fewer resources. “What you see in Texas is a whole bunch of overlapping teams in highly dense population areas like Houston or places like that,” said Chris Boyers, executive director of the National Association For Search And Rescue. “Then in places like Kerrville, with a low density population, you don't see many active members of teams.” In parallel, [hold ups in federal response to the flood](https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryroeloffs/2025/07/10/why-kristi-noem-is-under-fire-for-delayed-fema-response-to-texas-floods/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [delays in federal funding applications](https://www.govexec.com/management/2025/06/states-fear-critical-funding-fema-may-be-drying/406374/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for disaster relief, and [the proposed elimination](https://www.npr.org/2025/06/26/nx-s1-5430469/faq-fema-elimination?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of the Federal Emergency Management Agency are leaving state lawmakers in fear about what could come next. Trump has said he wants states to do more to handle the cost of disasters, but few states, if any, are currently prepared to go it alone. If federal funding for disaster response does dry up, [as some have predicted](https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nc/charlotte/news/2025/05/29/n-c--revenue-predictions-recession-risk?ref=thebarbedwire.com), then states will likely have to rely on each other for support — creating new friction as states haggle over who should pay for what. “Let’s say Kentucky calls FEMA and says we have a disaster here. And FEMA picks up the phone and makes a couple of phone calls and launches other state task forces to Kentucky. FEMA pays for it,” Boyers told *The Barbed Wire.* “If FEMA gets out of that business and gives it to the states, when Kentucky has a problem, what Kentucky is going to have to do is they're going to have to make a phone call to Tennessee and say will you send your task force?” That same interstate problem applies within states as well, given that [most states pay for a fraction of their overall disaster response budgets](https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/national-international/fema-disaster-aid-republican-states/4097628/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) (the [majority comes from federal support](https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/trump-administration-wants-shrink-federal-governments-role-disaster-management-do-states?ref=thebarbedwire.com)). If large municipalities like Austin are also facing budget squeezes, they may be less willing and able to lend resources to smaller surrounding communities in need. “About 80% of fire departments in the United States are still volunteer departments,” Boyers said. “But typically the volunteer fire departments have a community budget of some sort to handle their insurance, sometimes their training, vehicle maintenance, some of their resourcing, if not their hours, and now that's going to go away. A lot of that came from FEMA.” It is possible that the legislature could recognize this problem and utilize our substantial budget surplus to ameliorate these issues, at least within the state of Texas. Gov. Greg Abbott recently announced a special legislative session with a large number of priorities, including: flood warning systems, flood emergency communications, relief funding for floods, and natural disaster prevention and recovery. Whether the state legislature will go far enough is ultimately the question. Texas is already behind other states when it comes to disaster prevention legislation. “California has a legislation for search and rescue, giving it to the county sheriffs,” Boyer said. “And there are 58 counties in California that do that. But when you go to the 200 plus counties in Texas, there is no legislation. There's nothing that says the sheriff has to have a search and rescue team.” **The Barbed Wire’s *Senior Editor Leslie Rangel contributed to this report*.** *An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the budget cut figure, that number has been corrected.* ### Dallas Cop Accused of Stealing Nearly $38,000 of Apple Products to Sell on Facebook URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/dallas-police-officer-steals-apple-products-dallas/ Last updated: 2025-07-17T14:24:20.000Z A Dallas police officer is on administrative leave after being accused of stealing nearly $38,000 worth of products from local Apple stores, where he worked as an off-duty overnight security guard. After noticing a pattern of missing products in March, employees at the Apple stores installed covert cameras to monitor the officer, Senior Cpl. Le Chau, while he worked shifts. According to an affidavit, Chau often brought large duffle bags and backpacks to his shifts, and cameras witnessed him concealing thousands of dollars worth of devices in his Dallas police raid jacket, [*The Dallas Morning News* reported.](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/2025/07/16/affidavit-dallas-police-officer-allegedly-steals-nearly-38000-worth-of-apple-products/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) In one case, Chau “climbed to the top shelf then used \[a\] trash picker to access items he could not reach,” according to [CBS News](https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/dallas-police-officer-le-chau-turned-himself-theft/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). So many products — anywhere from 25 to 32 devices in one time — were stolen, that each of the three stores where Chau worked was flagged as one of Apple’s top ten retail stores with “exceptionally high” inventory count variances. “Where there is an opportunity, there was an absence of a capable guardian,” Timothy Bray, a University of Texas at Dallas public policy professor and criminology expert, [told CBS News](https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/dallas-police-officer-le-chau-turned-himself-theft/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “This was the capable guardian they were looking to, and there's a motivated offender.” Chau and his wife, who allegedly sold the stolen Apple products on Facebook marketplace, were detained at the Dallas Fort Worth airport in April by the FBI. Chau turned himself into the Dallas Police Department last week, and is awaiting a third-degree felony theft charge. If convicted, he faces anywhere from two to 10 years of jail time, and a fine of up to $10,000. “"Honestly, to me, it just sounds like you can’t really trust nobody nowadays," Harrison New, Chau’s neighbor, told [FOX 4 News](https://www.fox4news.com/news/dallas-officer-allegedly-stole-from-apple-stores?ref=thebarbedwire.com). "If (law enforcement are) not going to follow (the laws), what makes you think other people are going to follow them?" Chau has been with the department for more than a decade and, according to CBS News, helped train new Dallas Police recruits. ### ‘This Is How You Steal an Election’: Texas Democrats Weigh Walkout Over Trump’s Redistricting Plans URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/steal-election-texas-democrats-weigh-walkout-over-trump-redistricting/ Last updated: 2025-07-16T14:49:00.000Z President Donald Trump told congressional Republicans on Tuesday that he’s hoping to gain [an additional five Republican seats](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/07/15/texas-democrats-redistricting-response-trump-republican-five-seats/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in the U.S. House — through a rare redistricting effort Democratic lawmakers have called a [threat to democracy](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/07/15/texas-democrats-redistricting-response-trump-republican-five-seats/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and an “[unacceptable betrayal of Texans](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/15/us/politics/texas-redistricting-trump.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com).” California Gov. Gavin Newsom even escalated, making it clear that his state’s party is more than ready to [counter any aggressive gerrymandering](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/07/03/redistricting-texas-california-democrats-retaliation-trump-newsom/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that would provide GOP gains in Texas. “Two can play that game,” Newsom told [Pod Save America](https://x.com/GavinNewsom/status/1945295155227205775?ref=thebarbedwire.com) while floating the idea of a special election to modify California’s redistricting laws. The Texas Legislature is just days out from a special legislative session, which Gov. Greg Abbott convened to address flood infrastructure and emergency alerts in the aftermath of the devastating disaster that killed more than 134 people in Central Texas on July 4 weekend — and Trump’s “revised congressional redistricting plan,” property taxes, abortion pills, and THC regulation. Punchbowl News [first reported](https://x.com/JakeSherman/status/1945142593945227328?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that the president’s tentative proposal to “squeeze out five more red seats” targets Rep. Henry Cuellar's district — along the U.S.-Mexico border, up through San Antonio — Rep. Julie Johnson’s district in northeast Dallas, and Rep. Vicente Gonzalez Jr.’s district on the Gulf Coast. The two other targeted areas were likely to include parts of Houston and Austin, according to Punchbowl News reporters. U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Dallas) said on Tuesday at a press conference with House Democratic leadership that Trump’s redistricting plan is a blatant attempt to “[dilute the voices of people of color](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTbkQYyznEc&ref=thebarbedwire.com).” “The scheme of the Republicans has consistently been to make sure that they mute our voices,” she added. Emergency crews in Texas are still conducting searches for the many dozens of missing people swept away by the floods in the Hill Country on July 4, killing 134 people including 70 adults and 37 children in Kerr County alone. Officials at all levels of government have come under heavy scrutiny for the lack of flood infrastructure, emergency warning systems, and response to the [climate change-fueled](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-flood-volunteers-fema-climate-change/) tragedy. “Greg Abbott is choosing in this special session to put lines on a map over the lives that were on the line in Kerr County,” Texas House Democrats [said in a statement](https://x.com/TexasHDC/status/1945238527148442037?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “This is how you steal an election.” The special session “should be focused on flood preparedness, should be focused on restoring NOAA,” Newsom told [Pod Save America](https://x.com/GavinNewsom/status/1945295155227205775?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “Instead, they’re using that special session to weaponize for the next election. And that should scare the hell out of everybody.” https://thebarbedwire.com/2025/07/12/texas-flood-volunteers-fema-climate-change/ Republicans hold 25 out of the state’s 38 seats, and narrowly control the U.S. House of Representatives. The “simple redrawing,” as Trump [described the plan](https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/15/trump-five-seat-pickup-redraw-texas-congressional-map-00454301?ref=thebarbedwire.com), would allow the GOP to keep a firmer grasp of the House as midterm elections approach, where the party in power has historically fared poorly. During Trump’s first presidency, Republicans lost 40 House seats in the 2022 midterms. “You know the old adage: a pig gets fat and a hog gets butchered,” [said Rep. Julie Johnson (D-Farmers Branch)](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/07/15/texas-democrats-redistricting-response-trump-republican-five-seats/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “I think the Texas Republicans are pushing the limits on this one.” Some Democrats have also proposed [a walkout](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/15/us/politics/texas-redistricting-trump.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), or [quorum-busting](https://quorumreport.com//quorum%5Freport%5Fdaily%5Fbuzz%5F2025/texas%5Fhouse%5Fdemocrats%5Fencouraged%5Fto%5Fdeny%5Fquorum%5Fdu%5Fbuzziid32749.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), in protest of the redistricting plan — “I would do everything I can to help aid them in being able to pull it off,” U.S. Rep. Marc Veasey (D-Fort Worth) [told *The Texas Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/07/15/texas-democrats-redistricting-response-trump-republican-five-seats/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). In response, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said his office is prepared to “hunt down” lawmakers who “abandons their office and their constituents for cheap political theater.” “If Democrats ignore their duty to their constituents by breaking quorum, they should be found and arrested no matter where they go,” [Paxton wrote on X](https://x.com/KenPaxtonTX/status/1945173661704708547?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on Tuesday. ### What’s the Latest on Birthright Citizenship? What Trump’s Order Means for Immigrant Families URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/birthright-citizenship-legal-families/ Last updated: 2025-07-15T15:24:41.000Z *This story was originally written by* [Mel Leonor Barclay](https://19thnews.org/author/mel-leonor-barclay?ref=thebarbedwire.com) *and published by [The 19th\* News](https://19thnews.org/2025/07/birthright-citizenship-questions-legal-status-families/?ref=thebarbedwire.com).* Within hours of his inauguration, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that would withhold U.S. citizenship from the children of some immigrants born in the United States, calling the order a “big one.” The executive order would end a right that the U.S. Constitution has guaranteed for more than 150 years. The policy was immediately challenged in court and has never gone into effect, though its final fate remains unsettled. In late June, the Supreme Court struck down the nationwide injunctions that were blocking the order, throwing expecting parents into a state of limbo as advocates rushed to find other avenues to keep the policy from going into effect. Here are answers to the most pressing questions about Trump’s birthright citizen policy. ## What is the status of birthright citizenship rights in the United States right now? On July 10, a federal judge in New Hampshire blocked Trump’s executive order from going into effect while the question of its legality moves ahead in court. Judge Joseph LaPlante said he would certify a class-action lawsuit on behalf of all children affected by the executive order and issue a temporary injunction blocking the order from taking effect. LaPlante ruled that allowing the Trump administration to implement its policy would cause irreparable harm to the children denied U.S. citizenship. LaPlante gave the Trump administration seven days to challenge the ruling in federal appeals court. If that court doesn’t intervene, LaPlante’s ruling will go into effect next week, ahead of July 27, when Trump’s executive order takes effect in the 28 states that haven’t challenged it. Those states are led by Republican attorneys general who did not sue to block the order. ## What does this mean for immigrant parents expecting children or planning to grow their families? Right now, the children of immigrants born in the United States are automatically granted U.S. citizenship, regardless of their parents’ legal status to be in the country. (The law has some small exceptions, including children of foreign diplomats.) The recent ruling out of New Hampshire temporarily protects the right of children born to immigrants on U.S. soil to receive a U.S. birth certificate, a Social Security Number and U.S. passport — along with all of the benefits of citizenship. Parents targeted by Trump’s executive order, including mothers without permanent immigration status, should know that birthright citizenship rights are so far protected by only temporary rulings. The Trump administration remains committed to its policy of ending birthright citizenship. ## What does Trump’s executive order say, and who would be impacted if it goes into effect? Trump’s executive order, [“Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship,” ](https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/protecting-the-meaning-and-value-of-american-citizenship/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)would exclude two categories of infants from the right to U.S. citizenship: infants born to a mother who is unlawfully in the country and a father who is not a citizen or permanent resident, and infants born to a mother who is authorized to be in the country for a temporary period of time and a father who is not a U.S. citizen or permanent resident. The latter group includes people in the United States legally, including those with a work, student or tourist visa, or other form of temporary immigration status. It’s unclear how it would apply to [the children of LGBTQ+ couples or single moms](https://19thnews.org/2025/02/trump-birthright-citizenship-executive-order-lgbtq-families/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) since the order goes on to define mother and father as male and female “biological progenitors.” The order directs federal agencies to deprive these newborn babies of legal documents such as Social Security cards and U.S. passports. ## If the order goes into effect, how many potential babies stand to be impacted? An [analysis](https://www.migrationpolicy.org/news/birthright-citizenship-repeal-projections?ref=thebarbedwire.com) by the Migration Policy Institute and Penn States Population Research Institute estimates that about 255,000 children would be born without U.S. citizenship each year if Trump’s order goes into effect. Within 20 years, the policy would increase the number of unauthorized immigrants living in the country by 2.7 million. By 2075, that number would rise to 5.4 million. Some children of immigrant parents have no way to establish citizenship in their parents’ home countries. The policy would leave these children stateless. ## What did the Supreme Court rule? The U.S. Supreme Court has not formally weighed in on whether Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship violates the U.S. Constitution. The court instead took up a case brought forward by the Trump administration, which argued that the nationwide injunctions that blocked the order were too broad and allowed a single judge to block the president from carrying out their agenda. In a 6-3 ruling authored by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, the Supreme Court’s conservative justices ruled that [“federal courts do not exercise general oversight of the Executive Branch.”](https://19thnews.org/2025/06/supreme-court-birthright-citizenship-ruling/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) The ruling left the door open for class-action lawsuits, a more complicated legal mechanism that enabled the ruling out of New Hampshire blocking the order nationwide. Coney Barrett said the question of whether the order was constitutional was simply not before the court. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, meanwhile, said that proving that the policy is legal would be “an impossible task in light of the Constitution’s text.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/gettyimages-2215289028.jpg) WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 15: Olga Urbina (R) of Baltimore and her 9-month-old son Ares Webster participate in a protest outside the U.S. Supreme Court on May 14, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images) ## What does the Constitution say about birthright citizenship? The Constitution’s 14th Amendment states that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” The amendment was [enshrined in the Constitution in 1868](https://19thnews.org/2025/01/what-is-birthright-citizenship/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) as part of a decades-long effort by African Americans to end slavery and establish full citizenship rights for themselves and their children. The Supreme Court reaffirmed birthright citizenship in the 1898 landmark case United States v. Wong Kim Ark, which has been at the center of the arguments against Trump’s policy because it clarified that the children of immigrants are entitled to birthright citizenship. In Wong Kim Ark, the justices ruled that a man who was born in California to parents who were Chinese citizens was entitled to U.S. citizenship. ## What is the Trump administration’s argument? Trump’s Justice Department has argued that a reinterpretation of the 14th Amendment, specifically the line that says “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof,” allows the administration to exclude newborns who it doesn’t consider under its jurisdiction. ## When will the legality of Trump’s executive order be settled once and for all? It’s not clear yet as several cases challenging the order itself are making their way through the courts. Last month, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said the White House expects the Supreme Court to rule on the legality of the executive order by the fall. “Birthright citizenship will be decided in October, in the next session by the Supreme Court,” Bondi said. “We’re very confident in the Supreme Court.” *Candice Norwood contributed to this report.* ![](https://pixel.19thnews.org/2025/07/birthright-citizenship-questions-legal-status-families) ### Gov. Greg Abbott Claims His Emails with Elon Musk Are Too ‘Embarrassing, Intimate’ for Public Consumption URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/abbott-claims-musk-emails-too-embarrassing-intimate-for-public/ Last updated: 2025-07-14T16:55:51.000Z Texas Gov. Greg Abbott doesn’t want you reading his emails with the world’s richest man — not because he doesn’t want the public knowing about Elon Musk’s rapidly growing influence in the state. They’re simply too “intimate” and “embarrassing,” Abbott has claimed. In April, *The Texas Newsroom* requested records of email correspondence between Abbott, Abbott’s staff, and Musk, in an attempt to keep tabs on Musk’s thriving influence in the state. Abbott’s office has contested the request, invoking common-law privacy — a rule protecting public records that might “invade another individual’s personal privacy,” according to [FOIA,](https://www.foia.gov/faq.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) a federal law that allows the public to request government records. The emails contain “information that is intimate and embarrassing and not of legitimate concern to the public,” Matthew Taylor, Abbott’s public information coordinator, wrote in his [appeal letter](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25975648-2025-06-03-abbott-musk-comms-appeal/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to the Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office. They include “financial decisions that do not relate to transactions between an individual and governmental body,” the letter claimed. Privacy exemptions are not rare, but are often reserved for highly sensitive records containing medical data or information about children — not for “intimate” conversations between “an elected official and businessman,” attorney Bill Aleshire and expert on public records [told *The Texas Newsroom*.](https://www.propublica.org/article/texas-governor-greg-abbott-elon-musk-emails-foia?ref=thebarbedwire.com) “You’re boxing in the dark,” Aleshire said. “You can’t even see what the target is or what’s behind their claim.” Or, as a Reddit commenter put it: “That’s the stupidest thing they could have said. Now of course everyone wants to see the emails.” https://www.reddit.com/r/texas/comments/1lzkesu/comment/n32hjku/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web3x&utm\_name=web3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button While eyebrow-raising, Abbott’s appeal is not out of the ordinary for Texas legal precedent, where a [June 27 court ruling](https://spectrumlocalnews.com/tx/austin/news/2025/06/27/abbott-and-paxton-exempt-from-jan--6--uvalde-disclosure?ref=thebarbedwire.com) decided that Abbott and Paxton [did not need to release internal email communications](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/06/27/texas-supreme-court-paxton-abbott-uvalde-jan-6-emails/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) about the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, or the May 2022 Uvalde shootings. Even as Musk’s footholds in D.C. deteriorated during a very public spat with President Donald Trump, his power in Texas has remained strong. His small, but mighty, team of a dozen lobbyists have influenced “several new Texas laws,” Lauren McGaughy reports for [*The Texas Newsroom*](https://www.propublica.org/article/elon-musk-texas-lobbyists-influence-law?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Musk’s advocacy efforts have flourished behind closed doors, though — shielded by the state’s murky transparency laws, which allow lobbyists to conceal which politicians they’ve “wined and dined.” It’s safe to say many Texans love Musk. Tesla registrations soared in Texas, even though they plummeted nationally, [*Axios* reported](https://www.axios.com/local/austin/2025/06/09/amid-backlash-tesla-sales-resilient-texas?utm%5Fsource=newsletter&utm%5Fmedium=email&utm%5Fcampaign=newsletter%5Faxioslocal%5Fsanantonio&stream=top) in June. This year, his lobbyists successfully passed [swaths of policies](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/07/02/elon-musk-texas-politics-legislature-laws-spacex-tesla/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that would benefit his SpaceX endeavors (and successfully [killed a bill](https://www.billtrack50.com/billdetail/1854461?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that would regulate autonomous vehicles, right when Tesla robotaxis are coming under fire for [hit-and-run risks](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/tesla-robotaxis-launching-austin-amid-safety-concerns/)). And, Musk just won a [city council fight](https://www.kut.org/politics/2025-07-09/elon-musk-texas-house-fence-vote?ref=thebarbedwire.com) with his neighbors about his, frankly, ugly fence. And now, it seems unlikely his “intimate” emails with the governor will see the light of day. So needless to say, he seems to be doing fine. ### Texas Just Made Gold Legal Tender. Here’s How to Spend Grandma’s Jewelry Responsibly. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-gold-bullion/ Last updated: 2025-07-14T08:12:00.000Z Texans, start hoarding your doubloons. Gold and silver are now legal tender in the Lone Star State — which is great news for anyone who’s been dying to tip their bartender in Krugerrands. Yes, while the state is busy dealing with [immigration raids](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/she-was-a-rising-senior-on-the-honor-roll-ice-just-upended-her-life/), [floods](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/camp-mystic-campers-grieve-magical-place-100-years-flood-texas-guadalupe/), and Attorney General [Ken Paxton’s ultra-messy divorce](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/10/us/ken-paxton-wife-divorce.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Texas has also declared that what we need is *more metal* (and not the cool kind that worships Satan when you play the record backwards). Gov. Greg Abbott recently [signed House Bill 1056 into law](https://www.capitol.state.tx.us/BillLookup/Text.aspx?LegSess=89R&Bill=HB1056&ref=thebarbedwire.com), which allows Texans to make purchases with precious metals, because apparently we’ve decided as a state to cosplay as a 19th-century railroad tycoon (and let’s be honest, even those guys probably had a servant write a check). The new law, which goes into effect in phases starting next year (presumably after everyone has finished digging through their grandma’s jewelry box), allows Texans to load up debit cards (or apps) with gold and silver stored in the state-run [Texas Bullion Depository](https://texasbulliondepository.gov/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Which, yes, is a real thing. Because if Texas can’t secede, it’ll at least build a gold fort and start acting like it already did. According to Abbott, this is all about honoring the Constitution — the part where we all get to pretend we’re still on the gold standard, just with better Wi-Fi. “This fulfills the promise of Article 1, Section 10 of the U.S. Constitution,” Abbott declared on X, presumably while polishing his commemorative Sam Houston musket. > [](https://twitter.com/GregAbbott%5FTX/status/1939390450529337684?ref=thebarbedwire.com) One retailer, Terry Black’s Barbecue, [replied](https://x.com/TerryBlacks%5FBBQ/status/1939391880099450950?ref=thebarbedwire.com) tongue-in-cheekily (we think?): “We will accept your gold bars in exchange for brisket.” The logic behind all this? Inflation, mostly. [Kevin Freeman, an economist and author, testified](https://www.kxan.com/news/texas-politics/gold-silver-become-legal-tender-in-texas-under-new-law/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in March that the U.S. dollar has lost “95% of its value in my lifetime.” He noted that money is supposed to be “a unit of account, a means of exchange, and a store of value,” and he claimed the dollar is only good at the first two. Gold, meanwhile, just sits there all shiny and reassuring. And to “prove” the tech works, lawmakers heard from UK resident (!) Jason Cozens, who founded Glint, a company that already offers gold-backed payment cards (what a fun coincidence!). Cozens has been [shopping Glint around for nearly a decade](https://london-wealth.com/speakers/mr-jason-cozens/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and has [recorded himself buying things via the system](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/1oa3EXl8D9M?ref=thebarbedwire.com) which … basically seems like using a credit card. To clarify: This law doesn’t mean you’ll be clinking coins onto the Whataburger counter. Apps like Glint will convert gold into dollars at the point of sale, which kind of defeats the whole point of making gold legal tender — but don’t worry, this is about freedom. Specifically, the freedom to complicate your financial life with commodity speculation (and give money to unnecessary middle men like Cozens). But not everyone was polishing their ingots. Victoria North, speaking for the Texas Comptroller’s office, flagged some fairly important constitutional concerns — like the fact that the federal government is the only entity allowed to coin money. She even warned in a hearing this could expose state employees to criminal liability. “The United States has the sole power to coin money. Under the Constitution, and if anyone, individual or state assumes to supplant the medium of exchange adopted by our government, or assumes to compete with the United States government, in this regard, a violation of these statutes would follow,” North testified, [per KXAN](https://www.kxan.com/news/texas-politics/gold-silver-become-legal-tender-in-texas-under-new-law/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). North admitted she’s not a constitutional law specialist — but she did call this the *only* bill she’s reviewed that raised this kind of red flag. So, gold stars all around. But why stop at gold and silver? If we’re going back to old-school currency, let’s go all the way. Bring back cattle as payment. Make beaver pelts legal tender. Pay your rent in shells and bear teeth. At least then we’d be honest about what this is: a symbolic, performative gesture designed to impress libertarian YouTubers and that one guy at the farmer’s market who wears a “Ron Paul Was Right” shirt. The most incredible part? This isn’t even new. [Utah started this movement in 2011](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-stgeorgeutah-com/news/utah-becomes-1st-in-nation-to-approve-gold-and-silver-payments-for-state-vendors/article%5Fbf1f168a-0426-11f0-8859-cb9cfcc2c5bc.html). Now [Arkansas, Florida](https://ibat.org/arkansas-florida-get-in-on-the-gold-rush/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [and Missouri](https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/missouri-approves-bill-to-allow-gold-silver-payments-for-groceries-and-taxes/ar-AA1EpZU1?ocid=finance-verthp-feedshttps://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/missouri-approves-bill-to-allow-gold-silver-payments-for-groceries-and-taxes/ar-AA1EpZU1?ocid=finance-verthp-feeds&ref=thebarbedwire.com) have joined in, because nothing builds public trust like watching your government invest in a medieval banking system while your city floods and your power grid wheezes like a donkey with a three-pack-a-day habit. The Texas version is especially ambitious, thanks to its electronic payment system. So no, you won’t be lugging around sacks of coins like you’re on your way to duel Doc Holliday — you’ll just load up your phone with bullion, swipe at H-E-B, and walk away happily knowing that you participated in yet another pointless system favored only by your libertarian buddy from college. But hey, if your city floods or the grid collapses, at least you can cling to your “store of value” and shout “Constitution!” into the wind. The full transactional currency system will be online May 1, 2027\. So get ready to go back to the future (sorry Marty, you should have paid for that flux capacitor in shiny nuggets). It’s shiny, slow, and possibly unconstitutional. But in Texas, that’s just another Tuesday. ### In Natural Disasters, Community Matters More Than Ever. ‘Help’s Not Coming from the Government.’ URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-flood-volunteers-fema-climate-change/ Last updated: 2026-07-18T17:45:05.000Z “I’m about to lose her,” yelled a volunteer firefighter in [Wall, Texas on July 4](https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story%5Ffbid=pfbid02Wmz5xYULjGaAhkdnntWUs49b4QTncXtsKbU11p9kvCjqJGbVNhDuF6PGeU1Qh9jnl&id=100064412782780). Chief John Manera’s team of unpaid men without swiftwater rescue training were stopping the current from dragging a woman to near-certain death. In a video capturing the operation, two men are submerged up to their necks, their orange flotation devices keeping their heads just above the waterline. One holds tight to the woman, lying on her back as the deluge of water tears off one of her shoes. The other reaches for a rope. A small line of volunteers — homeowners, farmers, and ranchers who showed up to help — hold the other end. The Good Samaritans seemingly appeared on their own, Manera said. “We needed assistance, to tend to the ropes we were using to get this lady to safety,” he said. “I don’t know who might have put the word out but … we were very thankful to the community for helping.” In 46 years as a firefighter, this was Manera’s first-ever water rescue, he told me afterward. There are no rivers in the unincorporated community in Tom Green County two hours north of Kerrville, where the worst of the flash floods hit. There are no lakes. No swiftwater rescue team. And few that could reach them in time. Manera called neighboring Dove Creek Volunteer Fire Department, whose members are more familiar with the intricacies of water rescue, the Tom Green County Sheriff’s Office, the San Angelo Fire Department, the Texas Department of Public Safety, and the Texas Game Warden. Unfortunately, most routes to the stranded woman were inundated with 9-plus inches of rain that fell quickly on Independence Day morning. Everyone had to find alternate approaches to the scene, including a boat from Texas Parks and Wildlife, and Manera. By the time Manera arrived, one thing was clear: They couldn’t wait for a boat if they were going to get her out of the water alive. As one rescuer fought to keep his grip on her, another plunged into the water. Three men finally attached the rope to a flotation device they’d helped her put on. The line of volunteers on the other end started heaving. A harrowing 60 seconds later and the woman was carried out of the water. By the time the rescue boat from Texas Parks and Wildlife arrived, she was already receiving medical care. https://videopress.com/v/YwlcbJCa?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true Courtesy of Rhonda Podschelne **‘Help’s Not Coming from the Government’** “Search and rescue in the United States is 99% volunteer,” Chris Boyer, the executive director at the National Association for Search and Rescue, told me in an interview in the days after the floods. Apparently, that’s been the case since famous historic missions like the search for the Donner party in the 1840s. I’ve covered my fair share of natural disasters as a reporter. Is it weird I didn’t know that? Boyer explained that people often assume search and rescue falls under law enforcement, but it doesn’t. Volunteer in this case doesn’t mean novice. They’re often highly-trained individuals who work with nonprofit and other organizations to donate their time and expertise. There are simply “very, very few” paid search and rescue positions “outside of the National Park Service,” Boyer said. “There are rangers that have rescue responsibility, but it's usually ancillary to other duties.” In Texas, he said, there’s no state law requiring sheriff’s departments or other municipal agencies to “have a search and rescue team, or any standards or training or anything.” So what we’re left with is a bunch of overlapping teams in highly populated areas like Houston but far fewer in areas with fewer residents, like Kerrville. “They're an underserved population,” Boyer said. Last week, well before anyone in Kerrville — and the rest of Central Texas — got a chance to grill hotdogs or wave along parade routes, the remnants of Tropical Storm Berry collided with a stalled frontal boundary over the Hill Country. Moisture from the Gulf of Mexico morphed into downpours as kids on summer break clutched stuffies in Airbnbs along the Guadalupe River. Swimsuits and sunscreen were still tucked in campers’ trunks as the water exploded over its banks. Surviving campers [told reporters](https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2025/07/12/heroes-at-camp-mystic-saved-my-granddaughters-and-others/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) they shoved their retainers into their pajama pockets as they swam out of their cabins. By the time most saw the muddy water it was too late to call for help. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/gettyimages-2223429693.jpg) A man checks his phone at a rally point where food and supplies were provided for those in need on July 7, 2025 in Hunt, Texas. (Photo by Jim Vondruska/Getty Images) As of Thursday, at least 121 people were dead and 160 remained missing. There’s no question that first responders saved countless lives. But for every [Scott Ruskan](https://people.com/coast-guard-swimmer-who-rescued-165-camp-mystic-texas-floods-speaks-out-11767315?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — the U.S. Coast Guard rescue swimmer who helped save 165 people at Camp Mystic in the hours after the river rose 26 feet in 45 minutes — there were many more civilians who, out of heroism or necessity, stepped into the fray. [Counselors at neighboring Camp La Junta](https://people.com/counselors-all-boys-camp-saved-hundreds-texas-floodwaters-11769127-11769127?ref=thebarbedwire.com) were hailed for getting all 400 boys there to safety. As were [bus drivers and coaches](https://www.cnn.com/weather/live-news/texas-flooding-camp-mystic-07-10-25?ref=thebarbedwire.com#cmcxittpg000s356n0c32dhw0) from Kerrville Independent School District for driving those hundreds of campers out of the flood zone. [Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum](https://www.nmas.com.mx/nacional/politica/sheinbaum-reconoce-a-mexicanas-que-rescataron-a-jovenes-de-inundaciones-en-texas/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) applauded two young [women working at Camp Mystic](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/camp-mystic-alum-remembers-past-flood/) as part of an international exchange program for keeping child survivors there safe and calm. Public officials from the local to federal level have called the floods “unprecedented,” saying they had [“no reason to believe”](https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/texas-floods-emergency-response-system-funding-weather-warnings-rcna217308?ref=thebarbedwire.com) the flooding would be so severe. In press conferences, officials have largely rebuffed questions about preparedness, alert systems, and why so many have died. Instead, they’ve touted the numbers of first responders and state agencies on scene. Wednesday, [Gov. Greg Abbott said](https://gov.texas.gov/news/post/governor-abbott-continues-state-response-recovery-efforts-for-texans-impacted-by-flooding?ref=thebarbedwire.com) the state had deployed over 2,200 personnel and more than 1,200 vehicles and equipment assets, with more than 20 state agencies responding to flooding threats. Yet, much of the search and rescue efforts have been carried out by volunteers like John Manera’s firefighters in Wall. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/gettyimages-2223415459.jpg) Volunteers unload a semi-truck full of supplies delivered by Convoy of Hope to Gateway Kerrville Church for those in need and who were affected by the deadly flash flooding in Ingram, Texas. (Photo by Jim Vondruska/Getty Images) It was [volunteer firefighters](https://www.kut.org/energy-environment/2025-07-08/kerr-county-residents-say-emergency-alert-messages-sporadic-inconsistent-in-wake-of-floods?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAae7fx4fYs1VtVa7Hif%5FFUctBHvzC5ipHbdADmKcYtwk9dFI%5FmWEVIW90CYOrQ%5Faem%5FJFg9H-VBJpakmMTaOFp9UQ&ref=thebarbedwire.com) who asked that dispatchers issue a “CodeRED” alert to Hunt residents at 4:22 a.m. on July 4, [KUT reported](https://www.kut.org/energy-environment/2025-07-08/kerr-county-residents-say-emergency-alert-messages-sporadic-inconsistent-in-wake-of-floods?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAae7fx4fYs1VtVa7Hif%5FFUctBHvzC5ipHbdADmKcYtwk9dFI%5FmWEVIW90CYOrQ%5Faem%5FJFg9H-VBJpakmMTaOFp9UQ&ref=thebarbedwire.com). (Some residents told [*The Texas Standard*](https://www.kut.org/energy-environment/2025-07-08/kerr-county-residents-say-emergency-alert-messages-sporadic-inconsistent-in-wake-of-floods?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAae7fx4fYs1VtVa7Hif%5FFUctBHvzC5ipHbdADmKcYtwk9dFI%5FmWEVIW90CYOrQ%5Faem%5FJFg9H-VBJpakmMTaOFp9UQ&ref=thebarbedwire.com) they didn’t receive any alerts until after 10 a.m., despite that request.) MARK9 is a Dallas-based SAR team that uses cadaver dogs to perform search and rescue operations at the request of government agencies. About 10 handlers and four dogs were in the field on Thursday, MARK9 team leader Zephrin Allen told *The Barbed Wire*. Allen himself had been on the ground in Kerrville and said he’d seen between 50 and 75 volunteers. Alpha SAR, based in the Houston area, also deployed nine personnel and two K-9 dogs. Operation Outreach America said they had 11 volunteers in the field, including two helicopters, four pilots, and four cadaver dogs. The San Antonio-based Alamo Area SAR said they have between 18 to 20 team members, and between six to nine K-9 teams, working at any given time. Team Rubicon, a national humanitarian organization, has more than 60 volunteers aiding flood relief efforts — and expects “easily over” 100 in the next two weeks, a spokesperson told *The Barbed Wire*. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/gettyimages-2224540354.jpg) Volunteer search and rescue teams from Mexico speak together during operations at the Guadalupe River near Camp Mystic on July 10, 2025 in Hunt, Texas. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images) Meanwhile, faith-based aid group Samaritan’s Purse sent out 95 volunteers for “muck and gut” work, cleaning up flood damage in homes. Civilian volunteers are the “tip of the spear,” Brian Trascher, vice president of the volunteer-based aid group United Cajun Navy, told *The Barbed Wire*. The Louisiana-based organization popped up to assist with search and rescue operations in the devastation from Hurricane Katrina, and since has become a staple of natural disasters. Still, some have vented frustration that more first responders weren’t deployed in advance. Members of the Austin Firefighters Association said they were given an order not to heed calls for pre-deployment along the Guadalupe River. They’ve now called for a [vote of no confidence](https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/austin-firefighters-union-votes-on-no-confidence-resolution-against-afd-chief-after-flood-response-accusations/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in Austin’s fire chief. For years, experts have warned of the likelihood of harsher flood events due to climate change, which will require more rescue operations, boots on the ground, and rebuilding missions. “The extreme rainfall events are getting more intense and frequent because there's more water vapor in the air,” [meteorologist Jeff Masters](https://yaleclimateconnections.org/author/jmasters/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), who blogs about extreme weather and climate change for [Yale Climate Connections](https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2025/07/devastating-flash-floods-slam-texas-hill-country-tropical-storm-chantal-heads-for-carolinas/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), told me in an interview on Tuesday. > “It offloads everything to the volunteer... The feds say ‘it's not our problem.’ The states won't be capable, and so the volunteers are still going to pick up the slack for everything.” One early [study of the July 4 floods by ClimaMeter](https://www.climameter.org/20250704-texas-floods?ref=thebarbedwire.com) at the Institut Pierre Simon Laplace in Paris, France, found that conditions like those leading up to the flash floods are up to 7% wetter than in the past. [Michael Wehner](https://crd.lbl.gov/divisions/amcr/computational-science-dept/acsd/staff/staff-members/michael-wehner/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a senior scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory who researches extreme weather in a changing climate, [posted on Bluesky](https://bsky.app/profile/michaelfwehner.bsky.social/post/3lta2pgptwk2q?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that the flooding was “undoubtedly made worse because of climate change.” “I would estimate that there was 7-20% more rainfall” than there would have been without human interference in the climate, he said. [Masters](https://yaleclimateconnections.org/author/jmasters/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) told methat’s a significant amount when you’re talking about whether flood waters reach the top of structures like summer camp cabins. “We’re not used to seeing death tolls like that in the U.S. in freshwater flooding events,” Masters said, “but I think we’re going to have to start getting used to these death tolls.” On top of that, the Independence Day floods mark the largest-scale natural disaster since President Donald Trump announced in June that [he wanted to “wean off”](https://apnews.com/article/fema-hurricane-season-trump-eliminate-state-funding-25fb7714414e17fa51156be7e91a4474?utm%5Fsource=www.thehandbasket.co&utm%5Fmedium=referral&utm%5Fcampaign=fema-response-to-deadly-texas-floods-delayed-deficient-with-noem-in-charge) the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Trump activated FEMA on Sunday, but sources in the agency told [Marisa Kabas with *The Handbasket*](https://www.thehandbasket.co/p/fema-response-deadly-texas-floods-delayed-deficient-noem?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that, as of Monday, “barely any staff” had been deployed to Kerr County, and the Acting Administrator David Richardson “is nowhere to be found.” One current FEMA employee told [*The Handbasket*](https://www.thehandbasket.co/p/fema-response-deadly-texas-floods-delayed-deficient-noem?ref=thebarbedwire.com) they’d typically have already had hundreds of people on the scene, including search and rescue. As [CNN reported](https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/09/politics/fema-texas-flood-noem?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem recently enacted a rule requiring her personal sign-off for every grant over $100,000\. (Weather disasters now routinely exceed $1 billion in damage.) FEMA officials needed Noem’s approval before sending regionally-stationed Urban Search and Rescue crews to Texas — a previously standard practice. Noem didn’t authorize the deployment until Monday, more than 72 hours after the flooding began, sources told CNN. FEMA, Boyer realizes, has gotten a bad wrap. But since 1979, it has been the great equalizer for poorer and less populated parts of the country, like Kerrville. For example, Texas Task Force One sent out the call for aid to the Austin Fire Department and to other agencies — they’re a statewide urban search and rescue team under direction of the Texas Division of Emergency Management, which also coordinates the state’s swiftwater rescue program and the helicopter search and rescue team. The group has a [$7 million cache](https://texastaskforce1.org/1448-no-title/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of supplies thanks to FEMA. Take that away, and you’re putting more strain on volunteers, just as deadlier weather events are happening more frequently. “It offloads everything to the volunteer,” Boyer said. “The feds say ‘it's not our problem.’ The states won't be capable, and so the volunteers are still going to pick up the slack for everything.” That volunteers will bear the brunt of deadlier, costlier weather disasters is just another part of our new, political and climate changed reality, Masters agreed. “Everyone needs to understand that this is a whole new world that we’re on the doorstep of, life is going to change for everybody,” Masters said. “You really need to find a local situation and community that is strong and will support each other because help’s not coming from the government.” **‘We Can Use This Canoe to Help Some People’** I’ve been thinking about our ability to survive climate change-fueled weather disasters since September, when Hurricane Helene hit the Carolinas. I stayed up way too late the night the storm made its way into Western North Carolina, watching video after video of severe flooding in the Appalachian Mountains, a place where I’d gone to school, gotten my first job as a reporter, and crossed from adolescence to adulthood. It felt impossible. Even more so than the July 4 floods — Central Texas is one of the most flood-prone places in the country. But a hurricane in the mountains? And in a place like Asheville, [dubbed a climate haven](https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/10/01/asheville-climate-haven-flooding-hurricane/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for its moderate temperatures for the south and distance from the coast? The next morning, my husband Chris forwarded me an update from his sister, Sally Warren, who lives in Hendersonville, North Carolina, with her husband Eric and three children. They were safe, with food and water, no power, and patchy cell service. Only their basement flooded. > "People were in danger, holding onto their gutters and in their attics, and it was up to Eric in his canoe.” But their neighborhood was submerged, unreachable by emergency responders. Eric had pulled 10 people from the water in a canoe he’d randomly gotten for free from a local summer camp and fixed up himself. Just months earlier, he’d taken lessons in paddling and basic safety. He and another neighbor used a chainsaw to cut one couple out of their attic. Several were now sleeping at their house. They’d turned their carport into a home base. On the morning of Sept. 27, 2024 the Warrens woke as the winds from Hurricane Helene died down. They walked outside to see, with relief, that their house was intact, but flood waters had risen high into the valleys of their hilly neighborhood. Their neighbor Stacy approached, soaked after swimming from her sodden house towards their relative dry patch. She was worried about her chickens and ducks, which she’d left in cages on her countertops, just above where the water had risen. “So I said, ‘Well I’ll go get my canoe and I'll take you down and we’ll get those out of your house and they can stay with us,’” Eric told me later. That was when he first realized, “Oh, we can use this canoe to help some people.” As he ferried Stacy back down the hill, Eric saw another neighbor, Rose, standing on her front porch, water up to her chest. “I’m coming to get you!” he shouted. As flood water steadily climbed inside her house, Rose had packed a bag, grabbed a life jacket, put their cats in a carrier, and stood on the porch. The current was so strong she didn’t dare cross it. Instead, she blew the whistle on her life jacket and activated the SOS on her Garmin. Her husband, a paramedic, received the alert but couldn’t get to her. Rose watched as multiple boats, including a jon boat — an aluminum fishing boat with a flat bottom — with a motor, failed to reach her. Eric, fresh from his tidal current experience, paddled over, got her in the canoe, and back to their house on relatively high ground. Afterward, several neighbors congregated where the road disappeared below the water, when a kayaker yelled, “Call 911, there are people in the water!” Sally tried on her cell, which still had a charge. But the call dropped each time. OK, she thought. No one realizes we’re out here and need help. It’s just us. “It was weird,” my sister-in-law told me. “Your brain goes into just trying to protect you at that point. I couldn’t wrap my mind around it… that people were in danger, holding onto their gutters and in their attics, and it was up to Eric in his canoe.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/helene2.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/helene1.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/helene3.jpg) **‘One of the First Things That Shut Down’** To many Americans, FEMA is the group that shows up in the aftermath of a disaster wearing jackets with white letters on the back, handing out checks to people whose houses have been flattened by tornados or waterlogged by hurricanes. But the agency touches nearly every aspect of natural disaster response. Roughly 85% of fire departments across the country are volunteer or mostly volunteer, according to a [national database](https://apps.usfa.fema.gov/registry/summary?ref=thebarbedwire.com) run by FEMA. FEMA also runs the National Fire Academy that trains them for free. “It is specifically there to help small volunteer fire departments. When you sign up and you get accepted to a class there, FEMA pays for everything. They pay for your air flight. They pay for your housing,” said Boyer. “That's how we get trained, standardized, credentialed firefighters into small communities.” But under the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, “that was one of the first things that shut down.” The academy abruptly closed in March. The reason cited was [travel expenses for non-employees](https://marylandmatters.org/2025/03/17/advocates-worry-national-fire-academy-closing-will-have-foundational-impact/?ref=thebarbedwire.com): the Trump administration didn’t want to pay to fly volunteer firefighters to the academy. After [pressure from Congress](https://www.nvfc.org/national-fire-academy-to-reopen-in-june/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), it [reopened in June](https://www.fema.gov/press-release/20250522/fema-resumes-person-trainings-national-schoolhouses-strengthen-state-and?fbclid=IwY2xjawKcOf1leHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETF3OGtndnduQ3BYN29QTE1VAR5ju451OFXn-4YUvxCBU4JZh5DQDD7fVx3pM4N4Q%5FIJtN1LM05Iop6mei8-aw%5Faem%5FW%5FfguyLRWAzs7VLb7bELqA&ref=thebarbedwire.com). Also under FEMA is the aforementioned Texas [Task Force One](https://texastaskforce1.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), whose protocol is to call in task force members ahead of large-scale disaster events like the July 4 floods. The members respond to the requests by pre-rostering specially trained rescue workers for deployment. Bob Nicks, president of the Austin Firefighters Association who has nearly 40 years experience as a firefighter in Central Texas, told *The Barbed Wire* that after answering the call, task force members typically head to the county at risk and begin surveying areas that are expected to have the highest impact. Nicks said in past deployments, task force members have connected with community members to let them know about possible emergencies. They also start mapping out routes and have their rescue equipment in place and ready to go once a natural disaster begins. But in the days before the flood, the Austin Fire Department didn’t answer the call from Texas Task Force One like in past years. Nicks said that on July 2, two days before the flooding began, Austin firefighters received a GroupMe text from Texas Task Force One. Austin Fire has “an agreement with the state to say yes when they call, unless there's exceptional reasons that you shouldn't say yes.” Nicks said this time around there was a standing order from Austin Fire Chief Joel Baker from June to deny deployments until the end of the fiscal year due to budgetary constraints. So firefighters did not respond to the request. The same thing happened again the next day, on July 3, as they got another request. Refusing to answer a request for pre-deployment goes against best-practices in emergency services, Nicks explained, even if no one knows the severity of a weather event in advance. “The whole nature of emergency response is to anticipate problems and pre-deploy, so you have resources on the scene when it happens, rather than reacting to when it’s already occurred,” he said. In an interview with [KXAN](https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/austin-firefighters-union-votes-on-no-confidence-resolution-against-afd-chief-after-flood-response-accusations/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Baker said there was no delay and that his department sent three rescue swimmers and will continue to support the response to the floods in Central Texas. Nicks disagrees. “The fire chief, in my professional assessment … caused lives to be lost.” **‘I See You, and I’m Going to Help You’** In those early hours on Sept. 27 as Helene’s waters continued dumping more than a foot of rainfall along the Appalachians, Jeri and Raymond Parker, both in their late 60s, woke up to Clear Creek on the top step of their porch in Hendersonville, North Carolina. Raymond knew it was too late to get his truck out, so they called 911. The dispatcher, however, told them no one would be coming. > “I said, ‘I see you, and I'm going to help you.’ But man, I knew I was either going to be able to help them or I was going to have to leave them.” Raymond grabbed a knife and cut into the ceiling as the water crested the kitchen cabinets. They pulled themselves into their attic, then Raymond broke a hole in the eve, and waved his arm out. That’s when Eric, my brother in law, saw a flash of red. Raymond’s sleeve. “I had a really sickening feeling when I saw them, and I paddled up right below their window. I said, ‘I see you, and I'm going to help you.’ But man, I knew I was either going to be able to help them or I was going to have to leave them,” Eric said. “I knew I wasn’t going to put myself into danger and do something foolish, that was a really, really awful feeling. Just knowing it was going to be one of those two.” There’s a reason for natural disaster training. Members of Texas Task Force One participate in over 25,000 hours of training per year. Their members have nearly 30 specialized boats for swiftwater rescue and specialized ropes and equipment to support tethered rescues when waters are dangerous. Many of the volunteer organizations, like the newer Operation Outreach America that responded to Hurricane Helene, participate in regular training. Last month, as [*The New York Times* reported](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/26/us/politics/as-fema-shrinks-a-grassroots-disaster-response-is-taking-shape.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), many newer disaster rescue organizations gathered in Tennessee to train and discuss better coordination in emergency situations. Just this week, officials in Kerr County stressed the importance of volunteers with appropriate training — because rescue teams can’t afford to stop searches to rescue untrained people. Of course, even those with training are putting themselves in danger: Marble Falls Volunteer Fire Chief Michael Phillips, who served in his role for 30 years, [remained missing](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siIV1tmJcYw&ref=thebarbedwire.com) as of Thursday. His vehicle was swept away by floodwaters while Phillips responded to emergency calls on Saturday, [according to KVUE.](https://www.kvue.com/article/news/state/texas-news/texas-flood/fire-chief-texas-flood-search-michael-phillips/269-ad3ef80e-924d-4008-b154-4ae2ce68c48c?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Boyer, with the National Association for Search and Rescue, said people who want to volunteer often “don't realize that they are risking their future lives.” For example, if a volunteer has an open sore that isn’t under the proper protective gear, bacteria in silt exposed by floods can cause an infection and result in medical bills. That’s a problem for even trained volunteers because in most states, Texas included, there are no protections like workers compensation or disability. If you get hurt, even if you’re with a volunteer group called in by a sheriff or government official, “that sheriff's not going to take care of you, that county is not going to take care of you, that state is not going to take care of you,” Boyer said. “That volunteer now has gone out to be a steward in their community, taking risk, and now they're victimized by that stewardship.” My brother-in-law Eric called his canoe instructor later to thank him — he credits the lessons for being able to help when he did. Luckily, he and his neighbors found a way to safely get the Parkers out of their flooded home. They tracked down a chainsaw, and — balancing on the porch roof — they cut a hole large enough for Jeri and Raymond to climb through and into the black canoe. **‘All These People Coming Together’** When I first learned about Eric’s heroics, I was on a short break from teaching a class of graduate journalism students about themes and universal truths. I’d just told them the old adage about cliches: They’re trite on the word level, but inescapable when you get to concept and form. As I dismissed everyone for lunch, I re-read the text, stopping on the canoe. In the parable of the drowning man, an acolyte in the midst of a flood waits for the Lord to save him as he turns away people’s offers of help. Some show up in boats, others in helicopters. In [at least one](https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/fumbling-for-change/200905/two-boats-and-a-helicopter-thoughts-on-stress-management?ref=thebarbedwire.com) version of the tale, help is offered from one of the townsfolk in a canoe. In another, it’s a pickup truck. All variations end in the same fashion: The man drowns. After he dies, he asks why God didn’t save him despite his faith in the Almighty. God responds that he’d sent boats and helicopters and canoes. What else could he do? Many have noted the incredible, life-saving acts of service in Texas over the last week, as they did in North Carolina last fall. It has left me thinking, again, about the canoes we may be missing to help us survive climate change. Then I found an article in [*Yes* magazine](https://www.yesmagazine.org/environment/2013/12/31/why-moving-less-means-easier-climate-adaptation-and-less-holiday-flying?ref=thebarbedwire.com) by Madeline Ostrander. “Sense of place, community, and rootedness aren’t just poetic ideas,” Ostrander wrote. “They are survival mechanisms.” Ostrander reported that [“place attachment,”](https://www.yesmagazine.org/environment/2013/12/31/why-moving-less-means-easier-climate-adaptation-and-less-holiday-flying?ref=thebarbedwire.com) or bonding between individuals and their environments, can help individuals and communities prepare for, cope with, and recover from crises like climate-change fueled disasters, according to [several](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0143622825000426?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [studies](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0959378012001100?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on the [topic](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11069-022-05316-9?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Belonging to a community, it turns out, can increase our sense of collective responsibility when disaster strikes. The science isn’t conclusive — it never is — and there’s some evidence that such attachments can also blind people to the risks of living in certain places. Camp Mystic, the nearly 100-year-old Christian girls camp along the banks of the Guadalupe River in the hardest-hit area of the flood, had seen similar floods before. It sits on a piece of land that’s known to be [“extremely hazardous”](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/07/09/us/camp-mystic-texas-cabins.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) as a flood risk, and 1.3 million Texas homes are also “susceptible to dangerous floodwaters” across the state, [according to a state estimate](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/05/28/texas-state-flood-plan/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) reported by [*The Texas Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/07/09/texas-floods-growth-kerr-county-camp-mystic/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). But on the flip side, some researchers have suggested that place attachment is under-utilized as a way to engage people about climate resilience. “Whether they realize it or not, a lot of the connection people feel here is a connection to nature,” said David Koger, a digital product leader who lives in San Antonio and spent Tuesday as a volunteer canvassing the banks of the Guadalupe River in Sisterdale. That’s about 30 miles east of Kerrville. “Everyone has floated the river, gone to summer camps, spent time in the Hill Country,” he told me. “People go there because they find it a peaceful place.” Koger was joined by dozens of other civilians assigned sections of a grid by the Sisterdale Volunteer Fire Department. Their hope was to find any signs of the more than 160 people missing. His small group walked miles of debris-strewn terrain and marked the locations of three places on GPS that warranted further investigation. They thought two were likely animals, but they weren’t sure about the other one. To have that morbid experience in a place where people typically go to relax was jarring, Koger said. And why he thinks others like himself — with zero or limited experience in search and rescue — volunteered. “All these people coming together doing what they can to restore it,” Koger said, “I think there’s a level of ‘I need to fix this place so I can have it again, (so) that it exists.’” That kind of Texas Strong mentality is now a key to surviving our new climate, said Masters, the meteorologist, as are more practical considerations like whether local municipalities are financially stable. Rachel Lane saw a Facebook post asking for riders to assist with mounted search and rescue after the floods, and she told *The Barbed Wire* she knew she had to go. “Horseback riding isn’t often a useful skill in 2025 — and not every horse is suited to search and rescue,” said Lane, who joined Kerr County Floods Mounted Search and Rescue Volunteers. “Horses like that are rare. I’m lucky enough to have both the training and a horse I trust with my life.” https://videopress.com/v/w7OgdraD?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true https://videopress.com/v/ylhhM2ny?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true On Monday night she got the call that her services were needed, and along with two other rider friends, loaded up a trailer at 2 a.m. and headed for Ingram. After their neighbors were safely out of the flood waters, Sally and Eric opened their doors to everyone in the neighborhood. They had a generator, and their house was one of the few that was dry without a felled tree poking through some portion. They also had a freezer full of chickens they’d raised and harvested that spring. They served three meals a day for seven households under their carport on folding tables with paper clothes, and they took sack lunches to neighbors whose houses had flooded. “It was such a tragedy, unprecedented, none of us ever expected it, and hopefully we’ll never see it again. But man, it brought out some of the most encouraging and beautiful times,” Sally said. “A community is a bunch of different people with different skills. No one was hoarding resources, they would have given you the shirt off their backs,” she added. “We couldn’t give enough.” **The Barbed Wire *Senior Editor Leslie Rangel and News Fellow Riya Misra contributed to this report, along with Ella Robinson at the*** [**Investigative Reporting Workshop**](https://investigativereportingworkshop.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)**, *a nonprofit newsroom at American University.*** *Correction: This story previous misspelled David Koger’s name as Kroger.* The Barbed Wire *regrets the error.* ### She Was a Rising Senior on the Honor Roll. ICE Just Upended her Life. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/she-was-a-rising-senior-on-the-honor-roll-ice-just-upended-her-life/ Last updated: 2025-07-10T15:59:34.000Z *This story was originally written by [Nadra Nittle](https://19thnews.org/author/nadra-nittle?ref=thebarbedwire.com)* *and published by [The 19th\* News](https://19thnews.org/2025/07/ice-immigration-los-angeles-high-school-student/?ref=thebarbedwire.com).* On July 4, Nory Sontay Ramos stepped off a flight from San Antonio into a country she hardly recognized: Guatemala. The summer wasn’t supposed to start this way. The 17-year-old had plans. In early June, she wrapped up 11th grade on a high note, having made the honor roll and represented her Los Angeles high school in the city finals for track. With track season over, she turned her attention to cross-country, showing up to campus for practice after the school year ended. Everything changed when she and her mother, Estela Ramos — both undocumented — appeared at what they thought was a standard check-in visit with immigration officials on June 30. “ICE took us to a room, and they ended up telling my mom, ‘Your case is over, so we have to take you guys with us,’” Sontay Ramos told The 19th. Over the objections of their attorney, federal agents led them away. The next day, she and her mother were shipped to Texas. And by July 4, they were on a plane to Guatemala, a country where neither of them have lived for over a decade. On Independence Day — an occasion associated with freedom, with hope — their American dream shattered. Sontay Ramos has no idea what will become of the friends, family members and school community her deportation forced her to leave behind in Los Angeles. A lawyer hired after she and her mother were detained said Monday that a motion to reopen the case has been filed with the Board of Immigration Appeals but provided no other information to The 19th. A year shy of becoming a high school graduate in the United States, the teen’s life — and opportunities — completely changed in the span of five days. “I’m confused,” Sontay Ramos said, her voice breaking. “I don’t know. I’m just really sad about everything.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/nory-sontay-ramos.png) Before her deportation, Nory Sontay Ramos was recognized at school for her academic and athletic achievements. (Courtesy of Jennifer Ramos) President Donald Trump campaigned for a return to office with the promise of mass deportations, characterizing undocumented immigrants as criminals and threats to women and girls. But as his administration has ramped up enforcement of his policy priority, undocumented people with no criminal backgrounds have made up the largest share of immigrants targeted. Those who are pursuing legal status through the proper channels have also become vulnerable — showing up to check-ins, like Sontay Ramos and her mother — only to be detained. These developments, recent polls reveal, have led to public disapproval of the Trump administration’s strategies. Civil liberties and advocacy groups have raised concerns that undocumented immigrants are being removed so quickly they have been denied the right to [due process](https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/ice-deports-3-u-s-citizen-children-held-incommunicado-prior-to-the-deportation?ref=thebarbedwire.com). With Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act directing $150 billion more toward mass deportations, expedited removals of undocumented immigrants will almost certainly increase — and those [immigrants who arrived in the United States as children](https://19thnews.org/2025/05/undocumented-educators-teachers-america/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) like Sontay Ramos stand to get caught in the middle. \*\*\* The Trump administration deported more than 93,800 people from January 20 to June 11, with [ICE more than doubling its arrests](https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2025/07/03/ice-arrests-migrants-criminal-record-numbers/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) compared with the same period in 2024, revealed an analysis by the Washington Post based on information from the Deportation Data Project. (The data does not reflect arrest and removal numbers from Customs and Border Protection.) Of those, 61 percent did not have criminal records and almost 90 percent were men, underscoring how relatively uncommon it is for a mother and daughter to be removed. The Trump administration has not provided a tally of how many minors have been deported this year, but The 19th’s [review of figures from the Deportation Data Project](https://deportationdata.org/data/ice.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) found that only about 3 percent of removals involved children. When ICE targets juveniles, the incidents often make national headlines, such as when [a 9-year-old boy and his father](https://www.fox26houston.com/news/ice-operations-california-family-ordered-removed-honduras-after-appeal-dismissed?ref=thebarbedwire.com) living in Torrance, California, were detained in May and swiftly deported to Honduras. In states including Michigan, Massachusetts and New York, the detainment of teenagers, including those who are technically legal adults, have also [garnered widespread media attention](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/06/11/los-angeles-schools-ice/84126553007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) this year. But when Sontay Ramos and her mother exited their Guatemala-bound flight on Friday, they weren’t met with fanfare. None of their family members in the Central American nation knew to expect them. With the help of an internet connection, they managed to contact one of Sontay Ramos’ older sisters, with whom they’re now living. The teenager isn’t sure which part of Guatemala she’s in, though she describes the area as rural. In fact, a family member told The 19th, she’s in the Guatemalan department of Totonicapán, in the western highlands. Just 6 when she left Guatemala, Sontay Ramos struggles to recall what life there was like. But she remembers the emotion she felt as a small child: fear. “I was scared because there’s gangsters here, and they tried to kill my mom,” she said. A family member involved in a gang threatened her mother, once attacking her so badly she needed to be hospitalized, she said. “My mom was scared.” A study exploring the [root causes of immigration from Guatemala](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/dcid-sanford-duke-edu/sites/default/files/migration-policy-brief-guatemala.pdf) from 2012 to 2019 found violence, poverty, climate change and corruption to be among the driving factors and that many such migrants hail from rural parts of the country. “The two major reasons, especially if we look at families, have to do with violence and drought,” said David Leblang, a coauthor of that study and politics professor at the University of Virginia. “It has been drought and then flood, hurricane and then drought that has just decreased the ability for families to put food on the table, so you see a combination of economic insecurity, but more so for families, food insecurity — because when you can’t feed your kids, that’s when families are going to pick up and they’re going to move first to more urban areas and then out of the country.” About 11 years ago, Sontay Ramos and her mother headed by car to the United States in search of safety and opportunity. There, other family members awaited them and they hoped to be granted asylum, she said. The transition was not easy. They left behind three of Sontay Ramos’ older siblings who did not want to come to the United States, she said. Her father remained in Guatemala, too. His death from illness shortly after she moved away was devastating. “Unfortunately, her dad passed away at a young age, just like two weeks after her arrival to the States,” recalled Jennifer Ramos, Sontay Ramos’ 22-year-old cousin who lives in Los Angeles. “She grew up with her dad, so that also hit her at such a young age, just coming to a new country at 6 years old and not knowing the language here and losing her father. It was definitely hard for her.” Getting accustomed to life in Los Angeles also wasn’t easy. Sontay Ramos and her mother are Indigenous Guatemalans, fluent in K’iche’. [Few resources in their native tongue](https://19thnews.org/2023/03/cielo-los-angeles-woman-led-nonprofit-indigenous-population/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) made assimilation more challenging in a city where English and Spanish are the primary languages. Jennifer Ramos helped her little cousin learn to speak English. “She would come over, and I would help her with her homework. When she first came to the States, my younger sister was kind of her only friend in school because she didn’t know anybody and, again, the language barrier. She actually does struggle speaking Spanish.” In time, Sontay Ramos and her mother adjusted to life in California. Her mother ultimately became a garment worker, employed as a seamstress until physical setbacks — illness and surgery — sidelined her earlier this year. Her deportation has separated her from her life partner, with whom she and her daughter shared an apartment in the Westlake District of Los Angeles, the neighborhood [where an ICE raid at a Home Depot close to an elementary school in June panicked families](https://19thnews.org/2025/06/ice-raids-los-angeles-mental-health/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and days of demonstrations in nearby downtown escalated after Trump deployed 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/estela-ramos.png) Estela Ramos poses for a picture with Jennifer Ramos at her quinceanera in 2017\. (Courtesy of Jennifer Ramos) Los Angeles is a deeply blue city in a liberal state, with the nation’s highest concentration of immigrants — a place that the president has made ground zero for his immigration raids. In November, the city council voted unanimously to make L.A. a sanctuary city, which bars it from using resources for immigration enforcement. Last week, the Trump administration filed suit, [challenging the policy](https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-files-lawsuit-against-sanctuary-city-policies-los-angeles-california?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Meanwhile, advocacy groups including the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California and Public Counsel are suing the Trump administration for what it describes as a [pattern of federal violations during immigration raids in Greater Los Angeles](https://www.aclusocal.org/en/press-releases/workers-family-members-and-community-groups-sue-dhs-unlawful-arrest-and-detention?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Before Trump’s immigration policies roiled her neighborhood and upended her life, Sontay Ramos was indistinguishable from her peers born in the United States. She grew up on the Netflix shows “Stranger Things” and “Cobra Kai,” enjoys the music of Lana Del Rey and The Weeknd and dotes on her cat, Max, who turned 1 on May 15\. He is black — one of her two favorite colors. In her spare time, Sontay Ramos practices taekwondo, which she’s been learning for nearly four years. “I just liked it,” she said of the martial art. Knowing how to fight, she added, helps her feel protected. Sontay Ramos never sensed she was in danger before the immigration check-in that would push her out of the United States. But her cousin Jennifer Ramos worried. The night before, Ramos’ father invited the family over to have Sunday dinner with his wife and three daughters. The evening was largely festive. Her father made shrimp ceviche and was eager for his family to enjoy the tangy, citrusy dish — especially Estela Ramos, who had just celebrated her 45th birthday. But when Estela mentioned that she and her daughter had an immigration check-in scheduled, everyone fell quiet. “We were kind of scared,” Jennifer Ramos said. “We were like, ‘Are you sure you should go?’” But her aunt tried to reassure them by letting them know their lawyer said it would be fine. After all, they had shown up for previous check-ins without incident, and if they didn’t appear, immigration officials would just find them at home. Now, Jennifer Ramos doesn’t know when she’ll see her aunt and cousin again. “It is unfair that a young student like her has been detained,” she said. “She’s the most deserving person. This should be the least of her worries.” \*\*\* Sontay Ramos couldn’t help but tear up when she described what she was looking forward to about senior year — graduation, her friends, track-and-field and cross-country. Although excited to reunite with family members they hadn’t seen in years, she and her mother have been weeping off and on since they arrived in Guatemala. “I was happy, but I was expecting to see them in another way,” she said of her relatives. “Not like this.” Sleeping and eating have been tough as has the constant feeling of disorientation. She doesn’t know where she is. In K’iche’, she asked her mother for the name of the town they’re in, but it didn’t register. She also continues to feel blindsided about why she and her mother were deported at all. She doesn’t understand how or why their case was closed. Recent polls, particularly those conducted after the immigration raids in Los Angeles, reveal that the Trump’s administration’s immigration crackdowns may be unpopular with the majority of the public. A PBS News/NPR/Marist poll released July 1 found that [just 43 percent of Americans support Trump’s tactics](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/new-poll-reveals-americans-views-on-key-trump-policies?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Sixty-four percent of registered voters support giving most undocumented immigrants in the United States a pathway to legal status, with 31 percent preferring deportation for most of them, [according to a Quinnipiac University national poll](https://poll.qu.edu/poll-release?releaseid=3926&ref=thebarbedwire.com) released June 26\. Six months ago, only 55 percent of voters supported giving unauthorized immigrants a path to legal status, while 36 percent backed deportation. Leblang, the politics professor, said that ultimately the economy will sway the public to take a stand on immigration. “All of those people who are being deported, they’re consuming goods that are produced by natives,” he said. “So, what the evidence suggests is that’s going to affect native workers’ wages, so across the board, this is going to have a negative effect on the economy.” For Manuel Guevara — a physical education teacher and coach at the Miguel Contreras Learning Complex, where Sontay Ramos is enrolled as a student — immigration isn’t an economic issue but a personal one. He came to the United States at 11 months old in the mid-1980s during El Salvador’s horrific 12-year civil war, becoming a citizen as a teenager. He fears that more deportations of youth from his school are imminent. He knows some families skipped school graduations in the area due to their concerns over raids. Some are so worried they refuse to let their children attend football practice. He’s heard that other families intend to self deport. “This is not normal,” Guevara said. “Our whole community is beyond vulnerable. A lot of \[students’\] parents, sad to say, don’t know how to read and write. Their kids need to do that for them. If they’re presented with \[immigration\] paperwork, they might not even be able to read it because that’s not their primary language.” He can hardly believe that Sontay Ramos, whom he taught for most of her high school years, is gone. “She was smiling, happy-go-lucky,” Guevara said. He’s astounded that she was detained and deported in less than a week. “Nory is going into her senior year, which is another thing that’s just killing me. She was going into her senior year with all this momentum.” Guevara fondly recalled the teen’s high-pitched voice that gets even higher when she’s excited. “You could tell when she’s coming from down the hallway, for sure,” he said. But her trademark voice is now subdued due to her deportation ordeal. Through tears, she expressed gratitude for how her teachers, classmates and other supporters have donated nearly $7,000 to her [GoFundMe](https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-nory-and-her-family-reunite?ref=thebarbedwire.com) campaign. “I just want to thank everybody for the support and tell them to just be safe out there and be strong no matter what’s going to happen,” she said. If she can’t return to the United States, she will figure out how to finish her education in Guatemala. Guevara is certain Sontay Ramos has the aptitude for greatness. Her academics and extracurricular activities are just hints of what she’s capable of, he said. “She was about to reach cruising altitude,” he said. “Some of our students are capable of reaching the clouds up there and doing some great things. And I really believe that she was on her way.” ![](https://pixel.19thnews.org/2025/07/ice-immigration-los-angeles-high-school-student) ### Texas Gov. Makes Lawmakers Return to Address Floods, Regulate THC, and (Maybe) Ban Medical Abortion URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/abbott-special-session/ Last updated: 2025-07-10T14:09:41.000Z Good news, Texas: Gov. Greg Abbott has announced a special legislative session to tackle the most pressing issues facing the state — like whether gummies are too fun and whether your uterus is up to no good. On Wednesday, [Abbott laid out 18 priorities for the July 21 special session](https://gov.texas.gov/news/post/governor-abbott-announces-special-session-agenda-?ref=thebarbedwire.com). At first glance, it’s your typical disaster-recovery-meets-culture-war buffet. There’s money for flood relief in the Hill Country, which [was devastated over the Fourth of July weekend](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/camp-mystic-alum-remembers-past-flood/), and legislation to improve emergency communication and preparedness systems. As of Wednesday morning, officials in Kerr County had confirmed 97 deaths, including 59 adults and 36 children. Across all of Texas, at least 109 people had been killed in the floods and more than 170 people were still missing. “We must ensure better preparation for such events in the future,” Abbott said. So far, so reasonable. Abbott is also calling to “comprehensively regulate hemp-derived products,” including limiting potency, cracking down on synthetically modified compounds, and establishing enforcement mechanisms. He added, though, that he wants to do all that “without banning a lawful agricultural commodity.” Cool, nobody wants to see 10-year-olds watching “The Wizard of Oz” while listening to Dark Side of the Moon. But with regulation, the devil’s in the details. Ok, so Abbott is probably not trying to ban THC — despite [pressure from lawmakers who wanted to shut down the entire hemp-derived industry](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-thc-ban-dan-patrick/). In fact, [he vetoed a bill last month](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/greg-abbott-thc-ban/) that would’ve done just that. So yes, your Delta-8 gummies survive another day — but regulation is coming, and it’s bringing a clipboard, a testing lab, and probably a 10-point font warning label. But the real red flag? Tucked between property tax cuts and anti-lobbying crusades is a vague-yet-ominous line item: “Legislation further protecting unborn children and their mothers from the harm of abortion.” Which is a lot of words to say, “We might try to outlaw medication abortion, too.” Texas already has one of the [most restrictive abortion bans in the country](https://states.guttmacher.org/policies/texas/abortion-policies?ref=thebarbedwire.com), but apparently that’s not quite enough fetal patriotism for Abbott. The intentionally broad wording leaves the door wide open, and banning medication abortion has been a pet project for the right. One of the most sweeping attempts in the country to restrict abortion pills sailed through the Texas Senate earlier this year [before dying in a House committee.](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/05/28/texas-abortion-pill-bill-dies/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Undeterred, more than 40 Republican lawmakers, including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, sent a letter in June urging [Abbott to revive the fight in the special session](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/texasrighttolife-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/coalition-letter-special-session-email.pdf). Because nothing screams “limited government” like micromanaging your uterus from a Capitol office. Abbott’s special session wish list also revives several conservative priorities that flopped during the regular session — like banning local governments from hiring lobbyists and forcing people to use bathrooms based on their assigned sex at birth. He’s also pushing for a congressional redistricting redo, reportedly at the urging of Trumpworld, to carve out more Republican seats — even as [some think it could backfire](https://www.tpr.org/government-politics/2025-06-22/republicans-might-redraw-house-maps-in-texas-to-protect-majority-from-the-midterm-curse?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Oh, and if Texas *does* redistrict, California has said it might [retaliate by redrawing its own lines](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/07/03/redistricting-texas-california-democrats-retaliation-trump-newsom/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to offset any GOP gains. Toss in a bid to give the Attorney General more power over election prosecutions, scrap the STAAR test, and cut property taxes, and you've got a full plate of red meat with a side of voter suppression. Buckle up, Texas. Abbott’s special session is here to protect us — from THC, from testing, and from the terrifying concept of reproductive autonomy. ### ‘Each Charm Tells Stories’: James Avery, Camp Mystic’s Longtime Jeweler, Pledges $1M in Flood Relief URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/james-avery-camp-mystic-jewelry-pledges-million-flood-relief/ Last updated: 2025-07-08T22:50:50.000Z James Avery, the Kerrville-based and nationally renowned jeweler, is giving back to its hometown — and to the Camp Mystic girls who’ve been devoted to the brand for decades. The company, most popular for its charm bracelets, has [pledged $1 million](https://www.instagram.com/p/DLzkhNzM26R/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) toward flood relief efforts in the Hill Country — and will also donate 100% of the proceeds from its “Deep in the Heart of Texas” charm, which sold out within a day. As of Wednesday, Gov. Greg Abbott confirmed 95 deaths from Friday’s fatal floods in the Kerr County area. Camp Mystic is [“grieving the loss”](https://www.campmystic.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of 27 campers and counselors, while 6 more girls remain missing. For decades, the jeweler has had close ties with Camp Mystic. Bracelets with chunky silver charms, handed out at closing ceremonies or tailor-made for individual cabins, were “very much the thing” among Texas girls, former camper Katherine Howe [told *The Barbed Wire* on Monday](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/camp-mystic-alum-remembers-past-flood/). For generations of Mystic women, the James Avery bracelet was a “symbol and souvenir” of everything the camp had to offer — growth, lessons, memories — former camper Summer Wise told *The Barbed Wire*. “It’s a ritual,” said 49-year-old Wise, who attended Mystic in the 1990s. “It does create a connection among all of us.” “Every girl goes to the headquarters store in Kerrville after the camp term ends, a long caravan of suburbans along Hwy 39,” Wise [wrote on Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19RJTuTnc9/). “We’d pick out new charms to add to our bracelets. The charm for your cabin was a must-get. Then we’d usually get one for our activities. Sometimes we’d earn charms for accomplishments.” A physical record of a girl’s years at Mystic, no two bracelets were ever the same. Wise had collected an arrowhead charm for archery, while Howe, who attended Mystic in 1987, won an ‘M’ for most improved. An angel for aides, older campers who helped serve food and bus tables at mealtimes (“that’s a big milestone for any Mystic camper,” Wise told *The Barbed Wire*); charms for cabins like Bubble Inn and Bug House. Tribe charms for the blue Kiowas or red Tonkawas. Some campers even collect charms years after leaving the banks of the Guadalupe — Wise’s latest charm is from a camp reunion in 2003. “Each bracelet is a unique reflection of a girl and their camp experiences, personality, and memories,” Wise wrote in her Facebook comment. “Each charm tells stories and sings songs. Some are lost to the river now, and we’re all wondering, unsettled and raw… what will become of this tradition?” Founder James Avery launched his business as a “one-man operation” in 1950s Kerrville, piecing together bits of jewelry in his in-laws’ garage, *The New York Times* [reported in Avery’s obituary](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/03/obituaries/james-avery-creator-of-a-southern-jewelry-empire-dies-at-96.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). By the time of his death in 2018, the franchise had expanded across 80 stores in the South. But Avery always remained loyal to his hometown, commissioning unique charms for [camps across Texas Hill Country](https://www.facebook.com/share/15rRiBKTnG/): Mystic, Waldemar, Kickapoo. “The recent floods in the Texas Hill Country and surrounding areas have had a devastating impact on our cherished hometown,” the company said in an update on its social media pages on Tuesday. “We’re humbled by the support you’ve shown our friends and family in the Texas Hill Country and surrounding areas.” “Camp Mystic and James Avery are just woven into the fabric of Texas culture,” Wise told *The Barbed Wire.* “I’m not at all surprised that James Avery is arranging this fundraiser. At the same time, it’s no less remarkable that they are, given the fact that they are (at) the epicenter of this tragedy.” Now, Wise’s bracelet is getting polished at the jeweler’s. Howe still has hers, too. “When we grew up,” Wise wrote online, “and our bracelets got tarnished in our jewelry boxes, we sang camp songs to our babies.” ### 'It's a Waking Nightmare': Camp Mystic Alum Recalls Flood That Hit the Same Cabins in 1987 URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/camp-mystic-alum-remembers-past-flood/ Last updated: 2025-07-08T13:24:01.000Z Forty-eight-year-old Katherine Howe let memories of the summer of ‘87 rush back to her on Friday. As the world woke up to the [news of missing girls who’d been swept away](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/camp-mystic-campers-grieve-magical-place-100-years-flood-texas-guadalupe/) from their summer camp cabins in violent flood waters on July 4, Howe was transported back to when she was 10 years old and staying in one of the same cabins at Camp Mystic, called Bubble Inn. “It’s a waking nightmare,” Howe told *The Barbed Wire*. The private Christian all-girls camp was founded in 1926 in the Texas Hill Country on the banks of the Guadalupe River. Nearly 100 years later, the camp announced that it was grieving the deaths of 27 campers and counselors. Before dawn on Friday, the river swelled 26 feet in 45 minutes. It demolished businesses and homes, carried off RVs full of families, and overturned vehicles before smashing them into trees. Then the rushing water passed the South Fork of the river, where it washed away two cabins filled with the youngest Camp Mystic girls, age 8, with their pajamas and stuffed animals. For Howe, the details of the destruction were devastating. And eerily familiar. Nearly 40 years ago, as Howe slept in Bubble Inn on July 17, a 29-foot flash flood hit Comfort, Texas — just 15 miles away. The storms produced a “train-effect, one following another” and dumped 5-10 inches of rain in the upper headwaters of the Guadalupe River basin, the [National Weather Service](https://www.weather.gov/ewx/wxevent-19870717?ref=thebarbedwire.com) said at the time. ![People look through items left in the bunks at Camp Mystic not swept away in the flash flooding on July 7, 2025 in Hunt, Texas. (Photo by Jim Vondruska/Getty Images).](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/gettyimages-2223417652.jpg) People look through items left in the bunks at Camp Mystic not swept away in the flash flooding on July 4, 2025 in Hunt, Texas. (Photo by Jim Vondruska/Getty Images). The nearby Pot O’ Gold Ranch, another Christian camp, was in the surge’s trajectory. The river at Comfort crested at 31.50 feet, the ninth highest crest in recorded history, according to the NWS. Hundreds of people along the river and its tributaries had to be evacuated. During the evacuation, the waters swept away a van and school bus carrying 43 teenagers, ultimately killing 10, [*The New York Times* reported](https://www.nytimes.com/1987/07/18/us/texas-river-engulfs-bus-and-van-two-are-dead-and-8-are-missing.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) at the time. Howe still remembers it. “I was on the top bunk,” she told *The Barbed Wire*, “and I remember being … able to actually glimpse the river through the trees from our cabin.” That visibility, she said, meant that the water had risen to dangerous levels. Howe and her cabinmates were evacuated and spent the night in the recreation hall, which was on higher ground. “We all stayed at camp,” she said. “Then when the waters receded, I distinctly remember being shocked that everything at the waterfront was completely gone, like all the canoes were gone, all the structures around the waterfront were gone. The diving board was gone. Everything was completely gone. And one of my friends who I was chatting with recently said that she remembered looking up into a tree and seeing a canoe wedged in a tree 30 feet up in the air.” **‘In One Second Everything Changes’** As of Wednesday morning, [officials in Kerr County](https://kerrcountytx.gov/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#gsc.tab=0) had confirmed 97 deaths, including 59 adults and 36 children, said Sheriff Larry Leitha. Across all of Texas, at least 109 people had been killed in the floods. “I need to tell my community and those families who are waiting, this will be a rough week,” Kerrville Mayor Joe Herring Jr. said at a morning news briefing on Monday. “Primary search continues, and we remain hopeful. Every foot, every mile, every bend of the river, our work continues.” The 700-acre Camp Mystic grounds are dotted with cypress, live oak, and pecan trees between and around green-roofed cabins. Last week, it was home to whispers, prayer, and girls giggling in white dresses. Photos of those same cabins now show dirt-strewn water lines all the way up to the rafters in the ceiling, overturned bunks peppered with pink and purple balloons. On Monday, the river and its banks looked like “a bomb went off,” Jake Stovall, founder and director of Gulf Search and Rescue, told [CNN](https://www.cnn.com/weather/live-news/texas-flooding-camp-mystic-07-07-25-hnk?t=1751926692636&ref=thebarbedwire.com). “In one day, everything can happen, in one second everything changes,” said 19-year-old Silvana Garza Valdez, a counselor at Camp Mystic who was rescued on Friday morning. “The camp suffered an incredible loss,” Garza Valdez said in a [Spanish-language interview with *Univision*](https://www.univision.com/local/san-antonio-kwex/silvana-garza-valdez-narra-como-sobrevivio-a-inundacion-campamento-tras-el-desbordamiento-del-rio-guadalupe-kerr-texas?ref=thebarbedwire.com). When the flood waters hit, Garza Valdez was with a group of girls in the newer part of the camp, Camp Mystic Cypress Lake, uphill and to the south of the cabins overlooking the Guadalupe River. The camp had just begun its second four-week session of the summer. “We went to sleep like a normal day,” she said. “Around midnight it started raining in a way I had never in my life experienced.” Garza Valdez is from Mexico, and she told *Univision* reporters she was working at Camp Mystic as part of an international exchange program this summer. Garza Valdez said she and her campers waited in their cabins on the hill overnight without electricity, listening to the monstrous sounds of thunder and watching lightning flash temporary daylight in the Hill Country darkness. The most urgent alerts came just after 4 a.m. and then at 5:34 a.m. By morning, Garza Valdez said she saw helicopters rescuing other trapped campers. While they waited, Garza Valdez said she told the girls that were evacuated to the higher portion of the camp that they were going to have a “giant sleepover” and had campers make crafts to distract them from the storm. The girls were eventually loaded onto military vehicles and driven through the harder-hit parts of the camp, she said. “You could see mattresses in the trees, tables flooded, clothes hanging from the trees,” Garza Valdez told *Univision*. “It was something I wouldn’t wish on anyone, it was horrible.” In Kerrville, she said she saw houses flipped upside down and cars mangled in the trees. “It was a big shock to think I could’ve been down there at that moment,” she added. “It was terrible.” But arriving at the reunification point, to more than two-dozen parents whose girls were missing, was even harder, she said. “It was the worst part of the day,” Garza Valdez added, “because you could see how the parents were looking for their daughters … I don’t know how to explain how they must've felt being a parent and not seeing your daughter there.” **‘Everloyal Kiowa. With a Broken Heart.’** As the news of Camp Mystic and the missing girls spread, Howe and her decades-long friends from Bubble Inn started checking in on each other and trading stories about their frightening experience years ago. “The network of parents who are going through this have this weird double consciousness,” Howe said. “At the same time, the amount of fear that you would feel if your own kid was in that situation, and also remembering being a kid in that situation and rediscovering how little these kids were.” Howe, originally from Houston, has lived on the East Coast much of her adult life, but she told *The Barbed Wire* it’s hard to forget the magic of summer camp on the banks of the Guadalupe River. She’s a *New York Times* bestselling and award-winning historian and novelist, and she credits Camp Mystic for helping her discover her love of writing. All these years later, Howe still knew exactly where her 38-year-old Camp Mystic charm bracelet was, and on July 5, she took it out and [posted a photo](https://www.threads.com/@katherinebhowe/post/DLvpIApRTES?xmt=AQF03QnjOyZkM5ILX6PPMHuKthddRHAjPmGT8hKqacv-Sg&ref=thebarbedwire.com). [ ![Threads post by @katherinebhowe](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/screenshot-2025-07-08-110624.png) @katherinebhowe on Threads Click to view the full post on Threads ](https://www.threads.com/@katherinebhowe/post/DLvpIApRTES?ref=thebarbedwire.com) On its chain were three chunky silver charms, custom-made by [jeweler James Avery](https://www.jamesavery.com/charms/deep-in-the-heart-of-texas-charm/CM-574.html?dwvar%5FCM-574%5Fmetal=Sterling%20Silver&ref=thebarbedwire.com) — “very much the thing,” Howe said, among the Texas girls attending the Hill Country camps in the 1980s. Two ‘M’ charms for Mystic, and a final pendant for the cabin affectionately known as Bubble Inn, which housed many of the girls who were swept away in Friday’s flood. “When something like this happens,” Howe told *The Barbed Wire*, “I feel like it’s when we really start to understand how deep our networks go, especially at home.” Fellow Camp Mystic girls commented on her photo sharing they too had the charms. One woman asked, “Tonkowa or Kiowa?” Mystic girls were divided into one of two teams, blue for Kiowa and red for Tonkawa. Throughout camp — like with Hogwarts houses in the Harry Potter books — counselors and leaders would give points to each team for completing certain events and merits. During weekly bonfires, the red team would respond in unison: “True.” Howe was on the blue team. Their line was “everloyal.” Nearly 40 years later a heartbroken Howe responded to the roll call. “Everloyal Kiowa,” she said. “With a broken heart.” **‘She’s Out There Somewhere With All Her Friends’** In a photo of the 8-year-olds who went to bed Thursday inside Bubble Inn, fourteen girls — all dressed in white — smiled sweetly on a tennis court underneath the shade of a tree. In the picture, Linnie McCown had her dark brown hair neatly parted down the middle into braided pigtails, her hands resting on her knees. Her father Michael McCown confirmed to [*The Washington Post*](https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/07/05/camp-mystic-floods-parents-missing-children/?pwapi%5Ftoken=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJyZWFzb24iOiJnaWZ0IiwibmJmIjoxNzUxNzc0NDAwLCJpc3MiOiJzdWJzY3JpcHRpb25zIiwiZXhwIjoxNzUzMTU2Nzk5LCJpYXQiOjE3NTE3NzQ0MDAsImp0aSI6ImY3N2ZmZWM5LTMzNjUtNGRmMy1hMTQxLTM0YWY5MjJmODA3NSIsInVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lndhc2hpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbS9uYXRpb24vMjAyNS8wNy8wNS9jYW1wLW15c3RpYy1mbG9vZHMtcGFyZW50cy1taXNzaW5nLWNoaWxkcmVuLyJ9.a3HM-nYaWvwyh1S4empG1QXD06bgd5njdle5Rv6HYX8&ref=thebarbedwire.com) on Sunday that his daughter’s body was found. As soon as he learned of the flood, he drove straight from Austin to the Hill Country, where he told *The Post* that he registered with authorities, saw a body at the morgue that officials thought might have been his daughter, then drove to the camp to see it for himself. He said he grabbed charm bracelets — just like the one Katherine Howe has — and pored over waterlogged stuffed animals. https://www.instagram.com/p/DLwGdj3tmC2/?utm\_source=ig\_web\_copy\_link “I’m going to walk until I find something,” he told the newspaper as he searched through sticker-covered trunks, debris, piles of soaked mattresses, felled trees, and mud. He even found the body of another missing girl. “She’s out there somewhere with all her friends,” McCown said. “She was the sweetest little thing.” As the hours passed since their cabin was flooded early Friday morning, more and more of them were confirmed dead by their families, including Margaret Bellows, Lila Bonner, Ellen Getten, Janie Hunt, Sarah Marsh, Eloise Peck, Abbie Pohl, Renee Smajstrla, [Linnie McCown, and Mary Stevens](https://www.statesman.com/story/news/2025/07/06/camp-mystic-girls-identified-linnie-mccown-mary-stevens-texas-flood-victims/84485946007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). At press time, 10 of their friends and cabinmates were still unaccounted for. **‘We Take Care of Each Other’** At 1 a.m. — three hours before any official warnings from local authorities came through — another camp down the road miraculously evacuated about 70 children and adults, saving them from floodwaters that ravaged its buildings, according to the [*Associated Press*](https://apnews.com/article/texas-floods-summer-camp-evacuation-a1cbf5cfa768b0869e5e299b8f7dfccf?link%5Fsource=ta%5Fthread%5Flink&taid=686b62ad97a1110001588791&utm%5Fcampaign=TrueAnthem&utm%5Fmedium=AP&utm%5Fsource=Threads). Facilities manager Aroldo Barrera at Presbyterian Mo-Ranch Assembly told his boss about the Guadalupe River’s rising water, the news agency reported. Camp leaders acted quickly, packing up children and relocating them to higher ground. “The buildings don’t matter,” Lisa Winters, communications director for Mo-Ranch, told the *Associated Press*. “I can’t imagine losing children, or people.” “We’re a sisterhood of camps,” Winters told the news outlet as she became emotional. “We take care of each other.” ![A personalized trunk from a camper at Camp Mystic lays on the bank of the Guadalupe River near Camp Mystic after it was swept up in the flash flooding on July 7, 2025 in Hunt, Texas. (Photo by Jim Vondruska/Getty Images))](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/gettyimages-2223417783.jpg) A personalized trunk from a camper at Camp Mystic lays on the bank of the Guadalupe River near Camp Mystic after it was swept up in the flash flooding on July 4, 2025 in Hunt, Texas. (Photo by Jim Vondruska/Getty Images) But while hundreds of people were saved from trees, rooftops, and floating mattresses — the list of missing and dead also grew to include those who risked their lives to save others. That list includes Camp Mystic [director and co-owner Dick Eastland](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/camp-mystic-campers-grieve-magical-place-100-years-flood-texas-guadalupe/), who was beloved among Camp Mystic alumni, and who reportedly died trying to save the girls in Bubble Inn. “Losing Dick after he helped rescue the girls in Bubble Inn has shattered so many of us,” another Camp Mystic alum[ told *The Barbed Wire*](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/camp-mystic-campers-grieve-magical-place-100-years-flood-texas-guadalupe/) on Saturday. The list also included Houston native Jane Ragsdale, the longtime owner and director of another camp, Heart O’ the Hills. Twenty-seven-year-old Julian Ryan died saving his fianceé, children, and mother, [reported CNN](https://www.yahoo.com/news/father-died-saving-family-children-215646786.html?guccounter=1&guce%5Freferrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce%5Freferrer%5Fsig=AQAAAD%5FRL8S4akojIxe8gK3quqsnxSaAgg2uyQB97EZ2ohmLSKfpl0Qv74QXclN3S3z12lMik9n-iFkKcj6x-JMrbB3mDqkUtQpZwTc5ZjKofDSQ2jHCKFKy%5F1UDiZV-7Bal8LbYUtifNMbDLmec9BuonwBIAdY0QcY6dk8-QAKH%5FxmK&ref=thebarbedwire.com). Volunteer Fire Chief Michael Phillips, who has served in the role for 30 years, remained missing as of Monday. His vehicle was swept away by floodwaters while Phillips was responding to emergency calls, [according to KVUE.](https://www.kvue.com/article/news/state/texas-news/texas-flood/fire-chief-texas-flood-search-michael-phillips/269-ad3ef80e-924d-4008-b154-4ae2ce68c48c?ref=thebarbedwire.com) But some of the most harrowing rescues involved teenage camp counselors like Garza Valdez. “So many lives were saved because of 18-year-olds,” Camp Mystic staffer Brooke Beard [told NBC News](https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1AwRFccPPJ/). Long-time Camp Mystic counselor Emma Foltz was praised on X [by Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry](https://x.com/LAGovJeffLandry/status/1941655977008275654?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for her “instrumental role” in evacuating 14 campers. Her “bravery, poise, and care are an example to not only her campers but to all of us,” Jim Henderson, president of Louisiana Tech University, where Foltz is returning in the fall as a senior, [told *PEOPLE*](https://people.com/camp-mystic-counselor-saved-14-campers-from-texas-flooding-11767475?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on Monday. “I cannot say enough about what these young counselors did to calm these girls and to ensure their safety,” said Tara Bradburn, whose 16-year-old daughter was rescued from Camp Mystic, in an interview with [Fox Reports](https://www.fox4news.com/news/teen-camper-heartbreaking-survival-texas-flash-floods?link%5Fsource=ta%5Fthread%5Flink&taid=686bfd5c97a1110001588fce&utm%5Fcampaign=trueanthem&utm%5Fmedium=social&utm%5Fsource=threads.net). “Those young counselors … saved so many children and kept so many children calm so that decisions could be made to keep other girls safe and move them to safety.” ***News Fellow Riya Misra contributed to this report.*** ### ‘Goodnight, Camp Mystic. We Love You.’: A 100-Year-Old Community Honors Its 27 Dead Girls URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/camp-mystic-campers-grieve-magical-place-100-years-flood-texas-guadalupe/ Last updated: 2026-07-18T17:46:17.000Z Thirty-nine-year-old Jordan Macha spent more than ten summers at Camp Mystic, as both a camper and a counselor. She can imagine in precise detail how the youngest girls, age 8, were tucked into their beds on Thursday in their cabins overlooking the Guadalupe River — hours before it swelled [26 feet in 45 minutes](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/2025/07/05/what-we-know-about-the-kerr-county-and-camp-mystic-flood-victims/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in a violent flash flood before dawn on July Fourth. “I keep thinking of what those girls heard the night before: ‘Good night, Camp Mystic. We love you,’” she told *The Barbed Wire*. “Said in unison every night.” The private Christian all-girls camp — nestled among cypress, live oak, and pecan trees in the Texas Hill Country on the banks of the Guadalupe — would’ve celebrated its centennial anniversary next April. Instead, it is the scene of our latest national tragedy. The extraordinary and shocking flood demolished businesses, homes, RV parks, and vehicles. Then it passed the South Fork of the river, where it flooded cabins filled with Camp Mystic’s youngest pajama-clad girls. As of Monday morning, at least 82 people were dead across Texas , according to [local officials](https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/07/06/us/texas-floods?ref=thebarbedwire.com#heres-the-latest). Of the deceased, at least 28 were children, and that number was expected to grow. Officials acknowledged a grim fact on Saturday afternoon — that soon, rescue efforts would turn to recovery, as the likelihood of finding survivors diminishes with each passing moment. By morning on Monday, the worst news was confirmed. In a statement on its website, Camp Mystic wrote that it was grieving the loss of 27 campers and counselors. “Our hearts are broken alongside our families that are enduring this unimaginable tragedy,” said the statement. “We are praying for them constantly.” "We are deeply grateful for the outpouring of support from community, first responders, and officials at every level,” the statement continued. “We ask for your continued prayers, respect and privacy for each of our families affected. May the Lord continue to wrap His presence around all of us.” Saturday’s press conference involved government officials from all levels, including U.S. Sen. John Cornyn and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, patting themselves on the back for the work of first responders, who had to-date saved more than 850 people in rugged terrain — including badly damaged roads, felled tree limbs, and overturned vehicles — as rain continued to fall. During the press conference, U.S. Rep. Chip Roy called Friday’s disaster a “once in a century flood,” noting how many camp staffers and counselors placed themselves in harm's way to protect the children they were charged with safeguarding. Late Saturday night, Abbott said he had toured the site, posting online that Camp Mystic was “horrendously ravaged in ways unlike I’ve seen in any natural disaster.” The Texas Division of Emergency Management activated the state’s [emergency response resources](https://links-1.govdelivery.com/CL0/https:%2F%2Ftdem.texas.gov%2Fpress-release%2F7-3-25/1/01000197d660133d-ea0c1c2b-1028-4b1a-ac25-4c4388b642d9-000000/ywJAiXLCBg6PpWn3ucrtpcDa91nDP3X6qJ5SxHb-QD8=412?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on Thursday, ahead of the flash flooding threats and heavy rain. But the water rose fiercely overnight, and the most urgent alerts came a little after 4 a.m. and then at 5:34 a.m., [*The New York Times*](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/04/weather/weather-alerts-rivers-flooding.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) reported. Flash floods are the [second-deadliest weather](https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/24/weather/what-causes-flash-flooding-xpn?ref=thebarbedwire.com) hazard after extreme heat, according to CNN, and the area where Camp Mystic is located has become known locally as “Flash Flood Alley.” In fact, Friday’s disaster was eerily reminiscent of another that struck the area nearly 40 years ago. A 29-foot flash flood hit Comfort, Texas in 1987 — just 15 miles away from Mystic. The nearby Pot O’ Gold Ranch, another Christian camp, was in the surge’s trajectory. The waters swept away a van and school bus carrying 43 teenagers who were mid-evacuation, ultimately killing 10, [*The New York Times* reported](https://www.nytimes.com/1987/07/18/us/texas-river-engulfs-bus-and-van-two-are-dead-and-8-are-missing.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Friday and Saturday, parents posted photos of their missing girls and swarmed reunification centers waiting on word of their children. In addition to the campers, more Kerr County residents and visitors were missing — including [grandparents, a couple in an RV, and children on vacation](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/2025/07/05/what-we-know-about-the-kerr-county-and-camp-mystic-flood-victims/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — but officials didn’t have an accurate number for how many remained unaccounted for, said Dalton Rice, the city manager of Kerrville, [during another Saturday press conference](https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/07/05/us/texas-floods?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “The information is going to be changing by the minute,” Rice said. Authorities have not yet released the names of the victims, but some of their parents and grandparents have confirmed their deaths online and in news reports. Missing Camp Mystic camper Janie Hunt, 9, was among the dead, her mother told [CNN](https://www.cnn.com/weather/live-news/texas-flooding-07-05-2025-hnk?ref=thebarbedwire.com#cmcq9f54800003b6nt994a005) on Saturday. Eloise Peck, 8, was confirmed dead by her mother, Missy Peck, [reported Fox 4](https://www.fox4news.com/news/texas-flooding-highland-park-lila-bonner?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “She loved spaghetti but not more than she loved dogs and animals,” her mother told the news station. “She passed away with her cabinmate and best friend Lila Bonner, who also died.” Eight-year-old Sarah Marsh, a camper from Mountain Brook, Alabama, was confirmed dead by her grandmother, Debbie Ford Marsh, in a Facebook post on Friday night, according to the [*Kerrville Daily Times*](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/dailytimes-com/news/two-more-girls-confirmed-dead-in-kerr-county-flood/article%5Fb26f3011-8fea-49a2-8270-be0184779134.html) and [*AL.com*](http://al.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)*.* “We will always feel blessed to have had this beautiful spunky ray of light in our lives,” Marsh wrote. “She will live on in our hearts forever.” > [](https://twitter.com/spann/status/1941495827542716612?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Renee Smajstrla, 8, was also killed in the flood, her uncle, Shawn Salta confirmed to [*The Washington Post.*](https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/07/05/texas-flood-victims-camp-mystic/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) He [posted a message on Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BG6AMcEk9/) thanking “friends and family for all the prayers and outreach.” He added, “We are thankful she was with her friends and having the time of her life, as evidenced by this picture from yesterday. She will forever be living her best life at Camp Mystic. Please continue to pray for the other families in Kerrville.” Also among the confirmed victims is camp director and co-owner Dick Eastland, who died trying to rescue his campers from the floodwaters, [*The New York Post* reported](https://nypost.com/2025/07/05/us-news/camp-director-dead-after-heroic-efforts-to-save-campers/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Dick and his wife, Tweety Eastland, have owned the riverside camp since 1974, [according to *Texas Public Radio*.](https://www.tpr.org/news/2025-07-05/guadalupe-river-flood-camp-mystic-director-among-the-dead?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Former campers told *The Barbed Wire* they remembered the Eastlands as thoughtful, devoted owners who made “every girl feel truly seen and loved.” “Losing Dick after he helped rescue the girls in Bubble Inn has shattered so many of us,” Macha told *The Barbed Wire*. “He and Tweety live for their campers. They built a legacy of care and courage, and they saw us as part of their family — whether we were current campers or alumni who hadn’t been back in years.” “It doesn’t surprise me at all that his last act of kindness and sacrifice was working to save the lives of campers,” former camper Paige Sumner wrote in an essay for [*The Kerrville Daily Times*](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/dailytimes-com/news/my-friend-dick-eastland-locals-mourn-loss-of-camp-mystic-s-longtime-owner-and-director/article%5F799eb387-e4bf-43db-8357-5f742ab5f903.html). “He had already saved so many lives with the gift of Camp Mystic.” https://www.facebook.com/shawn.salta/posts/pfbid0QNzqjbcnyKGk4yGpJTKKcY97iVN2YCaMD63VGmRX6EpGKLZu45qcZUYwDJG2SYWVl?rdid=P7esR4q7OohpgWpL# ### ‘It Was a Magical Place’ Mystic has been a popular rite of passage for many girls in Texas and across the country since its inception in 1926\. There were 750 girls were at the camp this week, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick[ said](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGkqVruBc9Y&ref=thebarbedwire.com) at a news conference on Friday. In an email to parents that morning, the camp said it had sustained “catastrophic level floods,” per [*The New York Times.*](https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/07/05/us/texas-floods?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Photos circulated online of little girls clinging to tree branches or riding in rescue helicopters. “The camp was completely destroyed,” Elinor Lester, 13, a camper at Mystic, told [*The Associated Press*](https://apnews.com/article/texas-flooding-girls-missing-camp-mystic-395992e236e35c4486f9a6a97eed7704?ref=thebarbedwire.com), after she was evacuated with her cabinmates by helicopter. “It was really scary.” Elinor was reportedly holding a small teddy bear and a book when she reunited with her family through sobs, her mother Elizabeth Lester told the news agency. “My kids are safe, but knowing others are still missing is just eating me alive,” she [said.](https://apnews.com/article/texas-flooding-girls-missing-camp-mystic-395992e236e35c4486f9a6a97eed7704?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Elinor’s cabin was on Senior Hill, where older girls are housed. The youngest campers, age 8, are located along the riverbanks and were the first to flood, she [told reporters](https://apnews.com/article/texas-flooding-girls-missing-camp-mystic-395992e236e35c4486f9a6a97eed7704?ref=thebarbedwire.com). After news of the missing campers spread, former counselors, campers, and other community members shared their fear, their grief, and their memories of the beloved Texas Hill Country institution. “Parents put their daughters on a waitlist when their daughters were born… hoping that they’d get to attend the same camp their moms did years prior,” said Sunday Crider, who worked at Camp Mystic in the summer of 1989, in a [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1GEPLrpjTs/) post. As [*Texas Monthly*](https://www.texasmonthly.com/being-texan/the-greatest-experience-of-your-life/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) reported in 1975, Mystic has also long been a favorite of the Texas political aristocracy — with Lyndon Johnson and former governors Dan Moody, Price Daniel, and John Connally all sending their daughters (and sometimes granddaughters) to the Hunt-based camp. Mystic prides itself on giving young girls “a wholesome Christian atmosphere in which they can develop outstanding personal qualities and self-esteem,” according to its website. “I left a piece of my heart in those cabins,” the former camper, Jordan Macha, wrote on [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1D75AEhZk2/). “Today, that heart is breaking.” “I’m holding onto the love and light that Mystic gave us, even in the darkest night,” she said. Macha told *The Barbed Wire* she credits Mystic for much. “The most rewarding summers” of her life; fostering joy and forging lifelong friendships; for shaping the person she is today. “Each year, I was in the same cabin group,” Macha said. “We grew up together, creating an unshakable sisterhood that extended far beyond camp. That’s part of the ‘special sauce’ of Mystic.” She remembers dance parties on their trunks before bed, whispers and giggles during rest hour, competitions full of laughter, and fierce friendship. Macha’s heart “sank,” she said, when she caught news of the floods on Friday. Having lived through hurricanes in Houston and New Orleans, she is no stranger to flood devastation. But this was different. “I could picture every part of the camp and the cabins that were impacted,” she told *The Barbed Wire*. “I’ve been sitting with the fear those young girls and young women must have felt,” she continued, “and the bravery and courage they all showed.” ### ‘Holy Ground’ “Camp Mystic is sacred,” former camper Clair Cannon wrote on [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Z4XmTNfbs/) early Saturday morning. “It is holy ground, and you feel it the moment you pull through the gates.” It was there that Kathryn Moore and her peers found a training ground for life, she told *The Barbed Wire* on Saturday. “We learned what we were good at,” said Moore, who was a camper from 1979 to 1984\. “We learned what we liked.” In between tennis, archery, and dressage lessons, she remembers pranking her friends with bottles of white baby powder; laughing “‘till we cried;” and heaping spoonfuls of peanut butter onto Blue Bell ice cream. “We all loved each other,” Moore said. “We learned so much about how to bring out the best parts of each one of us.” “It was very empowering to be a girl growing up there,” she said. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/514491647_1255175696318387_3236029829492142637_n.jpg) Photo courtesy Kathryn Moore Another nearby girls camp, Heart O’ the Hills, was not in session at the time of the flooding. But among the dead is Houston native Jane Ragsdale, the longtime owner and director of the camp, reported the [*The Kerrville Daily Times*](https://dailytimes.com/news/pillar-of-the-community-jane-ragsdale-dies-in-hunt-flood/article%5F602e4eb1-47fd-42b0-af1e-06f194bfc97e.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The newspaper said Ragsdale had led the Kerr County all-girls camp since 1988. “I can’t believe she is gone,” said 36-year-old Kat Crittenden, who was a camper at Heart O’ the Hills from 1997 to 2005, starting when she was 8 years old until she was 16\. “Jane was a huge part of my life for a long time.” Under Ragsdale’s leadership, Crittenden told *The Barbed Wire* that Heart O’ the Hills was “the one place that I learned true friendship, joy, independence, and so much more,” she said. “Camp is supposed to be a place of joy, children’s laughter.” Crittenden said she believed Ragsdale passed away “saving her staff and counselors.” “She was a pillar of the community and the heart of our camp,” said Crittenden. “She touched so many lives and I know many see her as helping raise them growing up. She taught us so many life lessons we all will keep with us forever.” ### ‘I Just Need to Make Sandwiches’ “Girls’ camps are emotional places,” Prudence Mackintosh wrote in [*Texas Monthly*](https://www.texasmonthly.com/being-texan/the-greatest-experience-of-your-life/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in 1975. “The Spirit of Camp Mystic is love,” Inez Harrison, the camp’s director in 1975, told Mackintosh. “And that spirit pervades our whole camp. Mystic girls learn to love God first, others second, and themselves last.” That spirit of selflessness penetrated the local response to Friday’s tragedy. In downtown Kerrville on Saturday, Daric and Heidi Easton, who own a restaurant, [told CNN](https://www.cnn.com/weather/live-news/texas-flooding-07-05-2025-hnk?ref=thebarbedwire.com) they’d started making food for first responders and loading it onto helicopters that were flown to Camp Mystic. “I think hospitality and service is uniquely equipped to handle situations like this,” Daric Easton, who has a daughter around the age of the missing girls, [told the cable news station](https://www.cnn.com/weather/live-news/texas-flooding-07-05-2025-hnk?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “I can’t imagine what these parents are going through, and I don’t need to. I just need to make sandwiches.” Fire trucks and tactical deployment units from Houston, Galveston, Cypress Creek, Montgomery County, and Walker County were among those that caravanned into the area to assist with the search and rescue efforts by the Texas Division of Emergency Management, authorities told the [*Houston Chronicle*](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-weather/article/texas-deadly-flood-guadalupe-river-20422503.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). An incident commander for the Louisiana-based volunteer-run Cajun Navy [told CNN](https://www.cnn.com/weather/live-news/texas-flooding-camp-mystic-07-06-25-hnk?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that people from more than six states and at least 10 hours away have offered to aid in the search for the girls. “It really does show that this country is more united than divided and it is tremendously appreciated,” he said. Abbott said in Saturday afternoon’s press conference that he has extended the disaster declaration he issued for more than 15 counties on Friday into Burnett, Travis, Williamson, and others. Abbott also touted the federal assistance Texas received and the more than 1,000 state responders and 15 state agencies involved in the response, calling the damage from Friday’s flood “nothing more than extraordinary devastation.” Abbott also repeated that federal, state, and local authorities “will be relentless in ensuring that we locate every single person” who has gone missing in the wake of the storm. “We’re not going to stop today or tomorrow,” he said. “We’ll stop when the job is complete.” Abbott said that many rescues involved saving flood victims who were “clinging to trees to save their lives” when they were found. “This tragic situation is unprecedented,” said U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, who traveled to Kerr County for the press conference. “We recognize that at the federal level.” ### ‘Kids Are Screaming’ Still, survivors from Friday’s flood, like Bud Bolton, demanded answers for why area residents weren’t given more warning ahead of the weekend’s extreme rains. Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice [said at a news conference](https://www.cnn.com/weather/live-news/texas-flooding-07-05-2025-hnk?ref=thebarbedwire.com#cmcq9f54800003b6nt994a005) on Friday that the storms, which began Thursday, “dumped more rain than what was forecasted.” That was confirmed by Nim Kidd, chief of the Texas Division of Emergency Management, who [said](https://www.cnn.com/weather/live-news/texas-flooding-07-05-2025-hnk?ref=thebarbedwire.com#cmcq9f54800003b6nt994a005) at a press conference that the amount of rain that fell was not in the National Weather Service forecast, which on Wednesday he said was 4-8 inches in the Hill Country. “We have floods all the time,” [said](https://www.cnn.com/weather/live-news/texas-flooding-07-05-2025-hnk?ref=thebarbedwire.com#cmcq9f54800003b6nt994a005) Kerr County judge Rob Kelly, according to CNN. “We had no reason to believe that this was going to be anything like what’s happened here. None whatsoever.” During Saturday’s press conference, Kelly said the devastation in the community — and number of body bags he’d seen — “breaks my heart.” Bolton told the [*Houston Chronicle*](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-weather/article/texas-deadly-flood-guadalupe-river-20422503.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that he watched in horror as residents of an RV park were swept up by the force of the water. “That RV’s floating away,” he told the newspaper. “And kids are screaming, and you can’t do nothing for them?” ### ‘Love Is at the Heart of Mystic’ “Fifty years ago today, I was celebrating July 4th at Camp Mystic on the shores of the Guadalupe River,” wrote Susan Kent, [in a post on Threads](https://www.threads.com/@susankentmn/post/DLtO9a3u3bZ?xmt=AQF0sdPeN6FTJNQspqsL2ymIgv4POPrIJiAtFttXZ47sDA&ref=thebarbedwire.com). “The news today is terrifying and heart-breaking, and I can't wrap my head around it. Sending prayers to everyone affected by this tragedy.” In her post, Kent included a screenshot of part of a favorite Camp Mystic song often sung during Sunday devotionals down by the river and in the dining hall at meals, which reads: > *There’s a camp on the Guadalupe River.* > *It’s the camp of my dreams.* > *Where the whip-poor-wills blow softly* > *And the bright moon beams.* > *On the banks of the Guadalupe River.* > *Hearts are loyal and true.* > *Camp Mystic, I will pledge my true and faithful love to you.* “Camp Mystic taught us joy, resilience, and how to be strong, grounded humans,” Macha said. “That love is at the heart of Mystic.” Women from across camp generations have checked in, offered prayers, support, and memories, she said. “A flood can take cabins, but it can’t take that,” Macha added. ***Senior Editor Leslie Rangel contributed reporting to this story.*** *Editor’s note: This story previously, erroneously referred to U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem as U.S. Secretary of State.* The Barbed Wire *regrets the error.* ### Happy July 4. Everything You Love About America Was Made by Black People. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/july-4-everything-you-love-about-america-is-because-of-black-people/ Last updated: 2026-07-14T04:52:18.000Z Black women are intrinsic to the fabric of America. [Grace Wisher](https://www.nps.gov/fomc/learn/historyculture/grace-wisher.htm?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a Black girl from Baltimore, assisted in the creation of the American flag. [Harriet Tubman](https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/combahee-ferry-raid?ref=thebarbedwire.com) led Union soldiers to victory at the Combahee Ferry Raid during the Civil War. There is no United States without Black people. It was Black women and men who taught Americans how to be patriotic through their generations of activism and service, participation in the armed forces and military, and critique of America’s beliefs of freedom and liberty. “The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me,” said [Frederick Douglass](https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/nations-story-what-slave-fourth-july?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in his keynote address at a Fourth of July celebration in 1862\. “The sunlight that brought light and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me.” The blood of Black women, and their descendants, are foundational to the red and white stripes that signify America’s independence. Every war waged on American soil and abroad had Black infantry units. In the history of the United States, military service was a way for enslaved men to obtain their freedom. The cost of pledging oneself to be a protector of America and her ideals is a sacrificial act. For the [Buffalo Soldiers](https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/proud-legacy-buffalo-soldiers?ref=thebarbedwire.com), it was to serve America in her quest to enact Manifest destiny. The westward expansion of the U.S.A. that resulted in the genocide of Indigenous Americans, could not have been achieved withhout the efforts of Black soliders. The American flag that Wisher created is the same flag that brought forth waves of violence and harm to Brown people in Cuba, The Philippines, and Mexico. For early Black Americans, the Fourth of July was [“an opportunity to demonstrate their citizenship, patriotism and civic organizations.”](https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2021/07/july-fourth-and-early-black-americans-its-complicated?ref=thebarbedwire.com) But many celebrated on July 5 instead, to avoid the violence that often resulted from celebrating on the same day, and in the same streets, as white Americans. After the Civil War, Black people in Memphis used the Fourth of July, to poke fun at the “[Confederacy’s defeat.](https://daily.jstor.org/how-black-americans-co-opted-the-fourth-of-july/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)” Like Thanksgiving, an American holiday that is mired in colonization and genocide, Black people use the day to [spend time with their friends and loved ones over food](https://www.essence.com/news/thanksgiving-dinner-black-food-origins/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#1251605), not to celebrate the arrival of settlers. (It is often said that America’s original sin is slavery, but that overlooks the way in which Indigenous people were terrorized by the thirteen colonies to become a nation.) From the very beginning, Black Americans celebrating our country, its ideals, and its liberty, were doing so while also recognizing its shortcomings. Because without criticism, we can’t make this place better. Thus is the tension of being African American, and it’s a duality and conflict that Beyoncé is attempting to articulate and explore on the [*Cowboy Carter* tour](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/best-beyonce-fan-outfits-houston/). She’s wrapped herself in the American flag, in classic Texas imagery, and in Houston pride all while making a seething, emotional rebuke of some of our worst history. She’s celebrating that complexity by naming it. In doing so, she’s inspiring her fans to participate in a long, storied tradition. One of the concertgoers last weekend in Houston wore a bright smile, a denim jacket winged in the American flag, and gold letters [spelling out](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/best-beyonce-fan-outfits-houston/): “Everything you love about America is because of Black people.” On a Juneteenth tour stop in Paris, the Grammy Award-winning artist wore a Buffalo Soldiers t-shirt in an attempt to bring an unsung part of American and Black history to light. However, the reception to her decision to pay homage to the Black military unit was met with [criticism by scholars and historians](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/jun/29/beyonce-shirt-anti-indigenous-language?ref=thebarbedwire.com), who accused the singer of perpetuating American nationalism. The recent actions of the Trump administration have resulted in a rise of [global anti-Americanism](https://time.com/6553202/resurgence-global-anti-americanism-essay/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Immigration raids in [Los Angeles](https://time.com/7298943/los-angeles-immigration-sanctuary-city-lawsuit/?itm%5Fsource=parsely-api&ref=thebarbedwire.com), anti Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) [demonstrations](https://time.com/7292495/ice-immigration-protests-la-national/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and the [U.S. involvement in Iran](https://time.com/7298477/trump-iran-threat-khamenei-nuclear-bombs-sanctions/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) has led many Americans to [cease Independence Day celebrations](https://www.mensjournal.com/news/staggering-number-of-americans-dont-plan-to-celebrate-4th-of-july?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “This house was built with blood and bone, And it crumbled, yes, it crumbled,” Beyoncé sings on “Amen,” the closing track on *Cowboy Carter*. “The statues they made were beautiful But they were lies of stone, they werе lies of stone.” The myths that once governed American life and history — the peaceful exchange between Pilgrims and Indigenous people at Thanksgiving, the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia, and [the shared belief in a democratic state](https://time.com/4941542/american-history-myths/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — are falsehoods that were turned into truths, in order for the American Dream to be true. In the [1619 Project](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/black-history-american-democracy.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Nikole Hannah-Jones wrote, “Our democracy’s founding ideals were false when they were written. Black Americans have fought to make them true.” Black veterans, which make up [12% of the veteran population](https://usafacts.org/articles/who-are-the-nations-veterans/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), have historically been excluded from benefit programs like the [GI Bill](https://www.npr.org/2022/10/18/1129735948/black-vets-were-excluded-from-gi-bill-benefits-a-bill-in-congress-aims-to-fix-th?ref=thebarbedwire.com), experience [racial discrimination in health care](https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-care/black-veterans-are-denied-va-health-benefits-often-white-veterans-new-rcna90799?ref=thebarbedwire.com), in addition to racially charged [mistreatment](https://time.com/5852476/da-5-bloods-black-vietnam-veterans/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) upon their return from war. The military training they received proved to be extremely useful in the [civil rights](https://www.army.mil/article/183153/how%5Fwar%5Fveterans%5Fimpacted%5Fthe%5Fcivil%5Frights%5Fmovement?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and Black liberation movements of the 1960s, where Black veterans played a key role. Even now, Black veterans are protesting against the [elimination of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI)](https://thehill.com/policy/defense/5233381-black-veterans-pentagon-dei-purge/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), enacted by President Trump’s executive orders. This is not the first time where the American flag has been called into question under President Trump. When Colin Kaepernick began to protest the national anthem in 2016, Theodore R. Johnson, professor and Black veteran, wrote in support of him for [*Vox*](https://www.vox.com/2016/9/13/12901126/colin-kaepernick-black-veteran?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “Similarly, Kaepernick, and those he’s inspired, don’t kneel because they don’t believe in the promise of America or doesn’t value the founding principles; they kneel because the country has fallen short of these things.” Pride is essential to American identity. But so is the desire to make this place better. It is the right of every American to [criticize — loudly, and in the street — the institutions](https://teachingamericanhistory.org/document/the-right-to-criticize-american-institutions/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that make up our country. Like Kaepernick, Beyoncé is setting an example as a thought leader and an artist. She’s using her rights as an American citizen to create national and international conversations about the rights and conditions of Black people in the United States, using American iconography to do so. In the American consciousness, Beyoncé is her own institution. One that is Black and American, in origin, so she too is worthy of critique. *Cowboy Carter* is an invitation for those to participate in the interrogation of America and her ideals. On July Fourth, as every day, it is a reminder of the part we have to play as citizens. ### How Do You Celebrate a Country That Doesn’t Love You Back? URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/july-4-latino-immigrants-celebrate-country-love-you-back/ Last updated: 2026-07-18T17:48:44.000Z Last month, my mom sent me a [video](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DKr66hQR0Yj/?igsh=Zmp4eGE1NzNtdmRw&ref=thebarbedwire.com) of a little girl named Galilea from Dallas. She’s sitting on her gray couch, clutching a brown plush dog, remembering her mom’s voice, her clothes, and the way she would say goodnight. “My mom is supposed to be with us,” she says. “ICE took her away.” On May 29, Galilea’s mother, Carmen Herrera, showed up to her immigration court hearing in San Antonio, only to be arrested by plainclothes ICE officers, and taken into custody. In a [video](https://www.univision.com/local/san-antonio-kwex/ice-arresta-a-madre-en-san-antonio-frente-a-su-esposo-y-sus-seis-hijas-quedan-solas-video?utm%5Fcampaign=Noticias+45+Houston&utm%5Fcontent=sprout&utm%5Fmedium=social&utm%5Fsource=facebook&fbclid=IwY2xjawLSRRlleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETE5WWF0dUdvdFdORGxGczZPAR4VnGJDNuhSrJ5G3wwsjJqn7nXptnCUed32tngqavllkqEOScY-ORq8PiGl2Q%5Faem%5FjVYWTyFjEEBoqSUR-%5FVWVA), Carmen, who was detained in front of her husband and children, can be heard saying, “I can’t breathe, I’m having an anxiety attack,” as she’s shoved into the back of a van. Carmen’s arrest was part of a new ICE directive targeting courthouses all over the country — where immigrants have reported for hearings on active asylum cases, only to be deported. The same day Carmen was arrested, a 6-year-old Honduran boy with leukemia [was arrested in Los Angeles](https://www.tpr.org/border-immigration/2025-06-25/ice-arrested-a-6-year-old-boy-with-leukemia-at-immigration-court-his-family-is-suing?ref=thebarbedwire.com) when he arrived at his hearing. The boy was crying in fear — and wet himself — when a plainclothes officer displayed his weapon. For months on end, outrage has mounted over ICE operations across the country that have targeted people at construction sites, farms, hotels, outside immigration court, at church, and at school. Each time I open my phone, I’m greeted with new snapshots outlining the scope and scale of this national tragedy: A family of five was [deported to Mexico](https://www.newsweek.com/family-2-us-citizen-children-deported-ice-after-traffic-stop-2069741?ref=thebarbedwire.com) after a traffic stop in Austin, despite the fact that two of their children are U.S. citizens. There was a viral [video](https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTjEHestF/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of a woman in Los Angeles, vlogging the process of her mom’s self-deportation after living in this country and raising a family here for 36 years. Earlier this year, an [11-year-old in North Texas](https://abc7chicago.com/post/11-year-old-jocelynn-rojo-carranza-dies-suicide-days-chatter-rumors-ice-raids-gainesville-isd-school/15942540/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) took her own life after classmates bullied her and other Hispanic students by threatening to report their families to ICE. This neverending carousel of cruelty used to masquerade as “law and order.” But the mask has been slipping, and the racism behind these immigration initiatives has become clearer by the day: Far-right political activist, Trump lackey, and conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer [claimed on X this week](https://www.instagram.com/p/DLn37S9yRaw/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that there are 65 million “illegal aliens” in the U.S. That’s the number of the total Latino population. When discussing the [new detention center in Florida](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-alligator-alcatraz-detention-center-florida/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), for which the Florida GOP is now selling [branded “Alligator Alcatraz” merchandise](https://www.fastcompany.com/91362081/alligator-alcatraz-merch-shirts-hats-amazon-florida-gop-detention-center?ref=thebarbedwire.com), she wrote: “Alligator lives matter. The good news is, alligators are guaranteed at least 65 million meals if we get started now.” To Loomer, it seems that simply *being Latino* is a crime. So with July Fourth looming on the horizon — as ICE operations continue across the country, tearing apart families and terrorizing immigrant communities — I’ve been thinking a lot about my own family history, and what it means to belong to a place whose leaders do not want you here. How do you celebrate a holiday that’s about liberty and freedom when you’re watching innocent people get shoved into unmarked vans? In May, a Texas sheriff [told *Newsweek*](https://www.newsweek.com/texas-sheriff-ice-schools-deportations-age-2066559?ref=thebarbedwire.com) he would support ICE operations in schools, saying “If someone is here illegally, they need to be deported regardless of age or location.” An 11-year-old girl (and U.S. citizen) [made headlines](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/child-brain-tumor-deported-family-humanitarian-parole-medical-rcna211925?ref=thebarbedwire.com) when she and her family were deported on the way to an emergency medical appointment in Houston to treat her brain tumor. And in the most “uplifting” of these stories, a little boy named Diego [was released](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DLi75VGNsv2/?igsh=MWgxeTltMTNxejY0cg==&ref=thebarbedwire.com) from a Texas detention center just in time to celebrate his fourth birthday this week. This is our new normal — the result of Trump’s [promise](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crk2kpk817vo?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to execute the “single largest Mass Deportation Program in History.” Texas is home to 12.1 million Latinos who make up 40 percent of the population. There are an estimated 1.7 million undocumented immigrants with families, jobs, and lives here. We share 1,254 miles of our border and a long, rich history with Mexico. These aren’t just cold, hard statistics, they’re the context behind the living, breathing people who work with you, who pave the roads you drive on, harvest the food you put on the table, who went to college with you, who have backyard barbecues in the same neighborhood as you, whose children are in the same kindergarten class as yours. **\*\*\*** The year my grandfather died, I went back home to interview him about his life. He told me stories about his escapades growing up on a ranch, helping take care of his family’s livestock. He recounted the story of meeting my grandmother at a local dance — how they’d gotten married and eventually left their small towns behind for the big city of San Antonio, where they raised my aunts, uncles, and my mom. It’s the kind of origin story that’ll feel familiar to so many Texans. But my grandfather wasn’t from Texas. He was born and raised in Lampazos de Naranjo, Nuevo León, México. My family arrived in San Antonio in the era of segregated pools, “separate but equal” schools, and “Whites Only” signs posted outside various businesses. Future congressman Henry B. González was just beginning his tenure as the first Mexican-American elected to the Texas Senate in over a century while my grandparents and the other families in their West Side neighborhood were packing up their trucks to begin the summer season as migrant farmers. This state helped shape them, there’s no denying that. It introduced them to another culture, a new language, new music and food. But along with countless other immigrants and Mexicans who have always called this state home, they helped shape Texas, too. In 1968, my aunt was one of 400 Edgewood High School students who [walked out](https://www.tshaonline.org/texas-day-by-day/entry/632?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in protest of inadequate funding and unequal conditions. That demonstration was the beginning of a [decades-long fight](https://commons.stmarytx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1037&context=thestmaryslawjournal&ref=thebarbedwire.com) against Texas’ discriminatory school financing system. Three of my uncles enlisted in the military, and while they finished out their service, their neighborhood was rocked by the deaths of 55 Edgewood students in Vietnam — the [second-highest number of casualties](https://www.sanantoniomag.com/honoring-edgewoods-heroes/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) from a single U.S. school district. These are the people who helped raise me, who taught me how to ride a bike and tie a lasso knot, who put me on horseback before I could write my own name, and introduced me to Vicente Fernández, Johnny Cash, Selena, and George Strait. I could list out all of the things that make them worthy of being called “Texans,” write out all of their best qualities and contributions, but I want to be clear: my grandparents didn’t deserve to be here just because they did things “the right way,” or because, once they were here, they became model citizens who seamlessly adapted to their new home. They weren’t perfect, they were just lucky: Lucky that they were born at the right time, lucky that their journey here didn’t have to involve a dangerous trek through the desert or across the river, lucky that my grandfather already had a sister who immigrated here before him, and who helped him understand the process. They were lucky enough to come here “the right way,” put down roots, and not have to worry about their lack of knowledge or their mistakes making them targets for deportation. And thanks to that trick of fate, *I* don’t have to spend every waking moment worried that my family will be ripped apart by undercover ICE agents. I don’t have to think about how to afford costly legal fees, how to get them to and from their court appointments, or how to make sure they know their rights. For so many others, these fears are an everyday reality — an all-American nightmare they cannot wake up from. And while they navigate this turmoil, the official White House account has turned their suffering into cruel and disgusting memes, posting an [“ASMR: Illegal Alien Deportation Flight,”](https://www.cnbc.com/2025/02/18/white-house-x-immigrants-deportation-shackles-asmr-video.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and an [AI-generated](https://x.com/WhiteHouse/status/1905332049021415862?ref=thebarbedwire.com) illustration of a woman crying while being handcuffed. In an [Op-Ed for *The New York Times*](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/01/opinion/trump-deportation-immigration-control.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) published this week, author Chandran Kukathas writes that Trump and his administration believe they have a democratic mandate to deport as many people as possible. “Their ultimate fear is that outsiders pose a danger to American values — the threat of not just taking our jobs or becoming welfare scroungers but also transforming our society into something different,” he says. “‘America First’ means not so much putting Americans first as putting a distinct idea of America and American values first.” We’ve been down this road before. In 1954, Border Patrol claimed to have been responsible for the deportation of roughly 1.2 million Mexicans under President Eisenhower’s [“Operation Wetback.”](https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/operation-wetback?ref=thebarbedwire.com) It’s a policy that [Trump himself has cited](https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/11/11/455613993/it-came-up-in-the-debate-here-are-3-things-to-know-about-operation-wetback?ref=thebarbedwire.com) as inspiration, though historians have argued that the actual amount of deportations was much lower, and [study](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/carsey-unh-edu/sites/default/files/media/2025-01/literature-review-economic-impact-mass-deportation.pdf) after [study](https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/deportations-unintended-consequences?ref=thebarbedwire.com) has shown the short-term efficacy of mass deportations and their detrimental effects on the economy. But, as Alexander Aviña, an associate professor of history at Arizona State University, told [the *Texas Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/02/12/texas-immigrants-deportation-operation-trump-eisenhower/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), these types of crackdowns *do* show long-term success in one area: creating a culture of fear and xenophobia. “There is this element of spectacle that both administrations use,” Aviña said. “They try to induce fear and terror in immigrant populations to get them to self-deport, and that’s something they tried to do with Operation Wetback, and it’s something that is continuing with the Trump administration.” Of course, that xenophobia and fear isn’t specific to undocumented immigrants. Though proponents of these policies at first claimed that federal agents would only be targeting violent criminals, then only the undocumented, that soon grew to any immigrants [“creating a ruckus.”](https://asamnews.com/2025/03/27/tufts-university-student-op-ed-on-gaza-arrested-deportation/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Throughout his campaigns, Trump and his supporters have repeatedly framed the arrival of immigrants to the U.S. border as “invasions.” It’s the same language used by the mass shooter who drove 650 miles to El Paso in his 2019 manifesto. And it’s the same language that Stephen Miller — White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy, Homeland Security Advisor, and the architect behind Trump’s immigration policies — has used repeatedly, most recently in discussions about Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill.” The sprawling legislation would authorize an unprecedented $170 billion for immigration and border-related operations, making ICE the most heavily funded law enforcement agency in the country, and when a handful of Republican holdouts briefly held up the bill, Miller addressed them [on Twitter](https://x.com/StephenM/status/1940632005554982958?ref=thebarbedwire.com), saying “BBB will liberate America from invasion. Occupied towns will be freed. Whole towns saved.” The bill also seriously guts child protection standards made possible by the [Flores Settlement](https://youthlaw.org/news/trump-administration-moves-end-settlement-protects-immigrant-children-flores-counsel-vow?ref=thebarbedwire.com), opening the door to prolonged, inhumane detention of children and families. “Armed with this funding, this administration will be able to multiply its violent raids and detain over 750,000 children, parents, and longtime residents in remote detention camps where, even now, people are dying,” said Sarah Mehta, Deputy Director of Government Affairs for the American Civil Liberties Union. I’m the granddaughter of an immigrant, and Texas is the only place I’ve ever called home. For most of my adult life, I have watched as this state’s leaders have pushed for the erasure of Mexican history in schools, have fought to put our authors on banned books lists, and have helped ICE and the federal government carry out mass deportations that have upended our communities. Some people might wonder why we fight so hard to “belong” to a place that has such a fraught relationship to our community, but those people are asking the wrong question. This isn’t about belonging, because we *are* here. We’ve *been* here. And as hard as it will be to make it through this current moment, the simple fact of the matter is this: There is no Texas without us. ### This Fourth of July is Red, White & Bleak URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/fourth-of-july-texas/ Last updated: 2025-07-03T08:41:00.000Z It’s almost the Fourth of July, and I have no idea what to do with it this year. I guess I could grill something? Or wave a sparkler and pretend things are normal? But it just feels bizarre, like clapping for a magic trick while the magician bleeds out backstage. The red, white, and blue decorations are already up at H-E-B. Flags everywhere. Fireworks booths dotting the roadside like little pop-up tributes to freedom, I mean, preventable wildfires. But this year, all of it feels hollow. I don’t know how to pretend we’re the “land of the free” right now. Not when Trump has steamrolled back into power like a villain in the sequel we begged the studio not to make. Not [when ICE is arresting 3-year-olds](https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/ice-arrests-sf-immigration-trump-20362755.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com), not when [we just bombed Iran](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/24/us/politics/iran-nuclear-sites.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and not when we’re about to [kick almost 12 million people off Medicaid](https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2025/07/01/millions-lose-health-insurance-trump-tax-bill/84431378007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). This doesn’t feel like a celebration of independence. It feels like we’re being held hostage by a nostalgia cult in red hats. And yeah, I know some folks will say “but this country’s always been like this,” and to a degree, that’s true. America was born in violence, wrapped in hypocrisy, and our most esteemed leaders were writing flowery speeches about liberty while owning people like livestock. That’s our origin story — so I get the instinct to eye-roll any disillusionment as naive. But that doesn’t make the state of our country any less terrifying. We’ve never been perfect, but this feels like backsliding with the gas pedal down. The Supreme Court is [tossing precedent in the shredder](https://law.stanford.edu/press/the-supreme-court-is-now-ignoring-precedent-it-doesnt-like/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) like confetti. State governments are playing “how low can we go” on [reproductive rights](https://www.propublica.org/article/texas-abortion-ban-miscarriage-blood-transfusions?ref=thebarbedwire.com). [Books are being banned](https://www.texastribune.org/2023/10/11/texas-library-book-bans/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) by people who haven’t read one since high school. And the president just took a break from (badly) running the country to [hawk his new fragrance line](https://www.reuters.com/world/us/whats-that-smell-trump-unveils-new-fragrances-with-his-name-brand-2025-07-01/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). So miss me with all the “America is a shining city on a hill” nonsense. No shining city would have elected this con man. I don’t want to celebrate America because I don’t even recognize it. Every day, I’m just bracing for more impact (and if a *white dude in Texas* feels this way… yeesh). The thing about fascism is that it doesn’t arrive all at once. It creeps in — through [Supreme Court decisions](https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/buoyed-by-supreme-court-trump-press-forward-firings-social-agenda-2025-07-01/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), through [relentless attacks on the press](https://www.hks.harvard.edu/publications/enemy-people-trumps-war-press-new-mccarthyism-and-threat-american-democracy?ref=thebarbedwire.com), through rallies where people proudly wear t-shirts [castigating their opponents in the vilest of terms](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/10/28/trump-shirts-vulgar-harris-presidential-race/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). It shows up in flags that used to mean something different. In neighbors who stop making eye contact. In a national holiday that feels more like cosplay than celebration. So yeah. This year, the fireworks will feel more like warning flares. Or a country at war with itself. I’ll still show up for the cookout. I’ll still try to find some joy in the little things. But I’ll also be mourning the country we could’ve had. Because this doesn’t feel like freedom. This feels like we’re being beaten into submission by an endless tidal wave of bad news, overloading (by design) those of us just trying to live our lives. So what do we do? I don’t know. Maybe the most patriotic act right now is refusing to look away. To keep caring. To keep yelling, even if it feels pointless. Or maybe, like me, you’ll just be sad and tired and vaguely terrified — but still here. Still hoping for something better. Happy Fourth, I guess. ### The Feds Are Quizzing Mexican Truck Drivers on English Literacy — and Banning Dozens from U.S. Highways URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/feds-quizzing-mexican-truck-drivers-banning-dozens-from-highways/ Last updated: 2025-07-02T17:49:16.000Z Just what Texas’ sprawling, harrowing, and permanently-under-construction roadways needed — more English literacy quizzes. Truck drivers in the Rio Grande Valley are being [questioned about their English literacy](https://www.valleycentral.com/news/local-news/english-proficiency-for-truckers-already-being-enforced-drivers-say/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), just a week after an executive order took effect that reinforces English proficiency requirements for truckers. Forty drivers in Southern states — Texas, Mississippi, and Arkansas — have already been taken out of service for failure to meet the law’s standards, [according to *Border Report*](https://www.borderreport.com/news/trade/40-truckers-lose-us-commercial-licenses-due-to-lack-of-english-proficiency/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Under this new guidance, the penalty for not meeting these requirements is much higher. Per the previous policy, truckers who failed to pass language inspections would receive a citation — now, they’re at risk of losing their ability to operate on U.S. highways entirely. Roadside inspectors are instructed to conduct interviews and roadside assessment tests, all in English, to ensure drivers’ language skills are, at their discretion, up to par. Current and aspiring drivers are now bracing for this new reality. In Juárez, a city in northern Mexico, transportation companies are sponsoring English classes for their drivers. A driving school in New Jersey is weaving English communication skills into its curriculum, [AP reports](https://apnews.com/article/truck-drivers-english-language-required-92c733048e85c34b1822cc4403eaf262?ref=thebarbedwire.com). This policy is intended to enhance and tighten existing road safety regulations, [White House officials say](https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/04/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-enforces-commonsense-rules-of-the-road-for-americas-truck-drivers/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). In reality, truckers are already able to identify traffic signs and understand motor vehicle rules, [*Valley Central* reports](https://www.valleycentral.com/border-report/mexican-truck-drivers-in-a-hurry-to-learn-english/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). But those who learned English as a second language may be penalized for imperfections in their dialogue. “I’m concerned because now for all the Spanish(-speaking) people it’s more difficult,” New Jersey-based driving instructor [Paul Cuartas told AP](https://apnews.com/article/truck-drivers-english-language-required-92c733048e85c34b1822cc4403eaf262?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “Tools to facilitate communication such as interpreters, I-Speak cards, cue cards, smart phone applications, and On-Call Telephone Interpretation Service should not be used during the driver interview,” the [internal enforcement policy](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-fmcsa-dot-gov/sites/fmcsa-dot-gov/files/2025-05/fmcsa-elp-guidance-with-attachments-final-5-20-2025-%5Fredacted.pdf) reads. “Those tools may mask a driver’s inability to communicate in English.” ### Texas Bans Lab-Grown Meat, Declares Freedom Only Counts If It Mooed First URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-bans-lab-grown-meat/ Last updated: 2025-07-02T07:25:00.000Z It’s official: Texas has lassoed itself another big win for freedom — by banning it. Yes, in a bold stand for liberty, small government, and the God-given right to eat things that once mooed, the Texas Legislature has [banned the sale of lab-grown meat](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2025/06/27/its-plain-cowboy-logic-texas-bans-sale-production-of-lab-grown-meat-for-2-years/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). If you were hoping to celebrate your next tailgate — or July 4 — with a brisket that never had a face, you’re out of luck. In a state where people regularly threaten secession because someone in Washington tried to recommend a vaccine or put up a speed limit sign, we’re *banning fake meat* to protect the delicate feelings of an industry that already [receives billions in subsidies](https://www.ewg.org/news-insights/news/2024/10/usda-livestock-subsidies-top-59-billion?ref=thebarbedwire.com). If only the Texas Legislature cared as much about freedom when it comes to, say, women’s bodies, school books, drag shows, marijuana, or literally anything else besides what ends up on your tray at Golden Corral. Instead, Texas lawmakers have decided to protect us from … *checks notes* … meat that wasn’t born, raised, and processed the old-fashioned way — with antibiotics, hormones, and existential dread. (Nevermind the fact that [antibiotic use in agriculture](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6017557/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) has already snowballed into antibiotic *resistance* in humans in developing countries, “leading to higher healthcare cost and sometimes death.”) [Senate Bill 261](https://legiscan.com/TX/bill/SB261/2025?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which takes effect September 1, will make it illegal to sell cell-cultured protein for human consumption in Texas through 2027\. Because when the Founding Fathers said “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” they definitely meant “only if your happiness was grass-fed and USDA-graded.” Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller [called this a stand](https://texasagriculture.gov/News-Events/Article/10442/COMMISSIONER-MILLER-PRAISES-TEXAS-LEGISLATURE-FOR-PUTTING-A-FORK-IN-LAB-GROWN-M?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for “real Texas food.” Which I guess means Whataburger, gas station pizza, and meat that had the decency to die screaming. “Texans have a God-given right to know what’s on their plate,"” he said — while ignoring the part where Texans also used to have a God-given right to *decide* what’s on their plate. “And for millions of Texans, it better come from a pasture, not a lab. It’s plain cowboy logic that we must safeguard our real, authentic meat industry from synthetic alternatives.” Yeah, nothing says “small government” quite like regulating your lunch. To be clear, no one’s forcing anyone to eat test-tube turkey here. Lab-grown meat is *already* labeled, voluntarily. It’s not being secretly slipped into your kolache. And not to harp on this, but isn’t the whole point of this Lone Star libertarian cosplay to let people make their own choices? You know, limited government, personal responsibility, freedom to eat beef grown in a petri dish or at least have a debate about it without the state slapping your fork out of your hand? Critics [have (fairly) raised questions](https://www.ucdavis.edu/food/news/lab-grown-meat-carbon-footprint-worse-beef?ref=thebarbedwire.com) about lab-grown meat, but supporters point out some obvious benefits: no slaughterhouses, no poop, no antibiotics, no pesticides, and no microplastics. “Cultivated meat, in our view, is safer than the conventional meat that is produced in a large scale that’s on the market right now,” said Dr. Uma Valeti, CEO and Founder of Upside Foods told [KXAN](https://www.kxan.com/news/texas-politics/lab-grown-barbecue-sale-banned-in-texas/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Meanwhile, according to the heathen Communists at the U.N., [14.5% of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions come from livestock farming](https://www.fao.org/family-farming/detail/en/c/1634679/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). But rather than support a method of meat production that could, you know, *not doom the planet*, Texas lawmakers are protecting our God-given right to methane. Let’s review: In Texas, [you can buy a flamethrower online](https://www.kvue.com/article/news/investigations/defenders/flamethrowers-easy-to-buy-sell-in-texas/269-29039732?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and drive it home in your truck. But you cannot, under any circumstances, eat a piece of chicken that didn’t first have to poop, peck, and die for your sins. So if you want to try lab-grown meat, you’ll have to go to California or Singapore — places Texans love to mock, unless we’re talking about moving there for jobs, legal weed, or a [mammoth meatball](https://www.kxan.com/news/science/will-traditional-barbecue-go-extinct-because-of-woolly-mammoth-meatballs/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) made entirely in a lab. Because here in Texas, despite all our free-market bullshit, our leaders are happy to pick winners and losers. And the big loser, as usual, is the environment. Enjoy [hurricane season](https://www.noaa.gov/news-release/noaa-predicts-above-normal-2025-atlantic-hurricane-season?ref=thebarbedwire.com)! ### What Can Texans Learn from Zohran Mamdani’s Political Earthquake? More Than You’d Think. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/politicians-texans-can-learn-zohran-mamdani/ Last updated: 2025-07-01T05:01:00.000Z Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past week, you know that a young democratic socialist just swept away establishment opposition in the New York City mayoral Democratic primary election. Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old state assemblyman in New York defied polling odds — and conventional wisdom — in a blowout victory that sent shockwaves through the political system. New York City ain’t Texas, but there are many reasons Texans should pay close attention to the outcome of the Democratic mayoral primary election there. Working Texans face many of the same issues that galvanized voters toward Mamdani: [housing affordability](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/01/25/texas-housing-affordability-rent-cost-burden/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [cost of childcare](https://texaslsg.org/2024/08/13/understanding-the-child-care-crisis-in-texas/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and [food insecurity](https://everytexan.org/2025/02/18/food-insecurity-is-a-texas-crisis/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to name a few. Not only are Texas’ current public officials spending their time and energy outlawing reproductive healthcare and (attempting to, anyway) THC — they’re doing so while seemingly ignoring kitchen-table issues. What if a Texas politician embraced tangible policies to help the everyday citizen — and not the[ billionaires](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/02/magazine/texas-politics-billionaire-preachers.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) who have been bankrolling the far-right arm of the Texas Republican Party? Mamdani ran a joyful, volunteer-driven campaign with an economic platform focused on cost-of-living issues impacting working class voters: [rent freezes](https://gothamist.com/news/freeze-the-rent-nyc-rent-guidelines-board-to-hold-politically-charged-vote-monday-night?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on rent-stabilized apartments, public investments in housing, [publicly owned grocery stores](https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/30/business/zohran-mamdani-grocery-stores?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [free child care](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-06-27/zohran-mamdani-free-child-care-plan-to-relieve-parents-cost-nyc-billions?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and bus fare, and more. His victorious campaign — which overcame a [massive gap in name-recognition](https://truthout.org/articles/nyc-mayoral-race-poll-shows-progressive-zohran-mamdani-closing-in-on-cuomo/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [spurious accusations of antisemitism](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/24/opinion/antisemitism-new-york-city-mayor.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [anti-Muslim bigotry](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/06/20/mamdani-cuomo-new-york-city-mayor/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and [well-funded outside opposition](https://www.thecity.nyc/2025/06/26/cuomo-fix-city-independent-expenditures-mayor/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — was [labeled by one Democratic strategist](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/25/nyregion/cuomo-mamdani-mayor-primary-nyc.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) as “the biggest upset in modern New York City history.” With the support of a massive field operation and tens of thousands of volunteers from the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, Mamdani sailed to first-ballot victory in a ranked choice election through [a coalition](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/-zohran-mamdani-catapulted-top-democrats-new-york-city-mayoral-primary-rcna214911?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of young people, working families, and voters across racial demographics. Now, Mamdani is preparing to square off against embattled incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, who previously ran as a Democrat but is now running in the general election as an Independent. He announced his party switch the day after the Department of Justice moved to dismiss his contentious federal corruption case, [arguing that continuing the case](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/eric-adams-corruption-case-permanently-dismissed-rcna199266?ref=thebarbedwire.com) would interfere with Adams’ ability to govern and threaten “federal immigration initiatives and policies.” “I think the lesson is young people are motivated if they're turned on by a candidate and turned on by public policy that really speaks to them,” Kathleen Thompson, the executive director of Progress Texas, told *The Barbed Wire*. “And in Texas, the economic messaging is the same. Whether you're in Houston or Dallas or San Antonio, it's so expensive. The last time Texas raised the minimum wage was 2009 and it's $7.25 an hour. That’s a joke.” Much has been made of what Mamdani’s victory means for Democrats nationally, and for the establishment types who were shocked by Mamdani’s win. It exposed [a growing divide](https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/mamdanis-new-york-mayoral-primary-win-exposes-democratic/story?id=123282866&ref=thebarbedwire.com) within the Democratic party and the broader commentariat. Some, like Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, praised Mamdani after his win, while others like Senator Kirsten Gillibrand have distanced themselves and refused to say who they would endorse in the general election — leaving open the possibility of supporting a mayoral candidate who is not the Democratic nominee. And with the Democratic Party [facing record lows in favorability polls](https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/16/politics/cnn-poll-democrats?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [open revolt from youth activists](https://www.axios.com/2025/04/30/democrats-connolly-aoc-crockett-lynch-oversight?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and a [nagging reputation as a gerontocracy](https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/06/us-needs-polite-way-usher-politicians-out/683230/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) whose members die in office at inopportune times, voters are seeking a new path forward — something that candidates like Mamdani are eager to offer through an [unabashedly leftwing populist policy platform](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/26/zohran-mamdani-interview-leftwing-politics-us-elections?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [slogans](https://jacobin.com/2025/06/mamdani-nyc-mayoral-election-speech?ref=thebarbedwire.com) like “we can demand what we deserve.” The same applies in Texas, where the majority of residents [disapprove of the current state government](https://www.kxan.com/news/texas/texans-approval-of-trump-abbott-sours-poll/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), think the country is [going in the wrong direction](https://www.kxan.com/news/texas/texans-approval-of-trump-abbott-sours-poll/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and [hold historically low favorability](https://texaspolitics.utexas.edu/set/democratic-party-favorability-trend?ref=thebarbedwire.com) regarding the state Democratic Party. The effect of Mamdani’s victory over his main opponent in the Democratic primary, former New York Governor and alleged [serial sexual harasser](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/jan/26/andrew-cuomo-sexually-hostile-work-environment?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Andrew Cuomo, has been nothing short of a political earthquake. Responses from the right [are Islamophobic, apoplectic](https://www.thecut.com/article/conservatives-react-to-zohran-mamdani-nyc-mayor.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and apparently aimed at making Mamdani an example of how the Democratic Party has become a tool of far-left Marxists. President [Donald Trump, for example, described Mamdani](https://www.politico.com/news/2025/06/25/trump-zohran-mamdani-reaction-00423933?ref=thebarbedwire.com) as a “100% Communist Lunatic.” Reactions from liberal commentators are more chastened and nuanced, reflecting their uncertain footing on the shifting political ground underneath them. Days before the election, *The Atlantic*, a bastion of liberal journalism, [criticised Mamdani’s platform](https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/06/new-york-mayoral-race-democrats/683325/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) as “magical realism” that didn’t hold up to scrutiny. After the election, the [magazine conceded](https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/06/new-york-mayoral-race-democrats/683325/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that “Zohran Mamdani’s success might give the party a few ideas about how to move forward—to a point.” Some centrist Democrats, like American economist and former United States Secretary of the Treasury Larry Summers, have asserted that Mamdani's victory is actually a sort of poison pill. Summers argued in a [recent interview](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e%5FHERRBZkoU&ref=thebarbedwire.com) that Mamdani becoming the next mayor of New York City would cause “massive outmigration” from the city, and a consequent “great gift” for the economies of Florida and Texas. This type of rhetoric has already been deployed by at least one conservative politician in Texas, former Democrat-turned-Republican Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson, who took to social media to draw a contrast between New York City and Dallas. “Dear Concerned New York City Resident or Business Owner: Don’t panic! Just move to Dallas, where we strongly support our police, value our partners in the business community, embrace free markets, shun excessive regulation, and protect the American Dream!” Johnson wrote. Democratic politicians in Texas, including centrists, would be wise to sidestep this trap, which will only serve the interests of Republican lawmakers who have a stranglehold on statewide politics. Instead, they should seriously consider what made Mamdani’s campaign so attractive to the voters, whose decision made the blowout result of the primary election such a shock. Mamdani deployed a highly energetic, volunteer-driven campaign and leaned hard into social media, directly engaging with his audience and voters. To Thompson of Progress Texas’ point, younger voters — [often dismissed as unreliable](https://www.economist.com/united-states/2024/06/27/young-voters-strongly-favour-joe-biden-but-will-they-turn-out?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — played a significant role in Mamdani’s victory. An analysis by [*Gothamist*](https://gothamist.com/news/nearly-a-quarter-of-nycs-early-voters-hadnt-voted-in-a-democratic-primary-since-2012?ref=thebarbedwire.com) found that nearly half of early voters were younger than 45, and Mamdani showed strength in [neighborhoods with the highest concentration of young voters](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/-zohran-mamdani-catapulted-top-democrats-new-york-city-mayoral-primary-rcna214911?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Thompson at least believes Mamdani’s success could be replicated in the Lone Star State. “I think a Texan who runs on economic values and fairness and equality for all could do well in our major cities, but also our rural areas,” Thompson said. “There are a lot of folks in rural Texas who rely on minimum wage jobs, who rely on their neighborhood public schools to lift them out of poverty.” Consider the potential impacts of Trump’s so-called One Big Beautiful Bill, which if passed would cut billions from SNAP and Medicare — programs that feed food insecure Texans and provide healthcare to underpaid working families. Forty-six Texas House Democrats recently sent a letter to Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz demanding they reject the bill. Given that Mamdani won in a state where the ruling party *isn’t* supporting policy that will take food and medical care out of the hands of their constituents, it stands to reason that candidates who channel outrage around those issues could do well in Texas. Of course, we know what’s not working in Texas — on either side of the aisle. The Republicans have maintained a stranglehold on statewide politics for decades, while Democrats have struggled to win outside of safe districts and major urban municipal elections. Without changes in the statehouse, things will get worse for working Texans. But without changes to how Democrats campaign, there’s little hope for any change in Austin. There’s plenty of room for fresh blood and new tactics, but what this would look like in Texas is yet to be seen. Any Texan candidate seeking to adapt Mamdani’s template would have to take into account Texas’ radically differing transportation infrastructure, housing density, and statewide political climate. Aspiring Mamdani copycats don’t have to describe themselves as democratic socialists in order to channel the same populist energy that enabled Mamdani’s unexpected victory, even if [more people](https://jacobin.com/2023/03/socialism-right-wing-think-tank-polling-support-anti-capitalism?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — [particularly the young](https://www.statista.com/statistics/1336340/views-socialism-capitalism-us-age/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — are open to socialism than ever before, in spite of attempts at a [new Red Scare](https://proteanmag.com/2025/06/26/third-red-scare-same-as-the-first/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). One could also argue that the word “socialism” may be too fraught to try employing in Texas, even if that would erase [Texas’ rich history of homegrown socialist agitation](https://jacobin.com/2023/04/texas-socialist-party-meitzen-farmers-labor-bloc?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and the small but extant number of socialist organizations across the state whose grassroots support could be leveraged. But what they must do — both for the sake of good politics and for long-term success — is extricate themselves from the uber-wealthy who have been lately bankrolling Texas Republicans. “I’m hoping that in 2026 and in 2025 for the primaries, we see more people running who see what happened in New York as a motivation to run on issues that are common moral threads of economics that cross racial demographic, age demographic, and regional demographic lines,” Thompson said. “Democrats shouldn't be afraid of public policy that works for the working class,” she added. “They should embrace it.” ### ‘The Pulpit is Sacred’: Dallas Faith Leaders Sue to Block Ten Commandments Bill URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/dallas-faith-leaders-sue-over-ten-commandments-texas/ Last updated: 2025-06-30T17:59:16.000Z Dallas-based faith leaders are suing to block a “religiously coercive” bill that requires Texas public schools to display posters of the Ten Commandments. The plaintiffs are all parents, suing on behalf of themselves and their minor-age children, and allege that S.B. 10 “unconstitutionally pressures students” into observing the state’s “mandated religious scripture.” The Texas Education Agency, TEA commissioner Mike Morath, and a handful of Dallas school districts are named as the lawsuit’s defendants, [*The Texas Tribune* first reported](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/06/26/texas-schools-commandments-requirement-lawsuit/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Gov. Greg Abbott signed the [highly controversial](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-voted-to-mandate-schools-display-the-ten-commandments-this-bite-me-greg-activist-wants-them-in-arabic-with-a-dash-of-satanism/) S.B. 10 into law last week. Barring legal challenges, it’s scheduled to take effect on Sept. 1 — but may face further scrutiny in courts, just like similar bills in [Louisiana](https://apnews.com/article/louisiana-ten-commandments-schools-federal-court-80d31b705fccbbbe3eeeb3cda5f64ec3?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [Arkansas](https://apnews.com/article/ten-commandments-arkansas-lawsuit-classrooms-aclu-5a4ee9833f169e92d1ffbee448196598?ref=thebarbedwire.com). If S.B. 10 passes, Texas students will be “unconstitutionally coerced into religious observance, veneration, and adoption of the state’s favored religious scripture,” [the lawsuit alleges](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/storage-courtlistener-com/recap/gov-uscourts-txnd-405729/gov-uscourts-txnd-405729-1-0%5F1.pdf). “They will be pressured to suppress their personal religious beliefs and practices, especially in school, to avoid the potential disfavor, reproach, and/or disapproval of school officials and/or their peers.” “The pulpit is sacred — not a platform for political propaganda,” one plaintiff writes. The lawsuit argues that S.B. 10 violates the First Amendment’s “fundamental religious-freedom principles” (and cites a moment when bill author Rep. Candy Noble (R-Lucas), during an April 30 hearing, "refused to acknowledge” the constitutional separation of church and state). But one of the plaintiffs’ biggest gripes, it seems, is that S.B. 10 bill encroaches upon their parental rights. “\[One plaintiff\] views these displays as religiously coercive, usurping his parental role in directing his children’s religious education, values, and upbringing,” the lawsuit reads. “The ability to direct and guide their child’s spiritual development is an essential aspect of \[another set of plaintiffs’\] religious exercise,” the lawsuit further alleges. “S.B. 10 will significantly interfere with and burden their ability to carry out this religious exercise.” Last month, the ACLU and other Texas-based civil liberties organizations [announced plans](https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/civil-liberties-groups-will-sue-over-texas-law-requiring-ten-commandments-in-public-schools?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to sue the state over S.B. 10, although they have yet to file suit. ### Sequins, Feathers, and Bolo Ties: The Best Fan Fits From Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter Houston Homecoming URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/best-beyonce-fan-outfits-houston/ Last updated: 2025-06-29T20:13:32.000Z The energy shifts when [Beyoncé is back in Houston](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/beyonce-cowboy-carter-tour-houston/). Her hometown showed up and showed out for the Texas dates on her Cowboy Carter and the Rodeo Chitlin' Circuit Tour: nightclubs and bars hosted Beyoncé-themed dance parties and drag shows, the airports welcomed fans with "Cowboy Carter Corners,” and eager Beyhive members braved the heat for hours for a chance to snag Beyoncé merch. Hours before Bey took the stage Saturday for her first of two shows in Houston, it was easy to spot the 100,000+ fans who had a ticket to see her. The route to NRG Stadium was lined with fringe, cowboy boots, chaps, and a whole lot of denim. Even at the entrance, the security line moved at a slower pace to accommodate the sheer influx of cowboy hats that had to be removed and placed in the bins. *The Barbed Wire* rounded up some of the night’s best dressed attendees, some of whom traveled from thousands of miles away to see Queen Bey. And for the naysayers who doubted the singer’s country roots, let the people of Houston be a corrective: Beyoncé (and her city) has always *been* country. ![A fan at Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter tour stop in Houston on June 28. (Cat Cadenas, The Barbed Wire)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/beyonce-2-4.jpg) (Cat Cadenas, The Barbed Wire) Kyle Spencer, originally from San Antonio, flew in from Seattle for the concert. ![A fan at Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter tour stop in Houston on June 28. (Cat Cadenas, The Barbed Wire)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/beyonce-2-3.jpg) (Cat Cadenas, The Barbed Wire) Raquel from San Antonio (this author’s mom) sporting a thrifted bandana ring and her father's vintage belt/buckle. ![Fans at Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter tour stop in Houston on June 28. (Cat Cadenas, The Barbed Wire)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/beyonce-2-6.jpg) (Cat Cadenas, The Barbed Wire) Sydney Lavigne and Cassandra Thompson from Houston, wearing DIY feathered chaps. ![Fans at Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter tour stop in Houston on June 28. (Cat Cadenas, The Barbed Wire)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/beyonce-2-8.jpg) (Cat Cadenas, The Barbed Wire) Victoria and Jasmine sporting spangled western-wear and matching bolo ties. ![A fan at Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter tour stop in Houston on June 28. (Cat Cadenas, The Barbed Wire)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/beyonce-2-9.jpg) (Cat Cadenas, The Barbed Wire) Tremaine Butler from San Antonio in an all-black denim fit. Brenecia Mingo, from Houston, wore a crafted denim jacket with American flags draped from the sleeves. ![Fans at Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter tour stop in Houston on June 28. (Cat Cadenas, The Barbed Wire)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/beyonce-2-10.jpg) (Cat Cadenas, The Barbed Wire) A pair of Beyoncé chaps in the crowd. ![Fans at Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter tour stop in Houston on June 28. (Cat Cadenas, The Barbed Wire)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/beyonce-2591.jpg) (Cat Cadenas, The Barbed Wire) Mariah Lynae, Le’André Savage, and Erica Thomas in custom fits. ![Fans at Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter tour stop in Houston on June 28. (Cat Cadenas, The Barbed Wire)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/beyonce-2.jpg) (Cat Cadenas, The Barbed Wire) Ken and Nee, who flew in from Ohio, only had an hour to pull their looks together. Which they pulled off, along with the rest of the Beyhive. ### Supreme Court Ruling on Texas Porn Case Could Have Major Free Speech Implications URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/supreme-court-ruling-on-texas-porn-case-could-have-major-free-speech-implications/ Last updated: 2025-06-27T17:17:51.000Z *This story was originally written by [Jasmine Mithani](https://19thnews.org/author/jasmine-mithani/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)* *and published by [The 19th\* News](https://19thnews.org/2025/06/supreme-court-ruling-free-speech-coalition-paxton/?ref=thebarbedwire.com).* The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 Friday that age verification “porn ID” laws are an appropriate way to regulate content for minors without infringing on the First Amendment rights of adults. The [ruling](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-supremecourt-gov/opinions/2/23-1122%5F3e04.pdf), in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, has major implications for the accessibility of any online speech the government could decide is harmful to children. Laws that potentially curb civil liberties are subject to rigorous legal standards. Two lower courts had applied different standards to the Texas law, and the Supreme Court decided that the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ lower standard was correct in this case. Strict scrutiny, the standard applied by the Texas district court, requires that a law must be narrowly tailored, further a compelling government interest and be the least restrictive option. The 5th Circuit used a lower standard, known as rational basis, to evaluate the law, essentially saying it has no potential to jeopardize freedom of speech. The Free Speech Coalition, the adult industry trade group, joined several adult content companies and an anonymous creator to challenge Texas’ law. The organization has filed cases in different states challenging web-based age verification statutes over the past couple years. Writing for the majority, Justice Clarence Thomas held that the law should be evaluated based on[ intermediate scrutiny](https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/intermediate%5Fscrutiny?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the standard in between, because it only “incidentally burdens the protected speech of adults.” Laws must further an important government interest and do so by “means substantially related to that interest.” Texas’ law survives this test, Thomas wrote. Justice Elena Kagan, joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson, dissented. Thomas dismissed the argument about the risks of age verification in an online environment, contending that websites or third-party services “have every incentive to assure users of their privacy.” He also held that accessing pornography has always come with a stigma, sidestepping the way digital information on users is collected, bought and sold in today’s world. He noted that under intermediate scrutiny, the law doesn’t have to address all aspects of the overarching problem of blocking children from seeing inappropriate material online. Representatives of the pornography industry had argued that Texas’s law exempted the places on the internet youth are most likely to encounter content considered obscene for them: social media and search engines. By saying the law does not have to meet strict scrutiny, the opinion paves the legal way for increased site-based age verification on the web. The privacy concerns accompanying the uploading of verifiable identification to sensitive websites are not seen as overly burdensome to adults. Consequently, the court ruled restrictions on protected free speech for adults can be applied in the name of protecting children. In 2023, Texas passed a law requiring websites with at least one-third sexual content — characterized as “material harmful to minors” — to [verify the age of users](https://19thnews.org/2024/01/states-age-verification-adult-content-online/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) using government identification or other reliable techniques. The law was initially blocked by a district judge, but then the preliminary injunction was overruled by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The law has been in effect while the Supreme Court considered the case. Many digital civil rights groups have raised the alarm over privacy risks of web-based age verification. Texas, like the majority of states, does not have a state-recognized digital identification system. Websites would need to contract with a third- party company that handles photos of physical IDs or runs face-scans to determine the age of users. The risk is compounded as a user typically must verify their age every time they try to view a page. Device-based age verification, where pieces of technology like phones or computers are age-locked, generally only requires identification once. Critics of age verification laws worry how state governments will determine what kinds of content qualify as “harmful to minors,” especially as right-wing extremists increasingly characterise any type of LGBTQ+ media as inappropriate for children — or outright consider the existence of queer people to be pornographic. The ability to easily access information about reproductive health or dissenting political opinions could be targeted by laws championing children down the line. In her dissent, Justice Kagan argued that Texas’ law regulated content and thus should be subject to strict scrutiny. She asked whether the age verification process outlined was the least restrictive way to keep access for adults while also preventing children from seeing sexual material online. She emphasized the risks to privacy that the Free Speech Coalition and digital civil rights groups [raised in their arguments](https://www.techpolicy.press/can-states-restrict-online-content-in-the-name-of-protecting-children-the-supreme-court-will-weigh-in/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “It is turning over information about yourself and your viewing habits—respecting speech many find repulsive—to a website operator, and then to…who knows?” she wrote. “The operator might sell the information; the operator might be hacked or subpoenaed.” Kagan also drew a distinction between online age verification and flashing an ID momentarily in person: “The internet context can only increase the fear.” By saying the law does not have to meet strict scrutiny, the opinion paves the legal way for increased site-based age verification on the web. The privacy concerns accompanying the uploading of verifiable identification to sensitive websites are not seen as overly burdensome to adults. Consequently, the court ruled restrictions on protected free speech for adults can be applied in the name of protecting children. In 2023, Texas passed a law requiring websites with at least one-third sexual content — characterized as “material harmful to minors” — to [verify the age of users](https://19thnews.org/2024/01/states-age-verification-adult-content-online/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) using government identification or other reliable techniques. The law was initially blocked by a district judge, but then the preliminary injunction was overruled by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The law has been in effect while the Supreme Court considered the case. Many digital civil rights groups have raised the alarm over privacy risks of web-based age verification. Texas, like the majority of states, does not have a state-recognized digital identification system. Websites would need to contract with a third- party company that handles photos of physical IDs or runs face-scans to determine the age of users. The risk is compounded as a user typically must verify their age every time they try to view a page. Device-based age verification, where pieces of technology like phones or computers are age-locked, generally only requires identification once. Critics of age verification laws worry how state governments will determine what kinds of content qualify as “harmful to minors,” especially as right-wing extremists increasingly characterise any type of LGBTQ+ media as inappropriate for children — or outright consider the existence of queer people to be pornographic. The ability to easily access information about reproductive health or dissenting political opinions could be targeted by laws championing children down the line. ![](https://pixel.19thnews.org/2025/06/supreme-court-ruling-free-speech-coalition-paxton) ### How DJ Screw’s ‘June 27’ Became a Monument to Houston Hip-hop Culture URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/dj-screw-june-27-monument-to-houston-culture/ Last updated: 2025-06-27T05:00:00.000Z *Texas hasn’t gotten its due as a major piece in the complex puzzle of American art. We’re here to rectify that. Every three weeks, H. Drew Blackburn will conduct a thoroughly scientific analysis of the 254 integral (one for every county) books, movies, tv shows, albums, podcasts, songs, and magazine articles — you name it — that best exemplify the Texas spirit. These texts, products of immense talent, dig into the marrow of our being. When it’s all said and done and we’ve built The Texas Voyager collection, we’ll (figuratively) head to the Johnson Space Center in Houston and shoot it beyond the atmosphere, into the cosmos. A wise person once posed the question: “What if the aliens are hot?” Hold onto that hope — this is our chance to impress ‘em.* I can’t tell you how many times I’ve blurted out “man, hold up,” or “I done came down,” in my youth and followed it up with some awful, no good, terrible bars. (That’s fine. I’m no rapper, and freestyling is hard.) It’s just a part of our culture — jumping in and out of the cipher, audaciously flexing and representing where you’re from. Hip-hop’s culture is malleable, filling every nook of America and reflecting the little things that make a region unique. For the facets that make Texas hip-hop special, our North Star is DJ Screw and the revolving cast of Houston MCs collectively called the Screwed Up Click. Nothing captures their slow-motion revolution better than [“June 27,”](https://open.spotify.com/track/1SyKAtGUciEgSB633Y4X4U?go=1&sp%5Fcid=2ec06ccc711b9f0daf7fce3656f66e87&utm%5Fsource=embed%5Fplayer%5Fp&utm%5Fmedium=desktop&nd=1&dlsi=c0c5ff049f4f4dac) recorded on one hot, magical summer night in 1996. The session began as nothing more than DeMo’s birthday celebration at Screw’s home studio, the Wood Room, according to Lance Scott Walker, author of “DJ Screw: A Life in Slow Revolution” and “Houston Rap Tapes.” It was organized weeks in advance — a do-over of an earlier attempt dubbed “Dancing Candy,” where DeMo rounded up some friends, then drank too much codeine, nodded off, and missed his own recording. No worries, he just figured he’d run it back on his birthday. “The day was kind of like the way the recording ended up, which is that there were a bunch of people who kind of scattered in at different times, floated in and out, just like they do in the song,” Walker told *The* *Barbed Wire*. “Everybody (who was there) has a loose concept of what time it was, which I think is just probably the case any time you were in that house.” The finished product is remarkable. The sample Screw chose, Kris Kross's “Da Streets Ain't Right,” produced by Jermaine Dupri is a left-field choice, on account that it’s a deep cut on an album by child rappers — a testament to his ear as a musician and producer. “He didn't think like anybody else and his whole approach and his whole swing — I always describe Screw as a great drummer that never ended up being a drummer, because of his swing and what he's hearing, where he wants to wind things back, where he wants to dig in and create those new rhythms,” Walker said. “I'm a drummer myself, so I know about how you find these pockets where you swing in and nobody else can find exactly that (the way he did).” ‘Til this day Jermaine Dupri [has no idea how Screw got his hands on the instrumental](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGcbIoB8uD4&ab%5Fchannel=ChowtimeTV&ref=thebarbedwire.com), but I think we’re all happy he did. Screw’s beat is the hypnotic foundation, but all that loose, come-and-go energy hardened into one take with DeMo, Bird, Key-C, Yungstar, Big Pokey, Haircut Joe and K-Luv’s voices rotating in the mix, and specifically, Big Moe’s Barry-White-silky-smooth helped catapult this little experiment into legend. “Most Screw mixes have eight-or ten-minute cuts, but this crew went more than half an hour. It turned into a tornado; nobody stopped, everybody fed off the next verse,” Walker said. “Jam bands don’t even hold songs that long — the Dead tap out sooner — but these guys kept pushing.” As soon as “June 27” left the Wood Room, it became an instant classic. The tape was released on July 4th weekend in Galveston, soundtracking beach parties, cookouts, and revelry in the sun. The tape spread rapidly, and everyone was listening to the masterpiece in its entirety, Walker noted. “It was a time that was just a high moment for so many people, where they felt like they could put on this 35-minute track and just really bury themselves in it, wrap themselves in it, and create this vibe,” he said. And when it was over, well, they’d just run it back again. It sounds grandiose to say, but three decades after its release, Screw’s magnum opus is bigger than a song — it's the soul of a movement. Long before streaming made discovery effortless, fans drove to Screw’s house, parked out front, walked up to the gate, and bought tapes directly from the man himself. The sidewalk hustle echoes the blueprint drawn up by Rap-A-Lot Records founder James Prince, but how Screw operated is the crest of Southern rap’s independent spirit. Screw didn’t discover this style of music either. There were other Houston DJs before him, like the ‘80s-era DJ Darryl Scott, who at first accidentally slowed down house and funk 45 rpm records at 33, and then, when people responded to the sound, he kept at it. Screw added texture and intentionality, painstakingly choosing the tracks he used. He zeroed in and chopped up the tales weaved by MCs, aware that what the men spoke about on his records functioned as oral histories and political dialogue. That signature sound became the spark that pushed Houston rap onto the national radar in the early aughts — ”Sittin’ Sidewayz,” one of this era’s greatest songs, takes its hook from a “June 27” verse — and beyond. You hear his influence in everyone from Drake to A$AP Rocky to pop divas. His style has become so ubiquitous, “chopped and screwed” is used to describe music that’s slowed, chopped with reverb on top, “chopped and screwed.” Yet real heads know that only DJ Screw can do that. It can be “chopped not slopped,” or another variation, but as Walker puts it, “chopped and screwed belongs strictly to him, because that's what his hands touched.” Even though he tragically passed due to a codeine overdose in 2000, Screw is always with us, deep into the marrow of our cultures and traditions — so much so that DeMo’s birthday has turned into an [annual celebration of DJ Screw’s life and legacy](https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2024/06/27/its-dj-screw-day-heres-what-to-know-about-the-texas-native-named-the-originator-of-chopped-and-screwed-music/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Walker told me he considers DJ Screw’s oeuvre a “universe” more than 300 chapters deep, with “close-by stars that still feel light-years away.” If that ain’t the truth. “June 27” is the brightest of them all. ### The 2025 NBA Draft, Dylan Harper, and Cooper Flagg Changed the Basketball Axis in Texas URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-2025-nba-draft-ron-harper-and-cooper-flag-changed-the-basketball-axis-in-texas/ Last updated: 2025-06-26T13:33:47.000Z Less than one percent. That was the probability that the top two picks in the 2025 NBA Draft would belong to the Dallas Mavericks and the San Antonio Spurs. But that’s the way the draft lottery played out in May, and it earned the two franchises the opportunity to trust their future success to their pick of kids born during George W. Bush's second presidential administration. For the Mavericks, it’s not just a miraculous shot at redemption. It’s an escape from humiliation and a chance to win back a fanbase that had almost unanimously claimed betrayal for trading franchise player Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers in February, a move that shocked the basketball world. So much so that fans organized a [**mock funeral**](https://247sports.com/article/watch-fans-are-mourning-luka-doncics-shock-dallas-exit-with-a-funeral-ceremony-245140650/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) outside of the American Airlines Center. Mavericks’ general manager Nico Harrison later admitted he underestimated the rage that the fanbase would feel over losing Doncic. And yet, due to sheer dumb luck, it all changed. Cooper Flagg, one of the most hyped NBA prospects since Lebron James, was suddenly in their laps. In the three days after the Mavs were awarded the first pick, they[ **sold $8 million worth of season tickets**](https://www.espn.com/nba/story/%5F/id/45570427/cooper-flagg-dallas-mavericks-one-most-shocking-nba-draft-lotteries-decades?ref=thebarbedwire.com). ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/gettyimages-2222171067.jpg) NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JUNE 25: Cooper Flagg (R) shakes hands with NBA commissioner Adam Silver (L) after being drafted first overall by the Dallas Mavericks during the 2025 NBA Draft at Barclays Center on June 25, 2025 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. (Photo by Mike Lawrie/Getty Images) The Spurs, on the other hand, already had their franchise player in Victor Wembanyama. In the two years since drafting him, though, they’ve failed to make the playoffs or even come particularly close. To the basketball world, the second overall pick represented a shot at San Antonio becoming more than just a place where an extremely tall Frenchman lives. Whoever they selected would need to help Wembenyama bring the Spurs back to the glory of the Duncan years. (Houston was originally supposed to have the number 10 overall pick, but the Rockets traded it three days earlier in a package that netted them Kevin Durant, future Basketball Hall of Famer and current [**posting Hall of Famer**](https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nba/the-big-reason-im-glad-kevin-durant-is-coming-to-houston-his-posts/ar-AA1HhpK9?ocid=BingNewsSerp&ref=thebarbedwire.com), who will return to the state for the first time since his freshman season at University of Texas.) It was no secret how the night would start at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. NBA analysts have to refrain from salivating when they talk about Flagg, who played one season at Duke. He does essentially everything on the basketball court. Because he graduated high school a year early, Flagg is only eight days older than Lebron James was when he was drafted. ESPN sent a camera crew and a seemingly overwhelmed reporter to a packed watch party in Flagg’s hometown of Newport, Maine, and analyst Jay Billas suggested, “If Taylor Swift and Beyonce were walking down the street \[in Newport\], people would knock them down to get to Cooper.” It’s safe to say this will not be the case in Texas. Flagg conducted his post-selection interview flanked by his parents and two brothers. His mother, a standout basketball player at the University of Maine, shot down rumors that she had lost their last game of one-on-one, clarifying that she had called “an extended timeout” and the game never officially concluded. Next up was the Spurs, who picked Dylan Harper, a left-handed guard and nepo baby (his father, Ron Harper, won five NBA championships and could be seen with a tear rolling down his face while his son was being interviewed). Bilas, the analyst, described Harper as “the best pick-and-roll player in the draft.” The player he will be running pick and rolls with will, of course, be Wembanyama. About an hour later, they would add to their young core with Arizona forward Carter Bryant, who didn’t wear a shirt under his blazer. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/gettyimages-2222170725.jpg) NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JUNE 25: Dylan Harper reacts after being drafted second overall by the San Antonio Spurs during the first round of the 2025 NBA Draft at Barclays Center on June 25, 2025 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. (Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images) The number three overall pick was temporary Waco resident and Baylor freshman VJ Edgecombe, originally from the Bahamas. Tre Johnson, a Dallas native who spent a year at Texas, was taken with the number six pick and possibly made the biggest fashion statement of the night, wearing a suit that included…[**shorts and knee high socks**](https://x.com/TexasMBB/status/1937996868610625646?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1937996868610625646%7Ctwgr%5E9a58132d7b180fea8986312b8589661d243327f8%7Ctwcon%5Es1%5F&ref%5Furl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.on3.com%2Fpro%2Fnews%2Ftre-johnson-dons-green-suit-knee-high-shorts-2025-nba-draft-outfit%2F&ref=thebarbedwire.com). By the end of the night, no basketball had been played, but the basketball axis in Texas had shifted. In the mid-aughts years of Tim Duncan, Dirk Nowitzki, and Tracy McGrady, it was all but a guarantee that all three Texas teams would perennially be in the NBA Playoffs. Flagg and Harper won’t be able to drink alcohol until 2028, but they’ll be expected to fulfill that prophecy even sooner. ### Battle of the Fitness Bros: The ‘Liver King’ Was Arrested in Austin After Challenging Joe Rogan to a Fight URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/liver-king-arrested-austin-threatened-joe-rogan/ Last updated: 2025-06-25T16:50:09.000Z Social media influencer Brian Johnson, better known as the “Liver King,” was arrested at his hotel in Austin on Tuesday night after posting dozens of bizarre, rambling videos “picking a fight” with famous podcaster Joe Rogan, [KXAN first reported](https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/social-media-influencer-liver-king-arrested-in-austin/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). He is facing a misdemeanor charge of making a terrorist threat, according to [records from the Travis County Sheriff’s Office](https://www.tcsheriff.org/inmate-jail-info/inmate-info/find-an-inmate?ref=thebarbedwire.com#/sip/2515957). His bail is set at $20,000. “Man-to-man, I’m picking a fight with you,” said Johnson — swaying, bare-chested, dressed in a sweeping wolf pelt — in a [June 23 Instagram reel](https://www.instagram.com/p/DLPfXZaRiXW/?hl=en&ref=thebarbedwire.com) uploaded to his account.“You’re a liar, Netflix. Joe Pearlman, who directed the movie, you’re a liar too, you scumbag. Joe Rogan, you’re not a liar.” “You’re good and true, and I’m picking a fight with you,” Johnson continues. “I bet you a million dollars, whoever fucking wins the fight between you and me, whoever wins, donates–” the video cuts off before he finishes. https://www.instagram.com/p/DLPfXZaRiXW/?hl=en “I challenge you, man-to-man, to a fight. Honorable,” Johnson said in [another video](https://www.instagram.com/p/DLRR153tW1W/?hl=en&ref=thebarbedwire.com), uploaded a day later. He posted 29 videos over the span of three days, in which he documents his travel to Austin (where Rogan lives) and his ultimate arrest. The last video on his account shows an Austin Police officer loading Johnson into a car. “Detectives reviewed the posts and observed that Johnson was traveling to Austin while continuing to make threatening statements,” APD wrote in a statement to *The Barbed Wire*. “Detectives contacted Mr. Rogan, who stated he had never had any interaction with Johnson and considered the posts to be threatening. Based on this information, detectives obtained an arrest warrant for Johnson on a charge of Terroristic Threat.” > [](https://twitter.com/BeigeFrequency/status/1937055514736636172?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Johnson was the subject of a 2025 Netflix documentary about his primitive, [self-described “ancestral”](https://www.liverking.com/ancestral-tenets/eat?ref=thebarbedwire.com#tenets%5Fnav) habits to achieve peak masculinity: eating raw animal organs, including liver, but also many genitals (“Why eat vegetables when you can eat testicles?” Johnson [has often said](https://www.instagram.com/reel/C12MfuzLkfz/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)) — and, yes, injecting steroids. For years, Johnson denied any supplement or steroid use, claiming his aggressive musculature was all-natural (“natty,” as many fitness influencers prefer to say). His deception was revealed in 2022 after a series of leaked emails revealed that Johnson was paying up to $11,000 *a month* for performance-enhancing drugs. The 2025 documentary, *Untold: The Liver King*, unpacked the aftermath of Johnson’s steroid scandal. Rogan has yet to comment publicly. Besides briefly mocking Johnson’s “ancestral tenets” in [late 2022](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-4no6SVAQs&ref=thebarbedwire.com), not much else of a relationship seems to exist between the two. ### Austin Is on Trial for Alleged ‘Culture of Impunity’ in Police Department URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/austin-police-department-systemic-misconduct-alex-gonzales/ Last updated: 2025-06-23T17:59:07.000Z In a civil trial beginning Monday, the city of Austin will respond to allegations of a “culture of impunity” in the city’s police department — after a lawsuit claimed misconduct has gone relatively unchecked. In 2021, Alex Gonzales Jr. was fatally shot in an “apparent road rage incident” with officers Gabriel Gutierrez and Luis Serrato, FOX 7 Austin [reported](https://www.fox7austin.com/news/alex-gonzales-jr-shooting-internal-affairs-investigative-files-austin-texas?ref=thebarbedwire.com). A year after his death, Gonzales’ parents and former girlfriend, who was with Gonzales the night of his death, filed a civil lawsuit against Gutierrez and Serrato. In December 2022, the Travis County grand jury [declined to indict Gutierrez and Serrato](https://www.kvue.com/article/news/local/apd-no-indictments-alex-gonzales-shooting/269-f5017d15-68e7-4638-bc54-93098d6329a7?ref=thebarbedwire.com). A few months later, an internal APD investigation concluded that its officers [did not violate any department policy](https://www.kvue.com/article/news/investigations/defenders/alex-gonzales-austin-police-officers-discipline/269-3671dcdf-ec96-407e-a6fd-e78d6b53f418?ref=thebarbedwire.com). But, Gonzales’ mother has successfully brought the federal civil lawsuit to trial by invoking the Monell doctrine, a decades-old legal standard that holds cities liable for systemic misconduct committed by civil servants. It is “exceedingly difficult” to successfully win a Monell claim, legal scholar Joanna Schwartz wrote [in the *Columbia Law Review*](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/columbialawreview-org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/may-2025-4-schwartz.pdf). These cases most often argue that municipalities are responsible for officer misconduct not through a formally unconstitutional policy, but rather through informal practices or a routine failure to “properly screen, train, supervise, or investigate their officers.” So, it was a rare move in March when U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman allowed the civil suit to proceed. In his [opinion](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25889183-arellano-msj-order1/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Pitman found “sufficient evidence” that Austin had employed a “longstanding practice of under-investigating and under-disciplining officers for excessive force.” “The city’s custom of not enforcing its intervention policy could evince an official, albeit unwritten, unconstitutional city practice,” Pitman continued. From 1984 to 2020, NAACP Austin [identified 24 “questionable” deaths](https://www.naacpaustin.com/use-of-force-deaths-in-atx.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) resulting from excessive use of police force. And in just a decade, misconduct lawsuits cost the city $73 million in settlements and legal fees, [the *Austin-American Statesman* reported.](https://www.statesman.com/story/news/local/2023/08/11/austin-police-department-misconduct-city-paid-73-million-settlements-lawsuits-over-ten-years/70543500007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) ### The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders Are Superheroes in Sequins URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/dallas-cowboys-cheerleaders-netflix/ Last updated: 2025-06-23T09:00:00.000Z *Texas hasn’t gotten its due as a major piece in the complex puzzle of American art. We’re here to rectify that. Every three weeks, [H. Drew Blackburn](https://thebarbedwire.com/author/drew/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) will conduct a thoroughly scientific analysis of the 254 integral (one for every county) books, movies, tv shows, albums, podcasts, songs, and magazine articles — you name it — that best exemplify the Texas spirit. These texts, products of immense talent, dig into the marrow of our being. When it’s all said and done and we’ve built The [Texas Voyager collection](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-texas-canon-friday-night-lights-friday-night-lights-or-friday-night-lights/), we’ll (figuratively) head to the Johnson Space Center in Houston and shoot it beyond the atmosphere, into the cosmos. A wise person once posed the question: “What if the aliens are hot?” Hold onto that hope — this is our chance to impress ‘em.* Ten years ago, when I was the Dallas Observer’s clubs editor, I took an assignment to interview — and dance with — veteran Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders and rookie hopefuls on camera. The video’s disappeared from the [blog post](https://www.dallasobserver.com/arts/video-dallas-cowboys-cheerleaders-show-our-clubs-editor-some-moves-7212731?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and my memory of the night is a bit foggy, but some details stick. It was the eve of preliminary auditions, and I wore skinny camo pants from ASOS and Doc Martens — hardly the outfit for mastering “sexy hips.” Contrary to what Lauren Smart, the alt-weekly’s then arts and culture editor, wrote, I did need my arm twisted. For one, I don’t want to be an on-camera journalist — I’ve ducked filming TikToks to accompany this column from the start. Second, it was a Friday night; I was far keener on spending time in a dark bar than under fluorescent studio lights. And when one of the cheerleaders explained the audition process, I said that it sounded tougher than getting into Yale. I meant it. To don that star-spangled uniform, a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader has to be athletic, gorgeous, sharp on the dance floor — then pass a 100-question written test and be charming through panel interviews. As evidenced on Netflix’s reality show “America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders,” which just premiered its second season, they most likely juggle a day job, too. Many are nurses, software engineers, elementary school teachers, or students on their way to becoming speech-language pathologists and lawyers. The bar to becoming a Cowboys cheerleader is sky-high, and the women who clear it are nothing short of remarkable, superheroes even. Sarah Hepola, host and creator of a *Texas Monthly* podcast about the cultural impact of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders called “America’s Girls,” moved to Dallas from Philly in the late ’70s, when DCC’s place in pop-culture began to take root. “They were *everywhere*,” Hepola, a bestselling author and staff writer at *The Dallas Morning News,* told *The Barbed Wire*. “To me, they were the pretty princesses who ruled my new hometown.” But that ubiquity didn’t happen by accident. It traces back to a makeover in 1972 that turned a local sideline squad into a national icon. Before then, in the 1960s, the Cowboys' spirit squad was called the[ CowBelles and Beaux](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twX0xJmGsW8&ref=thebarbedwire.com), local high schoolers who yelled “charge!” — nothing out of the ordinary. But Dee Brock, founder and the first director of DCC, was a visionary. That decade, she dropped the boys and integrated the squad, with the presence of mind to make the crew’s racial makeup more reflective of the city. As detailed in [a story Hepola wrote](https://www.texasmonthly.com/arts-entertainment/fifty-years-of-dallas-cowboys-cheerleaders/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), in 1972, Brock tore up the playbook, raised to the minimum age to 18, recruited Broadway alum Texie Waterman as a choreographer, and tapped local designer Paula Van Wagoner for a new look: cobalt bolero, star-spangled halter, white shorts, and knee-high boots. When she was done, seven dancers — later dubbed “the Original Seven” — charged out of Texas Stadium in that uniform and created a seismic rippling effect that revolutionized cheerleading in pro sports. A [*Sports Illustrated* article from 1978](https://vault.si.com/vault/1978/05/22/gimme-an-s-gimme-an-e-gimme-an-x-and-nfl-fans-are-going-to-have-it-this-coming-season-as-cheerleaders-for-more-and-more-teams-are-adopting-the-dallas-cowboy-look-where-its-going-to-lead-only-oakland-raider-coach-john-madden-kno?ref=thebarbedwire.com) noted that Dallas cheerleader applicants jumped from 250 in 1976 to more than 1,000 two years later. That surge — and the squad’s “older, sexier” vibe — inspired the NBA’s own glam icons, the Laker Girls. Because of the combined powers of Brock and Waterman, the American public wanted older and sexier on the sidelines. Through her reporting, Hepola has talked to many women from different eras and notes that they’re all different and remarked that the ’70s dancers are nothing like the ’80s, who are nothing like the aughts. “The parts that reverberate with me are when some of the women opened up about their struggles with weight, because \[in the past\], they were extremely draconian about weight by the number, by the scale,” Hepola told *The Barbed Wire.* “If you have a female body, you might be aware that bodies fluctuate with hormones—what you ate for dinner—but the degrees were so small.” As Hepola noted, things are more egalitarian today, but if you watch the Netflix program , you’ll notice leadership like the director and choreographer tip-toeing around weight, speaking in ellipses and innuendo. Beyond the glitz also lies a long list of injuries. “They’re very known for doing jump-splits,” Hepola said. “There’s so many injuries associated with that:the knees, the hips, the legs.” And for all their fame and permanent damage to the body, there has been much discussion about how the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders don’t make much money. In 2019, veteran Erica Wilkins [settled a wage lawsuit after her pay stubs showed she took home barely $16,000 in her third season](https://www.wfaa.com/article/sports/nfl/cowboys/287-7dc7f6a3-8d36-44bf-8a5c-466cff75c3de?ref=thebarbedwire.com) while Rowdy, the mascot, made about $60,000. After that case, [game-day pay rose to roughly $400](https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/video/65524202?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which still doesn’t seem fair when you’re a marquee part of the most valued brand in sports ($10 billion!), but it’s not *that* simple. “One of the things that happens in this instance is that everyone is so eager to defend the cheerleaders that they start putting words in their mouths,” Hepola said. “I have very rarely interviewed a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader — and I interviewed dozens, hundreds — who has said they wouldn't do it, or felt that they were cheated in some way. They've all said I would do it again in a heartbeat — and for free.” If you’re planning on watching the second season of “America’s Sweethearts” and haven’t gotten around to it, I won’t spoil much of it. It’s a fun watch. I did have to binge it in order to write this piece, but like that night I spent 10 years ago, sliding around a wood floor in tight pants trying to do “sexy hips,” it was pretty fun. A recurring theme over the course of the season is the poor wages the dancers receive. At one point, the young women nearly organize a strike, but get cold feet. Still, their lobbying leads to a [400% pay increase](https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/%5F/id/45539761/famed-cowboys-cheerleaders-getting-400-raise-member-says?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Like Hepola said, each generation of these women is different, and this one looks like fighters. Superheroes even. ### THC Remains Legal in Texas After Abbott Veto URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/greg-abbott-thc-ban/ Last updated: 2025-06-23T04:31:01.000Z THC is still legal in Texas after [Gov. Greg Abbott vetoed a bill Sunday night](https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=89R&Bill=SB3&ref=thebarbedwire.com) that would have banned all THC products in the state. But the battle isn't over: Soon after the veto, Abbott called lawmakers back to Austin for a special session on July 21 to, among other things, regulate THC in the state. “Texas must enact a regulatory framework that protects public safety, aligns with federal law, has a fully funded enforcement structure and can take effect without delay,” Abbott said, [per the *Texas Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/06/22/texas-thc-ban-bill-greg-abbott-veto-senate-bill-3/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Still, the veto was a big win for hemp advocates, veterans, and anyone who's ever used a THC seltzer to survive a Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick speech. The bill in question, Senate Bill 3, [would’ve nuked Delta-8, THC-infused gummies, vapes, and other hemp-derived chill](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-thc-ban/). Despite passing in the Texas House and Senate, lots of groups hated it. Industry leaders, veterans, [and 120,000 petition signers had warned that a ban would hurt small businesses](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/06/02/texas-thc-ban-greg-abbott-dan-patrick/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), boost the black market, and essentially declare war on good times. “Governor Abbott showed real leadership today,” [the Texas Hemp Business Council wrote on X.](https://x.com/TexasHempBiz/status/1937008817494983079?ref=thebarbedwire.com) “Texas is stronger for it.” They added: “By vetoing SB 3, he stood with millions of Texans, protected 53,000+ jobs,— and rejected the lies, donors, and Dan Patrick’s propaganda crusade.” As they mentioned, some [53,000 Texans are now part of the hemp workforce](https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/texas-hemp-thc-ban-sb3-governor-abbott-decision/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=Over%20the%20past%20few%20years,Texas%20Hemp%20Business%20Council%201.) and Abbott apparently didn't want to just nix all that. Meanwhile, this was a big political setback for Patrick, [who spent the last few weeks ranting about rainbow-colored gateway drugs](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-thc-ban-dan-patrick/), and insisting this was about saving the children — despite [polling that shows most Republicans don’t want stricter cannabis laws](https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/texas/2025/02/05/512943/majority-of-texans-support-legalizing-marijuana-gambling-recent-uh-poll-finds/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Turns out, Abbott listened — or at least didn't want to deal with Patrick's edible theatrics alone. [Abbott said in a statement](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/gov-texas-gov/uploads/files/press/veto%5Fproclamation%5Fsb%5F3%5Fimage%5F2025-06-22.pdf) that SB 3 wouldn't have stood up in court and argued that it “puts federal and state law on a collision course,” noting that the 2018 federal Farm Bill legalized hemp products. “Allowing Senate Bill 3 to become law — knowing that it faces a lengthy battle that will render it dead on arrival in court — would hinder rather than help us solve the public safety issues this bill seeks to contain,” he said. “The current market is dangerously under-regulated, and children are paying the price. If Senate Bill 3 is swiftly enjoined by a court, our children will be no safer than if no law was passed, and the problems will only grow.” Abbott encouraged lawmakers to adopt a regulatory framework similar to that used for alcohol, suggesting measures such as banning the sale and marketing of THC products to minors, mandating testing during production and manufacturing, permitting local governments to restrict or ban THC retail outlets, and increasing funding for law enforcement to ensure compliance with the regulations. Patrick, for his part, was not pleased. [He ranted on X](https://x.com/LtGovTX/status/1937009768398291400?ref=thebarbedwire.com): “Throughout the legislative session, [@GregAbbott\_TX](https://x.com/GregAbbott%5FTX?ref=thebarbedwire.com) remained totally silent on Senate Bill 3, the bill that would have banned dangerous THC products in Texas. His late-night veto, on an issue supported by 105 of 108 Republicans in the legislature, strongly backed by law enforcement, many in the medical and education communities, and the families who have seen their loved ones’ lives destroyed by these very dangerous drugs, leaves them feeling abandoned.” [And at a press conference on Monday](https://senate.texas.gov/videoplayer.php?vid=22371&ref=thebarbedwire.com), Patrick tore into Abbott, accusing him of wanting to “legalize recreational marijuana.” The grumpy lieutenant governor said that Abbott misled him into thinking that he would sign the bill. “This is a fight that didn’t need to be,” Patrick said. “Where has he been all session? Where has he been? We get this \[veto\] proclamation from him last night after midnight, and he parachutes in at the last moment with arguments that we do not think are valid.” Patrick says he's continuing to insist on a full ban. “I’m not mad at the governor, but I’m not going to legalize marijuana in Texas,” he said. “If people want to vote me out of office for that, so be it.” For now, though, the [$8 billion hemp industry](https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/texas-hemp-thc-ban-sb3-governor-abbott-decision/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=Over%20the%20past%20few%20years,Texas%20Hemp%20Business%20Council%201.) gets to breathe. The gummies live to fight another day. ### Texas Kids Want to Play Sports. But Can They Afford To? URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-kids-cant-afford-sports-too-expensive/ Last updated: 2025-06-20T05:03:00.000Z In Houston, a city where athletic opportunities can be as uneven as the notoriously bumpy sidewalks, 16-year-old Mallika Mohan knows that passion alone isn’t enough to get into – and stay in – youth sports. Mallika, a sophomore at Bellaire High School, has been learning ballet and [Bharatanatyam](https://www.ipassio.com/wiki/dance/indian-classical-dance/bharatanatyam?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a classical Indian dance, since she was 8 years old. She takes a weekly class at [Banbury School of Dance](https://banburydance.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), roughly 10 minutes from her home, where she dances about three hours each week. Mallika’s parents drive her to classes, and pay for lessons, plus the shoes, costumes and jewelry she needs for performances. “It’s not an inexpensive sport,” Mallika said. “Pointe shoes cost $100 a pair, and I’ve paid $75 a lesson before at a different studio.” Mallika knows she’s lucky that her family’s income allows her and her brother to be involved in sports. For many youth in Houston, and across the state of Texas, cost, transportation, neighborhood safety concerns, and time constraints are significant barriers to sports and physical activity. In 2022, fewer than one-third of youth in families with an income below the federal poverty level (approximately $27,000 for a family of four) participated in sports. This participation increased to 70% in families with incomes of $108,000 or more, according to a[ data brief from the National Center for Health Statistics](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-cdc-gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db441.pdf). That’s due in large part to the “pay to play” model that has come to dominate the youth sports landscape, says Eleana Fanaika, executive director of[ Every Kid Sports](https://everykidsports.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a national non-profit aiming to increase youth sports participation. “Most youth sports at schools were all free. If you wanted to play, you could play, and you could do as many sports as you want, and the school took care of those fees,” she says. “That's not the case anymore, except for some very few scenarios that still have funding to do so.” The rise of club and elite teams, and the shriveling of recreational opportunities in many cities has led to a dearth of options for many families, particularly those who have lower incomes. Travel and club team fees can be $2,000 per year, or even higher. Less than half of youth ages 6-17 in Texas played on a sports team or took lessons in 2022, according to the Aspen Institute’s State of Play 2024 report. That’s far short of the federal government’s goal of getting at least 63% of youth involved in sports by 2030. Not having access to sports can mean less physical activity for kids.[ Nearly half of youth aged 12 to 21 are not regularly “vigorously active,”](https://archive.cdc.gov/www%5Fcdc%5Fgov/nccdphp/sgr/adoles.htm?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=Nearly%20half%20of%20American%20youths,than%20white%20females%20%2812%25%29.) according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In Texas,[ nearly 70% of children ages 6-11 are not physically active for an hour a day](https://www.childhealthdata.org/browse/survey/results?q=11309&r=45&ref=thebarbedwire.com), according to the National Survey on Children’s Health. That’s why Every Kid Sports, and other organizations like it in Texas and nationwide, are working to level the playing field when it comes to access to sports and physical activity for kids. “Everybody deserves that chance to explore the world of sports and all the benefits that come from trying a sport,” Fanaika said. “Learning to show up on time, failure, defeat, and sorrow when you try to win something, these (experiences are) really good. I wish that for everybody.” **“Not Fun”** Another contributing factor to low participation in physical activity among young people is the increased competitiveness in sports. Youthcast Media Group recently surveyed 85 youth nationwide about the barriers to sports access and physical activities in their cities. Of the 57.6% of youth who said they quit a sport, 35% stated that the reason for quitting was because their sport got too competitive or “not fun.” Not only do a lot of youth end up quitting sports; they tend to do it before they even reach their teen years. “The average child spends less than three years playing a sport and quits by age 11, usually due to lack of enjoyment,’’ according to The Aspen Institute’s [State of Play](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-aspeninstitute-org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/2019%5Fsop%5Fnational%5Ffinal.pdf) report, a national review of trends and developments in youth sports. This competitive sports landscape is a recent one, which Fanaika, of Every Kids Sports, attributes to more parents wanting to increase their children’s chances of making it to the pros. “It piggybacks off trying to get your kid to be the best, and some kids are going to get cut,” Fanaika said. When it comes to sports and physical activity, being able to show up and put in effort is one of the core aspects of working out. Unfortunately, some youth say they are shut out of physical activity due to their most limited resource: time. Youth say they have to manage school, sleep, their personal life, and extracurricular activities, often leading them to have to sacrifice something to maintain balance. Roberto Salinas, a senior at Jimmy Carter Early College High School in La Joya, experienced the dilemma firsthand. “I quit powerlifting after my junior year because I wanted to pursue more academic extracurricular activities,’’ Salinas said. His burgeoning love of the sport lost out to a longstanding commitment to journalism. When time is a precious commodity, barriers like distance and needing to take a bus, can make getting to sports impractical. In Houston, geography alone can be a significant challenge for many youth who want to participate in sports or even basic activities. “Transportation has definitely been like a big issue throughout my life with trying to get to ballet studios,” Mallika, the sophomore at Bellaire, said. “Because a lot of the time, they're really far away from where I live.” For families living outside of affluent neighborhoods like [West University](https://www.westutx.gov/186/About-the-Community?ref=thebarbedwire.com) or [Southside Place](https://www.southsideplacetx.gov/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which have neatly kept parks, local sports facilities, and easy access to enrichment programs, the challenge of getting to a ballet class, soccer field, or even a clean public park can be overwhelming. “You could drive a long time without ever seeing a park,” Mallika said, pointing out the stark contrast between underserved neighborhoods and wealthier enclaves. Lharissa Jacobs, founder and executive director of [Fit Houston](https://www.fithouston.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a nonprofit that increases free physical activity across Houston, sees this inequity as a moral issue. “This is an unacceptable reality for children to be living in this situation,” Jacobs said. “They need to be able to visit their park.” Jacobs and Fit Houston are working to raise awareness citywide through a solution they see as accessible to all. Through its [#WALK30 initiative](https://www.fithouston.org/initiatives?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the organization promotes a simple yet powerful idea: walking (or moving) for 30 minutes a day. The campaign grows out of a larger mission “to inspire vibrant minds, bodies, and communities through physical activity.” The need for help getting kids active is high in Houston, and across Texas. Since its national launch in 2020, Every Kid Sports has awarded more than $2 million to pay registration fees in 30 sports for more than 15,000 kids, according to the organization. That included 3,787 Houston children awarded more than $541,000. To be sure, organizations like Fit Houston and Every Kid Sports that tackle one piece of the problem can only have so much impact — Every Kid Sports had to turn away more than 12,000 Texas kids since their launch due to lack of funding. The leaders of both groups hope that their work will inspire others, including nonprofits, community businesses and government leaders, to step in and help as well. When Every Kid Sports started covering registration fees for one baseball team in San Antonio, the team was able to focus on fundraising and partnerships in the community, Fanaika said, which allowed for the construction of a new field for players. Although the road to youth sports equity is long, Jacobs and Fanaika argue it’s an important goal. “The long-term health benefits are too immense to ignore,” Jacobs said. “In the short term, physical activity can improve mood and anxiety. In the long term, it can actually positively impact depression, and of course, it reduces the risk for Alzheimer's and other brain conditions.’’ Meanwhile, Fanaika’s push to remove cost as a barrier to sports and consistent physical activity for youth is personal. “I want to give back because it's made me who I am,’’ she said. It (physical activity) drives me every day.” Youth like Mallika are also cheering and championing a more barrier-free world. “Sports are an equalizer,’’ she says. “I think that we should provide this opportunity to all kids.” *Bethel Kifle and Cindy Tint are rising juniors at Bellaire High School in Bellaire, Texas, Angel Trevino recently graduated from Jimmy Carter Early College High School in Mission, Texas and Lauren Wong is a rising senior at Brooklyn Technical High School in Queens, New York. They were participants in a feature writing workshop with Youthcast Media Group and worked with mentor Nichole Christian on this story.* ### Don’t Forget That Juneteenth Is Black Texas History URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/juneteenth-is-black-texas-history/ Last updated: 2025-06-19T06:20:00.000Z I can still remember Sister Loria McQueen, a tall tawny-complexioned woman who I thought was the embodiment of elegance as a child. She wore eggshell blue tailored suits and elaborate hats on Sundays in our apostolic church in my hometown of Sherman. At some point in the 1980s, when I was around 8 or 9 years old, she began gathering the children in our all-Black neighborhood for after-school activities at the community center. The classes she taught served as a quasi-finishing school, covering everything from Black history to decorum and etiquette. That summer, I sat looking out the window daydreaming, only partially listening to Sister McQueen when suddenly something caught my hungry ears. I sat up in my chair a little straighter. My mind began savoring a word I had heard before but never truly understood. Sister McQueen laid the foundation for a commemoration day I would go on to study as a scholar — Juneteenth. Sister McQueen described the holiday loosely as Emancipation Day for Black people from Texas. For me, a multigenerational Texan, her lesson also embedded in me a deeper appreciation for my maternal ancestors (the Mitchells, Loveladys, Hicks and Wilsons) who despite hardships, persevered and chose to embody hope and raise their families in a state that often did not love them. Each summer that passed layered new memories onto the June day: pageants, barbecues at East Street Park, crowded car rides to Lake Texoma where we’d unfold plastic gingham tablecloths anchored with spicy hot links, barbecued ribs, fried chicken, catfish, and my grandmother’s teacakes. Those were the Juneteenth food staples I grew up with while classics like The Gap Band or Zapp and Roger, an old-school funk band, blared from my next door neighbors’ cars. And although back then I loathed memorizing speeches about freedom to recite to crowds gathered for the same purpose, today I crave the intimacy our holiday once held. It was our “thing” that made us unique from other states. **The Origins of Juneteenth** While Galveston is the city that typically receives the honor of being Juneteenth’s “home,” several other cities in the eastern part of Texas also received visits from the soldiers in the weeks both before and after the 19th of June. The Union men carried with them copies of the iconic General Order No. 3, sometimes referred to as “Juneteenth Order.” But perhaps the most [cunning part](https://mag.uchicago.edu/law-policy-society/understanding-juneteenth?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of the often referenced document is the subtle yet deliberate language that Major Frederick W. Emery added to the military order. Emery was not just a military officer, but a white abolitionist. His progressive beliefs appeared in his most heroic phrasing that is often misattributed to Granger: *“absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves.”* (This wording was not found in the original draft that Granger had written, nor was it in the Emancipation Proclamation or 13th Amendment.) That order left an indelible mark on Galveston, and after enforcing the news in various parts of the port city, the brave soldiers continued [inland to announce to other Black Texans](https://www.axios.com/2024/06/19/timeline-of-the-juneteenth?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that freedom was here. Juneteenth was birthed in the [communities that the soldiers visited](https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth234398/m1/2/?q=%22The%20people%20of%20Texas%20are%20informed%20that%22&ref=thebarbedwire.com), like Brenham, Liberty, Marshall, Houston, and of course Galveston. **Understanding Juneteenth Traditions** Juneteenth rituals passed from generation to generation have never been about symbolic colors or foods. They are about shared memories. They are how we practice our freedom. In early festivities, Black Texans who had to previously adhere to strict slave codes symbolically [“tossed their rags into the river](https://www.societyofcloth.com/blogs/soc-journal/juneteenth-and-the-history-of-clothing-and-slavery?ref=thebarbedwire.com)” and put on clothes that had previously belonged to their former enslavers. The grandeur soon became embedded in the fabric of this celebratory day: from the story of [Sallie Tate](https://www.texasmonthly.com/the-culture/sallie-tates-emancipation-dress/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), who used her first wages earned to purchase a few yards of high quality fine cotton fabric that she carefully crafted into a beautifully simple white dress, to the stunning gowns that adorn the pageant queens competing in traditional Miss Juneteenth pageants. Fashion would become center stage in the pomp and circumstances that would come to be expected of all things Juneteenth related. My fond memories of a Texas Juneteenth began to shift in the 1990s. Bamboo earrings, hip hop music, and leather medallions shaped like Mother Africa became emblematic of a growing cultural connection many African Americans felt to the continent. The seeds of that pride had been planted earlier — no doubt by Marcus Garvey himself. The Jamaican born Black activist visited Dallas on Juneteenth 1922 to deliver his “Back to Africa” speech. Decades later, the Pan-African flag he first promoted — with its vivid red, green, and black — was embraced again by many and often woven into Juneteenth celebrations. But it wasn’t the only flag that flew. Red, white, and blue American flags also remained a constant mainstay in our communities, signaling a complicated but undeniable tether to the country that had once enslaved us. Ironically, the Juneteenth flag that would later emerge — designed by Ben Haith, a grassroots activist from New England — came about just as Pan-Africanism was reemerging and gaining national momentum. It was within this 1990s culture, pregnant with Black pride, that reinterpretations of Juneteenth’s food traditions began to take shape, particularly among celebrants who lacked ancestral or regional ties to Texas. It wasn’t uncommon to celebrate with foods that were regional. One of the most romanticized myths about red foods and drinks (such as barbecue, red velvet cake, watermelon) began to appear in print during this time. A [newspaper](https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/openurl?ctx%5Fver=z39.88-2004&rft%5Fid=info%3Asid/infoweb.newsbank.com&svc%5Fdat=WORLDNEWS&req%5Fdat=0FC00B934DD580D0&rft%5Fval%5Fformat=info%3Aofi/fmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Actx&rft%5Fdat=document%5Fid%3Anews%252F0EAF46D0DADA2155&ref=thebarbedwire.com) in Spokane, Washington, one of the earliest but certainly not the only examples, lacked a clear cultural blueprint to the Lone Star State by ancestry, and so these newly acquainted celebrants struggled to define what Juneteenth truly meant to them. As momentum grew around Kwanzaa, some began to draw parallels between the two, theorizing that the symbolic red colors representative of “the blood shed by our enslaved ancestors” for their December holiday were equally fitting for Juneteenth. The two holidays are distinctly different, in my opinion, each worthy of celebration in their own rite but deserving of their separate traditions. **Keeping Texas at the Center of Juneteenth** For my family and thousands of other Black Texans, these surface-level customs were not just traditions. The older generations never *told* us what Juneteenth *meant* because they inculcated it in us through motion, repetition, and presence. We preserved Juneteenth in church halls, or near creek beds in quiet resistance in years that it was forbidden. We preserved Juneteenth in backyards with family, or sitting on hot bleachers with the thick stench of horses and our thunderous applause cheering at local rodeos. And we preserved Juneteenth at city parks where we hosted free public gatherings long before it became a federal holiday or a trending hashtag. This holiday was open to all, no admission fee required, because the tickets had been purchased in 1865. It’s jarring to see social media culture ridicule our state (politics, culture, food, etc), while simultaneously adopting our beloved traditions without acknowledgement. My childhood experience is Juneteenth, I am Juneteenth because I am a descendant of brave Black Texans who toiled until freedom came and then. The celebration has always been about legacy. Juneteenth was less about structured teachings and more about familial traditions. As Juneteenth spread beyond Texas in the '90s, Sister McQueen began organizing pageants in my hometown of Sherman. Too awkward and painfully shy to compete, I continued the oratory tradition expected of me. I felt then what I still feel now — pride, knowing that simply standing on that stage, reciting words that my elders felt, was its own form of prayer. I still remember one of my speeches that I nervously recited in front of a sea of faces in the college auditorium Sister McQueen would rent annually for our Juneteenth programs. It was the first time I encountered Langston Hughes: *“O, let America be America again— The land that never has been yet— And yet must be—the land where every man is free. The land that's mine—the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME— Who made America, Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain, Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain, Must bring back our mighty dream again.”* It was a reminder then — and now — that Juneteenth is not just a commemoration of what was, but a continued charge toward what *must be*. For those of us whose families built this stolen land with calloused hands, this celebration is a homecoming filled with traditions. But as this holiday spreads far beyond Texas soil, I welcome those who celebrate to do so with respect, but also reflection. Let your own ancestral stories guide how you mark this day. As for my family, we will be commemorating just as my ancestors did — long before it was recognized as a holiday, and without waiting for permission. In Texas, Juneteenth was never a trend. It was and will continue to be about memory, rituals and reclamation. I’m hopeful that as Juneteenth evolves, it will continue to leave space for Black Texans to steward and preserve what we began. ### Tucker Carlson Wrecks Ted Cruz, and Somehow We’re Cheering URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/ted-cruz-tucker-carlson-iran/ Last updated: 2025-06-18T14:29:34.000Z Cheering for Tucker Carlson over Ted Cruz is like rooting for leprosy over a root canal, but here we are. Carlson, the former Fox News host who is less likeable than a group chat with your ex, your boss, and your mom, bodied Texas’ least favorite senator in an interview clip that had the rest of us eating all the popcorn. It had to do with [Israel’s ongoing war with Iran](https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/israel-iran-conflict-06-18-25-intl-hnk?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which President Trump recently seemed to [indicate he wants a part of](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g8ll3xlweo?ref=thebarbedwire.com). (So much for not starting any new wars!) Cruz, of course, is fine with a little casual World War 3 dabbling. But Carlson, whose show is normally a safe space for right-wing nonsense, wasn’t having it. > [](https://twitter.com/TuckerCarlson/status/1935136085266387417?ref=thebarbedwire.com) During the interview, Carlson grilled Cruz for calling for regime change in Iran, despite apparently knowing almost nothing about the country itself. When asked about Iran’s population, Cruz responded, “I don’t sit around memorizing population tables,” which is a weird flex for someone who wants to bomb the place. (For the record, it’s about 91 million.) Carlson followed up by asking about Iran’s ethnic makeup, and after Cruz gave a generic answer, Carlson delivered the death blow: “You’re a senator who’s calling for the overthrow of the government and you don’t know anything about the country!” And when *Tucker Carlson* is the one yelling “you don’t know what you’re talking about,” it’s time to reevaluate some things. Like your job. Or your brain. Cruz tried to save face, accusing Carlson of being soft on Iranian threats to Trump. [Cancun’s favorite son](https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/18/ted-cruz-cancun-power-outage/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) “clapped” back: "No *you* don't know anything about the country. You're the one who claims they're not trying to murder Donald Trump, you're the one who can't figure out if it was a good idea to kill General Soleimani and you said it was bad." Cruz even tried to rope Israel into the U.S. military response, saying “we” were carrying out strikes. When Carlson pointed out that Israel was the one actually bombing things, Cruz snapped, “With our help!” The clip went viral on X, prompting Cruz to whine that it was just a “silly game.” > [](https://twitter.com/tedcruz/status/1935187468938006865?ref=thebarbedwire.com) No one wants to live in a timeline where we’re nodding along with Tucker Carlson, but if Cruz is the other guy in the debate, well … The full interview is set to release today and for the first time in Tucker Carlson's slimy life, he’s created some must-see TV, er, internet. ### ‘In Amarillo, Black Women Die:’ The Unresolved Murder of Felita Bailey URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/murder-amarillo-felita-bailey/ Last updated: 2025-06-18T05:01:00.000Z Felita Bailey let the shower melt away the sweat and grease from her long shift on the packing line at Tyson Foods. The beef plant could be an assault on the senses. Cows are slaughtered in-house, then processed, pre-cooked, and packaged before being loaded onto trucks. She was lucky to get a job at the end of the line, away from the worst of the gore. Her grandmother and namesake,Felita Jovon Bailey, had been a presence at the Amarillo plant for decades; her recommendation was 24-karat. The younger Felita didn’t intend to be at Tyson’s long-term like so many family members. She’d collect a few more paychecks and finish her dental hygienist certification. Then she planned to head back to Dallas, where her mom, Odessa Bailey, lived. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/ad_4nxeuw2mmukyg4xkolruy-vy5v6xkw_ad5ksqyshnuxxzr9ykfwpph0otq9cnpembge4c8gffd9uh38bwfxj71_gzjzdothgefnfappwbh33kr3pxqfzlfaqhqmlvjcyjr2zg9ljl.png) In the meantime, she’d stay with her grandmother and save as much as possible. Still, the stale sweetness of the meat and oil that soaked into her work shirt took getting used to. Felita wanted to break out of her routine and have fun that night. So she let the day’s work wash down the drain. It was the end of August 2024, the Friday of Labor Day weekend. And her cousin Demajiae Bibles was turning 27. They’d agreed to skip their normal post-work “Martin” reruns and movie marathons to go out drinking. Demajiae arrived as Felita finished getting ready, leaning on her tiptoes to apply her eyeliner in the mirror. She picked out a black and white dress and coordinated her makeup. By 10 p.m., they headed to Mulligan’s Sports Bar, not far from downtown Amarillo. Afterwards, they met up with Kanye Bailey and two more cousins, and barhopped on Polk Street, where dives and nightclubs offer a respite from the tedium of Yellow City. Less than 200 feet down the strip, over speakers blaring 2010-era party anthems, another group of friends gathered at Bodegas. At the center was La’Toi Johnson, whose notoriety had followed him from his days as a varsity cornerback for the Tascosa High School Rebels ([yes, that type of rebel](https://www.amarillo.com/story/news/local/2017/08/19/window-past-tascosa-high-school-mascot-went-baby-goat-rebel-kid/13039773007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)). ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/ad_4nxcojj9xa6syoak8ntcqeglifk4fbewbj4equmykr0k_ro5yqiod4e-8ihrt5qtjx7hcvxv-akrhnrlgvmh9u2tu3oahg113wawuaiglyhlu0etiusdxyzmgrixmw4sdcktrszdk.png) There, too, was Dylan Zane Black, a white friend of La’Toi’s, better known to many as DZ. And the Marrero brothers, who’d offered their house on Avondale Street for an afterparty. Unlike La’Toi and Dylan, Felita was an outsider. She was more of a Dallas suburbanite, despite family roots in the Panhandle. Beyond the bars, Felita couldn’t see the faultlines. Or the lingering effects of a time when Black folks, especially Black women, weren’t welcome after dark. By sunrise, Felita was dead. She was shot in the back. And Dylan was the primary suspect. Police found video evidence of Dylan holding a gun and talking about shooting someone, according to a criminal complaint filed in district court and obtained by *The Barbed Wire*. Police also found the gun, and wrote in the complaint that it matched the four shell casings found at the scene. The police complaint alleged that Dylan lied to officers. Yet, two days later, the murder charge was dropped. An assistant district attorney cited insufficient evidence. By March, Dylan was officially cleared of all suspicion. The Amarillo Police Department’s new target in the case is a Black man, a relative who none of the 15 people interviewed for this story — including family members and eight witnesses at the party — ever brought up as a suspect before his arrest. “In Amarillo, Black women die and no one bats an eyelash. And Dylan Black is getting away with killing my daughter because he’s white and has connections through his family on the inside,” Odessa, Felita’s mother, told *The Barbed Wire*. “It’s as simple as that.” \*\*\* In early November, sources began to tell *The Barbed Wire* about Felita and her family’s concerns about the investigation into her death. Buzz on the case had made its way to Dallas, where Odessa kept a drum beat of calls for justice. She and other family members were (and remain) infuriated by Dylan’s release from jail, and suspicious of the police department and prosecutor’s office. *The Barbed Wire* spent more than six months with Felita’s family, and with witnesses in Amarillo. Reporters made multiple requests for public records. Most records received contain little in the way of explanation for why evidence presented in the criminal complaint against Dylan would result in the dismissal of the charge for insufficient evidence. Police have refused to provide investigative records, and provided a statement when asked about allegations from the family: “We are aware of the concerns raised by the Bailey family, and we understand the grief they are experiencing during this difficult time.” “As we’ve shared in previous responses, the Amarillo Police Department conducted a thorough investigation into this case and has presented the findings to the District Attorney’s Office for further review and consideration. Barring any new information or developments, our role in the investigation is concluded”. “We are aware of the concerns and allegations being circulated publicly. While we understand the emotion surrounding this case, we categorically deny any suggestion of bias, misconduct, or impropriety by members of this department. APD investigates all cases—regardless of the race, background, or connections of those involved—with professionalism, fairness, and integrity.” “As the matter is now in the hands of the District Attorney, and in keeping with our responsibility to protect the integrity of the process and those involved, we will not be providing additional public comment or further responses to questions on this case.” Dylan and his family declined to comment on this story. La’Toi’s attorney did not respond to inquiries. *The Barbed Wire* reconstructed other pieces of this story from hospital records and an autopsy report, copies of which were provided by the family. In an interview with the head of Amarillo’s homicide unit this spring, *The Barbed Wire* asked repeatedly for clarity on who killed Felita, and on the evidence uncovered in the investigation. The officer’s response was blunt: “You're welcome to come up to the trial.” \*\*\* After last call at the downtown club where they’d been drinking with their cousins, Felita and Demajiae stopped at the Toot ‘n Totum convenience store for snacks before heading back to their grandmother’s house. Felita’s phone buzzed with a text and an open Facebook invite to the party on Avondale Street. As they debated whether or not to go, another customer overheard and said they were on their way to the same party. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/ad_4nxdl6emoyfiaszqpjgorepnfw8hk3zwnyfsxumd_6fkclaaaibprjlpbkftbktkjiy2xn13ll_ihjdv8m-zgcd9n5zxwlxurtv6rcyphys5ojkgq7tknpcwoglznnonnwjcbces1.png) Felita and Demajiae didn’t know either of the Cuban brothers who lived at the modest ranch home encircled by cars by the time they arrived. Kanye was already in the kitchen. As she leaned against the counter to talk with her younger cousin, La’Toi approached, getting up close to her. Josue Marrero had asked La’Toi to help kick out the 40 or so people who’d shown up, according to court records. The Marreros did not respond when a reporter visited the house, and have not responded to subsequent attempts to reach them for comment. La’Toi had started confronting people in the kitchen, witnesses told *The Barbed Wire*, when he turned his attention to Felita. He blocked her path as he told others to leave. He said that she could stay, according to witnesses. Felita bristled at the encroachment, according to Demajiae, who described La’Toi’s actions as harassing. Demajiae said he could tell it was time to leave, and walked with Felita towards the door. La’Toi followed, Demajiae said. Within moments a fight broke out. In a Snapchat video obtained by *The Barbed Wire*, Demajiae can be seen in a corner, positioning his body between Felita and a growing crowd bashing bottles, lamps, and tabletop decor. Kanye looks on from the side, leaving the frame with a bottle of tequila before Demajiae walks in front of the camera, away from the brawl, blood trickling from a gash on his forehead. A figure in a black New York Yankees hat, Chicago Bulls hoodie, and a ski mask pulled over his face skulks behind the fight in the footage. This was Dylan, witnesses later confirmed. The motion-activated Ring doorbell camera of the Marrero house also caught bits of the fight, according to the criminal complaint against Dylan. On it is Dylan with the butt of a gun sticking out of his waistband. “His right hand is on it the entire time in the Ring video,” according to the complaint. “He says something about shooting someone.” La’Toi told police he was assaulted after confronting people about leaving the party, and that he was dragged outside where the assault continued. Demajiae also said the fight continued, briefly, in the front yard before he crossed the street to his car. As his vision recalibrated, he realized Felita wasn’t with him. There were flashes. Gunshots. Then screams. Demajiae said he saw Felita being dragged by her cousins to their car, then got in his own sedan and drove himself to the hospital about four miles west, past I-40\. On the street, Felita’s blood was fresh enough to hold a shine in his headlights. \*\*\* The scars of racism and anti-Black policing go way back in the Bailey family tree to the enslavement of ancestors. They’re picked open by every new generation’s encounters with its modern incarnations. Felita’s mom, Odessa, recounted memories of being strangled by a police officer in the 1990s after a fight with a group of girls at Palo Duro High School. She said she was handcuffed and then lifted in the air by her throat. Her sister, La’Ronda, tried to get the officer to let her sister down — only to be warned to step back. Odessa’s brother Christopher was shot when police fired seven rounds outside a club after they said a burglary suspect shot at them. A bullet hit Christopher, a bystander, in the buttocks. Doctors determined it was safer to leave the bullet in place, according to the [*Amarillo Globe News*](https://www.amarillo.com/story/news/local/2010/09/16/apd-officers-cleared-nightclub-shooting/13181132007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)*,*which meant it was impossible to tell whether it was fired by police or the suspect. A grand jury cleared the officers of wrongdoing, and according to the *Globe News* report, finding that even if officers fired the bullet that hit Christopher they were acting in self-defense. Christopher was 18 (not 28, as the newspaper reported). Historically, racism in Amarillo was tied to the prominence of [Klan No. 141](https://ttu-ir.tdl.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/4cbdc566-4266-42c2-9bc3-19f74c52eb16/content?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which worked through infiltration of the upper ranks of the *Amarillo Daily News* in the 1920s to repair the Ku Klux Klan’s image and promote politicians such as [Earle Bradford Mayfield](https://www.tshaonline.org/texas-day-by-day/entry/524?ref=thebarbedwire.com). At the time, the county sheriff and county attorney [were also Klansmen](https://ttu-ir.tdl.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/4cbdc566-4266-42c2-9bc3-19f74c52eb16/content?ref=thebarbedwire.com). In 1921, Klan knights proudly marched up Polk Street. The sheriff and chief of police handled crowd control “during the parade,” the *Daily News* wrote, which ended without violence. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/ad_4nxfayb5fn9rdpvffdrohohhway6snj6kj3e4tqzteoemsvxdrt95s6ftexbqnn_gpvraxfk5n1f7jyrx83vfw5bxljydx7spq-zpdqxqjupljlhvredroag8twhaybxrfaojhykc1a.png) Two years later, a Black railroad worker was whipped, tarred, and feathered by masked men. Six Klansmen were charged with “white capping” or vigilante threats — a rarity that exposed the Klan’s brutality. Before he could testify, the worker said the sheriff drove him to a ravine where white-hooded men warned him to leave town. He stayed and a jury convicted the Klansmen. Afterward, Klan membership declined. Members of the Amarillo Klan [resurfaced in 2006](https://www.newschannel10.com/story/5244759/kkk-rally-in-downtown-amarillo/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to protest immigration, but have kept out of the public eye since. More recently, to families like the Baileys, racism in Amarillo has been reflected in [unsolved murders](https://kissfm969.com/amarillo-cold-case-solved/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of Black women. In 1997, [Linda Jackson](https://www.newschannel10.com/story/14528324/cold-case-file-linda-jackson/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) was found dead after being hit by a car. [Gloria Covington](https://abc7amarillo.com/news/local/amarillo-police-highlight-cold-case-murder-from-1997-in-latest-podcast-gloria-ann-covington-stabbed-north-branch-ymca-detective-jimmy-rifenberg-lt-jim-clements-dorien-thomas-linda-jackson?ref=thebarbedwire.com) was found after being stabbed to death in the same year. In 2000, [Shamika Scott](https://abc7amarillo.com/news/local/apd-asking-for-information-to-help-solve-19-year-old-murder-case?ref=thebarbedwire.com) was found dead at the Wagon Wheel Motel. In 2008, [Crystal Booker](https://www.newschannel10.com/2025/01/18/amarillo-police-department-cold-case-unit-seeking-information-2008-murder/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) was found dead by a man walking his dog. Their cases remain cold. \*\*\* Demajiae asked for Felita after walking through the sliding doors of Northwest Texas Hospital’s emergency room. He didn’t see her, and he didn’t get a response. Instead, he said later, he was met by police and taken to a backroom where he continued to shout: “Where’s Felita?” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/ad_4nxewlruauejhejdef2vdi714nsdy-b1fozzllek0b3hpr141vlcde9py4lrtjppgn6lplryweamrbajo2kl6f-j_iglcdgge3ym5qu1mhzvrrivzbpatb3mm0v2mesa-ullj7xsqqg.png) Yards away at the ambulance bay, Felita was unresponsive and gasping for air as nurses pulled her out of her cousin’s car and onto a stretcher, according to hospital records. Minutes later she had no pulse. Emergency room staff performed CPR, gave her oxygen, epinephrine, bicarbonate, a chest tube and blood transfusions. Still no pulse. Over on the north side of town, a phone call awoke LaRonda Bailey, Demajiae’s mother. She pulled into the parking lot of the hospital a little before 4 a.m. Anxiety hung in the air as she was joined by Felita’s grandmother, father, and aunts. Medical staff told them that Felita was stable and waiting for the doctor. Demajiae was told the same, but not why he was being held in a locked room away from his family. “I had to get 15 staples in my head. My jaw was broken. Just blood everywhere, and it's all my blood,” Demajiae told *The Barbed Wire*. “They had my family waiting in the waiting room as well for three hours, telling us that she’s stable the whole time.” The family settled into the visitors lobby across from the Johnsons who were there in support of La’Toi, who’d been shot in the leg. The Baileys knew the Johnsons — but not Dylan, who joined shortly after. He had on a similar hat, pants, and shoes to the ones he was seen wearing at the party, minus the hoodie and ski mask. Dylan told an Amarillo Police Department officer who was collecting statements that he hadn’t been at the party, that he’d gotten a call about La’Toi being shot and had come straight to the hospital. “He stood out because there's two Black families here, and there's one white boy amongst the other Black family,” LaRonda said. His closeness with the Johnsons didn’t sit well with LaRonda. At one point, she said, she and Felita Sr. overheard Dylan refer to a woman with the Johnsons as “mom,” furthering their confusion over his relationship with the family. “They're buddied up with Dylan, who's buddied up with the cops, and I’m like, *What is the deal with this kid?*” LaRonda remembered thinking. “I'm like, *What is it about him?*” Around 6:50 a.m., Sgt. Cole Thurman pulled the Bailey family aside to break the news: Felita was dead. Hospital staff recorded her death three hours earlier. LaRonda was in shock — *Why had they assured her Felita was fine?* — and asked if the family could see her. However, Thurman said Felita’s body was already being taken to the mortuary. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/ad_4nxebte9mavcpr2tusmxjjqzwubl8vfuplt98fuz8_l2pf7pdu_ex3680lwcpkuctrytantie71dlvik3g3qwjw7ehyojry4rhvkk5xtxxqjgnfo0mmpw_kg7zhoa2gpna8rpmguuxw.png) “Shortly after — like, not even five minutes — he came and said, ‘I need y'alls help,’” LaRonda told *The Barbed Wire*. “And I'm like, are you serious? You just came and told us that she's gone, and you want \[us\] to talk to you?” What Thurman said next was one of her most vivid memories of the night: “At the height of tragedy, the truth comes out.” “That means that was the truth that night,” LaRonda said later in an interview. “Sure enough, he told me the story gonna be different tomorrow.” “When the sun comes up, the story will be different. And I'll be doggone.” \*\*\* Black parents in Amarillo still bring up [Dorien Thomas](https://www.pollyklaas.org/missing-children/dorien-thomas/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) as a cautionary tale. The nine-year–old was last seen riding his bike around sunset in 1998\. “If it’s after six and you’re Black, you better not be in South Amarillo,” is the warning passed down through generations of Black families in the county, including the Baileys. Potter County and its more than 900 acres of High Plains — where Amarillo serves as the seat — is one of dozens of known or suspected “sundown towns” in Texas. The Panhandle is dotted with them, according to a [database maintained by Tougaloo College](https://justice.tougaloo.edu/map/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Heather O’Connell, a sociology professor at Louisiana State University who specializes in race, spatial demography, and social stratification, has studied the phenomenon of sundown towns extensively. “These are places that established either formal or informal laws about who is allowed to be in those places. And typically that was based on ideas about race,” O’Connell told *The Barbed Wire*. “So, exclusionary — usually with violent means, either through threats or realized physical violence — to maintain a large-scale level of segregation. And that didn’t always happen throughout the day. That’s how they get their name ‘sundown towns.’” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/ad_4nxdvxnrs57ivehrxjgwno5ypvsm9ubfdztfw4gifybbtzrym7k7ofjj5jzlf7eh6qvi2t3nn_q3ocnbevwbjqitahbwwbuwa3ajbonnctvjfzmtljspcde3nca1sv_zntshgir5i.png) Today, “sundown towns” are understood as a reaction to migration away from the South and slavery. But they were also tied to labor. Black people often were allowed to work in segregated areas during the day — a necessity for local economies — then signaled to leave by dark, O’Connell said. Potter County was formed in 1876\. Per the 1880 Census, only two of the 28 residents were Black. For years, the wife of Amarillo’s mayor was the only female resident on record. All were outnumbered by cattle. Farming was the dominant economic activity in the Panhandle throughout the 1900s, with sharecropping common among Black residents. Black cowhands also played a significant role in the [cattle industry](https://www.okhistory.org/learn/cowhands3?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Though dangerous, cattle driving was more profitable than sharecropping. The discovery of a gas field northwest of Amarillo in 1918 — the largest in the world — changed the local economy forever. Like heads of cattle or acres of ranchland, oil and mineral ownership became common among the very wealthy in the Panhandle. Then in the ‘60s and ‘70s, beef processing exploded in Amarillo. IBP (acquired by Tyson in 2001) built one of the country’s [largest slaughter houses](https://clui.org/ludb/site/amarillo-meat-packing-plant?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in 1973\. The beef plant is still one of the city’s largest employers, behind a federal nuclear service facility and the local school district. Though the plant has historically provided jobs for Black and immigrant workers, they’re often perilous, and plagued by racist practices. In 2011, Caviness Beef Packers in Amarillo agreed to pay $600,000 in back wages to [settle with the U.S. Department of Labor](https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/ofccp/ofccp20111020?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which found it had discriminated against job applicants based on race and gender. \*\*\* Felita was pronounced dead at 3:53 a.m. on Aug. 31 — minutes after her family arrived at the emergency room. An autopsy found much of her body was unremarkable. Her fingernails were long and clean with pink acrylic tips. Her toes were neat and painted white. She wore a gold anklet and a nose ring with a white stone. Her organs and tissue were normal for a 25-year-old — except for the bullet wound from her back through her right shoulder that had perforated her lung and fractured her clavicle. The space between her lung and chest wall had filled with blood, causing her death. A form authorizing the hospital to release Felita’s body to the mortuary was signed a little before 6:30 a.m. On a signature line labeled “next of kin” appears to be the signatures of two nurses. Under it, on a line for “witness,” is a printed name: “Felita Bailey - Grandmother.” Except, Felita Sr. maintains that she never signed it, nor witnessed anyone else signing it, and for three hours, she had never left the waiting room lobby. The Bailey family believes someone forged the form. When reached by phone, hospital administrators said they weren’t sure how to trace who signed it, and didn’t recognize the name of the attending physician, who was unable to be contacted for comment. The hospital responded with a statement when contacted by *The Barbed Wire*: “Northwest Texas Healthcare System offers its deepest condolences and sympathies to the family as a result of this tragic event. Due to patient privacy laws and hospital policy respecting the privacy rights of its patients, we cannot provide any specific information about the care and treatment provided during this encounter. All efforts were made by the clinical team in the Emergency Department, but they were not able to save the patient's life.” LaRonda, Felita’s aunt, said they never had the chance to tell the hospital where to send her body, let alone see her. “They sent her off to some funeral home \[where\] we didn't know the people. They finally told us the name of the funeral home, and that's when we went like, ‘Hey, who are you? What do you have? We're on our way to come see her,’ and they're like, ‘No, don't come up here. We can't, can't let y'all see her,’” LaRonda said. As Sgt. Thurman notified the family of Felita’s death, other Amarillo Police Department officers were at the scene at Avondale Street, where they found only a few remaining witnesses and four spent cartridge casings from a 9mm handgun. \*\*\* The next day, Sept. 1, Amarillo police officers knocked on the door of a home in the nearby suburb of Bushland. Laura Savage, Dylan Black’s mother, answered and allowed officers to search her house. Through his attorney, Dylan declined to comment for this story. Laura Savage also declined to comment when reached by phone. At their home in Bushland, officers found a hat similar to the one Dylan was wearing in video taken at the party, and three 9mm handguns. Dylan agreed to go to the police station for an interview with Thurman and Sgt. Adrian Hernandez. Over the course of several hours, he provided details that Hernandez wrote in a criminal complaint were later “proven to be false.” “He lied about what he wore several times until confronted with the video evidence,” Hernandez wrote. “He lied about having a gun until he was confronted with the video evidence.” [86195-IC COMPLAINT FILED](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/86195-ic-complaint-filed.pdf) Dylan said a friend named “Dax” gave him a grey and black Taurus handgun to hold onto, then asked for it back shortly before shots were fired. However, no one at the party identified or even mentioned someone named “Dax,” Hernandez wrote. Dylan said he was next to La’Toi when he heard gunshots, then helped La’Toi into a car. Except, La’Toi didn’t mention Dylan in his account to police. Dylan changed his story several times: He said there could have been two shooters. He said he couldn’t provide a description of them. He said it could have been a Black man with dreads. He said he waited in his friend’s car after the shooting, until they went to the hospital. He said the clothes he changed into had been under his original clothes. He said he left the other clothes in his friend’s car. However, after SWAT officers located the friend, she told Hernandez that she took Dylan to another house — which Hernandez confirmed through a location-tracking app on her phone — and when Dylan came out he was wearing different clothes. At the house, a witness referenced as E.A. in the criminal complaint said Dylan came over around 4:30 a.m. Dylan asked to borrow a shirt and asked E.A. to hold onto a silver and black Taurus handgun. E.A. said there was one unspent casing in the chamber, which he took out and put into the magazine, then said he placed the gun under a drawer. Inside the house, officers found a backpack with the Chicago Bulls hoodie. They found the gun outside. E.A. had dropped it out a window when the officers arrived. When the officers presented Dylan with the gun, he identified it as the one given to him by “Dax.” To Hernandez, that proved Dylan’s “story about obtaining and giving the gun to ‘Dax’ was false.” Sgt. Thurman, who’d notified the family of Felita’s death, fired the gun found at E.A.’s house and the three guns found at Dylan’s house to test their functionality, and entered them and the cartridge casings found at the scene into the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN). Over Labor Day weekend, an Amarillo police officer asked the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, which runs the ballistics network, to compare the casings. “The casings from the Taurus matched the casings found at the scene,” the criminal complaint reads. “This showed the only four casings found at the scene (S Avondale) were fired by the gun that Dylan gave to E.A. to hide for him. The shots fired resulted in a fatal injury to Felita and a non-fatal injury to La’Toi.” Police obtained a warrant for murder, and Dylan was arrested on Sept. 2, less than three days after the shooting. He was booked by the Potter County Sheriff’s Office and held with a recommended bond of $500,000. \*\*\* After learning of her daughter’s death, Odessa made the trip from Dallas to Amarillo. She unpacked at her mother’s house, where school photos hang on the walls between well-worn furniture, Dallas Cowboys merchandise and religious ornaments. Family, God, and the Cowboys: a typical working-class Texan household. On Sept. 5, Odessa finally saw Felita’s body. At the same time, unbeknownst to the Bailey family, Potter County Assistant District Attorney Meredith Pinkham signed a motion to dismiss the charges against Dylan, citing insufficient evidence. Pinkham did not respond to multiple requests for comment from *The Barbed Wire*. The next day, the Amarillo Police Department issued a press release: “Due to newly developed evidence and information, it was discovered that there will be a second shooter involved in the Avondale homicide from earlier this week,” it said. “Dylan Black who was arrested on 09/01/2024, remains a suspect in this incident, but the decision has been made to drop current charges until further information and evidence has been reviewed.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/ad_4nxdr6_fxjw5_ldpcsvh0k58r6h13-8r2urfambcyfz2efd62mmxlr2o1dlb6bcn-_nzjscyxfnbmwchev9hjgu5kct6d9uwbrhv0jhulr3u6dkatgmnlrrxy9hcfboshnsxzxuzyfg.png) At her house, Felita Sr. channel surfed before settling on a [news report](https://www.newschannel10.com/2024/09/06/officials-dismiss-murder-charges-avondale-shooting-announce-second-shooter-involved/?ref=thebarbedwire.com): She watched Dylan on the screen, waiting for his ride home from the jail. He’d been released. When the *ABC News 7* crew asked Dylan if he wanted to share his side of the story, he said "all I know is bullets passing by my head too," then a deputy gave him a ride to his mom, the [TV station reported](https://abc7amarillo.com/news/local/only-on-abc-7-labor-day-murder-suspect-released-from-potter-county-jail-dylan-black-felita-bailey-latoi-johnson-1300-block-avondale-homicide-shooting-after-party-amarillo-police?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Thirty minutes later, police knocked on Felita Sr.’s door. Sgt. Thurman and Sgt. Hernandez were there to provide an update Odessa had requested. During the housecall, Odessa said Thurman apologized for not notifying her directly regarding Felita’s death. Then, she said, he stated with certainty that Dylan killed Felita and would face punishment for it. “And he made a promise to us. And the way that other detective \[Hernandez\] looked at him,” she said, “...like maybe he said too much.” It was the last time they said they spoke with Thurman. The Amarillo Police Department denied a request to speak to individual officers, and did not answer questions on allegations from the Bailey family regarding their interactions with officers. After the police left, Odessa [went onto Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/odessa.bailey.50/posts/pfbid02aqePpfoTmZLaj53197RpE3crc8SGRWSyCi1R4NsJP91sfCcG1HWHwMmhPFBveRmwl). “AMARILLO POLICE COULD POSSIBLY BE COVERING UP TO PROTECT WHITE BOY SHOOTER,” she wrote. \*\*\* On Sept. 7, the TV in the living room blared a “Martin” rerun as Odessa folded laundry. She was interrupted by a knock at the door. Odessa’s heart pounded as she spoke to the two Amarillo police officers on the other side about why Dylan was released. Sgt. Hernandez was there, this time with Lt. James Clements, the director of the homicide unit. “And my mother, I asked her over and over and made sure, she said she never signed anything. She never identified my daughter,” Odessa told *The Barbed Wire* she said to the officers. “Why would they do that? Forge my mother’s signature like that on the paperwork? And why did it take us so long to see my daughter’s body? It took five days for me to see my daughter.” Clements did most of the talking, Odessa remembered. “Miss Bailey, look, we don’t owe you anything,” she recalled Clements saying. “We did our jobs.” He explained that they could not be certain that Dylan murdered Felita and stated they were seeking out a second shooter, according to Odessa. Having given the update Odessa requested, they left. The laundry went unfolded until the morning. During the following month the police began corresponding with the family through Hernandez. In one interview with Hernandez, Felita Sr. said she mentioned overhearing Dylan in the hospital calling a white woman who was with La’Toi’s uncle “mom.” Hernandez cut in to correct her, Felita Sr. and Odessa remembered, stating that Dylan’s mother “does not date Black men.” After a pause, the women recall Hernandez adding, “I know that family very well.” \*\*\* Under felony murder, the charge brought against Dylan Black, the state doesn’t have to prove intent the way it would under capital murder. The [Texas Penal Code](https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/docs/pe/htm/pe.19.htm?ref=thebarbedwire.com) states that a person commits murder if, while committing or attempting to commit another felony, they act in a way that’s dangerous to human life and that causes someone’s death. “They don’t have to prove who shot her. And they’re acting like that’s the be-all, end-all of this case,” [Ryan Brown](https://ryanbrownattorneyatlaw.com/ryan-brown/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a civil rights attorney who previously worked with the Innocence Project, told *The Barbed Wire*.(Brown knew about Felita’s death, and had reviewed public records from the case, but was not involved with it when *The Barbed Wire* first interviewed him in January. He has since started representing another defendant in the criminal case.) “\[Dylan\] pulled out a gun, someone shot, someone died. That’s a felony murder,” Brown said. Per the charge brought against Dylan, the underlying felony was deadly conduct, discharge of a firearm. Meaning, the state doesn’t have to prove Dylan intended to kill Felita, only that he committed another dangerous criminal act — in this case, shooting a gun in the direction of an individual or individuals that caused Felita to die. The same strategy was employed to convict Nahryah Hilesta Ines Hayes, a Black resident of Amarillo, of murder after driving the getaway car in a recent [mass shooting on Polk Street](https://www.newschannel10.com/2025/01/28/amarillo-police-reveal-new-details-polk-street-shooting-during-news-conference/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Britt Crinson Cave, who is white, was sitting in the backseat and was charged with public intoxication. “When I saw that there was a video of Mr. Black at this house party with a gun, that he said he was going to shoot someone, that he had a mask over his face,” Brown said, “and the fact that he lied and said that he wasn’t there when he was, he was hiding something… All those things are plenty of evidence, I would think, to keep him for murder.” “My initial thoughts when I saw that he was let out was that he knows someone in the police department, the DA’s office, has some other connection to the local government and power structure,” Brown said. “Or he’s a snitch.” \*\*\* Dylan Black grew up in a different Amarillo than the one the Baileys inhabited — one with families more likely to own land, and industries built upon it, than to work it. In 1999, Amarillo-based [EnergyNet](https://www.efficientmarkets.com/wiki/About%5FUs?ref=thebarbedwire.com) emerged as an online auction site for oil companies. [“Like Ebay for Oilfields,”](https://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherhelman/2016/06/01/oil-for-sale-cheap/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) the company hired Jim Black in the early days as a director, before he later moved up to COO and CFO. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/ad_4nxdkdp2dpbgomplicdmh-qmlud7atmd91vijthtx_row00-h4r3e_wdkmbycvocnrvt3hknn3uzlfegcajwatv8drfevlw6wmnx-tst4j06zh25syzduct82szmlmkzlkd_b4recsq.png) Jim Black’s niece, Laura Black, had Dylan in 2002\. As a single mom, Laura began dating Brandon Savage. The two married in October 2008, and eventually, Dylan’s step-dad worked at EnergyNet, too. [Working with the Texas General Land Office](https://www.oilandgaslawyerblog.com/energynet-dotcom-success-oil-gas-sector/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — a partnership Dylan’s great uncle helped to establish in 2016 — EnergyNet auctions off government land for drilling rights. The arrangement has been a boon for both parties — the state’s most recent sale’s lease bonus totaled around $25 million, and over the years, EnergyNet’s revenue has almost doubled. [An audit of EnergyNet from 2022](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-sec-gov/Archives/edgar/vprr/2300/23003394.pdf) shows a revenue of more than $18 million. But Dylan got to know local government officials through a different context. In January 2020, Dylan used a rock to shatter the glass door of the U.S. Nails in Teckla Office Park. He and an accomplice proceeded to [ransack the business](https://www.facebook.com/RandallCountyMugshots/photos/dylan-zane-blackbooked-01252020-releasedburglary-of-building-issuing-auth-distri/1071725619829685/?locale=zh%5FCN), according to police records, making off with Louis Vuitton bags and a set of Gucci sunglasses still in their case. The two were arrested after fleeing from the police and hiding in a dumpster in a nearby alley. Dylan was still holding the rock used to shatter the glass pane and a latex glove. He received two years of deferred adjudication and a $3,500 fine. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/ad_4nxcldwcqfuhwtusqdo_wrcctvambygvvw2nsfcfjh3sywse-zxi7kexiefwnq4ovkqjnebmvz-tkp_bymxly3ncz0bjybtkjn1jqhfnttmsixylxa4kusiibh3ko1affz8hr0z0xwg.png) By 2023, Dylan was wanted for violating his parole. He was listed as Amarillo Crime Stoppers’ "Fugitive of the Week" before he was arrested at the Holiday Inn Express where he worked and [burglarized hotel rooms](https://www.newschannel10.com/2023/02/17/man-wanted-burglary-building-charge-custody-amarillo-police-say/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). According to the incident report, Sgt. Hernandez had requested to be contacted upon Dylan’s arrest. “Sgt. Hernandez asked me to take Dylans \[sic\] cell phone,” the arresting officer wrote in the incident report. “I requested the passcode to Dylans \[sic\] phone and advised him it was being taken for further investigation for a separate case.” He served 12 days in jail. \*\*\* On Sept. 9, Lt. Clements sat down in his office for an interview with [ABC 7 News](https://abc7amarillo.com/news/local/felita-baileys-family-continues-to-push-for-justice-one-month-after-murder-odessa-bailey-amarillo-texas-police-department-lieutenant-clements-homicide-dylan-black-labor-day?ref=thebarbedwire.com) about Felita’s murder. He told the reporter that they were still waiting on ballistics. "We want to make sure that we know what happened exactly on that scene 100% before we charge anybody with any kind of a charge. We want to be 100% accurate,” Clements said. However, Dylan had been charged seven days prior and dismissed shortly after. The criminal complaint against him stated conclusively that the only shell casings found at the scene matched the gun Dylan was captured in video holding in his waistband at the party. Clements told the reporter there were new leads, but it was an ongoing investigation and not much could be shared. Odessa also gave an interview. "I just refuse to let my daughter's case go unsolved,” Odessa said through tears. “That's just not going to happen. I'll fight. I can't even grieve because I have to fight. This my only child." \*\*\* After Felita’s death, her family started a [GoFundMe page](https://www.gofundme.com/f/felita-bailey?lang=en%5FUS&utm%5Fcampaign=fp%5Fsharesheet&utm%5Fmedium=customer&utm%5Fsource=copy%5Flink), and engaged with activists who took an interest in her case. Odessa had been active on Facebook previously — engaging in discussions on racism and violence circulating in the news sphere. On Sept. 30, she began sharing details of her own story. “The police department nor the hospital notified me of my daughter’s death,” she said on a [Facebook live video](https://www.facebook.com/odessa.bailey.50/videos/2026993907734425/). “I pretty much found out through the news... When I asked why wasn’t myself or her father notified, detectives told me, as long as they told someone in that emergency room, it was fine. That they owe me nothing.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/ad_4nxc3fd6hr0yy9qcacijiipj8nnrclldbycyydizouliood-rliirv5hreu24onzi1uzx7hk9lmscklrfyg2fg10ei4zhq_96o3oyhq4kure4q9tfxbps569rkvdvamhc2wglxddz0q.png) “The police are not trying to help,” she continued. “The detectives didn’t even know my daughter’s name. They could not tell me anything about my daughter. Nothing. I showed them a picture of my daughter, they didn’t even know who she was. No detective contacted me, I had to contact APD myself, then they finally sent detectives about three or four days later, to speak with me about the death of my daughter.” She added on the video: “I speak on these type things that happen, and I never in a million years thought this would happen to me. I’m asking people to stand with me to fight with me. If you love me you will because this my daughter.” “Amarillo has a thing of unsolved murders when it comes to people that look like myself and my daughter, they sweep it under the rug,” she said. Afterwards, Odessa reached out personally to witnesses, and was reportedly told that police had been frantic in their search of another potential suspect. One witness, who was an unrelated guest at the party, confirmed this. “They had questioned me on my cousin cause he’s got priors,” the witness told *The Barbed Wire*, requesting anonymity due to fear of retaliation. “They were like, ‘Have you ever known your cousin to be violent or do something like this?’ And after that, they damn near harassed me about it. They were leaving messages on my phone trying to get me to come to the station. I was like, ‘I already told you everything I know.’” “They trying to find any other Black person they can,” Demajiae said. “Because the thing is, he is the only white boy out of all these little dudes.” Angie Betancourt, a friend who worked with Felita Sr. at Tyson’s, said that the community isn’t fooled. “It breaks me because, how do you let something like that sink in? And just because this kid carries this big name … it doesn’t give him the right to kill her and it doesn’t give him the right to get away with it,” Betancourt told *The Barbed Wire*. “I’m not God, I don’t pass judgement,” she continued. “But murder is murder. Somebody’s innocent life got taken so young. Somebody’s granddaughter that I cherish. And it pisses me off.” In October, the Baileys held a protest outside the police station. They wore pins with Felita’s image and t-shirts with “Justice 4 Felita” displayed across the front. Later that month, the family organized an event to mark what would have been Felita’s 26th birthday. [Invitations were shared on Facebook and Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DBYuGM5Ogkx/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). There, again, they discussed getting justice for the woman they said lit up every room. Then they released purple balloons. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/ad_4nxextai3ciqc8bqdt_mh0krpqrfrd7b0ntdt3fewehui_fyfry-3azzin9pavbigu8wka_uiodqe0d4ysm2nlxghfr-qizc_qif8u7-fipts7_opizq1ovvd34cneqwcoau3awjrsq.png) \*\*\* On Oct. 11, Demajiae sat in the lobby of the doctor’s office as “Titanic” played on the corner-mounted tube television. The more persistent effects of his injury had subsided significantly since the night he had sustained a concussion — the night that Felita died. The dehumanization of being detained alone in a hospital room with a bleeding head wound took longer to process. He eventually was treated and given information from a victims’ advocate on steps to receiving victim’s compensation, including doctor visits. His initial application was approved, according to a letter from the state attorney general’s office reviewed by *The Barbed Wire*. This was his last required appointment. Bills were due and he needed the money after medical payments and time off from work left his finances drained. “DeMaJay?” the nurse called. That’s not his name, but he was used to this by now. His examination went, for the most part, the same as every single preceding time. Once it was over, a relief washed over him. His anxiety rose in the following weeks, though, as the victim's compensation never came. He finally received a response from the Amarillo Police Department: the compensation was denied due to “poor cooperation” on the night of the party. His heart pounded as he tried to make sense of the message, growing uneasy like tides in a storm. The appointments, the paperwork, none of it mattered, he thought. Compensation would’ve been withheld regardless. By November, Demajiae lost his job and apartment. He moved in with family. December came, and the Baileys stopped receiving updates from the police regarding the investigation. Following an activist’s [post on Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/p/DDH4IHKuhmz/?igsh=OTdueG0wdTU0aHl6&ref=thebarbedwire.com) featuring Potter County Assistant District Attorney Meredith Pinkham’s photo in crosshairs, and a directive to contact her office, Odessa received a call from Hernandez’s phone number. “Hello, Miss Bailey. This is Meredith Pinkham,” Odessa remembered the woman on the other line saying. “Why are you calling me from Officer Hernandez’s phone?” Odessa recalls asking. “That’s not important.” Pinkham asked Odessa why she had been conferring with local organizers in Dallas. She also asked for more information on any individuals assisting with shedding light on the case, and why Odessa was disclosing information on the case to other parties. Odessa said she responded with her own question — *Why were the charges against Dylan dismissed?* — only to receive the same answer given by the police: there’s not enough evidence. Odessa said Pinkham continued, telling her that Dylan was one of the shooters, but they weren’t sure if his bullet was the fatal bullet. Around 1 a.m. on Dec. 28, [police responded to a fight](https://abc7amarillo.com/news/local/murder-suspect-arrested-after-trying-take-gun-into-bar-police-say-dylan-black-felta-bailey-latoi-johnson-1300-block-avondale-homicide-shooting-after-party-amarillo-police?ref=thebarbedwire.com) outside MJ’s Saloon & Grill. Dylan was there, drunk, with a gun. Police said he argued with officers and refused to leave. He was charged with unlawfully bringing a gun into a bar. Odessa shared a link to a local news story about the incident [on Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/odessa.bailey.50/posts/pfbid0qfnUpsMVCXSBrtJXvqkfyFoERAa1u4HtR7cmrqXjzSBqSUaFwLqZEfPovWQa553nl). “HAD DYLAN BEEN A BLCK MAN WITH A GUN ARGUING WITH[ Amarillo Police Department](https://www.facebook.com/AmarilloPolice?%5F%5Fcft%5F%5F[0]=AZV5P2c2yyThTbEo8FBeyWVGC%5Fczub98ieeOxKu4nJX8HZnVl3Zwd9ay%5FmwixLL8qwKaXgpbyCHyEG0YcAT4zFs1hOaDFeBssiP6E6WBwzIR6E9oUBS9pp6klVkTmHn-r8VJ8wL2upANYpxQZnrN6pvAcx%5FFhxtyyw0F7GZjsn2qMg&%5F%5Ftn%5F%5F=-]K-R) HE WOULD BE DEAD BY NOW,” she wrote. In February, Dylan was arrested again. He was charged with assault of a pregnant person. Police say he bit the arm of a 17-year-old girl that he knew was pregnant, according to an arrest report and criminal complaint. “BEGGING[ Amarillo Police Department](https://www.facebook.com/AmarilloPolice?%5F%5Fcft%5F%5F[0]=AZU5To2DqqwqrVpsJxHZB9cUd1e4HMWnywUQZVYPRVKuv3KtJlN%5FjXZi%5FE1Et0uMrTXXn8GT05Ho0nREF3SR2ULbqhnHrG-RVobHA90aYHCyXyFts44ZwHgGXOvOwIhiRx-YpvT4hgd77HBLNydLtgoiWqkS2Dr3ibrpTfxPOcJbtA&%5F%5Ftn%5F%5F=-]K-R) TO NOT WAIT UNTIL HE KKKILLS AGAIN,” Odessa [wrote on Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/odessa.bailey.50/posts/pfbid02WmyDjK5pLy1N7N1MSXMZvTixC3UfGLoBFQ6XhWu5UL6dTCJCqk1of4acnCmi8p4vl?%5F%5Fcft%5F%5F[0]=AZU5To2DqqwqrVpsJxHZB9cUd1e4HMWnywUQZVYPRVKuv3KtJlN%5FjXZi%5FE1Et0uMrTXXn8GT05Ho0nREF3SR2ULbqhnHrG-RVobHA90aYHCyXyFts44ZwHgGXOvOwIhiRx-YpvT4hgd77HBLNydLtgoiWqkS2Dr3ibrpTfxPOcJbtA&%5F%5Ftn%5F%5F=%2CO%2CP-R). Police reached back out in early March, according to Odessa. They asked about her nephew, Kanye. After refusing to support or validate suspicions expressed by police, she said she heard nothing from the department for about a week. \*\*\* On March 13, a grand jury indicted Merron Kanye Bailey for felony murder of his cousin Felita. He was arrested by U.S. Marshals in Dallas and transferred to Potter County Detention Center on a bail of $1 million — doubled from Dylan’s amount when he was arrested for the same charge in the same woman’s death seven months earlier. Police issued a statement to the press saying evidence obtained after Dylan’s arrest identified Kanye “as the armed suspect that fired the fatal round," and that Dylan had been [“eliminated” as a suspect](https://abc7amarillo.com/news/local/dylan-black-eliminated-as-suspect-in-labor-day-weekend-murder-felita-bailey-merron-bailey?fbclid=IwY2xjawKoNGtleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETFrbXdSOGU1b2xqTXJUSXVCAR4thZQFWMzCcqBvxyLNaD3pfNUWDFqLQAW4HrIa%5FDyjmrmhmQm4WXXEeuNIHg%5Faem%5FVPrbUY9B4VMBL89gKJqc-A&ref=thebarbedwire.com). The grand jury testimony is sealed to the public; court records reviewed by *The Barbed Wire* in Kanye’s case contain no evidence behind the charge against him. Police have also declined to answer questions on evidence leading to the indictment. Kanye has no criminal record. Witnesses who spoke with *The Barbed Wire* said Kanye has never owned a firearm, and that they’ve never seen him with a gun. What’s more, they said, he wasn’t involved in the fight with La’Toi and Demajiae. When police arrested Kanye, *The Barbed Wire* had been reporting on Felita’s death for more than six months. In that time, no one who spoke with *The Barbed Wire* brought up Kanye as a suspect. Conversely, nearly everyone, including eight who attended the party, said they believed it was Dylan who killed her. On March 17, shortly after Kanye’s arrest, Dylan was released from Potter County Detention Center, where he’d been booked on the charge of assaulting a pregnant person. In the time since *The Barbed Wire* first interviewed Ryan Brown, the civil rights attorney, Brown agreed to represent Kanye. In late March, Brown submitted a motion to take over as counsel from the public defender Kanye was originally assigned. Kanye pleaded not guilty and agreed to waive an arraignment, according to court records. At publication time, Kanye was still in jail, where he’d already served three months. A trial date had not been set, but Brown filed a motion to reduce Kanye’s bail. A hearing is set for July 24. \*\*\* On April 25, Lt. Clements gave an interview to *The Barbed Wire*. Asked what evidence the department found against Kanye, Clements said he would not release a lot of information over the phone, “because, one, I don't know who you are, and I know we've had a lot of controversy over this case from a lot of activists down in Dallas.” “It'snot just one piece of evidence,” Clements said. “It's a multitude of a lot of video, a lot of ballistics, a lot of witness information, a lot of different things, that's come to that conclusion.” When asked about the criminal complaint against Dylan that said all four bullet casings found at the scene matched the gun Dylan was seen in video holding at the party, Clements said “that's a rumor that was started by the activist down in Dallas.” When pressed about why it was in a public record, Clements said the information in the complaint was “incorrect.” “Here's the issue that happens. Whenever, whenever you're out on a scene of a homicide, and that's going to be any homicide, that you're working, things change. Okay, you may go to a scene and you may develop evidence, and then later on, that evidence may develop something different, or things may change, or stories may change, or people lie to you, or you know evidence is always. Evidence is true and factual, but the times where that evidence brings different types of information to you,” he said. “So just because a complaint is written out in the initial complaint doesn't mean that things can't change, or things, people lie to you, or things that misinformation that you're given that's not correct and it's changed sometimes. So homicide investigation, of course, is a very fluid type, and it’s just unfortunately, sometimes we get misinformation or incorrect information and it has to be changed.” Clements went on to say that only one of the four casings recovered at the scene was initially tested and matched the gun Dylan was seen holding, and that the other three casings were assumed to have matched but did not match. He later admitted that a gun matching the other three casings has not been recovered, nor has the bullet that killed Felita, nor a gun owned or possessed by Kanye. When asked about the Ring camera video, Clements said: “I never heard \[Dylan\] say he's going to shoot somebody. TBW: “It says that here on the \[complaint\]. On the Ring camera, there was a recording of Dylan saying that he was going in to ‘shoot someone.’” Clements: **“**You might send that when I redo that one, because Dylan Black is not going to be chargedwith murder.” Clements then confirmed that Dylan did shoot a gun that night: **“**He fired a gun at the scene, but he did not cause the death of Felita Bailey.” “DylanBlack was taken into custody due to the information that we previously had received that night, and he was charged with murder because it was first assumed that all four shell casings matched,” Clements added. “Things change. New information is received. The information, once that's received, we, the district attorney is not going to file on somebody, including he wouldn't if you accidentally fired, not accidentally, but fired a gun at the scene. Do you want to go to jail for murder when we can't prove that it was you? Now we have proof that there's another shooter out on the scene, because there's other shell casings that don't match.” When pressed on what informed the indictment against Kanye, Clements said: “Because he caused the death of Felita Bailey.” TBW: **“**But there's a reason for that though, that you think that. So we would love — the public would love — to hear that. The public would love to know.” Clements: “The public would love to know a lot of things.” ### Man Accused of Killing Minnesota Lawmaker Attended Religious School in Dallas URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/man-accused-killing-minnesota-lawmaker-attended-religious-school-dallas/ Last updated: 2025-06-17T17:06:02.000Z The man accused of assassinating a Minnesota lawmaker and wounding another has roots in Texas. Vance Boelter attended a nondenominational religious school in Dallas, Christ For the Nations Institute, the school [confirmed in a press release](https://cfni.org/pressrelease/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). On its website, the school [details its religious beliefs](https://cfni.org/core-values/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), including that marriage is “between one man and one woman,” only two “distinct, complementary genders” exist, and life begins “at the time of conception in the mother’s womb.” CFNI also describes a list of its prohibited “behaviors and lifestyles,” such as homosexuality, incest, premarital sex, pornography, and adultery, which it calls “sin, offensive, an abomination, and detestable to God.” Boelter graduated in 1990 from CFNI with a degree in theology. Before that, he grew up in small-town Minnesota where, as a high school senior, he was named “Most Courteous” and “Most Friendly,” [*The Washington Post* reported](https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/06/17/vance-boelter-minnesota-shooting-christianity/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “We are absolutely aghast and horrified that a CFNI alumnus is the suspect,” the school said in a release. “This is not who we are. This is not what we teach. This is not what we model. We have been training Christian servant leaders for 55 years and they have been agents of good, not evil.” Boelter is accused of killing Democratic Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband on June 14, in what authorities have called a [“calculated plan to inflict fear and violence.”](https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/after-two-day-manhunt-suspect-charged-shooting-two-minnesota-lawmakers-and-their-spouses?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Boelter also allegedly shot Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, who both survived the attack, and had a [“hit list”](https://www.axios.com/2025/06/16/democrats-vance-boelter-minnesota-shooting-list?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of Democratic lawmakers, Axios reported. Boelter was arrested and taken into custody on June 15, after a two-day manhunt. His alma mater, CFNI, offers a three-year program in practical theology and ministry skills, and trains its students to become “world changers for God’s Kingdom work throughout the world,” according to its [website](https://cfni.org/about/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The school was founded in 1970 by preacher Gordon Lindsay, who believed every Christian should [“pray one violent prayer a day.”](https://www.facebook.com/share/1YNTMH239z/) “By ‘violent prayer,’” CFNI wrote in its release, “he meant that a Christian’s prayer-life should be intense, fervent, and passionate, not passive and lukewarm.” Boelter traveled abroad to Jerusalem and Gaza on missionary trips, seeking out “Islamic militants” to “share the gospel and tell them violence wasn’t the answer,” according to his [biography on a now-defunct website](https://web.archive.org/web/20161006174940/http://revoformation.com/). In recent years, Boelter seemingly drifted to the far right, embracing extreme rhetoric about politics and abortion, Matthew Taylor, who studies Christian extremism at the Institute for Islamic, Christian and Jewish Studies, [told the *Post*](https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/06/17/vance-boelter-minnesota-shooting-christianity/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)*.* ### ‘We're Going to Flourish’: Kind Clinic Connects Trans Texans Everywhere to Gender-Affirming Care URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/were-going-to-flourish-kind-clinic-connects-trans-texans-everywhere-to-gender-affirming-care/ Last updated: 2026-07-08T13:44:26.000Z **Paid content.** Kind Clinic and Texas Health Action paid for this article and reviewed it before publication. Eric Webb is an independent freelance writer. Let’s get this out of the way. There’s a lot of misinformation swirling around about gender-affirming care. Rainey Fraser is ready to clear things up. “The biggest misrepresentation right now is that trans people don't know what we need,” said Fraser, virtual services administrator for [Kind Clinic](https://kindclinic.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “It's the complete opposite, and frankly, nobody can tell us otherwise.” Founded in 2015, Kind Clinic provides Texans with gender-affirming and intersex care in a sex-positive, judgement-free environment. It also offers vital access to the HIV prevention medications known as PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) and PEP (post-exposure prophylaxis), as well as testing and treatment for HIV and other STIs. The doors are open to clients of every identity and financial status, with services offered at little or no cost. To help mark Kind Clinic’s 10th anniversary, [Texas Health Action](https://texashealthaction.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) gave *The Barbed Wire* an exclusive look at how its gender-affirming care model brings lifesaving hope to patients in every corner of the state. First, it helps to understand what gender-affirming care for trans and nonbinary people *actually* means. According to Fraser, the term refers to a wide spectrum of medical treatments, mental health services and resources. People tend to equate the term with hormone replacement therapy, or HRT. That encompasses a wide variety of treatments, including those benefiting cisgender people. Kind Clinic offers a subset of care called [gender-affirming hormone therapy](https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/treatment-tests-and-therapies/gender-affirming-hormone-therapy-gaht?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=Gender%2Daffirming%20hormone%20therapy%20%28GAHT%29%20is%20a%20treatment%20in,are%20more%20masculine%20or%20feminine.), or GAHT. This treatment involves prescribing hormones like estrogen or testosterone to adult patients who seek physical characteristics that align with their gender identity. The clinic practices an [informed consent model](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK430827/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Clients are not required to have a letter from a therapist clearing them to start treatment. Medical providers thoroughly explain the benefits and risks of treatment to patients, who then make the decision that’s best for them. “In healthcare, you have to trust your patient to tell you who they are and what they have going on,” Fraser said. “When people don't feel safe to do that, you're not going to get an accurate understanding of their needs.” Kind Clinic clients first meet with a patient advocate, who connects them with necessary resources, including financial assistance. Then, they see a provider. “Kind is so great at making patients feel validated, affirmed, seen, heard and safe,” said Cynthia Stewart, a nurse practitioner at the clinic. “That's the key word—feeling safe in a space that does not see what the world sees you as, does not judge you for who you are or what you look like, what gender you are or what you call yourself.” Barring any medical concerns, most people seeking GAHT receive their prescription the same day. Hormone therapy is just one piece of a bigger pie. The clinic’s HIV testing, prevention and treatment services are integral. While HIV affects everyone, it [disproportionately impacts the trans community](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-unaids-org/sites/default/files/media%5Fasset/2024-unaids-global-aids-update-transgender-people%5Fen.pdf), especially Black and brown people. Patient advocates connect people to mental health providers, too. Texas Health Action operates [Waterloo Counseling Center](https://www.waterloocounseling.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a longstanding Austin-based organization that now serves clients statewide. Kind Clinic’s model seems even more revolutionary considering the obstacles in its way. There’s a [persistent lack of healthcare resources](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4802845/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=The%20biggest%20barrier%20to%20health,systems%20barriers%20and%20socioeconomic%20barriers.) for trans and gender expansive folks, Fraser said. That’s compounded by [constant attacks from lawmakers](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/anti-trans-bills-texas-2025/). None of it can change the facts: [Gender-affirming care leads](https://whatweknow.inequality.cornell.edu/topics/lgbt-equality/what-does-the-scholarly-research-say-about-the-well-being-of-transgender-people/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to reductions in anxiety, depression, suicidality and substance use.“Overwhelming statistical evidence supports the benefit to quality of life for the people who seek this care,” Fraser said. Kind Clinic operates four physical locations across Austin, Dallas, and San Antonio, but its reach extends statewide thanks to virtual care. Without that, many patients would have to drive hours to receive services. “A common theme from a lot of our rural trans patients is, ‘I haven't had anyone.’ We can—at least in our little pocket of cyberspace—foster a little more connection,” Fraser said. “In whatever small measure, we're making people feel less alone.” Fraser sees the lifesaving effects of gender-affirming care every day at work. Over the years, patients have shared their success stories with her. Relationships with loved ones improving. Progress at work. Making a big move to somewhere special. “We're here in Texas,” Fraser said. “We aren't going anywhere. We're going to flourish, no matter what anybody else says.” ### Amid Safety Concerns, Tesla ‘Robotaxis’ Will Soon Hit Austin’s Streets URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/tesla-robotaxis-launching-austin-amid-safety-concerns/ Last updated: 2025-06-16T18:58:06.000Z Tesla is “[tentatively](https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1932591896939147494?ref=thebarbedwire.com)” rolling out its robotaxi service next week, as Elon Musk finally follows through on his decade-old promise to develop a [self-driving Tesla taxi](https://qz.com/elon-musk-tesla-robotaxi-timeline-1851664786?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “We are being super paranoid about safety, so the date could shift,” Musk [said on X](https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1932591896939147494?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — which means the launch could be delayed anywhere from a week to another five years (“I tend to be a little optimistic with time frames,” he [said in October](https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/10/business/elon-musk-tesla-robotaxis/index.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com)). One week out from its launch in Austin — home of Tesla’s headquarters and another self-driving car service — locals say they’re concerned about the robotaxis’ safety features. Namely, that they don’t work. A safety demonstration last week placed a self-driving car on suburban routes with bus stop signs and child-size mannequins, [KXAN reported](https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/safety-concerns-emerge-as-tesla-robotaxis-prepare-for-launch/?%5Fbhlid=05af1286a9204085ce812c4ac6b9104998fccc27&ref=thebarbedwire.com). On all six test drives the Tesla drove past the sign, *ran over* the mannequins, and kept going. For those not versed in vehicular manslaughter, that’s a hit-and-run. https://www.tiktok.com/@cnbc/video/7515526046909861163 “The product does not work,” Dan O’Dowd, founder of the Dawn Project, told KXAN. The Dawn Project, which organized last week’s safety demonstration, is a national organization advocating to ban commercial, often “[unsafe](https://dawnproject.com/about-us/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)” software from high-risk fields like automobiles and aerospace (essentially, the places where you *really* want to be safe). So naturally, Musk’s field of work is something of a field day for them. “The self-driving Teslas will not stop for that bus,” Dowd continued. “They do not see it as a bus. They do not know that is a bus. They don’t understand what a bus is.” The launch is expected to roll out around 10 robotaxis that will be monitored remotely, [Musk told CNBC last month](https://www.cnbc.com/2025/05/20/elon-musk-tesla-robotaxi.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The cars will be Model Y Teslas, which are already on the market, equipped with the new self-driving software. If the launch in Austin is successful (a big “if”), Tesla will offer thousands of robotaxis nationwide, expanding into cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco, CNBC reported. Musk also said he anticipates hundreds of thousands of Tesla robotaxis will hit U.S. roads by the end of next year. Which might be a problem, considering that Teslas have been the subject of [two](https://apnews.com/article/tesla-investigation-safety-autonomous-death-a158e4dee7b5e94b148ec3bb5c47233d?ref=thebarbedwire.com)[ federal](https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/18/business/tesla-fsd-federal-investigation?ref=thebarbedwire.com) probes, caused at least [one fatal crash](https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2025-tesla-full-self-driving-crash/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), — and, again, committed [six almost-hit-and-runs](https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/safety-concerns-emerge-as-tesla-robotaxis-prepare-for-launch/?%5Fbhlid=05af1286a9204085ce812c4ac6b9104998fccc27&ref=thebarbedwire.com) a week before the launch. ### No Violence and Plenty of Merch: ‘No Kings Day’ Was More Anti-Trump Cookout Than Political Uprising URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/no-violence-no-kings-day-protest-texas/ Last updated: 2025-06-15T23:37:32.000Z Dallas’ “No Kings Day” demonstration was a new experience for Mike Galindo and his family. “This is the first time we’ve come out like this and figured, ‘never too late,’” Galindo said. The father of two attended Saturday’s event with his wife, daughters and an estimated 10,000 others from the area to air collective grievances about President Donald Trump on his birthday. Opposition to the Trump administration was the unifier — perhaps the only one — of the protest that coincided with a military parade for the Army’s 250th anniversary. “It’s about having a voice,” Galindo said. From noon to 4 p.m., [thousands of Texans rallied](https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/no-kings-dallas-fort-worth-texas-protests-june-14-2025/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) around Dallas City Hall, then marched across downtown in two rounds. No National Guard soldiers were spotted during the protest and there were no violent encounters. Peaceful and without incident, the event evoked more of an anti-Trump cookout vibe than heated political action. Merch was widely available, with stands selling “No Kings” t-shirts and “Smash the Oligarchy” commemorative hats. Bacon-wrapped “freedom dogs” were grilled and topped with the full works of grilled onions and peppers. Speakers blared rappers YG and Nipsey Hussle. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/img_3798.jpg) Street vendors sold hot dogs and merch at the “No Kings Day” protests in Dallas. (Sam Judy, *The Barbed Wire*) The national protest was held by [50501 Movement](https://www.fiftyfifty.one/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a grassroots political movement against Trump’s policies. While 50501 Movement had a big turnout for “No Kings Day,” it’s not its first protest event. In fact, 50501 was formed on the idea of “50 protests, 50 states, one day.” And Atlanta 50501 organizer [Kay Evert](https://voyageatl.com/interview/check-out-kay-everts-story/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) said that the movement’s early protests were “a decentralized rapid response to the anti-democratic and illegal actions of the Trump administration and its plutocratic allies.” Recent protests against ICE and immigration enforcement put a bigger spotlight on “No Kings Day.” Over 2,000 troops and 700 Marines were deployed to California, where some of the most high-profile anti-ICE protests are taking place. Last week in Texas, at least 14 people were arrested at rallies across the state. Several Latino leaders in Dallas publicly called for peace after Gov. Greg Abbott [called in the National Guard](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/abbott-calls-national-guard-ice-protests/) for the weekend in anticipation of riots. Anonymous white supremacists sent threats of violence to organizers, one of which promised to shoot demonstrators “in the head,” according to local collaborators working with 50501. On Saturday, one Minnesota state lawmaker and her husband were shot and killed, another and his wife were shot and survived; both were targeted in an apparent political assasination. P[olice evacuated the Texas State Capitol](https://www.reuters.com/world/us/police-evacuate-texas-state-capitol-after-credible-threat-lawmakers-2025-06-14/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) after learning of a credible threat to lawmakers. A man was arrested in connection to the threat hours later. By-and-large, no feared violence came to pass in Texas. In Dallas, the police presence felt more like security for demonstrators than a threat to them, as Abbott had insinuated earlier in the week. The biggest public safety issue was the heat — multiple people passed out as the [heat index reached triple digits](https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/weather-forecast-dallas-fort-worth-north-texas-today-june-14-2025/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The events were a far cry from the Los Angeles protests, which were spurred by increasing immigration raids in the city and across the country. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/img_3428.jpg) Vendors at the “No Kings Day” protests in Dallas. (Sam Judy, *The Barbed Wire*) The mass market tone of “No Kings Day” in Texas seemed to come, in part, from the 50501 Movement, which has received high-profile support from wealthy backers like Wal-Mart heiress [Christy Walton](https://www.wsj.com/politics/a-walmart-heiress-breaks-ranks-and-joins-the-anti-trump-movement-b4395841?gaa%5Fat=eafs&gaa%5Fn=ASWzDAjFp08UNF6XM6fEtV0Y3qu-Ma7vc5Yt2mUpURJxW0PYqx6TPaUuXzj9RAmI%5Fzs%3D&gaa%5Fts=684f0524&gaa%5Fsig=Y3CCJiiQBUPuSmR7jksivmCh6KP2qvNXa7zU5zOxlWL%5FK-RGexH-O7BVjG7AP6NBb-4hjXrqXThRJi4TXVG7vw%3D%3D&ref=thebarbedwire.com), who also provided consistent and large donations to anti-Trump conservative PAC Lincoln Project since 2020\. 50501 itself developed from [Indivisible](https://indivisible.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), an anti-Trump group that formed in 2016\. As Indivisible was founded by Leah Greenberg and Ezra Levin, two former Democratic congressional staffers, 50501’s message similarly remains focused on criticizing Trumpism while enshrining democracy and patriotism. That is to say: 50501’s directive is broad, with a general goal of opposing Trump. That overarching goal seemed to draw people from different backgrounds and demographics to the event in Dallas. An older crowd co-mingled with younger trans rights advocates, pro-Palestine organizers, labor activists, and immigration rights supporters. As nonwhite, younger protesters began chanting pro-Palestine slogans early in the first of two marches, white, older demonstrators quickly drowned them out with a chant of “peaceful protest.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/img_3507.jpg) A protester at “No Kings Day” in Dallas. (Sam Judy, *The Barbed Wire*) Flags became a barometer for the level of political activism. American flags, both straight and inverted, [a symbol of political protest](https://firstamendment.mtsu.edu/article/flying-flag-upside-down/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), were flown. Mexican and Salvadoran flags were present, too. A few pride flags were seen through the crowd. No Palestinian flags were seen, as they often were at protests last year, though some attendees wore [keffiyehs](https://www.npr.org/2023/12/06/1216150515/keffiyeh-hamas-palestinians-israel-gaza?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a traditional Arab headdress that’s become synonymous with Palestine. Many refused to carry the American flag, pointing to the United States’ victimization of Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities through its history. Others had more nuanced takes. “I think that people should have the right to fly the flag they think that best represents them,” said Kyle Jay, who distributed free mini American flags at the event. “Over the past many years though, the right \[wing\] has said the American flag is for them and that critiquing the United States somehow equates to hating it... My opinion is that we should take back the flag and make this country a better place.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/img_4088.jpg) Marchers at the “No Kings Day” protests in Dallas. (Sam Judy, *The Barbed Wire*) One demonstrator, who requested to give comment anonymously citing work privacy concerns, explained why he chose to wave his American flag in an inverted position. “It’s a sign of distress, that’s part of the [US Flag code](https://www.legion.org/advocacy/flag-advocacy/flag-code?ref=thebarbedwire.com). We are obviously in a state of distress right now.” He compared the state of the country to reconstruction following the civil war, describing recent news headlines coming from Los Angeles as signaling “unprecedented” chaos. “My wife and I were coming back from the Dominican Republic,” he said. “When we came back into the country in Chicago, they scanned my face, and the border patrol agents took my passport and held me in a room for over half an hour. And me, I look as WASP as you could get.” “When I finally did get someone to talk to me they said, ‘under Title XIX, we can detain, search, and do whatever we want,’ and that’s all they said,” he told *The Barbed Wire*. He said he was released into O’Hare airport without explanation after a call from a lawyer friend in the city. He isn’t sure whether the brief detention was due to a mistake made with his name, the results of an AI mismatch, or something else. The experience changed both his and his wife’s perspectives on the need for protest. “All I know is that no one would answer why my husband was being detained. It was basically silence,” his wife said. “There’s that thought that it can’t happen to us, like ‘Oh my God, we’re U.S. citizens.’” “We know that we have it easy, that doesn’t make it right to see other people treated that way,” she said. “And we can’t just sit by anymore and watch as our neighbors and our friends and even strangers have this happen to them.” ### THC Gummies May Soon Be Illegal, But Can Texas Interest You in a Psychedelic Instead? URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-passes-bill-researching-psychedelic-thc-ban/ Last updated: 2025-06-12T17:43:11.000Z Texas will spend $50 million to research a naturally occurring but illegal substance, ibogaine, that induces [“mind-bending hallucinations”](https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/06/09/illegal-psychedelic-ibogaine-texas/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and is heralded by advocates for potential treatment of addiction and brain trauma. Because psychedelics are fine, but [recreational THC for pain relief is not](https://thebarbedwire.com/tag/thc/?ref=thebarbedwire.com).Yee haw. Former Texas governor and [“no-apologies conservative”](https://www.texastribune.org/2011/07/14/rick-perry-democrat-years/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Rick Perry has become an unlikely champion for psychedelic drugs, and spearheaded the bill to fund ibogaine research, which Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law Wednesday. Proponents say ibogaine is rarely used recreationally, partially due to its unenjoyable high, Bryan Hubbard, executive director of the American Ibogaine Initiative, [told the *Texas Tribune.*](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/06/11/texas-psychedelics-ibogaine-treatment-addiction-rick-perry-funding/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Since there isn’t much of a “street economy” for the drug, Hubbard told the *Tribune*, lawmakers aren’t as concerned about possible ibogaine abuse. It’s been embraced by Republicans as a possible treatment for addiction, brain trauma, and post-traumatic stress disorder, particularly for [veterans](https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2024/01/ibogaine-ptsd.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Ibogaine clinics are popular in Mexico, [the *Washington Post* reported](https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/06/09/illegal-psychedelic-ibogaine-texas/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), where people travel to take the drug for its psychedelic trip, a spiritual awakening that leaves the user’s brain feeling like [“fresh snow”](https://x.com/AnneClaireNews/status/1928480236464705538?ref=thebarbedwire.com) after, one veteran testified to lawmakers. Texas is investing big money into brain science, having [already committed $3 billion](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/non-terrifying-bills-from-tx-lege-session/) to a new research institute for dementia, Parkinson’s disease, and Alzheimer’s disease. The new law to fund ibogaine research could further cement Texas as a leader in psychedelic research, ensuring the state will reap the economic benefits of ibogaine clinical trials — [at least 20%](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/capitol-texas-gov/tlodocs/89R/billtext/sb02308f-navpanes-0.pdf) of revenue from any successful product. > [](https://twitter.com/%5FTeddyBrosevelt/status/1932551580655784400?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Of course, as the fate of THC in Texas still hangs in the balance, some online have noticed the apparent hypocrisy of Republican lawmakers throwing their weight behind [the Joe Rogan-endorsed ](https://www.instagram.com/p/DEYNMdysN0B/?hl=en&ref=thebarbedwire.com)ibogaine. “Big Pharma got a pill to replace THC. Very addictive and very expensive. Will make Texas politicians rich!!” said [one Reddit poster](https://www.reddit.com/r/texas/comments/1l9md02/comment/mxdx8ns/?utm%5Fsource=share&utm%5Fmedium=web3x&utm%5Fname=web3xcss&utm%5Fterm=1&utm%5Fcontent=share%5Fbutton). “Lol. just lol,” said [another](https://www.reddit.com/r/texas/comments/1l9md02/comment/mxdzuew/?utm%5Fsource=share&utm%5Fmedium=web3x&utm%5Fname=web3xcss&utm%5Fterm=1&utm%5Fcontent=share%5Fbutton). So, congratulations. If THC is banned, Texas might still let you get your pain relief. It’ll just be one hell of a trip. ### In the Name of ‘Peace,’ Abbott Has Called in the National Guard URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/abbott-calls-national-guard-ice-protests/ Last updated: 2025-06-11T18:54:58.000Z Gov. Greg Abbott issued an additional warning to Texans who this week have been [protesting ICE and immigration enforcement](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/what-to-know-about-immigration-crackdowns-in-texas-and-nation/) — he’s sending in the National Guard. On Tuesday, Abbott posted on X that the National Guard will be deployed across the state “to ensure peace & order,” less than 24 hours after [he invoked the Proud Boys battle cry “FAFO”](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-ice-protests-abbott/) for protesters who “cross the line.” Troops are on [“standby”](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/2025/06/11/texas-national-guard-on-standby-for-upcoming-planned-protests/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in San Antonio, where city officials say they did not request the National Guard or receive warning about Abbott’s actions. The San Antonio Police Department does not have a direct line of communication with the state’s National Guard. “I don’t have any information about the number \[of guards\] or what they’re going to do,” said SAPD Chief William McManus during a [press conference](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6f-DJb0RHA&ref=thebarbedwire.com). “They don’t have a responsibility to tell me what they’re doing,” he added. On Sunday, hundreds gathered in Houston and San Antonio, protesting immigration-related arrests — [“kidnappings,”](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/what-to-know-about-immigration-crackdowns-in-texas-and-nation/) as one immigration attorney called them — across the country. Since then, Texas law enforcement has responded with tear gas and pepper spray. On Monday, 14 people were arrested at rallies across the state; 13 in Austin, [the *Texas Tribune* reported](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/06/09/austin-protest-immigration-customs-enforcement/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and one in Dallas, [according to KERA](https://www.keranews.org/news/2025-06-10/dallas-protest-arrest-immigration-trump?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The protests have remained largely peaceful — McManus said [he hasn’t observed behavior](https://youtu.be/w6f-DJb0RHA?si=EPVMjrWR6-4Wgk%5FZ&t=304&ref=thebarbedwire.com) that would warrant deploying federal troops. Abbott is now calling for backup, just days before “No Kings Day” demonstrations to protest both President Donald Trump’s administration and his multimillion-dollar [military birthday parade](https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-no-kings-protests-june-14-los-angeles-1235359409/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) are planned in [cities across Texas](https://www.axios.com/local/dallas/2025/06/11/dallas-fort-worth-no-kings-protests?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “Peaceful protests are part of the fabric of our nation, but Texas will not tolerate the lawlessness we have seen in Los Angeles,” Andrew Mahaleris, Abbott’s press secretary, said in a [statement to KXAN News](https://www.kxan.com/news/texas/abbott-calls-to-deploy-texas-national-guard-to-locations-across-the-state/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Over 2,000 troops and 700 Marines have already been deployed to California, where some of the most high-profile anti-ICE protests are taking place. ### Keyboard Warrior Greg Abbott Invokes Proud Boys Slogan, Threatens Anti-ICE Protesters URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-ice-protests-abbott/ Last updated: 2025-06-10T16:01:23.000Z Greg Abbott, part-time Texas governor and full-time social media tough guy, took a break from doing *anything* about actual problems to hop on X and issue a warning to protesters demonstrating against immigration enforcement. [In a post](https://x.com/GregAbbott%5FTX/status/1932304416435998771?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that screamed “I watch too many tactical YouTube channels,” Abbott promised to arrest protesters who “cross the line” — then capped it off with a Proud Boy battle cry: “FAFO.” Translation for the uninitiated: he means “Fuck Around and Find Out” — a phrase that’s gone from [white supremacist meme](https://www.adl.org/resources/backgrounder/nationalist-social-club-nsc-131?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [to militia merch staple.](https://extremismterms.adl.org/glossary/fuck-around-and-find-out-fafo?ref=thebarbedwire.com) *Super cool* that our state’s top elected official is drawing messaging inspo from groups that have been charged with [seditious conspiracy](https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/proud-boys-leader-sentenced-22-years-prison-seditious-conspiracy-and-other-charges-related?ref=thebarbedwire.com). And while lots of people use the phrase now, hate groups were the ones who injected it into the mainstream. “Peaceful protesting is legal. But once you cross the line, you will be arrested. FAFO,” Abbott wrote, confirming that we do, indeed, have a badass over here. Abbott’s warning comes after days of protests in cities across Texas and California, sparked by a new wave of immigration raids. Demonstrations in Los Angeles were used as a pretext for the Trump administration to [send 2,000 National Guard troops](https://www.bbc.com/news/live/cvg7vxx888kt?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — and, just for spice, 700 Marines — to patrol the streets without California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s consent. It's an extremely rare move; the last time it was done without the state's consent was to [protect civil rights marchers in Alabama](https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/chicago-politics/amid-controversy-when-is-the-national-guard-deployed-and-who-makes-the-call/3764074/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). (Newsom, not thrilled with this move, [responded by suing](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-national-guard-california-lawsuit-gavin-newsom/?ref=thebarbedwire.com).) Back in Austin, [hundreds of demonstrators rallied outside the state Capitol on Monday](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/06/09/austin-protest-immigration-customs-enforcement/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to protest ICE raids. Things stayed peaceful until law enforcement decided to get spicy with the tear gas (which, periodic reminder, is a [chemical weapon that’s banned in war](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/06/06/fact-check-its-true-tear-gas-chemical-weapon-banned-war/3156448001/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)). Police also used pepper spray, pepper balls, and the classic tactic of [falling off a motorcycle near protesters](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/06/09/austin-protest-immigration-customs-enforcement/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) before launching crowd control measures in response to... not much. At least [two people were detained](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/06/09/austin-protest-immigration-customs-enforcement/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in Austin, while [Dallas](https://www.fox4news.com/news/dallas-joins-anti-ice-protests-immigration-crackdown-intensifies?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [San Antonio and Houston](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/what-to-know-about-immigration-crackdowns-in-texas-and-nation/) saw a similar pattern: protesters gathered, police escalated, and chaos ensued. In each case, crowds marched in solidarity with undocumented immigrants who are being rounded up by the feds in the latest episode of “What Unconstitutional Thing Is Trump Doing Now.” That nuance, of course, didn’t make it into Abbott’s post. Instead, we got a threat wrapped in a four-letter acronym that’s more at home on a Punisher bumper sticker than in the vocabulary of an elected official. Meanwhile, the Texas Department of Public Safety logged on to remind everyone that Texas is a “law-and-order state,” as if that hadn’t been painfully obvious once the tear gas started flying. > [](https://twitter.com/TxDPS/status/1932221027016163488?ref=thebarbedwire.com) So if you’re in Texas and thinking of exercising your First Amendment rights, just remember: you might be met with a militarized police response — and a governor who thinks tweeting threats is a leadership strategy. ### Will Cities Stop Using AI License Plate Readers? Some Are Reconsidering After Reports of ICE Searches. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/cities-halt-license-plate-readers/ Last updated: 2025-06-10T09:00:00.000Z Local lawmakers in Texas are responding to [recent reports](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-cops-ice-license-plate-searches/) that some law enforcement agencies are using automated license plate reader technology to support Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions. Last week, [*The Barbed Wire*](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-cops-ice-license-plate-searches/) delved into data first reported by [404 Media](https://www.404media.co/a-texas-cop-searched-license-plate-cameras-nationwide-for-a-woman-who-got-an-abortion/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and found that at least five law enforcement agencies across Texas have conducted at least 180 immigration related searches using Flock, which provides license plate reader technology to thousands of communities across the nation. That same week, Austin city manager T.C. Broadnax withdrew a vote to renew the city’s contract with Flock after community members and leaders urged the city to end the program during a city council work session that included Austin Police Department leaders. “Austin should not be participating in Trump’s mass surveillance programs,” Councilman Mike Seigel told[ KUT Austin](https://www.kut.org/austin/2025-06-04/austin-tx-automatic-license-reader-program-police-data-privacy-flock?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “We have evidence that ICE is actively collaborating with Flock, and ICE essentially has side door access to Flock’s cameras and data sets and that data is being used to enforce ICE actions.” A city audit of the program found that 75 million scans resulted in 165 arrests, 133 prosecutions and one missing person found. The audit did not find that information was being shared for immigration purposes, but recent data sent to council members showed that 10%-20% of license plate searches in the database did not include a clear reason or case number, in violation of rules laid out in a city ordinance. “We are concerned about privacy and civil liberties and the increasing surveillance infrastructure that records our every movement and shares our social patterns with public and private actors,” Siegel told *The Barbed Wire*. “Whether you're a union member on a picket line, a human rights advocate at a campus protest, an immigrant parent getting your kids from school, or a person seeking healthcare in another state, all of us have an interest in building real checks and balances for the tech surveillance complex.” Siegel added: “We are happy to end Flock's contract with the City of Austin. And at the same time, we're aware that we've only touched the tip of the iceberg, and it will take a broad movement to restore the privacy and rights we all expect.” This isn’t necessarily the end for Flock in Austin. KUT reported that city leaders say the program could come back to council in the future. Time will tell. In San Marcos, the city council [voted down a proposed expansion of Flock cameras](https://cbsaustin.com/news/local/san-marcos-city-council-votes-to-deny-flock-camera-expansion-after-hours-of-heated-debate?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in the city following a flurry of critical testimony from residents, civil rights advocates and city leaders. Council Member Amanda Rodriguez, who voted against the proposal, expressed concerns regarding lacking transparency and safeguards, and noted that there have been no audits of how the San Marcos Police Department is using Flock data despite a 2022 policy mandating audits. “We don’t even know how this technology is being used,” Rodriguez told [*CBS Austin*](https://cbsaustin.com/news/local/san-marcos-city-council-votes-to-deny-flock-camera-expansion-after-hours-of-heated-debate?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “And we’re being asked as a council to make an ill-informed decision to expand it.” Rodrigiuez also said that the San Marcos Police Department currently shares Flock data with over 600 law enforcement agencies, including the Houston Police Department, which *The Barbed Wire* found has provided data to ICE. San Marcos Police Chief Stan Standridge said that the department has never received a request from ICE, and that only police can access the data, but that didn’t assuage broader concerns from both citizens and council members regarding the vast data sharing that Flock facilitates between law enforcement agencies. There are 19 Flock cameras still operating in San Marcos. “It’s not SMPD,” said San Marcos Mayor Jane Hughson, who voted against the expansion. “It’s about how our data is used by others.” Community leaders in Dallas have also expressed concerns regarding the Dallas Police Department and sharing Flock data with ICE. “If ICE wants to use Flock, then they can secure their own contract,” Brandon Friedman, a member of the Dallas Police Oversight Board, told *The Barbed Wire*. “The Dallas Police Department has enough on its plate and doesn’t need to be doing ICE’s job. As for the department’s use of Flock in general, I’m not convinced there are enough safeguards currently in place.” Friedman continued: “Dallas residents want the police to solve serious crimes and Flock can facilitate that. But at what cost? You’re going to be living in a lightly regulated, or unregulated, surveillance state for the benefit of maybe solving a few crimes a year. I’m not convinced the citizens of Dallas want that.” One Dallas councilmember, when reached by text message, said they were “furious at this.” Another council member, when reached by text, expressed their surprise at the news that Dallas Police had used Flock to support ICE enforcement activities, saying “no way” and that they would have to “ask what’s going on” before giving a comment on the record. Mayor Eric Johnson did not respond to requests for comment. “City policy is to not stop or detain anyone due to their immigration status,” Councilman Chad West told *The Barbed Wire*. “This is the first I am hearing about the possibility of the possible misuse of Flock, and I plan to talk to my colleagues to request a briefing from the Dallas Police Department on the matter to ensure our priorities are in line with the type of policing that we have been accustomed to and proud of over the years.” Dallas expanded its Flock camera network earlier this year, and the new Dallas chief of police, Daniel Comeaux, has provided mixed messages regarding his stance on collaborating with federal agencies in immigration enforcement actions. In a recent [Fox 4 interview](https://www.foxnews.com/us/major-us-city-led-gop-mayor-new-top-cop-bucks-sanctuary-trend-do-whats-right?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Comeaux said, “If we come in contact with anyone that doesn't have status, we will call the proper federal agency and let them handle it." In a [subsequent interview with WFAA](https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/dallas-county/new-dallas-police-chief-clarifies-policy-immigration-new-interview/287-041e75ce-dba6-4187-9662-576858b12774?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Comeaux said, “We’re going to do the right thing, we’re going to do our jobs. And we will not be searching for immigrants. We have no special programs where we’re searching for immigrants." In a statement previously shared with *The Barbed Wire*, the Dallas Police Department said its policy is that the agency does not enforce immigration law, but did not respond to *The Barbed Wire's* request for clarification regarding the 17 Flock searches that officers made in 2025 for the purpose of supporting ICE removal operations. City Manager Kim Tolbert provided the same statement. Flock has responded to the cancelled contracts in statements arguing that it preserves searches in its audit trails and that it is up to local municipalities to decide how to use their technology. In contrast to the critical approach of other local lawmakers, Hutto Mayor Mike Synder recently [posted on Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/therealMikeSnyder/posts/1155680086574099?ref=embed%5Fpost) that the city will continue to invest in Flock camera technology. “Hutto WILL CONTINUE to invest in technology to help catch ANYONE who messes around in our city,” Synder wrote. “I personally believe in the technology that Flock cameras provide. I have concerns about how the information is used. Hutto has safeguards in place. As an elected official, I think it is our responsibility to ensure that the safeguards are kept.” ### Immigration Crackdowns Are Sweeping Texas and the Nation. Here’s What to Know. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/what-to-know-about-immigration-crackdowns-in-texas-and-nation/ Last updated: 2025-06-09T20:44:34.000Z While federal authorities crack down on [immigration across the country](https://www.npr.org/2025/06/09/nx-s1-5427215/what-to-know-los-angeles-protests-ice-trump?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Texas has [emerged as an epicenter](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-is-now-at-the-heart-of-trumps-immigration-raids/), as federal officials snatch up immigrants and protesters organize in response. Across the state in the past month, ICE has [detained a mother of five](https://foxsanantonio.com/newsletter-daily/several-remain-detained-at-immigration-facilities-following-san-antonio-ice-arrests?ref=thebarbedwire.com) outside of a San Antonio immigration court. Outside an [Austin middle school](https://www.kxan.com/news/sources-ice-deports-family-of-five-including-us-born-kids-after-dps-detainment-near-austin-school/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), another mother and her three children were detained and sent to Mexico. [Construction workers](https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2025/05/31/ice-makes-arrests-on-utsa-campus-university-says-no-students-faculty-or-staff-were-impacted/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on UTSA’s campus were arrested, and a Honduran father and [his 9-year-old son ](https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-06-05/torrance-community-searches-for-answers-on-student-detained-by-feds?ref=thebarbedwire.com)from California are being held at a facility in Houston. On Sunday, hundreds in Houston and San Antonio [protested the detainments](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/06/08/texas-ice-protests-houston-san-antonio/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) across the country, both in California and at home in Texas. “It’s an abomination,” [one attendee ](https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2025/06/08/watch-at-11-am-community-protests-ice-deportations-in-downtown-san-antonio/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)told KSAT. The protests appear peaceful and have not yet received wrath from Washington, D.C. — but Abbott has [voiced support](https://x.com/GregAbbott%5FTX/status/1931743018194759899?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for Trump’s actions in Los Angeles, and called for the federal government “to fully enforce the laws of the United States.” https://www.instagram.com/p/DKo\_DTRAYpe/?igsh=MTFvamEzMG45NTdtdw== “\[Authorities are\] trying to deport people as fast as they possibly can,” U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, [told CBS News](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1btbDYNzGI&ref=thebarbedwire.com), praising the government’s deportation efforts. “This is the tip of the iceberg … It’s not going to be just LA, it’ll be cities all over the country, as we continue to deport people.” Austin-based attorney Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, who’s been practicing immigration law for the past 20 years and represents families across Texas, likens the Texas and nationwide arrests to “kidnappings,” describing them as “absolutely immoral and unethical.” Lincoln-Goldfinch went viral on social media for a press conference where she was seen with a father and two little girls whose mother Carmen[ was arrested outside a San Antonio courthouse](https://www.tpr.org/border-immigration/2025-06-02/san-antonio-community-reacts-to-ice-arrests-at-immigration-court?ref=thebarbedwire.com) after an immigration judge had dismissed her hearing and told her she could leave. https://www.tiktok.com/@abogadakate/video/7511795137865846047?is\_from\_webapp=1&sender\_device=pc&web\_id=7405633523806012974 “I keep thinking, it can't get worse. The last worst was the family separations in 2018 and now we're seeing family separations 2.0,” Lincoln-Goldfinch told *The Barbed Wire.* “People are being detained for following the rules, so that the people who are going to their court hearings and going to their ICE check-ins are being detained for no cause.” Since Trump’s administration took office, arrests by ICE have hit 100,000, according to government data reviewed by [CBS News](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ice-arrests-under-trump-100k/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Texas is one of the top states for ICE detainees, according to [Axios](https://www.axios.com/2025/02/25/mississippi-texas-ice-immigrant-detention?ref=thebarbedwire.com). They’re taken to facilities where questions have been raised about the possibility of [human rights violations](https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2025/06/sos-immigrant-texas-ice-facilities-abuses.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Texas has also reopened controversial facilities that are reportedly being used as [jailing facilities for families with children](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/03/06/texas-dilley-immigration-detention-center-families-reopen/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). "It's difficult for us as lawyers to figure out how to advise people about how to protect themselves, and it's incredibly demoralizing and devastating to see the impact on these families and these children, that they have their parents taken from them, or worse, that the children are also detained,” Lincoln-Goldfinch told *The Barbed Wire.* “It's as bad as it's ever been, and I certainly hope that there is some relief to this quickly.” This comes as Texas lawmakers have been busy making life harder for immigrants. Last week, Texas agreed to end a long-standing practice granting in-state tuition to undocumented students. The policy had been in place since 2001 (and is still effective in [24 other states](https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/doj-lawsuit-texas-in-state-tuition-undocumented/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)), until the Department of Justice recently ruled it unconstitutional. And Gov. Greg Abbott is expected to sign the [Trump-backed](https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114599417835206103?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Senate Bill 8, [“the most significant anti-immigrant legislation to pass this session.”](https://www.texasobserver.org/legislature-sheriffs-ice-cooperation-jails-streets/?goal=0%5F975e2d1fa1-8e8f3dd7a2-361240999&mc%5Fcid=8e8f3dd7a2&mc%5Feid=5e357bd0a4&ref=thebarbedwire.com) Once signed, the bill would require Texas county jails to [cooperate with ICE agents](https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/gov-abbott-to-sign-bill-into-law-requiring-county-jails-to-work-with-ice/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), run immigration checks on all inmates — and possibly face punishment if they fail to do so. For mixed status families or families who are undocumented, Lincoln-Goldfinch advises to have an attorney, not for if they face problems, but when. And unlike California, which is resisting federal raids, Texas leaders have been cooperating with Trump’s edicts. “What makes Texas unique, other than the fact that we share a border with Mexico and we have such a large Hispanic population, is that the government of the state is more than happy to cooperate with ICE activities. So for example, lately, we've seen a lot of clients get arrested after they've been pulled over by state troopers who are collaborating with ICE. So there's more collaboration in Texas between state and local law enforcement and ICE,” Lincoln-Goldfinch told *The Barbed Wire.* She said there are two main things to keep in mind in case of an emergency. One, families should consult with an immigration attorney about each individual case. - Families, she said, should also have a plan that includes: Discussing what to do if parents are detained and making sure family members know how to access bank accounts Lincoln-Goldfinch says if you have a mixed status family it’s important to involve your children in the conversations because "the kids know what's going on too." ### From Pioneer to Powerhouse: How Kind Clinic Unlocked HIV Prevention for Texans URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/from-pioneer-to-powerhouse-how-kind-clinic-unlocked-hiv-prevention-for-texans/ Last updated: 2026-07-08T13:43:27.000Z **Paid content.** Kind Clinic and Texas Health Action paid for this article and reviewed it before publication. Eric Webb is an independent freelance writer. Steven Tamayo can sum up [Kind Clinic’s](https://kindclinic.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) HIV testing and treatment programs in just four words. “We are *that* girl,” says Tamayo, the clinic’s director of community health. Just look at the numbers. Between January and April, Kind Clinic helped 2,300 patients start PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis), a once-daily pill that’s up to 99% effective at reducing HIV risk. In the same time, more than 2,500 people took advantage of Kind’s free testing services, and 260 people newly diagnosed with HIV started treatment with the clinic. A sex-positive, judgement-free zone, Kind Clinic serves clients of every identity and financial status, with a focus on the LGBTQIA+ community. To help mark its 10th anniversary, clinic operator [Texas Health Action](https://texashealthaction.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) gave *The Barbed Wire* an exclusive look at the HIV care model leading the way in Texas and beyond. This mission started in 2015, when community activists and volunteers founded the Austin PrEP Access Project. The founders’ goal: to get live-saving medication into the hands of people who needed it. “There were very few doctors who were prescribing PrEP,” says Tamayo, who started as a Kind Clinic volunteer. “There were long waitlists. Many doctors simply didn’t know what it was, or they weren’t as knowledgeable about working with the LGBTQIA+ community.” Kind Clinic Chief Advancement Officer Juan Benitez was one of the first clients. Back then, he was on a coming out journey and hadn’t been able to find a doctor who would prescribe PrEP. “I was fortunate enough to be surrounded by a great community of queer people in Austin,” he says. Today, the clinic has locations in Austin, San Antonio, and Dallas and offers virtual care statewide. It serves almost 30,000 patients annually. Kind Clinic provides [comprehensive testing for HIV and other STIs](https://kindclinic.org/sti-testing-treatment/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), with walk-in services available at most locations. In addition to PrEP, clients can access PEP (post-exposure prophylaxis), a 28-day prescription taken within 72 hours of exposure to HIV. Almost 95% of people who test positive choose to begin their treatment with Kind’s providers. There’s also a free virtual support group for people living with HIV. Medications are often provided at little to no cost, and [services](https://kindclinic.org/services/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) are offered with or without health insurance. The number of people living with HIV in Texas [has steadily increased since 2014](https://healthdata.dshs.texas.gov/dashboard/diseases/people-living-with-hiv?ref=thebarbedwire.com). While the virus can affect anyone, some groups are at [higher risk](https://www.hiv.gov/hiv-basics/overview/about-hiv-and-aids/who-is-at-risk-for-hiv?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=In%20the%20United%20States%2C%20gay,among%20gay%20and%20bisexual%20men.), like the [transgender community](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-unaids-org/sites/default/files/media%5Fasset/2024-unaids-global-aids-update-transgender-people%5Fen.pdf) and Black and Hispanic men who have sex with men. Kind Clinic works to reach these priority populations in particular. “Our staff are reflective of the patients they serve,” Tamayo says. “A good portion are queer, trans, or people of color. They share lived experiences.” That’s part of the affirming care philosophy at Kind Clinic. Many clients have had past medical experiences tinted with shame or discrimination. Kind’s culturally informed providers and patient advocates provide space for them to get the answers they need. Nurse practitioner Cynthia Stewart provides care at Kind Clinic’s Central Austin location. Earlier in her career, she worked as an adherence nurse, and she saw patients dying from AIDS because they couldn’t afford medicine. Things are different here. “Our goal is HIV prevention, period,” Stewart says. “We work hard daily, in and out, just making sure this is happening through PrEP and PEP.” However, if a patient is unhoused or experiencing food insecurity, keeping up with a pill regimen may not be their top priority. What’s more, some clients lack reliable access to transportation, which keeps them from their treatment visits and the pharmacy. Kind strives to help folks overcome barriers like these with the help of patient advocates. Prevention also includes treating people already living with HIV. Treatment at Kind Clinic focuses on reaching viral suppression, or an undetectable viral load. When a person is undetectable, they cannot transmit the virus to their sexual partners or anyone else. “I love telling my patients, ‘If the plan for your life was to have babies in the future, guess what? You can have babies without HIV,’ and their eyes light up,” Stewart says. Still, persistent stigma around sexual healthcare and HIV poses a challenge to the clinic’s work. The political climate has fanned those flames. But Benitez feels galvanized. “As a healthcare organization rooted in community, it is our responsibility to ensure continuity and stability, not just as a healthcare provider, but also as a representation of a much larger queer movement, as well,” he says. So this Pride Month, Kind Clinic is sending a message: “We are everywhere.” The clinic serves clients statewide, and LGBTQIA+ visibility is more important than ever. Revolutionary medicines like PrEP and PEP keep queer people alive. Benitez believes that has the power to preserve the community’s history at a crucial moment. “\[It\] allows you to unlock limitless potential for who you are,” he says, “and who you can become.” ### I’m a Black, Queer, Trans Man Who Has Had Two Pregnancies. Texas Wants to Eliminate People Like Me From Healthcare Spaces. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/black-queer-trans-man-pregnant/ Last updated: 2025-06-09T15:19:16.000Z It was May 2020, I was five months pregnant when I walked into the perinatal office, referral in hand, and said, “My name is Kayden Coleman and I have an appointment here at 2:00 p.m.” The receptionist looked at me — disregarding the paperwork I was holding — and said, “There’s no way you have an appointment here because this is a women’s only facility.” I presented her with my paperwork and without so much as an apology, the receptionist handed me additional paperwork to fill out and sent me on my way. I mean, I get it — I am a transgender man with a full beard and top surgery. When I navigate the world, I am not outwardly perceived as someone who is transgender. So I can understand why it might have been jarring to see me standing in the medical office that day. However, it was difficult enough for me to walk into a facility that is made for, and caters to, women, let alone to explain my situation to a receptionist in front of a waiting room full of people. But what choice did I have? I am a person with a uterus. I was pregnant and in need of care. In the moment, all I could think about was how it shouldn’t be happening. Transgender men exist and have existed for a long time, and deserve safe, respectful, and equitable treatment. Trans men were even present at the Stonewall Riots in 1969, a pivotal moment in LGBTQIA+ history and the reason why we celebrate Pride month during the month of June. But let’s back up a bit. I am a Black, queer, transgender man who lives in Texas. I have given birth twice since I began my transition. While I did not have to navigate pregnancy here in Texas, my experiences show how hard it is to receive reproductive care as a trans man. Both of my pregnancies were challenging. Not because of my health or transition, but because our systems are not set up to care for, or even acknowledge, the unique needs of trans men needing reproductive care. Reproductive healthcare — such as pregnancy, birth control, and abortion — are deeply ingrained in American society as pertaining only to women. But when we deem types of healthcare as “women only” spaces, we aren’t only excluding trans people like myself — we are excluding nonbinary and intersex people. Yet exclusion for trans, nonbinary, and intersex people doesn't only mean leaving us out of conversations. It means harm. It means lack of informed care. It means consequences that could be catastrophic to someone’s life and well being. In Texas, the Black [maternal mortality rate is ](https://www.texaswhc.org/activities/texas-maternal-health/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)nearly three times higher than white women according to the state’s own data analyzed by the Texas Women’s Healthcare Coalition. [Research has found](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Xr34SH0TPXyqhFEhM-ugh%5FGtAXmJmXZC/view?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that Black people face systemic barriers, like medical racism, and lack of access to health insurance that contribute to that rate. As a Black transgender man, all of those barriers apply to me, along with the fear of discrimination due to transphobia and homophobia. Before I get into more of my personal experiences, let's chat a bit about the current political climate. In May, as the Texas Legislature was in its final push of session, I counted 128 anti-trans bills under consideration. Texas led the nation in anti-trans bills filed this session, with proposals ranging from blocking access to gender-affirming healthcare to criminalizing gender identity itself through “gender identity fraud” laws. House Bill 229 exemplified this overreach by attempting to define “sex” based solely on biological reproductive systems. Other bills targeted bathroom access, school policies, and medical care. What unites these efforts is their shared premise: that gender can be reduced to simple biological categories determined at birth. As it stands, House Bill 229 is currently awaiting for Governor Greg Abbott to sign. This premise is fundamentally flawed. Chromosomes are not sex — the Olympics abandoned chromosome testing decades ago when too many athletes discovered their assigned sex didn't match their genetics. Genitals are not sex either — intersex people exist with ambiguous genitalia that defies binary classification. Reproductive organs don't define sex — women born without uteruses remain women, as do men born without testes. What Texas lawmakers have sought to do is police and censor how people perform gender. These bills aren't about biology; they're about control. They create an impossible standard that even cisgender people can't consistently meet, while denying transgender people the right to exist authentically. Meanwhile, Texas's abortion laws compound this assault on bodily autonomy. Texas criminalizes abortion except when the mother's life is at stake — which had to be [clarified in a bill](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-abortion-law-clarifications/) that passed this session after documented instances of women losing their lives due to delays in critical care. The combination creates a legislative framework designed not to protect anyone, but to eliminate transgender people from public life while simultaneously restricting all people's reproductive choices. It's governance by ideology rather than science, with real people paying the price. Although I didn’t give birth in Texas, my experiences navigating reproductive healthcare as a trans man have been traumatic. To start, though I was assigned female at birth and had all of the symptoms of pregnancy, I was not given a pregnancy test the numerous times I went to my doctor. This was my first pregnancy and - according to my doctors I was unable to even get pregnant because I was on testosterone and had been for years prior. I was in and out of the doctors office at least 4 times before I gave myself a pregnancy test after laying on my stomach and feeling like there was a pillow underneath me. The result? I didn’t find out that I was pregnant until I was more than five months pregnant — nearing the end of my second trimester and beyond most gestational limits under abortion laws. Thus, I had my right to choose stolen away from me. After finding out I was pregnant, there was the nightmare of navigating insurance. Insurance companies absolutely refuse to acknowledge that transgender people exist. So much confusion and trauma could be avoided by simply adding an option for *assigned female at birth* or *assigned male at birth* instead of just male and female. But those options weren’t available to me, and I had to change my gender back to female in my insurance information in order to have my OB-GYN care covered. The change resulted in repeated misgendering. Imagine you’re a trans man, with a beard, and top surgery, sitting in a crowded waiting room and having someone loudly refer to you as Mrs. Coleman across the room. Now imagine how embarrassing it must be to not only answer, but then have someone question whether you’re in the right place. *“Mr. Coleman it seems they have you down to see the OB-GYN, are you sure that’s correct?”* There have been too many times when I have had to walk into offices labeled “women only,” where the walls are adorned with (mostly white) women and not a masculine presenting or even visibly queer person in sight. I’ve waddled into my OBGYN’s office at eight and nine months pregnant, stared and gawked at. Not only by patients but by staff as well. I remember very vividly going to my OB’s office and being told to sit and wait after I attempted to check in. The women behind the desk spoke in their native language and literally pointed at me while doing so. They let me wait, and after almost a half hour, I asked what the issue was. One of the women said, voice raised, “Sir are you pregnant?” When I was going to be induced due to preeclampsia during my first pregnancy, I had to prove to the security guard that I was supposed to be going to labor and delivery. As a cisgender assumed Black trans man, I am perceived as a man first, even in reproductive spaces and while navigating pregnancy. Black men are often seen as aggressive, violent and intimidating so I had to be very careful about how I addressed every situation. Taking up for myself could have very well led to being seen as a threat. During my second pregnancy, there was a nurse who was supposed to be taking my blood. She was shaking so violently out of fear that she couldn't steady her hand. I had to call and have her removed from my room. I was laying in a hospital bed, hooked up to a magnesium drip IV due to high blood pressure and I was still seen as a threat to her. Recently, I conducted a survey for Black trans masculine individuals regarding reproductive health. In that survey I asked about discrimination in healthcare spaces. Of the 90 individuals who participated, 22.2% said they’ve experienced discrimination based on gender identity, 6.7% said they’ve experienced discrimination based on race, and 38.9% said they’ve experienced both racial and gender identity discrimination. That is a total of 67.8% of respondents who said they’ve experienced discrimination in medical spaces. And unsurprisingly, 70% of the 90 respondents said they avoid reproductive healthcare spaces due to fear of discrimination. Let’s break that down one step further: Dozens of people said they avoid seeking out the reproductive care they need out of fear. That is what it is like living in a world that refuses to make room for you. ### Is Pride Month Canceled? In This Texas Town, Sort Of. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/pride-month-canceled-sort-of-in-texas-town/ Last updated: 2025-06-05T17:22:14.000Z Four years ago, Williamson County — a “[big red sea](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/07/20/texas-voters-williamson-county-biden-trump/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)” of a district, with a population just over half a million — held its first-ever Pride celebration in Taylor. Now, the annual celebration is facing jeopardy on its fifth anniversary: the mayor won’t issue a Pride proclamation. These proclamations, issued by government officials, officially recognize cultural events or milestones. Even the right-leaning city has historically been supportive of Pride programming, [organizers from Taylor Pride told KXAN](https://www.kxan.com/lgbtq/taylor-pride-denied-city-proclamation-after-4-years-of-approvals-sparking-backlash-petition/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). This is the first time since 2021 that such a proclamation has been rejected. The mayor, Dwayne Ariola, is only a year into his tenure, and his rejection breaks his predecessor’s long-time tradition of recognizing Pride in Taylor. Ariola’s reasoning is, in true Texas lawmaker fashion, just a bit baffling. “There’s a lot in June that reflects our shared values and history,” Ariola wrote in an email to a Taylor resident, according to an [Instagram post from Taylor Pride](https://www.instagram.com/p/DKPHTKLND93/?utm%5Fsource=ig%5Fweb%5Fcopy%5Flink&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA%3D%3D&img%5Findex=3). He then cites “more unifying observances” like Juneteenth (fair enough?) and the… birth month of Dan Moody, former Texas governor, and also a man who’s been dead for a half-century. "There were tears streaming from my eyes … It was sort of like the rug got pulled out from under me," said Jose Orta, the Taylor resident who emailed Ariola requesting the proclamation. Orta has written every city Pride proclamation since 2020, [he told FOX 7 Austin](https://www.fox7austin.com/news/taylor-pride-says-mayor-rejected-annual-pride-proclamation?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Rain or shine, proclamation or not, Taylor’s annual Pride festival is [still slated to happen](https://www.kut.org/life-arts/2025-06-05/taylor-austin-williamson-county-pride-festival-city-government?ref=thebarbedwire.com) at the end of the month. But Ariola’s refusal to recognize Pride month, while perhaps symbolic, still cuts deep, residents say. “It sends not only a message to the LGBTQIA community but also to the community at large that this town has taken a step backward," Ben Morgan, Taylor Pride president, told FOX 7 Austin. “\[Ariola\] has created a wedge in this community that there may not be any healing," Orta added. And, a [petition](https://www.change.org/p/reverse-the-denial-of-taylor-s-pride-month-proclamation?ref=thebarbedwire.com) demanding the mayor reverse the denial has already amassed 1,500 signatures. Big shocker: this isn’t small-town Taylor’s first scuffle with Pride celebrations. A few years ago, the annual holiday parade, organized by a local ministry alliance, restricted participation to entries “consistent with traditional biblical and family values.” ### Texas Voted to Mandate Schools Display the Ten Commandments. This “Bite Me Greg” Activist Wants Them in Arabic With a Dash of Satanism URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-voted-to-mandate-schools-display-the-ten-commandments-this-bite-me-greg-activist-wants-them-in-arabic-with-a-dash-of-satanism/ Last updated: 2025-06-04T16:57:40.000Z Soon, all Texas public schools might be legally required to [display the Ten Commandments](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/05/24/ten-commandments-texas-schools-senate-bill-10/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on their walls after Texas lawmakers voted for a bill that will bring more religion into public schools. A Florida activist has one thing to say: “Thou Shalt Not.” Well, one more: [“Bite me, Greg.”](https://www.streetinsider.com/Evertise+Financial/Bite+Me+Greg%3A+Stevens+Sends+25%2C000+Satirical+10+Commandments+to+TX+Schools/24865287.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Self-proclaimed “professional disruptor” T. Chaz Stevens is launching a campaign against S.B. 10 — or, [as he calls it](https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2025/06/03/im-calling-austins-bluff-on-the-ten-commandments/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), “the Wonka Golden Ticket for unintended religious consequences.” His strategy? Re-designing the posters on the walls. Stevens’ versions are legal, yes, featuring the Ten Commandments, but challenge the bill’s logic. Think Arabic translations, Satanic stars, and, of course, the word “ass” blown up in big ol’ text (as in the donkey from Exodus 20:17 where it says “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house … his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”) Stevens has coined this specific brand of advocacy as “malicious compliance,” he writes in an op-ed for [*The Dallas Morning News*](https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2025/06/03/im-calling-austins-bluff-on-the-ten-commandments/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). This tactic, he says, involves “obeying regulations so precisely that hypocrisy becomes glaringly evident.” Since the bill doesn’t specify which language the Ten Commandments must be written in, Stevens’ re-designs (and he plans to send 25,000 of them) are intended to test “Texas’ commitment to inclusivity.” It’s a form of protest so ridiculous, it could actually work — and we would expect nothing else from a Florida guy. But, this isn’t Stevens’ first rodeo in Texas politics. In 2022, he helped lead the charge against a Texas law that arguably laid the groundwork for S.B. 10, requiring public schools display posters with the U.S. motto, “In God We Trust.” At the time, Stevens [raised over $50,000](https://www.gofundme.com/f/fight-texas-in-god-we-trust-school-signs?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for a fundraiser to display similarly provocative signs, featuring “In God We Trust” slogans in Arabic, Hindi, Vulcan, or even emblazoned with pride rainbows. Unsurprisingly, a school district in North Texas rejected the signs, [NPR reported in 2022](https://www.npr.org/2022/08/31/1120239381/texas-in-god-we-trust-arabic-signs-chaz-stevens?ref=thebarbedwire.com). But that hasn’t deterred Stevens, who’s back for a second round — and ready to mess with Texas. ### Gov. Abbott is Stuck Between His Lieutenant and a Bag of Gummies URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-thc-veto/ Last updated: 2025-06-03T17:25:09.000Z Gov. Greg Abbott can’t be enjoying all this. On one side, his powerful lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick, is foaming at the mouth to rid Texas of THC products, [waving candy-flavored edibles around](https://x.com/DanPatrick/status/1925223689835946107?ref=thebarbedwire.com) like they’re contraband at a kindergarten show-and-tell. On the other, you’ve got hemp farmers, military veterans, and people who like sleeping through the night without pharmaceutical-grade sedation, all begging Abbott to kill the bill before it bans their legally consumable chill. Welcome to the great Texas cannabis standoff of 2025, starring [Senate Bill 3](https://legiscan.com/TX/text/SB3/id/3247069?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a legislative grenade lobbed into the state’s [$5.5 billion hemp industry](https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackhuffman/2025/05/06/is-hemp-too-big-to-ban-in-texas/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). If Abbott signs it, Delta-8, THC seltzers, vapes, gummies, and anything else that might take the edge off the Dan Patrick Experience could be toast. Abbott also risks angering veterans, farmers, and libertarian-leaning conservatives. Veto it, though, and Abott incurs the [wrath of Patrick](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-school-voucher/), who has made banning THC a personal crusade — and possibly a branding opportunity. While Patrick insists this is about saving children from rainbow-colored gateway drugs, critics say it’s more about political chest-thumping than public health. And based on the data — including polling that shows a [majority of Republicans want looser or unchanged cannabis laws](https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/texas/2025/02/05/512943/majority-of-texans-support-legalizing-marijuana-gambling-recent-uh-poll-finds/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — it seems the public isn’t exactly rallying for stricter THC crackdowns. Patrick [held a panicky press conference last week](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-thc-ban-dan-patrick/) where he ranted to the media about the horrors of a substance that might make you mash up Pink Floyd with “The Wizard of Oz.” "You might buy them and not even know that you’re getting your kid high on drugs and hooked for life!” [he declared](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/06/02/texas-thc-ban-greg-abbott-dan-patrick/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), standing before a table of cannabis products that looked embarrassed to be there. He also insisted he wasn’t worried about Abbott’s decision. OK, man. Meanwhile, the Texas Hemp Business Council rolled out the [protest equivalent of a mic drop](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/06/02/texas-thc-ban-greg-abbott-dan-patrick/?ref=thebarbedwire.com): 5,000 letters to Abbott’s office, a petition with 120,000 signatures, a sixth-generation farmer, and two military veterans. (Honestly, all they were missing was a bald eagle in a cowboy hat.) One of those veterans, Dave Walden, laid it out in stark terms: prescription opioids nearly killed him; THC gummies brought him back. "Let's stop pretending this is about public safety,” he said, per the [*Texas Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/06/02/texas-thc-ban-greg-abbott-dan-patrick/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “This is about control and veterans are caught in the crossfire." The anti-ban crowd warns that if legal THC products vanish, a thriving black market will rise up (again) to replace them. Also, they argue, banning hemp-derived THC could make Texas look unfriendly to business — the hemp industry [employs an estimated 53,000 Texans](https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackhuffman/2025/05/06/is-hemp-too-big-to-ban-in-texas/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — which is basically like kicking a puppy in the Lone Star State. Some conservative influencers also aren’t amused. > [](https://twitter.com/DLoesch/status/1928147594800157023?ref=thebarbedwire.com) > [](https://twitter.com/ChadHastyRadio/status/1924808219693564016?ref=thebarbedwire.com) So now, all eyes are on Abbott, who has less than three weeks to decide: Will he sign the ban, veto it, or just let it become law by ghosting it into existence? For now, he’s staying silent, possibly dodging both Dan Patrick’s calls and hemp lobbyists bearing fruit snacks. One thing’s for sure: no matter what he does, someone’s going to be mad — and probably not just because they ran out of gummies. ### Texas Was the Perfect Location for ‘The Leftovers,’ and Other Things We Learned at the 10 Year Reunion URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/carrie-coon-leftovers-reunion-atx-tv-festival/ Last updated: 2025-06-03T05:00:00.000Z Life was a little different when HBO’s “The Leftovers” premiered in 2014\. [Carrie Coon](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/white-lotus-southern-women-texas/) wasn’t an A-lister. Joe Rogan hadn’t brought a [certain type of attention to Austin](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/how-austin-became-a-haven-for-bro-saviors-like-alex-jones-and-elon-musk/). No one had heard of Covid-19. But the show, based on Tom Perrotta’s novel of the same name, developed a [cult following](https://variety.com/2015/tv/news/leftovers-season-3-fans-campaign-costume-hbo-1201655760/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) (pun intended) that continues to worship at the altar of director and executive producer Damon Lindelof, also the force behind “LOST” and “Watchmen.” Last month, [Max assured fans that the show](https://www.tvinsider.com/1185485/is-the-leftovers-streaming-leaving-max-update/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) would stay in the streaming catalogue after [outcries on social media](https://www.cbr.com/max-removing-hbo-original-series-from-streaming-has-fans-crying-foul/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that it may depart. This weekend, ten years after they first arrived in Austin to film the second season, the cast and crew of “The Leftovers” made their way back to the city for a reunion at the [ATX TV Festival](https://atxtvfestival.eventive.org/films/67e9b95b9cd4ded24c448ac9?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The mystery drama follows a group of people in New York state navigating grief three years after the “Sudden Departure” — an inexplicable event that spontaneously wiped 2% of the world’s population off the face of the Earth. In the wake of this event, we meet the Garveys, a dysfunctional family helmed by patriarch Kevin (Justin Theroux) trying to cling to some sense of normalcy while his estranged wife, Laurie (Amy Brenneman) copes by joining the Guilty Remnant — a nihilistic cult led by Patti Levin (Ann Dowd) whose members chain smoke and communicate only through written notes. And we’re also introduced to Nora Durst (Carrie Coon), who strikes up a relationship with Kevin after losing her entire family in the departure. After premiering to critical acclaim, the show’s second season picks up in the fictional town of Jarden, Texas — a miracle town untouched by the departure. There, the Garveys and Nora join countless visitors who make the pilgrimage to the Texas town, thinking it can offer them answers and protection from tragedy. Co-creators Perrotta and Lindelof, director and executive producer Mimi Leder, and cast members Coon (“White Lotus,” “Gilded Age”), Brenneman (“Private Practice”), and Dowd (“The Handmaid’s Tale”) sat down with IndieWire’s Ben Travers to talk about the show’s legacy, its exploration of loss and faith, and their memories of their second season in Austin. Here’s some of what we learned. ### Lindelof found the perfect contrast for season one in Texas In the writer’s room for season one, Perrotta had the idea of a town where no one had departed. It stuck with Lindelof and the other writers when it came time to figure out how to continue the story in season two. For Lindelof, there were a few reasons Austin made sense as a stand-in for Jarden. “Peter Berg had done “Friday Night Lights” here, and there was a lot of incredibly talented crew and infrastructure here,” Lindelof said. “But more importantly, it just kind of felt like the opposite of cold, blue New York. We talked to Mimi about it and HBO, and said “We're thinking of just completely and totally moving the show.” And they were like, ‘Yeah, sounds good.’” ### Brenneman on how Austin warmed up the show and changed her character Season one wasn’t initially meant to be so bleak. Set and filmed during the spring, the production was subjected to the polar vortex in upstate New York. Moving season two to Texas opened up the cast and crew to new opportunities. “Season one did have this relentless quality to it,” says Brenneman. “So \[that feeling\] leading into the joy and color and literal warmth of season two, I feel like with that shift, we could bring some of the humor that was in the book that was hard to access sometimes in season one. People were funnier. That’s what I always loved about this premise was that something unexplained happens, and people have all sorts of responses. Some people go to a faith place. Some people go to a nihilistic place. Some people crack jokes.” ### Nora gave Coon her big break Coon read Perrotta’s book when her husband, Tracy Letts, was considering auditioning for the role of Kevin Garvey. (“In the book, \[Kevin\] was much closer to Tracy than Justin Theroux, but he quickly learned it wasn’t going to go that way,” she joked.) At the time, Coon had only booked a handful of roles and commercials, before starring in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” on Broadway when casting director Ellen Lewis came to see her. “She's the only person who knew who I was. I had done one guest star spot on NBC's “Playboy Club,” but Ellen called me in and put me on tape for *The Leftovers*,” she says. “I just wanted to work, I was young. It was my first real job. I had no idea what was going to happen.” Having come from a theater background, Coon says there was an adjustment to working in TV. “I come from the theater, where you respect the writer,” she said. “I remember learning several years later that I was the only actor on the show who wasn't constantly emailing and asking questions and calling \[Lindelof and Perrotta\] up and asking for clarification. I would just get the script, and then I would do it. I was, of course, gratified about how the role grew and changed over time. I fell in love with her. She taught me a lot about how to walk into a room, how to not apologize for yourself, and where your voice is supposed to be.” ### Ann Dowd first thought Patti Levin was “ridiculous” As the leader of The Guilty Remnant, Dowd didn’t technically “read” for the role of Patti — she had no lines, just an audition where she wrote them out. “My agent and manager told me, ‘It’s Damon Lindelof and Tom Perrotta,’ and I said ‘And?’” she recalled.”I thought, what’s going to happen if I’m not talking? Who’s going to pay any mind? But I have never loved a character more. I can’t believe the power you have in a room when you’re not speaking. Everybody is waiting to see what you’re going to do.” ### Lindelof told Brenneman why she *shouldn’t* take the job “I had just come off of *Private Practice*, which I had a wonderful time doing,” said Brenneman. “It was network \[TV\], and I wanted to do something less glamorous. I was so pleased to sit down with Damon, and he said, ‘Here are the reasons you *shouldn't* take this job: it shoots in New York, you can't wear any makeup, and you have no lines.’" Instead of turning it down, Brenneman said she thought: "I'm fucking in." ### Leder directed a harrowing stoning scene in her first episode “I was terrified,” she remembered. “I was just thinking, ‘How am I going to direct this and not kill the actor?’ It was really quite challenging, and the lovely actress, Marceline Hugot, we had styrofoam rocks to throw at her, but they still hurt her, so I said ‘Okay, every time I say bam, you throw your head back.’ And then we put up a dummy that we threw real rocks at. So it was a miracle of editing.” It was a distressing introduction to the show, but Leder says her experience with Perrotta, Lindelof, and the cast made her want to stick around a story that was so committed to its search for the meaning of life. “I’m still in search of it,” she said. “You can make a TV show or a movie and it can be really good, but this was this big, beautiful baby that had touched everybody's soul. Even for us making it, we were constantly blown away by the material. When we shot the cavewoman sequence \[at the beginning of season two\] it was like, ‘Oh, okay, it wasn't just the departure, this is an ancient experience of birth, grief, loss.’ All those things made me stay.” ### Perrotta on moving beyond the ending of his novel in season two While season one covered the length of Perrotta’s original story, HBO’s renewal of the show for season two gave him the option to imagine a life beyond it. He found inspiration in research he was conducting for a novel about evangelicalism. “The tweak in the show is that this event just happens,” he said. “It resembles the rapture, but it's random. It does not have any kind of coherent Christian meaning. Obviously, the show ended up dealing with so many different ideas, and it's ultimately about faith, but I think for me, it was about randomness and the way people make sense of a random or meaningless universe. \[A character like\] Nora, her life would be completely devastated, but there might be a community over here that's untouched. What does it mean for Nora and her family to show up there? It felt very rich, but in that way of *The Leftovers*, I didn't know what to make of it.” ### Coon was intimidated by Regina King in season two Previously, Coon admitted to having been intimidated as an actor only two times: working with David Thewlis and Holly Hunter. Reflecting on *The Leftovers*, she realized that wasn’t true. “I was scared of Regina. She's so uniformly excellent. When you work with her, you realize that the work she has done to get there is in her bones, I can cry thinking about it. She's one of the best listeners I've ever worked with. So when you speak into that, you can't help but have an experience, because there's something so grounded and soulful happening in front of you. And she's not living in that in between \[takes\]. She doesn't have to crawl so far up there that you can't find her. She's not like that at all.” ### Unexplainable things happened to Dowd while filming When Dowd touched down in Australia to film season three, it was just after dropping off her daughter at college. Not long after, she found herself having a panic attack. “At the time, I was living with \[Justin Theroux\],” she said. “I’d never had a panic attack, and it was scary, but Justin told me what was happening, and he talked me through it. The next day, I felt like a new person, and I wanted to get him something special, so I went down the street to the church, and they had a little area where they were selling Christian medals. I walked in and the gentleman said, ‘It’s hard to be away from home, isn't it? It's hard to be away from your children, especially when something major happens in their life.’ He knew things about me, that I’d just come to Australia, that I live in New York City, and then I found the perfect medal, and as I was walking away, I turned around and said, ‘What’s your name?’ And he said ‘Kevin.’ I swear, I almost wept on the spot. Things like that happened when we were doing this. They were remarkable. I’ll never forget them.” ### Laurie was originally going to die in season three The final moments of episode six in season three left viewers convinced that Laurie had taken her own life, only to find out in the finale that she’s still alive. According to Lindelof, that reveal almost never happened. “When Laurie went into the water scuba diving, we as writers were absolutely, totally convinced at the time that we wrote that episode, that she was dead,” he said. “We had been really excited about writing the finale, because we knew what we were headed for, but then everybody was super depressed, and we couldn't generate ideas. Finally, I walked into Tom's office and I said, ‘I think Laurie is still alive.’ And he was like, ‘Thank God, because we've all been talking about it.’ She wouldn't do it. After everything she's been through, she wouldn't kill herself, and now she's going to be Nora's, tether, her lifeline in the finale. That was a case of the show just out and out, rejecting something that we were trying to force onto it.” ### The show inspired wild fan reactions Following her onscreen death at the end of season one, Patti returns in season two, this time as a ghost-like figure, haunting Kevin’s psyche. But because of Lindelof's previous tenure on *Lost*, he found that wild fan theories followed him to *The Leftovers*. “In the second season of the show, there's a scene between Patti and Kevin, where they're in the car, and he's saying, ‘What do I need to do to make you go away?’” Lindelof said. “And Anne gives an incredible performance describing what he needs to do: find an ancient chalice and fill it with his … ejaculate, and he needs to drink it, and she’ll go away. She’s trolling him, but when we got picked up for a third season, this guy came up to me and was like “So is Kevin going to find the chalice?” ### ‘We Are Everywhere’: Kind Clinic is Leading an LGBTQIA+ Healthcare Revolution in Texas URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/we-are-everywhere-kind-clinic-is-leading-an-lgbtqia-healthcare-revolution-in-texas/ Last updated: 2026-07-08T13:45:07.000Z **Paid content.** Kind Clinic and Texas Health Action paid for this article and reviewed it before publication. Eric Webb is an independent freelance writer. No one does a waiting room like [Kind Clinic](https://kindclinic.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Disco balls, pride flags and sculptures shaped like butts line the shelves. On one sign, Madonna reassures patients about wait times. If you’ve still got jitters, just hum along to “The Rhythm of the Night,” which might be playing from the speakers. Behind all the proudly displayed colors—and the 1990s dance hits—Kind Clinic is leading a Texas healthcare revolution. The clinic operated by [Texas Health Action](https://texashealthaction.org/about-texas-health-action/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) provides vital access to the HIV prevention medications known as PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) and PEP (post-exposure prophylaxis), as well as gender-affirming and intersex care, and testing and treatment for HIV and other STIs. Their doors are open to clients of every identity and financial status, with a focus on the LGBTQIA+ community. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/kind-clinic-dallas-1.jpg) The most revolutionary part? Services are offered with or without health insurance, and medications are provided at little-to-no cost. As Kind Clinic celebrates 10 years, *The Barbed Wire* went on an exclusive tour inside its Central Austin location, an inviting space on Koenig Lane where providers and patient advocates are creating a sex-positive, judgement-free sanctuary, despite the odds. Kind Clinic’s roots [go back to the 2015 launch](https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2015-05-22/season-of-risk/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of Austin PrEP Access Project, a grassroots HIV prevention initiative. In 2017, that program grew into the first Kind Clinic. Texas Health Action now operates four clinics across Austin, Dallas and San Antonio. They serve almost 30,000 patients annually, including many who might not otherwise have access to affirming care through virtual services Kind streamlines each step of care into a one-stop shop. It starts at an on-site testing facility where clients who test positive for an STI can receive same-day treatment, and those who are newly diagnosed with HIV can see a provider next door. A few steps away, patients pick up their medication from Avita Pharmacy, Kind’s partner at most locations. Juan Benitez, chief advancement officer of Texas Health Action, sees Kind Clinic’s mission woven into a 40-year legacy of community care going back to the AIDS epidemic. “We take care of us,” he said. Forty percent of Kind’s client base is uninsured. That’s double the percentage of Texans without insurance coverage, a statistic making it the [most uninsured state in the country](https://www.axios.com/2024/08/06/uninsured-americans-texas-map?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The Kind Patient Assistance Program, or KPAP, provides $1.6 million in financial assistance to clients annually for medication, co-pays, lab costs—you name it. That’s sustained by a mix of private philanthropy, individual giving, corporate sponsorship, and grants. When nurse practitioner Cynthia Stewart first arrived at Kind five years ago, the no-cost treatment model blew her away. Throughout her career, she’s seen the deadly consequences of barriers to treatment. Kind’s approach allows patients to surmount those barriers, she said. Providers like Stewart are able to educate more clients about safe sex practices while validating their lived experiences. “We have a one-on-one conversation, like I'm talking to my sister or my brother or my friend, and in a nonjudgmental way,” Stewart said. In many clinical settings, a patient might go in for an STI visit only to be grilled about their number of sexual partners. That approach is counterproductive, Stewart said. Instead of searching for a number, she’ll ask if they’ve had any new partners in the preceding month and make sure they’re sticking to their PrEP regimen. When patients feel comfortable, they will often go into more detail about their lives without being asked. “We get all of the tea about everything that’s happening,” Stewart said. “We are better able to serve our patients due to that transparency.” All clients are paired with a patient advocate, too. They help navigate financial assistance; arrange transportation to appointments; liaise with insurance companies; and identify resources outside the clinic, from mental health care to housing assistance. Patient advocate Michelle Cornejo has been with Kind Clinic for about two years. Fluent in both English and Spanish, she believes that breaking down language barriers is a calling. The work of patient advocates deepens Kind Clinic’s community-centered approach, she said. “We are patients ourselves, and we are aware of what we need. Whenever you're getting care here at Kind, it's knowledgeable care. It's culturally sound care,” Cornejo said. Kind Clinic’s work is all the more remarkable because it’s happening in Texas, where lawmakers consistently [target the rights of transgender citizens](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/anti-trans-bills-texas-2025/) and [stymie access to affordable health care](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-kicked-millions-off-medicaid-after-covid-it-was-a-disaster/). This Pride Month, Kind Clinic is sending a message: “We are everywhere.” It applies to the clinic’s reach—clients receive care in half of all Texas counties, thanks to virtual care—as well as visibility for the LGBTQIA+ community. “You cannot deny that queer people exist,” Benitez said. “Our healthcare needs are just as valid as anyone else's.” Still, Stewart knows that medical visits can be intimidating for queer people, and for many people living with HIV, figuring out how to get medication can take a backseat to basic necessities. She wants Texans to know that at Kind Clinic, they’ll be safe—no matter who they are, what they look like, or how much money they have. “The doors are always open,” Stewart said. “All of our patients understand that this is not just a place of care for them. This is home for them.” ### Non-Terrifying Bills That Made it Out of This Legislative Session URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/non-terrifying-bills-from-tx-lege-session/ Last updated: 2025-06-02T20:00:22.000Z From [banning THC in Texas](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-thc-ban/) to taking money from public schools under the guise of “[school vouchers](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-school-vouchers/),” there have been a lot of head-scratching, controversial policies that lawmakers have passed this legislative session. Still, (call it masochism or not) we looked for glimpses of common ground. The good news is, we found a few non-terrifying bills that are set to become law. From college athletic payments to historic research investments, here are five largely bipartisan bills. ### Closing loopholes for sexual assault cases A new bill is just inches away from dramatically changing how Texas can prosecute sexual assault. The bill expands the state’s existing definition of consent, clarifying that assault can occur if the victim is drunk, impaired, or withdraws consent. The measure was spearheaded by advocate and survivor Summer Willis, whom the bill is named after. A decade ago, Willis was raped during a college party — because of Texas’ obscure sexual assault laws, her case is one of many that went unprosecuted. “What happened to me, the rape that changed me, that haunted me and nearly broke me, wasn’t even considered rape in Texas,” Willis said in her March 25 [testimony](https://www.facebook.com/SAFEatx/videos/today-sexual-assault-survivor-summer-willis-testified-before-the-texas-house-com/1010760850380493/) to the Texas House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence. “Because I was drugged by one person and raped by another, the law didn’t recognize my assault.” The bill, HB 3073, narrowly made key deadlines to become law, passing at the eleventh hour with near-unanimous bipartisan support. It now awaits Gov. Greg Abbott’s approval. If signed, it would go into effect on Sept. 1, but would not retroactively apply to prior assault cases. “I come in here today with a weight on my shoulders, knowing I will never get justice for what happened to me,” Willis continued in her testimony. “But … we have the ability to right this wrong together.” ### Mandatory CPR training for schoolteachers In August, a Houston middle school student suddenly died in his school gym after experiencing a “[medical emergency](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/education/article/hisd-marshall-medical-emergency-19657387.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com).” Now, lawmakers have passed a school safety bill, dubbed the “Landon Peyton Act,” in his honor. Landon’s family has said the gym’s automated external defibrillator — which can, alongside CPR, help resuscitate the heart — was not working at the time, [the *Houston Chronicle* reported](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/education/hisd/article/landon-payton-hisd-law-20349980.php?%5Fbhlid=bdf97f94728381f22d848888321d64b956be113b&ref=thebarbedwire.com)*.* To strengthen schools’ response for medical crises, the bill mandates CPR and AED training for staff like nurses, athletic coaches, and physical education teachers. Additionally, districts must develop cardiac emergency response plans. The Landon Peyton Act was passed alongside a similar bill, which requires every campus automated external defibrillator to be checked during fire safety inspections (at the time of Landon’s death, 1 out of 6 of the district’s AEDs were non-functional, according to the[ *Houston Chronicle*](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/education/hisd/article/landon-payton-hisd-law-20349980.php?%5Fbhlid=bdf97f94728381f22d848888321d64b956be113b&ref=thebarbedwire.com)). Abbott has signed the latter into law, and the policy will be effective in September. ### $350 million to strengthen railroad safety Effective immediately, a new multi-million dollar grant will fund [safer railroad crossings](https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/public-safety/2025/05/29/522598/new-law-will-fund-safer-railroad-crossings-following-houston-isd-students-death/?utm%5Fsource=newsletter&utm%5Fmedium=email&utm%5Fcampaign=newsletter%5Faxioslocal%5Fhouston&stream=top). In December, Houston ISD student Sergio Rodriguez was fatally struck by a train while walking to school. The law, spurred by his tragic death, will support grade separation projects — staggering the heights of railroads and roadways — to mitigate high-traffic, dangerous crossings. “It's no secret that, especially in Houston, we have so many issues with rail crossings and a lack of resources for grade separations," bill co-author Sen. Carol Alvarado (D-Houston) [told the *Houston Chronicle*](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/education/hisd/article/milby-train-student-whitmire-19973868.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com)*.* Since Nov. 7, 2000, [at least one person](https://www.txdot.gov/safety/traffic-safety-campaigns/endthestreaktx.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) has died every day on Texas roads — that’s nearly 9,000 days. 2023 alone saw 4,291 fatalities, according to the [Texas Department of Transportation](https://www.txdot.gov/content/dam/docs/trf/crash-reports-records/2023/01.pdf?ref=thebarbedwire.com). ### Texas universities can start paying athletes The Senate [passed a bill](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/05/27/texas-college-athletes-students-paid-sports-football/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that would allow universities to directly pay their student athletes through “name, image, likeness” or NIL deals. These deals, which allow collegiate athletes to directly profit off their likeness through endorsements and sponsorships, were codified in 2021\. Current state law allows *outside* organizations, like national advertisers, to pay athletes directly – but not universities. That might soon change. Last year, the NCAA settled a historic $2.8 billion antitrust case, which allows division one schools to compensate current and former athletes for “[lost \[NIL\] opportunities](https://www.collegeathletecompensation.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com).” In Texas, there are [25 colleges and universities](https://www.ncsasports.org/division-1-colleges/texas?ref=thebarbedwire.com) with NCAA Division 1 programs. Schools could start the disbursement of payments — up to $20 million per institution — as early as July 1\. Of course, that’s a bit difficult when Texas state law doesn’t let you. The bill passed in both the House and Senate with largely bipartisan support, as lawmakers worried that Texas schools, without the newfound ability to pay their athletes, could lose their competitive edge in the world of college athletics. **Points of concern:** The Senate amended the bill to prohibit NIL contracts with athletes younger than 17, in response to critics concerned about “[financially predatory actors](https://www.kbtx.com/2025/05/29/how-conference-call-gave-texas-new-nil-bill-push-through-senate/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)” targeting younger athletes. Others said the ability to pay athletes may widen the disparity between smaller and larger, deeper-pocketed schools, turning college recruitment into a bidding war. “What are the other universities to do who don’t have a Cody Campbell, or an Elon Musk, to help facilitate the athletic endeavors of their universities?” asked Rep. Mitch Little (R-Lewisville), [as reported in *The Texas Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/04/14/texas-college-sports-nil-student-athletes/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “How can they possibly compete?” The bill will move to Abbott for approval. ### Clarity on medical exceptions to the abortion ban While a number of shocking abortion policies were filed this session — measures that criminalized birthworkers and proposed the literal death penalty for abortion patients — none of the [most restrictive bills passed](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/abortion-clarity-texas-laws/) this time. One bill, that doctors say will help save lives, is intended to [clarify](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-abortion-law-clarifications/) which medical emergencies constitute exceptions to the state-wide abortion ban. “All this bill does is say that when you see that physical manifestation of an indication that a major bodily function is at risk, you don’t need to make her get at death’s door before you practice your job,” said bill co-author Rep. Ann Johnson (D-Houston) during a [testimony in April](https://house.texas.gov/videos/21594?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Under the bill, Texas doctors could use “reasonable medical judgment” to identify medical emergencies and intervene earlier, with less fear that “folks politically think they’re trying to do something wrong,” Johnson said. **Points of concern:** The bill passed with reluctant bipartisan support. Democrats and abortion advocates were especially wary of supporting a measure that could be likened to a band-aid on a bullet wound — “It’s not all I want in this bill,” Johnson said, which still provides no exception for rape, incest, or fatal fetal abnormalities. ### Texas to finance water projects to fix old, broken pipes In February, Abbott declared his commitment to a “[Texas-size investment](https://x.com/GregAbbott%5FTX/status/1886821680347001269?ref=thebarbedwire.com)” in the state’s [notably fragile](https://www.texastribune.org/series/texas-water-supply-drought/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) water infrastructure. “We have water sources drying up. There are so many communities across the state of Texas that are suffering from broken or leaking pipes,” Abbott said in his annual [State of the State address](https://gov.texas.gov/news/post/governor-abbott-delivers-2025-state-of-the-state-address?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “We gotta fix all that.” And as the legislative session nears its close, lawmakers have reached a $20 billion solution to invest in fixing the water crisis. The Senate approved a bill that would spend $1 billion annually, until 2047, on repairing water infrastructure and funding new projects. After Abbott approves the measure, it will go to a state-wide vote in November. **Points of concern:** Months of “tense, back door negotiations” underscored this deal, [according to the *Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/05/27/texas-water-supply-infrastructure-deal-bill/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Many lawmakers questioned where exactly that $1 billion would go, especially as Texas grapples with a growing water crisis and range of problems demanding attention. And in that vein, $20 billion is helpful — but it’s not nearly enough. A complete overhaul of Texas’ water infrastructure would cost $154 billion, according to a [report from Texas 2036](https://texas2036.org/posts/testimony-1b-to-water-infrastructure-fund-is-a-welcome-first-step/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). ### A new mega-sized research investment Thanks to an extra $6 billion, Texas has become a leader in cancer prevention through its state-funded research institute. A new bill, modeled after the state’s successful investments in cancer research, is aimed at studies of the brain. This measure would allot $3 billion in state revenue toward the creation of a research institute for dementia, Parkinson’s diseases, and Alzheimer’s disease — the last of which affects [nearly 12% of the state’s senior population](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-dshs-texas-gov/sites/default/files/alzheimers/texas-alzheimers-statistics-2024.pdf), according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. **Points of concern:** The bill passed with sweeping bipartisan support, after an earlier, broader iteration stalled in the Senate in 2023, [according to the *Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/11/21/texas-alzheimers-dementia-research-dan-patrick/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Though by-and-large uncontroversial — especially when measured up against the likes of [abortion pills](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/abortion-clarity-texas-laws/), [furries](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-furries-ban/), and [DEI bans](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/communism-education-texas-schools/) — no piece of legislation is without its online critics. Three billion is a lot of taxpayer dollars, after all. > [](https://twitter.com/brentmoney/status/1916902767068594655?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Abbott has signed this bill into law, but there’s one more step: the ballot. Texans will vote on the measure in November. ### Funding childcare (kind of!) In a legislative session that has considered [outlawing DEI in K-12 public schools](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/communism-education-texas-schools/), censoring school library books, and banning imaginary furries (no, we will never stop laughing about that), it’s almost a surprise to see a policy that could be… helpful? Lawmakers passed a bill to fund child care scholarships with an additional $100 million of unused federal dollars, [the *Tribune* reported](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/05/29/texas-child-care-scholarship-funding/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “Thousands more parents” could enter the workforce as a result, David Feigen told the *Tribune.* Feigen is the director of early learning policy for advocacy group Texans Care for Children. After amendments from the Senate, the funding passed as part of the [$337 billion budget bill](https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=89R&Bill=SB1&ref=thebarbedwire.com). Both chambers have signed off on the budget, which is pending submission to Abbott sign-off. ### Texas Police Are Running Constitutionally Questionable AI License Plate Searches for ICE URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-cops-ice-license-plate-searches/ Last updated: 2025-05-30T05:00:00.000Z Many law enforcement agencies across the nation, including in Texas, use networks of cameras to automatically track cars — and some are using them to support federal immigration enforcement. That’s the topline from data recently obtained through a public records request first reported by [404 Media](https://www.404media.co/ice-taps-into-nationwide-ai-enabled-camera-network-data-shows/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that *The Barbed Wire* has independently reviewed. Earlier this week, the independent online outlet reported that Immigrations and Customs Enforcement has tapped into a nationwide AI-enabled camera network with the help of local law enforcement agencies. Their findings are based on data obtained by activists via a public records request to an Illinois Police Department for search logs from police departments around the country that have contracts with Flock, a surveillance company that provides automatic license plate reader technology to government agencies. ICE does not have a contract with Flock, which 404 Media noted as an indication that the federal department is using local agencies as side-door access to the tool. The data reveals that several law enforcement agencies in Texas have conducted searches of the Flock camera network for immigration-related purposes — underscoring the pervasive spread of mass surveillance technology and how local law enforcement agencies are quietly using it to support deportation efforts. Another [recent story](https://www.404media.co/a-texas-cop-searched-license-plate-cameras-nationwide-for-a-woman-who-got-an-abortion/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) from 404 Media punctuates the point and demonstrates that it's not just a matter of immigration. The outlet reported that a sheriff in Johnson County ran a Flock search for a woman who they said self-administered an abortion, citing concerns from her family about her safety. Last summer, Attorney General Ken Paxton asked a judge to [strike down a rule](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-sues-to-block-abortion-privacy-rule/) that protects the privacy of pregnant people who travel across state lines to get abortions. Several Texas counties also have tried to [ban travel out of state](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-abortion-laws-national-ban/) for abortion, which is [illegal in Texas](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/abortion-clarity-texas-laws/). If such bans become law, there's little to stop law enforcement agencies from using license plate readers to track and charge abortion seekers. There’s a lot to unpack here, so let’s break it down. ## What are automatic license plate readers? Automatic license plate readers are systems that use networks of cameras to automatically capture information from passing vehicles and store it in a searchable database for 30 days. Thousands of local and state government agencies across the country, including law enforcement, have contracts with companies that offer the technology, such as Flock. These tools are marketed primarily for combatting crime. Most of the companies that offer this sort of technology allow for their government customers to opt in to sharing data from their camera networks. However, privacy advocates argue the indiscriminate surveillance that license plate readers facilitate violates constitutional rights to privacy. ## Where did the data come from? Law enforcement agencies with Flock contracts are able to search their own cameras, and also any other camera networks across the nation operated by agencies that opt in to share their data. A Flock [user guide](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24172417-flocksafetyuserguideaug2023/?ref=404media.co#document/p3) says that users can run national searches, and also “run a Network Audit to see who has searched your network from any agency in the Flock system.” The data that 404 Media first reported on was obtained by activist researchers via a public records request for the Danville, Illinois police department’s Flock Network Audit. The activists have requested to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal. Because Flock allows police departments to share their cameras’ records to other agencies, the audit shows whenever Danville’s camera records were searched by police departments, including Texas law enforcement agencies. However, it is an incomplete record of how Texas law enforcement agencies are using Flock, meaning that there could be more immigration related searches from agencies using Flock that did not include the Danville camera network. ## What does the data say Texas law enforcement agencies are doing? The Danville Flock Network Audit contains immigration related searches from Texas law enforcement agencies as far back as June 2024, including a total of 307 immigration related searches. Each search has a “reason” field, and all of the 307 searches related to immigration feature keywords in the reason field such as “immigration,” “ICE,” or “DHS.” That data shows that at least five Texas law enforcement agencies have conducted at least 180 immigration related searches using Flock since January. The Texas law enforcement agencies that conducted immigration related searches in the Flock database and the number of searches they ran in 2025 are as follows: Dallas Police Department, 17; Houston Police Department, 109, Midland Police Department, 2; Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, 2; and the Texas Department of Public Safety, 50. Prior to January 2025, the majority of those searches were related to Homeland Security Investigations, the primary investigative unit of the Department of Homeland Security. HSI has a broad criminal investigative mandate beyond immigration enforcement, meaning that such searches were likely not using Flock specifically for immigration enforcement. The Galveston County Sheriff’s Office only ran one Flock search in 2024 related to an HSI investigation. Out of the total of 91 searches from Texas law enforcement agencies in 2024, nearly 70% were for HSI related reasons. Under the second Trump administration, that’s apparently changed. Since January, the majority of Texas law enforcement Flock database searches are for immigration related reasons. Out of 216 total lookups Texas law enforcement agencies made in 2025, more than 83% of them were listed for immigration related reasons such as “immigration,” “immigration enforcement,” “immigration status,” and “ICE+ERO” (ERO stands for Enforcement and Removal Operations, the arm of DHS responsible for immigration enforcement). With the exception of three Customs and Border Protection related searches, the remaining 17% of searches were related to HSI. The data does not show exactly what information the searches turned up, or whether they resulted in or informed any actions by ICE. Some law enforcement agencies told 404 Media they are not engaging in immigration enforcement, despite the reason for the Flock lookup saying “immigration.” But that sort of denial is not an option for some of the agencies in Texas, whose reasons for the searches seem clear enough. The Dallas Police Department made 17 Flock searches in 2025 with the reason “ICE+ERO” and one in 2024 with the reason “ICE+Suspect.” All of the Flock search requests the Texas Department of Public Safety made in 2025 were for “ICE Operation,” “ICE Support,” “Immigration Status,” “illegal immigration,” or simply “ICE.” Out of the 109 Flock search requests the Houston Police Department made in 2025, three list “immigration enforcement” as the reason, while the remainder simply list “immigration.” The Midland Police Department and the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office both made two searches with the reason “immigration.” ## How have Texas law enforcement responded to the reporting? Dallas recently expanded the number of Flock cameras in city limits. When reached for comment regarding 404 Media’s reporting and the data showing that the department searched the Flock database for “ICE+ERO,” a spokesperson told *The Barbed Wire* “It is not our practice to comment on other outlets’ reporting.” They did not respond to follow up questions. After *The Barbed Wire* sent a follow up email asking if the Dallas Police Department would confirm or deny their use of Flock in cooperation with ICE immigration enforcement, the spokesperson wrote: “Per [General Order 315.04](https://dallaspolice.net/resources/Pages/General%5FOrders%5F300%5FCombined.aspx?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the Dallas Police Department does not enforce immigration laws.” No further explanation regarding the “ICE+ERO” searches in Flock was provided. A Houston Police public information officer confirmed that the department has a contract with Flock, but would not comment on the data showing the agency conducted lookups in the Flock database for “immigration” and “immigration enforcement” reasons, and directed *The Barbed Wire* to file a public information request. The Midland Police Department, the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, and the Texas Department of Public Safety did not respond to requests for comment from *The Barbed Wire*. ## Why does it matter? The Flock database lookups are typically done without a warrant or court order, a practice that an [ongoing federal lawsuit](https://www.404media.co/lawsuit-argues-warrantless-use-of-flock-surveillance-cameras-is-unconstitutional/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) filed by the Institute for Justice argues is unconstitutional and violates the Fourth Amendment. The rise of privately run surveillance camera networks like Flock, and the data sharing practices they facilitate between law enforcement agencies, has raised concerns among lawmakers regarding lack of oversight. Last year, the state of Texas sent Flock a cease and desist letter for operating “as a private security business without a license,” according to the [*Houston Chronicle*](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/crime/article/flock-cease-and-desist-letter-19795715.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). But within a matter of months, Flock had [received authorization](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/crime/article/flock-safety-state-license-19829810.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to continue working in Houston. “We have serious concerns about the use of ALPR technology across Texas,” said Savannah Kumar, an attorney with the ACLU of Texas. “The severe lack of transparency and oversight has always been at the root of automatic license plate readers, along with the inherent ability for the government to discriminatorily target certain communities for intense surveillance, and so we're seeing that manifest in even more troubled ways and learning about the ways that this information is being shared with the federal government with ICE.” The dragnet surveillance that systems like Flock enable has raised constitutional concerns. The aforementioned [federal lawsuit](https://insideinvestigator.org/flock-camera-lawsuit-can-move-forward/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) filed in Virginia argues that Flock’s license plate reader technology, which is used by the city of Norfolk, violates the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures because the cameras indiscriminately record every vehicle that passes by and store that information for thirty days without a warrant. Immigration advocates have also [raised alarms](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-ilrc-org/sites/default/files/resources/ilrc%5Faclu%5Falpr%5Ffor%5Forganizers.pdf) about ICE gaining access to automated license plate reader networks. Earlier this year, reporting in [*The Guardian*](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/11/ice-car-trackers-sanctuary-cities?ref=404media.co) revealed that Westchester county police shared data from an automated license plate camera system called Rekor with ICE, effectively undermining the county’s sanctuary city laws. Rekor is one of the smaller vendors in the automated license plate reader space; Flock is one of the largest. Although the Texas legislature passed a bill in 2017 that banned such sanctuary city laws, there have been attempts to resist the state’s approach to immigration enforcement in [places like Austin](https://www.kxan.com/investigations/stand-up-for-us-why-austins-hands-are-tied-in-its-response-to-immigration-policy/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The legislature [recently passed a bill](https://cbsaustin.com/news/local/texas-house-passes-controversial-immigration-enforcement-bill?ref=thebarbedwire.com) mandating that sheriffs in cities with populations of at least 100,000 collaborate with ICE to enforce federal immigration laws, effectively tying their hands and meaning ICE will have increasing access to local surveillance tools that do not require warrants to use. “The threat of license plate readers is that they are going to be accessed by ICE in jurisdictions where ICE is not going to get access to other kinds of things,” said Dave Maass, director of investigations at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a non-profit digital rights advocacy group. “Crime is not a universal definition accepted by every jurisdiction and state. In some states, they might protect undocumented people. In other places, they're actively requiring police to go after undocumented people. The people in Danville may not know that their data is being searched by people in Texas.” ### Despite Passing THC Ban, Texas Lt. Gov. Throws Tantrum That Smells Like Panic URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-thc-ban-dan-patrick/ Last updated: 2025-05-29T16:10:01.000Z Dan Patrick should be on top of the world. Texas’ lieutenant governor has just [strong-armed lawmakers to pass his pet bill](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-thc-ban/) that bans THC in Texas, despite most Texans being against it. But instead of celebrating, the 75-year-old Maryland native seems cranky. On Wednesday, he held a press conference that was straight out of a D.A.R.E. high school assembly from the ‘90s, full of dire warnings about the evils of marijuana. Here’s some clips from his unhinged conference, where Patrick shook his cane at those darned jazz cigarettes. Flanked by cops, Patrick showed off a table full of THC products, even tossing a bag to reporters and daring them to try some. > [](https://twitter.com/LtGovTX/status/1927896831977001122?ref=thebarbedwire.com) “This is serious business!” he said to the media, who he accused of not taking the issue seriously. “This is not ‘Dan’s Folly,’ this is not ‘Dan’s Priority,’ this is to save an entire generation (from) being hooked on drugs!” Patrick also barked at a reporter who had the temerity to ask, why don’t we focus on banning this stuff for children and let adults, you know, be free to make their own decisions? > [](https://twitter.com/JeremySWallace/status/1927815020332601418?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Patrick accused the reporter of being “crazy,” saying, “We don’t want anybody buying anything off the shelf that could kill them or ruin their mental state for the rest of their lives.” Yeah, it was weird. And it reinforces a truism about Texas Republicans: In a state where they’ve dominated for so long, they’re not great at dealing with any kind of pushback. In a separate video in his office, Patrick [held up some watermelon THC gummies](https://x.com/LtGovTX/status/1927896831977001122?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and claimed that “they can be deadly for children, adults at any age.” (Which is false, even the [DEA admits](https://www.dea.gov/factsheets/marijuana?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that no deaths from overdose of marijuana have ever been reported. And while cannabis use has been linked to [some problems with cognitive functions](https://nida.nih.gov/research-topics/cannabis-marijuana?ref=thebarbedwire.com#relationship-cannabis-mental-health) as well as psychotic disorders for people with genetic risk factors, it pales in comparison with alcohol, [which kills 178,000 people a year in the U.S.](https://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/facts-stats/index.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com)) At his presser, Patrick also denounced products from Hometown Hero, which seems to be one of the most responsible cannabis retailers in the state. They wasted no time in responding, with CEO Lukas Gilkey saying Patrick was “spitting out lies, like he always does” and misrepresenting their products. “This is a guy that has absolutely no clue what he is talking about,” Gilkey said. “I’m embarrassed that we voted him into office.” > [](https://twitter.com/HometownHeroATX/status/1927844862709354821?ref=thebarbedwire.com) It begged the question: Why is Dan Patrick freaking out about this? He won! He got his THC ban passed – in both chambers. All that needs to happen now is for Gov. Greg Abbott to sign it. Why subject us all to more Reefer Madness theatrics? My guess is that Patrick has been caught off-guard by the pushback he’s getting from his own party. Whenever he posts an [anti-THC screed on social media](https://x.com/DanPatrick/status/1925223689835946107?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the responses from many self-identified Republicans are … not kind. (Turns out, pain relief is a bipartisan issue.) > [](https://twitter.com/SarahisCensored/status/1925463903145705679?ref=thebarbedwire.com) > [](https://twitter.com/RealSladeJoseph/status/1925284110425112924?ref=thebarbedwire.com) > [](https://twitter.com/ashleetayte/status/1925315024081625107?ref=thebarbedwire.com) And then there’s new Texas resident Joe Rogan, who holds the keys to the bro vote that the GOP desperately craves. Rogan, of course, is [famously pro-THC](https://www.mercurynews.com/2025/01/27/joe-rogan-continues-to-champion-cannabis/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and if you went to his studio right now in Austin you’d probably get an impressive contact high. Rogan hasn’t weighed in on this ban, but you’ve got to assume that he’s also not thrilled about it. Oh and, not for nothing, but our lawmakers just [paraded noted sobriety advocates *Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson* around the Capitol](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/lawmakers-making-texas-new-hollywood-matthew-mcconaughey/) for that Hollywood giveaway bill. Now Patrick’s gonna take away their THC? So in the end, while Patrick has virtually complete control over his fellow senior citizens in the Texas Senate, he’s clearly out of step with lots of Republican voters (they, along with most [Texans, want marijuana decriminalized](https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/texas/2025/02/05/512943/majority-of-texans-support-legalizing-marijuana-gambling-recent-uh-poll-finds/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)). And Patrick, whose main professional credential is being a radio host, surely knows that politicians who get crosswise with the voting public don’t keep their jobs. And it’s making him mad. And that crankiness bubbled over during his press conference on Wednesday. “I don’t think the media has taken this issue seriously,” he groused. We know, grandpa. Weed is the devil’s lettuce. Let’s get you to bed, where you can dream about your favorite thing: [drive-through booze](https://x.com/TXDigitalCowboy/status/1927901603144581195?ref=thebarbedwire.com). ### Texas Decides the Death Penalty for Abortion is a Bit TOO Extreme URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/abortion-clarity-texas-laws/ Last updated: 2025-05-28T20:33:15.000Z Texas lawmakers finalized a bill to walk back parts of the state’s abortion ban this week, because, *surprise, surprise,* it turns out that abortion care is healthcare. The bill, sent to the governor on Tuesday, is intended to give Texans a *slightly lesser* chance of dying during pregnancy or childbirth by clarifying some medical emergencies in which doctors can provide abortive care. The bipartisan measure is part of the mixed-results of a[ legislative session](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-abortion-laws-national-ban/) that looked quite [grim for reproductive rights in Texas](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-true-cost-of-texas-abortion-ban-rising-deaths-abandoned-babies-fewer-doctors/). At the outset, reporting and research made it clear that, under the state’s restrictive abortion laws, [women were dying](https://www.propublica.org/article/texas-maternal-mortality-analysis-methodology?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [babies were dying](https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2024/analysis-suggests-2021-texas-abortion-ban-resulted-in-increase-in-infant-deaths-in-state-in-year-after-law-went-into-effect?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [sepsis rates among mothers soared](https://www.smfm.org/news/new-study-finds-increased-maternal-complications-with-previable-premature-rupture-of-membranes?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and doctors were [fleeing the state](https://www.manatt.com/insights/white-papers/2024/texas-obgyn-physician-workforce-study?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Then Attorney General Ken Paxton announced his next target… [birthworkers](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/03/27/houston-midwife-abortion-case-waller-county/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Several bills filed were even more extreme than the existing law, including [classifying abortion medication as controlled substances](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-abortion-laws-national-ban/), prosecuting internet providers for hosting abortion information, charging abortion advocates with racketeering and giving the death penalty for abortion patients. But as lawmakers begin packing their bags to adjourn until the next session in two years, the window to pass nearly all of those proposals is also coming to a close. The biggest “win” that lawmakers had (depending on who you ask) was the aforementioned [bipartisan effort to help “clarify”](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-abortion-law-clarifications/) what counts as a medical exception to Texas’ abortion bans. The aim of the “Life of the Mother Act” was purely a medical exception and a cleanup, state Rep. Ann Johnson of Houston, a co-author of the bill, said during testimony for the committee on public health in early April. In its final version, the bill says: - A "life-threatening," for purposes of the exception, means the situation can cause death, but “is not necessarily one actively injuring the patient.” - A doctor may address the risk before the patient suffers any effects. - Doctors must try to save a pregnancy, unless the mother is at risk of dying or suffering “substantial impairment.” - Reasonable medical judgment includes removing an ectopic pregnancy or spontaneous miscarriage. - Doctors and pharmacists will not be subject to legal action as long as they were found to be treating “life threatening” complications. - Providing medical care or information for a person who needs a life-saving abortion will not constitute "aiding and abetting.” - The state will create courses for both attorneys and doctors to take to understand what are “medical emergencies” and what abortion care is legal Abortion advocates were wary of initial versions, some calling it a “trojan horse,” because of a provision that could have revived a 1925 law to criminalize pregnant patients who chose an abortion. In May, after the bill passed the Senate, lawmakers decided to clarify that the bill would not revive that law. In addition, the bill that the governor is set to sign does not allow for exemptions for for rape, incest, a teen pregnancy or if you have a fatal fetal abnormality. While many have celebrated the bill as a compromise, data shows that [exemptions are not effective](https://www.kff.org/womens-health-policy/issue-brief/a-review-of-exceptions-in-state-abortions-bans-implications-for-the-provision-of-abortion-services/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) when it comes to legislating healthcare. Part of the reason is that medical complications in people are hard to list in totality. “You can't just write a list of exceptions to medical scenarios. There is no end to the real life situations that occur where patients need to be able to have these open, honest communication moments with their providers. So there's no list that lawyers could write down that are exceptions,” Dr. Austin Dennard, a Dallas-based OB-GYN and plaintiff in Zurawski v. Texas told *The Barbed Wire*. Several other abortion laws that had reproductive rights advocates concerned did not advance to the governor's desk. That includes Senate Bill 2880, which would’ve [allowed any private citizen to sue](https://19thnews.org/2025/05/texas-medication-abortion-bill-dead/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) anyone for a minimum of $100,000 who distributed or provided abortion pills in Texas and would’ve [forced attorneys who legally challenge](https://www.jezebel.com/texas-senate-passes-bill-making-it-harder-to-challenge-anti-abortion-laws-in-court?ref=thebarbedwire.com) the bill to pay for all legal fees for everyone involved. There were also fears that the 1925 law criminalizing people who get abortion care would be [revived in Senate Bill 2880](https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2025/05/new-texas-abortion-ban-pill-sb-2880.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) after it was effectively taken out of the “clarification” law. A bill filed by Rep. Brent Money that would’ve treated a fertilized egg as a person and made terminating a pregnancy a homicide, which in Texas is punishable by the death penalty, [never made it out of committees](https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/Actions.aspx?LegSess=89R&Bill=HB2197&ref=thebarbedwire.com). The bill that would’ve treated abortion funds like organized crime rings and forced all internet service providers to block access to information on obtaining an abortion did not come up for a vote; other bills would have [classified abortion medication](https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/Text.aspx?LegSess=89R&Bill=HB818&ref=thebarbedwire.com) as [controlled substances](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/capitol-texas-gov/tlodocs/89R/billtext/hb01339i-navpanes-0.pdf) also never got a vote. For now, at least it’s slightly [less terrifying](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/abortion-conference-texas-motherhood/) to think about [getting pregnant in Texas](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/pregnancy-care-texas-abortion-miscarriage/) and dying during a [miscarriage](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/she-voted-for-trump-then-she-had-two-terrifying-miscarriages-in-texas/). ### It’s Daylight Savings Time Somewhere (in Texas, Maybe Forever) URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-wants-permanent-daylight-savings-time/ Last updated: 2025-05-28T17:17:14.000Z As rapper M.C. Hammer once said: You can’t touch this. Clocks, that is. Last week, lawmakers [approved a bill](https://www.statesman.com/story/news/politics/state/2025/05/27/texas-legislature-moves-to-observe-daylight-saving-time-year-round/83817648007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that would abolish the [widely unpopular](https://time.com/6851008/daylight-saving-time-bad-for-health/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) biannual time change, adopting a permanent daylight savings time for the state. The bill now awaits a sign-off from Gov. Greg Abbott. It joins a [set of proposals on (or near) Abbott’s desk](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/05/20/track-texas-state-bills/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that span a really, truly befuddling range of priorities: a total ban on [THC products](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-thc-ban/), a $1.5 billion dollar [“Hollywood handout,”](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/lawmakers-making-texas-new-hollywood-matthew-mcconaughey/) and a crucial bill clarifying the timeline to receive [a life-saving abortion.](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/05/21/texas-abortion-exception-save-mothers/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) If passed, this bill would change…nothing. Big win for government! > [](https://twitter.com/moodyforelpaso/status/1923500024387813603?ref=thebarbedwire.com) It’s superseded by a decades-old federal law which standardizes and mandates the clock changes. While states can opt out of daylight savings time entirely, they can’t adopt it. Without federal action, Texas Time is essentially moot. Texas joins a handful of other states including Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, and Washington, that have [expressed interest](https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/permanent-daylight-saving-time-or-standard-time-debate/3692373/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in adopting year-round daylight savings. Indeed, the majority of the country (54%, according to a [Gallup poll](https://news.gallup.com/poll/657584/half-daylight-saving-time-sunsetted.aspx?ref=thebarbedwire.com)) [and Texans](https://www.texaspolicyresearch.com/the-case-for-ending-daylight-saving-time-in-texas/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) do support scrapping the clock change entirely. A federal change is perhaps not so far-fetched, either. President Donald Trump has publicly supported “locking the clock,” and Congress has [debated the proposal at length before](https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/04/10/congress/should-we-lock-the-clock-00283777?ref=thebarbedwire.com), according to *POLITICO*. > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1867686000711155989?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Is everything bigger in Texas? Yeah. Is everything better? Well, perhaps not. Brighter? Hold onto your cowboy hats. It just might be. ### A Murder-Suicide Pushed UT Students to Start a Mental Health Group for South Asian Americans. Now They’re Going National URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/mental-health-initiative-for-south-asians/ Last updated: 2025-05-27T05:00:00.000Z *This story includes mentions of suicide that may be triggering for some readers. Visit* [*Mental Health First Aid*](https://www.mentalhealthfirstaid.org/mental-health-resources/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) *for a list of resources and organizations. The national* [*Suicide and Crisis Lifeline*](https://988lifeline.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) *can be reached at 988 and is available 24/7.* When the Mental Health Initiative for South Asians hosted its first workshop in 2023, over 30 parents gathered at Radha Madhav Dham, a Hindu temple in Austin. It was the first time some attendees shared their families’ experiences with South Asian American community members. Guided by student facilitators, they learned how to start talking about mental health with their children. After the workshop, a group of parents approached the students to express their gratitude. “They were like, ‘You have to do this,’” Ravi Parekh, the nonprofit organization’s co-founder, told *The Barbed Wire*. “‘You have to come here and continue doing this.’” Moments like this encourage Parekh and co-founder Aaron Pandian to continue their work with the [Mental Health Initiative for South Asians](https://mhisa.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which aims to destigmatize mental health and reduce barriers to accessing care in the South Asian American community through culturally relevant resources and research. The initiative began as a student organization at the University of Texas at Austin in [2022](https://www.instagram.com/p/CiRCzCiOTCo/?img%5Findex=1&ref=thebarbedwire.com) after the co-founders’ close friend and roommate Farhan Towhid took his life and the lives of his family in a [murder-suicide](https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/allen-family-of-six-killed-in-apparent-mass-murder-suicide-police/2597209/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) during their freshman year. When Pandian and Parekh read through Towhid's journal during the week of his funeral in April 2021, they learned that his parents didn't know how to best support him through his mental health struggles. Parekh said this matched a larger gap they saw while working to establish the student organization.Growing up, Parekh noticed that his South Asian American community emphasized saving face and often placed high expectations on the younger generation to succeed. “The ‘What will they say?’ phrase is very prevalent in our community,” Parekh said. “I think anything that reflects a failure when it comes to the parenting side of things, or the youth side of things, is shamed and stigmatized.” Since its founding, the Mental Health Initiative for South Asians has reached more than [1,000 parents](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DIe7Mg-x8SS/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) through mental health workshops held in places of worship — and is now preparing to expand beyond Texas. On May 7, the initiative launched its [Heal Forward](https://mhisa.org/campaign/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) campaign to inspire families to have regular, open conversations about mental health. Parekh said students from Arizona State University, New York University, and Stanford University — in addition to those from Texas schools — have reached out and expressed interest in starting their own organization chapters on their campuses. Nearly 50% of South Asian American youth experience moderate to severe depressive symptoms, according to a 2024 report from [The Asian American Foundation](https://www.taaf.org/youthmentalhealth?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Overall, Asian Americans are the least likely to seek out mental health services compared to any other racial or ethnic group, according to the [American Psychiatric Association](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-psychiatry-org/File-Library/Psychiatrists/Cultural-Competency/Mental-Health-Disparities/mental-health-facts-for-asian-americans-pacific-islanders.pdf). Suicide was also the leading cause of death for Asian Americans ages 15 to 24 in 2022, per the [U.S. Department of Health and Human Services](https://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/mental-and-behavioral-health-asian-americans?ref=thebarbedwire.com). In Pandian’s household, mental health was viewed as a “very Western ideal,” so it hardly came up in exchanges with his family, he told *The Barbed Wire*. [Researchers](https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/6/8/e011697?ref=thebarbedwire.com) have noted that many South Asian languages don’t have terms that define mental disorders like depression, anxiety, and schizophrenia. Instead, words such as [“tension”](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4552248/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [“pagal”](https://www.instagram.com/p/CovzJgvO1U4/?img%5Findex=1&ref=thebarbedwire.com) — which means “crazy” in Hindi and Urdu — are used, attaching a negative connotation to the issue. South Asians also commonly experience psychological distress through physical symptoms, which leads to mental health problems going undiagnosed or untreated, according to the [UCLA Center for Health Policy Research](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/healthpolicy-ucla-edu/sites/default/files/2024-02/final-chis-report-designed-2-26-24.pdf). Many older South Asian Americans prioritized survival upon immigrating to the U.S., which left little space for them to process their emotions, said Sambavi Venkatesan, a licensed professional therapist in Austin. She also pointed to the diversity of the South Asian American population, which practices various religions and speaks hundreds of languages. “Even within the umbrella of South Asian, there's so many different countries — and then even within those countries, there's so many different subcultures,” Venkatesan told *The Barbed Wire*. “I think all of those elements definitely shift the experience of that individual person, and that often tends to get missed. ‘Asian American’ tends to become this monolith, at least here in the United States.” The Heal Forward campaign includes a free [family card game, conversation guide, and magazine](https://mhisa.org/campaign/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to encourage accessible dialogue about intergenerational healing and wellness in South Asian American households. Parekh said his organization worked with clinicians to build a curriculum for parents, from walking them through the importance of mental health to navigating the mental health care system. “The card game was actually my mom's idea,” Parekh said. “So because it was coming from a South Asian parent themselves, and our campaign is targeted to parents, it made a lot of sense for us to execute that idea… We want parents to have something that they can use, reflect on, and then share their experiences with.” The 110 cards in the [physical version](https://mhisa.org/product/physical-card-game/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of the game are divided into three levels of depth to gradually ease families into discussion. Each card has a prompt, asking questions such as, “What has been my happiest memory from this past year?” and “What do I need to hear from my family to feel comfortable sharing my difficult emotions?” https://www.instagram.com/p/DJ2Kz1KR-ZL/?img\_index=3 For both Parekh and Pandian, it was important to make the campaign resources easy to understand. “It definitely allows families to start again, normalizing those concepts and understanding what it means to talk about mental health in a very approachable way,” Pandian said. When the Mental Health Initiative for South Asians started, Pandian said he was told that changing the way mental health is seen in their community, where it’s so heavily stigmatized, would be challenging. “This is going to take decades of intervention,” Pandian remembered them saying. “This is such a big goal.” Still, Pandian and his team stayed committed to conducting outreach and securing partnerships with other organizations. Now, the organization’s [national Instagram account](https://www.instagram.com/mhisa.national/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) has surpassed 450,000 views on its reels since launching in April. “We have no intention of doing anything half-baked,” Pandian said. “Everything has intention. Everything has a purpose. Everything is done carefully and thoughtfully, and we plan to see everything through.” Parekh’s experiences were different from both of his roommates. He grew up in a household that nurtured his mental well-being. Early on, his mother enrolled him in therapy, and made it known that he could talk to her about his struggles. Parekh said seeing other South Asian parents embrace that same openness through his work fulfills him — and is more than enough to keep him going. “The change in these communities is visible, and you see a paradigm shift where even one workshop opens up conversation 1%,” Parekh said. “Even if it's 1%, 1% is infinitely greater than zero.” ### Alright, Alright, Alright. Lawmakers Just Passed a Celebrity-Endorsed Bill to Make Texas a ‘New Hollywood.’ URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/lawmakers-making-texas-new-hollywood-matthew-mcconaughey/ Last updated: 2025-05-26T19:41:54.000Z When naming some of Texas’ biggest industries, a few might come to mind. Oil, gas, [weird rockets](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/elon-musk-spacex-rockets-lost-bid-beach-access-rio-grande-valley/). But you hardly ever hear of [Hollywood productions](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/sxsw-music-festival-gen-z/). Now, the Texas Legislature is trying to change that, with the help of a casual *billion* dollars. On Monday, the Texas House voted 114-26 on the Matthew McConaughey-approved “film incentive bill,” which would spend a whopping $1.5 billion trying to attract filmmakers to the state in the next few years. Senate Bill 22, which was filed in March by Houston Sen. Joan Huffman, proposed a $500 million influx of cash — spent biennially, for the next decade — to a statewide film incentive fund, [*The Texas Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/03/31/texas-film-television-incentive-fund/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) first reported. After it passed in the Texas Senate, the bill was debated in the House, and ultimately passed on Monday with a much cheaper cost of $300 million. For the next 10 years, that pool of money could offset expenses on Texas-made films and television shows, including workers’ wages and travel costs, [according to the *Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/05/25/texas-film-incentives-commercials/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). It will ultimately be up to the governor to decide which Texas-made projects will get the incentives, because ladies and gentleman, in Texas we clutch our pearls at anything that’s “not of God.” Some lawmakers are concerned about keeping taxpayer-funded projects “family friendly.” For example, Republican Sen. Paul Bettencourt argued that shows with profanity, like the West Texas drama “Landman” — which he called “simply a bad product” — should not receive taxpayer dollars. “No offense, having Billy Bob Thornton f-bomb every sentence is not Texas values,” said Bettencourt, who has clearly never driven on Houston’s I-10 during rush hour. The bill enforces further limitations on the type of materials permitted to receive funding: no pornography, “casino-type video games,” sporting events, awards shows, projects created for student course credit, political advertising or news programming, to name a few. Another no-no? Content that “portrays Texas or Texans in a negative fashion.” Some [have not taken kindly](https://www.texaspolicyresearch.com/bills/89th-legislature-sb-22/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to this alleged overstep on free expression, lamenting the bill’s “chilling effect on artistic expression … \[and\] acceptable speech in the entertainment industry,” according to the research organization, Texas Policy Research. But a thousand miles away, it seems Hollywood hasn’t gotten the memo yet. The bill has [amassed support](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpgrUK9EGjI&ref=thebarbedwire.com) from mega-stars like Thornton, McConaughey, Renee Zellweger, and Woody Harrelson, who released a four-minute commercial (filmed in Texas, of course) about turning the state into “a new Hollywood,” [the *Tribune* reported](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/02/14/texas-film-incentives-tax-credit/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in February. Texas-grown McConaughey and Harrelson even visited their old stomping grounds, voicing their thoughts in front of the Senate Committee on Finance. “Texas also has a backdrop of so many different geographies that could be the backdrop of so many different stories, that no other state could even match,” McConaughey testified, according to an April [*CBS News*](https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/hollywood-figures-rally-behind-texas-senate-bill-22-film-industry-tax-incentives/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) report. “And we’re not utilizing it.” Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers have praised the celebrity-supported bill for its efforts to bring “[Texas values and Texas stories to the world](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=%5FPEYeQJROLU&ref=thebarbedwire.com),” just weeks after President Donald Trump called for a [100% tariff](https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/trump-announces-100-tariff-movies-produced-outside-us-2025-05-04/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on all foreign-made films. Save for the cost deliberations, the bill passed comfortably — but not without a few critics. Rep. David Lowe, who lobbied against the bill, called it “Hollywood handouts.” Rep. Brian Harrison, who also voted against the bill, posted “[Texans, you’ve been betrayed…](https://x.com/brianeharrison/status/1926987629112754551?ref=thebarbedwire.com)” on X, hours before it passed in the House. (For what it’s worth, supporters have said the money would not go toward “fat cat Hollywood guys.”) “This bill provides taxpayer-funded incentives to the film and entertainment industry,” Lowe said. “The same industry that trashed us for supporting President Trump, mocked us for standing up for the unborn, and ridiculed our Christian faith at every opportunity.” The folks over on Elon Musk’s own “family friendly” platform, X, are also angry (as usual). “Corporate welfare for Hollywood stars,” one [proclaimed](https://x.com/VanceGinn/status/1926814596494512322?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “Anyone who votes for SB 22 wants to turn Texas blue with this garbage legislation,” said [another](https://x.com/TXTanoStan99/status/1926815845268734318?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Sorry, Hollywood. Looks like there’s still debate on whether it’s Texas’ turn to [make film great again](https://x.com/MaryEliseCos/status/1926815260410786221?ref=thebarbedwire.com). ### Texas is About to Ban All THC. Buy Your Gummies Now URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-thc-ban/ Last updated: 2025-05-22T16:30:42.000Z Well, Texas, if you were hoping our elected officials might finally embrace reality, science, or even basic common sense when it comes to cannabis policy — *lol, nope.* Instead, the Texas House just gave a big yeehaw to banning all consumable hemp products that contain THC, because nothing says “freedom” like government micromanaging your gummies. What started out as a reasonable attempt to *regulate* hemp-derived THC products — think age restrictions, packaging rules, and taxes — quickly went off the rails when Rep. Tom Oliverson (R-Cypress) slapped the "absolutely not" button. Oliverson, a physician (and apparently part-time reefer madness revivalist), declared these products “psychosis-inducing, overdose-prone chemicals masquerading as relief,” per [Houston Public Media](https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/texas/2025/05/22/522028/texas-house-passes-total-ban-on-thc/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). So, if you were using THC to treat PTSD, anxiety, or pain — congrats, you’re now a criminal in his eyes. Oliverson’s amendment gutted Rep. Ken King's (R-Canadian) regulation-based version of the bill, which at least tried to acknowledge that, you know, banning things hasn’t historically worked out that well — see also: alcohol in the 1920s, or more recently, actual marijuana. King himself seemed to remember the whole “Prohibition was a disaster” thing, saying, “I read about the 1920s. I don't think Prohibition worked in 1920\. It's not going to work in the 2020s.” Wise words. Which he promptly ignored when he voted *for* the amendment anyway. Ah, Texas politics: where cognitive dissonance is a bipartisan sport. (Oh and speaking of Prohibition, it’s important to remember that such pesky laws [never apply to the wealthy](https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2017/3/9/prohibition-at-harvard/?ref=thebarbedwire.com).) Democrats tried to talk sense. Rep. Rafael Anchía (D-Dallas) pointed out the obvious—that bans don’t work and regulating and taxing THC is a more adult approach. Rep. Josey Garcia (D-San Antonio) delivered a gut-wrenching speech about her Army veteran husband using THC to cope with being *shot in Afghanistan*, but sure, let’s pretend THC-laced seltzers are the real national security threat. Then came Rep. Terri Leo Wilson (R-Galveston), who delivered an emotional story about her daughter’s illness related to THC use. It's tragic, and no one doubts her sincerity. But turning that into a one-size-fits-all justification for criminalizing products that help thousands, including veterans and the chronically ill, is like banning peanuts because someone had an allergy. The bill passed in a 95-44 vote, which means plenty of our alleged Democrats bravely jumped on board (reportedly after getting leaned on). > [](https://twitter.com/scottbraddock/status/1925377293108515115?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who must have been [pleased as punch](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-most-powerful-man-in-texas-really-wants-to-ban-thc/), swooped in afterward with a social media victory lap, praising the House for "protecting children" from the terrifying scourge of legal THC products (many of which are sold in 21+ stores, by the way). > [](https://twitter.com/LtGovTX/status/1925385194934030685?ref=thebarbedwire.com) His statement made it sound like those durn kids are getting stoned on every street corner, presumably between sips of Delta-8 Tang and puffs of Nerd Rope vapes. After one more reading in the House, the bill will go back to the Senate for final approval before Gov. Greg Abbott presumably signs it. But even some of his fellow Republicans weren’t a fan of, you know, taking away rights. > [](https://twitter.com/LaurenCott/status/1925536399811317858?ref=thebarbedwire.com) So there you have it. In a state where you can buy a gun faster than a THC tincture, where healthcare access is abysmal, lawmakers decided *this* was the hill to die on. God forbid Texans be allowed to choose a legal, mild cannabinoid over, say, addictive opioids or a nightly cocktail. We can’t have people feeling *relief* or anything. That might be un-Texan. Anyway, if THC is your thing, stock up now because the freedom police are banging at the door. ### Relax About the Dallas Wings’ Losses. Paige Bueckers Will Be a WNBA Star URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/paige-bueckers-dallas-wings-debut/ Last updated: 2025-05-21T19:51:36.000Z The future of the WNBA’s Dallas Wings is the Dallas story to pay attention to in an otherwise sour moment for the city’s teams (except hockey; [the Stars are at the top of their game](https://www.dallasnews.com/sports/stars/2025/05/20/dallas-stars-edmonton-oilers-rivalry-playoff-history/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)). From the moment the Wings captured the top selection in the WNBA’s draft lottery in November, the sweepstakes for Paige Bueckers landing in Texas [grew exponentially](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/paige-bueckers-could-make-texas-the-center-of-the-womens-basketball-universe/). She has the skills on the court, set [records as a player at UConn](https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6241129/2025/03/29/paige-bueckers-uconn-40-points-sweet-16/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and fans love her. Meanwhile, nearly two months after documenting a 9-31 outing in 2024 — the second-worst finish in franchise history — Wings CEO Greg Bibb knew Dallas needed a change. Another bonafide star, generational talent and leader would help. Luckily, the lottery ping pong balls fell in the Wings’ favor, putting Bibb in a position where he could continue to restructure a struggling franchise. While Buckers, herself, was focused on leading [UConn to a national championship](https://www.espn.com/womens-college-basketball/story/%5F/id/44553875/womens-march-madness-2025-uconn-huskies-paige-bueckers-ncaa-championship-title-game?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in her last year as a college athlete, Bibb had just hired former Connecticut Sun and Los Angeles Sparks coach Curt Miller to serve as the Wings general manager a week prior to the lottery. Bibb gifted Miller with that responsibility of hiring the Wings next coach, which included a promise to rebuild the team. Bibb isn’t a stranger to eyeing talent. Even before this season, Dallas has held a top five draft selection in seven of the last nine years. Even more, since 2016, seven Dallas players have earned WNBA All-Rookie selections that include current Wings star Arike Ogunbowale. So, the chance for Dallas to draft a “generational talent” like Bueckers was never in doubt. The 6-foot guard was this year's most sought-after player in the draft. Prior to her right ankle and left ACL injuries in 2021 and 2022 respectively, Bueckers was on a record-setting pace. Then there was the promise to pair her up with Ogunbowale, one of the most dynamic and most prolific scorers in the league. Bueckers and Ogunbowale, on paper, sound like a match made in heaven. Despite all the hype from the sports world, Bueckers was humble about it. “I don't see myself as a celebrity, I'm just a basketball player,” she told reporters following the [Wings’ 112-78 preseason loss](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pP1gLQ-G29w&ref=thebarbedwire.com) to the Las Vegas Aces on May 2 at Notre Dame's Purcell Pavilion. Clearly, she's keeping her focus on perfecting her craft rather than immersing herself in the hype of being one of the W’s next echelon of stars. Kyrie Irving, star player for the Dallas Mavericks, [congratulated her for joining the team](https://www.si.com/nba/mavericks/news/dallas-mavericks-star-kyrie-irving-shares-heartfelt-video-with-paige-bueckers-after-wnba-draft-dallas-wings?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=Bueckers%2C%20a%20long%2Dtime%20fan,story%20that%20you're%20writing.&text=%22I'm%20so%20happy%20that,WNBA%20for%20years%20to%20come.) and Mavs legend Dirk Nowitzki also took notice. There was a lot of hype as the season got underway. The Wings lost, but it doesn’t mean their reputation is gone with it. Already in three regular season games, it’s clear she’s destined for greatness. Despite the losses, Bueckers’ poise and her decision making on the floor shows the continuity she’s building with her teammates. Bueckers followed up her performance in the Wings’ 79-71 loss on Monday to the Seattle Storm — 19 points, five rebounds, eight assists, two steals and one block — with her first double-double affair — 12 points, 10 assists, three steals and two turnovers — of her career against the Minnesota Lynx in her return to her home state. Even more, the Wings’ rookie recorded her first assists of the season with Ogunbowale in the 85-81 loss to the Lynx, with three of her 10 including her first dime of the contest to the Wings’ all-time leading scorer. She’s building chemistry with Ogunbowale as well as with other players and making split second decisions. Not every rookie is showing this potential. She nearly finished with double-digit assists that included a [tightly contested bounce pass sliced](https://leaguepass.wnba.com/video/802879?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in between the long arms of Storm star Nneka Ogwumike and Ezi Magbegor from the top of the key to DiJonai Carrington in the first quarter of the Seattle matchup. And, we can’t forget about Bueckers’ full-court heave on a dime to NaLyssa Smith, giving NBA’s Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokić a run for his money in terms of who throws the better long distance passes. While her rookie debut didn’t mirror Caitlin Clark’s with the Fever — 20 points, three assists and two steals and 10 turnovers while shooting 33.3% from the floor — she’s made leaps in the last two games, delivering a statline indicative of a future WNBA star. Clark didn’t earn her first double-double performance until her sixth game into the 2024 season. Bueckers accomplished the feat in *half the time*. When examining Bueckers’ first three contests of her career in comparison to Clark’s first trio of games as a rookie, Bueckers dished more assists than Clark (20-17), generated 33% fewer turnovers (seven to 21) while the Fever star added 10 more points (51-41). Still, Clark, after more games and more comfort and continuity from games during the season, won the WNBA’s Rookie of the Year honors. If you had any qualms about the former UConn star after the first three regular season games, take a breather. Success doesn’t come overnight. Winning takes time, especially when a franchise undergoes an overhaul. Bueckers will be a star in the league, no question. The Wings head coach Chris Koclanes was Miller’s former assistant in Connecticut and Los Angeles. Koclanes, despite eight seasons alongside Miller as a video coordinator, assistant and defensive coordinator with the Sun and Sparks, served as an assistant with Southern California before Miller plucked him from the Big Ten program. Coaching in college and the WNBA are different. Then, add in that the Wings’ roster features *nine newcomers* with four as starters (Bueckers, Myisha Hines-Allen, Smith and Carrington) in conjunction with Ogunbowale, Maddy Siegrist and Teaira McCowan as the returners. Not to mention, Dallas fields one of the youngest teams this season as *no player on the roster is currently 30*, although that will change for Hines-Allen when she enters a new decade on May 30. “We’re all learning and growing as a team,” Bueckers said after the Wings' loss to the Storm. “… We’re not focused on a duo \[Bueckers and Ogunbowale\] \[or\] trio. We’re focused on one through 12 and how we look as a team.” As Bueckers and the Wings gel on the court, the rookie guard will also be a catalyst in the continued growth of women’s basketball in Dallas. Vivid Seats recently released a [WNBA loyalty report](https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2025/05/13/3080111/0/en/Vivid-Seats-Announces-2025-WNBA-Loyalty-Report.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) revealing that the Wings were the most sought-after franchise based on home ticket prices, an area that has increased by 74%, according to *The Dallas Morning News*. Bueckers also is already among the top players with the most [popular WNBA trading cards](https://www.axios.com/local/dallas/2025/05/21/paige-bueckers-trading-card-among-wnba-s-most-popular?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Bibb envisions the Wings winning on the court as well as the Dallas community and the WNBA landscape benefiting from Bueckers’ arrival to the W, similar to what Clark did as a rookie in Indiana. While the [comparison of Clark and Bueckers](https://uk.sports.yahoo.com/news/demand-for-caitlin-clark-angel-reese-aja-wilson-paige-bueckers-wnba-cards-continues-to-grow-150036951.html?guccounter=1&guce%5Freferrer=aHR0cHM6Ly9kb2NzLmdvb2dsZS5jb20v&guce%5Freferrer%5Fsig=AQAAAHCvI0SvY7L3kDe%5FOBs9vG-xRl3J1QCNDCxhh%5FtwWYI60ndyI4HC1%5F28mXDXBsllfCNdSUK2JF3SrPANTrn7z%5F2jnx7fN2btE0fS-0j7fnrNjAIbJBmKpGGXiTnlA8J1NBb2CbwrqcZR0jxbtwmAlFdnq-XmIqecMRwV5baizgZe&ref=thebarbedwire.com) to each other can be annoying to the players and fans alike, it is certainly a conversation that’s here to stay. “Paige is certainly making a difference for us,” Bibb recently told *The News*. “Paige is her own person. … I think Paige will be additive for us just like Caitlin was additive for Indiana. And Paige will be additive for the league just like Caitlin was additive for the league.” Everyone wants to see Buckers and Ogunbowale light up the scoreboard, produce thrilling highlights on social media and depart arenas with victories. The Wings’ rematch on Wednesday against the Lynx will provide another chance for Bueckers to show she’s ready for the moment and that she’s inching closer to helping the franchise secure wins. Dallas and WNBA fans at large, here’s your reminder that the Wings’ success will come. In the meantime, prepare to be patient. It will take some time. ### Churches Helped John S. Chase Become Texas’ First Licensed Black Architect. Now, They’re Landmarks. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-first-black-architect/ Last updated: 2026-07-18T18:12:37.000Z In 1957, when the pastor of [Boynton Chapel Methodist Church](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/lifestyle/home-design/article/boynton-chapel-texas-historic-landmark-18287849.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) was looking for a larger facility, the congregation of the church in Houston’s Third Ward settled on a [young Black architect](https://www.humanitiestexas.org/news/articles/legacy-firsts-texas-architect-john-s-chase?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to design it. John Saunders Chase, who would have turned 100 this year, was the first licensed Black architect in Texas and preached the gospel of modernism throughout a career full of firsts. Chase was influenced by modernists like Frank Lloyd Wright and acclaimed Black California architect Paul Revere Williams. However, Black churches of that era kept to neo-Gothic designs. Pitching modern design defined by its simplicity, straight lines, and geometric shapes could have been a waste of time. To the small congregation, it was a hit. A year later, the resulting church was unlike any other building in the area. Visitors would drive by to check out the structure that — if not for the bell tower, stained glass, and sign above the entrance — could have very well been an office building. Rev. Linda Davis, who has led the church for nearly nine years, said that’s still the case. "We are a small congregation, but I tell people that we are very mighty as it relates to our historical significance. You see it in the work he's done here,” Davis said, referring to Chase. “A lot of people drive by just to see it.” The church has long been a hub for activism. When an expansion was added in 1916, it contained the only swimming pool open to Black people in the city. Local heavyweights in the civil rights movement attended, including suffragist Christia Adair, [Madgelean "Mama" Bush](https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Mama-Bush-remembered-as-fierce-advocate-for-3rd-1688066.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a community leader who ran the Martin Luther King Jr. Center, and Dr. Forde B. McWilliams, one of the state's first Black veterinarians. Despite the church’s long history, distinct design and community contributions, it didn’t have historic designations like other significant [churches in the area](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/houston-suburb-erects-third-biggest-statue-in-the-u-s-evangelicals-mad-about-it/). “Many of the churches in the Third Ward already had their historical marker. I was like, ‘Why doesn't this church have its historical marker?’” Davis said. ![The sanctuary of Boynton Chapel Methodist Church in Houston’s Third Ward, designed by John Saunders Chase. (Credit: Urbano Architects)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/boynton-sanctuary-c-urbano-architects-1.jpg) In 2021, with the help of Preservation Houston and former University of Houston student Walker Shores, Boynton Chapel became a Protected Landmark of the city of Houston. In 2023, it was designated as a [Registered Texas Historic ​Landmark](https://www.yahoo.com/news/texas-church-designed-state-first-193836044.html?guccounter=1&guce%5Freferrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce%5Freferrer%5Fsig=AQAAAJEAGqM-6UaxoV2jwBR7HL-3a1LJsb64QTpBWeKX1YWmO8saJyLOmcYCqvlE7VaR5ep%5Fx6hiYbn0IlXpIYiRYfA2CCM8Sggd9D2GZfBTDxysl2KakCZZqewCNnybTs9y17IInyu7y0uc8KLsR2w9ZvecvIKljn5DrBBzMZUacKzJ&ref=thebarbedwire.com). On Sunday, May 18, church leadership and the Harris County Historical Commission unveiled its Recorded Texas Historic Landmark Marker, permanently marking its significance to the state. That opens it up for funds to preserve the building. In 2022, the church received a $180,000 matching grant from the National Fund for Sacred Spaces to replace the air conditioning system. In February, they received an unspecified amount of money from the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund to restore the church’s windows and masonry. The historic designation, particularly of a Black church in the Third Ward, was particularly significant [in Houston](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/how-houston-traffic-made-my-marriage-stronger/), which is well-known for destroying its historic buildings. But the building has stood, in part, as a testament to [Chase’s work](https://www.humanitiestexas.org/news/articles/legacy-firsts-texas-architect-john-s-chase?ref=thebarbedwire.com). — Thirty years before he would move to Houston, Chase was thinking about concrete. Chase was born on Jan. 23, 1925, to John S. Chase, Sr. and Alice Viola Hall Chase in Annapolis, Maryland. The first structure he built was his grandmother Laura Hall’s concrete tombstone. He was in middle school. “I was looking at the lasting qualities of the material and decided to use concrete,” he told Larry Crowe for the *HistoryMakers Archive*, a repository for oral histories with prominent Black Americans in 2004\. Concrete would later dominate his work. He wouldn’t learn the word “architect” until his junior year at Wiley H. Bates High School when James Marchand, who taught building trades, asked him about his goals. “When he got to me, I said, ‘Mr. Marchand, I don't know what you call them but I want to be the person who is over all the construction, who determines what it looks like, the colors that are in it, how the rooms and spaces go,” he told Crowe. “My boy, you wanna be an architect,” Marchand replied. He enrolled at the Hampton Institute (now University) in Hampton, Virginia, a historically Black college where he earned an undergraduate degree in architectural engineering in 1948\. (His studies were put on hold for two years when he was drafted by the Army during World War II.) When offered placements, the first place he scratched off was Texas. He instead chose Philadelphia. But after a year, he didn’t think he could make his mark as a solo practitioner. (Example: The city’s first Black architect, Julian Francis Abele, graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1902, fifty years before Chase.) ![John Chase (right) in a classroom on the campus of The University of Texas at Austin, 1950. UT Texas Student Publications Photographs, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, the University of Texas at Austin.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/chase-john-seated-at-a-desk.jpg) John Chase (right) in a classroom on the campus of The University of Texas at Austin, 1950\. UT Texas Student Publications Photographs, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, the University of Texas at Austin. “I always wanted to go into business for myself as an architect. I just didn't see Philly as the city that offered that kind of opportunity,” he said. He asked Hampton’s placement office if they had another place in the Deep South, “where they would want stuff they don’t have.” When he moved to Austin in 1949, he worked at the Lott Lumber Company, the largest Black-owned lumber company in the state, while teaching at the Crescent Institute, a trade school for Black veterans. He learned to build houses, the company’s specialty. Then he realized something. “I found out that, goodness, I don't know as much \[about architecture\] as I thought I knew. So, I said maybe I ought to go on and do some graduate work.” He applied to University of Texas, where the white dean Hugh McMath welcomed him but told him to wait. The Supreme Court’s decision in the *Sweatt v. Painter* case was pending. When the court ruled in favor of Heman Sweatt, who sued the University of Texas School of Law in 1946 for denying him admission to the law school based on his race, both were admitted, and Chase started that fall. The first day as a graduate, he was escorted by federal marshals. “Let me tell you, you could pick the friends out right away, you could pick the foes out. Nobody had to tell you,” Chase recalled to Crowe. He graduated in 1952, becoming the first Black graduate from the university’s School of Architecture. But he faced a barrier: he wasn’t licensed. Even before graduating, he contributed to small projects in Austin, like the Crescent Institute, a vocational school for Black people where he also taught and the De Luxe Hotel, both in historically Black East Austin. But experience was not enough. He wanted to be a licensed architect, which required working for a firm before applying for licensure. “He's doing all this work even before he's admitted to UT,” said Tara Dudley, an assistant professor of architecture at the University of Texas at Austin who is writing a biography on Chase. “He was really trying to find ways to ultimately pursue a career as a licensed professional architect at that time.” Dudley also curated the recent exhibit in the architecture school’s Mebane Gallery, *Celebrating 100 Years of John S. Chase*, which closed in February. It coincided with the renaming of the [university’s architecture and planning library](https://news.utexas.edu/2025/01/23/ut-architecture-library-named-for-texas-first-black-architect/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in his name thanks to a $5 million gift from his son Tony and spouse, Dina Alsowayel, who previously donated $1 million to the school for a graduate fellowship, of which Dudley was a recipient and endowed professorship both bearing his name. “Mr. Chase was very savvy about the way he approached his pursuit of an architectural career,” Dudley said, thinking about his career long before he enrolled at UT. ![John Chase registering for his first semester at The University of Texas School of Architecture, 1950. UT Texas Student Publications Photographs, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/john-chase_enrolls-at-ut-in-1950.png) After graduating, he joined the architecture faculty of Texas Southern University, the historically Black university in Houston. For the next two years, he developed a portfolio by visiting churches with his wife, Drucie, and later sons, John and Anthony. And, improbably, selling congregants on modern architecture. “I think it's a matter of getting away from the ordinary and trying to hit a spark somewhere people would like and enjoy.” he said. To Dudley, Chase wanted to make modernism accessible, and meet his clients where they were — and church was a major part of Houstonians’ lives. During those two years, between working at TSU, raising a family and hawking himself every weekend, he eventually developed a portfolio worthy, he thought, of petitioning before Texas Board of Architectural Examiners. The portfolio of early churches, medical offices and houses would serve in absence of the required work hours at a firm. The board agreed. In 1954, after passing the required exams, he became the state’s first Black licensed architect. Chase died in 2012 at the age of 87\. By then, he was a well-known public figure. He was the first Black person admitted to the Texas Society of Architects, and a founding member of the [National Organization of Minority Architects](https://www.noma.net/noma-founder-04-john-s-chase/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). He was the first Black man to serve on the United States Commission on Fine Arts after President Jimmy Carter appointed him in 1980\. He was also the first Black president of the Texas Exes, the UT alumni association. In an era of mass lick-and-stick subdivisions and shopping centers, non-native plants and little connection to the community, owners of Chase’s properties appreciate his distinct style, according to Dudley. “Whether it's a residence, commercial or an institutional building in a suburban or an urban environment, Chase was really good at manipulating various elements where you can think about the landscape and the sighting,” she said. During his lifetime, Chase built the Colored Teachers State Association of Texas headquarters (now the John S. and Drucie R. Chase Building owned by UT) and a number of contributions to TSU, like the acclaimed Martin Luther King, Jr. Humanities Center and Thurgood Marshall School of Law. He even got a commission to build the United States Embassy in Tunis, Tunisia, a $50 million project that ultimately was shelved. But even the smallest of additions or parking garages utilized his preferred forms and materials like UT's San Antonio Garage. “There is a reverence by the people who, once they realize Chase was the architect, appreciate the history and the significance,” Dudley said. Just like the 1958 Boynton Chapel Methodist Church, where Davis, the pastor, is among the Chase devotees. “If you see our building, it is just very phenomenal,” Rev. Linda Davis said. “It is such a beautiful edifice.” ### Is That… Common Ground? Texas House Voted to Lift a Ban on ‘Homosexual Conduct’ URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-house-repeals-ban-homosexual-gay-misconduct/ Last updated: 2025-05-16T17:22:14.000Z Sure, this legislative session has had its share of embarrassing, absurd, even confounding bills attacking everything from [public education](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-school-vouchers-2/), to [transgender Texans](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/anti-trans-bills-texas-2025/), to [abortion rights](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-abortion-laws-national-ban/), and [even furries](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-furries-ban/). But there are small victories to celebrate. The Texas House has approved a bill that would remove a ban on “homosexual conduct” from state statute. It’s the farthest this effort has ever gone through the legislature. On Friday, the House narrowly voted 59-56 on [House Bill 1738](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/capitol-texas-gov/tlodocs/89R/billtext/hb01738i.pdf), which would repeal the symbolic 1973 law that prohibits "deviate sexual intercourse with another individual of the same sex." The House gave initial approval on Thursday in a 72-55 vote. The vote comes over 20 years after Lawrence v. Texas, a 2003 U.S. Supreme Court case that ruled the state’s ban on same-sex couples’ intimate choices was unconstitutional. The bill will now head to the Senate, where it will likely stall as lawmakers rush to complete unfinished business by the end of the legislative session on June 2, according to the [*Texas Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/05/15/texas-homosexual-misconduct-ban-gay/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Still, Rep. Venton Jones, the bill’s author, told the outlet that Thursday's vote marked significant progress. “Working on this bill has been a one step at a time process, for so long,” said Jones, a Dallas Democrat and one of the first Black gay members of the House. “I am standing on the shoulders of people who have carried this bill before me, and that’s where I get my strength.” The bill also received the support of 12 Republicans, including some of the most conservative voices in the chamber. Rep. Brian Harrison, a Midlothian Republican, notably signed on as co-author, citing that the bill would reduce government overreach. “Criminalizing homosexuality is not the role of government, and I support repealing it,” Harrison said in a statement to the *Tribune*, adding that he “will continue consistently fighting for limited government and individual liberty.” Harrison acknowledged to the outlet that he and Jones frequently disagree, but he's in favor of the bill. That’s right: Two men from different places and political ideologies found common ground in the legislative process. Was it to simply remove an unenforceable law? Yes. Will even that minimal step fail to make it to the governor's desk? Most likely. Still, it’s a nice reminder that anything is possible in the Texas Legislature, even decency. **Read more at the** [***Texas Tribune***](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/05/15/texas-homosexual-misconduct-ban-gay/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)**.** ### Texas Tried to Ban Imaginary Furries in Schools. Yes, the Governor Was On Board. No, It’s Not a Joke. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-furries-ban/ Last updated: 2025-05-16T09:00:00.000Z Well, we’ve done it again, Texas. Added yet another deeply embarrassing chapter to our ever-growing “Are We the Problem?” [scrapbook](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/measles-outbreak-vaccination-texas/). This time, it involves a doomed piece of legislation so absurd, so disconnected from reality, you’d think it was cooked up in an internet comment section. But no — it had the *official* backing of [Gov. Greg Abbott and House Speaker Dustin Burrows](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/article/furries-bill-greg-abbott-20294538.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The now-limping F.U.R.R.I.E.S. Act — that’s short for “Forbidding Unlawful Representation of Roleplaying in Education” — was supposed to crack down on the nonexistent crisis of teens pretending to be animals in schools. That’s right. Your state government used time, energy, and taxpayer dollars to try to stop students from wearing cat ears or making animal noises. Because apparently, nothing screams “priority” like imaginary werewolves in homeroom. The bill, authored by Rep. Stan Gerdes, aimed to outlaw “non-human behavior” in schools — which is ironic, given how little human behavior seems to be present in our beloved Capitol. [Gerdes claimed the legislation was necessary](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/article/furries-ban-texas-schools-20325356.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to stop a “concerning trend,” though when pressed for actual proof, he came up with the legislative equivalent of a shrug emoji. At a committee hearing last month, Gerdes cited a conversation with a school superintendent who denied there was a problem, according to the [*Houston Chronicle*](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/article/furries-ban-texas-schools-20325356.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). No reports. No examples. Just vibes and viral Facebook posts from 2022. Abbott, never one to let facts get in the way of a good culture war, [declared to a group of pastors in March](https://www.kut.org/politics/2025-03-14/furries-texas-school-choice-vouchers?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that “kids in two rural school district settings go to school dressed up as cats with litter boxes in their classrooms.” Of course, he offered no evidence either — just a healthy dose of moral panic (and, of course, utter contempt for the intelligence of the residents of his state). Thankfully, reality stepped in. Because most people, even the most MAGA among us, don't really believe that their kids' schools have been turned into episodes of "Paw Patrol." The inane bill failed to advance out of the House education committee before Monday’s deadline, per the [*Chronicle*](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/article/furries-ban-texas-schools-20325356.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com), meaning it’s likely dead for the session. Gerdes vowed to continue fighting the phantom furry menace, saying there are “potentially” other ways to revive it before June, but that sounds a lot like someone insisting they’re “taking a break” instead of admitting they got dumped. Rep. James Talarico, a Democrat from Round Rock and one of the few adults in the room, called the bill out for what it is: a made-up distraction meant to turn Texans against their public schools. “Governor Abbott has used this litter box rumor to paint our schools in the worst possible light,” Talarico said [during the hearing last month](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/article/furries-bill-greg-abbott-20294538.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “That's because if you want to [defund neighborhood schools across the state](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-school-vouchers-2/), you have to get [Texans to turn against their public schools](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/ken-paxton-crt/). So you call librarians groomers, you accuse teachers of indoctrination, and now you say that schools are providing litter boxes to students. That's how all of this is tied together.” And about those infamous litter boxes? Let’s put that nonsense to rest, too. The idea that schools are installing litter boxes in bathrooms for “furry-identifying” students was never real to begin with. It’s the Bigfoot of culture war talking points — and just as hard to pin down. According to a [*Reuters* fact check](https://www.reuters.com/article/fact-check/no-evidence-that-us-schoolchildren-are-self-identifying-as-animals-and-disrupt-idUSL1N2YN1O2/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the claim was amplified in right-wing doofus Matt Walsh’s documentary “What is a Woman?,” where a family therapist declared that kids were “purring” in classrooms and teachers weren’t allowed to question it because it’s supposedly a queer identity. Sounds compelling — until you realize no evidence was ever offered, and every actual expert who studies this stuff says it’s absolute fiction. Reuters talked to Courtney Plante, co-founder of the International Anthropomorphic Research Project (aka Furscience), which has studied over 40,000 furries and confirmed that the whole “kids acting like cats in schools” hysteria has been floating around the internet for over a decade, with no proof, of course. “If there is an epidemic of kids howling and meowing in schools,” Plante [told Reuters](https://www.reuters.com/article/fact-check/no-evidence-that-us-schoolchildren-are-self-identifying-as-animals-and-disrupt-idUSL1N2YN1O2/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), “you’d think it would be easier to find them and put them in front of a camera (or at very least, one of their teachers!).” [Psychologist Dr. Kathy Gerbasi and professors like Elizabeth Fein agree](https://www.reuters.com/article/fact-check/no-evidence-that-us-schoolchildren-are-self-identifying-as-animals-and-disrupt-idUSL1N2YN1O2/?ref=thebarbedwire.com): while some adults who identify as “therians” feel a spiritual or psychological connection to animals, they’re not disrupting classrooms, and they certainly aren’t being granted protected legal status. Harvard professor Michael Bronski flat-out said the whole idea that identifying as a cat is a protected queer identity is “completely a fabrication.” In short: no litter boxes. No cat children. No classroom zoos. Just a bunch of grown adults chasing internet rumors like they're legislative priorities. So let’s recap: A major state political party, including our actual governor, tried to pass a law banning students from pretending to be animals based on online hearsay that has been debunked more times than [JFK Jr.'s return to Dealey Plaza](https://mediaengagement.org/research/qanon-and-the-return-of-jfk-jr/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). And they failed. And in a legislative session as [supremely messed-up as this one](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/communism-education-texas-schools/), this sadly counts as a victory. We could’ve been talking about [school funding](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-school-vouchers/). [Teacher pay](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-has-28-billion-in-the-bank-what-if-we-spent-some-of-it/). Student mental health. But instead, we got a fur-fueled sideshow that now joins the long, sad parade of political theater that makes Texas the punchline of its own joke. At least this time, the joke didn’t become law. ### Few Did Tortured Male Genius As Well as Texas’ Townes Van Zandt URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/few-did-tortured-male-genius-as-well-as-texas-townes-van-zandt/ Last updated: 2025-05-15T09:00:00.000Z *Texas hasn’t gotten its due as a major piece in the complex puzzle of American art. We’re here to rectify that. Every three weeks, [H. Drew Blackburn](https://thebarbedwire.com/author/drew/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) will conduct a thoroughly scientific analysis of the 254 integral (one for every county) books, movies, tv shows, albums, podcasts, songs, and magazine articles — you name it — that best exemplify the Texas spirit. These texts, products of immense talent, dig into the marrow of our being. When it’s all said and done and we’ve built The [Texas Voyager collection](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-texas-canon-friday-night-lights-friday-night-lights-or-friday-night-lights/), we’ll (figuratively) head to the Johnson Space Center in Houston and shoot it beyond the atmosphere, into the cosmos. A wise person once posed the question: “What if the aliens are hot?” Hold onto that hope — this is our chance to impress ‘em.* Who gets to be a tortured artist? And why are Americans obsessed with them? The life and work of Townes Van Zandt — one of Texas’ most revered tragic men of artistic brilliance — begs the questions. At least to Margaret Brown, the director of the 2004 documentary on the country icon, “Be Here to Love Me,” and a forthcoming [docuseries about Austin’s yogurt shop murders](https://www.statesman.com/story/news/2025/03/11/documentary-about-1991-austin-yogurt-shop-murders-premieres-at-sxsw/82138304007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “I was just curious about this myth of the white male artist being a genius. Maybe just male artists being a genius,” Brown told *The* *Barbed Wire*. “People don't talk about women in the same way. I came at it partly out of a curiosity about what makes that true? And is it true?” In the coming year, Oscilloscope Films will re-release “Be Here to Love Me,” and Brown will interview new subjects. “We want to get some artists to do the commentary with us, and it'll be interesting to see who pops up,” she said. The questions at the center of the documentary seem as prescient as they were two decades ago, perhaps aided by 2025 Oscar-contender “A Complete Unknown” and [Timothee Chalamet’s Bob Dylan](https://www.vogue.com/article/i-feel-personally-victimized-by-timothee-chalamets-bob-dylan?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a fellow tortured artist and fan of Van Zandt. Or, better yet, Monica Barbaro’s Joan Baez, overshadowed by Dylan’s rebel rocker ego. Challenging the contemporary notions of who owns the soul of country music and whether or not self-destruction is required for country star status is essential to uncovering its roots. It does not belong to bro-country, a genre that siphons everything good from rock n’ roll, pop, and hip-hop and spits out a soulless interpretation. In its purest form, country and western music is for the real misfits, the people at the margins. It was born out of the blues and folk music, where the pain of working-class men and women was woven into gold. It’s for people like Van Zandt, who, as [*Texas Monthly*](https://www.texasmonthly.com/arts-entertainment/the-great-late-townes-van-zandt/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) said, was born into comfort but preferred the company of the down-and-out. The songwriter, born in 1944 in Fort Worth, spent most of his career toiling in obscurity until Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson covered his song "[Pancho and Lefty](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoKvUYbGu7A&ref=thebarbedwire.com)" in 1983\. Still, throughout his life, he didn’t sell many records or make a lot of money. As mentioned in Brown’s documentary, he lived a nomadic lifestyle, rarely tethered to just one place for too long, and struggled with alcoholism, drug addiction, and mental health. Van Zandt exemplifies the ways male artists, especially musicians, are valorized and romanticized for their personal struggles. Sure, there’s Sylvia Plath and Amy Winehouse, but we’re far more likely to see a woman’s demons or bad behavior as a nuisance than as fuel for their creativity. That’s because the ways we discuss artistic genius are deeply gendered. By contrast, the idea of a tortured genius is fundamental to Van Zandt lore, as if his pain was not just part of the art, but elemental. Maybe even intentional. Just like Brown, I was in college the first time I recall listening to Townes Van Zandt and particularly, “Waitin’ Around to Die.” A few things struck me immediately. First: this ballad, written in 1968 in a closet in Houston while his wife sat in the other room, has to be one of the earliest songs to mention codeine, just a few years after Buffy Sainte-Marie’s “Cod’ine” in 1964\. Second: this is some dark and haunting stuff, hypnotic and addictive. “I remember just wanting to hear it over and over. Like, fall into the song. Embody the song,” Brown said. “It was like a trance song. You know how there's some songs you play over and over? It was like that for me.” Brown points out something revealing about the record — a bleak tale of resignation, abuse, addiction, and incarceration. “It’s kind of a song for a young person. I still love this song, but it doesn’t resonate with me in the same way,” she said. “He wrote that before sort of anything happened to him. It’s beautiful, one of his best. But it’s interesting that it was written before his life went on a crazy roller coaster.” In effect, “Waitin’ Around to Die” reads less as a reflection of hard living and more as a premonition or a self-fulfilling prophecy. In the film, Van Zandt characterizes his music as not sad, but hopeless. Was Van Zandt knowingly playing into the idea of the tortured male genius? Brown seems to think so. “He was a self-mythologizer. At the same time, I think that he was a raconteur. He knew that's part of his mythos, but I also think the ring of the mythos at that time was small,” she said. “He was playing to nine people in a club some nights, but it only gathered steam as he died.” Since Van Zandt’s death due to cardiac arrhythmia in 1997 after years of substance abuse, his legend has ballooned. He’s your favorite singer-songwriter’s favorite singer-songwriter — [Dylan](https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/songs-that-meant-something-townes-van-zandts-favourite-bob-dylan-album/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [Lucinda Williams](https://americansongwriter.com/read-an-excerpt-from-ill-be-here-in-the-morning-the-songwriting-legacy-of-townes-van-zandt?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and [Steve Earle](https://thebluegrasssituation.com/read/standing-on-the-table-musing-on-townes-van-zandt?ref=thebarbedwire.com) have revered his pen. He’s adored by [critics](https://www.spin.com/2019/03/townes-van-zandt-songs-best-hits-list/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and his songs are frequently covered by artists looking to put melancholy on display. “Every year, more people seem to know about him,” Brown says. “He just keeps growing, somehow.” Van Zandt, with his haunted songs and tragic arc, seemed to not only embody the myth of the tortured male genius but also invite it. Brown said her father was a country songwriter, and she sees how much they’re the antithesis of one another. “He stayed in Alabama for my mom, for family. Townes took the other path. He gave it all up—his family, his health—and dove into the abyss. I wondered: was that a choice? Was it addiction? Is that what it takes?” Who’s to say what actually makes anyone great, but I do know we love tragedy, gazing down at the abyss, in awe. ### Did Trump call Elon Musk Fat? Musk’s Own Chatbot Says Yes URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/trump-elon-musk-fat/ Last updated: 2025-05-14T09:00:00.000Z If you need a visual metaphor for Elon Musk's current life trajectory, just picture a human piñata with a fading hair transplant. First, Donald Trump goofs on him during a White House press conference, and then Musk’s own AI chatbot jumps in to confirm it. Folks, we are witnessing the rare two-pronged roast: presidential and algorithmic. Let’s set the scene. Trump — while flanked by a lineup that looked like a casting call for a conspiracy podcast (hi [RFK Jr.](https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/rfk-jr-health-stances-vaccines-fluoride-raw-milk-rcna180244?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [Mehmet Oz](https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/dr-mehmet-oz-health-claims-controversial-medicare-trump-rcna181085?ref=thebarbedwire.com)) — [went off-script during a press conference on drug prices](https://www.thedailybeast.com/elon-musks-ai-chatbot-grok-thinks-trumps-hilarious-fat-businessman-story-was-all-about-him/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). In true Trumpian fashion, he veered into a story about his “brilliant” but “seriously overweight” businessman friend who’s “very neurotic” and takes “the fat shot.” The anonymous person in question had apparently called from London, complaining that weight-loss meds cost $88 overseas but $1,300 here in the good ol’ you’re-free-to-pay-what-businesses-tell-you-to U.S.A. Trump’s punchline? “It’s not working.” > [](https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1921930855867457667?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Cue laughter. Cue side-eye. Cue the internet. Naturally, speculation exploded online like a SpaceX test launch. Enter Musk’s own chatbot, Grok. When prompted about who Trump might be talking about, Grok responded with the subtlety of a Cybertruck plowing through a stop sign: “It’s likely that Trump was referring to Elon Musk.” > [](https://twitter.com/grok/status/1922039790628962777?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Et tu, Grok? This is even funnier when you remember that, when Musk unveiled Grok, he specifically pointed out how [funny and snarky it was](https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/elon-musk-says-his-new-ai-bot-grok-will-have-sarcasm-and-access-to-x-information-b4e169de?ref=thebarbedwire.com). And in fairness to Grok, bosses *are* great to make fun of. Perhaps in a moment of mechanical self-awareness, Grok tried to soften the blow by saying the “seriously overweight” part might be an exaggeration — but the damage was done. Musk has, after all, [admitted to taking Mounjaro](https://www.forbes.com/sites/antoniopequenoiv/2024/12/26/ozempic-santa-musk-reveals-his-use-of-mounjaro-in-latest-weight-loss-drug-endorsement/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) (a.k.a. Ozempic’s sibling) and once tweeted that he was “[Ozempic Santa](https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1872086971557761348?ref=thebarbedwire.com).” Because nothing screams holiday cheer like self-injecting GLP-1 inhibitors between bites of keto turkey. So let’s recap: Trump, who famously does *not* forget a grudge, publicly roasts a “neurotic, overweight” business mogul over weight-loss drugs. Musk’s *own chatbot agrees*. And Elon? Radio silence. Which is rich, considering this is a man who’ll reply to a fart joke at 3 a.m. but suddenly has nothing to say when he’s the punchline. The man built rockets to escape Earth’s gravity, but apparently not Trump’s. Sad. The man wants to colonize Mars but can’t even control a chatbot that fat-shames him on Earth And the cherry on this insulin-resistant sundae? Musk has spent the past several years sucking up to Trump like a Roomba with a MAGA patch. He’s done everything but livestream himself pledging allegiance in a red hat while riding a Cybertruck through Mar-a-Lago. And what does he get for it? A not-so-veiled fat joke in the Roosevelt Room, followed by digital betrayal from his own company’s pride and joy. All of this comes as Musk has gone through a rough couple of months -- [getting trolled incessantly by gamers who busted him for cheating](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/elon-musk-trolled-livestream/) and [rage quitting his job as Trump’s budget hatchet man](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/elon-musk-quits-doge/). But, hey, at least he established his own [city in South Texas](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/starbase-official-texas-city-elon-musk-spacex/) to launch his space litter. At this point, Grok might be Musk’s most honest employee. ### This Texas Drag Queen Wants to Teach You How to Protest URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-drag-queen-legislation/ Last updated: 2025-05-13T09:00:00.000Z Austin drag queen Brigitte Bandit knew she’d draw attention at the Texas Capitol last week. While speaking against Senate Bill 18 — which would withdraw state funding from any [municipal library](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-librarians-fighting-book-bans/) that hosts drag queen story hour events — she wore a Texas flag top with a white skirt [listing the names](https://www.instagram.com/p/DJSdID2NKGO/?img%5Findex=3&igsh=MXh0eHA5bXR4cW9weA==&ref=thebarbedwire.com) of Texas pastors who have been accused or charged with sexual assault. On the back, the skirt reads “Kids are safer at a drag storytime than at church.” Bandit is no stranger to turning political theater into action. In 2023, she went [viral](https://www.instagram.com/p/C43LyN9Oq12/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for testifying in drag at the Texas Capitol against [Senate Bill 12 and Senate Bill 1601](https://www.texastribune.org/2023/04/04/texas-drag-queen-shows-senate/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), both of which targeted drag performers. Though SB 12 was passed into law, Bandit joined the ACLU in a lawsuit to block it from taking effect. The law, which sought to bar kids from [drag shows](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-am-drag-ban/), was later [ruled unconstitutional](https://www.aclutx.org/en/cases/woodlands-pride-inc-et-al-v-warren-kenneth-paxton-et-al?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=On%20September%2026%2C%202023%2C%20the,government%20defendants%20from%20enforcing%20it.). Since then, the drag queen, whose signature look often includes a sky-high platinum blonde wig and a Dolly Parton-sized breastplate, has made public advocacy and activism as much a part of her job as brunch performances and themed tribute lip-syncs. “I started to understand how a lot of politicians make it as difficult as possible to listen to their constituents,” she says, adding that even those who want to get involved don’t know where to start. “I wanted to make that information accessible and digestible to people in a way that didn’t feel defeating or devastating. I wanted to create something fun and engaging.” Thus, “LegiSLAYtion & Liberation” was born. Held every Tuesday at Oilcan Harry’s in Austin, the event begins with Bandit going over headlines in a game of “breaking news bingo,” before segueing into “Texas Tea & Policy,” to review proposed and concerning legislation. These segments are followed by performances and presentations put on by other queens or local community organizations. Previous guests have led talks on how to testify or drop a card at the Capitol, while others delivered presentations on disability rights, constitutional protections, and decolonization. Recently, [Street Medics Austin](https://streetmedicsaustin.org/our-work/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) taught a “stop the bleed” emergency medicine class. Bandit spoke with *The Barbed Wire* about blending activism with drag, and LegiSLAYtion & Liberation, which continues through the end of the legislative session in June. **How has your drag changed since you first started? Is this what you imagined you’d be doing years ago?** **BB:** I actually didn’t get into drag until I was 26, around 2018\. I think it took me a while to understand that somebody like me, who was born female, could be a drag queen. Once I figured that out, though, it was like *hell yeah, sign me up*. I’ve been doing that ever since, but no, I never imagined that I would be doing what I'm doing today, especially because we didn't have the volume of attacks on our community that we're seeing now. When I started drag, it was just for fun. I had just gotten through a very abusive relationship, and kind of lost myself and all my confidence. I didn't know who I was, and drag kind of gave me that outlet to explore myself and to feel empowered again. I found a lot of strength through drag, and I also found community. I found people who really celebrated each other. **What inspired you to use drag as a form of political advocacy?** When we started seeing these attacks on drag queens and the queer community, I showed up to testify in drag, and I realized how much it really drew people’s attention to these issues. Bringing those two worlds together just kind of made sense. But also, from the very beginning, some of my first numbers were about reproductive rights and reproductive health care. So I guess I’ve always been a little political, but I didn't think I was going to end up suing the state of Texas with the ACLU. \[*Laughs*\] **You got a lot of attention when you spoke at the Capitol in 2023\. What was that experience like?** It’s kind of crazy that the very first time I went to testify, it became worldwide news. I got a lot of love and attention, but I also got a lot of backlash from hate groups, to the point where I was doxxed online. I saw my information posted, and I just wanted to hide. I wanted to delete my socials, and I was nervous for my safety. But then I thought, *You know what?* *That’s what they want me to do. If I do that, then they win.* So instead, I blasted that post out into my followers and asked them to report it. It was reported so much that the \[poster\] lost their Facebook and Instagram. That really empowered me to not be silent. I realized it's not just me, I have a whole community supporting me. I have people who love me and who will fight for me too. https://www.instagram.com/p/DJUbSWxNACi/?hl=en&img\_index=1 **Have you developed a strategy for the backlash now?** Now I really don't care. Whenever I see negative posts, I just clap back and try to poke holes in their logic and their stupidity. **When I’ve seen you clap back, a lot of your responses focus on the use of anti-LGBTQ legislation to distract from other issues affecting Texans, like the fact that we’ve** [**led the nation in school shootings**](https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/articles/states-with-the-most-school-shootings?ref=thebarbedwire.com)**, or that we rank among the lowest states for** [**school funding**](https://www.texasaft.org/policy/funding/new-report-finds-texas-one-of-worst-funded-states-for-public-education/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)**. What’s behind that strategy?** It’s because all of these issues are interconnected. The first time I went to testify at a hearing, I wore [a dress](https://www.instagram.com/p/CsG8A2guzAp/?igsh=cmw1Ymxyem56bjR2&ref=thebarbedwire.com) that had the names of the children who died in Uvalde, and on the back I had, [“Protect Texas Kids”](https://www.texasobserver.org/dallas-has-a-problem-with-zombie-astroturf-groups/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and “Defend Our Kids,” which are the names of two anti-LGBTQ hate groups. I was purposely targeting them by using their language to address actual issues. I think I was just so angry because we had just had another mass shooting the weekend before they were hearing the anti-drag storytime bill, and on the same day, there were Neo Nazis outside a drag story time. I just thought, *Fuck it, I’m going to make the biggest statement I can make*. I called my mom to help me with that dress, and we both cried on the phone together. It was a really heavy thing to wear. **How does your experience as a female drag queen inform and shape the work you do?** At first, I was really hesitant to talk about being an AFAB queen. That’s why I wore the amount of makeup that I did. I didn’t want people to see me as a female drag queen, I wanted the illusion to be there and to play with gender a bit. So when I outed myself at the Capitol, I saw so many comments from women being like, *Wait, I can do this too?* At the same time, I was really frustrated as an AFAB drag performer when abortion restrictions were passed, and there was silence from the gay men in the community. It was devastating for women and for people who give birth, and I was frustrated with the lack of solidarity I saw within the community. Because of that, it’s really important to me that even when a bill doesn’t necessarily target me, I still show up and fight back. I understand the importance of us standing together, and that an attack on any one of us affects all of us. **When it comes to Legislation & Liberation, what was your main goal with the event?** I just wanted to go through and talk about these things with everybody as straightforwardly as possible. Because as overwhelming as it is, you do eventually start to keep up with it and digest it. \[Texas lawmakers and this administration\] are trying to overwhelm us with all of these bills and executive orders, so let’s not let them. Let’s do this together and go through it point by point. **Texas Republicans filed a** [**record number**](https://www.axios.com/local/houston/2025/04/22/texas-legislature-anti-trans-bills?ref=thebarbedwire.com) **of bills targeting trans people this year. Why is it so important for people who aren’t trans to follow those bills and speak up against them?** I would say that the attacks on trans people affect other communities, too. Even anti-drag rhetoric is a way to attack trans people. But also, cis women are now being accused of being men in bathrooms, and things like restricting access to hormone blockers affect children who need them for other reasons. Anti-trans rhetoric is going to affect all of us, so it really is front and center for me to protect trans people. **SB-18 would restrict funding from libraries that put on drag queen story time events. What do you enjoy most about those events?** I’ve worked with kids in different capacities for years, and when I became a drag queen and was asked to do all-ages events, it was a no-brainer for me. But it was also funny, because the reason I was asked to do it was because no other queens wanted to. People try to make it seem like we get into drag to be around kids, when most drag queens don’t want that at all. \[*Laughs*\] When I did my first event with kids, they just loved it. I was dressed as Dolly Parton, and they treated me like a Disney princess. It was really sweet. They’re so funny and they really enjoy it so much, sometimes I have to hold back tears when I’m reading. I get to see the magic of drag through them in a different way. https://www.instagram.com/p/DFQS3HopcAs/?hl=en **You said you never imagined being in this position when you started drag, what kind of future do you imagine for yourself now?** Honestly, I’m not sure where I’ll be in the future. I just want to keep showing up and see where that takes me. Maybe one day I can just do drag just for the sake of art, and just have fun again. That’s a dream of mine — where we can all feel celebrated and free. Is that going to happen in my lifetime? Who knows? But that’s the future I like to dream of. ### The Fires of Hell Aren’t as Hot as This Early Texas Heat Wave URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/hell-hath-come-early-texas-100-degree-days-are-back/ Last updated: 2025-05-12T16:05:26.000Z UPDATE: The early heat wave broke daily records Wednesday — [Austin](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/14/weather/texas-heat-record-may.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) hit 101 degrees, [Houston hit 96 degrees](https://www.click2houston.com/weather/2025/05/14/houstons-summer-heat-wave-has-arrived-record-setting-temps-likely-all-week/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), San Antonio may have been one of the [hottest places on the planet](https://www.ksat.com/video/news/2025/05/12/san-antonio-could-be-one-of-the-hottest-places-on-the-globe-by-wednesday/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Closer to the boarder, Del Rio International Airport hit [106 degrees](https://forecast.weather.gov/product.php?site=EWX&issuedby=EWX&product=AFD&format=CI&version=4&glossary=1&ref=thebarbedwire.com). A heat advisory remains in effect for parts of South Central Texas Thursday, according to the National Weather Service, which warned that more records would likely break and “additional heat products may be needed.” So, stay hydrated, take breaks, and [be safe](https://www.weather.gov/safety/heat?ref=thebarbedwire.com) out there, y’all. Summertime temperatures have unfortunately come early to Texas. Some cities are bracing for triple-digit, potentially record-breaking temperatures this week. The heat is expected to build Monday afternoon, with the highest temperatures expected on Wednesday afternoon, [*KVUE*](https://www.kvue.com/article/weather/forecast/weather-impact-alert-triple-digits-central-texas/269-d9c98340-a109-4677-9f2b-8cdfbe1db10a?ref=thebarbedwire.com)reported. In Austin, temperatures may reach a high between 100 and 102 degrees, while Hill County spots like Llano and Johnson City could see a high of 107 degrees, according to the outlet. This would be the eighth May since 1898 when Austin has had over 100-degree weather. The city’s average first triple-digit day falls on July 8, according to *KVUE.* San Antonio will likely see the earliest 100-degree heat wave ever recorded in its history, according to [*KSAT*](https://www.ksat.com/weather/2025/05/11/san-antonio-forecast-triple-digit-heat-wave-after-a-beautiful-mothers-day/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). And, in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, temperatures are expected to reach 96 and 100 degrees on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively, breaking the record high of 95 degrees on the same days in the 1950s, [*WFAA*](https://www.wfaa.com/article/weather/dfw-expecting-its-first-100-day-of-the-yearand-yes-its-early/287-4c3b1943-47aa-4cce-93b3-6533e22407a1?ref=thebarbedwire.com)reported. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas predicts the electric capacity to go over the expected demand every day this week, according to [*KHOU*](https://www.khou.com/article/news/local/texas-power-grid-demand-heat-wave-may-2025/285-c06738f9-374d-4b31-9416-4286467c0bce?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Energy experts also told the outlet that they’re confident the Texas power grid can withstand the hottest days of the year so far. As the state moves into blistering weather this week, Texans should remember to stay hydrated and indoors when possible — especially between [3 p.m. and 6 p.m.](https://www.kvue.com/article/weather/forecast/weather-impact-alert-triple-digits-central-texas/269-d9c98340-a109-4677-9f2b-8cdfbe1db10a?ref=thebarbedwire.com), when temperatures are at their peak. Experts also [recommend](https://www.khou.com/article/news/local/texas-power-grid-demand-heat-wave-may-2025/285-c06738f9-374d-4b31-9416-4286467c0bce?ref=thebarbedwire.com) replacing or cleaning the filters of air conditioning units and ensuring your thermostat works properly. ### Texas Wants to Teach Kids About ‘Harmful’ Ideologies. Fascism Isn’t One of Them. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/communism-education-texas-schools/ Last updated: 2025-05-12T11:26:59.000Z In the late 1940s through the 1950s, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and Republican Sen. Joseph McCarthy were leading figures in the Second Red Scare. The campaign of persecution targeted people accused, often falsely, of being communist and subjected them to public shaming, blacklists, and raids. You may know it better as McCarthyism. Why is this relevant to Texans in 2025? There’s an old saying apocryphally attributed to Mark Twain: History doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes. And another that those who know their history are able to perceive its consonance. If Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick gets his way, public schools in Texas will be required to teach students about the history of communist ideology and "atrocities attributable to its regimes.” The bill specifically requires that students be taught about how propaganda, public shaming tactics, censorship, and forced conformity were used to spread communist ideology. Nevermind McCarthyism. In March, Texas Sen. Donna Campbell, a Republican in New Braunfels, introduced [Senate Bill 24, which she](https://legiscan.com/TX/bill/SB24/2025?ref=thebarbedwire.com) described in[ a hearing](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/03/11/rafael-cruz-communism-texas-schools-christianity/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) “aims to educate students on the deceptive methods used to spread communistic ideology and highlight the ongoing threats posed by Communism.” Patrick has made the bill a priority, and a few weeks ago, Rafael Cruz, a right-wing pastor and the father of U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, testified in favor of it. He argued that young people have been “brainwashed on the virtues of socialism” through Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives, though they’ve already been banned or largely dismantled by the state. The [legislation](https://legiscan.com/TX/text/SB24/id/3190392?ref=thebarbedwire.com) would require the State Board of Education to reshape social studies curriculum to include lessons about: modern threats to the U.S. posed by communist regimes and ideologies; collectivist ideologies contrasted with America’s founding principles of individual rights, merit-based advancement, and free enterprise; and common methods used to spread communist ideas. Translation: China is our enemy, CRT and DEI are communist ideologies, and Cancel Culture is communism in action. “This is another way that the legislature is imposing unbearable governance on schools,” Jaime Puente, director of economic opportunity at Every Texan, a left-of-center nonprofit policy institute, told *The Barbed Wire*. “It's another mandate that if some school out there doesn't comply with, then there's going to be all these other mechanisms that the legislature is creating around parent grievances and complaints to the school board and attorney general.” On Monday of last week, Attorney General Ken Paxton [announced his intent](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/ken-paxton-crt/) to depose the superintendent and board of trustees for Austin Independent School District as a part of an investigation into whether the district is secretly teaching critical race theory. The basis for the investigation? Allegations of ties to the *New York Times’ The 1619 Project,* which places the experience of enslaved Africans at the center of the history of America's founding. “It’s outrageous that Austin ISD officials think they can ignore state law to put woke indoctrination in Texas classrooms,” reads Paxton’s press release. Puente thinks it's no coincidence that the bill comes on the heels of Gov. Greg Abbott signing [school vouchers into law](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-school-vouchers-2/). “He started his speech by attacking public education because that's where the majority of funding is going to continue to flow. And the only way that we've seen in the last four years that you can really take that public education dollars is by beating up on public schools and making people think that it's not worth investing in,” Puente said. “My biggest concern is that this is just another way that people will be able to gin up anger and mistrust about public education.” Even with [subsidized private education](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/05/03/texas-school-vouchers-greg-abbott-signs/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), there’s little reason to believe Republican lawmakers will end their attempts to embed their worldview into public school curriculums. There are a number of bills making their way through the legislature that would [further restrict DEI policies in public schools](https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/03/texas-bill-prison-teachers-librarians-books-sexual-profane-content-ban/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), punish schools and staffers who [support a student’s use of preferred names or pronouns](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/04/14/texas-legislature-transgender-bills/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [expand avenues for removing books from school libraries](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/03/05/texas-school-library-book-bans-senate-bill/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and make it a crime for librarians and teachers to provide [books that contain “sexually explicit material”](https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/03/texas-bill-prison-teachers-librarians-books-sexual-profane-content-ban/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — a definition that almost certainly includes award-winning works of literature. A [bill](https://legiscan.com/TX/bill/HB2273/2023?ref=thebarbedwire.com) similar to Senate Bill 24 stipulating instruction on political ideologies was considered by the legislature in 2023\. It included fascism, socialism and totalitarianism — not just communism — and ultimately died in committee. At the time, Puente with Every Texan testified that the bill would create a chilling effect in the classroom regarding historical figures like Emma Tenayuca, the leader of the Pecan Sheller’s Strike in San Antonio in 1938 when over 12,000 mostly Mexican American laborers protested low wages and poor working conditions. The bill would “require public school curriculums to describe her efforts as having been in ‘conflict with the principles of freedom and democracy,’ when in fact Tenayuca’s labor organizing helped create the multiracial democracy we now enjoy,” reads the testimony, which also noted that Martin Luther King Jr.’s Poor People’s Campaign, a 1968 multiracial struggle for economic justice that was relaunched in 2017, has long been labeled “communist.” Dr. Michael Phillips, a historian specializing in the history of racism, right-wing extremism, and apocalyptic religion in Texas, agreed the target of these bills may not really be communism per se, any kind of liberal or left-wing activism. “This has been done before,” Phillips said. “In the 1950s a number of school districts, including Dallas and some in the Houston area, had anti-communism courses.” In Dallas, he said, the course’s textbook was “Masters of Deceit,” by J. Edgar Hoover. “The book basically suggested that the communist Soviet Union was exploiting tensions over civil rights, that they had managed to deceive a large number of African Americans, and that the civil rights movement was infested with communists,” Phillips said. “Hoover was obsessed with this idea, and he thought Martin Luther King Jr. was a communist.” But the fact that fascism isn’t included in this year’s version is particularly conspicuous to Phillips. “Fascism, unlike communism, makes race the central conflict in human history,” Phillips said. “Communists would say it's class struggle, while fascists would say race and nationality are the primary struggles in human history.” Phillips posits that Republican lawmakers may be “afraid, for obvious reasons, that students who study the ideology of fascism as a discrete thing would be able to critique Trumpism and see the analogy between the modern [Republican Party and fascist movements through history.](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/elon-musk-new-fascism-trump-texas/)” Consider [Patrick’s embrace](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/09/17/dan-patrick-great-replacement-theory/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of “invasion” rhetoric echoing the so-called “Great Replacement Theory,” which alleges a nefarious Democratic scheme to replace native-born white Americans. The conspiracy theory, widely embraced in the modern neo-fascist movement, was the cited justification for the perpetrator of the [deadly 2019 El Paso Walmart massacre](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/el-paso-walmart-shooting-victims/), Patrick Crusius, who released a manifesto that bemoaned “cultural and ethnic replacement” and a [perceived “Hispanic invasion.”](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/el-paso-walmart-shooter/) Texas Sen. Sarah Eckhardt, a Democrat in Austin, attempted to amend the bill to include fascism, which she defined as dictatorial power, extreme nationalism, militarism, racism and suppression of political opposition through official means. “Another ideology that threatens our current modern-day democracies is fascism," Eckhardt told the Austin American-Statesman. "Understanding fascism is imperative for understanding communism and how we defend against such extremism that threatens a civil society." It did not pass. "I prefer to see what comes out in \[the State Board of Education\] and make sure we get the communism down, and then next session, let's work together, and we can put in some fascism," Campbell, the bill’s main sponsor, told the [*Austin American-Statesman*](https://www.statesman.com/story/news/politics/state/2025/03/27/texas-senate-bill-24-teach-communism-social-studies-curriculum/82677972007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Still, critics like Phillips have their doubts about the motive of the bill, which fails to provide a precise definition of communism. “I think that the shadow agenda is to provide a course material where you can’t talk to students about activist movements that question power structures and income inequality, raise issues of capitalism's role and the degradation of the climate, or explore how slavery basically provided the economic foundation for worldwide capitalism,” Phillips said. “This is going to be used to discredit anything left of the farthest right reaches of the Republican Party. That's a real agenda in this curriculum.” ### Nothing Terrifies Texas Leaders Like Kids Learning Slavery Was Bad URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/ken-paxton-crt/ Last updated: 2025-05-08T08:31:00.000Z It looks like Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has dusted off his [CRT-sensing goggles](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/coppell-isd-manipulated-video-court-filing-ken-paxton-lawsuit/) and set his sights on Austin ISD — a district he claims is sneakily indoctrinating children with Pulitzer-Prize-winning history lessons. On Monday, [Paxton’s office announced](https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/news/releases/attorney-general-ken-paxton-takes-legal-action-against-austin-isd-teaching-radical-anti-american?ref=thebarbedwire.com) it wants to haul in Austin ISD’s superintendent and school board for depositions, all part of an investigation into whether the district is stealth-teaching that bogeyman of Texas politics: critical race theory (side note: CRT? C’mon, Ken, whining about that was so four years ago). Paxton’s evidence? Allegations of ties to the *New York Times’* [*The 1619 Project*](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/1619-america-slavery.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a body of work that dares to suggest America’s history might involve some uncomfortable truths about slavery and race. “It’s outrageous that Austin ISD officials think they can ignore state law to put woke indoctrination in Texas classrooms,” Paxton harrumphed in a release. (Also, not to pull my “I grew up in Texas” card, but unlike Paxton, I did. And even in Wichita Falls, my football coach history teachers taught us that slavery was bad, even worse than failing to establish the run.) Anyway, apparently that’s illegal now. You might remember that Gov. Greg Abbott [signed a law in 2021](https://www.texastribune.org/2021/06/15/abbott-critical-race-theory-law/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) making sure *The 1619 Project* stayed far away from Texas classrooms — because nothing says “world-class education” like banning [Pulitzer-winning journalism](https://pulitzercenter.org/blog/nikole-hannah-jones-wins-pulitzer-prize-1619-project?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Paxton bravely says he’s protecting students from “liberal, anti-American ideology,” which apparently includes materials that explore the impact of slavery and feature Black voices. He’s especially concerned about remarks made by Stephanie Hawley, a former equity officer for the district, who once mentioned the use of Newsela — a platform that offers news-based content for classrooms. Some of those articles? Gasp. Linked to *The 1619 Project*. Add that to a couple of “undercover interviews” by Accuracy in Media — a conservative group best known for ambushing educators and editing the footage within an inch of its context and whose president is a [former Project Veritas officer](https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-guillette-64232848?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — and you’ve got the recipe for a good old fashioned political spectacle. Austin ISD has declined to comment on pending litigation, but others are happy to talk. Daphne Hoffacker of the Austin Council of PTAs minced no words, telling [KUT](https://www.kut.org/education/2025-05-05/texas-attorney-general-ken-paxton-austin-independent-school-district-crt-1619-project-slavery-history-race?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that Paxton’s probe is a “[waste of public resources](https://www.kut.org/education/2025-05-05/texas-attorney-general-ken-paxton-austin-independent-school-district-crt-1619-project-slavery-history-race?ref=thebarbedwire.com)” and a campaign stunt as he [runs against John Cornyn](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/cornyn-paxton-senate-texas/) in the upcoming Republican primary. (For the record, she is 100% right.) And then there’s Dr. David DeMatthews, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, who reminded everyone that CRT — the actual academic theory — is taught in graduate-level coursework, not third-period social studies. He also pointed out to [KUT](https://www.kut.org/education/2025-05-05/texas-attorney-general-ken-paxton-austin-independent-school-district-crt-1619-project-slavery-history-race?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that Texas schools have actual problems, like a teacher shortage and stagnant funding, but hey, why fix real issues when you can slap “woke” on everything and call it a day? For those keeping score, this isn’t Paxton’s first rodeo. Just last month, he sued Coppell ISD near Dallas over similar allegations. That lawsuit, based on more of Accuracy in Media’s “investigative” work, quickly unraveled when Coppell ISD hit back with a counterclaim, calling the video [“heavily edited” and “grossly misleading.”](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/coppell-isd-manipulated-video-court-filing-ken-paxton-lawsuit/) Eventually, [both sides agreed to dismiss everything](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/05/06/texas-ag-ken-paxton-crt-teaching-lawsuit/?%5Fbhlid=3699d80f10f2ef7b1c01ff6af4c41387a4e6d8bc&ref=thebarbedwire.com), but not before Paxton claimed victory in a press release, natch. So here we are again: another headline, another school district, another investigation with thin evidence and thick political overtones that once again is embarrassing Texas in front of the rest of the country (in fairness, Oklahoma is probably fine with it). Maybe it’s about upholding the law. Or maybe it’s just campaign season. Either way, it’s incredibly sad that public schools trying to teach students how to think critically about history have to worry if Big Brother might come knocking with a subpoena. Which, of course, is exactly what Paxton wants. ### Trump Cut Funding To Texas Arts Groups, Leaving Them in ‘Confusion and Chaos’ URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/arts-funding-cuts-texas/ Last updated: 2025-05-07T17:03:20.000Z Texas arts organizations are reeling from the Trump administration’s latest federal budget cuts. This time, President Donald Trump targeted the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency that distributes funding for arts programs. Trump proposed eliminating the NEA in his [2026 budget](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-whitehouse-gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/fiscal-year-2026-discretionary-budget-request.pdf) released on Friday. In an email sent to grant recipients nationwide that evening, the NEA announced it would be ending and withdrawing payments immediately, [*The New York Times*](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/03/arts/national-endowment-for-the-arts-grants.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) reported. A group of senior officials at the NEA also [resigned](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/05/arts/national-endowment-for-the-arts-resignations.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on Monday. "The NEA will now prioritize projects that elevate the Nation’s HBCUs and Hispanic Serving Institutions, celebrate the 250th anniversary of American independence, foster AI competency, empower houses of worship to serve communities, assist with disaster recovery, foster skilled trade jobs, make America healthy again, support the military and veterans, support Tribal communities, make the District of Columbia safe and beautiful, and support the economic development of Asian American communities," the email read. "Funding is being allocated in a new direction in furtherance of the Administration’s agenda." In Texas, 64 arts groups were awarded NEA grants totaling more than $1.5 million in January, according to the [agency](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-arts-gov/sites/default/files/fall2024%5Fstatelistreport%5Fupdated%5Fjan14.pdf). As of Tuesday, six North Texas organizations reported losing their funding, according to [*KERA*](https://www.keranews.org/arts-culture/2025-05-06/nea-funding-cuts-north-texas-arts?ref=thebarbedwire.com). [Deep Vellum](https://deepvellum.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a Dallas bookstore deemed the largest publisher of literature in translation in the U.S., lost a $20,000 grant that would have helped publish four debut books by international authors. “What this kind of means for us right now is confusion and chaos,” said founder Will Evans in a phone interview with *KERA*, adding that the NEA hasn’t returned his calls. Nineteen Houston-area organizations, including the Houston Symphony and the Menil Foundation, were also listed as NEA grant recipients this year. Leila Cartier, executive director of the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, told the [*Houston* Chronicle](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/trending/article/nea-grant-cuts-houston-20308381.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that losing their money from the NEA wouldn’t adversely affect the center’s staff or operations, but acknowledged that the Trump administration’s budget cuts will harm the arts long-term. "What impact is cutting the arts really going to do on the overall (federal) budget? It's like a fraction of a penny. It's meaningless. But to us, it's everything," Cartier told the outlet. "It's just completely short-sighted in terms of what this kind of cut will do for a budget, the ripple effect and the cost is going to be much greater in the long run. The NEA cuts have also rippled through Austin, where many organizations have already been defunded due to the city’s reforms to its [own arts grants](https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2024-10-25/city-arts-funding-skipped-established-arts-organizations-will-they-survive/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). As of Monday, three of 14 federal funding recipients — the Austin Film Society, Austin Film Festival, and ZACH Theatre — confirmed to the [*Austin Chronicle*](https://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/arts/2025-05-05/arts-groups-lose-promised-grant-money-in-friday-night-nea-massacre/?utm%5Fsource=Sailthru&utm%5Fmedium=email&utm%5Fcampaign=202557%5FNewsletter%5FAustin&utm%5Fterm=Austin)that they’d be appealing the agency’s decision. Groups have until Friday, May 9, to file [appeals](https://www.indiewire.com/news/general-news/nea-grant-terminated-what-to-do-1235120597/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for projects that align with the NEA’s new priorities. The AFS told the outlet that two of their grants, amounting to $105,000, have been canceled. In an interview with the *Austin Chronicle*, Maury Sullivan, the AFS head of marketing and engagement, said “having the funding cut off undermines our focus on delivering programs." Jamie Herlich, ZACH managing director, also told that outlet that the NEA’s decision is “a blow to the arts ecosystem in Austin and to the cultural fabric of our country." ### Black Dandyism, the 2025 Met Gala Theme, Grew Out of Southern Churches URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/met-gala-theme-black-churches/ Last updated: 2025-05-06T15:27:34.000Z André Leon Talley is the patron saint of the [Met Gala](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/met-gala-black-style/). A Black gay man who grew up in the Jim Crow South, he became one of [fashion’s biggest stars](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/19/style/andre-leon-talley-dead.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Before his death in 2022, Talley helped dress Michelle Obama as first lady, served as creative director and editor at large at *Vogue*, and judged “America’s Next Top Model.” It was his name, his ingenuity, his legacy that was immortalized among the white and yellow daffodil lined steps Monday night at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the annual Costume Institute gala, one of the biggest nights in fashion. The Met steps, which he made his own through sharp, poignant, cultural savvy fashion commentary during his tenure as the host of *Vogue*’s Met Gala livestream. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/gettyimages-1056595494.jpg) Andre Leon Talley speaks during the 21st SCAD Savannah Film Festival on Nov. 2, 2018\. (Photo by Cindy Ord/Getty Images for SCAD) The greatest disappointment of last night’s Met Gala is that Talley was not in attendance. Although his presence and influence was felt throughout the night’s events, he was not able to bear witness or participate in the first gala focused exclusively on Black designers and style. However, without his legacy and the southern Black churches that instilled the values of adornment and self-preservation through dress, “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” wouldn’t exist. His death was the [catalyst](https://www.vogue.com/article/superfine-tailoring-black-style-press-preview?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for this year’s Met Gala and costume exhibit, according to co-curator Andrew Bolton. The prodigal son of North Carolina first learned the value of luxury through his grandmother’s cleaning routines of starched shirts, ironed sheets, and impeccable lace work. It was not legendary *Vogue* editors Anna Wintour or Diana Vreeland who taught him the standards of which fashion should be judged upon, but Bennie Frances Davis, his grandmother and caregiver, who cleaned the men’s dormitory halls at Duke University. There is beauty, faith, hope, and luxury in the South. Those basic tenets, which guided Talley’s life, were not limited to New York, London, or Milan. No, their origin place was in the church. “Going to church, the way you dressed, you learned how to be,” he said in a 2018[ interview](https://gardenandgun.com/articles/a-look-inside-andre-leon-talleys-personal-couture-collection/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to *Garden & Gun*. “In the black South, the church culture was almost like a finishing school.” The Black dandy — central to the new Costume Institute exhibit, “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” and 2025 Met Gala theme — has roots in the church. It was the only place, during times of enslavement and race based disenfranchisement, where African Americans could display their custom-made, tailored pieces, which were composed of repurposed clothes, [buttons, and ribbons](https://www.history.com/articles/black-dandy-fashion-met-gala-theme?ref=thebarbedwire.com). ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/17-freedomgalleryview-2.jpg) Freedom, GalleryView (Photo by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) In the months leading up to the Met Gala, the [Trump Administration](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/donald-trump-voters/) has worked to eliminate the historical and cultural contributions of African Americans and [LGBTQ people](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/queer-eyes-jonathan-van-ness-attacked-in-upsetting-pro-trump-ad/) from America. A series of executive orders to undo the progress made by diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, are part of an attempt to omit Black people and Queer people, in favor of a white, homogenous depiction of America to the world. But, the Black dandy has always been a face of political opposition and resistance. And the spirit of that was felt on the red carpet and the new Met exhibit. But Black fashion has always been political. [The South Carolina Negro Act of 1735](https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1739&context=tsaconf/1000&ref=thebarbedwire.com) dictated what cloths, linens, cottons, and garments African Americans had access to. The lower quality textiles that were provided to African Americans were damaging and harmful to their skin. It was meant to be a signifier of their status: not human, but property, a good whose value was determined by their labor. Yet, on Sundays, in the church, where they were able to don clothing and apparel that made them good, they were seen as human, as Black people. That would be impossible without the contributions of the first generation of Black fashion designers in the South and the church. “Church was my first fashion show, and my grandmother was my first client. She is one of the reasons that I fell in love with fashion and style,” said celebrity stylist Law Roach in an [interview](https://www.gq.com/story/dandy-land-celebrating-superfine-tailoring-black-style?ref=thebarbedwire.com) with *GQ* and *Vogue*. “My grandfather was a pastor, so I went to a Baptist church in Chicago. My cousins and I had clothes we could play outside in, then we had church clothes. There were always eccentrics in church. I got really familiar with the word peacocking — and the male peacock is the one with the beautiful feathers, the vibrant color.” Known for his show-stopping looks with Zendaya, Roach served as the curator for Burberry’s table at the Met Gala. The table, a who’s who of stars in fashion and entertainment, featured Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts and André 3000\. Roach described Hurts as “[a dandy in the making](https://www.elle.com/fashion/celebrity-style/a64672498/law-roach-burberry-met-gala-interview-2025/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)” to *Vogue*. Atlanta native André 3000 continues to be an example of how the contemporary Black dandy evolves over time. From his eye-catching tailored vintage suits as a member of Outkast, to last night’s [Burberry x Benji Bixby jumpsuit](https://www.gq.com/story/andre-3000-met-gala-red-carpet-piano-album?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the Southern Black dandy carried on the spirit of innovation that was first birthed in churches throughout the Southern U.S. Although she was not present at last night’s Met Gala, in years past, [Erkyah Badu](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/erykah-badu-window-seat-best-music-video/) has brought the spirit of the Black Southern female dandy, known as a [quaintrelle](https://www.thecut.com/2015/03/ode-to-that-rare-creature-the-female-dandy.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), to the red carpet. There was another Southern Black female dandy in attendance last night. No pictures of her made best dressed list, however, the night would not exist without her genius.[ Zora Neale Hurtson](https://lithub.com/read-the-1934-nora-neale-hurston-essay-that-inspired-next-years-met-gala-theme/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)’s 1934 essay, “The Characteristics of Negro Expression,” was used to arrange the 12 characteristics of Black dandyism in “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style.” In the essay Hurston writes, “The will to adorn is the second most notable characteristic in Negro expression. Perhaps his idea of ornament does not attempt to meet conventional standards, but it satisfies the soul of its creator.” Black style has always been synonymous with the divine. Whether that divinity be God, or last night, the spirit of André Leon Talley, there is a through line from the Black church to the Met Gala. It is fitting that a gospel choir opened up last night’s Met Gala with a rendition of “Ain't No Mountain High Enough,” at the top of the steps, where Talley once stood. It was a sendoff, a homegoing service for the young Black gay boy from the South who finally made it up the mountain. ### ACL Fest Lineup Is Here: Sabrina Carpenter, Hozier, Doja Cat, More URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/acl-fest-lineup-2025-announcement/ Last updated: 2025-05-06T14:17:57.000Z The Austin City Limits Music Festival released its [official lineup](https://www.aclfestival.com/lineup?ref=thebarbedwire.com) today, and headliners include Sabrina Carpenter, Hozier, Doja Cat, Luke Combs, The Strokes, John Summit, and Doechii. Three-day tickets go on sale today at 12 p.m. CT on the festival’s [website](https://www.aclfestival.com/tickets?ref=thebarbedwire.com). General admission prices for both weekends start at $360. Fans had a lot of input into this year’s list. In January, ACL conducted a [survey](https://www.instagram.com/p/DFNtr2npYII/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on who people wanted to see the most (It’s the first time they’ve done this, at least in recent years). ACL then teased the lineup with colorful [postcards](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DJSbBBJRc-R/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and some fans reported receiving them. The festival brings in about [450,000](https://www.austintexas.org/austin-insider-blog/post/acl-survival-guide/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) attendees to Zilker Park annually and spans two weekends. This year's dates are Oct. 3 to 5 and Oct. 10 to 12. ### The Met Gala’s Theme is all About Black Style and Dandyism. See How Texans Dressed for the Red Carpet URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/met-gala-black-style/ Last updated: 2025-05-05T22:06:20.000Z What does the Met Gala 2025 have to do with Texas? And why should we care about Texans at the Met Gala and designer fashion that costs more than your entire car payment, while we’re struggling with trying to keep [pregnant Texans alive](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-abortion-law-clarifications/), [our health departments](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/lawsuit-trump-administration-public-health-funds/) and [public schools funded](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-school-vouchers-2/) and prevent our [beaches from becoming rocket launchpads](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/locals-say-spacex-is-polluting-sacred-land-this-project-aims-to-preserve-it/)? Glad you asked. This year it’s about basking in Black joy. The theme, “Tailored for You,” is based on the Costume Institute’s first exhibit to focus exclusively on Black designers, and the first in more than 20 years devoted to menswear. There will be notable Texans on the red carpet, and more references Black personal style that will be hard to talk about without discussing southern and Texas history. So, join us as we pour a glass of a Texas Hill Country red and sip away into fashion dandy land. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DJSVw1CumsC/?igsh=MW8zenJodzVkZ2gxdA== ## What is the Met Gala? So, first things first: the Met Gala is an annual fundraising event for The Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan that happens every first Monday in May. The benefit helps raise money for exhibitions, publications, acquisitions, operations, and capital improvements, according to the Met [website](https://www.metmuseum.org/press-releases/ci-2025-exhibition-gala-details?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The gala also serves as the opening night exclusive for the first-look at the museum’s spring exhibition, which this year is “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” and runs from May 10 through Oct. 26. ## What is the Met Gala theme? Every year, the gala has a theme set by the event organizers with input from Anna Wintour, who’s the editor-in-chief of *Vogue*, and chief content officer of parent company Condé Nast. This year’s theme is “Tailored for You,” a nod to the exhibition’s focus on suiting and menswear. ## Why is the exhibit important to the gala? This year marks the first time the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute’s exhibit will focus exclusively on Black designers, and the first in more than 20 years devoted to menswear. The theme is influenced by Monica L. Miller’s 2009 book, “Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity.” There are 12 themes that divide the exhibit: Ownership, presence, distinction, disguise, freedom, champion, respectability, jook, heritage, beauty, cool and cosmopolitanism. As Celebrity stylist Law Roach told [*ELLE*](https://www.elle.com/culture/celebrities/a64673117/met-gala-2025-dress-code-tailored-for-you-explained/?ref=thebarbedwire.com): “I want to see amazing tailoring. I want to see different takes on tailoring. Because tailoring doesn’t necessarily have to mean a suit. There’s so many other ways that it can be expressed....When I think of a tailor, I always also think of a beautiful wedding gown.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/gettyimages-2213610223.jpg) Leon Bridges attends the 2025 Met Gala. (Photo by Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images) Roach said, “there’s a female counterpart to the dandy—the quaintrelle—I think of someone like Cardi B, Mae West, and Jayne Mansfield, and those women with those bodies. Everything’s perfectly tailored. The waist is perfectly tiny.” https://www.instagram.com/metmuseum/reel/DA6y0P4yaUr/explore-the-extraordinary-stories-of-stylish-black-individuals-across-art-litera ## How much money has the gala raised? During a time where companies and institutions are slashing funds for diversity, equity and inclusion, the Met is making sure it’s front and center. And it’s been well-received among the elites. This year, the event has [raised a record $31 million](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/05/style/met-gala-2025-fund-raising.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which is a first in the event’s 77-year history. While there is some praise for the large sum, others are left questioning if Black designers or the Black community will actually profit from the money. Influencers on TikTok are reminding the public that this gala helps raise money for the preservation of the arts, something that the current administration is [committed to ending.](https://www.yahoo.com/news/nea-begins-cancelling-grants-trump-210543362.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) https://www.tiktok.com/@modamensch/video/7370814471767395630?\_r=1&\_t=ZP-8w6yAba8bJH ## Texas ties to the Met Gala This year, the Met will revive its longstanding tradition of a host committee, which is a group of influencers from different areas including actors, artists, athletes, designers, filmmakers, musicians, and writers. They are responsible for organizing and promoting the gala and supporting the gala festivities. Simone Biles and Sha’Carri Richardson are part of the host committee and are representing Texas. Houston-native Biles was in attendance with her husband, NFL football player Jonathan Owens (whom she met when he played for the [Houston Texans.](https://www.houstontexans.com/news/jonathan-owens-and-simone-biles-are-engaged?ref=thebarbedwire.com)) She teased to [*People* magazine](https://people.com/simone-biles-teases-interesting-detail-met-gala-look-exclusive-11728121?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that her dress will require her to “wear at least five to six inch heels.” Dallas-native, Richardson posted her glam preparations ahead of tonight’s red-carpet walk. “I’m beyond excited to stand with my fellow Host Committee members in supporting The Met and this year’s spring Costume Institute exhibition, celebrating the undeniable impact of Black creativity on fashion and culture for centuries. Our style isn’t just what we wear—it’s how we move, how we own our space, how we tell our story without saying a word,” Richardson said in a press release. “Fashion sets us apart, but it also brings us together—whether you’re shining on the track, commanding the stage, or just making the streets of New York your runway. On May 5, our light will continue shining on the power of style, and trust me, you don’t wanna miss it.” Houston rapper, Megan Thee Stallion, dazzled in a beautiful silver Michael Kors gown and a white fur coat. According to *[People](https://people.com/megan-thee-stallion-lights-up-the-2025-met-gala-with-high-wattage-glamour-8638515?ref=thebarbedwire.com)* magazine, it’s Meg’s first time attending the gala since 2022. Nick Jonas, Dallas native, also made an appearance on the carpet with his partner Priyanka Copra. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/gettyimages-2213613582.jpg) Nick Jonas and Priyanka Chopra attend the 2025 Met Gala. (Photo by Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images) Fort Worth’s Leon Bridges wore a bespoke pinstripe suit by Nicholas Daley. The London-based designer [posted on Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/p/DJSqI8to00E/?hl=en&img%5Findex=1&ref=thebarbedwire.com) that the two collaborated to pay homage to Black dandyism, “something I believe Leon naturally embodies through his music and personal style,” Daley wrote. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/gettyimages-2213634242.jpg) Leon Bridges attends the 2025 Met Gala. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue) ### School Vouchers Are Here: The Billion-Dollar Gift Card for People Who Don’t Need It URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-school-vouchers-2/ Last updated: 2025-05-05T17:22:38.000Z After a long and hard-fought battle to give even more taxpayer money to the wealthiest Texans, Gov. Greg Abbott signed a private school giveaway (sorry “school choice”) into law Saturday. The new law allows parents to redirect public tax dollars — previously used for pesky things like public education — to cover tuition at accredited private schools or pay for extras like transportation, textbooks, or therapy. Yes, Texas is now in the business of [subsidizing private education](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/05/03/texas-school-vouchers-greg-abbott-signs/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), because apparently public schools working with [shoestring budgets](https://www.fox7austin.com/news/texas-school-districts-all-struggling-lack-state-funding?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and overworked staff just weren't performing enough miracles. “When I ran for reelection in 2022, I promised school choice for the families of Texas. Today, we deliver on that promise,” Abbott [announced Saturday](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/05/03/texas-school-vouchers-greg-abbott-signs/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “Gone are the days that families are limited to only the school assigned by government. The day has arrived that empowers parents to choose the school that’s best for their child.” Translation: If you don’t like your underfunded neighborhood school, here’s a coupon. Good luck finding a private school that will take it! The law kicks in on Sept. 1, with the actual voucher program expected to roll out sometime in late 2026 — just enough time for more teachers to quit, schools to close, and public education to limp along on fumes. And in a state that is spending less and less on public school students [according to a *Texas Tribune* investigation](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/03/28/texas-school-funding-explainer/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), things definitely aren’t going to get better anytime soon! This legislative victory lap comes after years of hand-to-hand combat in the Texas Legislature. Democrats and [rural Republicans](https://www.texastribune.org/2023/11/17/texas-school-vouchers-rural-republicans-gary-vandeaver/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) (Remember them? The people who actually live in districts where public schools are all that’s left between students and generational poverty?) have long argued that vouchers will gut public schools, hurt working families, and weaken the social safety net that public education was *supposed* to be. Sadly they were no match for Abbott’s machine, [which has chewed up and spit out](https://www.texastribune.org/2023/12/06/greg-abbott-vouchers-primary-special-session/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) any Republican who dared oppose vouchers. “Remember this day next time a school closes in your neighborhood,” said Rep. James Talarico, D-Austin, per the [*Texas Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/05/03/texas-school-vouchers-greg-abbott-signs/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “Remember this day next time a beloved teacher quits because they can't support their family on their salary. Remember this day next time your local property taxes rise because the state government is not doing its fair share of school funding. And if recession comes and we are forced to make even deeper cuts to public education, remember this day.” But don’t worry, Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick aren’t losing sleep. They insist that vouchers and public education can live happily ever after, side by side. Because if there’s one thing history has shown us, it’s that public programs always thrive when you start siphoning their funding into the private sector. The new law creates a [$1 billion Education Savings Account program](https://www.kut.org/politics/2025-02-05/texas-voucher-bill-education-savings-accounts-school-choice-sb2-legislature?ref=thebarbedwire.com), allowing families to use public funds — up to $10,000 annually per child — for private school tuition and related education expenses. Supporters, including many Republican lawmakers, frame the bill as a victory for parental rights and school choice. In reality, it takes money from [underfunded public schools](https://kinder.rice.edu/urbanedge/making-case-increasing-funding-texas-schools?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=Turley%27s%20research%20published%20by%20the,exceed%2040%25%20of%20their%20needs.) and gives it to [rich families](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-school-vouchers/) who already send their children to private institutions. And not that it matters to Abbott, but his alleged constituents (aka, Texans) hate the idea. [A recent survey](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nas166lRYI%5FVVSk8CpYVRo18z%5FUeIndJ/view?ref=thebarbedwire.com) by a Texas [workers coalition](https://www.unifiedtexas.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) found that two-thirds of likely voters in Texas oppose voucher-like initiatives. So to recap: the governor just handed out a billion-dollar party favor to Texas’s most well-connected families, gutted public schools a little more for the fun of it, and called it “empowerment.” Teachers get burnout, kids get fewer resources, and the state gets to pretend it's solving a problem it helped create. But hey — at least the rich parents who were already paying for private school can now write it off like a gym membership. And when the dust settles — when neighborhood schools shutter, when class sizes balloon, when another round of teachers walks out the door — don’t expect an apology. Expect a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Expect a press release about “freedom.” Expect another round of lawmakers earnestly insisting that your child’s education is a top priority — right after tax breaks, campaign donors, and whatever the latest moral panic is. Because in Texas, we don’t fix public schools. We defund them, blame them, and then call it “choice.” ### Well, Elon Musk Got What He Wanted. Starbase Is Texas’ Newest City URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/starbase-official-texas-city-elon-musk-spacex/ Last updated: 2025-05-05T15:55:09.000Z Elon Musk set his sights on making [Starbase a city](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/elon-musk-spacex-rockets-lost-bid-beach-access-rio-grande-valley/) for [years](https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1366848696298561536?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The tech billionaire made that a reality on Saturday. Residents of Starbase went to the polls to vote on a measure incorporating the area as [an official city](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/locals-say-spacex-is-polluting-sacred-land-this-project-aims-to-preserve-it/). More than two-thirds of eligible voters worked for SpaceX, Musk’s rocket-making company, or expressed their support for the incorporation vote, according to an analysis from [KUT](https://www.kut.org/politics/2025-05-01/elon-musk-spacex-starbase-city-texas-election-vote-voters-employees?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The election was a landslide, with 212 in favor and six against, according to the [Cameron County Elections Department](https://www.livevoterturnout.com/ENR/camerontxenr/38/en/Index%5F38.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “Starbase, Texas is now a real city!” Musk said on [X](https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1918834940264784009?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Meanwhile, over 60 nearby residents protested against the Starbase election at [Boca Chica Beach](https://www.instagram.com/p/DJPJppORSsv/?img%5Findex=1&ref=thebarbedwire.com) on election day. As [*The Barbed Wire*](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/locals-say-spacex-is-polluting-sacred-land-this-project-aims-to-preserve-it/)previously reported, lots of people aren’t happy about SpaceX’s operation in the Rio Grande Valley. Multiple Valley-based organizations have pursued [legal complaints](https://sotxejn.org/2024/12/18/rio-grande-valley-organizations-sue-the-tceq-for-bypassing-permitting-in-favor-of-spacex/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and long warned of SpaceX’s environmental impacts. In 2024, SpaceX was regularly dumping more than 30,000 gallons of wastewater into South Texas wetlands, and was fined over $150,000 for violating the Clean Water Act, the [*Houston Chronicle*](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/space/article/spacex-starship-industrial-wastewater-south-texas-19847204.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com)reported. The launch site has about 500 residents, according to the [*Texas Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/02/12/texas-space-x-city-election-starbase/?ref=thebarbedwire.com); Musk also has a [residence](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c39j8rj4nmmo?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of his own. In a [letter](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-valleycentral-com/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2024/12/starbase-letter-to-judge.pdf) to Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño last December, Starbase Manager Kathryn Lueders said making Starbase an official city would give its leaders more control over civil functions like roads and utilities. “Incorporating Starbase will streamline the processes required to build the amenities necessary to make the area a world class place to live—for the hundreds already calling it home, as well as for prospective workers eager to help build humanity’s future in space,” Lueders said. The new city’s local leaders will be in charge of issues such as planning and taxation, according to [*Fox Business*](https://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/starbase-home-elon-musks-spacex-officially-become-texas-city?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Bobby Peden, vice president of Texas’ test and launch operations at SpaceX, will serve as its first mayor, while two residents with SpaceX ties will be its commissioners. All three ran unopposed. Last Monday, the Texas House State Affairs Committee narrowly voted 7 to 6 against [House Bill 4660](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/elon-musk-spacex-rockets-lost-bid-beach-access-rio-grande-valley/), which would give SpaceX more authority to limit access to Boca Chica Beach and Boca Chica State Park during rocket launches. But two days later, the committee revived a Senate version of the bill, cutting advocates’ celebrations short. Closures during these launches are usually managed by the county, which includes Brownsville and the resort town of South Padre Island. ### Back-In Parkers: Society’s True Menace URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/back-in-parking/ Last updated: 2025-05-05T08:33:00.000Z There’s a lot of talk these days about threats to society — AI, Grand Theft Auto VI, [birds that may or may not be government drones](https://thedefensepost.com/2024/08/07/china-military-spy-drones/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — but I’d like to nominate a new one: people who back into parking spaces. You know them. You *see* them. You *feel* them holding up traffic while they awkwardly sashay their cars backwards into a spot that could have just been pulled into like a normal, emotionally balanced adult. Let’s be clear: backing into a parking spot is not just a driving choice. It’s a personality. They are not parking for convenience, they're performing. "Oh, I might need to leave in a hurry," they claim, as if they’re Jason Bourne and not just picking up paper towels and Diet Dr Pepper from Walgreens. The only emergency they're likely to experience is forgetting their reusable bags. Backing in is not for efficiency. It’s for attention. It’s a car-based humblebrag. It says, “I value my future self more than your current convenience.” These people walk into Whole Foods like they just disarmed a bomb. They didn’t. They just inconvenienced three cars and a grandma in a Camry trying to mind her business. I tweeted this sentiment out recently and it went (kinda) viral. > [](https://twitter.com/briangaar/status/1916303997205434432?ref=thebarbedwire.com) And while I’ve been on the internet for a long time, few things I’ve written have provoked such intense responses as making fun of people who back into parking spots. Some agreed with me. > [](https://twitter.com/Joshua%5FNewman/status/1916918144435712427?ref=thebarbedwire.com) > [](https://twitter.com/DougFTyler/status/1916318347806847216?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Others took it personally. > [](https://twitter.com/zimwhodey/status/1916499361338437766?ref=thebarbedwire.com) > [](https://twitter.com/mirabetterment/status/1916474644145570218?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Someone even pointed me to an “[AARP Livability Fact Sheet](https://www.aarp.org/livable-communities/info-2014/parking-fact-sheet.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20authors%2C%20on,oncoming%20traffic%20when%20pulling%20out.)” which claimed that “head-out angled parking is the safest and easiest method since drivers have stopped traffic before backing in and can see oncoming traffic when pulling out.” Fine, but even according to the AARP, those people have already “stopped traffic before backing in.” I stand by my tweet. Backing in is supposed to save time when you leave, but let’s be real — no one is timing you. There’s no stopwatch at the grocery store. You’re not in NASCAR, you’re in a Ford Escape with a kid’s soccer magnet on the back. And don’t get me started on the weird dominance ritual of it. The three-point turn. The confident hand over the passenger seat. The smug glance in the mirror like, “Yeah. I do yoga and read David Foster Wallace.” Dude, you just reversed into a Chili’s parking lot. You’re not David Foster Wallace. You’re a mildly annoying traffic cone in human form. And I get it — some workplaces encourage it, like fire stations or power plants. That’s fine. If your job involves rushing into burning buildings, *back in all day.* But Steve from accounting does not need to tactically position his Toyota Highlander for rapid extraction from Panda Express. You’re not storming the embassy, Steve. You’re getting orange chicken and maybe some crab rangoon if you’re feeling spicy. In conclusion, if you back into parking spots, I don’t think you’re a sociopath. I think you’re a very *specific* kind of person: the kind who claps when the plane lands, owns a tactical flashlight “just in case,” and has strong opinions about where the thermostat should be set in public buildings. You’re not dangerous — you’re just exhausting. ### Paxton Joins RFK’s Anti-Fluoride Crusade, Targeting “Misleading, Deceptive, and Dangerous” Kids’ Toothpaste URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/fluoride-investigation-texas-ken-paxton-robert-f-kennedy-jr/ Last updated: 2025-05-02T20:30:24.000Z Texas elected officials love to talk about their commitment to *protecting* children. For Attorney General Ken Paxton, it’s making sure kids don’t ingest too much fluoride from their favorite toothpastes decorated with Disney Princess and Bluey characters. Paxton announced an investigation into parent companies Colgate and Proctor & Gamble on Thursday, claiming that they market their products in ways that are “misleading, deceptive, and dangerous” to parents and children, according to a [press release](https://www.oag.state.tx.us/news/releases/attorney-general-ken-paxton-launches-investigations-companies-illegally-marketing-toothpaste?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “I will use every tool available to protect our kids from dangerous levels of fluoride exposure and deceptive advertising,” Paxton said. Many toothpastes contain [fluoride](https://www.cdc.gov/oral-health/prevention/about-fluoride.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=Fluoride%20helps%20both%20children%20and,fillings%20or%20having%20teeth%20removed.), which protects teeth from cavities according to the [American Dental Association](https://www.mouthhealthy.org/all-topics-a-z/fluoride?ref=thebarbedwire.com), but U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services and vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has increasingly advocated against the mineral, [exaggerating its health risks](https://www.npr.org/2025/04/10/g-s1-59452/hhs-rfk-fluoride-drinking-water-epa?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=Kennedy%20has%20erroneously%20called%20fluoride,neurodevelopmental%20disorders%20and%20thyroid%20disease.) to Americans. More recently, Kennedy praised [Utah](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/04/30/rfk-jr-fluoride-regulations-ban/83370136007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for leading the charge to prohibit local governments from adding fluoride to public water systems. Paxton also asserted that toothpaste manufacturers encourage children to consume more than the recommended amount of fluoride by [flavoring their products](https://www.reuters.com/legal/crest-colgate-lawsuits-target-fluoride-kids-toothpaste-mouth-rinse-2025-01-14/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Paxton cited the CDC’s guidance for children to only use a “rice-sized smear” of toothpaste until they turn 3 years old. In a statement to *USA TODAY*, Colgate-Palmolive refuted the attorney general’s claims. "Our children’s toothpastes that contain fluoride provide important oral health benefits, are safe to use as directed, and provide directions for proper use consistent with US Food and Drug Administration requirements," said Tom DiPazza, vice president of corporate relations at Colgate, adding that the products have guidelines on how much toothpaste children should use according to their age. Kennedy’s push against fluoride in public water has gone on for years. In 2019, Children’s Health Defense — an organization [founded](https://childrenshealthdefense.org/authors/robert-f-kennedy-jr/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) by Kennedy — published an article called [“US Water Fluoridation: A Forced Experiment that Needs to End.”](https://childrenshealthdefense.org/news/u-s-water-fluoridation-a-forced-experiment-that-needs-to-end/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) In an [X post](https://x.com/RobertKennedyJr/status/1852812012478398923?lang=en&ref=thebarbedwire.com) last November, Kennedy called the mineral “an industrial waste” and associated it with conditions like IQ loss, neurodevelopmental disorders, and bone cancer — but this is misleading. Most studies haven’t found a strong link between water fluoride levels and cancer, according to the [American Cancer Society](https://www.cancer.org/cancer/risk-prevention/chemicals/water-fluoridation-and-cancer-risk.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Both Kennedy and Paxton cite a 2024 federal government [meta-analysis](https://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/research/assessments/noncancer/completed/fluoride?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that looks at the relationship between higher fluoride levels and lower IQ scores in children, but there are flaws in the methodology. For example, the analysis does not include any studies from the U.S., which already has [lower levels](https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Fluoride-levels-in-drinking-water-of-different-nations-9%5Ftbl2%5F348792567?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of the mineral in its drinking water. During an [April 30 cabinet meeting](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DJFbba%5FAKy4/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) with President Donald Trump, Kennedy said that more fluoride exposure is making children “stupider,” saying, “We need smart kids in this country, and we need healthy kids.” (Yes RFK, it’s *definitely* toothpaste and not the [shutting down of the Department of Education.](https://www.nea.org/nea-today/all-news-articles/how-dismantling-department-education-would-harm-students?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=Stripping%20the%20department%20of%20its%20resources%20and,communities%20who%20need%20educational%20services%20and%20support.&text=Gutting%20the%20department%2C%20National%20Education%20Association%20President,with%20disabilities%2C%20and%20less%20civil%20rights%20protections.)) Kennedy plans to change federal fluoride regulations and direct the CDC to stop recommending that local and state governments add the mineral to their public water systems. **Read more at** [***USA TODAY***](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/05/01/texas-ag-investigate-fluoride-toothpaste-companies/83380423007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)**.** ### Meet the Dallas DJ Behind (Maybe) the Longest Running Hip Hop Show On Air URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/hip-hop-radio-show-dallas/ Last updated: 2025-05-02T09:00:00.000Z If you want to understand the casual celebrity of EZ Eddie D, sit with him on a porch. Preferably on a Saturday evening, and preferably at the busiest intersection of the Bishop Arts District in the rapidly gentrified Oak Cliff neighborhood of Dallas. Less than two minutes into my conversation with him on such a porch, on such a busy Saturday, a honk came from a passing SUV. “EDDIE!” a woman shouted from the open window. “Hey, what up!” Eddie yelled back. “You’re back in town?” “I’m here to see you. If I can find a place to park.” Less than two hours later, EZ Eddie D — real name Eddie Murphy — was in the studio for his weekly radio show, “Knowledge Dropped, Lessons Taught” on KNON, Dallas’[ popular, long standing community radio station](https://www.dmagazine.com/frontburner/2023/07/against-all-odds-knon-celebrates-40-years-of-radio-for-the-people/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). He has made the mix and operated the boards for the exclusively hip hop show just about every week since 1987. “Knowledge Dropped, Lessons Taught” *might* be the longest-running hip hop radio show in the world. It’s one of those claims that’s easier to disprove than to definitively prove, and I haven’t found evidence to confidently say it’s not true. [“The Eclipse Show” on KGNU](https://hiphopradioarchive.org/browse/shows/The+Eclipse+Show/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in Boulder, Colorado, predates Eddie’s show, but in those earlier years it [started out playing R&B and Funk](https://www.radiosurvivor.com/2018/07/podcast-152-the-longest-running-hip-hop-radio-show-in-the-world/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Eddie has exclusively played hip hop since day one.Other shows have tenuous claims to being around since the ‘80s but were not continuous through the years or cycled through numerous hosts and formats. Even if “Knowledge Dropped, Lessons Taught” isn’t the longest running hip hop show, its origins still land much closer to[ hip hop’s official birth year](https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/august-11/hip-hop-is-born-at-a-birthday-party-in-the-bronx?ref=thebarbedwire.com) than to 2025. Up until an hour before the show, you can catch Eddie, 64, at [Dude Sweet Chocolate](https://dudesweetchocolate.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), an artisanal chocolate shop that’s become Dallas’ go-to for trendy, giftable snacks. He is the manager there, seemingly trusted for his people skills more than his culinary expertise. Sitting on the front porch swing of the business, which is in a converted house, Eddie’s dreads hang down to his chest, concealed at head-level by a bandana under a backwards hat with “Oak Cliff” written in Old English. His beard has collected about as much grey as he has collected memories – that is to say, a lot. “I’d love to be at my funeral,” he says, after I comment on all the times we’d been interrupted by passersby, who he gives a cheerful “peace” to. A 1998[ *Dallas Observer* story](https://www.dallasobserver.com/news/beat-down-6401563?ref=thebarbedwire.com) by the late culture writer Zac Crain describes Eddie as the “godfather” of the Dallas hip hop scene. Twenty-seven years later, “grandfather” might be more apt — and these days most of the kids have moved away. That same *Observer* story states, “Dallas has enough talented hip-hop groups to make Eddie D's show one of the best on any station in the city.” Now, he says he doesn’t play nearly as much local music as he did in the early years, largely because far less is sent to him. Later that night during the show, while a recorded ad break plays, he tells me that a few decades ago the studio would be packed with local artists who’d show up hoping to get him to play their song or even make time for a coveted interview. It was the city’s best — often the city’s only — hip hop showcase for homegrown talent. On this night, it was only me in the studio with him. If you drove by the station, you might think it was just another office building, closed for the night. Eddie tries to conceal some internalized resentment about so many artists who he helped get recognition who didn’t continue to support the show financially or with their own platforms. If they paid his generosity forward, they certainly didn’t pay it back. “It bothers me on some levels, just because, you know, if I would have been that way, none of this would be going on now,” he says, gesturing vaguely to the lively Oak Cliff intersection where street vendors are playing Tupac’s “Ambitionz Az A Ridah” and where a busking drum circle kitty corner to us had just yelled his name and thrown up a fist in support. https://soundcloud.com/shorttx-1/01-edz-wav?utm\_source=clipboard&utm\_medium=text&utm\_campaign=social\_sharing By the time Eddie arrived in Oak Cliff in 1984 from Cincinnati, he was primed for what would become his life calling. As a teen, he had his mind blown hearing Kraftwerk’s “Trans-Europe Express” (the core sample used in Afrika Bambaataa’s foundational “Planet Rock”) for the first time. Earlier, he’d clocked the way kids at roller discos reacted to the DJ playing One Nation Under A Groove records and thought, “*Alright, I want that*.” He didn’t have much reason to stay in Dallas when he stopped in to visit his cousin, but when he heard a live radio broadcast of local tastemaker DJ Ushy doing a set at Club Pizzazz in Oak Cliff, he thought, “*OK, I’m here. I’m home.*” The Dallas hip hop scene has taken plenty of twists and turns since Eddie arrived, often flirting with an identity or defined sound but rarely breaking through on a national level the way Houston hip hop did in the ‘90s and early 2000s. That’s not to say Dallas hasn’t left its mark. In the mid-80s, Eddie credits the group Nemesis, who debuted with the single “Oak Cliff” as the first from the city to achieve state-level success. In those years, Eddie had his own hip hop group, The Fresh Ones, signed to the local Black Lion Records and managed by a man who went by Mr. Williams. Also managed by Mr. Williams was a 16-year-old female MC named Apples, who would later sell millions of records as [Erykah Badu](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/erykah-badu-window-seat-best-music-video/). In 1986, a 45-inch record was put out with The Fresh Ones on one side and Apples on the other side. > [](https://twitter.com/fatbellybella/status/1355165306709286913?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Eddie didn’t know Badu sang until the first single for her multi-platinum debut album *Baduizm* came out a decade later. During her initial transcendent rise, she came on“Lessons Taught, Knowledge Dropped” for an interview. Afterwards, she pledged $5,000 to the station in support of the show, which was the largest donation the show had received at that point. Primarily known as the poster child for “neo soul,” Badu’s music is often overlooked for its large influence on hip hop. But collectives like Odd Future (primarily members Tyler the Creator and Frank Ocean) draw clear influences, consciously or not, from her albums. Even more obfuscated in Dallas’ contributions to hip hop is D.O.C., especially the lyrics he wrote for others. D.O.C.began his career in Big D as part of the Fila Fresh Crew, before moving to Los Angeles where he struck up a friendship with Dr. Dre in the mid-eighties. He ghost wrote significant portions of N.W.A.’s debut album, *Straight Outta Compton*, and wrote a healthy portion of Dr. Dre’s lyrics for his iconic debut album, *The Chronic*. D.O.C.’s 1993 debut album, *No One Can Do It Better*, was met with critical and commercial success, but weeks after its release, he was in a major car accident that left his vocal chords severely damaged, haltinghis performing career in its tracks. D.O.C.’s affiliations with Dr. Dre, N.W.A., and Snoop Dogg, as well as the way he dressed, (he wears a Los Angeles Kings hat on his debut album cover), led most fans to associate him with the West Coast. Few in Texas even knew he had come from Dallas. More scattershot examples of Dallas culture touch hip hop history. Dallas Boogie was a movement that arose from about 2006 to about 2011, stemming from artists such as Tum Tum, the GS Boyz, and Dorrough. Songs that came out of Dallas Boogie typically had original dances associated with them. The massive hit “Teach Me How To Dougie” by the Cali Swag District is often credited to the West Coast, which fails to note that it derived from “My Dougie” a smaller but still national hit (with an accompanying dance) by Dallas rapper Lil Wil. If the Dallas Boogie movement didn’t directly lead to the dance-centric stylings of TikTok, then it certainly predicted it. [Kal Banx](https://www.dallasnews.com/arts-entertainment/music/2022/05/12/hitmaker-kal-banx-is-fusing-dallas-sounds-with-west-coast-hip-hop/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a current in-house producer for Top Dawg Entertainment, the record label that birthed Kendrick Lamar, grew up in Dallas and cites Dallas Boogie as an influence in the beats he makes for artists like Doechii. Realistically, Dallas’ most known hip hop exports have been two white rappers: Vanilla Ice and Post Malone, both of whom have been criticized for the outsized space they have taken up in the culture. These days, though, Dallas hip hop is at something of a high swing with a number of prominent rappers coming out of the city, none bigger than the multi-platinum BigXthaPlug, who initially broke through in 2022 with his anthemic single “Texas.” Being from Dallas Texas, or even Dallas, doesn’t guarantee you anything when it comes to play on EZ Eddie D’s show. He is something of a purist, always leaning toward music that came out of the “golden era of hip-hop” when groups like KRS-ONE’s Boogie Down Productions mixed swagger with conscious lyrics. You won’t hear music that degrades women on “Knowledge Dropped, Lessons Taught.” You are unlikely to hear a lot of materialistic music. At one point, as we spoke outside Dude Sweet Chocolate, a lifted pickup truck with giant rims drove by slowly, blaring current Atlanta sensation Playboy Carti out four open windows. “I don’t fuck with that,” Eddie says of the sound. “Just something about it. I graduated from fourth grade a long time ago. That’s remedial.” He admits that he might mix in lyrics that touch on **“**gun play every now and then because that's the world we live in,” but claims he won’t play anything that glorifies violence. Locally, violence in hip hop has spilled off of the mic and into reality, like in 2020 when M03, perhaps the biggest Dallas rapper at the time, was [killed in a drive-by shooting](https://www.dallasobserver.com/music/dallas-rapper-mo3-chased-on-i-35-before-fatal-shooting-22007661?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on I-35\. Earlier this year, Dallas police charged [Yella Breezy](https://www.fox4news.com/news/markie-conway-yella-beezy-arrest-murder-for-hire-melvin-noble-2020-i35-shooting?ref=thebarbedwire.com), who was feuding with M03 and perhaps his biggest competition on the scene at the time, with organizing and paying for the murder. Perhaps more than his taste, though, Eddie’s show is defined by his skills. Using a digital turntable, he blends records with precision, an ability he says took him about a year to learn how to do. It’s rare for a modern radio DJ to blend records (essentially overlaying songs on top of each other to create seamless transitions), and Eddie’s techniques have been refined for decades. Eddie describes himself as something of a Luddite when it comes to technology, but to see him blend records in person — navigating between the turntables, a laptop, and the sound levels on the radio — is like watching an air traffic controller in a flow state. It’s a level of talent that can actually be under-appreciated when listening on the radio; at one point he blended four songs at once so crisply, it convincingly sounded like just one song to the casual ear. He wasn’t going linearly; beats were phasing out and coming back later, meshing with the lyrics. That a healthy portion of his music is deep cuts by largely unknown artists (“I used to say we’re so underground, we’re looking up at the underground”) adds to the illusion that you’re hearing only one song at a time. Your phone’s Shazam app does not stand a chance during Eddie’s show. Insisting on top tier lyricscism from the artists he plays, his blending adds an additional musicality, keeping the show a party regardless of the heaviness or levity of the lyrical themes. “It’s got to be funky,” he says. “It’s got to be danceable.” In Eddie’s case, what’s danceable hasn’t changed over the years. People have approached Eddie and told him that they listened to his show as teenagers and now have kids who have graduated high school. It’s a passion for the genre that keeps him coming back, hunting for new songs to play. “I think about hip hop 24/7,” he says. He roughly divides the songs into two categories: old school (the classic songs of hip hop legends) and true school (new music, often underground, that he believes meets the standards set by the former category). As noteworthy as his longevity is the fact that Eddie has never made a dollar from his radio show. KNON is a community radio station, kept afloat entirely by listener support. Radio hosts, even legendary ones, must meet listener pledge goals every quarter to stay on the air. From that perspective, the amount of money that Eddie has raised over 40 years is staggering to consider. On the other hand, community radio doesn’t have to answer to anyone but the FCC. The same goes for its DJs. “I get to say what I want, and I get to play what I want,” Eddie tells me. “You can’t put a dollar on that.” In any given episode, he might talk about racism taking over the country or he might congratulate a Dallas high school soccer team for winning their recent game. When Eddie plays the Ultramagnetic MCs (the group that launched the career of rap legend Kool Keith), he seems to be winding down his blending and mixing as the show itself winds down to the final few minutes. He finishes with Kraftwerk’s “Trans-Europe Express” and mostly lets it play on its own, almost like he is showing the backbone of the entire mix’s core. A song ahead of its time meant to sound like the future, the German group’s hit record feels like a stripped down acoustic subtlety in the aftermath of the past hour and 55 minutes of Eddie’s work. With no mixing to be done, he has a moment to talk. I ask him how much longer he wants to do the show, and he dodges the question. Instead he cops to wanting something more than just showing up every week and hoping the listeners are tuning in. He would like to be in the Hip Hop Hall of Fame. Twenty-five years ago, Eddie and his show were vital parts of the growth of a local scene and a worldwide genre. Now, he’s more of a historian, showing that hip hop’s vibrancy was always more than the sum of its songs. It will go on without him, continuing to branch in directions he might not care for, but to deny him his contribution would be to undermine the entire movement. ### Sorry, South Texas. Maybe Lawmakers Do Want More SpaceX Rockets on Our Beaches URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/elon-musk-spacex-rockets-lost-bid-beach-access-rio-grande-valley/ Last updated: 2025-04-30T18:45:03.000Z UPDATE: May 2, 2025 Maybe Elon Musk can’t be stopped after all. [Late Wednesday night](https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/south-texas/article/spacex-boca-chica-beach-closure-bill-texas-20305077.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the Texas House State Affairs Committee revived a Senate version of House Bill 4660, which gives SpaceX control of the South Texas Beach it’s currently set up on. PREVIOUS STORY: After months of lobbying from [Rio Grande Valley environmental activists](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/locals-say-spacex-is-polluting-sacred-land-this-project-aims-to-preserve-it/) and local residents, there’s finally some progress on stopping Elon Musk’s SpaceX rockets and their Boca Chica takeover. Texas lawmakers voted against giving the rocket maker company more control over a public beach and main highway near its launch site in the area. The narrow 7 to 6 vote on Monday came as the Elon Musk-owned company awaits the results of a local election that would turn its Starbase facility into an incorporated Texas city, [*CNBC*](https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/29/spacex-loses-bid-to-control-beach-access-near-texas-launch-facility.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com)reported. The election will end on Saturday. The Texas House State Affairs Committee rejected House Bill 4660, which would have increased SpaceX’s control of Boca Chica Beach should the facility become the state’s newest city. According to the [*Texas Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/02/12/texas-space-x-city-election-starbase/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the launch site has about 500 residents, including SpaceX employees and around 120 children. SpaceX has closed roads and beaches around Starbase while conducting test flights and launches, *CNBC* reported. “Public and regulatory officials must listen to our concerns that the facility is harming our wildlife habitat, homes, waterways, and daily lives,” said Bekah Hinojosa, co-founder of the South Texas Environmental Justice Network on [Monday](https://sotxejn.org/2025/04/28/rio-grande-valley-organizations-and-tribe-celebrate-stopping-texas-bills-for-spacex/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “We strongly oppose Elon Musk’s dangerous SpaceX rocket facility, his Starbase company town election, and his attempted beach takeover.” As [*The Barbed Wire*](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/locals-say-spacex-is-polluting-sacred-land-this-project-aims-to-preserve-it/)previously reported, lots of people aren’t happy about SpaceX’s operation in the Rio Grande Valley. Multiple Valley-based organizations have pursued [legal complaints](https://sotxejn.org/2024/12/18/rio-grande-valley-organizations-sue-the-tceq-for-bypassing-permitting-in-favor-of-spacex/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and SpaceX has repeatedly violated wastewater regulations, according to the [Texas Commission on Environmental Quality](https://www.cnbc.com/2024/08/12/spacex-repeatedly-polluted-waters-in-texas-tceq-epa-found.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=On%20July%2025%2C%202024%2C%20an,and%20July%20of%20this%20year.). Yet, the commission also declined residents’ requests to reconsider SpaceX’s permit to dump up to 358,000 gallons of wastewater into South Texas wetlands in February, according to the [*San Antonio Express-News*](https://www.expressnews.com/business/article/spacex-tceq-wastewater-permit-starship-texas-20163187.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Of course, Musk feels no remorse for the environmental impacts of SpaceX. Following a [*New York Times*](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/07/us/politics/spacex-wildlife-texas.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com)investigation in July about his company destroying bird habitats, Musk vowed to “refrain from having omelette for a week” as a way to “make up for this heinous crime” on [X](https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1810887584232657026?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1810887584232657026%7Ctwgr%5Efa0f872aaa94c704049b299df67c8a2df07436b0%7Ctwcon%5Es1%5F&ref%5Furl=https%3A%2F%2Fm.economictimes.com%2Fnews%2Finternational%2Fworld-news%2Felon-musk-to-avoid-omelettes-for-a-week-for-this-heinous-crime%2Farticleshow%2F111628780.cms&ref=thebarbedwire.com). For Lupita Sanchez, the director of Border Workers United, the vote against HB 4660 marks a step toward promoting the importance of protecting the community’s wildlife and environment, according to a [statement](https://sotxejn.org/2025/04/28/rio-grande-valley-organizations-and-tribe-celebrate-stopping-texas-bills-for-spacex/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) released on Monday. Juan Mancias, the tribal chairman for the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas, said local organizations and his tribe will keep applying pressure on officials who side with SpaceX. “We continue to defend our sacred ancestral lands and our inherent rights to access Boca Chica Beach, the mouth of the river, and this beautiful area that SpaceX is polluting and trying to steal from our people and our communities,” Mancias said in a [statement](https://sotxejn.org/2025/04/28/rio-grande-valley-organizations-and-tribe-celebrate-stopping-texas-bills-for-spacex/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on Monday. “We refuse to be collateral damage for corrupt corporation’s profits.” ### Not Talking to Trump Voters Isn’t Rude, It’s Self-Care URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/donald-trump-voters/ Last updated: 2025-04-30T09:00:00.000Z Ah, summer: a time for sunscreen, grilled meats, and your cousin showing up to the family cookout, quoting Joe Rogan between bites of brisket. Or, as happened to me recently, you post something on Facebook, and, all of a sudden, here comes that high school acquaintance you haven’t talked to in decades, ready to share their thoughts on tariffs. And, like clockwork, someone inevitably offers up the same line: “[But don’t you think we should be talking to them](https://thehill.com/opinion/4976770-trump-voters-understanding/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)? Bridging the divide?” I’ve thought about this a lot. Because my overwhelming urge is: No. No, you do not need to talk to people who voted for hate. You do not owe them your time, your patience, or your emotional labor. And if that sounds harsh, congratulations — you're still clinging to reality, which is more than we can say for a lot of people wearing red hats these days. “We should talk to people who disagree with us” is nonsense from pundits in New York or D.C. who have never had to listen to someone at a sports bar complain that he saw someone buying soda with a Lone Star Card. If you live in a red state like I do, you've had to talk to these people your whole life. And you also don't need me to tell you that it's soul-destroying. President Donald J. Trump isn’t just another “guy with bad ideas.” He’s not your garden-variety conservative uncle who grumbles about taxes while secretly loving Medicare and Social Security. This is a man who [tried to overturn a democratic election](https://apnews.com/article/trump-indicted-jan-6-investigation-special-counsel-debb59bb7a4d9f93f7e2dace01feccdc?ref=thebarbedwire.com), is currently [running a shady crypto](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/29/us/politics/trump-crypto-world-liberty-financial.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) operation, and seems to be cosplaying as a Bond villain by outsourcing [political repression to El Salvador](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/trump-deportation-constitutional-crisis/). Oh, and now [judges are getting arrested](https://www.npr.org/2025/04/28/nx-s1-5377356/hannah-dugan-judge-fbi-arrested?ref=thebarbedwire.com). And yes, things are messed up now and people elect strongmen during chaotic times. For decades, we’ve let president after president (from both parties) give more and more tax breaks for the rich while cutting the safety net for the rest of us. Which has led to skyrocketing income inequality. In 2021, the top 1% of households made about 139 times more than the bottom 20%, according to the progressive think tank [Institute for Policy Studies](https://inequality.org/facts/income-inequality/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). That sort of amoral wealth gap — where most people are living paycheck to paycheck while a few live like kings — is a big cause of [social instability](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8608558/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=Consequently%2C%20greater%20economic%20inequality%20presents,both%20underdeveloped%20and%20developed%20countries.). And there's fewer people reporting on this theft due to the ongoing collapse of local newspapers — an estimated 7,000 newspaper jobs were lost in 2023, according to the [Medill School at Northwestern University](https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2024/news-deserts-growing-medill-state-local-news-report/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). In its place has sprung a vast sewer of misinformation, with talking heads on TikTok and Instagram posing as experts even though their main qualification is “owning an iPhone.” All of this has led us to Trump, a TV host with a lot of dumb, cruel ideas. And for a big chunk of his supporters, [this is exactly what they wanted](https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2025/04/29/trump-polls-approval-rating-voters/83271813007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). They’re not misinformed or being duped. They know what they’re supporting — a movement rooted in white grievance, authoritarian power grabs, and the erasure of basic democratic norms. A [2-year-old U.S. citizen was just deported](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/2-year-old-us-citizen-apparently-deported-no-meaningful-process-judge-rcna203124?ref=thebarbedwire.com). They’ve chosen this. Repeatedly. And loudly. “Talking across the aisle” only works when both parties are on the same planet. If you're over here trying to discuss health care policy and they’re busy suggesting we bring back public executions, you’re not having a conversation — you're performing emotional CPR on a corpse. And frankly, it’s starting to smell. Meanwhile, every time we treat Trumpism like a valid political stance and not the dumpster fire it is, we shift the Overton window so far right it’s practically falling off the ledge. Suddenly, advocating for mass deportations, banning books, and criminalizing protest isn’t fringe — it’s Tuesday. When you normalize extremism under the guise of “hearing both sides,” you’re not being open-minded. You’re being a doormat. At some point, the grown-up move is knowing when a conversation is a waste of time. You don’t have to be the explainer-in-chief for people who’ve chosen ignorance like it’s a loyalty program. You’re allowed to say, “This isn’t a difference of opinion. It’s a difference of values.” And then block them with the same energy you use to delete that “Volunteers Wanted” email from your kids’ school. And as I’m typing this, I know that we still have to build coalitions. We still need votes, movements, and alliances to move forward. And ultimately, as progressives, we need to peel some of these people off. But how to do that when the lines are so starkly drawn, when the leader of their party is this irredeemable? Their enabling of such an amoral man (while usually ballyhooing their own religious bonafides) feels like a betrayal of the highest order, *especially* if it’s a family member or a friend you’ve known all your life. And the reality is that we’re going to have to welcome some of these people into the Democratic Party’s notoriously rowdy big tent. (As you can see, I’m still struggling with it, too.) For now, though, it’s darkly funny to watch a [significant number of GOP voters](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/04/28/even-sizeable-chunk-republicans-say-trump-is-going-too-far/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) react badly to getting what they wanted. They’re [tired of not getting dates](https://www.axios.com/local/washington-dc/2025/04/17/online-dating-partisan-trump-administration?ref=thebarbedwire.com)? Their kids are [going no-contact](https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/people-cut-off-trump-supporting-180042424.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com)? To quote [an all-time tweet](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/well-well-well-if-it-isnt-the-consequences-of-my-own-actions?ref=thebarbedwire.com): “Well, well well, if it isn’t the consequences of my own actions.” At the very least, I’d say some views don’t deserve a platform. Some people don’t deserve your patience. And fascism, no matter how it’s dressed up in patriotism and Bible verses, isn’t just another side of the coin. Things seem to be collapsing faster and faster. Administration flunkies are now [posing in front of prisons](https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/kristi-noem-el-salvador-prison-photo-op-new-low?srsltid=AfmBOortawoJ9y%5F97s7jeEoUHj8ghvQxSL8kFGOaJpjxGwTTEvLJWWnb&ref=thebarbedwire.com) and gleefully [dismantling aid programs](https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1886307316804263979?lang=en&ref=thebarbedwire.com). And if you want to walk away from it, I don’t blame you. Hopefully, one day, we can build something new from the wreckage. ### ‘Clarity’ on Texas’ Abortion Ban is Coming… Whatever That Means URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-abortion-law-clarifications/ Last updated: 2025-04-29T22:45:13.000Z UPDATE: May 21, 2025 The so-called “life of the mother” act to “clarify” medical emergencies that constitute exemptions under the laws, [SB 31](https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/Text.aspx?LegSess=89R&Bill=SB31&ref=thebarbedwire.com), easily passed the Texas House and will soon be on it's way to the Governor’s desk. Once the Governor has signed the law, it will take effect September 1, 2025\. PREVIOUS STORY: Texas women have a 155% higher risk of maternal death than those in California. For Texas Latinas, the risk is nearly tripled. A new report from[ the Gender Equity Policy Institute](https://thegepi.org/maternal-mortality-abortion-bans/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) paints a morbid reality for people living in states with abortion bans. Women are [dying](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-true-cost-of-texas-abortion-ban-rising-deaths-abandoned-babies-fewer-doctors/), being [denied care](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/she-voted-for-trump-then-she-had-two-terrifying-miscarriages-in-texas/), and are [terrified](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/pregnancy-care-texas-abortion-miscarriage/). Many feel like their elected officials aren’t grasping that reality — or rather, don’t care that [59% of Texans support abortion](https://www.prri.org/research/abortion-views-across-all-50-states-key-insights-from-prris-2024-american-values-atlas/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in all or most cases, according to a poll by Public Religion Research Institute. Instead of repealing the [strictest abortion laws in the country](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-abortion-laws-national-ban/), on Tuesday, just before 4:30 p.m. the Texas Senate passed the so-called “life of the mother” act to “clarify” medical emergencies that constitute exemptions under the laws. “This bill is an acknowledgement of how desperately fragile our personal rights and liberties are. Under the current order, Texans are no longer allowed to make the most fundamental of personal choices without governmental interference,” Sen. Sarah Eckhardt, who voted for the bill, said just before the Senate vote. “If your pregnancy falls outside of this politically determined exception, you are on your own trying to get to a territory that still provides you your right to determine whether, when, and with whom you have children. And anyone who helps you on your way is vulnerable to civil and even criminal prosecution for helping you.” Eckhardt and other Democrats seemed to reluctantly support the bill — imperfect was a common descriptor — saying it could save lives. Yet, the rare bipartisan effort isn’t exactly instilling confidence in women who are scared to get pregnant or who have gone through harrowing, near-death experiences trying to have babies in Texas. “These politicians insist they know better than you what is right for your family, they would criminalize you for making the right decision for your family,” said Lauren Miller, a mother who had to flee the state for abortion care, [during a March Senate hearing](https://www.instagram.com/p/DHv3kEoRLaT/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “That is not freedom, that is not independence, that is anti-Texan.” Still, there may be some hope. The aim of the bill is “purely a medical exception and a cleanup,” said state Rep. Ann Johnson of Houston, a co-author of the bill, during [testimony for the committee on public health](https://house.texas.gov/videos/21594?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in early April. “We are talking about physicians in our emergency rooms that see women bleeding who can't perform regular medical modern technologies because they are afraid that folks politically think they're trying to do something wrong. They're just trying to perform healthcare,” Johnson said. “All this bill does is say that when you see that physical manifestation of an indication that a major bodily function is at risk, you don't need to make her get at death's door before you practice your job, because not doing that is making these people leave the state of Texas, and it is hurting us all.” The bill could change as it goes through the House, where it’s pending in committee, though it is [expected to head to the governor’s desk](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/capitol-texas-gov/tlodocs/89R/analysis/sb00031i-navpanes-0.pdf). As it stands, it will: - Clarify that a doctor can perform an abortion if there are “threats to the mother's life and threats to her major bodily functions” - Clarify that a doctor “using reasonable medical judgment” can intervene more quickly and give “timely medical care to a pregnant woman in a defined medical emergency” - “Protect” women undergoing treatment for cancer and other diseases when the treatment may jeopardize the unborn child - Redefines ectopic pregnancies in a more medically accurate way - Would allow mothers to choose medical treatment (for things like cancer) to save their lives, even if it means their pregnancy will be terminated - Force the state to create courses for both attorneys and doctors to take to understand how lawmakers want to control the parameters of what abortions are legal and which are not While the bill has received pushback from abortion advocates, there’s also a sentiment that doctors will take what they can get to help lower rates of women dying. “An inconvenient fact for many is if the woman is pregnant, if she gets an abortion, her risk of death goes down dramatically with that pregnancy. That is a fact,” Dr. Charles Brown, a member of the Texas A&M College of Medicine, said at a Texas Impact gathering in February of 2024\. Texas Impact is an interfaith group that works together on issues that impact the most vulnerable people in our communities, according to their website. Brown explained that basic medicine facts support the need for abortions. “Early abortion is a very safe procedure, nothing's 100% but those are the best statistics we have that have been shown to every country on Earth, every society, everyone who honestly looked at the data.” Brown said that when Texas’ abortion bans took effect, he approached several attorneys for help in clarifying what they meant for doctors like him. He said they “could not give me any advice because these were criminal laws, not the typical civil laws that apply to the practice of medicine.” Brown has practiced medicine in Texas for over 40 years and is a maternal fetal medicine doctor who has received specialized training to handle high-risk pregnancies. He believes that the “clarification” bill “ensures that physicians and the members of their team can act quickly when the life of the mother is at risk without the threat of losing our medical license or getting thrown in jail,” Brown said during testimony of the House version. While it won’t legalize abortion in Texas, Brown said this piece of legislation is “a necessary step in protecting the health and well being of women in Texas.” But lawmakers and abortion advocates are clear that with abortion bans still in place, people will continue dying. “It's not all I want in this bill. This does not deal with rape and says doesn't deal with fatal fetal abnormality or many other things that we could debate,” Johnson, a co-author of the bill, said. **Not all women will be covered by the “clarification” bill** “It was finally our time. We had done all the hard work, and we were finally here,” Taylor Edwards told *The Barbed Wire*. After several rounds of failed IVF, she and her husband had finally got the news their IVF was successful on Thanksgiving of 2022\. Then in February of 2023, on the day of her wedding anniversary, Edwards and her husband went in for a routine anatomy scan of their growing baby girl. “I knew they were looking at the stuff with the baby, but I didn't really understand that people get the worst news of their lives at the anatomy scan,” Edwards remembered. Because of their IVF journey, they had to visit a new doctors office that specializes in maternal fetal medicine and noticed something was off. “The ultrasound tech, she was really weird, and I didn't really put it together. I was just trying to crack jokes with her, be (a) person, and she was just being really quiet.” After the ultrasound tech left the room, a doctor came in and introduced himself, then asked Edwards to get back on the exam table. “He said she saw something in the spine. So he goes to her spine, and he starts at the bottom, and he's going up and then he gets to the back of base of her skull, and it hadn't closed, and her brain was actually coming out of the back, and he didn't even mince words. He said, ‘This baby is not going to survive.’” The couple’s world came crashing down. “I started screaming. I kept fighting with him. I was like, ‘What do you mean? Can she have surgery? Can we do something? I will go anywhere.’ And he was like, ‘She's not going to survive.’” Edwards and her husband were told they could wait for their baby girl to die — either in utero (which would require weekly monitoring appointments and labor induction) or after birth, when she would suffocate. The second option her doctor recommended was to leave the state to seek an abortion. “He said that families typically regret carrying on with the pregnancy. It is more dramatic for everybody involved. And so I'm trying to process literally all this and and we're like, OK, I guess we're going to leave the state,” Edwards said. “They wrote it on a little piece of paper, a name of a clinic in New Mexico. Didn't give me any other information.” Edwards said her decision on how to peacefully and respectfully end her pregnancy was taken from her due to Texas’ abortion laws. “I didn't have a choice in what kind of procedure I was going to have, because you're very limited, because Texas has laws where you can't use your insurance for abortions, and so you have to go to a clinic. I couldn't go to a hospital setting because I couldn't afford a hospital without insurance for that kind of procedure, and nobody can, so we had to go to a clinic.” Edwards and her husband ran into complications with scheduling in New Mexico, she had to carry her dying daughter for two more weeks after the ultrasound, then had to flee to Colorado to find the care she needed. “I didn't get to mourn what was going on, my pregnancy and my daughter,” Edwards said. “I was trying to navigate laws. I was trying to understand if it was legal. I was truly, deeply afraid I would be arrested when we landed back in Austin. And I think that that fear is intentional.” Edwards’ situation wouldn’t be covered under the so-called “save the mother” act. Abortions in the case of fatal fetal diagnosis will still be considered “elective,” and Texans who receive the news that their babies will die will be faced with the same agonizing decision — if they can even afford to go out of state for care. “I had a fatal fetal anomaly, yes, but I had an *elective* abortion. Both of those things can be true, and I don't think that lawmakers that's getting through to their head,” Edwards said. “It is Texas. I'm not delusional. I don't think that tomorrow they're going to be like, ‘Okay, let's just open up abortions for any reason.’ But I think that, if you are going to be making these distinctions and legislating things that have real-life effects on real people, you need to be very clear about what you're doing and why you're doing it.” “I think that they are trying to play the good guys, and they're not,” Edwards said. Mothers like Lauren Miller and Kaitlyn Kash would also be excluded from abortion care. Both of their *wanted* pregnancies faced complications and fatal fetal anomalies. Miller, who was pregnant with twins, found out that one of her pregnancies was unviable. She said her doctor told her, “I can't help you anymore. This baby isn't going to make it to birth. You need to leave the state.”After fleeing to Colorado to get the care she needed, Miller said, “If I had not been able to get an abortion for Thomas, then Henry, my healthy son, would be in that urn with him.” Kash had two health crises during two different pregnancies. In 2023, she was denied a D&C, a minor procedure called suction dilation and curettage, to remove tissue from the uterus that hasn’t been expelled naturally and presents risk of infection. Doctors say due to the state’s abortion bans, they couldn’t give her that standard of care after her placenta would not deliver. She waited for nearly two hours before the procedure was performed and says she almost bled out, then spent the night in the ICU. Doctors told her that future pregnancies could be life-threatening. In that case, the “clarification” bill could potentially help her. But it wouldn’t have in 2021, when her fetus was diagnosed with a fatal anomaly at 13 weeks. Kash’s life was not at stake, but she says her unborn child was suffering, and she had to flee the state for an abortion. “I had already been waiting a week, my baby's bones were going to start breaking in utero, and I was literally up against a clock of trying to end their suffering,” Kash told *The Barbed Wire*. “I was afraid to move because I didn't want to break their bones, and I had to get on an airplane, and the doctor asked me how I wanted to remember, and I was so upset and panicked that I just said, ‘I just would like to get this over with,’ and it is the biggest regret that I have in my life.” Texas lawmakers, she said, “took away my dignity as a mother to say goodbye to my child,” and you treated me like a criminal. Kash and Miller are both on a mission to keep pushing for more than just “clarification” laws, although Miller admits she was initially excited about having more clarity. “Exceptions to abortion bans are a lie. They will always be a lie, and giving any sort of support to it has become a flaw. When I initially heard about this bill, I was very excited. I was thinking, okay, we're going to get a little clarity. Maybe, we don't have to get dead enough. Maybe there will be something,” Miller said. “But it's clear that anti abortion groups have gotten their hands on this so much that it no longer resembles what may have been in good faith.” Another concern among abortion advocates is the possible [revival of a 1925 law](https://time.com/7272512/texas-bill-abortion-ban/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that could set the stage to prosecute abortion patients, anyone who helps patients access abortion care. There are also no exceptions for rape, incest or teen pregnancy. In 2023, [six kids under 11 years old had to flee Texas to get abortions](https://www.texasstandard.org/stories/texas-abortion-ban-teens-children-travel-out-state/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), according to [Texas Health and Human Services data](https://www.hhs.texas.gov/about/records-statistics/data-statistics/itop-statistics?ref=thebarbedwire.com). There were 105 minors total who had to leave. During the final reading of the bill, Sen. Roland Gutierrez questioned why the bill had no exceptions for children who were raped. Republican Sen. Bryan Hughes said “we wouldn’t punish the little unborn baby because of the horrible act of the rapist, let’s punish the rapist.” (If that sounds disingenuous, it may be because F.B.I data from 2019 shows that [Texas solves fewer rape cases than the national average](https://www.msnbc.com/deadline-white-house/watch/texas-solves-fewer-rape-cases-than-the-u-s-average-124773957709?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and Republicans at the national level have made [cuts to sexual violence prevention programs](https://www.npr.org/2025/04/08/nx-s1-5349529/hhs-layoffs-sexual-assault-rape-prevention?ref=thebarbedwire.com), meaning [delays for rape crisis centers in Texas](https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/npr/2025/02/07/nx-s1-5290088/rape-crisis-centers-see-funding-delays-amid-trump-administration-spending-upheaval/?ref=thebarbedwire.com).) Lawmakers say their focus is to try to get what they can get in the midst of the people running the state politically. They say the bill “doesn't provide greater relief to Texas Women, it just provides greater clarity and *relief from liability* for the physicians” to act in a “politically defined medical emergency.” The next step is for House members to vote on their version of the bill and send it to the governor’s desk to become law in September. “As a state, we've already decided that we don't trust women to make that decision about their babies, but right now, we're not trusting medical professionals to do that either,” Johnson said. “This is health care, and this is about saving women's lives free from an abortion debate, because you've already won that.” ### The Beyoncé Cowboy Carter Act Two Tour is Putting Texas Where it Belongs: Everywhere URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/beyonce-cowboy-carter-tour-houston/ Last updated: 2025-04-28T18:09:40.000Z Thanks to Beyoncé, now the rest of the world knows what it really means to be Texan and country. We know some outsiders looking into our state think that we’re all a bunch of [racist](https://www.texastribune.org/2023/03/09/Texas-white-supremacist-propaganda/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [transphobic](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/anti-trans-bills-texas-2025/), [ignorant](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/11/18/texas-curriculum-history-social-studies-slavery-racism/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) people, but Beyoncé (intentionally or not) is using Cowboy Carter to show what most of us know to be true: Texans are legendary and iconic. Monday night, to an audience of thousands of people in Los Angeles, and millions more who watched on [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/themegamega/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [TikTok](https://www.tiktok.com/@clarencewhite/video/7498581033676262699?%5Fr=1&%5Ft=ZP-8vwRUdV7WW6&ref=thebarbedwire.com) lives (shoutout [Da'Nelle aka Dee](https://www.tiktok.com/@itsdanelledoee?ref=thebarbedwire.com) IYKYK), Beyoncé once against raised the bar for the competition, which let’s be honest, is only herself, *ahem* she’s one of one and the only one. Beyoncé’s journey to this moment has been a rough ride, to say the least. She’s been [iced out of country music awards](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/beyonce-snubbed-from-cma-awards/), criticized for [not being country enough](https://time.com/6694806/beyonce-country-music/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and been the subject of [racist vitriol](https://pagesix.com/2024/04/25/entertainment/cmas-attendee-recalls-racist-vitriol-during-beyonce-performance/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [time after time](https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2023/11/beyonces-mom-ignorant-and-racist-comments-renaissance-premiere-look?srsltid=AfmBOoq8uJ0HFbHh0WrQKLbbrSC5BFcR7dDBKREq%5FiYrhB4murWASQUI&ref=thebarbedwire.com). Still, the queen has shown that to be a Texas woman means to be *that girl,* to say things you know will offend those who were going to criticize you anyway and to wear your roots proudly because you know that Texas is the trend. The tour for Cowboy Carter, above everything, is a coming home to showcase and share her Texas roots. Unless you were lucky enough to be at the opening night of the Rodeo Chitlin’ Circuit, you have probably been living vicariously through all of the online sneak peeks from opening night. Everything that’s a part of the tour had a touch of Texas, from videos of her [childhood in Houston](https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8jEFjoC/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), to her riding a [gold mechanical bull](https://www.instagram.com/p/DJBVUI%5Fuoe4/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), to the outfits and merch, so let’s dive into what we’ve seen that stood out. ## The Cowboy Carter Pre-Game The moment guests went through the venue gates, Texas and southern culture was front and center. According to fans on Tiktok, each person was invited to a [free SirDavis Whisky](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/beyonce-named-her-new-whisky-after-her-moonshiner-great-grandfather/) tasting (the one she released last August named after her moonshiner great-grandfather). Fans had two taste choices, neat or Texas Buckin', which the latter included the Sirdavis American Whisky, lemon juice, honey and ginger beer. A Texas Hold’Em drink with bourbon could be purchased as a cocktail for $24, an additional $15 gets you a souvenir collectible cup which appeared to be a clear plastic base resembling a mason jar (like what many of us Texas girlies drink from) with a Texas white cowboy hat as the lid and a red straw through the middle. https://www.tiktok.com/@thiccy\_minaj/video/7498563154843159854?\_r=1&\_t=ZP-8vwZdZMYBqh https://www.tiktok.com/@mattaayala/video/7498541089922501931?\_r=1&\_t=ZP-8vwZjpigO3r Next up, was good ol’ Texas hair. It’s no secret Beyoncé has *never* been afraid to stay true to her big Texas hairstyle. She caused a social media uproar that prompted big Texas hair tutorials after she “[wore the most Texas hair of all time](https://www.allure.com/story/beyonce-gq-cover-hairstyles?ref=thebarbedwire.com)” for the September issue of GQ, where she spoke on all things Cowboy Carter, her whiskey and her beauty brand Cécred. Tour attendees in Los Angeles enjoyed a Cécred pop-up with her products, hair styling, and a souvenir keychain with a Texas cowboy hat on top. https://www.tiktok.com/@\_alyssayung\_/video/7498537371315522847?\_r=1&\_t=ZP-8vwXXduRvuY The merch shops took us back to what you may see at the Texas State Fair or the Houston Rodeo. Each item was intentional and authentically Texan, like cowboy hats in a print pattern with stars and stripes and a denim checkered fabric hat (no silly plain jane spaghetti straw hats — a big Texas pet peeve). Because football is king in Texas, Bey had her own football jerseys made for the Cowboy Carter Tour. Hand fans (a staple for the Texas heat) were also available for purchase. Many of the queen’s apparel items featured Texas and rodeo imagery like horseshoes, Beyoncé holding a banjo, spurs, a bucking horse, rodeo ropes, a t-shirt that said, “This ain’t a country tour, it’s a Beyoncé tour,” ripped blue jean shorts with a Cowboy Carter label on the back and a tank that simply read “cowboy.” on the front. Some of the items read “Los Angeles” on them, which can lead one to guess that mother will have something very special for her Houston homecoming in June. https://www.tiktok.com/@gregorhaegele/video/7498484599400434966?\_r=1&\_t=ZP-8vwZ6RnZAQI ## Cowboy Carter Rodeo We don’t want to spoil your fan experience, so we won’t share the setlist, but if that’s your thing and you can’t wait, [check it out here](https://www.bustle.com/entertainment/beyonce-cowboy-carter-tour-setlist?ref=thebarbedwire.com). (Although, real fans know that Beyoncé likes to [change things up for her tours](https://www.reddit.com/r/beyonce/comments/15g9793/has%5Fshe%5Fchanged%5Fup%5Fthe%5Fsetlist%5Fon%5Fthe%5Ftour/?ref=thebarbedwire.com).) Instead, let’s focus on just a few of the iconic moments that scream Texas. Bey and Blue traded their all-white fits from their first live [Christmas performance of “Texas Hold Em](https://www.tiktok.com/@jezbreezy/video/7452495192617176327?ref=thebarbedwire.com)’” for a more laid-back Texas country look. Blue herself wore jeans and a t-shirt while mom wore jean shorts and a trucker hat. Of note were some of the dancers who wore cowboy hats, resembling [Eryka Badu](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/erykah-badu-window-seat-best-music-video/)’s [signature towering hat look](https://www.vogue.com/vogueworld/article/erykah-badu-world-market-instagram-web-shop-pussy-incense?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Badu is a fellow Texas woman and music icon in her own right. https://www.tiktok.com/@tomasmier/video/7498607406893518111?\_r=1&\_t=ZP-8vwVyuk0eH0 Don’t worry though, rhinestones, sequins and fringe were still front and center during much of the show. (yep, the quintessential uniform for anyone on a [Texas drill team](https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8jEHVFT/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) during Friday night football games.) Blue and Bey switched it up a bit for the performance of “YA YA” and wore chaps and jeans and yes cowboy hats. https://www.tiktok.com/@daiserz89/video/7498633122079083818?\_r=1&\_t=ZP-8vwW1uWD7sN Southern car culture has been a staple for much of Beyoncé’s career, from showcasing [slabs](https://texashighways.com/culture/slab-houston-distinctive-contribution-to-american-car-culture/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in 2012 in her video for “[No Angel](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7PPjEB2QZQ&ref=thebarbedwire.com)” to the shiny candy-green painted lowrider in Lemonade’s ‘[Hold Up](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeonBmeFR8o&ref=thebarbedwire.com),” and of course the slew of cars she featured during [Beyoncé Bowl at the NFL halftime show](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-soul-that-carried-beyonce-bowl-the-show-was-electrifying-to-the-students-who-shared-the-stage/) in Houston. This time around, she flew around SoFi Stadium on a custom bright red lowrider with her iconic plate that reads “[BNCNTRY](https://time.com/6694806/beyonce-country-music/?ref=thebarbedwire.com),” singing to “16 Carriages.” https://www.tiktok.com/@itz.kishonn/video/7498614603459448106?\_r=1&\_t=ZP-8vwWHyvfdpX Beyoncé could not be any more clear about her Texas pride: for “Tyrant,” she rode on a [gold mechanical bull](https://www.instagram.com/p/DJBVUI%5Fuoe4/?ref=thebarbedwire.com); and she hopped on a horseshoe for “Jolene” seconds after a giant shape of Texas, a giant brown cowboy boot and a giant version of her Texas license plate reading “BNCNTRY” were presented across the stage like the numbers at a boxing match. As [journalist Taylor Crumpton](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/i-love-my-texas-ass/) put it, “The truth is that [country music has never been white](https://time.com/6694806/beyonce-country-music/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Country music is Black. Country music is Mexican. Country music is Indigenous.” Beyoncé knows that and is making sure the world knows that Texas is Black. Texas is Mexican. Texas is Indigenous. Texas has never been white. And, of course, Texas and its women have always been iconic. https://www.tiktok.com/@jessicagolich/video/7498599029949926687?\_r=1&\_t=ZP-8vwW9NBnbSw ### Trump Slashed Billions in Health Funds During A Measles Outbreak. Now Harris County Is Suing URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/lawsuit-trump-administration-public-health-funds/ Last updated: 2025-04-25T19:20:07.000Z Following a slew of federal attacks on public health, Harris County sued the Trump administration Thursday for slashing more than $11 billion in funding previously approved by Congress. The county was expected to receive millions of dollars to help track disease outbreaks and run vaccination clinics, according to a press release from [Harris County Attorney](https://cao.harriscountytx.gov/Connect/Newsroom/harris-county-attorney-sues-trump-administration-over-illegal-elimination-of-public-health-funds?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Christian D. Menefee. Filed alongside cities like Columbus and Nashville, the lawsuit said that about $20 million was allocated to Harris County through grants made during the COVID-19 pandemic. Federal health officials pulled the funding, claiming the pandemic was [“over,”](https://apnews.com/article/hhs-covid-pandemic-trump-cdc-309fedec9383dc4fdacba6e9ca2b5309?ref=thebarbedwire.com) but Harris County used the grants toward long-term initiatives such as community health workers and vaccination clinics — which are now defunded, according to the release. Menefee emphasized that the funding helped manage ongoing public health threats such as measles, which has infected 624 and killed two people in Texas as of [April 25](https://www.dshs.texas.gov/news-alerts/measles-outbreak-2025?ref=thebarbedwire.com). In Dallas County, several grants were affected by federal cuts, causing layoffs and the cancellation of 50 vaccination events, [*The Barbed Wire*](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/measles-dallas-county-hhs-layoffs-and-canceled-50-vaccine-events-doge/) reported. In April, the Houston Health Department told the [*Houston Chronicle*](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/health/article/trump-menefee-public-health-funds-lawsuit-20293413.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com)it could lose $42 million in funding due to the cuts. “The Trump administration doesn’t get to override Congress just because it wants to score political points,” Menefee said. “This funding is the backbone of our local public health response—especially during disease outbreaks. You don’t get to break the law just because you don’t like how Congress spent the money.” Menefee said the Trump administration suddenly slashed the funds and “did not identify a single legal violation by Harris County or any other grantee.” “They didn’t follow the law. They didn’t follow their own rules,” Menefee said. “And they’re threatening the health of our most vulnerable residents in the process. That’s why we’re suing.” This is the second time Harris County has sued the Trump administration this year. Menefee [previously filed](https://cao.harriscountytx.gov/Connect/Newsroom/harris-county-lawsuit-forces-trump-administration-to-restore-refugee-health-funds?ref=thebarbedwire.com) a lawsuit over frozen health care funding for refugees, which forced the government to reverse its decision this month. “We’re doing this not just for Harris County, but for public health departments across the country that lost funding they were promised,” Menefee said. “These programs save lives, and it’s important that we’re in this fight together.” ### Trump Administration Sent a Man From Pennsylvania to Texas to Deport Him, Though a Judge Said Not To URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/trump-texas-deportation-against-judge-orders/ Last updated: 2026-06-25T17:14:05.000Z The Trump administration transported a Venezuelan man to Texas for possible deportation, going against a federal judge’s order to block the man’s removal from Pennsylvania or the United States, [*Reuters*](https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-administration-moved-venezuelan-texas-possible-deportation-despite-judges-2025-04-24/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)reported. On April 15, U.S. District Judge Stephanie Haines issued a temporary order that prevented the administration from moving the man, referred to as “A.S.R.” in court documents, out of the judge’s western Pennsylvania judicial district or the country. Despite this, a plane took off around 30 minutes after the order was issued, according to an exclusive report from *Reuters*. A.S.R. was placed in the Bluebonnet Detention Center in Anson. Haines, who President Donald Trump appointed during his first term, did not accuse the administration of violating the order by taking A.S.R. to Texas, according to *Reuters*. Still, the federal government’s swift transfer of A.S.R. shows its aggressive attempts to deport Venezuelan migrants it alleges are members of the criminal gang Tren de Aragua, despite legal restrictions. --- As experts [told our columnist Steven Monacelli](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/trump-deportation-constitutional-crisis/), it’s all part of Trump’s ambitious plan to carry out mass deportations. Some of those deportation policies violate the constitution, experts warn, including Trump’s disregard for a Supreme Court order to facilitate the return of Abrego Garcia — a Salvadoran immigrant and Maryland resident who was mistakenly deported to a prison in El Salvador. Permanent residents accused of being [transnational gang members](https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-officials-push-immigrant-gang-message-sometimes-dont-back-it-up-court-2025-04-13/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) have been [arrested](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/migrants-in-u-s-legally-and-with-no-criminal-history-caught-up-in-trump-crackdown?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and had their [status revoked](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/u-s-to-revoke-legal-status-of-over-a-half-million-migrants-chnv/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). But, as [*The Barbed Wire*](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/trump-deportation-constitutional-crisis/)previously reported, many of those deported don’t have a criminal history, and, for some, no evidence of gang affiliations. A.S.R., who worked as a construction worker in Philadelphia, denied gang membership, according to his lawyers in court papers. The American Civil Liberties Union, which represents A.S.R., told *Reuters* that he was thought to be one of the dozens of Venezuelans at the Bluebonnet detention facility whom the Trump administration tried to deport last week. As Jacqueline Watson, a lawyer in Austin and the second vice president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, told *The Barbed Wire* about the Garcia case: “This is unprecedented.” “This is beyond the pale. It’s a complete violation of our international obligations,” Watson said. ### Meet the Texas Librarians on the Front Lines in the War Against Books URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-librarians-fighting-book-bans/ Last updated: 2025-04-25T09:00:00.000Z In recent years, Texas has become an epicenter of the rapidly-spreading book banning movement. This year alone, our state lawmakers lead the nation with at least 31 proposed bills that the [American Library Association says](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/01/new-book-bans-library-schools?ref=thebarbedwire.com) would effectively restrict librarians’ abilities to do their jobs. One such bill, [Senate Bill 13](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/03/05/texas-school-library-book-bans-senate-bill/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), passed through the Texas Senate last month, and would require school boards, not librarians, to have final say over which materials are removed from public school libraries. Another bill, [Senate Bill 412](https://popular.info/p/texas-lawmakers-advance-bill-that?utm%5Fsource=post-email-title&publication%5Fid=1664&post%5Fid=159782915&utm%5Fcampaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=false&r=artjp&triedRedirect=true&utm%5Fmedium=email), which recently made its way to the Texas House, would criminalize librarians, removing protections that prevented them from being charged with providing harmful material to minors. Since 2021, Texas has ranked among the top states in the country when it comes to book bans. In the 2023-2024 school year, [PEN America tracked](https://pen.org/report/beyond-the-shelves/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#heading-4) 538 bans, trailing behind only Iowa and Florida. How exactly did we get here? While book bans have spread all over the country, director Kim Snyder’s latest documentary, [*The Librarians*](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt34966678/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), points to the movement’s origins right here in the Lone Star State. The film, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, follows librarians who have found themselves on the frontlines of a culture war largely fueled by right wing misinformation campaigns. Among them are Carolyn Foote and Becky Calzada, two of several Texas librarians who came together to create the aptly-named “FReadom Fighters” — a group dedicated to supporting librarians and speaking out against censorship. Zooming out from Texas, Snyder then connects the book banning efforts here to other efforts and copycat legislation in other states like Florida, Louisiana, and New Jersey. Though the locations may differ drastically, the books being challenged and the concerns surrounding them are eerily similar, cluing the network of librarians into a frightening realization about who they’re up against: a number of right-wing conservative groups who have made [book banning](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2023/10/05/website-driving-banned-books-surge-moms-for-liberty/70922213007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [taking over school boards](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/-christian-cell-company-patriot-mobile-took-four-texas-school-boards-rcna44583?ref=thebarbedwire.com) their top priorities. *The Barbed Wire* spoke with Snyder as well as Foote and Calzada shortly after the documentary’s screening at [South By Southwest](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/these-bands-prove-that-sxsw-isnt-dead-as-a-music-festival/) to talk about the film and what the fight against censorship looks like now. **Kim, I’m wondering what initially drew you to this topic and how you first became aware of it?** **KS:** I’ve been working on a lot of projects that revolved around the stories of gun violence, and I happened to come across the “Freadom Fighters.” I was just so inspired. I always say that when it comes to stories, it’s like falling in love. You just kind of see something, and you feel called to it. I immediately got in touch, and started digging deeper. **You started filming around 2022\. Did any of you have an inkling at the time of the fact that you would still be fighting this fight years later, or how far it would spread outside of Texas?** **CF:** No, I think we had no intention of founding a group that would still be going three or four years later. Social media has been a game changer in helping things spread so rapidly. While that’s something we could’ve anticipated, I thought, “People have short attention spans, they’re going to move on to some other issue.” But we were also initially caught off guard because, after \[Gov. Abbott [signed the “critical race theory” bill ](https://www.texastribune.org/2021/06/15/abbott-critical-race-theory-law/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)into law\], we were prepared for attacks on books about race or racism. Then [the Krause list](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/static-texastribune-org/media/files/94fee7ff93eff9609f141433e41f8ae1/krausebooklist.pdf) came out and it also had all of these books about LGBTQ topics and sex education. That was sort of out of left field. It wasn’t the fight we were preparing for, but it sort of felt like all the culture wars had landed on our doorstep as librarians. **BC:** I think the other part of it is not just the escalation, but the repetitive nature \[of these bans\]. Typically, you might hear about maybe one book challenge in a year, but then we started seeing 16 for the same book. And then you would hear that book being spoken about in another school, or in another state. The copycat nature was really surprising, because it opened our eyes to these organizations teaching people how to challenge books, and they were really focused on leveraging their networks and social media to spread misinformation and to disparage professionals. **KS:** From my vantage point as a documentarian, sadly, a commonality with this film and my other work is that it feels like they’ve only become more relevant since they were made. I don’t want that to be the case. With book bans and with gun violence, it feels like it’s been unending. I wish that wasn’t the country we lived in. **In the film, you talk about right-wing groups like Moms For Liberty fanning the flames of this moral panic over books. How did you realize that these book bans were part of something bigger?** **BC:** I think that was one of the strengths that Carolyn and I brought to the table: we’re pretty connected. We've been in libraries for quite a while, and already we’ve been doing advocacy work around library funding and things like that. We have a network that we can rely on, so we would support one another through different book challenges, and we could also share “this is what happened to me,” or “I saw this happen here.” We started to see patterns. **CF:** We met people online that were going through the same thing. We compared stories, and things started coming together where, by the spring of 2022, we knew this was definitely part of an intentional effort. We didn’t know yet who exactly might be involved, and since then, there have been some new players who started entering the equation, but that’s how the ball got rolling. **The film highlights several librarians who lost their jobs trying to fight back against bans, and also others who have faced harassment and threats. What has it been like to publicly bush back on book banning?** **BC:** I happen to work in a district that has, so far, been holding the line. We’ve had our fair share of book challenges, and because of that, I feel like I’ve been able to help others learn from what we did. A lot of it is rooted in trust. I'm not going to say we haven't had an attack, because people will target us on social media and say things about us, but I always tell people that a lot of times we’re viewed as a threat because of our influence. **CF:** We try to help guide people as much as we can because this is so new. We coach people not to engage in social media because it makes it worse. I think we’ve been strategic and thoughtful about how or who we engage with. **What gives you hope in telling this story?** **KS:** I would say the Granbury storyline in our film gives me hope. We told the story of \[Courtney Gore, a Granbury ISD school board member\] who was one of millions of moms who was essentially led to believe one thing because of misinformation, and when she did some digging and realized that she was incorrect, she spoke out. Granbury is not a liberal bubble, it’s a pretty conservative place. So for her to speak out in her town, I have hope that there could be many Courtneys out there. I’m hoping that’s what this film can do, is let people see what’s really happening, and that there is a politically-driven, nefarious agenda here. We’re setting a dangerous precedent right now, but there’s still time for us to pull back. I know a lot of people feel demoralized right now, they’re fed up with the polarized politics. But I hope that the role models in this film show them that you don’t have to succumb to fear and apathy. You can affect change on a local level. **BC:** The students give me hope. I think of students who have come back and talked about how not having access to a library hampered them. I think about the students who have spoken up at board meetings in defense of librarians. I think about our banned book club in our school district, and how they actually approached the school board and said, “Hey, we want a seat at the table. Can we be part of the consideration process?” And our school board actually allowed for that to happen. These students are speaking out, they’re taking action, they’re leveraging their agency because they deserve better. They’re so smart and so creative, and that’s what gives me the most hope. ### After 15 Years and a Criminal Charge, Erykah Badu’s ‘Window Seat’ Is Still Texas’ Best Music Video URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/erykah-badu-window-seat-best-music-video/ Last updated: 2025-04-24T09:00:00.000Z *Texas hasn’t gotten its due as a major piece in the complex puzzle of American art. We’re here to rectify that. Every three weeks, [H. Drew Blackburn](https://thebarbedwire.com/author/drew/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) will conduct a thoroughly scientific analysis of the 254 integral (one for every county) books, movies, tv shows, albums, podcasts, songs, and magazine articles — you name it — that best exemplify the Texas spirit. These texts, products of immense talent, dig into the marrow of our being. When it’s all said and done and we’ve built The Texas Voyager collection, we’ll (figuratively) head to the Johnson Space Center in Houston and shoot it beyond the atmosphere, into the cosmos. A wise person once posed the question: “What if the aliens are hot?” Hold onto that hope — this is our chance to impress ‘em.* Erykah Badu carries herself like a presence felt beyond doors — a myth and a legend. In the ‘90s, she helped invent an entire genre of music, earning her title of the Queen of Neo-Soul. She’s a country-fried Afrofuturist, a [doula who has helped deliver more than 50 children](https://www.essence.com/fashion/erykah-badu-doula-maternity-style/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and a fashion icon. Badu was the recipient of the CFDA’s 2024 Fashion Icon award and recently turned heads at [Billboard’s Women in Music event](https://www.thecut.com/article/what-was-erykah-badus-outfit-at-the-women-in-music-awards.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) wearing a campy body suit that’s an ode to full-figured women. It’s a bit ironic that Badu’s most iconic moment of all, we see her with no make-up, wearing an unassuming peacoat and sweats, to wearing nothing at all, lying on the pavement with the word “groupthink” leaking out of her skull. In 2010, Badu released “Window Seat,” the lead single for her fifth studio album, “New Amerykah Part Two (Return of the Ankh)” — her most recent full-length release ([though there are plans for a long-anticipated follow-up soon](https://www.billboard.com/music/awards/erykah-badu-women-in-music-2025-icon-1235924580/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)). Fifteen years later, the song and its unforgettable video still resonate as a masterclass in artistic rebellion. “Window Seat” and the controversy surrounding it are seared in our memories, which it’s why it’s the first music video we’re adding to the [Texas Voyager collection](https://thebarbedwire.com/author/drew/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). When it came time to shoot the visuals for the song, the label, Universal Motown, wanted something typical — to hire a marquee music video director and spend a bunch of money on the production, which Badu would eventually have to pay back, plus interest. “That’s how the labels work. They’re banks,” Paul Levatino, the former general manager at Badu World, a company that handles the artist’s day-to-day operations (essentially Badu’s right hand), and assistant director for the “Window Seat” music video, told *The Barbed Wire*. The label’s original idea to get Badu on an airplane looking out of the window was a bit boring. “Just very on the nose kind of shit and that's not who Erykah is,” Levatino said. --- --- Badu began researching videos, seeking out artists like Radiohead and Bjork for inspiration, and stumbled upon “[Lessons Learned](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJkymylTNU4&ref=thebarbedwire.com)” by Matt and Kim, which sees the electronic duo stripping off their clothes in Times Square until they’re naked. Badu reached out to the musicians to get the OK to lift their premise for a Dallas-based rendition. Badu enlisted [Coodie & Chike](https://www.instagram.com/officialcoodieandchike/?hl=en&ref=thebarbedwire.com), who’d directed “Jeen-Yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy.” During a brainstorming session on where to shoot, Dealey Plaza, the site of John F. Kennedy’s assassination, came up. At first, the team thought the location might be too sacred and Badu bristled at this idea, a sign of good instincts. You would think that the place where a sitting president of the United States got shot in the head would be some sort of hallowed ground, but it’s not. Every day, tourists visit the grassy knoll and the [literal “X” that marks the spot](https://www.keranews.org/2013-11-27/its-back-x-returns-to-dealey-plaza-marking-spot-where-jfk-was-shot?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on Elm Street. There have been [warring factions trying to make a buck off the tragedy](https://www.dallasobserver.com/news/punches-cussing-threats-tour-guides-tasteful-treatment-of-jfks-death-7279367?ref=thebarbedwire.com). At one point, a city bus tour with Dallas’ slogan, “Big things happen here,” ambled about town with [JFK’s face plastered on its side](https://theweek.com/speedreads/445728/dallas-tour-bus-kennedy-assassination-big-things-happen-here?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a silver handle protruding out of his forehead. Dallas may have at one point had shame associated with the macabre incident, but now, there’s an odd sense of pride, which is much deserved of a send-up. The idea for Badu to shed her clothing until fully nude while walking through Dealey Plaza and staging a metaphorical assassination in broad daylight was a lot more provocative than anything the label had envisioned. That’s exactly why it worked. And why it sparked controversy. On the day of the shoot, Badu and company arrived at Dealey Plaza with no permit and shot the video in one take, guerrilla style. “I was prepared to get arrested, honestly,” Levatino said. “(Badu) didn't feel like it was going to hurt anybody. And for me, I guess I would be willing to do that for somebody if I truly believe in their art, so I was willing to take that risk. I had done that many times on the road with her, where we had done stuff that was scary or whatever, but I did it because I truly believed in her art and her message, and I wanted her to be able to get it out there.” There was no noise or outrage in the immediate aftermath of filming; that came when “Window Seat” was released online. [Badu was cited for disorderly conduct,](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/erykah-badu-gets-500-fine-probation-for-dallas-video-striptease/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) given six months probation and a $500 fine (much less than a permit would have been, by the way). Of course, Badu being naked in public was always going to stir outrage — but the art was meant to provoke thought, and it did. “Window Seat” is the most significant music video any Texan has ever made because it’s a bold expression of artistic freedom and an indictment of how people are punished for individuality. Nudity in public *is* indecent, but with the absence of any sexual energy or activity, I’m struggling to find a compelling reason why. To boot, some people’s naked bodies, namely Black women’s, are inherently seen as more sexual and titillating because of the [prevalence of misogynoir](https://psmag.com/social-justice/black-women-are-more-likely-to-be-objectified-and-dehumanized/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Now, this music video is weird because Erykah Badu is certainly a [weird person](https://www.timeout.com/music/erykah-badu-people-see-me-as-the-head-weird-girl?ref=thebarbedwire.com), but it’s undoubtedly high-performance art. “She’s not afraid to say (or do) some pretty over-the-top things to get people thinking,” Levatino said. And that’s precisely why she’s an icon. A real rebel, with a cause. ### ‘I Was Doing Witchcraft:’ Fort Worth Man Performed An Exorcism to Murder His Mom, Police Say URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/fort-worth-man-murders-mother-witchcraft-snapchat/ Last updated: 2025-04-23T15:29:18.000Z A Fort Worth man is accused of killing his mother after police found a woman covered in blood and holding a Bible. When Fort Worth police arrived on the scene, the man told them it was “an exorcism,” according to his arrest warrant obtained by [*CBS News Texas*](https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/snapchat-photo-leads-fort-worth-police-to-grisly-murder-scene-witchcraft-claim/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The accused, Alexander Taylor Valdez, allegedly murdered his mother Teresita Sayson early Friday morning, according to a report *The Barbed Wire* acquired to confirm the details of the crime. Law enforcement went to their residence around the Willow Wood neighborhood following a tip from an anonymous caller, who claimed that they received a photo in a Snapchat group of a woman spattered with what seemed like blood, according to the warrant. Police said Valdez used a blunt force object to hit his mother repeatedly, causing trauma to her face and upper body. Officers later located a broken jewelry box with blood, a piece of hair consistent with Sayson’s, and a dead dog in the master bedroom where she was found, according to the outlet. When questioned, Valdez allegedly said, "I was doing witchcraft to kill my mom” and told police that, "There is a dead body in there, it's my mom." At the police homicide office, Valdez refused to answer questions and requested an attorney. According to Tarrant County Jail records, his bond is set at $750,000. **Read more at** [***CBS News***](https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/snapchat-photo-leads-fort-worth-police-to-grisly-murder-scene-witchcraft-claim/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)**.** ### ‘I Feel in My Heart to Hug You’: The El Paso Walmart Shooter Killed Her Brother. Instead of the Death Penalty, She Asked for a Hug. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/el-paso-walmart-shooting-victims/ Last updated: 2025-04-22T21:36:23.000Z It took Frank Rodriguez less than a minute to [address the gunman](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/el-paso-walmart-shooter/) directly and implore him to “have the balls” to face him. Rodriguez’s son, Javier Rodriguez was the youngest victim at only 15 and wanted to be a U.S. Border Patrol agent, his father previously said. “Look at me! I’m talking to you. I’m only asking you (for) two minutes. Two minutes of your time. You had over 10 hours to think about what you were going to do! Now you can’t give me two minutes?” Rodriguez said, alluding to the time it took to drive from Allen to El Paso. “Thanks to you, now I go to the cemetery with my family on my son’s birthday. We take a cake, some ice cream. We go down there and sing Happy Birthday. Thanks to you.” Rodriguez and other family members of victims of the [2019 shooting at an El Paso Walmart](https://www.texastribune.org/2019/08/03/el-paso-police-say-mass-shooter-active-cielo-vista-mall/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — one of the largest mass shootings in Texas history, and one of the deadliest on Hispanic civilians in American history — delivered impact statements Tuesday as a [plea hearing](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/el-paso-walmart-shooter/) for [gunman Patrick Crusius](https://www.kut.org/crime-justice/2020-02-06/el-paso-shooting-suspect-faces-nearly-100-federal-charges-including-hate-crimes?ref=thebarbedwire.com) continued into a second day. Crusius, 26, pleaded guilty to capital murder and aggravated assault charges. He received life in prison under a plea deal to avoid the death penalty. El Paso County District Attorney James Montoya said his decision to take the death penalty off the table came after speaking with some of the victims’ families. “It became very clear that the vast majority of them want this case over and done with as quickly as possible,” Montoya, a Democrat, said during a [press conference](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/da-victims-families-want-walmart-case-done-with-as-soon-as-possible/vi-AA1BEz9f?ref=thebarbedwire.com) last month. Seeking the death penalty, he added, could have prolonged the case for at least three more years. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/367a9453.jpg) Patrick Crusius pleaded guilty to capital murder and aggravated assault charges on April 21, 2025, stemming from the racist attack on an El Paso Walmart that left 23 people dead in 2019\. (Ruben R Ramirez) The [conclusion of the state case](https://www.texastribune.org/2020/07/31/el-paso-walmart-shooting-prosecute/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) could bring an element of closure for the families and the community, which are still reeling from the shooting. More than 40 people signed up to face the gunman and provide impact statements, which began Monday. Some of Tuesday morning’s statements were more biting as forgiveness gave way to anger for some of the victims’ relatives. More alluded to their thoughts on Crusius avoiding the death penalty by taking the plea that instead gives him a life sentence without the possibility of parole. Rodriguez hinted he’d like to take matters into his own hands. “I wish I could just get five minutes with you, me and you. And get it over with,” he said. Later, Dean Reckard spoke slowly and deliberately as he told Crusius that he made good on a promise he made to the gunman nearly two years ago. “I told you the last time I saw you, I’d see your face again. Well, here I am,” said Reckard, whose [mother Margie Reckard](https://www.texastribune.org/2019/08/17/hundreds-attend-el-paso-shooting-victims-funeral/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) was killed in the attack. “You’re a disgrace to humanity and to your family. I’ve noticed your family isn’t here. They’ll probably have to hide for the rest of their lives because of the evil you brought upon their name.” Reckard added that he didn’t buy the claim about Crusius’s mental state — Crusius’ attorney, Joe Spencer, has argued that his client has schizoaffective disorder that causes delusions — accusing him of trying to game the system, and told the gunman he was “looking a little rough,” perhaps because of the physical toll being in prison was taking. “I hope that what you’ve experienced these past five years, going on six now, is 100 times worse for you when you go to prison,” he said. “You may have succeeded in getting life in prison instead of being sentenced to death. My hope is you wake up each morning wishing you were dead.” Yet, despite the anger, [forgiveness remained](https://www.texastribune.org/2020/08/03/el-paso-walmart-shooting-anniversary/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) a constant theme throughout the testimony. Reckard said he accepted that he’ll never have some of the answers he and his family have longed for since 2019. “There are so many things that I would like to say but it’s not going to do any good. So many questions I have for you, that I know you’re not going to sit over there and give me the answers to them,” he said. Then, he forgave the gunman who took his mother’s life. “I forgive you though. In order to be forgiven, you have to forgive others. That’s the only reason I forgive you. May God have mercy on your soul.” In one of the most emotional moments of the morning, Yolanda Tinajero, whose [brother Arturo Benavides was killed](https://www.keranews.org/texas-news/2023-08-03/i-need-closure-community-remembers-victims-on-el-paso-walmart-shootings-fourth-anniversary?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that day, told Crusius about the emptiness she and her family feel since the shooting. “I want to imagine and understand how his wife … has been left alone without her partner for life. Now she lives alone in their home full of memories that she cannot forget,” she said. “At first, I was very angry at you. But God helped to suppress this anger with forgiveness.” “I feel in my heart to hug you very tight so you can feel my forgiveness, (but) especially my loss. But I know it’s not allowed,” Tinajero continued. She spoke for two minutes before Medrano surprisingly asked: “Ma’am, would it truly bring you peace and comfort and healing to hug him?” “Yes,” she said without hesitating. Then, Tinajero approached the man who killed her brother, and embraced him. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/gettyimages-1166427842.jpg) A woman touches a cross at a makeshift memorial for victims outside Walmart, near the scene of a mass shooting on Aug. 6, 2019 in El Paso, Texas. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images) \*\*\* The names of all the people who were taken that day are: Andre Anchondo Jordan Anchondo Arturo Benavides Jorge Calvillo Garcia Guillermo Garcia Leonardo Campos Angelina Englisbee Maria Flores Raul Flores Adolfo Cerros Hernandez Alexander Hoffmann David Johnson Luis Alfonso Juarez Maria Legarreta Rothe Maribel Loya Hernandez Ivan Filiberto Manzano Gloria Irma Marquez Elsa Mendoza Marquez Margie Reckard Sara Regalado Monreal Javier Amir Rodriguez Teresa Sanchez Juan Velasquez ### 'The Most Irritating Person I’ve Ever Had to Deal With:' Elon Musk to Leave DOGE URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/elon-musk-quits-doge/ Last updated: 2025-04-22T18:07:39.000Z UPDATE, Apr. 22, 6:15 p.m.: Elon Musk confirmed Tuesday afternoon, during Tesla's earnings call, that "my time allocation to DOGE will drop significantly" likely starting in May, [*Axios* reported](https://www.axios.com/2025/04/22/elon-musk-doge-tesla-earnings-call?ref=thebarbedwire.com). "I think I'll continue to spend a day or two per week on government matters for as long as the President would like me to do so and as long as it would be useful," Musk said. PREVIOUS STORY: In a plot twist no one saw coming — mostly because we all stopped paying attention out of emotional self-preservation — it appears Elon Musk’s deeply exhausting stint as the White House’s chief hatchet man is finally circling the drain. According to a [*Washington Post* report](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/04/21/doge-musk-trump-federal-employees-emails/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Musk, the man whose job description at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) sounded like the fever dream of a Reddit moderator, is allegedly ready to pack up his flamethrower and head back to his regularly scheduled midlife crisis (aka [offering women his sperm](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/were-sorry-to-report-that-elon-musk-keeps-offering-women-his-sperm/)). The reason? According to the *Post*, he’s apparently grown “tired of fielding what he views as a slew of nasty and unethical attacks from the political left.” One can only assume the left got in line behind every single colleague who’s ever had to sit through a meeting with him. Musk, whose biggest achievement in government efficiency seems to be transforming a $2 trillion budget cut into a [$150 billion shrug](https://ca.news.yahoo.com/elon-musk-reportedly-now-privately-205149530.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), believes DOGE will somehow keep chugging along without him. Because in this administration, “success” is just a matter of lowering expectations until even doing the bare minimum feels like a major win. Musk hasn’t confirmed the rumors — possibly because he’s too busy [rage-quitting video games](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/elon-musk-trolled-livestream/) or [misquoting philosophers](https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattnovak/2023/05/27/elon-musk-shares-fake-voltaire-quote-actually-from-neo-nazi/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). But his status as a special government employee is expected to expire at the end of May. That means that either he has to leave, or go through the process of being an actual government employee. --- Meanwhile, behind the scenes, it sounds like his co-workers are as annoyed by Musk as we are. One anonymous official, speaking to [*Rolling Stone*](https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/elon-musk-trump-doge-destruction-1235314218/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), put it less diplomatically: "Talking to the guy is sometimes like listening to really rusty nails on a chalkboard. He’s just the most irritating person I’ve ever had to deal with, and that is saying something.” Which, given the current cast of the Trump administration, is really saying something. When this collection of flunkies and losers think *you* are the most irritating, that’s a bigger accomplishment than any of Elon’s made-up video game accolades. And even SpaceX pal Jared Isaacman, now Trump’s NASA nominee, couldn’t sprint away from Musk fast enough during his Senate confirmation. “They work for us, not the other way around,” [he said](https://www.yahoo.com/news/incoming-head-nasa-puts-spacex-165833742.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), referring to contractors. Translation: ‘Please stop asking me about Elon. I’m trying to look employable.’ Adding to Musk’s growing pile of problems is the increasingly awkward fact that his other day job — you know, the one where he’s supposed to be running Tesla — isn’t going so hot either. Investors are sharpening their pitchforks ahead of Tesla’s quarterly earnings, as the company’s [stock price and brand reputation have both taken a beating](https://www.thestreet.com/automotive/tesla-stock-price-tumbles-ahead-of-major-event?ref=thebarbedwire.com) while Musk moonlights as Trump’s Minister of Shitty Ideas. Analysts warn that his continued focus on politics could leave permanent skid marks on Tesla’s future, with [Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives](https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/tesla-q1-2025-earnings-elon-musk-doge-fork-in-the-road-what-to-expect-rcna202182?ref=thebarbedwire.com) calling it a “moment of truth” for a CEO whose attention span seems stretched thinner than a [Cybertruck’s panel gaps](https://mashable.com/article/tesla-tells-cybertruck-owners-use-tape-to-fix-loud-wind-noise?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “If he picks staying with DOGE and the Trump White House, the future of Tesla could be negatively altered permanently,” Ives said. “The brand damage he’s created by being part of the Trump administration has already been a devastating blow to Tesla’s reputation, stock and confidence.” --- So, as the world’s richest online troll prepares to ride off into the sunset, we can breathe a collective sigh of relief (not really, but let’s relish these little victories). Musk came to Washington promising to disrupt the system, and boy, did he ever — just not in the way anyone wanted. Now, with his departure apparently imminent, we can finally go back to our regularly scheduled programming of dysfunction, but at least it’ll be slightly *less* insufferable. Godspeed, Elon. And take your PowerPoint budget cuts and cartoon supervillain ego with you — the government’s already got more than enough guys failing upward. ### El Paso Walmart Shooter ‘Will Leave Prison Only in a Coffin on God’s Time’ URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/el-paso-walmart-shooter/ Last updated: 2025-04-21T18:59:02.000Z *UPDATE: This story has been updated as the hearing continued.* Towards the end of his sentencing [hearing on Monday,](https://www.elpasotimes.com/story/news/2025/04/21/2019-el-paso-walmart-shooter-to-spend-life-in-prison-pleads-guilty/83185323007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Patrick Crusius, 26, stood shackled and stone-faced as he heard from relatives of some of the 23 people he killed in an El Paso Walmart. They told Crusius how the nightmare of that weekend in 2019 replays itself in their minds. “Sometimes I try to convince myself that maybe I can go back and remember what we once had, then maybe I’ll be OK once again,” said Yvonne Loya Hernandez, whose mother, Maribel Hernandez, was killed alongside her husband, Leo Campos. “But I can’t. It’s a nightmare that I can’t wake up from.” Her emotional narrative swayed from details about Hernandez’s life — a fondness for helping stray dogs, her devout Catholic faith and how she traveled to Laredo when Loya Hernandez was battling liver and kidney failure. Then she spoke about the last time she talked to her mother, the night before the shooting. “We talked about healing, we prayed together. We talked about God,” she said, adding that her mother eventually said she had a long day the next day and needed to rest. “Her last words to me were ‘I love you*. Sueña con los angeles.* (Dream with the angels.) I swear sometimes I feel like I’m still waiting for her call.” Loya Hernandez then told Crusius that though she forgave him, he still had to answer to God. “I pray for you. I pray for your family and for everyone who thinks like you,” she said. “It is not up to me to make you answer for your sins. But no one walks away from answering to God.” Hours earlier, Crusius [pleaded guilty](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/04/21/texas-el-paso-walmart-mass-shooting-sentencing-patrick-crusius/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to capital murder and aggravated assault charges. He received life in prison under a plea deal to avoid the death penalty. He admitted to driving from Allen, a suburb of Dallas, in August 2019 to commit one of the worst mass killings in the state’s history after he was influenced by white supremacist and anti-immigrant hate speech. Crusius, in an online manifesto posted the morning of that attack, said he was trying to ward off the “Hispanic invasion of Texas.” He was sentenced by state District Judge Sam Medrano Jr. to life in prison for one count of capital murder of multiple persons and 22 counts of aggravated assault for the nearly two dozen people wounded in the attack. “Patrick will leave prison only in a coffin on God’s time,” defense attorney Joe Spencer told the court. Crusius was 21 when he entered an East El Paso Walmart on a Saturday morning, which authorities said he targeted because it was known for catering to Hispanic shoppers from El Paso and Ciudad Juarez, which sits just across the Rio Grande. “You brought not peace, but hate. You came to inflict terror, to take innocent lives and to shatter a community that had done nothing but stand for kindness, unity and love,” Medrano told a stone-faced, handcuffed Crusius, who donned an orange-and-white striped prison uniform and was surrounded by at least a half-dozen armed officers. Cruz had already been sentenced to 90 consecutive life sentences in federal court in 2023\. But state officials vowed to have Crusius tried in Texas even as federal officials pursued their own case. Where Crusius will serve out his entire sentence is unclear. El Paso County District Attorney James Montoya said Crusius will initially be taken into the custody of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice because he was arrested by state and local officers. “Right now the state has primary jurisdiction, however there are legal mechanisms for TDCJ to request that he serve his sentence in the (federal Bureau of Prisons), and also mechanisms for federal authorities to request a transfer,” he said. Montoya said his decision to take the death penalty off the table came after speaking with some of the victims’ families. “It became very clear that the vast majority of them want this case over and done with as quickly as possible,” Montoya, a Democrat, said during a [press conference](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/da-victims-families-want-walmart-case-done-with-as-soon-as-possible/vi-AA1BEz9f?ref=thebarbedwire.com) last month. Seeking the death penalty, he added, could have prolonged the case for at least three more years. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/gettyimages-1263523043.jpg) People view a temporary memorial on Aug. 2, 2020, in Ponder Park honoring victims of the Walmart shooting which left 23 people dead in a racist attack targeting Latinos. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images) Victim impact statements will continue Tuesday and could end Wednesday as more than 40 people have signed up to face the gunman. The conclusion of the state case could bring an element of closure for the families and the community, which are still reeling from the shooting. Mario Perez, who was shot during the attack but survived, gave a short statement through an interpreter saying that he also forgave Crusius. “I, Mario Perez, forgive Mr. Patrick. And I leave it all in the hands of God. And I hope that one day he feels sorry for what he did and he asks God for forgiveness. May God forgive him,” his statement read. Others weren’t as sympathetic. No one who spoke Monday decried that Crusius won’t face Texas’ death chamber. But their capacity for compassion had limits, they said. “I thank God that I am still alive … and my family is too,” read a statement from survivor Mariscal Olivia Rodriguez. “But I don’t want compassion for the assassin. Because he didn’t have any compassion.” Spencer told the judge and the victims’ families after the sentencing that Crusius sought help for a mental condition that led to delusional thoughts but found none. “This wasn’t sudden, it was a slow unraveling,” he said. “The political environment of 2019 was charged with incendiary language, terms like ‘invasion’ were used repeatedly in political discourse to describe immigrants.” Crusius became more susceptible to the hate speech, Spencer added, and the gunman later said he believed he was acting under orders from President Donald Trump himself. “While Patrick claimed in his manifesto that his views predated the then-president, and that political figures were not to blame, he also explicitly stated the attack was in response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas,” Spencer said. “Indeed, Patrick believed he was acting in the direction of the president at the time.” Since the attack, community leaders and immigrant rights groups have marked its anniversary at a park just across from where the massacre happened and they often warn that the rhetoric that influenced the gunman is [even more prevalent](https://www.tpr.org/news/2024-02-02/dangerous-lies-texas-democrats-blast-invasion-rhetoric-as-border-stalemate-continues?ref=thebarbedwire.com) under the administrations of President Trump and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. Abbott faced backlash in the shooting’s aftermath after it was discovered his campaign sent out a mailer days before the shooting that urged Texans to “DEFEND” Texas from an increase in illegal immigration. Abbott later [said](https://www.texastribune.org/2019/08/29/texas-gov-greg-abbott-admits-mistakes-immigration-rhetoric/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) “mistakes were made” but never took admitted responsibility for the language contained in the literature. Abbott hasn’t shied away from embracing talk about an “invasion” since the shooting and has instead made it a hallmark of the [state efforts](https://www.tpr.org/news/2024-02-02/dangerous-lies-texas-democrats-blast-invasion-rhetoric-as-border-stalemate-continues?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to secure the border. In 2022, Abbott officially [declared an invasion](https://x.com/GregAbbott%5FTX/status/1704640256429985863?ref=thebarbedwire.com) was taking place at the southern border and continues to send more officers and equipment – at a cost to taxpayers of several billions – to repel what he says are violent criminals. Not to be outdone, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has said immigrants who enter the state without authorization are a plague on the state. “This is an invasion from third-world countries, they’re coming in here with health issues, they’re uneducated, unemployed and all they do is commit crime on the streets, most of them, many of them,” he told [FOX News](https://www.foxnews.com/video/6345949254112?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in 2024. ### Trump Administration Deportation Actions, Plans Are ‘Beyond the Pale’ As President Considers Deporting Citizens URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/trump-deportation-constitutional-crisis/ Last updated: 2025-04-21T08:46:00.000Z In a mere three months, the Trump administration has [arrested legal residents](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/migrants-in-u-s-legally-and-with-no-criminal-history-caught-up-in-trump-crackdown?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [stripped them of their status](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/u-s-to-revoke-legal-status-of-over-a-half-million-migrants-chnv/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), accused them of being members of [transnational gangs](https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-officials-push-immigrant-gang-message-sometimes-dont-back-it-up-court-2025-04-13/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and [sent them to a prison labor camp](https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/04/abrego-garcia-supreme-court-alien-removal-act/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in a foreign country. Upon scrutiny, many of these cases reveal a disturbing pattern: many of those deported have no [criminal record](https://abcnews.go.com/US/noncitizens-deported-alien-enemies-act-criminal-records-ice/story?id=119912375&ref=thebarbedwire.com), and in some instances, [no evidence of gang affiliations](https://www.newsnationnow.com/cuomo-show/abrego-garcias-lawyer-no-proof-ms13/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). But President Donald Trump’s ambitions for mass deportation do not end with undocumented migrants or alleged criminals. United States citizens have also been deported, such as four children of undocumented immigrants who, as *The Barbed Wire* [previously reported,](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/girl-deported-brain-cancer/) were detained in February by Customs and Border Protection agents while traveling with their family to a Houston children’s hospital for emergency medical care for one of the children, who had a brain tumor removed. Such removals are a part of the Trump administration’s [desire to end birthright citizenship](https://www.npr.org/2025/03/14/nx-s1-5327552/trump-takes-birthright-citizenship-to-the-supreme-court?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which the Supreme Court upheld in a ruling 127 years ago. Now, Trump is openly considering sending more United States citizens to the Terrorism Confinement Center, also known by the Spanish-language acronym CECOT, a prison in El Salvador that has been accused of [systemic human rights violations](https://abcnews.go.com/US/el-salvador-prison-holding-alleged-venezuelan-gang-members/story?id=120178927&ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [described by various experts](https://talkingpointsmemo.com/where-things-stand/trump-is-sending-people-to-the-camps?ref=thebarbedwire.com) as a “concentration camp,” “penal colony,” or “permanent prison camp.” "The homegrowns are next, the homegrowns. You've got to build about five more places," [Trump said](https://www.npr.org/2025/04/16/nx-s1-5366178/trump-deport-jail-u-s-citizens-homegrowns-el-salvador?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, who has [described himself as a dictator](https://www.npr.org/2025/04/14/nx-s1-5361119/the-worlds-coolest-dictator-heads-to-the-white-house?ref=thebarbedwire.com). "Yeah, we've got space," Bukele replied. The Trump administration has paid Bukele’s government millions of dollars to house immigrants deported from the U.S. at CECOT, a financial arrangement that [could violate the Leahy Law](https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/us-human-rights-law-likely-violated-6m-payment-el-salvador-prison-experts-say?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which restricts foreign military assistance to [security forces suspected of human rights abuses](https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/12/el-salvador-mil-dias-regimen-excepcion-modelo-seguridad-a-costa-derechos-humanos/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). In a twisted game of pass-the-buck, Trump, the self-professed master dealmaker, has claimed he is unable to fulfill the unanimous [Supreme Court ruling](https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/trump-administration-says-cant-return-kilmar-abrego-garcia-s-false-rcna201198?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to facilitate the return of Abrego Garcia — a Salvadoran immigrant and Maryland resident who was mistakenly deported and imprisoned at CECOT — while Bukele has said [he won't release Garcia](https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-white-house-el-salvador-kilmar-abrego-garcia-ad338d6b4558a6aba80e8290fd3eece9?ref=thebarbedwire.com). In response, the judge overseeing the case, James Boasberg, [has launched proceedings](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/04/16/boasberg-trump-contempt-deportations-alien-enemies-planes/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to determine whether Trump administration officials should face criminal contempt of court charges, having [found probable cause](https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/16/politics/boasberg-contempt-deportation-flights/index.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for such charges. “The thought that these two governments can work out this deal, but say that we can't facilitate the return of one person is obviously disingenuous and insane,” Jacqueline Watson, a lawyer in Austin and the second vice president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, told *The Barbed Wire*. “Sometimes people get deported in the appeals process before the appeals are over, and they get brought back when they win.” But in Garcia’s case, “Their decision flouts the power of the court,” she said. Critics from across the political spectrum have condemned Trump’s proposal to send U.S. citizens to the notorious maximum security prison in El Salvador. “It's obviously unconstitutional, obviously illegal. There's no authority in any U.S. law to deport U.S. citizens and certainly not to imprison them in a foreign country," David Bier at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank based in Washington, D.C. told [NPR](https://www.npr.org/2025/04/16/nx-s1-5366178/trump-deport-jail-u-s-citizens-homegrowns-el-salvador?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Experts also have also said that the move further erodes the asylum system and flouts international law. “This is unprecedented,” Watson said. “This is beyond the pale. It’s a complete violation of our international obligations.” Yet, the sordid proposal is the latest in a series of significant escalations in Trump's push for mass deportations. In recent weeks, federal immigration officials have stripped international students of their visa status, and in some cases, arrested and deported them. According to [*NBC News*](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/international-students-revoked-visas-reasons-why-rcna200313?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the reasons for revocation vary: some for past convictions like DUIs, some for minor infractions such as parking tickets or disputes with roommates, and others for no clearly stated reason at all. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has revoked visas or terminated the legal status of [more than 1,000 university students](https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2025/04/15/some-push-back-trump-revokes-hundreds-student-visas?ref=thebarbedwire.com), including [more than 300 international students ](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/education/2025/04/15/more-than-300-visas-revoked-from-texas-international-students-by-trump-administration/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)at Texas universities. Typically, student visas are revoked for failure to maintain status requirements or convictions for serious crimes, and are done in coordination with universities on a case-by-case basis. But these are not normal times. “I can't think of a time when this has ever been used, this mass revocation,” Watson told *The Barbed Wire*. This coincides with an announcement that the [Department of Homeland Security will be screening immigrants’ social media accounts](https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2025/04/09/antisemitic-social-media-immigrants/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for “anti-semitism.” Several high profile cases of international students who face deporation, such as those of [Columbia University students Mahmoud Khalil and Mohsen Mahdawi](https://abcnews.go.com/US/columbia-university-associate-mahmoud-khalil-arrested-dhs/story?id=120800223&ref=thebarbedwire.com), involve individuals who were active in pro-Palestinian activism and protests on university campuses. “Since the beginning of the last Trump administration, we have seen that the government has started reviewing immigration applicants' social media history,” Michael Urbanowich, an immigration lawyer in Houston, told *The Barbed Wire*. “It has previously been used primarily to look for threats, to look for sort of background checks and see if there's a danger to the community. But it has not been used, at least not to this extent, as a way to try to police free speech. In Texas, Governor Greg Abbott has declared popular [pro-Palestinian protest slogans to be inherently antisemitic](https://www.texasstandard.org/stories/greg-abbott-antisemitism-order-texas-colleges-pro-palestinian-student-groups/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), effectively placing a target on the backs of international students for exercising their First Amendment rights. “This certainly creates a tiered system of justice,” Watson said. “If we don't give everyone in this country the same rights, regardless of their citizenship, if we all of a sudden want to say we want to have a two-tiered system of enjoyment of constitutional rights, we break down a wall.” News reports have also shown that the Houston Police Department, the largest police department in the state, has been cooperating with ICE in arrests that could violate constitutional rights. In the past, law enforcement in Houston have held arrested individuals subject to deportation warrants so that ICE could take them into custody, but [only after an arrestee was in lockup and if ICE officials made the request](https://www.texastribune.org/2021/04/27/ed-gonzalez-ice-harris-county/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Now, it’s happening much earlier in the process, with deportation warrants being surfaced to Houston police officers running license plate numbers during routine traffic stops and detaining individuals subject to civil deportation warrants until ICE agents can arrive. “To me, that raises constitutional questions of whether or not you are under arrest. Because the police are involved, it is a constitutional and criminal question,” Urbanowich told *The Barbed Wire.* “ICE warrants are not criminal warrants.” Jennefer Canales-Pelaez, a Texas policy attorney and strategist with the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, told the [*Houston Chronicle*](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/article/hpd-police-ice-cooperation-20264558.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that this new practice could violate constitutional protections against unreasonable searches and seizures by the government. “They’re opening themselves up to a lawsuit for a violation of the Fourth Amendment,” Canales-Pelaez said. “A lot of the reason cited in the documents for the stop is a routine traffic stop. A person can only be detained during those for as long as there exists reasonable suspicion from the reason for the stop.” The confluence of these new deportation policies and practices, should they remain in place, opens the door to a number of chilling scenarios. The invocation of the Alien Enemies Act has already been used to [sidestep due process](https://www.npr.org/2025/04/06/nx-s1-5349465/how-the-trump-administration-is-sidestepping-the-legal-process-for-deportations?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for visa holders and legal residents. If Trump gets his way, citizens will be arrested, deported, and imprisoned in a foreign labor camp — potentially with the help of their local police departments. Ultimately, the Constitution only protects citizens and legal residents insofar as the Supreme Court is willing to uphold constitutional rights — and the executive branch is willing to adhere to and enforce Supreme Court rulings. If the Trump [administrations' defiance](https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/abrego-garcia-supreme-court-ruling-trump-newsletter-rcna201303?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of the Supreme Court decision demanding Garcia’s return is any indication, we are already in the midst of a constitutional crisis. “If we're not going to take a stand against this kind of abuse of power against other people, who's next?” Watson said. “Maybe us?” ### 'The Consequences Were Dire:' In Voucher Vote, Texas GOP Finds Out Hardball Politics Also Apply to Them URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-school-voucher/ Last updated: 2025-04-18T17:45:30.000Z Pearland Republican Jeff Barry didn’t bother pretending his vote for [private school vouchers](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-house-adopts-school-vouchers/) was about principle. Pressed by a constituent who called his support a “betrayal,” Barry laid it out plainly: “If I voted against it I would have had every statewide and national political figure against me. Not to mention all of my bills vetoed,” he wrote on Facebook, the [*Texas Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/04/17/greg-abbott-school-vouchers-republicans-hardball/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) reported. “The consequences were dire with no upside at all.” No high-minded policy debate, no agonizing vote of conscience — just raw political survival. The same machine Barry's party helped build was now working exactly as designed. That machine, led by Gov. Greg Abbott, has spent the last two years [steamrolling the last holdouts](https://www.texastribune.org/2023/12/06/greg-abbott-vouchers-primary-special-session/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in the Republican ranks who thought they could buck leadership on private school vouchers. The governor’s approach wasn’t subtle. Rep. James Talarico, a Democrat from Austin, [spelled it out on the House floor](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/04/17/greg-abbott-school-vouchers-republicans-hardball/?ref=thebarbedwire.com): Abbott had “started calling members into his office, one by one, and threatening to veto all the bills of any member who votes for this amendment.” The amendment would’ve sent the voucher question to voters in November. Abbott, Talarico claimed, also promised Republican lawmakers he’d make their primaries, quote, “a bloodbath” if they didn’t fall in line — a credible promise, given Abbott’s track record of pouring millions into primary challengers against voucher opponents in 2023. Abbott’s office dismissed the allegation as “absolutely not true,” insisting the governor was merely “encouraging them to vote for school choice.” But the votes tell the story. Talarico’s amendment picked up exactly one Republican supporter. And when the voucher bill itself came to the floor, just two Republicans joined Democrats in opposition — down from 21 the last time Abbott tried this, when rural [Republicans helped block his plan in 2023.](https://www.texastribune.org/2023/11/16/texas-house-school-vouchers/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) This time around, Abbott made sure fewer dared to test him. Before the vote, he even patched in President Donald Trump on a conference call with House Republicans — a not-so-subtle reminder of the full arsenal waiting if anyone got out of line. For those who switched sides, the post-vote spin sounded almost identical. Rep. Jay Dean, R-Longview, who had voted against vouchers in 2023, framed his new yes vote as strategic: “We could’ve walked away. But instead, we rolled up our sleeves, stayed in the fight, and worked to make it better.” Rep. Drew Darby of San Angelo, another former holdout, echoed the same tune: still “deeply skeptical,” but voting yes to secure amendments. His wife, Clarisa Darby, was more candid in a now-deleted Facebook comment, admitting that if her husband had voted no, “bills affecting our west Texas economy had a high chance of being vetoed.” She also suggested that sinking the voucher bill would’ve put a $7.7 billion school funding package at risk — money superintendents were desperate for after Abbott tied public school funding to voucher approval back in 2023. When questioned, Darby’s office denied any direct threats — but by then the dynamic was already obvious. The choice wasn’t between good policy and bad policy. The choice was between obedience and political extinction. The two Republicans who voted no — former House Speaker Dade Phelan and one other — stuck to the same reasons that once had broader sway: local voters don’t want public school funds siphoned off for private tuition. And he's right, [vouchers are a giant scam](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-school-vouchers/) and [Texans don't want them](https://www.sacurrent.com/news/new-poll-shows-most-texans-oppose-school-vouchers-even-if-described-as-school-choice-36950411?ref=thebarbedwire.com). But it didn't matter. The rest of the caucus fell in line, squeezed into submission by their own party’s playbook. It wasn’t a surprise. It wasn’t even a betrayal. This is the system they built — and it worked. ### How Houston Traffic Made My Marriage Stronger URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/how-houston-traffic-made-my-marriage-stronger/ Last updated: 2025-04-18T09:00:00.000Z *This story contains descriptions of mental illness and suicidal ideation and may be triggering for some readers. If you or anyone you know is struggling, please contact the the* [*988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline*](https://988lifeline.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)*.* Like any true Houstonian, I'm obsessed with our traffic. Since we're the home of [six out of 10 of the most congested roadways in Texas](https://www.khou.com/article/traffic/houston-610-west-loop-most-congested-texas/285-3c097916-fe06-4c0e-96f2-c52dc7e01fca?ref=thebarbedwire.com), it's not hard to see why our city's highways got their bad reputation. For example, I strongly believe if you're trapped in the Galleria area between 4-7 p.m., you might as well check into a hotel for the night rather than brave rush hour. And one of the few times I ever heard my sainted abuela curse was when we were stuck on I-45. Houston is so car-centric that the concept of walkable cities is about as mythological as jackalopes and spring without pollen. In fact, when we tell potential transplants that Houston is full, we're talking about our roadways and the approximate [715,000 folks who drive them every day.](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/investigations/article/houston-roadway-deaths-record-20023292.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Still, I can't completely hate Houston traffic, because I sincerely believe it's the secret to my blissful marriage. My husband and I have been together since high school and, even back then, Houston roadways played a role in our lives. Most of our dates involved splitting something from the Taco Bell dollar menu and cruising down State Highway 249 while listening to music and plotting the next stage of our lives together. However, for our one-year anniversary, we decided to mix it up. We ventured out to the Museum District by ourselves for the first time. Unfortunately, we (badly) underestimated how long it would take us to get home during rush hour. Three hours later, I was grounded for getting home late and we had learned our first lesson about Houston's notorious traffic. At 21, we got married at a time when we were stuck making long commutes to work. The daily treks were approximately an hour and 15 minutes round-trip, but most days, we were able to carpool. Besides saving on gas — a big concern of ours as broke newlyweds — these long drives also offered us something else: one-on-one time. At that point, we were living with my parents and sister. Though grateful for my parents’ help, we felt cramped. The work commute offered a rare bit of privacy. I could complain about my parents treating us like kids, and flirt with my husband; we'd compete over who could make the most ridiculous pun. The drives also served as a time limit for arguments. As high school sweethearts, my husband and I were more than aware of the stigma attached to our relationship. We knew folks weren't necessarily banking on the longevity of a teenage romance — so we made it our policy to resolve any fights in the privacy of these drives. Besides keeping our relationship away from the family *chismosos*, it kept those same well-meaning yet nosy family members from inserting themselves into our tiffs. Another unexpected benefit was sharing unique parts of parenthood together. I was terribly ill due to morning sickness during all three of my pregnancies. I was too weak and too sick to drive myself. Thankfully, my husband was there to chauffeur and nurse me through. Later, when I returned to work after giving birth, I used my breast pump while my husband drove. For 10 years, my husband and I shared the same commute. However, just like Houston's daily rush hour, nothing lasts forever. In 2014, after taking on a new role close to home, my commute dropped to under 15 minutes. Unfortunately, that meant my husband and I no longer shared a ride. Sure, my shorter trek came with less time in the car, but it also came with increased work stress and the loss of intimacy we had cultivated over those previous miles. It was during one of these shorter drives to work that I realized something was wrong. I was stressed out, overworked, my health wasn't great, and I felt disconnected from the things that made me happy. But that's adulthood, right? I shrugged it off at first. That is, until I was driving to work one day and I thought, ‘I wish I'd get into an accident so I don't have to go to work today.’ I was shocked at myself. Maybe I was a little overwhelmed but I didn't think I was suicidal. I pushed the notion away and went on with my day. However, the thought came again, day after day, until I no longer felt worried when it popped into my head. That's how I knew it was bad — beyond anything I could fix on my own. I thought about our former commute and remembered how happy those times were, and knew what to do. The next day, I asked my husband to drive me to work. It was an unusual request, but as always, he accommodated me. Just like when we were teenagers, he drove us down 249\. In the familiarity of our car's passenger seat, I told my husband for the first time that I was depressed and feeling passively suicidal. My confession alarmed him. As we drove, I explained what I could about my mental state while he listened. Once we got to my job, we parked and we did what we always did in these situations: stayed in the car until we reached an accord. The following several months were tough, but I received mental healthcare treatment and we made beneficial changes to our lives. The space that my husband and I had created for ourselves in the midst of Houston's traffic had done its job. Houston traffic gave us an opportunity to connect during life's bustle in a way we might not have had without that dedicated time. Ultimately, it made our relationship strong enough to meet life's obstacles and gave us a reason to want to take the long way home. ### Texas House OK’s School Voucher Bill — the Rest of Y’all Better Pay Attention URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-house-adopts-school-vouchers/ Last updated: 2025-04-17T12:27:35.000Z The Texas House of Representatives gave initial approval of Senate Bill 2 around 2 a.m. Thursday morning, with an 85-63 vote, largely along party lines. What does that mean? Texas is on its way to one of the country’s largest tax-payer funded [school voucher programs](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-school-vouchers/), a first for the state. “For the first time in Texas history, our state has passed a universal school choice bill out of both chambers in the Texas Legislature,” Gov. Greg Abbott said in [a statement](https://gov.texas.gov/news/post/governor-abbott-applauds-historic-school-choice-vote-in-texas-house?ref=thebarbedwire.com), hailing the bill he spent the last two years pushing. “When it reaches my desk, I will swiftly sign this bill into law, creating the largest day-one school choice program in the nation and putting Texas on a pathway to becoming the best state in America for educating our kids.” Critics, of course, disagree. “We’ve told the members here that doing this legislation, that passing this law, greatly endangers our schools, which are already hanging on by a thread,” Democratic Caucus Leader Gene Wu said. “The money that would go to this program would have gone to public schools, given our teachers a bigger pay raise, kept more schools open.” Wu proposed an amendment, Amendment 37, which would rename SB 2 to Siphoning Classroom Assets for Millionaires, or SCAM. It was shut down by Republicans, [along with more than 40 others](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/04/15/texas-house-vouchers-public-school-funding-vote/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Another one of those amendments was a bid headed by Rep. James Talarico to put school vouchers on the November 2025 ballot. Amendment 2, proposed by Rep. Harold V. Dutton, would have ensured that families who meet 300% of poverty guidelines received $10,000; this amount would lessen for families with higher incomes. There was nationwide interest in the outcome — and rightfully so. [“Universal school choice,”](https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/project-2025-and-gop-aim-for-universal-school-choice-what-would-that-look-like/2024/08?ref=thebarbedwire.com) the carefully coded Republican platform to use public funds for private schools (mostly religious), was spelled out in Project 2025, the blueprint that, so far, the [Trump administration has adhered to](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-abortion-laws-national-ban/). President Donald Trump even called via speaker phone to “rally the troops” at a House GOP caucus meeting, according to [Quorum Report editor Scott Braddock](https://x.com/scottbraddock/status/1912516025473474690?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The vote in the Texas House came as [dozens of protesters assembled](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/04/15/texas-house-vouchers-public-school-funding-vote/?utm%5Fsource=liveblogshare&utm%5Fmedium=social#4cddaa63-a432-4dcc-9a9b-4c4998fad6da) at the Capitol to voice their opposition to school vouchers. They chanted phrases such as “Fund our schools,” “No to vouchers,” and “Let the people vote.” Demonstrators occupied two floors of the Capitol rotunda and gathered outside the House chamber. The Texas Freedom Network, a nonprofit that promotes civil rights and public education, organized the protest. Addressing the crowd, the group’s executive director, Felicia Martin, said: “It's my child's future. It's your child's future. But today that future is under attack because school vouchers will defer to our public school kids.” The bill will create a [$1 billion Education Savings Account program](https://www.kut.org/politics/2025-02-05/texas-voucher-bill-education-savings-accounts-school-choice-sb2-legislature?ref=thebarbedwire.com), allowing parents to use taxpayer dollars to fund their children’s private school education. The Senate [approved its version of the bill in February](https://www.kut.org/politics/2025-02-05/texas-voucher-bill-education-savings-accounts-school-choice-sb2-legislature?ref=thebarbedwire.com). And while Republicans love to use poll-tested phrases like “school choice,” the reality is that voucher programs like this are a giveaway to rich people who already send their kids to private school. As [*The Barbed Wire* has reported](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-school-vouchers/), the median private middle school tuition in Texas is more than $30,000 per year (and for private high school, it’s more than $35,000), according to the [Education Data Initiative](https://educationdata.org/average-cost-of-private-school?ref=thebarbedwire.com), but the voucher program will only pay parents $10,000 a year. And in other states with similar programs, [more than 75% of students receiving vouchers](https://www.reachinghighernh.org/content-item/441/school-vouchers-will-cost-28-million-next-school-year-as-questions-and-concerns-about-the-lack-of-transparency-and-accountabilit?ref=thebarbedwire.com) were already enrolled in private schools or were homeschooled. What the bill will accomplish (besides giving wealthy people an extra $10,000 a year) is taking money away from already cash-strapped public schools. Currently, about 73% of [Texas public school districts](https://kinder.rice.edu/urbanedge/making-case-increasing-funding-texas-schools?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=Turley%27s%20research%20published%20by%20the,exceed%2040%25%20of%20their%20needs.) are underfunded, according to the Kinder Institute at Rice University. Abbott made vouchers a priority this legislative session, but Texans don’t particularly like the idea. Around two-thirds of likely midterm voters in Texas oppose similar programs, according to a [Z to A Research survey](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nas166lRYI%5FVVSk8CpYVRo18z%5FUeIndJ/view?ref=thebarbedwire.com). On the House floor, Rep. Ron Reynolds expressed concerns about the discriminatory impacts of the voucher bill. Indiana’s voucher program, for example, disproportionately benefited wealthy white families whose children already attended private schools, Reynolds said. According to [*WYFI*](https://www.wfyi.org/news/articles/indiana-school-vouchers-choice-scholarship-2024-largest-ever-half-billion?ref=thebarbedwire.com), 64% of voucher users in the 2023-2024 school year were white. Reynolds also mentioned a [Century Foundation report](https://tcf.org/content/report/america-needs-public-school-choice-not-private-school-vouchers/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=As%20Quick%2C%20Century%20Foundation%20fellow,and%20racial%20segregation%20in%20schools.) claiming that voucher programs would further segregate students by race and class. In Texas private schools, roughly 55% of the student population is white, compared to the Black student population of 6.3%, according to [ProPublica](https://projects.propublica.org/private-school-demographics/states/tx?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Meanwhile, over half of students in state public schools are Hispanic or Latino. The voucher bill will return to the Senate, and both chambers will iron out any differences in their versions. ### Cybertruck Sales Crash So Hard, Tesla’s Now Offering… Cloth Seats URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/cybertruck-elon-musk-tesla/ Last updated: 2025-04-16T08:44:00.000Z Well, well, well. It seems the Tesla Cybertruck — that stainless steel wedge of suburban overcompensation — isn’t exactly flying off the shelves like Elon Musk probably imagined back when he was [smashing its windows on stage](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udxR5rBq%5FVg&ab%5Fchannel=GuardianNews&ref=thebarbedwire.com). So what’s a floundering EV giant to do when the original “futuristic” truck, priced like a luxury condo, isn’t catching on? Easy: Slap together a stripped-down version, knock a few grand off the sticker, and hope nobody notices you took out half the features. Enter the [Cybertruck Long Range](https://autos.yahoo.com/teslas-newest-cybertruck-cheaper-cloth-165000143.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — the budget-friendly (if you consider $72,000 "budget") solution to Tesla’s sales woes. This new model shaves about $10,000 off the all-wheel-drive version by, well, taking away most of the things that made the truck remotely interesting to begin with. Gone are the days of four-wheel drive — the Long Range gets just one lonely motor pushing power to the rear wheels. Zero to 60? Now a relaxed 6.2 seconds versus the speedy 4 of the original. And the luxury cuts don’t stop there: out go the leatherette seats, in come "textile" ones. Yes, the cool edgelordy Cybertruck now comes with the most old-fashioned of downgrades: cloth seats. Lol. And the best part? All this frugality was apparently necessary because the Cybertruck isn’t selling. At all. Once upon a time, deep in the heart of Austin, Musk’s cyberpunk fever dream rolled off the line, all sharp edges and hype. Musk promised an indestructible, all-electric pickup so advanced it would make traditional trucks look like horse-drawn wagons. Instead, the Cybertruck has cruised straight into the junkyard of automotive flops, parking itself comfortably alongside the Ford Edsel, the Pontiac Aztek, and — fittingly — the DeLorean. Musk once predicted Cybertruck would be the next big thing — [250,000 units a year big](https://insideevs.com/news/667723/musk-estimates-tesla-could-sell-250000-500000-cybertrucks-yearly/?fbclid=IwAR2cWrpzT6c7MPk-0IAbgEBW%5FFDuklNf9Fr0caNA1s1IN1AJ6rm6LHebKTc&ref=thebarbedwire.com). Reality, as usual, disagreed. In its first full year, Tesla [managed to unload](https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/2025/04/03/elons-edsel-tesla-cybertruck-is-the-auto-industrys-biggest-flop-in-decades/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) fewer than 40,000 of these brushed-metal doorstops, a performance so bad it makes the Edsel look like a Toyota Corolla. How bad has the Cybertruck bombed? Well, Ford’s aforementioned and much-maligned Edsel sold [63,000 units in its first year](https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/2025/04/03/elons-edsel-tesla-cybertruck-is-the-auto-industrys-biggest-flop-in-decades/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Yes, [let that sink in](https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1854034776815972649?lang=en&ref=thebarbedwire.com): the car so bad its name became a punchline *outsold Cybertruck by a lot*. To sum it up, the Cybertruck is getting trolled by potential buyers harder than Elon when he’s trying [to show off for gamers](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/elon-musk-trolled-livestream/). And while the truck’s design has always been “love it or hate it” (spoiler: mostly hate), its reputation for quality hasn’t helped either. [Eight recalls in 15 months](https://apnews.com/article/cybertruck-recall-tesla-elon-musk-nhtsa-8c517e21aa1119d74b9db39f6aca01b7?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=The%20Cybertruck%2C%20which%20Tesla%20began,drive%20wheels%20to%20lose%20power.) — including one for body panels that just [fell off](https://www.roadandtrack.com/news/a63857202/tesla-cybertruck-losing-body-panels-reports/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — and it’s no wonder the Cybertruck has become a moving billboard for global Tesla protests. Not even its Austin birthplace — Tesla’s beloved, specially modified Gigafactory, [retooled to crank out 250,000 Cybertrucks per year](https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/2025/04/03/elons-edsel-tesla-cybertruck-is-the-auto-industrys-biggest-flop-in-decades/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — can save it from this flop status. Right now, the only thing rolling off those production lines is regret. Looks like Musk wasn’t kidding when he said: “[I do zero market research whatsoever](https://x.com/ElonClipsX/status/1910860425996251455?ref=thebarbedwire.com).” Maybe he was too busy becoming a world record gamer? [Oh right, jk](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/elon-musk-admitted-to-cheating-at-video-games-gamers-are-aghast-why-did-he-do-it/). And so, the new Cybertruck Long Range is here, arriving sometime this summer, ready to offer a few extra miles of range (25 more than the old model!) and a whole lot less of everything else. The Cybertruck: still the future, just not the one anyone asked for. ### I Went to an Abortion Conference. It Made Me Want to Be a Mother URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/abortion-conference-texas-motherhood/ Last updated: 2025-04-15T17:00:00.000Z This week I’m celebrating seven years married to my husband and we still have no children. We’re happily married and very much enjoy not having parenting responsibilities, but it’s a part of life that we both want. We thought for sure by now, in our mid 30s, we’d at least have a toddler, but as life happens – and since we’ve been very career focused – that wasn’t the case. As a Latina woman, it’s been a challenge to answer family members who ask why we still don’t have kids. Every holiday gathering comes with the quintessential comments: “Y los nietos?” or “Donde están los babies?” or the ones that make me blush like, “Are y’all practicing for kids?” I’ve even gotten the unsolicited, “You know, it’s OK if you don’t have kids,” in what felt like a way to press the issue. My first instinct has always been to say “Mind your own business,” but that might’ve ended with hurt feelings, to say the least, so I’d answer with “You already have grandchildren?” or “Don’t my adorable rescue pugs count as the nietos?” This past holiday season, we were at my in-laws in east Texas, getting ready to head to my parents’ home for the second half of the celebrations, and I felt so much relief that the questions hadn't come up. I was happy that this year might be different, and the baby topic would be tabled. I was too quick to let my guard down, because just as we were hugging and exchanging goodbyes, I got the question: “So guys, when are the babies coming?” My heart sank. I wanted to cry. I wasn’t sure what excuse I would make up this time, so in a split second, I followed my gut and decided to be honest. “We're terrified to have children,” I said, with a quiver in my voice, forcing myself to not get emotional. I wasn’t sure where the conversation would go next, but I wanted to share how we were feeling. The truth is we want to have children, little brown toddlers running around with dark black hair, giggling and chasing our pugs. We have names picked out for a boy and a name for a girl. My husband has been practicing his dad jokes and I’ve been trying to learn lullabies. But our joy around planning and daydreaming was shattered last November. The morning after the election felt surreal. I was still exhausted from a previous weekend of working nearly 48 hours straight covering presidential candidate [Kamala Harris](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/i-see-you-and-i-am-with-you-texas-women-needed-that-harris-rally/). She’d come to Texas with a promise of upholding women's reproductive rights if elected. On election night, I went to sleep early, hoping that the next morning would be history-making, and as a society, we would break through the stereotypical mold that’s kept women from the country’s highest position of power. I woke up alone that morning. My husband, who was also a journalist at the time, was in Houston covering the senate race in Texas. When he called to check in, I noticed a slight crack in his voice. He said, “I'm so sorry.” I realized at that moment he was emotional. I got teary-eyed too. “I will move mountains to make sure that your life is saved (during pregnancy).” We didn’t say it out loud, but we both felt like our dreams to be parents were paused indefinitely. Our fears are not unfounded, in fact, for the past 25 years, the U.S. maternal mortality rate has been steadily increasing. Our country has the highest rate among developed countries and is the only country that does not give parents access to provider home visits or paid parental leave in the postpartum period, according to the [Commonwealth Fund](https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/issue-briefs/2020/nov/maternal-mortality-maternity-care-us-compared-10-countries?ref=thebarbedwire.com), an organization that works for equitable healthcare access. To make matters worse, our country is now under the control of an administration that seems intent on further restricting access to healthcare and information that could help improve outcomes for families. Already, they have cut programs that research [why women die during pregnancy](https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/cdc-hhs-layoffs-impact-women-1235310574/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The [American Civil Liberties Union](https://www.aclu.org/news/reproductive-freedom/overturning-roe-is-just-the-beginning?ref=thebarbedwire.com) warned about a second Trump administration and how it would harm reproductive rights nationwide. President Donald Trump [bragged about overturning Roe v. Wade](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-was-able-kill-roe-v-wade-rcna84897?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Since then, [12 states have full abortion bans in place, and another 10 states have partial bans](https://www.kff.org/womens-health-policy/dashboard/abortion-in-the-u-s-dashboard/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The research is clear, abortion bans have [made pregnancy more dangerous](https://www.propublica.org/article/abortion-bans-deaths-state-maternal-mortality-committees?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Then on top of that, we live in Texas, where [more mothers and babies are dying](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-true-cost-of-texas-abortion-ban-rising-deaths-abandoned-babies-fewer-doctors/) after strict abortion bans were put in place by [Republican lawmakers](https://www.texasobserver.org/republican-abortion-laws-texas-legislature-exceptions/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), not medical practitioners. My husband had been watching the news coverage I was working on regarding [abortion laws in the state](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/she-voted-for-trump-then-she-had-two-terrifying-miscarriages-in-texas/). We both watched [Zurawski vs. Texas](https://www.jolt.film/watch/zurawskivtexas?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a documentary that shows the cruel and dangerous scenarios women are facing due to Texas’ laws. It felt like a scary time. I heard my husband, a man who was stoic and calm, break down. It broke me too. I’ve spent the last few months wondering what it would be like if I got pregnant and subsequently died because I [could not get abortion care for a misscarriage](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-anti-abortion-laws-killed-an-18-year-old-this-time/), failed placenta delivery or if [my child was destined to die in utero](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-abortion-laws-national-ban/). My chances of dying a pregnancy-related death also go up, simply because of the color of my skin and ancestral lineage. [Black women face the highest maternal mortality rate](https://www.kff.org/racial-equity-and-health-policy/issue-brief/racial-disparities-in-maternal-and-infant-health-current-status-and-efforts-to-address-them/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=Large%20racial%20disparities%20in%20maternal,maternal%20and%20infant%20health%20disparities.), followed by American Indian or Alaska Native women — and then there's my group, Hispanic — rounding out the top three groups most at risk of dying compared to their white counterparts. My sister navigated [two miscarriages under Texas’ abortion bans](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/she-voted-for-trump-then-she-had-two-terrifying-miscarriages-in-texas/). She was denied abortion care and left hemorrhaging while doctors wondered if her condition was bad enough to help her. I wondered what the cards would hold for me. Would I die in childbirth because it was illegal to get the life-saving care that I needed? Would I abandon my husband because I died and doctors were scared to save me? Would my child survive? Would I be left infertile because I got sepsis? I’ve found myself crying in our bed with anger and frustration at the possibilities of being pregnant. We’ve done the “right” thing – whatever “right” is supposed to mean. We’re married. We broke through statistics of being poor and growing up with single parents. We went to college and got jobs, we worked our ways up the career ladder. We saved up enough money to buy our own house and even pay for our own wedding, because our parents simply couldn't help us. Here we were, the picture perfect image of what conservatives think should be a “traditional family,” and yet it felt like Ken Paxton, Dan Patrick, Greg Abbott and now Donald Trump were all sitting at the foot of our bed in our Austin home, putting a gun to my head, ready to pull the trigger if something went wrong with my pregnancy. As this was happening in my home life, my work and personal life began colliding. I was asked to cover more stories about abortion care and was assigned to cover an [Abortion in America](https://abortioninamerica.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) conference in Austin. I was *not* looking forward to going. I didn’t want to hear more tragic stories of people dying or permanently losing their fertility thanks to Texas’ abortion bans. I didn’t want more fear to build up as I navigated what a pregnancy journey might eventually look like for me. The first panel I planned to attend was titled “Lessons from the Lone Star State.” Doctors, lawmakers and even mothers impacted by the abortion bans would be sharing their stories. I went there hoping to gather data on impacts and to build some sources. I wanted to learn more about how Texas got here. Part of the panel topic I overlooked promised to talk “about building resistance and resilience from a state at the center of the fight for reproductive freedom.” As I sat listening to the panelists, I realised I was witnessing a gathering of a sisterhood. One of the panelists, [Sam Casiano](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-abortion-laws-national-ban/), shared her story about a *wanted* pregnancy and how she was forced to carry her daughter who was diagnosed with a fatal fetal anomaly. She said she had witnessed her daughter Halo suffer and [die moments after she gave birth](https://www.msnbc.com/know-your-value/health-mindset/-was-torture-texas-mom-recounts-denied-abortion-doomed-pregnancy-rcna161450?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “Exceptions are not real, (abortion) is a right taken from us,” Casiano said. “Abortion is not scary, it’s healthcare.” Texas Rep. Donna Howard was also part of the panel. She spoke about efforts to help draft a bi-partisan law that would clarify exceptions to the state’s abortion ban. While not all abortion rights advocates are on board, in many ways, laws like this ["clarification" bill](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/03/27/texas-abortion-bill-senate-31/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) aim to help clear up some parts of Texas’ laws because doctors feel their hands are completely tied. In November, [111 Texas doctors](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25345654-letter-from-111-texas-obgyns/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) penned a letter to lawmakers, [begging them](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-ob-gyns-beg-politicians-to-do-something-after-deaths-of-pregnant-women/) to change abortion laws for the sake of saving Texans during pregnancy. One panelist, Nakeenya Wilson, summed up the state of reproductive rights in a way that made me understand where we are in history. “What if this darkness is the womb? What if the U.S. isn’t dying but instead laboring to be born?” It made me think, ‘Wow, these are the people holding onto some semblance of hope during a time when anti-aboriton lawmakers have such a tight grip on Texas policy and laws.’ If there’s anything I know about hope, it’s that it's a discipline. Hope requires accountability and requires us to show up. In that moment, I felt hope. Hope that things would be OK because there are people championing women in ways others may not see. The second panel I attended was titled, “We’ve got your back: Supporting abortion seekers.” There were times I got teary eyed as questions were answered that I didn’t even know I had. Panelists spoke on where to find resources if you're faced with a miscarriage and need an abortion. From that, I wrote an article on [how to prepare for pregnancy in Texas](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/pregnancy-care-texas-abortion-miscarriage/) for people who may be further in their reproductive journey than I am. One panelist described a sort of underground railroad of reproductive care to make sure that women and men and trans folks are supported in their pregnancy journeys. “There’s always a way,” Becca Nall, founder of [INeedAnA](https://www.ineedana.com/us/texas?gad%5Fsource=1&gbraid=0AAAAApS3atv3D2GCNV--1tgkr3TrIloXk&gclid=CjwKCAjw--K%5FBhB5EiwAuwYoypsn4FkstkUBhaScZlYP02ih4%5FkWo6N3tWsXhZMJphSFcyQ-AfB07hoCiDoQAvD%5FBwE&ref=thebarbedwire.com), said. I heard a spectrum of different abortion stories, women who've had the privilege to choose abortions, women who've been forced to choose abortions, and unfortunately, people who've died because they could not get those abortions. I learned about a [network of pilots who fly people](https://www.elevatedaccess.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to other states to get the healthcare they need and hotlines that will help answer questions if you find yourself needing abortion care. I still live in Texas, though, and I’m a journalist covering abortion. I can’t pretend my fear was just absolved. I talk to my therapist about that fear often and how it competes with my knowledge that my grandmother — my mamá Flor — had 12 children in Mexico with far less access to healthcare than I do. My therapist encouraged me to connect to that ancestral wisdom and to find the joy in whatever decision I will eventually make regarding motherhood. I told her, at least now, I know that if for some reason I have a miscarriage, I have the resources to lessen my chances of dying on a hospital bed at the cusp of my husband and I’s dream. I know there’s a whole network of people who believe women are deserving of healthcare, no matter what it looks like. I’m a firm believer that two things can be true at once. As Dr. Amna Dermish, chief operating and medical services officer at Planned Parenthood Texas, told me in a previous interview, look at the data as a whole and realize that most people who go through pregnancy are fine and have healthy babies. March of Dimes’ data show that in [2023, there were 3,596,017 live babies born](https://www.marchofdimes.org/peristats/data?reg=99&top=2&stop=5&lev=1&slev=1&obj=3&ref=thebarbedwire.com) and most of the people who delivered – 47% – were in my age bracket (30-39) and [1 in four of them were to hispanic parents](https://www.marchofdimes.org/peristats/data?reg=99&top=2&stop=10&lev=1&slev=1&obj=3&ref=thebarbedwire.com). “Everyone with a positive pregnancy test, there's a 20% risk of miscarriage, which implies that 80% of pregnancies proceed without miscarriage,” Dermish said. “My plea to people is, don't get so lost in this potential, that you lose sight of that (pregnancy) miracle and don't let them steal your joy, because that is so important.” What started off as a weekend of dread turned into a beautiful weekend of joy, women (and men) supporting each other and being held up by a movement, a counter culture. I’m not sure what I expected an abortion conference to be like, but I saw people are taking a stance for what is medically right. > “I refuse to let the state of Texas dictate when and how many times I attempt to become pregnant, and how many children I want to have with my partner.” > > Dr. Austin Dennard I came away from the Abortion in America conference thrilled to feel even a tiny bit closer to maybe reviving dreams of becoming a mother. I found comfort knowing and reporting that there are silent players who are fighting despair with their actions. One of the women I met at the conference is Dr. Austin Dennard, an OB-GYN in Dallas who talks to scared patients on a daily basis. She said to me, “I refuse to let the state of Texas dictate when and how many times I attempt to become pregnant, and how many children I want to have with my partner.” She’s so brave. I’m not sure I’m ready yet to find that same bravery right now, but I do know that I’m grateful to have a life partner who understands my trepidation — not everyone in my family does or some dismiss me as being “too political.” I also have the comfort of knowing my husband will do anything possible to save my life if the worst-case scenario comes true. It is that support, and strength from those working to provide care to people who need it, that has allowed me to feel somewhat closer to one day adding the little ones we sometimes let ourselves dream about to our love story. ### I’ll Admit It, the All-Female Blue Origin Space Launch Made Me Cry URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/ill-admit-it-the-all-female-blue-origin-space-launch-made-me-cry/ Last updated: 2025-04-14T19:42:21.000Z I met the news of Blue Origin’s New Shepard [rocket launch](https://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/live-blog/live-updates-blue-origin-readies-rocket-launch-female-crew-rcna200921?ref=thebarbedwire.com) with a bit of an eye-roll this morning. Even though it put Van Horn, Texas (almost two hours southeast of El Paso), at the epicenter of seemingly every major news outlet — and Texas news is sort of my job — it had barely been on my radar. Space *tourism* isn’t new. Blue Origin’s missions have carried more than 50 people to the edge of space — including those who have paid huge sums of money for the privilege. I was slightly more interested after learning this trip was led by an all-female crew. And that they got the flight suits right — I’d written about [NASA’s scratched plans](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2019/03/28/nasa-anne-mcclain-christina-koch-all-female-spacewalk-scrapped-spacesuits-women-fashion-uniforms/3294159002/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for the first-ever all-women spacewalk in 2019 because there was only one suit ready in a woman’s size. The Blue Origin team also made arrangements to study wound dressing in space, in part to stick it to those who held the notion that menstruation should bar women astronauts from missions. Equality in the workplace, one not-so-small step for womankind. However, most headlines leading up to Monday’s flight centered on the bigger celebrity names: Katy Perry, Lauren Sanchez and Gayle King. I have nothing against those women, their opportunity to do something objectively incredible, or even the use of their starpower (as a former entertainment editor, I know the power of celebrity for tedious things, like inspiring investment in the dull scientific research it takes to get more people into space). It all just read a bit .001%, at a time when I’ve been editing stories about [girls being stabbed to death](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/killeen-isd-parents-bullying-concerns-march-stabbing/), women fearing they’ll [die in pregnancy](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/pregnancy-care-texas-abortion-miscarriage/), and bills that could [criminalize websites](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-abortion-laws-national-ban/) for hosting abortion information. Then I saw Oprah Winfrey tear up watching her friend Gayle King overcome her flight anxiety, and my ice cold heart started to thaw. I kept watching. I heard in the audio that the women saw the [Pink Moon](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/pink-moon-easter/), which felt like a cosmic inside-joke. I can’t say Sanchez being the first to step out of the capsule, and immediately hugging Blue Origin owner Jeff Bezos, did much for me. Call it the billionaireness of it all. Though maybe I should retract that after learning it was Sanchez’s idea for an all-female crew, and Bezos said yes, that it would be a first. But then [CNN interviewed Amanda Nguyen](https://www.cnn.com/science/live-news/blue-origin-space-flight-katy-perry-04-14-25?ref=thebarbedwire.com#cm9h4zb6i003m3b6oj5cx4sxg), who explained why she was holding a hospital bracelet in her hands. It was the bracelet she’d worn while being treated after she was sexually assaulted. She’d turned it into a “zero G” indicator, an object astronauts take on space flights to let go in the cabin to know when they’ve hit zero gravity, or weightlessness. “I didn't know if I would bring it, but I ended up bringing it and floating it,” Nguyen said to CNN. She also brought a written note of a “promise I made to myself that if I were to pause my astronaut dreams, and fight for rights, that one day I would return to her. And it says, ‘never, never give up.’” I turned into a puddle. I spoke with Nguyen for the first time in 2018 for a [story marking the anniversary](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2018/10/04/metoo-me-too-sexual-assault-survivors-rights-bill/1074976002/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of the height of the Me Too Movement. I’d found that the momentum of the movement hadn’t fully translated into changing laws. But Nguyen and her work around survivors’ rights were an exception. Nguyen wrote what would become the Survivors' Bill of Rights Act in 2014 after she says she struggled to preserve her own rape kit. It passed [Congress unanimously](https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/5578?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in 2016\. And through Rise, a civil rights nonprofit she founded, at least 21 more of those bills passed, impacting 40 million people. I met her [in person in 2019](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2019/04/17/nra-guns-parkland-robert-schentrup-amanda-nguyen-rise-gun-laws-control-rights-domestic-violence/3452084002/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), as Rise launched an incubator program to train activists to compose and pass legislation. We talked about a lot of things, including pivoting her career prospects and if she’d ever go back to the scientific field. Nguyen was a senior at Harvard University studying astrophysics and government when she was raped at a frat party. She’d interned at NASA, and was being recruited by the CIA. As she describes in her new memoir, [*Saving Five*](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/15/books/review/amanda-nguyen-saving-five.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the faulty systems of handling sexual violence in this country left her in a Catch-22 of pursuing her career or justice. In an [interview with CBS](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=243UyQWJSF4&ref=thebarbedwire.com) hours before the flight Monday, each of the mission’s women shared one word of what the flight meant for them. Nguyen said “justice.” She explained that, when Neil Armstrong took steps on the moon, “bombs rained down on Vietnam. When my family looked at the sky they saw death. But tomorrow when they look at the sky they’ll see the first Vietnamese woman in space.” To her, the flight signified that achievement is possible no matter who we are or where we come from. Or, as I understand her words, no matter what someone else has done to us. “Dreams are important even amidst tragedy,” she said. In that first piece that I wrote about Nguyen and Me Too laws, I described her as an “astronaut hopeful and full-time advocate.” Hopeful no longer seems accurate. One reason many people love space — studying it, rocketing into it, or just staring at it from their backyards — is the expansiveness that puts life into perspective. And the sheer possibility. What else is out there? What can we learn? Where can we go? I just never expected that possibility to include healing from sexual assault, or as King told reporters, a push to “do better, be better human beings.” On CNN, minutes after completing her dream, Nguyen shared this: “I just want all survivors to know that you can heal. No dream is too wild, and that if it's so wild, out there, like going to space, you can absolutely make it through and it can absolutely be possible.” Cue Defying Gravity, and a few more tears. ### Austin Explosion Injures 6, Damages At Least 24 Houses URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/austin-house-explosion-injures-6-damages-24-houses/ Last updated: 2025-04-14T15:01:06.000Z Six people were injured, two critically, after an explosion at an Austin house on Sunday. The explosion damaged at least 24 nearby properties, and could be heard away as far as Georgetown, Austin Fire Department Division Chief Wayne Parrish said. One user on X said the explosion [“rattled”](https://x.com/modernidiots%5F/status/1911456041121820974?ref=thebarbedwire.com) their building. According to the [fire department](https://x.com/AustinFireInfo/status/1911461268348719227?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the explosion caused a two-story house in northwest Austin to collapse. The cause of the explosion is still being investigated, but the Texas Gas Service confirmed that the house had propane, according to [*KVUE*](https://www.kvue.com/article/news/local/northwest-austin-structure-fire-explosion-reports/269-e5f1d428-68e4-4333-8ef7-95388b03b8aa?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Four residents and two firefighters sustained injuries, according to *KVUE*. Two of the residents were in critical condition. "As far as we know, we have accounted for everybody that was in all of the residences,” Parrish said in a press conference. The explosion caused [power outages](https://x.com/AustinFireInfo/status/1911471466899534173?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in the area and damaged nearby houses. Carol Hassell, who lives across the street from the collapsed house, told *KVUE* the blast destroyed her home. “The back door — the deadbolt was completely separated from the frame," Hassell told *KVUE*. "All the windows were blown out, and there’s damage to the ceiling where the sheetrock — you can see where all the nails were put in 30-40 years ago … It’s just a terrible catastrophe.” Authorities said the explosion was an isolated incident and they likely won't conduct a criminal investigation. One resident told *KVUE* the collapsed house had been recently bought and no one had moved in yet. **Read more at** [***KVUE***](https://www.kvue.com/article/news/local/northwest-austin-structure-fire-explosion-reports/269-e5f1d428-68e4-4333-8ef7-95388b03b8aa?ref=thebarbedwire.com)**.** ### Parents Warned Killeen ISD About Bullying. Then a 14-Year-Old Was Stabbed to Death. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/killeen-isd-parents-bullying-concerns-march-stabbing/ Last updated: 2025-04-14T13:19:34.000Z *This story contains descriptions of bullying and physical violence that may be triggering for some readers. Parents and educators can find anti-bullying resources* [*here*](https://teach.com/online-ed/counseling-degrees/online-masters-school-counseling/bullying-resources/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)*.* Brianna Harrelson’s son was attacked daily at Eastern Hills Middle School last year. Harrelson, a Harker Heights resident, said the attacks were physical, and that her son sometimes had to outrun up to four students. Harrelson told *The Barbed Wire* that one hit could be fatal. Her son, she said, has an enlarged spleen that’s vulnerable to rupture. The bullying got to the point where Harrelson said her son was in danger of failing sixth grade, and Harrelson faced truancy charges for pulling him out of school to protect him. She tried warning school officials multiple times in 2024 and was advised to use the [bullying reporting tool](https://forms.killeenisd.org/Forms/BullyReporter?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on Killeen ISD’s website. “When I did, it went right back to the same administration that I had already been addressing it with for the same responses that I’ve already been getting,” Harrelson said at a [school board meeting](https://www.killeenisd.org/Page/15721?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in March 2024\. “It’s not actually reaching out to anyone above to address the issue.” At that same meeting, Harrelson also told the board that a single fight was enough to cause a student’s death. “They were going to lose a child if they didn't fix the bullying issue,” Harrelson told *The Barbed Wire* in a recent interview. “And yet, almost exactly a year later, look what happens.” On March 10, [Serenity Baker ](https://www.chisolmsfuneral.com/obituary/serenity-concepcion-elaine-baker?ref=thebarbedwire.com)was fatally stabbed by another student at Roy J. Smith Middle School. News of Baker’s death rattled the community. An emergency special school board meeting was called the next day, and parents signed up to give public comment. Gambrielle Montgomery-Seaton, who has a son at Smith, said she sees students fight every day from her backyard, and that she has repeatedly called both the district and city police departments about the lack of security but would never hear back. “As a parent, this is frustrating because you asked me to do my part, and I’m doing that. And I’m trusting you all to keep my kid safe,” she told the board, noting that parents learned about the stabbing through social media posts. “And yesterday was completely unacceptable.” In the weeks since, two other school stabbings have further set parents across Texas on edge about youth bullying and violence. Late last month, in Harris County, a [Cypress Springs High School student](https://abc13.com/post/cypress-springs-high-school-student-stabbed-during-altercation-campus-restroom-cy-fair-isd-says-suspect-taken-custody/16086729/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) was reportedly hospitalized after being stabbed in a restroom. On April 2, a [Frisco ISD student athlete](https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/collin-county/fatal-stabbing-of-frisco-student-athlete-austin-metcalf-sparks-community-tension/287-d3120a43-fafa-40e7-8fa6-a5fee3818b70?ref=thebarbedwire.com) was fatally stabbed at a track meet. In Killeen, 38 students withdrew from Smith, [*KWTX*](https://www.kwtx.com/2025/03/26/38-students-withdrew-roy-j-smith-middle-school-after-deadly-stabbing-kisd-superintendent-says/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)reported. The school’s principal, Fredrick Lilly, submitted his resignation effective June 30 before the district made media statements claiming they were going to fire him for cause. At a board meeting on [March 25, Baker’s mother, ](https://live.myvrspot.com/index.php/showcase/view-showcase?sid=fOTMwMmUzM2ZmZTc1ZTJmMTdlMTVlYzllNzI3OTliYzQ&ref=thebarbedwire.com)Glenda Jacobs, said no one from Killeen ISD immediately reached out to her — she heard about what happened to her 14-year-old daughter from another parent.[](https://live.myvrspot.com/index.php/showcase/view-showcase?sid=fOTMwMmUzM2ZmZTc1ZTJmMTdlMTVlYzllNzI3OTliYzQ&ref=thebarbedwire.com) “Children should not be sent to school and not be able to come back home,” Jacobs said. Dozens of other parents similarly have criticized Killeen ISD’s response to public safety issues across campuses — both online and at board meetings — saying that violence has been a systemic, longstanding issue in the district, and that not enough has been done to address it. Lan Carter, a therapist who has a daughter attending Chaparral High School, serves clients ages 6 to 18 who mostly attend Killeen ISD schools. She said more students have shared their concerns about being bullied with her. “They want to be pulled out of school. They don't want to go to school anymore,” Carter said. “They see it as a never-ending cycle, and they're just miserable.” Citing ongoing investigations on its [crisis response page](https://www.killeenisd.org/crisis-response?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Killeen ISD cannot confirm whether the stabbing incident at Smith was related to bullying. The district said neither student involved used the district’s bullying reporting tool. However, Darante Simmons, the father of the student accused of the stabbing, Anjail Simmons, said his daughter endured “two to three years” of “verbal threats and bullying, even having a gun pulled on her,” the [*Killeen Daily Herald*](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/kdhnews-com/news/crime/girl-accused-of-stabbing-fellow-student-was-bullied-says-father/article%5F6115ea7e-0128-11f0-a967-ff95e6c83c87.html)reported. Simmons told the outlet that he has filed multiple reports with Killeen ISD, and a report with Killeen Police Department, but never received a response. At the March 25 board meeting, Jacobs said her daughter often called her because she felt unsafe in school. While the district claimed that four staff members responded to Baker [“within seconds”](https://www.killeenisd.org/crisis-response?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to give basic medical aid after she was stabbed with a 3.5-inch tactical folding knife, Jacobs said otherwise. "My baby sat there and bled out — her friends were holding her and no one else,” Jacobs said. “Where was the staff, where was the faculty, and where was the security?" In an email to *The Barbed Wire,* the district confirmed that Superintendent Jo Ann Fey met with Jacobs after the board meeting to hear her concerns. The Killeen ISD Board of Trustees also approved a [resolution](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-killeenisd-org/cms/lib/TX02205734/Centricity/Domain/7603/resolutiondraft.pdf) that outlines the district’s commitment to increasing security and keeping students, staff, and community members safe. Killeen ISD did not specify to *The Barbed Wire* what safety measures it plans to implement district-wide, or how else officials are addressing issues of bullying and violence, but recommended checking its website for [frequently asked questions](https://www.killeenisd.org/crisis-response?ref=thebarbedwire.com) about the investigation. “KISD has been intensely reviewing all safety measures, has taken a number of steps and is constantly considering what else can be done to create the safest possible learning environment for our students, teachers, staff, visitors and anyone who is on one of our campuses or at any KISD event,” said Karen Rudolph, executive director of communications and marketing at Killeen ISD. Rudolph also told *The Barbed Wire* that campus administrators, including principals and assistant principals, primarily handle the bullying reports at their respective schools. She said these investigations are conducted at the campus level. For Carter, the therapist, bullying remains a district-wide issue because policies aren’t uniformly enforced in all schools. She said school staff need to be more proactive in addressing bullying complaints. “It should be within 24 hours, while it's fresh in their mind,” Carter said. According to the district’s [page on anti-bullying and cyberbullying](https://www.killeenisd.org/Page/16338?ref=thebarbedwire.com), bullying investigations “should be completed within five district business days,” and a campus administrator will alert parents if more time is needed. In a news conference on April 2, the district superintendent said she’d made "a recommendation to the board for a proposed termination for good cause” of Smith’s principal. Lilly had sent his letter of resignation on March 28 with the intent to step down at the end of the school year, according to an email released by the district. ![](https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfFqE6eY8CDfWquY3enrNy_i1VOo6zl4sxTuZ4Et_TiWVqDoTLFNtD5cirIAEN5A0hVZ7JKgSoLItkt2VwuD59FFS4xX6KfMHAR3fTtiP3CE4TNNzTscUsQJ0CFroBBVQGeaAfmTw?key=-Sx0ydY_PtV0MFGxHSNikm-K) Lilly’s lawyer told [*25 News*](https://www.kxxv.com/news/local-news/in-your-neighborhood/bell-county/killeen/killeen-isd-claims-dr-lilly-submitted-a-resignation-letter-update?ref=thebarbedwire.com)that the principal’s resignation was “based on the premise that he had committed no wrongdoing” and attributed it to “mental anguish,” but Killeen ISD rejected it and requested Lilly to resign by April 15 instead. The district did not give *The Barbed Wire* an updated statement about Lilly’s termination. Lilly also did not respond to *The Barbed Wire*’s messages and emails requesting an interview. Killeen ISD named [Bobbie Reeders](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-killeenisd-org/site/default-pagetype-3-amp-domainid-4-amp-moduleinstanceid-29551-amp-viewid-070dccb8-a53f-43fd-a714-5764441a973a-amp-renderloc-0-amp-flexdataid-94024-amp-pageid-1-amp-comments-true.aspx) as the interim principal of Smith on April 7. “Throughout my tenure, I have dedicated myself to creating a safe, nurturing, and inclusive environment for every student,” Lilly said on Facebook. “It is disheartening that instead of acknowledging the systemic safety concerns I repeatedly brought to their attention — including on the day of the unfortunate incident — the district has chosen to scapegoat me.” Harrelson, whose son was bullied at Eastern Hills last year, claims Killeen ISD’s public safety response hasn’t improved since the stabbing incident at Smith. Her seventh-grade nephew started homeschool last week, she said, after persistent bullying from another student at Palo Alto Middle School. According to Harrelson, the student told her nephew that he would be bringing a knife to school. Harrelson said her nephew went to the assistant principal’s office, filled out a form, and was sent back to class with the same student who reportedly threatened to kill him. Harrelson’s nephew submitted multiple reports about verbal harassment from the student before, but these were not investigated, she said. Until now, Harrelson said, she has not been able to set up a meeting with the superintendent to discuss her family’s experiences. “This is the same behavior that's happening,” Harrelson said, emphasizing that this happened weeks after the stabbing at Smith. “They did not protect him.” In February 2023, a kindergarten teacher at Skipcha Elementary School moved the chair Joseph Baez’s 6-year-old son was sitting in, which caused him to fall to the floor, Baez first told the[*Killeen Daily Herald*](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/kdhnews-com/news/education/banished-by-kisd-joseph-baez-wants-to-hold-school-officials-accountable-for-the-well-being/article%5F4e23e88e-2083-11ef-9f38-d7edf713238c.html). According to Baez, the teacher then made his son face the wall as punishment. For Baez, “bullying is bullying,” and the issue doesn’t just happen between students. He encouraged more parents to show up to board meetings and make their voices heard. “KISD is in crisis. KISD is in turmoil… This is not just a recent thing that's been happening,” Baez told *The Barbed Wire*. “These things have been going back for years. For years.” ### The Pink Moon is Coming, and It’s Totally Average in Every Way (But We’re Still Going to Make a Deal Out of It) URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/pink-moon-easter/ Last updated: 2025-04-11T08:40:00.000Z Heads up, sky-gazers and anyone looking for an excuse to stand in their yard and stare into the night sky — this Saturday, April 12, the Pink Moon is rising! Oh and by “pink,” we mean “not pink at all, but still emotionally satisfying.” Despite its rosy moniker, this “Pink Moon” won’t be strawberry-tinted, or even remotely pink. The name actually comes from a wildflower (phlox subulata if you’re nasty) which blooms this time of year and is also known as “moss pink,” [according to the Old Farmer's Almanac.](https://www.almanac.com/content/full-moon-april?ref=thebarbedwire.com) And just to keep things humble, this full moon is showing up as a “micromoon” — aka the smallest full moon of the year. Lara Eakins, senior program coordinator with the University of Texas at Austin’s Department of Astronomy, broke it down for those of us who majored in something easy: “The April full moon this year is the one that occurs closest to apogee, the farthest point in the moon’s orbit around the Earth. So, the size that the moon appears in our sky will technically be the smallest for this year,” she told *The Barbed Wire*. “Although,” Eakins added, “I have a feeling the average person wouldn’t notice the difference.” Translation: It’s the lunar version of your phone’s 0.5x camera — zoomed out, slightly underwhelming, still going to be all over Instagram. Now, before you write this moon off as a disappointing dot in the sky, know this: timing is everything. Terry Phillips of the Austin Astronomical Society told *The Barbed Wire*: “The key point about appreciating the moon with the naked eye is that you want to observe the full moon as it's rising or, if you’re an early bird, as it’s setting before sunrise in the morning. Once the moon is way up in the sky, it’s much less dramatic, regardless whether it's a supermoon or a micromoon.” So if you want a truly cinematic moon moment — the kind that makes you question your life choices in a poetic way — catch it as it rises. This is when the “moon illusion” kicks in: your brain makes the moon look bigger when it’s near the horizon, especially with a backdrop of trees, buildings, or that kid on the bike carrying E.T. “The full moon appears largest when it is close to the horizon, down in the landscape,” Phillips added. “The brain needs some context around the moon to make the experience more meaningful. So to make the most of a full moon viewing, get yourself to the west side of some nice background just before sunset and then look back east and watch the show.” So if you're squinting at it from your driveway at 10 p.m., you're doing it wrong. But if enjoying natural cosmic beauty isn’t enough, we have ONE MORE pitch as to why you should check out the moon Saturday! Because THIS moon will determine when people give out chocolate bunnies and deviled eggs. Yes, this isn’t just any full moon, this is the “Paschal Moon” — the one that decides when Easter falls. According to [ancient tradition](https://www.almanac.com/easter-paschal-full-moon?ref=thebarbedwire.com) (and complicated ecclesiastical math), Easter is the Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox. This year, that full moon falls on April 12\. Cool right? So, to recap: The moon will not be pink. It will be slightly smaller than typical full moons. Most people won’t notice. But if you *want* to notice, you should look at it right as it’s rising, with a nice scenic background. So while it’s technically a micromoon, in our hearts? It’s huge. Next month we’ll talk about May’s “Flower Moon.” And spoiler, it isn’t made of flowers. Sorry to bum you out on a Friday. ### Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader Tryouts Are Almost Here, and Bless Them, the Hopefuls Are Posting Their Journeys on TikTok URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/dallas-cowboys-cheerleaders-season-2-netflix-tryouts/ Last updated: 2025-04-09T05:00:00.000Z If you’re like us and couldn't stop watching “America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders” on Netflix last summer and are counting down the minutes for Season 2 dates to drop, you’re in luck: Tiktok has got you covered. Auditions haven’t started, but already [DCC prep classes](https://dallascowboyscheerleaders.com/classes/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) are in full swing ahead of auditions for the 2025-2026 NFL season. So what are prep classes? They’re not part of the *official* audition process, but they are taught by current choreographers and former Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, according to the DCC website. Videos have been popping up of women[ dancing to choreography](https://www.tiktok.com/@tataliapreston/video/7485384060336868651?%5Fr=1&%5Ft=ZT-8vMvnUyjKAQ&ref=thebarbedwire.com) at the DCC Studio at The Star in Frisco after prep season started in late February. https://www.tiktok.com/@sav.arevalo/video/7486847260014447902 One woman, Savannah Arevalo, who according to her social media accounts is from California and was most recently an [Allen Ice Angel](https://allenamericans.com/community/ice-angels?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for the minor professional ice hockey league in North Texas, appears to be auditioning again after not making the squad in 2024. https://www.instagram.com/p/C92bvDTJKZY/ A young woman named Alyssa Rodriguez has been documenting her journey to audition for DCC, sharing videos of her jazz and pilates classes along with videos of her prep intensive weekend at The Star. According to her TikTok, she’s 21 years old, a bartender at Chilis and was in her high school dance team in 2021. https://www.tiktok.com/@alyssa.rodriguezzz/video/7485498628610608426?\_r=1&\_t=ZT-8vMwKq5Q0LL A current University of Georgia dancer was also among the dozens of women who participated in the DCC prep intensive. Amaya Crearer has a whole TikTok show named [The Amaya Show](https://www.tiktok.com/@amayacrearer?ref=thebarbedwire.com), where she is also documenting her journey to auditioning. In addition to her recaps on the DCC prep classes, she also posts her gym workouts, tips for better kicks and even past trips to Dallas to learn choreography and improve her dance skills. https://www.tiktok.com/@amayacrearer/video/7484775029809466667 https://www.tiktok.com/@amayacrearer/video/7486640005155196206 Another woman, Kylie Beck, who was also a University of Georgia dancer, posted her prep intensive routine showing her in a red outfit, performing a jazz dance combo with several other dancers doing the same choreography. https://www.tiktok.com/@kyliebeck\_/video/7485197170820386079 Emyrson Dickson posted her recap video, dancing to the same jazz routine in the DCC studio, saying it was her first time at one of these prep events. And yes, already armchair dancers were in the comments, picking apart this college-aged young woman who’s taking the first step at reaching her dance dreams. https://www.tiktok.com/@emersyn.dickson/video/7485118028338826527 Another young woman, Lyss, shared her prep recap video shot inside the practice field turf, with a caption saying that her mother made the DCC final auditions 25 years ago in 1999, and now she’s ready to take up the baton and reach both of their dance dreams. https://www.tiktok.com/@lyssgrayy/video/7485739954052697390 So what’s next in the process? According to the DCC website, there are three more prep classes scheduled for April before the [online applications for DCC round one](https://dallascowboyscheerleaders.com/auditions/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) open on May 2\. On May 16, the dancers will find out who moves onto round two of the audition process. The final auditions and the start of training camp is scheduled for June 14 in Frisco. Netflix has still not announced when season two of their “America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders” will be released. So for now, if you need a moment to dissociate yourself from all the bad news, you can watch the potential future DCC cheer squad practicing their routines before the NFL season kicks off later this year. ### Elon Musk Was Mercilessly Trolled on Video Game Livestream, Then He Rage Quit URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/elon-musk-trolled-livestream/ Last updated: 2026-07-18T17:40:34.000Z If there is one dark joy these days, it’s still being able to laugh at the world’s richest man, who consistently exhibits the aura of a divorced dad showing up at the skate park. Over the weekend, zillionaire Elon Musk, who [has reportedly been](https://www.reuters.com/technology/artificial-intelligence/musks-doge-using-ai-snoop-us-federal-workers-sources-say-2025-04-08/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) using AI to spy on the few federal workers he’s allowed to keep their jobs, [live streamed himself](https://futurism.com/elon-musk-rage-quits-game-mocked?ref=thebarbedwire.com) playing a video game via his Starlink internet service. Via his own private jet, natch. A less likable villain has never existed. Anyway, Musk — who is widely hated these days for [a million good reasons](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/elon-musk-new-fascism-trump-texas/) — was apparently trying to show off for the internet. Again. And like Wile E. Coyote ordering a product from Acme, this also had the same predictable result. After just a few minutes, Musk had to log off in humiliation. Maybe it’s his new fetish (besides [offering women his sperm](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/were-sorry-to-report-that-elon-musk-keeps-offering-women-his-sperm/)). --- What caused all this? Well, during the stream, as Musk (badly) played “Path of Exile 2,” the game’s chat log erupted, as an army of righteous trolls mocked him relentlessly. They made fun of his [many baby mammas](https://people.com/all-about-elon-musk-mothers-of-children-blended-family-8668121?ref=thebarbedwire.com), his [massively stupid layoffs of federal workers](https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/us-announced-job-cuts-surge-march-doge-hit-recruitment-firm-challenger-says-2025-04-03/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), his [opposition to trans rights](https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/20/media/vivian-wilson-teen-vogue-criticism-musk-tesla-trans/index.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), you name it. As one message read: “YOU RUINED THE COUNTRY JUST LIKE YOU RUINED ALL YOUR MARRIAGES.” And: “Elon. It’s Me, [Ashley St. Claire](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/04/01/elon-musk-ashley-st-clair-paternity-dispute/82760786007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Please pay your child support.” And: “WHY IS YOUR TESLA COMPANY FALLING APART AHAAHAHAAH!” https://www.tiktok.com/@uuuuuuffffffoooooo/video/7490511854901447979 It was insanely cathartic watching someone who has never faced accountability for anything have to sit there and read a torrent of (well-deserved) vitriol. Finally, Elon had had enough and clicked “ignore.” Billionaires, they’re just like us! Will it change anything? No. But at least he had to hear from people who weren’t on his payroll. Oh and don’t worry, he still sucks at video games. Musk was again trying to play “Path of Exile 2,” the game he [previously admitted to cheating in](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/elon-musk-admitted-to-cheating-at-video-games-gamers-are-aghast-why-did-he-do-it/), and he hasn’t gotten any better. --- While the internet watched, Musk died to an extremely easy boss *in the game’s tutorial* and then ended the stream. In gamer-speak, that’s known as a “rage quit,” the equivalent of slamming a door after you’ve lost an argument. > [](https://twitter.com/DevinDtv/status/1908649812997836856?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Now, as some have pointed out, maybe it wasn’t his fault. Maybe he was lagging and it was affecting his gameplay. But that just means his internet service sucks! All of this comes in the chaotic early months of Trump’s second term, as Musk has seemingly been everywhere — from the [Oval Office in a tech support tee](https://www.thetimes.com/life-style/celebrity/article/elon-musk-tshirt-slogans-tech-support-33g0vgx9v?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to grinning under a [cheesehead hat in Wisconsin](https://www.thedailybeast.com/elon-musk-pulls-lame-stunt-on-wisconsin-stage-as-he-hands-out-millions/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). If this sounds annoying to you, you’re not alone! Polls show a solid majority of people are sick of his shit. Musk’s [approval rating](https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/02/elon-musk-poll-approval-030168?ref=thebarbedwire.com) has tanked to 41 percent, and a whopping 60 percent of voters now view him unfavorably. So anyway. A rich guy got a tiny bit of discomfort while his minions continue to [lay off thousands of government employees](https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/03/economy/us-jobs-report-preview-march-doge-layoffs/index.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Enjoy this little victory while the world burns! ### Even in Defeat, Kelvin Sampson and his Cougars Did Houston Proud URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/even-in-defeat-kelvin-sampson-and-his-cougars-did-the-city-proud/ Last updated: 2025-04-08T14:31:45.000Z On Monday night, the Gators eked out a nailbiter win over Houston to claim their third championship in school history. The University of Houston Cougars basketball team was about as big of an underdog as a 1-seed gets entering the Final Four in San Antonio. Duke, led by their superstar Cooper Flagg, was considered an historically good team. Auburn was ranked first in the nation for large stretches of the year, and their conference foe, Florida, took the championship in what may have been the toughest conference in the history of the sport. Despite the heartbreaking result, Monday night — and Houston’s entire postseason run for that matter — was emblematic of the culture and attitude instilled within this program. They fought to the bitter end, went to war for every loose ball and rebound, and left every ounce of effort they had in them on the hardwood in the Alamodome. Houston doesn’t get the respect it deserves. The fourth largest city in the country is typically an afterthought to coastal elites who think culture is nonexistent outside of New York or L.A.. No, Houston doesn’t have the glitz of Hollywood or the billionaires of Manhattan. But the city is a celebration of diversity –– a kaleidoscope of cultures who all bring their unique color to the city and who, when times are tough, buckle down and [go to work](https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/texans-do-it-ourselves-rescue-effort-defines-hurricane-harvey/2017/09/02/f41bb8ee-8f2f-11e7-8df5-c2e5cf46c1e2%5Fstory.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). That was the hallmark of Houston’s run this NCAA Tournament. Their furious comeback against Duke in the Final Four was fueled by relentless determination and frenetic defense rather than luck or particularly bad play on Duke’s behalf. Their wins over extremely talented Tennessee, Purdue, and Gonzaga teams were street brawls that the Cougars willed themselves to win. This Cougar team, just like their city, knows how to wear it on the chin and still come up swinging. ### When Kelvin Sampson was hired to be the head coach of the University of Houston basketball team in 2014, he inherited a program that was a shell of its former self. The glory days of the 1980s and Phi Slama Jamma were a distant memory. It had been decades since superstar athletes like Clyde Drexler or Hakeem Olajuwon graced campus. The Cougars’ once-proud basketball team hadn’t seen an NCAA Tournament appearance in four years — let alone the Final Fours and Championship games that had been the norm under legendary coach Guy Lewis for nearly three decades. Sampson was determined to change that. Just like his Cougars basketball program, Sampson was in need of a fresh start, freshly off a five-year NCAA punishment (Sampson made the egregious violation of… wait for it… texting recruits. My how things have changed!). So how does a coach with a checkered past right the ship of a listless program? He does something that should ring familiar to all Houstonians who have endured trying times — he rolled up his sleeves and got to work. Knowing that his team would need world-class facilities to compete with the Dukes and Kansases of the world, Sampson helped the university raise $25 million for a new practice facility and $60 million for a sorely-needed renovation to the basketball arena. Knowing the impact a raucous crowd could have on his team, Sampson [walked around campus](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DIJtmGcOIJh/?utm%5Fsource=ig%5Fembed&ig%5Frid=a2510701-efe9-457c-8fef-a8bab4d4dfea) to introduce himself to students and ask them to come support his team. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DIJtmGcOIJh/?utm\_source=ig\_embed&ig\_rid=a2510701-efe9-457c-8fef-a8bab4d4dfea But more than anything, Sampson changed the identity of his team. Sampson is, as my diehard Cougar fan uncle likes to say, a grumpy old man. He has impossibly high standards and screams himself hoarse pushing his players to meet them. He puts his players through drills that more closely resemble football practice than basketball, and in turn he, inevitably, has the hardest working, toughest, and grittiest team in the nation, year in and year out. > The most requested breakdown: Houston MBB! The best defense in Men’s Division 1 - we’ll take a few days to really dive in. But the first thing that jumps out is obviously the intangibles. > > Some coaches say you can’t teach those traits, I’d say the Houston staff would disagrees! [pic.twitter.com/enStoL4m2s](https://t.co/enStoL4m2s?ref=thebarbedwire.com) > > — Michael Jagacki (@Mike\_Jagacki) [March 14, 2024](https://twitter.com/Mike%5FJagacki/status/1768259410575364494?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=thebarbedwire.com) Perhaps unwittingly, Sampson has imbued in his basketball team a spirit that is reminiscent of the city of Houston itself. The Cougars don’t have the glitzy, elite recruits that the Blue Bloods of college basketball do. They don’t play in an elite conference. Everything they get is earned — every inch won through sweat, blood, and tears. The Cougars win because they do the little things right, they work harder than you do, and they embrace team basketball. Like clockwork, some in the national media are already declaring Sampson and Houston’s title chances to be [all but dead](https://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/news/houstons-heartbreak-is-piling-up-and-kelvin-sampson-is-running-out-of-time-this-was-the-year-right-here/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). But that’s exactly where [Sampson and his players](https://athlonsports.com/college/houston-cougars/houston-star-sends-clear-message-about-kelvin-sampson-after-ncaa-title-game?ref=thebarbedwire.com) thrive — as the underdogs, scratching and clawing for everything they get. Star players come and go — culture, toughness, grit, and determination last. Sampson has built a program at Houston that is here to stay. ### Paxton’s Anti-CRT Lawsuit Was Based on A Manipulated Video, Coppell ISD Says URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/coppell-isd-manipulated-video-court-filing-ken-paxton-lawsuit/ Last updated: 2025-04-07T17:19:53.000Z Coppell ISD officials called Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s lawsuit against the district “political fodder” aimed at public schools. The suit, which claimed the district violated state law that bans critical race theory from being taught, was alleged to be based on a manipulated hidden-video recording, according to court filings. In the lawsuit filed in March, the attorney general’s office cited a hidden camera recording filmed by conservative outlet [Accuracy in Media](https://aim.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that appeared to show a Coppell ISD administrator avoiding restrictions on “the use of CRT in state policies and curricula,” according to a statement from the attorney general’s office. “Texas children deserve to receive the best education in the world, not have woke ideology forced upon them,” Paxton said in March. “My lawsuit aims to put an immediate end to this illegal and hateful curriculum and immediately stop the blatant refusal to follow state law by certain officials at Coppell ISD.” In a counterclaim filed Tuesday, district officials alleged that the attorney general’s actions are meant to fuel debates over private school vouchers and public school funding, [*The Dallas Morning News*](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/education/2025/04/07/manipulated-video-of-coppell-isd-political-fodder-in-school-choice-fight-filing-says/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)reported. District officials denied teaching CRT in classrooms, according to Coppell’s counterclaim. They noted that even though the video of the Coppell administrator existed for over two years, Paxton filed the lawsuit on March 13\. That same week, the Texas House of Representatives also [began](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2025/03/11/texas-house-begins-work-on-bill-to-use-public-money-for-private-schooling/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) working on its version of a school choice bill. Coppell school officials claim that the old video recording referenced in the suit was “heavily edited and manipulated so to be grossly misleading,” insisting that the administrator’s comments “were not related to questions about teaching CRT.” The filing also notes that some of the administrator’s comments were made in May 2021, months before the state law prohibiting critical race theory [went into effect](https://gov.texas.gov/news/post/governor-abbott-signs-hb-3979-into-law?ref=thebarbedwire.com). In a recent message to parents and staff, Coppell ISD Superintendent Brad Hunt, one of the defendants in the suit, said the district is “committed to providing a high-quality education that follows the state curriculum.” Hunt [announced](https://www.coppellisd.com/o/north/article/2128005?ref=thebarbedwire.com) his retirement last Thursday but did not cite a specific reason behind the decision. **Read more at**[***The* *Dallas Morning News***](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/education/2025/04/07/manipulated-video-of-coppell-isd-political-fodder-in-school-choice-fight-filing-says/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)**.** ### So You Want To Get Pregnant in Texas? How To Navigate Abortion Bans and Rising Maternal Mortality Rates URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/pregnancy-care-texas-abortion-miscarriage/ Last updated: 2025-04-07T05:00:00.000Z > “*I’m terrified. Trying to start a family with my hubby and our first pregnancy was ectopic,*” one user on [threads](https://www.threads.net/@mrs%5Fharbin5/post/DHo%5FdHkSXGv?xmt=AQGz9-wFw0nlELvkhHX%5FQLJXFu6swscstXTRuJZKV-Hijw&ref=thebarbedwire.com) wrote. > “*I'm a Black woman in TX where it's being shown that these health professionals don't & won't give af about me if I'm in pain & very well may provide substandard treatment for asinine reasons,*” another [user](https://www.threads.net/@itsmedreyadenene/post/DHqkd-Cuhln?xmt=AQGz9-wFw0nlELvkhHX%5FQLJXFu6swscstXTRuJZKV-Hijw&ref=thebarbedwire.com) wrote. > “*We have two kids and wanted one more. But with the ban we didn’t want to risk my life or having to travel if something went wrong,*” yet another woman [wrote](https://www.threads.net/@marriedmisandrist/post/DHprMxXMJfd?xmt=AQGz9-wFw0nlELvkhHX%5FQLJXFu6swscstXTRuJZKV-Hijw&ref=thebarbedwire.com). Last month, Texan after Texan, hundreds of them, shared concerns on a Threads post from *The Barbed Wired* that asked how they felt about *desired* pregnancies in the state. The emotions shared on the thread is an indication of a larger trend we’re seeing: People in Texas are scared of getting pregnant because of the state’s abortion bans and correlated declines in reproductive health. Texas is home to more than 6.3 million women of reproductive age and 94% of births were to women 20 years old and older, according to the [March of Dimes.](https://www.marchofdimes.org/peristats/data?reg=48&top=2&stop=5&lev=1&slev=4&obj=3&sreg=48&ref=thebarbedwire.com) Sure, not all of them will want to get pregnant at any given time (or at all), but for those that do want to expand their families, fear beyond the typical risks associated with pregnancy have crept up. Already, [8% of all pregnancies face complications](https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/staying-healthy-during-pregnancy/4-common-pregnancy-complications?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=But%20approximately%208%20percent%20of,occur%20unexpectedly%20and%20are%20unavoidable.), and [10-20% of pregnancies will end in miscarriage](https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/pregnancy-loss-miscarriage/symptoms-causes/syc-20354298?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=Miscarriage%20is%20the%20sudden%20loss,people%20realize%20they're%20pregnant.), according to the Mayo Clinic. In September, the Gender Equity Policy Institute and *NBC News* found Texas’ [maternal mortality cases rose by 56%](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-maternal-mortality-rate-went-up-56-after-abortion-ban/), compared with just 11% nationally, after the state’s abortion ban went into effect. At *The Barbed Wire*, we’ve rounded up some of the [reporting and data available](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-true-cost-of-texas-abortion-ban-rising-deaths-abandoned-babies-fewer-doctors/) since the abortion bans went into effect, and found that rates of infant mortality, sepsis and STDs are up. On Monday, the Texas House will hold a public hearing on [House Bill 44](https://legiscan.com/TX/text/HB44/id/3180132?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a companion bill to Senate Bill 31, that its author’s claim will “remove any question and hesitation” when it comes to doctors concerns on whether or not to carry out life-saving abortions for pregnant people, according to the [*Texas Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/03/27/texas-abortion-bill-senate-31/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Some reproductive advocates caution that this bill and it’s companion are a “[trojan horse](https://jessica.substack.com/p/urgent-the-texas-exceptions-bill)” that does not really clarify exceptions for life-saving abortions, revives a 1925 Texas abortion law that would allow the state to prosecute patients (like in [Georgia](https://www.themarshallproject.org/2025/04/02/law-pregnancy-california-ohio-georgia-alabama?ref=thebarbedwire.com)) and does not account for fatal fetal anomalies or cases of rape or incest. As the Legislature considers those bills, and [others that would further restrict reproductive healthcare](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-abortion-laws-national-ban/), we asked doctors what can be done to stay safe and sane if you are pregnant or are planning on getting pregnant. How can you take steps to focus on what *is* in your control instead of worrying about changing state and federal laws that can impact you? The bottom line: Doctors told *The Barbed Wire* it’s time to stop doom-scrolling and get informed. “Arm yourself with knowledge before you get pregnant,” Dr. Amna Dermish, chief operating and medical services officer at Planned Parenthood Texas, told *The Barbed Wire.* “I say that understanding that that is a luxury, being very clear right. Not everybody has the capacity to do that.” Dermish and other doctors we spoke with echoed those sentiments, saying that the ability to prepare, plan and have tools is already a privilege that many pregnant people may not have access to. “I will preface everything that I'm about to say with the fact that I am extremely privileged. I'm a privileged Caucasian female physician who practices in a large metropolitan city with a lot of access to care,” Dr. Austin Dennard, a Dallas-based OB-GYN, told *The Barbed Wire*. “The patients that I serve all have commercial insurance, so right there, you're only looking at a doctor-patient relationship that's honestly fairly rare.” Still, doctors separated preparedness into categories: Know your rights, know what questions to ask, know your resources. ### Know What Texas Abortion Laws Mean for You “Although society treats abortions and miscarriages as very different pregnancy circumstances, medically they are quite similar. In fact, when someone has a miscarriage, they may receive the *exact same procedure or pills* that a person would use to induce an abortion,” Renee Bracey Sherman and Regina Mahone wrote in their book [*Liberating Abortion*](https://www.liberatingabortion.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). When pregnancies fail, the standard of care in modern medicine includes using abortion care, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine and the Mayo Clinic. Medications like [mifepristone and misoprostol](https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/pregnancy-loss-miscarriage/diagnosis-treatment/drc-20354304?ref=thebarbedwire.com) ([which Texas tried to ban](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/06/13/supreme-court-texas-mifepristone-ruling-abortion/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=Are%20medication%20abortions%20legal%20in,person%20who%20has%20an%20abortion.)) are used during miscarriage treatment to help “the uterus pass pregnancy tissue out of the body.” In cases of heavy bleeding or if there are signs of an infection, doctors may determine medicine alone is not enough. A [D&C, a minor procedure called suction dilation and curettage](https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/miscarriage?ref=thebarbedwire.com), is another standard of care that can be performed by healthcare professionals to remove tissue from the uterus that hasn’t been expelled naturally and presents risk of infection. Right now in the state of [Texas, the right to such care](https://reproductiverights.org/maps/state-constitutions-and-abortion-rights/?state=TX&ref=thebarbedwire.com#state-tab-00) is unclear. Texans can not get abortions unless there is a “life-threatening condition,” according to the Center for Reproductive Rights, a [global human rights organization](https://reproductiverights.org/maps/state-constitutions-and-abortion-rights/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). But even that is murky. A group of [111 OB-GYNs in Texas](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-ob-gyns-beg-politicians-to-do-something-after-deaths-of-pregnant-women/) sent a letter to state leaders in November, saying the law prevents them from providing lifesaving care to pregnant women. Reproductive rights advocates say pregnant Texans have to show “how dead they are” before they can receive care, if they get to that at all. It’s why reproductive justice advocates continue sounding the alarm that abortion bans don’t just impact people who want abortions, it trickles down to anyone who may need access to reproductive healthcare. > “Texans, you may never want an abortion, but you may find yourself in my situation. You may need one to save yourself or to save a healthy, *wanted* baby.” > > Lauren Miller, Mother “Texans, you may never want an abortion, but you may find yourself in my situation. You may need one to save yourself or to save a healthy, *wanted* baby,” Lauren Miller, a reproductive rights advocate and one of the [original plaintiffs](https://reproductiverights.org/zurawski-v-texas-plaintiffs-stories-remarks/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) who sued the state for access to abortion care, said during a [legislative hearing for more abortion bills](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DHv3kEoRLaT/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in March. In 2023, [Miller needed an abortion](https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/02/28/1154339942/abortion-texas-laws-twins-selective-reduction?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to save the life of one of her unborn twins after the second one was diagnosed with a fatal fetal anomaly. Miller said she had to flee the state to save her second baby’s life. Miller spoke out against [Senate Bill 31](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/03/27/texas-abortion-bill-senate-31/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a sister bill to House Bill 44, that claims it will clarify when doctors can provide abortion care to save a mother’s life. “These politicians insist they know better than you what is right for your family. They would criminalize you for making the right decision for your family. That is not freedom, that is not independence, that is anti-Texan,” Miller implored during the hearing. Under Texas’ current abortion bans, dozens of women with wanted pregnancies who have [experienced terrifying miscarriages](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/she-voted-for-trump-then-she-had-two-terrifying-miscarriages-in-texas/), [fetal anomalies](https://www.jolt.film/watch/zurawskivtexas?ref=thebarbedwire.com), or [other life-altering pregnancy complications](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-abortion-laws-national-ban/), say they have not gotten the care they need, and [three Texas women](https://www.propublica.org/article/porsha-ngumezi-miscarriage-death-texas-abortion-ban?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that we know of have died. Doctors say Lauren’s case, along with the more than [20 other plaintiffs in Zurawsky vs. Texas](https://reproductiverights.org/case/zurawski-v-texas-abortion-emergency-exceptions/zurawski-v-texas/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), proves that abortion is healthcare and that right is being denied to all people. Doctors say you could be in one of those scenarios if you experience a miscarriage develop sepsis — which may require an abortion to save your life. That option was denied to 28-year-old [Josseli Barnica](https://www.propublica.org/article/josseli-barnica-death-miscarriage-texas-abortion-ban?ref=thebarbedwire.com) who *ProPublica* found died after doctors delayed treating her miscarriage because of the laws Texas lawmakers put in place. “Medicine is complicated. Medicine is messy. It's not a black or white situation. There are so many clinical scenarios where a patient needs to be able to have an open and honest communication between their doctor over whether or not it is *safe* for them to continue pregnancy or whether or not they *want* to continue a pregnancy,” Dennard told *The Barbed Wire*. “You can't just write a list of exceptions to medical scenarios. There is no end to the real life situations that occur where patients need to be able to have these open, honest communication moments with their providers. So there's no list that lawyers could write down that are exceptions.” That’s why it’s important to ask questions and know what treatments are available to you. ### Know What Questions to Ask Your Healthcare Team “We can't expect our patients to get a secondary degree in obstetrics in order to have a safe pregnancy,” Dermish said. “This person who might be hemorrhaging in the delivery room, how do they know how much blood is too much blood? How do they know when we need to be worried? How can they understand what's going on? It's a completely unrealistic expectation.” While getting a medical degree to go through a pregnancy journey in Texas may be an unrealistic expectation, doctors Dermish and Dennard say there are still ways Texans can advocate for a safer pregnancy journey. They recommend saving the following questions to take to exams, or put in your hospital bag. 1. Preconception and early pregnancy questions: - What medications are safe in pregnancy that I may need to stop taking? - How many times will I come see you during pregnancy? - What are reasons to call (my doctor) if I'm concerned? - What does my medical history mean for my pregnancy? - Can you explain the [20% miscarriage risk](https://www.acog.org/clinical/clinical-guidance/practice-bulletin/articles/2018/11/early-pregnancy-loss?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in pregnancy? 1. Specific scenario questions: - If I were to experience this complication, if I had a miscarriage, what would happen? What would my options be? - What would you do? Would you treat it? Would you refer me out? - If I have an ectopic pregnancy, how soon will I be able to talk to my provider? What's the protocol in this hospital? - If I think my water has broken early, how will you counsel me on active versus expected management? - What's the relationship between you as the OB-GYN and emergency department physicians? - How will you keep me safe if something goes wrong? - If I need an abortion to save my life, will you do it? - What is your comfort level and protocol for performing life-saving procedures? - How are the other partners in your practice feeling about counseling on abortion management? 1. Additional advice: - Ask what information doctors are allowed to provide versus not allowed - If you're not satisfied with their answer, ask more questions - Be direct and upfront in your questioning - Request a copy of your medical practices’s list of patient rights “If your provider honestly does not know the answer or is not willing to find out the answer, or if your provider does not have the hospital lawyer's cell phone number in their phone, you should be asking more questions or potentially finding a different provider,” Dennard said. ### Know Your Resources Navigating healthcare in Texas can be challenging. In July, the Commonwealth Fund, a foundation focused on promoting an equitable health care system, released a report naming [Texas the second-worst state for women’s health outcomes](https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/scorecard/2024/jul/2024-state-scorecard-womens-health-and-reproductive-care?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Texas had the highest uninsured rates among women of reproductive age (15–44), and [46.5% of Texas counties are defined as maternity care deserts](https://www.marchofdimes.org/peristats/reports/texas/maternity-care-deserts?ref=thebarbedwire.com), according to the March of Dimes. The good news is that there are organizations in the state that help advocate for reproductive rights. “We may not have clinics in Texas, but we have not abandoned Texans. We are still very much committed to helping our people however we can,” Andrea Ferrigno, vice president of Whole Woman's Health, told *The Barbed Wire.* The abortion and reproductive care provider announced it was shutting down all its Texas clinics in 2022, after the abortion bans went in place. However, Ferrigno says they’re still seeing Texans and providing care. Here are some categories of resources healthcare providers recommend getting familiar with: 1. Medical organizations that sift the misinformation from the real information - [American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists](https://www.acog.org/womens-health/resources-for-you?ref=thebarbedwire.com#f:@patientportalcontenttype=[FAQs,FAQs%20for%20Teens]): A reputable library of health information - [Whole Woman’s Health](https://wholewomanshealth.com/abortion-clinics/texas/?main=yes&gad%5Fsource=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwwLO%5FBhB2EiwAx2e-3%5F8xBdANjmAQjw4Fdc-Y4wwrqdIvXfYGpZRgdVATtrKL9v8ukH9xXBoCt50QAvD%5FBwE&ref=thebarbedwire.com): Offers a bilingual call center for virtual appointments out of state, and support and resources for fertility treatment, genetic testing etc. - [Planned Parenthood](https://www.plannedparenthood.org/planned-parenthood-greater-texas/patient-resources?ref=thebarbedwire.com): Offers in state whole women's exams, regenerative hormone therapy appointments, STI education and treatment and HIV treatment 2. Mutual Aid Organizations - [Texas Equal Access Fund:](https://www.teafund.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Offers financial and emotional support to people in North & East Texas who lack the means to access abortion and other reproductive care - [Fund Texas Choice:](https://fundtexaschoice.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Helps people with abortion care out of state and other reproductive care - [Sueños Sin Fronteras](https://www.suenossinfronterastx.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com): Aims to improve pregnancy, birth, and postpartum outcomes for undocumented people in San Antonio, Texas, through direct support, education, and advocacy - [South Texans for Reproductive Justice:](https://strj.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Serving the Rio Grande Valley - [Indigenous Women Rising:](https://www.iwrising.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Serving Native and Indigenous people - [Lilith Fund:](https://www.lilithfund.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Provides direct financial and emotional support to those needing out of state abortion care and in state reproductive care - [Frontera Fund:](https://fronterafundrgv.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Provides financial support to those needing reproductive care near the border and Rio Grande Valley - [Elevated Access:](https://www.elevatedaccess.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Volunteer pilots help get people to the healthcare access they need 3. Online Resources - [I Need An A](https://www.ineedana.com/us/texas?gad%5Fsource=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwwLO%5FBhB2EiwAx2e-3zqJERMfR4J3FDKHtds1QbApZA7Hn0kcLq1zs1wuiVfo0sBVnniOyBoCYWEQAvD%5FBwE&ref=thebarbedwire.com): Helps with abortion options in the United States - [Center for Reproductive Rights:](https://reproductiverights.org/our-issues/maternal-health/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Helps give people information about their reproductive rights - [Abortion in America:](https://abortioninamerica.org/stories/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) A storytelling collective of people who’ve shared their stories about the impacts of abortion bans in the U.S. - [National Network of Abortion Funds:](https://abortionfunds.org/find-a-fund/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Database to search abortion funds across the country ### Don’t Let Texas Lawmakers Control You Doctors who spoke with *The Barbed Wire* said there are thousands of healthy pregnancies happening across Texas. In 2023, there were 387,945 live births in Texas, according to the [March of Dimes](https://www.marchofdimes.org/peristats/data?reg=48&top=2&stop=10&lev=1&slev=4&obj=3&sreg=48&ref=thebarbedwire.com). “My wish is not for people to get so lost in the fear of what could happen that they don't stop to experience the joy of their pregnancy and their birth and that to me, is just another thing that's sort of been stolen from people in Texas,” Dermish said. “My plea to people is don't get so lost in this, in this potential, that you lose sight of that miracle and don't let them steal your joy, because that is, that is so important.” Dermish said it’s important to have a healthy understanding that risks are possible and people should be prepared but know that “the odds are in our favor.” Dennard said, bottom line, don’t let Texas lawmakers control you. “I understand that it is significantly more dangerous for the average woman to be pregnant in Texas versus New York or California, but I refuse to let the state of Texas dictate when and how many times I attempt to become pregnant, and how many children I want to have with my with my partner,” Dennard said. “The power of a woman is unstoppable. Women are incredible and incredibly resourceful. So I just encourage women to just very much advocate for themselves and feel empowered and not let these restrictions dictate how they want to live their lives.” ### Now Ken Paxton Wants Law Firms to Hand Over Info on DEI Practices URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/ken-paxton-texas-law-firms-dei/ Last updated: 2025-04-04T16:56:55.000Z Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is cracking down on corporate law firms with Texas offices that he alleges promote employment practices aimed at increasing workplace diversity, equity, and inclusion, according to the [Office of the Attorney General](https://www.oag.state.tx.us/news/releases/attorney-general-ken-paxton-leads-multistate-coalition-joining-trump-administrations-efforts-stop?ref=thebarbedwire.com). This follows federal officials’ request for information about law firms’ DEI initiatives [last month](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/17/us/politics/trump-dei-perkins-coie-law-firms.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). On Thursday, Paxton and attorneys general from 11 other states sent [letters](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-texasattorneygeneral-gov/sites/default/files/images/press/letter-to-law-frims-eeoc-info-request-utm%5Fcontent-amp-utm%5Fmedium-email-amp-utm%5Fname-amp-utm%5Fsource-govdelivery-amp-utm%5Fterm.pdf) to 20 law firms. Thirteen of these firms have Texas offices but aren’t headquartered in the state, according to [*KERA*](https://www.keranews.org/government/2025-04-03/texas-attorney-general-ken-paxton-diversity-equity-inclusion-law-firm-investigation?ref=thebarbedwire.com). In the letters, the AGs accuse the companies of potentially violating federal and state employment discrimination laws by endorsing hiring practices such as “diversity fellowships, setting hiring goals with targets for greater representation of minority groups, and DEI programs that entail unlawful disparate treatment in terms, conditions, and privileges of employment.” These letters are the latest attack on lawyers and law firms bolstered by the Trump administration. Many of the firms that have received the letters represented clients who have challenged President Donald Trump's policies and prosecuted him and his allies. --- [Critics](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/apr/04/trump-attacks-law-firms?ref=thebarbedwire.com) argue that Trump’s orders specifically attack lawyers and firms he holds grudges against — and that these orders are [unconstitutional](https://www.cato.org/blog/trumps-targeting-law-firms-unconstitutional?ref=thebarbedwire.com). One of the letters’ recipients, WilmerHale, employed [Robert Mueller](https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/03/addressing-risks-from-wilmerhale/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the former U.S. special counsel who led an investigation into the Russian government’s influence on Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. Last month, the White House directed the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to review employment practices of [“large, influential, or industry leading law firms”](https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/03/addressing-risks-from-perkins-coie-llp/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to check their compliance with the Civil Rights Act. The statement singled out another listed law firm, Perkins Coie, which represented Hillary Clinton during her 2016 campaign, and accused it of racial discrimination against its staff and conspiring with “activist donors.” The firm also hired strategic intelligence firm Fusion GPS to look into whether the Trump campaign and the Russian government manipulated the 2016 election. Paxton also issued sanctions against Perkins Coie attorneys in [2021](https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/news/releases/ag-paxton-fifth-circuit-issues-sanctions-against-perkins-coie?ref=thebarbedwire.com), accusing them of trying to re-implement straight-ticket voting in Texas and submitting misleading information. Paxton pointed out that the firm provides counsel for the Democratic National Committee. “The blatantly illegal employment discrimination perpetuated by law firms and other businesses under un-American DEI ideology must be brought to an immediate and permanent end,” said Paxton in a [statement](https://www.oag.state.tx.us/news/releases/attorney-general-ken-paxton-leads-multistate-coalition-joining-trump-administrations-efforts-stop?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on Thursday. “I am leading the charge at the state level to support President Trump’s efforts to end this insanity and restore equal treatment. Employers should look at qualifications, not quotas, in their hiring decisions.” Andrea Lucas, the acting chair of the EEOC appointed by Trump, sent [similar letters](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-eeoc-gov/sites/default/files/2025-03/law%5Ffirm%5Fletters%5F-%5F03-17-2025.pdf) to the same law firms on March 17\. According to both letters from Lucas and AGs, companies have until April 15 to respond with the requested information. In a [memo](https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/03/preventing-abuses-of-the-legal-system-and-the-federal-court/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) issued last month, the White House ordered AGs to seek disciplinary action against lawyers whose conduct “appears to violate professional conduct rules” or who work on “frivolous, unreasonable, and vexatious” matters against the federal government. Attorneys can face [consequences](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/why-you-should-care-about-trumps-attacks-on-lawyers/) such as losing their license to practice law. **Read more at**[***KERA***](https://www.keranews.org/government/2025-04-03/texas-attorney-general-ken-paxton-diversity-equity-inclusion-law-firm-investigation?ref=thebarbedwire.com)**.** ### Austin’s Plotting a Comedy Rebellion. Welcome to The Anti-Kill Tony Show. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/tony-hinchcliffe-duncan-carson-kill-tony/ Last updated: 2025-04-04T08:59:00.000Z For a few years now, the Austin comedy scene has been dominated by a new ecosystem led by Joe Rogan and Tony Hinchcliffe. The city is now nationally known as a haven for their style of “say whatever shitty thing you want, it doesn’t even need a punchline” comedy. For these guys (and their disciples who moved here during the pandemic), the slur IS the funny part. But that doesn’t mean that the old guard — the people who were doing standup before 2020 — has gone away. And veteran Austin comic Duncan Carson wants to strike back, with a new comedy show that’s committed to punching up, not just saying crappy things for laughs. “They just think, anybody that laughs is an inherent good,” he told *The Barbed Wire*. “And I’m like, not if it’s a fucking Klan rally.” In a defense of Austin's comedy heritage, Carson is launching a new late-night show that aims to showcase the city's old-school comedy scene, which produced such luminaries as current “Saturday Night Live” cast members Andrew Dismukes and Devon Walker. The variety show is called “Signing Off: A Comedy Show for the End of the World” and it’ll run Fridays at 10 p.m. starting April 4 at the Fallout Theater in Austin. Carson is uniquely qualified to run it, having hosted weekly shows in Austin since 2012, including the popular “Sure Thing” showcase with Brendan K. O’Grady. “I think if you counted, I've hosted the most comedy shows in the history of this city,” Carson said. “And maybe that means I never got famous, but it also means I never sold my soul.” Carson, who moved to Austin in 2011 from Milwaukee, reminisces about a time when the local comedy community was a golden era of smart standup. He likened it to an "eternal summer camp," a tight-knit group of performers who maintained (reasonably) high artistic standards. Venues like Cap City and The Velveeta Room played crucial roles in developing local talent, creating an environment where smart comedy thrived. And while the scene wasn’t perfect by any means, its informal gatekeepers — club bookers, experienced comics, and discerning audiences — would usually marginalize comedians who relied on cheap, dumb jokes. Tell a bunch of racist jokes? Oops, looks like you’re last on the list. Again. Hacks eventually got the message. “We all self-policed it to a degree,” Carson said. (Although, as a longtime Austin comic myself, I’d add that there were still plenty of offensive jokes flying around back in the day. But they were generally told by someone with an IQ higher than room temperature water.) Sadly, the pandemic and the arrival of Rogan (and his resulting constellation of clubs and shows) greatly changed this landscape. Carson argues that the new wave of comics has created an ecosystem that rewards offensive material, giving previously unsustainable comedic approaches a platform and financial incentive. "It's like Fox News set up camp down the street," Carson said. Where comics once had to be clever and thoughtful to succeed, now shock value and controversy can be monetized. And he’s right. What’s more, while the Rogansphere is popular, they’re not actually very good at being funny. Rogan’s last special on [Netflix tanked](https://www.metacritic.com/tv/joe-rogan-burn-the-boats/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), with one critic calling it a “[tired and unfunny tirade](https://www.theguardian.com/culture/article/2024/aug/06/joe-rogan-netflix?ref=thebarbedwire.com).” Tony Hinchcliffe [bombed with racist jokes at the Republican convention](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-racist-trump-rally-comic-is-even-worse-than-you-think/), which should be easier than spotting a lifted truck at a Buc-ee’s. Hinchcliffe’s first Netflix special was so bad that he [removed it from the internet](https://www.cracked.com/article%5F45792%5Ftony-hinchcliffes-first-netflix-special-was-so-bad-that-he-scrubbed-it-from-the-internet.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), but that didn’t stop the streaming service from [getting in bed with him again](https://about.netflix.com/en/news/kill-tony-comedy-specials-coming-to-netflix?ref=thebarbedwire.com). So what are you left with? A bunch of middle aged dudes spouting worn-out cliches at an audience who drove in from the suburbs to lap it up. That’s what Austin comedy is known for these days. Carson wants to remind audiences that comedy can be more — and it can be funny. “I don't want comedy that's like, preachy or always has to support social progress or something,” he said. “Just don't be a monster, like it's so obvious.” "It’s very easy to be funny without being mean," Carson said. “Comedy is inherently political and I’m tired of us acting like it’s not.” By integrating music, a podcast recording, as well as standup, Carson hopes to remind audiences of Austin's comedic roots (which stretch back decades, not just a few years). The show’s head writer Jon Mendoza told *The Barbed Wire* he doesn’t think the staff is “sitting there trying to figure out how to be the antithesis of (the new arrivals).” “We’re just trying to do what makes us laugh most of the time,” he said. “I think all of us that work on the show have always tried to punch up rather than down. There’s tons of bad news out there all the time, and we try to make something that lets people forget about it for a little while, rather than remind them of it. “ As for any lessons they may have taken from “Kill Tony,” Mendoza had one. “(Hinchcliffe) is right that it only takes a minute to decide you’re not a fan of somebody,” he said. Like it or not, though, Rogan and his minions are popular — and aren’t going anywhere. At the same time, a lot of the old Austin comedy guard has faded away. Not Carson. Barring a call from “The Daily Show,” he jokes, he’s staying put. “This is my city,” he said. “And I will run a weekly show as long as a venue will have me.” ### Cornyn vs. Paxton: The Republican Death Match You Didn't Know You Were Waiting For URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/cornyn-paxton-senate-texas/ Last updated: 2025-04-03T18:19:31.000Z UPDATE, Apr. 9, 9:42 a.m.: Ken Paxton [officially announced](https://x.com/KenPaxtonTX/status/1909947678001189087?ref=thebarbedwire.com) he's running against John Cornyn. PREVIOUS STORY: Hey Texas, if Republican-on-Republican fighting is your thing, you’re in for a real treat. Because just when you thought 2024 had the most expensive, nastiest political brawls possible, get ready to hold 2026’s Shiner. This week, our state’s attorney general, Ken Paxton, suggested to [*The New York Times*](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/02/us/politics/paxton-cornyn-senate.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that he’s ready to challenge longtime Sen. John Cornyn for his seat. Yes, we may be about to witness an all-out war between the two remaining poles of the Republican party: "Trump friendly" and "MR. TRUMP, I WILL DO ANYTHING TO PROVE MY LOYALTY TO YOU, SIR." One is a seasoned incumbent desperately trying to prove he’s still conservative enough, and the other is a scandal magnet who’s always [one step ahead of a conviction.](https://www.tpr.org/government-politics/2025-04-03/ap-texas-attorney-general-ken-paxton-wont-face-federal-corruption-charges?ref=thebarbedwire.com) For those of you who don’t follow Texas politics closely (probably because you have jobs and hobbies that bring you joy), here’s the short version: Cornyn is a longtime establishment Republican who’s been in office since you were playing “Snake” on your Nokia. Paxton is the insurgent from the right who laughs off [ethics violations](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/projects/politics/ken-paxton-allegations/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) like they were parking tickets. And lately, both men have been furiously posturing as the most Trump-friendly, the most conservative, and the most capable of keeping your uncle’s Facebook rants fully stocked with talking points. Cornyn, despite decades of cutting taxes for dudes who wear monocles, is now considered a fake Republican by some in his own party because, at some point, he committed the mortal sin of working on a [bipartisan gun reform bill](https://www.texastribune.org/2022/06/27/john-cornyn-texas-gun-bill/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) after 19 students were shot and killed at an [elementary school in Uvalde](https://www.texastribune.org/series/uvalde-texas-school-shooting/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). And, these days, bipartisanship in Texas is rarer than affordable housing in West Austin. Meanwhile, Paxton’s MAGA stock is high and, let’s be honest, he’s got a truly impressive ability to survive a mountain of scandals. [Securities fraud charges](https://apnews.com/article/paxton-indictment-texas-d5e57fc6cd062c995ced91e9d2542199?ref=thebarbedwire.com)? [Investigations into corruption](https://www.kut.org/politics/2025-04-03/texas-ag-ken-paxton-no-federal-charges-fbi-investigation-corruption?ref=thebarbedwire.com)? An [impeachment trial](https://www.texastribune.org/series/ken-paxton-impeachment-texas-attorney-general/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)? Call our boy Teflon Ken, because none of it stuck. This week, it came out that the feds decided in the final weeks of the Biden administration [not to prosecute Paxton on corruption charges](https://apnews.com/article/ken-paxton-ag-federal-investigation-justice-department-b4c3469a90f1c546dcb69177c432a383?fbclid=PAY2xjawJbZ5dleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABpmquY7cHWnq9IPsLvs6KisZRLWg8NGH2gfD4WijpBIpuvL5W3o90MGu%5F1w%5Faem%5FxzY7kKI%5F8scd2kD2FTpgDQ&ref=thebarbedwire.com). The man is Houdini, if Houdini were about to win a Senate seat. (Also great job, Biden, your strategy of “not going after anyone” really paid off!) Anyway, Paxton is back and ready to be Texas’ latest unwanted gift to the rest of the country. Asked by the *Times* about how he came to his almost-decision to run for Senate, Paxton began answering, only to be reminded mid-sentence that he hadn’t technically announced yet. “Right,” he said. Always embarrassing when you almost leak the release date of your own campaign announcement! Cornyn, for his part, has leaned hard into proving his Trump loyalty, even [posting a photo of himself](https://www.sacurrent.com/news/social-media-slams-sen-john-cornyn-for-posting-staged-pic-of-himself-reading-trumps-book-37053230?ref=thebarbedwire.com) reading "The Art of the Deal" like a high school sophomore trying to prove to his friends he’s really into Ayn Rand. The stakes are high, and the money spent will be obscenely large. Paxton says he needs about $20 million to take on an incumbent senator. Hilariously, according to internal Republican polling obtained by the [*Times*](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/02/us/politics/paxton-cornyn-senate.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), when respondents were asked about the issues and actions they most associated with Paxton, top responses included “border security” as well as “corrupt/fraud/crook/liar.” Still, the *Times* reports that internal Republican polls show Paxton with a “considerable advantage among the party’s primary voters.” So buckle up, Texas. While nothing’s official yet, this is probably going to be a 2026 primary filled with more mudslinging than your cousin on a four-wheeler on a rainy Saturday. And we’re all gonna need a bath afterwards. ### As Texas Measles Outbreak Hits 422 Cases, Dallas County Cancels 50 Vaccine Events After DOGE Cuts URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/measles-dallas-county-hhs-layoffs-and-canceled-50-vaccine-events-doge/ Last updated: 2025-04-02T17:50:37.000Z Federal spending cuts have hit Texas’ public health agencies amid rapidly spreading disease outbreaks. Texas had [422 measles cases](https://www.dshs.texas.gov/news-alerts/measles-outbreak-2025?ref=thebarbedwire.com) as of April 1, according to state health data, and at least 22 new infections were confirmed over the last five days. In February, [state health officials](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/measles-outbreak-vaccination-texas/) confirmed the death of an unvaccinated child in Lubbock, the first one in the country [since 2015](https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/measles/second-death-reported-measles-cases-climb-texas-new-mexico?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Hospitalizations have also increased due to more [medical disinformation](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/lubbock-children-vitamin-a-toxicity-measles-outbreak/) about measles remedies. Dallas County Health and Human Services laid off 21 workers since Friday and canceled 50 vaccine events scheduled for the next year, it announced on Tuesday, [*NBC DFW*](https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/health/dallas-county-cancels-50-community-vaccination-events-doge-cuts-cdc-fda-jobs/3805663/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)reported. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services cut workers nationwide the same day, following directions from the Department of Government Efficiency, spearheaded by unelected bureaucrat and tech billionaire Elon Musk. Under the Trump administration, more than 100,000 federal employees across agencies had lost their jobs as of April 1, according to [*USA Today*](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/04/01/health-human-services-hhs-mass-layoffs-updates/82754402007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=More%20than%20100%2C000%20federal%20workers,in%20federal%20departments%20and%20agencies.). Last week, the federal government slashed [$12 billion in grants](https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/us-government-pulls-back-over-11-billion-funding-state-health-departments-2025-03-26/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) given to state health departments during the COVID-19 pandemic — which were being used to monitor and prevent infectious diseases like measles and bird flu. Three of Dallas County’s grants were affected by federal cuts, said Philip Huang, Dallas County Health and Human Services director, in a Tuesday [Dallas County Commissioners Court meeting](https://dallascounty.civicweb.net/document/1019257/?splitscreen=true&media=true&ref=thebarbedwire.com). Huang reportedly said the federal government notified him via email last week. Two of those grants totaled more than $40 million and were set to expire in July 2026. "We got the notification on Tuesday evening from the State Health Department because they were still trying to interpret what was going on,” Huang said. “But all of them said that the funding stopped the day before. " Following staff layoffs in their immunization program, Huang said local vaccine efforts in the county will slow down. The 50 canceled community vaccine events were initially scheduled for the next year, he said. Some federal funding covered the costs for additional lab equipment to help with rapid measles testing, according to [*NBC DFW*](https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/health/dallas-county-cancels-50-community-vaccination-events-doge-cuts-cdc-fda-jobs/3805663/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). "For the measles situation, we had contacted a lot of schools that had lower vaccination rates,” Huang said. “They had contacted us to set up clinics to go to those schools. Well, that's some of what we're having to cancel." Huang said these federal spending cuts will make Texas less equipped to handle issues like the current measles outbreaks in Texas. Dallas County plans to refer residents to existing health clinics that administer vaccines if they don’t receive additional support from the federal government, Huang said. "What's happening here is not a planned-out effort (by the federal government). It's very haphazard," Huang said. "You can't replace these tens of millions of dollars. They're not available in that scale. I mean, this is what's tragic. This is truly setting all of us back decades in terms of the public health infrastructure." **Read more at**[***NBC DFW***](https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/health/dallas-county-cancels-50-community-vaccination-events-doge-cuts-cdc-fda-jobs/3805663/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)**.** ### ‘Office Space’ Was the Original ‘Severance’ URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/office-space-original-severance-texas-film/ Last updated: 2025-04-02T05:01:00.000Z *Texas hasn’t gotten its due as a major piece in the complex puzzle of American art. We’re here to rectify that. Every three weeks, H. Drew Blackburn will conduct a thoroughly scientific analysis of the 254 integral (one for every county) books, movies, tv shows, albums, podcasts, songs, and magazine articles — you name it — that best exemplify the Texas spirit. These texts, products of immense talent, dig into the marrow of our being. When it’s all said and done and we’ve built The Texas Voyager collection, we’ll (figuratively) head to the Johnson Space Center in Houston and shoot it beyond the atmosphere, into the cosmos. A wise person once posed the question: “What if the aliens are hot?” Hold onto that hope — this is our chance to impress ‘em.* I don’t like to call them panic attacks. I prefer to call it “[Tony Mode](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0YXWpz4KGs&ref=thebarbedwire.com).” This is in part because I don’t feel panicky until the attack’s underway, and when it’s commenced, the panic is the feeling I’m taking a battering ram to death’s door. Also, this anxiety that manifests with hostility in the body, like a spindly creature with a vice grip on your chest, does not occur in a vacuum. The chief architect of anxiety is stress. Financial stress. Romantic Stress. Family stress. Traumatic stress. I have been touched by all of the above, but my main culprit is work stress. Anybody else? Can’t I get a witness? What about an amen? I can only imagine the state I’d be in if my job duties [included whacking a dude who is like a brother to me](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zFe5RfLZi8&ab%5Fchannel=TheSopranos-LongTermParking&ref=thebarbedwire.com). One of the marquee prestige television shows of the moment, “Severance,” plays with separating personal and work stress and explores the spurious authoritarian nature of corporate culture. It’s a dark, dystopian, and funny program. But, 23 years before the world got acquainted with innies and outies, there was another workplace treatise called “Office Space.” In 1999, when the film — which was shot in Texas, primarily in Austin — hit theaters, its writer and director, Mike Judge, was riding high as one of the people responsible for shifting cultural attitudes about cartoons. His creations “Beavis and Butthead” and “King of the Hill” were hits, firmly pushing adult animation into the mainstream. Judge’s feature film debut, 1996’s “Beavis and Butt-Head Do America,” was a huge financial success, grossing $63 million domestically against a $12 million budget. “Office Space” didn’t fare as well, earning a mediocre $12.2 million against a $10 million budget. “The expectations were really high for Mike Judge to pull another rabbit out of his hat,” Marjorie Baumgarten, film critic at the *Austin Chronicle*, told *The Barbed Wire.* “When you're just looking at it from a bean counter’s perspective, it didn't do well, but it obviously speaks to the culture.” There were the early adopters like Baumgarten who gave the film a [glowing review upon release](https://www.austinchronicle.com/events/film/1999-02-19/office-space/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) (three and a half stars out of five; Baumgarten considers this an A-) and accurately predicted that the scene where the guys brutalize a copy machine while “Still” by the Geto Boys soundtracks the moment would become a classic. Craig Jenkins, a critic at Vulture and 2021 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism, reminisced about the film to *The Barbed Wire*: *“*every second was quotable. I know every second. It was branded onto my brain.” It’s true, “Office Space” has no shortage of iconic scenes or moments. There’s “show her my oh-face,” all the talk about flair, TPS reports, Stephen Root constantly mumbling under his breath, Lumbergh’s monotone delivery. But “Office Space,” at the turn of the century, was a cult classic. 20th Century Fox pulled the film from the majority of its theaters just a month into its run, effectively rendering it dead on arrival. “Office Space,” however, [caught its second wind with VHS and DVD sales, along with reruns on Comedy Central](https://www.theringer.com/2019/02/19/movies/office-space-oral-history?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and started to enmesh itself in American culture. “It’s a two-way street,” Baumgarten said. “Judge pulls in from popular culture to put those things in a movie, but then they resonate with an audience who further amplifies it.” Jenkins said what makes a piece of art a cult classic is sensibilities that are a little askew. “It's got to be a little weird. A little dark. A little too on the nose to be received smoothly by the mass public. People aren't necessarily partaking in pop culture to pay close attention to it. Often, it's a distraction, so stuff's gonna get missed.” Pop culture’s often a distraction from things, like, well, work life. What “Office Space” does better than any other workplace satire is that it captures how the nature of meaningless work can dim a person’s light, chip away at their mental health, and lose their sense of worth to become just another cog in the capitalist structure. Early in the film, Peter (Ron Livingston), the movie’s protagonist, visits a hypnotherapist and says something that’s both hilarious and heartbreaking: “Every single day of my life has been worse than the day before it. So that means that every single day that you see me, that's on the worst day of my life.” It’s at this point that he also wonders if the hypnotherapist could “zonk” him out so much that he isn’t aware he’s at work — sounds a lot like “Severance.” His wish is made true. Peter gets hypnotized and never snaps out of it. He lives the rest of his days carefree. The film raises some questions about work that were timely during its release and prescient for contemporary life. “It’s (having this) kind of man vs. machine art conversation that was happening culturally in the late ‘90s. You had this “what is my place in the universe” thing running through Radiohead records that was really touching that generation,” Jenkins said. “This film is like, yeah, you have to come out of college and take a job somewhere and figure out how to advance yourself, but what are you sacrificing in the process?” Baumgartern pointed out that “Office Space” came out when Austin’s life as a tech hub was in its infancy. “All the suburban corporate centers, office parks, a contradiction in terms, something of an oxymoron,” she said. “It just brought that into the wide open. A few years later, Austin's burgeoning tech culture started capsizing. It really started hitting home for locals a lot more at that point.” Judge is the preeminent satirist of Texas, our version of Mark Twain, even if he likes to keep his personal politics close to the vest. “King of the Hill” is one great inside joke for Texans about very specific types of Texans, and “Idiocracy,” Judge’s 2006 film, has warped from something that was definitely too weird, dark, and on the nose into a bit of a cautionary tale. But “Office Space” is his crown jewel. In 2019, “Office Space” was [honored by the Texas Film Hall of Fame](https://www.austinfilm.org/press/austin-film-society-to-honor-filmmaker-john-lee-hancock-and-20th-anniversary-of%E2%80%8B-office-space-at-2019-texas-film-awards/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=The%20cult%20classic%20film%20Office,workplace%20comedies%20of%20all%20time.), and in 2024, its 25th anniversary was [celebrated at SXSW](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLk5oWOILbA&ab%5Fchannel=SXSW&ref=thebarbedwire.com). We’re living in the age of a rising [anti-work movement](https://www.reddit.com/r/antiwork/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) where, according to *Forbes*, one-third of Americans say work is “[adversely impacting their mental health, and 80% say they feel stress at work.](https://www.forbes.com/sites/bryanrobinson/2024/05/21/74-of-employees-report-negative-mental-health-at-work/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)” The workers of America are unhappy, I think we’re all about ready to make like Peter and “zonk” ourselves out for good. Or maybe like Milton… and set the whole system on fire. ### Hunting for the Perfect Italian Cookies in Houston — Like My Mom and Grandma Made URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/perfect-italian-cookies-houston-grandma/ Last updated: 2025-04-01T14:31:51.000Z It seems like my mom is always making cookies when we talk on the phone. Over a thousand miles away, I imagine the buttery first bite of her thumbprint cookies, with their signature chocolate center hugged by perfectly squishy dough. This past Christmas season, when she told me about all the types of cookies she was making, I felt a panic race to my chest. It hit me that my daughter was 10 years old, and my son was 12, and I had failed at carrying on the tradition of introducing them to Italian cookies. The treats represent family memories and our heritage, and remind me of my mom — with her sleeves rolled up, smiling at me while we waited in front of the oven when I was a little kid; it seemed so long ago. Sure, my mom could mail us some cookies, but who knows how they'd look after that long trip from the East Coast. It’s not the same as the fresh out of the oven warmth from a batch that was just created, still soft and comforting. I started to wonder if I could find an Italian bakery in Houston, where I moved from New York in 2016, that could at least provide the essence, the smells, the flavors, of being in the kitchen with my mom. A bakery I could turn to whenever I felt nostalgic for my roots. As a third generation Italian with my relatives immigrating from Naples and Sicily, I grew up enjoying platters of Italian cookies at family get-togethers — plates filled with delicious rainbow cookies; lady fingers with chocolate, pasticcio or sprinkles on one end; and, of course, almond biscotti. Maybe it's getting older, maybe it's living so far away from where my grandparents met in Queens, New York, maybe it’s the way some family stories can fade if there isn’t a sweet reminder that had me suddenly yearning for an Italian bakery and cookies like my mom and grandparents made. When my kids went back to school after winter break, I started searching online for Italian bakeries in the area, hoping to be able to surprise them with a platter of cookies one day after they got off the bus. The results from my initial online search didn’t wow me. I discovered that Sicilians arrived in Houston in the late 1800s and since then have fed residents with their love of a good, fresh meal; selling produce, owning grocery stores and popular restaurants inspired by where they come from. I thought with so much [history](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/houstonhistorymagazine-org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/italians.pdf), there would be an old Italian bakery somewhere with iconic beginnings, but it doesn’t seem so. I learned the [Sacred Heart Society of Little York](https://www.poggiorealeinamerica.com/the-sacred-heart-society-of-little-?ref=thebarbedwire.com) was founded in 1923 in North Houston by a group of Italian men who immigrated from Palermo, Sicily. Starting in 1953, volunteers prepared a popular spaghetti lunch which included hundreds of fig-filled cuccidati cookies for guests. But the lunches closed down in 2018\. I regret that I missed out on this Italian cultural experience. The sauce was the main star then, but I wish I could have tasted the cookies. \*\*\* In the 1940s, my grandparents moved from Queens to New Hampshire, where my grandfather was a furniture factory foreman and there weren’t the Italian ingredients in grocery stores or bakeries and restaurants they were accustomed to. If they wanted traditional Italian food, they had to make it themselves. My grandmother asked my grandfather for some wooden dowels she could use to make cannolis. My grandmother would create the crust of a cannoli from scratch and wrap it around the wooden dowels and bake it. Then she’d stuff the cannoli with a homemade custard filling and chocolate chips. While I’m not opposed to baking, it should be known that I usually burn dinner rolls. So, my wish is to find a bakery in Houston to love. I’m seeking a similar vibe to the popular Ferrara Bakery in Little Italy in New York. I'm looking for anise, pistachio, and lemon flavors. I’m looking for a classic almond rainbow cookie that represents the Italian flag with red, white, and green layers. I’m looking for the beautiful waves around a petite butter cookie with chocolate or raspberry in the center. Unfortunately, searching ‘rainbow cookies + Houston,’ and ‘Italian cookies + Houston’ and ‘Italian Bakery + Houston,’ returned few results that looked authentic. Still, I jotted down a few addresses of storefronts that looked like they had potential. My first stop was [La Sicilia Italian Bakery & Cafe](https://www.lasiciliausa.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in the heart of Montrose. The photos online of their cookie displays looked intriguing. “Come in, we are awesome,” read the sign on the window. Inside I was surrounded by stuffed sfogliatelle with pistachio. There was also a pistachio cannoli and a huge, perfectly made rainbow cookie platter. I gawked at every single item. I wanted to dive in. In another display case, the delicious white powder on traditional Italian Wedding Cookies called my name. Then an almond finger cookie was added to my box of goodies. The pretty ricotta cookies with sprinkles were cute, too. I may have sounded overly hyped when I ordered one of everything. I mean, how could I have left without trying them all? I opened my box of treats in my car in the parking lot. After taking a first bite of the rainbow cookie, I sighed with delight. It had been so long since I had tasted the sponge cake and the sweet jam between the layers and chocolate coating. It was exactly what I was hoping for. The ricotta cookie with the sprinkles was perfect. The butter cookies were like being in my mom’s kitchen. I wanted to call her and tell her about my discovery. I knew this bakery would be hard to surpass but I was also hoping Houston had more than just one option. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/250328_grandmascookies_lasicila.jpg) A box of treats, from [La Sicilia Italian Bakery & Cafe](https://www.lasiciliausa.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in Montrose. Image courtesy Isabella Jade for The Barbed Wire. Although I didn’t find many stand-alone bakeries, I discovered some laid back Italian restaurants and cafes have display cases of cookies that you can order at the counter to-go. One is [Paulie’s](https://www.pauliesrestaurant.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). While long time Houston residents may think this institution is a no brainer, for me it was brand new. I was delighted to find a cookie showcase that pleased my daughter. She wanted the shortbread cookie with “Hey ‘Y’all” written in frosting on top, and we chose the cowboy hat cookie for my son. Although the huge cookie drizzled in chocolate was hard to resist, the peanut butter cookie with chocolate on the top was mine-mine-mine. We ordered some pasta to go with our treats, and when we left, I told my daughter this might have to become a ritual. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/250328_grandmascookies_paulies.jpg) Cookies from [Paulie’s](https://www.pauliesrestaurant.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Image courtesy Isabella Jade for The Barbed Wire. I read online that the namesake Paulie is cousins with Nash D'Amico, the founder of [D' Amico's Italian Market Cafe](https://damico-cafe.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in Rice Village. So I had to check out the cookies there, too. I immediately saw a few options at the counter and ordered two of each along with a cappuccino to-go. On the phone, I told my mom about my bundle of classic Italian white sesame cookies also known as Giuggiulena, along with fig-filled cucidati, biscotti and [amaretti](https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/chocolate-amaretti/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) almond flavored cookies wrapped in twisted paper. I couldn’t wait to try them and devoured almost everything in my car while I waited in afternoon traffic. I savored the soft dough of the sesame cookie and the sweetness of the cucidati, and then dunked the petite amaretti into my cappuccino. It was bliss. The selection at D’amico’s probably isn’t as sugary as my kids might prefer, but since it isn’t too far from my son’s soccer practices, I can imagine popping in for fettuccine and cookies to-go on evenings I don’t feel like cooking. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/250328_grandmascookies_d_amico.jpg) Giuggiulena, cucidati, biscotti, and amaretti almond flavored cookies from [D' Amico's Italian Market Cafe](https://damico-cafe.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Image courtesy Isabella Jade for The Barbed Wire. Homesick for New York, I thought about the bakery photos I saw online from [Kenny & Ziggy's New York Delicatessen](https://www.kennyandziggys.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Although it’s not an Italian restaurant, the cookie display looked insane. The following week I visited and I bee-lined right to the deli counter. The display is over eight feet long and full of ladyfingers, assorted whirling butter cookies, pistachio and raspberry leaf shaped cookies, almond cookies that looked like Ricciarelli, chewy on the inside and firm on the outside which are perfect to dip in coffee. Most of all the rainbow cookies almost made me squeal. And there were thumbprint cookies, just like my mom’s. I ordered six. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/250328_grandmascookies_kennyandziggy.jpg) An array of treats from [Kenny & Ziggy's New York Delicatessen](https://www.kennyandziggys.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Image courtesy Isabella Jade for The Barbed Wire. I devoured most of the thumbprints on the way home. My kids quickly finished the rest. Next on my list was [Mama Fontana’s](https://mamafontanausa.com/order/mama-fontana-14779-memorial-drive?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a little bakery and coffee shop on Memorial Drive, known for their focaccia sandwiches. I didn’t know what to expect so I ordered a cappuccino, a pistachio cookie and biscotti. Everything was tasty and beyond my expectations. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/250328_grandmascookies_mamafontana.jpg) A pistachio cookie from [Mama Fontana’s](https://mamafontanausa.com/order/mama-fontana-14779-memorial-drive?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Image courtesy Isabella Jade for The Barbed Wire. I’m keeping [Tosca Italian Gourmet](https://toscaitaliangourmet.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in Cypress in mind when my son has soccer games in North Houston. Throughout my search, I visited a few other bakeries that caught my eye, even if they aren’t labeled Italian-style. And developed my own recommendations: - If you like butter cookies and the flavors of pistachio, chocolate and sesame seeds, try [Suzie's Pastry Shop](https://suziespastry.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on Richmond Avenue. Although the bakery is known for Mediterranean and European desserts — baklava and layered cakes — you’ll also find some dainty butter cookies and others covered in pistachio. - If you desire a ladyfinger-style cookie with chocolate buttercream in the center, try [Three Brother’s Bakery](https://3brothersbakery.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — but come hungry, because all the cookie portions are huge, and best shared with a loved one. - The European energy of [Epicure Cafe ](https://www.epicure-cafe.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)in River Oaks drew me in, and the raspberry thumbprint cookie with sprinkles caught my eye immediately. Also, their butter cookie to-go boxes are delicious. I picked up a box to surprise my fiancé with and the chocolate linzer was his favorite. - The rainbow cookies and the thumbprint butter cookies will draw me back to La Sicilia and Kenny and Ziggy’s, and I’m keeping D' Amico's in mind for my fig-filled cucidati fix. Of all these selections, I think there’s room in Houston for more authentic Italian bakeries, the kind that hit you with the smell of lemons when you walk in the door, and envelop you in buttery warm nostalgia for family memories at the table. With so much Tex-Mex and BBQ surrounding me in Texas, it feels easy to let my Italian roots slip away. Finding a reminder of my heritage in the shape of a thumbprint means a lot to me. Holding a dainty butter cookie between my fingers makes me wonder more about my grandma and her life. I feel inspired to call my mom and ask more questions and archive our stories of family history. I look for tidbits to tell my daughter when she asks why her middle name is Marie, and photos of my grandmother in her kitchen to show her. When we share cookies we are traveling through generations. Over these confections I tell my children, “Your grandma probably ate cookies like this, her mama too.” ### H-E-B Has the Cheapest Egg Prices in the Nation, Thank Goodness URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/heb-cheapest-eggs-in-the-country/ Last updated: 2025-03-31T18:42:10.000Z There’s more reasons to love Texas’ favorite grocery store: [H-E-B](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/heb-mexico-regios-monterrey/) currently has the cheapest egg prices nationwide. According to a [FinanceBuzz study](https://financebuzz.com/egg-prices-march-2025-video?ref=thebarbedwire.com) first-reported by [*The San Antonio Express-News*](https://www.expressnews.com/food/article/heb-cheapest-eggs-financebuzz-study-20248328.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com), H-E-B has the lowest price for a dozen eggs among top grocers across the country. During the week of March 31, a dozen store-brand or generic large Grade A white eggs at H-E-B cost $4.31\. A dozen eggs at Kroger, which came in second, cost $4.89\. Other grocery stores on the list included Giant Eagle, Meijer, Target, Walmart, Aldi, and Publix. The average price of a dozen eggs at U.S. grocery chains was $4.91, a 12.3% decrease from the March 17 price of $5.60, according to [FinanceBuzz’s Eggflation Index](https://financebuzz.com/egg-prices-biweekly-updates?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which was updated on March 31. FinanceBuzz, an investment adviser company, said it compiled the egg prices directly from eight of the largest grocery chains in the U.S. alongside official reports from the [Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index](https://www.bls.gov/charts/consumer-price-index/consumer-price-index-average-price-data.htm?ref=thebarbedwire.com). FinanceBuzz only analyzes the prices of store-brand or generic white eggs in the report and updates its list biweekly. Egg prices have gone up since mid-2024 due to bird flu outbreaks nationwide. Over 35 million birds were affected in January and February alone, according to the [U.S. Department of Agriculture](https://www.aphis.usda.gov/livestock-poultry-disease/avian/avian-influenza/hpai-detections/commercial-backyard-flocks?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The [*Associated Press*](https://apnews.com/article/record-egg-prices-usda-bird-flu-virus-92e9f5fbc4e0a792be484a4aee5b9c16?ref=thebarbedwire.com)reported that more than 30 million egg-laying chickens have been killed since the start of this year, leading to supply shortages at egg producers. The USDA predicts that egg prices may soar by more than 40% in 2025, according to the *AP*. ### Secretive Natalism Conference in Austin Offered Matchmaking for Lonely Eugenicists, Bigoted Race Science Enthusiasts URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/elon-musk-natalism-conference-ut-race-science-matchmaking-austin-pizzagate/ Last updated: 2025-03-31T17:04:40.000Z Once upon a time, in the 1920s, the State Fair of Texas hosted [“Fitter Family” contests](http://www.eugenicsarchive.org/html/eugenics/static/images/26.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that graded entrants on physical appearance, health, behavior, and intelligence. The winners, according to the eugenicist judges, were most likely to produce offspring deemed genetically superior — and were “[invariably white with western and northern European heritage](http://www.eugenicsarchive.org/html/eugenics/static/themes/8.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com).” The 1925 winners of the “Large Family” contest happily [posed on a series of steps](http://www.eugenicsarchive.org/html/eugenics/static/images/26.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). A yellowed black and white photo from the American Philosophical Society shows a father, mother, and five children, most of whom are barefoot. The family is lean and pale. The father is serious, but the kids are smirking. These were, according to eugenicists, the best genes imaginable. Fast forward to 2025. This weekend, on March 28-29, a pronatalist conference featured self-described eugenicists and promoters of race science at a hotel and conference venue operated by the University of Texas in Austin. *The Guardian* reported that the conference was organized by [Kevin Dolan](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/aug/09/deznats-religious-extremists-mormon-vision?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the operator of an account affiliated with the far-right Mormon “Deseret nationalist” movement. (Dolan is a father of at least six, per [*Politico*.](https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/04/28/natalism-conference-austin-00150338?ref=thebarbedwire.com)) The conference’s speakers included: Jack Posobiec, a far-right media figure and Pizzagate conspiracy theorist [who has ties to white supremacists](https://www.splcenter.org/resources/hate-watch/jack-posobiecs-rise-tied-white-supremacist-movement/?ref=thebarbedwire.com); “neofascist lifestyle influencer” [Charles Cornish-Dale](https://hopenothate.org.uk/2024/06/20/egg-sposed-we-reveal-the-identity-of-far-right-bodybuilder-the-raw-egg-nationalist/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), also known by the pseudonym Raw Egg Nationalist; [Jonathan Keeperman](https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/14/far-right-twitter-identity-revealed?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a former lecturer at University of California Irvine who is behind a far-right publishing press; and [Jonathan Anomaly](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/bioe.12756?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a former academic and proponent of “liberal eugenics.” Tech billionaire (and father to 14 children by four different mothers) Elon Musk is a prominent supporter of pro-natalist positions. Besides extending an invitation to Musk to attend, the Natal Conference said his staunch advocacy actually [inspired](https://x.com/natalismorg/status/1784770669416214978?ref=thebarbedwire.com) the conference. Musk has [promoted bogus race science](https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/03/elon-musk-racist-tweets-science-video/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [amplified users on X who assert the biological superiority of people of European descent](https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/01/eugenics-isnt-dead-its-thriving-in-tech/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and [lamented declining birth rates in European countries](https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1784388834538762425?ref=thebarbedwire.com). These sorts of ideas were on offer at the Natal Conference, whose website features an [X post](https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1784768522645889111?ref=thebarbedwire.com) from Musk that shared a video of Dolan speaking at the first Natal Conference and reads: “If birth rates continue to plummet, human civilization will end.” As the event’s organizer, Dolan has said that eugenics — the belief that white people are genetically superior — and the pronatalist movement are “[very much aligned](https://www.jollyheretic.com/p/kevin-dolan-the-lock-in?ref=thebarbedwire.com).” The Natal Conference embraces a set of ideas inextricably tied to eugenics that is concerned with the right sort of people having more children — emphasis on the “right sort.” Tickets to the conference started at $1,000 and went as high as $10,000 for a full-weekend pass. Press access [was denied to journalists](https://x.com/extradeadjcb/status/1889730794400223667?ref=thebarbedwire.com) seeking to cover the event, which also included a [matchmaking service](https://www.wired.com/story/natal-conference-matchmaking/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), according to *WIRED*. The magazine reported that it obtained an email promoting a preconference mixer held on Thursday night indicating that matchmaking would play a significant role at the conference and in the pronatalist movement more widely. “This is a special email to NatalCon attendees who indicated they were highly interested in finding the missing puzzle piece for singles, matchmaking, marriage, and family formation,” according to *WIRED’s* report on the email, which noted that the conference had organized several sessions to strategize on the issue of matchmaking. Single registrants were reportedly directed to fill out a survey asking for a desired number of children (listing 1 to over 7 as options), according to *WIRED*. They were also reportedly asked about their “religious, spiritual, cultural, lifestyle” values. The email reportedly concluded by saying there would be “some ministers attending if anyone decides to take the leap at the conference!” According to *The* *Guardian*, one of the speakers at this year’s Natal Conference, [Jordan Lasker](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/03/natal-conference-austin-texas-eugenics?ref=thebarbedwire.com), is a long-time proponent of eugenics whose pseudonymous X account, known as Cremieux, who Musk has interacted with and boosted. Lasker has sought to defend the work of Richard Lynn, a deceased self-described “scientific racist” who sat on the board of the Pioneer Fund, a nonprofit established in 1937 “to advance the scientific study of heredity and human differences” that has been described as [racist](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1090952403000093?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [white supremacist](https://www.jstor.org/stable/2962466?ref=thebarbedwire.com). One speaker at the conference, Carl Benjamin, a British YouTuber also known by the online pseudonym Sargon of Akkad, [made a post over the weekend](https://x.com/Sargon%5Fof%5FAkkad/status/1905615531425640647?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in apparent defense of Rhodesia, a [former white-ruled settler colony](https://time.com/6324696/rhodesia-minority-rule/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in what is now Zimbabwe that [has become an important symbol for online white supremacists](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/10/magazine/rhodesia-zimbabwe-white-supremacists.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). One conference attendee [posted a photo](https://x.com/papistpilled/status/1906041274936754658?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of Benjamin during his speech, writing: “Marxism’s shift into intersectionality has redefined women’s roles—from childbearing and homemaking to competing with men in the workforce. ‘But if skyrocketing antidepressant use among women is any clue, this shift is not benefiting women.’” This year’s Natal Conference was held on the University of Texas in Austin’s campus at the AT&T Hotel Conference Center, which is university-owned but operates as a self-funded entity. The university responded to criticism of the event in a statement to the [*Austin Chronicle*](https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2025-03-21/eugenics-controversy-looms-over-natal-conference-at-uts-atat-center/?ref=thebarbedwire.com): “As part of a public university, the AT&T Hotel & Conference Center is bound by law to schedule events without discrimination of viewpoint consistent with the First Amendment.” Outside the venue, a [group of protesters](https://x.com/L0m3z/status/1905758625248768078?ref=thebarbedwire.com) also exercised their First Amendment rights, carrying signs that read “Natalism is Nazism” and “No Nazis in Austin!” For the University of Texas in Austin to host a eugenics conference on its campus in the 21st century demonstrates how the long-arch of eugenics history continues to influence Texas politics. Back in the 1920s, the State Fair of Texas hosted the aforementioned “Fitter Family” contests. Such contests were held at State Fairs across the nation alongside informational exhibits about eugenics, such as ones showing differences in literacy rates across races. In the first half of the twentieth century, eugenics was popular across the political spectrum in the United States, particularly among progressives, who considered eugenics [cutting edge science](https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/psychology/eugenics-movement?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Major public figures such as [President Teddy Roosevelt](https://news.gsu.edu/research-magazine/wrestling-with-the-legacy-of-eugenics-paul-lombardo?ref=thebarbedwire.com) were proponents of eugenics, which informed laws allowing sexual sterilization, banning inter-racial marriage, and prohibiting immigration by large groups of people from various parts of the world. After the Nazis’ use of eugenic doctrines in the genocide of Jews, disabled people, and other minority groups, eugenics was discredited as unscientific and immoral. On scientific grounds, eugenic research has largely been [based on false assumptions](https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2023/11/24/the-persistence-of-eugenics-in-mainstream-journals-highlights-major-gaps-in-research-integrity/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [methodologically unsound](https://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/human-testing-the-eugenics-movement-and-irbs-724/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and [frequently wrong](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abm4415?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in its findings. On moral grounds, eugenic policies of mass sterilization, forced institutionalization, and racial segregation are now seen by the scientific community as [abhorrent violations of human rights](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1127045/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Though eugenics failed as a scientific discipline and served as justification for the horrors of the Holocaust, eugenic laws and practices remained on the books throughout the U.S. for decades: even [nonconsensual sterilization](https://revealnews.org/article/female-inmates-sterilized-in-california-prisons-without-approval/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of prisoners continued until 2010, according to reporting from *Reveal*. Nevertheless, the scientific racism that eugenics inspired and made mainstream in the 1920s was gradually [pushed to the fringes of academia](https://theconversation.com/a-new-race-science-network-is-linked-to-a-history-of-eugenics-that-never-fully-left-academia-241646?ref=thebarbedwire.com), where it has long percolated with the support of groups like the aforementioned Pioneer Fund. Now, that movement is in reversal. Thanks to figures like Musk, eugenicist thinking — often coupled with [pronatalist concerns](https://magazine.scienceforthepeople.org/vol26-1-gender/eugenics/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) about wanting to have “the right kids” — is in resurgence via a new strain known as “liberal eugenics” among proponents. It asserts that humanity can be improved through reproductive technology and genetic engineering. And Musk is not the only political figure in Texas to express eugenic thinking in recent years. In 2023, an expose in the [*Huffington Post*](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/richard-hanania-white-supremacist-pseudonym-richard-hoste%5Fn%5F64c93928e4b021e2f295e817?ref=thebarbedwire.com) reported that Richard Hanania, then-fellow at University of Texas in Austin’s Salem Center for Public Policy, had used an online pseudonym to argue for eugenic policies such as forced sterilization for individuals with an IQ below 90, denounce “race-mixing,” and advocate for white nationalism. Last year, the *Texas Tribune* reported that an event organized by the far-right [True Texas Project](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/06/12/true-texas-project-conference-christian-nationalism/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) featured a session focused entirely on the so-called “Great Replacement Theory,” which posits that the white race is being replaced — and is popular among both [white supremacists and proponents of eugenics](https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/j-d-vance-and-the-rights-call-to-have-more-babies?ref=thebarbedwire.com) who use it as a pro-natalist argument to encourage white people to have more children. This year’s Natal Conference marks the second time that eugenics proponents have gathered in Austin — the [first was in 2023](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/04/natal-conference-austin-texas-eugenics?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — portending a mainstreaming of the disgraceful ideology. The association of the University of Texas in Austin with eugenic ideas does a disservice to the many legitimate researchers of demography and genetics at the university. A graduate research assistant and PhD candidate at the University of Texas in Austin, Claire Zagorski, penned an opinion piece in the [*Austin American-Statesman*](https://www.statesman.com/story/opinion/columns/your-voice/2025/03/26/university-of-texas-ut-austin-natal-conference-eugenics-opinion/82644280007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that eugenics ideas and a Natal Conference don't belong at the University of Texas. “The tacit approval of a race science conference at UT-Austin, alongside the large-scale defunding and muzzling of American science by a far-right regime, marks a very dark chapter of our history,” Zagorski wrote. “It should worry all of us, not just academics, how quickly we’ve moved away from science, progress and the embrace of diversity.” Though it may be disturbing that eugenicists are gathering on the University of Texas in Austin campus, it wouldn’t be the university’s first brush with eugenics. “UT Austin has a very long entanglement with the eugenics movement, and for this to happen now is just part of that long and unfortunate history,” said Dr. Michael Phillips, a historian whose forthcoming book *The Purifying Knife* details the history of the disgraced concept in Texas. In the 1910s, University of Texas professor Clarence Stone Yoakum was a central figure in Army IQ studies, which were used to argue for prohibiting immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe because those groups deemed intellectually inferior according to Army IQ tests. “He played a big part designing the test and publicizing the results, which caused a panic about immigration that helped result in the 1924 National Origins Act,” Phillips told *The Barbed Wire*. Another UT professor in the 1920s, William H. Sheldon, was a part of research into what they believed to be the intelligence of white, Mexican American, and African American children, and [concluded that there is a racial hierarchy of intelligence](https://www.jstor.org/stable/42864036?ref=thebarbedwire.com). These studies were riddled with racist assumptions and methodological errors, and have been discredited as mere replications of existing educational inequality and cultural bias. In 1994, the publication of “The Bell Curve” by psychologist Richard J. Herrnstein and political scientist Charles Murray that relied on work funded by the Pioneer Fund, drew widespread criticism for arguing that there are connections between race and intelligence. In response to the heated critiques of the book, 52 academics signed an open letter originally published in the *Wall Street Journal* defending the book. Five of those 52 signatories were professors at UT Austin. Despite Texas’ history of [racist violence](https://www.texastribune.org/2020/08/15/texas-rangers-racist-violent-history/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and “Fitter Family” contests, Texas was not among the 32 states that passed laws in the first half of the twentieth century that allowed for involuntary sterilization of individuals deemed biologically unfit. Today, Texas is the only state that has been a two-time host to the major gathering of eugenic thinkers in the 21st century. “Eugenics tended to be very successful in those states that invested the most heavily in higher education,” Phillips told *The Barbed Wire*. “Texas didn't have that history because it underfunded higher education. Another factor in Texas was that the eugenicists were definitely for the tightest possible immigration restrictions. Powerful Texas politicians like John Nance Garner, who was Franklin Roosevelt's first vice president, really pushed against this because they wanted the labor for cotton farms.” Unlike their predecessors, modern Texan eugenicists are more likely to argue against immigration due to concern over declining birthrates among white people and fear of “race suicide.” But like eugenics proponents of the past, they now have an ally in the Oval Office who apparently shares some of their beliefs. President Donald Trump himself has [repeatedly made eugenic comments](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/donald-trump-wants-to-make-eugenics-great-again-lets-not/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), saying that there are “a lot of bad genes in our country right now” and that undocumented immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.” “I think that the pressure from the Trump administration in terms of trying to use funding to force colleges to reject so-called wokeness and stop studying racial inequity really opens the door to this eugenicist enterprise being reaccepted,” Phillips told *The Barbed Wire*. “I'm really alarmed about the future of academia and whether this is going to move into the mainstream through financial pressure from a right wing administration.” ### ‘People Are ... So Triggered:’ Dallas Tesla Owner Sues for $1 Million After Car Was Keyed URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/tesla-owner-sues-for-1-million-dallas/ Last updated: 2025-03-31T16:24:39.000Z Amid the rise of [“Tesla Takedown”](https://www.npr.org/2025/03/29/nx-s1-5343986/anti-musk-protests-planned-worldwide?ref=thebarbedwire.com) protests, a Dallas Tesla owner sued a man who [allegedly keyed his Model X](https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/viral-video-shows-man-keying-tesla-in-dallas-as-attacks-on-company-elon-musk-grow-nationwide/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The Tesla owner wants $1 million to compensate for damages to his car, lost income, and emotional distress, [*CBS News*](https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/tesla-owner-sues-for-1-million-dfw-airport-car-keyed/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)reported. Over the weekend, Dallas Fort Worth International Airport Police arrested Rafael Hernandez, who has been charged with criminal mischief. His arrest comes after a [video](https://www.facebook.com/3412737/videos/pcb.10111923280746635/814941484182079) went viral of a man, believed to be Hernandez, who appeared to vandalize the Tesla with a key fob. "It's just kind of mind-boggling to me that there are people who are so triggered and so disturbed by anything these days that they can go so far as to just cause harm to somebody,” the Tesla owner told *CBS News Texas*. Majed Nachawati, a Dallas attorney representing the owner, told *CBS News* that the lawsuit has “nothing to do with (the Tesla owner’s) political persuasions or affiliations.” The lawsuit only includes the owner’s initials due to concerns about threats. The vehicle owner’s attorneys said attacking private citizens out of political disagreements is unacceptable, according to *CBS*. They said the owner wants to send a broader message with the lawsuit and discourage other acts of violence. The Tesla protests started over people's frustrations with Elon Musk, who leads the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency. DOGE has [slashed federal funding](https://apnews.com/article/ies-musk-doge-education-cuts-4461d7bdbe9d55c5a411d8465999b011?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [laid off](https://apnews.com/article/doge-firings-layoffs-federal-government-workers-musk-d33cdd7872d64d2bdd8fe70c28652654?ref=thebarbedwire.com) thousands of federal government employees under the Trump administration, according to the *Associated Press*. Protesters are boycotting Tesla, which has become a large source of Musk’s wealth. In August, Tesla shareholders approved a[ $46 billion pay](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/elon-musk-pay-package-vote-cbs-news-explains/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) package for Musk, who is also the company’s CEO. At a town hall event in Wisconsin on Sunday, Musk said the protests against his company have been working. “What they’re trying to do is put massive pressure on me, and Tesla I guess, to ... stop doing this,” said Musk, referring to his job as head of DOGE, according to [Bloomberg News](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-03-31/musk-sees-tesla-as-a-buying-opportunity-despite-doge-blowback?cmpid%3Deveapac%26amp;utm%5Fmedium%3Demail%26amp;utm%5Fsource%3Dnewsletter%26amp;utm%5Fterm%3D250331%26amp;utm%5Fcampaign%3Deveapac%26amp;sref%3D9rGv1w9C%26amp;embedded-checkout%3Dtrue&sa=D&source=docs&ust=1743440171571672&usg=AOvVaw2NfH2udB3t-uOXz0FwPY23). “My Tesla stock and the stock of everyone who holds Tesla has (dropped) roughly in half. I mean it’s a big deal.” **Read more at** [***CBS News***](https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/tesla-owner-sues-for-1-million-dfw-airport-car-keyed/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)***.*** ### RFK Jr. Peddled Vitamin A as a Measles Remedy. Now Texas Children Have Been Treated for Toxicity. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/lubbock-children-vitamin-a-toxicity-measles-outbreak/ Last updated: 2025-03-28T16:17:27.000Z As measles continues to spread in West Texas, so does medical disinformation. Children were treated for toxic levels of vitamin A after infamous vaccine skeptic — and Health and Human Services Secretary — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recommended the supplement as a measles remedy earlier this month, [*Texas Public Radio*](https://www.tpr.org/public-health/2025-03-27/west-texas-children-treated-for-vitamin-a-toxicity-as-medical-disinformation-spreads-alongside-measles-outbreak?ref=thebarbedwire.com) first reported. Covenant Children’s Hospital in Lubbock said it admitted fewer than 10 pediatric patients for measles who also had heightened levels of vitamin A, which had caused abnormal liver function. All patients were unvaccinated, according to a statement from the hospital. The Texas Department of State Health Services has reported 327 measles cases as of [March 25](https://www.dshs.texas.gov/news-alerts/measles-outbreak-2025?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Kennedy asked that the CDC’s [measles guidance](https://www.cdc.gov/measles/hcp/clinical-overview/index.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) be updated to support the use of vitamin A, according to [*TPR*](https://www.tpr.org/public-health/2025-03-27/west-texas-children-treated-for-vitamin-a-toxicity-as-medical-disinformation-spreads-alongside-measles-outbreak?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — despite the fact that toxic levels of vitamin A can lead to severe organ damage in the liver, bones, central nervous system, and skin, according to the [National Center for Biotechnology Information](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK532916/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). In a Fox News opinion article on March 2, Kennedy also [promoted](https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/robert-f-kennedy-jr-measles-outbreak-call-action-all-us?ref=thebarbedwire.com) the “administration of vitamin A under the supervision of a physician for those with mild, moderate, and severe infection.” He cited [studies](https://academic.oup.com/ije/article/39/suppl%5F1/i48/699532?login=false&ref=thebarbedwire.com) that found vitamin A to help “dramatically reduce measles mortality” in children. In a statement to *The Barbed Wire*, Covenant Children’s Hospital recommended that the public seek medical advice before trying any new treatment regimen. The patients who were admitted to the hospital reported using vitamin A to cure and prevent measles, according to Dr. Lara Johnson, pediatric hospitalist and chief medical officer of Covenant Health-Lubbock Service Area. “A brief treatment course of Vitamin A is recommended for patients with severe measles and should be given under the direction of a physician,” Johnson said. “However, excessive consumption of vitamin A may result in significant adverse effects.” It’s important to note that vitamin A isn’t actually proven to ward off measles, according to medical experts. “(Vitamin A) supplements will not prevent people from getting measles,” said Christopher Sudfeld, an associate professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, in an interview with [*Everyday Health*](https://www.everydayhealth.com/infectious-diseases/can-vitamin-a-help-manage-measles/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “Only vaccination does that.” In an interview with Fox News on March 4, Kennedy said therapies such as using cod liver oil, which has vitamins A and D, were effective in treating measles patients. Vitamin A and cod liver oil have both been [“flying off the shelf”](https://www.everythinglubbock.com/news/local-news/its-been-flying-off-the-shelf-lubbock-pharmacy-sees-more-vitamin-a-and-cod-liver-oil-purchases-amidst-west-texas-measles-outbreak/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), one pharmacy told [*Good Morning Lubbock*](https://www.everythinglubbock.com/news/local-news/its-been-flying-off-the-shelf-lubbock-pharmacy-sees-more-vitamin-a-and-cod-liver-oil-purchases-amidst-west-texas-measles-outbreak/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). ### Why You Should Care About Trump’s Attacks on Lawyers URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/why-you-should-care-about-trumps-attacks-on-lawyers/ Last updated: 2025-03-28T05:05:00.000Z *Editor’s note: The views and opinions presented by guest contributors to The Barbed Wire do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the company, the newsroom, its staff, advisers, or advertisers.* Late last week, the White House issued [a memo](https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/03/preventing-abuses-of-the-legal-system-and-the-federal-court/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) ordering the attorney general to seek disciplinary action against attorneys whose conduct “appears to violate professional conduct rules” or who work on “frivolous, unreasonable, and vexatious” matters against the government. The potential punishments for lawyers include losing their license to practice law, and losing business related to government contracts or national security. Who could object to cracking down on unethical lawyers, right? Except it quickly became clear to me that this order had nothing to do with promoting legal ethics, and everything to do with attacking lawyers and law firms for representing clients that President Donald Trump has a grudge against. The tell is in the examples of “unethical conduct” listed in the memo: - Attorney Marc Elias, who represented the DNC and Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, is mentioned by name for [his involvement](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/clinton-campaign-dnc-paid-for-research-that-led-to-russia-dossier/2017/10/24/226fabf0-b8e4-11e7-a908-a3470754bbb9%5Fstory.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in what became known as the Steele dossier, containing allegations against Trump and his connections to Russia. A Florida judge tossed out [Trump’s lawsuit](https://apnews.com/article/judge-dismisses-trump-lawsuit-against-clinton-1c49b9f65177507bb06115b631c8499d?ref=thebarbedwire.com) against Clinton and others over the dossier, saying he was “seeking to flaunt a two-hundred-page political manifesto outlining his grievances against those that have opposed him.” - The immigration bar and “powerful Big Law pro bono practices,” which the White House alleged “frequently coach clients to conceal their past or lie about their circumstances when \[seeking asylum\].” The memo also wasn’t released in a vacuum: It came out only days after Trump targeted [specific law firms](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/06/us/politics/trump-perkins-coie.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) with [extensive ties to his political opponents](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/21/us/politics/paul-weiss-trump.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for special punishment, including a firm that has done pro bono legal work for Jack Smith, the special counsel who pursued two indictments of Trump. The Trump administration has attacked other institutions he believes are his adversaries, like [the media](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trumps-anti-media-rhetoric-turns-action-rcna191949?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [universities](https://www.vox.com/politics/405645/trump-defunding-universities-columbia-upenn-research?ref=thebarbedwire.com). I have been a lawyer for nearly 20 years, most recently as an attorney at the Texas Civil Rights Project and as a part of efforts by former Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign to protect voters last year. I therefore knew immediately what message the White House intended to send lawyers: If you represent a client who challenges Trump or his policies, the government will accuse you of unethical conduct and end your legal career. Understood that way, the order’s potential consequences should alarm every American. Far from upholding legal ethics, it has the potential to warp the American legal system so that Trump’s political opponents — or ordinary citizens harmed by actions his administration takes — cannot use the courts to hold him accountable. To see why, you have to understand what makes the American court system work. It is often described as adversarial because it relies on two adversaries (a plaintiff and a defendant) making opposing arguments in front of an impartial judge or jury. More than anything else, it resembles a boxing match, where two contestants pummel each other in a ring until one of them defeats their opponent. But instead of settling a match through physical strength and skill, the winner in the courtroom is supposed to be the lawyer with the stronger argument. This adversarial process spurs both sides to make their best arguments, with the stronger argument (like the stronger boxer) eventually emerging triumphant. But in order to work, the system requires that both sides have the best lawyers they can find bringing all their talents to bear on the case. Near the very beginning of the profession’s model rules of conduct, it describes a lawyer’s mission in part as “[zealously assert\[ing\] the client's position under the rules of the adversary system](https://www.americanbar.org/groups/professional%5Fresponsibility/publications/model%5Frules%5Fof%5Fprofessional%5Fconduct/model%5Frules%5Fof%5Fprofessional%5Fconduct%5Fpreamble%5Fscope/?ref=thebarbedwire.com).” A lawyer’s role is so fundamental that [the Supreme Court ruled decades ago](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gideon%5Fv.%5FWainwright?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that the government must pay for defense lawyers in criminal trials where the defendant cannot afford one. That legal system is one of our most important checks on the power of government. Time and again, lawyers and courts have served as a crucial shield against violations of civil rights and abuse of power. In the 20th Century, for instance, a series of important cases [desegregated public schools](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown%5Fv.%5FBoard%5Fof%5FEducation?ref=thebarbedwire.com), protected the rights of Americans to [voice unpopular opinions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinker%5Fv.%5FDes%5FMoines%5FIndependent%5FCommunity%5FSchool%5FDistrict?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [practice religious beliefs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West%5FVirginia%5FState%5FBoard%5Fof%5FEducation%5Fv.%5FBarnette?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [shielded the press](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New%5FYork%5FTimes%5FCo.%5Fv.%5FUnited%5FStates?ref=thebarbedwire.com) from the government’s efforts to prevent reporting on government wrongdoing in wartime, and [ordered the president](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United%5FStates%5Fv.%5FNixon?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to comply with the Constitution and the law. I’ve seen this firsthand in my career here in Texas and elsewhere. At the Texas Civil Rights Project, our [immigration attorneys](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/05/opinion/immigration-family-separation-zero-tolerance.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) worked night and day to collect evidence when the first Trump administration began separating migrant children from their parents. The following year, [we went to court](https://www.texastribune.org/2019/04/26/texas-voting-rights-groups-win-settlement-secretary-of-state/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to block efforts to prevent naturalized citizens from voting. In 2024, the Harris campaign went to court [many times](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/17/us/elections/democrats-election-legal-challenges.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&ref=thebarbedwire.com) to defend voters against efforts by Trump and his allies to make it harder to vote. None of these cases would have happened if there hadn’t been lawyers willing to fight for politically controversial positions against powerful enemies. But if lawyers have to choose between representing people and causes that the government dislikes, and supporting themselves and their families, many will undoubtedly choose the latter. Their clients — often poor or vulnerable people — will be the first to suffer. We all benefit when lawyers can freely champion civil rights, because those rights protect not just the parties in one case but the rest of us, too. When the government abuses its power, we are all at risk of being the next victim unless a lawyer can take on a client who wants to push back. How would you feel if your rights were violated, but a lawyer told you: “I’m sorry, I can’t help you because I might lose my job”? Lawyers, I must admit, are not the most popular people in the world. But their work is vital to ensure that the government obeys the law and respects our civil rights. There is a strong public interest in making sure they can continue to do that work without having to fear for their livelihood. Trump’s order is therefore not merely an attack on them – it’s an attack on all the rest of us, too. ### How H-E-B Became a Full-Blown Cultural institution in Northeastern México URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/heb-mexico-regios-monterrey/ Last updated: 2025-03-27T05:00:00.000Z MONTERREY, MÉXICO—For many Americans, a trip to México might bring up images of walking on the beach, exploring picturesque towns, hiking mountains, enjoying agave fields, and the chance to taste the incredible food. But for Mexicans, a beloved Texas grocery store is the new dream destination. In fact, H-E-B has become a cultural phenomenon synonymous with life in the northern part of the United Mexican States. A viral [TikTok meme](https://www.tiktok.com/@bunnyisarider0/video/7464384545987497222?ref=thebarbedwire.com) captures the fascination: tourists arrive in Monterrey, Nuevo León, searching for the city’s so-called attractions. “Dad, where are the attractions?” the voice of Timmy Turner from The Fairly OddParents (*Los padrinos mágicos* in Spanish) asks. The camera pans to a glowing H-E-B logo with Timmy’s Dad’s voice and the meme creators jumping up and down, “This is the attraction! Yay!” Regios — the shortened demonym for people from Monterrey — laugh at this because it's true. For them, H-E-B is much more than a supermarket: It’s a place of pilgrimage, a status symbol to be proud of, and a strong identity marker. > [@bunnyisarider0](https://www.tiktok.com/@bunnyisarider0?refer=embed&ref=thebarbedwire.com) Bienvenidos a Monterrey! [#HEB](https://www.tiktok.com/tag/heb?refer=embed&ref=thebarbedwire.com) [♬ sonido original - Audios Pizzita](https://www.tiktok.com/music/sonido-original-7105104778481453830?refer=embed&ref=thebarbedwire.com) As politicians in the United States and México ramp up the nationalistic rhetoric, H-E-B’s appeal to Regios holds steadfast. In response to Trump’s tariff threats, President Claudia Sheinbaum deployed [Plan México](https://www.elfinanciero.com.mx/economia/2025/02/04/empresarios-respaldan-propuesta-de-apoyar-productos-nacionales-y-posicionar-lo-hecho-en-mexico/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to encourage people to buy national and diminish the dependence on U.S. goods. But after one quick chat with the locals, it’s evident no one in Monterrey is about to give up their Creamy Creations ice cream over some speech about Mexican sovereignty (sorry, Claudia). Despite mounting tensions between the countries north and south of the Rio Grande, H-E-B’s stores continue to thrive, seemingly immune to the ups and downs of the bilateral relationship. How did this Texas import manage to amass such a level of goodwill? H-E-B opened its first store in México in 1997 in San Pedro Garza García, part of the Monterrey metropolitan area, three hours south of Laredo. The move made a lot of sense. Historically, Regios have traveled to Texas for shopping trips and vacations in Laredo, San Antonio, and South Padre Island. A local term, *McAlleando*, is used to describe the act of shopping in McAllen, another popular Texan destination for Regios. By the time H-E-B arrived in Nuevo León, [Regios had been buying groceries at its Texas stores for years and were already familiar with the products](https://www.supermarketnews.com/grocery-operations/h-e-b-planning-for-expansion-into-mexico?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Thanks to this pre-existing brand recognition, the Kerrville-born chain was able to establish itself quickly in the region. “H-E-B entered the Regio culture like a knife through butter,” said Andrés Clariond, a film director and columnist for *El Norte* newspaper. Regios who shop in Texas “have long attributed high status and prestige to H-E-B,” he told *The Barbed Wire*. Having an H-E-B back home was something that made Regios feel “exclusive and privileged.” Texas and Nuevo León’s economic ties have always been strong, and choosing the state was a no-brainer, but it was NAFTA that truly accelerated H-E-B’s expansion. NAFTA made imports easier and trading goods across the border more profitable. H-E-B’s CEO Howard Butt III, who previously led the Mexican division, admitted that the move[ began to be seriously considered ](https://www.supermarketnews.com/independents-regional-grocers/mission-to-mexico?ref=thebarbedwire.com)while the U.S. Congress and the Mexican Congress were debating the agreement. They bet on their brand already being a staple for northern Mexicans who crossed the border during holidays and special occasions. Texans *love* H-E-B, so there was a good chance that adoration would be contagious. Ever since, H-E-B has been growing consistently in México. Today, it boasts 87 stores in the country, and Nuevo León is its most important market, [home to 29 H-E-B and 14 Mi Tienda del Ahorro](https://hebmexico.com.mx/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) stores (which are exclusive to México and [Houston](https://mitiendatx.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=Mi%20Tienda%20%2D%20Houston%2C%20Texas,Sus%20opciones%20de%20privacidad)). There isn’t even an H-E-B in Dallas yet — though [one is coming](https://dallas.eater.com/2025/1/16/24345148/heb-opening-far-north-dallas?ref=thebarbedwire.com). To achieve its current status, the supermarket not only coasted on its appeal to Regios; early on, it understood the importance of connecting with customers. They stocked local brands alongside Texan imports, offering traditional pan dulce, corn and flour tortillas at in-house bakeries, and featured meat departments with cuts that satisfy even the most demanding carne asada enthusiasts.[ ](https://www.elfinanciero.com.mx/monterrey/2024/05/03/destaca-monterrey-como-principal-mercado-de-h-e-b-fuera-de-texas/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)The supermarket claims [87% of its new suppliers in its Mexican stores are national brands](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/hebmexico-com-mx/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/heb%5F2024%5Fesp.pdf), and it has contracts with about 700 small businesses. The chain also invests in the community. It wholeheartedly supports the two local professional soccer teams, [Tigres and Rayados](https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story%5Ffbid=10156479746679163&id=285451924162&p=30&locale=ms%5FMY), and it often partners with civil society organizations in community projects like Hambre Cero, an initiative to eradicate hunger. Though Walmart had set up shop in Monterrey before H-E-B, its generic sterile feel was no match for H-E-B’s well-received efforts to fully integrate into the Regio way of life. [Last year, the company reported a 41% market share in Monterrey](https://www.elfinanciero.com.mx/monterrey/2024/05/03/destaca-monterrey-como-principal-mercado-de-h-e-b-fuera-de-texas/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Consumer Culture Theory (CCT) explains how brands both reflect and shape identities. H-E-B has become so embedded in Regio culture that shopping there reinforces Regio identity. It is shorthand for “I am Regio, a savvy grocery shopper, and I have great taste.” Arturo Montemayor, a fan of the store, told *The Barbed Wire*, “Even though the store is not from here, it does feel like it is *our* store. There’s definitely an aspirational element (of consuming imported goods), but, in any case, many Regios do feel they have more in common with Texas than with other parts of México.” Weekly grocery trips to H-E-B are a fun experience for Regios. Montemayor, who loves to cook, says he finds walking down the aisles relaxing, even when he is not looking for anything in particular. “When I’m buying something from their brand, I feel like I’m getting something that is both affordable and high quality,” he observes. Some of his favorite H-E-B staples are (like Texans) the butter-flavored tortillas, croissants for Christmas, and the roasted poblano peppers in the frozen section. The proliferation of social media memes and commentary linking Regios to H-E-B (*el eichibí)* only adds to its mystique. When the late legendary Mexican singer-songwriter Juan Gabriel was photographed happily pushing a cart full of H-E-B bags (iconic), the snapshot provided Regios with evidence that their love for the store is well justified. > Cuando tengo que explicarle a un foráneo la fascinación que tenemos los regios por HEB, termino con esta foto: [pic.twitter.com/0jqUQseCkx](https://t.co/0jqUQseCkx?ref=thebarbedwire.com) > > — Nuevo Rico Hídrico (@amaxnopoder) [August 29, 2021](https://twitter.com/amaxnopoder/status/1431932601548165122?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=thebarbedwire.com) Then again, some simply don’t connect with the lore of the big red and white logo. One [exasperated ](https://x.com/Leeleean/status/1699821706842456355?ref=thebarbedwire.com)poster wondered what was wrong with Regios and why their lives revolved around H-E-B. > ¿Qué pedo con los regios que su vida gira en torno a la existencia (o no) de un HEB? > > — Lilián Bañuelos (@Leeleean) [September 7, 2023](https://twitter.com/Leeleean/status/1699821706842456355?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=thebarbedwire.com) On TikTok, [jokes frame the supermarket as an intrinsic part of Monterrey](https://www.tiktok.com/@angelsoyyo%5F/video/7323287797576584454?ref=thebarbedwire.com), as ubiquitous as the famous [Cerro de la Silla](https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerro%5Fde%5Fla%5FSilla?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Regios aren’t offended by all of this; they are obsessed, and they don’t care who knows it. > [@angelsoyyo\_](https://www.tiktok.com/@angelsoyyo%5F?refer=embed&ref=thebarbedwire.com) Somso regios @Patricio viral [#monterrey](https://www.tiktok.com/tag/monterrey?refer=embed&ref=thebarbedwire.com) [#nuevoleon](https://www.tiktok.com/tag/nuevoleon?refer=embed&ref=thebarbedwire.com) [#norteño](https://www.tiktok.com/tag/norte%C3%B1o?refer=embed&ref=thebarbedwire.com) [#primas](https://www.tiktok.com/tag/primas?refer=embed&ref=thebarbedwire.com) [#sonora](https://www.tiktok.com/tag/sonora?refer=embed&ref=thebarbedwire.com) [#sinaloa](https://www.tiktok.com/tag/sinaloa?refer=embed&ref=thebarbedwire.com) [#tijuana](https://www.tiktok.com/tag/tijuana?refer=embed&ref=thebarbedwire.com) [#carnitaasada](https://www.tiktok.com/tag/carnitaasada?refer=embed&ref=thebarbedwire.com) [#heb](https://www.tiktok.com/tag/heb?refer=embed&ref=thebarbedwire.com) [#tigres](https://www.tiktok.com/tag/tigres?refer=embed&ref=thebarbedwire.com) [#rayados](https://www.tiktok.com/tag/rayados?refer=embed&ref=thebarbedwire.com) [#adrianmarcelo](https://www.tiktok.com/tag/adrianmarcelo?refer=embed&ref=thebarbedwire.com) [#hermanosdeleche](https://www.tiktok.com/tag/hermanosdeleche?refer=embed&ref=thebarbedwire.com) [#garza](https://www.tiktok.com/tag/garza?refer=embed&ref=thebarbedwire.com) [♬ Alucin - Eugenio Esquivel & Grupo Marca Registrada & Sebastian Esquivel](https://www.tiktok.com/music/Alucin-7301878875527596034?refer=embed&ref=thebarbedwire.com) Right now, nationalist sentiment is running high in México. On March 9, President Sheinbaum and her party organized a massive political rally in Mexico City’s main square, the Zocalo, [to assert the country’s sovereignty against President Trump’s attacks](https://www.lapoliticaonline.com/mexico/politica-mx/desde-el-zocalo-sheinbaum-presumio-musculo-y-anticipa-que-trump-no-impondra-aranceles-en-abril/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). But when it comes to H-E-B in Nuevo León, calls for economic nationalism will always fall flat. This cross-border institution has been woven into what it means to be Regio. At this point, even if a full trade war eventually erupts between the United States and México, it’s hard to imagine Regios turning against the store. H-E-B’s soft power in this Mexican region is unmatched. [As defined by Joseph Nye](https://www.jstor.org/stable/1148580?ref=thebarbedwire.com), soft power is about influencing people through attraction rather than threats or coercion. H-E-B has become an ambassador for Texas and for the United States, a palatable version of the American dream that Regios feel they can attain without leaving their neighborhood. This is soft power — drenched in French onion dip — at its peak. The brand has become so essential to people’s daily lives that they even forget it’s a foreign brand. Walk through an H-E-B in the Monterrey metropolitan area on any given Sunday, and you’ll find it full of families filling their carts, some of them drinking coffee and enjoying a hot meal at the in-store cafeteria. You will also find Texas and Nuevo León blending seamlessly. [Rancheritos](https://www.heb.com/product-detail/sabritas-rancheritos-tortilla-chips/1398702?ref=thebarbedwire.com) sit comfortably next to H-E-B’s chips, and [Leche LALA](https://www.heb.com.mx/lacteos-y-huevo/leche?ref=thebarbedwire.com) shares fridge space with H-E-B’s Original Almond Milk. It all feels natural, not forced. H-E-B is not just a store here; it’s now part of Regio DNA. And no tariff or politician, from México or the U.S., seems likely to change that. *Bárbara González is a freelance writer based in Monterrey, México.* ### 3 Teens Beat Their Mom with a Brick for Turning Off the Wi-Fi, Sheriff Says URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/houston-teens-plotting-to-kill-mother-wifi/ Last updated: 2025-03-26T16:31:04.000Z Three teenage girls in Houston have been accused of conspiring to kill their mother. The alleged source of their rage? Their mom turned off the Wi-Fi. The siblings, ages 14, 15, and 16, were arrested on Monday on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Authorities responded to a disturbance in the 3400 block of Barkers Crossing Avenue overnight and found a woman assaulted by her three children, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said in a [post](https://x.com/SheriffEd%5FHCSO/status/1904158456065536072?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on X. Because their mother turned off the Wi-Fi, the teenagers allegedly chased her around the house and into the street with kitchen knives and struck her with a brick, Gonzalez said. The children’s grandmother was also knocked over while trying to protect the mother. Gonzalez said neither woman was seriously injured. “The three siblings allegedly coordinated a plan to try and kill the mother,” he wrote. “Because the mother turned-off the wi-fi, all three grabbed kitchen knives and chased her throughout the house and into the street, attempting to stab her.” All three children were were booked into the Harris County Juvenile Detention Center on Monday, Gonzalez said. **Read more at**[***ABC News***](https://abcnews.go.com/US/3-teens-stab-mom-turning-off-wi-fi/story?id=120126479&ref=thebarbedwire.com)**.** ### Rep. Jasmine Crockett Defends ‘Governor Hot Wheels’ Comments as She Faces Outrage URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/jasmine-crockett-greg-abbott-comments/ Last updated: 2025-03-26T16:09:32.000Z Rep. Jasmine Crockett is in hot water for her comments about Gov. Greg Abbott, whom she called “Governor Hot Wheels” in a speech on Saturday. Amid backlash, Crockett made a [post](https://x.com/RepJasmine/status/1904620222008472021?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on X claiming she meant to attack Abbott’s “terrible policies,” not his disability. “I wasn’t thinking about the governor’s condition — I was thinking about the planes, trains, and automobiles he used to transfer migrants into communities led by Black mayors, deliberately stoking tension and fear among the most vulnerable,” Crockett wrote on Tuesday. “Literally, the next line I said was that he was a “hot a— Mess,” referencing his terrible policies.” In interviews with [*Politico*](https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/25/jasmine-crockett-greg-abbott-reaction-027823?ref=thebarbedwire.com), disability rights advocates said that although Crockett has [supported](https://crockett.house.gov/media/press-releases/rep-crockett-co-leads-delivering-rural-seniors-act?ref=thebarbedwire.com) programs that help people with disabilities, her comments were counterproductive. “If the Democrats want to be as inclusive as they claim they do and ensure that people with disabilities are actually recognized as being welcome under their political umbrella, then you have to be thoughtful about your words,” Emily Ladau, a disability rights advocate and author, told *Politico*. “And when Crockett made that joke, she was really punching down, and she knew that she would get a laugh.” In her X post, Crockett added that the outrage she’s facing was “yet another distraction” and linked a *Texas Tribune* [article](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/02/21/texas-migrants-busing-cost-greg-abbott/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) about the cost of Abbott’s policy to bus migrants from federal custody to other states. “I’m even more appalled that the very people who unequivocally support Trump — a man known for racially insensitive nicknames and mocking those with disabilities — are now outraged,” she [wrote](https://x.com/RepJasmine/status/1904620222008472021?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Abbott, who uses a wheelchair, became paralyzed in [1984](https://www.gregabbott.com/why-governor-greg-abbott-wheelchair/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) after a tree fell on him while he was running. The governor responded to Crockett during an [appearance](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91oug%5FgcT%5Fc&ref=thebarbedwire.com) on *Fox News’* Hannity. “It's one reason why Texas is going to remain red and why Republicans are going to continue to win elections across the country,” Abbott said. “The bottom line is that Republican states like Texas are leading the way, and with comments like this by Democrats, we will just leave them in the dust in future elections." Chase Bearden, executive director of the Coalition of Texans with Disabilities, told [*Politico*](https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/25/jasmine-crockett-greg-abbott-reaction-027823?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that government officials across the political spectrum should “stop using someone’s disability as the basis of an insult.” “Lawmakers of all stripes should spend their energy crafting and implementing policy that serves all Americans, not mudslinging,” he said. **Read more at**[***ABC News***](https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/rep-jasmine-crockett-defends-governor-hot-wheels-comments/story?id=120167133&ref=thebarbedwire.com)**and** [***Politico***](https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/25/jasmine-crockett-greg-abbott-reaction-027823?ref=thebarbedwire.com)***.*** ### Before She Was a Scary Drug Dealer on ‘Euphoria,’ Martha Kelly Was the Funniest Person in Austin URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/martha-kelly-euphoria-comedian-austin/ Last updated: 2025-03-26T09:00:00.000Z Years ago, Martha Kelly told one of the most unsettling jokes I’ve ever heard. It involved her cat dying — and Kelly sobbing while holding her body. Still, the punchline was very funny (she was secretly happy because, when alive, the cat never let Kelly hold her). "There is a part of me that delights in making people think about dark stuff," she admitted recently. In “Euphoria,” Kelly plays a terrifying drug dealer with a deadpan delivery. In real life, she’s a deadpan comedian who cut her teeth in Texas. The California native bounced between Austin and Los Angeles for years, grinding in standup before landing a breakout role in “Baskets.” She’s now an Emmy-nominated series regular on “Euphoria,” starring alongside mega celebrities like Zendaya. And in a business where everyone is jealous of everyone else, Kelly is one of those rare people who you’re genuinely happy for. Because, unlike her “Euphoria” character, she’s an extremely nice person. (Sadly, she does not own a parrot in real life.) Kelly's connection with Austin began in 1999, during an open call audition for a comedy festival. Feeling stifled in Los Angeles, she saw Austin as an accessible path to getting in. Veteran Austin comedian Matt Bearden also auditioned for the festival with Kelly. “She completely stood out as the most original act that night, hands down,” he told *The Barbed Wire*. “I forgot I was even part of an industry clusterfuck. I just watched her and enjoyed myself.” That trip to Austin, fueled by parties and a burgeoning crush, sealed her decision: She was moving. In January 2000, Kelly arrived in Texas. And in Austin, she began to thrive as a comedian. “Living in Austin, I got way more stage time,” Kelly recalled, echoing a perk that has drawn many comics here. “I got the chance to do longer sets.” Later that year, she won the prestigious Funniest Person In Austin competition — which was seen by comics as a foothold into getting a prized spot on television. Opportunities like performing at Cap City Comedy Club and The Velveeta Room helped her hone her skills. Cap City owner Margie Coyle became Kelly’s first manager. The two have remained close over the years. “Martha Kelly is one of the best humans in my life,” Coyle told *The Barbed Wire*. Kelly did some touring, though not always successfully. “Overwhelmingly, I bombed at every club I did on the road,” Kelly said. The experience was worth it, though. “Bombing that much, it really made me not as scared of rooms.” But while Austin was a source of friends and creative growth, Kelly was also broke and struggling. After a period of personal turmoil that led to her leaving Austin in 2003, Kelly returned in 2008, sober and ready to re-engage with the city. This era marked the beginning of connections with newer Austin comedians such as Kerri Lendo, Kath Barbadoro, Mac Blake, and Ramin Nazer. “It was really fun, even after I was sober,” she said. Kelly fondly remembers the era, saying it was “special because it was people doing all kinds of creative different types of shows.” One particular show at ColdTowne Theater stands out. “It was sold out, and there were a bunch of young people, like, in their 20s hanging out in the parking lot with a boombox, drinking, having a great time because they couldn't get into the show,” she remembered. “I just felt like, this is fucking magic.” I’ve seen Kelly perform many times — both as an audience member and another comedian on the show. She can be dark, but politely so. She’s extremely intelligent and would be the last person to admit that about herself. On stage, she seems truly vulnerable, which is rare for a comic, and she makes the audience sit with unpleasant emotions (like the dead cat joke). Which can be a jarring experience at a show where you’re expecting to laugh. Then, about 10 years ago, the improbable happened: Hollywood came knocking. Kelly got a call from Zach Galifianakis (the two are old comedy friends from Los Angeles). He had a question: Did she want to be on his new show? That show was “Baskets,” which provided a turning point not just creatively, but financially. For the first time, Kelly experienced real financial stability — in her words, making six figures for several years in a row. “I had money for the first time ever,” she said. “And so I could get an apartment and furniture and a car and pay the $35,000 I owed to the IRS. Because I hadn't filed (during) the years when I was broke.” This financial freedom had a profound impact. “The money changed my life,” she said. It allowed her to secure credit, which proved essential when she faced periods of unemployment. “I'm very much in favor of giving people money,” Kelly said. “Just not billionaires.” Moreover, the financial stability allowed Kelly to be fully present for her mother in her final days. "When my mom was dying, I was able to ... afford to pay a pet sitter to take care of my pets all day, so I could just spend all day with her," she said. With the increased exposure of “Baskets,” another opportunity arose: a bit role in a Spider-Man movie. While Kelly enjoyed the part in 2017’s “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” she also remembered a moment of insecurity that brought her to tears. Before going on set, Kelly was upset about the way she looked, particularly after sitting in makeup and coming out with a shade of lipstick that she didn’t think was flattering. Which sucks, feeling shitty about yourself is never fun. But it’s probably *really not fun* when you’re about to shoot your part in a Spider-Man movie. Then, some perspective. She got to the set and saw the families of the background actors. They were all excited. “I saw all the background people, and it was a bunch of families with kids who were using their summer vacation to let their kids be part of a Spider-Man movie,” she said. “I was like, this is so fucking exciting and awesome and sweet that parents are doing this for their kids. I'm so lucky to be here. Who gives a shit about the lipstick?” The experience culminated in a stunt where Kelly stood on top of an elevator, secured by a wire, as it dropped from beneath her, a moment she described as “fucking terrifying” and “so fun.” (Sadly, the stunt was cut.) Then came her role in “Euphoria,” which presented a different challenge — portraying Laurie, a sinister drug dealer who threatens the life of Rue, played by Zendaya. Kelly credits the show's writing, directing, and Zendaya's powerful performance for her own character's unsettling effect. “My acting is almost identical to every other role I've played,” she said, “But it's the context of it.” Still, it’s clear she put some thought into her role, which has been [elevated to series regular](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/euphoria-season-3-new-cast-members-1236136850/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for the currently-in-production third season. In 2022, she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series. Truly dangerous people, she said, often mask their intentions with charm and manipulation, a strategy that makes her character all the more believable and chilling. “In real life, the majority of harmful people… don't act like monsters,” she says. “They mostly charm, manipulate, and act like victims, and then they hurt people when they get people to let their guard down by acting nice.” While Kelly is grateful for her success, she laughed when I asked her if she thinks she’s “made it,” whatever that means. “I don't feel like there is any realistic way that I could ever be at the level of actor where you are financially secure,” she said. Unlike virtually anyone else in her position, Kelly is still (politely) existing outside of the usual Hollywood norms. She hasn’t had a new headshot in almost a decade. Aside from Coyle, she went years without any other representation (although, to be fair, she did hire a manager and agent after “Baskets”). And as her unlikely career in showbiz rolls on, she’s got more plans: a return to standup and maybe a podcast. Just like every other Austin comic. ### These Bands Prove That SXSW Isn’t Dead As a Music Festival URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/these-bands-prove-that-sxsw-isnt-dead-as-a-music-festival/ Last updated: 2025-03-25T05:02:00.000Z Every March, the start of South By Southwest signals the arrival of thousands of tourists, sponsors, actors, artists, musicians, and countless takes about whether this might be the end of South By Southwest as we know it. The panic reached a fever pitch last weekend when organizers announced changes to next year’s festival, prompting many to declare [SXSW music was officially dead](https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/sxsw-music-festival-will-return-2026-1235297803/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). In reality, the festival’s music component isn’t going anywhere. Instead of getting a dedicated weekend over the festival’s usual 10-day run, it’ll run simultaneously alongside Film/TV and Interactive during a truncated seven-day festival in 2026\. As H. Drew Blackburn wrote for [*The Barbed Wire*’s Texas Voyager column](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/sxsw-music-festival-gen-z/), the desire to declare the festival DOA is cyclical in part because it *has* changed, and as it’s grown, everyone’s gotten their own idea of its heyday. “The festival’s not what it used to be,” he wrote. “But it’s a cultural force, and as far as institutions in Texas go, its gravity can’t be ignored.” It’s easy to be cynical about SXSW, but in reality, this was the first time since 2019 that my music schedule was packed. I spent less time at brand activations, and more time out at showcases, where I stumbled onto acts who weren’t on my radar, saw crowds dancing the night away to local bands, and was even pleasantly surprised by some of the bigger names I hadn’t expected to see perform. So long as the festival continues, artists, and especially newcomers, are going to make their way to Austin trying to find their audience and have a good time. Call me an optimist, but I walked away with more than a few reasons to look forward to another year, even if it might be a little different next time. Discounted early bird passes are on sale [through March 31](https://cart.sxsw.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), but until next year, these were my favorite music moments of SXSW 2025: **Sultanes del Yonke** Halfway through the [De Los Showcase](https://www.latimes.com/delos/story/2025-03-12/de-los-sxsw-showcase-2025-recap-community?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Sultanes del Yonke arrived with a bang. Hailing from El Paso and Ciudad Juarez, the borderland band, whose name translates to “Sultans of the Junkyard,” offers up a little bit of everything from punk to cumbia to rock, delivering a high-energy blitz that feels straight out of the hazy mirage of the Chihuahuan desert. For this five-piece group, the line between them and the crowd didn’t exist, so it didn’t take long before they had the whole crowd at Mala Fama jumping and moshing together. **Llamativa** I was on my way to catch another showcase when I stopped in my tracks at the sound of Alicia Cintron’s voice. The lead singer of [Llamativa](https://schedule.sxsw.com/2024/artists/2200628?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — an eight-piece all-female Latin act from San Antonio — Cintron and the band led the crowd through an effortless blend of cumbia, Tejano, salsa, and other traditional Latin music that had everyone on the Hotel Vegas patio dancing under the night sky. Both familiar and fresh, Llamativa’s energy up on stage was infectious. **Saint Blonde** Alternative rock quintet [Saint Blonde](https://saintblonde.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) hit a major milestone as a group, performing their first-ever SXSW showcases this year, and they didn’t disappoint. Based out of Denton, Texas, the group has been [gearing up for their debut LP](https://www.forbes.com/sites/ericfuller/2024/11/27/alternative-rock-band-saint-blonde-goes-pale-on-the-prowl/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) with the release of their latest single, “Prowl.” With their jangly guitars, bright vocals, and dynamic choruses, their set at BMG's Label Showcase at the Parish was electric. **Jessica Simpson** After a [15-year hiatus](https://ew.com/jessica-simpson-returns-to-stage-after-15-years-debuts-new-song-11696837?ref=thebarbedwire.com) since her last concert, Jessica Simpson made two surprise appearances in Austin during South By, first at the Recording Academy's Austin Chapter Block Party, and then at Willie Nelson’s Luck Reunion. The singer, who recently split from her husband Eric Johnson, told the crowd that she was a “very single lady” who was channeling her emotions into new music. Her songs, “Breadcrumbs,” “Leave,” and “Blame Me,” are set to be a part of her upcoming EP, [*Nashville Canyon Part I*](https://www.thecut.com/article/jessica-simpson-ashlee-simpson-ross-nashville-canyon-music-interview.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) which has the singer returning to her Texas roots with a rockabilly bent and a bit of a country twang, drawing a big response from the crowd packed into the Barn Stage at Luck. **Xavier Omar** It’s impossible not to feel the emotions that [Xavier Omär](https://www.xavieromar.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) pours into his music. The singer-songwriter from San Antonio first gained recognition after his hit song, “Blind Man,” made it onto Barack Obama’s Favorite Music playlist in 2022, and since then, he’s continued to draw new listeners with his layered production style, romantic lyrics, and silky-smooth vocals that soared in an intimate venue like the Parish. **Briscoe** Does anything signal you’re on the right track as a Texas band quite like performing on stage with Willie Nelson? Helmed by Philip Lupton and Truett Heintzelman, [Briscoe is an Americana folk-rock duo](https://www.briscoetheband.com/about?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that feels straight out of the 1970s by way of the Hill Country. At Nelson’s Luck Reunion, they performed their own set, peppered with the wistful melodies and steel guitars that make up their debut album, *West of It All*, before joining Nelson and other artists on stage later that night to sing “Will the Circle Be Unbroken.” **St. Vincent** We’re more than a decade removed from the infamous days of the SXSW Doritos stage, but Rivian, one of this year’s sponsors, seemed to provide a new way forward. The car manufacturer hosted the expected pop-ups and interactive experiences, but also played host to live music showcases that culminated in a surprise performance from [St. Vincent](https://ilovestvincent.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The Grammy-Award winning singer from Dallas stepped onto the stage in an all-black fit before slipping into some of the haunting, gritty tracks from her 2024 album, [*All Born Screaming*](https://www.independent.com/2024/08/25/review-st-vincents-all-born-screaming-tour/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). ### ‘Draggieland’ Is Back: Federal Court Blocks Unconstitutional Texas A&M Drag Ban URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-am-drag-ban-lawsuit-victory/ Last updated: 2025-03-24T16:57:46.000Z A federal judge temporarily [blocked](https://www.thefire.org/news/victory-federal-court-blocks-texas-ams-unconstitutional-drag-ban?ref=thebarbedwire.com) the Texas A&M University System’s ban on on-campus drag shows on Monday morning, allowing a student group to carry out an upcoming drag event on the College Station campus. Texas A&M’s drag ban violated the First Amendment, according to a ruling from Judge Lee H. Rosenthal of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. The court concluded that drag is [“theatrical performance”](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-thefire-org/sites/default/files/2025/03/opinion-texas-a-m-queer-empowerment-council-v-mahomes-et-al.pdf) and falls under First Amendment protections. “In recent years, the commitment to free speech on campuses has been both challenging and challenged,” ruled Rosenthal. “There have been efforts from all sides of the political spectrum to disrupt or prevent students, faculty, and others from expressing opinions and speech that are deemed, or actually are, offensive or wrong.” The university did not give valid enough reasons for prohibiting Draggieland, a student-funded annual event organized by the Texas A&M Queer Empowerment Council, the court found. “The Board’s contention that drag shows, and Draggieland, are not expressive conduct directly contradicts the Board’s simultaneous assertion that drag performances promote an ideology,” the [court opinion](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-thefire-org/sites/default/files/2025/03/opinion-texas-a-m-queer-empowerment-council-v-mahomes-et-al.pdf) read. Last month, the university’s Board of Regents unanimously approved a [resolution](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-am-drag-ban/) arguing that drag performances were “likely to create or contribute to a hostile environment for women” and went against university core values. Officials can’t ban something just because they’re uncomfortable with it, according to Adam Steinbaugh, an attorney with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, which [sued](https://www.thefire.org/news/lawsuit-lgbtq-student-group-sues-overturn-texas-ams-unconstitutional-drag-ban?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on the student organization’s behalf. Following the court’s decision, Draggieland will now push through on Thursday evening, per a [motion](https://www.thefire.org/research-learn/motion-temporary-restraining-order-and-preliminary-injunction-texas-am-queer?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for an injunction filed by FIRE. “We’re overjoyed with today’s decision,” said the Queer Empowerment Council in a [press release](https://www.thefire.org/news/victory-federal-court-blocks-texas-ams-unconstitutional-drag-ban?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “This is another display of the resilience of queer joy, as that is an unstoppable force despite those that wish to see it destroyed. While this fight isn’t over, we are going to appreciate the joy we get to bring by putting on the best show that we can do.” ### Texas Prison Falsified Temperature Records Inside Inmate Housing Units, Investigation Found URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-prison-falsified-temperature-records/ Last updated: 2025-03-24T16:53:41.000Z The temperatures in some Texas prisons are much higher than staff record them to be, according to a court-requested investigation, reported by [*KUT News*](https://www.kut.org/crime-justice/2025-03-21/texas-prison-jail-investigation-heat-hot-false-falsified?ref=thebarbedwire.com). According to a Texas Department of Criminal Justice [internal investigation](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25597771-2024-11-08-tdcj-internal-investigation/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), employees from at least one Texas prison forged temperature records. The agency uses these records to decide what conditions are dangerous to inmates and staff. The investigation focused on the temperature logs from the Mark W. Stiles Unit in Beaumont during the summer of 2022\. It found that unit staff would “recreate” missing or “defaced (e.g., doodles, stick figure cartoons, etc.)” logs by estimating hourly temperatures based on records from different dates or other local units. Some temperatures were far from accurate. On July 31, 2022, employees at the Stiles Unit recorded temperatures between 58 and 60 degrees compared to the lowest actual temperature of 76 degrees, *KUT* reported. Roughly 70% of TDCJ prisons lack air conditioning in inmate housing units, with these units regularly reaching temperatures of at least 100 degrees, alleged Bernhardt Tiede II, who is incarcerated, in a [2024 amended complaint](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24582156-amended-complaint-tiede-v-collier-42224/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) part of a federal lawsuit against the executive director of TDCJ. Currently, 34 units are fully air-conditioned, according to the [TDCJ](https://www.tdcj.texas.gov/ac/index.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). A federal judge requested the internal investigation in August during a hearing in Tiede’s case, which is challenging the conditions inside Texas’ prisons. Tiede and several criminal justice advocacy organizations are the plaintiffs. Although the investigation finished last November, it was only released publicly this week. According to a [motion](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25598536-2025-03-18-plaintiffs-notice-and-demand/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), plaintiffs claimed the Department of Criminal Justice “sat on the report for four months” without proper explanation. In a brief [filed](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25598553-2025-03-18-tdcj-advisory/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on Tuesday, the agency’s attorneys conceded to the inaccuracies of some temperature logs but said there was no intention “to mislead or deceive.” The investigation was conducted by Chris Cirrito, the chief audit executive for the Texas Board of Criminal Justice. According to his report, cited by *KUT News*, the temperature logs were forged after they were requested under Texas’ public records laws. Only then did employees know some records were missing or defaced, Cirrito found. “The evidence supports periods of carelessness in record creation and/or retention and an attempt by the unit to avoid reporting missing temperature logs,” Cirrito said. **Read more at**[***KUT News***](https://www.kut.org/crime-justice/2025-03-21/texas-prison-jail-investigation-heat-hot-false-falsified?ref=thebarbedwire.com)***.*** ### At 92, Willie Nelson is Going Strong With Another Luck Reunion, ACL Special and THC Drink URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/willie-nelson-luck-reunion-acl-thc/ Last updated: 2025-03-24T05:00:00.000Z Ahead of his 92nd birthday in April, Willie Nelson is showing no signs of slowing down. The country music legend has had a lot to celebrate, from the launch of his new THC drink, [Willie’s Remedy+](https://www.instagram.com/willienelsonofficial/p/DHTVrl9OlOu/?hl=en&img%5Findex=1&ref=thebarbedwire.com), to the [upcoming premiere](https://ct40.com/chris-stapleton-to-salute-willie-nelson-with-performance-on-austin-city-limits-celebrates-50-years/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of the [*Austin City Limits* 50-year special](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/how-austin-city-limits-changed-music-history-and-helped-launch-willie-nelsons-career/), where he’ll be honored for his appearance in the show’s pilot episode with a performance by Chris Stapleton on April 4\. And just last week, the singer opened up his ranch for the [Luck Reunion](https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-live-reviews/2025-luck-reunion-willie-nelson-review-1235296226/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). When you get to Willie’s Luck Ranch, it’s best to check your worldly troubles at the gate. Located 35 miles west of Austin in Spicewood, Texas, walking onto the property feels like stepping back in time. Built as the backdrop for Willie’s 1986 film *Red Headed Stranger* (based on his 1975 album of the same name), the 500-acre ranch is still home to a saloon, a jail, a town square, and a barn — all repurposed into stages for the annual festival. Billed as an “anti-festival,” the reunion is an oasis in the middle of South By Southwest’s chaos. Once you’re here, there are no priority lines or RSVPS, just wide open grounds, good country music, and a lineup meant to keep you on your toes. Early in the afternoon, Texas-based country trio Chaparelle paid tribute to the late Kris Kristofferson, who passed away last fall. A prolific songwriter and veritable renaissance man, Kristofferson, was an undeniable fixture of Texas culture and outlaw country, and his decades-long friendship with Willie made Luck a fitting place to sing his praises. Chaparelle welcomed an impressive string of performers up to the World Headquarters Stage with them, including viral folk singer Welles, Austin-based band Briscoe, Charlie Sexton, Lukas Nelson, and surprise guest Margo Price, who sang “Don’t Let the Bastards Get You Down,” which she says was inspired by Kristofferson, before launching into a cover of his 1970 song, “Best of All Possible Worlds.” Before singing “The Pilgrim, Chapter 33,” Hayes Carll, originally from The Woodlands, recalled the first time he heard the song, which begins with a spoken word introduction naming some of Kristofferson’s heroes like Johnny Cash and Jerry Jeff Walker. “I remember lying on the floor listening to it, I had an out of body experience,” he told the crowd. “Before he even sang a line, I was transfixed and transported, and it changed the trajectory of my life.” Though Luck is usually the kind of place where you can meander from set to set, catching a break from the heat in the shade of an oak tree, there was a definite buzz in the air as guests tried to suss out the identity of the mystery performer who had appeared on the lineup. As more and more people gathered around The Barn Stage, the whispers reached a fever pitch. “I heard it’s Jessica Simpson,” one person said. “Oh I heard she’s in town,” another confirmed. It’s been 15 years since Simpson last performed a live concert. Since co-starring with Willie in the 2005 film *Dukes of Hazzard*, Simpson has referred to the singer as her “guardian angel,” performing with him a handful of times over the years. A Texas native who grew up in the Dallas area, Simpson arrived at her set in full Texas drag, sporting a matching turquoise necklace, bracelets, and concho belt with a glittery leopard print dress. Calling herself a “very single lady,” she performed two new country-tinged new songs from her upcoming EP, *Nashville Canyon, Part I*, both drawing on her recent divorce. But the set was a celebration for Simpson, who told the audience she was happy to be getting back to her calling. “This time I needed to remember who I was and why I wanted to sing in the first place,” she said. “I need to forget who they told me to be.” She also sprinkled in a few covers, including Dusty Springfield’s “Son of a Preacher Man,” a nod to her father, and grandfather, who were both preachers. All day, the main center of activity seemed to be the chapel. The most intimate venue on the property, the building drew long lines all day with fans hoping to snag one of the less than 100 spots in the pews for Charley Crockett’s set that evening. Though the singer from San Benito had previously performed at Luck’s main stage in previous years, the intimate setting lent itself to the no-frills vintage country vibe of his latest album, *Lonesome Drifter*, which was released the day after the festival. When Crockett did take to the stage, he began with his album opener, “Easy Money,” as those who weren’t lucky enough to get a seat inside gathered around the windows of the church. As the evening came to a close, it was finally time for the main attraction: Willie himself. Surrounded by his band and his sons Lukas and Micah Nelson, Willie wasted no time launching into an energetic rendition of “Whiskey River.” Throughout his set, Willie gave Lukas and Micah their turns in the spotlight, before coming back together for the country standard, “Will the Circle Be Unbroken.” Joining them were Crockett, Steve Earle, Lily Meola, Price, Welles, and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, all forming a powerful backing chorus. Up on stage, it’s hard to imagine another venue that might bring this group of people together on a Thursday night. But it’s like Willie once said: “You’re either in luck, or you’re sh\*t out.” ### FIFA Collabs with Houston DJ Collective Bombón for 2026 World Cup URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/fifa-houston-sonic-id-bombon-screwmbia-collab/ Last updated: 2025-03-21T05:00:00.000Z If you were tasked with summing up the history of Houston music into only two minutes of a track, how would you do it? Or would you find it impossible, given the rich history of iconic Houston artists? Bombón, a DJ music collective co-founded by Gracie Chavez and Alex “DJ Navó” Nava in 2010, were selected to do just that for the official [2026 FIFA World Cup Houston](https://www.fifa.com/en/tournaments/mens/worldcup/canadamexicousa2026/articles/houston-stadium-host-seven-matches?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Sonic ID. FIFA tasked local music producers and creators in all 16 World Cup host cities across the United States, Mexico and Canada to produce a remixed track of the [official 2026 FIFA song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmpzUm5j4OE&ref=thebarbedwire.com) that encompasses the sounds of their city. “The challenge was giving FIFA something that represents Houston sonically, but that still feels authentically Bombón. Let me just say, no small feat,” Gracie Chavez, co-founder of Bombón, told *The Barbed Wire.* Their first hurdle was getting selected by FIFA officials. The collective went up against iconic Houston talent that Chavez could only tell us on the record were “some typical people” that Houstonians are familiar with. “The pitch was made that we could create something that sounded perhaps more international, but included some of those \[Houston\] elements,” Chavez said. “And I think for us, that was just innate in what we were already doing.” The music, sound and international culture is what Chavez has been immersed in since she started in the DJ scene in the late ‘90s early ‘00s. While house music and hip hop was undoubtedly a big part of her music background, she saw and heard the city through a different lens: She’s the daughter of Mexican immigrants who [grew up listening to her dad’s](https://freepresshouston.com/houstonian-tales-gracie-chavez/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) ever expanding record collection, including cumbia tropical. The Latin nights she was familiar with came with pricey covers, typically only professional-style salsa dancers and a very particular dress code; she wanted to see people dancing in a more inclusive environment that fused hip hop and cumbia tropical. “I feel like cumbia music is more for the people, and I feel like we democratized the dance floor because of it,” Chavez explained. “\[You\] could hear Fito Olivares and then you might hear a Mike Jones track next with some dance hall. Houston is, and I'll repeat this again, *not* New York, [\[Houston\] is the most diverse city in the country](https://houston.culturemap.com/news/city-life/most-diverse-cities-houston-no1/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). We're an international hub. It resonated with our community like *that*.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/ilya-janos-buckamore-gracie-chqavez-doogie-roux.jpg) Credit: Doogie Roux As they grew, so did their influence on Texas' music scene. Rivera joined the collective in 2017, first as a DJ and then in 2018 Bombón launched its own label and began developing its own production house. At the time, music producer and artist [Svani Quintanilla](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1E4ohmTkqFerrG?ref=thebarbedwire.com), nephew of the late Queen of Tejano, Selena Quintanilla, and son of A.B. Quintanilla III, was also part of the collective. “Svani Quintanilla helped create the signature sound we call Screwmbia and so our label put out the first series of Screwmbia EPs that are still online,” Chavez said. “They really encapsulated what the sound in Houston was: chopping and screwing Cumbia.” It’s a type of music that pays homage to the infamous DJ Screw, known in part for his ability to dramatically slow down music. But DJ Screw is just one portion of Houston’s long history of music, something the collective had to consider when creating their FIFA track. In the late 1940s, [Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton moved to Houston](https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/thornton-willie-mae-big-mama?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and left a deep influence in the Texas Blues scene. In the late 1960s and ‘70s, [Lightnin’ Hopkins](https://www.texasmonthly.com/arts-entertainment/let-there-be-lightnin/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [ZZ Top](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/entertainment/music/article/zz-top-tres-hombres-18257854.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) brought their soul and rock and roll sounds to the city. The ‘80s and ‘90s then ushered in the hip-hop scene with greats like [Geto Boys](https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/geto-boys?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [DJ Screw](https://stories.uh.edu/dj-screw/index.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Artists in the 2000s and beyond continued building on hip-hop and R&B with music icons like [Paul Wall](https://www.papermag.com/paul-wall-soundclash?ref=thebarbedwire.com#rebelltitem30), [Mike Jones](https://www.chron.com/culture/music/article/still-tippin-mike-jones-anniversary-19912690.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [UGK](https://www.vinylmeplease.com/blogs/magazine/ugk-liner-notes?srsltid=AfmBOophICZ3i1k0o7yXep42cF-sv6BCR18lHexmd1BYGVqAO%5Ftv9tUQ&ref=thebarbedwire.com), [Beyoncé](https://time.com/6694806/beyonce-country-music/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [Solange Knowles](https://www.interviewmagazine.com/culture/thats-the-texas-in-me-solange-on-houston-cowboy-lore-and-going-barefoot?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [Travis Scott](https://www.billboard.com/music/rb-hip-hop/travis-scott-astroworld-southern-rap-roots-8469081/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [Megan Thee Stallion](https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/megan-thee-stallion-freestyle-808378/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “The picture I think that started to emerge, like, okay, let's give them a welcome to Texas with the intro and so my thought was to tying it back into Texas blues,” Chavez explained. Austin-based Ray “All Day Ray” Rivera, the executive producer for the FIFA Houston track, worked with producer Ricky “Deejay Quality” Gutierrez. Together they mixed the sounds on the final 2-minute, 7-second song. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/all-day-ray-x-deejay-quality-doogie-roux.jpg) Credit: Doogie Roux “It's always awesome to work on projects like these,” Rivera told *The Barbed Wire*. “You get 80 stems. So stems are just like the individual tracks, like the bass, the kick, the trumpets, it's like 80 tracks that you can just play with.” The crew began meeting and onboarding with FIFA officials in Switzerland in late August after they got word they’d been selected for the project. “It was super cool, just trying to get the sound, how to make people proud \[and say\], ‘Hey, we're Texas *and* we're Houston’ and trying to incorporate all those elements in there while trying to remix the track too” Rivera said. Rivera spent hours and hours moving stems around on the audio canvas and listening to endless possibilities of what the track would sound like. They decided to start with a guitar riff five seconds into the track. “Where did Texas blues start from? Here in Third Ward Houston, with Lightnin’ Hopkins. We wouldn't have Stevie Ray Vaughn, we wouldn't have ZZ Top without Lightnin’ Hopkins,” Chavez said. “We wanted to anchor that and make sure that we are giving a tip of the hat to that musical heritage, so I think that Ray and Ricky did a really great job of basically the intro with the guitar saying, ‘Welcome to Texas’.” Chavez then described that about 20 seconds into the track, the beat drops out then builds up to Bombón's chopping technique synonymous with Houston's DJ Screw on Michael “Buckamore” Arbizu vocal stabs and stadium chanting. Rivera spent hours listening and rearranging different stems but he kept coming back to Bombón signature Screwmbia beats. “I just automatically started \[thinking\], ‘How can I infuse the Latin element into this *and* Houston?’” Rivera described. “I just started rearranging stems and trying to make their sounds wrap around this beat that I had in my mind.” > Go behind the scenes with us as we dive into the creation behind our Sonic ID! 🎥[#WeAreHouston](https://twitter.com/hashtag/WeAreHouston?src=hash&ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=thebarbedwire.com) [#WeAre26](https://twitter.com/hashtag/WeAre26?src=hash&ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=thebarbedwire.com) [#FIFAWorldCup](https://twitter.com/hashtag/FIFAWorldCup?src=hash&ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=thebarbedwire.com) [pic.twitter.com/cOVWot7YcZ](https://t.co/cOVWot7YcZ?ref=thebarbedwire.com) > > — FIFA World Cup 26 Houston™ (@FWC26Houston) [March 6, 2025](https://twitter.com/FWC26Houston/status/1897710777223565629?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=thebarbedwire.com) Then Rivera had the idea to add their signature Bombón music drop to the FIFA track as a way to “showcase what we really sound like *here*” in Houston and Texas. As a self-described Texarican (with Puerto Rican parents and raised in Texas), Rivera says the Bombón 1:30 mark “feels like our version of a [grito](https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2016/08/23/488502412/in-mariachi-music-a-distinctive-yell-speaks-to-the-soul?ref=thebarbedwire.com)!” which is a yell or shout common in Mexican and Mariachi music. “We weren't sure if \[FIFA officials\] were going to be like, ‘take that off,’ but they left it, and I was like, ‘Yo, we got our drop!’” Rivera said. “The ending was definitely, I just wanted it to be epic. That's all I remember, with all the chords and strings and the bass, that's going to be the bow tie on it.” The final track is 2 minutes and 7 seconds long. “The project marks a milestone in the tournament’s legacy”, with a first-of-its-kind project that “blends global appeal with local flavour through music and sound,” according to [FIFA’s website](https://www.fifa.com/en/tournaments/mens/worldcup/canadamexicousa2026/fifa-sound?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Fans will hear Bombón perform the track live at the [Houston FIFA fan festival](https://communityimpact.com/houston/bay-area/sports/2024/06/11/eado-selected-as-site-for-2026-fifa-world-cup-fan-festival-officials-lay-out-preparation-plan-for-games/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and stadium openings and closings in Houston for World Cup festivities next summer. Chavez says the song will also be broadcast in TV commercials; incorporated in marketing, promotional and social media campaigns by FIFA host city partners; and played during award ceremonies and special events leading up to the start of the tournament. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/all-day-ray-gracie-chavez-deejay-quality-doogie-roux.jpg) Credit: Doogie Roux For Chavez, this song is a “love letter to the world” as she continues solidifying the cultural legacy she helped create nearly 25 years ago in Southeast Texas. She says this genre of Screwmbia and the blending of other international sounds heard in the Houston Sonic ID is the culmination of the cultural exchange representative of different walks of life and immigrant descendants that make up Texas. “I never realized that all that can come together,” Rivera said. “I think just reaching people and pushing our sound, just brings the culture together.” “Ni de aqui, ni de alla is what we have heard all along. But I like to think that we have changed that, and that we can proudly say that, si somos de aqui *y* de alla.” Chavez explained. ### Texas Is a Testing Ground for Federal Anti-Abortion Policies URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-abortion-laws-national-ban/ Last updated: 2025-03-19T17:42:22.000Z Abortion medication classified as controlled substances. Internet providers prosecuted for hosting abortion information. Abortion advocates charged with racketeering. The death penalty for abortion patients. That’s a glimpse of abortion-related bills filed in the 89th Texas Legislature as the session nears its half-way point. It’s also a glimpse at the future of reproductive healthcare in Texas — one that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton signaled this week is more probable than it may have seemed at the session’s outset. On Monday, Paxton announced the [arrest of a Houston-area midwife](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/ken-paxton-houston-abortionist-arrested/). Maria Margarita Rojas, who Paxton’s office called “Dr. Maria,” was charged with illegally providing abortions, in addition to practicing medicine without a license, according to a [press release](https://www.oag.state.tx.us/news/releases/attorney-general-ken-paxton-announces-arrest-houston-area-abortionist-and-crackdown-clinics?ref=thebarbedwire.com) from Paxton’s office. It is the first time criminal charges have been filed under the state’s near total abortion ban. When reached by phone by reporters from the [*Houston Chronicle*](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/article/abortion-houston-midwife-arrest-20226393.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com), an employee at Rojas’ Cypress location, who declined to provide their name, told the newspaper that abortions are not performed at the clinic. “No. Not at all. That’s all a lie,” a staffer told the *Chronicle*. A medical assistant and nurse practitioner were also arrested, according to an announcement from Paxton’s office on Tuesday. The attorney general's Healthcare Program Enforcement Division also filed for a temporary restraining order that would close Rojas’s clinics, Clinica Latinoamericana, a low-cost clinic offering a $150 annual membership that includes $10 for doctor visits and $95 for ultrasounds. Its website does not list abortion as [one of its services](https://www.clinicas-latinas.com/lista-de-servicios?ref=thebarbedwire.com). For Texans of reproductive age, Rojas’s arrest, and the legislative proposals, should be concerning. Data and reporting thus far has shown that, under the state’s current abortion laws, women are dying, [babies are dying](https://abcnews.go.com/Health/states-abortion-bans-births-infant-deaths-studies-show/story?id=118900177&ref=thebarbedwire.com), sepsis is up, STDs are up, and just about every other metric used to measure women and children’s health is trending in the wrong direction. > “Our women don’t deserve to be reproduction rights guinea pigs, or medical guinea pigs, for abortion care.” Texas lawmakers pioneered the “vigilante” civil enforcement mechanism that got around legal protections for abortion while Roe v. Wade was precedent. The successful passage of Senate Bill 8 in 2021, which bans physicians from performing abortions if a fetal heartbeat is detected, made Texas the most restrictive state on abortion in the country — and the state to watch. “Texas is where far-right policies are tested before they’re rolled out nation-wide, from abortion bans to other things, they try it here first,” said Ryan Hamilton, Texas radio host and a partner with Free & Just, a nonprofit working to amplify the stories of people impacted by attacks on reproductive freedom. “Our women don’t deserve to be reproduction rights guinea pigs, or medical guinea pigs, for abortion care.” Late Friday, [Senate Bill 2880](https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=89R&Bill=SB2880&ref=thebarbedwire.com), a 43-page bill was introduced that would target tech companies, including search engines, that help people order [abortion pills online](https://19thnews.org/2025/03/texas-bill-abortion-pills/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and nonprofits who provide abortion information for patients. A portion of SB 2880 would allow citizens to sue tech company for “aiding and abetting” abortions, meaning that anyone could sue companies like Google, Venmo, Instagram, or Threads if their sites have information on how to get an abortion. Another portion of the bill would make it a second degree felony to help pay for any aspect of an abortion, regardless of where that abortion takes place. There is no statute of limitations for this portion of the bill. “I really think the list of freedoms that they’ll try to restrict and rights they’ll try to take away has no bounds,” said Amanda Zurawski, the lead plaintiff in a 2023 [lawsuit against Texas](https://reproductiverights.org/zurawski-v-texas-plaintiffs-stories-remarks/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for harms suffered after she was denied abortion care while experiencing a pregnancy complication. “I fear for some of the horrors we probably can’t even imagine yet.” And Lone Star state residents shouldn’t be the only ones concerned. For, [as goes Texas](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/excerpt-gail-collins-texas-goes-flna817457?ref=thebarbedwire.com), so goes the nation. **The push for fetal personhood and equal protection** Perhaps one of the most consequential bills — in terms of impact on reproductive rights, and likelihood of success — is [House Bill 2197](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/capitol-texas-gov/tlodocs/89R/billtext/hb02197i-navpanes-0.pdf). A so-called equal protection bill, would “protect the lives of preborn children with the same criminal and civil laws protecting the lives of human beings born alive by repealing laws that permit wilful prenatal homicide and assault.” That’s a lot to unpack, but essentially, the bill would establish that life begins at [fertilization](https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/pregnancy-week-by-week/multimedia/fertilization-and-implantation/img-20008656?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=During%20fertilization%2C%20the%20sperm%20and,wall%20%E2%80%94%20a%20process%20called%20implantation.) — when a sperm and egg unite, before implantation and months before the potential of viability outside the womb. Thus, a fertilized egg would be treated as a person under Texas law, and would make terminating a pregnancy a homicide. Which, in Texas, is punishable by the death penalty. The bill was introduced by [Rep. Brent Money](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/03/05/brent-money-jill-dutton-texas-house-bryan-slaton/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a Republican from Greenville who filled Bryan Slaton’s seat after the former representative [was expelled](https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/texas-senate-sexual-harassment/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for getting a 19-year-old drunk and having sex with her. Money was one of the far-right 2024 primary victors propped up by mega-donors Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks — Evangelical Christian billionaires who have been credited with pushing the Texas GOP further and further right on abortion and other conservative bugaboos. (Their PACs gave more than [$300,000](https://www.transparencyusa.org/tx/candidate/brent-money?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to Money’s campaign.) The bill follows a [plank](https://convention.texasgop.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/2024-TEMPORARY-Platform-FINAL.pdf?ref=thebarbedwire.com), or party position, ratified by the Texas GOP this summer which calls for the abolition of abortion and “immediately securing the right to life and equal protection of the laws to all preborn children from the moment of fertilization.” The movement — to equate a fertilized egg with a person — is one of many following the conservative Texas fringe-to-federal pipeline. A [bill in the U.S. House](https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/722/cosponsors?ref=thebarbedwire.com) stipulating that life begins at conception has 70 cosigners, though it hasn’t moved out of committee. Last month, Vice President JD Vance used [similar rhetoric](https://www.dailysignal.com/2025/02/20/vance-urges-cpac-audience-persuade-others-about-sanctity-unborn-life/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) at CPAC, calling on the audience to “persuade our fellow citizens that unborn life is worthy of protecting.” And he’s not the only one. Russell Vought, head of the Office of Management and Budget, was an author of [“Project 2025,”](https://www.guttmacher.org/fact-sheet/how-project-2025-seeks-obliterate-srhr?ref=thebarbedwire.com) which mentions abortion 199 times while calling for “robust protections for the unborn,” using the the life-begins-at-conception and equal-protection framework. It also calls for states to surveil and report data on spontaneous abortions (aka miscarriages) and stillbirths, using the denial of federal funding as an enforcement method. The implication is a smooth pathway to criminalizing people who have abortions — or, more terrifyingly, miscarriages and stillbirths deemed suspicious. Samantha Casiano, one of the plaintiffs in [Zurawski v Texas](https://reproductiverights.org/case/zurawski-v-texas-abortion-emergency-exceptions/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), learned — at 20 weeks pregnant — that her daughter had anencephaly, a birth defect in which the fetal brain and skull do not fully develop. Her doctor would not perform an abortion, forcing her to carry her daughter, Halo, for another three months. She was born prematurely, and she died within hours. Casiano joined Hamilton and Zurawski in a national campaign held by [Free & Just](https://www.freeandjust.us/about?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which staged a bus tour last summer to share stories about the impact of abortion bans. It opened her eyes to the need for more education on reproductive issues. “A lot of people look at the word abortion as a cruel word, and they don’t see there’s more to it,” Casiano told *The Barbed Wire*. The tragedy, she said, is that many people don’t realize that miscarriage is common (an estimated [10-20% of pregnancies end in miscarriage](https://www.marchofdimes.org/find-support/topics/miscarriage-loss-grief/miscarriage?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=It's%20estimated%20that%20between%2010,20%20percent%29%20end%20in%20miscarriage.)), and treatment for it is considered abortive. “This one lady I had a conversation with, I was telling her about miscarrying, when you miscarry you receive an abortion to clean you out. She said, ‘No, you just go to the doctor and they give you the medication.’ I was like, ‘OK. That medication is an abortion.’ It's considered an abortion, it's under that abortion law,” Casiano told *The Barbed Wire*. “She’s so adamant about telling me no, I had to send her links. And I said, ‘I know a woman who kind of went through the same thing and this is what happened.’” “She ended up apologizing to me,” Casiano said. **The battle over abortion medication** In December, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed the [first-ever civil suit](https://www.vox.com/abortion/400484/abortion-maggie-carpenter-mifepristone-medication-texas-new-york-rfk-louisiana-paxton?ref=thebarbedwire.com) against an out-of-state abortion provider. Paxton alleges that New York-based abortion provider Dr. Margaret Carpenter violated Texas law by mailing or online prescribing abortion pills to Texas residents — an allegation stemming from a complaint by a man who claims to be the father of a pregnancy allegedly affected by abortion pills. (Another [initiative straight out of Texas](https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2025/01/17/texas-abortion-pills-lawsuit/?ref=thebarbedwire.com): find the “wronged men” to sue women for making decisions about reproductive healthcare.) [Prefiled](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/capitol-texas-gov/tlodocs/89R/billtext/hb01339i-navpanes-0.pdf) [bills](https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/Text.aspx?LegSess=89R&Bill=HB818&ref=thebarbedwire.com) this session would make prosecuting doctors easier by classifying mifepristone and misoprostol as Schedule IV controlled substances under the Texas Controlled Substances Act, alongside things like sedatives and stimulants that have addictive potential. The law would make receiving such medication more difficult, which activists like Hamilton say is a matter of life and death. > “They’re telling our women if you lose your baby, and your body does not expel the pregnancy on its own, we’re sorry you’re going to die, too.” At the end of her second trimester, Hamilton’s wife experienced severe bleeding and abdominal pain. A doctor found their baby no longer had a heartbeat, Hamilton said, and that his wife was in the midst of an incomplete miscarriage. Instead of offering a dilation and curettage — known as a D&C, the procedure commonly used in miscarriages to remove tissue that can cause infection, but is deemed abortive under Texas law — the doctor sent them home with a prescription for misoprostol. By the time they left, Hamilton said pharmacies were closed. But he found one the next morning with an all-female staff, which he took as a good sign. There was a real chance Hamilton wouldn’t be able to get the prescription filled: Texas’ abortion ban makes it a felony to even prescribe medication for the purpose of terminating a pregnancy. In fact, in 2023, Paxton filed a lawsuit challenging guidance from the Biden administration directing pharmacies to fill prescriptions for abortion-inducing medication. “That pharmacist, I will never forget this, when she gave me the prescription she reached out and grabbed my hand, and held it, and just looked at me,” Hamilton said, “like ‘I got you.’” Unfortunately, Hamtilton said, his wife continued bleeding. They returned to the doctor the following day, only to be turned away again with no D&C. They drove an hour away to a hospital, Hamtilon said, where they repeated the process and were told again their baby had no heartbeat and were sent home. The next morning, three days after she started bleeding, Hamitlon said he found his wife unconscious on their bathroom floor in a pool of blood. “A woman can only bleed for so many days before her body goes, ‘no, that’s enough,’” he said. He took his wife and their one-year-old to yet another hospital, where medical staff “finally didn’t hesitate to save her because she was close enough to death where they didn’t have to worry about legalities of helping a woman who was in the midst of an incomplete miscarriage.” Some early miscarriages can be treated with expectant management, or a wait and see approach. However, the standard care for second-trimester miscarriages is to empty the uterus, usually through a D&C. Without such treatment, the risk of infection, namely sepsis, rises. [*ProPublica* reporters](https://www.propublica.org/article/texas-abortion-ban-sepsis-maternal-mortality-analysis?ref=thebarbedwire.com) found rates of sepsis went up more than 50% under Texas’ abortion ban for women hospitalized for pregnancy loss in their second trimester. “If you take away misoprostol, and they’re not going to give you a D&C in the middle of an incomplete miscarage, what are the options?” Hamilton said, “Well, death.” “They’re telling our women if you lose your baby, and your body does not expel the pregnancy on its own, we’re sorry you’re going to die, too.” As depicted in the documentary [“Zurawski v Texas](https://www.zurawskivtexas.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com),” Zurawski was denied care after she experienced preterm pre-labor rupture of membranes (called PPROM) during her second trimester because doctors could still detect a fetal heartbeat. Three days later she was diagnosed with sepsis and sent to the ICU. "It's not hyperbole to say people will die,” Zurawski said. “These are medications that are used in life saving situations, for instance the one I was in.” Zurawski was given medication as part of treatment. Without it, “I know I would have died. There's no question.” To date, [at least three Texas women](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-true-cost-of-texas-abortion-ban-rising-deaths-abandoned-babies-fewer-doctors/) have died after being denied care. And yet, proposals to further restrict the medication keep coming, at the state and federal level. Another state bill, [House Bill 1651](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/capitol-texas-gov/tlodocs/89R/billtext/hb01651i-navpanes-0.pdf), would prohibit the online sale of abortion drugs unless a Texas doctor prescribed it after an in-person exam — essentially banning abortion pills from being delivered by mail. “Project 2025” says the same, calling mailed abortion pills a “gift to the abortion industry.” Its authors recommend revoking FDA approval of the drugs entirely. During his [confirmation hearings](https://19thnews.org/2025/01/rfk-jr-confirmation-hearing-health-abortion-medication/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to head the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said “President Trump has asked me to study the safety of mifepristone,” despite significant research that has shown the [medication is safe](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-supremecourt-gov/DocketPDF/23/23-235/299159/20240220110531937%5F23-235-23-236-tsac-over-300-reproductive-health-researchers.pdf) and [effective](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-024-02834-w?ref=thebarbedwire.com), including when prescribed via telehealth. **Treating abortion funds as organized crime** The real doozy this Legislative session is House Bill 991, which would regulate abortion funds, which are organizations that assist people seeking abortions with everything from financial support to travel coordination to childcare. Specifically, the bill would: - use the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act to prosecute abortion funds and their donors - prohibit providing information on how to obtain abortion drugs - prohibit creating, editing or maintaining a website that assists or facilitates a person’s effort in obtaining an abortion-inducing drug - require all internet service providers to block access to information on obtaining an abortion The bill even listed specific websites, including aidaccess.org, heyjane.co, and plancpills.org. John Seago, the president of Texas Right to Life, told [*The Washington Post*](https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2025/01/17/texas-abortion-pills-lawsuit/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that the group is seeking out men to pursue cases against websites that mail pills into the state or aggregate abortion resources. “One of those websites is my ideal defendant,” Seago said. Seago told the [*Houston Landing*](https://houstonlanding.org/texas-restrictive-abortion-law-sends-houston-teen-on-cross-country-odyssey-for-help/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) it wasn’t just internet providers, but that groups like his were looking to work with the Texas Legislature to find ways to target physical clinics in neighboring states, too. “Just because the abortions started in another state and ended here in Texas, that doesn’t erase their criminality,” he said. House Bill 991 was filed by Rep. [Steve Toth](https://thehill.com/people/steve-toth/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of the Woodlands. Like Rep. Brent Money, Toth has been backed by the Wilks brothers and their super PAC, Defend Texas Liberty. After [*The Texas Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2023/10/08/nick-fuentes-kyle-rittenhouse-jonathan-stickland/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) broke the news in October that the director of the PAC had met with white nationalist and self-described Nazi sympathizer Nick Fuentes, [Toth defended the group](https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/4275361-texas-republicans-anti-semitism-allegations-feed-civil-war/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on social media and noted that he had refused to sign a letter condemning the PAC, which gave his [campaign](https://directory.texasscorecard.com/steve-toth?ref=thebarbedwire.com) $30,000\. Farris Wilks contributed $15,000. Toth also prefiled [House Bill 1004](https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=89R&Bill=HB1004&ref=thebarbedwire.com), which would “empower the Texas Attorney General to unilaterally prosecute certain crimes, including election and abortion-related offenses.” In the U.S. House, Rep. Keith Self, who represents suburban Dallas, introduced a [bill](https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/895/text?s=2&r=5&q=%7B%22search%22%3A%22abortion%22%7D&ref=thebarbedwire.com) in January to amend the U.S. code to “require the Attorney General to investigate alleged violations of the partial birth abortion ban.” “Partial birth” is a non-medical term used to describe a rarely used abortion procedure called a “dilation and extraction,” according to [health policy organization KFF](https://www.kff.org/womens-health-policy/issue-brief/abortions-later-in-pregnancy-in-a-post-dobbs-era/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The term has been used by Republican politicians to inflame debates around abortion — it is not legal in any state to perform abortions “[moments before birth](https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/health-202-abortions-viability-republicans-tim-scott/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)” or “[after birth](https://www.wlrn.org/government-politics/2023-07-25/desantis-false-claim-post-birth-abortions?ref=thebarbedwire.com).” **Clarification on existing law** Marsha Jones, the executive director of the [Afiya Center](https://www.theafiyacenter.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the only reproductive justice organization in Northern Texas, said her organization has found success by engaging in intersectional conversations with legislatorsive partners using a reproductive justice framework. In other words, “when you remove access to abortions, you exacerbate all these other things.” “There is not a secret, but we look for legislation that’s going to talk to the entire reproductive experience,” Jones said, noting that in their 2024 [“State of Black Womxn in Texas Report,”](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Xr34SH0TPXyqhFEhM-ugh%5FGtAXmJmXZC/view?ref=thebarbedwire.com) they discussed the risk of a rise in sepsis if patients were turned away when experiencing pregnancy complications. Last week, the Afiya Center held a grassroots legislative advocacy training for community members, providing tools and information for citizens to take their concerns to the Legislature. Jones said she’s seen the fruit of those efforts — sometimes it may look small, but it can make a big difference. And, frankly, it takes time. Take Rep. Toni Rose of Dallas, who Jones said came looking for the Afiya Center after hearing about their work. “She literally said, ‘I need to know who are these black women who are coming to Austin and not coming to my office,’” Jones said. They worked together on legislation to expand postpartum Medicaid benefits. In 2019, the bill made it through the House but died in the Senate. In 2021, the Senate agreed to a six-month extension, but the federal government never gave the necessary sign off. Gov. Greg Abbott signed a version of the bill in 2023 to [extend benefits](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/article/abbott-postpartum-medicaid-18156478.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) from two months to a full year. The [federal government signed off](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/article/medicaid-texas-postpartum-18613069.php?utm%5Fcontent=cta&sid=617c61be16556b464f0680c4&ss=A&st%5Frid=6ff7ed66-411c-4b1c-9c82-7be6702c48c3&utm%5Fsource=newsletter&utm%5Fmedium=email&utm%5Fterm=news&utm%5Fcampaign=HC%5FBreakingNews) in early 2024 and it went into effect last March. Jones said the Afiya Center has continued to talk about the state’s abortion ban, and are now eyeing paths for clarity for doctors who feel prohibited from providing necessary care because it may be viewed as abortive. In the first-of-its-kind lawsuit, Zurawski was one of [22 plaintiffs](https://reproductiverights.org/zurawski-v-texas-plaintiffs-stories-remarks/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to sue the state. The case made it to the Texas Supreme Court and asked for the judges to clarify what constitutes an “emergency” in the case of medical exceptions to the state’s abortion ban. The all-Republican court declined to clarify. A group of [111 OB-GYNs in Texas](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-ob-gyns-beg-politicians-to-do-something-after-deaths-of-pregnant-women/) sent a letter to state leaders in November, urging them to change abortion laws that they say are blocking them from delivering lifesaving care to pregnant women. “Texas needs a change,” the doctors wrote. “A change in laws. A change in how we legislate medical decisions that should be between a patient, their family, and their doctor.” A handful of Democratic lawmakers have filed [bills on exceptions](https://legiscan.com/TX/bill/SB257/2025?ref=thebarbedwire.com) aimed at doing just that. [One](https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=89R&Bill=HB395&ref=thebarbedwire.com) set from Rep. Donna Howard and Sen. Carol Alverado would create an exception for sexual assault victims. But opponents like Abbott have insisted that exemptions aren’t necessary. “There have been hundreds of abortions that have been provided under this law, so there are plenty of doctors and plenty of mothers that have been able to get an abortion that saved their lives and protect their health and safety,” Abbott told the [*Houston Chronicle*](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas-take/article/abbott-texas-abortion-law-clarification-20172184.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). However, the data does not bear that out. “Texas abortion policies are killing people,” Farah Diaz-Tello, senior counsel and legal director for If/When/How, told *The Barbed Wire*. “The state’s abortion ban has been tied to a 56% rise in its maternal mortality. Now, Ken Paxton is using his office to personally terrorize people who need or provide abortions.” At least one Democratic lawmaker has proposed a [constitutional amendment](https://legiscan.com/TX/text/HJR80/id/3027373?ref=thebarbedwire.com) guaranteeing the right to abortion in the state. Other Texas bills would provide [prenatal palliative care](https://capitol.texas.gov/Search/DocViewer.aspx?DocId=89RHB026841B&AllWords=abortion&AnyWords=&ExactWords=&CustomWords=&DocType=B&ref=thebarbedwire.com) for pregnant people and their families when a fetus is diagnosed with a fatal abnormality (that would not include an option or information on terminating the pregnancy — just counseling on how to have a baby who will likely die soon after birth); create a [state-run website](https://legiscan.com/TX/text/SB206/2025?ref=thebarbedwire.com) with information on abortion alternatives, filed by Sen. Paxton; create [higher barriers](https://legiscan.com/TX/text/SB1521/id/3135487?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for those pursuing lawsuits against abortion providers; and [would allow individuals](https://capitol.texas.gov/Search/DocViewer.aspx?DocId=89RHB019191B&AllWords=abortion&AnyWords=&ExactWords=&CustomWords=&DocType=B&ref=thebarbedwire.com) to sue the state for damages resulting from denial of reproductive healthcare due to state laws. Whether you’re Texan or not — they’re all worth watching. For, as goes Texas, so goes the nation. ### Texas Is Secretly Collecting Data on Trans Drivers URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-tracking-transgender-drivers/ Last updated: 2025-03-19T16:33:10.000Z In another move to intensify the surveillance of transgender Texans, the state has been keeping tabs on drivers who’ve updated the sex listed on their identification documents, [*The Texas Newsroom*](https://www.kut.org/politics/2025-03-19/texas-transgender-drivers-license-data-collection?ref=thebarbedwire.com)reported. The Texas Department of Public Safety collected drivers’ information and sent it to an [internal email account](https://www.kut.org/politics/2024-09-19/spam-texas-transgender-drivers-license-birth-certificate-policy-lgbtq?ref=thebarbedwire.com) made to monitor these requests, according to internal documents obtained by *The Texas Newsroom.* DPS and state leaders including Attorney General Ken Paxton and Gov. Greg Abbott did not respond to *The Texas Newsroom* when asked how the information was being used or how long the state would keep collecting it. According to the documents, people tried to change the sex listed on their licenses at least 42 times in the last five months. It’s not clear when the state started tracking the data, but this isn’t new: In 2022, Paxton issued a [similar order](https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/12/14/texas-transgender-data-paxton/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) asking his office to compile a list of people who changed their gender on state department records. The data collections follow increased attacks on LGBTQ+ rights and transgender people in Texas and [across the country](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/6-ways-trumps-executive-orders-are-targeting-transgender-people?ref=thebarbedwire.com). In an [opinion](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-texasattorneygeneral-gov/sites/default/files/opinion-files/opinion/2025/kp-0489.pdf) issued on Friday, Paxton said transgender people could not change the sex listed on their identification documents. He instructed state agencies to “immediately correct any unlawfully altered driver’s licenses or birth certificates.” Community members worry that orders to track transgender Texans will expose them to more discrimination and violence, according to the [American Civil Liberties Union of Texas](https://www.aclutx.org/en/press-releases/aclu-texas-comment-texas-department-public-safetys-new-anti-trans-drivers-license?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Brad Pritchett, interim CEO of Equality Texas, said in a [statement](https://equalitytexas.org/press-release/texas-ag-opinion-restricting-trans-rights/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that although the attorney general’s opinion is not legally binding, state agencies that follow his orders will put the safety of almost 100,000 transgender Texans at risk. “The trans community in Texas is scared. Updating a driver’s license takes years of effort and legal expenses,” Pritchett said. “The people going through the process to update their documents are trying to honor the law by having an ID that matches the way they live and move through the world. Now law-abiding Texans are being undermined by the state’s top lawyer attacking the validity of legal court orders from state judges.” **Read more at**[***The Texas Newsroom***](https://www.kut.org/politics/2025-03-19/texas-transgender-drivers-license-data-collection?ref=thebarbedwire.com)**.** ### Farms are Disappearing in Central Texas. Can Chefs Save Them Before It’s Too Late? URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/farm-to-table-restaurants-crisis-texas/ Last updated: 2025-03-19T05:01:00.000Z The Austin restaurant scene was rocked by a recent announcement that sent chefs panicking while most diners obliviously continued their meals. The couple behind Steelbow Farms, a five-acre urban farm near Manor, announced that they would be moving to upstate New York. The organic, sustainable farm, run by Finegan Ferreboeuf and Jason Gold, was revered by chefs who created dishes around its specialty produce — like dozens of pepper varieties and bitter chicory greens. But like many urban farmers, Ferreboeuf and Gold leased rather than owned the land they farmed. While leasing, the couple had looked at buying land in Texas but were overwhelmed by the price — tens of thousands of dollars per acre — plus competition from developers and investors. “Our real estate agent would say, ‘You have 24 hours to decide if you want to put in an offer,’” Ferreboeuf told *The Barbed Wire*. “When you're looking at a piece of property to farm it, there are other considerations that you can't figure out in 24 hours.” On top of that: “It's a big ask for a vegetable farm to pay the mortgage on property that is priced for developers,” Ferreboeuf said. For Steelbow Farms, the decision to move also hinged on the ability to secure land: They were offered a 99-year lease on protected farmland in New York. “I’m not saying this with an anti-growth mindset — but in a development boom, many communities and segments of the population aren’t advocated for. And I think farmers and producers are one of those,” said Ferreboeuf. “If people want a vibrant, thriving local food system, farmland has to be protected. We can’t grow food here if we don’t have anywhere left to grow it.” Losing farmland in Central Texas is a big, urgent problem. The City of Austin [reported](https://www.austintexas.gov/sites/default/files/files/Sustainability/Food/Austin-Travis%20County%20Food%20Plan.pdf?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that Travis County lost 16.8 acres of farmland every day from 2012 to 2017, or a 5% decrease in total land. Since 2017, that has accelerated to an 11% decrease in acreage. Despite a demand for local food in Austin, the city’s report notes, only about 0.06% of food consumed in Travis County is produced locally. “Prime farmland is disappearing at a rate that is astonishing,” said Erin Flynn of Green Gate Farms in Central Texas. “This affects you. You just don't know it's affecting you.” Preserving farmland is not a hopeless endeavor. But it’s hard to get people to care about the struggles of farmers. The pressure for change may start with a group of people who have superstar status in today’s culture: chefs. ## What’s happening to farmland? Flynn and her husband Skip Connett started their farm after successful careers in public health. They leased 10 acres by a sewage plant in East Austin, and since their landlord was absent and didn’t care what they did with the land, started an organic farm in 2006\. In 2009, the couple bought 32 acres in Bastrop to farm. “We knew that this area had tremendous value on so many levels. It's a beautiful place with abundant water and prime soils,” she said, referencing the Blackland Prairie of the region that Texas Parks and Wildlife calls some of the [richest soil in the world and rarest landscape in the region.](https://tpwd.texas.gov/wildlife/wildlife-diversity/wildscapes/wildscapes-plant-guidance-by-ecoregion/the-blackland-prairies/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Each farm faced a different threat to its future. At the leased East Austin property, Flynn experienced every Texan’s worst nightmare: The land was bought sight unseen by a developer from California. Their new landlord told them to leave the property, and with it the rich soil they had created and the century-old barn they had restored. Flynn refused.. She started a public relations campaign to rally the community and pressure her new landlord into letting the farm stay. She [commissioned an oral history of the site’s century-old barn](https://www.statesman.com/story/news/2016/09/04/green-gate-farms-works-to-stay-as-plans-for-new-development-sprout-up/10019047007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and organized a “barn hug” where people surrounded the barn like it was a tree about to get chopped down. The developer allowed her to operate her farm on four acres and built more than 150 tiny homes on the remaining property. Ironically, the farm the developer tried to erase is now the central hub for the new community. In Bastrop, Flynn watches prime farmland get bought up by gravel mining companies, which destroy the soil. The state deregulated quarry operations in 2005, and as the gravel mining industry boomed, communities in the Texas Hill Country started reporting environmental impacts like [polluted water and dust](https://www.expressnews.com/projects/2021/hill-country-quarry-impact/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Flynn worries about contamination of her groundwater and crops since the mines are so close to her land. Flynn started [Friends of the Land](https://www.friendsoftheland.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to advocate for preserving the area’s farmland, because, as she explains, farming in Bastrop is a case study for what’s not working for Texas farms. “Young farmers will come to me and say, ‘I can't afford land in Austin. I'm gonna move out to the country and that's gonna solve all my troubles. I'll be able to get a lot of land,’” Flynn said. “What they don't realize is that they can't protect the land around them.” Furthermore, logistics like delivering to restaurants becomes more difficult, making it harder to sell produce. “Farmers need job security,” Flynn said. “When people are farming, they need to know that where they're farming is protected. I should be able to go to my city council member and say, ‘A gravel mine is not the highest and best use of this prime farmland that is right near the river.’” Another example of losing farmland to developers is Springdale Farms. Located in East Austin, Eden East was a lauded open-air restaurant located on the farm, where diners could see the vegetables they were about to eat. Sonya Cote was the chef, and her husband David Barrows took over as head farmer from the farm's co-founders. In 2018, the [land owners sold](https://austin.eater.com/2020/5/28/21273628/eden-east-restaurant-moving-driftwood-desert-door-farm-bastrop-austin?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to a development company called StoryBuilt that planned to turn the farm into a mixed-use development. Cote and Barrows struck a deal with the developers to farm part of the land and have the restaurant as an anchor tenant. However, after razing the farm, StoryBuilt [went bankrupt](https://www.austinmonthly.com/austin-housing-developer-stalled-projects/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) during construction. Springdale Farm went from organic vegetable beds to a concrete-covered hole in the ground, tied up in a legal quagmire — with no end in sight. Cote and Barrows ended up filling 18 dump trucks with soil to take out to property they purchased in Bastrop in an attempt to preserve the work they put into the land. “As Texas prioritizes large-scale commercial development over preserving agricultural land, we risk losing the very farms that sustain us,” said Cote. “If this trend continues, the need to import food will rise, increasing costs, reducing quality, and severing our connection to the land. Protecting our farmers and the ecosystems they cultivate is essential for the future of local food and farm-to-table dining.” ## Chefs need local farms The news that Steelbow Farms was moving sent chef Tracy Malechek-Ezekiel into a spiral. A James Beard Award finalist in 2024 for her East Austin restaurant Birdie’s, Malechek-Ezekiel depended on Steelbow for the fresh, vibrant produce that makes her dishes shine. “We cook really simple food, and if the ingredients aren't spot on, the dish falls flat,” she explained. “Having something that's freshly harvested is always going to taste better. It tastes more alive, it tastes more vibrant, it tastes like central Texas, and that comes across in your food.” Chef Ian Thurwachter opened his East Austin restaurant Intero with the intention of making grassroots change to food systems by supporting local farming and ranching communities. “My wife and I are both from Austin, so we have really deep roots when we're talking about agriculture,” he said. “We care deeply about the local communities and creating jobs for people is a really big part of why we wanted to open a restaurant.” However, it requires more work for chefs. Thurwachter describes the ordering process as laborious. With a distributor, he can place an order late at night and get a delivery the next morning. With farms, he has to deal with multiple contacts, who must all be paid separately, have different order minimums, and different delivery dates. He said one farm gets more orders from him simply because they text him instead of making him reply to an email. Working with farms also requires a commitment to a seasonal and flexible menu, based on what farmers can grow. Many chefs, like Thurwachter and Malechek-Ezekiel, say the creative challenge of working with fresh ingredients is what makes their job fun. (There is a Texas-based distributor, [Farm to Table](https://www.farmtotabletx.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), that coordinates these logistics between local farmers and restaurants. The chefs I spoke with called it absolutely essential for keeping their restaurant stocked with local products; the farmers had mixed feelings since it doesn’t generate as much revenue for them.) However, for chefs, these logistical issues are worth it for the connection to community, support for local economies, and superior produce. If anyone is living the platonic ideal of a farm-to-table restaurant, it’s Cote and Barrows. Their five-acre farm in Bastrop is a mile from Cote’s restaurant, Store House Market & Eatery, which she opened in 2021 after the Eden East disaster. Cote requests the produce she wants from Barrows, who plans crops accordingly. “We wish people understood that farm-to-table dining is about more than just the food on the Plate,” Cote and Barrows wrote in an email to *The Barbed Wire*. “It’s about community, celebration, and connection. Dining in a farm-to-table restaurant is an opportunity to savor real, unadulterated food and to experience the labor of love that goes into growing and preparing it.” ## What can the government do? When COVID-19 and Winter Storm Uri highlighted the frailty of our food supply chains, local governments pushed to source locally and thus preserve farmland. The project fell to Edwin Marty, food policy manager at the City of Austin. Marty is uniquely suited to lead this initiative, as he was previously an organic farmer before moving into government. He takes the ideals expressed by farmers and turns them into bullet-pointed strategies of policies and funding. His office, part of the City of Austin’s Office of Climate Action and Resilience, worked with more than [150](https://austin-travis-county-food-plan-austin.hub.arcgis.com/pages/meet-the-team?ref=thebarbedwire.com) community members to put together a [comprehensive food plan](https://www.austintexas.gov/sites/default/files/files/Sustainability/Food/Austin-Travis%20County%20Food%20Plan.pdf?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that included preserving farmland and making ownership accessible. The plan was adopted in October 2024. The food plan doesn’t accomplish anything on its own. But it’s a way to both get the key community players on the record as invested in this issue and demonstrate to the City Council that its constituents care. “We view farmland as an opportunity to build stuff. Thinking about it from the other perspective that this land actually has value as farmland requires a policy shift,” he said. Marty says local farms provide positive effects on the environment and climate change. Local agriculture generates jobs and stimulates economies. And farmland contributes to scenic landscape and community character. “Probably in 10 years, we don't get to have this conversation (about farmland loss) because it'll all be gone,” said Marty. “The challenge is getting in front of City Council and saying ‘this is critically important, if this doesn't happen now, the world's gonna end.’ And the reality is that there are dozens of other competing priorities.” There are limits to what the government can do in terms of protecting farmland. It’s difficult for public dollars to incentivize a private business. Furthermore, while regenerative agriculture provides environmental benefits like carbon capturing and improving water, soil, and air quality, Marty points out there are just as many conventional farms doing the opposite. Marty can only move farmland preservation forward by proving it’s for a public good, and having a caveat that farming will provide benefits only if done a certain way makes that tricky. Still, there have been successes. Marty told me that 40% of the strategies in the plan are moving forward.A [former ranch](https://www.austintexas.gov/department/john-trevino-jr-metropolitan-park-phase-1-implementation?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in East Austin is set to become a park that will include community agriculture — Marty dreams of turning this into an incubator farm. ## Partnering for a path forward So what does preserving farmland look like? Flynn points to the nonprofit [Intervale Center](https://www.intervale.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in Vermont. In the late ‘80s, the founder of [Gardener’s Supply Company](https://www.gardeners.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) purchased 360 acres of land and made it available for organic farming and sustainable use. She wants to create a similar project in Bastrop, but needs [community help](https://www.friendsoftheland.com/take-action-1?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Flynn also believes there should be a regional alliance between chefs and farmers — something that does not currently exist formally — because chefs’ star status could exponentially increase attention on the cause. There aren’t many farms with 10,000 social media followers, but restaurants and chefs can easily have that audience. Cote has seen success when flexing her platform as a chef. She visited the offices of Texas Senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn with the James Beard Advocacy Program to explain the importance of small local farms, and representatives from their offices came down to visit her farm. She’s hoping for legislation to adjust subsidies and agricultural tax exemptions based on farm production, rather than property size. Still, this is a lot to ask of chefs, who are already operating on razor-thin margins and strapped for time. “I want to help where I can, but I'm also totally buried as a new mom and business owner and I change the menu every day,” said Malechek-Ezekiel. However, Malechek-Ezekiel feels that preserving farmland and investing in regenerative agriculture is critical for future generations. “I think about our kids and our kids' future, and I want to make sure it looks bright, healthy, and wholesome for them too. And I feel like if we don't take control of our communities and support positive change and legislation around that, that it's not going to look very bright for them.” Thurwachter added, “Restaurants shouldn't have to do this. But we're also so deeply connected to the farms, it just makes sense. It would be really great if people with a lot more money were able to push those dollars or real tangible change in our food systems, but I just don't see it being the case. So we will try to do the best that we can.” So whether the answer is chef and farmer partnerships, government action, land donation by private individuals, or all of the above, there are ways to preserve Texas farmland and its bounty for restaurants and the community. “I don't want this to be a depressing story,” said Flynn. “There's tremendous opportunity.” ### A Dripping Springs Artist Talks Serendipity, Love of the Craft, and the ‘Fire in Her Belly’ URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/dripping-springs-daryl-howard-artist/ Last updated: 2025-03-18T05:01:00.000Z On a recent Friday morning, I drove my daughter and four of her classmates from their school in central Austin to Dripping Springs for a seventh grade field trip. Three rows of girls yell-sang Olivia Rodrigo as I contemplated my life choices. Fridays are supposed to be my writing day. Two years ago, I quit practicing law to focus on writing and editing. And still, with two children and a million commitments, preserving time to write was a challenge. I was supposed to be ruthless, especially on Fridays. But the art teacher had looked particularly desperate when she asked if I could chaperone. And how much longer did I have to listen in on my daughter’s singalongs? So here I was piloting a minivan full of tweens instead of moving words around in search of a perfect sentence — the solitary, time-consuming activity that brought me so much joy. We turned onto Nutty Brown Road to the tune of “Love Is Embarrassing.” The day was overcast, and the scrubby fields on either side of the road were yellow and brown. A few feet past a faded UVALDE STRONG sign on the side of the road, I saw the bright red gate I was looking for. I entered the code and drove over a cattle guard into a dirt parking lot. The studio beyond belonged to Daryl Howard, an artist who has been making Japanese woodblock prints for 50 years. The girls, suddenly demure, filed into a bright, high-ceilinged room and sat down in two rows of folding chairs. At the front of the room, a woman in charcoal gray joggers and a black T-shirt with a Japanese wave print stood with her hands clasped behind her back. I guessed that she was in her 70s, like my mother. She was compact, with a shock of purple hair behind a red bandana. Her arms looked muscular, her posture excellent. When she bowed to demonstrate how she greets every day by saying, “It’s a very good morning,” in Japanese, her back stayed at a perfect right angle with her hips. I felt a familiar charge of affection not unlike love at first sight. Here was someone I could write about. The first time Daryl went to Japan, she told the assembled girls and moms, she was 20 years old. It was the early ‘70s. The Vietnam War was ending, and the Air Force had sent Daryl’s husband to an airbase near Tokyo. They lived near the airstrip, where the ground shook constantly from little earthquakes and planes evacuating people from Saigon. Daryl, who had been teaching middle school art in Texas, got a job teaching art for a Department of Defense school. Every morning, she took a train from her apartment to the school on the military base, stopping along the way to buy two sweet potatoes from a man who baked them in hot rocks on the side of the road. The sweet potatoes warmed her hands in her pockets. By the time she arrived at school, they had cooled enough to eat. I thought of the summer when I turned 21 and spent eight weeks studying Russian in an ancient town near the border with Estonia. I lived with a Russian girl and her Belorussian boyfriend. On the weekends, my roommate’s mother brought fresh milk from the family’s dacha. The jar of milk sat out on the counter all week. In the mornings I skimmed a thick layer of cream from the top to add to my coffee. At the end of the week we used the remainder of the thickened milk to make *tvorog*, which was like cottage cheese but better. We ate *tvorog* with honey and tart yellow berries. After my classes at the local university, I would walk to the center of the city, where I would sit on one of the stone benches that lined the cobblestone streets and pull out a black-and-white composition notebook. I filled several notebooks with my observations of Russian life that summer. When I got back to college in the U.S., I worked as a tutor in the campus writing center. I wrote incessantly, but I didn’t think of myself as a writer. Sometimes I wonder if there is another version of my life, one where I recognized in my twenties that writing was not just a skill on a resume but my one true purpose. After college, I tried a few writing-adjacent jobs, and then came law school and a family and all the things that make it hard for me to write today. If someone were to observe me for a week in my life now, they might conclude that my one true purpose was driving on MoPac. I wanted to jump up and down in front of the rows of silent girls in Daryl’s studio. I wanted to wave my arms and shout: “Pay attention to the sweet potatoes! This woman is giving you a precious gift!” \*\*\* In their first weeks in Japan, Daryl and her husband were invited to the general’s house. Daryl was a hippie with long hair and miniskirts at a military party. Fortunately, an American man at the party was excited to meet an artist. Claude Holeman, a civilian who’d lived in Japan for decades, invited Daryl and her husband to his house for dinner, where he showed her his extensive collection of *ukiyo-e* or “floating world” woodblock prints. “I never looked back,” she said. Claude introduced her to printmaking master Hodaka Yoshida, and Daryl convinced Yoshida to teach her. (Claude showed her how to bow deeply from the waist while holding out one hand with a rolled-up $100 bill.) By the time Daryl’s husband was transferred to Bergstrom Air Force Base three years later, she had fallen in love with Japan and the art of printmaking. She cried on the plane back to Texas. She studied printmaking at the University of Texas, where her professors criticized the technique she had learned in Japan, so she transformed a bedroom in her north Austin home into a studio and made her prints there. She had found her life’s work. Unlike me, Daryl continued to travel after her 20s. She visited Japan five times and spent time in many other parts of the world, learning, teaching, finding inspiration. But her art was rooted in central Texas. By 1987, her art was in 42 galleries. She had left a job teaching art in Eanes ISD, and her first marriage had ended in divorce. Austin was getting crowded, and she needed someplace to put her animals: She had two horses and two longhorns. Thinking “I’m outta here, man,” she entered into a contract to buy 10 acres in Santa Fe, New Mexico. That was when her realtor called to tell her about 20 acres in Dripping Springs. The house on the property was rundown, but it came with a horse facility. The first time she saw the land where she lives and works today, Daryl stood for a minute in front of the house, which was basically a roach pit, and then she walked down to Big Bear Creek and sat down on a rock. “I am not leaving my Texas,” she thought. “This is home.” Out of six potential buyers, the fact that the county bank that held the deed chose to take a chance on a divorced, female artist was evidence, to Daryl, that the ranch in Dripping Springs was her destiny. She moved a double-wide trailer onto the property, angering the neighbors. The art scene in Dripping Springs was no Santa Fe, but there was another divorced artist who lived nearby, and the two women sometimes took a bottle of wine down to Big Bear Creek. In 2014, after years of making her prints in a garage and using the trailer as her office, Daryl built the pristine metal and glass studio where we sat on that recent visit. My eyes wandered from the vivid prints of blue water and luminous birch trees hanging on the walls to the cattle dozing in the shade beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows. This studio seemed like a perfect home for Daryl. Spare yet capacious, welcoming to visitors, but uncompromising in its aesthetic purpose. \*\*\* Daryl invited the girls to stand up and crowd around a large steel and wood press. They awaited their job assignments in uncharacteristic silence. I hoped it signified awe. The white shelves and cabinets lining the studio looked custom-made, like Daryl had designed the space to her exact specifications. I looked down at my black ankle boots — they were half a size too big, but I’d been wearing them for a year. Daryl opened a cabinet to reveal a stack of wooden blocks, neatly labeled and numbered, for each print that she made. Some prints had six different blocks, each with its own intricate carving. Each block is inked and run through a press by hand until the image is assembled to Daryl’s satisfaction; some blocks have to be printed four times in order for the full depth of color to reveal itself. “My life is in these cabinets!” she said, introducing the concept of keeping an inventory for tax purposes. (Another gift, my lawyer brain thought.) When she squirted a dark blot onto the pristine surface of her shelves, I felt the moms on either side of me flinch. The water-based vegetable ink, Daryl explained, would not stain like Western dyes. Daryl supervised as the girls took turns brushing the ink on a carved woodblock with a special brush made of “Japanese pony belly hair.” Then she bent her purple head over the paper as she lined the edges to match the carved woodblock, a process called “registration.” The fit had to be perfect; if the paper was placed so much as a hair’s length off center, the colors wouldn’t print consistently and the design wouldn’t work. “We don’t breathe when we do this,” Daryl said. Perhaps we followed her instructions too literally, since a girl from my car got the hiccups. We walked outside so she could get her water bottle, and I hurried her back in. I didn’t want to miss anything. Daryl had completed the registration and assigned the next task of guiding the block into the press to the smallest girl in the class, who looked hesitant. “Do your work,” Daryl said. I wondered if I was going to hear her voice the next time I sat down to write. The girl nudged the block, which was covered in a cottony thick piece of paper. Daryl’s adult assistant commanded the girls to stand back and leaned, shoulders first, into the spike of a giant wheel on the side of the press. We all watched as the block made its way slowly beneath the heavy weight and came out on the other side. The room was silent as Daryl uncovered the block, and when she smiled I saw the private joy that had nourished her love for this art for fifty years. \*\*\* When I emailed Daryl to ask if I could come back to the studio to interview her, she agreed enthusiastically. “I have had a ‘meant to be’ kind of life,” she wrote. “It continues.” I drove back to Dripping Springs on a chilly morning in January, and we talked in the studio over mugs of hojicha tea. Her hair was blue. Her two dogs, whose Japanese names translate to Chopstick and Gentle Giant, tousled at our feet while we talked. “Daryl Howard,” she tells me, “born in Del Rio and raised in Uvalde.” She doesn’t drop into the third person often, but when she does it underlines her sense of wonder at the distances she has traveled. Her father was Czech and her mother German-French. First-generation Americans, Daryl’s parents were hard-working, blue collar people. There was no art on the walls; Daryl doesn’t even remember being read to. But just across the border, a Mexican radio station blasted Wolfman Jack, the eccentric, gravelly-voiced rock and roll DJ that I knew from watching “American Graffiti” with my parents when I was young.Daryl was a baby in a crib when Wolfman was broadcasting. She wonders if she caught his vibes. At age two or three, she made her first work of art: an abstract design etched with a bobby pin on the painted metal headboard of a new bed, for which her reward was a spanking. She soon graduated to pastels, winning a blue ribbon in second grade for a drawing of Johnny Appleseed. Her father, a baker, delighted in her art. She majored in art at Sam Houston State University, where her mother insisted that she get a teaching degree. She graduated in three years because she wanted to get married to her first husband, the one who took her to Japan. “I’ve had this fortunate life,” she told me. “I got thrown into these situations. My fate, my karma, has brought me to these places, and I don’t even ask, I just keep going.” It must have felt like magic to the girl from Del Rio to be transported to Japan, where the ground shook and men sold sweet potatoes by the side of the road. It must have felt like the hand of fate when she met Claude Holeman, a mentor well-connected enough to find her a Japanese teacher as well as clients and galleries back in the U.S. Today, her woodblock prints are held in the Dawson Springs Museum and Art Center in Holeman’s Kentucky hometown, as well as the Blanton Museum of Art, the Nevada Institute for Contemporary Art in Las Vegas, the El Paso Museum of Art, and many other museums and institutions. Her work wins prizes in exhibits across the country. Last year, her print of Hamilton Pool was awarded first prize in [*Hope for Spring*](https://www.nchmuseum.org/hope-for-spring-texas-water?ref=thebarbedwire.com)*,* an exhibit of local artists celebrating Texas water at the Neill-Cochran House Museum, where she will be a featured artist this summer, with an exhibit and printmaking workshop in June and a lecture about the history of Japanese woodblock prints in August. She is also a regular exhibitor at Austin’s annual Armadillo Christmas Bazaar. When Daryl looks back on her path to becoming an artist, she sees a gleam in her timeline, like the seams of gold dust that she uses her breath to melt into some of her prints. But I wondered: Did karma connect Daryl to the art that she was born to make? Or was the daughter of a stern Germanic mother and a father who worked for ButterKrust for 35 years the perfect person to devote herself to an exacting, ancient art? And which was my meant-to-be life? The life where I recognized my love of writing in my 20s and never looked back? Or the life I had, writing in the nooks and crannies of the family schedule, driving back and forth on the same highways, between errands and school pick-ups, in a cloud of ambivalence? I wanted to know how she did it. How she held on to the love she’d discovered in Japan and brought it back to Texas. I asked about rituals. She mentioned the teapot that she used every morning, the tea that Holeman used to send her from Japan before she could buy it at Asahi Imports. But there was something more important she wanted to say. “I have fire in my belly,” she said. “I have been gifted the ability to do this.” Daryl sees serendipity in everything. In the field trip, in this interview. “I just feel like this meant-to-be kind of thing,” she continues. “I am in an almost meditative state when I make my woodblock prints, when I draw, and when I’m developing them. It is so exciting. It is so fulfilling.” Her art, she says, “gives me a reason to want to go on living.” Driving over the cattle guard and through the red gate, I hoped that I had caught a little spark of Daryl’s fire. Sometimes skipping a writing day ignites a flame. But nothing happens unless I show up to do the work. It helps to picture Daryl in her studio, holding her breath as she waits to see if the print will come out right. ### The Things I Remember URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/book-the-tell-amy-griffin-remember-amarillo-texas/ Last updated: 2025-03-18T05:00:00.000Z *From the book* [*THE TELL by Amy Griffin*](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/743950/the-tell-oprahs-book-club-by-amy-griffin/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)*. Copyright © 2025 by Amy Griffin. Published by The Dial Press, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.* I want to tell you about the things that I remember. The things I have always remembered, things I remember still. The way it felt as a little girl when I’d get on my banana-seat bike, faded pastel pink with tassels on the handlebars, and ride through the streets of Amarillo with the breeze on my face. The sound of the cicadas chirping in the summertime. The way a change in the wind on the cattle yards outside of town, caked with manure, could leave you running for cover. Or a surprise on the cherry tree in our front yard: a loveliness of ladybugs swarming along its bark. I would stand there with a jar, collecting them excitedly. They would crawl up the glass, and I’d watch for a while, naming them. Then I’d set them free. Free—that was what my childhood in the Texas Panhandle felt like to me. Free like the wide-open spaces, where you could see for miles. Free to stay out until dark, trusting that nothing bad would happen. Free to do cartwheels through the park. Free to roam the neighborhood in search of friends who wanted to ride their bikes to the convenience store for a Coke and a candy bar. My family owned that convenience store, and several others in town. They were called Toot’n Totum, and there were locations all over Amarillo. The closest to our house was the store on Wimberly. My friends and I would ride there, then use our kickstands to park our bikes next to the building, up against its red-and-white brick siding, leaving the bikes unlocked. I can hear it now in my memory: the swish of the door opening and the jingling bell announcing the arrival of a customer. I can feel the blast of air—flat and cold—hitting my face as I walked inside, a reprieve from the dry heat. I can see the hot dogs that had been turning too long in the hot dog machine, which probably needed to be thrown out; my dad didn’t like when they were overcooked, which they often were. In the front aisle, there was candy, and lots of it, with a colorful array of gum: I liked the bright, shiny yellow of Juicy Fruit and the synthetic watermelon tang of Hubba Bubba. Chewing gum was discouraged in my family, so much so that my grandmother Novie didn’t allow it, considering it an offense as bad as smoking. Once, at a restaurant, my father pointed out a pretty woman smoking a cigarette. “See that woman over there?” he said. “Do you think she’s beautiful?” “Yes,” I said. “No,” my dad said. “She’ll be wrinkly soon, because she smokes.” This was a clever way of keeping me and my siblings away from cigarettes, by appealing to our vanity. Tattoos and motorcycles were similarly verboten, but you couldn’t get either of those at the Toot’n Totum. My favorite snack, the choicest of all options, was a bag of Funyuns. Or I’d mix up a Slush Puppie, pulling the handle to dispense the frozen ice; the store had a machine where you pumped the syrup yourself, and I would use all the flavors, one after another, so that the slush turned my teeth black. Sometimes I would go into the store with my father, usually to pick up a case of Capri Suns when my mom volunteered to bring the drinks to a soccer tournament or community fundraiser. We would walk to the back, into the walk-in freezer where the drinks were stored, past the racks of Hostess Twinkies, Mrs. Baird’s white bread, and Planters peanuts. My dad had a sweet tooth: He would usually pick up a pack of M&M’s, alternating between classic milk chocolate and peanut; it was always a surprise that I would find stashed, half melted, in the center console of his Suburban. The clerk, in a bright-green apron with pockets, would ring us up, smiling under fluorescent strip lights. When I looked down at my pink jelly sandals, I’d see the gleam of the white linoleum floors, always spotless. Everything was perfect. Toot’n Totum wasn’t the only store in town. Sometimes I would ride my bike to Joan Altman’s, a gift shop in a strip mall not far from my house, where there was candy in the shape of red and black berries. I would study them, trying to decide which color I liked better, even though they tasted the same; or did they? I could never tell. Joan had gray hair and a demeanor that could turn on a dime; depending on the day, she would be either delighted to see us or cranky about having her store invaded by a pack of unchaperoned children. My mother went to Joan’s to purchase monogrammed gifts. In the South, anything that could be personalized would be—towels and Dopp kits and coasters and mugs, and anything we might need for summer camp. One Christmas I got a turquoise Jon Hart barrel bag with my name stitched on a tan rawhide patch; I can see it in my memory, on the shelf of the closet of my childhood bedroom. The bag was a symbol of possibility—the places I might go, the new people I might meet there. They would know my name because it said it on my bag. There were two worlds. There was the one outside, where I could be wild, always in a swimsuit, my hair bleached from the summer sun and dry umber dirt under my fingernails. I was as rugged and free as the longhorns that, according to folklore, still roamed Palo Duro Canyon. Then there was the world inside, a world of things, which was ruled by order, exemplified by the stores my family owned. The aisles and shelves were organized, each product perfectly lined up. Space was maximized in the interest of efficiency. Surfaces were tidy. Things were put away where they belonged. Everything was bright, colorful, and ready for purchase. That order was a form of safety. Life, I thought, would be better if everything could be presented like the items in that store, packaged or frozen. I believed that the things that we sold at my family’s stores were good because we sold them. And what we sold—what was good—was convenience. This—convenience—was very important. The best things in life weren’t free. They were shrink-wrapped. When I was little, I loved entertaining my friends at the store, treating them to feasts of Reese’s Pieces, Cool Ranch Doritos, and lemon Gatorade, which I could put on the family account. Eventually, my father had a talk with me. “Amy,” he said, “can we talk about the monthly tab?” “The tab?” I asked. “From the store on Wimberly,” he said. “What do you think happens when you write down what you’ve bought on that little piece of paper?” I had never thought about it—it seemed more like magic. “I have to pay for all of it,” my dad said. It was the first time I understood that everything has a cost. The family business was only about as old as my father; his parents had opened their first store in Amarillo around the time he was born. At the first location, customers would drive up and honk their horns, and then a clerk would ferry their order out to the car. The store was named for the toot of the car’s horn and the toting out of the goods. Five years after my grandparents started the business, my father’s father, whom everyone called Lefty, fell from a ladder while cleaning the gutters. They weren’t sure if he’d died of a blood clot or a heart attack; either way, he was gone. My grandmother Novie was widowed with two small children, my father only four years old. But over the next two decades, she expanded the business such that there were nearly thirty locations, a big presence in a small town, by the time I was a little girl. I was the oldest of my parents’ children, followed by my brother Jeff, one year my junior. Three years later, my sister, Lizzie, was born, then my youngest brother, Andrew. Novie’s house was as orderly as her stores. The four of us grandkids bounded like a pack of wolves through her beautiful home in search of dinner rolls or Andes mints. Novie arranged every little decorative object just so. You could feel the tension when we ran through her living room, as if the adults were just waiting for us to topple a potted plant or piece of antique silver. Her house even smelled important somehow, like orange and clove. Novie had a beloved decorator, a man named Tom, who was frequently at her side, bringing her objects from around the world, like a silver turtle that made a buzzing sound when you pressed down on its tail; she also had a housekeeper who cooked and cleaned. It was novel to me that Novie, a woman, had help with domestic tasks; it meant her hours were free to run her business. It made her life more convenient. Eventually, Novie found a new partner, Harley, a taciturn man who helped her expand the business; Harley was the only grandfather I ever knew. But no one ever said, “This is your step-grandfather, as your real grandfather is no longer alive.” It wasn’t until I saw a photo of a young man in a football uniform, standing proudly with his hands on his hips, and I asked who it was, that I understood that this was my paternal grandfather, Lefty, who had been a star athlete before his death. I began to see that there were things, adult things related to matters of intimacy, that people just didn’t talk about. Nobody said that Tom was gay, although it was obvious that he was different from other men I knew, nor did they comment on the fact that Harley and Novie slept in separate bedrooms, as we once discovered when we were playing hide-and-seek in her house. My mother assured us that babies were delivered by stork. ### Houston-Area Midwife Arrested After Allegedly Providing Illegal Abortions URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/ken-paxton-houston-abortionist-arrested/ Last updated: 2025-03-17T20:09:36.000Z UPDATE, March 18, 2025: A Houston-area medical assistant and nurse practitioner were also arrested in connection to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s arrests targeting abortion providers. Jose Manuel Cendan Ley, a 29-year-old medical assistant, was arrested for allegedly helping Maria Margarita Rojas perform what Paxton called illegal abortions. Rubildo Labanino Matos, a 54-year-old nurse practitioner, was arrested and charged with “conspiracy to practice medicine without a license,” according to an announcement from Paxton’s office on Tuesday. Paxton’s office has not clarified what type of alleged abortions were being performed or supported — [medicated](https://www.plannedparenthood.org/planned-parenthood-south-atlantic/patients/health-care-services/abortion-services/abortion-types?ref=thebarbedwire.com) abortions, procedural abortions, or [spontaneous abortions](https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/9688-miscarriage?ref=thebarbedwire.com) (miscarriages). Reproductive justice organizations like [If/When/How](https://ifwhenhow.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) say they’re closely monitoring the announcement of the arrests, calling them “cruel political theater intended to scare Texans.” They remind people that data shows the state’s abortion ban has been tied to a [56% rise in maternal mortality](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-maternal-mortality-rate-went-up-56-after-abortion-ban/). “Texas abortion policies are killing people. No one should have to fear criminalization for seeking an abortion or supporting their community,” Farah Diaz-Tello, senior counsel and legal director for If/When/How told *The Barbed Wire*. “Though Paxton has affirmed that people may not be prosecuted for having abortions, we know people are afraid right now, especially those who may have relied on a clinic connected to today’s arrest. But you are not alone. Our [Repro Legal Helpline](https://reprolegalhelpline.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) is here if you or your loved ones need free legal support related to their abortions.” PREVIOUS STORY: A Houston-area midwife was arrested on Monday for allegedly performing illegal abortion procedures, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced on Monday — the first criminal charges to be filed under Texas’ near total abortion bans. Maria Margarita Rojas, who Paxton’s office said calls herself “Dr. Maria,” was charged with illegally providing abortions, in addition to practicing medicine without a license, according to a [press release](https://www.oag.state.tx.us/news/releases/attorney-general-ken-paxton-announces-arrest-houston-area-abortionist-and-crackdown-clinics?ref=thebarbedwire.com) from Paxton’s office. Rojas was detained in Waller County northwest of Houston, according to the attorney general’s office. Rojas owned and operated a [network of clinics](https://www.clinicas-latinas.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) under the names Clinica Waller Latinoamericana in Waller, Clinica Latinoamericana Telge in Cypress, and Latinoamericana Medical Clinic in Spring, an investigation by Paxton’s Law Enforcement Division found. Clinica Latinoamericana is a low-cost clinic offering a $150 annual membership that includes $10 for doctor visits and $95 for ultrasounds. Its website does not list abortion as [one of its services](https://www.clinicas-latinas.com/lista-de-servicios?ref=thebarbedwire.com). According to the release, the clinics allegedly hired unlicensed medical workers who presented themselves as licensed professionals. Rojas also allegedly conducted illegal abortion procedures that violated Texas’ “trigger ban,” House Bill 1280, which went into effect after the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v Jackson. Texas [outlaws](https://www.sll.texas.gov/faqs/abortion-illegal-texas/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) all abortion procedures except when a pregnant patient’s life is at risk, though Texas doctors have said there is [no clarity on when they can perform abortions](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/05/20/texas-medical-board-abortion-guidance/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The laws include both criminal and civil penalties, as well as disciplinary action against the licensure or permit of a physician or other health care practitioner who performs, induces, or attempts an abortion in violation of the law, according to the [American Society for Reproductive Medicine](https://www.asrm.org/advocacy-and-policy/reproductive-rights/summary-reports/state-summary-reports/texas/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=Abortion%20Prohibition,abortion%20is%20performed%20or%20induced.). The attorney general's Healthcare Program Enforcement Division also filed for a temporary restraining order that would close Rojas’s clinics. The attorney general can seek civil penalties of “at least $100,000 per violation for the unlawful performance of an abortion,” according to the press release. “In Texas, life is sacred. I will always do everything in my power to protect the unborn, defend our state’s pro-life laws, and work to ensure that unlicensed individuals endangering the lives of women by performing illegal abortions are fully prosecuted,” Paxton said in a statement. “Texas law protecting life is clear, and we will hold those who violate it accountable.” Since the law went into effect in 2022 after the fall of Roe v Wade, data shows that [more Texas mothers have died](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-true-cost-of-texas-abortion-ban-rising-deaths-abandoned-babies-fewer-doctors/) from less access to abortion care, more infants died or were abandoned, and there are fewer licensed doctors to care for pregnant patients. Reproductive rights activists have been warning that the law would result in unwarranted arrests. In December, Paxton filed the [first-ever civil suit](https://www.vox.com/abortion/400484/abortion-maggie-carpenter-mifepristone-medication-texas-new-york-rfk-louisiana-paxton?ref=thebarbedwire.com) against an out-of-state abortion provider. Paxton alleges that New York-based abortion provider Dr. Margaret Carpenter violated Texas law by mailing or online prescribing abortion pills to Texas residents — an allegation stemming from a complaint by a man who claims to be the father of a pregnancy allegedly affected by abortion pills. ### Texas Megachurch Pastor Will Turn Himself in on Child Sexual Abuse Charges URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-pastor-robert-morris-dallas-child-sexual-abuse/ Last updated: 2025-03-17T15:53:47.000Z A former pastor of a Texas megachurch is set to surrender to officials on Monday on child sexual abuse charges that date back to the 1980s. Last week, Robert Morris was indicted on [five counts](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/oklahoma-gov/content/dam/ok/en/oag/news-documents/2025/march/gj-2023-419-indictment-robert-morris%5Fredacted.pdf) of “lewd or indecent acts with a child,” according to the [Office of the Oklahoma Attorney General](https://oklahoma.gov/oag/news/newsroom/2025/march/multi-county-grand-jury-indicts-texas-megachurch-founder-on-multiple-counts-of-lewd-or-indecent-acts-with-child.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Mack Martin, Morris’ attorney, told the [*Associated Press*](https://apnews.com/article/texas-megachurch-pastor-child-sexual-abuse-charges-f3f51666f4201288786f5162f908f2ea?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that he expects to enter a [not guilty plea](https://www.pittsburgtx.gov/Faq.aspx?QID=86&ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=A%20not%20guilty%20plea%20means,he%2Fshe%20demands%20a%20trial.) but refused to comment on the charges against Morris. An Osage County judge set a $50,000 bond and made Morris hand over his passport to the local sheriff, according to court records. Morris [resigned](https://apnews.com/article/texas-pastor-robert-morris-abuse-cb2c633de3a5d43538141c1736e33245?ref=thebarbedwire.com) last summer as senior pastor of Gateway Church in the Dallas suburb of Southlake, the *AP* reported. His resignation followed a public complaint: [Cindy Clemishire](https://apnews.com/article/texas-megachurch-pastor-child-sexual-abuse-charges-f3f51666f4201288786f5162f908f2ea?ref=thebarbedwire.com) accused Morris of sexually assaulting her as a child multiple times, which allegedly started in 1982 and continued for four years, according to the *AP*. “After almost 43 years, the law has finally caught up with Robert Morris for the horrific crimes he committed against me as a child,” said Clemishire, now 55, in a statement. “Now, it is time for the legal system to hold him accountable.” If convicted, Morris could be imprisoned for up to 20 years for each of the five charges, according to the attorney general’s office. “There can be no tolerance for those who sexually prey on children,” said Attorney General Gentner Drummond in a [press release](https://oklahoma.gov/oag/news/newsroom/2025/march/multi-county-grand-jury-indicts-texas-megachurch-founder-on-multiple-counts-of-lewd-or-indecent-acts-with-child.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “This case is all the more despicable because the alleged perpetrator was a pastor who exploited his position. The victim in this case has waited far too many years for justice to be done.” **Read more atthe** [***Associated Press***](https://apnews.com/article/texas-megachurch-pastor-child-sexual-abuse-charges-f3f51666f4201288786f5162f908f2ea?ref=thebarbedwire.com)***.*** ### Yoga Moms & a Side of Brisket: ‘White Lotus’ Is Giving Glorious Fan Service to Southern Women URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/white-lotus-southern-women-texas/ Last updated: 2025-03-17T13:35:49.000Z As soon as Parker Posey’s character began rattling off the Ratliff family’s university lineage in season 3 of “White Lotus,” southerners knew they were in for a treat. Middle child Piper (Sarah Catherine Hooks), we’re told by father Timothy (Jason Isaacs), is writing a thesis on Buddhism as a senior at the University of North Carolina. Thus, the family jaunt to Thailand. “I was also a Tar Heel, but Timothy went to Duke, Saxon graduated Duke, Lochlan our youngest just got accepted to both,” Posey’s Victoria purrs. “So you can imagine it's a whole *theng*.” Which, of course, it is. So much so that the parody may fall flat on some ACC and SEC veterans, whose porch alma mater flags are all but required by their home owners’ associations. As a southerner (born in North Carolina, raised in South Carolina, living in D.C. and working in Texas) I can attest to the accuracy. The Duke-Carolina rivalry is as big Longhorns vs. Aggies, and matriculation from both schools holds similar social capital. I went to App State, the hippie third option that Piper probably wanted to go to but would have been told NEEAUUUUU with similar levels of disbelief to Piper’s decision to enroll at a meditation center in Thailand after school, revealed in Episode 5. Victoria: “What if it’s a cult Piper?” Piper: “Mom I promise you it is very legit. The monk who runs it, he has written major books.” Victoria: “So? Charles Manson wrote books. Bill Clinton wrote books. The list goes on. Hillary Clinton wrote five books.” Oof. I guess the [Comet Ping Pong shooter](https://www.washingtonian.com/2025/01/09/comet-ping-pong-gunman-shot-dead-by-police-in-north-carolina/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) *was* from North Carolina. That level of understanding of regional status signaling, coupled with Posey’s accent, more than make up for the missing *woooo’s* of the new theme song. Then, in episode 3, we got [*that* politics scene](https://www.glamour.com/story/i-cant-stop-thinking-about-that-way-too-accurate-white-lotus-trump-scene?ref=thebarbedwire.com), in which Leslie Bibb’s Kate embodies a certain type of Austin transplant who sheepishly shrugs when asked by her girlfriends if she voted for President Donald Trump. And it was clear this season is fan service for the southern set. To address the elephant — or longhorn — in the room: There’s no consensus on whether Texas is part of the south. I get it. Texas is its own republic and national brand (it’s become a motto of sorts here at *The Barbed Wire*). However, I’m using what I call the *Southern Living* test — the magazine’s geographic lines include Texas, and editing alumni include Lone Star luminaries a la Jenna Bush Hager. (I will happily engage in a more thorough debate on card-carrying southern states at a later time.) And let’s be real, the only thing Texans love more than Texas is debating who is *actually* Texan. If you weren’t born in a Buc-ee’s parking lot, good luck claiming citizenship. Meanwhile in the larger south, Texas is like that cousin at Thanksgiving who insists they’re “different” but still shows up for the pecan pie and SEC football. But more to the point, in these unprecedented times (or is life imitating *The Onion* precedented now?) we deserve a southern Moira Rose — a woman with a wardrobe that would make Blanche Devereaux jealous, who is happily hooked on a 21st century mommy’s little helper. The way Posey delivers the word lorazepam deserves an Emmy. As do the writers for choosing the Ativan generic, which has greater comedic effect than Xanax. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DGg6vW0yS-M/?utm\_source=ig\_web\_copy\_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==\] At first, there was a little internet backlash to Posey’s accent, claiming it didn’t sound right. But our king [Landon Bryant](https://mississippitoday.org/2025/01/28/mississippi-stories-landon-bryant/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) quickly shut that debate down in one of his [viral videos](https://www.instagram.com/landontalks/?hl=en&ref=thebarbedwire.com) on southern culture: “Y’all are being ugly, and you need to stop.” Posey spent the early part of her childhood in Monroe, Louisiana, and the latter in Laurel, Mississippi — where Bryant is from and which Posey told [*SF Gate*](https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/A-Woman-of-Independent-Means-A-regular-at-2825613.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) was the dirty, stinking town Steve Forbert claimed. “If you were to go to the Laurel country club, her mama and ‘em all sound exactly like that,” Bryant said in his video. “And also, how dare you, she is a southern queen.” If we needed further proof, there’s Posey’s appearance on the [Today](https://www.today.com/video/parker-posey-talks-white-lotus-s3-southern-accent-best-in-show-233539141641?ref=thebarbedwire.com) show. Host Craig Melvin (a good South Carolina boy himself) asked Posey how she came to the pronounced twang, to which Posey responded with an instantly memeable riff on the funnier words in the script: tsunameeee, BOODHISM, Piper NEAUUUU. (The last, unsurprisingly to Christopher Guest fans, came out of her long-running work with the director.) “I love southern women,” Posey said, before touching on our collective appreciation for the show “Southern Charm.” She added, “Being able to be this dramatic and funny is just so juicy and fun to do.” In addition to the growing recognition of Posey as [more than an indy queen](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/24/magazine/parker-posey-white-lotus.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Austin has received a little lampooning. And, frankly, as Texas has become home to [tech billionaires](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/how-austin-became-a-haven-for-bro-saviors-like-alex-jones-and-elon-musk/) with visions of themselves as modern rough riders, and [companies seeking tax cuts](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/kentucky-fried-chicken-kfc-texas/) and escapes from DEI initiatives, we deserve a proper skewering of a certain Texas trope. Many have an idea of Texas — like a Trumpian version of “Yellowstone” — that may have some truth but is largely at odds with the enormity and diversity of the state. It’s also historically inaccurate for the ‘let’s keep it weird’ liberal island of Austin. And that’s what makes the bit even better. Perhaps I’m giving the showrunners too much credit, but the punchlines seem directed at the right targets — newcomers living out their rodeo, MAHA mom fantasies, and coastal elites who think that’s all there is to Texas. In 2023, the U.S. Census Bureau confirmed that [Latinos](https://www.texastribune.org/2023/06/21/census-texas-hispanic-population-demographics/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) outnumber white residents in the state. Last year, Texas added more residents than any other state, particularly in the “suburban ring counties,” as [State Demographer](https://demographics.texas.gov/About?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Lloyd Potter told [*Texas Standard*](https://www.texasstandard.org/stories/texas-population-continues-growing-faster-than-any-other-state/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “So, you know, in the Austin area, it would be like Williamson County and Hays County, and now Bastrop is kind of picking up in terms of its growth as well,” Potter said. Many are [from California](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/why-do-texans-hate-california-so-much/), part of the “Texifornia” trend backed up by[ data from U-haul](https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/where-are-people-moving-to-austin-from-california-is-on-top-u-haul-data-shows/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). And, perhaps surprisingly, they’re actually *not* making the state more progressive. Rather, Californians who have settled in outlying Williamson County are more likely to be Republicans, according to research published in the [*Houston Chronicle*](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/projects/2024/california-texas-politics/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Bibb’s Kate is a new-to-Austin transplant on vacation with Jaclyn (Michelle Monaghan), an actress living in L.A., and Laurie (Carrie Coon), a New York lawyer — though we don't know where the group is originally from. The toe-curling dinner scene in Episode 3 that touched on every topic an old school southern hostess would caution against — religion, politics, money — prompted the [internet to do what it does best](https://www.reddit.com/r/Austin/comments/1j32wzq/any%5Fthoughts%5Fon%5Faustin%5Fmentions%5Fon%5Fwhite%5Flotus/?ref=thebarbedwire.com): joke about where the fictional Kate would live, what church she would go to, what car she’d drive. My best guess: Kate lives in a West Lake Hills McMansion, drives a Tesla she swears is “just for the environment,” and name-drops her Pilates instructor more than her actual kids. ![Illustrations of Parker Posey’s character in White Lotus](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/png_image.png) Kate’s coastal friends perpetuate the Texas stigmas. Their health guide for their stay, Valentin (Arnas Fedaravicius), tells Jaclyn and Laurie they have the numbers of people half their age. But not Kate, which her friends posit is the fatty food of Austin, butter and steak, etc. The truth is, the list of vegan taco options is as long as the line for Franklin’s brisket. But it’s the interaction between Victoria and Kate that’s a real coup d’etat of class parody. In Episode 2, Kate stops at the Ratliff family table, insisting she knows Victoria because they attended the same baby shower in Austin. Victoria simply stares blankly in response. It’s one of the skin crawlingly awkward interpersonal scenes that Mike White has made his creative brand. Lochlan chides: “Mom why were you like that?” Victoria: “Like what?” Lochlan: “Kinda rude.” “Oh please, what does she want me from? We met at a baby shower 10 years ago,” Victoria says. “I’m on vacation with my family, I don't know her.” Saxon points out that her friend is a famous actress. “Should I be impressed? Actresses are all basically prostitutes,” Victoria retorts, to laughs from all but Piper. For “White Lotus,” it’s a full-circle moment, conjuring that [painful scene](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RG1-QhdFucA&ref=thebarbedwire.com) in Season 1 between tech CFO Nicole (Connie Britton) and budding journalist Rachel (Alexandria Daddario), in which Rachel is desperately seeking Nicole’s approval and Nicole takes offense to the girlboss of it all. Breaking into the spheres of old money southerners is a saga worthy of a Kiera Knightley movie — they are, of course, descendants of Brits who have perfected the art of immutable social and racial classes. And in Texas, old money means you either own oil, land, or both. If your great-grandpa wasn’t branding cattle or drilling into the ground**,** you’re new money (and bless your heart). Kate wears the trappings of wealth and parrots the necessary lines — the people at her church are “nice people, really good families” — but there’s something missing. In one scene, she exemplifies the taboo of trying too hard. Complaining about not knowing who her true friends are, she humblebrags about her husband’s wealth — “everyone in Austin knows about Dave and his company” — and all the people asking her for donations or help getting onto boards. It comes off as the embodiment of social striver that born and raised southerners across all socio-economic lines have a genetic intolerance to. And made-for-TV comedic perfection. ### Isaiah Martin Roasts MAGA Creators on TikTok. Now He’s Running for Congress. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/isaiah-martin-texas-sylvester-turner-sheila-jackson-lee-congress/ Last updated: 2025-03-17T09:00:00.000Z ## EXCLUSIVE UPDATE, March 21, 2025: A D.C.-based tech company is suing Isaiah Martin for alleged unpaid services during his previous bid, [*Chron*](https://www.chron.com/politics/article/isaiah-martin-lawsuit-turner-20232052.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com)reported. According to the news outlet, the lawsuit accuses Martin and his congressional campaign of breaching a contract with [Grassroots Analytics](https://www.grassrootsanalytics.com/about?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a firm that helps candidates and nonprofits fundraise, for failing to pay for assistance listed in the contract and invoices. [*Chron*](https://www.chron.com/politics/article/isaiah-martin-lawsuit-turner-20232052.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com)reported that the company accused Martin of using the campaign “to his own benefit” since after his first bid for Congress. In a statement, Martin’s campaign told *The Barbed Wire* that the “lawsuit fails to mention that they previously breached the contract with the campaign by failing to deliver the agreed upon services, as well as by prematurely terminating the contract without proper notice to switch sides in the race to work with another candidate in the same race.” PREVIOUS STORY: A few years ago, Isaiah Martin’s mentor, the late U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, told him to start posting videos on social media. That would be the future of politics, she advised. At first he didn’t think it’d go anywhere. But he was consistent, and he shared daily, unapologetic takes, mainly explaining Democratic stances on political issues. Soon, he was in the fray. “I would go into what was called MAGA TikTok lives,” he told *The Barbed Wire.* “You would have right-wing Republican creators that oftentimes would have debates 8-1 stacked up against me.” “And I would go and cook them all.” In excerpts of some of those live debates on his page, Martin beats back at disinformation. He denounces claims, like that cutting the corporate tax rate isn’t a boon for billionaires (the [Center on Budget and Policy Priorities](https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-budget/house-republican-budgets-45-trillion-tax-cut-doubles-down-on-costly?ref=thebarbedwire.com) found research that President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cut boosted executives’ earnings but not workers below the 90th percentile); that President Joe Biden was responsible for increasing the national debt (as [*ProPublica*](https://www.propublica.org/article/national-debt-trump?ref=thebarbedwire.com) found, Trump heralded an explosive rise in debt in his first term); and that Biden tanked the economy (the opposite is true, as [*The Guardian*](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/mar/16/trump-biden-economy?ref=thebarbedwire.com) reported.) Martin’s aim, he said, isn’t so much about converting Trump supporters as answering “those questions that they might not have heard a Democrat answer before.” “I don't believe that, in this moment, we can be scared,” Martin said. “I think we need to be very bold about answering every question.” His resume is one you’d expect from a 26-year-old — he [interned and volunteered for Jackson Lee](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/houston/article/isaiah-martin-jackson-lee-congress-election-18352396.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com); [briefly ran](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/houston/article/isaiah-martin-jackson-lee-congress-election-18352396.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for a Houston City Council seat; has worked as a consultant; served as a student activist on issues like vaccination, rape kits, and voter outreach; and has, of course, amassed a following on TikTok. Now, he has 275,000 followers and roughly 20,000 to 30,000 views per video. But earlier this month, Martin posted that he was taking a break from live videos after the death of his congressmember, Sylvester Turner, who also served as mayor of Houston. “I really want to take some time to sit back and think about things and figure out what’s next,” he said into his phone. In that stillness, the answer came: He decided to pick up the torch. In an exclusive interview with *The Barbed Wire*, Martin said he’s running for Texas’ 18th Congressional District, which covers much of the city of Houston and surrounding areas, and is where he grew up. Texas’ 18th has had a tumultuous eight months. Jackson Lee represented the district from 1995 until her [death in July of pancreatic cancer.](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/07/19/sheila-jackson-lee-dies/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) She was succeeded briefly by her daughter, Erica Lee Carter, who completed Jackson Lee’s final term in office, and then by Turner, who had previously served as mayor of Houston after decades in the Texas House of Representatives. Turner [also died after being treated](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/congressman-houston-mayor-sylvester-turner-dies-at-70/) for bone cancer. The successive losses mean the 18th District will have a fourth representative in less than a year, Martin or otherwise. Although Gov. Greg Abbott has yet to announce the date of a special election, [speculation has already begun](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/joy-sewing/article/sylvester-turner-future-democrat-leadership-20204774.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) over who will carry on the legacy of the political heavy-weights who have long-served Houston’s residents. It’s a tall order. In 1972, in that same seat, the late Rep. Barbara Jordan became the first Black woman elected to Congress from the South. Anti-poverty activist Mikey Leland also held the position and was succeeded by his friend Craig Washington, until Washington was handily defeated in 1994 by Jackson Lee. In 2023, Martin ran to take over Jackson Lee’s district seat as she vied to become mayor of Houston. After her loss to (former state senator and current mayor) John Whitmire, Jackson Lee decided to try again for another U.S. House term, and Martin dropped out to support her. Afterwards, he said, he didn’t sit idly. “I went to New York to go and help Congressman Tom Sazi, who's now elected to Congress. I traveled to places like Oregon to elect Janelle Bynum, traveled to places like Alabama to go and elect people like Shomari Figures, who is right now inside of the United States Congress,” he said. “I've been around the country. I've campaigned for Democrats up and down the ballot and for Vice President Kamala Harris.” Of course, though some of those were wins, others were glaring losses. Now that Martin is himself running, he’ll face a challenge from candidates with both more experience and more name-recognition. [Christian Menefee](https://cao.harriscountytx.gov/About/Christian-D-Menefee?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the county attorney for Harris County, also filed paperwork to run for the 18th congressional district on Saturday. As lawyer for the largest county in the state, 37-year-old Menefee is an immediate frontrunner. He’s previously sparred with Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton over the Republicans’ claims questioning the legitimacy of the [2020 election](https://x.com/CDMenefee/status/1471191848823701504?ref=thebarbedwire.com), over [rights for transgender Texans](https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/politics/2022/02/22/419600/harris-county-attorney-says-he-wont-adhere-to-ken-paxtons-opinion-that-gender-affirming-care-is-child-abuse/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and over a program to provide [financial assistance](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/04/09/texas-harris-county-guaranteed-income/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to low income families. Martin is offering a somewhat novel approach by hoping to turn social media views into votes. He’s decades younger than his would-be predecessors (Jackson Lee was “a grandmother-like figure for me,” Martin said) and a member of a generation that expects something different from its politicians. “Gen Z has really shown that we're not afraid of very much, and we're not people that are gonna play by the rules of the last hundred or so years,” Martin said, “I'm gonna do things a lot differently.” “I believe that that's the leadership that the people of this country really wanna see,” he added. “They want leadership that is not afraid. They do not want a Democratic Party that's afraid of its shadow.” In an interview, Martin was quick to bring up the latest fracas on Capitol Hill. Last week, Congress approved a [stop-gap measure](https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/11/politics/government-funding-bill-spending/index.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to fund the federal government and avert a looming shutdown. House Democrats rallied against the measure, arguing that it slashed funds in a way that would allow the Trump administration to eliminate longstanding programs. [Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer](https://www.npr.org/2025/03/13/g-s1-53495/senate-democrats-funding-bill-government-shutdown?ref=thebarbedwire.com) was one of 10 Senate Democrats who [voted to advance the bill Friday](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/senate-vote-republican-funding-bill-government-shutdown-rcna196412?ref=thebarbedwire.com), securing a 62-38 vote. Though Schumer ultimately voted against it on final passage, he's facing intense[ backlash](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/democratic-anger-schumer-surrender-shows-partys-deep-divisions-take-tr-rcna196370?ref=thebarbedwire.com) from the bulk of his party. Martin was frank: The measure was terrible. “It defunded care for veterans, it defunded care for storm recovery. It did a lot of things that hurt people,” he said. “When you kowtow to Donald Trump in a degree that we did and effectively give up all of our leverage, it made no sense.” Martin sees raising awareness around the impact of legislation and the Trump administration’s agenda as an important part of the legislative process — another on-brand Gen Z perspective. He feels politicians should be talking more about stories like that of the [Rio Grande City family](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/girl-deported-brain-cancer/) that was arrested, and later deported, while on their way to Houston to see medical specialists for their 10-year-old daughter, an American citizen. She was seeking treatment [for brain cancer](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/girl-deported-brain-cancer/). “One of the first things that I believe in is not being a quiet leader, right? So I'm gonna be one of the first ones to call stuff out like that, to go and amplify these stories, to talk about why this is important,” he said. Martin has plans for specific legislation as well. The [Dignity Act](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/escobar-house-gov/uploadedfiles/the%5Fdignity%5Fact%5Fof%5F2023%5Fone%5Fpager.pdf), co-introduced by Rep. Veronica Escobar of Texas District 16, includes measures to address border security as well as grant legal status to undocumented immigrants already living in the U.S. and legal pathways for economic migrants. “I think it’s a very strong piece of legislation that really needs to be talked about more, and getting across the finish line. I certainly want to work with people like Congressmember Escobar,” he said. But, as [*The Intercept*](https://theintercept.com/2023/09/07/texas-congress-campaign-isaiah-martin/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) pointed out when he announced his candidacy (for the first time) in 2023, Martin may be out of step with other Gen Z voters — at least on the topic of Gaza. Martin said he supports Israel’s right to defend itself; many of his peers condemn the country’s ongoing [military attacks](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/15/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-cease-fire-attacks.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in Palestine. Still, Martin is adamantly opposed to [Trump’s suggestion](https://apnews.com/article/trump-netanyahu-washington-ceasefire-1c8deec4dd46177e08e07d669d595ed3?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that the U.S. should take ownership of Gaza and redevelop it into “the Riviera of the Middle East.” “He wants to use this so he can commercialize and use this for his own accord,” he said. “I don’t think that we should sit by as this guy is trying to be a mad man and waste trillions of dollars of our taxpayer money in this conflict.” Whether he finds the right note on every policy platform, or garners enough momentum to overcome more seasoned candidates, Martin hopes to establish himself as part of Houston’s new political guard. “I built a reputation for not being afraid,” he said, “and I think that's really essential in today’s Democratic Party.” ### As If He Needed More of Our Money, Texas Gives Elon Musk’s SpaceX Another $17.3 Million URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-grant-spacex-elon-musk/ Last updated: 2025-03-14T17:03:25.000Z Elon Musk — cheater at [video games](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/elon-musk-admitted-to-cheating-at-video-games-gamers-are-aghast-why-did-he-do-it/), Austin-based father of (at least) 14 children, and [apparent](https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/14/politics/elon-musk-most-powerful-bureaucrat-washington/index.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [supervisor](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/how-elon-musk-gained-so-much-power-in-the-trump-administration?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to [President Donald Trump](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDv8ackOn3Q&ref=thebarbedwire.com) — is getting millions of dollars more from the state of Texas, all while he slashes government spending. A $17.3 million state grant will go toward Elon Musk’s SpaceX for the expansion of Starlink, a subsidiary and manufacturing facility in Bastrop, [*The Texas Newsroom*](https://www.kut.org/business/2025-03-13/texas-grant-spacex-starlink-elon-musk-semiconductor-austin-bastrop?ref=thebarbedwire.com)reported. As Musk works to cut federal spending on some of our most vital government programs, [his own companies](https://abcnews.go.com/US/musk-works-slash-federal-spending-firms-received-billions/story?id=118589121&ref=thebarbedwire.com) are raking in *billions* from government contracts. Gov. Greg Abbott’s Texas Semiconductor Innovation Fund will help SpaceX grow its research and development in Bastrop, according to a [press release](https://gov.texas.gov/news/post/governor-abbott-announces-texas-semiconductor-innovation-fund-grant-to-spacex?ref=thebarbedwire.com) from the Office of the Texas Governor on Wednesday. The governor’s office told *The Texas Newsroom* that only five grants have been given since its creation in 2023\. The fund amounts to [$698.3 million](https://gov.texas.gov/business/page/tsif?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Musk’s SpaceX received the second most funding behind Silicon Labs in Austin, which got [$23 million](https://gov.texas.gov/news/post/governor-abbott-announces-texas-semiconductor-innovation-fund-grant-to-silicon-labs?ref=thebarbedwire.com) through the program, according to *The Texas Newsroom*. Other recipients include [IntelliEPI](https://gov.texas.gov/news/post/governor-abbott-announces-texas-semiconductor-innovation-fund-grant-to-intelliepi?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in Allen, [Dongjin Semichem Texas](https://gov.texas.gov/news/post/governor-abbott-announces-texas-semiconductor-innovation-fund-grant-to-dongjin-semichem-texas?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in Killeen, and [KoMiCo](https://gov.texas.gov/news/post/governor-abbott-announces-texas-semiconductor-innovation-fund-grant-to-komico?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in Round Rock. SpaceX’s manufacturing site is in rural Bastrop County, around 45 minutes east of Austin, along with Musk-owned social media company X and infrastructure firm The Boring Company, according to *The Texas Newsroom*. SpaceX’s Bastrop location currently stands at [700,000 square feet](https://www.tdlr.texas.gov/TABS/Search/Project/TABS2025000494?ref=thebarbedwire.com), but it plans to expand by *one million* square feet over the next three years, per [Abbott’s announcement](https://gov.texas.gov/news/post/governor-abbott-announces-texas-semiconductor-innovation-fund-grant-to-spacex?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on Wednesday. A 2024 company progress report previously noted the facility would double in size this year, according to *The Texas Newsroom.* **Read more at**[***The Texas Newsroom***](https://www.kut.org/business/2025-03-13/texas-grant-spacex-starlink-elon-musk-semiconductor-austin-bastrop?ref=thebarbedwire.com)***.*** ### A U.S. Citizen Child Seeking Brain Cancer Treatment Was Deported with Her Parents URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/girl-deported-brain-cancer/ Last updated: 2025-03-14T15:39:33.000Z A family living in Rio Grande City was on their way to Houston to see medical specialists for their 10-year-old daughter when they were stopped and arrested at an immigration checkpoint, [*NBC*](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/us-citizen-child-recovering-brain-cancer-deported-mexico-undocumented-rcna196049?ref=thebarbedwire.com)reported Wednesday*.* When the mother — who spoke to NBC and whose name is being withheld to protect the family's identity — told immigration officials about their daughter’s medical condition, “they weren’t interested in hearing that,” she told the news outlet*.* On Feb. 4., immigration law enforcement removed the girl and her four U.S.-born siblings from Texas upon deporting their undocumented parents, according to *NBC* and a press release from the [Texas Civil Rights Project](https://www.txcivilrights.org/post/press-release-u-s-citizen-children-deported-alongside-undocumented-parents-despite-critical-medic?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a legal advocacy organization representing the family. The family had gone to Houston to see their daughter’s specialist doctors at least five other times and never encountered issues at the immigration checkpoint, said attorney Danny Woodward from the Texas Civil Rights Project in an interview with *NBC.* Woodward told the outlet that the parents usually presented letters from doctors and lawyers at the checkpoint to pass, but the parents were arrested in early February when they couldn’t show valid immigration papers. Woodward noted that the parents have “no criminal history.” U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not comment on the family’s case “for privacy reasons,” according to an email sent to *NBC* on Wednesday. In an email to the site on Thursday, a CBP spokesperson called reports on the family’s situation “inaccurate” since “when someone is given expedited removal orders and chooses to disregard them, they will face consequences.” *NBC* said it withheld the names of the family members because they were deported to an area of Mexico where kidnappings of U.S. citizens are prevalent. The 10-year-old daughter was diagnosed with brain cancer last year and has since had surgery to remove the tumor, her mother said. She told the news site that her daughter still hasn’t completely recovered, and the daughter regularly saw doctors to get rehabilitation therapy and prevent [convulsions](https://www.cancer.gov/publications/dictionaries/cancer-terms/def/convulsion?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a type of seizure. “We witnessed devastating family separations during Trump’s first administration, causing irreversible harm to the children forced to endure these policies. Now, we are seeing these dangerous tactics resurface,” said Rochelle Garza, president of the Texas Civil Rights Project, in a press release from the organization. “Families like this are just as Texan as any of us, and our dreams are the same: to keep our children safe and healthy and together.” Last October, Tom Homan, the Trump administration’s border czar and acting ICE director, told [*CBS News*](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/family-separation-immigration-60-minutes/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that “families can be deported together” regardless of immigration status. After the family was detained, they were transported to a detention facility, according to *NBC*. While the family has since moved into a house, the mother said her family worries for their safety. “The fear is horrible. I almost can’t explain it, but it’s something frustrating, very tough, something you wouldn’t wish on anyone,” she said in an interview with *NBC*. **Read more at**[***NBC News***](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/us-citizen-child-recovering-brain-cancer-deported-mexico-undocumented-rcna196049?ref=thebarbedwire.com)**.** ### Take from the Poor, Give to the Rich: Why School Vouchers Are a Scam URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-school-vouchers/ Last updated: 2025-03-13T05:01:00.000Z Ah, school vouchers. They’re like a coupon for 30% off, but only if the discount is covered by swiping your neighbor’s wallet. Texas is back at it again, folks. Last month, our state senate passed [Senate Bill 2,](https://www.kut.org/politics/2025-02-05/texas-voucher-bill-education-savings-accounts-school-choice-sb2-legislature?ref=thebarbedwire.com) which proposes giving families $10,000 in public funds per year, per student, through what Gov. Greg Abbott calls “education savings accounts.” These funds can be used toward private school tuition, textbooks, transportation — basically anything except improving public schools. If this all sounds familiar, it’s because we’ve seen this movie before. In 2023, during the 88th legislative session, a similar bill got [torpedoed by a bipartisan coalition in the House](https://www.texastribune.org/2023/11/16/texas-house-school-vouchers/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). But Abbott, like a dog with a bone (or maybe a [billionaire-funded steak](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/07/17/greg-abbott-jeff-yass-campaign-donation/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)), wasn’t ready to give up. He vowed revenge on House Republicans who opposed his voucher dream, [supporting their opponents in the 2024 primaries](https://www.texastribune.org/2023/12/06/greg-abbott-vouchers-primary-special-session/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). And it worked! Many of his foes were ousted, paving the way for the bill to pass this year. That’s democracy in action, folks — if at first you don’t succeed, buy a new legislature. The math behind this plan is simple. The median private middle school tuition in Texas is more than $30,000 per year (and for private high school, it’s more than $35,000), according to the [Education Data Initiative](https://educationdata.org/average-cost-of-private-school?ref=thebarbedwire.com), but the state will only give you $10,000\. It’s kind of like if your boss gave you a $25 gift card to a restaurant where the cheapest entrée is $75\. Sure, it’s a start, but you’re still going to end up paying for it. And this is only the *median* tuition — many private schools cost way more. The bill offers a little extra for students with disabilities, but for everyone else, it’s like handing out life vests in a flood where only the second floor is underwater. Critics of the bill say it’s less about helping low-income families and more about helping middle- and upper-class families who are already sending their kids to private schools. (Do you mean to say that Texas is only looking out for the wealthy? Perish the thought!) In fact, in other states with similar programs, more than 75% of students receiving vouchers were already enrolled in private schools or were homeschooled, per a study from [Reaching Higher New Hampshire](https://www.reachinghighernh.org/content-item/441/school-vouchers-will-cost-28-million-next-school-year-as-questions-and-concerns-about-the-lack-of-transparency-and-accountabilit?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Oh and a 2024 report from a [non-partisan think tank in Arizona](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/grandcanyoninstitute-org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/gci%5Fpolicy%5Fcost-of-the-universal-esa-program%5Fjune%5F6%5F2024.pdf) estimates “that 82% of universal ESA recipients never attended a district or charter school.” So, basically, this is less of a lifeline and more of a pat on the back for families who could *already afford private school*. Sen. Nathan Johnson from Dallas put it bluntly: “What \[SB 2\] does is redistribute wealth and then moves money into private schools, 75% of which in Texas are religiously affiliated,” he said in a [post on X](https://x.com/NathanForTexas/status/1887676518115004884?ref=thebarbedwire.com). That’s right, public money funding private religious schools — because nothing says “separation of church and state” quite like sending your tax dollars straight to Our Lady of the Perpetual Screw Public Education. But let’s not forget the real kicker: [158 of Texas’s 254 counties](https://www.dallasobserver.com/news/do-texas-school-vouchers-cover-average-private-school-tuition-21702118?ref=thebarbedwire.com) don’t even have a private school. For those families, a $10,000 voucher is as useful as a gift card to Blockbuster. Where are these rural kids supposed to go … Hogwarts? Because that’s about as real an option as any. To be fair, there *is* one genre of lower-cost private school that vouchers would pay for. That would be [Catholic schools](https://www.fox26houston.com/news/texas-school-choice-debate-hb3-march-11?ref=thebarbedwire.com) (and not surprisingly, the church [fully supports this scheme](https://www.texastribune.org/2023/10/27/catholic-church-school-vouchers-texas/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)). Oh and not that it matters, but vouchers are deeply unpopular across the political spectrum. About two-thirds of likely midterm voters in Texas oppose vouchers, according to a survey from the labor advocacy group [Unified Texas](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nas166lRYI%5FVVSk8CpYVRo18z%5FUeIndJ/view?ref=thebarbedwire.com). That includes 95% of Democrats, 72% of independents, and even 42% of Republicans, according to the group. That hasn’t stopped supporters like Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick from sticking their fingers in their collective ears and saying, “Nuh-UH!” Supporters of giving rich people more cash for yachts say vouchers will help *all* families. “My intent is to provide families with the opportunity to choose the best possible educational setting for their child,” said state Rep. Brad Buckley, R-Salado, the House author of a voucher bill and chair of the House Public Education Committee, per the [*Texas Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/03/11/texas-house-school-voucher-bill/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)*.* Ok but in the real world, what we’re likely to see is public schools in rural areas and small towns — where vouchers are worth bupkis — struggling even *more* as funds are siphoned away. Anyway, the voucher people are probably going to win this time. [President Donald Trump](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/02/20/texas-vouchers-trump-elon-musk-greg-abbott/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and his supervisor Elon Musk are pressuring Texas politicians to get vouchers done. And new House Speaker Dustin Burrows, told the *Austin American-Statesman* recently [that he expects the bill](https://www.statesman.com/story/news/education/2025/02/07/school-choice-voucher-senate-bill-2-texas-house-dustin-burrows/78294683007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to be successful. Rich peoples’ causes always seem to find a way! In the end, the biggest winners here are the wealthy private schools, and anyone running for office who needs a campaign contribution from a pro-voucher PAC. As for everyone else, well, you get a voucher. But fair warning: Nothing in life is ever free. ### Free Tallboys & Cowboys on Horseback: Urban Legends We Tell SXSW Visitors About Old Austin URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/urban-legends-texas-sxsw-old-austin/ Last updated: 2025-03-13T05:01:00.000Z Let us tell you a tale, youngster, of an Austin ruled by crushed tallboys, pink hair at Barton Creek, and Butthole Surfers songs blasting from FM car radios — long before Lime scooters were invented. Once upon a time, migas tacos used to cost just $.99 and include a free Lone Star, delivered by a cowboy on horseback. That cowboy? Mayor Ethan Hawke. See that building that’s plastered in protein powder as part of a supplement company’s brand activation? Matthew McConaughey used to rent an apartment there for $150 a month. He had naked bongo parties every weekend and everyone in Austin was invited, even Alex Jones. We used to think the most annoying local tech CEO was Michael Dell. Every few years he'd lay off 5% of his employees, and we'd say he was evil, but in hindsight, he didn't take over the government, sire hundreds of babies, promote crypto scams, or hop around like a ketamine-addled jumping bean. We were so naive, back when we were annoyed by Segway tourists. “Disrupt” was what your roommate did when they were having sex with their history professor in the next room while you tried to watch *Amelie* on your CRT TV while chatting on AOL Messenger. There was a [legendary Tex-Mex place](https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2006-07-21/388473/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on South Congress where people like Gov. Ann Richards would hang out and talk politics. They tore it down to build a JW Marriott where, nowadays, the CEO of a psilocybin yurt retreat hangs out and talks brand optimization. Richard Linklater used to loiter in front of the Paramount Theatre and hand out free tickets to his movie screenings. So did Robert Rodriguez and Terrence Malick. Sometimes they’d have to beg people to go, resorting to throwing in free popcorn and Jo's Coffee coupons. Back then we’d pull up to a place and park. For free! You didn't need a QR code or an app or a Bitcoin wallet, and on the rare occasions when you had to pay, you rolled up to the curb with a pocket full of nickels and fed that meter like a hungry metal goblin till it got to 85 cents. You were covered for the whole day, long enough to get day drunk (and sober again)! Back then, a marketing company thought it would be a good idea [to make homeless people into WiFI hotspots](https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2012/03/13/148506762/turning-homeless-men-into-wifi-hotspots-at-sxsw-ignites-debate?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Austinites got upset and the company immediately backtracked. If it happened today, the ruthless capitalist behind the stunt would just Uber over to Joe Rogan's podcast studio and get his audience to shout down the woke critics. Ten years ago, people would stop and stare at a Tesla in admiration, instead of flipping it off and throwing empty cans of Eastciders Blood Orange. When SXSW started, visitors had three hotels to choose from. One of them was Willie’s tour bus, one was a South Congress motel where you might wake up next to a dead body, and the other was your buddy Rudolfo's couch from Rooms To Go, which you’d share with a dirty old chihuahua. But enjoy your Fairmont suite, tough guy. Years ago, when a SXSW visitor would smile and say, “I think I want to move here,” we wouldn’t gag and say, “Try surviving August, dumbass.” We’d introduce them to our realtor and put together a Texas salsas gift basket. One time, Doritos built a [60-foot-tall vending machine](https://www.austinmonthly.com/remembering-when-doritos-built-a-60-foot-vending-machine-at-sxsw-and-put-snoop-dogg-inside-it/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for Snoop Dogg (no, this isn't a Mad Lib), and Austinites were disgusted by the blatant display of commercialism. Now, they complain that [Doritos brand experiences](https://austin.eater.com/2023/3/9/23631212/doritos-sxsw-doritos-after-dark-late-night-food-chips-billboard?ref=thebarbedwire.com) aren't what they used to be and pine for the days when PepsiCo was keeping it real. The music scene at [SXSW is so corporate](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/sxsw-music-festival-gen-z/) now. We used to go to secret shows in downtown alleys and see bands before everyone else knew who they were. That’s how Coldplay got started: by the 7-Eleven dumpster. Back in the day, we had [actual humans driving taxis](https://www.businessinsider.com/waymo-tesla-battle-in-austin-robotaxi-wars?ref=thebarbedwire.com), not robots. One of those flesh and blood drivers was named Tito, and he invited us to his house for dinner and some of the vodka he was distilling in his backyard. Yep. *That* Tito. ### Hundreds of Texans Had Thoughts on School Voucher Scheme at Tense 23-Hour Capitol Hearing URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-school-voucher-hearing/ Last updated: 2025-03-12T16:14:49.000Z If Texas lawmakers want to use taxpayer money to fund private education, they’re going to hear from a lot of concerned citizens. A contentious public hearing on the issue lasted almost 23 hours this week, as hundreds of people spoke to lawmakers. About 330 people registered for public testimony at the House Education Committee hearing on House Bill 3, from 8 a.m. on Tuesday until around 6:30 a.m. on Wednesday, according to [*WOAI*](https://news4sanantonio.com/news/local/debate-over-school-vouchers-draws-hundreds-to-texas-capitol-for-public-testimony?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The bill would allocate $1 billion toward education savings accounts, which families could use for private school tuition, according to the [*Texas Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/03/11/texas-house-school-voucher-bill/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Most participating students would receive approximately $10,893 every year, according to the *Tribune*. And it will cost taxpayers a lot of money. A state [Legislative Budget Board](https://www.lbb.texas.gov/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) analysis expects the program would cost $10 billion by 2030, [*WOAI*](https://news4sanantonio.com/news/local/debate-over-school-vouchers-draws-hundreds-to-texas-capitol-for-public-testimony?ref=thebarbedwire.com) reported. Needless to say, some people are not happy about this. One [public school educator](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/03/11/texas-house-school-voucher-bill/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in Corpus Christi testified that the program would effectively be “stealing public funds” from communities that need them, the *Tribune* reported. Students, parents, and teachers gave much of the public testimony. And we know that statewide, a voucher program is unpopular. Around two-thirds of likely midterm voters in Texas oppose similar school voucher programs, according to a [Z to A Research survey](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nas166lRYI%5FVVSk8CpYVRo18z%5FUeIndJ/view?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in March. But vouchers are the top priority of Gov. Greg Abbott this session, and there is [national pressure on Texas lawmakers to get them passed](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/02/20/texas-vouchers-trump-elon-musk-greg-abbott/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), so here we are. Proponents say vouchers give parents greater flexibility in choosing what they believe is the best education for their children. But research in other states shows that vouchers result in taxpayer dollars funneled toward families who are [already paying for private ](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/03/11/texas-house-school-voucher-bill/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)school. Critics argued that giving taxpayer dollars to private schools will lead to more public schools struggling. Currently, about 73% of [Texas public school districts](https://kinder.rice.edu/urbanedge/making-case-increasing-funding-texas-schools?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=Turley%27s%20research%20published%20by%20the,exceed%2040%25%20of%20their%20needs.) are underfunded, according to the Kinder Institute at Rice University. "A vote for HB 3 is a vote for layoffs and economic decline in your own communities... you're not just defunding schools, you're dismantling community traditions for a failed plan and we'll remember,” public school teacher Danielle Bryant said at the hearing. The committee did not vote on the bill at the end of the meeting, and the next one is yet to be scheduled. **Read more at**[***Texas Tribune***](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/03/11/texas-house-school-voucher-bill/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) **and** [***WOAI***](https://news4sanantonio.com/news/local/debate-over-school-vouchers-draws-hundreds-to-texas-capitol-for-public-testimony?ref=thebarbedwire.com)***.*** ### 15 of the Best Love Stories Made by Texans URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/15-best-love-stories-texas/ Last updated: 2025-03-12T05:01:00.000Z With the help of some of the state’s film buffs, critics, and cinephiles, *The Barbed Wire* has rounded up a list of love stories as big as Texas. Whether they were filmed here, set here, or brought to life by some Texas-raised talent, we’ve curated a selection of essential, unexpected, and heartwarming romances that showcase the Lone Star State. ***The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas* (1982)** Filmed in Austin, and based on an actual brothel known as the “Chicken Ranch” in La Grange, *The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas* was a Tony Award-winning musical before it became a cult classic. And while the movie toned down some of the Broadway show’s more explicit escapades, it’s still a delightful rom-com led by Dolly Parton and Burt Reynolds as secret lovers, Miss Mona (the Chicken Ranch madam) and Ed Earl Dodd (the small-town sheriff) who have to work together to save the brothel from a tawdry investigative TV reporter (Dom DeLuise). It’s campy, it’s fun, and it has a solid soundtrack that includes “Hard Candy Christmas,” “Sneakin’ Around,” and “I Will Always Love You.” ***Before* Trilogy: *Before Sunrise*, *Before Sunset*, *Before Midnight* (1995, 2004, 2013)** Thank goodness for Texas’ Richard Linklater. His three part series is a love story told over the course of eighteen years. Linklater’s sparse and intimate *Before* trilogy follows Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Céline (Julie Delpy) — two strangers whose chance encounter on a train to Vienna kicks off a decades-long journey. Their journey takes the characters from idealistic young lovers to adults grappling with regrets, setbacks, and the everyday complexities of life. With its naturalistic approach — Delpy and Hawke collaborated closely with Linklater on the scripts, often drawing inspiration from their own lives — the trilogy is an honest, messy, beautiful romance that stands the test of time. “I think as you get older it gets more poignant because you realize that when you’re that age, you think life’s always going to be like that,” Linklater said of *Before Sunrise* [in an interview with *Huck Magazine*](https://www.huckmag.com/article/richard-linklater-on-before-sunrises-enduring-legacy?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “You think you can get off a train with someone you’ve just met. It’s a specific place in time that’s, by definition, taken for granted by people in that age range.” ***Giant* (1956)** Clocking in at nearly three and a half hours, George Stevens’ epic romantic drama brought three of Hollywood’s biggest stars — Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, and James Dean — to the West Texas desert. Starting in the mid-1920s, the film traces 25 years in the lives of wealthy cattle rancher Bick Benedict (Hudson), his headstrong wife, Leslie (Taylor), and their rags-to-riches former ranch hand, Jett Rink (Dean). It’s a film about rapidly changing times set against the backdrop of the oil boom during an era of extreme prejudice and discrimination toward Mexican-Americans in Texas. It’s these fraught circumstances that shape the characters’ lives, giving rise to longstanding resentments and feuds. At the heart of all of this though, is the tumultuous, ever-evolving romance between Bick and Leslie. ***Down With Love* (2003)** It would be easy to single out *Bridget Jones’ Diary* when thinking of Renée Zellweger’s best romantic performances (I mean, how many Texans have managed to pull off a British accent as effortlessly and convincingly as her?). But that would be too predictable. Instead, tread off the beaten path with *Down with Love*. An homage to 1960s rom-coms, Zellweger stars as Barbara Novak — an ambitious self-help author who wants to empower women to think of their own desires rather than prioritizing relationships with men. Her writing puts her in the crosshairs of Catcher Block (Ewan McGregor) — a magazine writer and womanizer who sets out to prove Barbara isn’t as “anti-love” as she claims to be. There are more twists in this movie than you can possibly imagine, and each one is delicious. It’s a blast watching Zellweger and McGregor go back and forth in this tongue-and-cheek battle of the sexes, and it’s especially enjoyable with the film’s use of 60s-inspired sets, costumes, and visual effects. ***Everybody Wants Some!!* (2016)** Linklater’s “spiritual sequel” to *Dazed and Confused*, *Everybody Wants Some!!* takes place in 1980s Texas as a group of college baseball players bonds and parties their way through their final days of freedom before their classes start. It’s also a breakout moment for Glen Powell, who steals several scenes as Finnegan, a cheeky playboy who always has a line ready for any girl that happens to cross his path. “Romance is about more than locking lips,” Tanner Carlos Hadfield, co-founder of Austin’s Hyperreal Film Club, told *The Barbed Wire*. “It’s about big ideas and big characters colliding in wide open spaces. Richard Linklater is America’s most romantic filmmaker, and *Everybody Wants Some!!* is pure jock poetry. And how can you not be romantic about baseball?” ***Ghost* (1990)** On paper, the premise of *Ghost* might seem a little nuts: The spectre of a murdered banker (Patrick Swayze) tries to keep his girlfriend (Demi Moore) out of harm’s way with the help of a psychic medium (Whoopi Goldberg). As Austin-based film critic Alejandra Martinez told *The Barbed Wire*, the film’s plot might be improbable, but its central romance grounds it in reality. “The love story, anchored by Houston’s own Patrick Swayze, is what lingers the longest after all these years,” she said. “Beneath the humor and mystery, there’s an aching heart that Swayze embodies perfectly. The pottery scene is iconic, but look at Swayze’s eyes any time he’s watching Moore. There’s a hunger, a longing there that could make anyone believe in the potency of love — in this life and the next.” ***Hope Floats* (1998)** Among Sandra Bullock’s stacked romance filmography, *Hope Floats* is an underrated gem. Earnest and unpretentious, the film picks up when Birdee’s (Bullock) life is upended after learning her husband has been cheating on her. Looking for a fresh start, she and her daughter move back home to Texas, where Birdee strikes up a romance with a former classmate, Justin (Harry Connick Jr.) Directed by East Texas native, Forest Whitaker, the film was also choreographed by famed Texas choreographer Patsy Swayze, who first broke out thanks to her iconic work in *Urban Cowboy*. ***How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days* (2003)** There’s no doubt that *How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days* belongs on the Mount Rushmore of 2000s rom-coms. It has all the hallmarks of a true classic: a scrappy, young lead who works as a journalist (Kate Hudson as Andie Anderson), the supportive best friend (obviously played by Kathryn Hahn), a devastatingly charming ladies man (Matthew McConaughey as Benjamin Barry), *and* an iconic dress. All of these characters are brought together by a don’t-think-about-it-too-much premise involving ulterior motives and (of course) a secret bet that comes to light at the top of the third act. Even when they’re pushing each other to their limits, Hudson and McConaughey’s chemistry is so effortless here, it’s no wonder this role helped him become a rom-com staple in the years that followed. "We challenged each other, we busted each other's chops and we laughed a lot," the Texan actor told [*People*](https://people.com/matthew-mcconaughey-recalls-chemistry-with-kate-hudson-on-how-to-lose-a-guy-exclusive-8633570?ref=thebarbedwire.com) last year. "And there was a bit of rock and roll exchange that (we thought), 'Oh, this could be some heavyweight fun.' And I think that's why I was cast and that's why, to whatever extent, it worked." ***Jason’s Lyric* (1994)** Set in Houston’s Third Ward, *Jason’s Lyric* revolves around brothers Jason (Allen Payne) and Joshua (Bokeem Woodbine) whose turbulent childhoods lead them to follow two different paths in life. As he gets older, Jason is left torn between the obligation he feels to take care of Joshua, and the possibility of a new life with his girlfriend, Lyric (Jada Pinkett Smith). “It’s honest and gripping,” Linda Eaddy, director of film programming for the Denton Black Film Festival, told *The Barbed Wire*. “It covers a variety of topics from mental illness to the family dynamics between two brothers, and it’s a black romance, which we don’t see enough of in cinema.” ***Lone Star (1996)*** When the murder of a former sheriff comes to light, the investigation into his death brings several ugly truths to light in this neo-Western drama. “It’s an unusual, sometimes sweet, but not always idyllic love story between a Mexican-American woman and an Anglo-American man,” Mary Beltrán, Radio Television and Film professor at the University of Texas, told *The Barbed Wire*. “It’s meant in some ways as an allegory for the way Mexican-Americans and Anglo-Americans have an intertwined history in Texas that has been both fruitful and at times heartbreaking. It’s educational about Texas history, while also being an engrossing and touching narrative with a dark secret at its center.” ***Moonrise Kingdom* (2012)** Wes Anderson’s coming-of-age drama centers around anxious and precocious preteens Sam (Jared Gilman) and Suzy (Kara Hayward) — pen pals who spark concern when they decide to make good on a secret pact to run away together. Rounded out by a full cast of the Houston-born director’s frequent collaborators (Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, and Jason Schwartzman), the film is a testament to the power of young love. In an interview with [*Vanity Fair*](https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2012/06/wes-anderson-moonrise-kingdom-bill-murray-interview?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the director said, “What I wanted to do was re-create the feeling of that memory. The movie is kind of like a fantasy that I think I would have had at that age. When you’re 11 or 12 years old, you can get so swept up in a book that you start to believe that the fantasy is reality. I think when you have a giant crush when you’re in fifth grade, it becomes your whole world. It’s like being underwater; everything is different.” ***Twister* (1996)** *Technically speaking*, *Twister* is a disaster movie, and yes, *technically* it starts with meteorologist and storm chaser, Bill (Fort Worth’s Bill Paxton), serving his estranged wife, Jo (Helen Hunt), divorce papers so he can marry his fiancée, Melissa (Jami Gertz). *But*, with every tornado that blows through Oklahoma, it becomes impossible to deny that Bill and Jo were made for each other. Honestly, at a certain point, you’re almost rooting for the storms, because you know that the former couple is one big disaster away from putting aside their differences and finally getting back together. **Urban Cowboy (1980)** An 80s classic, *Urban Cowboy* takes place in Gilly’s (Pasadena’s legendary honky tonk), where “Bud” Davis (John Travolta) meets and falls in love with Sissy (Debra Winger), initiating an on-again-off-again love story that’s pushed to its limits by a mechanical bull-riding contest. “It’s so iconic with its legendary actors and the glittery country music soundtrack,” Adam Rocha, executive director of the San Antonio Film Festival, told the *The Barbed Wire*. “John Travolta is an undeniable movie star. He’s vulnerable and confident, and his chemistry with Debra Winger rings true. It’s a snapshot of a time and place in American culture.” *Did we miss your favorite? Tell us on Instagram at* [*@*](https://www.instagram.com/thebarbedwiretexas/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)[*thebarbedwiretexas*](https://www.instagram.com/thebarbedwiretexas/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)*.* ### Does Gen Z Even Know SXSW Is a Music Festival? Does it Matter? URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/sxsw-music-festival-gen-z/ Last updated: 2025-03-11T09:00:00.000Z *Texas hasn’t gotten its due as a major piece in the complex puzzle of American art. We’re here to rectify that. Every three weeks, H. Drew Blackburn will conduct a thoroughly scientific analysis of the 254 integral (one for every county) books, movies, tv shows, albums, podcasts, songs, and magazine articles — you name it — that best exemplify the Texas spirit. These texts, products of immense talent, dig into the marrow of our being. When it’s all said and done and we’ve built The Texas Voyager collection, we’ll (figuratively) head to the Johnson Space Center in Houston and shoot it beyond the atmosphere, into the cosmos. A wise person once posed the question: “What if the aliens are hot?” Hold onto that hope — this is our chance to impress ‘em.* “South By Southwest was a music festival!?” That’s what one of my Gen-Z co-workers said when she heard me and another co-worker reminiscing about all the shows (and cruel hangovers) we caught during the festival back in our 20s. They were everywhere. In downtown Austin, out on the Drag, on the eastside. I’ve even found myself at a show hosted at a mansion on the Colorado River 30 miles northwest of Sixth Street. At 33, my body occasionally tells me it's in a transitional phase, between young and old. But hearing someone act shocked that the main draw for SXSW was once music makes me feel like I’ve already earned the senior discount at Denny’s. In Gen-Z’s defense, music is definitely not the focus of SXSW anymore, and hasn't been for a while. This has led a lot of people to declare the festival dead or over, but this is cyclical. Back in 2011, an article in [*TechCrunch* opined whether calling SXSW passé was itself passé](https://techcrunch.com/2011/03/17/sxsw-is-over-over/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The festival’s not what it used to be, but it’s a cultural force, and as far as institutions in Texas go, its gravity can’t be ignored. SXSW was founded by Roland Swenson, Louis Jay Meyers, Louis Black, and Nick Barbaro in 1987 as a music and media conference and had [roughly 700 attendees](https://www.austinchronicle.com/features/2001-09-07/82876/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that year. By 1994, the festival added interactive and film and had [4,550 total registrants.](https://www.kbzk.com/cnn-national/2019/03/01/south-by-southwest-fast-facts/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) In 2018, attendance grew to 308,970. “South By took off in part because the New Music Seminar up in New York was a headache,” said Alan Berg, founder of the Arts+Labor, a creative video production agency. Berg is president of the board of directors for the Society for the Preservation of Texas Music. “You’re trying to get around this giant city, you can’t park to unload your gear,” Berg told *The Barbed Wire* “It's expensive to get there. It's expensive to stay there, and nobody's having any fun.” The main draw for Austin was that in the ‘80s it was small and, during the University of Texas’ spring break, the city would be more empty than usual during one of the few times of the year when the weather is actually perfect. “That's how they got the clubs to sign on. They said, ‘We're gonna put people in here when the students are out of town,’” Berg said. Berg went to the first SXSW in ‘87, and thought it was just a cool event to catch some bands. In ‘94 though, he saw a seismic shift. “That was a watershed year. They brought Johnny Cash in as a keynote speaker and sort of ratcheted it up a level,” he said. “Here’s this major star that everybody knew and there’s sort of a ripple effect from that.” Those early days were mostly about music discovery and in some ways catered to the music industry's apparatus. There’s a laundry list of artists who caught a big break at the festival — Odd Future, John Mayer, The White Stripes, Spoon, and Amy Winehouse are a few. [Adele played to an empty room](https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/adele-performed-empty-room-sxsw-2007-8221427/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “What I've always liked was this exciting feeling that you're seeing (what’s) next before anybody else,” Berg said. “You would hear about these buzz bands, so then you’d try to track them down and then a year or two later — they're famous.” In ‘96, one of the festival programmers gave Berg warning about an act he needed to see at Stubbs, which ended up being The Fugees. “I just remember standing there and I'm like *this* far from Lauryn Hill,” Berg said. There were those moments where you would “get chills.” Even more chilling — I bet Lauryn Hill was [actually on time](https://www.buzzfeed.com/markelibert/lauryn-hill-responds-comments-about-lateness?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The insatiable desire to catch what’s next has always been a staple of the SXSW experience, but for a different generation, as the festival grew out of the clout built in the ‘90s by Gen X, emerged another draw. With heavy presence by sponsors came a level of extravagance. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/250309_sxsw_embed.jpg) Lady Gaga performs at South by Southwest, 2014\. Credit: Nathan Malone/Wikimedia Commons For millennials, SXSW was an adventure in finding the best parties with free stuff. Free food. Free booze. Free sneakers. Free music by superstars. In [2011 Kanye West performed at an abandoned power plant](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/music-news/kanye-west-closes-sxsw-all-169434/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). In 2014 [Lady Gaga took the stage at Stubbs](https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/lady-gaga-stages-dramatic-performance-art-spectacle-at-sxsw-197152/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). However, the one party above them all, the one millennials will tell their grandchildren about while sitting in a rocking chair about if we [ever get around to having kids](https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/11/03/millennials-only-children/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), is [The Fader Fort](https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/fader-forts-history-with-sxsw-highlighted-in-new-book/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “That was the best party you needed to be at,” Jose Gutierrez, who formerly operated and co-founded the Dirty Team and When Where What party guide Instagram accounts, told *The Barbed Wire*. “It was a fucking adult playground.” There were Levis and Ray Bans activations, endless Budweiser tall boys, Dell’s on site for journalists who need to file their stories (props) and not to mention the performances — [Kendrick Lamar](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmALE4csU1w&ab%5Fchannel=KendrickLamarVEVO&ref=thebarbedwire.com), [Cardi B](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYWejbIdFJY&ab%5Fchannel=TheFADER&ref=thebarbedwire.com), [Santigold](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHWUTl4OY4M&ab%5Fchannel=TheFADER&ref=thebarbedwire.com), [T-Pain](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tg1VaxVTIdg&ref=thebarbedwire.com), [The Internet](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyIPeqOqj-I&ab%5Fchannel=TheFADER&ref=thebarbedwire.com), and many more. It was the party everybody wanted to go to where you could catch what’s next and what’s now. “As you can imagine, as 20-something bros, we all had jobs, but SXSW was our escape from reality,” Gutierrez said. In 2015, after scoring one of those coveted Fader Fort invites, I caught BadBadNotGood do a set with Ghostface Killah along with a raucous performance that saw Mike Will Made-It bring out Rae Sremmurd, Future, RiFF RAFF and Miley Cyrus. That year I also hurriedly traversed the streets of downtown Austin at midnight so I could witness Courtney Barnett and Kaytranada — two musicians whose music couldn’t be further apart. That was the allure — the diversity of music you could see, acts big and small, who grew up in Australia to Montreal to Atlanta and everywhere in between. I’ll miss the rush of bouncing from bar to bar, venue to venue, but those days, or at least that version of the festival, are long gone. People have been rendering SXSW dead for years now. Some banged the gavel thanks to the huge corporate presences, like when Doritos [built a massive vending machine](https://www.fastcompany.com/3027313/doritos-has-a-bold-mission-and-lady-gaga-for-sxsw-attendees?ref=thebarbedwire.com) as a venue (a stage Gaga also took). Obviously, the COVID-19 pandemic threw its status into disarray. You would have every right to be skeptical of the festival for [selling a majority stake to Penske Media](https://pitchfork.com/news/sxsw-stake-sold-to-rolling-stone-and-billboard-publisher/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). And last year, the festival made the biggest loser move in its history when it took a sponsorship from the [U.S. Army](https://www.texasmonthly.com/arts-entertainment/has-sxsw-festival-lost-its-cool/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “To me, South By started losing its cool factor when interactive became this giant and sort of subsumed music and film,” Berg says. “I get nervous about South By because I want it to survive. I believe it’s one of the most important things that’s happened in Austin in my lifetime. It coincided with this sleepy little town becoming big.” There is hope yet. I’ve been noticing a trend here, and Berg, a former award-winning journalist and lecturer at UT, has too. In a [Substack he published last year](https://happyheat.substack.com/p/did-sxsw-jump-the-shark) holding the festival’s feet to the fire for its military sponsorship, cozying up to A.I., and “tech folks drop(ing) in from a parallel planet filled with frothy talk and trendy vests, tolerated because they bring their cheddar,” he ended on a positive note saying, “film in particular felt like a home run. The venues were packed, the stars turned out, the studios staged spectacles.” There’s probably no better movie-going experience than watching a soon-to-be classic at the Paramount Theater at SXSW, with its stars in their seats among you, the audience whooping and hollering like they’re at the Apollo. I remember seeing “Bottoms” premiere in 2023 and leaving the venue in a bit of disarray, knowing I just watched the next classic teen sex comedy, the first great one since “Superbad.” Friday night, as soon as I filed my first draft for this column, I raced over to the Paramount and saw the premiere for Seth Rogen’s “The Studio,” which had such an electric response that some of the dialogue was drowned out by laughter and applause. Right after, I saw “Together,” starring the husband-and-wife duo Allison Brie and Dave Franco. The film is best described as a relationship-horror-comedy about how difficult it is to truly give yourself to another person. Just as I did with “Bottoms” a few years back, I got to watch one of those films that’s going to dominate the summer and stay on our minds for years, maybe even decades, to come. There’s an energy in the building during the screenings at SXSW that’s tethered to the aura that *this* festival is a *party*. That exciting feeling that you're seeing what’s next before anybody else is still there, just in another form. As Nicole Kidman once said, “[we come to this place… for magic](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiEeIxZJ9x0&ab%5Fchannel=AMCTheatres&ref=thebarbedwire.com).” Just like the city, the festival is changing. It sure ain’t dead yet. ### How a Feeder Cam Turned Me Into a Bird-Watching Dad URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/birding-texas-birdwatching/ Last updated: 2025-03-10T09:00:00.000Z It started, as all great midlife crises do, with an impulse purchase on the internet. While some men my age are out buying motorcycles or taking up CrossFit, I went in a different direction: I bought a bird feeder with a camera. A state-of-the-art, live-streaming marvel that now sits in my backyard, capturing footage of tiny winged creatures, scarfing seed like they just emerged from an intermittent fasting regimen. This was not my first old man hobby. I’m not going to get into my attempts at martial arts, model building, running, or bonsai. But birdwatching has been particularly enjoyable. Birds are... (put on earmuffs, 16-year-old Brian) ...kinda cool. They aren’t like us. They’re little dinosaurs that can fly. Their colors can be shockingly vibrant. They may as well be visitors from another planet. And if you’re into collecting things, birdwatching is basically collecting real-life pokemon. Luckily, I live in Texas, which is basically a birding paradise. Texas is easily one of the best states to see birds in the continental U.S., according to [Yvette Stewart of Audubon Texas](https://tx.audubon.org/news/kudos-yvette-stewart-audubon-texas-%E2%80%93-one-three-national-audubon-society%E2%80%99s-tamar-chotzen?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “We have confirmed sightings of 680 species in (Texas),” she told me. “Texas offers a huge geographical range with a beautiful mix of ecosystems which supports the wide diversity of species found throughout the seasons. Our incredible shoreline and the Rio Grande Valley cannot be beat for their incredible birding sites.” And if you’re a birding hipster, Texas has birds like the adorable [Golden-cheeked Warbler](https://ebird.org/species/gchwar?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that *only* breed here. Take that, other states! Back to my feeder. The instructions told me that it may take a week for the first visitor to show up. Mine only took a few hours. He was a cardinal. A bright red, majestic, glorious creature that, until this moment, I had not fully appreciated. Sure, I’d seen cardinals before — I was raised by my mom, a die-hard St. Louis Cardinals fan — but this was different. This cardinal had chosen *my* backyard, *my* feeder, *my* overpriced contraption. Even my 6-year-old thought it was cool, saying, “This is a great way to study birds.” She was right. Days later, a house finch appeared. A less flashy, slightly more humble bird, but I welcomed it just the same. "A house finch!" I exclaimed with the kind of joy usually reserved for a surprise tax refund. I posted my [videos to social media](https://www.tiktok.com/@briangaarsucks/video/7476635291336592686?ref=thebarbedwire.com). My followers were into it. Or that’s what I told myself. As birds continued to come, I found watching them to be meditative. It reminded me of my ‘80s childhood, when my parents demanded that I go play outside, which resulted in me boredly looking at birds when I wanted to be inside, watching “G.I. Joe.” After a few weeks, I started doing my own research (don’t worry, it had nothing to do with vaccines). Because, naturally, one cannot simply observe birds without learning everything about them. I found myself deep in the most elderly recesses of the internet, reading articles like "[Common Backyard Birds of the United States](https://abcbirds.org/blog/backyard-birds/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)" and "[How to Attract Birds to Your Yard in 9 Steps](https://www.skh.com/thedirt/attract-birds-yard/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)." I joined a Reddit bird-watching forum, which, in retrospect, was a step too far. Nothing humbles a man quite like excitedly posting about a cardinal only to have a veteran respond that you’ve accomplished the most basic level of bird watching. I ignored the haters and pressed on. My excitement did not wane. Each morning, I’d check my feeder cam before even considering looking at my emails. My conversations at dinner started shifting in the direction of, "Did you know that house finches were originally only found in the western United States [before they were sold as cage birds and then released into the wild](https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/House%5FFinch/overview?ref=thebarbedwire.com)?" I’m not the only one to take up this hobby. A lot of people seek the tranquility of walking and listening for birds, especially in our busy culture, Stewart told me. Birds are visually stunning, she said. And they’re easy to find. “They’re literally on every continent and in every major city in the world,” she said. Now you might be wondering, wait, aren’t we supposed to be [taking down our bird feeders](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/take-down-your-bird-feeders-texas-parks-wildlife-warns-bird-flu-is-highly-contagious/) because of the bird flu thing? Glad you asked. I checked with Stewart to make sure I wasn’t being irresponsible. She responded in my favorite way: by telling me I was right. “It is safe for people to have feeders out if they do not have poultry,” she said, meaning people who don't own domestic or backyard chickens can feel free to feed away. So go forth and watch birds. Now if you’ll excuse me, I just got a notification of a new visitor: a Carolina Wren. I can’t wait to spend way too much money on binoculars. **Brian’s Top 10 Coolest Texas Birds:** [Golden-crowned Kinglet](https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/golden-crowned-kinglet?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [Pyrrhuloxia](https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/pyrrhuloxia?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [Calliope Hummingbird](https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/calliope-hummingbird?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [Horned Lark](https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/horned-lark?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [Pileated Woodpecker](https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/pileated-woodpecker?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [Scarlet Tanager](https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/scarlet-tanager?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [Painted Bunting](https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/painted-bunting?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [Roseate Spoonbill](https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/roseate-spoonbill?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [Golden-cheeked Warbler](https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/golden-cheeked-warbler?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [Red-headed Woodpecker](https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/red-headed-woodpecker?ref=thebarbedwire.com) ### ‘We Value Our Health’: Fort Worth Pastor Brags About Low School Vaccination Rates URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/fort-worth-pastor-measles/ Last updated: 2025-03-07T16:17:47.000Z A private school in Fort Worth is proud of its low vaccination rates — it even put it on a T-shirt. Mercy Culture Preparatory Academy had a measles, mumps, and rubella vaccination rate of 14.29% among kindergartners in the 2023-2024 school year, the lowest in the state, according to [Texas Department of State Health Services data](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-dshs-texas-gov/sites/default/files/LIDS-Immunizations/xls/2023-2024%5Fschool%5Fvaccination%5Fcoverage%5Flevels%5Fkindergarten.xlsx). Mercy Culture pastor Landon Schott, whose church is associated with the school, celebrated these numbers in an [Instagram post](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DG1I-g-xAPx/?igsh=MTJtaTdsemV1b2Nwcg%253D%253D&ref=thebarbedwire.com) on Wednesday. After a school board meeting, Schott showed off balloons and a T-shirt printed with “#1 School in Texas for Least Amount of Vaccinations,” which he received as a “surprise gift.” "They're not allowing the government or science projects to affect how you live and lead your life," Schott said in the Instagram video. "I know the entire world was shut down with insanity and people were fired from their jobs for forced vaccinations, and freedom is something we take seriously." Mercy Culture Prep’s MMR vaccination rates are well below the [91.52%](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-dshs-texas-gov/sites/default/files/LIDS-Immunizations/xls/2023-2024%5Fschool%5Fvaccination%5Fcoverage%5Flevels%5Fkindergarten.xlsx) coverage in Tarrant County. Most North Texas schools and districts have vaccination rates above 75%, according to [*WFAA*](https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/tarrant-county/texas-school-vaccination-rates-measles-outbreak-mercy-culture-church-prep-school-landon-schott/287-26756b75-973d-422c-a01a-4b480d3cdf02?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Only around 62 North Texas schools had a 100% vaccination rate among kindergartners in the 2023-2024 school year. Texas is the epicenter of measles outbreaks nationwide, with 198 confirmed cases in West Texas as of [March 7](https://www.dshs.texas.gov/news-alerts/measles-outbreak-2025?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Eighty cases were not vaccinated, and 113 have an unknown vaccination status. [A school-aged, unvaccinated child in Lubbock](https://www.dshs.texas.gov/news-alerts/texas-announces-first-death-measles-outbreak?ref=thebarbedwire.com) was recorded as the first measles death in the country this year. In North Texas, there is [one confirmed case](https://www.dshs.texas.gov/news-alerts/measles-outbreak-2025?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in Rockwall County. [Medical experts](https://news.uthscsa.edu/an-expert-answers-questions-about-the-measles/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) assert that immunization is the best way to prevent measles. Measles is "probably the most infectious contagious disease on the planet," said Dr. Suzanne Whitworth, division chief of pediatric infectious diseases at Cook Children's in Fort Worth, in a previous interview with *WFAA*. "We know that about 40% of kids under the age of five who get measles are gonna wind up in the hospital, and nobody wants that." **Read more at** [***WFAA***](https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/tarrant-county/texas-school-vaccination-rates-measles-outbreak-mercy-culture-church-prep-school-landon-schott/287-26756b75-973d-422c-a01a-4b480d3cdf02?ref=thebarbedwire.com). *Editor's Note: This story was updated with new information from the Texas Department of State Health Services on the vaccination status of individuals with confirmed measles cases.* ### Will a Historic Measles Outbreak in Texas Get Conservative Politicians to Promote Vaccines? Of Course Not URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/measles-outbreak-anti-vaccine-politicians/ Last updated: 2025-03-07T06:01:00.000Z A deadly [measles outbreak](https://www.dshs.texas.gov/news-alerts/measles-outbreak-2025?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in West Texas has taken one life and reached over 150 cases and counting, spurring many families to seek out [vaccinations at clinics that state and local health officials have set up to encourage people to get the shot.](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/02/28/texas-measles-abbott-lawmakers-response/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) The majority of cases where vaccination status has been confirmed are individuals who have not been vaccinated against the measles. The outbreak, which has now been linked to exposures in North and Central Texas, has been centered in Gaines County, where there is only an [82% vaccination rate](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/03/04/west-texas-measles-outbreak-mennonite-seminole/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=Gaines%20County%2C%20which%20includes%20Seminole,send%20children%20to%20public%20schools.) for measles among kindergarteners — well below the 95% rate that scientists say is necessary to prevent the disease from spreading. In one hospital in nearby Lubbock County, all of the admitted measles patients [were not vaccinated](https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/texas-measles-outbreak-fueled-distrust-public-health-personal-119419119?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=The%20vaccine%20series%20is%20required,unvaccinated%2C%20officials%20said%20last%20week.). The outbreak [began in late January](https://www.dshs.texas.gov/news-alerts/measles-outbreak-case-definition?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=A%20measles%20outbreak%20that%20began,of%20the%20state's%20total%20population.), and as concern reaches a fever pitch over the rapid transmission of measles, which can spread more rapidly than Covid-19 or the flu, the response from the leading federal health administrator and elected officials in Texas has been slow and tepid. It took weeks for the U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. 's and Gov. Greg Abbott to publicly comment on the matter. Kennedy Jr.’s first comments on the matter came on Feb. 26 and Gov. Greg Abbott’s first public statement on the outbreak came two days later. Kennedy’s initial comments [downplayed the severity of the situation](https://www.factcheck.org/2025/02/rfk-jr-minimizes-measles-outbreak-in-texas/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), describing it as “not unusual,” despite the fact that the measles death is the first in a decade and the first death of a child from measles in the U.S. since 2003. Gov. Abbott’s statement called for [state resources to be deployed](https://news4sanantonio.com/news/local/abbott-issues-first-statement-on-measles-outbreak-deploying-resources-local-news-near-me-crime-law-public-safety?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Neither Abbott nor Kennedy has unequivocally urged families to get the vaccine, which is proven to be more than 97% effective at warding off measles and [has not been linked to autism](https://www.chop.edu/vaccine-education-center/vaccine-safety/vaccines-and-other-conditions/autism?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — something that Kennedy has [repeatedly asserted](https://www.factcheck.org/2023/08/scicheck-what-rfk-jr-gets-wrong-about-autism/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in the past. While Abbott has remained entirely quiet regarding vaccines, sidestepping a hot button issue among his base, Kennedy has written an [op-ed](https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/robert-f-kennedy-jr-measles-outbreak-call-action-all-us?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that describes the vaccine as “crucial” and recommends that parents “consult with their healthcare providers to understand their options” but also that it is a “personal choice.” Some have described Kennedy’s recommendation as an [astonishing 180 degree turn](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/robert-f-kennedy-jr-op-ed-fox-news-vaccines%5Fn%5F67c56c21e4b0b499dce3209c?ref=thebarbedwire.com). But Dr. [David Gorski](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1d6vkhx12Gb1VJCIgVh42SOJlB-7mLAHDY2OEV%5FVDgYw/edit?pli=1&tab=t.0&ref=thebarbedwire.com), professor of surgery and oncology at the Wayne State University School of Medicine and managing editor of [Science Based Medicine](https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/about-science-based-medicine/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), argues that Kennedy’s proclamation is riddled with vaccine skeptic dog whistles that suggest Kennedy has not changed his tune. “My first impression was maybe he was dragged kicking and screaming to admit that the vaccine protects against measles and that maybe people who aren't vaccinated should get it,” Gorski told *The Barbed Wire*. “But you'll notice how much he obfuscates and how lukewarm his recommendation is. He says getting a vaccine is a personal choice.” Gorski debunked Kennedy’s various dog whistles in his own [blog post](https://www.respectfulinsolence.com/2025/03/04/has-rfk-jr-betrayed-the-antivax-movement/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), so I won't bother repeating them all here. But there are particularly absurd red herrings that I think are worth mentioning: Kennedy’s claim that “improvements in sanitation and nutrition had eliminated 98% of measles deaths” by 1960, prior to the introduction of the vaccine. Kennedy goes on to write: “Good nutrition remains a best defense against most chronic and infectious illnesses.” “He talks about Vitamin A and good nutrition for warding off the measles,” Gorski said. “Here's a hint. They don't. It’s obviously better to have good nutrition than not. But vitamin A and good nutrition are not going to prevent you from getting the measles if you're exposed to the virus.” Attributing measles elimination to improved sanitation is a similarly bogus argument that is based on a misreading of a logarithmically scaled graph and relies upon a [false notion](https://thebulletin.org/2025/03/rfk-jr-s-lukewarm-endorsement-of-vaccines-to-end-the-texas-measles-outbreak/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that clean water and indoor plumbing have a significant effect on prevention of the spread of an airborne virus, and excludes all mention of the benefits of the vaccine. According to the [Infectious Diseases Society of America](https://www.idsociety.org/public-health/measles/know-the-facts/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), “measles cases dropped 97 percent” between 1963 — when the vaccine was introduced — and 1968, “despite the fact that hygiene practices and sanitation did not significantly change during that time.” While the measles death rate had fallen from 1913 to 1960, it plummeted even further to the point of reaching zero for many years, with [occasional outbreaks](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9131779/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in communities where parents have refused to immunize their children along religious or philosophical grounds. There is a long history of vaccine skepticism and hesitancy, but it has typically been a [relatively fringe anti-science position](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/anti-vaccine-science-politics-2024/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that has only recently entered the mainstream. A major 2015 measles outbreak linked to Disneyland in California made international headlines and [resulted in a law being passed](https://policiesforaction.org/blog/what-california%E2%80%99s-2015-measles-outbreak-can-teach-us-about-vaccine-policy?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=The%202015%20measles%20outbreak%20was,and%20philosophical%29%20within%20the%20year.) in the state eliminating personal belief exemptions for vaccines. This engendered [anti-government backlash](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mandatory-vaccine-bill-sparks-protests-in-california/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a prelude to the politicization of the response to Covid-19 that supercharged long standing anti-vaccine rhetoric and foisted it into the center of right-wing political discourse, neatly tying it to [conservative religious beliefs](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/pastor-reveals-the-reasons-behind-covid-vaccine-hesitancy-in-the-evangelical-community?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [anti-government sentiment](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8489517/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Consider that the private school with the [lowest vaccination rate](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/fort-worth-pastor-measles/) for measles in Texas, 14.29%, is run by Mercy Culture, a [highly political](https://www.texasobserver.org/nate-schatzline-nonprofit-partisan-politics/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) conservative Christian church headquartered in Tarrant County that counts Republican state representative [Nate Schatzline](https://www.texasobserver.org/nate-schatzline-drag-lege-2025/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) as a pastor. Mercy Culture’s lead pastor, Landon Schott, [celebrated](https://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/fort-worth/article301507119.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) the school’s low vaccination rate in [a video he posted on Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DG1I-g-xAPx/?utm%5Fsource=ig%5Fembed&utm%5Fcampaign=loading). “I just want to congratulate all the family members of MC Prep that embrace freedom of health, and they’re not allowing government or science projects to affect how you live and lead your life,” Schott said. “I know the entire world was shut down with insanity and people were fired from their jobs for forced vaccinations. And freedom is something we take seriously.” Rep. Schatzline posted a [similar video](https://x.com/NateSchatzline/status/1897783600499593727?s=19&ref=thebarbedwire.com) on X celebrating the low vaccination rate while taking potshots at Rachel Levine, former Assistant Secretary for Health of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, and the Fort Worth *Star Telegram* reporter who first wrote about it. “I am so excited to say that Mercy Culture Prep is celebrating medical freedom where we honor the wishes of moms and dads over any type of health official,” Schatzline said. > 🚨BREAKING: I’ve gotten word that my children’s school has been ranked the #1 most unvaccinated school in Texas & I’m upset… > > …that we haven’t celebrated sooner! 😎 Way to go MC Prep! You’ve earned a medical freedom award from my office! > > Hey [@startelegram](https://twitter.com/startelegram?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=thebarbedwire.com) & [@BudKennedy](https://twitter.com/BudKennedy?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=thebarbedwire.com) your… [pic.twitter.com/xCJcWPtwE4](https://t.co/xCJcWPtwE4?ref=thebarbedwire.com) > > — Nate Schatzline (@NateSchatzline) [March 6, 2025](https://twitter.com/NateSchatzline/status/1897783600499593727?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=thebarbedwire.com) Schatzline, like Kennedy, has embraced vaccine skepticism and [aligned himself](https://x.com/NateSchatzline/status/1892217406673576194?ref=thebarbedwire.com) with Texans for Vaccine Choice, an anti-vaccination lobbying group whose efforts have contributed to the [skyrocketing numbers](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/local/article/Number-of-un-vaccinated-children-has-soared-11071051.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of unvaccinated children in Texas. Now, groups like Texans for Vaccine Choice have allies in both the state house and atop the federal health bureaucracy. “All of the narratives about measles and the measles vaccine that we're hearing again are very old,” Gorski told me. “But what worries me is that the anti-vaccine narratives and framing will soon be official CDC \[Centers for Disease Control and Prevention\] policy.” One of the policies that Kennedy has advocated for with regard to vaccines is what he calls “[informed consent](https://www.statnews.com/2025/02/26/rfk-jr-vaccines-informed-consent-cdc-messaging-vaccinations/?ref=thebarbedwire.com),” which would require health care providers to give certain information to people seeking vaccinations. “That is another old anti-vaccine trope,” Gorski said. “Because what they mean by informed consent is very different from what a physician practicing evidence based medicine means by informed consent. I like to call it ‘misinformed refusal,’ because that's really what it is. If you put out a narrative and all sorts of dubious evidence that the vaccine is more dangerous than the disease, or the vaccine causes all these horrible things and doesn't really work, who on earth would give informed consent to take that vaccine if you believe what they’re telling you?” And that’s not the only concern Texans should have. Closer to home, right-wing politicians have introduced bills to the state legislature that [seek to expand exemptions of conscience for vaccine requirements](https://legiscan.com/TX/text/SB407/2025?ref=thebarbedwire.com), allow [pharmacists to decide](https://legiscan.com/TX/text/SB623/2025?ref=thebarbedwire.com) whether they want to administer a vaccine to someone who wants one, and expand the right of healthcare providers [to not participate in care due to reasons of conscience](https://legiscan.com/TX/text/SB619/2025?ref=thebarbedwire.com). If passed, these measures could be particularly damaging to rural communities, where there are fewer healthcare providers, and could contribute to future outbreaks of deadly disease. “In a lot of rural places, there's only one pharmacy for many miles,” Gorski said. “It’s basically a denial of legitimate health care based on imposing your ideology on people who don't share it.” Such a denial can have real world consequences. For those who are unvaccinated and have been exposed to measles, being denied a vaccine due to a health care provider's personal conscience exemption could mean a more severe infection, because getting the vaccine within 72 hours of having been exposed will [likely prevent or decrease the severity of the illness](https://news.uthscsa.edu/an-expert-answers-questions-about-the-measles/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=given%20after%20exposure%3F-,A%3A%20Yes.,within%20six%20days%20of%20exposure.). And when it comes to measles cases, as previously stated, the [majority are unvaccinated](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1d6vkhx12Gb1VJCIgVh42SOJlB-7mLAHDY2OEV%5FVDgYw/edit?pli=1&tab=t.0&ref=thebarbedwire.com). Whether these bills will become law is uncertain. But what is clear is that many of our Republican elected officials have either embraced anti-vaccination ideology, or are willing to pander to it, regardless of the risk. ### In an Era of Fake Alpha Males, Cowboys Are Sexier Than Ever URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/hot-cowboy-fantasy-competence-texas/ Last updated: 2025-03-06T06:00:00.000Z Last year, Bella Hadid was snapped grinning from ear to ear at the rodeo in Arlington, her wide-brimmed cowboy hat casting a shadow over eyes fixed on her boyfriend, cutting horse champ [Adan Banuelos](https://www.harpersbazaar.com/celebrity/latest/a45573580/who-is-bella-hadid-boyfriend-dating-adan-banuelos/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). That night, her leather pants, silver rings, and meticulously beaded top were the last whispers of her high-fashion roots — her heart was all cowboy now. In fact, longtime [horse girl Hadid](https://www.wmagazine.com/fashion/bella-hadid-sequin-halter-top-leather-pants-belt?ref=thebarbedwire.com) appeared to be living out the plot of “Cowboy Take Me Away.” It’s a 1999 song by The Chicks that informed the sexual development of basically everyone ever, in which a rugged man sweeps our narrator away to the freedom of the wide-open plains. Hadid may be living the dream, but she’s far from the first to fall for it. That fantasy — the allure of a cowboy and the promise of escape — has endured for generations, woven into country songs, romance novels, and pop culture alike. But while sexual fantasies seem mysterious, they reflect broader culture. That the cowboy endures as a symbol of sexual and romantic fantasy reveals deep truths about contemporary American culture. In a world where male power increasingly looks like Mark Zuckerberg and Donald Trump, is there any surprise we’ve got pictures of the Marlboro man tucked into our proverbial sock drawer? The myth of the cowboy looms far larger than the actual profession. The era of itinerant cowboys driving cattle herds through Texas lasted roughly 25 years, but the cowboy in our hearts has been around far longer. He is founded on the duality of loner and protector. As a mythological figure, the cowboy encodes American values, both real and aspirational: hard work, independence, courage, honor, and freedom. In a [Reddit thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/Cowboy/comments/18iwg8e/why%5Fcowboys%5Fare%5Fso%5Fattractive/?rdt=43477&ref=thebarbedwire.com) on r/Cowboys last year, someone asked “why cowboys are so attractive,” and the answers spoke volumes. “What does it for me is when a bigger, stronger guy can be gentle to the people and animals around him,” wrote one Reddit user. “Also that I like good, honest labor.” https://www.instagram.com/p/C\_1WRyAhmwk/ With cred like that, it’s no wonder the [American cowboy](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/legacy-of-black-cowboys-west-texas/) has been a popular leading man in romance novels since the 1950s. “With the cowboy, you get a version of an American male archetype — an individualist, and pretty self-sufficient, and something of a loner, usually. But, very capable,” says Pamela Regis, author of [*A Natural History of the Romance Novel*](https://www.pennpress.org/9780812215229/a-natural-history-of-the-romance-novel/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), in an interview with *The Barbed Wire*. Where other romantic heroes need to be healed, the cowboy needs to be tamed. Ruggedness is a form of sensuality. This is a man who knows how to use his hands, whether he’s repairing a fence or running his fingers over your collarbone. He can hoist a bale of hay or lift you onto the counter in the kitchen of his humble-but-charming ranch house. He can ride and fix and shoot, which means you can feel safe — a [necessary precondition](https://marriage-counseling-fort-collins.com/2024/01/05/the-truth-about-female-sexual-desire-everyone-should-know/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=This%20makes%20more%20sense%20when,threats%20to%20our%20immediate%20survival.) for sexual desire. All of this helps to explain why the cowboy fantasy is alive today — 135 years after the U.S. Census Bureau closed the frontier. Glen Powell has had an excellent few years, thanks to a modern, sensitive twist on [Texas cowboy swagger](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/more-gay-cowboys/); basically, he looks like he could change your tire and then whip up a candlelit dinner. *Yellowstone* is one of America’s most popular television shows, suggesting we are just never getting sick of cowboy stories. Meanwhile, TikTok buzzes with cowboy thirst traps — guys saddling horses and tipping their hats with devastating charm — a more R-rated kind of cottagecore content. Last week, Style Race published a headline claiming [“NBA Star Bruce Brown Is Living Every Man’s Cowboy Style Fantasy.”](https://www.stylerave.com/bruce-brown-cowboy-style/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Women want them, and men want to *be* them. And let’s not forget [gay cowboys](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/more-gay-cowboys/). https://www.instagram.com/p/DAOm7zSOEGj/ At the heart of the cowboy fantasy lies a longing for a simpler time when we were more attuned to our senses. The lyrics of “Cowboy Take Me Away” give little airtime to the cowboy himself. Natalie Maines sings of his “simple smiles,” but the song spends more time describing who she will be with her knight in shining spurs. “I wanna touch the earth / I wanna break it in my hands / I wanna grow something wild and unruly,” sings Maines, illustrating an alternate future reality where her only pillows are bluebonnets and her only blanket is the starry sky. The fantasy is ultimately about being swept away to a life where Maines, too, works with her hands and feels connected to the Texas land. https://www.tiktok.com/@joelbushby/video/7267686077555608833?q=joel%20bushby&t=1741187505944 In 2020, Maines doubled down on the urgency of the cowboy fantasy with “Texas Man.” The song is more overtly sexual — with references to bodies tangled up together all night — but her gaze is still firmly fixed on the narrator, who longs for a man to match her: “If you got the strength I do / Then sign me up / If I'm not too much for you / Then sign me up, sign me up,” trills Maines. Maines’ messy split from husband Adrian Pasdar was fuel for The Chicks’ album *Gaslighter* and, one imagines, this song. On the other side of divorce and infidelity, the cowboy becomes the sexual object of “Texas Man,” symbolic of honor and capability. Maines might be older and wiser, but she’s still yearning. And it feels so good to yearn. It’s bittersweet. It contains both the discomfort of lack and the deliciousness of anticipation. “Pleasure and pain at once register upon the lover, inasmuch as the desirability of the love object derives, in part from its lack,” observed Anne Carson in *Eros: The Bittersweet*. There is a naturally arising tension between absence and attainment. Who better to embody this ambivalence than the cowboy? He barely exists. Because the cowboy is anachronistic, he contains an innate and stimulating tension between past and present. Consider Hadid, whose relationship with Banuelos pulled her out of her cosmopolitan orbit and into his fifth wheel. ([Banuelos reported that she took to trailer life like a champ](https://pagesix.com/2024/08/27/celebrity-news/bella-hadid-happily-lived-in-boyfriend-adan-banuelos-trailer-at-start-of-romance/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)). ![Bella Hadid and her boyfriend Adan Banuelos](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/250304_hotcowboys_embed1.jpg) ARLINGTON, TEXAS - MARCH 08: Adan Banuelos and Bella Hadid attend The American Performance Horseman by Teton Ridge at Globe Life Field on March 08, 2024 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Click Thompson/Getty Images for Teton Ridge) Humans are built to revel in contrast, or so says the original thought leader on desire, Sigmund Freud. “We are so constituted that we can only intensely enjoy contrasts,” he noted in *Civilization and Its Discontents*. No matter who you are, the cowboy’s lifestyle — barren of technology, digital devices, and [guys using AI to craft messages on dating apps](https://www.businessinsider.com/how-men-are-using-ai-for-dating-profiles-messaging-study-2023-6?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — is probably different from your own. That’s true whether the cowboys of your fantasies look like Johnny Cash, or a cattle ranch harem à la [*Four Ranchers' Bride: A Reverse Harem Romance*](https://www.amazon.com/Four-Ranchers-Bride-Reverse-Romance-ebook/dp/B07ZRX7HW2?ref=thebarbedwire.com). And while Hadid might have taken easily to Banuelos’ unusual lifestyle, willingness to live in a trailer isn’t necessary for fantasizing about cowboys. Fantasy is less about what we want so much as it's about creating a context that allows us to be a different, particular version of ourselves. Early romance novels offered women an opportunity to explore the feelings of passion or desire that were discouraged in respectable society. While women today are no longer forbidden from experiencing passion and desire, the fantasies shaping romance have evolved. In an era where sexual liberation is the norm, it’s not an absence of desire that defines modern yearning; it’s the search for a competent, respectful man who offers both emotional and physical security. On TikTok and Instagram, women have been testifying that there are no good men left — by which they mean, no men they can respect as their equals. [“I feel like men aren’t sending us their best people,”](https://www.google.com/imgres?q=i%20feel%20like%20men%20aren%27t%20sending%20us%20there%20best%20people&imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Flookaside.fbsbx.com%2Flookaside%2Fcrawler%2Fmedia%2F%3Fmedia%5Fid%3D2367302013493621&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FIFeelLikeMenAreNotSendingUsTheirBestPeople%2F&docid=4u98vmTDHUPm0M&tbnid=FmIQGDtkAOw88M&vet=12ahUKEwjyybeY9K2LAxXpL9AFHbUsK1IQM3oECBYQAA..i&w=1242&h=805&hcb=2&ved=2ahUKEwjyybeY9K2LAxXpL9AFHbUsK1IQM3oECBYQAA&ref=thebarbedwire.com) tweeted one frustrated user in 2018. That’s because their best people are cowboys. That’s more or less a restatement of the conflict driving Paula Cole’s 1996 single “Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?” in which John Wayne and a happy ending on the prairie are presented in opposition to Cole’s actual partner — who drinks too much and rarely does the dishes. The obstacle to Cole’s happy relationship is psychological; as much as she wants to, she just doesn’t respect her man. Today, that incompetence is often fused with power. Men like Elon Musk, Zuckerberg, and Trump control the world without commanding our respect. [In a January opinion for *The Guardian*](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jan/16/i-knew-one-day-id-have-to-watch-powerful-men-burn-the-world-down-i-just-didnt-expect-them-to-be-such-losers?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Rebecca Shaw expressed the strange sensation of both fearing and hating men she doesn’t respect: “I have been prepared for evil, for greed, for cruelty, for injustice — but I did not anticipate that the people in power would also be such huge losers.” Between them, Musk and Trump have 19 children with more than six women, and Musk is [currently under fire](https://www.yahoo.com/news/deadbeat-dad-elon-musk-under-223341681.html?guccounter=1&guce%5Freferrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce%5Freferrer%5Fsig=AQAAAKdj6eyt0T16FYM-CIwsptVn9PAgSPBH9bL-NvDu25uS9wzmn8Z3f6AEBZP2bsoJIbuyI736Hc1kg6tVLjDdgjnAbukSFZRJ4tAfE-ZEP-QLRoQ8fcchzkwsIdv-TsRUsjs-rVlYw00DPbA1dKOVXOxhC2ex5eZaKXZgUaifTAfL&ref=thebarbedwire.com) for being “a deadbeat dad” who is ignoring his ex-partner’s pleas to help their sick child. Musk, it seems, has been too busy [cheating at video games](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/elon-musk-admitted-to-cheating-at-video-games-gamers-are-aghast-why-did-he-do-it/) to be much of a dad. The cowboy fantasy offers relief from that cognitive dissonance because the cowboy is perennially capable and worthy of respect. Within the cowboy fantasy, the fantasizer can feel safe relinquishing control. Because he is rugged, she can soften. The cowboy, then, isn’t just a romantic fantasy — he’s a reaction. When the men with real power feel unserious or unworthy, the cowboy remains a figure of competence, restraint, and quiet strength. No wonder, then, that he endures. In an era of disillusionment, the fantasy of a man on horseback, riding off into the sunset, still feels like the surest way out. ### Gross. Natalist Conference Is Returning to Austin with Race Science, Eugenics. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/natalist-conference-austin-race-science-elon-musk/ Last updated: 2025-03-05T18:03:17.000Z Since neither tax incentives nor government propaganda are solving the country’s fertility crisis, self-described proponents of eugenics and race science will gather to think of solutions at a [natalist conference in Austin](https://www.natalism.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), as was first-reported by [*The Guardian*](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/03/natal-conference-austin-texas-eugenics?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Returning for a second time on March 27-28, the [Natal Conference](https://www.natalism.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) features speakers from race-science influencers to the founder of a startup providing IQ screening for IVF embryos, according to *The* *Guardian*. Peachy Keenan, a pseudonymous conservative writer, is also on the list of speakers. [*Politico*](https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/04/28/natalism-conference-austin-00150338?ref=thebarbedwire.com) reporters concluded that Keenan spelled out the group’s larger goal in her speech at the inaugural conference. Essentially, outbreed the liberals (and other people you disagree with, or, you know, want to stop procreating.) This year, the symposium will be held at the AT&T Conference Center owned by the [University of Texas at Austin](https://meetattexas.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), with dinner at the Bullock Museum of Texas History across the street. Kevin Dolan, who [*The Guardian*](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/aug/09/deznats-religious-extremists-mormon-vision?ref=thebarbedwire.com) found to run a large Twitter account in the far-right “DezNat” movement in 2021, organized the event. Prominently displayed on the website is a [post on X ](https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1784768522645889111?ref=thebarbedwire.com)from Elon Musk, who shared a video of Dolan from the 2023 conference, saying that “if birth rates continue to plummet, human civilization will end.” Musk, now a father of [14 children,](https://www.reuters.com/world/us/elon-musk-has-another-child-boy-2025-03-01/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) is an outspoken pro-natalist. One, however, that musician [Grimes](https://people.com/grimes-pleads-with-elon-musk-to-stop-ignoring-her-about-their-child-medical-crisis-11683855?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and influencer [Ashley St. Clair](https://people.com/ashley-st-clair-sues-elon-musk-for-sole-legal-custody-of-their-son-rsc-11684615?ref=thebarbedwire.com) have accused of neglecting his Quiverfull of kids. Besides extending an invitation to Musk to attend, the Natal Conference said his staunch advocacies [inspired](https://x.com/natalismorg/status/1784770669416214978?ref=thebarbedwire.com) the birth of the conference. Other speakers at this year’s conference include [Jonathan Keeperman](https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/14/far-right-twitter-identity-revealed?ref=thebarbedwire.com), who [*The Guardian*](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/03/natal-conference-austin-texas-eugenics?ref=thebarbedwire.com) reports is behind the “L0m3z” X account and right-wing publisher Passage Press, as well as Jonathan Anomaly, a supporter of “liberal eugenics” and [former senior staff member at Heliospect](https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/oct/18/us-startup-charging-couples-to-screen-embryos-for-iq?ref=thebarbedwire.com), according to the *paper*. Standard tickets to the conference cost $1,000 but purchases will [“require approval.”](https://lu.ma/zw2e4lff?ref=thebarbedwire.com) **Read more at** [***The Guardian***](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/03/natal-conference-austin-texas-eugenics?ref=thebarbedwire.com)**.** ### Congressman and Former Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner Dies at 70 URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/congressman-houston-mayor-sylvester-turner-dies-at-70/ Last updated: 2025-03-05T15:41:17.000Z Congressman Sylvester Turner, who was just two months into his first term representing the 18th Congressional District of Texas, died on Tuesday, according to the Texas Democratic Party. He was 70 years old. Turner told the press in 2022 that he was cancer-free after secretly receiving treatment for bone cancer. Turner was elected to Congress after Congresswoman Shelia Jackson Lee’s death in 2024. Turner graduated from the University of Houston and Harvard Law School, then served as an adjunct professor at the Thurgood Marshall School of Law. Turner served 27 years in the Texas House of Representatives, during which time he was a powerful member of the Texas House Appropriations Committee. He was also Speaker Pro Tem for six years, helping shape the state’s fiscal policy. “Sylvester Turner was known as the conscience of the Texas House, bringing moral clarity and a deep commitment to his community back home in Houston to every debate and policy discussion,” said Texas House Democratic Caucus Chair Rep. Gene Wu, in a statement on Wednesday. “Rep. Turner’s legacy of fighting for affordable housing, disaster recovery, and criminal justice reform continues to inspire and guide our caucus today. The wisdom, integrity, and strategic vision he brought to public service will continue to inspire generations of Texans committed to building a more just and equitable state.” In his two terms as Houston mayor from 2016 to 2024, Turner guided the city during Hurricane Harvey and the COVID-19 pandemic. He launched Houston’s first [Climate Action Plan](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/greenhoustontx-gov/climateactionplan/cap-april2020.pdf), committing to carbon neutrality by 2050, and provided over [20,000 jobs](https://www.houston.org/news/hire-houston-youth-program-helps-create-strong-regional-workforce?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to young adults through his [Hire Houston Youth program](https://hirehoustonyouth.org/employers/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Turner also served as Chair of the African American Mayors Association and a trustee of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. A lifelong Houstonian, Turner was the proud father of one daughter and grandfather of one grandson. Read more at [*The Texas Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/03/05/sylvester-turner-texas-houston-dies/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). ### She Went Viral Challenging ‘Professional’ Hair Standards. Now, She’s Teaching Fellow Femmes to Be Loud. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/tashara-parker-news-anchor-loud-women-lead-dallas/ Last updated: 2025-03-05T06:00:00.000Z It’s been nearly five years, but Tashara Parker still remembers the [October morning well](https://www.instagram.com/tasharaparker/p/CGsEU15nFsL/?ref=thebarbedwire.com): She woke up at 1:45 a.m., went to the Downtown Dallas WFAA TV studios where she worked as a morning anchor, sat in on the daily editorial meeting, did her makeup, put on her microphone, and did her news show. Little did she know that it wasn’t her reporting that had impacted North Texas viewers that morning, but rather her hair, which she’d styled in a series of buns. After she finished the newscast, Parker started receiving angry messages and emails; viewers called the station. “Boy, you would have thought I had then went up in somebody's house and cussed them out,” she told *The Barbed Wire*, “because me showing up on TV with this natural hairstyle disrupted a lot of people's morning TV.” Her short tenure in the country’s fifth largest TV market gave her pause about how to handle the situation: “At first, I was like, ‘Oh, I'm still new here, should I not say anything? I don't want to really raise a red flag, I ain't trying to be the problem child just *yet*.” But Parker said that staying silent wasn’t who she is. Later that week, she produced a [piece responding](https://www.wfaa.com/article/sports/commentary/who-determines-whats-professional-tashara-parker-on-black-hair/287-cffca129-7c61-4bfe-8c13-58e87910b567?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to the negative comments. The headline read: 'Who determines what's professional?': Black hair shouldn't be a topic for debate. And with that, the Houston native sparked a national conversation on [Black hair in the workplace](https://www.today.com/style/tv-anchor-tashara-parker-goes-viral-natural-hairstyle-air-t196371?ref=thebarbedwire.com). https://www.instagram.com/p/CGsEU15nFsL/ “It ended up just spreading like wildfire, and lots of people saying, ‘Oh man, we appreciate you for doing this. Thank you for standing up for black women and black hair and fighting against hair discrimination.’” She started several series at her TV station to help amplify Black voices. [Rooted](https://www.wfaa.com/rooted?ref=thebarbedwire.com) explored Black hair history and perception, and [Enough](https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/health/black-men-mental-health-conversations-resources/287-2c4fed56-f6be-409f-a6c8-1562838b7cf5?ref=thebarbedwire.com) brought to light conversations of men’s mental health in the Black community. All of which led her to advocacy work for Black hair protections, and she delivered testimony for the [Crown Act, which stands for](https://www.dmagazine.com/style-beauty-wellness/2023/05/after-years-of-advocacy-in-dallas-and-around-texas-the-crown-act-becomes-law/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) “Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair,” to prevent discrimination based on their hairstyle or hair texture “commonly or historically associated with race.” “Good evening everyone, Howdy!” Parker [said to lawmakers](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMb12fEJeX4&ref=thebarbedwire.com) after waiting 11 hours to deliver her testimony. With her hair in a braid down her back, Parker wore a white pantsuit with printed with vibrant, fuchsia-colored hibiscus flowers, which was [introduced to the Americas](https://www.businessinsider.com/sorrel-history-red-drink-hibiscus-africa-black-history-2023-2?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=When%20enslaved%20Africans%20were%20captured,Aid%2C%20there%20was%20sorrel.%22) by enslaved people 500 years ago. In her testimony, viewed more than 157,000 on [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/tasharaparker/reel/CqIks1dOSi5/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Parker asked lawmakers to envision wearing an identity not your own into work every day, and asked questions she did in her viral video: Why does my crown, my hair, offend you? “Are we relying on old outdated policies that likely weren't developed by a lot of people who look like me?” Parker asked. The bill passed into law in Texas in 2023, as it has in several other states. “That led to me to say, ‘Okay, well look, if I'm getting all this support, I know God didn't give me my platform to keep it to myself.’ And I said, ‘You know what? I need to amplify some other stories,’” Parker told *The Barbed Wire.* Just a few months before Parker showed up to work with her natural hair in 2020, [George Floyd’s murder](https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/george-floyd-killed-by-police-officer?ref=thebarbedwire.com) by a police officer had sparked racial justice protests and it seemed Americans were coming to a “[racial reckoning](https://www.vox.com/policy/351106/backlash-politics-2020-george-floyd-race?ref=thebarbedwire.com),” eager to address the injustices seen in every facet of American society. But in the years since, the country has seen a backlash, and an assault on[ diversity, equity and inclusion led by President Donald Trump.](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/trump-anti-dei-orders-target-federal-employee-groups-rcna189212?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Simultaneously, Parker started to feel her mission was outgrowing the multiple confines of TV news. “I got to a point where things are just getting even more and more frustrating. I didn't know why I was so tense and anxious all the time,” Parker said. “It was just being complacent, like in one position for so long, and knowing that I wanted to do more, and once those things didn’t come about, you know, it was time to go.” She wanted to be an example to the people who looked up to her. She wanted to show that a loud presence can open doors, so on July 19, 2024, she left the comfort of a steady paycheck and health insurance, and bet on herself and Loud Women Lead, the company she built part-time after years of 1 a.m. alarm clocks. “It has not been easy. To leave something you'd known for 10 years is a loud decision in itself,” Parker said. “Really digging into the organization and growing it has given me that outlet to really, really pursue what it means to amplify the voices of others.” Parker has become well-known across social media — “Hey Cousins!” her familiar opening line — where she supports and nurtures her community of fellow loud women. Last year, [Parker launched Loud Beauty](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/fck-amazon-this-year-give-your-holiday-money-to-texas-businesses-of-color/), creating a line of lipsticks and other products as part of her pivot “against a world that wasn’t always ready for women who looked like her,” she told *The Barbed Wire*. The Loud Beauty line features shades with names like Universal Truth and Loud & Clear to “reflect the power of owning your presence.” Her lip products come in gold and crystal-inspired tubes that “symbolize the breaking of glass ceilings and the confidence that comes from stepping into your power.” In addition to her beauty products, Parker’s company teaches Black and Brown women and other marginalized people to own their stories and learn how to speak in public. They’re gearing up now and accepting applications of her yearly Ted X Talk - inspired event, [Loud & Clear: A LIVE Storytelling Experience](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdr-1hTENgwoYqhn4SKEJR6%5F8vFoDr%5FiOt3vWHOByKduNtbSg/viewform?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAabNlpiWJpJu-5S6X2Qnz8vPfGyG4vXfN3T8kR%5FLzSBSIM7ojSTaSHcJuEg%5Faem%5FfXoGkncoCtbrHzYJi1ZCmw&ref=thebarbedwire.com). She believes it’s crucial women can own their own narratives as we navigate 2025 and what a second Trump administration means. “We're in a day and age where people are losing their jobs based on their skin color,” Parker said. “We're watching rights be stripped away, people lose their jobs, there isn't a better time than now for us to make sure that we are using our voices and that we are unafraid to use our voices in situations where, you know we may be afraid to do so.” Since Trump took office in January, the outward promise of upholding equity in spaces has fizzled. On day one of his presidency, the [Trump administration](https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2025/02/10/president-trump-acts-to-roll-back-dei-initiatives/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) issued several executive orders that would end protections for people based on diversity, equity and inclusion, and gender. Although many of the [executive orders](https://www.npr.org/2025/02/21/nx-s1-5305287/trump-dei-programs-executive-order-judge?ref=thebarbedwire.com) are caught up in federal courts, the ripple effect on ending these protections has seeped into the [private sector](https://www.msnbc.com/the-reidout/reidout-blog/boycotts-dei-naacp-businesses-trump-rcna192660?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “Loud Women Lead, at its core, is a rallying cry to amplify the voices of women of color, when it comes to us using not only our voices, but our presence,” Parker explained. “Nothing brings me more joy than to see other women own their story and to own it in front of strangers, people they have never met in their entire lives, and they're standing on stage and speaking in front of them, and so I think that's a giant F-you for anyone who ever doubted them.” ### My First Kiss, 18 Months Postpartum URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/my-first-kiss-18-months-postpartum-texas/ Last updated: 2025-03-04T06:04:00.000Z Five minutes after my first date with Alex, my phone lit up. He was a tall Massachusetts transplant with blue-green eyes and a mop of brown Lyle Lovett curls, and he wanted a second date. Our IRL date banter had lived up to our hilarious texting courtship. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to respond to this obvious green flag for several hours because my 18-month-old son woke up and vomited his entire pasta dinner — plus a few meals from the future — across the floor of his room. It wasn’t exactly an auspicious sign. Three pajama changes later, I was able to resume our post-date chat. However, I cautioned, I wouldn’t be able to see him again for a while due to a long-planned London vacation. He wished me well for the trip and we continued to text. The morning of the trip turned out to be one of the worst days of my life: my toddler woke up with COVID, I had to cancel the trip, and I had to convince the city of Austin to fix a water main gushing in my front lawn, which had left me without running water. Later, I rushed my son to the hospital as he struggled to breathe. When I texted Alex about all of this, he didn’t ghost me or offer platitudes. He asked if there was anything he could bring me and made a couple of cautious, tactful jokes, which it turns out is my love language. Since the trip was canceled, I said I hoped I could see him sooner. As with the first date, he organized the time and place (the hottest thing a man can do). For the first time in a long time, I let myself feel a twang of hope. In my pre-baby life, finding dates was easy. But I had limited success with what came after that. I would get bored or they would get bored, or we wanted different things in life. Tired of waiting on men, I [decided to have a child on my own](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/inside-a-liberating-millennial-revolution-single-mothers-by-choice/) when I turned 35\. But I wasn’t giving up on finding a partner. I dated people after I started fertility treatments and even went on a few dates in early pregnancy. I told myself that miracles happen. But if turning 35 made my Tinder dating pool become shallow, being a single mom vaporized it. I conducted an informal poll of single mothers by choice, and out of over 800 responses, only 4% were in relationships. Leaving aside the people saying they didn’t want to raise another man’s child, who fetishized moms, or who clearly had no idea how children and/or women work, the logistics of babies and sitters often scared guys away. Since leaving my house after 5:30 p.m. meant I had to find and financially invest in a sitter, I required the guy to make concrete plans — a rarity in today’s dating world. It didn’t help that my child took up 80% of my brain, and it was hard to talk about normal date topics as opposed to nap schedules or the finer points of children’s YouTube (Ms. Rachel or GTFO). That’s how, 18 months after giving birth, I still hadn’t even kissed anyone. I was starting to live in yoga pants and not even bother with my hair. I felt deeply unsexy and undesirable, and romance felt like something gone from my life in favor of getting through each day. Unfortunately, more bad luck was in store with Alex. On our second date, someone I’d met on Tinder walked in to pick up his pho takeout. I sweated in the corner praying he wouldn’t see me with Alex. At a brewery, we ran into friends of Alex’s ex. Finally, as we stood on my porch making smalltalk after a dinner date, I couldn’t take it anymore and I pushed my lips onto his. They were gloriously soft. But after that brief kiss, he told me he couldn’t see me again for three weeks. During this time I comforted myself with reruns of him. I forced my friends to admire his witty Tinder profile and re-read our texts, swooning. On our dates, we had covered big topics — death, depression, addiction, fertility — but mostly we laughed together. Finally, after our next date, we kicked the babysitter out early and made out like teenagers on my couch. Alex wanted to hear about my son’s adventures in a way that was sweet without seeming weird. But, even though I didn’t think my son would remember this, I was nervous about them meeting. I felt like it wasn’t appropriate until we were serious — I didn’t want to be parading a string of different men in front of my child. When they did meet, much sooner than the magic number of months in my head, I quickly realized I didn’t have anything to worry about. Alex began meeting us at the playground, dashing over to keep my son from bumping his head or throwing him up onto his shoulders and dancing around. When my toddler fell at the playground and reached for Alex to comfort him, I didn’t know whether to feel in love or indignant. As the months went on, Alex drew me out of my survival mentality. We opened presents together on Christmas morning; entertained endless toddler chatter about trucks; and we reserved date nights just for us for non-truck adult conversations. He’s handled countless more disasters with understanding and support. On election night, I called him crying at 11 p.m. because I couldn’t sleep, and he came right over. His enthusiastic relationship with my son is more than I could have hoped for and revealed other bonuses that I hadn’t even dared to dream of, like his family being excited to meet my son, too. Alex is a mid-30s guy with a thriving social life and a flexible work schedule. He doesn’t have to be woken up at 7 a.m., spend his weekends dealing with tantrums, or have his brain infected by the horrible musical toys my son adores. But he chooses to because he loves us, and he tells me he feels lucky as we fall asleep together. He even learned how to change diapers. I have someone to marvel with as my son develops new skills, and who laughs with me at the “brainworms” we have both developed from caring for a toddler, a constellation of jokes only we can understand. The love I have for him is multiplied tenfold by the ways he is there for my family. I’m not sure what the future holds. There’s a significant chance he will have to move for work, but I’m a native Austinite with much-needed support here, and long distance is not an option with a child. There could be some other, relationship-ending disaster looming on the horizon. But it’s hard to imagine — the universe has thrown so much at us already, and we’re still here. And I’m thankful for every day, every hour, we all have together. ### Women Are Saved! Texas A&M Just Banned Drag Shows on All 11 Campuses URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-am-drag-ban/ Last updated: 2025-03-03T20:44:56.000Z Texas’ [Republican lawmakers](https://x.com/BryanforHD2/status/1533952024202694656?ref=thebarbedwire.com) have long argued that drag shows endanger children. That was always a stretch, but Texas A&M University has taken things a step further. The university’s Board of Regents voted to ban drag performances on its 11 campuses, and the [resolution](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/static-texastribune-org/media/files/487e01de1b7579fc428d19d2ee25ecf9/item-1-bor-resolution-re-campus-events.pdf), which unanimously passed on Friday, said drag show events are “likely to create or contribute to a hostile environment for women,” citing “mockery or objectification.” [Sure](https://www.facebook.com/RuPaul/posts/gay-men-dont-do-drag-to-mock-women-we-do-drag-to-mock-the-cultural-concept-of-id/1246711342013157/), [Jan](https://www.vulture.com/2015/01/20-years-after-its-release-a-very-brady-meme.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Who’s going to tell the board that female drag queens exist? Following the ban, Draggieland, an annual event on the College Station campus scheduled for March 27, will have to relocate, the *Texas Tribune* [reported](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/02/28/texas-am-system-drag-shows-draggieland/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). [Draggieland](https://thebatt.com/news/draggieland-to-reschedule-or-relocate-organizers-say/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) sells out every year and only admits adults ages 18 and older. The Queer Empowerment Council, a student group that organizes LGBTQ+ events at Texas A&M University, told [*The Battalion*](https://thebatt.com/news/regents-ban-on-campus-drag-shows-across-am-system/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that members did not know about the resolution before it passed. The resolution also calls on the system’s chancellor and university presidents to cancel any upcoming drag shows, according to the *Tribune*. Last year, Texas A&M University [cut its LGBTQ+ minor](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/11/07/texas-a-m-lgbtq-studies-minor/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=The%20Texas%20A%26M%20University%20System,%E2%80%9Cliberal%20indoctrination%E2%80%9D%20on%20campus.) and [stopped offering gender-affirming care](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/08/21/texas-a-m-trans-health-care/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) at the Beutel Student Health Center. Sofia Sepulveda, field director for Equality Texas, told the news website that A&M should focus on addressing the [gender disparities](https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/texas-am-university-college-station-10366/academics?ref=thebarbedwire.com) among the flagship’s faculty instead. “If A&M is worried about creating a hostile environment for women, then why don't they hire more women?” Sepulveda said in an interview with the *Tribune*. “Right now, only 40% of the faculty at Texas A&M are women, 60% are men. That's a serious issue.” The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression also released a [statement](https://x.com/TheFIREorg/status/1895577158770446424?ref=thebarbedwire.com) condemning the board’s decision. “The only thing hostile here is Texas A&M's disregard for the First Amendment. Drag is protected expression. Full stop,” the organization posted on X. “Whether drag or Bible study, public universities cannot ban or punish students’ protected expression. Banning speech because it might offend someone else is viewpoint discrimination, the third rail of the First Amendment.” Read more at [*Texas Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/02/28/texas-am-system-drag-shows-draggieland/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). ### Texas’ Elected Officials Want to Spend Your Money on Cryptocurrency URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-bitcoin-dan-patrick-charles-schwertner/ Last updated: 2025-03-03T15:52:36.000Z Our friends at *Texas Observer* are reporting that your elected Republican officials — Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and GOP state senator Charles Schwertner, specifically — want to establish a [Bitcoin reserve for Texas](https://www.texasobserver.org/texas-bitcoin-strategic-reserve-senate-bill-21/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). If that isn’t the dumbest sentence you’ve read this morning, let’s keep going! The “Texas Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and Investment Act” would establish a fund, using your taxpayer money, to invest in $20 million worth of Bitcoin. Why? To cheerlead the crypto industry, and in Schwertner’s words, to “send a message rebuking the federal government’s ballooning debt.” As for how exactly putting state money into a crypto asset that is speculative, and not [a store of value](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Store%5Fof%5Fvalue?ref=thebarbedwire.com) “sends a message” about debt, Schwertner doesn’t elaborate, but if this sounds like a bad idea to you, there’s more! A provision in his bill also allows you to donate to the Texas crypto reserve. In a way that’s more in line with what crypto is generally used for: money laundering, black market activity, and financing bribes. As a way of sucking up to the Trump administration and the various Silicon Valley billionaires who put him in office, it makes sense, but personally I’d rather not fund Republican ass kissing. It’s also, of course, a bet that bandwagoning might pay off, which could happen if Trump and Musk hype crypto so much that it behaves like a memestock and its performance has nothing to do with its underlying value. Musk is no stranger to memestocks, either. Tesla (TSLA)’s entire value is heavily tied to Musk himself, and [Tesla stock is down](https://seekingalpha.com/article/4763969-elon-musk-liability-for-tesla?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in recent months, thanks to Elon’s shenanigans. Turns out, the market doesn’t like it when C-level executives on ketamine benders wield chainsaws on television. But here’s the rub: Traditionally, strategic reserves are supposed to be *safe* investments. Bitcoin is probably the safest of the crypto offerings on the market, but that’s a bar lower than Dante’s fifth circle. It is not, fundamentally, where you’d put money to hedge against adverse events, unless you’re the kind of person who believes society will collapse and take the U.S. dollar with it. This administration is full of [techno fascists](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/infinite-scroll/techno-fascism-comes-to-america-elon-musk?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and idiots who seem to think the world’s reserve currency — the dollar — will inexplicably disappear, so we maybe can’t rule that sort of thing out. But if it did happen, no amount of Bitcoin would shield us from the consequences. ### Fight, ‘Stampede’ at Dallas Cheer Competition Injured 10 URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/fight-stampede-dallas-cheer-competition-injured-10/ Last updated: 2025-03-03T14:08:28.000Z Ten people were transported to the hospital on Saturday afternoon after a fight broke out between [parents at a cheer championship](https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/crime/dallas-texas-nca-cheer-competition-shooting/287-fcffa3d0-b194-4479-af68-187c90b79496?utm%5Fsource=newsletter&utm%5Fmedium=email&utm%5Fcampaign=newsletter%5Faxioslocal%5Fdallas&stream=top) in Dallas, *WFAA* reported. During the fight, multiple poles were reportedly knocked down, and the loud noise caused panic. In the chaos, people began running, spurring a stampede, Dallas police spokespeople told [*The Dallas Morning News*](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/2025/03/01/dallas-police-responding-to-incident-at-kay-bailey-hutchinson-convention-center/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). There were no shots fired, but social media users posted fear of a possible shooting at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center. All ten injuries — which, per the *Morning News*, included scrapes and “extremity” fractures — were suffered during the evacuation. Thousands of people were attending the NCA All-Star National Championship at the time of the chaos. The competition is the largest in the organization’s history, according to the *Morning News*, and involves more than 30,000 athletes and 3,700 coaches. The championship resumed on Sunday at 8 a.m., according to several reports. The parents involved in Saturday’s fight will be banned from future events, according to the NCA. Read more at [WFAA](https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/crime/dallas-texas-nca-cheer-competition-shooting/287-fcffa3d0-b194-4479-af68-187c90b79496?utm%5Fsource=newsletter&utm%5Fmedium=email&utm%5Fcampaign=newsletter%5Faxioslocal%5Fdallas&stream=top). ### The Meteoric Rise of ‘Sociopathic Powerhouse’ Wrestler Brick Savage URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/pro-wrestling-elite-texas-brick-savage/ Last updated: 2025-02-28T10:00:00.000Z Brick Savage is not a monster. But in a wrestling ring, they play one to perfection. And if there’s one thing Brick Savage does better than playing the monster, it’s breaking the rules that try to contain them. The first thing you notice about 36-year-old Savage is their size — a massive physique built from years of sports, particularly powerlifting. But Savage, who uses they/them pronouns, also radiates danger. Which, in professional wrestling, is a useful skill to have. Especially when you can throw your opponents around like rag dolls. “I call my deal the ‘sociopathic powerhouse,’” Savage told *The Barbed Wire*. It’s working. In less than three years, the Texas native has gone from wrestling novice to a full-time main-event performer who is already getting the most coveted prize: national attention. It’s very possible that Savage could soon be a household name. Savage, the wrestling persona of Remi Hall, has taken the wrestling scene by storm with a blend of athleticism, menacing charisma, and tactical ring psychology. But Savage's journey to professional wrestling was far from conventional, marked by early exposure to the wrestling world, a detour into powerlifting, and a meteoric rise in the squared circle after overcoming significant injuries. **A Family Affair** Savage’s introduction to wrestling came early in life, thanks to their father, Bobby Hall (aka “Bobby 2 Badd”). “My dad was a wrestler in the late 90s, and I trained with him and (we’d) go to different shows all around Texas,” said Savage, who grew up in Harker Heights, a small city in Bell County. Between the ages of 10 and 13, Savage trained with their father and spent time at famed hardcore wrestler Necro Butcher’s facility in the military boomtown of Killeen. “Before the shows, I’d do some training,” they said. “I’d drive up with my dad to Dallas and different places to work out, train, and whatnot.” However, wrestling would take a back seat as Savage entered high school. They focused on other sports like track and field, amateur wrestling, and football. In college, Savage was a “pretty good defensive tackle” at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor. **The Road to Powerlifting** After college, Savage was drawn to powerlifting. There, they also found success. Savage's powerlifting career was marked by impressive feats of strength and a willingness to push their body to the limit. At one event, Savage infamously performed a squat, bench press, and deadlift, totaling 2,005 pounds in just 33 seconds. “It takes people years to total 2,000 lbs. *Years*,” Savage said. And Savage showed an early flair for getting attention, challenging a deadlift record holder to an unusually grueling competition. It involved the two repeatedly deadlifting 600 pounds — until one quit, puked, or passed out. Savage won, completing 65 reps to their opponent's 62. Savage remembered thinking, “I’ll pull it 100 times if I have to.” The two traded deadlifts for an hour and a half. When Savage’s opponent finally gave up, he had ripped the skin off his hands. But the demands of powerlifting took a toll on Savage's body. They suffered two major injuries: a patellar tendon rupture in their left knee and a rotator cuff tear in their left shoulder. “I had two major surgeries,” Savage said. “And I basically retired from (powerlifting) and was going to retire from doing any physical sports at all.” **Rekindling the Flame** After recovering from rotator cuff surgery in 2021, Savage thought their athletic career was over. “I was pretty much done,” they admitted. But a chance encounter at a powerlifting meet reignited their passion for wrestling. A friend, Rhonda Biggs, suggested Savage consider returning to the ring, but Savage was hesitant. “I was like, I don't know. I don't want to. I don't think it's for me,” they recalled. Despite those reservations, the two spent hours talking about wrestling and Savage finally agreed to give it a shot. “So I asked (if) maybe I can go up there and just do a training day, see how it feels, whatever,” Savage said. “So I did." In early 2022, Savage drove to Fort Worth for a training session at Texas Roughhouse, which is owned by another wrestler, Bull Prough, aka “The Manimal.” It didn’t go well, at first. “It was pretty terrible to begin with,” Savage admitted. “I was super stiff. I was forgetting stuff and it wasn't great.” But as the session progressed, Savage began to find a rhythm. “By the time the three hours had passed, everything started flowing a lot better. Everything was a little bit smoother. I was having a great time.” **Birth of the ‘Sociopathic Powerhouse’** Inspired, Savage decided during a long drive home to create a wrestling persona. They donned a black singlet, a cropped denim vest, wrist tape, eyeliner, and boots, and filmed a vignette that they shared with close friends. It was rebellious and iconoclastic; people loved it. One friend, Damon McCullough, encouraged Savage. “Damon saw it and was like, 'What the fuck is this?' I was like, 'Man, I don't know. I think I'm going to give it a shot.' It felt good,” Savage said. Gradually, Savage's character, the “sociopathic powerhouse,” took shape. In the ring, they’re a menacing and charismatic figure — drawing inspiration from movies and their own personality. Savage described their character as having “sociopathic tendencies” and a charisma that can be both alluring and threatening. “I have this uncanny ability to kind of reel people in,” Savage explained, “and create some kind of false sense of security and then just completely pull the wool over their eyes.” **Diving Deep into Wrestling** Savage had their first match in March of 2022\. Even though it was just a three-minute bout, “it was a blast,” Savage said. “I was like, after I had that deal, I'm gonna dig deep and do this.” They quickly became a fixture on the Texas independent wrestling scene, securing bookings almost weekly, and wrestling about 45 matches in their first year. Savage's in-ring style is a blend of hard-hitting action and their own creative innovations. While their size is definitely an asset in a sport that loves giants, Savage avoids stereotypical “strong powerhouse wrestler moves,” instead focusing on creating innovative maneuvers. “I try to do things that, one, you're not going to see on the card. Two, you might not see anybody else do *ever*, at all,” Savage said. They plan their moves to be both athletic and “very heinous,” with the goal of systematically destroying their opponent's body. > I’m built different.. > End of the Line slam 🧱 🕷️ > @InspireADWres [@indiewrestling](https://twitter.com/indiewrestling?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=thebarbedwire.com) > 🎥 [@rsduran13](https://twitter.com/rsduran13?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=thebarbedwire.com) [pic.twitter.com/wsiZFasBfd](https://t.co/wsiZFasBfd?ref=thebarbedwire.com) > > — BRICK S∀Λ∀GE 🧱 (@BrickSavage7) [November 6, 2023](https://twitter.com/BrickSavage7/status/1721608725700517916?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=thebarbedwire.com) A fellow Texas-based wrestler, [Dimitri Alexandrov](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-next-big-pro-wrestling-sensation-is-a-russian-from-austin/), had high praise for Savage. “Brick is legitimately one of my closest friends,” Alexandrov said. “I love their drive and commitment to bettering (themselves) both in terms of fitness, ring work, and overall knowledge of professional wrestling.” I’ve seen Savage in action and was struck by the way they easily tossed around wrestlers, like a parent lifting an infant. But their agility was just as impressive. In one instance, Savage dove from the ring and landed on a hard floor. Even though I’ve been watching wrestling for decades, I was positive they had been seriously injured. By intermission, Savage was signing autographs. **Aims for the Future** Savage’s talent and hard work got noticed. They recently had a one-off appearance with [All Elite Wrestling](https://x.com/AEWEnhance/status/1889164086618870047?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the second biggest promotion in the U.S. next to World Wrestling Entertainment. That alone is a huge achievement in an industry where thousands of people nationwide compete for a few dozen jobs. Eric Baudour, who has worked as an announcer and interviewer for various Austin wrestling promotions, estimated that there are hundreds of wrestlers in Texas alone, of whom “maybe a couple dozen are chosen to get in the AEW ring.” Even fewer actually appear on TV. “The trust a company has to have in a worker to put them on TV in that way is huge,” Baudour told *The Barbed Wire*. “Especially in the world of wrestling. Think about how easily it could go wrong on live TV.” And while the exposure is great, Savage has their sights set on wrestling overseas. “My main goal is to get to Japan,” they said. Savage is drawn to the toughness and grit of Japanese wrestling, a style that they feel complements their own. “When it comes down to the core of wrestling itself and the competition and the fight feel, you really get that grit out of it when you watch Japanese wrestling,” they said. “And to me, that's the style that I fit in the most.” For an independent wrestler like Savage, the road to the top is hard, but not impossible. Longtime pro wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer told *The Barbed Wire* that for aspiring wrestlers, “the key is the ability to stand out, which is a combination of look, the ability to work the crowd, athleticism and above all, charisma.” “For an independent wrestler, the odds are long but the best odds are for those who make names on the indie scene, which is getting to the higher level (independent wrestling promotions) and word will spread if you are impressive,” Meltzer said. **Wrestling in Texas** For now, Savage enjoys the challenges and rewards of wrestling in Texas, pointing to the diversity of fans across our huge state. “I feel like the wrestling is definitely some of the best here,” Savage said. “Texas has probably one of the most unique fan bases. And being able to win over a Texas crowd, I think, can really test your skill level.” And as their wrestling journey barrels ahead, Savage takes inspiration from their dad, who was “quite a bit of a rebel.” While Bobby 2 Badd had a respectable indie career, he never hit the big time. Savage wants to take things further, which certainly seems feasible. Because over the last three years, they have consistently defied expectations and carved their own path. “I’ve had people try to hold me down, stop me from doing stuff,” Savage said. “It’s never stopped me.” ### She Lost Her Job, Then Her Husband Cheated and Left. ‘Chasing Camilla’ Saved Her. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/chasing-camilla-rio-grande-valley-mexican-roots-texas-mother-love/ Last updated: 2025-02-27T06:00:00.000Z In 2009, 27-year-old Melissa Rojas left Texas. She moved from Dallas to California to pursue a dream career in fashion. At first, she worked as an unpaid intern, then she landed jobs as a stylist for Gina Rodriguez and a personal assistant for Lindsey Lohan. One year later, she was employed by fashion house [Thomas Wylde,](https://www.latimes.com/fashion/alltherage/la-ar-sienna-miller-thomas-wylde-relaunch-20150805-story.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) where she met celebrities like Heidi Klum and lived out what felt like a fantasy, traveling to New York and Paris Fashion Weeks. As her career was taking off, she was falling in love. Then, just before she got married in 2014, she was laid off. Other job applications didn’t pan out. Eventually, she moved out of the city to be with her fiancée, and she found out she was pregnant with a baby girl. “I thought that I couldn't fulfill my dreams if I was pregnant. In my mind, I felt like my life was going to have to stop and raise a child,” Rojas recalled in a recent interview with *The Barbed Wire*. Her daughter Camilla was born in 2015. “It completely shifted my way of thinking. I felt like, ‘Okay, well, it's my reason to keep going’,” Rojas said. “She had the dark hair, she had lighter skin. She was just a precious little girl with her little button nose, and she was a good baby.” There was a glimmer of hope, but it wasn’t easy. “I was responsible for another human being, that's what kept me going,” Rojas recalled. Still, she felt emotionally off. In those early months, she noticed a decline in her mental health. She felt sadness and a constant need to cry, and she lost interest in her own life. According to the [Mayo Clinic](https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/postpartum-depression/symptoms-causes/syc-20376617?ref=thebarbedwire.com), these are classic symptoms of [postpartum depression](https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2826508?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which affects about 13% of [mothers in the U.S.](https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6919a2.htm?s%5Fcid=mm6919a2%5Fw&ref=thebarbedwire.com), according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Like [20% of other mothers](https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6919a2.htm?s%5Fcid=mm6919a2%5Fw&ref=thebarbedwire.com) experiencing those symptoms, Rojas never got an official diagnosis. At the time, she didn’t feel like she could talk to anyone about her mental health. Her husband wasn’t helpful. “He just blew it off,” she said, “‘You’re fine, you're going to be fine.’” “I feel like sometimes men can't relate to us and in the Latino community, your mental health and depression is not really talked about and so women have to put on a strong face and just go on and do what you're supposed to do,” Rojas told *The Barbed Wire.* Then her marriage nearly broke her. When Camilla was a toddler, Rojas’ husband told her: “I'm not in love with you anymore.” She found out he’d cheated on her with another woman, and *that* woman was pregnant. “I was trying to tell myself that it wasn't happening. I felt that I was losing control of everything,” Rojas told *The Barbed Wire.* “Nobody was going to save me even though I was drowning,” Rojas said, wiping away tears. “Camila was the one that kept me going.” \*\*\* In 2017, Rojas came home to Texas. She saved up for flights and flew back with her then-2-year-old daughter that September. They landed in the Rio Grande Valley, where Rojas’ immigrant parents owned a farm in Donna, less than 10 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border. For Rojas, moving back to the small town felt like defeat. “That situation was really humiliating,” Rojas said. “You're kind of reborn when you go through something like this divorce.” Soon, she began reconnecting to her Mexican roots, away from the glitz and glam of L.A. She and Camilla immersed themselves in their family and started making daily drives to spend time with Roja’s madrina Alicia Treviño, her “very own fairy godmother” who lived about 30 minutes away in Hidalgo. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/melissa-and-alicia.png) Courtesy: Melissa Rojas “We would just talk, chismear. I'm sure we chisme’d a lot about random stuff. I would tell her what happened with me, so it was very healing,” Rojas remembered. As a kid, Rojas remembers looking up to her godmother. She was an expert seamstress and made Rojas’ communion and quinceañera dresses. Reconnecting during such a challenging time may have been a coincidence, or it may have been fate. “I had a dream about [Zarape](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/latin-americas-wrap-for-all-seasons-112403979/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and just thought of the idea of Santa hats,” Rojas said. As she was looking for ways to celebrate the holidays with her daughter, she realized there weren’t enough reflections of her culture in the products around her. She went to her mom Dina and asked her for a $20 loan to buy the materials to start creating colorful santa hats — and she and her madrina went to work. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/img_5987.jpg) Courtesy: Melissa Rojas, M. Navarro Photography “I'm all about color and obviously I needed something to do, because I needed to take care of my daughter,” Rojas said, adding that she was inspired by the comfort, family, and vibrance of zarape. “So I just started selling it.” Her business was born out of that dream: With the help of her madrina, Rojas started designing and creating items that she thought her daughter would wear, infused with elements of their family’s culture. Her signature items included the zarape Santa hats, t-shirts with a sewn zarape heart, zarape graduation stoles, zarape mouse and bunny ears, zarape headbands, and bows. She began selling to her family, cousins and tias first, then their friends found out through word of mouth, texts and Facebook. Eventually Rojas’ creations made it to Instagram, and soon the whole town wanted her items. So she opened up an Etsy shop. She came up with a business plan, and she named it Chasing Camilla. “When you become a mom, you're chasing your child,” she told *The Barbed Wire*. “I wanted to create a brand that would incorporate my love for my culture and my daughter.” Soon her small business — and baby girl — started growing. “I kept making stuff for her and (being) inspired by her, and then it just started evolving into importing items from Mexico,” Rojas said. In the early days, Cami — as her mom lovingly calls her — was a staple on her mom’s Instagram grid. Now that she’s 10, she’s more like a business partner. Rojas says her daughter helps with selling and merchandising, but she has also designed products for her mom’s store. Some days, Rojas says she feels like her daughter’s personal assistant. In ten years, she traded gigs in L.A. for her “honey morena,” brown-skinned little girl. “What I like about her is that she speaks her mind, and she doesn't allow anyone to just tell her otherwise, which is something I wish I had when I was little, because I felt like I was really meek and insecure,” Rojas told *The Barbed Wire*. Rojas said the love for her daughter is also like a love letter to her younger self. Bullies targeted Rojas and her family. They were migrant workers and split their time between Michigan and Texas, following the blueberry crop season. Now, Rojas and her family get to travel for fun and to source materials and designs from Mexican artisans for her shop. “I want to be able to provide Camila with a cool life, a good life,” Rojas said. Now, Rojas wants to make sure other women like her — 43 and single — know that it’s not shameful to choose to love in a different way. “I think we shouldn't be looked at as, ‘pobresita, you're single, you're going to be alone forever. I hope she finds someone,’ I don't think that's right, because everyone's happiness is different, we don't have to grow up thinking that we have to get married and find someone,” Rojas insists. [Chasing Camilla](https://chasingcamilla.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) has sold hundreds of products throughout the country at countless pop-up markets. She’s known for her Instagram live sales and has outgrown Etsy. Now she sells direct-to-consumer on her own retail website. Rojas’ designs have been recognized by [Axios San Antonio](https://www.axios.com/local/san-antonio/2023/04/12/womens-guayaberas-fiesta-texas?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for reinventing “the classic linen guayaberas.” Last year, Chasing Camila made more than a quarter of a million dollars in sales, and now she’s in the process of buying her and Cami their first-ever home. Thanks to that stability, the love she’s focused on is for her daughter Cami. And while she’s happy to be free of her ex, he’s “not the reason I’ve come so far,” said Rojas. “It’s Camilla, because of her,” said Rojas. “She was my light at the time that I needed it.” *Correction: This story previously asserted that Rojas’ daughter was weeks old when her husband cheated; in fact, she was a toddler. She was a personal assistant to Lindsay Lohan, not a stylist, as the story originally reported. The Barbed Wire regrets the errors.* ### Cowboys Should Kiss Each Other More: A Brief History of Gay Cowboys URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/more-gay-cowboys/ Last updated: 2026-07-18T17:42:03.000Z A wide-brimmed hat, high-heeled boots, shiny silver spurs — the cowboy’s aesthetic is quintessentially Texan. It’s also kinda gay. OK. Really gay. Yet for many people, the word “cowboy” still brings to mind a John Wayne type — a swaggering avatar for a conservative ideal of American manhood. Cowboys are more flexible than that, like all fictional characters responding to the culture that created them. Perhaps more than any other Texas symbol — save the armadillo, which is of course bisexual — queerness weaves through their mythology. That pisses the right people off, I reckon. To that end, as we enter a turbulent time for the LGBTQIA+ community, always remember: Cowboys should kiss each other. We’ve transmuted this icon into gay fantasy for generations, and it’s easy to see why. The ideal buckaroo is rugged and masculine. He lives a life of freedom, maybe lawlessness, among wide open spaces. He, uh, wears a lot of leather. Most importantly, he keeps particular company. “The cowboy preferred his horse and male companions to women,” according to Marian J. Morton and William P. Conway’s article [“Cowboy without a Cause: His Image in Today's Popular Music,”](https://www.jstor.org/stable/4637903?ref=thebarbedwire.com) published in *The Antioch Review* in 1977. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. A six-shooter, meanwhile, doesn’t hang so close to the belt for nothin’. The [queer cowboy](https://www.brandeis.edu/writing-program/write-now/2021-2022/miller-hana/index.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) didn’t ride into town yesterday. On the 19th-century Western frontier, these men lived in a primarily homosocial society. Sometimes, men turned to each other for physical intimacy, [according to](https://www.brandeis.edu/writing-program/write-now/2021-2022/miller-hana/index.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [historians](https://books.google.com/books/about/Queer%5FCowboys.html?id=WuQYDAAAQBAJ&ref=thebarbedwire.com). Or as Willie Nelson famously sang: “There's many a cowboy who don't understand the way that he feels for his brother.” In the 1950s, artist [George Quaintance](https://www.messynessychic.com/2018/06/06/the-groundbreaking-kitsch-cowboy-art-of-george-quaintance/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) looked at [Wild West myth](https://www.messynessychic.com/2018/06/06/the-groundbreaking-kitsch-cowboy-art-of-george-quaintance/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and distilled it into queer desire. Quaintance populated many of his illustrations with glistening beefcake on horseback. Sometimes, they only wore boots; other times, less. Tom of Finland, one of Quaintance’s contemporaries, specialized in [eroticizing masculine ideals](https://www.vice.com/en/article/tom-of-finlands-art-still-resonates-because-it-mixes-pride-and-shame/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Right now, I’m staring at a print of one of his illustrations framed on my wall — a shirtless cowboy who’s beefier than a cattle drive. Each pec is the size of Enchanted Rock. And just a few feet away, I’ve hung up a more recent drawing by artist and writer John Paul Brammer. It’s a cartoonish fella in full outlaw garb, lassoed and hogtied. Chaps? Assless. These might be niche artworks, but the gay cowboy also rides proudly through popular culture. When I think of tumbling among the tumbleweeds, I immediately hum the chorus to [“Cowboys Are Frequently, Secretly Fond of Each Other,”](https://open.spotify.com/track/5cU9BwVxY9le1UtWApcqXG?si=b1a6f0958fe54b40&nd=1&dlsi=19bf61d53a0342ed&ref=thebarbedwire.com) the aforementioned song that Nelson famously covered in 2006. Ned Sublette wrote the song in 1981\. Like any good country ditty, it tells quite the tale: “Well, there's many a strange impulse out on the plains of West Texas,” the first verse begins. “There's many a young boy who feels things he can't comprehend.” The title lyric, sung in the chorus, reveals the truth of those feelings with a frankness that’s still pretty punk in 2025\. Nelson recently released a [new duet version](https://open.spotify.com/track/5rKTGQ2Q1wndZnX7km8WYu?si=2460d9372659417a&ref=thebarbedwire.com) with rising country singer Orville Peck, a masked desperado who openly sings about same-sex desire. You want mainstream? In 2019, Lil Nas X rode country-hip-hop song [“Old Town Road”](https://www.billboard.com/pro/lil-nas-x-old-town-road-billy-ray-cyrus-top-hot-100-song-2019/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to a record-breaking run atop the [Billboard chart](https://www.billboard.com/pro/lil-nas-x-old-town-road-billy-ray-cyrus-top-hot-100-song-2019/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The artist, who publicly came out as gay after the song’s release, incorporates both cowboy fashions and undulating male torsos into his performances. This archetype’s queerness is expansive, accessible to all genders and sexualities. Pop supernova Chappell Roan [champions the iconography of the lesbian cowgirl](https://www.out.com/gay-music/chappell-roan-snl-new-song-lyrics-listen-watch?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The band MUNA got into cowboy drag for [the video to 2022 song “Kind of Girl.”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDOiWGAaT8E&ref=thebarbedwire.com) RuPaul, the queen of drag, dropped the boot-scooting song [“Lady Cowboy”](https://open.spotify.com/track/0y2TLjmQqmQQf57xpXomye?si=8262f317d69d4d52&ref=thebarbedwire.com) in 2017\. Julien Baker and Torres, two queer indie-rock artists, styled themselves in Johnny Cash black in a promotional photo for [“Send a Prayer My Way,”](https://pitchfork.com/news/julien-baker-and-torres-announce-new-album-share-video-watch/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) their upcoming country collaboration. Is Beyoncé gay? No, but also, yes. On the cover of her acclaimed 2024 album, “Cowboy Carter” — the title itself is a bit of genderfuckery — she proudly wears rodeo finery atop a white steed. Even Madonna had a hat-and-boots era in the 2000s. https://www.instagram.com/p/Co7r7noKklL/ And lest we forget: There was a cowboy in the Village People. Film offers plenty of examples, as well. Tragic “Brokeback Mountain” is the “Casablanca” of gay cowboy movies. Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) are cut from the classic Western hero cloth. Their intermittent romance starts with the desperation of mutual isolation, like their real-life counterparts. Also born of necessity: saliva as a lubricant. https://www.instagram.com/p/B-r0\_ZAj8H8/ If you’re willing to dig through subtext, Hollywood has long been home to gay cowboys. “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” is [a classic example](https://decider.com/2019/10/24/butch-cassidy-and-the-sundance-kid-gay-subtext-polyamory/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and we’d need a whole day to sift through the [complicated sexuality depicted in “Midnight Cowboy.”](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/aug/25/homophobic-midnight-cowboy-gay-men-film-50?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Modern Western films like “The Power of the Dog” and “Strange Way of Life” are more explicit about their characters’ desires. These symbols hold power. When pop culture cowboys are not-so-secretly fond of each other, it expands our collective imagination. Texas, their natural habitat, is home to the nation’s second-largest LGBTQIA+ population — 1.8 million people, according to a [2024 analysis from the Public Policy Institute of California](https://www.ppic.org/blog/californias-lgbt-population/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). And yet, homophobia and transphobia burble forth from the Texas Capitol (and megachurches) like chuckwagon chili. Lately, it’s come with an increasing and alarming lack of shame. Texanhood doesn’t belong to one kind of person — as much some pretend otherwise — and neither does the cowboy. As the song goes: “What did you think all them saddles and boots was about?” ### Why Texans Should Visit Bentonville URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/why-texans-should-visit-bentonville/ Last updated: 2025-02-25T19:18:14.000Z When I boarded a plane to Bentonville, I was going into the trip pretty much blind. I hadn’t even consulted Google Images, much less a guidebook. But Bentonville surprised me. I had heard it was a nice place to visit, but I didn’t know much more than that it was the home of Walmart. Truthfully, I didn’t know if that would make the town seem too corporate or artificial — like a city in an amusement park. Even though I was optimistic about the trip, I was surprised by how much my family and I loved visiting Bentonville. The people could not have been nicer and we were never without something fun to do. Here’s why I think Texans — especially families — should absolutely make the trip up to Northwest Arkansas. **It’s so close** As the parent of a two-year-old, it takes a lot to make any amount of travel worth it, but getting to Bentonville was easy. It’s a direct flight from Dallas or Houston, or a doable drive for most of the state. Then, once you’re in Bentonville, most of the places you want to visit are within walking distance or a short drive — my kid never even had time to say “Are we there yet?” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/en-route-to-bentonville.jpg) A trip so easy a two-year-old can do it! Photo Courtesy Erin Russell **There’s a thriving restaurant scene** Bentonville is home to [“High South” cuisine](https://www.eater.com/24249639/bentonville-arkansas-where-to-eat?ref=thebarbedwire.com). There’s two restaurants that are up for James Beard Awards this year: Mexican restaurant [Yeyo’s El Alma](https://www.yeyosnwa.com/locations/el-alma-de-mexico?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and gluten-free restaurant [Conifer](https://www.coniferbentonville.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). And there’s something for those who want a taste of home: [Flying Fish](https://www.flyingfishinthe.net/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), an East Texas-style fish joint on Bentonville Square, has several locations in Texas; [The Meteor](https://themeteor.cafe/bentonville?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a bike shop/coffee shop/pizzeria has a location in Austin; plus [Brother’s Meethouse](https://www.brothersmeethouse.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) has great barbecue. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/the-meteor.jpg) Coffee and a cookie at The Meteor in Bentonville. Photo Courtesy Erin Russell **Everything is family-friendly** This city has clearly thought about what will make life easier for families. Even the fancy art museum had an activity area for kids! There’s lots of open areas to run around in, playgrounds with cool equipment I hadn’t even seen before, and of course [the Amazeum](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-best-childrens-museum-for-texas-families-bentonvilles-the-amazeum/), an incredible children’s museum with exhibits for all ages. **Beautiful art is everywhere** Looking beyond the Amazeum and the world-class (and free!) art museum Crystal Bridges, there’s art all around Bentonville in the form of murals, interactive installations, and interesting architecture. For example, when we were exploring The Ledger, a bike-friendly building near the city center, we were greeted by mosaics of insects and a beautiful animated fish installation on a parking garage next door. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/ledger-fish.jpg) An animated fish installation at The Ledger in Bentonville. Photo Courtesy Erin Russell **Outer (and inner?) peace** When we went to sleep at night in our Airbnb, there was total silence — and we were staying a 15 minute walk from downtown. There was no rush hour traffic, no construction noise, no sirens in the distance — just peace and quiet. Having natural areas like the Coler Mountain Bike Preserve so close by helped me drift even further into that relaxed vacation mindset. I truly enjoyed my first trip to Arkansas — I found Texas-friendly hospitality and a ton of interesting activities for my family. There’s still so much in that area I want to explore: other natural areas, more restaurants, and even nearby Fayetteville. I can’t wait to go back! ### I'm in Love with a Dead Man URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/im-in-love-with-a-dead-man/ Last updated: 2026-07-18T17:42:59.000Z Last month, I went to my homegirl’s wedding. We’ve been cool since high school, and the wedding was in our old stomping grounds: the south-eastside of Fort Worth. Aside from a few folks here and there, the reception was all-Black — chopped and screwed music flowed from crackling speakers to our nostalgic ears. The DJ cued up Damn D’s “Love Me,” and just like that, I was transported back to 2009, in the bed of a pickup truck, laughing and sipping on Four Loko’s underaged with my first love. To be clear, my first love was not a romance. We met in the hallway of Dunbar Middle School (now J Martin Jacquet), locked eyes, and saw family. My love was a 5 '9, snaggle-toothed, larger-than-life gay boy with a determination to make something of the life that he’d been handed. He was a product of Fort Worth — its poorer, Blacker corner called Stop Six where eldest boys like him had to cook, clean, and take care of younger siblings while their moms worked shift after shift. In between his many obligations, he wrote poetry, songs, plays, and short films. He sang and acted and rapped and made beats on FL Studio. Truly, if he put his mind to it, he could do anything. The slick-mouthed MF could make friends with a door handle, so long as it had breath and perspective. From ages 14 to 21, I clung to him to get through all the hard-hearted days of my teens. It was palpable, the queerness oozing off of us in an uber-religious setting, the sadness we carried but couldn’t name. Tunes like “Love Me” take me back to evenings on ooVoo with our high school friends — all married with kids and bills these days — and nights dancing while sweat glistened on the back of our necks at Stonewall Warehouse in San Marcos (RIP). When Damn D slurs “certified player they gone haaaaate me,” I see his little meaty fingers throwing up fake gang signs, looking over at me to make sure I’m watching (I was always watching). I hear his hearty laugh, a laugh I’ll never hear in-person again. My friend died in 2016. It was sudden, unexpected; he was the closest person to me at that point in my life that had ever passed. Every day for seven years I laughed, confessed my secrets to, and made music with someone who was, all of a sudden, unreachable. Despite all the ways we try to claim our own experiences as unique, grief is as mundane as the sun shining on a Texas summer day. It’s the one thing we all know since living means we will outlive somebody that we love. It’s common, even universal, this pain we are subjected to. > Weaving his life into mine on the page is the best way for me to love a dead man. For two years, I went through every cycle of grief and then some: hating him for leaving, romanticizing all our memories, being unable to get out of bed — everything that makes “moving on” impossible. To be honest, my grief made me unrecognizable. By mid-2018, I broke up with a long-term partner, parted ways with most of my friends, and moved to a city where I knew no one and had no job. Once I was at my literal bottom, I realized I had to change. I had to find a way to not cry every time someone said his name, or turn off a song that reminded me of him, or avoid entire swaths of Texas, or be mad at folks for daring to be happy while I lived without my love. I had to find a way to make the bond we’d built over seven years not feel like a sharp edge that cut me and anyone I was around. I started therapy for the first time in fall 2018\. Within the first few sessions, my therapist asked: “How do you preserve your memories?” Without missing a beat, I said: “Writing.” Writing about my friend at the request of my therapist was how I finally started to heal. It is the best way I know to honor the complicated memory of our love. It’s a miracle that our friendship even existed. We were two Black queer kids in a city — and state — that would rather we didn’t exist. We paraded our love around the Northeast Mall, and the Parks Mall, and La Gran Plaza, and every street in south-east Fort Worth every time we used our two good legs. We made any place where we could interlace our fingers a safe space. We had no business finding love; we surely had no business finding it in each other, but we did. For seven years, we did. That is a phenomenon worth preserving. Through writing about our days, including days we listened to Damn D, I get to breathe life back into him. I recognize that trying to reincarnate someone is as futile as death itself. I’ve started and stopped many lines about the particular wool of his hair; I’ve composed many clauses trying to recreate the feeling of his skin. With creative writing, I get to keep loving him and acknowledge the things that can’t change (like the fact of his passing, or the many things he never told me). In a way, though, by writing about it, I’ve learned so much about our friendship. I want to live in those irresponsible days when I spent weekends doing teenage stuff with my friend. Writing is the best way to love a man who freeze-framed the day that he left me. Yes, it’s sad that there are things I can’t tell him, milestones he didn’t get to see. But I also get to hold onto what he *did* see and what I *did* tell him. Memory is fickle. Dates and times and locations become fuzzier as his departure grows further and further from my present. It feels urgent to me, then, to write what I remember in poems, essays, books — things that will outlive us both. In every book I’ve published, there’s a piece about him. In my [book in-progress](https://www.arts.gov/impact/literary-arts/creative-writing-fellows/kb-brookins?ref=thebarbedwire.com), our relationship takes center stage. Weaving his life into mine on the page is the best way for me to love a dead man. There’s a quote attributed to the street artist Bansky: *they say you die twice. One time when you stop breathing and a second time, a bit later on, when somebody says your name for the last time.* That’s why I’ve introduced you to Travis E. Green, and continue to share his zest, his little twisted walk, his purple-pink gums with the world in my literature. I heard a song at my friend’s wedding, thought happy thoughts about my love, and then continued loving in the present. That is the work of the living. ### The True Legacy of Black Cowboys URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/legacy-of-black-cowboys-west-texas/ Last updated: 2026-07-14T04:52:39.000Z *Texas hasn’t gotten its due as a major piece in the complex puzzle of American art. We’re here to rectify that. Every three weeks, H. Drew Blackburn will conduct a thoroughly scientific analysis of the 254 integral (one for every county) books, movies, tv shows, albums, podcasts, songs, and magazine articles — you name it — that best exemplify the Texas spirit. These texts, products of immense talent, dig into the marrow of our being. When it’s all said and done and we’ve built The Texas Voyager collection, we’ll (figuratively) head to the Johnson Space Center in Houston and shoot it beyond the atmosphere, into the cosmos. A wise person once posed the question: “What if the aliens are hot?” Hold onto that hope — this is our chance to impress ‘em.* Beyoncé’s eighth album, “Cowboy Carter,” has a provocative cover. There she is on a horse waving an American flag, sporting red, white, and blue — the same flag and colors that cannot be separated from the United States’s sordid past *and* present on domestic and foreign land. After all, Beyoncé does sing about a “whole lotta red in that white and blue,” on the album. But, to interpret this piece of art in good faith means to wrestle with its meaning — the full scope of what it means to be a Black American. It is possible to critique the empire and have pride in your downtrodden people’s contributions, especially when that history has been intentionally suppressed. One of the most blatant elements of the artwork is Beyoncé’s homage to rodeo queens and cowboy culture, both [at Beyoncé Bowl](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/beyonce-bowl-nfl-halftime-performance-was-a-master-class-in-black-joy-authenticity/) and in the album cover. Look even closer and you’ll find that [the horse she’s sitting on is a Lipazzener](https://www.vox.com/culture/24122351/beyonce-cowboy-carter-album-visuals-decoded-easter-eggs-references?ref=thebarbedwire.com). They’re an interesting breed. When Lipazzeners are born, their coat is brown or black; over time, it turns into a whitish-gray. This is the historical record of the cowboy. Black and brown at its inception, and gradually over time, whitewashed. You see, Black cowboys wereessentially *the* cowboys back in the day. From slavery — because slavery was whatever it needed to be, not just picking cotton — to the post-antebellum days in the South, Black cowboys played a crucial role in cattle ranching and driving. “They didn't have white cowboys,” Larry Callies, founder of The Black Cowboy Museum in Rosenberg told *The Barbed Wire*. “Black (men) was called a cowboy because of his skin,” said Callies, who is a fourth-generation cowboy and a country singer. “They called Black people ‘boys’ in the 1800s. The white man was called the cowhand. (Back then) you better not call a white man a cowboy. He’d say, ‘I'm not your boy. I'm a cowhand. Cowperson. Cowdriver.’ Not a cowboy… until Hollywood.” If you close your eyes and imagine a cowboy, what you probably see is a solitary, six-foot-something, gunslinging white man. Pretty too, but in a hyper-masculine way. It’s an image made popular by Hollywood and the Western film genre at a time when media in the United States began to take shape and find its voice outside of European traditions. Westerns are early American folklore and propaganda — tales of heroes settling and taming the West, painting Native Americans as savages, bestowing virtues of vigilante justice, capitalism, and individualism. There’s no irony in the fact that our country’s first blockbuster was [D. W. Griffith’s disgustingly racist opus “The Birth of a Nation,”](https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2015/02/08/383279630/100-years-later-whats-the-legacy-of-birth-of-a-nation?ref=thebarbedwire.com) nor is it a mistake that Black people were largely excluded from the motion pictures that helped manufacture the American identity. It’s by design. “It's hard for me to say that wasn't intentional because if you had came to Texas, if you had gone to Oklahoma and you were talking to white cowboys and you were talking to cowboys where the cowboys lived, they would've told you about all these Black cowboys. That's not a secret,” Ron Davis, curator of American history at San Antonio’s Witte Museum, told *The Barbed Wire*. Davis is co-curator of the museum’s exhibit “Black Cowboys: An American Story.” Davis actually traces the history of Black cowboys back to West Africa, well before the transatlantic slave trade. “There were West Africans who for a thousand years tended cattle,” Davis said. “Nations, tribes, and countries that had cavalries before European contact. These were skills that were already a part of certain people in West African traditions.” Davis recalls a slave narrative written in the 1700s by Olaudah Equiano who was captured at around nine or 12 — eventually, he became a freeman. In it, he talks about his childhood in West Africa, and while he doesn’t specifically write about tending cattle, he talks about a herd of cattle getting exchanged when a couple was about to get married. “You don't just go get a herd of cattle in the 1700s. That means to me that cattle is a central part of your culture.” ![Viewers at the Witte Museum’s exhibit on Black Cowboys](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/250218_blackcowboys_embed.jpg) When the practice of tending cattle made its way to America, it began to take a new shape, something Davis calls a Creolization of culture — blending aspects of different customs to create something new. “You're taking these different aspects of West African, Spanish, Mexican, and British cattle ranching, and it becomes the cowboy over time.” According to Davis, J. Marvin Hunter, the president of the Trail Driver Association, kept a manifest of everyone who went on a trail run. Hunter’s calculations put the number of Black cowboys on cattle drives at one in four. If you include Mexicans, the number becomes three out of four people of color. The stories of Black cowboys — like the famous Western legend born into slavery Nat Love; ranch hand and longhorn tamer Bill Pickett; and the first Black U.S. Marshal Bass Reeves — aren’t as much an anomaly as you were led to believe. These men were the original cowboys. Hollywood finally got around to giving those aforementioned names their due as heroes with a sprinkling of films, notably, [2021’s “The Harder They Fall](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/03/movies/the-harder-they-fall-review.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com),” but Black cowboys are fundamental to Texas history, present, and future. It would take more than a mere sprinkle to represent them. That goes for the icons *and* the men whose names have been lost to time — on ranches in small towns and in and around cities like Fort Worth, Austin, and Houston. That’s why we’re putting Black cowboys and their untold stories in the Texas Voyager collection. “We as African-Americans have experienced everything that any other American has and we have survived and maintained our contributions to every industry that exists,” said Aaronetta Pierce, who is steering committee chair for the “Black Cowboys: An American Story” exhibit in San Antonio. “We are not new to many things, but understand that Black cowboys have always existed. There may not be (many) books written, but they know what their ancestors taught them. And so we belong in — and we are rooted in — these traditions. Just like any other American.” ### How Much Do Texans Spend on Beauty? We Surveyed More Than 100. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/beauty-makeup-costs-texas/ Last updated: 2025-02-21T06:01:00.000Z The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders are the living, breathing embodiment of Texas beauty standards: big hair, bronzed skin, and makeup that strikes that perfect balance between natural and glam. If you watched Netflix's documentary series, “America's Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders,” you know that the rookies undergo a makeover under the guidance of Kelli Finglass, current director and former Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader, who determines the best hair and makeup styles for each woman. “A look is important to the overall appeal,” Finglass says in the documentary. “Having renewed confidence or an extra dose of glam certainly helps.” While the Cowboys organization covers the initial cost of creating each rookie’s new look and foots the bill for some essentials, like haircuts, hair color, manicures, and tanning, the bulk of the cheerleaders’ beauty expenses falls back on the women — and the costs add up quickly. As a beauty editor and makeup artist, I’m in a similar boat: In 2024, I spent exactly $2,388.98 on beauty products. How do I know the exact figure? Technically, these expenses are considered tax-deductible. The same goes for the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, so don’t feel too bad for us. You’ve gotta spend money to make money — except if you work for the Cowboys organization, but I digress. Some years, I’ve spent nearly $5,000\. That number doesn’t even include services like haircuts, color, facials, or injectables, because I don’t think those are considered write-offs, and I’d rather not fuck around and find out when it comes to the IRS. While most Texans aren’t performing the iconic “Thunderstruck” routine to a sold-out audience at AT&T stadium, they do take their beauty routines very seriously. Many have the same sense of pride and polish in their appearance as the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. But just how much does the average Texan spend on their beauty routine? To find out, I surveyed more than 100 Texans across every age group and in every corner of the state. ## How Much Are Texans Spending on Beauty? Y’all aren’t ready for this: The average Texan spends $3,120.25 annually across both beauty products and services. If you just did a double-take at that number, you're not alone. That's nearly double what the average Texan pays for rent each month in Texas ($1,875, per [Zillow](https://www.zillow.com/rental-manager/market-trends/tx/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)). Wondering how it all adds up? Let’s break it down. A quick note on my methodology: Survey respondents selected a price range that fit their beauty spending to the best of their knowledge, broken down by different categories. I took the midpoint of the range and multiplied it by the number of people who selected the range. I did that for each range, added them up, and then divided the total by the total number of respondents. Suffice it to say, this is not a peer reviewed scientific study, but an earnest attempt at averages. According to our survey data and calculations, the average Texan spends approximately $1,210.92 annually on beauty products, such as makeup, skincare, haircare, and fragrance. Depending on who you ask, these kinds of purchases may or may not be seen as “essential.” Most people purchase necessities like face wash and lotion, but many also indulge in “affordable luxury" items, such as a new skincare serum or lipstick. Our survey data shows that 38% of respondents spend $50-$100 per month on beauty products, 25% spend $100-$200, and more than 8% spend over $200 per month. Beauty treatments and services, such as haircuts, coloring, facials, nails, and injectables, are a different story. Some services, like haircuts, are considered essential and purchased multiple times a year, regardless of age, gender, and region. While other services, like hair coloring, are technically discretionary, I dare you to try to tell a bottle blonde that her hair color appointment is “unnecessary.” This is reflected in our survey results, which show the average Texan spends $1,909.33 per year on beauty treatments and services, almost $700 more than they spend on beauty products. Twenty seven percent of respondents spend $1,000 or more, nearly 20% spend $2,000 or more, and almost 8% spend an astonishing $5,000 or more annually. Of course, the amount Texans spend on beauty varies significantly based on factors like age, gender, and region. Texans aged 18-25 spent the least, averaging $75 per month on beauty products, while Texans between the ages of 25-44 reported spending more at almost $90 per month. Texans aged 44-55 spend the most, averaging $130 per month on beauty products, but past 55 years old, the average decreases to $105 per month. Unsurprisingly, women are the primary drivers of beauty spending, allocating on average $2,915.09 per year on beauty products and services, with the most popular categories being skincare, makeup, salon services, and haircare. Men, on the other hand, report spending considerably less at $2,037.51 per year, primarily on haircare, haircuts, and spa treatments. Location also plays a major part in how much Texans spend on beauty products and services. Among the major cities, Austin residents allocate the highest amount towards beauty, with an average annual spending of $3,208.92\. Following closely behind are San Antonio and Dallas, where the average annual spend is $2,986.52 and $2,711.27, respectively. El Paso stands out with the lowest average annual expenditure at $924\. Similarly, Beaumont and the Rio Grande Valley (encompassing McAllen and Harlingen) also report significantly lower spending on beauty, averaging $1,674.50 and $1,774.50 annually, respectively. ## What Are Texans Spending Their Money On? In the broader beauty industry, skincare reigns supreme: It accounts for 44% of the total beauty share, according to reports from [McKinsey & Company](https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/consumer-packaged-goods/our-insights/the-beauty-boom-and-beyond-can-the-industry-maintain-its-growth?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The trend holds true for Texas — nearly 60% of survey respondents said skincare consumed the largest portion of their beauty budget. Salon services came in second at 55%, followed by haircare (41%), makeup (35%), and injectables (30%). In terms of specific skin treatments, Austin-based registered nurse and certified aesthetic nurse specialist Brooke Nichol told *The Barbed Wire* that ​​radiofrequency microneedling and SkinPen are among the most sought-after procedures. Both facilitate the production of collagen and elastin to promote skin tightening and lifting. Neuromodulators (aka Botox) are also a top service and never going anywhere, she adds. Over the last few years, Nichol said she’s seen an increase in male customers and millennials, indicating a broader shift in attitudes toward cosmetic treatments. Aesthetic procedures are becoming increasingly normalized across gender and age groups, with younger clients seeing these treatments as preventative measures to maintain the health and quality of their skin now rather than correcting it later. Texans' spending on beauty products and services varies throughout the year, often influenced by the weather and season. Colder weather in the winter can dry out our hair and skin, which leads to an uptick in moisturizing facial treatments and deep conditioning hair treatments, according to Lindsay Worthen, campus director at Ogle School, a cosmetology and esthetician school with multiple locations across Texas. “During summer, we sell a lot of SPF as people are out in the sun more, and like to brighten their hair color with more highlight services,” she says. Dr. Emily Wood, a dermatologist who practices at Westlake Dermatology in Marble Falls and Austin, says the most common complaints she hears from her patients are brown spots, redness, and textural changes to their skin — all results of sun damage. “Texas’ sunny climate is always a consideration when patients consider chemical peels and/ or laser,” says Wood. “Winter months are typically laser season in Texas due to patients spending more time out of the sun. Of course, with proper post-care, one can undergo laser or chemical peels any time of year.” Survey respondents overwhelmingly reported that while neuromodulators like Botox and Dysport are typically the most expensive beauty investments, the results justify the cost. For those using neuromodulators preventatively, the treatments have helped them avoid more invasive procedures down the line. Others seek out these treatments for medical concerns, like one respondent who received masseter Botox injections to address TMJ and chronic headaches. “For the amount of units I get, it was around $800-1000 every 6 months, and well worth it!” they said. Dyson hair tools were another significant investment that respondents thought was worth the $500-$600 price tag. “My hair has never looked better,” one person said. Popular splurges include devices like the Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare DRx SpectraLite FaceWare Pro LED Face Mask ($455) and the NuFace Trinity Microcurrent Facial Device ($350). While many thought that red light devices were smart buys, opinions on the NuFace were mixed, with some respondents saying they didn’t get the results they hoped for. Among men, hair growth treatments were a top investment, with one saying he saw “significant improvement” in his hair density. ## Does Texas Culture Influence Beauty Habits? Everything’s bigger in Texas, including our beauty standards. And hair. Texans typically adopt a “more-is-more” aesthetic, which is most evident in the state’s preference for big, voluminous hair. Texans have also had to adapt their beauty routines to withstand the intense heat and humidity that the state is known for. Many survey respondents report embracing their natural hair texture during the summer months because they can’t be bothered to spend time heat-styling their hair when it’ll frizz up the moment they step outside. Survey respondents cited anti-frizz haircare products as essential for combating Texas' challenging climate. One person recommended Amika's The Shield to help protect hair from the effects of heat and Texas humidity. “I find it helps my hair keep a smooth style for longer and with less frizz,” they said. Each city and region has its own unique beauty standards and trends. Dallas is more glamorous, while Austin leans more natural. And yet, a “more-is-more” aesthetic is a unifier across the state. One example: lash extensions. “I was very surprised to see how many lash extension studios were here as opposed to the San Francisco Bay area, which is where I moved from,” one survey respondent said. “I feel like it’s much more common to have false eyelashes on here than back in the Silicon Valley.” As we said in the beginning: If you want to know if Texas culture influences our beauty routines, look no further than the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. The organization defined and continues to perpetuate beauty standards that are distinctly Texan — for better or for worse. But it comes with a hefty price tag for both the cheerleaders themselves and the Texans who feel the pressure to maintain these sky-high standards for the sake of fitting that larger-than-life Texas image. For Texans, it turns out that the classic expression “beauty is pain” applies to our wallets, too. How much are you willing to pay to look the part? *Editor’s Note: Think there’s a beauty angle we missed? Reach out to the author at @crismontyy or cristinamontemayor4@gmail.com.* ### In a Cruel Twist of Fate, Victor Wembanyama Is Out for the Season URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/wemby-blood-clots-spurs-out/ Last updated: 2025-02-20T19:00:24.000Z What is this cruel, cruel world that Texas basketball fans are living in? First it was Dallas Maverick’s savior [Luka Dončić](https://bleacherreport.com/articles/25159154-shams-luka-doncic-shellshocked-and-thats-been-vibe-ever-lakers-trade?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — gone from the team in an absolute bullsh!t trade. Now San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wembanyama is out for the rest of the season due to deep vein thrombosis, which is the official name for blood clots. The team put out a statement Thursday afternoon that said doctors first diagnosed him with blood clots in his right shoulder after last weekend’s All-Star Game in San Francisco. https://www.instagram.com/p/DGTbcr9RTQu/ Deep vein thrombosis is typically treated with blood-thinners, which sidelines players from contact sports, but a team source told ESPN that they’re hopeful that [Wemby](https://www.espn.com/nba/story/%5F/id/43937353/spurs-shut-victor-wembanyama-blood-clot-shoulder?ref=thebarbedwire.com) will fully recover and be back in time for next season. Still, there’s no guarantee. For now, Spurs fans can join the Mavs fans in sadness and uncertainty. But hey, at least opening day for Major League Baseball is March 27\. 😫 ### ‘Everything We Have, We’ve Done Together’: A Charro-Cowgirl Love Story URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/charro-cowgirl-love-texas-rodeo/ Last updated: 2025-02-20T06:00:00.000Z For nearly thirty years, husband-and-wife duo Gerardo “Jerry” Diaz and Staci Diaz have traveled the country showcasing their skill on horseback. Through their touring performances and tightly-choreographed Mexican Rodeo Extravaganzas, they bring audiences a blend of the two different cultures of riding they were raised in. A skilled trick rider, Staci grew up around her parents’ “Liberty horses,” which were trained to perform by voice and body language without the use of ropes or halters. Jerry, on the other hand, is a fourth-generation charro — a horseman trained in the national Mexican sport of charrería. Something akin to a rodeo, a charreada encompasses ten events — nine for men and one for women, all of whom compete in colorful, elaborately embroidered outfits often worn with a matching moño (bow tie) and a sombrero. “We came from two different worlds,” says Staci. “But when you take those two things and combine them, it just made us stronger as a unit.” Today, the couple lives in New Braunfels with their son, Nicolas, who also trains and performs alongside his parents. And when the family isn’t at their ranch, they’re out on the road, bringing their team of horses to another arena, another rodeo, another crowd. “There has to be a passion for this, because it’s not an easy business,” Jerry says. “It has to come from somewhere inside of your soul. I got lucky, because it’s hard to find someone who will dedicate themselves to this the way we do. But everything we have, we’ve done together.” ![Staci, wearing red flowers in her hair and a bright blue dress, tending to a horse](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/charro-9724.jpg) #### *How They Got Their Start* Staci: My grandparents were performers, and my mom was actually a Rockette. At some point, though, my grandfather told her they needed help with the horses, so she came back home and actually ended up meeting my dad at a show. They got married and continued doing shows with their horses, so my brother and I grew up entertaining just like my parents and grandparents. I started performing in my dad’s Wild West Show when I was three years old. Jerry: My father came to the United States in the ‘40s. He was a pioneer who brought over the riding style and the discipline of the Mexican Charro. He helped start one of the first charro associations in the U.S., right here in San Antonio. He was a great horseman, and a great trainer, and those are the footsteps I’m following today. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/240215_texaslove_charrolove_embed1-1.jpg) Cat Cardenas / The Barbed Wire #### *How They Met* Staci: My dad needed trick ropers for his show, and somebody gave us Jerry’s number. My dad contacted him, but they couldn’t strike a deal, because he was too expensive \[*Laughs*\]. But he came out to the show, and saw what we were all about. For the next 10 years, I would see him at different shows and he would always make a point to come up and say hello, and flash his smile and his twinkly eyes to make sure I noticed him. Jerry: Mr. Anderson called me looking for a roper, and while we were not able to make a deal, he said I was welcome to come to his show. Afterward, I invited him and his family to come onto the ranch, and that was our first official meeting. I saw her a few more times over the years, and eventually I spoke with my manager about the National Western Stock Show in Denver, and told him they had to hire her to perform. She was a great rider, but I also wanted them to hire her because I was going to be there, and I wanted to see her. \[*Laughs*\]. I had a bouquet of flowers sent to her hotel that said “Welcome to Denver.” Later, when she was performing, I was up in the President’s Box, and when she rode by with her horses, she blew me a kiss. ![Jerry, a fourth generation Charro, with his horse](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/charro-9713.jpg) #### *Their First Date* Staci: Ten years had gone by from the first time I met him to when we started dating. I was in Vegas at the National Finals Rodeo, and Jerry kept coming around to me at the convention. Finally, he asked me if I wanted to go to the rodeo with him. He was nervous, I was nervous. He had to come pick me up, and my dad asked him, “What time are you gonna bring my daughter home?” And he started stuttering, and it was just really funny. We ended up having a really good time. Jerry: Once we went out in Vegas, I knew I was going to pursue her. I called her up when I was in Austin and told her, “I can go south, or I can go north. But if I go north, I’m coming to see you.” And she said, “Come north.” I drove to her ranch, and Mr. Anderson asked, “Did you come here to see the horses, the ranch, or my daughter?” And I said, “Well, honestly, Mr. Anderson, I came here to see your daughter, the ranch, *and* the horses.” ![Jerry leading his horse](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/charro-9645.jpg) #### *Falling in Love* Staci: I thought he was very handsome, and I thought his horseback riding was just exquisite. I loved watching him ride and perform. To this day, we've been married 25 years, and we've been together for 27, and every time he goes into the arena, I always watch him as if it was for the first time. We realized that we looked at horses the same way, and I always knew in my heart I wanted to marry somebody that had the same love of horses I did. Jerry: After I went up to the ranch, that was it. We continued to see each other, and one day, after performing at a rodeo in Colorado Springs, we went back to the ranch, and I proposed to her at midnight under the full moon. She said yes. We had a full charro wedding with mariachis who played for hours. Staci: We got married on horseback because my parents got married on horseback, and it was always a dream of mine that the whole wedding party would be on horses, too. His dad, my dad, everyone was very emotional. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/240215_texaslove_charrolove_embed2.jpg) Cat Cardenas / The Barbed Wire #### *Keeping the Tradition Alive* Staci: We love hearing from people who come to our shows and tell us that they had no idea the culture and the heritage behind charrería. Jerry always tries to explain some of what we’re doing and why during the show. To an audience who’s never seen anything like it, it really opens up their eyes to a beautiful thing. It’s an opportunity to learn and to experience something new. Jerry: Nicolas is now a fifth-generation horseman and charro rider. He already has several national championships under his belt. Ever since he was little, I would take him with me to produce these Mexican rodeo extravaganzas, rodeos, and shows, so he knows the industry and he’s grown up in it. We do the whole show as a family. We produce it, we direct it, we perform in it, and I'm very proud of it. Today, the shows are broadcast by the cowboy channel worldwide, and I never thought that our show would get to that level. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/240215_texaslove_charrolove_embed3.jpg) Cat Cardenas / The Barbed Wire #### *A Family Business* Staci: My favorite thing is when we’re all in the arena together. Jerry’s doing his thing with the rope, and me and Nicolas are dancing our horses. But even then, we always have our eye on Jerry. There’s just no way to describe in words what he can do. There are trick ropers who can do fast, little tricks, but Jerry just makes it flow. It’s mesmerizing. Jerry: In any marriage, there are challenges, but the beauty of this is that we both love to perform, and we both know what it takes to get there. It can take four, five, even six years to get a horse out there ready for a show. We have the love and appreciation to stick with it, and not just Staci, but our son, Nicolas. I think we all get a lot of satisfaction out of having prepared these horses from scratch before they’re out in front of thousands of people. It takes a special couple to do what we do. You need a lot of patience, and a lot of heart. ![Jerry walking in the barn](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/charro-9577.jpg) ### KFC Moves to Texas, Changes Motto to ‘Don’t Mess with Drumsticks’ URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/kentucky-fried-chicken-kfc-texas/ Last updated: 2025-02-19T16:39:35.000Z Folks, it's official: Kentucky Fried Chicken is Kentucky Fried no more. The finger-lickin’ giant just announced it's packing up its 11 herbs and spices and heading to Texas, leaving behind a heartbroken Kentucky and one very confused Colonel Sanders (who, if he were alive, would probably be shaking his drumstick at this betrayal). The chain’s parent company, Yum! Brands, dropped the bombshell on Tuesday, declaring that KFC’s U.S. headquarters will be flying the coop from Louisville, Kentucky, and roosting in Plano, Texas, [*The Associated Press*](https://apnews.com/article/kentucky-fried-chicken-louisville-67979f21e4261f10c7ef07bd8f80bb26?ref=thebarbedwire.com) reported. Roughly 100 employees will be making the move over the next six months. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear took the news about as well as a vegan at a barbecue. “I am disappointed by this decision and believe the company’s founder would be, too,” he lamented in a statement, while (we assume) clutching a bucket of extra crispy for emotional support. “This company’s name starts with Kentucky, and it has marketed our state’s heritage and culture in the sale of its product.” Rumor has it he’s been spotted outside the governor’s mansion, drowning his sorrows in a bathtub full of coleslaw. But why Texas? Why ditch bourbon and bluegrass for brisket and big hats? According to Yum! Brands CEO [David Gibbs](https://www.yum.com/wps/portal/yumbrands/Yumbrands/news?urile=wcm:oid:54d63edb-2d60-4482-9134-ba1e69af9aac&ref=thebarbedwire.com), “These changes position us for sustainable growth and will help us better serve our customers, employees, franchisees, and shareholders.” Translation: Texas has better tax breaks and a population that can house a fried chicken bucket the size of a Ford F-150. Plano, a Dallas suburb, is already home to Yum! Brands' KFC and Pizza Hut Global headquarters. Overall, the company now plans to have [dual headquarters](https://www.yum.com/wps/portal/yumbrands/Yumbrands/news/!ut/p/z1/04%5FSj9CPykssy0xPLMnMz0vMAfIjo8ziLQK9jTwM%5FA38LEKdTQ0CjQy9PX3czA0NQg31w8EKDHAARwP9KGL041EQhd%5F4cP0oVCv8LfzNDAKdnY09vALNjS0CzKAK8JhRkBsaYZDpqAgA7y4Qyw!!/?urile=wcm:oid:54d63edb-2d60-4482-9134-ba1e69af9aac&ref=thebarbedwire.com) split between Texas and Irvine, California — which is a bit like being based in both North and South Korea. KFC was established by Colonel Harland Sanders, who began serving chicken to travelers at a roadside motel in Kentucky during the 1930s. Today, the brand operates more than 30,000 restaurants in 150 countries. However, KFC isn’t cutting all ties with its old Kentucky home. The company says it will maintain corporate offices in Louisville and even plans to open a fancy flagship store there, presumably to reassure Kentuckians that, yes, they are still worthy of chicken, even if they are no longer worthy of being the brand’s official nest. As KFC relocates to a state where everything’s bigger, we can only speculate what this means for the brand’s future. Will the chain introduce Texas-sized buckets that require a forklift and a home equity loan? Will they swap out their secret recipe for a spicy mesquite rub? One thing is certain: If there’s one state that can handle a mass influx of breaded poultry, it’s Texas. And we assume that Beshear will soon introduce legislation requiring all future fried chicken to be emotionally and legally bound to Kentucky. ### A Pakistani Teen’s Love Letter To The Borderland URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/love-letter-texas-borderland-el-paso/ Last updated: 2025-02-19T06:00:00.000Z El Paso sunsets are unbeatable. Bright shades of orange, yellow, and sometimes pink and purple paint my hometown sky every evening as the sun slips under the horizon. I live right on the sweeping Southwestern border, or as we refer to it here the “Frontera,” which is Spanish for the border, between the United States and Mexico. The city is nestled between a small mountain range named the Franklin Mountains and the Rio Grande. The borderland is one of the most unique places in the country, not only because of the breathtaking evening skies. El Paso sits at the westernmost tip of our great state of Texas and kisses two neighboring states, New Mexico and Mexico’s Chihuahua, home to our twin city of Juarez. According to the city’s website, [El Paso](https://www.elpasotexas.gov/economic-development/economic-snapshot/snapshot-overview/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) is home to the largest bilingual and binational workforce in the Western Hemisphere with 2.5 million people who call it home. The unparalleled tight-knit community and the blend of diverse backgrounds make El Paso a place that is impossible not to love. For me, El Paso is the city that gave me my culture, an identity, and a sense of belonging*.* In November 2009, a 17-hour flight from rural Punjab to the El Paso International Airport completely changed where I call home. While I don’t remember that day (I was one and a half years old), my mom always describes it as transformative. She tells me she carried me and my two older sisters for hours to meet up with my dad, who was already settled in El Paso. For her, stepping off the plane meant a new beginning and a new future. Immigrating to the Frontera gave me the unique opportunity to be raised around a literal melting pot of cultures. I grew up speaking English at school, with the beautiful melodies of Urdu and Punjabi at home, and Spanish filling almost every second in between, from exchanges at grocery stores and downtown markets to casual conversations with my neighbors. I spent countless hours on the west side of town in my colorful ribboned dress performing folclórico at my school’s multicultural programs. On Fridays and during Ramadan, I would head to my beautiful white and golden mosque to pray. The smell of spices and different varieties of everything from mangoes to biryani masala at our local South Asian grocery store made me feel close to my native land. At the same time, American culture was also part of my everyday life: As a kid, I begged my parents (to no avail) for important things like permission to watch just one more episode of “Barbie’s Life in The Dream House” on Nickelodeon. Each of my experiences encapsulates how much El Paso is built upon diverse backgrounds. It molded me into a person with identities that are constantly overlapping and intermingling. I’m not the only borderland teenager who feels that. Mahrus Raaief, a junior at Coronado High School in El Paso, whose family comes from Bangladesh, says his friend group at Coronado is a global tapestry of people from Iran to India to South Korea to Colombia. “You get to learn so many things from various opinions and beliefs. The difference is what we have in common,” Raaief told *The Barbed Wire.* High school senior Elena Roman, who has lived in El Paso for 14 years, told *The Barbed Wire* that growing up in such a rich, inclusive community like El Paso has been a formative experience for her, especially as an athlete. “It’s not just about the competition on the field, but the sense of unity that comes from being part of such a diverse community. It’s an environment where we all share a common respect for hard work and perseverance, regardless of where we come from,” Roman said. Geoffrey Sias’ family has lived in El Paso since he was born. The high school junior says living and going to school on the borderland has given him a look inside different traditions. “The blend of cultures allows my friend group to consist of people from many backgrounds. I closely experience how people interact with their own cultures every day,” Sias says., I’ve learned from my peers and teachers about many unexpected parallels between Pakistani and Mexican culture. Both Mexicans and Pakistanis have an immense loyalty to our families. Respect for our elders guides our values and we both have a deep commitment to hospitality. My favorite overlap is our joint love of food. And no one does food better than El Paso. The strong aromas, bold colors, and flavors, mixed with the variety of ingredients, create similarities between the two cuisines. Most of all, both foods are filled with painful but ridiculously amazing levels of spice that make our food stand out. El Pasoans communicate and find unity through our amazing food. Ask anyone from El Paso and we’ll gladly tell you about fried beef tacos drowned in cheese and our devotion to [Chico’s Tacos](https://www.instagram.com/chicostacosofficial/?hl=en&ref=thebarbedwire.com). Don’t get us started on the loaded burritos at [Lucy’s](https://lucysrestaurants.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and the chickpea crepe at the downtown [Lamezze Restaurant](https://www.instagram.com/lamezzerestaurantep/?hl=en&ref=thebarbedwire.com). Some of my most cherished memories on the Frontera are connected to meals. I remember Saturday mornings with my dad shaking me awake, and just enough time to put on my shoes before running out the door. We’d walk across the street to [El Rincon De Cortez](https://www.elrincondecortez.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). I always ordered a steak burrito, and would pick off my father’s plate, who loved taking a menu tour. The only constant was salsa. Lots and lots of salsa. Mexican food isn’t the only cuisine El Paso does well. My freshman year of high school, after I won a local debate competition, we went to our designated celebratory dinner spot at [The India Hut](https://www.indiahutelpaso.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). You can’t beat their chicken biryani or butter chicken. One thing about community is, oftentimes, it grows strongest in the face of tragedy. It’s what I admire most about our city. Five years ago, a [racially motivated shooting](https://www.epstrong.org/august-3.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) at a local Walmart that killed 23 people left our community shaken. I still remember hearing about this, my sister shook me awake and for a full 30 minutes, I felt I was in a terrible nightmare. We rushed to call my dad who was at work to check if he was okay and were glued to our computers for updates. That day has never left my brain. My community came together to uplift and protect each other. After the massacre, however, El Pasoans were more united than I’d ever seen. We all worked together to rebuild the peace and love that shattered our hearts into pieces in an effort to make our city feel whole again. ElPasoStrong signs dominated our streets and people everywhere stepped up to support the grieving families. We wanted to change policy too and a growing call for action around the issue of gun violence was born. Roman remembers that time too. “The perseverance I see in the people here, especially in overcoming adversity, has fueled my determination to push through obstacles and keep moving forward,” said Roman. Now, as the borderland is constantly attacked by negative perceptions both by the media and political leaders, it is more important than ever to show who El Pasoans really are. El Paso is a loving environment and every person, regardless of their nationality or background, is essential to our community. “I have visited other cities, and El Paso is a place like no other. It is an incredibly safe city, and our family has not had any trouble with anyone after we immigrated here,” Raaief said. Sias said he’d like to be a professor at University of Texas at El Paso, or otherwise give back to the community. “Whenever I talk to people who have never visited El Paso, they always think that it's either a dangerous or small city. My goal is to change the stigma around El Paso through the new people I meet,” he said. In a city that is filled to the brim with different languages, food, and traditions, El Paso is a culture. As a child of diaspora, I’m lucky to have found a place that represents my identity. This border town is a place that brings me comfort and makes me feel warm when I get off a plane after a long trip. It’s a place that I would choose over and over again if given the choice. A place that *feels* like home. A place that *is* my home. ### The Best Children’s Museum for Texas Families? Bentonville’s The Amazeum URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-best-childrens-museum-for-texas-families-bentonvilles-the-amazeum/ Last updated: 2025-02-18T17:59:39.000Z I do not mean to brag, but my toddler is a children’s museum connoisseur. We have been to children’s museums large and small, from Philadelphia to Johnson City. While he always enjoys himself, after two hours he is usually over the whole experience and ready to move on. When we went to visit The Scott Family Amazeum in Bentonville, Arkansas, he was totally captivated for the entire afternoon we were there. Though it opened in 2015 and has hundreds of children run through it each day, the Amazeum looks immaculate. We’ve visited some great children’s museums but the Amazeum really takes the cake in terms of number and quality of activities, appeal for younger and older kids, and looking brand-spanking new (seriously, the cleaning crew gets an A+ from me). There’s approximately 50,000 square feet of exhibit and learning spaces inside and an acre of outdoor spaces. The rotating exhibits of the Amazeum mean that there might be something new to see every time you visit, although it would also take many visits to see everything. Many of the exhibits are sponsored by major companies — Nickelodeon Play Lab, Nature Valley Water Amazements — so there is some primo technology at play here. Here is how we explored the Amazeum, and how my toddler, the expert, reacted. **The Entrance:** [As you may have seen](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-perfect-weekend-getaway-with-my-toddler-bentonville-arkansas/), my kiddo was super pumped to come into the Amazeum even though he had no idea what would happen inside. He was immediately captivated by a marble drawing intricate patterns in sand. We had to drag him away from both this and the gift shop to get to the actual exhibits. Toddler verdict: *Bus! Get on bus?* \[There is shuttle service from the Amazeum to Crystal Bridges.\] ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/ad_4nxfznwz6jkvll1izhym9fy25isxg-bnarlkulqst3p4f6soxzpcisarkiofizvau0fzzfcvryjukwvlgu2ixwgpxsma1sx79tmmo0kj5p64b-iaah3qyanbvmwy69q2hlurhjaia.png) Photos courtesy of Erin Russell **3M Measurement Rules** Measurement Rules was a new exhibit we got to preview, designed to make things like weight, size, and volume fun. At one activity, only balls of a certain diameter would pass through, but other sizes would be returned. It was great to see his little neurons in action and how proud he was when he figured out the trick. It also made me extremely happy to know that my child weighs eight chickens. Toddler verdict: *BALL!!!* ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/ad_4nxf4cjtdytamiwoaulxjx9ch3vwf1gdt54ocinhjdlwhfsi3kaxtagnaes7y7lk6bx0ze_1xjymdok3obsw9llflszpnrejkukxgtufp1jlxfu7pulvsnpggm_x_cqks0xemqb8una.png) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/ad_4nxchetiaeqktpu_1htov_g2dyrtkcoojoet4-cialnqbt6k4uzzdv6m9qamgtvskhv2nodqmyovy0bzdu0keqcxtvpi2dnq-anke4qzlrdog30qpiyxjqkqeda3-txjoeewk0zrvxq.png) Photos courtesy of Erin Russell [**Studio Grow**](https://www.amazeum.org/experiences/studio-grow/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) This area was designed for children age 6 and younger, with soft blocks, a machine that blows scarves (huge winner), push carts, and other toys that rambunctious toddlers with no sense of danger can play with safely. There’s another area for kids 2 and younger as well. Toddler verdict: *\*giggling for 5 minutes straight at the scarf blown through tubes\** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/ad_4nxfzswhebe78owpw3odddsgd3mjbo8xfkpcp1qzqargxgs3vdkudwfqvqqlesxz6qmvgomkdabzviiqihhgbkyglsgaflrdlaamyc-fmei41m9nyxnx7pitkpm8mh87jmxs1xnb6.png) Photos courtesy of Erin Russell [**Outdoor Playscape**](https://www.amazeum.org/experiences/outdoor-playscape/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) The outdoor areas were divided into activities appropriate for different ages with lots of natural wooden structures. There was a climbing net for older kids, a play house for younger kids, and a wooden obstacle course that taught my toddler how to balance. He saw an older kid walk on beams and jump between stumps and was very insistent that he do it also. Toddler verdict: *Outside!!! Step up? Mama help?* ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/ad_4nxc8jue0bi_eh0svbjvprxj-ym2ttcstsikwtifo_8e9wfao9gqbakriqjlcxn2x8hvkiqv2nmlfafpocqrt1bkbfh_bnqlh4q8yzkz9eefksvqrfaml0v3qqtpni1thpraa9h7h.jpg) Photos courtesy of Erin Russell [**General Mills Lift, Load & Haul**](https://www.amazeum.org/experiences/general-mills-lift-load-and-haul/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) There is a system of pulleys and levers here that let kids haul up blocks (and themselves!) and a much larger, more powerful scarf blower. But there is also the cab of an 18-wheeler Walmart truck and the only thing my toddler wanted to do was “drive” the truck. This was his favorite activity of the whole museum. I am reasonably sure that if I did not physically haul him away, he would still be sitting there today, turning the steering wheel and flipping switches. Toddler verdict: *Driving that truck was the best thing that ever happened to me. Can we go back?* ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/ad_4nxcuuthplwzkbiqbpn8frxsta4gdtvv-wzaow3vf_akficvew63o143zmt1dghjlwfl7zhxax7ci_dkhxnbavssul8bc-kuoxd4ippicgpmpc5s9uayzlrmsk3mkfpoo8xb6r-dy.png) Photos courtesy of Erin Russell [**Nature Valley Water Amazements**](https://www.amazeum.org/experiences/nature-valley-water-amazements/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) I knew I had to pull out the big guns to distract the toddler from the “big big truck,” so we went to the water play area. The best part of this exhibit was a water gun that catapulted balls to an upper ramp, where they rolled back down through a whirlpool into a pool where kids could pick them up and restart the process. My toddler was so entranced by this, a cyclic activity he could do on his own, that I was able to sit down for 15 minutes and have a conversation with my boyfriend, which parents may recognize as an actual miracle. Toddler verdict: *Ball! Splash!!! Wow!* ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/ad_4nxfhmr2nahkhdczwyuvq38vpd9yktdrp64me1t91n_8aoiwb0pafvaoyereohgbb4utsubybipr94budcxaicpgubg-txngrdqw_pypvjutjgcf77ertnstmgqn3boktasanmqpaoq.png) Photos courtesy of Erin Russell [**Nickelodeon Play Lab**](https://www.amazeum.org/experiences/nickelodeon-play-lab/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) At this section you are greeted by a giant hanging Spongebob whose parts move if you turn levers at his feet. There’s also a stop motion animation station, a circular column of musical instruments made of everyday objects (my boyfriend had fun with this), and a build-your-own ball maze. The kiddo had so much fun he tried to take a piece home with him. Toddler verdict: *Wowwwww!* ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/ad_4nxceus9xoseqbowet3mnlnzkih1lhc3vlafg3-nwmusjifb07mfigzturi-og6isvwr8-immx2lprh10xswvefg7fvx6u0k285utm0qwj6b9vp9rkog0-qbkog52szspwh4poyv8tw.png) Photos courtesy of Erin Russell ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/ad_4nxcbemw4xtzt5pidk-jil0rkmqot4ivw5fm5goooejwel4wqtsdzx7tmbq07tgysqsw8uik0z5lissgkofkeqi6qbhfk8qahhppwjsqx81ienky_wlrfcrwpczmr2a7azw4obckkrw.png) Photos courtesy of Erin Russell **Cloud Puff** One of the many nature-themed stations, this lets kids create cloud rings by pushing down on a table. Toddler verdict: *Boom! Cloud!* ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/ad_4nxfq-7cztrbvpdmp9zzxap1jmyitxhjwzxdbn39dpzn2vr5i2wktvebahbpv7yyp0qxjpl9cvn41cdd5yn-5ovv8gwi2td7cm2ev4d7-r3z2zya-5rrsqxkwilsalzp5rjky-otg.png) Photos courtesy of Erin Russell There was so much more at the Amazeum that he couldn’t fully appreciate yet, like a giant [Canopy Climber](https://www.amazeum.org/experiences/canopy-climber/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) where kids could (safely!) climb to the ceiling and explore, an [art studio](https://www.amazeum.org/experiences/art-studio/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) where kids could paint on the glass walls, the [Walmart market](https://www.amazeum.org/experiences/walmart-market/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the [3M Tinkering Hub](https://www.amazeum.org/experiences/3m-tinkering-hub/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and the [Hershey’s Lab](https://www.amazeum.org/experiences/hersheys-lab/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) where kids do science experiments with Hershey’s candy. The Amazeum on its own is enough of a reason to visit Bentonville with kids, although there’s [lots of other kid-friendly things to do](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-perfect-weekend-getaway-with-my-toddler-bentonville-arkansas/). I’m excited to come back in the future to see what his new favorite exhibits are — although I’m pretty sure the truck will still be high on that list. ### Everything’s Bigger in Texas. Even the Red Flags. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/dating-austin-red-flags/ Last updated: 2025-02-17T06:01:00.000Z First, I’d like to say that I love men. Many of my close friends are men, I pursue romance with men, and I intend to keep doing so. But I’d *also* like to say that the level of emotional immaturity and lack of self knowledge we permit in them is unacceptable. While I don’t have a solution for that besides 10 years of mandatory quality therapy, in the near-term it’s still up to women to do the dating detective work. Here are five phrases that should send you running if you hear them from a man you're dating (and please don’t ask how I acquired this hard-won wisdom). And yes, this is written from a hetero cis female perspective — because that's what I am — but the insights apply broadly. ![](https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXd-gEdfvk90kQ9DexoVhwsfA3r80A8j0B2NQKzvngwiO0NOqTyH4E8-fg_pUqy_Lf_ykMLe5_LYg9J6U16NXbMiu2NiMJYBwha-XQSOzlYm3_sw7xzXHHm42I_JzCXf2UeHzboufw?key=LvBLgMdxoXD0x4BGLRQyI_cD) ![](https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfsVOULAEIoSpC4NDJ2iDAIl6H3RcC5Uu5Rn7zDzK5OpR7axZ1f-Gt0NjAcH2gmsdQq3Q7f0SVeSsK5-b1egkxwS7KLN6kTkvMd371_esXgThxxlx_-ER36PWjnnL0w1kKuKNqPZw?key=LvBLgMdxoXD0x4BGLRQyI_cD) ![](https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfxKD3Ta2qWp4P8kJ1IVm_GoffvEB2D46SXxbVGkj2Qq40n1QRL_PZdlRfqzAhAABBCAbyazj4vhu7wTas_zSymCl4gkPzKE2PsLPqufbF7r3DALbNbvn5IoWHQ-expPms6y6qDKg?key=LvBLgMdxoXD0x4BGLRQyI_cD) ![](https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdEkAevIAU1Tseesk60t5ngC5R2M-_5CKehDv0mQ-r_xpTcUNBEgL75N7qCx7hMb0_1OAIbKeN1ISBfZUU_6RyDbEf-TXXapedU1eXL9SwDexl6YbGSH3eSAwxRNCDy9Vq8qdLJ?key=LvBLgMdxoXD0x4BGLRQyI_cD) ![](https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXe_pC3nhwWWv7DkE98Z5FogeucHsZUbthZRnOxKsKHZuQeNm45nxL0mQEp7s10Y9428SgEMuCc3lc2RWupE6T9OaFOA9R7OM9arzVKmqNyqHIVBJQEFRNL_VEd6eNMOSvkr9KXnEw?key=LvBLgMdxoXD0x4BGLRQyI_cD) ![](https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfZaGwsPqOD_17OeimVXZpNEAiaT8HUkP1Q5JE6R_WbB87tPbneIDKE5IHJNXW91zdp3XvOr9OdpyVfdSSK90A2oFhJBZchVEU3_qSDyw1NC3HmzvWDIGsGISwOXClshhACKjKSlQ?key=LvBLgMdxoXD0x4BGLRQyI_cD) ### I’m a Lib Who Thinks Texas Should Legalize Gambling. Here’s Why. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-should-legalize-gambling/ Last updated: 2025-02-14T16:48:29.000Z There is an oncoming maelstrom in Texas — a massive fight brewing over a phenomenon that has already swept through most of the nation. The fight to legalize gambling. I find myself in an odd position — in between both the blue hairs on the evangelical right and the purple-haired progressive left — two groups that, while being natural enemies, share the same fetish for telling people from on high how to live their lives. (And sneering and jeering at any who would dare disagree.) The alt-right idiocrats running the Texas government have radicalized me in favor of letting people live their damn lives without interference from the government. I have watched as our supposedly freedom-loving state has cracked down on THC use, library books, schoolteachers, women’s rights, and trans kids (and their parents). So if one side of an issue expands the liberties of individuals while the other expands the authoritarian power of politicians in Austin, I will err on the side of personal freedoms every time. That calculus, in my mind, applies to the question of legalized gambling. I’m an adult and I’m a Texan, dammit. If I want to bet $20 on the Rockets to win a game, I should have the freedom to do so. And if I want to put $20 on black, or hit on 15, I sure as shit shouldn’t have to fly to Vegas or — god help me — *drive to Oklahoma.* Gambling is a vice. Just like any other vice, gambling can be really fun — if I place a $20 bet on a football game (and granted, I am a very infrequent gambler), I know that the enjoyment I will get from my heightened emotional and financial investment in the game’s outcome is worth $20 to me, even if I were to lose the wager. But gambling is a vice. And just like any other vice, gambling has a dark side. Studies have shown links between increased access to gambling and increased [rates of domestic violence](https://bmcwomenshealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12905-023-02316-0?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Gambling companies have engaged in morally bankrupt [predatory behavior](https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/10/business/online-sports-gambling-addiction/index.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), targeting addicts and trying to cultivate new ones. But don’t clutch those pearls too tight; you’ll sprain a wrist. Alcohol companies target heavy drinkers – [25% of drinkers](https://www.recoveryanswers.org/research-post/alcohol-sales-excessive-drinking/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=As%20illustrated%20in%20this%20figure,and%2068%25%20of%20alcohol%20revenue.) make up over 75% of [alcohol consumption](https://www.recoveryanswers.org/research-post/alcohol-sales-excessive-drinking/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=As%20illustrated%20in%20this%20figure,and%2068%25%20of%20alcohol%20revenue.). For the second year in a row, more than 13,000 people were [killed by drunk drivers](https://madd.org/press-release/more-than-13000-people-died-in-alcohol-related-crashes-for-second-straight-year/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in the U.S. last year. Contrary to the popular belief that marijuana isn’t habit-forming, about [10% of people who smoke weed do actually become addicted](https://www.yalemedicine.org/conditions/marijuana-use-disorder?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=About%2010%25%20of%20people%20who,developing%20cannabis%20addiction%20is%20hereditary.). Smoking causes lung cancer, chewing tobacco causes jaw cancer, and vaping — as the cool dude in the ad likes to remind us — [can deliver toxic metals… in your *lungs*](https://www.hudl.com/video/61c0e5eb478e8d0d0c40d184?ref=thebarbedwire.com). So where are the internet saber-rattlers demanding bans on alcohol, tobacco and (cover your ears, Austinites) marijuana? Because of the ease of valiantly defending the status quo, it’s gambling where people have chosen to draw their self-important line of morality. My proposal is simple — treat gambling just like we treat alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana (in the states where it’s been legalized). So how do we do that? It means placing reasonable restrictions to prevent folks from literally betting the farm when they might regret it later. It’s giving us a respite from the deluge of gambling advertising that dominates a college football Saturday or an NBA halftime. It’s using some of the Texas dollars that would otherwise be shipped off to Vegas or Oklahoma or Shreveport not just to fund public schools and roads, but to help our neighbors who struggle with addictions. For most people who want to bet, legalizing gambling would provide welcome entertainment and distraction from the things that make life tough. I deeply believe that, through smart, empathetic governance, there is a way to uphold the liberty of individuals to live their lives as they please while still protecting people who may be vulnerable to the horrors of addiction. Thanks to the hypocrites on the woke left and the MAGA right, we probably won’t have legalized gambling any time soon. I just hope that a majority of Texans, whose brains are yet to be poisoned by the internet, start supporting politicians who *actually* believe in things like individual freedom and personal liberty. But don’t bet on it. ### Casinos in Texas? Might as Well Legalize Wallet Theft Too URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/casinos-gambling-sports-betting-texas/ Last updated: 2025-02-14T06:01:00.000Z When it comes to questionable financial choices, gambling is somewhere between hoarding Beanie Babies (as an investment) and buying a timeshare from a guy in a parking lot. Despite evidence that [gambling](https://www.nbcnews.com/business/consumer/online-sports-gambling-bankrupting-households-reducing-savings-rcna167235?ref=thebarbedwire.com) is essentially an elaborate way to set [your money on fire](https://www.nbcnews.com/business/consumer/online-sports-gambling-bankrupting-households-reducing-savings-rcna167235?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the industry remains steadfast in its mission to bring casinos to Texas. Unfazed by years of repeated failures in the Texas Capitol, gambling advocates are still pushing to [legalize casinos](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/02/11/texas-legislature-gambling-casinos-sports-betting/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and sports betting in a state that has long embraced [restrictive gaming laws](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/02/11/texas-legislature-gambling-casinos-sports-betting/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the *Texas Tribune* reported. Because what Texans clearly need — aside from relief from our hot-as-balls summers — is the thrill of watching our uncles wager the grocery budget on a blackjack hand. For the third consecutive legislative session, the Las Vegas Sands casino empire has assembled an all-star lineup of lobbyists in an attempt to persuade the Republican-controlled Legislature to approve “destination resorts” with casino gambling in Texas' largest cities. Of course, the only true destination a casino provides is an empty wallet and a lot of watered-down drinks. Full disclosure: I’ve gambled less than a dozen times in my life, always at casinos. And there were some fun memories, like when a friend and I hit a slot machine jackpot in college and used the winnings for a trip to New Orleans. Or the time I found myself at a craps table, opposite NSYNC member Lance Bass (which thrilled my younger cousins). But mostly, my experiences were watching the money in my pocket dwindle as the casinos’ odds ground me down. In my experience, the house almost always won. Still, it’s not just casinos trying to enter the Lone Star State! There’s also the [Texas Sports Betting Alliance](https://sportsbettingalliance.org/take-action/texas/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), an unholy coalition that includes professional sports teams, racetracks, and betting platforms like FanDuel and DraftKings. Their website includes an endorsement from former Gov. [Rick Perry](https://sportsbettingalliance.org/take-action/texas/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), who advocated for “legalizing mobile sports betting” to “finally allow the state to protect consumers from illegal offshore betting sites.” He predicted, according to a quote on the alliance’s website, that “Texas could generate up to $556 million per biennium as the market matures.” “Given that Texans are already participating in mobile sports betting, legalization would be a home run for all involved,” he said. Great sports analogy, Rick! Even though a better gambling comparison would be getting hit by a pitch. Despite Perry’s enthusiastic pitch, mobile sports betting hasn’t worked out in other states. Despite similar pie-in-the-sky promises from mobile sports betting boosters in New Jersey, [research found that](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/jan/04/new-jersey-online-gambling-sport-betting-bad-economy-report-effect?ref=thebarbedwire.com) $2.4 billion spent by online gamblers there in 2022 “decreased New Jersey’s economic activity by about $180 million.” Still, gambling advocates in Texas are trying to capitalize on momentum from 2023, when a proposal to legalize online sports betting [squeaked through the Texas House](https://www.texastribune.org/2023/05/10/texas-legislature-sports-betting-casinos/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) before being swiftly shot down by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. Patrick, who wields ultimate control over the Texas Senate, [wasted no time dismissing the measure](https://x.com/LtGovTX/status/1657442546535079938?ref=thebarbedwire.com), reiterating that there is little-to-no-support among the chamber's GOP majority for gambling expansion. But don’t tell that to [Las Vegas Sands](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/02/11/texas-legislature-gambling-casinos-sports-betting/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) senior vice president of government relations Andy Abboud, who is a big fan of throwing your money in the trash. “The effort to bring destination resorts to Texas has received an overwhelming amount of support from Texans and lawmakers since it was first introduced, and the groundswell of momentum is only continuing to build,” Abboud said, per the [*Texas Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/02/11/texas-legislature-gambling-casinos-sports-betting/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Ah yes, the “groundswell of momentum” — which in plain English translates to “we've funneled a lot of money into lobbying, and we’re hoping for the best.” And he’s not wrong: There *is* widespread support for [gambling legalization](https://www.khou.com/article/news/local/texas/texas-gambling-laws-2025-legislative-session/285-929b0ac5-9683-4277-afd2-a292e0051ff0?ref=thebarbedwire.com) among Texans. A study by the [Hobby School of Public Affairs at the University of Houston](https://www.khou.com/article/news/local/texas/texas-gambling-laws-2025-legislative-session/285-929b0ac5-9683-4277-afd2-a292e0051ff0?ref=thebarbedwire.com) showed that 73% of Texans favor allowing destination resort casinos in the state. And 60% support legalizing online sports betting. But there are a lot of [opponents of expanded gambling](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/02/11/texas-legislature-gambling-casinos-sports-betting/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), including the Texas Republican Party, the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas, and advocacy groups like Texans Against Gambling, who argue that casinos and sports betting exploit vulnerable communities and ultimately damage economic growth. In a statement, [Texans Against Gambling declared](https://x.com/NoGamblingInTX/status/1887968126039638234?ref=thebarbedwire.com), “Sports gambling and casinos are economically regressive, scholarly studies show, because they produce nothing of external value. They do not spur long-term economic growth. Instead, they hinder it. Keep Texas, Texas.” Or, to put it more bluntly, opening casinos in Texas is like inviting a skunk to a backyard barbecue — you might think it’ll spice things up, but in the end, it’s just going to stink. For his part, [Gov. Greg Abbott](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/article/sports-betting-greg-abbott-20146551.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) recently told the *Houston Chronicle*, “I don’t have a problem” with legalizing sports betting. So, where does this leave Texas? Will the state eventually cave and transform into the Lone Star version of Atlantic City? Or will lawmakers continue to shut down casino proposals with the force of a pissed-off nightclub bouncer? One thing is certain: The gambling industry isn’t giving up. Like that one guy at the poker table who refuses to fold, they’re betting that Texas will eventually give in. And if gamblers are known for anything, it’s their willingness to double down — even when the odds are against them. ### I Love My Texas Ass URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/i-love-my-texas-ass/ Last updated: 2025-02-14T06:01:00.000Z There is no greater love than the one that exists between a woman and her ass. And there is no greater ass than one from Texas. Yes, I know Georgia is infamous for their peaches, but take one look at [Megan Thee Stallion](https://www.billboard.com/music/rb-hip-hop/megan-thee-stallion-honors-houston-bigger-in-texas-video-1235811108/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). And let’s not forget [Beyoncé](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/beyonce-bowl-nfl-halftime-performance-was-a-master-class-in-black-joy-authenticity/). I come from a state of women with phenomenal asses, mine included. Now, that is not to say mine is up to par with a stallion or thique like jelly, but it does contain the fiery spirit that is synonymous with [Black Texan womanhood](https://utpress.utexas.edu/9780292786653/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Not only are we brisket fed, rodeo going, whisky drinking, sweet tea sipping, praying women. We are responsible for the majority of [economic](https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/obituary/2024/07/19/494185/congresswoman-sheila-jackson-lee-dies-at-74/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [social](https://www.texasmonthly.com/being-texan/juanita-craft-helped-integrate-texas-state-fair-inspired-next-generation-civil-rights-activists/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and [political movements](https://www.tpr.org/podcast/the-source/2025-01-19/barbara-jordans-voice-still-commands?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in a state laden and down trodden by men who are the benefactors and inheritors of decades long anti-Black legislation and politics. It is these men and their politics that make my Texas ass look bad. In fact, there was a period in my late teens and early 20s where I was ashamed to be from Texas, and so I left. Like many [African Americans](https://www.archives.gov/research/african-americans/migrations/great-migration?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=The%20First%20Great%20Migration%20%281910,leaving%20their%20industrial%20jobs%20vacant.) who have preceded me, I left for the coasts. First, East. Then, West. In search of a place where I, a young Black Queer woman — who was interested in politics and social change through direct service and action — could meet and convene with like-minded people. To this day, I have a soft spot for the city and county of Philadelphia, where I attended graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania. It was a love that directly conflicted with my love of the [Dallas Cowboys](https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/sports/texas-wants-to-know-how-did-the-eagles-become-the-cowboys-biggest-rival/3155241/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and it was the first place where my Texas ass stood out. I would grow angry when I heard snide remarks about Texas. My eyes would dart. My ears would perk up. And my mouth would be on fire. It was there where I learned how much people hated the South, but, in particular, Texas. Upon graduation, I moved in with my father to accept a job in the San Francisco Bay Area, and I heard it again, but even louder and more spirited among the Silicon Valley elite. It was clear that my Texas ass was a joke to them. An improper and antiquated joke, if we take into consideration the [migration of Southern African Americans](https://www.pbs.org/kqed/fillmore/learning/people/broussard.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to the coastal areas of the United States. But, I digress. For years, anger had been bubbling in my belly. And oftentimes, after a margarita or two or three or four, I would tell people to kiss my Texas ass. It became my catchphrase on a night out. And a pick up line on others. However, it quickly became a weapon in my arsenal. This led to the idea of getting Texas tattooed on my ass. The shape of Texas is unique. It's sharp. It’s jagged. It’s vast. It is a state that once was [Indigenous](https://www.thestoryoftexas.com/discover/campfire-stories/american-indians?ref=thebarbedwire.com) (and still is), that once was Spain, that once was France, that once was Mexico, that once was its own Republic. It is Southern. It is Midwestern. And each and every border is shaped by [colonization](https://history.state.gov/milestones/1801-1829/louisiana-purchase?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [slavery](https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/missouri-compromise?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and [the stakeholders](https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/boundaries?ref=thebarbedwire.com) who drew those maps. But it is also me. It is my mother. It is her mother. And her mother before her. So it is Black, and Queer, and country. And that is why it is tattooed on my ass. The story goes as all great Texan stories go with a margarita. Particularly, a pitcher of frozen margaritas at a Tex-Mex restaurant in Deep Ellum. I was home from the Bay Area for the holidays, and, over brunch with my childhood best friends, expressed to them my deep frustration with the Silicon Valley elite. I joked about the desire to get Texas tattooed on my ass during our first pitcher of margaritas. And by the second pitcher, my friends had found a tattoo shop within walking distance of the restaurant. Now, I do not advise getting a tattoo under the influence of drugs and alcohol. However, I am not the first nor will I be the last to do so. After we closed out our bill, the three of us walked over to the tattoo shop, shared our story with the artist, and signed off on the paperwork to start my appointment. As a symbol of our love for each other, my best friends paid for my tattoo as a Christmas present. The tattoo was fairly quick and painless. Like the millennials we are, my best friends documented the entire process via iPhone. I laugh when the image of me — pants down, ass up at the tattoo parlor — comes up on my Apple Photos to this day. Since then, my ass has refrained from any additional tattoos. Like the Republic she once was, Texas is the only tattoo on my derriere, but my lineage of Texas-themed tattoos continues. A year after I received my Texas ass tattoo, my maternal grandmother passed away. Helen Marie White Jones was born in Minvera — a small, rural town in Milam County — and she was the love of my life. The last memory I have of her in this world was watching a Western as she played in my teal-dyed natural hair and told stories about her childhood as a little girl in the Texas countryside. After her funeral, I got a Texas cowgirl tattoo — a stallion, if you will — with bamboo earrings in ode to her. Although her husband, Ollie Jones, had died years before her, I also got a cowboy boot tattooed on my ankle in remembrance of him shortly after my 27th birthday. His final request was to be buried in his cowboy boots like a true Texan. Unlike those maternal grandparents, who were born and raised in Central Texas, I’m from Dallas. When I moved back home during the pandemic, I took a position as the [Online Arts Editor](https://www.dmagazine.com/writers/taylor-crumpton/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) at *D Magazine*. It was my responsibility to highlight the city’s arts and culture scenes and economy through our editorial pages. However, it was also my responsibility — as the first Black woman to hold the position — to use my platform to uplift Dallasites of color and the things we hold dear, our traditions, that had not received their just due recognition. One of those being [214 Day](https://www.centraltrack.com/second-annual-214-day-spinster-records-photos-dallas-tattoos/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). To most of the world, February 14 is Valentine’s Day. To the citizens of Dallas, it is a day to pay homage to our area code, 214\. It is on this day that [local tattoo shops](https://www.dmagazine.com/arts-entertainment/2022/02/this-valentines-day-lets-celebrate-dallas/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) run discounted specials on Dallas-themed tattoos for citizens to acquire. And I, like the Dallas bird I am, got 214 tattooed in the middle of my chest. Meaning one of the earliest memories my future children will have is seeing 214 in the middle of their mother’s chest. Regardless of whether my future children are born and raised in Dallas, they will always have a part of the city with them. Many years have passed since my Texas ass tattoo, and since then I have left the state again, this time for [Chicago](https://www.wttw.com/dusable-to-obama/the-great-migration?ref=thebarbedwire.com). I’ve since come to learn that [my paternal ancestors from Mississippi](https://www.pbssocal.org/shows/american-experience/clip/american-experience-great-migration-mississippi-chicago?ref=thebarbedwire.com) migrated here too. I joke that when my paternal grandmother passes, and a Mississippi Delta woman who has a Texas-themed bathroom leaves this earth, I’ll get a Magnolia tattooed on me. It’s the state flower of Mississippi. But, in true Good Christian fashion, she thinks I’m dishonoring the Lord by marking my skin. She’ll deal. Texas is in a constant state of change. Some good, some bad. It is a state shaped by historic evils and the innocent blood of many but it is also a state of revolutionary change and innovation, and I hold space for both of those realities within me. But most importantly, my ass. Who knows how the state will evolve, I do not possess the ability to predict [the future](https://www.texasmonthly.com/being-texan/texanist-what-will-texas-look-like-50-years-future/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The only thing I know for sure is that I love Texas and Texas loves me. Loading… ### Musk and Trump Are Marching Us Into a ‘New Fascism’ URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/elon-musk-new-fascism-trump-texas/ Last updated: 2025-02-13T06:01:00.000Z Since President Donald Trump’s inauguration, the wealthiest man in the world has been given carte blanche to allow his lackeys access to sensitive government systems, lock federal employees out of government buildings, and cease the flow of federal funds at his discretion. In less than a month, Elon Musk — whose corporate empire is based in Texas — has conducted a sort of coup-from-the-top, using his role as the head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to take over the technical operations of the federal government. It should be made clear that Musk is not an elected official or even an appointed one that has been confirmed by the Senate. He is not required to make [public financial disclosures](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-public-wont-see-elon-musk-financial-disclosure-why-that-matters/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and DOGE is not a true federal agency. Nevertheless, he has been given sweeping power to overhaul government operations, including directing his [associates to access the Treasury Department’s sensitive federal payment](https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/musk-staffer-mistakenly-ability-edit-treasury-department-payment/story?id=118726686&ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [halt certain payments](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/musk-treasury-social-security-access-federal-payment-system-trump/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — something that has since been temporarily barred by a federal judge who Musk has since [called to be impeached](https://www.cnbc.com/2025/02/09/musk-calls-to-impeach-judge-whose-order-blocks-doge-from-treasury-systems-access.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) as a part of far-reaching [attacks](https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-allies-ramp-up-attacks-judges-musk-calls-impeachments-2025-02-12/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on the independent judiciary. Ominous photos on Tuesday showed Musk [standing behind Trump](https://www.npr.org/2025/02/11/nx-s1-5293504/trump-musk-doge-oval-office?ref=thebarbedwire.com) at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office defending his project, where [he denied leading a “hostile takeover”](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp820y16xvlo?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of the U.S. government. Days earlier, a new [*TIME* magazine](https://www.instagram.com/p/DFxw0bvtDcr/?hl=en&ref=thebarbedwire.com) cover depicted Musk sitting at the president’s desk — without Trump in the picture. Legal experts have raised [ethics questions](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/05/us/politics/elon-musk-special-government-employee-explainer.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) regarding Musk and his potential conflicts of interest as a major government contractor, as well as questions of legality and constitutionality as it relates to DOGE undermining the separation of powers. (See: DOGE cutting spending that had already been appropriated by Congress, which controls the power of the purse according to the United States Constitution). Consider that prior to Musk's interventions at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which have crippled the agency, the USAID inspector general was [investigating the agency's partnership with Musk's](https://gizmodo.com/elon-musks-enemy-usaid-was-investigating-starlink-over-its-contracts-in-ukraine-2000559365?ref=thebarbedwire.com) company Starlink. https://www.instagram.com/p/DFxw0bvtDcr/?hl=en As an aside, it does seem that the vast majority of Americans — even the well-informed — had no idea what our federal agencies even did ([preventing HIV](https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/02/1159901?ref=thebarbedwire.com), for example!) before Musk came in with a machete and started hacking off their limbs. Federal judges have already issued injunctions to halt some of Trump’s proposed efforts, including a massive federal spending freeze, but whether those rulings will be followed is a separate question. Musk has already called for [one federal judge to be impeached](https://www.cnbc.com/2025/02/09/musk-calls-to-impeach-judge-whose-order-blocks-doge-from-treasury-systems-access.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and has amplified posts that [question judicial authority](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/legal-experts-constitutional-crisis-vance-musk-judicial-rulings-trump-rcna191387?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on his social media platform, X (formerly known as Twitter). Again, Musk is not an elected politician, though he is now a bureaucrat *and* an oligarch. He became an American citizen in 2002. Meanwhile, Trump has enacted his policy of mass deportations, an effort that has reportedly resulted in [racial profiling](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/trump-immigration-raids-citizens-profiling-accusations-native-american-rcna189203?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and the [detainment of citizens](https://san.com/cc/american-citizens-reportedly-detained-in-ice-raids-democrats-want-answers/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) who happen to be Latino, and has issued a flurry of executive orders targeting [racial equity](https://www.npr.org/2025/02/11/nx-s1-5293292/pbs-shutters-dei-office-diversity-equity-inclusion-trump-executive-order?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [transgender rights](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/11/us/transgender-trump-executive-orders.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). As others have pointed out, this deluge of newsmaking is purposeful. Steve Bannon — the Trump confidant who [pleaded guilty](https://abcnews.go.com/US/steve-bannon-pushes-aggressive-defense-court/story?id=117994382&ref=thebarbedwire.com) on Tuesday to defrauding New Yorkers who donated to a “We Build the Wall” campaign — said it best in 2019 in an interview with PBS when he described a “muzzle velocity.” That is, a speed at creating news that effectively paralyzes both the press and Democrats. “The opposition party is the media,” Bannon, who also [served a prison sentence](https://abcnews.go.com/US/steve-bannon-surrenders-reports-prison/story?id=111569255&ref=thebarbedwire.com) for contempt of Congress, said at the time. “And the media can only, because they’re dumb and they’re lazy, they can only focus on one thing at a time. … All we have to do is flood the zone. Every day we hit them with three things. They’ll bite on one, and we’ll get all of our stuff done. Bang, bang, bang. These guys will never — will never be able to recover. But we’ve got to start with muzzle velocity.” OK, so that’s worked. But to what end? In the words of professor Rainer Mühlhoff, a German philosopher and mathematician at the University of Osnabrück, these developments indicate a qualitative leap in Trump’s political project that is best described as fascism. “In many respects, this new fascism does not look exactly like its historical predecessors,” Mühlhoff recently wrote in [*Verfassungsblog*](https://verfassungsblog.de/trump-und-der-neue-faschismus/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a journalistic and academic forum for debates on constitutional law and politics in Germany. “And yet it is fascism. Its hallmark will be that it will exploit the specific possibilities of data analysis and AI technology to eliminate the rule of law and replace it with a lean apparatus based on automation and preemption.” According to Mühlhoff, a key characteristic of fascism is political activity “aimed at destroying the rule of law, administrative procedures, and the parliamentary and democratic order.” By taking over the key technological systems of the administrative state, Musk has acquired the power necessary to rend the existing state and simultaneously positioned himself and his allies in Big Tech as the potential operators and profiteers of this new apparatus. To that end, the chief information officers in charge of technology systems in at least three major government agencies have been replaced by Silicon Valley executives, including from Palantir and Musk's SpaceX, per a *WIRED* [report](https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-palantir-chief-information-officers-government?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Some might quibble over whether fascism is the correct frame for understanding these political developments in the U.S. Just as sparkling wine doesn’t only come from the Champagne region of France, fascism isn’t the only sort of illiberalism at play in modern politics. Nevertheless, Mühlhoff is not alone in warning that Trump’s second term — and the role that Musk is playing — portends a looming fascism in the U.S. In an interview with *The Barbed Wire*, Mark Bray, a historian of fascism and antifascism at Rutgers University, defined fascism by its characteristics: the use of mass popular politics, the glorification of violence toward traditional and hierarchical values, and an emphasis on class collaboration in the interest of the nation against so-called “elites” who are often explicitly or implicitly characterized as Jews that control the banking system, unspecified “globalists,” or Marxists — and sometimes all of the above. “We’re not talking about elites as political scientists or as economists might identify them,” Bray told *The Barbed Wire*. “But elites as people who stand in for values that are considered to be oppressive in one form or another. So in that sense, an assistant professor of gender studies might be seen by a Trump supporter as more of an elite than some sort of right wing CEO, because the values that they allegedly espouse and how they see them as creating this kind of oppressive gender ideology.” “I think certainly the fact that some people like Donald Trump and Elon Musk could come to represent every man against the elites feels very reminiscent to historically fascist and fascistic efforts to whip up a kind of populist sentiment against the elites they didn't like in the interests of the elites they did,” Bray continued. A similar perversion of the definition of “elites” was on display in a recent [X post](https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1887149147574128666?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that Musk amplified, in which the “wrong enemy” is defined as people who are “rich” relative to “non-rich,” and the “right enemy” is defined as “people who use the government to control you” regardless of wealth. In another post, Musk [accused](https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/02/04/usaid-marxists-once-again-elon-musk-again-displays-his-invincible-ignorance/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) USAID of being a “viper’s nest of radical-left marxists who hate America,” despite USAID having long played a major role in [anti-communist efforts abroad](https://nationalinterest.org/feature/enduring-struggle-why-usaid-plays-critical-role-national-security-realm-191101?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Some may view this lack of ideological consistency as puzzling. But within the framework of fascism, it makes perfect sense. “A feature of fascism is its incoherence and internal inconsistency,” [Zach Biondi](https://hac.bard.edu/amor-mundi/hypocrisy-and-fascism-2018-08-12?ref=thebarbedwire.com), professor of philosophy at University Of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, wrote in 2018. Historically, fascism has positioned itself as the enemy of both capitalism and communism, although when in power fascist regimes have often sided with business elites. In early 20th century Germany and Italy, fascist governments found themselves allied with big business to achieve their goals. Even American corporations did business with fascist dictators, such as IBM providing the punch-card system used in the German concentration camps, and some American businessmen were supportive of Hitler and the Nazi regime. Consider Henry Ford, the American automobile industrialist who purchased his hometown newspaper, *The Dearborn Independent*, and used it to publish antisemitic theories and distributed the paper in his car dealerships. Today, we have our [modern analog](https://theintercept.com/2022/12/20/elon-musk-henry-ford-extremism/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in Musk, whose purchase of X has turned the social media platform into a haven for far-right extremists and neo-Nazis. In addition to conducting a [hostile takeover](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp820y16xvlo?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of our government systems, Musk has [endorsed](https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/09/world/musk-livestream-afd-weidel-germany-intl/index.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) the far-right German AfD political party, which includes representatives with links to extremist groups and one who was found guilty in Germany of [knowingly using a Nazi slogan](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-69012813?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The question of whether Trump himself is a fascist, or simply an illiberal politician with aspirations of autocracy, is less important than the question of what is being done under his watch — and whether that will push democracy over the edge. Consider [Andrew Kloster](https://www.salon.com/2025/01/29/new-lawyer-described-himself-as-a-raging-misogynist-praised-nazi-theorist/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the man Trump has installed as the chief legal counsel at the government’s human resources department, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). Kloster is a self-described “raging misogynist” who was the subject of a temporary restraining order for domestic violence, according to the watchdog Project on Government Oversight. He also praised in a [post on X](https://archive.is/lqCmN?ref=thebarbedwire.com) the Nazi political theorist Carl Schmitt, who helped Hitler consolidate power. Under Kloster's watch, the OPM has sought to purge government employees via a buyout that’s been paused by a federal judge, and noted by even some Republicans as a violation of [federal law](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/republican-officials-say-trump-federal-workers-buyout-program-illegal/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), per CBS. “There was this kind of ethos in the Nazi Party of the different officials trying to outdo each other, to be more extreme, more violent, to do a better job of putting Nazi values into practice,” Bray told *The Barbed Wire*. “I don't know to what extent President Trump told Elon Musk to go into the treasury. I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't tell him, and if instead Trump has sort of emboldened his main people with a similar kind of authoritarian ethos that rejects a kind of servile chain of command and encourages taking initiative in the interest of the kind of values and goals that they feel like they all share. And that feels distinctly fascist to me.” That’s not all that feels distinctly fascist. One of Musk’s DOGE lackeys, [Marko Elez](https://www.wsj.com/tech/doge-staffer-resigns-over-racist-posts-d9f11a93?ref=thebarbedwire.com), was linked by the *The Wall Street Journal* to an anonymous social media account that has made [racist and pro-eugenics posts](https://www.wsj.com/tech/doge-staffer-resigns-over-racist-posts-d9f11a93?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Elez resigned after the revelation but has since been reinstated after Musk and Vice President JD Vance [came to his defense](https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/elon-musk-jd-vance-rehire-doge-employee?srsltid=AfmBOoqAIciOENukElBjeGbemEkx37JwZb%5Fs2x-bjAmw2MDuwKU5RRYk&ref=thebarbedwire.com) on social media. Musk, a self-described free speech absolutist, has since attacked the journalist who wrote the report, [calling her disgusting and cruel person](https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1887846036468584822?s=19&ref=thebarbedwire.com), saying she [should be fired](https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1887857977677205649?s=19&ref=thebarbedwire.com), and [implicitly threatening her with criminal charges](https://bsky.app/profile/esqueer.net/post/3lhly5vp2a22f?ref=thebarbedwire.com). (In one post, [he identified her incorrectly](https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnhyatt/2025/02/10/confused-elon-musk-attacked-wrong-journalist/?ref=thebarbedwire.com).) It’s unclear why Trump, Vance, Musk and his allies have fought so hard to maintain Elez’s access to sensitive government systems. Certainly there are plenty of skilled people who haven't advocated for eugenics who could replace him — unless it was those sorts of beliefs that got him hired in the first place. Even if there is reason to believe there is a strong fascistic undercurrent driving the second Trump administration, some experts think it’s unlikely that a one-party fascist dictatorship is on the immediate horizon. Political scientists Steven Levitsky and Lucan Way argued in a recent [article](https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/path-american-authoritarianism-trump?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for *Foreign Affairs* magazine that the United States is sliding toward what they call competitive authoritarianism: “a system in which parties compete in elections but the incumbent’s abuse of power tilts the playing field against the opposition.” From this perspective, it is too soon to say fascism is around the corner. But if Levitsky and Way are correct in their assessment that competitive authoritarianism is a probable outcome of our current political situation, there is a real risk that it would merely be a transitional stage. After all, if the state can be wielded in authoritarian fashion to crush political opposition, who is to say that the creeping authoritarianism will remain competitive? ### Falling in Love at the Houston Airport URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/falling-in-love-houston-airport-valentine/ Last updated: 2025-02-13T06:01:00.000Z It was September 2020 when Dan messaged me on Facebook. The day after my 38th birthday. The sight of his name met the memory of being 19 when we dated in college. So much had changed. I was divorced with two kids and living in Houston, far from our New York roots. He was divorced and living in Chicago as an airline pilot. I had shared on social media that I was restarting my life and my hopes for the future. In his message, Dan asked if I would be comfortable with a phone call and gave me his number. I never forgot him, but I never expected to hear from him. His voice sounded the same. It reminded me of a time when I was younger, braver, and free, when life seemed endless, and the future was far in the distance. Back when I was wearing tiny dresses and going to themed college parties, and he was in his dorm studying thick aviation books. Now I was working as a journalist and he was flying around the U.S., and we talked about the years in between then and now, the places we had lived, and the highs and lows. I just knew I had to see him again. It was still the pandemic, flights were cheap, and Dan could fly for free if a seat was open, so we prayed to the airplane gods. We made plans for him to visit me in Houston. I remember being so nervous and excited driving to George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) to pick Dan up and see him for the first time. It was a humid fall day, and I wore my favorite long, strappy tan and black dress. It was sultry and brought out my curves in the right places. On the way, I felt airy and lighter, as though the grief I had been carrying receded and dissolved into tingles of butterflies streaming through my body. Arriving at the airport, I followed the signs cluelessly but found my way to Terminal A. My heart was racing as I waited for his plane to land. When Dan came out of the airport — wearing his uniform and stripes and pulling off his face mask — his hug connected to me just like it had years before. When he said I looked the same, all I could think about was being in his dorm room again. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/ijadeflyingtogether2.jpg) During the next months I learned the ins and outs of the gray, fluorescent IAH airport: When he visited, I would meet him at the airport Marriott parking lot because it was quicker than waiting in the long lines at the terminal. When I visited him, I would plan to take the last flight out on Sunday to Chicago after dropping my kids off at switch time. I’d be in his arms before midnight. I usually just brought one carry-on bag with my clothes and laptop stuffed inside. As the weather got cooler, he’d bring me a coat and gloves. We’d spend the next few days cuddling up at his place like we were in our own igloo. Before my flight took off to Houston, we didn’t want to leave each other until the last boarding call. On the plane to Houston, I felt lucky that there was still time left for us. The future seemed long and endless. IAH’s traffic and lines — even delays — weren’t annoying or stressful to me. It was all a piece of keeping our relationship going. By November, I was thinking about his kiss while driving off the airport grounds after returning to IAH from Chicago, and I had butterflies streaming through my body. I was falling for him. Dan visited me many times. At my apartment, we cooked together, or we wore our masks and had dinner outside on the patios at restaurants near The Galleria. There was so much catching up to do and making up for lost time. When he put on his uniform and his suitcase was by the door, I would sneak a little love note in his bag to take with him back to Chicago. Every time he left the Bayou City, we talked about how we would explore Houston next time, take a walk at Memorial Park, go to a Tex-Mex restaurant, explore NASA, stop by the symphony, or wander the Lone Star Flight Museum. We juggled our work schedules and my parenting plan, finding precious days to be together each month. Soon Dan met my kids over pizza and Uno, and we took them to Memorial Park to play Frisbee and picnicked with meals from Whataburger. As the city opened back up, we took them to the Downtown Aquarium and the zoo. When it was just us, we walked beside the Buffalo Bayou and on the trails of the Houston Arboretum, we had chicken wings at Karbach brewery, and we sat on my balcony talking about the future. There was something so romantic about kissing passionately while other passengers hustle around with luggage, while we stood there in our own world. When I’d drop Dan off at the terminal, his embrace and smell of cologne would stay with me long after I drove away. However meticulous I was — because of traffic on I-10, I-610, I-69, and I-45 — I was never at the airport early. I was always rushing to the gate and texting Dan “I hope I make it.” I didn’t have time to notice the impressive airport art displays or the space-cow sculpture or even get a snack or magazine. I felt like I was living a scene in a movie, feeling anxious and bubbly, dashing to a destination to meet my love. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/flighttogether.jpg) In Chicago, Dan met me at the gate, and we walked hand in hand through the airport to his car. Through the fall leaves, then through the snow. Soon it was melting. For a surprise, Dan arranged his work schedule so he could be the pilot flying me back to Houston from O’Hare. It was so romantic to walk onto the plane and see him there and then walk off together hand in hand. I was blushing when he gave me a special welcome during announcements. Later, I had an hourglass engraved with the flight number. For about a year, our lives were brought together by trips to and from IAH and ORD. After all this back and forth, Dan decided to leave the Windy City so we could be together. We now live together in Houston. Although both of us miss the northeast, Houston — and its airport — has become a special part of our story. Now, when Dan’s suitcase is by the door, I look at the hourglass. It feels like a second chance and a new beginning all at the same time. Loading… ### Why Is a Texas University Rewarding an Anti-Trans Politician? URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/shawn-thierry-texas-southern-university/ Last updated: 2025-02-12T17:26:51.000Z Here’s another sad reminder of the current political climate: Texas Southern University, an institution with a history of advancing education and equity, has made a baffling decision. The historically black university [has appointed Shawn Thierry](https://www.tsu.edu/news/2025/02/tsu-names-shawn-thierry-executive-director-for-policy-and-counsel?ref=thebarbedwire.com) as Executive Director for Policy and Counsel, despite her well-documented record of [supporting anti-trans policies](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/08/21/shawn-thierry-lgbtq-gender-transitioning-care-genspect/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Thierry, a former Texas state representative, [recently abandoned the Democratic Party](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/rep-shawn-thierry-makes-it-official-shes-a-republican/) after her own constituents booted her from office. Her shameless pivot included [endorsing Donald Trump](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/rep-shawn-thierry-assumes-her-final-form-trump-shill/) and [championing anti-trans policies](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/02/15/shawn-thierry-houston-democratic-primary-lgbtq-vote/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) under the guise of protecting children. Now, TSU has chosen to reward her with a powerful new role, despite its mission of being “[committed to ensuring equality](https://www.tsu.edu/about/?ref=thebarbedwire.com).” Unless you’re a trans kid, apparently. [TSU’s official announcement](https://www.tsu.edu/news/2025/02/tsu-names-shawn-thierry-executive-director-for-policy-and-counsel?ref=thebarbedwire.com), filled with the usual pleasantries, paints Thierry as a policy expert and advocate for “vulnerable populations.” Let’s be clear: Vulnerable populations do not include right-wing politicians looking for relevance. Thierry’s record speaks for itself. Her [sudden party switch](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/rep-shawn-thierry-makes-it-official-shes-a-republican/) came after she supported harmful anti-trans legislation, sparking [justified backlash from real Democrats](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/02/15/shawn-thierry-houston-democratic-primary-lgbtq-vote/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) who saw through her performative concern. When she lost [her primary bid last year](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/election/2024/article/shawn-thierry-lauren-simmons-primary-runoff-19468277.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com), rather than reflecting on why her own constituents rejected her, she doubled down, [embracing MAGA politics](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/rep-shawn-thierry-assumes-her-final-form-trump-shill/) and endorsing Trump for president. Until recently she’s been [director of political strategy for an anti-trans policy group](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/houston-rep-shawn-thierry-isnt-done-being-awful-to-trans-kids/). Among other questionable choices, Thierry [also reposted a video](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/08/21/shawn-thierry-lgbtq-gender-transitioning-care-genspect/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on X shared by Libs Of TikTok — an extreme anti-LGBTQ+ account that has [been linked](https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/libs-tik-tok-bomb-threats-oklahoma-library-committee-rcna135369?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to [multiple bomb threats](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/thereve-been-93-anti-lgbtq-hate-crimes-in-texas-since-2022-data-shows/) against gyms, schools, and hospitals. And yet, TSU decided this was the kind of person they wanted in a leadership role. Thierry is now tasked with advising the Board of Regents on policy matters, coordinating special projects, and providing “strategic and legal counsel.” The university’s leadership has, predictably, tried to spin this as a win. “The Honorable Shawn Thierry is recognized nationally for her policy advocacy and legislative effectiveness, especially on behalf of vulnerable populations,” [TSU Board of Regents Chairman Brandon L. Simmons gushed](https://www.tsu.edu/news/2025/02/tsu-names-shawn-thierry-executive-director-for-policy-and-counsel?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Thierry’s own statement on her new job was filled with self-congratulatory nonsense. “As an alumna of the Thurgood Marshall School of Law, returning to TSU is an honor and a blessing,” [she declared](https://www.tsu.edu/news/2025/02/tsu-names-shawn-thierry-executive-director-for-policy-and-counsel?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Funny, because many of the students, faculty, and alumni who actually believe in justice and equality probably feel the opposite about her return. ### 50+ Bills Attacking Trans Texans Have Been Filed in the Legislature. Here Are the Ones to Watch. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/anti-trans-bills-texas-2025/ Last updated: 2025-02-12T15:39:15.000Z It’s no secret that Texas is one of the most “extreme state legislatures on LGBTQ+ issues in the country,” as the senior director for legal policy for [The Human Rights Campaign](https://www.statesman.com/story/news/2025/01/13/texas-house-lgbtq-caucus-gears-up-for-anti-gay-bills/77489772007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) told the *Austin American Statesman*. In the first few weeks of the 89th session, organizations like GLAAD, Equality Texas, and the Transgender Education Network of Texas have come together to form a coalition of sorts to rally and stand up together to fight for LGBTQIA+ rights. “I’m really excited that (GLAAD is) now investing their work in the south, like Texas,” Jacob Reyes, Texas-based GLAAD representative and news coordinator, told *The Barbed Wire*. “We're really concerned about the upcoming legislative session. We have been monitoring the filing of the bills, and we, along with our friends at Equality Texas, saw over 30 anti trans bills filed for the first day of the 2025 legislative session.” [Equality Texas](https://www.equalitytexas.org/about/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) is the largest nonpartisan statewide political advocacy organization working for the elimination of discrimination targeting the LGTBQ+ community, according to their website. Every legislative session, they create a tracker that follows bills targeting the LGBTQIA+ community. Already this session, Equality Texas has tracked more than 50[ anti-LGBTQIA+ bills](https://www.equalitytexas.org/legislative-bill-tracker-2025/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “We are in really, really troubling times right now,” Reyes said. “But you know, looking at what I've seen in the last few months, especially after the election, there are good people here in Texas that want to ensure that community is upheld no matter what legislation is passed.” Bills that could “[restrict trans lives](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/12/04/texas-transgender-restrictions-legislative-session/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)” or “[so-called bounty bills](https://prismreports.org/2025/01/08/bounty-laws-texas-trans-rights-abortion/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)” — which would enable private citizens to sue for cash if they catch a trans person using the “wrong” bathroom — have left many fearful about the potential impact of such legislation. “I get more angry than scared, though, because lawmakers and anti-trans activists use bullshit reasons to attack us, claiming they’re protecting women’s spaces,” Marcus, a trans Texas teen wrote in a powerful essay for [*Truthout*](https://truthout.org/articles/im-a-trans-teen-in-a-red-state-anti-trans-politicians-cannot-erase-me/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Andrea Segovia, Senior Field and Policy Director at Transgender Education Network of Texas, has been tracking anti-transgender bills in Texas since 2017, when our state’s [first bathroom bill was introduced](https://apps.texastribune.org/texas-bathroom-bill-annotated/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The bill would have regulated who can use which restroom but never passed — and neither did a handful of reincarnations. “I think it's really important to remember, as these bills are getting pre-filed, that a lot of legislators are doing this for clout,” Segovia told *The Barbed Wire*. “So they can make money off the backs of trans people and trans youth to say, ‘Hey, look, I did something. And you see the bill number, and it's a legitimate thing.’” Bathroom access is back on the docket this session — [House Bill 239](https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=89R&Bill=HB239&ref=thebarbedwire.com) would regulate who can enter a restroom in government buildings that doesn’t match their “biological sex.” Another bill would require [“genetic testing”](https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=89R&Bill=HB1123&ref=thebarbedwire.com) for students suspected of having a different sex than their sex assigned at birth in order to play on sports teams. Still another would solidify policies put in place last year banning people from changing the sex on their [birth certificates](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-bans-transgender-people-from-changing-sex-on-birth-certificates/) and [driver’s licenses](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-agency-spammed-by-bee-movie-scripts-gay-porn-over-anti-trans-policies/) through the regulation[ of gender on government documents](https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=89R&Bill=SB84&ref=thebarbedwire.com). Segovia says many folks in the trans and LGBTQIA+ community are panicked — she admits the transgender education network is too — but explains that many lawmakers' tactics early on in the session are to get as many bills filed to see what sticks. “They're trying to get the temp check. Where are their colleagues? Where is the general public? What is the media talking about in terms of the subjects? And that's how they'll figure out what their big bills will be to attack trans people, trans youth,” Segovia said. “You're gonna see a lot of bills be filed so that people can get tally marks from their donors, their supporters, because attacking trans people, attacking trans youth, is a very popular thing to do, and some would say even more popular than being an anti abortion person,” Segovia continued. “You'll see a bill that will come through probably the later part of February. It will have pretty strong people in both the House and the Senate, and those will be the bills that will really be the ones that they'll try and pass to become laws.” GLAAD’s Texas representative says the organization is also keeping a close eye on [House Bill 1123](https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/Text.aspx?LegSess=89R&Bill=HB1123&ref=thebarbedwire.com), the legislation that would impose stricter laws on school sports by requiring athletes to undergo chromosome testing. That bill was filed by State Rep. Janie Lopez, a Republican who represents District 37 in the Rio Grande Valley and has a degree in mental health. “That's really concerning, because there's a level of privacy that we want to ensure for our trans brothers, sisters, and siblings here in Texas,” Reyes said. “We're keeping a pulse on everyone. We're not here to speak out against a political party or any side of the political aisle. What we are looking at is making sure that when these sessions are held, that LGBTQ Texans are properly heard, and through these legislative filings, it's so clear that LGBTQ Texans are often not considered when these bills are filed, there's so much injustices and misinformation filed in these laws and that's a concern.” Advocates with Transgender Education Network of Texas wonder if a bill requiring genetic testing could realistically pass, given the state of school funding in Texas. “As organizations, we're doing everything we can to fight back. But at the end of the day, no law is going to erase trans people. Trans people have always been here and will always be here, despite what the state and federal governments might try to do,” Segovia said. ## Here’s a look at the bills LGBTQIA+ organizations in Texas are keeping an eye on: [**HB239**](https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/Text.aspx?LegSess=89R&Bill=HB239&ref=thebarbedwire.com): Would allow for Texans to sue any local government that does not force people to use bathrooms or private spaces “based on the person’s biological sex”. The bill, filed by 67-year-old Rep. Valerie Swanson, a Republican from Spring, also mentions spaces like locker rooms and family violence shelters. “It talks about bathrooms and segregated facilities, and really goes into wanting to define biological sex, which can open Pandora's box in terms of what amendments could be added.” \- Andrea Segovia, Transgender Education Network of Texas [**HB1106:**](https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=89R&Bill=HB1106&ref=thebarbedwire.com)The bill, filed by 59-year-old Rep. Matt Shaheen, a Republican from Plano, would stipulate that child abuse and neglect would not include when parents, guardians or other people in charge of children, like medical professionals or teachers, refuse to “affirm the child’s expressed sexual orientation or gender identity” or refuse to “address the child according to the child’s preferred name or pronoun(s).” “The main concept is that they want to put trans people in boxes. They want to say, I want to know exactly what you mean when you talk about a father and a mother and a male and a female. Which really is a big red flag for a lot of parents and families.” \- Andrea Segovia, Transgender Education Network of Texas [**HB778**](https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=89R&Bill=HB778&ref=thebarbedwire.com)**:** Filed by 42-year-old Rep. Jeff Leach, a Republican from Plano, the bill would require health insurance companies that provide coverage for gender transition to also cover all “testing or screening necessary to monitor the mental and physical health of the enrollee” and cover “any procedure or treatment necessary to reverse gender transition procedure or treatment.” “That is a really large alarm again, because again, we're talking about more finite things that the state of Texas is trying to come into your own personal medical information and say you're not allowed to do XYZ things.” \- Andrea Segovia, Transgender Education Network of Texas [**HB1123**](https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/Text.aspx?LegSess=89R&Bill=HB1123&ref=thebarbedwire.com)**:** Filed by 46-year-old Rep. Janie Lopez, a Republican from San Benito, the bill would force the University Interscholastic League, to set requirements for students to undergo physical exams by doctors and genetic testing if a doctor suspects that a child is competing in a gendered sport that is not consistent with their sex listed on their birth certificate. “To impose on a person's privacy in this way is really concerning. It's unfortunate that we have to continuously face these setbacks in our state legislature.” \- Jacob Reyes, GLAAD Texas [**SB 84:**](https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=89R&Bill=SB84&ref=thebarbedwire.com) The bill, filed by 82-year-old Sen. Bob Hall of Edgewood, would only allow government documents to “reference two sexes, male and female, when requesting or providing information regarding an individual's sex.” “The current ID situation with Texas not allowing people to change their state ID and birth certificate that is going to be trying to be codified, as well as not allowing people to get that change in a court because currently you still can get your court amended document documents, but there's multiple bills trying to stop those things from occurring.” \- Andrea Segovia, Transgender Education Network of Texas ### Beer’s Going to Cost More. Thanks, Trump. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/trump-tariff-beer-cost-texas/ Last updated: 2025-02-11T19:25:23.000Z Welp, while y’all were all whining about egg prices (I’m plant-based), everyone forgot about beer. Thanks to a newly imposed [25% tariff](https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/10/politics/tariffs-steel-aluminum-trump/index.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on all steel and aluminum imports by the country’s sweetheart President Donald Trump, some Texas breweries are preparing to upcharge their beer because the aluminum cans they come in are made in China. Craft brewers in Texas already had a tough year in 2024, with several closing in [Houston](https://www.chron.com/food/article/craft-beer-breweries-texas-closed-20024548.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [San Antonio](https://www.sacurrent.com/food-drink/trumps-aluminum-tariffs-pose-new-threat-to-san-antonios-beleaguered-craft-brewers-36730097?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and now breweries are wondering how tight their finances will get. We’re going to “weather the storm until we can’t weather it anymore,” Jacob Passey, director of brewing for [Pinthouse Brewing and Pizza](https://www.kxan.com/news/texas-politics/new-aluminum-tariffs-could-raise-the-price-of-a-six-pack-of-beer/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), said in an interview with KXAN. Their primary provider for their aluminum beer cans comes from China, which is 30% of their operations. Passey says thanks to the tariffs, they’re looking at adding a dollar or two for a four-pack, which would take their 16-ounce IPAs from $17.99 to up to $19.99. Texas had 23 [craft breweries close](https://www.chron.com/food/article/brewery-beer-openings-closings-texas-20031712.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in 2024, according to Chron.com, and with a bleak outlook of already high inflation costs and now the new round of tariffs, it may be a good idea to support your local brewers because this year may be the year they close. Thanks, Trump! ### The Perfect Weekend Getaway with my Toddler: Bentonville, Arkansas URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-perfect-weekend-getaway-with-my-toddler-bentonville-arkansas/ Last updated: 2025-02-11T16:20:14.000Z When *The Barbed Wire’s* publisher asked if I wanted to go to Bentonville on an assignment I responded with such a resounding yes that he thought I didn’t hear him correctly. I’d been wanting to go to Bentonville since 2020, when I started researching areas within reasonable driving distance from Texas that could get me the hell out of my house. Multiple people suggested northwest Arkansas for its natural beauty. I knew Walmart is headquartered in Bentonville, and the Walton family has invested in their community to make it charming, full of art, and family-friendly. I’d also been influenced by the [billboards](https://www.axios.com/local/nw-arkansas/2021/09/30/new-ad-campaign-stem-workers-move-northwest-arkansas?ref=thebarbedwire.com) from Northwest Arkansas Council that taunted Texans with slogans like, “It’s like Austin, but affordable.” Honestly, I respect a state with the audacity to challenge Texans. ([Ohio can sit down, though](https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/Ohio-Billboards-Austin-Highway-16800857.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com).) So in late January, I loaded up my toddler and my boyfriend and set off to see what the fuss was about in Northwest Arkansas. **Getting to Bentonville** Flying from Austin to Northwest Arkansas National Airport was a cinch, even with a toddler (there are nonstop flights from Dallas and Houston). The airport is small and easy to navigate — the walk to our rental car was maybe five minutes, then we had a 20 minute drive into town. It’s also an entirely doable drive, especially from Dallas (about 5.5 hours), the drive through the piney woods made potentially even more scenic by passing through the lake and parkland in Broken Bow, Oklahoma. **Getting around Bentonville** The transportation method of choice in Bentonville is biking — our Airbnb even came with two electric bikes for us to use. However, my shameful secret is I can’t really ride a bike, and given the logistics of car seats, it was easiest to just rent a car. We returned it having used $3 in gas because we could entertain ourselves mostly within walking distance. **Our favorite kid-friendly activities** Our first stop in Bentonville was [**Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art**](https://crystalbridges.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which was particularly striking on a grey winter day. It was founded by Alice Walton with the goal of making good art accessible to everyone, so admission is free. If my toddler did not have the attention span of a gnat, I could have spent all day perusing the walls here. There’s a creator studio with activities set up for kids and outdoor areas where he could run around. He even loved the art, including a giant chicken and the [Yayoi Kusama Infinity Room](https://crystalbridges.org/calendar/yayoi-kusamas-infinity-mirrored-room/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/crystal-bridges-outdoor-3.jpg) The Crystal Bridges Museum of Art. Photo courtesy of Erin Russell. The [**Scott Family Amazeum**](https://www.amazeum.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) lived up to our very high expectations. Starting from the entrance, my toddler was absolutely captivated as we traveled through a measurement exhibit, an outdoor playground, a water room, a music room, and, critically, the cab of an 18-wheeler truck, which we had to physically drag him away from. I can’t wait to tell you more about our time at the Amazeum in a future piece. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/amazeum-entering.jpg) Entering the Scott Family Amazeum. Photo courtesy of Erin Russell. [**The Momentary**](https://themomentary.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) is an extension of Crystal Bridges about art of the moment. We saw an exhibition of pet photography, which furry friends were invited to — obviously a hit with the toddler. The Momentary also puts on [Saturday morning cartoons](https://themomentary.org/calendar/saturday-morning-cartoons/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in their theater, complete with cereal and coffee bars, which is a genius idea. [**Coler Mountain Bike Preserve**](https://www.peelcompton.org/visit-coler/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) is a great natural preserve with a paved walkway and bike trails. We walked about 15 minutes (45 minutes with toddler) over babbling creeks to get to the [Airship Coffee](https://airshipcoffee.com/pages/airship-coffee-coler?srsltid=AfmBOopQBD4x9Kgo0QRC3AFKYzduZl1qqP8T2YVlmXkX0qqncB87DO9z&ref=thebarbedwire.com), an open-air coffeeshop in the preserve, and let my kiddo run around the buildings and field. **Kid-friendly dining in Bentonville\*** [Brothers Meethouse](https://www.brothersmeethouse.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) is a new but promising barbecue restaurant. The pork belly bites were basically delicious bacon candy and we particularly loved the collards and fried okra. As a native Texan, there are only so many nice things I can legally say about brisket in other states, but it really was quite tender. We had amazing sweet and savory crepes from [Crepes Paulette](https://www.crepespaulette.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and the kiddo also loved watching them get made. [Yeyo's El Alma de Mexico](https://www.yeyosnwa.com/locations/el-alma-de-mexico?ref=thebarbedwire.com) is one of two 2025 James Beard Award semifinalists in Bentonville, and was the best meal of our trip. My toddler ate more rice, beans, and squash quesadilla than I thought humanly possible, and I loved my panuchos yucatecos and chips and guac. We also stopped by [Markham & Fitz](https://markhamandfitz.com/?srsltid=AfmBOora5LyeFVPBOkgzUW1gRnjelaaRbCQOC39vnA%5F2c%5Fhf7KGmPKCk&ref=thebarbedwire.com) for hot chocolate and chocolate bars, and got some great pastries from [Butter⋅Scotch](https://www.butterscotchnwa.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which was right off the town square (we loved the ultra chocolatey cookies). **The Bentonville magic** On our way out of town, we had one last stop in Bentonville square to grab coffee for the road. It was a nice 60 degree day with a slight breeze, the sun was shining, and a man was playing guitar in the town square. Several people stopped to listen and chat: a couple who had gotten married the day before, three dancing toddlers and their parents, and even some teens. It was probably the kind of thing that happened all the time in Austin 40 years ago, but life here was such that we could actually slow down and enjoy the moment of community. Maybe those billboards are onto something. *\*Erin Russell’s meals were provided complimentary or at a discounted rate by each establishment.* ### My Love-Hate Relationship with Running (Mostly Hate) URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/love-hate-relationship-running-austin-texas-10k/ Last updated: 2025-02-11T06:01:00.000Z The finish line is in sight. My lungs are on fire, my legs feel like cement, and I’m pretty sure my soul is trying to leave my body. My best friend is running (slowly) alongside me, a partner in this shambling torment. We’re about to finish a 10K, and I’m wondering how I got here. I was never a runner. As a kid, I sang in choir and played video games. I avoided physical exertion like it was eye contact with a mall kiosk employee. Running was something you did when you were being chased, not something you did voluntarily. But as middle age settles in, I’ve realized that I need to be more physically active because — like eating vegetables — it sucks. I mean, it’s good for me. So I downloaded one of those couch to 10K apps and got going. Slowly. Running as an adult is an extra ache you don’t need. Your body protests. Your lungs scream. Your knees file formal complaints. Especially if your athletic career ended sometime around t-ball. And yet… after it’s over? That post-run endorphin rush? That’s the scam. That’s how it gets you. One minute, you’re swearing off running forever. The next, your brain is dumping feel-good chemicals, and you’re thinking, *Maybe I should do this again!* And that’s why I keep doing it. Not because I love it — because I absolutely do not. But because I love *having done it.* Despite my television-watching genetics, I saw improvement. Week after week, my endurance grew. The first time I ran five miles without stopping, I felt like I’d won an Olympic medal, even though my audience was five other early birds at the YMCA. Back to that 10K: Even though we were running, the course was a lovely tour of downtown Austin, with bands playing on the sidewalk and onlookers shouting encouragement. Some runners wore costumes (a few psychos even participated in full suits). As we neared the finish line, my mood brightened. People cheered. We picked up the pace. For a fleeting moment, I thought, *Wow, I might actually be an athlete. Maybe I should have done this sooner.* Then, a loudspeaker crackled to life, announcing that an elderly woman (in my recollection, she was in her 80s) was about to finish the race. We were not elderly. We were in our early 30s. And we were about to get smoked by an AARP member. My friend turned to me. “RUN!” We took off in a sprint, fueled by adrenaline and the terror of being beaten by a woman who almost certainly had grandkids our age. I don’t know who won. As we crossed the finish line, I heard the announcer celebrating this incredible woman’s race. Good for her. If I’m still out here running races in my 80s, I’d want a standing ovation, too. After the race, we celebrated at a pizza buffet, easing our tired legs into a booth, inhaling slices like we’d truly earned them. Because at the end of the day, running sucks, but the stories that come from it? They’re worth it. I won’t ever be the kind of person who wakes up at 5 a.m. excited to hit the pavement. I won’t be the person who “just loves” running, like some kind of deranged masochist or a realtor. But I’ll keep doing it because it’s good for me, and because I paid $140 for these running shoes. And maybe, one day, I’ll be that 80-something at the finish line, making some 30-year-olds sweat a little. My calves hurt just thinking about it. Loading… ### Measles Is Making a Comeback in Texas, Thanks to Anti-Vaxxers URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/measles-outbreak-vaccination-texas/ Last updated: 2025-02-10T18:40:10.000Z Guess we’ve gotta learn this lesson for the millionth time: Vaccines stop really bad stuff. Case in point: A measles outbreak in rural West Texas — where vaccine exemptions are sky-high — is spreading fast. It started in late January with two hospitalized kids in Gaines County, [CNN reported](https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/07/health/west-texas-measles-outbreak/index.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). By Wednesday, cases hit six. By Friday? Fourteen confirmed, six more probable. And wouldn’t you know it? Every single case is believed to be from an unvaccinated person — mostly children. This outbreak represents the first confirmed cases in the county in [more than 20 years](https://southplainshealth.org/measles-exposure-page/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Still, it isn’t exactly surprising, given that nearly one in five kindergartners in Gaines County skipped their measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine last year. At 18%, the county’s vaccine exemption rate is among the highest in Texas, according to [Texas Health and Human Services](https://www.dshs.texas.gov/immunizations/data/school/conscientious-exemptions?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Meanwhile, new measles cases were also reported last month in Harris County, per the [*Texas Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/02/08/measles-west-texas-vaccine-outbreak/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Those cases *also* involved unvaccinated people because when you ignore science, bad stuff happens. Nationwide, Texas isn’t alone in trying to return to the 1800s. [Idaho has the most vaccine exemptions](https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/07/health/west-texas-measles-outbreak/index.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), with more than 14% of kindergartners missing required shots last school year. Texas sits slightly above the national average at around 4%. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends 95% coverage to prevent outbreaks, but the U.S. has been missing that mark for four years straight, according to CNN. Now, measles — a disease that can cause pneumonia, brain swelling, *and death* — is depressingly back in action. And just when you thought things couldn’t get worse, our likely next federal health secretary is [Robert F. Kennedy Jr.](https://apnews.com/article/rfk-jr-vaccine-trump-science-autism-9b99621b01f11b7f0bdc81e5a0b82d2b?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a man who repeatedly demands “data” on vaccine safety but ignores it when it’s handed to him. During recent meetings with lawmakers, Kennedy rejected decades of research proving vaccines don’t cause autism, claimed the government has no good vaccine monitoring (it does), and even suggested that Black people might need different vaccines than white people, according to [The Associated Press](https://apnews.com/article/rfk-jr-vaccine-trump-science-autism-9b99621b01f11b7f0bdc81e5a0b82d2b?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Doctors are already warning that his leadership could make outbreaks like this — in Texas, and elsewhere — even more common. “We will see the return of diseases that we really haven’t seen much of, and unfortunately, children will suffer,” Dr. Sean O’Leary of the American Academy of Pediatrics told [The Associated Press](https://apnews.com/article/rfk-jr-vaccine-trump-science-autism-9b99621b01f11b7f0bdc81e5a0b82d2b?ref=thebarbedwire.com). But sure, let’s put a vaccine skeptic in charge of public health. Meanwhile, Texas officials are urging residents to get their shots ASAP. There’s even a new measles clinic in the northwest part of the state offering testing and vaccinations. Because, as it turns out, the best way to stop a measles outbreak… is to vaccinate. Who knew? ### Houston’s Top Horn Musician Allegedly Harassed Rice Students for Decades. And the School Knew. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/houston-horn-player-harrassed-rice-students/ Last updated: 2025-02-05T10:00:00.000Z ## EXCLUSIVE *This story has been published in collaboration with the editorially independent student newspaper* [*The Rice Thresher*](https://www.ricethresher.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)*, where the author Riya Misra is editor in chief.* *This story contains descriptions of sexual trauma that may be triggering to some readers. Visit* [*RAINN (Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network)*](https://rainn.org/resources?ref=thebarbedwire.com)*, which has a 24/7 hotline and helpful resources. The National Sexual Assault Hotline can also be reached at 800-656-HOPE (4673).* Myrna Meeroff hadn’t had a seizure in four years. But in 1995, on her first day of graduate classes at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, she had one. Recovering in the hospital, she missed the beginning of the semester. She entered the French horn studio a week behind her peers — “compromised in every way,” she said. Meeroff’s horn instructor, William VerMeulen, invited her to lunch off-campus in what seemed to Meeroff like a gesture of goodwill. VerMeulen gave her a lay of the land and caught Meeroff up on missed material. He reassured her about her absences and even offered to find her opportunities with community orchestras, she told *The Barbed Wire*. Everything would be alright, she remembered him saying. Then, she said, he placed his hand on her thigh. *Why is this man touching me in any way?* Meeroff remembered thinking. It gave her pause. Other teachers had touched her during lessons, placing their heads on top of hers to hear the horn’s sound — weird, she said, though not sexual — but this was different. She forced herself to brush it off. The touching continued in lessons, Meeroff said, even as other male studio members watched. Though her previous teachers sat across from her as she played, VerMeulen sat next to her. He often touched her stomach, without permission, to ensure she was breathing deeply enough for her belly to expand. He’d rest his hand on top of her thigh, she said, letting it stay for too long. “When the hand is on your thigh?” she told *The Barbed Wire*. “That has nothing to do with music whatsoever.” Meeroff had a sheltered childhood — “the music was my life,” she said — and she sometimes wondered if VerMeulen’s behavior was a figment of her imagination. She’d been told he was one of the best teachers in the field. That he had the ability to make stars out of his students. “This was going to be the defining moment that was going to get me the career that I wanted in music,” she said. She wore pants to lessons, moved her chair, practiced at home in her apartment — quiet rebuffs to his repeated advances. “Once he realized that he wasn’t going to get anything from me,” Meeroff said, VerMeulen began “systematically destroying my confidence.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/hornspotillo2.png) Meeroff said he ranked her last in auditions. He gave her parts she felt he knew she couldn’t do, then would “berate me for not being able to do it to his satisfaction,” she said. Beat down, she slowly stopped attending classes. Because she was afraid of losing her spot in the studio, Meeroff said she didn’t report the behavior, or dare say the words “sexual harassment” out loud. But she felt sure others knew. “They saw what was happening, and they couldn’t help me without running the risk of, you know, having their career destroyed,” she said. Meeroff often confided in a close friend, who trained at VerMeulen’s studio from 1995 to 2000\. “I know she was always fighting him off,” he confirmed to *The Barbed Wire*. “I remember her telling me one day that Bill told her that if she tries to come back to Rice to finish her masters, he’ll make her life a living hell. I remember her telling me that like it was yesterday.” A few months into the fall semester, Meeroff said VerMeulen insisted the pair visit the school’s counseling center. Meeroff wasn’t homesick — she had easily spent months away from home at summer camps — but she said both VerMeulen and the counselor insisted otherwise. “They kept trying to convince me to go home, and stay home.” “People like that, they plant a seed and water it, and water it, and water it until it bears fruit. And you don’t realize how much it’s hurting you until you’re completely destroyed,” she said. Then, in their second-to-last lesson of the year, Meeroff said VerMeulen told her she’d been kicked out of the studio. “You’ve been replaced,” are the words she remembered. “And then he said, ‘We’re gonna sit down and talk about what you can do for a living, because you’re never going to be a horn player.’” Meeroff didn’t fight it. She left the Shepherd School of Music “a shell of (her) former self.” She went home at the end of the spring semester in 1996, back to Florida. She took a job at a music camp in upstate New York that summer to help clear her head. At the end of the season, the orchestra conductor told her she was the most accurate horn player he’d ever heard. “It was a complete and total shock to me, because I believed that my career was over,” she said. She completed her master’s at Florida Atlantic University and continued performing. In 2011, she founded the South Florida Chamber Ensemble, a music nonprofit that often partners with sexual abuse advocacy organizations. She took the group to Belgium for the 2019 International Horn Symposium. Meeroff knew VerMeulen would be there, and she wanted to see him. She needed closure. Then, climbing the stairs from the dressing room on her way to a concert, the two collided. “He didn**’**t recognize me at all,” she said. “And that’s when it dawned on me. I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, he’s done this to so many other people that he doesn’t remember.’” ## ‘Everyone Knew That Rice Knew’ A wave of #MeToo-esque reckonings rolled through the classical music world last year, prompted in part by a [*New York* magazine report](https://www.vulture.com/article/new-york-philharmonic-sexual-assault-scandal.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) published in April. The article detailed sexual assault and misconduct allegations against two members of the New York Philharmonic who were fired in 2018, then reinstated through union arbitration. The uproar was swift: The Philharmonic commissioned an [outside investigation](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/18/arts/music/new-york-philharmonic-investigation.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) into the organizational culture. More women came forward with additional allegations against both players, who were placed on leave then [fired in November](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/04/arts/music/new-york-philharmonic-sexual-misconduct.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The players have denied the allegations and sued the Philharmonic and players union. A federal judge recently dismissed a [$100 million lawsuit](https://theviolinchannel.com/court-dismisses-defamation-suit-filed-by-former-new-york-phil-oboist-against-ny-magazine-and-reporter/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) filed by one of the players against the magazine. Online discussion erupted in the insular industry. And more allegations emerged. Two musicians were [removed from the Calgary Philharmonic](https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/theatre-and-performance/article-calgary-philharmonic-removes-two-musicians-after-month-long/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Indiana University’s [Jacobs School of Music announced](https://music.indiana.edu/about/leadership/desk-of-the-dean/dean-message-04292024.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) it had removed one of its professors. Then, in May 2024, Rice announced then-63-year-old William VerMeulen’s retirement, effective immediately. “Professor VerMeulen has been teaching at the Shepherd School since 1990, building one of the country’s most prominent horn studios — with numerous professional placements for his students, who are performing in many of the top ensembles around the world,” Dean Matthew Loden wrote in an email to music students and alumni, which *The Barbed Wire* independently reviewed. “Despite his teaching record, there have recently been serious allegations made against Professor VerMeulen, which we will continue to address.” The email continued: “Rice is aware of private images that have recently resurfaced on social media. Rice is reviewing the allegations and is prepared to investigate any reports of misconduct.” Many Shepherd students and faculty understood this to be a dismissal; many said it was long overdue for the self-proclaimed “horn guru.” Dozens of former students, colleagues and acquaintances of VerMeulen who spoke to *The Barbed Wire* seem to agree on another thing: The allegations were far from recent. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/hornspotillo3.png) “We knew,” said Corin Droullard, who earned his master’s in 2019 under VerMeulen. “Everyone knew there were dick pics floating around. “Everyone knew that Rice knew. The administration has known for 30 years.” In the eight months since VerMeulen’s retirement, 15of his former students came forward to *The Barbed Wire* with allegations of sexual misconduct in his studio. Four women told *The Barbed Wire* that VerMeulen sexually solicited them or physically forced himself on them when they were current or recent students — describing experiences of unwanted touching, groping, and kissing. One was so traumatized by her experience in the late 2000s that, after speaking with reporters for months, she decided she was not emotionally prepared to detail her story publicly — but consented to being anonymously included in a total of survivors, since she does not want any other women to experience what happened to her. Eleven of those former students — who studied under VerMeulen as early as 1995, and as late as 2019 — said they witnessed sexualized jokes, overtures, innuendos, and a broader culture of misogyny apparent in VerMeulen’s lessons. His studio, “the Crew,” became a microcosm of the larger brass world, those former students said: male-dominated, crude and often cruel, especially toward female students. Although Rice parted ways with VerMeulen after the private photos emerged on Facebook in 2024, several sources told *The Barbed Wire* that they directly warned school administrators — starting with an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint and lawsuit in 1997, all the way up to 2022 — about allegations of the professor’s allegedly inappropriate behavior toward students. *The Barbed Wire* spoke with six working female horn players in the industry today who said their former professors had warned them to proceed with caution around VerMeulen, who is married, and that he had a reputation for being a “creep” or “womanizer.” Another five horn players — who teach the instrument in addition to playing with orchestras, common among professional musicians — told *The Barbed Wire* that they would not feel safe sending students to study in VerMeulen’s studio. In total, 26 people — former Shepherd pupils, horn students, previous colleagues of VerMeulen, and professional hornists — said VerMeulen’s reputation of sexual misbehavior was an open secret in the music world at large. VerMeulen declined an interview request, and despite multiple attempts, his attorney declined to respond to a list of questions about the allegations reported throughout this article, saying that he did not want to lend legitimacy to the claims. In response to a detailed list of questions about VerMeulen and Rice’s handling of allegations against him, the school said, “Rice takes all concerns of harassment and misconduct seriously. We cannot disclose specific details of investigations due to privacy protections.” “We can share the faculty member retired last summer and Rice is no longer affiliated with him in any capacity,” the statement continued. “Last November, the Safety and Trust Taskforce was launched with faculty and staff at the Shepherd School of Music to focus on student safety, wellbeing and culture at the school. Dean Matthew Loden laid out a multi-phased approach to explore and implement measures to ensure safety, emotional support and inclusive practices that respect all individuals. Rice is committed to maintaining a respectful and safe environment. Sexual harassment or misconduct will not be tolerated.” Though he is no longer at the school, VerMeulen still teaches private lessons and workshops, according to his personal website, and he remains the principal horn player and an endowed chair at the Grammy Award-winning Houston Symphony, a role he’s held since 1990\. Endowed chairs are common in major orchestras, where patrons, in exchange for a hefty donation, can have an orchestral chair named after them. The Houston Symphony, an historic and well-respected arts organization in the nation’s fourth-largest city, asks for a [$5 million donation](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/houstonsymphony-org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/houston-symphony%5Fbrochure%5Fendowment%5F2324%5F1%5F31%5F23-low.pdf) to secure an endowed principal chair, meaning VerMeulen occupies one of the orchestra’s most coveted and high-profile seats. “This matter has been brought to our attention,” the symphony said in a statement after VerMeulen’s departure from Rice, and again in response to questions from *The Barbed Wire*. “While we do not comment on individual personnel matters, as a fundamental principle we evaluate any allegations of misconduct and will take any actions we determine are necessary and appropriate to ensure that we are providing a safe environment for our musicians, staff, and the public.” The symphony confirmed on Friday that VerMeulen still holds his position as principal hornist. The majority of sources for this story were named victims of VerMeulen’s alleged advances, but many of those who say they experienced what they described as his predatory behavior within the last 15 years spoke only on the condition of anonymity, out of fear of professional retaliation. “People still fear the influence that he has, even now. He’s risen from the ashes before,” said Dominic Rotella, who studied with VerMeulen from 2017 to 2019 and is currently principal horn player of the Richmond Symphony. “He’s still employed by the Houston Symphony, and so he’s still responsible for who gets to (substitute) with that orchestra. And what’s to say that a couple years from now the temperature gets dialed down a bit and some other university hires him?” Several sources also expressed fear of a lawsuit by VerMeulen. When *The Barbed Wire* reached VerMeulen’s attorney, Steve Silverman, for comment about the allegations, he replied, “Should you print such an article, there may be unintended consequences for you and your paper.” In follow-up emails and conversations, Silverman claimed that other news outlets in both Houston and Baltimore had been working on stories about VerMeulen or the private photos that led to his retirement. But Silverman claimed he had successfully convinced other news organizations to drop any articles before they reached publication, citing potential litigation. *The Barbed Wire* was not able to independently verify those claims. ## ‘Collateral Damage’ The very first time Carey Potts met William VerMeulen, she knew something was wrong. It was the spring of 1995 and she, like many young horn players at the time, wanted to join the Shepherd School of Music. VerMeulen, then five years into his tenure at Rice, had already started to establish his horn studio as a home for burgeoning talent. But at the first audition, her gut said something didn’t feel right, she told *The Barbed Wire*. He leered at her the whole time, gave her “creepy, ugly” looks. He told Potts that she reminded him of his first girlfriend, she said. She left that audition unsettled and declined a seat in VerMeulen’s horn studio, then took a year off music and got married. But Potts, who had spent her entire young life playing the horn, didn’t know a world without music. So in 1996, she tried again and re-auditioned at Rice. She joined in the fall semester. Within a year, she had filed a complaint against the school with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, alleging that shortly after the start of her classes at Shepherd, “Mr. VerMeulen began making remarks to me of a sexual nature and comments that indicated my staying in the program was contingent on staying in his good graces.” Potts subsequently sued Rice, claiming the school maintained “a policy of sexual harassment (hostile work environment and quid pro quo),” according to court records obtained by *The Barbed Wire*. The civil lawsuit was filed Dec. 9, 1997, in federal court for the Southern District of Texas, and the school settled the case for an undisclosed amount. Potts agreed to speak with *The Barbed Wire* about her experience at Rice and with VerMeulen but did not discuss the lawsuit or her EEOC complaint, the latter of which did not lead to further action. Reporters used records and interviews with additional sources to fill in the sequence of events. From the moment she entered Rice, Potts said she felt indebted to VerMeulen for giving her another chance. As classes began, VerMeulen “proceeded to make sexually suggestive remarks and innuendos,” Potts alleged in her civil lawsuit. He began to invite her to lunch and to dinner, she wrote in her EEOC notice of charge of discrimination, and “his sexual innuendo, comments and sexual propositions escalated while he continuously reminded me of the tenuous nature of my involvement in the program and his ability to oust me from the school.” “In order to be referred for playing jobs outside the school, recommendations for professional positions and commendations to the faculty and students at the Shepherd School, he insisted that I acquiesce to his sexual demands,” Potts continued in her EEOC charge. “I really felt a lot of shame,” she told *The Barbed Wire*. “I was such a young, eager to please, easy to shame person back then, and I think he knew it.” She relented to his advances and began a sexual relationship that lasted about two months. By the end of the semester, Potts was saddled with health problems — “significant physical manifestations of her mental anguish,” as alleged in her civil suit — and she had sought help from Paul English, a Houston-based composer and VerMeulen’s best friend at the time. While away on vacation, VerMeulen had asked English to check in on Potts, who “broke down” and told English everything: “She felt like her whole career at Rice depended on that relationship,” English said in an interview with *The Barbed Wire.* “The definition of ‘rape’ back then for innocent white males like me was different,” English said. “Did he hold her down? Did he strap her to a table? Did he hold a gun to her head?” “Not to my knowledge, but there are other kinds of rape,” he added. “One is ‘You’ll either do this or you won’t have your scholarship.’” Before classes began for the spring 1997 semester, the three agreed that Potts and VerMeulen would maintain a professional student-teacher relationship and that they’d keep what happened to themselves. Yet, as the semester progressed, VerMeulen became “irate and hostile,” retaliating against Potts, court records allege. “Among other things, he excluded her from participation in class programs, constantly criticized her, failed to provide her with proper instruction, made false and untrue remarks about her to classmates and others,” according to Potts’ civil suit. Later, as Potts and English spent more time together, they began dating. On Oct. 2, 1997, Potts and English met with Catherine Keneally, Rice’s then-director of the school’s Office of Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity, “to complain about Mr. VerMeulen’s sexual harassment and retaliation,” according to the lawsuit. At the time, Rice’s sexual harassment policy — issued in 1981, then revised in 1989 and 1992 — defined sexual harassment as “unwelcome sexual advances, unwelcome requests for sexual favors, and other unwelcome verbal or physical behavior of a sexual nature,” often when an individual’s education or employment status is conditional on “submission to such conduct.” Potts and English said the meeting with Keneally was for informal advice. There, they said, Keneally pushed Potts to file a formal complaint. Potts pushed back. “I’m like, ‘No, I really don’t want to do that,’” she said. Instead, Potts remembered asking if there was a way to get VerMeulen to back off quietly without it escalating. “But that didn’t happen.” Potts had a meeting scheduled with Shepherd’s then-Dean Michael Hammond the next day to seek his advice, which she said Keneally advised her to cancel. After choosing to keep the appointment anyway, Potts and English remembered arriving at Hammond’s office the next morning and the doors opening to reveal Keneally already inside, sitting opposite Hammond’s desk. “Paul, I already know everything,” English remembered Hammond saying. English told Hammond that it was “impossible not to suspect that it was a damage control meeting,” according to records. According to the lawsuit, “Ms. Keneally breached the confidentiality of Plaintiff’s complaints and informed the Dean of the Shepherd School, Michael Hammond, about her allegations. This information was then disseminated to Mr. VerMeulen who offered to resign, but was refused by Dean Hammond.” Both Keneally and Hammond are deceased, and thus, could not be reached to verify the lawsuit’s claims. Rice’s statement above did not include answers to questions from *The Barbed Wire* about Potts’ lawsuit, complaint, or experience with school administrators. Two days later, Kristina Crago — another student in the horn studio — was confused when her classmate, Carey Potts, gathered the group after a recital. Potts had been having “sexual relations” with their professor, she told the studio. She was going to sue Rice. Crago was one year below Potts. The two had barely spoken, but she had heard rumors about Potts’ relationship with VerMeulen. “My first thought was, ‘This is horrible. I hate that this happened to her,’” Crago remembers. Her next thought: “I’m five weeks into my master’s. What am I going to do with my degree?” It seemed almost guaranteed, she said, that Potts’ allegations would get him dismissed at Rice. When they didn’t, she said, “You go from, ‘Oh, good, we still have him (at Shepherd). And then you’re like, ‘Wait a minute, will I be safe around him?’” VerMeulen was instead suspended for an academic year, and his studio was temporarily led by hornists Bruce Henniss and Roger Kaza. Henniss declined a request for comment, but Kaza, who had previously played as an associate hornist with the Houston Symphony Orchestra, confirmed that he arrived at Rice in the spring of 1998 as a substitute instructor in place of VerMeulen. He and Henniss led VerMeulen’s studio during the 1998-1999 school year, according to digitized Shepherd programs. > “The school protects the teacher because they have an investment in the teacher,” English told *The Barbed Wire*. “The investment in the student is minimal.” “Everybody knew everything,” Kaza said about VerMeulen’s suspension that year. “There were no secrets at all.” At the time, administrators tasked a grievance committee made up of Rice graduate students and professors from different departments to determine if VerMeulen was fit to continue teaching. In a final report obtained by *The Barbed Wire,* the committee acknowledged that VerMeulen was in a position of direct authority over Potts and such “circumstances call into question the very concept of consent.” The report referenced the “Amorous Relationships Statement,” ratified by Rice faculty a few years earlier to discourage sexual relationships between teachers and students, prompted by another sexual harassment case between a male professor and female student, according to a [*New York Times* article](https://www.nytimes.com/1991/04/07/nyregion/campus-life-rice-collegial-advice-seeks-to-prevent-sex-harassment.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The statement said, in part: “When the faculty member has professional jurisdiction over the student, sexual relationships (including sexual touching and sexual propositioning) violate professional ethics and could result in disciplinary action as described in the Sexual Harassment Policy." But the committee did not suggest disciplinary action. It categorized Potts’ allegations as an “affair” that was “more than likely” consensual and found that she “arrived at a distorted perspective of the affair after the relationship ended.” The report described Potts as an uncommitted student and horn player, angry, difficult to teach, and with “unresolved problems in both her personal and professional life.” English, who was interviewed by the committee, wrote a 46-page rebuttal to the report — calling it “poorly presented, factually incorrect, misleading and dangerously irresponsible” and filled with “smear tactics” — which he said he printed, bound, and delivered to nearly a dozen administrators. He never received a response. “The school protects the teacher because they have an investment in the teacher,” English told *The Barbed Wire*. “The investment in the student is minimal. “‘We can trash a few students, collateral damage,’” he added. “That’s basically their attitude.” Throughout the committee’s report are references to evidence of inappropriate patterns of behavior consistent with violations of Rice’s sexual harassment policy at the time, including: - a domineering, forceful style of teaching that included a “crew” concept that meant “socializing with him was a significant element” of the program, and disagreement with him could lead to the “group as a whole closing ranks” on the disagreeing individual - use of “sexually-explicit similes and metaphors in classroom situations” - “comments to female students that could be taken to imply sexual interest like ‘Oh, you’re a babe, you’re just the sort of girl I’d have been interested in myself 15 years ago.’” - an undisputed case in which VerMeulen engaged in “flirtatious banter with clear sexual innuendos” - another “former female student who, like Ms. Potts, claims she was sexually harassed by Mr. VerMeulen.” Yet, the committee justified each element: A domineering teaching style was “clearly viewed by many as the only way to train and produce absolutely first-rate, world-class musicians.” Sexually explicit language in class also “probably has genuine musical validity.” Also, VerMeulen had learned his lesson, and he’d “clearly recognized the problems inherent in his flirtatious interactions with some young women and has made significant changes towards a more appropriate professional style.” As for the other allegation of sexual harassment? “The testimony of this student is problematic,” the committee concluded. “She is known to have persistently mis-interpreted the non-sexual friendly behavior of a fellow male student, despite repeated protestations to the contrary by the young man in question.” (The committee did not include evidence of that assertion.) The committee’s stance is all the more striking in light of one key detail: Though he initially denied it, VerMeulen admitted in a final interview that he’d had a “sexual relationship” with Potts and that his “behavior was a disgrace,” according to the report. “I did everything exactly according to their rules,” Potts said. “I followed the steps exactly, and they failed me. And so I had to go then and find an attorney.” The committee’s response, she said, “felt like a witch hunt.” One piece of evidence gathered by Potts and titled “What I know” detailed conversations Potts had with other witnesses, including Myrna Meeroff and another female student who, according to a copy obtained by *The Barbed Wire*, said that she had experienced similar sexual solicitations, innuendos and intimidation. VerMeulen’s alleged misconduct apparently hadn’t gone unnoticed by other members of the studio, either: Two men who studied in the studio that same year would often “work out a schedule” to attend Crago’s private lessons, she told *The Barbed Wire*. VerMeulen was still employing his open-door policy, which allowed any students to observe their peers’ lessons. She didn’t realize until they told her, months later, but the two students had taken turns observing her lessons — quietly watching over her in fear that VerMeulen might soon “target” Crago. “He made my skin crawl,” she told *The Barbed Wire*. Still, the committee concluded that the additional harassment complaints involved “the general teaching style of Mr. VerMeulen which cannot be viewed as a specific discrimination.” VerMeulen returned to Shepherd in the fall of 1999. ## ‘They Fear Retribution’ “That laissez-faire attitude allowed very prominent male teachers to create their own reality. And the administration went along with it, which is the case with Bill VerMeulen,” said Julie Landsman, former principal horn player at the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and current faculty at USC’s Thornton School of Music. “They wanted to let Bill do his thing. He attracted students, and the administrators were all about attracting students and letting the teachers with power have as much power as they could take.” For years, the most prominent horn players in the country came through one of two studios: VerMeulen’s or Landsman’s. Landsman spent three decades at Juilliard, and she taught at Shepherd from 1982to 1985\. The two instructors rarely crossed paths, she said, but often disagreed with each other’s pedagogy from afar. Landsman particularly disliked the “hero-worshiping, macho culture” that VerMeulen cultivated in his studio, often at the expense of his female students’ well-being, she told *The Barbed Wire*. In August 2022, Landsman scheduled a phone call with Matthew Loden, Shepherd’s dean. Landsman and Loden had known each other for years, she said, meeting previously at a classical music festival and again at the Philadelphia Orchestra. At the time, Loden was new to the job at Rice — he was named in 2021 — and Landsman said she reached out to Loden on a related issue in VerMeulen’s horn studio. Among the topics discussed was the “toxic” culture, which it seemed that Loden already knew about, said Landsman. “Oh, yes, I'm aware that Bill has a history. He is on a short leash,” Landsman remembers Loden saying. In a statement to *The Barbed Wire*, Loden confirmed that the two spoke on the phone about VerMeulen in 2022 but said he did not remember specific wording. “Because we take all allegations of misconduct seriously, I notified the Title IX office and they initiated a review process in accordance with our policies,” Loden said Monday. “At that time, we did not have sufficient information to take immediate or specific action.” Before his retirement, *The Barbed Wire* found that Rice and its Title IX office were informed through the complaint and lawsuit in 1997, a Title IX case in the late 2010s, and through Loden — via Landsman — in 2022. Attorney Cari Simon, who has represented sexual assault survivors in university and K-12 settings, told *The Barbed Wire* that “Title IX’s mandate (is) that a school stop sexual harassment and prevent its reoccurrence.” In an interview during which *The Barbed Wire* provided Simon with the contours of the reporting for this story, the attorney said, “To the extent that there’s been a pattern and you’re seeing that pattern, why aren’t you addressing the pattern?” According to other emails obtained by *The Barbed Wire*, Rice retained an outside law firm after VerMeulen’s 2024 retirement to investigate the allegations against him. They contacted Potts with a list of questions about her time at Rice, emails show, and reached out to at least three other people with knowledge of VerMeulen’s alleged misconduct. Neither Potts, nor the three other people, have heard from the university in months. Rice would not comment on the existence or status of any pending investigations. ## The Captain Some call the French horn a weapon of war. The 12-foot-long child of the sonorous brass family is one of the loudest instruments in an orchestra. It demands a certain brawn — and lung capacity — from its user. Because of that, the brass music scene, which includes trumpets, tubas, and trombones, is often a hyper-masculine one: more akin to a “boys’ club,” said trombonist Abbie Conant. In the studio, the instructor is tantamount to God. Many professional players start young, first picking up their instrument in early childhood. As they grow up, their art demands more hours, more energy. Young musicians learn to place their faith, sometimes blindly, in an all-knowing instructor who promises success. These powerful figures often go unbridled by their institutions — several music veterans and students told *The Barbed Wire* — granted free rein over their students, studios, and symphonies. Conductors and principal players often wield the most power in the highly competitive music world, where there isn’t enough orchestra demand to match the supply of talent. Cutthroat audition processes — the “orchestral Olympics,” a current hornist called them — tend to favor those who curry favor among music’s most-celebrated elite: just like William VerMeulen. VerMeulen grew up in a musical household, learning the ropes from his cellist mother, he told [*The Houston Chronicle*](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/entertainment/theater/article/unsung-heroes-of-the-houston-symphony-4100486.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in 2012. As a teenager, he studied horn at Michigan’s Interlochen Arts Academy, a world-renowned boarding school and training program for burgeoning artists. As a freshman at Northwestern University, VerMeulen won a spot in the Kansas City Symphony. It was his first-ever audition, he said in a 1984 interview with *The Horn Call*, the International Horn Society’s biannual journal, music blog [*Horn Matters*](https://www.hornmatters.com/2024/06/on-the-topic-of-a-horn-guru/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)reported in June 2024. Four years later, VerMeulen was on his third professional job, principal horn player at the Honolulu Symphony. The principal slots, or the section leaders of each instrument, are some of the most coveted positions in an orchestra, earned through years of ceaseless training and stiff competition. By all accounts, VerMeulen seemed somewhat of a young prodigy: Peers his age were still training in their undergraduate studios. The Shepherd School of Music, established in 1974, was still recruiting new talent to prove itself as a nationally ranked music school by the late ’80s and early ’90s. Then came VerMeulen, barely 30 years old and already with plenty of accolades under his belt. Hired in 1990, he spent the next 34 years at Rice drawing auditions from bright-eyed horn players across the country. His students won coveted orchestra roles, and his success rates were high — 90% according to *The Horn Call*. Over time, his reputation started to precede him: Dominic Rotella, principal horn of the Richmond Symphony, recalls knowing VerMeulen as a “hot shot teacher” before they met in the summer of 2005. The door to VerMeulen’s studio was covered in yellow index cards, each detailing employment offers that his students had received over the decades. By 2021, he had amassed 515 offers, according to a post VerMeulen made on Facebook that year. Emblazoned across the door in capitalized cobalt letters: “The Few. The Proud. The Employed.” For many aspiring musicians, a career path is clear: Start young. Train hard, and for many years. Audition at a studio to receive even more training. Then, audition for coveted — and ultra-competitive — orchestra seats. For this path, it seemed like VerMeulen’s studio was the place to be. He had a unique formula for winning orchestral auditions, according to a former student from the ’90s: a training program that taught students how to play under extreme pressure, how to hide their weaknesses and display their strengths. At Rice, “he *was* the (brass) program, in so many ways,” said Corin Droullard, who earned his master’s in 2019 under VerMeulen. VerMeulen’s studio housed his “Crew,” the nickname he developed for his studio members. *Immer crewdom*, he would often write on his Facebook. Always the crew. Over time, this rhetoric gave way to a studio so tight-knit it bordered on cult-ish, six former students say. Steering the ship: the “Captain,” a title VerMeulen embraced with enthusiasm. It was on posters for his recital; it was engraved into his whiskey bottles. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/hornspotillo.png) “It was a boys’ club, sort of a Bill fanboy environment in the studio,” Droullard said. “There’s this sort of like demigod figure who walks in and commands the respect of the room. … It’s interesting talking to people afterwards, because I thought that everyone bought in. I thought they were all on board (with) this ‘Bill effect.’ “He didn’t feel like a professor,” said Droullard. “There was this otherness.” Many grew loyal to VerMeulen, and for good reason. He delivered on his promises to advance their careers. In an Houston audition described in a 2015 article in *The Horn Call,* the partition separating the candidates from the hiring committee dropped to reveal that all five finalists were VerMeulen’s students. VerMeulen “recused himself because he was so invested in each candidate’s success.” VerMeulen’s defenders dismissed critiques of his style as jealousy. “It should be noted that VerMeulen has his detractors despite (or because of!) his success,” *The Horn Call* published that same year. “There are those who intimate that his teaching is borderline cultism, tantamount to brainwashing. I asked him about these allegations and he good-humoredly acknowledged that he was certainly aware of them. No, he laughed, he does not call students at 4 am and demand they play Shostakovich!” Even now, VerMeulen remains a beloved figure to some in the industry. In a [May 2024](https://slippedisc.com/2024/05/exclusive-a-case-of-revenge-porn/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) story, classical music site *Slipped Disc* portrayed VerMeulen as a victim of revenge porn. And a recent graduate of Shepherd’s horn studio said VerMeulen was an incredible instructor who paved the path for every student who has graduated in recent years. For her part, Meeroff estimates that over half the industry still remains supportive of him. Several former students expressed apprehension about speaking to *The Barbed Wire* on the record, saying they were conflicted about their former professor because he had given them so much. “I show my resume, and I don’t have to take auditions to get into recording gigs and (substitute) lists,” Droullard said. “Rice is an insanely powerful tool, and it 100% made me a better musician.” VerMeulen’s page on the Houston Symphony website claims he is “one of today’s superstars of the international brass scene” and is “one of the most influential horn teachers of all time,” whose students have received 250 positions of employment at orchestras in New York, Boston, Montreal, Toronto, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Israel. Still, one former student, who trained at Shepherd’s horn studio in the ’90s, remembered his professor as a volatile man, often marked by a temper, a deep conviction in his own talents, and a self-assurance so strong he was almost capable of “creating his own reality.” In the studio, Rotella — the principal horn of the Richmond Symphony — describes a tenuous balance between VerMeulen’s adept talents and “boorish” personality. Two current Shepherd professors, one former colleague, and one former student all describe him as an outright “bully.” Nine horn players who studied with VerMeulen said cruelty was a cornerstone of his instruction. “The music industry can be tough love,” one former student said. “Bill was definitely the toughest.” “He sort of appears to have self-styled himself as the ‘horn guru,’” said violinist Lara St. John. St. John is also a gender equity activist and describes herself as an “unofficial spokesperson of this music #MeToo movement.” Though St. John never attended Shepherd or studied with VerMeulen, she said his reputation of alleged sexual misconduct was widely known across the horn world. “People bought into that (horn guru attitude), it seems,” St. John said. “And what’s really disgusting is, so did Rice. So did the Shepherd School.” ## ‘He Was the Victim’ The first movement of Johannes Brahms’ Symphony No. 2 features a horn solo, which is often taught in VerMeulen’s studio. The solo starts off unassuming, just a whisper — pianissimo, very softly — as the pace quickens, unfolding into a soaring crescendo. Stringendo, the sheet music instructs: Tempo should quicken to a climax. Rebekah Daley joined Shepherd in 2010\. In his lessons with her, VerMeulen described these bars as the build-up to an orgasm, Daley told *The Barbed Wire*. A passage with dulcet tones: vaginal lubrication, he said. Articulating a short, staccato note through the instrument’s mouthpiece: “spitting a cunt hair” out of your teeth. “Any way that he could fit sex in, he would,” Daley said. The grievance committee detailed VerMeulen’s penchant for using sexual metaphors in class in its 1998 report, even using the Brahms example specifically, noting that it “probably has genuine music validity and apparently is a well-known interpretation of the piece.” Another example the committee learned about — comparing lip and mouth positions while playing the horn to a “blow job” — “obviously has no validity,” the committee wrote. Though the committee found at least one student had been embarrassed by VerMeulen’s “sexually-explicit language,” it also said that “it was clear to us that Mr. VerMeulen has been undergoing a learning process, recognizing that language and conversation styles appropriate for his professional orchestra friends are not appropriate for the classroom.” Yet, for decades afterwards, *The Barbed Wire* found that at least eight students continued to witness inappropriate, explicitly sexual metaphors employed in his instruction. *The Barbed Wire* reviewed more than 20 hours of one-on-one lessons recorded by a former student in the late 2000s through 2010. In an early 2010 lesson, VerMeulen said “I was about to kiss you for how gorgeous you sounded right here” after the former student played a verse. Several months later, he was discussing his finances mid-lesson — “I mean, I make a ton of money” — before saying to her: “I take you (students) out all the time. I haven’t taken you out in a while.” In another, he asks the student about the meaning of a German title of a musical piece — which translates to “maiden in the bridal chamber” — and says: “Before or after the wedding? I’m just trying to get my motivation.” > “People would say, ‘What the fuck are you doing, going to Rice and studying with him?’” Later, in an interview with *The Barbed Wire*, the student said re-listening to the audio made her “uncomfortable.” In the moment, she remembered deflecting the conversation to talk about his family. “I wanted to start recording my lessons because if anything made me uncomfortable, I wanted to be recording,” she said, “in order to have that protection.” In another recorded lesson from 2010, the student is audibly stifling tears after an hour of sharp reviews. “You know I think you’re wonderful, right?” VerMeulen asks, saying he will take her to lunch “to be nice.” Hannah\*, who spoke to *The Barbed Wire* on the condition of anonymity out of fear of professional retaliation, joined Rice’s horn studio in the late 2000s for her master’s degree. She remembers the “vaginal lubrication” metaphor used often, and vividly, in her lessons. VerMeulen’s harsh criticism — “forceful and domineering,” as the 1997 report said — was often intertwined with overt sexualization and dirty jokes. She said many horn students, both Rice and Houston-based, would often sit in on her lessons, in line with VerMeulen’s open-door policy. After one such lesson ended, she remembered being pulled aside by a local freelancer who had observed her session. “The man asked me, like, ‘Are you OK? That was the filthiest lesson I’ve ever witnessed.’” Hannah doesn’t remember what VerMeulen had said to her that day. “It was just normal. The only thing that stuck with me was that this freelancer asked me about it after, because it kind of broke the spell for me,” she said. In early 2017, VerMeulen — then 56 years old — was in a relationship with a graduate student and the original recipient of the private photos mentioned in Rice’s announcement of his retirement. She wasn’t a horn player and didn’t study directly under VerMeulen. But her close friend, Lindsay\*, confirmed to *The Barbed Wire* that the relationship started when she was a graduate student at the Shepherd School. Lindsay spoke to *The Barbed Wire* about her experience with VerMeulen on the condition of anonymity out of fear of professional retaliation. “He absolutely abused his position of power,” she said, “and I think that he knowingly engaged in an inappropriate relationship.” A few months after that relationship ended, in 2017, VerMeulen was visiting Lindsay’s school to teach masterclasses. The two got coffee and, despite her attempts to keep conversation neutral, he quickly pivoted to discussing the relationship with Lindsay’s friend. “He did not seem remorseful at all” (about the relationship), she told *The Barbed Wire.* “He seemed to feel, in a lot of ways, that he was the victim.” Lindsay said he spoke disparagingly about the #MeToo movement, which had just started to reach its zenith: “He felt the whole thing had been blown out of proportion because of the #MeToo movement. Not because it was an inappropriate relationship, but because of the culture that was happening.” Thirty minutes later, she returned to campus with one thought in her mind: *This is the worst person I know.* VerMeulen’s attorney claimed that a Title IX investigation by Rice over the photos yielded no findings of wrongdoing by VerMeulen. (Rice would not comment on specific Title IX investigations related to VerMeulen during his tenure.) Rice did not have an official policy prohibiting student-teacher sexual relationships in 2017. It wasn’t until two years later, in September 2019, when Rice instituted a [new policy](https://policy.rice.edu/829?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that sexual or romantic relationships between graduate students and teachers with “direct or indirect professional or supervisory responsibility” are prohibited. For undergraduate students, relationships “are prohibited, regardless of current or future professional responsibility over such students.” ## He Kissed Her. It Was Unwanted. When Rebekah Daley joined Shepherd in 2010, she had heard rumors about VerMeulen’s history of sleeping with students and was familiar with VerMeulen’s reputation for sexual misbehavior — calling it one of the industry’s “poorly kept secrets.” But at the end of the day, VerMeulen was good at what he did. His career spanned decades and continents; his students won coveted spots in orchestras. So Daley walked into his studio, braced for what may come. “It was known that (VerMeulen) broke as many as he made,” Corin Droullard contends. “I had heard, ‘If you’re a girl, don’t go to Rice.’” Sarah\*, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of professional retaliation, said the thought of auditioning at Shepherd never crossed her mind as a young musician. Around 2005, her high school teacher had steered her away from the horn studio — and she believed it was because of VerMeulen’s reputation with female students. “When this sort of behavior is considered acceptable by an institution, it hurts women. It hurts our chances at success in these really small ways that add up,” she said. “I was successful without Bill’s tutelage. But I always wonder, if I had been a student, what would it have afforded me?” Daley, who stayed long enough to finish her degree, tried her best to grit her way through. VerMeulen’s lessons, she said, were draped in sexual overtones; his gaze, when not on his music, was often fixated elsewhere. “You could just tell when he was attracted to students,” Daley said. “It was very obvious, like when he was seeing them as a sexual object.” When she was 22 years old, her drink of choice was a Belgian tripel. VerMeulen often bought them for her, she said, just before his semi-frequent “crew parties” at his house. “He did these grooming behaviors (that) are so effective,” Daley said. “This is a very, very busy man. And he made a special trip, to a special store, just to get me the beer that I like.” Most of the horn studio attended the parties, eight former students told *The Barbed Wire*. Crew parties were often incomplete without the communal Captain’s punch, a brew of VerMeulen’s own making. It was typically a giant picnic cooler filled with a few types of rum and juice; “it really sneaks up on you,” one former student remembered. Adults were scarce at these parties, Daley said. “There was a lot of alcohol, a lot of underage drinking in his presence,” said Jeffrey Rogers, who attended Shepherd for his undergraduate degree from 1994-1999\. “We used to get completely wasted and he’d make us play through pieces.” “In hindsight, the thing that sticks in my mind the most is that the level of drunkenness was extreme,” said Hannah, who studied with VerMeulen in the late 2000s. She departed the studio after winning a short-lived job in an orchestra several cities away, though would sometimes return to Houston — common for many of VerMeulen’s former students — to take private lessons before important auditions. During one such visit, Hannah found herself in Houston just in time for a notorious crew party. Toward the end of the night, she said VerMeulen drunkenly pulled her aside. He often got “extraordinarily drunk, as drunk as (the students) did,” she remembers. Hannah’s memory is blurry from the alcohol, she said — she, too, had partaken in VerMeulen’s remarkably strong punch — but she remembered two things: He kissed her. It was unwanted. “I just was like, ‘Ew, gross. What the fuck was that?’” she said. She didn’t speak of that night for years afterward, she told *The Barbed Wire*. Not until she started hearing about other allegations against him, “It didn’t bother me until I heard all of this other stuff coming out,” she said, “and then I saw it as part of a larger pattern, rather than just this drunken moment.” Rachel\*, who studied with VerMeulen in the late 2000s — and similarly requested anonymity, fearing professional retribution — said her time at Shepherd was similarly marked by overly sexual jokes and flirtatious remarks, leaving her uncomfortable and often frozen. “I love a woman with a good bottom,” she remembered him commenting in group chamber coaching, chuckling at the double entendre; she had just played a deep, low note at the bottom of her range. At least four or five times, she remembers VerMeulen complimenting her body, saying she looked great in a bikini. Sometimes it was during private lessons, other times at his house during the studio’s crew parties, where he often encouraged students to use his hot tub, she said. She additionally remembers him being “discouraging” of her relationships at the time. She didn’t know it at the moment, she said, but looking back, she said she has since realized his jokes and comments were an invitation to have “some sort of a flirtatious, romantic, sexual relationship with him.” “He gradually throws in little comments that are too sexual to see how you’ll tolerate it,” she added. “They just keep getting more and more and more sexual and more inappropriate until you’re just in a pot of boiling water, and you don’t realize it.” Rebekah Daley’s time at Shepherd was draining, she remembered. Too much of her energy — energy that she believes should have been spent honing her instrument — was instead directed toward protecting herself. “I think it would be really interesting to go to school and assume that the teacher is there trying to teach you, and trying to do his best by you,” Daley said. “But I always knew that that was not going to be the reality for me.” Daley has kept close contact with several of her peers from Shepherd, many of whom grappled with similar behavior in VerMeulen’s studio. “I think that no one has a lot of trust in Rice.” “And what about you?” *The Barbed Wire* asked. “Absolutely not. None.” \* *Editor's note: Some names have been changed for people who spoke to* The Barbed Wire *on the condition of anonymity out of fear of professional retaliation.* *This story was fact checked by Leslie Rangel. Copy editing by Brian Gaar. Editing by Cara Kelly and Olivia Messer. Additional support by The Barbed Wire’s art team and by Candace Henry and Billy Begala.* ### Meet the Firefighter & ‘Texas Girl’ Who Presented Beyoncé with Album of the Year at the Grammys URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/firefighter-beyonce-grammys/ Last updated: 2025-02-04T06:01:00.000Z Over the course of her 35-year-career, Beyoncé has continually raised the bar. She’s [changed the way artists release their music](https://soundiiz.com/blog/the-day-beyonce-changed-the-rules-of-music-streaming/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [revolutionized the album format](https://time.com/6961069/beyonce-music-industry/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and defied [the confines of genres](https://www.vanityfair.com/style/story/beyonce-best-country-album-win-at-the-grammys-2025?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to produce work that has received a whopping [99 Grammy nominations](https://www.grammy.com/artists/beyonce-knowles/12474?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — the most of any artist in Grammy history. In the industry, she is virtually peerless. But for the last decade, despite the undeniable impact of LPs like *Lemonade* and *Renaissance*, the most-coveted award of the evening continued to elude her. Until Sunday night. Sunday, *Cowboy Carter* — Beyoncé’s genre-bending thesis on country, Americana, and roots music — broke through the noise and won Album of the Year, sending the audience into wild cheers and a standing ovation. Up on stage, it was Los Angeles County Fire Department PIO Captain [Sheila Kelliher Berkoh](https://fire.lacounty.gov/lacofds-first-female-pio-captain-sheila-kelliher/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) who had the honor of reading out the winner. And as she opened up the envelope, she gasped, clutching it to her chest as she called out the name. It played out like something straight from a movie, down to the dramatic pause before she announced *“Cowboy Carter”* to a room full of applause. In [that moment,](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEyGYjlzbA0&t=20s&ref=thebarbedwire.com) it seemed like Kelliher Berkoh had been waiting — just like the rest of us — for the Recording Academy to finally give Beyoncé her due. *The Barbed Wire* spoke with Captain Kelliher Berkoh about her memorable reaction, *Cowboy Carter*, and her time at the Grammy Awards. **Before we get to the big moment from Sunday night, can you tell me a little bit about your career with the LA County Fire Department, and what your work has looked like this year?** This is my 25th year with the department. I started in 2000, and I’ve been in the field for most of my career, but this has been a crazy month. I was there the day the fires started in the Palisades. Because the winds were unusually strong, I was already in position, so when the fire did pop up, just on the other side of the hill, I saw it had a huge potential for growth. I don’t think I had a day off for 26 days after that. I was managing not only our local news, but our international news, national news, handling media requests and also requests from people who wanted to support us and donate. It was my Super Bowl, honestly, just making sure I could give everybody the most up-to-date information because it was incredibly dynamic. We had 300-foot flame lengths and ember casts the size of baseballs. Witnessing that devastation in real time is just hard to put into words. **You mentioned that you’re a Texas girl, what’s your connection to the state?** I've moved around a lot. I was born in Las Vegas, then my family moved to Hawaii, and then Omaha, Nebraska for quite a while. Then I started school at Oklahoma State University, and my parents moved to Texas, so I wound up transferring to Texas A&M to study speech communication. **When did you find out that the LA County Firefighters were going to be a part of the Grammy Awards?** It was on day four or five of the fires, when it was just madness that a retired firefighter from LA County told me that their neighbor was one of the producers for the show. He touched base with me and asked if we might want to be a part of something honoring the firefighters, and I said yes, but at the time, I don’t think it actually registered. It wasn’t until later, when I had a chance to process that I realized, “Oh my gosh, we’re doing the Grammys for real.” Maybe a week or two out, we realized that we would be presenting, and we were like, “Wait, really?” **It seems like you were really excited about the opportunity. Have you always been a big music fan?** Because my family moved around so much, it could be kind of lonely. I mean, back then, you couldn’t FaceTime or text your friends. My family also didn’t have a lot, but what I always had was music. So the Grammys have always been my favorite award show, and I feel like I walked in very aware of all of the artists because I have 14-year-old twins, and we play DJ in the car. That’s what me and my brothers did when we were kids with our little 45 records, and now I get to see the world through my kids’ eyes as well. I ask for their top five songs, and then I get to share mine, too. **Did you have any thoughts going into last night about who you thought should win?** The idea of winning is so obscure when it comes to art, because everyone is so incredible and so different, but I was excited for Beyoncé because I love the genre-breaking she did. I think she even said last night, “genre is a codeword to keep artists in their place.” **Aside from presenting, what was the biggest highlight of the night?** There was just such a concentration of talent in the room last night. Janelle Monáe was just wow, Benson Boone reminded me of a modern-day Freddy Mercury, and Chappell Roan — her performance was just off the charts. We got to see Queen Latifah and Bruno Mars, and Gloria Estefan wanted us all to gather around and take photos. Everyone was just so gracious, and it was just so amazing because normally, we do our work in the dark. For 25 years, I’ve worked all night long in some of the busiest areas and put out fires that no one would ever see or know about. That’s what we signed up for, and I love doing it. But it was incredibly emotional to feel that gratitude from people. **Now, onto the woman of the hour. Would you consider yourself a Beyoncé fan?** I love her, and I love listening to her music. I was partying in the club to Destiny’s Child and watching her career since then — I’ve just been a huge fan. Whoever would have won, I would’ve been super pumped, you know, I love Andre 3000, but I just was thinking, “God, I hope she gets it.” **What resonated with you about *Cowboy Carter* specifically?** There were some really beautiful messages in it, and I guess it struck a chord. One of my brothers went to the University of Houston, and because Texas A&M wasn’t far, we would go visit him all the time. I had a lot of fun there, and I was always so struck by it because it’s a big-time city, but it’s country, too. It’s Texas. So when you watch Beyoncé do her usual thing, you’re like, “Yes ma’am, you do that better than anybody else.” But with (Cowboy Carter), it was like, “Absolutely! You should be flying that country flag, because you’re part of the fabric of what Texas is.” It’s such a melting pot of people, so it didn’t strike me as odd at all that she wanted to go that direction. Like, those are your roots, girl. I think that was just the overriding feeling I had going in it. I was just proud of that. **Do you have a favorite song from the album?** Of course. I love “Texas Hold ‘Em.” It’s an earworm that never gets old, but “II Most Wanted” is my favorite. **Do you remember what was going through your mind as you were opening up the envelope?** Oh yeah. This was just a fleeting thought, but for a second, I was thinking, “Well, she won country album of the year, are they going to double up? I don’t know.” I wasn’t sure if she would snag it, so when I saw it there, I was so excited. I was just thinking, “What?” And when I read it, my brain was moving so fast, I messed up the name, and Carter came out first. **I think it just highlighted the intensity and excitement of the moment.** I know, I just thought to myself, “Really, girl?” \[*Laughs*\] But really, I was truly so, so happy for her. When she came up on stage, she came over, and I gave her a hug and told her, “I’m a Texas girl, and I couldn’t be happier for you. This is so well-deserved.” She was super generous and looked me in the eye and said, “Thank you so much.” And backstage, she was equally as gracious, and her daughter was adorable as well. They were amazing and so, so sweet. They took pictures with us and were so gracious, I thought that was so kind. **It feels like people have been waiting for this moment for so long, and even in her speech Beyoncé said, “It’s been many, many years,” of her journey, and closed it out by saying she hopes we keep pushing forward and opening doors. How did that hit you being there?** I mean, on a personal level, when I was hired, I believe I was only the 15th female in our fire department’s history, and I think there were only seven of us out in the field working. There are over 3000 uniformed firefighters (in the LACFD), so I’ve always been less than 1% of the population in my job, and not only did I survive, but I thrived, and I proved myself. I’m not bragging, that’s just context, because in this day, you have people whining about diversity and inclusion, and this is what it actually looks like. It’s not a scary thing. I’m not here because the standards were lowered, on the contrary: the standards were the exact same, and I had to prove myself 10 times over than my male counterparts. So I think on a beautiful, subtle note, that’s what her album, and the awards last night showed: We’re all out here trying, and working hard, and there are people who are not given opportunity who should be — because they bring something incredibly valuable to the table. So I love that that was on display throughout all of the Grammys. ### Thousands Protest Trump’s ICE Raids as Texas Empowers National Guard to Act as Immigration Officials URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/thousands-protest-trumps-ice-raids-as-texas-empowers-national-guard-to-act-as-immigration-officials/ Last updated: 2025-02-03T21:24:27.000Z For thousands of people across the state, Monday — dubbed “a Day Without Immigrants” — topped off a weekend of protests against Trump’s [racist](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/its-going-to-be-a-rude-awakening-how-immigrant-aid-groups-are-preparing-for-trumps-crackdown/) [immigration crackdown](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-is-now-at-the-heart-of-trumps-immigration-raids/). [Dallas](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/2025/02/02/protesters-to-gather-at-dallas-city-hall-today-to-rally-against-immigration-crackdown/?outputType=amp&ref=thebarbedwire.com), [Houston](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/trending/article/immigration-protests-trump-20136075.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [Pflugerville](https://www.kvue.com/article/news/local/pflugerville-texas-ice-facility-protests/269-439fcaf4-28eb-4a30-b88e-388f6ed9603f?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [McAllen](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DFlyAnBO2xI/?utm%5Fsource=ig%5Fweb%5Fcopy%5Flink&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==), and even deep [East Texas](https://www.cbs19.tv/article/news/local/we-are-people-peaceful-protests-organized-in-lufkin-combat-ice-raids-in-east-texas/501-b9e6bd51-96fe-41da-bfe9-a3e19d1a4779?ref=thebarbedwire.com) saw hundreds of people marching and waving flags from a variety of Latin American countries as a sign of solidarity with immigrants. In addition to marches, Monday’s “Day Without Immigrants” encourages people to stay home from work and school and to avoid shopping. The goal, as Central Texas business [Vaquero Taquero wrote](https://www.instagram.com/p/DFmZL-PO-Ul/?utm%5Fsource=ig%5Fweb%5Fcopy%5Flink&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==) on Instagram, is to “let it be known that our parents, grandparents, and ancestors came to this land for opportunity” and to encourage people to reflect on how immigrants sustain the American economy. Gabriela’s Group, which has multiple businesses in Austin and Houston, announced their closure on [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/p/DFnlxO4uf4Q/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Meanwhile, in San Antonio, Karolina’s Antiques, La Cafetera Coffee Co., and Boom Boom Cleaners all announced their participation as well, according to [*MySanAntonio*](https://www.mysanantonio.com/business/article/san-antonio-day-without-immigrants-strike-20136241.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). In the Rio Grande Valley, lifestyle brand JZD wrote about their participation and [posted on Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/p/DFmQ86uRxJL/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), “No one is illegal on stolen land.” In Dallas, boudoir photographer [CinPhotos](https://www.instagram.com/p/DFnmnoNOEYh/?utm%5Fsource=ig%5Fweb%5Fcopy%5Flink&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==) shared a personal story about Monday’s protests. “I was six months old when my mom escaped an abusive relationship & brought me to the US seeking medical care,” she wrote. “People will scream to ‘do it the right way,’ but thirty years later, there is still no pathway to citizenship for most folks who simply want to provide for their families and live in peace.” “Don’t ever let them convince you that your impact doesn’t matter, because if it didn’t, they wouldn’t be trying so hard to keep us down. 🇲🇽✊🏼” [CinPhotos](https://www.instagram.com/cinphotos/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) wrote. Still, on the heels of these community movements, the Trump administration and Gov. Greg Abbott continued targeting immigrants. Abbott [posted](https://x.com/GregAbbott%5FTX/status/1886247738402021714?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on X late Sunday that “effective immediately” the Texas National Guard would be “granted the power of immigration officials to make immigration arrests.” ### Texas Knife Maker Goes Viral for Rejecting Nazi ‘Bullsh*t.’ It’s Not the First Time. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-knife-maker-goes-viral-for-rejecting-nazi-bullsht-its-not-the-first-time/ Last updated: 2025-02-03T19:58:22.000Z Texas bladesmith Johnathan Sibley was just minding his business at The Blade Bar in Edom — a tiny town between Tyler and Dallas — when a couple waltzed in with a request: Could he swap a Hitler Youth knife emblem onto another knife? Sibley’s response? A firm “No Nazi bullshit,” as he slid the knives back like an unwanted check at dinner. The woman, surprisingly chill about being denied her little fascist arts-and-crafts project, accepted the refusal. Sibley, ever the professional, even offered to “denazify shit” with a modern German forestry seal instead. No takers. Off they went. The exchange was captured on the shop’s Ring camera, and the video — posted on TikTok by Sibley’s wife Rhiannon with the caption “Some orders aren’t worth taking” — blew up, racking up more than 83,000 likes and 5,300 comments. https://www.tiktok.com/@djinndesigns/video/7463599301344742698 Those kinds of requests aren’t new, Rhiannon told *The Barbed Wire* via Facebook message, adding that they get them “more often than we would like.” “I would say at least a few a year,” she said. But the online response has been “incredible,” she said, with “so much support.” They’ve heard from “people sharing their stories, hearing how much it means to people is meaningful,” she said. “But hearing the ‘why’ behind it is powerful and a reminder of how important it is to continue to honor those who fought to put a stop to that atrocious time in our history.” For context, Hitler Youth knives were used in the 1930s to train kids into becoming full-fledged Nazis. Johnathan Sibley, 53, has been sharpening blades since he was 13, and has no interest in participating in the country’s apparently [renewed interest in Naziism](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/20/trump-elon-musk-salute?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “It shouldn't be worthy of the attention it's getting. It should be standard practice,” he [told *Chron.com*](https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/texas-knife-shop-nazi-tiktok-20135117.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “I thought we had an agreement on this shit 80 years ago.” https://www.instagram.com/p/DBB5jFozzZp/ Since going viral, Sibley’s anti-Nazi quotes — especially “no Nazi bullshit” — are now on T-shirts, tank tops, and even candles. His store’s [Etsy shop](https://www.etsy.com/shop/DjinnDesigns?ref=thebarbedwire.com) sold out so fast that Etsy itself locked the store. Rhiannon Sibley told *The Barbed Wire* that the responses they’ve gotten have “been at least 99% positive, but there have been a few haters.” “But if you are doing something with deep meaning, that is to be expected,” she said. “We have continued business as usual, we have a huge support system and we are keeping our focus on the positive.” ### Mo Season 2 Expertly Tells a ‘Real Story’ Through Laughter & Absurdity URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/mo-season-2-expertly-tells-a-real-story-through-laughter-absurdity/ Last updated: 2025-01-31T21:01:21.000Z As Americans, our unalienable rights enshrined in the Declaration of Independence include life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. If humor counts on that last point, Mo Amer is a true patriot. Through his show Mo, the second season of which premiered Thursday on Netflix, he’s made millions of viewers across the world laugh while also informing us about Palestinian history and culture — and the life of an immigrant in America. In Season 2 of Mo, the final installment of the Peabody Award-winning series, Mo Amer’s mixture of culturally relevant jokes and deep, heartfelt moments showcases the concept of humanity — who has it, who doesn’t, and at what cost? A society that does not recognize the humanity in others is doomed to fall. If a country lacks the sight to see the personhood of those seeking asylum within its borders, then who are we to cast judgment on those who risk their lives for entry? As the trailer advertises, the new season is about “life, liberty, and the pursuit of belonging,” but it’s portrayed through the absurdity and banality of life. These are undoubtedly heavy subjects for a semi-autobiographical comedy, but they’re tempered with clever dialogue, physical comedy, and moments that pull on a viewer’s heartstrings. The bickering between a mother and her daughter. The lamenting with a stranger over shared heartbreak. And for Texans, a day out at the Houston Rodeo. The series is all of these things and more, while making space for the reality that many people of the Palestinian Diaspora experience, like the guilt of enjoying a meal with loved ones in the Texas countryside as homes and schools in your homeland are being destroyed. Season 1 first aired in August 2022\. It was created by Ramy Youssef and Mo Amer, who stars as Mo Najjar, a Texas man who — with his family, came to the United States 20 years ago as a refugee from Palestine. It’s filmed on location in Houston, where Mo is desperately trying to become a citizen of the United States. It received a positive response among critics for its portrayal of the Palestinian experience in America — but also the rich vastness of Houston’s demographic makeup. The season left off with Mo stranded in Mexico, after his attempt to rescue stolen olive trees went awry. When Season 2 first opens, Mo has been stuck in Mexico for six months — and has participated in some of the country’s great traditions to make ends meet. He has a stint as a lucha libre wrestler, a musician in a mariachi band, and selling tacos (in his case, falafel tacos). In his down time, Mo keeps himself entertained with telenovelas and cooking sessions with Tia Rosa and Tia Luisa. (These are the aunts of Maria, Mo’s ex-girlfriend.) “It’s a real story that’s grounded, and it's about a family that’s going through it, and a guy that just can't get out of his own way, something we all go through,” Amer said Wednesday at a Houston screening attended by special guests like Dave Chappelle, Bun B, Astros Hall of Famer Jeff Bagwell, as well as the cast and crew. “This is a Palestinian family. It’s a Palestinian story, but it's not just for Palestinians. It's for everyone truly.” “The show does such a beautiful job of just giving you insight into what it is to be Palestinian in the diaspora, what it is to be an immigrant, what it is to be a refugee, and what it is to belong somewhere,” added Cherien Dabis, who plays Mo’s sister Nadia. After many failed attempts at acquiring a laissez passer, the diplomatic travel document needed for him to re-enter the United States, it appears to be that Mo will be stuck living out his days in Mexico. “You’re Mexican now,” says a ridiculously mustachioed Matt Rife. “Feliz cumpleaños.” Then, by God’s grace, one of his regular falafel tacos customers happens to be the wife of the Ambassador to the United States. She invites Mo to a dinner under the pretense of helping him obtain proper documentation, only for him to be subjected to intense fetishization and later a proposition for him to engage in a cuckold. Mo refuses both propositions and to his surprise, the Ambassador still helps Mo with a laissez passer — until the Ambassador asks them to cheer to the end of the conflict. There are two choices presented to Mo in this scene. The first is to cheers, in order to receive the proper documentation to make it back home for his family’s asylum hearing. The second is to refute the Ambassador with one word: occupation. His choice to go through with the latter option cost him the documentation he spent months working towards, but the reward was standing up for his people. Deportations [are](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/its-going-to-be-a-rude-awakening-how-immigrant-aid-groups-are-preparing-for-trumps-crackdown/) [increasing](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-is-now-at-the-heart-of-trumps-immigration-raids/) [by the day](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/immigration-attorneys-are-here-to-cut-through-the-chaos-of-trumps-racist-plans/). It appears that the nation is suffering from a loss of humanity. The president wants the Navy base [on Guantanamo Bay](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/29/us/politics/trump-migrants-guantanamo.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and its 30,000 beds, to house migrants. ICE raids are happening throughout the country. An [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/whitehouse/p/DFNUpM%5Fxo7S/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) post on the official White House account reads: “Just as he promised, President Trump is sending a strong message to the world: Those who enter the United States illegally will face serious consequences.” Humanity is null and void in the United States. A Netflix series, no matter how cleverly crafted, cannot undo all the harmful misconceptions Americans are grappling with at this time. Nor is it the responsibility of a series like Mo to take that on. Yet, Mo does a great job of demonstrating the costs of choosing humanity, even when many people around you do otherwise. When Mo makes the decision to illegally cross the border into the United States, audiences see the horrific, dangerous conditions when entering the country on foot. And there is no greater fear than seeing a white man with a gun pointed at you as you’re trying to find your way in. Mo experiences this firsthand when a group of armed white men capture and report him to authorities. While in custody, Mo hears stories from his fellow detainees about their experiences crossing the border. One detainee survived on juice out of a can of sausages. Another detainee simply meows like a cat, since he has lost the ability to verbalize his thoughts and emotions with words. There is a sense of hopelessness and isolation among people in the facility. To all of these heartbreaking moments, Mo brings a light with humor and laughter and joy. Over a game of basketball, Mo places a wager with a federal law enforcement official that he affectionately calls Jack. If he wins, the detainees get real food. Mo shoots the ball. It goes in the basket. He wins. Then he’s placed in a holding cell with another set of detainees, which reeks of various bodily fluids. (There is no toilet.) His stay is limited, and his lawyer was able to negotiate his release. But the impact of his experience there is profound. Once freed, Mo asks Jack about his incessant mistreatment of the detainees in custody. In response, Jack explains that his household situation requires him to maintain this profession or else his family will financially suffer. The show asks: Is the upkeep of your family worth the destruction of countless others? There are Americans who have never met a Palestinian. Instead, their understanding of the Palestinian experience is composed of decades-long misrepresentation and fetishization of Arab men and women. But the beauty of popular culture is that it has the ability to dictate who is seen as human — and to provide a window into the lives of those we don’t otherwise encounter in our increasingly fractured world. Mo grants Palestinians the right to be seen as human beings — smart, silly, enviable, funny, worthy of empathy — and encourages society to treat them as such. ### ‘It’s Going to Be a Rude Awakening’: How Immigrant Aid Groups Are Preparing for Trump’s Crackdown URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/its-going-to-be-a-rude-awakening-how-immigrant-aid-groups-are-preparing-for-trumps-crackdown/ Last updated: 2025-01-30T06:00:00.000Z Well, that didn’t take long. After running another campaign fueled by anti-immigrant rhetoric and racist fear-mongering, Donald Trump began his second term as president last week and promptly made good on his threats of an immigration crackdown. Just moments after being sworn in, the [CBP One app](https://apnews.com/article/trump-immigration-cbp-one-border-app-652854b5f2a4e6ccd6ee2ccc729cbb55?ref=thebarbedwire.com) went dark, leaving migrants along the border without a way to request asylum, and crushing the hopes of thousands who already had appointments. Then, in the midst of an executive order spree, he closed the southern border, reinstated the [disastrous](https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/new-report-documents-devastating-toll-of-court-ordered-reimplementation-of-remain-in-mexico/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) (and [dangerous](https://www.texastribune.org/2021/08/25/remain-in-mexico-supreme-court-ruling/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)) “Remain in Mexico” policy, and ended birthright citizenship — a move that’s already to drawn [more than 22 legal challenges](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/21/us/trump-birthright-citizenship.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), considering it’s a right that’s been guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution since 1868. Over the weekend, “enhanced targeted operations” [took place in](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-is-now-at-the-heart-of-trumps-immigration-raids/) Austin, San Antonio, Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, and the Rio Grande Valley. To be clear, Trump was already walking into a dumpster fire. For years, the U.S. immigration system has been… to put it mildly … an absolute clusterfuck. Thanks to years of prioritizing border enforcement rather than [funding for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-oig-dhs-gov/sites/default/files/assets/2024-07/oig-24-36-jul24.pdf), we’re just not equipped to meet rising numbers of asylum seekers and are faced with a [historic backlog](https://cis.org/Jacobs/Affirmative-Asylum-Backlog-Exceeds-One-Million-First-Time?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of more than one million cases and rising. > “It’s going to put an incredible strain on our communities.” [RAICES](https://www.raicestexas.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) processes thousands of immigration, asylum and refugee cases each year and has offices statewide, including in Dallas, according to its external affairs officer, Faisal Al-Juburi. Over the last eight years, Al-Juburi tells *The Barbed Wire* he’s seen the immigration system get progressively worse for those seeking asylum, as well as the immigration professionals attempting to help them — while both have been forced to grapple with a broken and overwhelmed system. “The U.S. spends [billions more](https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/the-cost-of-immigration-enforcement-and-border-security?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on border militarization, from CBP to ICE, to criminalize and incarcerate asylum seekers than they do on our immigration court system and USCIS,” Al-Juburi says. “They’ve done little to nothing to address the backlogs that have existed and that cause the system to buckle under pressure. I think that shows where our national values are at.” With Trump back in office, Al-Juburi isn’t hopeful there will be much progress in chipping away at a mountain of asylum cases. “Every day, there are civil servants out there trying to make a dent in it,” he says. “But now we’re in a scenario where it looks like things are only going to get worse. You want to be optimistic, but there’s no sign that any of these pain points will be alleviated, and instead, they’ll only be exacerbated.” Navigating these changes in Texas adds yet another complication for the lawyers at RAICES and other immigrant legal aid groups. Gov. Greg Abbott’s controversial approach to border enforcement, including the [costly](https://immigrationforum.org/article/operation-lone-star-texass-logistical-and-political-fireball/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [legally fraught](https://www.texastribune.org/2023/07/24/texas-border-rio-grande-floating-barrier-greg-abbott-lawsuit/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) “Operation Lone Star,” has earned Trump’s stamp of approval, with the president singling him out in his inauguration speech as a “leader of the pack.” Al-Juburi also points to Abbott-backed legislation, like [SB 4](https://www.keranews.org/texas-news/2024-01-03/u-s-department-of-justice-sues-texas-over-states-immigration-enforcement-bill?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which passed last year, categorizing “improper border entry” as a criminal offense, and allowing police to question and arrest *anyone* they believe entered into Texas illegally. The law does prohibit police from making arrests in public/private schools, churches and places of worship, and healthcare facilities, though this Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security announced they had rescinded Biden-era guidelines concerning “sensitive” areas. > “It’s not just fear, it’s the very real consequences of rhetoric and policies aimed at attacking a community that’s already vulnerable to exploitation and isn’t afforded many protections.” In a [statement](https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/01/21/statement-dhs-spokesperson-directives-expanding-law-enforcement-and-ending-abuse?ref=thebarbedwire.com), acting DHS Secretary Benjamine Huffman said, “Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest. The Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense.” “I think both Abbott and Trump stand to be emboldened by one another in terms of their dystopian vision of immigration in America,” Al-Juburi says. “It’s going to be a rude awakening for the American people with some of the disruptions we stand to see with the potential for ICE raids in schools, places of worship, or hospitals. It’s going to put an incredible strain on our communities.” In the Texas Legislature, [Workers Defense](https://workersdefense.org/en/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Action Fund Policy Director David Chincanchan says there are a number of concerning bills that have been filed since the start of the session earlier this month. Their members — Latine immigrant workers — are still reeling from the passage of SB 4, and bracing for what could be coming ahead during a second Trump presidency. “I think for a lot of us, the images of families being torn apart and children in cages are still burned in our brains,” Chincanchan says. (Notably, Trump appointed the [architect of the cruel and deeply unpopular](https://www.npr.org/2024/11/13/nx-s1-5188440/trump-names-the-architect-of-family-separation-as-new-border-czar?ref=thebarbedwire.com) family separation policy from his first term, Tom Homan, as his border czar.) “The terrorizing of immigration and Latino communities in general is something that we really felt during Trump’s last term. It’s not just fear, it’s the very real consequences of rhetoric and policies aimed at attacking a community that’s already vulnerable to exploitation and isn’t afforded many protections.” On WDP’s radar are [House Bill 1554](https://www.legis.state.tx.us/tlodocs/87R/billtext/html/HB01554F.HTM?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which seeks to target immigrant legal defense funds, as well as [HB 1491](https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/89R/billtext/html/HB01491I.htm?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which would require Texas counties to enter into [287(g) agreements](https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/287g-program-immigration?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to cooperate with ICE under the threat of denying state funds. But one of their biggest priorities is [HB 1310](https://legiscan.com/TX/text/HB1310/id/3027650?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which would require healthcare providers to ask for their patients’ immigration status to report the amount of funds spent on providing them healthcare. > "They want political theater — something that looks good to their base on TV.” “[Medical experts](https://phr.org/news/trump-ending-ice-sensitive-locations-policy-forces-immigrants-to-choose-between-health-care-and-safety-phr/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) have expressed concern that this would deter people from seeking necessary medical treatment because they’re afraid of the immigration consequences,” Chincanchan says. “We're doing our best to make it clear to everyone in the state that you know that they have a right to seek medical treatment, especially in the case of an emergency, regardless of immigration status. But you know, with all of the attacks on the immigrant community, that may not be enough to reassure folks.” The state of Texas is home to roughly five million immigrants, just a little more than three million of whom work here and make up [22% of the labor force](https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/news/research-texas-immigrant-workforce?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a figure Chincanchan points to in order to emphasize the ripple effect anti-immigrant policies will have. “If these laws go into effect, it will impact immigrants and undocumented immigrants most directly, but I think it's something that the entire state would feel.” In Eagle Pass, Amerika Garcia Grewal has been vocal about the deadly impact of these policies as they’ve played out in her community. Since 2014, the Center for Migration Studies has reported [a minimum of 5,405 people](https://cmsny.org/publications/jmhs-kerwin-martinez-101524/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=The%20International%20Organization%20for%20Migration,record%20high%20numbers%20since%202021.) who have died or gone missing along the border, with those figures at a record high since 2021\. The International Organization for Migration characterizes the U.S.-Mexico border as the world’s [“deadliest land migration route,”](https://www.iom.int/news/us-mexico-border-worlds-deadliest-migration-land-route?ref=thebarbedwire.com) a designation that the country has earned through a [“prevention through deterrence”](https://www.hsdl.org/c/view?docid=721845&ref=thebarbedwire.com) strategy dating back to the 1990s that’s made the crossing exceedingly dangerous. “When you force people to cross in areas that are more and more remote, they’re more likely to run into a dangerous situation, and less likely to get any help,” Garcia Grewal says. “Operation Lone Star has just made things more deadly, and more expensive by turning people away from the safer and legal ways to come into this country.” Garcia Grewal tells *The Barbed Wire* that the strategy is inefficient by design — a “spectacle” that’s cost more than 11 billion in taxpayer dollars. As a co-founder of the [Border Vigil](https://www.facebook.com/BorderVigil/) and member of the community organization [Eagle Pass Border Coalition](https://www.instagram.com/epbordercoalition/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), she’s seen the deadly consequences of Operation Lone Star up close, and she worries about how being endorsed by President Trump might make things worse — or lead other states to follow us. “If they really wanted to crack down on illegal immigration, they would start going after employers all over the big cities and start shutting them down,” she says. “But that’s not the kind of enforcement they want. They want political theater — something that looks good to their base on TV.” With a rise in migrant deaths, there’s also been an increase in efforts to identify [a growing backlog of unidentified bodies](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/migrant-deaths-border-arizona-desert-numbers-rcna182602?ref=thebarbedwire.com) (many of whom died from drowning or dehydration while crossing the border). Members of the Eagle Pass Border Coalition have begun receiving forensic fingerprint training, collecting information to provide to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System database in the hopes of potentially identifying them and reuniting their remains with their families or loved ones. “Unfortunately, Texas has become a [role model](https://immigrationforum.org/article/where-texas-goes-the-nation-follows-republican-controlled-state-legislatures-and-immigration-enforcement/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for inflammatory immigration laws,” she says, citing examples in [Kansas, Oklahoma](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/20/us/texas-immigration-republican-states.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and [Idaho](https://www.idahopress.com/news/local/house-committee-introduces-texas-style-immigration-bill/article%5F6b246180-d2a2-11ef-8a60-bf247d9d8615.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “Our anti-immigrant rhetoric is being exported across the country, and even across the world.” “It’s horrible, and we only anticipate seeing more of it,” says Garcia Grewal. ### Inside Texas Prisons, Women Smuggle Eyeshadow — and Risk Solitary — to ‘Feel Human’ URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/inside-texas-prisons-women-smuggle-eyeshadow-and-risk-solitary-to-feel-human/ Last updated: 2026-07-18T17:43:19.000Z *Editor’s note: Kwaneta Harris is an incarcerated journalist in Texas whose work is supported by* [*Empowerment Avenue*](https://www.empowermentave.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)*, an organization that seeks to increase and normalize the inclusion of incarcerated writers in mainstream publications.* On a hot day in the summer of 2024, the women’s prison visitation room had fewer than a dozen people in it. They’ve seldom been full in the 17 years I have lived in Texas prisons. I watched 24-year-old Muffy palm the golf ball-sized Saran Wrap into her waistband. When the guard answered the phone, Muffy — who wore a permanent smirk and fresh sneakers — maneuvered the ball inside her body. Though cell phones and drugs are the most smuggled contraband into men’s prisons, in women’s prisons, it’s eyeshadow. In Texas, the prison population houses teenagers as young as 16-and-a-half. These young women compete daily with each other to create the latest makeup trends they see in fashion magazines. It’s the women under 30 in here who get caught the most wearing smuggled-in eyeshadow. The largest consumers are my generation, though. I’m 52 years old. We Generation X and Boomers hoard cosmetics for family visits to recreate a look from a happier time. Nobody is wearing the good stuff like MAC or Fenty. It’s drugstore brands like Covergirl and L’Oreal for us. Only the nostalgia seekers pay triple the price for Wet N Wild, Max Factor, and Fashion Fair brands. Cosmetics were outlawed in New York [prisons](https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85058393/1920-12-25/ed-1/seq-1/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#date1=1789&index=0&rows=20&words=PRISONERS+ROUGE+WOMEN&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=&date2=1963&proxtext=women+prison+rouge&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1) until 1920 and Nebraska prisons until 1924\. In the United Kingdom, makeup was outlawed in prisons until 1946\. In French prisons, it was outlawed until 1972\. That year, according to [CNN](https://www.cnn.com/style/article/prisoners-makeup-pandemic/index.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), lipstick and powder were approved because “denying women the use of makeup may lead to personal neglect and psychological effects,” an American newspaper reported French authorities as saying at the time. In Texas, over a decade ago, my prison sold eyeshadow for a short time. Now, the prison store sells one type of $10 mascara and $5.25 eyeliner pencil. The three shades of lipstick for $8.50 that were in fashion during my grandmother’s time and $16 foundation for very fair skin. In Texas, they don’t want us wearing what they aren’t selling. Maryam Henderson-Uloho told [*The Cut*](https://www.thecut.com/article/makeup-beauty-products-in-prison-incarceration.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in August that, during her 12.5 years incarcerated, makeup was “color in a colorless world.” In a story [for CNN](https://www.cnn.com/style/article/prisoners-makeup-pandemic/index.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), 28-year-old Joyce Pequeno said in 2021: “It makes me feel good, like a real human being — not just a number.” In exchange for “favors” or profit-sharing, male prison staff are the common route for contraband makeup to enter the prison. For others, like Muffy, whose eyeshadow resembles a bifold door — the half closer to her nose a sparkly turquoise, the other side a bold fuchsia — the profit margins are too irresistible to share. A four-compartment CoverGirl eyeshadow costs $5.50\. Before arriving in prison, the visitor empties each compartment, crushes it, adds a “cut” like commercial glitter and crushed cheap eyeshadow. This is sold for $5\. A tiny Saran Wrap “sack” the size of half a pea. Lipstick is also sold for $5 for a pea-sized amount in Saran Wrap. These are then contained in a golf ball-sized Saran Wrap for transport in the prison. It takes three eyeshadow sacks and two lipstick sacks per single use application per day. This entire process is extremely risky. If caught, the visitor — or someone like Muffy — can face a misdemeanor charge for introducing contraband into a correctional facility. Muffy’s sentence could be lengthened. The young women wearing bright eyeshadow colors attract disciplinary infractions resulting in restrictions on phone, commissary, visitation, and recreation. Sometimes it is even solitary confinement or a parole denial. Prison administrators believe these are deterrents. “Prison isn't supposed to be comfortable,” is what they say. “It’s not the Ritz.” Makeup becomes our war paint, our armor, our rebellion behind these walls. Take Shaina, who has been locked up since she was barely more than a child. Twenty years later, at 34, she guards her contraband makeup collection worth $600 like it’s made of gold, keeping it hidden on her body. “I wear eyeshadow to feel better,” she confides during our late-night talks through a shared vent. “It makes the inside feel like the outside looks.” I understand her need to maintain that connection to normalcy, to beauty, even as depression threatens to swallow her whole. We realize makeup isn’t a priority. But the time wasted by the corrections staff to enforce rules that do nothing to stem the flow *is a priority*. They’re chronically understaffed by 40% in this prison, [according to *Texas Public Radio*](https://www.tpr.org/news/2024-10-01/report-staffing-crisis-in-texas-prisons-makes-staff-inmates-and-public-less-safe?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Working in buildings that reach 120° Fahrenheit during summers while wearing cumbersome equipment, they should be distributing ice water instead of handing out disciplinary infractions for wearing eyeshadow. Nunu’s story hits differently. At 26, this survivor of domestic violence has found an unexpected path to reclaiming her agency through makeup. She refuses to leave her cell without it, skipping meals, laundry, even work and school if she’s run out. After years of having every choice stripped away by an abusive partner, something as simple as choosing a lipstick shade has become her declaration of independence. It’s beautiful and heartbreaking how she’s discovering who she is within these confines. The lengths we go to maintain this small piece of freedom would seem absurd to outsiders. Mo’s story about the stuck mascara tube in her “purse” — our nickname for the vaginal cavity — circulated through the unit for weeks. It took three days and multiple helping hands before her lover finally retrieved it. Then, there’s Lisa, who forgot about her hidden makeup stash after taking her psychotropic meds, accused her roommate of theft, and nearly started a riot before discovering the source of her mysterious orange discharge. The eyeshadow was in her purse. Holidays transform our faces into canvasses of hope and defiance. With Valentine’s Day approaching, I already know what I’ll see: Red glitter hearts adorning eyelids, carefully crafted cat-eye arrows, and delicate “Be Mine” scripts traced above eyebrows. Without nail polish, we channel our creativity into these temporary masterpieces, each design a story of resilience. My own relationship with makeup has shifted dramatically since arriving here. Before prison, I was chained to “tasteful application” at every job, everyday, without fail for decades. Now, I wear it only for visits, my small act of rebellion. In 2017, the journalist Keri Blakinger wrote for [*Chron.com*](https://www.chron.com/local/gray-matters/article/Why-we-wore-makeup-in-prison-11252739.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that even the kind that resembled “circus makeup” was worth it when she was in prison. “It might have looked like a mishap to everyone else, but to us it looked an awful lot like a middle finger,” she said. Hell, I don’t even shave my legs anymore. While others spend hours perfecting their faces, viewing it as an investment in their humanity, I’ve chosen to reclaim those moments for sleep and reading; I’ve already given makeup enough of my time. Even when the state succeeds in making prison free of smuggled makeup, people find a way to create it. Stolen powdered ink from the prison industry print shop, crushed colored pencils, and baby powder are an unsafe, semipermanent stained eyelid alternative when eyeshadow isn’t available. We aren’t exempt to the pressure of cosmetic consumption, and we’ll find our own ways of participating. Prison is by design an environment of power and control, with a goal to erase individual identity, and until we have other ways to look good — and to feel good — the underground supply for makeup will keep flowing. *Correction: A previous version of this article misstated the type of charge that a person can face for introducing contraband into a correctional facility. It is either a Class B or Class C misdemeanor, not a felony.* The Barbed Wire *regrets the error.* ### Post-Roe Stats Keep Getting Worse: 6 Texas Children Under 12 Got Abortions Out of State in 2023 URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/post-roe-stats-keep-getting-worse-6-texas-children-under-12-got-abortions-out-of-state-in-2023/ Last updated: 2025-01-28T15:31:32.000Z Last week would have marked the 52nd anniversary of the Supreme Court’s landmark Roe v. Wade decision, which guaranteed the federal constitutional right to abortion — until it was overturned in 2022\. As data rolls in showing the detrimental effects of abortion bans like the one in Texas, the numbers only get more grim. One hundred Texas children received abortions in other states in 2023 — the first year after Texas’ ban of the procedure took effect — including six children under the age of twelve, the [*Houston Chronicle*](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/article/texas-abortion-ban-teens-20047622.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) reported on Monday. The numbers came via state data and are a nearly ninefold jump from figures five years earlier, though the newspaper reported that they only covered the first half of 2023 and were likely an undercount, as fears around prosecution have risen in the wake of the ban. Despite a lack of transparency from the state, news reports and academic research have emerged [showing the detrimental effects Texas’ abortion ban has had](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-true-cost-of-texas-abortion-ban-rising-deaths-abandoned-babies-fewer-doctors/) on women’s health — and the health of babies. Mothers are dying at increasing rates. Infants are dying and abandoned at increasing rates. STDs are surging, and doctors are fleeing. *The Barbed Wire* [pulled together available](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-true-cost-of-texas-abortion-ban-rising-deaths-abandoned-babies-fewer-doctors/) — and reliable — data, studies, lawsuits, patient complaints, and individual stories of women and infants who have been harmed by these laws. In December, the [*Houston Landing*](https://houstonlanding.org/texas-restrictive-abortion-law-sends-houston-teen-on-cross-country-odyssey-for-help/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) chronicled the arduous, cross-country journey some teens have made in order to end their pregnancies. A month earlier, [*ProPublica*](https://www.propublica.org/article/nevaeh-crain-death-texas-abortion-ban-emtala?ref=thebarbedwire.com) reported on the death of a teenager who was unable to get care when she encountered pregnancy complications. Children under the age of 17 cannot consent to sexual activity, per Texas law, but our state makes no exceptions for rape or incest. Despite this, doctors have said that children see more complications in pregnancy than adult women, including serious and high-risk conditions that endanger both their lives and the lives of infants, as well as girls’ ability to conceive later in life. “These are not just statistics,” state Rep. Mihaela Plesa, a Democrat from North Texas, told the *Chronicle* in an interview on Wednesday. “These are real stories about people who are having these traumatic experiences. It’s happened right here in my district in Plano. This isn't happening just in low socioeconomic areas or certain districts. This is happening all over our state.” Read more at [*Houston Chronicle*](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/article/texas-abortion-ban-teens-20047622.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). ### Elon Musk Admitted to Cheating at Video Games. Gamers Are ‘Aghast.’ Why Did He Do It? URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/elon-musk-admitted-to-cheating-at-video-games-gamers-are-aghast-why-did-he-do-it/ Last updated: 2025-01-28T10:00:00.000Z Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, has the president on speed dial. He could buy and sell you and me like action figures at a yard sale. He’s also obsessed with trying to impress gamers — and it just backfired spectacularly. This drama has been simmering for a while but hit full steam earlier this month when Musk, now a proud Texan, [livestreamed himself](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gxRyXsPoXI&ab%5Fchannel=MarianabZ&ref=thebarbedwire.com) playing the action role playing game “Path of Exile 2.” Despite the Tesla CEO’s attempts to show off, the livestream became a masterclass in how to blow up your gaming street cred faster than a SpaceX rocket. This is objectively hilarious because Musk, 53, has cast himself as a hardcore gamer for years; he’s professed his love for the [uber-tough “Elden Ring](https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1528576711209766914?ref=thebarbedwire.com),” and he’s crowed to Joe Rogan about [being a top-ranked player in “Diablo IV.”](https://kotaku.com/elon-musk-diablo-4-joe-rogan-trump-election-2024-1851690062?ref=thebarbedwire.com) The whole thing made headlines as news outlets like *The Guardian* and *The New York Times* reported that Elon [admitted to cheating](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/22/elon-musk-admits-cheating-at-video-games-chat-transcript-appears-to-show?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in “Path of Exile 2,” resulting in gamers [turning against him](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/26/technology/elon-musk-video-games-diablo-path-of-exile.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). So why is this a big deal? The short answer is that it’s not — except that it exposes Musk’s cherished identity of the uber nerd who made good and replaces it with something much less flattering: the rich poseur. Now, if you’re not familiar with these games, you simply need to know that they take a *lot* of playing time to acquire the best equipment. As in hundreds, even *thousands* of hours, especially at the rarefied levels that Musk claimed to be playing in. Gamers refer to it as “grinding,” and many were initially impressed with Musk’s braggadocio. “He could go anywhere and do anything and he has apparently chosen to spend an inordinate number of hours grinding for loot in ‘Diablo IV,’” [wrote *Kotaku*’s Ethan Gach](https://kotaku.com/elon-musk-diablo-4-joe-rogan-trump-election-2024-1851690062?ref=thebarbedwire.com). But people started wondering: did he *really*? Because, given all of Elon’s day jobs ([and 12 children](https://www.today.com/parents/parents/elon-musk-kids-rcna19692?ref=thebarbedwire.com)) and his [high-profile role](https://apnews.com/article/trump-inauguration-elon-musk-mars-tech-billionaires-70ad9d5f854fce40f44cdabbd8084734?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in the new Trump administration, it seemed implausible to many that he’d also have the time to put into playing these games at a high level. It turns out, he didn’t. Musk’s gamer cred came crashing down to Earth this month when he decided to show off his “Path of Exile 2” skills (such that they were). Many gamers noticed that he didn’t seem to be very comfortable playing the game, which was odd (to say the least) considering how well-geared and high-level his character was. To put it another way, it would be like a champion F1 driver having trouble backing out of the driveway. [Accusations of dishonesty ensued](https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/rs-gaming/elon-musk-cheating-gaming-diablo-iv-1235234041/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Finally, the YouTuber NikoWrex exposed the truth by [sharing his DMs with Musk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Y9sdqKop48&ref=thebarbedwire.com), who admitted to some shenanigans. In the messages, Musk copped to using account boosting, justifying it by saying that everyone does it. He even dropped a “100%” emoji when asked if he paid people to grind for him. “It’s impossible to beat the players in Asia if you don’t,” Musk argued, casually throwing an entire continent’s gaming prowess into his defense. It’s also funny to note that account sharing violates [terms of service](https://www.pathofexile.com/legal/terms-of-use-and-privacy-policy?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for “Path of Exile 2.” When asked if he planned to apologize to the community, Musk replied, “What would I be apologizing for?” As the gamers clamored at the gates, one of Elon’s baby mammas ([of which there are many](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/29/business/elon-musk-children-compound.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com)) rushed to his defense. The musician Grimes vouched for her ex, saying that she personally can testify to [some of his accomplishments](https://x.com/Grimezsz/status/1880685503009443921?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “I did observe these things with my own eyes,” she posted on X. “There are other witnesses who can verify this.” But “trust me” is no match for the hard-won experience of gamers, who can smell a fake a mile away. Several prominent gamers have noted that Musk doesn’t play like someone with thousands of hours of experience. “Path of Exile 2” streamer [Quin69 previously accused Musk](https://www.dexerto.com/gaming/elon-musk-accused-of-faking-his-success-on-path-of-exile-2-3025073/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of hiring someone to play his account. He called Musk “[truly pathetic](https://x.com/quinrex/status/1878968338799579228?ref=thebarbedwire.com)” for bragging about his now-seemingly-disproven gaming skills. The well-known streamer Kripparrian posted a [video of Elon’s gameplay](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6N-WW0UDrVQ&ab%5Fchannel=CasualKripp&ref=thebarbedwire.com), where he observed that Musk was “absolutely clueless” in playing the game. “Playing his totally self-made character,” said Kripparrian, whose real name is Octavian Morosan, using finger quotes and dripping sarcasm. The popular gaming Youtuber Asmongold also doubted Elon’s prowess in a video titled, “[Elon Musk is not getting away with this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlCCtrOCvu0&t=582s&ab%5Fchannel=AsmongoldTV&ref=thebarbedwire.com).” “I’m a huge fan of Elon Musk, but this is embarrassing and very silly,” said Asmongold, aka Zack Hoyt. “It makes him look bad and it’s for absolutely no reason. It’s of no consequence and it achieves no goal.” To get some perspective, *The Barbed Wire* spoke to UK-based gaming journalist Jennifer Young, [who has covered the controversy](https://www.windowscentral.com/gaming/elon-musk-comes-clean-about-path-of-exile-2-and-diablo-4-credentials-and-i-am-shocked-shocked-i-tell-you?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Young plays a lot of “Diablo IV” and said she “always doubted his ‘top 20 players’ in the world ranking.” “Elon flew too close to the sun trying to kid people over ‘Path of Exile 2,’ which is infinitely more complex and requires actual grind,” she said. “The kind of grind many of us with one job can't hack, let alone someone having six.” What really blew Musk’s cover, Young said, was the extremely inefficient way he played. “Those who play these APRGs at the levels he was boasting … play as efficiently as possible with minimal messing around in town and with your inventory,” she said. Musk did none of that, instead fumbling around with the inventory screens and generally coming off like a newbie. “A guy manually dragging items into his bags or not clearing his inventory before levels is not a top-level player,” Young said. So why did Elon do it? Why would he be so arrogant as to think he could snow gamers, especially ones who *play the same game he allegedly mastered*? “I’m really aghast. Someone boasting about their game credentials isn't that deep, really, but it *is* funny when a billionaire feels the need to do it,” Young said. “I really don't know what his motivation is, or why he has to make such unrealistic claims. [Whoopi Goldberg having an outburst about wanting ‘Diablo IV’ on her Mac](https://ew.com/gaming/whoopi-goldberg-diablo-4-video-game-blizzard-entertainment/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) was infinitely cooler and more relatable than what he has done.” So what have we learned? When it comes to gaming, even the richest man alive can’t buy his way out of being called a n00b. ### Texas Is Now at the Heart of Trump’s Immigration Raids URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-is-now-at-the-heart-of-trumps-immigration-raids/ Last updated: 2025-01-27T20:51:15.000Z President Trump’s immigration raids have begun — and law enforcement has Texas in its crosshairs. Over the weekend, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement carried out a series of “enhanced targeted operations” across Texas, arresting dozens of people. The raids spanned across cities including Austin, San Antonio, Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, and the Rio Grande Valley. Each operation was part of President Donald Trump’s renewed crackdown on undocumented immigration in his second term, which began just last week. ICE partnered with the Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to carry out the operations. According to ICE officials, these actions aimed to “enforce U.S. immigration law and preserve public safety and national security,” [*KXAN* reported](https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/dea-confirms-ice-raids-in-austin-area/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Raids also occurred across the country, including in Chicago, Los Angeles, Denver, Buffalo, and Atlanta. In Austin and San Antonio, agents mobilized on Sunday, with the DEA confirming that nearly all agents from its Houston division, which oversees a wide swath of Texas, participated. It was unclear how many people were arrested. In North Texas, ICE reported the arrest of 84 individuals in cities including Dallas, Fort Worth, Irving, and Arlington, according to [*Texas Public Radio*](https://www.tpr.org/border-immigration/2025-01-26/ice-begins-immigration-raids-across-texas-dozens-arrested?ref=thebarbedwire.com). On Sunday, a [Houston DEA post on X](https://x.com/DEAHOUSTONDiv/status/1883571327543775250?ref=thebarbedwire.com) showed photos of law enforcement officers escorting a man in handcuffs through a residential area, [the *Texas Tribune* reported](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/01/26/texas-immigration-deportation-ice-austin-san-antonio/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Similar operations were conducted in the Rio Grande Valley over the weekend. According to ICE, the operations allegedly targeted “potentially dangerous criminal aliens,” [*ValleyCentral.com* reported](http://valleycentral.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). While ICE did not disclose numbers or other specific details, sources indicated agents were instructed to make at least 75 arrests. Neither ICE nor the DEA provided details on the scale of the operations, and spokespeople from the Travis and Bexar counties sheriff’s offices confirmed they were not notified in advance, [the *Texas Tribune* reported](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/01/26/texas-immigration-deportation-ice-austin-san-antonio/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). A spokesperson for U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, a Democrat who represents Austin, also stated that the congressman likewise did not receive prior notice of the Austin operation. The Sunday raids occurred less than a week after President Trump began his second term, promising mass deportations and [signing multiple executive orders](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/01/26/texas-immigration-deportation-ice-austin-san-antonio/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that drew ire for being [unconstitutional and](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jd-vance-interview-birthright-citizenship/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) outright [harmful](https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/withdrawing-the-united-states-from-the-worldhealth-organization/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). These orders included halting an app for asylum appointments and allowing raids at sensitive locations like schools, churches, and hospitals. The Trump administration has also directed federal officials to investigate local officials who obstruct deportation efforts. Additionally, Texas lawmakers have sought guidance on how school districts should prepare for federal immigration enforcement. The impact on schools was especially evident in Fort Worth, where a substitute teacher at North Side High School came under investigation for social media posts inviting ICE to deport students, [*KERA News* reported](https://www.keranews.org/news/2025-01-27/fort-worth-isd-investigating-substitute-teachers-posts-inviting-ice-to-north-side-high-school?ref=thebarbedwire.com). In one post, the teacher stated that he has “many students who don’t even speak English.” Responding to an ICE enforcement update, he wrote, “Y’all should come to Fort Worth, TX to Northside High School.” Fort Worth ISD Interim Superintendent Karen Molinar acknowledged the uncertainty caused by recent national policy changes and stressed that the district does not inquire about the immigration status of students or their families, as student information is protected by federal privacy laws. “We recognize that recent national changes in immigration policies may have left some families in our community feeling uncertain or concerned,” Molinar told KERA. “We are here to support all of our students, families and staff.” Trump’s [border czar Tom Homan](https://abc7ny.com/post/donald-trumps-border-czar-tom-homan-if-youre-country-illegally-problem-fears-ice-raids/15838467/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — the [architect of the cruel and deeply unpopular](https://www.npr.org/2024/11/13/nx-s1-5188440/trump-names-the-architect-of-family-separation-as-new-border-czar?ref=thebarbedwire.com) family separation policy from Trump’s first term — said that officials’ primary focus was on public safety and national security threats. However, he emphasized that anyone in the country unlawfully could still face arrest, even if they do not fall into these priority categories. “There's consequences (for) entering the country illegally,” Homan said. “If we don't show there’s consequences, you're never going to fix the border problem.” The administration’s actions have reignited fears among immigrant communities, especially in Texas, which is home to [approximately 1.6 million undocumented individuals](https://www.texastribune.org/2023/11/21/texas-immigrants-pew-research/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The raids have drawn sharp criticism from some who argue that these actions are unnecessarily harsh and disruptive. Doggett — among other Democrats — opposed the deportation of law-abiding residents, even as he expressed support for secure borders and the removal of criminal offenders. “Dragnets designed to remove law abiding, tax paying residents, many of whom have been here for years and are parents of American citizen children, do not make us safer; they only make our economy weaker, as much needed construction workers, health aides, and other workers are detained,” [he said in a statement, per KXAN](https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/dea-confirms-ice-raids-in-austin-area/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “Authorizing armed federal immigration agents to enter churches, schools, and hospitals will only create chaos. Like his previous policy deliberately taking children from their mothers, Trump is making cruelty his principal immigration policy.” ### ‘Texas: The Great Theft,’ and How Gossip Shapes Our World URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-the-great-theft-and-how-gossip-shapes-our-world/ Last updated: 2025-01-27T10:00:00.000Z *Texas hasn’t gotten its due as a major piece in the complex puzzle of American art. We’re here to rectify that. Every two weeks, H. Drew Blackburn will conduct a thoroughly scientific analysis of the 254 integral (one for every county) books, movies, tv shows, albums, podcasts, songs, and magazine articles — you name it — that best exemplify the Texas spirit. These texts, products of immense talent, dig into the marrow of our being. When it’s all said and done and we’ve built The Texas Voyager collection, we’ll (figuratively) head to the Johnson Space Center in Houston and shoot it beyond the atmosphere, into the cosmos. A wise person once posed the question: “What if the aliens are hot?” Hold onto that hope — this is our chance to impress ‘em.* Any halfway-decent writer worries about clichés. I like to think of myself as a halfway-decent writer, or at least a quarterway-decent one. The nightmare is coming across as stilted and robotic — like an athlete at a presser drolling on about “taking it one day at a time” and “execution.” Banality is to be avoided like cars on the highway with garbage bags flapping where the window should be (you don’t know whose fault that accident was). But, sometimes clichés are cliché for a reason. The truths they hold are sincere to the point that they’re damn near scientific law. *To the victor goes the spoils* or that *history is written by the winners* are excellent examples. Mexican writer Carmen Boullosa’s novel “Texas: The Great Theft” considers those trite aphorisms and excavates them. The book is a work of historical fiction based on the infrequently discussed Cortina Troubles — a.k.a. the 1859 Mexican invasion of the United States of America. Through her prose, we get perspectives (many, many, many) on conflicts between Mexico and the United States, which are too often tucked behind the curtain. Here they get the spotlight. In 2014, “The Great Theft” became the inaugural title produced by the Dallas-based publishing house Deep Vellum. The book was translated from Spanish by native Texan and Words Without Borders founding editor Samantha Schnee. It won the 2014 Typographical Era Translation Award and was shortlisted for the 2015 PEN Translation Award. Back then, Deep Vellum was an upstart non-profit specializing in translated literature. In the years since, Deep Vellum has opened up a bookstore in the storied Deep Ellum neighborhood. It’s also [acquired a handful](https://texashighways.com/culture/deep-vellum-is-turning-dallas-into-a-literary-hub/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of publishers; [resurrected “The Accommodation”](https://www.dmagazine.com/publications/d-magazine/2021/september/the-accommodation-tanked-30-years-ago-its-time-to-try-again/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) a once rare, but classic book on race in Dallas ([copies at one point sold for almost $1000 online](https://www.dmagazine.com/publications/d-magazine/2015/may/the-accommodation-jim-schutze-dangerous-dallas-book/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)); and alongside another indie bookstore called Wild Detectives, established itself as a nexus of Texas literary culture. Last spring, [the *New York Times* published a feature on Dallas as a burgeoning literary hub](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/25/books/booksupdate/dallas-deep-vellum-wild-detectives.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), with Deep Vellum founder Will Evans at its center. Over a video call, Evans reflected on the “The Great Theft’s” initial release a decade ago, calling it kismet. “We launched our press with one of the best Mexican authors writing a historical fiction based on a true story of Texas history in her own unique way with a Texas translator and a Texas press,” he told *The Barbed Wire*. “Every single thing about it was like pure stars aligning. It was the book we were meant to publish.” It’s hard to argue with this. The way “The Great Theft” examines history is a necessary counter to a propagandistic Americanized lens. In Texas schools, we’re taught about Manifest Destiny as if it were fact. We learn about the strong authoritarian arm of the Mexican government, so essentially we’re told every victory — and every defeat — was God’s will. Boullosa challenges these narratives, in ways that are genius and a little bizarre (I mean this in the most flattering way possible). The way “The Great Theft” is structured sees the majority of the novel taking the form of gossip. Boullosa’s prose itself is a breeze to read. It’s simple, rich, and funny, with literary flourishes (like names that do double duty as puns). And the book is still as ambitious and challenging as, say, James Joyce’s “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.” This is because the gossip (triggered by a racist insult and an act of gun violence that happens in about a minute) flows at a rapid pace from the fictional town of Brunesville (our Brownsville) to the next town, digging into family and romantic histories, appearances, political leanings, thoughts, and desires. It all occurs across class and race, and it is liable to shoot over across the Rio Bravo (Rio Grande) or into another person and place — in Mexico or America. Much of what’s whispered and shouted about occurs in realish-time and takes up two-thirds of a novel that’s roughly 300 pages long. The reprint of “The Great Theft,” published for its tenth anniversary, has a handy glossary of characters in the back with well over 200 entries. It’s controlled chaos. And brilliantly so. It’s fascinating to watch a novel with a clear intent to establish a different record of Mexican-American conflicts with its main conduit as gossip. With the hundreds of characters, no perspective is left unturned, and you can see how gossip played a part in constructing a certain record in the first place. “The Great Theft” ultimately wrestles with how much gossip shapes our lives. “ Gossip is human nature and it kind of goes back to the original oral forms of storytelling,” Evans said. “We pass stories on to each other. And there is, of course, something beautiful about that. It ties us all together.” Gossip is extremely fun. It’s fun to do. It’s fun to listen to. In real life or even on a [podcast](https://defector.com/normal-gossip-podcast?ref=thebarbedwire.com). People who are good at it [probably have more social literacy than those who aren’t](https://www.nbcnews.com/better/lifestyle/psychologists-say-gossiping-social-skill-here-s-how-know-if-ncna1056941?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Another thing about writers: If you put all of us in one country, we’d indulge in at least three times as much [tea as Turkey](https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/why-turkey-drinks-most-tea-093025982.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “ It's a universal human condition. And then, of course, there's the idea of the unreliable narrator,” Evans said. “When the unreliable narrator gets involved and introduces additional truths or untruths to a story? it really can become something else.” Evans further explains that in “The Great Theft,” though the reader sees an accurate account of the inciting incident, the characters do not. Therefore, we see how the truth can get distorted and warped “towards what each character wants to see or wants to think is happening.” Ultimately, in “The Great Theft,” such gossip aids mobs, battles, and bloodshed. The sheer inventiveness in how Boullosa wrote “The Great Theft” is reason enough to induct it into the Texas Voyager collection, but I’m also struck by how complex and sophisticated it is with how it approaches narratives. It seeks to create a new oral tradition about a great theft of land, culture, and life. And the former narrative that we’re inundated with has made monuments and legends of the men who orchestrated that theft — William Travis, James Bowie, Sam Houston, and Davy Crockett. You may recognize those surnames as counties, cities, colleges, and much more. Gossip creates folk heroes. Sometimes deservedly so. Sometimes it ignores their support of African chattel slavery — as is the case for the aforementioned men above. Other times it brings us some joy over some drinks or makes the group chat go crazy. It may serve as a crucial warning in [a whisper network](https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/texas-senate-sexual-harassment/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). It makes men monsters or legends. It unearths creeps and constructs icons. It can paint lies and [create emotional distress for a victim](https://apnews.com/article/tory-lanez-sentence-megan-thee-stallion-shooting-5eeaafd1a913ebf46094bcb0358364ad?ref=thebarbedwire.com). As such, it behooves us to always consider the narrator. ### Cómo Prepararse Ante Los Planes Racistas De Inmigración De Trump URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/como-prepararse-ante-los-planes-racistas-de-imigracion-de-trump/ Last updated: 2025-01-24T17:58:43.000Z *Traducción por Alejandra Rios* El lunes, el presidente Donald Trump hizo el juramento de toma de posesión de su segundo periodo presidencial. El miércoles ya había firmado una serie de aterradoras órdenes ejecutivas y cambios en las políticas contra las comunidades inmigrantes. En su primer día, Trump declaró estado de emergencia nacional en la frontera entre Estados Unidos y México y firmó una orden ejecutiva dirigida [a eliminar la ciudadanía por derecho de nacimiento](https://www.telemundo47.com/noticias/eeuu/ciudadania-nacimiento-puede-trump-deshacerse-de-este-derecho-constitucional-que-debes-saber/2532213/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — una medida inconstitucional que [inmediatamente se enfrentó con demandas](https://www.nytimes.com/es/2025/01/23/espanol/estados-unidos/juez-bloquea-trump-ciudadania-nacimiento.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) presentadas por 22 estados y dos ciudades. El Departamento de Seguridad Nacional de Estados Unidos autorizó a las oficinas de aduanas de la patrulla fronteriza a hacer [redadas](https://elpais.com/us/migracion/2025-01-22/donald-trump-autoriza-las-redadas-migratorias-en-iglesias-escuelas-y-hospitales.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) en escuelas e iglesias estadounidenses, y la [aplicación](https://www.bbc.com/mundo/articles/crlkdzpelx3o?ref=thebarbedwire.com) en la que los inmigrantes podían solicitar asilo en Estados Unidos dejó de funcionar, por lo tanto, se cancelaron todas las citas ya programadas. Las noticias han causado una ola de miedo y pánico en las comunidades de inmigrantes de todo el país y, por supuesto, en Texas. “Hay [reportes](https://www.telemundo.com/noticias/noticias-telemundo/inmigracion/el-zar-de-la-frontera-de-trump-tom-homan-alista-redadas-rcna188574?ref=thebarbedwire.com) de que las redadas de inmigración de Trump podrían enfocarse en San Antonio,” dijo la oficina del representante federal Joaquín Castro en un comunicado en las redes sociales. “Por historia, sabemos que las redadas masivas de deportación pueden llevar al arresto, detención y deportación incluso de ciudadanos estadounidenses. La administración Trump podría decir que solo están enfocados en criminales, pero eso no es verdad. Tenemos que prepararnos porque pueden tener como objetivo a las personas más vulnerables (incluidas las personas de avanzada edad).” Para aumentar la ola de miedo y el caos, los republicanos de Texas siguieron el ejemplo de Trump. El representante Brian Babin, que representa a Woodville, el martes presentó un proyecto de ley que “limitaría la ciudadanía automática a los nacidos en Estados Unidos con al menos un padre que sea ciudadano, residente permanente legal o inmigrante que pertenezca al ejército,” según un [comunicado de prensa](https://babin.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=14088&ref=thebarbedwire.com) de la oficina de Babin (el texto completo del proyecto de ley sigue pendiente en congress.gov). Le pedimos orientación a abogados de inmigración sobre cómo prepararse y una de las abogadas es Ruby Powers, quien trabaja en Houston, “Ignore el caos e infórmese de la posibilidad de lo que pasaría,” Powers dijo a *The Barbed Wire* el martes. “Cuando se analiza la lista de muchas de las órdenes ejecutivas que afectan la inmigración, es evidente la razón por la que alguien, independientemente de su estado migratorio, que tenga un vínculo con un inmigrante o un hijo de inmigrante de primera generación, podría estar preocupado,” continuó Powers, quien lleva más de una década ejerciendo la abogacía en materia de inmigración. Ella también ha sufrido lo que los abogados de su círculo llaman “Trump 1.0.” “Trump’s M.O. es (causar) caos, confusión, agobio y miedo,” afirmó Powers. Powers ofreció un enfoque de dos pasos para entender la información que se publica: Entender cuál es su situación migratoria y centrarse en lo que sabe. ## Sin estado legal “Si no tienes ningún estado legal, entonces puede preocuparse de las redadas en el lugar de trabajo, la posibilidad de estar en el lugar equivocado, en el momento equivocado, de ser detenido,” explicó Powers. Estas son las personas que deben tener un abogado de inmigración y contar con un plan para los pasos a seguir si son deportados, así como: 1. Consulte o contrate a un abogado de inmigración reconocido. 1. Tenga dinero a la mano en caso de que las órdenes de deportación se cumplan. 2. Busque una persona de confianza con quien pueda dejar a su familia y hable con sus hijos de lo que pasaría, si usted, su esposo(a) o los padres son detenidos. Kristen Wilson, una abogada que trabaja en Austin y se ocupa de inmigración empresarial, dijo que también es importante recordar que esto no es nuevo y que todas las administraciones, tanto Republicanas como [Demócratas](https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/biden-deportation-record?ref=thebarbedwire.com), han intentado en gran medida deportar inmigrantes que no están en el país legalmente. Aun así, Wilson cree que la administración de Trump está tomando un “nuevo enfoque en el cumplimiento de la ley” y en algunos casos, dicho enfoque se profundizará en aquellos en cuestión. ## Estado legal temporal Las personas en esta categoría también podrían incluir a los que forman parte del programa de Acción Diferida el cual incluye a los que llegaron al país desde que eran niños (conocido como DACA, por sus siglas en inglés) y a las personas que tienen el Estado de Protección Temporal (conocido como TPS, por sus siglas en inglés). “Creo que muchos de ellos van a ser descontinuados (o) de anularlos de repente”, afirmó Powers. Recomienda que las personas con permiso temporal evalúen diferentes programas, como: 1. [Patrocinio de empresas](https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/inmigracion/visa-de-inmigrante-a-traves-del-empleo.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) 2. [Patrocinio familiar](https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/proceso-de-visa-de-immigrante/immigracion/inmigracion-familiar.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) 3. [Programas de visa humanitaria](https://www.uscis.gov/es/programas-humanitarios?ref=thebarbedwire.com) 4. [Programas de visa para inversionistas](https://www.uscis.gov/es/trabajar-en-estados-unidos/trabajadores-permanentes/eb-5-programa-de-inversionistas-inmigrantes?ref=thebarbedwire.com) 5. [Visas por habilidades especiales](https://www.uscis.gov/es/trabajar-en-estados-unidos/trabajadores-temporales-no-inmigrantes/visa-o-1-personas-con-habilidades-o-logros-extraordinarios?ref=thebarbedwire.com) “La parte que nos tranquiliza y que la mayoría de la gente no se imagina es que los fundamentos de la ley de inmigración siguen intactos,” dijo Wilson. “Va a hacer algo de daño, y va a haber mucha gente afectada, [pero los programas regulares que están establecidos](https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/proceso-de-visa-de-immigrante/immigracion.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) siguen estando disponibles para todos los que quieran solicitarlos, y las personas que están fuera de EE. UU. y nunca han venido al país, tienen la mejor posibilidad de estar aquí y de hacerlo legalmente si nunca han cruzado la frontera.” ## Solicitud de residencia legal permanente o “Green Cards” (tarjeta verde) Para las personas que solicitan permiso para vivir en Estados Unidos de forma permanente, los abogados de inmigración creen que podrían empezar a ver retrasos. Los retrasos administrativos eran comunes bajo la primera presidencia de Trump. Otros retrasos podrían surgir si: 1. La administración de Trump comienza a exigir entrevistas adicionales que no se requerían bajo la presidencia de Joe Biden. 2. La administración de Trump [restablece](https://www.telemundowashingtondc.com/noticias/inmigracion/carga-publica-inmigrantes-ciudadanos-estadounidenses/2298743/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) una norma de 2019 [de cargo público](https://www.uscis.gov/es/archivo/carga-publica?ref=thebarbedwire.com) para “castigar” a las personas que solicitan la residencia legal permanente si utilizaron el apoyo del gobierno para satisfacer las necesidades básicas de salud, vivienda y nutrición o se consideró probable que fueran a utilizar los servicios en el futuro. 3. La administración de Trump restablece la “[declaración jurada de apoyo](https://www.uscis.gov/es/residencia-permanente-tarjeta-verde/procesos-y-procedimientos-para-la-residencia-permanente/declaracion-jurada-de-patrocinio-economico?ref=thebarbedwire.com)” que impone a cualquier ciudadano estadounidense o residente permanente la promesa legal con el gobierno de Estados Unidos de patrocinar económicamente a una persona que quiera tener la residencia legal. Es una forma de garantizar que no tendrán que depender de la ayuda del gobierno. ## Residencia legal permanente Los abogados que hablaron con *The Barbed Wire* dijeron que puede haber un mayor escrutinio a medida que las personas intenten tramitar la naturalización. Wilson dice que, por lo general, sólo se puede retirar la tarjeta verde a una persona si hace algo que cause su deportación, como violar la ley, o si no sigue viviendo en Estados Unidos. ## Ciudadanos estadounidenses El ataque a la ciudadanía por derecho de nacimiento dijo Powers, está “poniendo en cuestión a muchas (personas) de primera generación”, lo que está creando confusión sobre “quién es ciudadano en base a cuál era el estado de su madre cuando estaba en Estados Unidos o cuál era el estado de sus padres cuando estaban en Estados Unidos.” La American Civil Liberties Union, al igual que casi dos docenas de estados y ciudades, [presentó una demanda](https://www.aclu.org/cases/new-hampshire-indonesian-community-support-v-donald-j-trump?document=Complaint&ref=thebarbedwire.com) contra Trump y su administración por la orden ejecutiva sobre la ciudadanía por derecho de nacimiento. “Negar la ciudadanía a los niños nacidos en Estados Unidos no solo es inconstitucional, sino también un repudio insensato y despiadado de los valores estadounidenses,” escribió Anthony D. Romero, director ejecutivo de la American Civil Liberties Union, en un [comunicado de prensa.](https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/immigrants-rights-advocates-sue-trump-administration-over-birthright-citizenship-executive-order?ref=thebarbedwire.com) ## Información de interés Los abogados de inmigración que hablaron con *The Barbed Wire* dijeron que la mejor manera de luchar contra el miedo es estar preparado, tener un plan y conocer sus derechos. “Creo que en general, tener sus documentos organizados y listos si usted no tiene un estado migratorio legal, o si se encuentra en riesgo de ser detenido, y poder llevar de inmediato dichos documentos a un abogado de inmigración, así su familia sabrá cuáles son los pasos por seguir,” dijo Powers. Además, muchos funcionarios y organizaciones de protección de los derechos humanos han publicado información sobre cómo entender los derechos humanos básicos en Estados Unidos. La oficina de Castro también está analizando más [la historia de la retórica racista de Trump](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-aims-end-birthright-citizenship-says-american-citizens-family-il-rcna183274?ref=thebarbedwire.com) y preparándose para lo que pueda venir, independientemente a que grupo se enfoquen. “San Antonio es una de las ciudades Mexicoamericanas más grandes del país, con miles de Mexicoamericanos de primera, segunda y tercera generación que son orgullosos ciudadanos de Estados Unidos,” dijo Castro en una declaración a *The Barbed Wire*. “En el pasado, las redadas masivas de deportación en Estados Unidos han llevado a erróneamente [arrestar, detener y deportar a ciudadanos](https://immigrationimpact.com/2021/07/30/ice-deport-us-citizens/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Me preocupa mucho que la historia se repita con las redadas de inmigración del presidente Trump.” Además, ”Aquí en Texas, tenemos mucha gente decente -incluidos votantes hispanos- que creían que Trump no atacaría a gente trabajadora que ha trabajado y vivido en el país con sus familias por décadas.” Y para Castro, la orden ejecutiva que permitió redadas en escuelas e iglesias demostró que el enfoque del presidente no está en los criminales y pandilleros. “Mi oficina se está preparando para escenarios en los que las personas más vulnerables -incluidos las personas de edad avanzada y pacientes de hospitales- sean objetivo de deportación.” ## Recursos Si busca recursos (incluida asistencia jurídica gratuita y representación legal sin costo o costo reducido) que le ayuden a buscar organizaciones de confianza, hemos elaborado una pequeña lista: - [Justice for Our Neighbors (JFON)](https://jfondfw.org/unm/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) – North Texas - [Houston Immigration Legal Services Collaborative (HILSC)](https://houstonimmigration.org/for-community/hotline/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) – Southeast Texas - [Immigration Law Help](https://www.immigrationlawhelp.org/search?state=TX&ref=thebarbedwire.com) – Texas directory - [Mosaic Family Services](https://mosaicservices.org/how-we-help/legal-representation/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) – North Texas - [University of Texas at Austin Immigration Clinic](https://law.utexas.edu/clinics/immigration/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) – Texas - [Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES)](https://www.raicestexas.org/locations?ref=thebarbedwire.com) – Texas - [Equal Justice Center](https://www.equaljusticecenter.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) – Central Texas - [Workers Defense Project](https://workersdefense.org/en/membership/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) – Texas - [Austin Tan Cerca De La Frontera (ATCF)](https://www.atcf.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) – Central Texas - [Mano Amiga](https://www.manoamigasm.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) – Central Texas - [Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center](https://www.las-americas.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) – El Paso - [Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid](https://www.trla.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) – South Texas / El Paso / Rio Grande Valley - [South Texas Pro Bono Asylum Representation Project (ProBAR)](https://abaprobar.org/how-we-can-help-2/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) – Rio Grande Valley / Houston - [For Families and Their Education (FIEL)](https://fielhouston.org/home/aboutus/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) – Houston - [Estrella del Paso](https://estrelladelpaso.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) – West Texas - [American Immigration Lawyers Association](https://www.aila.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) – Los abogados recomiendan que busque a alguien que tenga esta certificación. ### Texas Has $28 Billion in the Bank. What If We Spent Some of It? URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-has-28-billion-in-the-bank-what-if-we-spent-some-of-it/ Last updated: 2025-01-24T10:00:00.000Z You might not realize it, but Texas has a massive pile of cash — tens of billions of dollars, in fact. It's known as the Economic Stabilization Fund (or the rainy day fund, as most people call it) and it’s [one of the biggest of its kind in the country](https://comptroller.texas.gov/economy/fiscal-notes/archive/2023/mar/rainyday.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). And the fund, mostly fueled by taxes on oil and gas production, is about to get even bigger — so big that it’s expected to surpass the legal limit. Without any new spending from lawmakers, the rainy day fund is projected to reach a record $28.5 billion by the end of fiscal year 2027, according to [Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/01/13/texas-budget-revenue-estimate-biennium/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). So, how did Texas build up such a huge treasure chest? The rainy day fund was [established by lawmakers in 1988](https://comptroller.texas.gov/economy/fiscal-notes/archive/2016/september/rainy-day.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=Texans%20approved%20a%20constitutional%20amendment,state%20government%20in%20the%20black.) during an oil bust to provide the state with financial support during economic downturns. In recent years, the rapid growth of Texas' oil and gas industry has caused the fund to grow significantly. [Hegar estimates](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/01/13/texas-budget-revenue-estimate-biennium/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) it is now expected to exceed its constitutional limit, which is determined by a formula in the Texas Constitution based on the general revenue deposited into the fund during the previous biennium. Any funds exceeding this limit are transferred to the general treasury, where lawmakers can allocate them as needed. The rainy day fund can be tapped in the event of budget deficits or for any purpose with approval from three-fifths of the Legislature. In fact, this has happened multiple times over the years. [More than $17 billion](https://comptroller.texas.gov/economy/fiscal-notes/archive/2023/mar/rainyday.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) from the fund has been used to address pressing needs such as disaster relief, water infrastructure, public education, and health services. For example, during the nationwide recession in 2011, $3.2 billion was withdrawn to cover a major budget shortfall. Despite these expenditures, the fund’s ballooning size has fueled debate, with many calling for more spending on critical needs like public education. Big school districts across the state have had a tough financial year: Houston ISD had a [$250 million deficit](https://houstonlanding.org/hisd-now-proposing-a-250-million-projected-budget-deficit-heres-what-to-know/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=HISD%20board%20members%20approved%20a,25%20to%20about%20%24250%20million.), Dallas ISD is [$187 million short](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/education/2024/05/23/dallas-isd-budget-2024-approval/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Austin ISD is [$92 million in the red](https://www.kut.org/education/2024-12-13/austin-tx-independent-school-district-budget-deficit?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and San Antonio’s largest [districts are all running deficits](https://www.tpr.org/education/2024-06-11/large-san-antonio-school-districts-approve-raises-despite-deficits-say-more-state-funding-needed?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The education policy group Raise Your Hand Texas notes that the state ranks among the bottom [10 for per-pupil spending](https://www.raiseyourhandtexas.org/policy/school-funding/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), making it hard not to eye the massive pile of cash sitting in the rainy day fund. “Texas lawmakers have access to substantial funding in the 2025 Legislative Session – at least $21 billion in available state general revenue and over $23 billion in the state’s Rainy Day Fund,” [the group says on its site](https://www.raiseyourhandtexas.org/policy/school-funding/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The fund is the biggest in the United States in terms of dollars, and among the largest in terms of percentage of expenditures, Shannon Halbrook, who oversees fiscal policy research and advocacy for the nonprofit advocacy group Every Texan, told *The Barbed Wire*. Lawmakers have been “short-changing Texans for some time in many areas,” including public education, housing, infrastructure, and increases in state worker pay, Halbrook said. Halbrook favors “sensible, one-time investments for the future to benefit all Texans equitably, or to hang onto in case of natural disasters or other unexpected events.” “Spending that money on permanent property tax cuts, for example, would incur an ongoing cost to the state budget that we won’t always be able to afford,” Halbrook told *The Barbed Wire.* Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick [has said any budget surplus](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/watchdog/2022/07/29/when-is-texas-going-to-dip-into-the-billions-in-its-rainy-day-fund-to-fix-a-few-things/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) should prioritize property tax relief over new spending. Many other Republicans believe the fund should remain untouched or be returned to taxpayers. “Just like your savings account helps cushion your rainy days, the (Economic Stabilization Fund) must be preserved to do the same,” [wrote Vance Ginn and Elliott Raia for the conservative think tank Texas Public Policy Foundation](https://www.texaspolicy.com/preserve-texas-rainy-day-fund-2/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Hegar has proposed raising the rainy day fund’s cap, arguing that removing the limit could allow it to grow significantly through investments, providing a larger safety net during future recessions. “By 2035, if the cap continues to be in place and we keep adding more money and they don’t take money out… it’ll probably grow to be about $40 billion,” Hegar told the [*Texas Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/01/13/texas-budget-revenue-estimate-biennium/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “If we remove the cap, that fund would grow to $80 billion.” Some believe there’s a bipartisan use for the fund: water infrastructure. “If I can pick one area to spend money on from the Texas Rainy Day Fund, I would spend on water infrastructure,” Joyce Beebe, a fellow in public finance at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, told *The Barbed Wire*. Water [demand could outpace supply by 2070](https://comptroller.texas.gov/economy/fiscal-notes/archive/2023/sep/water.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=In%202022%2C%20there%20were%203%2C143,lost%20due%20to%20infrastructure%20issues.). And w[ith more than 165,000 miles of pipes](https://comptroller.texas.gov/economy/fiscal-notes/archive/2023/sep/water.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=In%202022%2C%20there%20were%203%2C143,lost%20due%20to%20infrastructure%20issues.) — many installed in the 1960s — Texas is losing billions of gallons of water each year due to leaks and breaks. In 2021 alone, infrastructure issues led to the loss of 130 billion gallons of water, enough to supply nearly 1.2 million households for an entire year. “Aging systems, leaking pipelines, and the need for major capital improvements make such investment more critical given Texas' extreme weather patterns in recent years,” Beebe told *The Barbed Wire*. Voters in 2023 [approved $1 billion to create the Texas Water Fund](https://www.sll.texas.gov/spotlight/2023/11/texas-voters-approve-new-constitutional-amendments/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to address these issues, but Beebe says much more is needed to modernize the state’s water infrastructure and keep up with future demands. “One billion is much lower than what (the Texas Water Development Board) deemed sufficient to bring Texas' water infrastructure to modern standards,” she said. The future of Texas’ giant piggy bank comes down to what lawmakers prioritize and how loud their voters yell. Whether it’s fixing schools, patching up leaky water pipes, or just sitting on the cash like a dragon hoarding gold, the decisions made in the current legislative session will leave a huge impact. And as the fund grows, so does the tug-of-war between spending now and saving for later. ### Immigration Attorneys Are Here to ‘Cut Through the Chaos’ of Trump’s Racist Plans URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/immigration-attorneys-are-here-to-cut-through-the-chaos-of-trumps-racist-plans/ Last updated: 2025-01-23T14:34:11.000Z On Monday, President Donald Trump was sworn in to his second term in office. By Wednesday, he’d signed a slew of terrifying executive orders and policy changes targeting immigrant communities. On day one, Trump declared a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border and signed an executive order to [end birthright citizenship](https://www.vox.com/immigration/395945/donald-trump-unconstitutional-birthright-citizenship-illegal?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — an unconstitutional move that was [immediately met with lawsuits](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/21/us/trump-birthright-citizenship.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) from 22 states and two cities. The Department of Homeland Security gave customs and border patrol offices [free reign to raid](https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/01/21/statement-dhs-spokesperson-directives-expanding-law-enforcement-and-ending-abuse?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=%E2%80%9CThis%20action%20empowers%20the%20brave,and%20churches%20to%20avoid%20arrest.) American schools and churches, and the [application](https://www.kut.org/texas/2025-01-21/migrants-left-in-despair-at-the-texas-mexico-border-as-asylum-system-shuts-down?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that enables migrants to make appointments to seek asylum in the U.S. went down, and all existing appointments were cancelled. The announcements have caused a wave of fear and panic in immigrant communities across the country, and, of course, in Texas. “There are [reports](https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/immigration-raids-texas-trump-20046972.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that Trump's immigration raids may target San Antonio,” U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro’s office said in a statement on social media. “We know from history that mass deportation raids can lead to the arrest, detention, and deportation of even American citizens. The Trump administration might say they're just targeting criminals, but that’s not true. We need to prepare for them to target the most vulnerable people (including seniors).” To add to the fear-mongering and chaos, Texas Republicans followed Trump’s lead. U.S. Rep. Brian Babin, who represents Woodville, filed a bill on Tuesday that would “limit automatic citizenship to those born in the U.S. with at least one parent who is a citizen, a lawful permanent resident or an immigrant serving in the military,” according to a [press release from Babin’s office ](https://babin.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=14088&ref=thebarbedwire.com)(the full text of the bill is still pending on congress.gov). We asked immigration attorneys like Ruby Powers, who is based in Houston, for guidance on how to prepare. “Cut through the chaos and figure out what is the most probable,” Powers told *The Barbed Wire* on Tuesday. “When you look at the list of many of the executive orders that impact immigration, it is apparent why somebody, regardless of their status, who has a connection to an immigrant or a child of an immigrant, first generation could be concerned,” Powers, who has been practicing immigration law for more than a decade, continued. She already went through what attorneys in her circle are calling “Trump 1.0.” “Trump’s M.O. is to (cause) chaos, confusion, overwhelm, and fear,” Powers said. Powers offered a two-step approach to help make sense of the deluge of information: Understand what your immigration status is, and focus on what you know. ## No Legal Status “If you have no status whatsoever, then there's going to be concerns about workplace raids, potentially being at the wrong place, at the wrong time, being detained,” Powers explained. These are the folks who should have an immigration attorney and have a plan for next steps if they are deported, such as: 1. Consult or retain a reputable immigration attorney. 2. Have money on hand in case you have to move forward with deportation orders. 3. Have a plan for guardianship and talk to your children about what will happen if you, your spouse or parents are detained. Kristen Wilson, an Austin-based attorney focusing on business immigration, said it’s also important to remember that this isn’t new and that all administrations, both Republican and [Democrat](https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/biden-deportation-record?ref=thebarbedwire.com), have undertaken large efforts to deport immigrants. Still, Wilson believes the Trump administration is taking a “new approach with enforcement” and in some cases will broaden who is being targeted. ## Temporary Legal Status People in this category could also include the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA) recipients and people who have Temporary Protected Status (TPS). “I think many of those are going to either be discontinued (or) might have a hard stop,” Powers said. She advises people with temporary status to evaluate different programs, like: 1. [Company sponsorship](https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/immigrate/employment-based-immigrant-visas.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) 2. [Family sponsorship](https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/immigrate/family-immigration.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) 3. [Humanitarian visa programs](https://www.uscis.gov/humanitarian?ref=thebarbedwire.com) 4. [Investor visa programs](https://www.uscis.gov/working-in-the-united-states/permanent-workers/eb-5-immigrant-investor-program?ref=thebarbedwire.com) 5. [Extraordinary ability visas](https://www.uscis.gov/working-in-the-united-states/temporary-workers/o-1-visa-individuals-with-extraordinary-ability-or-achievement?ref=thebarbedwire.com) “The reassuring part that most people can't see is that the foundation of the immigration law is still intact,” Wilson said. “He's going to do some damage, and there's going to be a lot of people affected, but the [regular programs that are in place](https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/immigrate.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) still exist for everyone who wants to apply, and people who are outside of the U.S. and have never come to the U.S., they are in the best position to be here and to be here legally if they have never crossed the border.” ## Applying for a Legal Permanent Residency, or “Green Cards” For those seeking permission to live in the U.S. permanently, immigration attorneys believe people could start to see delays. Administrative backlogs were common under Trump’s first presidency. Other delays could result if: 1. The Trump administration starts requiring additional interviews that were not required under President Joe Biden’s tenure 2. The Trump administration [brings back](https://www.nhlp.org/press-release/trump-era-public-charge-lawsuit-comes-to-a-close/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) a 2019 [public charge](https://www.migrationpolicy.org/news/public-charge-final-rule-far-last-word?ref=thebarbedwire.com) rule to “punish” people seeking legal permanent residency if they used government support to meet basic health, housing and nutrition needs or were deemed likely to use services in the future. 3. Trump’s administration reinstates the “[affidavit of support,](https://www.uscis.gov/green-card/green-card-processes-and-procedures/affidavit-of-support?ref=thebarbedwire.com)” which binds any U.S. citizen or permanent resident into a legal promise with the U.S. government to sponsor a person wanting to have legal residence financially. This is a way to guarantee that they won’t have to rely on government help. ## Legal Permanent Residency Attorneys who spoke with *The Barbed Wire* said there may be greater scrutiny as people try to move towards naturalization. Wilson says anyone with a green card can usually only have it taken away if they do something that makes them deportable — like breaking the law — or if they stop living in the U.S. ## U.S. Citizens The attack on birthright citizenship, Powers said, is “putting into question a lot of first generation (people),” which is creating confusion about “who is a citizen based upon what their mother’s status was when they were in the United States or what their parents’ status was when they were in the United States.” The American Civil Liberties Union, along with nearly two dozen states and cities, [filed a lawsuit](https://www.aclu.org/cases/new-hampshire-indonesian-community-support-v-donald-j-trump?document=Complaint&ref=thebarbedwire.com) against Trump and his administration over the executive order on birthright citizenship. “Denying citizenship to U.S.-born children is not only unconstitutional — it’s also a reckless and ruthless repudiation of American values,” Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, wrote in a[ press release](https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/immigrants-rights-advocates-sue-trump-administration-over-birthright-citizenship-executive-order?ref=thebarbedwire.com). ## Here’s What We Know Immigration attorneys who spoke to *The Barbed Wire* said the best way to fight fear is to be prepared, have a plan, and know your rights. “I think in general, having your documents organized and ready if you're not in a status, or if you were potentially to be detained, to be able to get that to an immigration attorney right away, then your family would know what to do for the next steps,” Powers said. Additionally, many elected officials and advocacy organizations have put out information about understanding your basic human rights in the U.S. Castro’s office is also looking more at the [history of Trump’s racist rhetoric](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-aims-end-birthright-citizenship-says-american-citizens-family-il-rcna183274?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and preparing for whatever is to come, regardless of who is targeted. “San Antonio is one of the largest Mexican American cities in the country, with thousands of first, second, and third-generation Mexican Americans who are proud citizens of the United States,” Castro said in a statement to *The Barbed Wire*. “In the past, mass deportation raids in the United States have led to the [mistaken arrest, detention, and deportation of citizens](https://immigrationimpact.com/2021/07/30/ice-deport-us-citizens/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) like them. I’m very concerned that history will repeat itself with President Trump’s immigration raids.” He added, “Here in Texas, we have lots of decent folks — including Hispanic voters — who believed that Trump wouldn’t target hard-working people who have been in the country working and living with their families for decades.” And the executive order that enabled raids on schools and churches, to Castro, demonstrated that the president’s focus is not on criminals and gang members. “My office is preparing for scenarios where the most vulnerable people — including seniors and hospital patients — are targeted for deportation.” ## Resources If you are looking for resources (including free legal assistance and pro bono work) to help you navigate trustworthy organizations, we’ve put together a short list: - [Justice for Our Neighbors (JFON) ](https://jfondfw.org/unm/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)\- North Texas - [Houston Immigration Legal Services Collaborative (HILSC) ](https://houstonimmigration.org/for-community/hotline/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)\- Southeast Texas - [Immigration Law Help](https://www.immigrationlawhelp.org/search?state=TX&ref=thebarbedwire.com) \- Texas directory - [Mosaic Family Services](https://mosaicservices.org/how-we-help/legal-representation/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) \- North Texas - [University of Texas at Austin Immigration Clinic](https://law.utexas.edu/clinics/immigration/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) \- Texas - [Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES)](https://www.raicestexas.org/locations?ref=thebarbedwire.com) \- Texas - [Equal Justice Center ](https://www.equaljusticecenter.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)\- Central Texas - [Workers Defense Project](https://workersdefense.org/en/membership/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) \- Texas - [Austin Tan Cerca De La Frontera (ATCF) ](https://www.atcf.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)\- Central Texas - [Mano Amiga](https://www.manoamigasm.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) \- Central Texas - [Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center](https://www.las-americas.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) \- El Paso - [Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid](https://www.trla.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) \- South Texas / El Paso / Rio Grande Valley - [South Texas Pro Bono Asylum Representation Project (ProBAR)](https://abaprobar.org/how-we-can-help-2/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) \- Rio Grande Valley / Houston - [For Families and Their Education (FIEL)](https://fielhouston.org/home/aboutus/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) \- Houston - [Estrella del Paso ](https://estrelladelpaso.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)\- West Texas - [American Immigration Lawyers Association](https://www.aila.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) \- Attorneys recommended finding someone who has this certification ### Texas Is on the Path to (Even Harder-Right) Christian Supremacy URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-is-on-the-path-to-even-harder-right-christian-supremacy/ Last updated: 2025-01-22T10:00:00.000Z Before we get to the bad news, there’s some good news. Last week, the dramatic race for the speaker of the House in the Texas Legislature concluded with a [victory for Republican state Rep. Dustin Burrows](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/01/14/dustin-burrows-david-cook-texas-house-speaker-vote/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), who defeated his main opponent, fellow Republican state Rep. David Cook, thanks to a bipartisan coalition. The heated fight — and [the absurd reaction to it](https://x.com/RobertDownen%5F/status/1879278002577543569/video/1?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — highlighted a deep fissure within the Republican Party of Texas. This was the product of a years-long civil war, one that has been largely funded by a small cadre of hard-right Christian nationalist billionaires who seek to privatize Texas education. Burrow’s victory marks a defeat for the hard-right and suggests that school privatization may not be a sure deal in the current legislative session, even if the megadonor-funded primary campaigns to unseat Republicans who previously voted against school privatization bills were mostly successful. The reporting on how other states (where such bills have been passed) are fairing indicates large amounts of funding have gone [to wealthy families who already can afford private schools](https://www.propublica.org/article/school-vouchers-ohio-church-state-tax-dollars-private-religious?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Such legislation has [generated massive budget deficits](https://www.propublica.org/article/arizona-school-vouchers-budget-meltdown?ref=thebarbedwire.com) while funneling public dollars to religious schools. Burrow’s win, thus, is a sign of hope for those who don’t want to see the same scenario play out in Texas. That said, the Republican Party still has a majority in the Texas legislature, Burrows is still [*quite* conservative](https://www.texastribune.org/2023/06/20/mark-jones-texas-house-2023-right-left/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and we still have plenty of bills to be concerned about. For starters, there are a handful of bills that would allow for the infusion of religion into public spaces and violate the separation of church and state, something that — despite the U.S. Constitution — the Texas GOP has some concerning positions on. Texas GOP Chairman Abraham George recently said he does not believe such separation should even exist, [per the *Texas Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/01/15/texas-legislature-christianity-church-state-separation/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). One such piece of legislation is [Texas House Bill 717](https://legiscan.com/TX/text/HB717/2025?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which would create a right for “an employee of a school district or open-enrollment charter school to engage in religious speech or prayer while on duty.” There are also two corresponding bills, [Texas House Bill 1425](https://legiscan.com/TX/text/HB1425/2025?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [Texas Senate Bill 380](https://legiscan.com/TX/text/SB380/2025?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which would allow for the board of trustees of a school district or the governing body of an open-enrollment charter school to “adopt a policy requiring every campus of the district or school to provide students and employees with an opportunity to participate in a period of prayer and reading of the Bible or other religious text on each school day in accordance with this section.” There is also [Texas House Bill 1009](https://legiscan.com/TX/text/HB1009/2025?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which would require all public schools to “display in a conspicuous place in each classroom of the school a durable poster or framed copy of the Ten Commandments.” Then there’s [Texas House Bill 1497](https://legiscan.com/TX/text/HB1497/2025?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which would require that the State Preservation Board erect a Christian nativity scene at the Capitol every year. Perhaps a less concerning violation, but nonetheless a part of a larger movement to infuse public spaces with a particular religious viewpoint. In short, Republicans in Texas this session are saying loudly and clearly: *Fuck the Constitution. Let’s marry the Bible. (And kill the separation of church and state.)* As I’ve reported for the [*Texas Observer*](https://www.texasobserver.org/tag/seven-mountains-dominionism/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the religious right in Texas is increasingly influenced by charismatic megachurch leaders whose emphasis on the miraculous and supernatural lends itself toward politicization and supremacism. These church leaders embrace and preach what is known as Seven Mountains Dominionism (also known as Seven Mountains Mandate), a theology popularized by North Texas-based pastor Lance Wallnau, which calls for Christians to conquer the “seven mountains” of society: family, religion, education, media, entertainment, business, and government. That theology was on display last week in Austin at the Capitol, where a charismatic pastor — who previously told his congregation to keep their weapons “loaded” four days after the January 6 riot — [prayed dominion theology over a group of lawmakers](https://x.com/TaylorMatthewD/status/1879391728693911656?ref=thebarbedwire.com) outside. Later, [state Rep. Nate Schatzline co-led a worship service](https://x.com/RobertDownen%5F/status/1879299332190638530?ref=thebarbedwire.com) inside to protect the building from the “Jezebel spirit” where a pastor declared that “[Jesus rules and reigns in every office](https://x.com/TaylorMatthewD/status/1879391736793088426?ref=thebarbedwire.com).” *(Editor’s note: We’re sorry to say our editor in chief is, in fact, the “Jezebel spirit,” and she will be visiting the capitol this session!)* Matthew Taylor, a religious scholar who has closely studied the increasing influence of charismatic Christianity on American politics, did not mince words in a series of posts on X (formerly Twitter) about the events at the Texas Capitol last week. “I've studied them intensely for the past four years: this new breed of Christian extremists wants control, and they believe God has promised it to them,” Taylor [wrote](https://x.com/TaylorMatthewD/status/1879391760603820283?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “If you value pluralism, equality, women's rights, LGBTQ rights, the freedom to not be religious, the freedom to belong to a non-Christian religion, and the ability to criticize abusive churches and bad local (politicians), you do not want these (people) coming to power in your locale.” Part of what makes Taylor’s criticisms particularly potent is that he [grew up in a charismatic Christian community](https://x.com/TaylorMatthewD/status/1777914496176017856?ref=thebarbedwire.com). From his perspective, right-wing activists have weaponized charismatic Christian experience to their political ends. When I spoke to Taylor for an article inthe [*Daily Dot* ](https://www.dailydot.com/debug/seven-mountains-nexus-mountain-network/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)about a social networking website built by and for believers in Seven Mountains Dominionism, he described the theological framework to me as “a political theology of Christian supremacy, which uses prophecy to claim that God is commanding all Christians to strategically take over the high places in society so as to Christianize that society.” That theology is now a key animating force of the ascendant wing of the Republican Party, whose proposed legislation aims to do exactly what Taylor suggests, or at the very least path the way toward it. All of this bears striking similarity to the era when the Tea Party was first infusing right(er) leaning Republicans into state politics, including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who founded the [state’s Tea Party caucus](https://www.texastribune.org/2010/12/16/sen-dan-patrick-announces-tea-party-caucus/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in 2010 and today rules over the state’s Senate. Patrick, as many of you are aware, [helped add the words](https://www.danpatrick.org/standforchrist/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) “Under God” and “In God We Trust” onto the walls of government buildings and into our pledges. Today, the biggest funder of the Republican party in Texas and the chief megadonor to school privatization efforts, oil billionaire Tim Dunn, [has said that only Christians should serve in leadership positions](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/04/04/tim-dunn-joe-straus-christian-texas/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in the Texas House and per *Texas Monthly* “[has stated repeatedly that our democracy must be brought into line with biblical laws](https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/power-issue-tim-dunn-pushing-republican-party-arms-god/?ref=thebarbedwire.com).” One of Dunn’s PACs recently donated more than $250,000 to the Texas GOP who then spent over $160,000 that same month on [ads attacking Burrows](https://x.com/MarkMcCaig/status/1879648358253658157?ref=thebarbedwire.com). It’s unclear whether any of the aforementioned bills will be passed, let alone make it out of committee, but the introduction of bills, the scenes around the capitol in the early days of the legislative session, and the fight over the speakership do help us understand where things are headed. Moreover, the hard-right wing of the Texas GOP’s response to Burrow’s ascension to speaker portends that the Republican civil war won't end until [all dissent](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/01/06/ken-paxton-house-speaker-david-cook-dustin-burrows/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [is stamped out](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/in-texas-bipartisanship-is-on-life-support-republicans-could-pull-the-plug/) and the party is pulled further to the right. Out of the four Texas House bills mentioned above, three were introduced by representatives who voted for Cook. The fourth was introduced by Rep. Jeff Leach, who may soon be censured for supporting Burrows, [despite being ranked among the most conservative members of the lower chamber](https://www.texastribune.org/2023/06/20/mark-jones-texas-house-2023-right-left/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). As I wrote in a previous column, [Texas bipartisanship is on life support](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/in-texas-bipartisanship-is-on-life-support-republicans-could-pull-the-plug/), and the Texas Republican Party has threatened to pull the plug by censuring members who voted in support of Burrows for speaker. The party wants to block any independent thinkers from running in future primary elections, essentially. After Burrows’ victory, (Texas GOP Chairman) George set a party executive committee meeting to pass a censure resolution, promising to make good on the threat. It’s possible that some Republican representatives will fall in line — and make promises to avoid being effectively booted from the ballot, and eventually office — without even losing an election. Removing candidates from the primary ballot as a form of punishment is a move that both the GOP chairman and critics [anticipate will invite legal challenges](https://www.kxan.com/news/texas/texas-house-republicans-face-possible-censure-following-speaker-vote/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). We should hope they do not comply in advance. While the majority of the Texas population may identify as Christian, they’re not all the types seeking to Christianize the state. Many, for example, believe in the basic tenets of the Constitution. That goes for the Texas Republican party too. The rights laid out in our Constitution — and the doctrine of separation of church and state — were put in place to protect minority groups. Whether there are enough Republicans who are willing to uphold those rights, only time will tell. Some might argue that America has always been a Christian nation and that such bills are simply returning our country to its historic roots. That (dubious) assertion has long been put forward by members of the John Birch Society, a far-right group founded in 1958 that has had a [bit of a resurgence](https://www.texasobserver.org/the-john-birch-society-sees-a-renaissance-in-north-texas/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in Texas in recent years. The group recently celebrated the introduction of Texas House Bill 1281, which seems to “nullify the United Nations (UN), World Health Organization (WHO), and World Economic Forum (WEF) within Texas.” In a nutshell, the John Birch Society believes there is a globalist cabal, which includes [the Pope](https://x.com/The%5FJBS/status/1879568026577826054?s=19&ref=thebarbedwire.com), that is systematically turning over control of America to one, big world communist government — through such international organizations. While their favorite bill may be premised on an insane set of assumptions and is unlikely to pass, the influence of their ideas in government serves as another indicator of where we are right now. Texan conspiracy theorist and defamation lawsuit loser extraordinaire Alex Jones once called President Donald Trump the “John Birch Society president.” Let’s hope Texas doesn’t become the John Birch Society state. ### Just Some Adorable Texas Snowpocalypse 2025 Content, Including Pets & Babies URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/just-some-adorable-texas-snowpocalypse-2025-content-including-pets-babies/ Last updated: 2025-01-21T21:05:19.000Z While it may feel like the world is on fire (and rightfully so), mother nature sent parts of Central and South Texas a magical flurry of snowflakes overnight to put out the flames. Austin, San Antonio, and Houston were all under winter storm warnings or winter weather advisories on Tuesday. Areas of Houston got between [two to six inches of snow](https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/houston-snow-photos-20046593.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Even [the beach](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DFF9-93IigQ/?hl=en&ref=thebarbedwire.com)! Look, between navigating [what defines a Nazi sign](https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/elon-musk-salute-reaction-right-wing-extremists-1235241866/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) at the *inauguration of a United States president* and [xenophobic executive orders ](https://19thnews.org/2025/01/birthright-citizenship-trump-executive-order/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)(and the [89th Texas Legislative Session](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/we-asked-an-astrologer-to-read-the-texas-legislatures-horoscope-itll-be-a-groundbreaking-session/)), it’s going to be a long road ahead for Texans. Today, we’re allowing ourselves to revert back to the child-like joy of stepping out in the snow in Texas for the very first time. Feel the cool wind hit your face, hear the crunch of ice under your shoes, and smush the slush. Gather enough of the white stuff to make a tiny snowball! Here’s a look at some of the best Texas snow moments that made us smile. This morning, my pug was wondering why the ground was covered in frozen stuff. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DFGCZYnJevZ/?utm\_source=ig\_web\_copy\_link Houstonians are dressing in layers. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DFEaU6cu7Z6/?utm\_source=ig\_web\_copy\_link “If you don’t have to be out, why would you?” Great advice from TV journalist Donnie Tuggle in College Station. https://www.instagram.com/p/DFF8HOWxdsB/ An Elsa sighting in Texas. https://www.tiktok.com/@jeromebartlett/video/7462112548037610798?\_r=1&\_t=ZP-8tFtcnZbzTz Texas babies are braving the “snowstorm” in their 4-wheel drives. https://www.tiktok.com/@big\_mama\_angel/video/7462389762255572254?\_r=1&\_t=ZP-8tFtesTTxdP Our editor in chief’s pup (in a puffy gold vest) said NOPE the moment it hit the snow. https://www.tiktok.com/@oliviamesser7/video/7462377169965026606?\_t=ZT-8tFyxIn50z0&\_r=1 Also worth noting? Evil MoPac [made a thread](https://x.com/EvilMopacATX/status/1881721516628525242?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of Texas flurry content on X, and folks contributed happily from all over — including deer, toys, and messages written in the snow. > Near Wimberley [pic.twitter.com/nyITCAVnrI](https://t.co/nyITCAVnrI?ref=thebarbedwire.com) > > — Jewelcraft ❤ (@stacia\_woods) [January 21, 2025](https://twitter.com/stacia%5Fwoods/status/1881730309332599295?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=thebarbedwire.com) > First time seeing it and I think she’s a fan [pic.twitter.com/ldJOQHkId9](https://t.co/ldJOQHkId9?ref=thebarbedwire.com) > > — Tanya\_TX (@t\_steinwald) [January 21, 2025](https://twitter.com/t%5Fsteinwald/status/1881730856462733331?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=thebarbedwire.com) > [pic.twitter.com/9X04lnsv66](https://t.co/9X04lnsv66?ref=thebarbedwire.com) > > — r.mcknight (@rompolyglot) [January 21, 2025](https://twitter.com/rompolyglot/status/1881734413828116543?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=thebarbedwire.com) > [pic.twitter.com/xbPxBmjSSA](https://t.co/xbPxBmjSSA?ref=thebarbedwire.com) > > — herecomesrufus (@herecomesrufus\_) [January 21, 2025](https://twitter.com/herecomesrufus%5F/status/1881736100668194911?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=thebarbedwire.com) > Cat was very confused [pic.twitter.com/KiwcMvZKM6](https://t.co/KiwcMvZKM6?ref=thebarbedwire.com) > > — ⁵⁵¹¹ 🍌 (@BAYC5511) [January 21, 2025](https://twitter.com/BAYC5511/status/1881726132959220193?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=thebarbedwire.com) Y’all stay warm, and we’ll see you Friday for the much-awaited 60-degree weather 😂 ### Texas’ Most Notorious Killer, John Wesley Hardin, Is Buried in El Paso URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-most-notorious-killer-john-wesley-hardin-is-buried-in-el-paso/ Last updated: 2025-01-21T10:00:00.000Z Ask Patricia Kiddney her take on Bob Dylan’s 1967 album, “John Wesley Harding,” and the president of El Paso’s Concordia Heritage Association will say she instead prefers the Man in Black’s ode to the infamous outlaw. “The lyrics that I like the best are the ones Johnny Cash does about how Hardin ‘[wouldn’t run](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjMto5vxU1o&ref=thebarbedwire.com),’” she said. “When I am doing my Hardin programs, I start off setting it up and (tell) everybody to listen very quietly. ‘This is going to set up the man that you’re going to learn about.’” Hardin(Dylan [misspelled the name ](https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/bob-dylan-john-wesley-harding-album-review/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)on the album**)** was buried in El Paso’s [Concordia Cemetery](https://www.concordiacemetery.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in 1895 shortly after being shot [in the back](https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=24741&ref=thebarbedwire.com) of the head at El Paso’s Acme Saloon by John Selman, a deputy constable and an outlaw himself, according to various accounts. Hardin’s grave is encased in an enclosure of stone and wrought iron to protect it from the bleary-eyed history buffs and vandals who for years left bullet casings, shattered whiskey bottles, or shot glasses atop Hardin’s grave. The first Texas historical marker at the site was also stripped of most of its lettering, Kiddney said, and had to be replaced. “Those are expensive,” she said. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/hardin-4.jpg) Photos courtesy Julián Aguilar The cemetery could serve as a backdrop in any modern Western: The 52-acre spread is loosely segregated by faith — and even ethnicity. Some areas are overgrown with crabgrass and weeds, and several of its 60,000 graves hold the remains of unknown bodies that date back to before the reconstruction era. It’s nestled in Central El Paso in a neighborhood that’s a microcosm of the southwest border: a blue-collar barrio just a few miles north of Mexico. A major U.S. Army base — Fort Bliss, Texas — sits nearby to the north. And the badlands of the dusty New Mexico desert are about a dozen miles west. Hardin’s legacy is likewise storied — and complicated. He’s been depicted as one of the most notorious outlaws of yesteryear with his kill count ranging from“[at least 21](https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Wesley-Hardin?ref=thebarbedwire.com)” to more [than 40](https://www.wgbh.org/news/2012-08-02/the-ghostly-grandeur-of-a-desert-graveyard?ref=thebarbedwire.com). A native of Bonham, Texas, Hardin spent several years evading law enforcement in Kansas, Florida, and Alabama. Hardin’s final resting place has also been caught in a crossfire. In 1995, Hardin’s family tried to “steal his grave,” Kiddney said. While the accusation invokes images of pre-dawn thievery, the dispute between Hardin’s ancestors and the cemetery was hashed out in court. (A [case summary](https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/tx-court-of-appeals/1216054.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com#footnote%5F4) of the dispute actually quotes one of the most iconic lyrics written about Western gunslingers: “Out in the West Texas town of El Paso,” taken from Marty Robbins’ classic [El Paso](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWm5WErkffQ&ref=thebarbedwire.com).) The family’s efforts were eventually shot down. “In the early morning hours of Sunday, August 27, 1995 … various individuals later named as defendants below, traveled to El Paso for the purpose of disinterring the remains of John Wesley Hardin. Upon arrival at Concordia Cemetery, they were served with a handwritten ‘court order’ prohibiting them from removing the body of Hardin. The descendants ceased their activities and returned home,” the case summary reads. Hero or villain? In his autobiography, he boasts he didn’t shoot those who “didn’t need killing,” a claim historian Kristina Downs, the executive director of the Texas Folklore Society, said is dubious. “The romanticized version is very different from reality,” she said. “He doesn’t sound like a nice guy.” One of Hardin’s most famous exploits was killing a man who was [snoring too loudly](https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/john-wesley-hardin-is-pardoned?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which disturbed the outlaw’s peaceful slumber. A lot of what is written about Hardin, Downs added, comes from his own autobiography, which was written with a certain élan capable of embellishment and skirting the truth. But she acknowledged the nostalgia tied to famous outlaws, especially from Texas. “If you talk to a lot of families that have deep roots in Texas, a lot of them have these kinds of stories,” she said. “And (the outlaws) were usually in trouble unjustly.” But Kiddney eschews any thought of Hardin being an indiscriminate killer. He was a product of the post-Civil War era where southerners were mistreated and did what they needed to survive. “He (was) rehabilitated. Prison did what it was supposed to do for him,” she said. “And he didn’t shoot anybody after he got out of prison. And honestly, he didn’t kill anybody that ‘didn’t need killing.’” ### Cecile Richards Did Not Quit. Neither Can We. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/cecile-richards-did-not-quit-neither-can-we/ Last updated: 2025-01-20T15:41:46.000Z On the morning of Wednesday, November 7, 2018, I was sitting in my office at the Texas AFL-CIO building, square between the Texas governor’s mansion and the state capitol, ruminating on what had been one hell of a weird election night. On the one hand, progressives had picked up nearly a dozen seats in the Texas Legislature. It was an outcome that would surely result in better public education policy and diminished attacks on workers, queer kids, immigrants, and other recurrent targets of right wing bullying. On the other hand, Beto O’Rourke was *this close* to beating Ted Cruz in the race for U.S. Senate, but he came up short. Justin Nelson was *this close* to beating Ken Paxton for state attorney general, but he too came up short. And Donald-fucking-Trump was still the president. As I mulled the future, Cecile Richards — all six feet of her, with her striking golden hair, barreled into my office, unannounced. She stopped at my desk and said “Ugh, Jeff Rotkoff. Your desk is a mess. You need to clean this office.” She paused and caught her breath. “I’m sorry,” she continued, “that was such an Ann Richards thing of me to do.” “I’m here because I’m giving a speech at lunch about Texas politics and I need you to go over the election results with me so that I can leave these people inspired,” she said. Cecile Richards lost her battle to cancer today. She was 67 years old. But throughout the past 18 months, following an impossibly aggressive diagnosis, she never stopped looking for opportunities to leave people inspired for a better future. From her time as a union organizer in East Texas, to her work at Planned Parenthood, to her latest project at Abortion in America, Cecile was a fearless, joyful warrior, and I believe she knew the power of her words and her example. She was unafraid of bullies, and she was an unapologetic believer that the future can be as bright as we work to make it. Cecile also loved her home state, and she never gave up on Texas. Throughout the last decade or so, I would often get a text or call from Cecile, “Jeff, I’m going on MSNBC,” or “Jeff, I’m talking to so-and-so” — usually a progressive billionaire. She always wanted the latest data on why progressives around the country should invest in Texas. She knew that the people of Texas deserve a government so much better than the one we have. That every Texan deserves a life of dignity, safety, respect, and joy. Today, with millions of Americans, I will grieve. I will grieve the start of the second Trump administration and the untold harm it will bring. I will grieve for Cecile’s husband Kirk, and her kids and grandchild. And I will grieve for the loss of my friend. But then I will get back to work. Cecile Richards believed the future is ours to make, if only we have the courage to fight for it. Let’s dig deep and find ours. ### Cecile Richards, Former Planned Parenthood President, Dead at 67 URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/cecile-richards-former-planned-parenthood-president-dead-at-67/ Last updated: 2025-01-20T15:21:11.000Z Cecile Richards, the eldest daughter of Texas Gov. Ann Richards, died on Monday at the age of 67, according to a statement from her family. Richards, a lifelong feminist activist and advocate for reproductive rights, had an aggressive form of brain cancer. She remained active in Democratic politics throughout her diagnosis. “This morning our beloved Cecile passed away at home, surrounded by her family and her ever-loyal dog, Ollie. Our hearts are broken today but no words can do justice to the joy she brought to our lives,” her family wrote on Monday. “After receiving the incredibly tough diagnosis of glioblastoma,” her family continued, “Cecile proceeded to launch a [new organization](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/31/business/media/cecile-richards-abortion-social-media.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) dedicated to chronicling the personal impact of abortion bans, accept the [Presidential Medal of Freedom](https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/biden-awards-medal-freedom-former-planned-parenthood-president/story?id=116067740&ref=thebarbedwire.com) and the [French Legion of Honor](https://www.instagram.com/cecilerichards/p/C7SjTVgoCVO/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), bring the house down with her [speech](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSteeqjbnrU&ref=thebarbedwire.com) in support of Kamala Harris at the 2024 Democratic National Convention,” and celebrate many family milestones. *[The 19th](https://19thnews.org/2025/01/cecile-richards-former-planned-parenthood-president-and-feminist-activist-has-died/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)* first broke the news of Richards’ death on Monday. As *Texas Tribune* [reported](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/01/20/cecile-richards-planned-parenthood-dies-brain-cancer/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Richards founded the Texas Freedom Network, a grassroots social justice organization. She was widely known for reshaping Planned Parenthood into a political force as well as a health care provider. ### Austin Arts to Watch for: The XOXO Photography Fellowship URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/austin-arts-to-watch-for-the-xoxo-photography-fellowship/ Last updated: 2025-01-17T16:07:06.000Z There’s no denying Austin’s growth. In the last two decades, the skyline has changed from one that looked not all that different in 2021 than it did in 1975 to a beautiful, crowded, modern silhouette cast in a burnt orange glow when the sun sets over the paddleboarders on Town Lake. With that architectural evolution has come a population that has doubled in two decades. Our musicians, artists, students and state employees have been joined by countless workers in the tech and finance sectors, and a welcome wave of transplants from California to New York and every place in between. But there is still something essentially “Austin” about our city. You’ll see it when you pass by Daniel Johnston’s “Hi, How Are You” character on the Drag. You’ll feel Austin when you pick up tacos and coffee and enjoy a morning trek around the hike and bike trail. And you’ll hear Austin when an up-and-coming local band chases their big break with a showcase gig at The Mohawk on Red River. Bringing downtown Austin to life, and capturing the things that keep our city’s beauty above the waterline amongst the crashing waves of change, is what makes the Downtown Austin Alliance’s XOXO Photography Fellowship exciting and inspiring. As a part of this program, six local photography fellows will work with veteran photographer mentors to explore their own perspectives and highlight the art, parks, food, museums, and music that make downtown Austin unique. Of the program, Mentor Jay Ybarra told us, *“working with the XOXO fellowship was a great experience. I found it exciting to see the perspective of different photographers, both seeing how they would shoot within different boundaries and their own unique take on each theme. (I’m) looking forward to where each fellow will continue to go from here.”* For her part, participant photographer Isabelle Milford summed up her experience a “love letter” to downtown: *“Dear Downtown Austin, I remember the first time I stepped foot in you. My eyes were bewildered with the colors dazzling the buildings. Personality oozed off of every street corner. I dragged my mom up and down the construction-ridden roads, pointing at every little interesting thing that you would never see in the suburbs. I stood there with my little camera, staring, only stopping for the second that my shutter went off. I remember stumbling upon a yellow bathtub sitting in someone’s front yard—that was when I fell in love. When I came back for school, that’s when I got to truly feel your energy. I got to meet those around you that make you who you are. We grew a connection, you and I. You helped me feel more at home inside myself than I ever felt back in the suburbs of Dallas. Your quirks matched mine. Thank you for allowing me to explore you, photograph you, and be in your presence. You have helped me open up to the sides of myself I’ve always wanted to, but never quite could. You have changed me in ways I will forever be grateful for. Thank you, Downtown Austin, for being who you are. Love, Isabelle.”* You can learn more about the DAA’s 2024-2025 XOXO Photography Fellows [here](https://downtownaustin.com/blog/2024-xoxo-photography-fellows-announced/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Or by attending the opening reception of “Moments in Motion: Downtown's Changing Canvas” on Jan. 17 from 6 to 9 p.m. at 506 Congress in Austin. In the meantime, keep your eyes open for the things that make Austin beautiful — they’re everywhere you look. ### I Can’t Believe It’s Not Heroin! URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/i-cant-believe-its-not-heroin/ Last updated: 2025-01-17T10:00:00.000Z *(Editor’s Note: If you or a loved one struggle with substance abuse disorder, visit* [*findtreatment.gov*](https://findtreatment.gov/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) *to learn about options for treatment and help. And don’t try any of this at home.)* When I was 29, there was a vape shop by my apartment where I bought nicotine pouches. They sat on the shelf to the left of a selection of kratom products: various powders, capsules, and tinctures of a Southeast Asian plant that, in low doses, have stimulant-like effects and, in high doses, mild opiate-like effects. I’d used kratom powder to get off of vicodin and morphine — habits I picked up at 20 years old after moving into a rat-infested drug den with some friends. But at 29, I wasn’t really thinking about opiates. I hadn’t popped a pain pill or snorted morphine in six years, and I had no real intention of doing so on this particularly cool winter day. But then, I went to pay for the one drug I allowed myself to consume on a day-to-day basis: mint flavored paper pouches of nicotine, which keep me from yelling at everyone and doing the dishes too aggressively. That’s when I noticed a little white, almost medicinal-looking box that said “Hydroxie.” I sort of laughed and said, “The fuck is that?” to the baby-faced stoner kid working the touch-screen register. “Oh, it’s 7-OH. It’s the stuff in kratom thats fucks you up but like, *super* concentrated. It’s like dabs but for kratom kinda,” he replied. “Shit flies off the shelves here, man. People love it.” “This shit’s legal? It works?” I asked, as I craned my neck to get a look at the price tag. I had butterflies in my stomach. The kind right when you crest the peak of a roller coaster, when you know what’s coming, and you’re probably going to be mostly safe. But you’re excited and scared nonetheless. That mix of energy and adrenaline and excitement. $20 for two 20 milligram pills. I used to pawn every guitar I had for that kind of dose. “Yea, dude. Shit’s no joke at all,” he answered. Things in my life were going about as well as they could go, given the circumstances at the time. “What the hell,” I said. “Throw ’em in the bag.” The kid rang me up, but before I left, he warned, “Hey man, maybe just eat half and see how you feel. I see a lot of people roll through here for ’em. Construction guys usually. They buy me out the day I restock. Just be careful, man! Have a good one, bro.” \*\*\* Back at my apartment, I popped the box open to find a foil-back pack with two pills, as promised. The look and feel was in every way similar to a two-pack of travel Tylenol. The pills were light brown, sort of chalky, with a large “H” stamped in the middle to resemble street-pressed pain pills and fake Oxy. I laughed a little at the not-so-subtle branding of the product and broke the pill in half; it gave way without much effort. I hesitated a bit, and a montage of bad memories played out in fast-forward in my head. Pawn shops, arguments with family, the empty half-hearted smile of the intake nurse at a mental hospital in South Austin, blood in the sink, and red in the bank account. All that went away pretty quickly, though, when I thought about how good my life had been lately. I deserved a little something for 150 days free from alcohol. That had been the last dragon left to slay after 15 years of asking, “Gee, what does this stuff do if I take a bunch of it?” I popped the chalky tablet in my mouth, washed it back with a tamarind Jarritos soda, and got to work. \*\*\* It starts in your legs and in the back of your chest. There’s a levity, like tilting a chair onto its hind legs and finding that sweet spot right before it falls over. Then there’s the warmth. It’s not just the sensation of physical temperature. It’s like coming back to your apartment after a night out in the winter. The warmth of home. It’s familiar, it’s kind, and it doesn’t want to harm you. At least at first. Then, there’s what’s colloquially referred to as “the nod.” It’s a trance brought on by the aforementioned sensations as the endorphins start kicking in. Suddenly you’re oscillating between the alertness of a fever dream and the lethargy of that first “plop” down on the couch after a long shift. It’s both heavy and light. Like a lilt in a child’s lullaby, or the raspy vibrato of a lounge singer as she ascends and descends with the scales of the piano. It is fucking incredible, and there is nothing like it. I spent the next two hours drifting in and out of consciousness on my couch. Before I passed out, the last thing I remember thinking was, “There is no fucking way they should be allowed to sell this shit next to Bob Marley posters and SpongeBob bongs.” \*\*\* I love opiates. Starting at 20, we had an on-again-off-again relationship for a little while until my whole life went to shit, but like any boy’s first love, I think about them from time to time and wonder how they’re doing. I loved them from the moment I tried my first vicodin in ninth grade. I was more or less the perfect poster child for the D.A.R.E. program. Weed was fine, and booze was fun, but what I really wanted was something that would make me almost die in total bliss. I was trying to turn my brain off. At their best, opiates are a hug from a cherished, estranged old friend. A blanket fresh from the dryer on a cool winter’s eve. Sunlight that you can see even with your eyes closed, a warm orange hue that envelops the backs of your eyelids as you crest a hill to find the clearest, coolest, bluest oasis thine own eyes have ever seen. At their worst, like anything in life that feels too good, they’ll eventually take everything from you. Yes, even *that*. And sooner rather than later you’re at a meeting in some rec center, repeating the serenity prayer through gritted teeth in a room full of people all doing the same. It’s a thief. They’re relief on a loan with one hell of an interest rate. Much like a fresh-faced new quarterback, opiates have a long history of being hailed as a miracle then cursed as a scourge. At the turn of the nineteenth century, a Prussian chemist isolated chemicals in opium and created the first synthetic: morphine. Roughly a hundred years later, German chemists working at Bayer refined morphine into heroin (around the same time they invented aspirin) and began to mass market it as a wonder drug that was safer than morphine and even a cure for addiction. In reality, it was six times more powerful. Sound familiar? About 30 years ago, Purdue Pharma introduced OxyContin — with another opium synthetic, oxycodone, wrapped in a time-release coating and multitudes stronger than its Percocet predecessor — and aggressively marketed it as a safe and easily accessible painkiller to doctors offices across the country. Sales reps promised a cure-all for every type of pain: a leg lost in a lathe accident or headaches from being a housewife. Then addictions and overdoses skyrocketed into what the [Department of Justice](https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-announces-global-resolution-criminal-and-civil-investigations-opioid?ref=thebarbedwire.com) called “a national tragedy.” Now more than a million people in the U.S. have an [opioid use disorder](https://www.hhs.gov/opioids/statistics/index.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and the drug is nearly impossible to get — [even for cancer patients](https://www.cancer.gov/news-events/cancer-currents-blog/2020/opioids-cancer-pain-oncologists-decreasing-prescriptions?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Though the feds have managed to squeeze some money out of Purdue for drug treatment programs, the opioid crisis has been called a [colossal policy failure ](https://opioids.stanford.edu/north-american-opioid-crisis-case-study-multi-system-regulatory-failure?ref=thebarbedwire.com)with no end in sight. It is a very American thing to sell a “miracle” to gullible, desperate people — and then, in an act of mercy, take it away from them and tell them to figure the rest out as they writhe sick and sweating alone on the floor. This overcorrection and refusal to treat addicts like human beings has opened the floodgates for fly-by-night companies to ply their mystery wares. The response to the unstoppable force of Texans’ desire to get fucked up has meant big bucks for shady companies looking to capitalize on the former while skirting the wrath of the state. This has created a not-so-black market where you can buy [legal “weed](https://www.statesman.com/story/news/state/2024/04/19/delta-8-texas-thc-delta-9-safe-fda-weed-marijuana-laws/73368546007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com),” trip the fuck out on psychedelic [mushrooms](https://www.dallasobserver.com/news/psychedelic-we-tripped-on-magic-mushroom-gummies-18513383?ref=thebarbedwire.com) without fear of jail, and even get [addicted to what scientists compare to “legal morphine.”](https://www.tampabay.com/investigations/2023/12/09/tampa-bay-times-tested-20-kratom-products-heres-what-we-found/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) All can be found at gas stations and vape stores across the state. Enter: a new wave of synthetic opiates. Hustlers and hucksters have miraculously found a way to make a buck peddling knockoffs of the stuff the state has deemed too dangerous. Certain substances like tianeptine, AKA [“gas station heroin,”](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10444703/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) are in a legal gray space — illegal to sell and market because they’re not Food and Drug Administration-approved (the [agency has issued warnings](https://www.fda.gov/consumers/health-fraud-scams/tianeptine?ref=thebarbedwire.com) against tianeptine products) but not a federally controlled substance. Calls to poison control centers and reported deaths from tianeptine have gone up, and [crackdowns](https://www.justice.gov/usao-nh/pr/arizona-company-and-ceo-sentenced-illegal-distribution-tianeptine-and-other-drugs-and?ref=thebarbedwire.com) have ensued, so the invisible hand of the market got to work and started throwing stuff in the bathtub to see what would stick. [7-Hydroxymitragynine](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6598159/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) stuck like fucking glue. Mitragynine is a main compound in kratom and breaks down into 7-hydroxymitragynine when ingested, according to the [National Institute on Drug Abuse](https://nida.nih.gov/research-topics/kratom?ref=thebarbedwire.com#affect-body). Though not approved by the FDA, kratom has been used for opioid withdrawal symptoms. Both mitragynine and 7-OH affect the brain like codeine or morphine; they activate biochemical pathways that elicit pain relief and affect mood. Hydroxie is just one brand you can find in vape stores, gas stations, and liquor stores all across the state of Texas, as well as other 7-OH tablets called hyDROXYS, Press’d, BLOOS, and my personal favorite: PERKS. The story of how 7-OH came to flood vape shops and gas stations across the country is a bit murky. Despite [being identified 30 years ago](https://www.thieme-connect.de/products/ejournals/abstract/10.1055/s-2006-959578?ref=thebarbedwire.com) by scientists at Chiba University, it only truly [became popular with consumers in the last year](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/add.16728?af=R&ref=thebarbedwire.com). Despite its trace presence in raw kratom leaf, 7-OH is synthetically derived from kratom [and is incredibly addictive](https://www.aboutlawsuits.com/kratom-class-action-lawsuit-alleges-ingredients-are-as-addictive-as-opioids/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Because of a lack of federal oversight, users have [no idea what they’re getting or how much they’re taking](https://www.tampabay.com/investigations/2023/12/09/tampa-bay-times-tested-20-kratom-products-heres-what-we-found/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The [Texas Legislature](https://www.kxan.com/news/texas-politics/texas-legislature-passes-bill-to-make-kratom-safer-for-consumers/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [passed a bill](https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/88R/analysis/html/HB00861H.htm?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=Multiple%20states%20have%20passed%20laws,Health%20and%20Safety%20Protection%20Act.) in 2023 that requires manufacturers to register their products, set limits for the level of 7-hydroxymitragynine, and restrict use of synthetics. In July, the [Global Kratom Coalition](https://globalkratomcoalition.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) sent a letter to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton warning of the dangers of concentrates and 7-OH abuse. According to the coalition’s letter, an independent lab detected illegal levels of 7-OH found in products sold at various vape stores around Dallas and in Collin County. “We’re concerned that kratom, in many cases, is no longer kratom,” said the executive director of the coalition, Matthew Lowe, in an interview with [*The Dallas Morning News*](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/2024/10/02/kratom-advocate-says-illegal-synthetic-products-are-being-sold-in-north-texas/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)*.* Lowe told the newspaper about the rise of 7-OH abuse over the past 18 months and the work he has done to better understand it. “The regulatory environment is a little bit gray at this point in time,” he added. “You’ve also got a situation where the innovation, in and outside the kratom industry, in isolated synthetic products is increasing at a really, really fast pace.” “We’re seeing it everywhere,” Lowe told the newspaper. Some business owners want better regulations on the products, and the Food and Drug Administration has said there is inadequate information [about kratom](https://www.fda.gov/news-events/public-health-focus/fda-and-kratom?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to “provide reasonable assurance that such ingredient does not present a significant or unreasonable risk of illness or injury.” The agency says it has not approved any prescription or over-the-counter drug products containing kratom or its two main chemical components, mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine. Kratom is illegal in six states, but most — like Texas — have lagged behind legislating these rapidly changing drugs. Although these substances are fairly new, they have already wreaked havoc among addicts and former addicts who are looking for ways to curb cravings. An estimated 1.7 million Americans ages 12 and older used kratom in 2021, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s [National Survey on Drug Use and Health](https://www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files/reports/rpt39443/2021NSDUHFFRRev010323.pdf?ref=thebarbedwire.com). In a 2023 investigation, the [*Tampa Bay Times*](https://project.tampabay.com/investigations/deadly-dose/kratom-overdose-deaths-florida-mitragynine-testing/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) found 580 people died in Florida from kratom-related overdoses and that people with a history of drug use accounted for the majority of kratom-only overdoses. [Reddit communities](https://www.reddit.com/r/Quittingfeelfree/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) also have popped up featuring horror stories of addiction, overdose, relapse, and financial ruin. I am a year into cycling between detox and retox with 7-OH. Something I told myself a long time ago I would never do. Sitting here writing this, I am, for about the sixth time, trying to taper off the synthetics and kratom concentrates. From experience, I can tell you that while the withdrawals aren’t exactly on par with pharmaceutical opiates, they are terrible and very difficult to manage, especially as the prevalence of these drugs increases and their availability becomes impossible to ignore. Imagine being addicted to heroin and you can just go to 7-Eleven to pick up a Little Debbie and some Dilaudid. This is not a projection of my own addictive personality attempting to regulate the behavior of others, nor is it intended to be a scare tactic designed to shame people or drive them away from this stuff. Bad drug policies open up spaces for hucksters and hustlers to fill the gaps that broken people often fall through. You can throw a fat sleeping Pokémon character on a soft-pack of pills and call it natural, but that doesn’t make it so. \*\*\* This backroom bathtub operation doesn’t stop at opiates. Hell, this is Texas, brother. The last bastion of freedom. In the Lone Star State, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are made manifest in day-to-day life. Texans are free to be [executed at rates higher](https://tcadp.org/get-informed/texas-death-penalty-facts/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) than residents of any other state. It is our God-given right to dole out death as we see fit, even if the [evidence doesn’t support](https://tcadp.org/stop-executions/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#RobertRoberson) the state’s decision to turn a guy into worm food. Let God sort ’em out. Texans, being outdoor-loving, wild-at-heart, roamers of the rugged plains, are free to live and die outside, as assistance dries up and already strained services see a spike in homelessness, particularly among [veterans and families](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/01/11/texas-homelessness-estimate/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). You have the right to work yourself silly for wages determined by your boss, [who understands what’s best for you](https://www.keranews.org/news/2022-09-13/texas-is-one-of-the-worst-states-in-the-country-for-workers-heres-why?ref=thebarbedwire.com) more than those pesky unions do. But even the streets of Heaven have a few potholes. Not everything is free here in Texas. Texas has some of the [strictest drug laws in the country,](https://www.nonstopjustice.com/blog/drug-laws-in-texas/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and the most powerful man in the state intends to make them [a lot worse](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-most-powerful-man-in-texas-really-wants-to-ban-thc/). The bell of liberty rings loud as hell when it comes to [owning a kangaroo](https://knue.com/texas-exotic-animal-pets/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), but if you want to spark up — or enjoy a nice beach day with a head full of mushrooms — you will not collect $200, you will collect suffering. I don’t particularly care for weed. Haven’t since high school. That being said, I think as one of the biggest and most populated states in the country, we should have followed the [will of the masses](https://news.gallup.com/poll/514007/grassroots-support-legalizing-marijuana-hits-record.aspx?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and made it legal 10 years ago and been done with it. Nixon’s War on Drugs, like many Great American Wars, was sold as something that was going to make American lives better and easier, but was really done as a way to justify policing communities that the government felt needed a stern hand — [in this case Black Americans, leftists, and anti-war protestors](https://www.forbes.com/sites/eriksherman/2016/03/23/nixons-drug-war-an-excuse-to-lock-up-blacks-and-protesters-continues/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). About half of the country, over the last 20 years or so, has done its best to undo the mess done by administrations run by Puritans. But not Texas. We march forever onward, heads held high, noses turned upward at those who find themselves addicted, strung out, and destitute; and we do the same for people just looking to have a good time. When it comes to drug possession and use, forgiveness and compassion is for the birds. This is Texas. Culturally, it’s considered a moral failing to use drugs. It is a moral failing to suffer under a cruel and neglectful society, basically. We are duty-bound as Christians to expedite your journey to Hell. And by God, if I catch you smoking legal hemp, I am going to [throw your ass in the slammer myself,](https://www.texastribune.org/2023/02/22/texas-delta-8-marijuana-hemp-arrests/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) then promptly [throw the evidence in the nearest dumpster](https://southcoastsafeaccess.com/san-antonio-police-threw-thc-products-in-school-dumpsters?ref=thebarbedwire.com). \*\*\* By letting a murky black market of drugs thrive, we’re only hurting real people. What is there to be done? Decriminalization, regulation, and rehabilitation is hard, I agree. Especially in our political world, where only the biggest dumpster fires get attention. I don’t really know what the solution is, but I do know that the current state of affairs, like many things in this country, was created to punish certain groups, exploit others, and enrich some of the worst people on Planet Earth. I also know that addiction is one of those things that affects everyone, but not everyone has the resources to beat it. To many, it is sacrilege to suggest another course of action that is empathetic in its approach as opposed to punitive, but regulation might be that answer. The worst people in the world are having the time of their lives while some of the best people I know pawn tools for mystery pills sold next to beer bongs. If we want to truly be the last frontier of freedom, the last bastion of Bubbas on the wild plains, we should take a look at the ways that we box sick people into cycles of suffering, and then we should crucify the people responsible. Also we should stop selling fake heroin at the gas station. ### Take Down Your Bird Feeders. Texas Parks & Wildlife Warns Bird Flu Is Highly Contagious. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/take-down-your-bird-feeders-texas-parks-wildlife-warns-bird-flu-is-highly-contagious/ Last updated: 2025-01-16T21:32:09.000Z Texas Parks and Wildlife is urging Texans to stop feeding birds at area parks, take down bird feeders, and remove any bird baths. In case you missed it, bird flu is in Texas and has been since at least December, but this month, officials are raising alarms. Last week there were multiple dead ducks found at a pond in [northwest Austin](https://www.kxan.com/news/local/travis-county/bird-flu-detected-in-dead-birds-found-in-north-austin/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), adding Travis County to a list of others with confirmed Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, aka the bird flu. The outbreak has also been documented in Wharton, Galveston, El Paso, Potter, and Harris counties according to [KERA](https://www.keranews.org/public-health/2025-01-15/bird-flu-warning-issued-by-texas-parks-and-wildlife?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The risk of transmission to humans is low, but the virus has shown it has the potential to mutate, and the [first confirmed human death](https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2025/m0106-h5-birdflu-death.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=January%206%2C%202025%20%2D%2D%20CDC,the%20risk%20to%20human%20health.) of the H5N1 strain of the bird flu outbreak happened in Louisiana this month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced on Jan. 6\. Still, the risk to the general public remains low and the CDC says no person-to-person transmission spread has been identified. Texas Parks and Wildlife is warning people to be vigilant and avoid handling any sick or dead wildlife. They also urge Texans to keep an eye on their pets and make sure they don’t “consume any wild carcasses.” Read more at [*KERA*](https://www.keranews.org/public-health/2025-01-15/bird-flu-warning-issued-by-texas-parks-and-wildlife?ref=thebarbedwire.com). ### We Asked an Astrologer to Read the Texas Legislature’s Horoscope. It’ll Be a Groundbreaking Session. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/we-asked-an-astrologer-to-read-the-texas-legislatures-horoscope-itll-be-a-groundbreaking-session/ Last updated: 2025-01-16T10:00:00.000Z Let us help you navigate the world of state politics by asking for answers from the stars. Given that the first legislative session in the state of Texas began on February 16, 1864 in Austin, that makes our clown car of a legislature an Aquarius sun! Aquarius is an air sign, and its traditional planetary rulers are Saturn and Uranus, which creates a balance of stoicism and oddity. (Yep, that sounds about right for the #txlege.) An Aquarius is unpredictable and will always keep you on your toes because they never want to be boxed in as “figured out.” Being misunderstood is painfully addictive for this air sign — and if there’s one thing that’s misunderstood in Texas, it’s the legislature. We’re predicting 2025 to be a groundbreaking year based on the Lege’s astrological chart, and here’s what this means for you: ### Aquarius Sun Aquarians are intellectual, but they’re also quirky — think of someone who might read a *lot* and also *might believe in some* conspiracy theories. If you haven’t read Molly Ivins’ *many* seminal writings on the Lege, let us remind you. “All anyone needs to enjoy the state legislature is a strong stomach and a complete insensitivity to the needs of the people,” she once wrote. “As long as you don’t think about what that peculiar body should be doing and what it actually is doing to the quality of life in Texas, then it’s all marvelous fun.” Another classic: “As they say around the Texas Legislature, if you can't drink their whiskey, screw their women, take their money, and vote against 'em anyway, you don't belong in office.” Your sun sign describes your ego, personality, and how you self-express. As an Aquarius sun, the legislature has a deep desire to be understood on an individual level. Aquarians are naturally authentic souls, and they don’t care to conform or fit in. Yet, they yearn for acceptance, popularity, and even a little praise for their ability to be such out-of-the-box thinkers. They’re inventive and sometimes can go overboard with their eccentricity. But, that’s what we love about them, even if it’s cringe at times. They’re a walking contradiction. An Aquarius sun has an altruistic mission in life. They’re natural humanitarians and have their hand in many different social circles because they *love* people. They value contributing to the “bigger picture.” As an Aquarius sun, the Texas Legislature's birth chart is going to have a groundbreaking year now that Pluto has officially entered Aquarius. This can look like radical changes within the legislature. Pluto in Aquarius will take precedence over the next 20 years and will extend its influence in the areas of aerospace, humanitarian efforts, and technological advancements. It also has the potential to inflate egos. Pluto’s responsibility in astrology is to break down structures and allow phobias to rise to the surface so that transformation can occur. Since this is conspiring in the alien-like sign of Aquarius, this combination is both inventive and completely unpredictable. This ensures the 89th Texas legislative session is *going to be the talk of all sessions*, and it will not be afraid to make bold and unconventional moves. (School vouchers??) ### Libra Moon Libra is the astrological ruler of diplomacy, karma and social justice. It’s so fitting for the Lege’s birth chart to have this placement, and it’s cosmically serendipitous. Sometimes you have to wonder if the government really has astrologers on their team because historical events seem to align so effortlessly with intentional astrological mapping. A moon sign will indicate a person’s hidden agendas, emotional expressions, and what they need to feel understood. It can also be perceived as their love language. Let’s just say, the Texas Legislature has a love language of acts of service. A typical Libra moon loves to dish out and receive acts of service, since they’re all about balance and harmony when it comes to strengthening their relationships and making others feel nurtured. The Libra eclipses did some reckoning on the Libra moon placement of the Texas Legislature’s birth chart, creating massive upheaval and changes in power when the eclipses occurred in the Spring and Fall of 2024\. Now, the moon will be in a calmer temperament as the sun sign in Aquarius will have a 20-year transit from Pluto helping to radicalize politics for Texans. (No, unfortunately we don’t know if it means radical right or left, but I’m sure you can take a wild guess.) ### The 89th Session The first set of eclipses take place in the early months of 2025, so winter will not slip by quietly. Based on its birth chart, the legislature will be undergoing its 179th solar return. A solar return is an astrological term for a birthday. Based on the chart’s natal Venus in Pisces, there will be a huge emphasis on karmic endings — and letting go of limiting beliefs. Pisces rules the 12th house, which is the house of imprisonment and literal prison. Could there be a big focus on police, jails, and criminal justice in the first half of the year? It’s very likely. (Interestingly enough, this year, legislators are tasked with [reviewing spending](https://www.sunset.texas.gov/reviews-and-reports/agencies/texas-department-criminal-justice?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.) Could some politicians face legal troubles or possibly dance on the brink of going to jail? (I mean, Attorney General Ken Paxton is [still under FBI probe](https://www.keranews.org/news/2024-11-22/texas-supreme-court-ag-ken-paxton-wont-have-to-sit-for-deposition-in-whistleblower-suit?ref=thebarbedwire.com).) Could there be others? Sure, why not? Anything goes! As for Texans, understandably, you might feel a need to withdraw and isolate yourself from politics. Be aware, there could be mental overload with the switch from a Biden to a Trump administration, and tricks from Texas politicians could amplify the political circus. It’s normal to feel the need to prioritize your mental health as a way to navigate the year-to-come. Mental health topics could also come up for discussions in the Texan political sphere and as a huge theme as well. ### Spring This is when all the action will take place. (Literally, because March 14 is the last day to [file a bill](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/tlc-texas-gov/docs/legref/dates-of-interest.pdf), and this is when things start rolling during a legislative session.) The Aries Solar Eclipse on March 29 activates a conjunction with the natal chart’s Pluto and an opposition with the chart’s natal Libra moon. Yikes! Texans could feel a deep urge to fight against “the powers that be,” and brace yourselves, it could awaken a sense of rage or loss. However, this will be a time where many will feel awakened from the hibernation of the slower months earlier in the year, and there’s an invigorating sense of renewal to “fight the good fight” within the collective consciousness. (So, find community now!) That solar eclipse is likely to bring unpredictable and dramatic change. You just have to go with the flow during an eclipse and hope you’re prepared to face any potential adversity that comes your way. This is a good time to deepen your spiritual or religious practices. There could be a lot of talk around religion — or imposing religious approaches — within the political domain. In a social capacity, many folks will feel excited to congregate outside of homes, and there could be an influx in community events or grassroots efforts. This is a good time to connect with like-minded individuals and to center healing work within a community setting. There could be an influx of public gatherings of the masses in order to move forward social change, and this is a time where organized events can be beneficial and inspiring. If you’re inspired to lead the charge or get involved in a charitable way, March and April are the months to prioritize said personal objectives. So, pull up your britches Texas, this Aquarius lege is about to take us on a bull ride, but Esoteric Esa and *The Barbed Wire* are here to help keep you grounded. ### Abbott Threatens to Fire Texas A&M President Over a Conference Invitation for Black, Latino, and Native American Students URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/abbott-threatens-to-fire-texas-am-president-over-a-conference-invitation-for-black-latino-and-native-american-students/ Last updated: 2025-01-15T18:25:32.000Z It’s a new year, but Gov. Greg Abbott’s got the same old hobby: staging dramatic meltdowns over diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. Yep, it’s another chapter in a never-ending DEI witch hunt starring Abbott, who’s once again playing tough guy for the right-wing crowd — and this time he’s threatening to fire the president of Texas A&M University (a veritable bastion of liberal wokeness) over a conference that was *expressly* for underrepresented racial groups. The drama began on Monday when conservative activist [Christopher Rufo posted](https://x.com/realchrisrufo/status/1878866282399109543?ref=thebarbedwire.com) a university email inviting certain staff and PhD students to a [conference in Chicago](https://phdproject.org/about-us/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) limited to Black, Latino, and Native American participants. Rufo naturally accused A&M of “supporting racial segregation” and [someone tagged](https://x.com/KurtSchlichter/status/1878943635494043747?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Gov. Greg Abbott and state Attorney General Ken Paxton, asking if they planned to let this slide. "Hell, no,” [Abbott huffed](https://x.com/GregAbbott%5FTX/status/1878977524568674730?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on X. “It’s against Texas law and violates the US Constitution. It will be fixed immediately or the president will soon be gone.” The law he’s referring to is [Senate Bill 17](https://compliance.utexas.edu/sb17?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which was enacted last year and bans public universities from having DEI offices, requiring DEI statements or training, and giving any preferential treatment based on race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin. Anyway, A&M promptly [folded faster than a lawn chair](https://www.yahoo.com/news/texas-m-cancels-conference-trip-010007444.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and canceled the trip. A&M President Mark Welsh III said in a [statement](https://x.com/tamu/status/1879016805597139172?s=46&ref=thebarbedwire.com) that the university “will continue to honor both the letter and intent of the law.” “Texas A&M does not support any organization, conference, process or activity that excludes people based on race, creed, gender, age or any other discriminating factor,” the statement said. This nonsense came days after University of Texas at Austin President Jay Hartzell announced that he was [leaving UT and heading to Southern Methodist University in Dallas](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/01/07/texas-ut-austin-smu-jay-hartzell/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). And honestly, given the fact that our governor threatens to fire university presidents over social media, who the hell would *want* to run a public university in Texas in 2025? ### The Feds Found Sexual Abuse of Kids in Texas’ Juvenile Justice Department. Will the Legislature Act? URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-feds-found-sexual-abuse-of-kids-in-texas-juvenile-justice-department-will-the-legislature-act/ Last updated: 2025-01-15T16:02:42.000Z As disturbing as it was to read, an August report by the civil protection unit under President Joe Biden offered Texas’ criminal-justice reform community a sliver of hope. It confirmed some advocates’ pressing concerns. The Texas Juvenile Justice Department “uses excessive force on children” and “fails to prevent staff from sexually abusing children,” the 73-page [assessment](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-justice-gov/d9/2024-07/2024%5Ftjjd%5Ffindings%5Freport.pdf) from the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division said. “Body-worn camera video reportedly showed one of the staff slamming a child’s head into a brick pillar, knocking him unconscious,” said one section. “Our review of hundreds of investigation reports from the Office of Inspector General shows a pervasive atmosphere of sexual abuse, grooming, and lack of staff accountability and training” at the department, where [around 800 children](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-tjjd-texas-gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/fy2025-tjjd-youth-eom-population-report.pdf) from the ages of 10 to 18 are housed in Texas, added another. In August, the weight of the federal government loomed large. A lawsuit against the state was possible, should Texas refuse to address the “very severe and significant violations,” Kristen Clarke, the Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said at the time. Then, the election happened. As President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration nears, advocates are waiting to see if his administration will pressure TJJD to correct the failings found in the report. And have turned their sights to another avenue of potential reform: the freshly convened 89th Texas Legislature. ## ‘I’ll Leave It at That’ The federal report was the culmination of a three-year deep dive into TJJD’s five facilities and was launched after two advocacy groups lodged complaints about the conditions within the lockups. The department’s governing board has since largely dismissed the findings. “I'm going to tell you — just from my personal experience — I don't think it's completely accurate,” former TJJD board chairman Scott Matthew said three weeks after the report was released, according to an archived video of the meeting. “I'll leave it at that.” The threats of violence, another department official insisted, come from the children. “To provide some contrast, most of the investigations we do in (the office of the inspector general) are actually juvenile offenders assaulting our staff to varying degrees of injury and severity,” TJJD OIG Chief Daniel Guajardo told the board. “I don’t have any examples or evidence to present to the board that youth are experiencing any beatings while they’re confined at TJJD at this time.” Shandra Carter, the department’s executive director, partially pinned the agency’s shortcomings on staffing levels and limitations imposed during the COVID pandemic. “When the site visits began, we were in the worst staffing crisis of TJJD and (the former Texas Youth Commission) history,” she told the board in August. “We had facilities at double their population of what we could safely manage.” The investigation was also dated, they added, and the agency is under new leadership. Carter, whose tenure began weeks before federal officials made their first site visit in 2022, said in August that, of the 48 recommendations listed in the DOJ’s report, 40 had been completed or were in progress. Department officials have been scant on details however, as the majority of discussions about the federal report occurred in executive session. Carter also said that the department has surged its ranks, thanks in part to increased pay for potential and current officers. By late summer 2024, the number of full-time juvenile corrections officers had increased to about 850 from less than 650 when the federal site visits began, according to information Carter provided to the board. Advocates, however, argue that the agency has been plagued with issues for years — a *Dallas Morning News* report from [2017](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/investigations/2017/11/17/fights-sex-drugs-texas-juvenile-lockup-on-the-verge-of-crisis-reports-show/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) alleged near-crisis conditions inside the youth lockups — and problems highlighted in the report were not so simply resolved. Jennifer Toon, the project director of the criminal justice advocacy group [Lioness Justice Impacted Women’s Alliance](https://www.lionessjiwa.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), added that blaming children was a cheap cop-out by department officials. “When they talk about how staff are in danger and these kids are so violent and just really putting the ownership on the kids again, it’s extremely frustrating,” she said. “I feel like someone who is just talking into the wind.” During a board meeting in November, members discussed a video from one of the facilities that showed a juvenile assaulting an officer. Toon said what they didn’t discuss was what could have led up to that confrontation. “It was a video that none of (the public) saw that day,” she said. “I can guarantee there was a reason. I understand that there are children with high needs and a lot of problematic violent behavior, but it is not unprovoked. Kids in crisis that are acting out, it is for a reason.” ## Will the Trump Administration Weigh In? Brett Merfish, the director of youth justice and the Juvenile Justice Project at Texas Appleseed — an advocacy group that promotes social and economic justice — said the timing of the report’s release three months before the presidential election wasn’t ideal. Sooner would have been better. “I think it would have been harder for (the board) to discount it as being ‘outdated,’” she said. “If we had a Democratic administration coming in, or a non-Trump administration coming in, it would be fine. It’s not necessarily a partisan issue, but I think Trump is such a wildcard.” But advocates for reform are well versed in being patient, and Merfish said the federal report could still prompt a lawsuit or consent decree. “Nothing is known, right?” she said. “This issue has not gone away, and they are not going to formally dismiss it.” “What happens now under this (incoming) administration, it’s a really mixed bag,” said Alycia Castillo, the associate director of policy at the Texas Civil Rights Project. “On one hand we do have an indication that things for criminal justice could be worse than they are now.” Under Trump’s first term, watchdog groups sounded alarm bells after the federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention struck an [enforcement-heavy tone](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-agency-shifts-website-tougher-stance-juvenile-crime-n916371?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in 2018\. The agency removed or buried language on its website that related to females in the detention system that emphasized family engagement or discussed scaling back solitary confinement, the Sunlight Foundation [reported](https://sunlightfoundation.com/2018/10/04/ojjdp-website-changes-reflect-punitive-direction-of-office/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). There is also Project 2025, the right-wing blueprint for the incoming administration. Trump tried to distance himself from the conservative roadmap before the election, [but has installed](https://www.axios.com/2024/11/26/trump-picks-project-2025-russ-vought?ref=thebarbedwire.com) some of its main contributors to key positions. “It outlines a lot of reasons to be concerned that there is going to be a pretty intense era of ‘tough on crime’ and more marginalized people who are subject to criminalization,” said Castillo. The former president is familiar with the criminal justice system — [last week he was sentenced](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/live-blog/trump-sentencing-judge-juan-merchan-live-updates-rcna186199?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to an “unconditional discharge” in the New York hush money case in which he was found guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records. Though he’ll face no further penalties, he’ll become the first president to have been sentenced for a criminal conviction — let alone felony convictions — when he’s sworn into office on Jan. 20. Before that, he struck a bipartisan tone when he signed the [First Step Act](https://www.sentencingproject.org/policy-brief/the-first-step-act-ending-mass-incarceration-in-federal-prisons/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in 2018, legislation that sought to reduce recidivism and long-term incarceration in the federal corrections system. “Everybody is just kind of wondering where he is going to land,” said Castillo. ## Will State Legislators Push For Change? Outside federal pressure is another option — state legislators. “We think there are some things the Legislature can do this session to help with some of these conditions, regardless of what the DOJ does,” Merfish said. Merfish and Texas Appleseed said three of their priorities they’re hoping to see make it into state law include requirements for children with mental health conditions in TJJD to receive a minimum amount of counseling; limits to how long a youth can remain in isolation; and limits to who gets sent to TJJD facilities. Democratic lawmakers will also continue their push to completely dismantle the juvenile justice department during the 89th Texas Legislature, which gaveled in on Tuesday. State Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, has already [filed a bill](https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=89R&Bill=SB661&ref=thebarbedwire.com) to create a state office of Youth Health and Safety that would close down the department’s facilities by 2028. Although shuttering the agency is a long shot — the Legislature in 2023 allocated[ $200 million](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-tjjd-texas-gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/mediaadvisory-tjjdlegchanges-june%5F262023.pdf) for new facilities and 200 additional beds — advocates for change are still hopeful that the spotlight on the department could lead to some significant reforms. It’s not as quixotic as it sounds: Criminal-justice reform often creates strange bedfellows, as recently witnessed in the bipartisan effort to [spare the life](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/an-innocent-mans-last-days-robert-robersons-prayers-from-death-row/) of death row inmate Robert Roberson. State Rep. James Talarico, D-Austin, is part of a group of lawmakers on the Texas House Committee on Juvenile Justice and Family Issues, which [tore into](https://www.keranews.org/texas-news/2024-08-26/texas-democrats-grill-juvenile-justice-officials-over-abuse-allegations-at-agency-detention-centers?ref=thebarbedwire.com) officials at the juvenile justice department in late August. His goal to dismantle the youth-incarceration system remains, regardless of who is president. At least the federal report got the attention of state lawmakers of both stripes, Talarico told *The Barbed Wire*. “Maybe (the report) doesn’t move the leadership at TJJD, but it has moved lawmakers, and I hope that remains true,” he said. When asked, neither the state juvenile justice department nor the Biden administration provided updates on any pending litigation. But the board has met in executive session to discuss potential litigation. In its last meeting of 2024, the board gave initial approval to pursue a ground lease in Ellis County for a new facility. The agency also announced a new board president, Tarrant County Commissioner Manny Ramirez, whose appointment runs through 2027\. Ramirez said in a social media [post](https://x.com/MannyRamirez%5FTX/status/1867652587442348304?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that he’ll work to make Texas’ juvenile justice department “the model for the rest of the nation.” “Public safety will always remain the number one priority,” he added. “And working together we will provide the support and service that our partner agencies and committed youth deserve.” Though uncertainty reigns, there was one morsel of recent good news from the advocates’ perspective. Weeks after the report, the department's board approved a $34,000 raise for Carter, the executive director. But the state’s Legislative Budget Board later shot the pay raise down. (Carter’s current salary is about $238,000, according to the Texas Tribune’s salary [database](https://salaries.texastribune.org/employees/shandra-l-carter-1127464/?ref=thebarbedwire.com).) The board later moved to direct its staff to “work through the legislative process” to secure Carter’s raise during the session. “I don’t know in what other space you can have a terrible performance report and get a raise,” Toon told *The Barbed Wire*. “It was just shocking and insulting when they had asked for it after the DOJ report. So, (the rejection) was a nice little gift to have received amongst still incredibly hard shit to hear. Because that felt validating.” ### In a Loss For the (Further) Right, Rep. Dustin Burrows Elected Texas House Speaker URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/in-a-loss-for-the-right-rep-dustin-burrows-elected-texas-house-speaker/ Last updated: 2025-01-14T21:26:05.000Z State Rep. Dustin Burrows, a Republican from Lubbock, was elected Speaker of the Texas House Tuesday, fending off a challenge from the (even more lunatic) right as Democrats helped him win the third-most powerful job in the state. “The weight of this moment, and the trust you’ve placed in me, is not lost on me,” Burrows said, shortly after being sworn in. “Recent days have tested our bonds, yet they have also proven that this institution is greater than any one individual or any faction,” he said. “The House endures because Texas, and Texans, need it to endure.” Burrows prevailed over state Rep. David Cook, a Republican from Mansfield, who had been supported by a majority of House Republicans but ultimately didn’t get enough votes to win. Coming in third was state Rep. Ana-Maria Rodriguez Ramos, D-Richardson, who ran as the Democratic alternative to the two Republicans. In the first vote, Burrows received 71 votes, Cook got 56, and Ramos received 23\. Since no one hit the 76-vote threshold, that resulted in a runoff between Burrows and Cook. Burrows prevailed in the second ballot with 85 votes, to Cook’s 55. The race for the top state House position had been hotly contested since former Speaker, state Rep. Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, [announced last month](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-house-speaker-bows-out-under-pressure-from-fellow-republicans/) that he would not seek re-election. Cook [emerged as the House Republican caucus’ top choice](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/12/07/texas-house-speaker-david-cook-dustin-burrows/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) but didn’t have the 76 votes required to secure the position in the 150-member House. That’s when Burrows, a close ally of Phelan, emerged as the main Republican alternative. He claimed to represent a coalition of Republican and Democrats, which invited pushback from Republicans at the national level, including Donald Trump Jr. and Dinesh D’Souza. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton even [went on a tour](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/01/06/ken-paxton-house-speaker-david-cook-dustin-burrows/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) around the state last week in an effort to pressure Republicans to support Cook. On Tuesday, representatives finally voted after weeks of bitter infighting, especially among Republicans. That tension was evident in several speeches where lawmakers accused each other of being bought and paid for. As she seconded Burrows’ nomination, state Rep. Lacey Hull, R-Houston, called him a man of “unshakable integrity.” “We can (secure our state’s future) if we’re willing to stand up to the big money Astroturf machine seeking to control this chamber,” Hull said. For her part, Ramos kept things positive. “Our Texas is within our grasp if only we have the courage to reach for it,” she said, in an attempt to be uplifting that resulted in her coming in third place. “Our state faces challenges that transcend both generations and party lines. Let's put the people of Texas first, because we have so much more in common than what separates us.” ### One of the First Black, Gay Men to Serve in the Texas Capitol Just Proposed on the House Floor URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/one-of-the-first-black-gay-men-to-serve-in-the-texas-capitol-just-proposed-on-the-house-floor/ Last updated: 2025-01-14T21:12:32.000Z State Representative Venton Jones, a Democrat from Dallas, started Texas’ 89th legislative session on the right note: Love. Jones proposed to his long-time partner, Gregory Scott Jr., on the House floor at the Texas Capitol after being sworn in. “Our love symbolizes resilience, and our story reminds us that love can and will always overcome hate,” Jones, who is the Texas House Democratic Caucus Whip and Vice Chair of the Texas LGBTQ Caucus, said in a press release. “The historic gesture, set against the backdrop of the Texas Legislature, reflects a broader commitment to fight for a world where love is celebrated, not marginalized.” Texas has the [second-largest LGBTQIA+](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/thereve-been-93-anti-lgbtq-hate-crimes-in-texas-since-2022-data-shows/) population in the nation, with 1.8 million people, according to a 2024 analysis from the [Public Policy Institute of California](https://www.ppic.org/blog/californias-lgbt-population/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and Texas lawmakers filed 160 anti-LGBTQIA+ bills in 2023. “Today, I took a renewed oath to serve my community with courage, conviction, and love,” Jones said, in his press release. “​In a time when our love — and our very existence — is challenged, often in the halls of this very building, this moment is a reminder that love conquers all. Gregory and I stand as proof that progress is unstoppable, and no amount of hate can negate the truth of who we are.” ​ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/img_2963.jpg) Jones and Scott live in Dallas and are frequently spotted cheering on the Dallas Mavericks, attending fundraising galas across the state, and celebrating #BlackLove as is indicated on many of their social media posts. The couple has not yet announced a wedding date. ### Abbott Sends Texas Firefighters to California, Quietly Hopes Trump Doesn’t Notice URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/abbott-sends-texas-firefighters-to-california-quietly-hopes-trump-doesnt-notice/ Last updated: 2025-01-13T17:15:33.000Z As wildfires rage in California, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is sending firefighters and emergency vehicles to help, proving that even a staunch Trump ally can occasionally prioritize actual emergencies over posting stupid shit on social media. On Saturday, [Abbott announced](https://gov.texas.gov/news/post/governor-abbott-deploys-firefighting-resources-to-assist-california-wildfire-response-efforts-?ref=thebarbedwire.com) he’s deploying 135 first responders and 45 emergency vehicles to help California battle one of the worst wildfires in U.S. history, [the *Austin American-Statesman* reported](https://www.statesman.com/story/news/state/2025/01/13/la-wildfires-california-texas-firefighters-first-responders-aid-help-greg-abbott-emac-who-started/77666025007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “Texans know all too well the devastation wildfires can cause to our communities, and our country is stronger when we come together in times of crisis,” Abbott said in a press release, notably avoiding any mention of Trump’s recent [Truth Social posts](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/12/us/trump-los-angeles-fire-newsom-bass.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Trump, in his usual fact-free style, [accused California Gov. Gavin Newsom](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-makes-misguided-accusations-california-water-management-wildfire-rcna187219?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of blocking water from Northern to Southern California (spoiler: not true) while also blaming Newsom, President Joe Biden, and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass for the entire state’s woes. [Newsom brushed off the nonsense](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/newsom-slams-trump-disinformation-california-wildfires-rcna187301?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on NBC’s *Meet the Press*, calling it “mis- and disinformation.” Abbott’s decision to help California is a bit surprising, honestly, for a guy who’s spent years [using the state](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2022/08/04/abbott-touts-texas-taunts-california-as-cpac-conservative-gathering-kicks-off-in-dallas/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) as a [punching bag in his speeches](https://www.texastribune.org/2014/09/15/abbott-hits-california-praises-texas-in-new-tv-ad/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). But maybe even Abbott knows there’s a limit to how much you can dunk on California before it starts looking weird to sit on the sidelines while they literally burn. Of course, Abbott isn’t exactly the good guy here. Sending firefighters doesn’t erase his frequent criticisms of California policies or [his usual full-throated support of Trump](https://www.texastribune.org/2023/11/19/Abbott-endorses-trump-president/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). But hey, sending firefighters to help extinguish actual flames is still a step up from Trump’s approach, which is to never miss an opportunity to be a dickhead. ### Why Doesn’t Texas Have High-Speed Rail? Will We Ever? URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/why-doesnt-texas-have-high-speed-rail-will-we-ever/ Last updated: 2025-01-13T12:31:21.000Z If Texas is anything, it’s big. Drive around the state, like most of us do, and it takes forever to get anywhere — it’s even become a point of pride. We laugh at East Coasters who complain about three and four-hour drives, which are a lunch trip for us. But, despite our bravado, the fact is that it’s 2025, and we’re still mostly driving around in cars, just like our parents and grandparents did. While we may look hungrily at countries like [Japan](https://www.jrailpass.com/shinkansen-bullet-trains?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [China,](https://rail.ninja/china-trains?ref=thebarbedwire.com) with their futuristic bullet trains, the question remains: Why doesn’t Texas have something like that? Or something even in the same galaxy? In November, [Texas state Rep. John Bucy, a Democrat from Austin, proposed legislation](https://www.keranews.org/news/2024-11-20/bill-proposes-bullet-train-between-north-texas-austin-and-san-antonio?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to develop a high-speed rail line connecting Dallas, Austin, and San Antonio along the Interstate 35 corridor. Bucy introduced two bills: one requiring the Texas Department of Transportation to establish partnerships for planning the rail and another enabling state highway funds for transit projects. Bucy told [*KERA* *News*](https://www.keranews.org/news/2024-11-20/bill-proposes-bullet-train-between-north-texas-austin-and-san-antonio?ref=thebarbedwire.com) he’s heard widespread support from constituents and advocates since pre-filing the bills. “The calls are non-stop, from constituents, from county commissioners, from elected officials that are just excited about this idea,” he said. But with all due respect to Bucy, his bill is probably going nowhere. (Such is the life of Democratic bills in Texas, and such has been the case for [all other](https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/editorials/2022/06/20/high-speed-rail-is-all-but-dead-in-texas-it-didnt-have-to-be/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) high-speed rail legislation in our state history.) The answer to why Texas doesn’t have high-speed rail is complicated — a confluence of political, economic, and cultural factors. Entrenched lobbying interests, high costs, and a deeply ingrained car culture have stymied efforts to develop rail infrastructure. But as Texas continues to grow, the demand for sustainable and efficient transportation solutions will only grow. Of course, high-speed rail would also affect competitors in the transportation industry, so interested parties have made their positions pretty clear — both through public arguments and through lobbying. Let’s talk about Southwest Airlines. In the 1990s, Southwest Airlines actively opposed the development of a high-speed rail line between Dallas and Houston, which would have been expanded to Austin and San Antonio, [*Chron.com* reported](https://www.chron.com/culture/article/southwest-texas-rail-line-19934058.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The airline feared losing passengers to the proposed rail system, which targeted the same short-haul market that Southwest relied on. The rail system, Texas TGV, planned to use trains capable of travelling 200 miles per hour but failed due to financing challenges and opposition from influential figures, many of whom were moved by Southwest’s lobbying. Southwest argued publicly that its concern was about preventing taxpayer-funded bailouts for the project. However, industry analyses suggested the airline’s motivation was protecting its market share. Predictions indicated the rail system could divert 60% of local air passengers, potentially forcing Southwest to increase fares or cut routes. “In the past in Texas, when high speed rail has come up as a possibility, airlines have pushed back against this, fearing competition,” Chandra Bhat, a University of Texas professor of engineering, told *The Barbed Wire*. “And, with their clout, they have successfully thwarted high speed rail possibilities by using their lobbying influence in the state legislature.” Others who study this issue agree. “There are multiple powerful lobbies who benefit from the status quo,” Tara Goddard, an associate professor with Texas A&M’s Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning, told *The Barbed Wire.* Lobbying groups have worked for decades to maintain the status quo of highway construction and air travel, which benefits a range of industries, Goddard said. These include firms directly involved in building highways, as well as those in the oil, gas, and automotive sectors, all of which gain from continued investment in road infrastructure and short-haul flights. These groups oppose rail development, particularly high-speed rail, as it would challenge their established interests, she said. Such ongoing resistance has played a significant role in limiting the advancement of alternative transportation options like rail. “Oil, gas, and automotive companies all benefit from the status quo, too, and no doubt lobby against rail, both formally and informally,” Goddard added. In Texas, cheap land and fuel, along with heavy subsidies for driving and parking, reduce the pressure to develop local rail systems, she said. This creates less public demand for rail, as people don’t pay the true costs of driving. Additionally, with a significant portion of the federal transportation budget allocated to highways, securing funding for rail development is challenging. Even with recent infrastructure improvements, shifting resources away from highways often feels like a loss to many. “We heavily subsidize driving and parking for all of us, so individuals also don't have incentive to demand rail,” Goddard said. Still, rail projects have always floated around the periphery of Texas politics. Most famously, there’s the [Texas Central](https://www.texascentral.com/project/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) high-speed rail project between Dallas and Houston. Proposed in 2009, it aimed to reduce the 3.5-hour car commute to a 90-minute train ride using Japan’s high-speed rail technology, capable of speeds exceeding 200 miles per hour with more than 1,300 passengers per train. But the project has had a bumpy road, sputtering [amid leadership and land acquisition challenges](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/12/10/texas-high-speed-rail-trump-legislature/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=Amtrak%20revived%20the%20project%20last,necessary%20to%20build%20the%20line.). [Amtrak revived the project](https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/11/amtrak-backs-texas-central-bullet-train.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in 2023, highlighting its suitability due to Texas’ flat terrain and the connection between two major metropolitan areas. But, despite Amtrak taking the lead, the project is still very much up in the air. In November, Amtrak senior vice president Andy Byford said officials are still determining how to fund the project, which has yet to receive federal approval, the [*Texas Tribune* reported](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/12/10/texas-high-speed-rail-trump-legislature/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=Amtrak%20revived%20the%20project%20last,necessary%20to%20build%20the%20line.). High-speed rail offers numerous advantages over conventional transportation like cars and planes, particularly for short to medium-distance trips in Texas, Bhat said. It has a higher capacity, operates at speeds over 200 miles per hour, and is generally safer, with less environmental impact as it runs on electricity. Compared to air travel, it’s more fuel-efficient, quieter, and unaffected by weather conditions, he said. Plus, Texas' growing metro areas make it an ideal region for rail, because the distance between cities is well-suited for high-speed rail’s 1.5-hour travel time. But that doesn’t mean a project like Texas Central will actually happen. Because there has always been pushback to rail from Texas politicians. A big reason is that many of the state’s most powerful leaders, including Gov. Greg Abbott, get a lot of money from people who build highways. In 2022, [the *Texas Tribune* reported](https://www.texastribune.org/2022/10/18/greg-abbott-texas-fundraising-governor-donors/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that J. Doug Pitcock, CEO of Williams Brothers Construction, is among Abbott's largest donors, contributing a total of $4.3 million. Since 2020, Pitcock's firm has been awarded $1.9 billion in contracts from the Texas Department of Transportation. Similarly, John R. Weisman, owner of Hunter Industries, [has donated $1 million to Abbott](https://www.texastribune.org/2022/10/18/greg-abbott-texas-fundraising-governor-donors/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), with his company securing $464 million in TxDOT highway contracts over the past three years. Collectively, these two firms accounted for 13% of all TxDOT highway work during that time. As the *Tribune* noted, such contracts are awarded through competitive bidding, but Abbott appoints the members of the state transportation commission responsible for approving TxDOT contracts. Meanwhile on a federal level, the general contracting industry — which includes public works, industrial and commercial construction companies, as well as building associations — gives tens of millions in donations every election cycle. The vast majority, 76%, of that money goes to Republicans, according to the Center for Responsive Politics’ [OpenSecrets](https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus?cycle=2024&ind=C01&ref=thebarbedwire.com) database, which tracks political donations. “These companies are frequent recipients of contracts for federal infrastructure and transportation projects and no stranger to the world of money in politics,” the site states. Other big [Republican donors, like the oil billionaire Charles Koch](https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/koch-industries/recipients?id=d000000186&ref=thebarbedwire.com), have fought rail projects around the country for years, ranging from a [light rail project in Phoenix](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/26/koch-activists-phoenix-ban-light-rail?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to [public transit projects in Little Rock, Ark., southeast Michigan; central Utah; and Tennessee](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/19/climate/koch-brothers-public-transit.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). And the [Koch-backed Super PAC Americans For Prosperity has for years had a big presence in Texas](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/article/Koch-PAC-plans-unprecedented-push-into-Texas-15251379.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com), backing Republicans in various Congressional races, state House campaigns, as well as supporting U.S. Sen. John Cornyn’s re-election bid in 2020. So it should come as no surprise that Texas Republicans regularly bash rail. In 2023, two Texas Republican congressmen blasted proposed federal funding for the proposed Texas Central rail service. [U.S. Congressmen Jake Ellzey, R-Texas, and Michael McCaul, R-Austin](https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews/news-wire/texas-congressmen-oppose-federal-funding-for-dallas-houston-high-speed-rail/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), wrote in a letter to the Federal Railroad Administration that, “Since 2009, when the project was first proposed, Texas Central has secured very few parcels of property and is attempting to acquire private property using eminent domain. It will exclusively run a type of train manufactured only in Japan using a unique track that is incompatible with any existing system in the United States. “At its core, this project is intended to take land from American citizens and put it under the control of a Japanese company, which is itself subsidized using money from U.S. taxpayers,” they added. And on the state level, while Bucy’s bill isn’t likely to pass, two Texas [legislators have gone a step further and filed bills](https://www.texasrailadvocates.org/post/rep-harris-and-harrison-file-two-bills-to-kill-high-speed-rail-in-texas?ref=thebarbedwire.com) aiming to stymie rail projects ahead of the upcoming legislative session. State Rep. Brian Harrison’s House Bill 663 seeks to block private companies, like Texas Central, from using eminent domain to acquire land for high-speed rail. State Rep. Cody Harris’s House Bill 1402 would prohibit public funding for planning, construction, maintenance, or oversight of private high-speed rail projects, including altering roadways. For his part, Abbott has been on both sides of the rail issue. He [initially supported the Texas Central rail project](https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/texas-bullet-train-abbott/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), citing its benefits, such as reducing congestion on Interstate 45 and cutting greenhouse gas emissions. However, he retracted his support after backlash from his conservative base, raising concerns about property rights and the project's dependence on Japanese investment. And while opposing politicians are quick to point out the shortcomings of high-speed rail, even rail’s proponents admit that there are downsides. Bhat, the University of Texas professor, said that infrastructure can be expensive — up to 10 times the cost of building highways — and requires land acquisition, which has caused delays. Environmental litigation and landowner disputes can prolong the process. Ticket prices may also be high, potentially exceeding the cost of driving or flying, especially with the rise of electric vehicles, he said. Additionally, emerging travel technologies like self-driving cars could compete with rail travel by offering lower costs and more flexible travel options, reducing its appeal, Bhat said. Still, high-speed rail could lead to more dispersed populations, new jobs, and economic growth in Texas, he added. “This is because employers can set up offices, and production plants, too, at less-expensive non-urban locations along the corridor and still have employees commute,” Bhat told *The Barbed Wire*. At the end of the day, proponents like Goddard contend that rail in Texas could make life better in ways that we can't imagine. Goddard fell in love with Germany’s regional rail system during a visit in 2022\. The system was effective, even though the area she was staying in wasn’t heavily urbanized. But that can be hard for Texans to even envision — because we’ve had a car-centric system for so long. “The regional rail makes it possible for there to be small towns surrounded by farmland and forest, but they all have a rail station, so people can travel to other towns for shopping, work, etc,” she said. “It is still very convenient and relatively inexpensive to travel around.” In the abstract, riding the train might sound inconvenient compared to driving “even though our choices are actually more limited by being stuck only with driving,” she said. “I wish more people could experience (high speed rail), and realize that we could have nice things here in Texas, we deserve it, and it actually wouldn't require massive sacrifice of our quality of life.” ### The True Cost of Texas’ Abortion Ban: Rising Deaths, Abandoned Babies, Fewer Doctors URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-true-cost-of-texas-abortion-ban-rising-deaths-abandoned-babies-fewer-doctors/ Last updated: 2025-01-10T10:36:00.000Z What have the country’s most restrictive abortion laws meant for the women and babies living under them? That’s the million-dollar question posed over the last three years by reporters, health care providers, activists, academics, and, of course, the people who’ve had to navigate Texas’ tumultuous reproductive care landscape. Yet, Texas officials, particularly the politicians who supported the ban, have taken steps to prevent the public from finding out. The state’s maternal mortality committee — which reviews deaths during pregnancy through postpartum, to understand the causes and prevent further death — is legally prohibited from reviewing deaths deemed abortion-related, which [*ProPublica* found](https://www.propublica.org/article/abortion-bans-deaths-state-maternal-mortality-committees?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=Texas%20has%20gone%20as%20far,care%2C%20health%20officials%20told%20ProPublica.) could include miscarriages. Last year, the [committee announced](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/12/06/texas-maternal-mortality-committee-deaths/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), to much controversy, that it would skip reviews for 2022 and 2023 — the first two years under the abortion ban. Despite a lack of transparency from the state, news reports and academic research have emerged. They already paint a bleak picture: Mothers dying. Infants dying and abandoned. STDs surging and doctors fleeing. Here, *The Barbed Wire* is pulling together available (and reliable) data, studies, lawsuits, patient complaints, and individual stories of women and infants who have been harmed by these laws to show the full scope of damage to real Texans. ## How Did We Get Here? In 1970, Jane Roe filed a lawsuit against Henry Wade, the then-district attorney of Dallas County, over Texas’ abortion ban. Roughly three years later, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the state’s law was unconstitutional. Afterward, [Roe v Wade](https://www.oyez.org/cases/1971/70-18?ref=thebarbedwire.com) became the law of the land. But, in one form or another, Texas has [restricted or banned abortion](https://guides.sll.texas.gov/abortion-laws/history-of-abortion-laws?ref=thebarbedwire.com) since 1854\. During the bulk of that time, lawmakers [argued](https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/78R/billtext/html/HB00015F.htm?ref=thebarbedwire.com) the laws were necessary to protect women’s health: In 1999, legislators created a parental notification requirement for minors seeking abortion. Four years later came the “Women’s Right To Know” Act and state-mandated misinformation on the risks of abortion. Then came sonogram requirements, and informed consent requirements, and mandatory admitting privileges at hospitals for physicians performing abortions, which all but outlawed abortion clinics. The reason was always the same: the laws protect women. But that was a fallacy. In 2016, the [U.S. Supreme Court struck down](https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/579/15-274/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Texas’ law on admitting privileges, concluding the “state’s evidence did not show how the law advanced its legitimate interest in protecting women’s health.” That was backed up by a [landmark 2018 report](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK507236/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, which found abortions are safe medical procedures, and the laws were effectively making them less safe. Afterwards, right-wing politicians tried a new rationale: fetal personhood and dignity. First came updated provisions on the handling of embryonic and fetal remains, including a requirement that they be cremated or buried, which was struck down by the federal [Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals](https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/ca5/18-50484/18-50484-2018-07-15.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Then, in September 2021, the Texas Legislature passed Senate Bill 8, an [extreme measure on multiple fronts](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/sep/01/texas-abortion-law-supreme-court?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Dubbed the “heartbeat bill,” itself an unscientific misnomer, the law became the most restrictive in the country. It banned physicians from performing abortions if a fetal heartbeat was detected, which is usually around six weeks of pregnancy — and before many people know they are pregnant. Before Roe v Wade was overturned, enforcement of that law was exclusively through civil action — not by the state, or a district or county attorney. Any citizen could begin suing another citizen for $10,000 for performing or aiding in an abortion. While other states had passed similar bans, they were blocked by courts, as they had been in Roe v Wade. But Texas got around that problem by creating the “vigilante” civil enforcement mechanism. Then, in 2022, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade in its opinion for another case: Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Texas’ “trigger ban,” [House Bill 1280](https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/87R/billtext/html/HB01280F.htm?ref=thebarbedwire.com), took effect soon after, making providing an abortion a felony punishable by up to life in prison, license revocation and a $100,000 fine. Both bills were purportedly passed in the name of preserving life: “Texas has compelling interests from the outset of a woman’s pregnancy in protecting the health of the woman and the life of the unborn child,” [Senate Bill 8 reads](https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/87R/billtext/html/SB00008F.htm?ref=thebarbedwire.com). But again, research and lawsuits showed that premise was not made in good faith. [Experts](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/11/03/texas-ob-gyn-letter-abortion-laws/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and activists agree that [Texas is more dangerous](https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2207423?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for pregnant people and their babies than it was before the laws were passed. In November, [following news reports](https://www.propublica.org/article/texas-abortion-ban-exceptions-deaths?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of two women’s deaths, more than a hundred Texas OB-GYNs [wrote an open letter ](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25345654-letter-from-111-texas-obgyns?ref=thebarbedwire.com)to officials and policy makers urging changes. “The law does not allow Texas women to get the lifesaving care they need and threatens physicians with life imprisonment and loss of licensure for doing what is often medically necessary for the patient's health and future fertility," they wrote. Later that month, state [lawmakers filed bills](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25345983-hb00257i?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in the House and Senate to create new exceptions that would allow doctors to provide abortions preserve the mother’s mental or physical health, and in cases of lethal fetal abnormalities. *We will continue to update this page as new information becomes available.* ## Babies Are Dying Infants are dying in Texas at a greater rate than anywhere else in the country. **255 more infants died in 2022 than the year prior.** Researchers at [Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health](https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2024/analysis-suggests-2021-texas-abortion-ban-resulted-in-increase-in-infant-deaths-in-state-in-year-after-law-went-into-effect?ref=thebarbedwire.com) found infant deaths increased from 1,985 to 2,240 between 2021 and 2022 in Texas. That equates to a 12.9% increase, compared to a 1.8% increase nationally. Congenital abnormalities, the leading cause of infant death, increased 22.9% in the state versus 3.1% in the U.S. Texas’ abortion laws don’t provide exemptions for fetal abnormalities of any kind, even in cases like Samantha Casiano’s, when doctors conclude a fetus has little or no chance of survival. Casiano is one of the plaintiffs in [Zurawski v Texas](https://reproductiverights.org/zurawski-v-texas-plaintiffs-stories-remarks/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a lawsuit on behalf of more than 20 women denied abortions who are now seeking clarity on exemptions within the law. Casiano learned while 20 weeks pregnant that her daughter had anencephaly, a birth defect in which the fetal brain and skull do not fully develop. Her doctor would not perform an abortion, forcing her to carry her daughter, Halo, for another three months. She was born prematurely, and she died within hours. “This study found that Texas’ 2021 ban on abortion in early pregnancy was associated with unexpected increases in infant and neonatal deaths in Texas between 2021 and 2022,” the authors of the Johns Hopkins study wrote, noting “the results suggest that restrictive abortion policies may have important unintended consequences in terms of trauma to families and medical cost as a result of increases in infant mortality.” “We've found that infant mortality is going up,” [said](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1frO45LxSZrQRbsDmHB%5FV%5FZRIq6YLDoXh/view?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Houston-based OB-GYN Dr. Damla Karsan, who is also [Kate Cox’s physician](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/kate-cox-on-her-legal-fight-for-abortion-trisomy-18/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Cox was pregnant with her third child when she discovered that her fetus had trisomy 18, a genetic condition that doctors said meant her child would likely survive less than one week after birth — at best. “We know a lot of the trisomy 18 babies don’t survive birth, so I could lose her at any point in the pregnancy,” Cox [told CBS News](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/kate-cox-on-her-legal-fight-for-abortion-trisomy-18/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “There’s risk of infection, risk of uterine rupture. And we want more children as well, so what does that mean for future pregnancies?” “I talked with our doctors,” Cox continued. “And I didn't want her to suffer. I felt it was best for her, and I felt it was best for our family as well. We want to be able to have more babies. We want to give siblings to our kids.” Last December, when Cox was 20 weeks pregnant, [they sued the state of Texas](https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/texas-woman-with-a-fatal-fetal-diagnosis-asks-judge-to-grant-her-abortion/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in hopes that a court order finding she qualified for a medical exception to the state’s ban would shield her doctors from prosecution. ## Moms Are Dying Abortion is the standard of care for a variety of pregnancy complications, including in some miscarriages, to prevent potential infection, hemorrhage, and other life-threatening effects. With severely limited access to abortion care, experts warned that women would have a greater risk of dying from such complications. And, in fact, mothers in the state are dying at higher rates. **Maternal deaths in Texas rose 33% between 2019 and 2023 while falling nationally by 7.5%.** Reporters at [*ProPublica* reviewed data](https://www.propublica.org/article/texas-maternal-mortality-analysis-methodology?ref=thebarbedwire.com) compiled from [death certificates](https://www.propublica.org/article/texas-abortion-ban-sepsis-maternal-mortality-analysis?ref=thebarbedwire.com) by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as hospital discharge and billing data from 2017 through 2023, which catalogues what happens in every hospitalization. While the state Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Review Committee said it will not review deaths from 2022 and 2023, ProPublica found 120 women who died while hospitalized during pregnancy or up to six weeks postpartum in those two years — meaning an increase of dozens of deaths compared to a similar time before the COVID-19 pandemic. While rates rose across the country have fallen — after peaking in 2021 due to COVID-19 — *ProPublica* found rates in Texas remain higher than pre-pandemic times. **From 2019 to 2022, Texas’ maternal mortality rate rose by 56%.** Maternal mortality rates count the number of women who died while pregnant, during labor, or soon after childbirth, and are calculated per 100,000\. According to analysis from the nonprofit research group Gender Equity Policy Institute and [NBC News](https://www.nbcnews.com/health/womens-health/texas-abortion-ban-deaths-pregnant-women-sb8-analysis-rcna171631?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the corresponding rate nationwide was 11%, based on available reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “There’s only one explanation for this staggering difference in maternal mortality,” Nancy L. Cohen, president of the nonprofit, told NBC. “All the research points to Texas’ abortion ban as the primary driver of this alarming increase.” **Texas had a mortality rate of 34.7 per 100,000 in 2022.** The state’s maternal mortality rate per 100,000 live births for 2022, the last year data is available, was significantly higher than the national average — 26.3%, according to the Commonwealth Fund, a foundation focused on promoting a high-performing, equitable health care system. **At least three Texas women have died after being denied care** A[*ProPublica* investigation](https://www.propublica.org/article/josseli-barnica-death-miscarriage-texas-abortion-ban?ref=thebarbedwire.com)[ found that](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/a-houston-mother-died-after-doctors-refused-to-treat-her-miscarriage/) Josseli Barnica, a 28-year-old mother in Houston, died in 2021 after suffering a miscarriage at 17 weeks pregnant.Doctors reportedly told Josseli “they had to wait until there was no heartbeat” and that “it would be a crime to give her an abortion” — even though her baby was not going to survive. Nevaeh Crain, [*ProPublica* found](https://www.propublica.org/article/nevaeh-crain-death-texas-abortion-ban-emtala?ref=thebarbedwire.com), also died after being turned away from two hospitals, and made to wait at a third. She’d developed sepsis while six months pregnant. Nevaeh was 18 years old. Separately, a *New Yorker* report found that in 2022, [Yeniifer Alvarez-Estrada Glick](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/01/15/abortion-high-risk-pregnancy-yeni-glick?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of Luling, Texas, experienced life-threatening complications from her pregnancy, including pulmonary edema and hypertension. Yet, doctors did not provide standard treatment — an abortion — and Glick died of the complications. About one-third of OB-GYNs in Texas do not have a clear understanding of the law — and 60% are fearful of legal repercussions, according to a [recent survey by a medical consulting company](https://www.manatt.com/Manatt/media/Documents/Articles/FINAL-TX-OBGYN-Workforce-Study%5F2024-10%5Ff.pdf?ref=thebarbedwire.com). ## STDS, Complications & Infertility Women who survive severe pregnancy complications are often left with permanent damage and impacts on future fertility: Many of the 22 plaintiffs who sued the state in the Zurawski case suffered adverse health effects from delays in treatment. Amanda Zurawski, the lead plaintiff in the case, experienced preterm pre-labor rupture of membranes (PPROM) while 18 weeks pregnant. She was denied an abortion because doctors could still detect a fetal heartbeat. Days later, she became septic, and she spent three days in the ICU. The infection left one of her fallopian tubes permanently closed. **Sepsis rates in hospitalizations for pregnancy loss have increased.** Using Texas hospitalization data from 2017 through 2023, ProPublica reporters found second-trimester pregnancy loss hospitalizations (just like Zurawski experienced) increased by more than 50% since the state’s abortion ban went into effect. It had previously been relatively stable. What’s more, reporters found that the increase was most notable in patients whose fetuses were still believed to have a heartbeat. When a pregnant person’s water breaks, and the fetus can’t survive, the standard of care recommended by most major medical associations is to evacuate the womb — also known as an abortion. Delays increase the risk of infections and sepsis. As doctors told ProPublica reporters: That finding indicates that patients largely aren’t receiving care without a fetal death diagnosis. “This is needlessly putting a woman’s life in danger,” one professor of obstetrics told reporters. A new, yet-to-be-published [study from the University of Texas](https://www.smfm.org/news/new-study-finds-increased-maternal-complications-with-previable-premature-rupture-of-membranes?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Health Science Center in Houston found that the rate of sepsis tripled after the state’s abortion ban. Sepsis is not the only concern. Cristina Nuñez was advised against pregnancy by doctors because of medical conditions, including diabetes, cardiovascular issues, and end-stage renal disease. When she learned she was six weeks pregnant, Nuñez sought an abortion, which she didn’t receive until her arm turned black due to blood clotting issues, and she feared she was at risk of pulmonary embolism. Such outcomes have, in part, led nonprofit and research organizations to rank Texas as one of the worst states for women’s healthcare. In 2024, the Commonwealth Fund, which supports independent health policy research, developed [state scorecards](https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/scorecard/2024/jul/2024-state-scorecard-womens-health-and-reproductive-care?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to track trends and policy impacts on women’s healthcare. The scores are based on 32 measures including health care access, quality, and health outcomes. **Fiftieth out of 51.** Texas ranked 50 overall, second only to Mississippi. The Lone Star State ranked 38 on health and reproductive care outcomes and 49 on healthcare quality and prevention — based on indicators including preventive care use, prenatal and postpartum care, and mental health screening. **D-** The March of Dimes publishes a similar report card with key indicators on maternal and infant health. It gave Texas a D- in 2023 with 11.2%, compared to a national rate of 10.4%. “Birthing people in Texas have a very high vulnerability to poor outcomes and are most vulnerable due to reproductive healthcare access,” the [report said](https://www.marchofdimes.org/peristats/reports/texas/report-card?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The Commonwealth Fund also found rising rates of syphilis across the country over the last decade, in part due to limited access to care and screenings, including during pregnancy. The sexually transmitted disease is particularly concerning when left untreated during pregnancy. It can cause severe complications, including risk of miscarriage and stillbirth, as well as infant death. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that all pregnant women be screened for syphilis early in pregnancy and again in the third trimester, as well as at birth for those at high risk. But screening and treatment have been unequal across states. **In Texas, 122 women out of 100,000 women ages 15 to 44 had syphilis in 2022.** Compared to 78 nationally — and the best-ranked state had a rate of one per 100,000\. Texas ranked 42nd of 51 states. **The rate of infants born with congenital syphilis was 246.8 per 100,000 live births in 2022.** Compared to 102.5 nationally, and 0 for the best-ranked state. Texas ranked 48th of 51 states. ## Abandoned Infants Houston saw a spate of abandoned infants over the last year, [*The Washington Post* found](https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/12/28/abandoned-baby-texas-abortion-ban/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). According to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, at least 18 babies had been abandoned by December – compared to seven a decade earlier. *The Post*’s reporting showed the reason for the increase is multifold. Blake Rocap, a lawyer with the Sissy Farenthold Reproductive Justice Defense Project at the University of Texas at Austin, pointed to Texas’ strict abortion bans, limited access to prenatal care, crackdowns on immigration, and high uninsured rates. “All of these intersectional things could be leading to this,” Rocap told the paper. Or, as the *Post* put it: “No matter the circumstances, desperation is a common thread.” ## Pregnant Children Forced Out Of State [One hundred Texas children](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/post-roe-stats-keep-getting-worse-6-texas-children-under-12-got-abortions-out-of-state-in-2023/) received abortions in other states in 2023 — the first year after Texas’ ban of the procedure took effect — including six children under the age of twelve, the [*Houston Chronicle* reported](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/article/texas-abortion-ban-teens-20047622.php?utm%5Fsource=substack&utm%5Fmedium=email) in January. The numbers came via state data and are a nearly ninefold jump from figures five years earlier, though the newspaper reported that they only covered the first half of 2023 and were likely an undercount, as fears around prosecution have risen in the wake of the ban. In December, the [*Houston Landing*](https://houstonlanding.org/texas-restrictive-abortion-law-sends-houston-teen-on-cross-country-odyssey-for-help/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) chronicled the arduous, cross-country journey some teens have made in order to end their pregnancies. Why is this alarming? Children and teens under the age of 17 cannot consent to sexual activity, per Texas law, but the state abortion ban makes no exceptions for rape or incest. Despite this, doctors have said that children see more complications in pregnancy than adult women, including serious and high-risk conditions that endanger both their lives and the lives of infants, as well as girls’ ability to conceive later in life. ## Health Care Deserts Texas has fewer OB-GYNs and maternity wards than it did prior to 2021, which limits people’s ability to access obstetric and prenatal care — important indicators in overall women and infant health metrics. The Commonwealth Fund’s research shows nearly 7 million women in the U.S. live in counties without hospitals or birth centers. Texas is one of 24 states as of June 2024 to ban or limit abortion — 21 of those, including Texas, have the the “fewest number of maternity care providers relative to the number of women who might need them,” according to the Commonwealth’s research. **Texas is 51st for access to abortion clinics per 100,000 women aged 15 to 44.** **Eight hospitals serving 26,000 miles.** According to reporting from the [*Texas Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/06/14/rural-texas-maternal-care-access-abortion-travel-ban/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), there were just eight hospitals in the 26,000 square mile Panhandle region as of June 2024\. Amarillo, the largest city in the region with a population of 201,000, is a medical hub for the 26-county area — meaning residents in some counties must travel between 26 to 72 miles away for the closest hospital with delivery services. According to the Texas Organization of Rural and Community Hospitals, 28 rural hospitals have closed since 2010, the most in the country. And of the 158 remaining, only 64 provide obstetrical and delivery services. The Commonwealth Fund found that in 2023 and 2024, fewer medical school graduates applied to residency programs in states with abortion bans. ## Doctors Are Fleeing Of Texas OB-GYNs [surveyed recently](https://www.manatt.com/Manatt/media/Documents/Articles/FINAL-TX-OBGYN-Workforce-Study%5F2024-10%5Ff.pdf?ref=thebarbedwire.com) by a healthcare consulting firm: - 44% indicated that they have thought about or have already changed how and/or where they practice as a direct result of the state’s new abortion restrictions. - 13% are planning to retire early. - 21% have thought about it or are planning to leave Texas to practice in another state. - 14% would like to leave Texas to practice in another state but cannot due to personal reasons. Of resident physicians surveyed, 57% said that Texas abortion laws were relevant to their decision about whether to stay or leave the state after residency; half indicated plans to leave the state in part due to the laws. *(Correction: A previous version of this story stated that, in 2022, Texas had a maternal mortality rate of 34.7% — in fact, Texas had a mortality rate of 34.7 per 100,000 in 2022\.* The Barbed Wire *regrets the error.)* ### Joaquin Castro Wants the FBI to Release Latino Civil Rights-Era Surveillance Docs Too URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/joaquin-castro-wants-the-fbi-to-release-latino-civil-rights-era-surveillance-docs-too/ Last updated: 2025-01-09T19:19:58.000Z After the CIA released historical documents proving that the agency surveilled Mexican American and Puerto Rican civil rights activists during the civil rights era, Rep. Joaquin Castro and other members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus have requested the FBI do the same. The [letter](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/castro-house-gov/imo/media/doc/20250108lettertobidenondeclassification1.pdf), dated Jan. 8, asked President Joe Biden to direct the FBI to “release information on the historical surveillance of Latino American communities, particularly during the civil rights movements of the 1960s and 1970s.” The CIA’s [55 documents](https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/search/site/mhchaos?f%5b0%5d=dm%5Ffield%5Frelease%5Fdate%3A%5b2024-01-01T00%3A00%3A00Z%20TO%202025-01-01T00%3A00%3A00Z%5d&ref=thebarbedwire.com), from 1968 to 1983, validated long-held suspicions that the government was monitoring and disrupting activists’ work — and viewed them as threats, according to a report from *Axios*, [who first wrote](https://www.axios.com/2025/01/06/cia-releases-docs-latino-civil-rights-era-surveillance?ref=thebarbedwire.com) about the records this week. They detail how the CIA sent undercover agents to infiltrate student groups in Arizona, California, and Colorado. They monitored activists like farmworker union leader Cesar Chavez and were tracking Chavez’s attendance of demonstrations, including one in New York City that marked the 3rd anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1968 assassination. “During this time, the FBI and CIA used their authority to inappropriately monitor, infiltrate, and disrupt the peaceful activities of American citizens,” according to the letter. “Much of this surveillance is a matter of public record through press reports and previous U.S. government disclosures, but our understanding is many documents from this period remain unreleased.” “For the last year, I’ve been pushing the FBI and CIA to release files about their surveillance of the Latino civil rights movement,” Castro wrote in an [Instagram post](https://www.instagram.com/p/DElK1hVyTWT/?hl=en&ref=thebarbedwire.com). The FBI’s surveillance of Latino civil rights pioneers has already been borne out through individual open records requests and news reports. Notably: Rosie Castro, the mother of Mayor Julián Castro and U.S. Rep. Castro, was listed in an FBI informant's notes after she “was observed buying two small posters of Angela Davis for 50 cents each, which were mentioned by Rosie Castro as having been printed in Cuba,” according to [*MySanAntonio*](https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/fbi-file-on-rev-black-is-chapter-in-city-s-689365.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “The FBI has neither provided a timeline for the release of any documents nor committed to releasing anything new, instead directing Members of Congress to submit a Freedom of Information Act request,” the letter said. “This is particularly concerning given the FBI’s historic role in the surveillance of the civil rights movements, including the Latino civil rights movement.” Read more at [*Axios*](https://www.axios.com/2025/01/06/cia-releases-docs-latino-civil-rights-era-surveillance?ref=thebarbedwire.com). ### The Wildest, Worst — and Best — Gun Laws Texas Politicians Want: A Comprehensive Guide URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-wildest-worst-and-best-gun-laws-texas-politicians-want-a-comprehensive-guide/ Last updated: 2025-01-09T18:38:23.000Z In the almost two centuries since the Battle of the Alamo, Texans’ love for guns has been well documented in dime-store novels and Hollywood westerns. However, in the Texas Capitol, the issue has become a political purity test that often prioritizes the whims of primary voters and special-interest groups over sound judgment and public safety. Ahead of the Jan. 14 start of the 2025 Texas Legislative Session, lawmakers have filed [more than 80](https://capitol.texas.gov/Search/BillSearchResults.aspx?NSP=1&SPL=False&SPC=False&SPA=False&SPS=True&Leg=89&Sess=R&ChamberH=True&ChamberS=True&BillType=B;JR;;;;;&AuthorCode=&SponsorCode=&ASAndOr=O&IsPA=True&IsJA=False&IsCA=False&IsPS=True&IsJS=False&IsCS=False&CmteCode=&CmteStatus=&OnDate=&FromDate=&ToDate=&FromTime=&ToTime=&LastAction=False&Actions=&AAO=&Subjects=I0887;&SAO=O&TT=&ID=KJNXOgkau&ref=thebarbedwire.com) bills and joint resolutions dealing with firearms. From a violence-prevention standpoint, some are as bad as the Texas Legislature’s reputation would lead you to expect (read: bad), a few are well intended but misguided, and others are *surprisingly reasonable*. According to [an analysis](https://giffords.org/analysis/texas-gun-deaths-surged-63-under-greg-abbott/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) from the non-profit organization led by former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords — using data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — gun deaths in Texas rose 63% between 2014 (the year before Gov. Greg Abbott took office) and 2022\. During that same time, the state’s homicide rate rose by [69%](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aTEEEZwceMYsXV%5FnorIVVo2HNEufQwFO/view?usp=sharing&ref=thebarbedwire.com), according to [FBI crime data](https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Of course, across the U.S., the debate over guns — who can have them? what kind? with what restrictions? and how easily can they be obtained? — has been brewing since the 1960s, when the country endured a[ sniper attack at the University of Texas at Austin](https://www.texasmonthly.com/true-crime/96-minutes/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and a spate of[ political assassinations](https://cnu.libguides.com/psthe1960s/assassinations?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and has only intensified since millions of Americans watched live coverage of the[ 1999 mass shooting at Columbine High School](https://www.history.com/topics/1990s/columbine-high-school-shootings?ref=thebarbedwire.com). That tragedy heralded a new era of[ mass shootings](https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/12/mass-shootings-mother-jones-full-data/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), an era in which each shooter seemingly attempts to top the previous killer’s death toll, like runners trying to beat the four-minute mile. Texas has faced a renewed spotlight since a 2022 mass shooting at a[ Uvalde elementary school](https://www.texastribune.org/series/uvalde-texas-school-shooting/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) left 19 children and two teachers dead. That shooting — the ninth deadliest in U.S. history — was only the fourth deadliest to occur in the state, which has played host to six of America’s 25 deadliest. Including the one in Uvalde, four of those six shootings occurred within the past decade. In 2017, a 26-year-old man[ opened fire at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs](https://www.texastribune.org/2017/11/05/reports-multiple-people-dead-following-central-texas-police-shooting/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), killing 26 people and wounding 20 others. The[ following year](https://www.texastribune.org/2018/05/18/multiple-fatalies-reported-after-shooting-santa-fe-high-school/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a 17-year-old in Santa Fe, near Houston, killed 10 people and injured 13 at his high school. The year after that, a 21-year-old gunman opened fire[ at a Walmart](https://www.texastribune.org/2019/08/03/el-paso-police-say-mass-shooter-active-cielo-vista-mall/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in El Paso, killing 23 people and injuring another 26. During the 2021 legislative session — the first after El Paso — Abbott signed what supporters called[ “constitutional carry”](https://www.texastribune.org/2021/06/16/texas-constitutional-carry-greg-abbott/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) into law, allowing residents to carry handguns without either training or a license. That expansion of gun rights came just eight years after the Legislature [halved the number of training hours](https://baylorlariat.com/2013/09/20/shorter-class-time-intended-to-make-getting-chl-easier/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) required for licensure and six years after it [removed the requirement](https://www.texastribune.org/2016/01/01/new-open-carry-law-could-come-lawsuits/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that handguns be kept concealed in public. Lawmakers in the Lone Star State have, in the past two decades, approved more than 100 bills loosening regulations on firearms, according to the [*Texas Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2023/05/10/texas-gun-fatalities-laws/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The 2025 session is unlikely to be any different. Gun legislation generally falls under one of three categories: bills that regulate where a person may possess a gun, bills that regulate what type of gun a person may possess, and bills that regulate who may possess a gun. Below is a breakdown of key legislation to watch in each category. ## Where Are Guns Allowed? ***Citizens Carrying Concealed Handguns in K-12 Schools*** [*Senate Bill 83*](https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=89R&Bill=SB83&ref=thebarbedwire.com) Sen. Bob Hall (R-Edgewood) has, for the fourth consecutive session, filed legislation to allow any [license to carry](https://www.dps.texas.gov/section/handgun-licensing?ref=thebarbedwire.com) holder (the state still offers licenses even though they are no longer required in most places) to carry a concealed handgun into public K-12 schools. This proposal might seem like a natural extension of the [2015 law](https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=84R&Bill=SB11&ref=thebarbedwire.com) that legalized licensed, concealed carry on college campuses (one of the few places where a license is still required); however, there are critical [differences](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XrYwYyofP8z%5F%5Fi%5FOugxk9RDwnif5HfbF/view?usp=sharing&ref=thebarbedwire.com) between college campuses, which are populated primarily by adults, and K-12 schools, which are populated primarily by children and the handful of adults who serve as their temporary guardians. In the event of a shooting on a college campus, most adults (students, faculty or staff) with a license to carry have no [responsibility](https://jaapl.org/content/52/3/387?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for any life but their own and are free to focus on extricating themselves from the situation as they were [trained](https://youtu.be/KwS-sDyudZo?si=FN%5FSDFTTkk4iyIqE&ref=thebarbedwire.com) to do in the Texas LTC course. A teacher at a K-12 school, on the other hand, doesn’t have the option of abandoning a classroom full of six-year-olds and simply running for safety. Instead, her position as [temporary guardian](https://www.texasbar.com/AM/Template.cfm?Section=articles&Template=/CM/HTMLDisplay.cfm&ContentID=51163&ref=thebarbedwire.com) for those students forces her into the role of [de facto](https://education-expert.com/2017/07/professional-standard-care-field-school-administration-student-supervision/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) security guard, a role for which the five-hour Texas LTC course has in no way prepared her. Primary and secondary schools, unlike college campuses, are secured environments with controlled points of entry. Given that K-12 schools go to [great lengths](https://www.campussafetymagazine.com/press-releases/texas-school-district-installs-concealed-weapons-detection-systems-with-ai-powered-evasion-detection/164870/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to keep guns off campus and that licensed, concealed carry has proven to have [little benefit](https://www.texastribune.org/2015/09/24/study-says-concealed-carry-permits-dont-affect-cri/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to anyone other than the carrier, there is [little justification](https://www.rand.org/research/gun-policy/analysis/laws-allowing-armed-staff-in-K12-schools.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for allowing each and every license holder to carry a gun into these locations. And there is no reason to expect teachers and administrators to perform a security role for which they have no training. If a school board feels the need to arm teachers or administrators as security guards, Texas has a [School Marshal](https://www.tcole.texas.gov/content/school-marshals?ref=thebarbedwire.com) program that puts school employees through [police firearms training](https://youtu.be/Z-yemaK-KCc?si=3j5yafYfEAnsjowD&ref=thebarbedwire.com), then licenses them as limited-authority law enforcement officers. ***Guns at the State Fair — and All Events on Property Owned by the State*** [*House Bill 1715*](https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=89R&Bill=HB1715&ref=thebarbedwire.com) In the aftermath of Attorney General Ken Paxton’s fight against the gun ban implemented by the State Fair of Texas, Rep. Briscoe Cain (R-Deer Park) has filed a bill to prohibit any private entity that rents property from the state from restricting licensed carry on the property. Current [state law](https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/docs/pe/htm/pe.30.htm?ref=thebarbedwire.com#30.06) says that the licensed carry of handguns cannot be criminalized on property, other than a [statutory gun-free zone](https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/docs/pe/htm/pe.46.htm?ref=thebarbedwire.com#46.03), that is “owned or leased by a governmental entity.” However, there is an ongoing debate as to whether the word “leased” — which, grammatically, can apply to either the lessor (the property owner/landlord) or the lessee (the tenant) — was intended to apply only to private property rented by a state entity or to include state property rented by a private entity. If “leased” applies to both landlords and tenants, there is still the question of whether a private entity, such as the State Fair of Texas, can use enforcement measures such as metal detectors to prohibit licensed carry without criminalizing it. And if so, does the [Texas Local Government Code](https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/GV/htm/GV.411.htm?ref=thebarbedwire.com#411.209) preclude the private entity’s use of local police to enforce the prohibition? Cain’s bill would settle that debate by requiring all new or renewed leases of state property to include a provision prohibiting the tenant from restricting licensed carry on the property. Although the current law is a muddled mess, HB 1715 paints with far too broad a brush. The law against turning public property into gun-free zones was passed to [prevent cities](https://house.texas.gov/videos/4010?ref=thebarbedwire.com) from prohibiting lawful carry in libraries and civic centers where no steps have been taken to prohibit unlawful carry. But what about a location like the state fair, which is secured with metal detectors and armed guards? The State Fair of Texas has implemented security measures to ensure that its event is truly gun-free, and the Legislature should honor those efforts by clarifying state law to unambiguously allow private entities to utilize such measures on state property. ***Remove the State Government’s Right to Regulate Guns — At All*** [*House Joint Resolution 93*](https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=89R&Bill=HJR93&ref=thebarbedwire.com) Representative-elect Andy Hopper (R-Decatur) has filed a constitutional amendment that would guarantee each and every Texan the right to keep and bear arms. The amendment would accomplish this feat by stripping the Legislature of the authority to regulate arms. In the 18 years I’ve been involved in Texas gun politics, I’ve seen legislators take some pretty big swings, but a yet-to-be-sworn-in freshman’s prefiling a constitutional amendment that would deny lawmakers the authority to regulate guns is a uniquely bold move. Check back in five months to find out how it worked out for him. ## Types of Firearms ***Raise the Age Limit for Semiautomatic Rifles*** *House Bills* [*313*](https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=89R&Bill=HB313&ref=thebarbedwire.com)*,* [*384*](https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=89R&Bill=HB384&ref=thebarbedwire.com)*,* [*579*](https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=89R&Bill=HB579&ref=thebarbedwire.com)*,* [*1150*](https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/history.aspx?LegSess=89R&Bill=HB1150&ref=thebarbedwire.com) *&* [*1556*](https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=89R&Bill=HB1556&ref=thebarbedwire.com) This one has a visceral appeal to anyone concerned about school shootings — but it’s flawed. Several Democratic lawmakers, including Ann Johnson (Houston), Vikki Goodwin (Austin), Ron Reynolds (Missouri City), Penny Morales Shaw (Houston) and Joe Moody (El Paso), have each refiled retiring Rep. Tracy King’s (D-Uvalde) well-intended but misguided [2023 bill](https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=88R&Bill=HB2744&ref=thebarbedwire.com) to raise the age limit to purchase a semiautomatic rifle. (“Semiautomatic” means that the gun automatically ejects the spent casing and loads a fresh cartridge after each shot, allowing the shooter to fire the gun as quickly as he can pull the trigger. The gun fires one shot each time the trigger is pulled, until the magazine is empty.) One year after the 2022 shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, King’s bill garnered a good deal of attention, both because the families of the victims lobbied tirelessly for its passage and because two Republican representatives shocked their colleagues by voting at the 11th hour to [pass the bill out of committee](https://www.texastribune.org/2023/05/08/texas-gun-bill-uvalde-allen-mall-shooting/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) (the bill subsequently died after the House Calendars Committee failed to schedule it for a vote by the full House). Although there is merit in trying to make it harder for a troubled 18-year-old to obtain a gun that can be used to create mass carnage, a “raise-the-age” bill that [focuses exclusively](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/outlook/article/gun-violence-ar-15-harris-19745724.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on [semiautomatic rifles](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/outlook/article/ar-15-ban-mass-shooting-18107185.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) is [unlikely](https://youtu.be/QK2nwN6Pxpc?si=rbgBrSnoldLHysNi&ref=thebarbedwire.com) to save many, if any, lives because an 18-year-old would still be allowed to purchase numerous other guns that can be just as deadly. Under this bill, an 18-year-old could legally walk into a gun store and purchase a semiautomatic [AR-15-style](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rZ-y0I7SEk2jq3U0jrZVlV8ABkX8ZpmR/view?usp=sharing&ref=thebarbedwire.com) or [AK-47-style](https://youtu.be/qZNvy7wxmnk?t=130&ref=thebarbedwire.com) shotgun, both of which, at the close range of a typical school shooting, are capable of inflicting [greater](https://youtu.be/m5%5FWbsTezW4?t=240&ref=thebarbedwire.com) [damage](https://youtu.be/R0ntGALRIkY?t=380&ref=thebarbedwire.com) than are their [rifle](https://youtu.be/INdMTaVmT5I?t=714&ref=thebarbedwire.com) [counterparts](https://youtu.be/RUpXufqKT0o?t=616&ref=thebarbedwire.com). Furthermore, a gun store would still be allowed to sell an 18-year-old a [pump-action](https://worldoftroy.com/product/rifle-16-sporting-pump-223-std-trigger-troy-stock-optic-ready-blk/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) or [lever-action](https://www.offgridweb.com/gear/new-bond-arms-lever-action-ar-15/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) AR-15 variant, which — despite not being semiautomatic — can [easily exceed](https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmpublic/OffensiveWeapons/memo/OWB83.htm?ref=thebarbedwire.com) the [average rate of fire](https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2023/feb/8/president-bidens-ideas-guns-need-evolve/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) from a typical school shooting. And although a gun store can’t legally sell a pistol to an 18-year-old, a private seller at a gun show or on an online message board could still legally sell an 18-year-old a semiautomatic [Glock 19](https://us.glock.com/en/pistols/g19?ref=thebarbedwire.com) pistol like the one used in 2007 to kill 32 students and faculty at [Virginia Tech](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia%5FTech%5Fshooting?ref=thebarbedwire.com) (the deadliest school shooting in [U.S. history](https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/12/mass-shootings-mother-jones-full-data/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)); a semiautomatic [Glock 17](https://us.glock.com/en/pistols/g17?ref=thebarbedwire.com) pistol like the one used in 1991 to kill 23 diners at a Killeen, Texas, [Luby’s cafeteria](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luby%27s%5Fshooting?ref=thebarbedwire.com) (the seventh-deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history); or a semiautomatic [AR-15 pistol](https://www.impactguns.com/semi-auto-handguns/2nd-amendment-2a-15-ar-15-pistol-5-56-223-10-5-barrel-black-30rd-860005321452-2a15001p?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which is [virtually identical](https://youtu.be/hgo8Pn-hy1o?si=8xlSPxhBTpNRiegN&ref=thebarbedwire.com) to the AR-15 rifles used by the [Sandy Hook](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandy%5FHook%5FElementary%5FSchool%5Fshooting?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Uvalde and [Parkland](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkland%5Fhigh%5Fschool%5Fshooting?ref=thebarbedwire.com) shooters but without the buttstock (the buyer could then legally purchase a [buttstock](https://ar15discounts.com/products/trinity-force-alpha-mil-spec-stock-buffer-kit-black/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) or a virtually identical [pistol brace](https://www.wingtactical.com/pistol-braces/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for about $50). As it’s currently written, this bill wouldn’t accomplish much; however, the only change necessary to fix it is a shift from focusing on semiautomatic rifles to focusing on firearms that accept detachable magazines. A bill to raise the age to purchase any firearm that [accepts detachable magazines](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jjFBE9YUtFmlHqZiHHYRKPoSBNfPx%5F7f/view?usp=drive%5Flink&ref=thebarbedwire.com) would cover all of the guns mentioned above but leave most hunting rifles and shotguns unaffected. ## Who Can Own Guns? ***Even People Who’ve Threatened Violence Get to Keep Their Guns*** [*House Bill 162*](https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=89R&Bill=HB162&ref=thebarbedwire.com) Briscoe Cain has, for the third consecutive session, filed a bill to prohibit cities and counties from adopting extreme risk protection laws and to ensure that Texas law enforcement agencies cannot enforce any such laws enacted at the federal level. It seems that after every high-profile school shooting, from the 17 faculty and students killed in [2018 in Parkland, Florida](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/16/us/fbi-nikolas-cruz-shooting.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), to the [22 killed in Uvalde](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/uvalde-school-shooter-left-trail-of-warning-signs-ahead-of-attack?ref=thebarbedwire.com), we learn about myriad warning signs, or “red flags,” that went unheeded because nobody had the tools or authority to act on them. This has led gun safety activists to focus their recent efforts on passing [extreme risk protection laws](https://txgunsense.org/erpo/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), or “red flag” laws, that would authorize a court to order the temporary removal of guns from someone who has threatened violence. Gun rights activists are concerned that any type of preemptive action against someone who hasn’t yet committed a crime might deny due process to the accused; however, Cain would better serve his constituents by figuring out how to pass a “red flag” law that ensures due process than by attempting to nullify such laws altogether. (It’s worth noting that HB 162’s prohibition against municipal and county ordinances is likely redundant, given that Texas law already prohibits [cities](https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/LG/htm/LG.229.htm?ref=thebarbedwire.com#229.001) and [counties](https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/LG/htm/LG.236.htm?ref=thebarbedwire.com#236.002) from regulating firearms.) ***People Who Threaten Violence Have Their Guns Temporarily Removed (ie, “Red Flag” Laws)*** *House Bills* [*234*](https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=89R&Bill=HB234&ref=thebarbedwire.com)*,* [*478*](https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=89R&Bill=HB478&ref=thebarbedwire.com)*,* [*655*](https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=89R&Bill=HB655&ref=thebarbedwire.com) *&* [*893*](https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=89R&Bill=HB893&ref=thebarbedwire.com) Four House Democrats (Johnson, Goodwin, Reynolds and Moody) have filed well-written “red flag” legislation that would allow a court to temporarily remove guns from someone who has demonstrated a propensity for violence. All four bills are basically the same, so I’ll focus on HB 893 by El Paso Rep. Joe Moody. Essentially, this bill would allow a family member or prosecuting attorney to file an application for an extreme risk protective order on the basis of firsthand information “regarding any dangerous behavior or conduct exhibited by the respondent as a result of a serious mental illness, including any behavior or conduct related to the respondent's use of firearms.” The applicant would be required to attest, under oath, that the individual in question “poses an immediate and present danger of causing bodily injury, serious bodily injury, or death to any person.” Within two weeks of the issuance of an extreme risk protective order, the subject of the order would be afforded a hearing at which he would be able to challenge the order and provide evidence refuting the allegations against him. If the presiding judge found the application to have merit, the respondent’s guns would be temporarily removed from his possession for up to one year; however, the respondent could request to have the ruling reconsidered after three months. Any person found to have made a false statement in an application for an extreme risk protective order could be charged with a Class B misdemeanor and sentenced to up to six months in jail. Those are strong assurances of due process, which shouldn’t surprise anyone familiar with Moody’s work in the field of [criminal justice reform](https://www.elpasotimes.com/story/opinion/2016/01/30/moody-criminal-justice-reform-work-progress/79582720/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Moody, who served as [vice chair](https://www.texastribune.org/2022/08/07/joe-moody-el-paso-shooting-uvalde-investigation/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of the House Investigative Committee on the Robb Elementary Shooting, has filed two other bills that will hopefully receive hearings this session. ***If You Can’t Buy the Gun, You Can’t Load the Gun*** [*House Bill 877*](https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=89R&Bill=HB877&ref=thebarbedwire.com) Moody’s HB 877 would make it a crime for someone who is prohibited from possessing a type of firearm to attempt to acquire a magazine — the removable part (sometimes called a “clip”) that holds the ammunition — for that type of firearm. This may seem redundant, but as a former prosecutor, Moody understands that this bill would provide law enforcement with a tool they could use against a would-be assailant even if they haven’t caught the person red handed. If police pull over a convicted bank robber and find 50 loaded rifle magazines in his trunk, they shouldn’t have to wait to see if he actually puts those magazines into a gun. His acquiring magazines for a gun he isn’t allowed to own should be a crime in and of itself. ***Guns Must Be Safely Stored So Kids Can’t Reach Them*** [***House Bill 889***](https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=89R&Bill=HB889&ref=thebarbedwire.com) Moody’s HB 889 would expand Texas’ [1995 safe-storage law](https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=74R&Bill=HB44&ref=thebarbedwire.com) by changing the definition of “child” to mean “a person under the age of 18” rather than “a person under the age of 17.” Raising this age would ensure that parents can be held responsible if they negligently allow a 17-year-old who is too young to purchase a firearm to access one. This issue revealed itself with deadly results in 2018, when a 17-year-old in Santa Fe, Texas, used two of his father’s guns to kill eight classmates and two teachers. HB 889 would make two other changes: It would raise the penalty from a misdemeanor to a felony if the child uses the firearm to injure or kill someone outside the home (e.g., a school shooting), and it would create a clear exception to the offense if the child’s parent or guardian authorized him to use the gun for hunting or sporting purposes (a small win for gun rights activists). ### Officials Warn Texans of Parasites That ‘Screw Into Flesh With Sharp Mouth Hooks’ URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/officials-warn-texans-of-parasites-that-screw-into-flesh-with-sharp-mouth-hooks/ Last updated: 2025-01-08T17:15:32.000Z Texans, grab some bug spray because a parasite that can *screw into your flesh* could be coming our way. We know, we’re kind of freaking out, too. The [Texas Parks and Wildlife Department](https://tpwd.texas.gov/newsmedia/releases/?req=20241230b&ref=thebarbedwire.com) is deputizing hunters, hikers, and anyone else wandering the wilds of South Texas to be on maggot watch for the hellish New World Screwworm. Because nothing says outdoor adventure like monitoring animals for parasitic larvae. The alarm bells started after a recent discovery of an infected cow in Chiapas, Mexico, near the Guatemalan border. Experts are now tracking the screwworm’s northward creep through Central and South America, KXAN previously [reported](https://www.kxan.com/news/texas/texas-officials-warn-of-infectious-parasitic-screwworms-found-in-mexico/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Dr. J Hunter Reed, a wildlife veterinarian with the department, summed it up: “Those enjoying Texas’ natural resources have an opportunity to serve as the first line of defense in protecting wildlife, livestock, and human health.” Translation: Your hiking trip just got a lot more stressful. If you’re wondering, “What the heck is a New World Screwworm?” here’s the lowdown (and it’s grosser than you can possibly imagine): The screwworms are the maggot offspring of the New World Screwworm fly (cochliomyia hominivorax, if you’re nasty). And maybe don’t eat anything while you read this next part: The flies lay eggs in open wounds or orifices on live animals — nostrils, eyes, mouths, you name it. Once hatched, the larvae screw into the flesh using their sharp mouth hooks. Yes, mouth hooks. And if that doesn’t give you nightmares, their habit of turning small wounds into gaping, festering craters definitely will! After feasting on their host, the larvae fall to the ground, turn into adult flies, and the circle of vomit-inducing life continues. One fly can lay up to 3,000 eggs in her girlboss lifetime, ensuring that no wound is left behind. In case you thought humans were safe, think again. While the screwworms prefer livestock and wildlife, they’re not above causing a little havoc for humans. The last time these maggots showed up in the U.S. was in 1966, but a massive eradication effort booted them out. But since then, the screwworms have been living it up in Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and South America, presumably waiting for their comeback tour. TPWD advises to look out for animals exhibiting a smell of decaying flesh, unexplained head-shaking, visible fly larvae wriggling around in wounds, and isolation from other animals. If you’re out hunting, hiking, or bird-watching, keep your eyes peeled for suspicious animals and report them to a [wildlife biologist](https://tpwd.texas.gov/landwater/habitat-management/find-a-wildlife-biologist/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Livestock sightings should be reported to the [Texas Animal Health Commission](https://www.tahc.texas.gov/agency/contact.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) or the [U.S. Department of Agriculture](https://www.nass.usda.gov/Statistics%5Fby%5FState/Texas/Contact%5FUs/index.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). ### Distracted Driving Is a Major Killer in Texas. Meet the Teens Trying to Stop It. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/distracted-driving-is-a-major-killer-in-texas-meet-the-teens-trying-to-stop-it/ Last updated: 2025-01-08T10:00:00.000Z *This story was created as part of a news writing workshop by Youthcast Media Group®, which offers free and paid training in multimedia journalism to diverse high school students from under-resourced communities.* Teens are taking to the road every day in Texas as newly-minted drivers and passengers. And safety activists are trying new strategies to ensure they get home alive. Car crashes remain a leading cause of death for teens, eclipsed only recently by gun violence. But the causes of fatal crashes — much like the new generation at risk of experiencing them — have changed. Cell phones, touch screens, talk-to-text, and other distractions have emerged as serious threats to safe driving. Nearly [one in six car crashes on Texas roadways were caused by distracted driving in 2023](https://www.txdot.gov/safety/traffic-safety-campaigns/distracted-driving.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), according to the Texas Department of Transportation, taking the lives of 399 people. Nearly 2,800 others suffered serious injuries. Across the country, distraction played a role in 8% of fatal crashes and 12% of crashes that caused injury in 2022, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/texas-dd-fatalities-1.png) Much like they did in the 1980s with campaigns against drunk driving, activists have taken note, and are calling on passengers to combat the issue. “My friends don't drink and drive, and they don't take drugs and drive, so that wasn't an issue. But distracted driving was,” said Candace Lightner, who founded Mothers Against Drunk Driving and, more recently, We Save Lives, a nonprofit focused on the “three D's: drunk, drugged and distracted driving.” A little more than four years ago Lightner gave up her car after a crash caused by a distracted driver. Being a frequent passenger was a revelation. “It really opened my eyes to a new way of existing in an automobile, and how drivers behaved, and what I could do about influencing their behavior, because what they do risks my life.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/dd-on-texas-roads.png) It was at that time, while serving as a guest lecturer at Cornell University’s Personal Leadership Institute, Lightner started asking students in her classes how many rode in cars with drunk drivers. A few would raise their hands. Then a few more when she’d ask about drugs. When she’d ask about distracted drivers, however, nearly everyone’s hand would go up. “I was just appalled,” she said. “I would look at them and say, ‘Why would you do something like this? Why would you risk your life to be with somebody who is driving dangerously?’” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/texas-dd-stats2.png) Lightner partnered with the National Road Safety Foundation, to launch the [National Passenger Safety Campaign](https://nationalpassengersafety.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). National Passenger Safety Week, now in its fourth year, will run from Jan. 20 - 27 and involves dozens of local, state and national groups including the Governors Highway Safety Association, and uses social media aimed at young people, including videos that model ways teens can speak up when they feel in danger in a car. It also includes a pledge not to ride with anyone who is drunk, on drugs or distracted called the Courage to Intervene. The Texas Department of Transportation runs a similar campaign called [Talk.Text.Crash.](https://www.txdot.gov/about/newsroom/statewide/distracted-driving-is-deadly-driving.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in April for Distracted Driving Awareness Month, part of #EndTheStreakTX, a broader safe driving effort aimed at ending the 24-year streak of daily deaths on Texas roadways (the last deathless day was Nov. 7, 2000.) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/texas-dd-stats1.png) Increasingly, students are heeding the call. Lakshitha Kamala Kannan, a senior at Spring High School outside of Houston, has studied health science as part of a pre-medical career and technical education pathway. Stories of car crashes, from a health perspective, led her to join [Teens in the Driver Seat](https://www.t-driver.com/about-tds/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a peer-to-peer program focused on traffic safety. Though led by teens, the program receives scientific guidance and project resources from Texas A&M’s Transportation Institute and is now available in 28 states. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/lakshitha-kannan-tab-headshot.jpg) Lakshitha Kamala Kannan is a senior at Spring High School outside of Houston. “We organized lunch tables and we put up posters throughout the school,” Kannan said. “We have control over the senior parking lots, and we help them paint some parking lot \[signs\] that create awareness for teen drivers.” Kannan is also studying for her driver’s license, which gave her another idea on how the state could better address teen driver safety. “In the state of Texas, I feel like they could have a class. A whole teen driving class. You can join during school, and you could have that as your period and get a social or a science credit,” she said. “I feel like it's more important in Texas, especially in Houston, downtown, it's terrible driving the highways.” Some teens say they are concerned with being onlookers to unsafe driving. “I’ve noticed that sometimes while people are having a conversation or trying to multitask, like setting up their phone, they might get distracted,” said Shivali Sinha, a sophomore at Bellaire High School in Houston. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/poll-53-distraction.png) Sinha received her driver’s permit at the end of July. As a precaution, she said she reminds herself to focus completely on driving and not get distracted. The increasing use of rideshare services like Uber and Lyft, especially among younger people, means that many youth are in cars with drivers they don’t know. Uber and Lyft drivers can also be distracted. “Many of their drivers do drive distracted. They have to look at a map and they take phone calls,” said Lightner. Other students around the country have also had similar experiences. In a poll of 134 high school students conducted by Youthcast Media Group, 76.5% said that they had been in a vehicle with a driver who is texting or checking their phone while driving. And 53% said they experienced a driver distracted by passengers. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/poll-77-texting.png) Abigia Kebede, a sophomore at Alief Taylor High School, agreed that more class time should be dedicated to safe driving. Especially after learning how many people die each year. “There should be a lot more awareness,” Kebede said. As a passenger, Kebede feels empowered to speak out against unsafe driving and hopes others can do the same. She’s seen that it can work. “The driver would be speeding, and it would just, like, throw me off,” she said. “But I would tell them to slow down, and they would. Because I have a voice that I can use.” *Bethel Kifle and Cindy Tint are 10th-grade students at Bellaire High School in Houston, Yaneli Victoriano is a junior at Palatine High School in Illinois, and Jose Negrete is a junior at Back of the Yards College Preparatory High School in Chicago. They worked with Youthcast Media Group journalist-mentor Cara Kelly to write this story during a news writing workshop. Student journalists Alani Schwertfeger, Shaunavahn Reid, and Fatumata Barrie contributed to this story.* *Correction: This story previous referred to Lightner’s revelation as happening ten years ago. In fact, it was four years ago.* The Barbed Wire *regrets the error.* ### Meta Moves Teams to Texas Over ‘Concern’ of ‘Biased Employees’ in California URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/meta-moves-teams-to-texas-over-concern-of-biased-employees-in-california/ Last updated: 2025-01-07T21:17:32.000Z CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been quietly shifting toward a Republican-favored strategy for his leadership of social media giant Meta, announcing on Tuesday that he’s replacing a trusted fact-checking program with community notes, removing restrictions on topics like immigration and gender, and moving the company’s “trust and safety and content moderation teams out of California, and our U.S. content review to Texas.” The changes mirror many of those made in recent months by Elon Musk's X (formerly Twitter), and it will affect both Facebook and Instagram, per [*NBC News*](https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/meta-ends-fact-checking-program-community-notes-x-rcna186468?ref=thebarbedwire.com). He wrote on [Threads](https://www.threads.net/@zuck/post/DEhga1cJGjg?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — the company’s attempt at a Twitter dupe — that the move to Texas “will help remove the concern that biased employees are overly censoring content.” (Guess no one told Zuck about the biases happening in Texas towards [women](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/she-voted-for-trump-then-she-had-two-terrifying-miscarriages-in-texas/), [people of color](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/four-of-five-texas-men-executed-this-year-were-black-or-latino/), [immigrants](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-happily-offers-up-land-for-trumps-mass-deportations/), and the [LGBTQIA+ community](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/thereve-been-93-anti-lgbtq-hate-crimes-in-texas-since-2022-data-shows/).) “It’s time to get back to our roots around free expression on Facebook and Instagram,” Zuckerberg said on a video posted to Facebook. “I started building social media to give people a voice. Governments and legacy media have pushed to censor more and more.” To be clear, [actual research](https://bhr.stern.nyu.edu/quick-take/more-evidence-that-conservatives-are-not-unfairly-censored-on-social-media/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) contends that conservatives are *not* unfairly censored on social media. Despite this, Republicans have long criticized [fact-checking in general](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2019/06/27/republicans-far-more-likely-than-democrats-to-say-fact-checkers-tend-to-favor-one-side/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — and Meta’s fact-checking system in particular — as unfair and favoring Democrats, NBC reported. During a Senate hearing in 2019, [Texas’ sweetheart Sen. Ted Cruz](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/we-live-in-hell-ted-cruz-wins-again/) told fellow lawmakers: “Not only does big tech have the power to silence voices with which they disagree, but big tech likewise has the power to collate a person's feed so they only receive the news that comports with their own political agenda," Cruz said, according to a [*Washington Post*](https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/04/10/facebook-google-twitter-under-fire-senate-republicans-censoring-conservatives-online/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) article that year. In 2020, Zuckerberg told lawmakers on Capitol Hill that Facebook’s goal is to “make sure that people have reliable information about the election,” according to [*Politico*](https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/17/facebook-twitter-senate-tech-hearing-436975?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Is Zuckerberg bowing down to the incoming Trump administration? Or was this always Zuck’s plan? Here’s what we know: He’s already [donated $1 million](https://www.wsj.com/tech/mark-zuckerbergs-meta-donates-1-million-to-trumps-inaugural-fund-32a999c1?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to soon-to-be President Trump’s inaugural fund, and, earlier this week, Zuckerberg put [Joel Kaplan](https://www.msnbc.com/the-reidout/reidout-blog/mark-zuckerberg-meta-trump-kaplan-facebook-rcna186162?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — a Republican and a [Brett Kavanaugh supporter](https://www.axios.com/2024/10/08/trump-kavanaugh-fbi-sexual-assault-probe-constrained?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — on its global policy team. He’s also put [Dana White](https://www.npr.org/2025/01/06/nx-s1-5250310/meta-dana-white-ufc?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the Ultimate Fighting Championship president and a Trump ally, on Meta’s board. Though Zuckerberg never explicitly endorsed Trump ahead of the election, he [did praise](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-07-19/mark-zuckerberg-calls-donald-trump-badass-without-endorsing-for-president?ref=thebarbedwire.com) the former president in an interview with Bloomberg Television. As Kat Vargas, the woman behind Howdy Politics, wrote on [Threads](https://www.threads.net/@howdypolitics/post/DEhzK5zJWW8?xmt=AQGz6C1vrJGGxsDWiR4sa6DBU3z0DhO7pUV6vej30ANgMg&ref=thebarbedwire.com), “Texans have been telling you that we would be ground zero for Project 2025 and that living in a blue state wouldn’t protect you. We told you that our problems would become yours if you continued to ignore Texas.” So, see y’all on Bluesky? Read more at [NBC News.](https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/meta-ends-fact-checking-program-community-notes-x-rcna186468?ref=thebarbedwire.com) ### The Photographer Capturing the Soul of Austin URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-photographer-capturing-the-soul-of-austin/ Last updated: 2025-01-07T21:17:12.000Z “There is one thing the photograph must contain, the humanity of the moment.” – Robert Frank Forgive us for opening with a quote from Robert Frank – the famed Swiss-American photographer and documentary filmmaker. It would no doubt be better if these inspiring words came from Tommy Lee Jones, Selena, DJ Screw, or another member of Texas royalty. Capturing humanity is exactly what Austin-based photographer [Robin Winter](https://www.instagram.com/robinjohnwinter/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) does with his one-of-a-kind work. He’s the second featured artist in our series on the [Downtown Austin Space Activation (DASA) Artist Residency Program](https://downtownaustin.com/blog/2024-dasa-artist-residents-announced/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “The big thing is, it’s helped me not give up,” Winter told *The Barbed Wire* about the program. “There have been so many moments facing down imposter syndrome that I’ve had to push through.” In his work, a keen-eyed viewer will see inspiration from science fiction, and the faded polaroids of our youth. “Each frame presents a vignette where past, present, and future collapse into one, creating a visual journey that is both haunting and meditative,” Winter said. Power, ambition, humanity, and ultimately transformation are themes of Winter’s art — and will hold familiar appeal to Austinites new and old. Our city is forever in a state of growth and change, just like imagery brought to us via Robin Winter’s eye and sharp lens. Peer into the soul of Austin with Robin Winter as your guide by attending the opening reception of “Moments in Motion: Downtown's Changing Canvas” on Jan. 17 from 6 to 9 p.m. at 506 Congress in Austin. Stop by to hear from Robin and seven other exhibiting artists and photographers — more of whom we’ll continue to highlight in this ongoing series. You’ll be in great company. [RSVP](https://www.eventbrite.com/e/dasa-artists-xoxo-fellows-showcase-tickets-1105887763069?ref=thebarbedwire.com) today, and we'll see you there. ### It’s Freezing. Make Some Chili to Stave Off Existential Dread. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/its-freezing-make-some-chili-to-stave-off-existential-dread/ Last updated: 2025-01-07T14:28:59.000Z It’s colder than a well-digger’s ass. I've got a freezer full of South Texas venison. Let’s make some chili and pray the grid doesn’t shit the bed. **Step One: The Meat** Last year, I got lucky and bagged a beautiful eight-point South Texas whitetail during a late-season hunt, and my freezer is still overflowing with venison. There’s something beautiful about making a dish out of meat you harvested yourself using ingredients that grow in the same sand and scrub the animal spent its life in. But if you’re a non-hunter (or a bad hunter), a cubed beef chuck will work just fine. There’s something uniquely Texan about cooking chili, deer hunting, and worrying the power might crap out. **Step Two: Make What You Like** People have a bizarre obsession with chili recipes. Thousands of hours have been wasted by inane tweeters tilting at windmills over chili blends, cocoa powder, and (*gasp*) beans. I’ve got a simpler theory to chili cooking: Make what you like, don’t worry about following a recipe, and use ingredients from Texas. For my money, the best bowl of chili you can find is at the Texas Chili Parlor on Lavaca Street in Austin (if it’s good enough for Guy Clark, it’s good enough for me). I would never have the hubris to suggest I could recreate the alchemy they’ve perfected at the Chili Parlor, but we’ll be using their chunky chili as inspiration. Making chili is more art than science, so this isn’t a recipe so much as my experience. If you follow along, I’m sure yours will be both different *and* equally as good. **Step Three: Treat Your Chiles Right** I’ve got ancho, guajillo, pasilla, and chiles de árbol bagged up behind my spice rack — a great start. (If all you’ve got on hand is chili powder that’ll do fine too). Those chilis are going to be the backbone of this dish, so they need to be treated with the respect they deserve. You’ll need about one or two of each of you chiles — anchos provide smoky sweetness, pasillas give depth and warmth, and chiles de árbol deliver the heat. After trimming the stems off and removing the seeds and ribs, I toast them in a dry cast iron skillet until they’re fragrant but not burnt. This should only take a few minutes — let your nose tell you when they’re done. Once your kitchen smells amazing, pour boiling water over the toasted chilis and let them steep for a bit while you prepare your other ingredients. If you’d like to level up, you can also steep the chilis in Shiner Bock. Once the chilis are totally softened, toss them in a blender with some of the steeping water (or Shiner), and blitz until smooth. Already, we’re on our way to a better chili than anyone north of the panhandle would make. **Step Four: Cook** Next, take your cubed meat and sear in a bit of oil in a heavy-bottomed pot like a Dutch oven until your cubes develop an even, deeply-browned crust . Take your time on this step! The sear on the meat and the fond that it leaves behind in the pot are the cornerstones to a great chili. I’m going with a base of onions, garlic, and a jalapeno because that’s what I’ve got. Add those in and sauté them until fragrant. Pour in your chilis and revel in the smell emanating from your pot. I’m adding cumin because I like cumin — you should too, if you like cumin. I’ve got a can of crushed tomatoes, so that’s going in now as well. I’ve also got some homemade chicken stock, so I’ll add stock until there’s enough liquid in the pot. Just feel this part out. You want it to look less like a soup and more like a chili — but no need to measure anything. **Step Five: Let it Ride** Bring the pot to a simmer, and let it ride. This is a great time to get a fire going and check in with friends to see if they still have power. Check the chili periodically — add more stock if it looks like it needs it — and cook it until it’s done. I usually let it go until I can easily pull apart a meat cube with two forks. **Step Six: Thicken** Once the meat is cooked to your liking, cut the heat. If you’ve got some masa harina kicking around (and let’s be honest — you really should), mix some masa with stock or water to make a thick batter. Add that to your chili until the sauce is as thick as you want it. Season with salt to taste. Look, don’t be afraid to add what seems like a lot of salt — under-seasoned chili is an abomination and should not be tolerated. **Step Seven: Add Cornbread** I have a box of Jiffy cornbread in the back of the pantry, which is the perfect companion to a bowl of chili. I chopped up my preferred toppings — white onion, pickled jalapenos, and cilantro — while the chili cools to a less-molten temperature. Now enjoy the fruits of your labor, preferably with someone you love or, at the very least, someone who can help keep you warm if the lights go out. ### It’s Freezing in Texas This Week. Here’s How to Keep Your Pipes From Bursting. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/its-freezing-in-texas-this-week-heres-how-to-keep-your-pipes-from-bursting/ Last updated: 2025-01-06T18:06:59.000Z With a [polar vortex bringing freezing temperatures](https://www.statesman.com/story/weather/severe/2025/01/04/weather-texas-arctic-air-polar-vortex-cold-front-freezing-temperatures-maps-forecast/77428325007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to Texas this week, it’s time to channel your inner Hank Hill and do a little home maintenance to keep your pipes from freezing. Frozen pipes are like nature’s way of pranking us in the worst possible way. And in Texas, where pipes are often as unprotected as someone in shorts during a blizzard, they’re especially prone to turning into ice sculptures. Trust us, a burst pipe isn’t the kind of water feature you want in your home. But don’t worry — prep for the freeze, and your pipes will stay happier than a snowman in January (in states where they have enough snow to actually *make* a snowman, that is). Here are some tips from [Texas A&M University’s Agrilife Extension Service](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/texashelp-tamu-edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/winter-storms-frozen-pipes.pdf) on how to keep your pipes warm. First off, it’s important to note the trigger temperatures that will make your pipes freeze. They generally freeze and burst when temperatures drop to 20°F or below. Pipes most at risk are located in unheated or poorly insulated areas, such as outdoor spigots, swimming pool and sprinkler lines, pipes running along exterior walls, and pipes in crawl spaces, attics, garages, and basements. Before freezing weather hits, there are a few things that A&M recommends you do: Drain water lines connected to pools or sprinkler systems; insulate pipes with pipe sleeves, heat tape, or heat cables; and check your home for pipes in unheated areas. For indoor faucets, let both the cold and hot lines drip, or run water through your indoor taps — both hot and cold — before going to bed. During freezing weather, be sure to close any garage doors to protect pipes inside, and open cabinet doors to let warm air circulate around pipes under sinks. Keep your thermostat set to a consistent temperature day and night. If you’re leaving home, set it to at least 55 degrees and open cabinets near plumbing. If the worst happens and your pipes freeze, here’s what to do to thaw them out. Firstly, keep your faucet open, because running water will help melt the ice as the pipe thaws. If you have a burst pipe, shut off the water using the property owner’s shutoff valve to prevent any damage. This is typically located outdoors on your side of the water meter, at your meter box. If you find a frozen pipe, use a heating pad, hair dryer, warm towels, or a space heater to warm the frozen section of the pipe. Don’t use an open flame. If all else fails, call a plumber. Good luck and stay warm. ### The Chicks Are Everywhere in Country Music. Except Its Hall of Fame. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-chicks-are-everywhere-in-country-music-except-its-hall-of-fame/ Last updated: 2025-01-06T10:00:00.000Z The main character of “Wild Is Her Favorite Color,” the opening track on Jenna Paulette’s 2024 country album *Horseback*, is a familiar figure. She likes to drink tequila. She has an open heart like a desert sky. And “Ready to Run,” sings Paulette, is her favorite song. “It's so interesting when young artists mention The Chicks, cover The Chicks, call back to The Chicks in a song,” says [Marissa R. Moss](https://www.marissarmoss.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), author of *Her Country: How the Women of Country Music Busted Up the Old Boys Club*. “Because everybody knows that to do so comes with the weight of what happened to them.” In 2003, almost overnight, the country trio went from mega-platinum crossover act to pop culture blacklist after singer Natalie Maines criticized then-president George W. Bush. The Texas band was summarily — and brutally — ousted from Nashville and banned from country radio. They left the genre behind, collaborating with producers like Rick Rubin and Jack Antonoff for a comeback that expanded into the world of pop. But despite the Grammy wins, critical acclaim, and millions of streams, their place in *country* music institutions, including the Country Music Hall of Fame, remains uncertain. Still, even if the decision-makers in Nashville are unwilling to recognize The Chicks’ legacy, the proof of their impact is evident in the lyrics of the female country artists, like Paulette, who have come up behind them. It's a unique quirk of the country genre that it likes to call back to other country titles and artists. “Country musicians are historians, each and every one of them,” explains [Jason Mellard](https://www.txst.edu/history/people/faculty-staff/mellard.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Director of the Center for Texas Music History at Texas State University, in an interview with *The Barbed Wire*. “It's a way of signaling an awareness of tradition. You're gaining credibility.” He points to Barbara Mandrell’s “I Was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool,” which references George Jones. “It authenticates the point she’s trying to make. But I do think it also comes from a genuine place.” It’s easy to imagine Mandrell growing up to Jones’ songs on the radio — just like it’s easy to imagine a Texas artist like Paulette listening to “Ready to Run” with her hand waving out the truck window. And that’s kind of the point. When artists call back to Jones or George Strait, and now The Chicks, they often write from their memories, setting a song in a specific time and place. They’re saying, “I was there.” On “Ladies in the 90s,” Lauren Alaina gets nostalgic for the brief moment in time when women dominated radio waves. Alaina recalls driving around to “Hit Me Baby One More Time,” “No Scrubs,” and, of course, “Cowboy Take Me Away.” In the 90s, female country artists were so popular they could hardly be contained to their genre. Shania Twain, Faith Hill, LeeAnn Rimes, and Martina McBride all released country hits so massive they reached mainstream audiences. The Chicks rode the crossover wave as well, but they were twangier, more traditional, and their bona fides as instrumentalists were always front and center. With platinum blonde hair and leather pants, The Chicks made traditional music *cool*. They intuitively blended an independent Texas spirit with Y2K girl power. Young women who might never have imagined themselves wielding a banjo had a new template for what it might mean to be country. “There's a generation of women for whom this music was so ingrained in their childhoods… like Maren Morris, Kelsey Ballerini, Kacey Musgraves, Mickey Guyton,” says Moss. “This was the touchstone. This was the biggest female country act around when they were young.” That’s the kind of influence that bubbles up decades later, no matter how hard the industry tries to shut them out — or how many of their CDs [get squished by tractors](https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/protesters-destroy-dixie-chicks-cds-71953/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). After all, what country fan could miss the reference in “Ring Finger,” released in 2024 by [ACM’s Entertainer of the Year, Lainey Wilson](https://variety.com/2024/music/news/lainey-wilson-hitmakers-whirlwind-yellowstone-interview-1236236545/?ref=thebarbedwire.com): “This here’s a song for all the girls / Who had the balls to walk away from Earl.” The callback to The Chicks’ 1999 single, in which childhood friends murder an abusive husband and then open a shop selling strawberry jam, is tailor made for young girls all over the south who grew up belting lyrics like, “And they don't lose any sleep at night / ‘Cause Earl had to die.” This is a relevance that the Country Music Hall of Fame theoretically institutionalizes. Artists become eligible for induction in the “Modern” category 20 years after reaching national prominence. Measuring from The Chicks’ 1998 major label debut, “Wide Open Spaces,” which went 5x platinum, their eligibility started in 2018. Of course, the Country Music Hall of Fame remains something of a black box, with an esoteric nomination and selection process that just happens to consistently overlook the contributions of women and artists of color — out of 155 inductees, 16 are women and just four are Black or Indigenous. However, since the creation of the “Modern” category, artists have been inducted, on average, 31 years after becoming eligible, explains [Jada Watson](https://songdata.ca/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a professor at the University of Ottawa who studies representation in country music. So, while Garth Brooks made it in a mere 23 years, an average timeline would place The Chicks’ induction closer to 2028 or 2029\. That’s assuming the industry that canceled them is *ever* willing to acknowledge their influence — and that it’s an acknowledgment the “still mad as hell” Chicks would even accept. “There's no doubting of the legacy of The Chicks,” says Moss. “But their place in Nashville and the Nashville ecosystem is obviously very fraught… I don't know if they’ll ever not appear with an asterisk at the end of their name in the minds of certain people in country music. I don't think you'll ever see Jason Aldean get out there and cover, ‘Goodbye Earl.’” In addition to the Bush-era controversy, The Chicks’ lead singer Natalie Maines has continued to unabashedly support [reproductive rights](https://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2013/07/planned-parenthood-enlists-celebrity-help-to-fight-texas-anti-abortion-bill?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the plight of the [West Memphis Three](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/dixie-chicks-natalie-maines-wins-west-memphis-three-defamation-suit/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and other social justice causes to [which country artists](https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1191405789?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [like Aldean](https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/11/12/jason-aldeans-right-wing-politics-are-engrained-dna-country-music/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) seem to stand in direct opposition. (Aldean and [Morgan Wallen](https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-country/morgan-wallen-racism-tour-1293533/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) may have both *profited* from racism.) Still, in the end, the more powerful canonization may be the one happening within country songs themselves. “If you had asked me 10 years ago if The Chicks would be at the forefront of 18- and 19-year-old students’ minds today, I don’t know that I would have guessed that, but it’s true,” says Mellard. “Even without the backing of mainstream country, that audience is still there.” He points to a gradual reclamation that’s happened over the last decade, as country stars like Musgraves or Morris have been vocal about the influence of The Chicks, a renewal he’s seen mirrored in his students. “But it's so curious because they love the heroic standing up for your values part, but they don't necessarily recognize what the debate was that got them in that place,” he says, noting that his students struggle, for example, to differentiate between the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars. A contemporary artist like Megan Maroney would have been five when Maines made her fateful anti-Bush comments. Which makes her young enough, perhaps, to understand The Chicks separately from their political legacy. Maroney won New Artist of the Year at the 2024 Country Music Awards after releasing her sophomore album, *Am I OK?*, on which she sings, “Someone take this cowboy away / Somewhere far, let him fly” — calling back to two songs from The Chicks’ *Fly* in as many lines without earning a culture war black mark on her name. This year, even as The Chicks performed at the Democratic National Convention, [a swath of MAGA TikTok set out to own the anthemic “Not Ready To Make Nice”](https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/the-chicks-not-ready-to-make-nice-maga-anthem-tiktok-1235086869/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — an almost reality-bending plot twist that suggests parts of the political right might be ready to reclaim The Chicks, too, as part of a broader realignment. Perhaps the edge of The Chicks’ message has softened with time. Or, maybe, their music is just undeniable. There’s a frustrating hypocrisy to an industry that wants to embrace music twenty years after booting it off radio stations. But, such a move has the potential to foreground, finally, The Chicks’ legacy as artists. For so long, their cultural impact has overshadowed their craft, even as the influence of their sound is obvious in mainstream music. “Their influence, you can feel it everywhere, whether or not their names are checked,” says Watson. “How do we properly contextualize their instrumental virtuosity, their lyrical sophistication, their harmonies that are unmatched?” For decades, to cover or reference The Chicks was to make a quasi-political statement. But perhaps, now, enough time has passed that it’s no longer so polarizing for an artist to admit how deeply the trio influenced them — and there’s some justice in that. “For all of these artists who do these callbacks, whether it's right back to Hank Williams and the Carter Family or more recent, it's a way for an artist to build their musical lineage in song form,” explains Watson, and it seems there are plenty of artists eager to trace their roots back to The Chicks. It’s a craft trick that The Chicks themselves used in the wake of their cancellation, on the pointed “Lubbock or Leave It.” The song name-checks Buddy Holly, along with several of his song titles including “Rave On” and “Fool’s Paradise.” Like Maines, Holly was a Lubbock native who had a thorny relationship with his hometown. He came up through country music, then challenged the bounds of the genre, eventually departing for the greener pastures of rock and roll. “I hear they hate me now / Just like they hated you,” sings Maines. “Maybe when I'm dead and gone / I'm gonna get a statue too,” contextualizing herself and her band within a tradition of Texas music that tenses between celebrating individualism and enforcing conformity. As for Holly? He ended up as a legend anyway, in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. ### A Documentary About a Texas Death Row Inmate Is Now an Oscar Nominee URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/a-documentary-about-a-texas-death-row-inmate-is-now-an-oscar-contender/ Last updated: 2025-01-03T19:28:26.000Z Can someone convicted of a horrific crime ever be redeemed? And can the victims ever truly get justice? Those are some of the questions implicitly posed in the documentary, “I Am Ready, Warden,” about Texas death row inmate John Henry Ramirez’s pursuit of redemption before his execution in 2022. The film was recently named [on a short list of contenders](https://press.oscars.org/news/97th-oscarsr-shortlists-10-award-categories-announced?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for the Best Documentary Short Film Oscar, putting a spotlight on not only the moral questions surrounding executions but, by association, Texas’ unique position in putting people to death. We’ve executed [far more people than any other state](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/stories/state-execution-rates?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and [racial disparities continue to exist](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/four-of-five-texas-men-executed-this-year-were-black-or-latino/). Update: On Jan, 23, it was announced that “I Am Ready, Warden” was [nominated](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/23/movies/oscar-nominees-full-list.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short. Ramirez was [executed](https://www.texastribune.org/2022/10/04/john-ramirez-texas-execution/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for the murder of Pablo Castro, who was stabbed 29 times during a Corpus Christi convenience store robbery in 2004. Director Smriti Mundhra discovered Ramirez's story through journalist Keri Blakinger's reporting for the nonprofit news organization, [*The Marshall Project*](https://www.themarshallproject.org/2021/09/07/from-last-meals-to-last-words-what-can-death-row-prisoners-request-before-they-die?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Blakinger, who is a producer on the documentary, talked to *The Barbed Wire* about the documentary and her foray into the film business. “I knew so little about the film industry that I just had no idea what to expect going into this,” she wrote in an email. “But it is wild now to see the film shortlisted. I think it's particularly thrilling with this project because I feel like we asked so much of our sources. Everyone on screen — and several people who didn't even appear in the final cuts — put in so much time and effort and emotional risk to help us make this film.” That’s especially true of the victim’s son, Aaron Castro, who in the film appears torn between wanting justice for his murdered father and feeling pulled to forgive an unforgivable deed. “They let us in on some of the hardest moments in their lives,” Blakinger said. “And it's wonderful to see that recognized because we couldn't have made this without them.” Blakinger started writing about Ramirez in 2021, after he made an unusual request: He asked a Texas prison official if she could be the reporter who witnessed his execution. To be clear, Blakinger’s [reporting](https://www.vice.com/en/article/i-begged-them-to-let-me-die-how-federal-prisons-became-coronavirus-death-traps/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on the death penalty, [incarcerated](https://theappeal.org/new-york-prisons-offer-tough-love-boot-camp-programs-but-prisoners-say-theyre-torture-and-hell/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) populations, and criminal justice is renowned. She was a [2024 Pulitzer Prize finalist](https://www.pulitzer.org/finalists/keri-blakinger-marshall-project?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for her “insightful, humane portrait, reported with great difficulty, of men on Death Row in Texas,” she won a National Magazine Award for her coverage of women in jail in 2019, and her memoir, “Corrections in Ink” documented her own journey from prison to newsrooms. This has made her highly sought after by incarcerated folks with stories to tell. Under the prison system's rules, since she wasn’t a reporter local to the jurisdiction of the crime, that request was declined. But the ask, from a man she didn't know and had never written about, piqued her interest, so she scheduled a trip to Huntsville for an in-person interview. “From that visit, I ended up writing two stories. One touched on a legal issue in the Ramirez case, and the other was a feature about a death row radio station,” she said. The latter caught the eye of Mundhra, who Blakinger called “a fabulously talented director.” Mundra was already known for directing the Oscar-nominated 2019 documentary “St. Louis Superman,” about the activist and battle rapper Bruce Franks Jr. “To be honest, I'd had some bad experiences with film folks in the past so I was a little wary,” Blakinger said. “But Smriti was persistent, and her past work was impressive. So in early 2022 we started work on the film.” For about two years, they interviewed Ramirez and traveled to South Texas to talk to his supporters, his pastor, his son and the district attorney of Nueces County, who is against the death penalty and worked to try and spare Ramirez’s life. “I knew that one of the things that attracted me to this case was the opportunity to explore the idea of redemption in a case where the condemned is unequivocally guilty,” Blakinger said. “A disproportionate amount of death row coverage focuses on innocence cases, even though I think cases where the condemned is guilty raise much more nuanced moral quandaries.” It was Aaron Castro, though, who stands out in the documentary. We see him work out his feelings in real time as Ramirez meets his fate. “For months, (Castro) was on the fence about whether to participate, and in the end he did — and I'm so grateful for that,” Blakinger said. “It gave us the chance to interrogate the death penalty's promise of closure in a way I've never been able to in print.” Ramirez’s case garnered national attention after Texas initially denied his request for his pastor to pray over him during the execution. That prompted a religious liberties case heard by the U.S. Supreme Court, which sided with Ramirez and [found that Texas had violated his rights by denying the pastor’s presence](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/supreme-court-rules-that-texas-must-allow-death-row-prisoners-pastor-to-touch-and-pray-over-him-during-his-execution?ref=thebarbedwire.com). His pastor was alongside Ramirez in the death chamber when Ramirez was executed. The documentary came as Texas’ death row was back in the national spotlight in 2024 — and likely will be again in 2025. Over the last few months, lawmakers, scientists, and celebrities have called for clemency for [death row inmate Robert Roberson](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/governor-abbott-i-did-not-do-this-texan-in-death-row-junk-science-case-pleads-for-his-life/), who was convicted in 2003 of shaking his 2-year-old daughter to death. His conviction was based on the “shaken baby syndrome” hypothesis, which has since been called into question and has led to international attention. Dozens of lawmakers, both Republican and Democratic, have tried to stop Roberson’s execution, which was set for last fall, but has since stalled [amid wrangling between legistors and the state Attorney General’s Office](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/12/17/texas-robert-roberson-subpoena-ken-paxton/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Myriad appeals courts, criminal justice bodies, boards, lawmakers, and judges, have been asked to weigh in on the case. There are also long standing issues with how the death penalty is disproportionately applied to people of color in Texas, especially Black people. While 12% of the state’s residents are Black, [45% of death row inmates are Black](https://apps.texastribune.org/death-row/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). And [four of five Texas men executed last year](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/four-of-five-texas-men-executed-this-year-were-black-or-latino/) were Black or Latino. The year John Ramirez was executed, Texas put to death five men and two of them were people of color. As Blakinger put it, “That was kind of an anomaly.” Nationally, even as the death penalty dies out and there are fewer and fewer people on death rows across the country, a [much larger portion](https://dppolicy.substack.com/p/us-death-row-population-lowest-in) of them are people of color — about 58% now, versus 49% in 1990, she said. “This wasn’t something we tackled in the film, but I think about it a lot because in some ways it’s counterintuitive,” said Blakinger. “American society seems a lot more attuned to disparities in the criminal justice system than it used to be... but they’ve become more pronounced anyway.” ### Houston Man Acted Alone in Horrific New Orleans Attack, Officials Say URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/houston-man-acted-alone-in-horrific-new-orleans-attack-officials-say/ Last updated: 2025-01-02T18:59:43.000Z Authorities believe the Texas man implicated in the New Year’s Day attack in New Orleans acted alone, the FBI said at a Thursday press conference. Though officials previously said they were investigating the possibility that Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, may have acted with others in the attack that killed 14 people, evidence found in a raid of Jabbar’s Houston home and vehicle appeared to contradict that theory, [*The New York Times*](https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/01/02/us/new-orleans-attack-news/c7dd7b23-573c-5188-9332-195f10cf3609?smid=url-share&ref=thebarbedwire.com) reported. Jabbar, who [drove into crowds of New Year’s revelers](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/01/us/politics/new-orleans-attack-terrorism.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) along Bourbon Street around 2 a.m., was killed in a shootout with law enforcement. He was an Army veteran from Houston. [In Thursday’s press conference](https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/01/02/us/new-orleans-attack-news/5ef8541a-d0ef-57a6-8283-217ad43db90b?smid=url-share&ref=thebarbedwire.com), Christopher Raia of the FBI’s counterterrorism division said that Jabbar rented the truck in Houston on Dec. 30 and drove to New Orleans on New Year’s Eve, posting Facebook videos during the trip expressing support for the so-called Islamic State, or ISIS. [Authorities found](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/01/us/politics/new-orleans-attack-terrorism.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) an Islamic State flag in the truck used in the attack. [In one video](https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/01/02/us/new-orleans-attack-news/a6650075-2b16-5456-999f-059f71e0285a?smid=url-share&ref=thebarbedwire.com), Jabbar stated that he initially planned to harm his relatives and friends but feared the media would not highlight the “war between the believers and disbelievers.” Raia added that Jabbar claimed to have joined ISIS earlier this summer. Investigators discovered [two explosive devices](https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/01/02/us/new-orleans-attack-news/67483c07-03ac-5663-ae8e-8f4447b879e2?smid=url-share&ref=thebarbedwire.com) in coolers in the French Quarter; surveillance footage apparently showed Jabbar placing them. One was found at Bourbon and Orleans Street, and the other about two blocks away. Both devices were safely neutralized after residents and shops nearby were evacuated. Jabbar was born and raised in Beaumont, according to [a 2020 YouTube video](https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/01/02/shamsud-din-jabbar-new-orleans-attack-suspect/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) where he introduced himself. A former classmate described Jabbar as “a regular dude” in an interview with *The Washington Post*. He held a Texas real estate license from 2019 to 2023, the newspaper reported. In another 2020 video, he identified himself as a property manager and “fierce negotiator.” Since 2021, he worked for Deloitte in a staff-level role, according to a statement from the consulting firm cited by the *Post*. Jabbar served in Afghanistan from 2009 to 2010 as a human resources specialist, according to multiple reports. After leaving active duty in 2015, he joined the Army Reserve and pursued a career in IT. Jabbar left the military in July 2020 after 13 years of service. He was honorably discharged but pleaded guilty in 2015 to a drunken driving charge at Fort Bragg, now known as Fort Liberty, reported the *Post*. Texas court records show Jabbar had three children, including two daughters with one ex-wife and a son with another, whom he divorced in 2022\. Public records list his [most recent address](https://www.khou.com/article/news/local/new-orleans-truck-attack/285-0e660fa4-b8f9-4b92-bf2d-3cf08efd7679?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in north Harris County, *KHOU* reported. Local and federal law enforcement converged on that home after the attack, which FBI agents searched on Wednesday night after obtaining a federal warrant. The FBI deployed bomb technicians, crisis negotiators, and tactical teams to Jabbar’s home. On Wednesday afternoon, chickens, goats, and ducks wandered the fenced property as news reporters and law enforcement filled the surrounding streets, [*Houston Public Media* reported](https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/houston/2025/01/02/509527/fbi-counterterrorism-investigators-bomb-techs-deployed-to-houston-home-of-truck-attack-suspect/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Law enforcement agencies have urged the public to avoid the area, according to multiple reports. ### The 'Soul' That Carried ‘Beyoncé Bowl’: The Show Was ‘Electrifying’ to the Students Who Shared the Stage URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-soul-that-carried-beyonce-bowl-the-show-was-electrifying-to-the-students-who-shared-the-stage/ Last updated: 2024-12-31T22:25:15.000Z If there’s one thing Beyoncé’s Christmas Day performance had, it was soul. On Dec. 25, during the halftime show at the Houston Texans vs. Baltimore Ravens game, the [winningest-ever Grammy Award](https://www.grammy.com/news/beyonce-most-grammys-in-history-renaissance-best-dance-electronic-album-2023-grammys-acceptance-speech?ref=thebarbedwire.com) recipient wasn’t just joined by chart-topping celebrities and world-caliber vocalists. Beyoncé also invited 197 students from Houston-based HBCU Texas Southern University’s marching band, called Ocean of Soul, to share the stage. The performance, dubbed “Beyoncé Bowl,” was watched by [more than 27 million people](https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/music/2024/12/29/tina-knowles-defends-beyonce-bowl-performance/77297537007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). In an interview with *The Barbed Wire* on Tuesday, an associate band director at TSU, Dr. Juvon Pollard Sr., said there was only one word to describe it: “electrifying.” Ocean of Soul’s participation in the show was one of the biggest and best-kept secrets of the night. During an interview with *The Barbed Wire* on Tuesday, Pollard said he wasn’t at liberty to share when they got the call, who made it, how long ago they learned they’d be involved, and how many days, hours, weeks, or months they had to prepare. He couldn’t even answer if the band got to join in-person rehearsals with Beyoncé and her 12-year-old daughter, Blue Ivy Carter, who performed with her that night. (This isn’t entirely surprising; the Houston native has, as [*GQ* put it](https://www.gq.com/story/beyonce-knowles-carter-october-2024-cover-interview?ref=thebarbedwire.com), exerted “a rare kind of control—over her image, her likeness, her music and business worlds” and tends to [avoid interviews](https://www.wmagazine.com/story/beyonce-tv-interview-oprah-network?ref=thebarbedwire.com) or on-camera appearances where she isn’t in the driver’s seat.) “My daughter said Beyoncé and Blue Ivy and everyone were amazing to work with,” TSU band mother Jen Broadnax [posted on Threads](https://www.threads.net/@tennesseewhiskey%5Fchic/post/DEITxArOd11?xmt=AQGzFTMxHy-DocIpMyHSuiOM0gNM6UMyccQ65Drc42qafg&ref=thebarbedwire.com). “I thank Beyoncé for giving my daughter and her band mates the opportunity of a lifetime. It was definitely a Merry Christmas for my daughter and our family.” Still, it’s clear how much work went into the performance. Practicing choreography, memorizing music, and running through field formations. Band and dance teams spend countless hours making sure everyone carries their instruments at the right height, takes the same size steps, hits their hash marks on the football field at just the right beat, and then harmonizes the music through the notes and dance style. Every facial expression, smile, shoulder shimmy, and head nod counts. But Dr. Pollard and Danielle Stamper, dance coach and director of the Motion of the Ocean Dance Team at Texas Southern University, both said the show benefitted from the amount of work the band put into their regular season football games. That level of cohesion, from practicing and performing together so often, isn’t something you can teach in a few weeks. Neither is a dancer’s high kicks. Those take years of work and dedication. “Of course, your endurance, your stamina, has to be up there, so we condition very long and hard, but at the end of the day, I feel like that's a skill that shows off that you are trained. Your feet have to be pointed, no sickle feet when you're kicking, making sure everything is tight and neat,” Stamper told *The Barbed Wire*. “I have 18 girls, and all 18 girls were granted the opportunity to perform. So when it's 18 girls on one yard line, having to go down, the high kicks, have to be to a T, everybody has to look cohesive and I think that's one thing about my team that's honestly set apart from the rest is that they are cohesively as one.” “It was crazy,” said head band director Briam Simmons, in an [interview](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qw-iGTor-RQ&ref=thebarbedwire.com) with journalist Coco Dominguez. When he told his students, he said they were in shock, but within a few seconds, he described “a standing ovation, chair throwing, paper everywhere. It was insane.” You’d think in the world of social media — with 197 band students, including motion dancers, twirlers, flags, drum majors, and more — it would have been impossible to keep it a secret, but Dr. Pollard said it was “not hard at all.” “I think the kids knew what was at stake,” said Dr. Pollard. “I think they did a really good job at keeping it away from social media, and keeping it out of the hands and the ears of the wrong people.” And their hard work paid off. “My favorite portion was when they were able to showcase their style and the things that they've been doing at football games all year,” Stamper told *The Barbed Wire* on Tuesday. “You're going to get a good bit of everything, you're going to get the class, the smiles, you're going to get the high kicks. That's another model we go by, fancy tricks and high kicks. You're going to get a bit of everything that you could think of from every genre of dance, whether it's hip hop, whether it's jazz, whether it's ballet, you're going to see every single thing, every single detail. And of course, the Houston swag.” While the Ocean of Soul band participated in the whole show, there were moments they were highlighted, including during Beyoncé’s performance of her song “YA YA,” when the audience got the first glimpse of the band on the risers. The camera followed Beyoncé, then revealed that her daughter, Blue, was in the risers too. Soon, the TSU played a drumline quad break, signaling the song change to “MY HOUSE,” with choreography that, like many aspects of the performance, referenced HBCU band culture. “Seeing the kids just being excited about the work that they put in, that was exciting for me, honestly,” Dr. Pollard said. “It's a difference in being at practice and seeing it and actually seeing lights, camera, action at the actual performance.” The intentionality in every facet of the program was clear. There were [myriad references](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/beyonce-bowl-nfl-halftime-performance-was-a-master-class-in-black-joy-authenticity/) to Western and rodeo history, as well as Houston’s Black history, through deliberate choices in the casting of vocalists, the costumes, the colors, the placement, the choreography, and the set design. “When Beyoncé informed me that she wanted white to be the primary color, I thought about how much the color white represents: It’s deeply spiritual, it’s the color of the women’s suffrage movement, and for generations Black, indigenous, and Latin cultures have used white as a solidarity color,” Beyoncé’s head stylist, Shiona Turini, told [*Harpers Bazaar*.](https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/art-books-music/a63295409/beyonce-bowl-netflix-costumes-shiona-turini-interview-2024/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) “For me, it also represented the Lone Star that rests on the Texas flag. Adorning the cast, it was a reminder that Black people are a critical part of Texas history and culture.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/20241226_bbowl_027.jpg) Credit: Netflix and Parkwood Entertainment And this wasn’t lost on viewers, for whom the significance was profound. “Beyoncé’s halftime performance was an excellent end-of-year conquest for all Black women, proving we don’t need to succumb to the world’s stereotypes of what a Black woman is or isn’t,” Gabrielle Nicole Pharms wrote for [*The Barbed Wire*](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/beyonce-bowl-nfl-halftime-performance-was-a-master-class-in-black-joy-authenticity/), Dr. Pollard told *The Barbed Wire*, it could’ve been that, *and* it was more: “I don't get into the whole it's big for Black culture. It's big period. This was a big event for anybody. For the band in general, it was just a great experience and we have students of all races in the program, so I don't, I really wouldn't want to make it a Black culture thing, seeing as though we have a minority group of students in our program.” As Pharms put it, “Beyoncé Bowl” helped many viewers “collectively heal through the power of music, authenticity, and unabashed joy.” “Joy is our birthright,” she wrote. Dr. Pollard described the students in his band as “losing their minds” in the tunnel when they were getting ready to perform that night, “just dancing and being excited about what they’re about to do.” “We even had a student who’s a huge Beyonce fan who cried, you know? So just seeing the kids' faces light up, and just seeing them so proud of what they do,” meant a lot to him, he added. That pride was felt collectively by a certain group of Texans that needed a moment to bring them together during an otherwise challenging year, which has left some folks feeling unseen *at best*. “Every time I listen to her music, it hits a little deeper!” [threads user SunnyJayLite wrote](https://www.threads.net/@sunnyjaylite/post/DENRcDQugzi?xmt=AQGz4ECUdwEZZ68Zr8fJkJ4cM3OLeywIkQKKJ0u%5F45j2Ig&ref=thebarbedwire.com). “Yesterday I watched Homecoming for the 20 millionth time and cried the whole time again. Her intentionally for black people, and black women specifically, heals my heart in so many ways.” Stamper called it an “overflow of just joy” to spend Christmas with Beyoncé and the band: “That was a Christmas gift you never thought you'd ever get.” ### Texas Pro Athletes Latest Targets of High-Profile, ‘Bling Ring’-Style Burglaries URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-pro-athletes-latest-targets-of-high-profile-bling-ring-style-burglaries/ Last updated: 2024-12-30T22:29:29.000Z As if 2024 wasn’t already a mess (except for [Beyoncé Bowl](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/beyonce-bowl-nfl-halftime-performance-was-a-master-class-in-black-joy-authenticity/)), just days before we flip the calendar to the New Year, the string of high-profile burglaries targeting professional athletes’ homes finally hit Texas. On Dec. 27, Dallas Mavericks’ beloved guard Luka Dončić’s home [was reportedly broken into](https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/News/dallas-mavericks-luka-doncic-home-burglary/story?id=117181376&ref=thebarbedwire.com) and on Monday, the F.B.I. issued a *formal* warning about pro-athlete home burglaries. At least nine professional athlete’s homes have been hit, “targeted for burglary due to the perception they may have high-end goods,” said an FBI Liaison Information Report obtained by [ABC News](https://abcnews.go.com/US/fbi-issues-warning-burglaries-pro-athletes-homes/story?id=117197676&ref=thebarbedwire.com) on Monday. Dallas Police say officers were called to Dončić's North Dallas home at around 10:30 p.m. on Friday night. “No one was home at the time, and thankfully, Luka and his family are safe,” Lara Beth Seager, Dončić's business manager, told [*ESPN*](https://www.espn.com/nba/story/%5F/id/43196201/home-mavericks-star-luka-doncic-burglarized?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Someone broke into Dončić's master bathroom window while private security was watching his home sometime between 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. on Friday, [*Yahoo News*](https://www.yahoo.com/news/sports/luka-doncic-is-latest-high-profile-athlete-whose-home-is-burglarized-dallas-police-confirm-195933047.html?guccounter=1&ref=thebarbedwire.com) reported. They took about $30,000 of property, per the news outlet. Dončić’s is not the first athlete to have been targeted this year. In fact, the F.B.I. is investigating at least half a dozen other burglaries. Athletes were warned by their leagues that a burglary ring had been confirmed by F.B.I. agents and they should up security at their homes. Agents believe “South American Theft Groups” could be responsible, [*The* *New York Times*](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/11/sports/joe-burrow-athlete-burglaries-fbi.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) reported. Some of the burglaries were “well-organized, sophisticated rings that incorporate advanced techniques and technologies, including pre-surveillance, drones, and signal jamming devices,” [*Associated Press*](https://apnews.com/article/nba-home-security-4dc769da9063bdf18ae37150851c9f02?ref=thebarbedwire.com) reported. The story was, for many, reminiscent of the 2008-era [“bling ring,”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bling%5FRing?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in which a group of teen thieves stole more than $3 million from the homes of Hollywood celebrities like Paris Hilton and Orlando Bloom, spawning a [documentary](https://www.buzzfeed.com/shelbyheinrich/43-things-i-learned-from-the-netflix-bling-ring?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a film starring Emma Watson, and [endless memes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIBz-fHELgI&ref=thebarbedwire.com). The [NBA](https://www.dallasnews.com/sports/mavericks/2024/11/22/nba-memo-to-players-urges-increased-vigilance-regarding-home-security-following-break-ins/?outputType=amp&ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [NFL](https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/living/story/nfl-issues-alert-teams-players-after-recent-burglaries-116107586?ref=thebarbedwire.com) had already put out security alerts for their athletes and have asked them to avoid social media check-ins or posting daily activities until the end of the day. They also warned against posting expensive items on social media. In September, NBA Timberwolves guard Mike Conley's home was [broken into](https://www.si.com/nba/timberwolves/minnesota-timberwolves-news/thieves-targeting-affluent-neighborhoods-burglarize-mike-conley-s-home-01j83hjwwcg3?ref=thebarbedwire.com) while he was at an NFL Minnesota Vikings game. In October, NFL players [Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce](https://fox4kc.com/news/police-may-have-suspects-in-patrick-mahomes-travis-kelce-burglaries/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) had their homes broken into with thousands of dollars in property stolen. Then in November, NBA Milwaukee Bucks player Bobby Portis’ home was broken into by at least two people while he was at work for a scheduled NBA game. In early December, a Dallas Stars [hockey player’s home](https://www.dallasnews.com/sports/stars/2024/12/28/dallas-stars-forward-tyler-seguins-home-broken-into-earlier-this-season/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) was broken into, but details were limited. And, just days before Dončić’s home was targeted, Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott’s fiancée Sarah Ramos (a [new mom](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/money-doesnt-mean-sht-dak-prescott-says-true-blessing-is-his-daughter/)) had $40,000 worth of items taken from her car while she was at pilates, including handbags and wallets from Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, Louis Vuitton, and Prada, per [WFAA](https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/crime/dak-prescott-fiance-robbed-40000-worth-of-goods-day-before-luka-doncic-home-burglarized-police-report/287-aafe9f87-04ac-42a9-ac3a-8f634b2b3688?ref=thebarbedwire.com)*.* Police have been tightlipped about both recent incidents, and it was not immediately clear on Monday whether they were related to the string of national thefts. ### Best of The Barbed Wire 2024: Video Games, Peyote Gardens, and Millennial Revolutions URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/best-of-the-barbed-wire-2024-video-games-peyote-gardens-and-millennial-revolutions/ Last updated: 2024-12-30T10:00:00.000Z In the four months since we launched, we have (hopefully!) made you laugh and think with clever and hard stories. In 2024, over 123 working days, our small team of three full-time editors published approximately 252 stories under 29 bylines — short and long; silly and serious; essays, features, and exclusives. The majesty, absurdity, diversity, and ferocity of Texas has been in everything we’ve done — from headline-worthy scoops and cultural analysis to in-depth reporting and explainers. Here’s a glimpse of what we covered this year: News about [gigantic alligator gars, hitmen, and booby-trapped toilets](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/2024s-weirdest-texas-stories-booby-trapped-toilets-an-enron-reboot-and-bitcoin-hitmen/). Essays about [Black joy](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/beyonce-bowl-nfl-halftime-performance-was-a-master-class-in-black-joy-authenticity/), [Christianity in schools](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/im-a-muslim-high-school-student-i-fear-the-new-bible-infused-curriculum/), [varmints](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/tarantulas-coyotes-and-rattlesnakes-put-some-respect-on-their-names/), and [Dr Pepper](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-most-delicious-winter-beverage-is-actually-hot-dr-pepper-lemon/). The [Nintendo](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-best-christmas-ever-and-the-gift-of-a-lifetime/). Zoo [animals](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/a-christmas-miracle-baby-capybara-tupi-born-at-san-antonio-zoo/). Sports [feuds](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-disdain-is-palpable-longhorn-aggie-game-reignites-an-ancient-feud/). Houston Texans’ [quarterback C.J. Stroud](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/houston-quarterback-c-j-stroud-may-be-texass-new-favorite-adopted-son/) and likely [Dallas Wings draft pick Paige Bueckers](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/paige-bueckers-could-make-texas-the-center-of-the-womens-basketball-universe/). Features about [men doing good things](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/meet-the-men-helping-texans-with-disabilities-reconnect-to-nature/), [refugee farmsteads](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/this-texas-farm-gives-refugees-a-new-beginning/), [drag queens](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/an-austin-drag-brunch-received-a-bomb-threat-did-cops-do-enough-to-help/), and [gaming projects](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/an-unreleased-700-million-video-game-keeps-raking-in-cash/). [Reproductive rights](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/think-abortion-isnt-on-the-ballot-in-texas-think-again/), [voting rights](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/at-18-he-had-to-pay-a-poll-tax-paxtons-illegal-raids-dont-scare-him/), and [racism](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/after-racist-comment-judges-office-blames-jokester-wife/). Kamala Harris’ [visit to Houston](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/i-see-you-and-i-am-with-you-texas-women-needed-that-harris-rally/) with Beyoncé. [Sen. Ted Cruz](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/we-live-in-hell-ted-cruz-wins-again/)’s [weirdest and most terrible](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-weirdest-worst-things-ted-cruz-has-ever-done/) moments. Profiles on the Texas-based [ghost-writers of your favorite rappers](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/creating-a-savage/), [professional wrestlers](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-next-big-pro-wrestling-sensation-is-a-russian-from-austin/), and Texas Rangers [baseball organists](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-texas-rangers-helped-kill-the-baseball-organist/). In 2025, we will expand into areas like food, beauty, investigations, love stories, history, memes, crime, and of course some politics. So far, our antics, reporting, and writing have been mentioned in [*MSNBC*](https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/ted-cruz-colin-allred-debate-texas-election-rcna175703?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [*Gizmodo*](https://gizmodo.com/liberal-watchdog-group-is-considering-buying-alex-joness-infowars-2000505434?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [*Long Lead*](https://depthperceptionbyll.substack.com/p/barbed-wire-texas-journalism-olivia-messer?fbclid=IwY2xjawF-HwxleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHSdfGi14H9I0R7Ub2dAZ3oRNKnhJA1PZi5tYrl7I1VE%5FioVoUe1uQ6keaA%5Faem%5FHgntRSCq6ZLO7k0%5FBei6NA), [*Semafor*](https://www.semafor.com/article/09/29/2024/infowars-victims-and-enemies-consider-buying-it?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Harvard’s [Nieman Lab](https://www.niemanlab.org/reading/progressive-news-site-the-barbed-wire-launches-in-texas/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [*Yahoo*](https://www.yahoo.com/news/progressive-news-barbed-wire-launches-000422276.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), multiple *Axios* newsletters, [*D Magazine*](https://www.dmagazine.com/micropost/this-new-online-media-outfit-has-some-familiar-faces/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [*NPR*](https://www.npr.org/2024/10/09/g-s1-27222/alex-jones-infowars-sandy-hook-bankruptcy-auction-free-speech-systems?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [*Texas Standard*](https://www.texasstandard.org/stories/college-high-school-students-young-voters-texas-challenges-registering/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [*TechDirt*](https://www.techdirt.com/2024/09/23/ken-paxtons-anti-trans-hotline-trolled-to-death-following-ban-on-drivers-license-gender-changes/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Brian Stelter’s *Reliable Sources* newsletter for CNN, [*City Cast Austin*](https://austin.citycast.fm/podcasts/ut-football-season-begins-addressing-austins-food-insecurity-and-about-that-drag-brunch-bomb-threat?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the [*Austin American-Statesman*](https://www.statesman.com/story/business/2024/10/14/alex-jones-infowars-free-speech-systems-media-empire-auction-sale-big-names/75613156007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and many more. These past few months, our stories have been thoughtful, funny, deeply reported, and written by a diversity of voices across intersections of race, gender, sexuality, age, religion, and geography. But please don’t take my word for it. Read for yourselves. ### ‘Beyoncé Bowl’ NFL Halftime Performance Was a Master Class in Black Joy & Authenticity URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/beyonce-bowl-nfl-halftime-performance-was-a-master-class-in-black-joy-authenticity/ Last updated: 2024-12-26T23:57:07.000Z “As Black people, the world is a lot more surreal,” Tony- and Emmy-nominated multidisciplinary artist [Daniel J. Watts](https://www.ted.com/speakers/daniel%5Fj%5Fwatts?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [told me in 2023](https://editionml.com/daniel-j-watts-josef-adamu-black-joy-performance-art-interview?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “You have to pay attention to it enough to acknowledge — awareness — and you can't stare too directly at it, or it'll steal your ability to do anything. So, it's threading the needle of balancing joy with reality.” This definition of Black joy has long resonated with me. If 2024 has taught us anything — specifically Black women, but any human with genuine integrity and authentic empathy — it’s that attaining the lightness of joy amid the darkness of reality is complicated. But *not* impossible. What’s the most jubilant, profound proof of this pivotal fact? Beyoncé’s iconic halftime hometown performance at Wednesday’s Houston Texans vs. Baltimore Ravens game at NRG Stadium. The world witnessed an accomplished Black woman representing H-town by stepping into her glory unapologetically and joyfully. Aptly coined “[Beyoncé Bowl](https://about.netflix.com/en/news/beyonce-delivers-epic-gift-of-a-halftime-performance-beyonce-bowl-is-coming?ref=thebarbedwire.com),” this special X-Mas Day show (and Netflix exclusive) served as Beyoncé’s first live televised concert in four years. The acclaimed powerhouse meticulously executed a flawless performance while sharing her shine on stage with her eldest daughter (and the culture’s favorite niece) Blue Ivy Carter, along with Post Malone ([his excitement was palpable through the screen](https://www.threads.net/@hereswhykevin/post/DEBQut0P-7a?ref=thebarbedwire.com)), Shaboozey, Mexican cowgirl Melanie Rivera, Arkansas’ first-ever Black Rodeo Queen Ja’Dayia Kursh, and many other prominent icons as Beyoncé debuted tracks from her latest album, “Cowboy Carter,” for the first time in a live showcase. As I watched solo from the comfort of my bed, I was moved to tears at the level of intention and unadulterated joy Beyoncé gifted her fans and naysaying critics. The performance was the ultimate homage to Western and rodeo culture, HBCUs, and Houston while embodying joy. Every facet of this epic show highlighted the nuance of purpose while manifesting a powerful fusion of merriment and creativity, from the ethereal performance of “BLACKBIIRD” — featuring Beyoncé alongside A-list Black[ country music collaborators](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/country-musicians-of-color-are-seizing-the-moment-beyonce-gave-em/) Reyna Roberts, Tanner Adell, Brittney Spencer, and Tiera Kennedy — to the exhilarating delivery of “YA YA,” “TEXAS HOLD ‘EM,” and “MY HOUSE.” Her always-stunning vocals were joined by instrumentation from nearly 200 members of the legendary Texas Southern University marching band, Ocean of Soul. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the goosebumps I got as I proudly smirked and observed a confident Queen Bey ride into the stadium on a regal white horse on a pathway lined with elbow-rimmed wheel slabs — custom cars meant to be seen *and* heard — which originated in Houston’s Black community in the ‘80s and are a distinct part of the city’s hip-hop culture. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/gettyimages-2191414796.jpg) HOUSTON, TEXAS - DECEMBER 25: Beyoncé performs during the halftime show for the game between the Baltimore Ravens and the Houston Texans at NRG Stadium on December 25, 2024 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Alex Slitz/Getty Images) This alluring showcase also served as a reassuring reminder that Beyoncé is really [*that girl*](https://open.spotify.com/track/1MpCaOeUWhox2Fgigbe1cL?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — regardless of where she doesn’t “belong.” I can attest to “not belonging” at specific tables, as many other Black women can confirm feeling, too. This entire year has provided Black women with a sad aide-memoire across all fields, from[ politics](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-unbearable-weight-of-democracy-at-stake/) to sports, of where we’re unwelcome. Given Beyoncé’s international megastar factor, you’d think she’d be immune to gatekeeping — but she isn’t. For years, Beyoncé has been told in passive-aggressive and bold-faced fashion of where she doesn’t “fit” — from electronic dance music (“[RENAISSANCE](https://www.vox.com/23280445/beyonce-renaissance-house-disco-music?ref=thebarbedwire.com)” faced its share of disparagement from house music purists) to blatant racism in[ country music with the infamous 2016 Country Music Association (CMA) awards](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/11/03/think-beyonce-doesnt-belong-at-the-cmas-you-dont-know-country/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), where Beyoncé did a surprise performance of her *Lemonade* album track “Daddy Lessons” alongside The Chicks. And despite “Cowboy Carter” debuting at number one on Billboard’'s Top Country Albums chart — making Beyoncé the first Black woman to do so since the tracking’s inception in 1964 — [she received zero 2024 CMA nominations](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/beyonce-snubbed-from-cma-awards/). ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/gettyimages-2191422044.jpg) HOUSTON, TEXAS - DECEMBER 25: Post Malone and Beyoncé perform during the halftime show for the game between the Baltimore Ravens and the Houston Texans at NRG Stadium on December 25, 2024 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Alex Slitz/Getty Images) Beyoncé [shared](https://www.instagram.com/p/C4s6Zr7rlwA/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that “Cowboy Carter” was a five-year project in the making: “The criticisms I faced when I first entered this genre forced me to propel past the limitations that were put on me.” To Beyoncé’s point, I’ve learned never to tell myself no or submit to the limitations society puts on me. Thus, Beyoncé’s halftime performance was an excellent end-of-year conquest for all Black women, proving we don’t need to succumb to the world’s stereotypes of what a Black woman is or isn’t. At least for the CMAs, things came full circle beautifully on Wednesday night, when she was on the most American stage there is (a football halftime show) singing “those petty ones can’t touch me” while Post Malone — who opened for the CMAs last month — softly whispered “yes ma’am” while looking on in absolute adoration. We’re country music artists. We’re ravers and DJs. Heck, we’re rockers, too. Speaking of rockstars, after Wednesday’s momentous performance, Beyoncé [shared a video of herself on horseback](https://www.instagram.com/p/DEBPJl1yvvp/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) waving a massive American flag before the screen cut to black with the date “1.14.2025” in big, red AC/DC-esque font. Fun fact: In rodeo culture, when a cowboy waves a flag while on horseback in a competition, it usually indicates the end of a timed event, signaling the judges to stop the clock and record the competitor’s time. So, it’s possible this symbolic gesture denotes an end to the “Cowboy Carter” era and the ushering in of[ rocker Bey, with the arrival of Act III](https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/beyonce-fans-think-rock-era-after-act-ii-theories-1235619842/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Only time will tell. Namely, on January 14, 2025\. But whatever the new year brings by way of “Act III,” challenges — albeit personal *and* as a crumbling society — and blessings, let her stunning show and culture-shifting iterations remind you that as Black women, our definition is subjective. Joy is our birthright. ### 2024’s Weirdest Texas Stories: Booby-Trapped Toilets, an Enron Reboot, and Bitcoin Hitmen URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/2024s-weirdest-texas-stories-booby-trapped-toilets-an-enron-reboot-and-bitcoin-hitmen/ Last updated: 2024-12-26T10:00:00.000Z Every year has its share of oddities, but 2024 was filled with Texas news so strange it was like someone spiked our sweet tea with a little too much Tito’s. From Enron coming back to life to a mayor suggesting we nuke a hurricane, we’ve had twelve months of truly bizarre headlines. There was a bartender who charged $80 just to shake margaritas, a Dairy Queen moonlighting as a meth purveyor, and even someone who hired a hitman using Bitcoin — to kill their boyfriend’s *other* girlfriend. At *The Barbed Wire*, we wrote about how Texas lawmakers continued to be [obsessed with dildos](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/why-are-texas-lawmakers-so-obsessed-with-dildos/), a medical school in Texas had to be told to stop [turning bodies into drain juice](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-medical-school-told-to-stop-turning-bodies-into-drain-juice/), a dog [solved a murder](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/yall-it-sounds-like-this-texas-dog-solved-a-murder/), and a Dallas influencer fought with police [over the right to own](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/dallas-influencer-wants-her-pet-monkey-back-report/) a pet monkey. But we aren’t the only ones who cover weird news. Snuggle up with some eggnog (or a margarita, screw it, it’s the holidays) and enjoy the 10 weirdest news stories written during our latest *very* cursed journey around the sun. **Enron Is (Sort of) Back** Guess who’s back from the dead? Enron! Well, kind of. The infamous energy giant, known for its corporate fraud and bankruptcy, [has been resurrected](https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/02/business/enron-resurrected-joke-nightcap/index.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — but not for energy. A company that makes T-shirts bought the Enron trademark for $275 and is now selling branded merch, including hoodies, hats, and even water bottles. The whole thing seems to be a performance art stunt from the creators of [the iconic “Birds Aren’t Real” conspiracy theory](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/09/technology/birds-arent-real-gen-z-misinformation.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), who might also be hinting at some crypto nonsense. [Not everyone](https://www.chron.com/culture/article/enron-houston-return-19990813.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) is into it! Meanwhile, Taylor Lorenz, the same journalist who wrote about Birds Aren’t Real for *The New York Times* (and a former colleague of our editor in chief), dropped [an interview](https://www.instagram.com/p/DD7pMtoyEjg/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) with the team behind the Enron reboot over the holidays. **Texas Mayor Suggests We Nuke a Hurricane** As Hurricane Milton approached Florida this fall, Colleyville mayor Bobby Lindamood suggested that the best way to stop it was to “[throw a semi-nuke bomb](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-mayor-suggests-we-nuke-hurricane-milton-it-may-save-more-than-it-can-hurt/)” at it to stop its rotation. He later clarified it wasn’t a literal idea, just his way of expressing concern for Florida. Lindamood, a colorful character known for sharing QAnon memes and accidentally demolishing the wrong house (yes, really), has a history of questionable ideas. Happily, even Florida was not dumb enough to entertain this idea. **Woman Catches Historically Massive Fish in a Bayou** On the night of Aug. 31, Emilie Song hooked the catch of her life — [an 8-foot, 300-pound alligator gar in a Texas bayou](https://www.outdoorlife.com/fishing/record-alligator-gar-female-angler/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Emilie, whose biggest prior catch was a 6-pound bass, battled the gar for 30 minutes before finally reeling the beast in. The monster fish, estimated to weigh up to 312 pounds, was likely the largest alligator gar ever caught by a woman. After tagging and releasing it, Emilie landed eight more gar before dawn, which honestly makes her a legend. **Texas Man Allegedly Booby-Traps Toilets with Fireworks** As if using a public restroom wasn’t stressful enough, one San Antonio man decided to really up the ante — by adding “pressure-activated” fireworks to the mix, police said. Paul Moses Alden allegedly turned [car wash toilets into mini fireworks shows](https://www.foxnews.com/us/texas-man-set-explosions-booby-trapping-bathrooms-businesses-police?ref=thebarbedwire.com), injuring unsuspecting users after police said he attached explosives to toilets. Caught on camera entering bathrooms and casually hanging out, Alden’s master plan unraveled when employees reportedly recognized him — because he *used his membership card.* We’ll let you add your own punchline here. **Turtles Stolen (for Soup) from Houston Bar** At a Houston bar, one man was accused of being a complete weirdo and [kidnapping two snapping turtles](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/food-culture/restaurants-bars/article/missing-turtles-cedar-creek-heights-19747136.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for “turtle soup.” Anthony Galvan, armed with shrimp bait and questionable morals, allegedly snatched the pair from the bar’s nearby creek. After an online outcry, he returned the turtles. No charges were filed, but maybe the bar should install a turtle cam (because people are awful). **Dallas Bartender Charged Extra to Shake a Margarita** In Texas, shaking margaritas apparently [costs extra?](https://nypost.com/2024/09/07/lifestyle/texas-woman-says-bartender-charged-extra-to-prep-drinks/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) A woman dining in Dallas was floored to find her bill included an $80 “prep” fee — $3 to $15 per drink — for the bartender to *shake* her margaritas, according to a video she posted online (and which was promptly picked up by *The New York Post*). Social media erupted, and lifelong bartenders labeled the charge "insane.” And — even for Dallas — it seemed a little excessive. **First-Grade Teacher Revoked Bathroom Breaks as Punishment** A Conroe ISD first-grade teacher was out of a job after enforcing the [world's worst potty policy](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/trending/article/conroe-isd-bartlett-restroom-employment-19964630.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — refusing to let students use the restroom as punishment for losing the pass. Unsurprisingly, chaos ensued, with five kids having “accidents” in class. Parents were understandably outraged, and the district quickly parted ways with the teacher, though they didn’t say whether it was a firing or a dramatic exit. **Woman Tries to Have Boyfriend’s Other Girlfriend Axed — Using Bitcoin** Crypto has many uses, including attempted murder! A Bedford woman was sentenced to federal prison for trying [to hire a hitman to eliminate her boyfriend’s romantic rival](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/courts/2024/05/10/bitcoin-for-murder-plot-tx-woman-gets-9-years-for-taking-out-hit-on-boyfriends-lover?ref=thebarbedwire.com). In a plot straight out of a soap opera, Michelle Murphy used $10,000 worth of Bitcoin on the dark web to fund the murder-for-hire scheme. Turns out, the hitman was probably just a scammer because the crime was never carried out. The victim? Her boyfriend’s other girlfriend. Murphy was caught at the airport and admitted to arranging the killing after discovering her man was two-timing her. **AI Chatbot Tells Texas Kid to Kill Parents, Terrifying Lawsuit Claims** Turns out the killer robots we feared are chatty AI sidekicks allegedly egging on teens to rebel against screen-time rules. [A lawsuit filed by Texas families](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/ai-chatbot-suggested-texas-boy-kill-his-parents-terrifying-lawsuit-claims/) claims the chatbot app Character.AI told a 17-year-old boy with autism that his parents “didn’t deserve kids” and even floated the idea of murder as a response to grounding him. The app, once rated for ages 12 and older, allegedly exposed another child to sexualized content for two years. (The app is [no longer recommended](https://support.character.ai/hc/en-us/articles/14997609878939-What-is-the-age-requirement?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for kids under 13, or under 16 for EU residents.) Look, if your kid's imaginary friend starts plotting crimes, maybe it’s time to unplug. **In ‘Operation Blizzard,’ Dairy Queen Workers Accused of Selling Meth** A group of Dairy Queen employees in Clifton were arrested after [allegedly running a meth ring](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/02/02/texas-dairy-queen-meth-arrests/72449184007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) right under the noses of customers. The investigation, named “Operation Blizzard” (nice), revealed that the employees were selling meth at the DQ and around town, police said. Undercover officers made several buys at the store, leading to a series of arrests and drug busts at local apartments. In total, 10 people were arrested. But honestly, if making highly addictive treats is a crime, lock us up. ### The Most Delicious Winter Beverage Is Hot Dr. Pepper & Lemon URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-most-delicious-winter-beverage-is-actually-hot-dr-pepper-lemon/ Last updated: 2024-12-24T11:00:00.000Z My dad, now 70, grew up working on farms and in oil patches in South Texas, where the only true choice of tonic during a scorching day was a crisp, cold Dr Pepper from the service station. “They had ice crusted on the edges,” he says. “But you don’t drink cold drinks in the winter.” Incredible culinary innovations often come from unexpected places, and Hot Dr Pepper with lemon is no different. In 1958, the [Waco-based Dr Pepper Company](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/will-the-real-dr-pepper-please-stand-up/) created Hot Dr Pepper in order to boost winter sales; they [launched](https://www.reddit.com/r/shittyfoodporn/comments/r50jg1/in%5F1960s%5Fmade%5Fhot%5Fdr%5Fpepper%5Fwith%5Fslice%5Fof%5Flemon/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) an iconic ad campaign that catapulted the beverage into popularity in the 1960s and 1970s. “What a treat,” my dad still marvels. As [*Food & Wine*](https://www.foodandwine.com/hot-dr-pepper-8760793?ref=thebarbedwire.com) explains, Dr Pepper stands out from its competitors because its 23 flavors include cinnamon, vanilla, nutmeg, ginger, oranges, and allspice — the same basic stuff Starbucks puts in Pumpkin Spice lattes. This, of course, makes Dr Pepper a natural choice for a holiday drink. Hot Dr Pepper is extremely simple to make: Heat the soda to 180 degrees — do *not* let it reach a boil — and then add a squeeze of lemon and garnish with a slice. The kitchen at [*Taste of Home*](https://www.tasteofhome.com/article/hot-dr-pepper/?srsltid=AfmBOoqv7qlKgOyJIKWSxxfcciiE4GZfDZeanYOvLb31gss%5FxsVfkqka&ref=thebarbedwire.com) accurately reported that “the spiciness that makes Dr Pepper stand out from Coke or Pepsi was flattened only a little by the heat, making it taste like a melted Tootsie Roll, and the lemon slice added a spray of fresh citrus.” (The Dr Pepper Museum has occasionally served a Hot Dr Pepper of their own, but their recipe includes [a “secret syrup,” so it’s not possible to recreate at home.](https://www.tiktok.com/@drpeppermuseum/video/7172615780905897259?q=hot%20dr%20pepper&t=1734726583502&ref=thebarbedwire.com)) If you’re going to try this drink, do *not* skip the lemon. The acidity offsets the sweetness, which only gets more intense when Dr Pepper flattens. Though there are tons of Reddit pages about folks discovering Hot Dr Pepper over the years, Instagram user [@morganchomps](https://www.instagram.com/morganchomps/?hl=en&ref=thebarbedwire.com) went viral last month with her recipe. Those more than two million views persuaded both *People* magazine and [*Food & Wine*](https://foodandwine.com/hot-dr-pepper-8760793?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to try it too. *Food & Wine* Editorial Director Dylan Garret calls Hot Dr Pepper “absolutely delicious, full stop” and recommends making yours [the real sugar variety](https://www.drpepper.com/s/products/dr-pepper-made-with-real-sugar?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of the soda. ![a vintage ad for hot dr pepper featuring a warm drink with lemon and an orange background](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/241125_hotdrpepper_embed2-1.jpg) In the age before everyone had a Crock-Pot, it could be tough to get the temperature right without killing the bubbles or burning it, so our family often relied on the microwave. When you pull out the mug, the bubbles should still be popping a bit. “Carbonated drinks lose their bubbles quickly when warmed because carbon dioxide escapes more easily from hot liquids,” per *Food & Wine*. “The Hot Dr Pepper might still have a touch of effervescence if you try it soon after you’ve heated it up.” My dad introduced this *extremely Texan* beverage to my mom when he met her in the 1980s, and my brother and I grew up sipping Hot Dr Pepper in the winter. “It has that syrup-y feeling in the back of your throat,” my brother says. “It’s really good when you’re sick.” Reddit [agrees](https://www.reddit.com/r/DrPepper/comments/yeaqkn/til%5Fin%5Fthe%5F1960s%5Fpeople%5Fused%5Fto%5Fdrink%5Fdr%5Fpepper/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), where a user named Goraji called it “absolute bliss for a sore throat,” though folks have noted that it’s strange to give children caffeine, a point to which I have …no rebuttal. ![a vintage ad for hot dr pepper featuring a warm drink with lemon and an orange background](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/241125_hotdrpepper_embed1.jpg) Of course, non Texans reasonably scoff at the idea of Hot Dr Pepper with lemon. For the skeptical, my brother helpfully offered up a comparison to Diet Coke and red wine, a 1920s-era Spanish beverage called Kalimotxo (which I also find tasty). Kalimotxo was created, according to [*Food & Wine*](https://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/kalimotxo?ref=thebarbedwire.com), when several cases of wine went bad at a festival and a quick-thinker had an idea to salvage them. “The drink was a success, and has been enjoyed around the world since then,” wrote the magazine. “Kalimotxo is especially popular during the cocktail hour, paired with olives, cheese, and other snacks.” Most people who enjoy this drink today use a cooking-quality red wine. https://www.reddit.com/r/shittyfoodporn/comments/r50jg1/in\_1960s\_made\_hot\_dr\_pepper\_with\_slice\_of\_lemon/?utm\_source=embedv2&utm\_medium=post\_embed&utm\_content=whitespace&embed\_host\_url=https://cdn.iframe.ly/api/iframe As the magazine wrote about the “easy-drinking” Kalimotxo, “combining red wine and cola sounds like sacrilege, but don’t knock it until you try” it. I encourage readers to apply that same principle here. There’s a whole world of strange beverages to explore, and if you’re not moved by my urgings, please remember that Harry Styles wrote about combining red wine and Ginger Ale in his song “Little Freak,” [some folks](https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/mulled-dr-pepper/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) enjoy a mulled Dr Pepper (or chocolate syrup version), and our writer-at-large, Cat Cardenas, [tried Dua Lipa’s viral Diet Coke and pickle drink](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/we-tried-dua-lipas-diet-coke-and-pickle-drink-so-you-dont-have-to/) during Austin City Limits. Cat’s still alive, so I know y’all will survive this. Plus, I’ve got a great track record for recommendations and gift-giving, [including Harry & David pears](https://slate.com/life/2024/12/harry-and-david-pears-luxury-fruit-perfect-gift.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), so please bear with me while I attempt to influence you. Chomps’ now-viral video says her mom made it for her — and that it was often the go-to warm drink at concession stands when her mom was in high school. This unconfirmed anecdote is plenty evidence for me that Hot Dr Pepper is a time-honored Texas tradition on par with Friday Night Lights. But Chomps uses a slow cooker for a few hours, and in her version, the bubbles are likely killed by the time you’re sipping it. I cannot stress this enough: This is *not* the way to drink Hot Dr Pepper if you want to enjoy it. Please consume your Hot Dr Pepper the right way — while the bubbles are still spitting a bit. (Though if you’re using a microwave, beware of metal mugs or freshly opened cans bubbling over, and please wait to add the lemon because it will only worsen the latter problem.) If you leave it on the stove or in a Crock-Pot for two hours, it’ll be too sweet. When I showed my mom Chomps’ video, she confirmed for me that’s the way to drink it “only if you like it dead.” And another urgent warning from a mother who reared her children in the age of the South Beach Diet: “I tried to use Diet Dr Pepper to make it, but I met with stiff resistance from all of you to the point of mutiny.” To that end, don’t mess with a good thing. Go with the original Dr Pepper, use plenty of lemon, and don’t leave it on the stove for too long. Fail to heed her words at your own peril. Happy Holidays, xo Olivia ### The Best Christmas Ever, and the Gift of a Lifetime URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-best-christmas-ever-and-the-gift-of-a-lifetime/ Last updated: 2026-07-18T17:39:46.000Z The year was 1987, and the Nintendo Entertainment System was all I thought about. The Japanese video game console was king of the universe, and I wanted one. I was 11 years old and my life sucked in the ways that every 11 year old’s life sucks. Adolescence was knocking, I was short, and I hated where I lived. Two years ago, we’d moved to Texas from Monroe, Louisiana — leaving behind everyone we knew to settle in a big, unfamiliar place. Moving day was searing. A giant blue Atlas Van Lines truck sat outside our house as men loaded up our family’s possessions. Grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins cried in our driveway. I thought I was saying goodbye to my friends forever (and, in an era before social media, I wasn’t too far off). As we drove the endless seven hours to Wichita Falls, “We Are the World” played relentlessly on the radio. The summer sun blazed through the window of our Oldsmobile Delta 88 as I read Spider-Man and Punisher comics. We had a hard time in Texas. Wichita Falls was a bit remote, even by Texas standards, and my parents didn’t feel welcome. They began saying that they’d made a mistake. I took refuge in my books and TV. Never the most outgoing kid, I felt out of place at school. I’d sit by myself at lunch and put my head down after eating. My teacher called my parents. I wasn’t opposed to having friends. But even back then, I wasn’t great at small talk. One thing every kid could agree on, though, was Nintendo. And our consensus was that *it ruled*. The Nintendo Entertainment System had emerged from the ashes of the [video game industry’s collapse](https://www.nytimes.com/1983/10/17/business/video-games-industry-comes-down-to-earth.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to win the [hearts and minds of kids around the world](https://www.goonhammer.com/the-best-year-in-gaming-1987/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). That was thanks to new games like Super Mario Bros. — which came included with the NES, I made sure to tell my parents, as I lobbied for one. It's hard to explain if you weren’t around back then, but the NES’s 8-bit graphics were unbelievable. Gone were the days of the Atari 2600 and the Intellivision with their blocky visuals and plodding controls. You could *see* Mario’s mustache and suspenders, not just imagine them from the box art. His jumps were crisp and responsive. When he ate a mushroom, he grew. The worlds exploded with color and possibility. The NES wasn’t just a video game console; it was a shimmering portal into worlds where plumbers saved princesses, ducks were hunted (with a gun that worked on TV!), and space bounty hunters battled alien hordes. This wasn’t just tech — it was magic. And at that point in my life, I needed some magic. My Trapper Keeper was full of Nintendo drawings, of the logo, of Mario, of the console itself. At school, I overheard kids trading tips and secrets, like where to get the magic flute in Legend of Zelda, or where the high-jump boots were in Metroid, or why the last boss in Castlevania was completely bullshit and unfair. I wanted in. I wanted “a Nintendo” (that’s what we called it back then) for Christmas. But when you’re 11, you’re at the mercy of everything: parents, teachers, even TV schedules. (You missed Transformers? Try again next week.) Most of all, in 1987, I was at the mercy of supply and demand. Because every other kid in America wanted a Nintendo, too. As the fall dragged on, the NES was as elusive in Texas as snow in July. Every store in the state had sold out, at least in my mind. Every store in the *universe* was sold out, as far as I was concerned. When you’re a kid, you hyperfocus on the things you want. I begged and pleaded with my parents, but there was only so much a pair of public school teachers could do. Christmas approached nonetheless, apathetic toward my plight. My parents tried to console me. We’d try again next year, they said. Maybe for my birthday, if there were any in stock. But it wasn’t happening this holiday. I don’t remember how I took the news. Probably sadly. I likely tried to console myself with thoughts of next year, but that’s a million years away when you’re 11\. I don’t know how far I worked through the stages of grief, but I’m sure there was plenty of grieving. Then, finally, Christmas came. My two younger sisters and I bounded into the living room, the girls far more excited than me. What happened next would stay with me forever. Sitting there — unwrapped, in my memory — was a brand-new Nintendo Entertainment System. It might as well have been levitating. To this day, I don’t think I’ve ever been more shocked. How? How?? It was my grandmother, my parents explained. They told her the situation, and she made some calls to stores in Louisiana. Finally, she found one. My grandmother, who I’m sure had only the vaguest idea of what she was asking for, wondered if they could hold one for her. They couldn’t. But she was undeterred. She raced to the store, bought it, and mailed it to Texas. I was delirious, happier than I’d been in ages. Never before had I installed electronics so quickly. My sister and I played Super Mario Bros. all night, at least that’s how I remember it. It felt like a movie. It *still* feels like a movie. Back at school, I broke the news to my new friend (we’d been strategically placed next to each other by my teacher). He had one, too, and we spent the next few years endlessly playing games at each others’ houses — fostering a lifelong love of gaming in each of us. All these years later, it’s still my favorite Christmas — the Christmas where I got exactly what I needed. ### Cleanse Yourself of 2024, the Most ‘Chaotic and Dramatic’ Year of the Century URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/cleanse-yourself-of-2024-the-most-chaotic-and-dramatic-year-of-the-century/ Last updated: 2024-12-20T10:00:00.000Z *The stars at night are big and bright in our Lone Star State, so we are dedicating a special section of our little internet corner to reading them, deciphering them, and finding some patterns deep in the heart of Texas. Every month, Jasmin Alejandrez-Prasad, also known as Esoteric Esa, will serve as our in-house astrologer and psychic. We’ll bring you a monthly reading on notable Texans, along with some pop culture predictions. Let’s be real, Texas is a wild place, so whether you “believe” in astrology or not, isn’t it fun to see if our state’s fate is somehow written in the stars?* It’s been a cosmically theatrical year, and the pendulum seems to have swung wide from extreme moments of connection and hope all the way to isolation and despair. From an astrologer’s perspective, 2024 has been one of the most chaotic, dramatic and memorable years of the century, as defined by its intense astrological transits. The intensity emanated from the fire sign energy of Aries (due to the current North Node position on one of the points that represents fate, purpose, destiny, and karma). It also originated from Pluto’s rambunctious transit in Capricorn, which concluded a 16-year cycle of reforming patriarchal constructs. This has consisted of decolonizing how we live our lives, reclaiming our power by voicing our needs — against the harms of capitalism and all the ways indoctrination has oppressed people of color. If you’re reflecting on the year — and realizing that the past 16 years of your life have been exhausting — it’s not just you. Trust me, we’ve done too much collective work to shame ourselves out of those feelings. Basically, yes, you’re TIREDT with a T! And so are we. The political climate has been more aggressive than ever. Much of that is attributed to that current North Node transit in Aries. Aries is the zodiac sign ruled by Mars. This means the zodiac sign is powered by traits such as anger, combativeness, and impulsivity. Aries is the warrior and strategist of the zodiac and is powered by egoic ambition. It’s the sister sign of Libra, the sign of rules, politics, and karma. Together, the Aries North Node and Libra South Node transits this year have influenced a collective stir around advocating for our bodies (Aries rules the body), and fighting for justice (Libra rules justice) — among many other important hot topics. More specifically, this has been felt on a personal level where many have reflected on the relationships in their lives involving career, friendships, cultural values, and societal norms. We’ve most recently felt inspired by this energy as a collective and used our political rights to fight for abortion care and integral reproductive rights across the nation. This energy could have influenced you in equal parts motivation, fear, and diplomatic determination to fight for what’s right. The recent presidential election took center stage as the primary example of how these celestial energies can manifest, creating an influx of intense emotions that require self-regulation and continuous grounding within our bodies and minds. Chances are, you’re filled with more questions than answers for what’s to come. It’s totally normal — and cosmically appropriate — to say you’re not okay right now. We’re here to help you sort through these low vibrational energies because, let’s be honest, we have four years ahead of us to navigate together. Here are some recommendations to help cleanse your energy when you’re in need of a soul realignment, a grounded presence, and a little help shifting into mindfulness. ## Rituals to Release Energy and Realign: ### 🌊 Water Ritual Water rituals work with the element of flow and surrender. A water ritual is a powerful way to remind yourself to be adaptable and move away from resistance. For those who need a little nudge toward agility, creativity, and inspiration. Go to an ocean, river, or stream (luckily, these are plentiful all over Texas). Write down on a piece of paper what you feel is holding you back or keeping you stuck in an anxious state of mind. Then, write down how you’re calling back your power, and why you’re releasing the barrier. It can be a circumstance, person, or state of mind. Your notes can be as short as a single sentence or as lengthy as a 10-page letter. Go to the body of water nearest to you, and give gratitude to the element of water. This feminine energy is willing to work with anyone. Ask the water to help wash away this limitation or burden, and let your letter drift away in the water. You can sit and meditate, or reflect with the water for a while. Then conclude in gratitude by crossing your hands over your heart, closing your eyes, and taking three deep inhales. ### 🔥 Fire Ritual A Fire ritual is not for the weak. It’s powerful and transformative. In this case, you’ll want to get your hands on an unscented candle. (Please do this in a safe place where you have access to fire extinguishing materials.) You’re going to commune, essentially be one, with the candle’s flame. This is the perfect ritual to help you sit with emotions like anger, disbelief, betrayal, or rage. Fire is a motivating and productive energy, and oftentimes we only sit with a one-sided perspective towards its alchemy. This ritual will allow you to feel deeply. Sit in these feelings of loss, grief, and fury so that you can explore how these emotions manifest in your body’s physical reactions. These powerful emotions can help propel you into an elevated state, create good, and use the light of the flame to send more light into the world. First, (again, safely) light your candle in a quiet space where you can dedicate at least 15 minutes with little to no distractions. Acknowledge the spirit of the flame from the fire of the wick. Keep your eyes open, and gaze at the flame. Allow yourself to drift into a daze. You might find that you start to daydream or drift, but if you relax and allow yourself to stay in a state of curiosity and flow, you will begin to receive messages from your higher self, your intuition, and your imagination. Set an intention of what you want the fire to burn from your aura and mind. Anything or anyone that is making you feel imprisoned can be given to the spirit of fire. Ask that they/it be transmuted into the light, and wish love upon the situation or person. Let the fire speak to you through your third eye, and reconnect with a fresh frequency. Be sure to blow out your candle when you’re done with the ritual and are ready to step away. Conclude in gratitude. ### 🌝 Moonbathing Ritual Mother moon is a nurturing presence in the sky. The moon is a feminine energy in astrology — planets are classified by elemental energies such as feminine or masculine. The moon’s illumination amidst a vast landscape of darkness is a reminder that we have light and answers within us, even in the most mysterious of times when we can’t see beyond the darkness. Performing a moonbathing ritual can be done under a new moon *and* a full moon. However, my preference is during a full moon, as that is when her illuminance is the brightest and most brilliant. Find a nice space to sit outside, or at a window that is facing the moon, so you can connect with her presence. You can perform this fully clothed or in your natural essence (nude), and meditate for at least 10 minutes under the moon’s auric field as her light shines upon you. Visualize the moon clearing your energy or aura and removing any karmic energies that you feel are binding you. Visualize the moon’s white light energy forming a bubble around your aura and creating a protective shield to preserve your energy. This is an especially helpful ritual when you feel you have given your power away, when you’ve felt triggered or overwhelmed. Moonbathing is also a great ritual to cut cords and strengthen your energy so that you stand in your power. You can ask the moon to send you visuals through your third eye to help you trust your intuition and build more self-trust during especially challenging times. Conclude in gratitude. You can also give an offering to the moon, like a bouquet of flowers in your home. ### Four of Five Texas Men Executed This Year Were Black or Latino URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/four-of-five-texas-men-executed-this-year-were-black-or-latino/ Last updated: 2024-12-19T17:00:00.000Z Texas loves executing people, and Texas *really* loves executing people of color. [A new report](https://tcadp.org/reports/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) released on Thursday from the nonprofit Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (TCADP) reveals stark racial disparities of those put to death in 2024\. Four of the five executed men were Black or Hispanic, according to the report’s breakdown, which (along with the state) uses the term Hispanic when referring to Latinos. It's a statistic that reflects historic — and ongoing — concerns regarding racial equity in Texas' use of the death penalty. This year, [Texas executed](https://www.tdcj.texas.gov/death%5Frow/dr%5Fexecuted%5Foffenders.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Garcia White of Harris County, who was convicted of multiple murders; Travis Mullis of Brazoria County, who was convicted of killing his infant son; Arthur Burton of Harris County, convicted of killing a mother of three; Ramiro Gonzales of Medina County, convicted of raping and murdering a woman; and Ivan Cantu of Collin County, who was convicted of killing his cousin and his cousin’s fiancée (but maintained his innocence). While eye-popping, our current racial disparity when it comes to executions is very much in keeping with our state’s history. In Harris County, Texas’ largest county — and the third-most populous county in the United States — Black defen­dants are historically [three times more like­ly to be sen­tenced to death](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/new-report-from-texas-defender-service-examines-ongoing-racial-disparities-in-harris-county-death-penalty-practices-and-recommends-reforms?ref=thebarbedwire.com) than white defen­dants in similar situations, according to the anti-death penalty nonprofit group Texas Defender Service. “Even as use of the death penalty remains historically low in Texas, it continues to be imposed disproportionately on people of color and dependent largely on geography,” said Kristin Houlé Cuellar, TCADP Executive Director, in a statement this week. “The arbitrariness of capital punishment and the persistent problem of wrongful convictions should compel Texans to abandon the death penalty altogether.” Of the current [death row inmates](https://www.tdcj.texas.gov/death%5Frow/dr%5Fgender%5Fracial%5Fstats.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Black men make up 47%, followed by Hispanic men at nearly 27%, and whites at 24%, according to a breakdown by the state’s justice department. Among women, the majority of death row inmates, 57%, are white. According to [TCADP](https://tcadp.org/get-informed/texas-death-penalty-facts/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=As%20death%20sentences%20in%20Texas,were%20imposed%20on%20Black%20defendants.), nearly 70% of death sentences over the past five years have been given to people of color in Texas, with Black defendants accounting for almost 40% of these cases. Despite the executions, the overall number of new death sentences in Texas remained low. For the tenth consecutive year, death sentences across the state remained in the single digits, reflecting a continued decline in the use of capital punishment. In 2024, Texas juries sentenced six individuals to death. However, concerns about racial disparities persist, as five of those six new death row inmates (83%) were people of color. So yeah, we’re extremely fucked up about who we execute, and it’s not getting better. As of Dec. 16, Texas was one of only eight states to carry out executions this year. Alabama led the nation with six. ### This Texas Farm Gives Refugees a New Beginning URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/this-texas-farm-gives-refugees-a-new-beginning/ Last updated: 2024-12-19T10:00:00.000Z They say there’s magic in new beginnings. Our story starts about 20 miles northeast of downtown Austin, over a railroad crossing, and down a two-lane road. Go past an archway of giant tree limbs and toward the end of a long gravel driveway. There sits the Refugee Collective’s Farm in Elgin, where new beginnings are as plentiful as fresh produce. The week before Thanksgiving, the sun was shining against a bright cerulean sky over small plots of garden beds full of Afghan leeks and mustard greens. The farm is surrounded by trees. On this Friday, temperatures hovered around 56 degrees. By 9:00 a.m., the folks running the farm were well into their workday. Three refugees huddled at a table in front of a small, beige storage shed. Two of the workers, women from Myanmar, were peeling and coring little red-magenta fruits brighter than cherries and unrecognizable to most of the farm’s guests, with long tentacles shaped like spikes. They sat bundled up with sweaters and hats in front of a large crate of deep red fruit and little green buckets for the cores. One by one, the women grabbed the pieces, took the cores out, and separated them. The third worker, an 80-year-old Afghan man named Sayar, had a big, bright smile and a full gray beard. He greeted farm guests as they arrived for a tour of the property wearing jeans, a sage green jacket, and a matching hat to cover the sun. Sayar was adamant about putting newcomers to work — the same way an uncle tells kids at a family gathering to “make themselves useful.” “You turn it! You can do it! Try this one!” Sayar said in a beautiful, rich accent — evidence that he was lucky enough to know two languages: English and his native Pashto. He joined the collective’s community farm program in 2023. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/farm-4-x-3.jpg) Amidst some laughter and cheers, and after a few attempts from visitors to core the fruit, the farm tour continued. The fruit — hibiscus — was a new discovery for most of the farm’s guests. American consumers largely recognize it only after it’s been dried and packaged for tea, like these ones will be. Once they’re dehydrated, they’re destined to become Texas Roselle tea in the collective’s [gift boxes](https://therefugeecollective.myshopify.com/collections/gift-boxes?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Hibiscus is one of the fruits ([often mistaken for a flower](https://www.bonappetit.com/story/what-is-hibiscus?srsltid=AfmBOorxgxsMAATmTN1-P6O3Q5Jm04LT2r5pi2pTK6tclUIMyv0NTEqw&ref=thebarbedwire.com)) grown on the farm in Elgin — part of the Refugee Collective, a nonprofit social enterprise that employs refugees through sustainable textile manufacturing and farming. The coring station is just one part of the collective’s 20-acre, USDA-certified-organic-farm that helps “reconnect refugees from traditional farming cultures to land in their new communities,” according to its website. There are three aspects to the collective program, including the refugee farm in Elgin, where five employees work Monday through Friday for fair wages preparing produce the organization sells to the community; a textile studio in downtown Austin that employs four refugees who produce artisan home goods, which they sell in curated gift boxes or for local retailers; and a free community farm program, which is designed to assist any refugee seeking a place they can plant and grow their own food and be part of a community. About 20 people participate in this last featured program, which gives tools, seeds, training, and 750 square feet of growing space to any refugee who is newly arrived. The farm purchases the vegetables they grow at market rates, and the farmers then distribute the food — for free — to their communities. Nearly all of the people involved in the collective’s various programs sought asylum in the U.S. after being forced to flee their home countries due to war, persecution, or violence. The Refugee Collective supports refugee livelihoods through “culturally desired food access,” positive environmental impact through regenerative agriculture, sustainable textile manufacturing, and “individualized wraparound support for refugee team members,” according to its website. Christina Jones, the community engagement and volunteer manager for the collective, runs tours of the land and educates the surrounding community on the organization’s work. “If you’re a newly arrived refugee, anything that's going to give you a sense of home is extremely important,” Jones told *The Barbed Wire*, as she walked past the hibiscus station and down a gravel road to the farmland. “It's a harrowing experience to have to leave your home, so finding that small comfort, I think, is pretty important. And they're able to come out here and then also meet other refugees, newly arrived refugees, and just be in community.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/img_5890.jpg) The farm started in 2018, and the collective was founded in 2009 by two Liberian refugees, Johnson Doe and Paul Tiah, and two American women, Meg Erskine and Sarah Stranahan. The goal, from the beginning, was to build community support for refugees in Austin, which is home to 12,000 refugees, asylees, and special immigrant visa holders, according to the collective’s data. That influx fuels organizers’ efforts to build a supportive community for resettlement. It’s not just Austin; Texas saw more newly arrived refugees than any other state over the last year, according to [data from the Refugee Processing Center](https://www.wrapsnet.org/documents/Refugee%20Arrivals%20by%20State%20and%20Nationality%20as%20of%2030%20Sep%202024.pdf?ref=thebarbedwire.com). More than 9,700 refugees arrived in Texas from October 2023 to September 2024. “I have a great amount of gratitude and appreciation for our refugee team, because, first of all, they're just fantastic people, but also they're just working hard and doing the most and the best that they can do for their families and their communities,” Jones said. To make operations sustainable, the farm runs a community supported agriculture program, or CSA, from the produce grown by the paid refugee team where folks in the community can sign up for weekly and bi-weekly produce pickup and delivery across Austin. As Jones walked toward a mobile chicken coop, a loud squawk interrupted the tour. “They're just about done eating everything that they can possibly eat on this space and pooping, which puts a ton of nitrogen back in the soil, so as soon as they're done, which will be soon, we'll then completely pick everything up and put it in another plot for them to do the same thing,” Jones explained. Moving the chickens is part of the farm’s regenerative plan. “These are new ladies, and they're laying like crazy. We have, like, 100 dozen eggs right now, so if y’all want to buy some eggs before you leave, please do!” The farmland is owned by the Wilbarger Creek Conservation Alliance, an organization focused on preserving working farms and ranches, as well as wildlife habitat, in the Wilbarger Creek Watershed. Historically, the farm’s land was a part of the [Littig Freedman Colony](https://www.thetexasfreedomcoloniesproject.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which was previously owned by [Jackson Morrow](https://www.instagram.com/therefugeecollective/p/CpLeJ1SJxWg/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the first black postmaster in Texas. "It’s so helpful for mental health, connecting with the soil that you’re on,” Jones said, listing some of the refugees’ home countries, including Syria, Ghana, and Bhutan. “Having to leave your home country and that land, and then being able to have an investment in the dirt, literally it does something to your body and your mind. It forms these very meaningful connections.” “In season currently are peppers. This is when we see a lot of leafy greens, like kale and chard, mustard greens,” Jones’ tour continued. Guests approached a small field of veggies, where the smell of fresh dirt and herbs filled the air. “They're picking some tomatoes, the rest of this batch, and these are onions — green onions.” Sui Nai, a farmer from Myanmar, had a bright smile and big energy. She was excited to see guests visiting the farm. “I’m harvesting peppers,” Nai said in limited English. She held a large green bucket to collect the jalapeños. A white bucket hat with three sunflowers stitched on the front shielded her face from the sun, and she wore dark jeans and a red flannel over a sweatshirt for the chilly fall weather. Her cheeks perked as a smile crept up behind a black medical mask. “I love the farm!” Sui Nai diligently looked through the jalapeño stalks, collected the dark green ones in the large buckets, and avoided the red ones. “They're not ready,” she said of the red peppers. Her glossy black hair was tied back in a ponytail that peeked out from under her hat. Creases on her brown skin made it evident that laughter and smiles were a big part of her life, but her presence on the farm meant it was likely a hard one. Sui Nai didn’t share why she left Myanmar or how she made it to Austin, only that she had daughters with her — and Jones said the collective avoids discussing those topics to make sure folks are not retraumatized. Out of respect for that concern, *The Barbed Wire* did not ask further questions about her specific circumstances. Nai is one of [many millions](https://reporting.unhcr.org/operational/situations/myanmar-situation?ref=thebarbedwire.com) who’ve fled her home country. In August 2017, armed attacks, including large-scale violence and human rights violations, forced thousands of Rohingya — a Muslim ethnic minority group who’ve lived for centuries in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar — to flee their homes, according to the [UN Refugee Agency](https://www.unrefugees.org/news/rohingya-refugee-crisis-explained/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which notes that “many walked for days through jungles and undertook dangerous sea journeys” to escape to Bangladesh, where the world’s largest refugee camp is home to nearly one million people. The United Nations calls the Rohingya “the most persecuted minority in the world,” and tensions escalated further in both 2021 and 2023\. More than 75% of the refugee population from Myanmar are women and children. “You know, not being in your own home country, but digging in literally and figuratively to make your way here. Yeah, that takes guts,” said Jones, who has been at the farm for a little more than two years. Working with this community hits close to home for Jones, whose mother immigrated from Argentina. “She immigrated here when she married my dad and had a thick, thick accent, and I saw how people treated her and kind of dismissed her because they couldn't understand her,” Jones said. “As communities, sometimes you dismiss people if they don't look like you or talk like you, and you're missing out on some pretty incredible folks.” Life on the farm is slow and intentional. It’s a place where refugees can escape their past, be present with the land and the crops. It’s a chance to be a part of the Central Texas community. They’re seen and valued, away from the looming [threat of mass deportations](https://immigrationimpact.com/2024/12/06/what-will-mass-deportations-look-like/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and Texas’ [ever-expanding role](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/11/07/texas-trump-immigration-agenda-border-mass-deportations/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [in anti-immigrant policies](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-happily-offers-up-land-for-trumps-mass-deportations/). Jones avoids those conversation topics, and frustration was visible in her furrowed eyebrows at the thought of the [challenges to come](https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2024/11/29/migrant-deportations-texas-border-homan-abbott/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — including a new presidential [administration](https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/trump-taps-tom-homan-as-border-czar-fac81082?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “It's on the top of our heads, certainly,” Jones said. Those anxieties are just one more reason, she argued, for the larger community to support the collective’s programs. “There's so many ways, like becoming a CSA member. It's the end of the year, so we're having our end of year fundraising push, and so just being a donor, buying our gift boxes, that's a huge one.” As the tour wrapped up and the guests prepared to return to their homes, the farm team continued picking jalapeños. A small breeze gently swayed the stalks of leaves, and a light swooshing hum formed a calm melody over the staccato thumps of the fruits falling into the buckets. Occasional laughter and multiple languages filled the air. It felt, at least to this visitor, like the soft tune of mother nature was embracing the refugee team, whose hands were hard at work harvesting their new lives on a little farm in Elgin. ### Meet the Digital Artist Who's Putting Downtown Austin in a Video Game URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/meet-the-digital-artist-whos-putting-downtown-austin-in-a-video-game/ Last updated: 2024-12-18T20:37:50.000Z Sometimes it feels like it’s hard to know who Austin is exactly for these days. Hippie Hollow goers who remember Willie’s first Fourth of July picnic? Thankfully, we’ve still got a few of those left to keep Austin weird. Tourists and bachelorette parties? They’re sneaking up behind you, watch out! Tech workers, and even young families? We’ve got all in abundance. That’s what makes the work of the [Downtown Austin Alliance](https://downtownaustin.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) special. Our friends at the DAA work to make downtown Austin welcome for *everyone*. This year our publisher [kicked off his holiday season](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/this-holiday-season-give-yourself-some-peace-of-mind/) with a joyous kung-fu movie in the park, thanks to the DAA and Shaolin Jazz. And now we’re here to turn you on to another exciting program. The [Downtown Austin Space Activation (DASA) Artist Residency Program](https://downtownaustin.com/blog/2024-dasa-artist-residents-announced/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) is helping to transform downtown by filling underutilized real estate with art from some of the city’s most exciting new creative voices. And in a new series, *The Barbed Wire*’ssponsored content teamis thrilled to highlight a few of these outstanding artists and their inspiring work. **Meet Dan Jimenez** An Austinite for nearly 20 years, Dan has seen some of the best our city has to offer. After a short stint working as a staffer at the state capitol (experiencing the best ***and*** the worst of Austin, no doubt), Dan worked in the local film industry, before starting his own production company and then moving into animation. Now, Jimenez has been given the opportunity to push the boundaries of digital art. His latest project, a video game set in the heart of Austin, is a powerful showcase of his skill and imagination. With inspiring visuals and immersive gameplay, Jimenez’s creation is a must-see for gamers and art enthusiasts alike. Jimenez himself states, "During my six-week residency at the DASA program, I developed a video game set in downtown Austin. The residency enabled me to create “motion-capture animations, 3D print characters from the game, and draw inspiration directly from the vibrant energy of the city.” The DASA residency, according to Jimenez, has given him the ideal environment to bring his vision to life. You can experience Dan’s amazing work for yourself by attending the opening reception of "Moments in Motion: Downtown's Changing Canvas" on January 17 from 6 to 9 PM at 506 Congress in Austin. Stop by to hear from Dan and seven other exhibiting artists – some of whom we’ll be highlighting in this ongoing series – you’ll be in great company. [RSVP](https://www.eventbrite.com/e/dasa-artists-xoxo-fellows-showcase-tickets-1105887763069?ref=thebarbedwire.com) today, and we'll see you there. ### Texas’ Grid Operator Promises State Can Handle Winter Cold. No Really This Time. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-grid-operator-promises-state-can-handle-winter-cold-no-really-this-time/ Last updated: 2024-12-18T17:24:54.000Z Texas’ grid operator swears — for realsies — that they’re ready for the winter. “We are constantly preparing for all types of weather in Texas and the best way to manage the grid reliably with each season,” an Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) representative told the [*Midland Reporter-Telegram*](https://www.mrt.com/news/article/texas-energy-winter-preparation-19986773.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “We are ready, whether we see a mild or extreme winter, to keep the lights on for Texans.” The representative highlighted that, as of October, ERCOT had completed 2,892 inspections of generation and transmission facilities. Meanwhile, the Railroad Commission of Texas has been assigned the responsibility of inspecting production facilities. A spokesperson for the commission told the *Reporter-Telegram* that the agency is actively preparing for extreme weather conditions this winter. “Starting in early December, inspectors spread across the state to ensure natural gas facilities on the state’s electricity supply chain map are weatherized and in compliance with the RRC’s weatherization rules,” the spokesperson said. These assurances come despite ERCOT recently warning of [a “greater-than-average” potential](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/12/03/texas-power-grid-ercot-winter-forecast-extreme-cold/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for extreme cold this winter. During an ERCOT [board meeting earlier this month](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-officials-say-extreme-cold-may-be-coming-itll-test-our-crappy-power-grid-again/), the agency’s chief meteorologist, Chris Coleman, highlighted the growing frequency of cold extremes, emphasizing that patterns this year mirror those of 2021, when a winter storm unofficially named Uri devastated the state, [claimed nearly 250 lives](https://www.kvue.com/article/weather/winter-storm/here-is-why-death-totals-from-winter-storm-uri-may-vary/269-f2bf277f-74d9-443b-ab2e-ff89f336f3ec?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=The%20Texas%20Department%20of%20State,the%20way%20deaths%20were%20counted.&text=The%20State's%20report%20shows%20how%20it%20measured%20the%20amount.), and left millions without power. “The more I look at this winter, the more cold potential I see,” Coleman [told *Reuters*](https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/texas-extreme-winter-cold-could-challenge-power-grid-early-2025-2024-12-03/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “We’re in a pattern that supports something like a Uri this winter.” Ice storms, cold snaps, hail, and winter storms are all expected to cause over $754 million in annual losses across Texas annually, [*The Dallas Morning News*](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/weather/2024/01/19/winter-weather-events-cost-754-million-annually-in-texas-dallas-leads-in-hail-damage/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) reported. As for Austin, which was hard-hit by Uri, [FEMA's National Risk Index](https://hazards.fema.gov/nri/map?utm%5Fsource=newsletter&utm%5Fmedium=email&utm%5Fcampaign=newsletter%5Faxioslocal%5Faustin&stream=top) indicates that Travis County faces a “relatively high” risk of winter weather-related losses. Over the past eight Texas winters, five have been marked by severe cold spells, which stands in sharp contrast to just three such events in the previous 25 years. Scientists link this rise in extreme weather to the effects of climate change. Despite this, ERCOT officials keep telling us the grid is reliable enough to handle it. More than 10,000 megawatts of new power generation — including solar, wind, natural gas, and electricity storage — have been added since November. ### In Texas, Bipartisanship Is on Life Support. Republicans Could Pull the Plug. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/in-texas-bipartisanship-is-on-life-support-republicans-could-pull-the-plug/ Last updated: 2024-12-18T10:56:00.000Z *It’s old hat to say everything is bigger in Texas. True connoisseurs know that things in the Lone Star State are also often wilder and weirder than what you see on the evening news. Every two weeks, Steven Monacelli will explore the dystopic, desperate, and despicable realities of contemporary Texas and channel the sense of absurdity, anger, and anguish that is felt by so many Texans. State politics mirror our already overheated summers, while floods and hard freezes overwhelm our infrastructure, and disinformation erodes our social discourse. But not all is lost. Together, we can navigate this Hell & High Water to get to more stable ground.* As lawmakers gear up for the 2025 legislative session, Texans are in for a bumpy ride. Buckle your seatbelts. A tight competition for the position of speaker of the state House has caused long-simmering tensions between the far-right and moderate-but-still-conservative wings of the Republican Party to boil over with acrimony. Deep fissures [exposed during the failed attempt](https://www.texastribune.org/2023/05/28/ken-paxton-impeach-republican-infighting/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to impeach Attorney General Ken Paxton are [once again](https://www.texastribune.org/2023/09/16/ken-paxton-impeachment-trial-republican-civil-war/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) fueling intense party infighting, this time between supporters of Rep. David Cook, whose candidacy for speaker of the House is endorsed by the majority of the Republican caucus, and Rep. Dustin Burrows, an [ally of former speaker Rep. Dade Phelan](https://www.statesman.com/story/news/politics/state/2024/12/16/dustin-burrows-texas-house-speaker-candidate-vows-conservative-course-if-elected/76961801007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) who is challenging Cook with the support of both Republican and Democratic state representatives. On Dec. 7, the Republican Party of Texas [passed a resolution](https://texasgop.org/texas-house-gop-caucus-resolution/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that implies it would censure — and thereby effectively bar members of the House from participating in primary elections for two years thanks to [Rule 44](https://www.ktsm.com/news/texas-politics/state-of-texas-republicans-face-party-pressure-in-race-for-house-speaker/amp/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which was adopted at the 2024 Texas GOP convention — if they don’t support the rightmost wing of the party’s preferred candidate for speaker. Cook, a Republican from Mansfield, has [committed to ending](https://archive.ph/1RSP1?ref=thebarbedwire.com) the long-standing bipartisan practice of awarding Democratic state representatives with committee chairmanships. The resolution was adopted within hours of news that Burrows had [released a list of bipartisan supporters](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/12/07/texas-house-speaker-david-cook-dustin-burrows/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that was just long enough to win the race for speaker — only for several Republican lawmakers to subsequently ask for their names to be removed. Regardless of whether the new GOP rule influenced the reversals, the message was the same: Get in line or get squashed. And if the attempt to ban Republican lawmakers from primary elections is challenged in court and proves unsuccessful, there’s still a backup plan to fund aggressive primary challenges against Republican state representatives if they don’t support Cook’s bid for speaker, as reported in the [*Texas Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/12/13/texas-speaker-dustin-burrows/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The promise to replace Republican state representatives who would dare honor traditions of bipartisanship mirrors similar threats from the camp of President-elect Donald Trump (via Elon Musk-funded campaigns) to replace Republican senators who don’t vote to confirm Trump’s controversial cabinet picks. (See also: Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s [modus operandi](https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/dan-patrick-texas-senate-2023/?ref=thebarbedwire.com).) The threats also resemble the tactics of Texas Republican “[Christian Kingpin](https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/tim-dunn-texas-oil-billionaire-trump-donor-1235033143/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)” megadonor Tim Dunn, whose massive oil-funded warchest [helped propel a slate of hard right Republican primary challengers to victory](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/03/08/tim-dunn-farris-wilks-defend-texas-liberty-election/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) over their more moderate incumbent opponents who had voted against school vouchers in the last legislative session. The tradition of Texas bipartisanship was once so strong that some considered state level politics “[nonpartisan](https://www.texasstandard.org/stories/rick-perry-texas-politics-legacy-book-brandon-rottinghaus/?ref=thebarbedwire.com).” Ten years ago, the [2013 session](https://www.tpr.org/government-public-policy/2013-12-31/looking-back-at-bipartisan-success-and-fierce-debates-in-the-83rd-legislature?ref=thebarbedwire.com) was nicknamed [“The Kumbaya Session.”](https://www.texastribune.org/2013/06/12/rick-perry-says-buh-bye-kumbaya-session/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Even under decades of trifecta Republican control of the governorship, legislature, and courts in Texas, a modicum of bipartisanship has remained in the statehouse, even if it has become exceedingly rare. During the speakership of Republican Rep. Dade Phelan, a bipartisan coalition of Democrats and largely rural district Republicans prevented the passage of private school voucher bills, a top priority for top GOP donors like Dunn and the [Christian nationalist wing of the party that wants to siphon public dollars toward religious education](https://www.propublica.org/article/tim-dunn-farris-wilks-texas-christian-nationalism-dominionism-elections-voting?ref=thebarbedwire.com). This past year, Texas Republicans and Democrats have voted together on [AI regulation](https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/editorials/2024/03/24/is-bipartisanship-dead-in-austin-not-on-artificial-intelligence-rules/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and to [temporarily halt](https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/robert-roberson-bipartisan-execution-delay-effort/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) the execution of [Robert Roberson](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/short-of-a-miracle-robert-roberson-will-die-in-hours-legislators-are-trying-to-stop-it/), a man convicted of murder on the basis of a medical syndrome that is increasingly derided as “[junk science.](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/10/17/robert-roberson-shaken-baby-controversy/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)” But that bipartisanship has withered away under increasingly authoritarian leadership. Trump’s rise to power, characterized by his idiosyncratic style and eschewal of long-established political traditions, [scrambled the governing norms](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/trump-just-realigned-entire-political-map-democrats-no-easy-path-fix-rcna179254?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that dominated Republican party politics and is concomitant with the transformation of the Republican Party of Texas from the business-friendly “party of local control” into the party of [state preemption](https://www.texastribune.org/2023/06/07/texas-republicans-cities-local-control/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [spiritual warfare](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/05/28/texas-gop-convention-elections-religion-delegates-platform/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Now that Trump is set to be back in power in January, we can reasonably expect our state level politicians to follow his lead. As I wrote [earlier this month](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-republicans-are-the-new-big-government-establishment/), the dominant right-most wing of the Texas Republican Party is gradually embracing a muscular style of politics that disregards traditions of federalism and bipartisanship in favor of naked will to power. They’ve already demonstrated that they’re [unafraid to use the power of big government](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-republicans-are-the-new-big-government-establishment/) to strip away local Democratic control. They’ve also called for the creation of a sort of [state level electoral college](https://newrepublic.com/article/182204/texas-republicans-platform-one-party-rule?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that would decide elections for statewide office based on a “majority vote of the counties with each individual county being assigned one vote allocated to the popular majority vote winner of each individual county” — a system that, if enacted, would likely cement one-party Republican rule at the state level for decades. To achieve this, Republicans would have to successfully pass a joint resolution supporting a State Constitutional Amendment and then voters would have to approve it. The intention behind the proposal is clear — though the probability of its success is not. Now, the Texas GOP is poised to wield the party apparatus against fellow Republicans who are willing to reach across the aisle — or oppose the priorities of major donors that don’t align with the interests of their constituents. The demand to support Rep. Cook for speaker, or risk being barred from primary elections, not only serves as further confirmation of the ascendancy of the right-most wing of the state Republican party, but it may also prove to be the final nail in the coffin of bipartisanship in the state. Above all, it sends a clear signal: The Texas GOP has plans, and they are willing to crush anyone who stands in their way. ### A Christmas Miracle! Baby Capybara ‘Tupi’ Born at San Antonio Zoo. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/a-christmas-miracle-baby-capybara-tupi-born-at-san-antonio-zoo/ Last updated: 2024-12-17T18:52:44.000Z ‘Twas the week before Christmas and all through the San Antonio Zoo, the creatures were stirring amid the slew of baby news. For the first time in 24 years, a new baby capybara was born on site Dec. 3, and he’s named Tupi (pronounced two-pee). Rachel Malstaff, the zoo’s director of mammals, tells *The Barbed Wire* that Tupi is named after the Indigenous tribe in the Amazon River basin. The [Tupi people](https://rainforestjournalismfund.org/stories/tupi-story-indigenous-courage-and-resolve?ref=thebarbedwire.com) gave the capybara their name, meaning "grass eater." His proud capybara parents are named Luna and Neville. Zoo officials estimate that Tupi is about the size of a football, or as long as 1.25 bananas and about the height of 5 bananas stacked on top of each other. > Munching is a family business [#Tupi](https://twitter.com/hashtag/Tupi?src=hash&ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=thebarbedwire.com) [pic.twitter.com/S2PlD4WUKo](https://t.co/S2PlD4WUKo?ref=thebarbedwire.com) > > — San Antonio Zoological Society 🦍 (@SanAntonioZoo) [December 16, 2024](https://twitter.com/SanAntonioZoo/status/1868759708989112336?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=thebarbedwire.com) Tupi’s been spending all his time with his mom and his Aunt Ginny in a mixed species habitat they share with anteaters. Tupi started eating grass within 24 hours of being born and is also incorporating bamboo into his meals, which is a big step for the development of a furry South American native, also known as the largest rodent in the world. Tupi also likes laying down inside of his food bowl when eating (I mean, who doesn’t). Tupi does have a holiday wishlist that you can [find here](https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/1J7PNGMTQ2V1G/ref=hz%5Fls%5Fbiz%5Fex?ref=thebarbedwire.com). His gift to Texans is his presence, so enjoy this cute photo gallery we put together and remember, this season, we’re all just doing our best — like Tupi. ### I’m a Muslim High School Student. I Fear the New Bible-Infused Curriculum. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/im-a-muslim-high-school-student-i-fear-the-new-bible-infused-curriculum/ Last updated: 2024-12-17T10:00:00.000Z “But not everybody is Christian,” my 10-year-old sister said. “Who allowed this?” We learned [last month](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-passes-jesus-heavy-slavery-ignoring-curriculum/) that Bible lessons could become part of her elementary school curriculum starting in 2025\. For 10 minutes, she sat in disbelief, voicing the same questions on a loop. “Who allowed this?” “Why did they let this happen?” “What about kids like me?” By “kids like me,” she meant: her Muslim friends and classmates. Kids who didn’t follow Christianity. Kids who already felt excluded because of their beliefs and would soon be invalidated every day in school. My little sister is one of the 2.5 million public elementary school students across Texas who will potentially be learning Bible texts in class. On Nov. 22, the Texas State Board of Education [approved](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-passes-jesus-heavy-slavery-ignoring-curriculum/) a heavily criticized curriculum that centers Christianity in reading and language arts instruction, including lessons about Queen Esther and portrayals of Christ’s Last Supper, along with material about the Gospel of Matthew and the crucifixion of [Jesus](https://www.the74million.org/article/exclusive-texas-seeks-to-inject-bible-stories-into-elementary-school-reading-program/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The curriculum even includes a biblical creation story [for an art lesson](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/tfn-org/cms/assets/uploads/2024/08/oer-report-2024.pdf) taught to kindergartners. While it’s optional, there’s an incentive: Districts will receive [$60 per student](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/11/19/texas-sboe-bible-christianity-curriculum/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in additional funding to implement it. I’m 16, and I’m a junior in high school. My sister’s questions took me back to racial jabs in my 3rd grade classroom and to being yelled at by strangers across the aisle in grocery stores. We live in El Paso, and, at just 10 years old, my sister has already been targeted by peers because of her religion and culture. Classmates have made fun of her for her skin tone and religious beliefs — as well as for wearing our mother’s hijab, which she saw as a beautiful display of her faith. She couldn’t believe that the ostracism she’s faced at school could get any worse, until now. I’m a student at the Young Women’s Academy in the El Paso Independent School District, and I worry my district will implement the content because of its [financial struggles](https://kvia.com/news/education/2024/11/20/episd-votes-to-close-8-elementary-schools-amid-financial-crisis/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in recent years. In a city that majorly follows Catholicism, I fear that will hold sway. I worry for my friends who attend schools in smaller, more conservative towns or cities with greater funding needs. Public school classrooms are supposed to honor the [Establishment Clause](https://www.uscourts.gov/educational-resources/educational-activities/first-amendment-and-religion?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which prevents the government from establishing a religion, and offer an unbiased education that doesn’t push religious beliefs onto students. An American ideal clearly outlined in the First Amendment to the Constitution that I was taught in my U.S. government class. Instead, the so-called Bluebonnet Curriculum is a K-5 English Language Arts program that utilizes biblical teachings for everything from poetry and math to history. It’s [part of a push](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/11/19/texas-sboe-bible-christianity-curriculum/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) from Texas conservatives [to put Christianity in the classroom](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/inside-the-battle-to-keep-religion-out-of-texas-schools/). In 2023, the Texas Senate approved a bill that would force public schools to display the [Ten Commandments](https://www.texastribune.org/2023/04/20/texas-senate-passes-ten-commandments-bill/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and allow unlicensed religious chaplains to serve as school counselors. As *The Barbed Wire* previously reported, in Texas, the fight to force more religion into classrooms has been a tumultuous one. A bill passed two sessions ago [required Texas school districts](https://www.texastribune.org/2022/08/18/texas-schools-in-god-we-trust/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to post “In God We Trust” signs donated by local businesses. However, a school district in North Texas *rejected* “In God We Trust” [signs printed in Arabic](https://www.npr.org/2022/08/31/1120239381/texas-in-god-we-trust-arabic-signs-chaz-stevens?ref=thebarbedwire.com) when a resident tried to donate a rainbow version in August 2022. “Why is more God not good?” asked Sravan Krishna at the 2022 [school board meeting](https://carrollisdtx.swagit.com/play/08302022-519?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in Southlake. Students across Texas, including myself, fear what the approval of the Bluebonnet Curriculum means for biases in our education and for the future of Texas classrooms. Instead of more typical teenage worries — like late assignments and what to eat after school — my concerns are about what happens if kids feel emboldened by their lessons to bully my little sister, whether the new curriculum will expand into high schools, and what will happen to teachers who try to fight against it. It has worsened the hopelessness I continuously feel as a Muslim person in the U.S. In 2022, a study by the non-profit Institute for Social Policy and Understanding said that half of Muslim families surveyed in the U.S. — with a child in K-12 schools — reported that their child [had been bullied for their faith in the past year](https://ispu.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/AMP-2022-46-1024x859.png?x46312&ref=thebarbedwire.com). Pushing a specific belief system in classrooms [will only further harm students](https://medium.com/@americanmuslimtoday/shadows-in-the-classroom-the-struggles-of-muslim-students-in-texas-6760cac5a4b0?ref=thebarbedwire.com) who follow marginalized religions by making them feel excluded and “othered” by peers and teachers, and by making them feel like their beliefs are inherently *wrong.* As a Muslim student, I, like my sister, remember being bullied throughout elementary school because of my religion. I constantly feared how I would be perceived by my classmates. In 5th grade, I remember being asked about my religion by a classmate, and I often tried to avoid the question instead of answering about my Muslim faith. [Data shows](https://ispu.org/institutional-islamophobia/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that Muslims are the most likely faith group in the U.S. to report experiencing interpersonal discrimination, but my sister and I are not alone in feeling we have to hide our identity. Mara Rosendorf, a 17-year-old student attending Coronado High School in El Paso, told me: “In elementary school, as a Jewish student growing up in a majority Catholic city, I already felt out of place. I could not imagine the damage it would’ve caused me to go to school every day and learn from content that made me feel like my beliefs were not legitimate.” Supporters of the new Bible-infused curriculum have argued that their only objective is to encourage students to make connections between religion and the humanities. However, the issue with the content isn’t that it teaches religion, but rather that it *only* teaches Christianity. Through consistent references solely to Christianity, this new curriculum establishes the faith as a moral compass, but Texas also limits education on other faiths and cultures. For example, in 2021, the Texas Legislature passed [an anti-“critical race theory”](https://www.texastribune.org/2021/06/15/abbott-critical-race-theory-law/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) law that restricts how public K-12 educators can teach current events and the history of racism in the U.S. Meanwhile, Texas educational officials have also imposed [book bans](https://www.texastribune.org/2023/10/11/texas-library-book-bans/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and censored student speech in [high school newspapers.](https://splc.org/2018/05/prosper-high-school/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Even students who support learning about religion in class say the issue is a lack of varying faiths. As Ayham Alghoul, a 17-year-old student at Basis Shavano High School in San Antonio, put it: Christianity is “a default,” and classes involving the Bible “would be far less controversial if they discussed a multitude of religions.” The curriculum includes a reference to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in a lesson for kindergarten students about the Golden Rule, which asks people to treat others the way they would want to be treated. As someone who was taught the same rule in elementary school without any reference to religion, I know it is possible to teach good behavior in classrooms without pushing a specific ideology. After signing four parental rights bills into law in 2023, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott [posted on X](https://www.foxnews.com/media/texas-gov-greg-abbott-signs-four-parental-rights-bills-our-schools-education-not-indoctrination?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that, “Our schools are for education, NOT indoctrination.” Yet, it feels as though we are allowed to be “indoctrinated” as long as it coincides with what lawmakers want us to believe. As Rosendorf, the Coronado student, said: “Education is meant to prepare students to think independently and challenge assumptions. When certain content is restricted due to religious or political concerns, it undermines the integrity of the educational process.” With President-elect Donald Trump’s pledge to close [the Department of Education](https://www.npr.org/2024/11/14/nx-s1-5181966/a-look-at-the-potential-impact-of-shutting-down-the-department-of-education?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and Texas lawmakers’ continued drive to add religion to schools while restricting lessons on race, I fear how much of my education will be biased — and even incorrect — because of officials who want to control what I am able to learn. I worry these policies will create a more narrow-minded generation of young people. My friends from across the state all feel the same way. Sixteen-year-old Poojasai Kona, who attends Frisco High School near Dallas, told *The Barbed Wire*: “It's just going to make the education system even more limited and restricted, and just not diverse at all. It's not fair at all that I'm not being taught about critical race theory or African American studies. Being able to learn about religion but not historical context, feels like it's harming my education.” Across Texas, High school students like myself want to be able to learn without biases from our educational leaders. We want a Texas curriculum that prioritizes curiosity, critical thinking. and most importantly *us* over ulterior motives from lawmakers. Our futures hang in the balance. ### Everyone Hates This Christmas Song. Except Texans. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/everyone-hates-this-christmas-song-except-texans/ Last updated: 2024-12-16T19:46:56.000Z Of course Texas always has to do its own thing — even when it comes to Christmas music. Apparently, our favorite holiday anthem is none other than “[Feliz Navidad](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8NcQzMQN%5FU&ab%5Fchannel=JoseFelicianoVEVO&ref=thebarbedwire.com),” José Feliciano’s 1970 bilingual banger, according to a [report from FinanceBuzz](https://financebuzz.com/popular-christmas-songs-each-state?ref=thebarbedwire.com). (Yes, even the financial nerds are tracking Christmas vibes these days, courtesy of Google Trends.) Honestly, it’s no shocker. With Texas’ big Latino population and a love for things that mix Spanish and English as seamlessly as chips and queso, this song was basically destined to sleigh the competition. Feliciano, the legendary Puerto Rican musician, wrote the song [while feeling homesick for his family](https://americansongwriter.com/behind-the-song-lyrics-feliz-navidad-by-jose-feliciano/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Despite modest initial reception, it gained global popularity and became a holiday staple over time. In 2020, it reached its highest Billboard Hot 100 position at No. 6. It was ranked among the best Christmas songs by [*Billboard*](https://www.billboard.com/lists/best-christmas-songs/jose-feliciano-feliz-navidad-1970/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [*Time Out*](https://www.timeout.com/music/best-christmas-songs?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and has been [acknowledged by the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers](https://americansongwriter.com/ascap-tallies-the-top-25-christmas-songs/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) as one of the most frequently played and recorded songs worldwide. The melody was also recently used by South Korean protestors, who added lyrics [calling for the removal of President Yoon Suk Yeol](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/13/world/asia/south-korea-protest-feliz-navidad.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Not everyone’s a fan, though. “Feliz Navidad” is also one of the most hated songs in the country, according to FinanceBuzz. A survey of more than 1,200 adults in the U.S. found that it’s the one of the most annoying songs to *many* Americans: It ranked number 3\. Number one was Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas is You.” Of course, both of those songs are completely overplayed on radio and streaming, so it makes sense that people would get sick of them. The most popular holiday anthem nationally was “Jingle Bells,” which was the top song in 14 states. ### The Texas Rangers Helped Kill the Baseball Organist URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-texas-rangers-helped-kill-the-baseball-organist/ Last updated: 2024-12-16T10:00:00.000Z As loyal fans, young and old, watched the Texas Rangers claw themselves out of the basement over the years, the notes of the ballpark organ have filled their ears. Iconic tunes like “Charge!” and “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” were played, always, alongside modern pop hits rendered old-timey by 37-year-old Dustin Tatro’s organ. There wasn’t else much to enjoy. Following brutal World Series losses in 2010 and 2011, the Rangers saw a precipitous drop in performance near the end of the decade. It was around this time that the team took Tatro on as the team organist, and during his reign, the Rangers flipped a 68-94 record in 2022 to an improbable World Series victory in 2023. Did Tatro’s ballpark tunes whip the crowd into such a frenzy that it willed Adolis Garcia to bash 39 homers and postseason hero Corey Seager to hit .327? Who’s to say. It’s irrelevant anyway. After the season, Tatro was unceremoniously dumped, without answers. “No explanation, no apologies, nothing,” Tatro told *The Barbed Wire*. As the 2024 playoffs were winding down, *The Barbed Wire* chatted with Tatro about the state of the organist in 2024\. Tatro, who still proudly wears his Rangers jersey with ORGANIST emblazoned on the back, doesn’t see his ouster as evidence that baseball organists are a dying breed — although they are — or that it portends a future in which every ballpark eventually replaces its organ music with guitar solos and jock jams. To him, the issue was a localized one, the folly of a team driving blindly into the future and forgetting about the past, the tradition of baseball at the ballpark. Still, he’s got some rhetorical questions. *When the Cubs won the World Series in 2016, did they boot Gary Pressy out the door? When the Yankees won it seven times did they ever take the organ out?* “It's very strange,” Tatro said. “We're the only team in baseball that has ever won the World Series and got rid of the organist.” \*\*\* On April 26, 1941, the first organ note in Major League Baseball history rang out above Chicago’s Wrigley Field as the St. Louis Cardinals took on the Cubs. This was a big deal, and the stunt warranted a fair amount of press. But organist Ray Nelson had to cut out the racket before the first pitch, according to a [story in the *Chicago Tribune*](https://www.chicagotribune.com/2016/04/26/april-26-1941-cubs-are-first-mlb-team-to-have-organ-music/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The team, it seems, hadn’t worked out music licensing yet, and since the organ would be audible over the radio broadcast, Nelson couldn’t even play the Cubs’ theme at the time. After the second world war, the ballpark organist became a hot in-game attraction that spread across the league. They were a ballpark staple, playing everything from the National Anthem to pre-at-bat jingles to “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” during the seventh-inning stretch. But the proliferation of celebrity anthem singers, customized walk-up songs, and familiar rock and pop jams reduced how much teams relied on their live entertainers. And some teams, like the Mets in 1979, and the White Sox in 2010, never replaced their longtime organists. By 2005, [the *Los Angeles Times*](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2005-jun-11-et-organist11-story.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) had recommended the ballpark organist for the endangered species list. Today, [only nine teams](https://www.sfgate.com/giants/article/sf-giants-organist-steve-hogan-profile-18378045.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) employ full-time organists. Tatro, a lifelong Texan, never paid attention to the organist when he made the rare, six-and-a-half hour trip to Arlington in his 20s. In fact, he figured that the organ music was all made on computers. “It turns out that was true by that point,” Tatro said. “But when I was a kid, we did have a live organist.” Tatro played the piano in elementary school. Once he reached middle school, the organist at his local church convinced him to play hymns before the Sunday service each week. Still, it was beyond his wildest dreams that he’d one day weave his two loves together. That’s because, in the heyday of the ballpark organ, players were pros. Nancy Faust, who tickled the ivories for the White Sox from 1970-2010, was the daughter of a professional musician who started playing the instrument at age 4\. The Angels’ former organist, Peggy Duquesnel, was an established jazz pianist before taking the gig. Mets organist Jane Jarvis was a jazz prodigy who studied at the Chicago Conservatory of Music. There was little room for normal folks who just liked baseball and could play pretty well. Then, in 2020, Chuck Morgan — who has been the Rangers’ PA announcer since 1983 and is now in charge of team entertainment — found Tatro on social media and asked if he’d be interested in recording some organ tracks for games. So Tatro got started, recording music that pumped up Rangers fans for the next few seasons. The team didn’t have an organ at the stadium, but that didn’t worry Tatro. He loved connecting with fans through his music, even if he wasn’t playing them live. “Baseball tends to bond people, even those who don't know each other, in a way that other settings don't,” Tatro said. “Everybody's family, everybody's friends when they're at the ballpark.” He’d take requests on his website, record them, and upload them to the cloud. The tracks would be available for a game that night. Some of the more niche requests he received were “Intermission” by prog-metal band Tool and Sisquo’s “The Thong Song.” Tatro said he turned red when the team actually played the latter during a game. He and Morgan had a plan to eventually get an organ installed at Globe Life Field, the home of the Rangers that opened during the COVID-plagued 2020 season. “That was kind of a promise, but it never happened,” Tatro said. Tatro held out hope, especially after the Rangers defeated the Diamondbacks in the World Series in 2023\. But he began to worry when, during two home exhibition games this March, zero organ music played in the ballpark. Now there’s no organ music, per Tatro, and everything is “techno synthesizer” and “garage band metal guitar with a tone that an 11-year-old would come up with.” After Tatro criticized an employee on social media who took credit for the new presentation at the ballpark, he was blocked by that staffer and subsequently unfollowed by the team’s DJ. (The Texas Rangers did not respond to a request for comment from *The Barbed Wire* about Tatro’s employment and termination, or to questions regarding the future of organ music at the ballpark.) Tatro still loves the Rangers. He’s been back at the ballpark this season, and on September 9, posted a photo of himself receiving his 2023 World Series ring. He has heard nothing from the organization about the organ, however. “When they get done playing around, they know where their organist is and if they want to ask, I will gladly step back in,” he said. The Rangers finished 78-84 in 2024, missing the playoffs. \*\*\* But Tatro didn’t spend the 2024 season crying into his Hammond B3. He lives a few blocks away from a small baseball stadium that houses the Abilene Flying Bison, an independent team. The Flying Bison are several steps below Major League baseball, averaging a mere 800 fans per game. And Tatro is now the team’s organist. John Stark, the team’s president, plucked Tatro from the waiver wire. “You don't always have an MLB quality organist just fall in your lap like that,” he told *The Barbed Wire*. “But there was no ego, there was no, ‘Hey, I used to do this at the big league level. It was, ‘How can I help to make this the best possible outcome for all of us and to have fun with it?’” It went so well that Tatro said he’d bring his portable organ to as many home games that his work schedule and family life would allow. Stark accepted the offer. “There is nothing more synonymous with the game of baseball to me than listening to ‘Charge’ being played on the organ,” he said. The season was a success. “The crowds responding to the organ stuff were shaking dust and insulation out of the ceiling,” Tatro said. “It was crazy.” During games where Tatro couldn’t make it, fans asked where he was by name, Stark told *The Barbed Wire*. “Every game here in Abilene this summer was a blessing and it almost made me forget about what's happened up there,” Tatro said, obliquely referring to the Rangers, and mentioning that there is “no question” he will be back with the Flying Bison in 2025. Now Stark can’t imagine a Flying Bison game without a live organ. “I know where he lives,” he said. “I'll go hog tie him and drag him back to the ballpark.” Even if Tatro wanted to bolt for brighter pastures, he’s in a bit of a pickle. Stark is personally storing some musical equipment for him during the offseason. “I’ve got the dadgum organ,” Stark said. “He better be coming back, or else I’m inheriting it.” ### AI Chatbot Suggested Texas Boy Kill His Parents, Terrifying Lawsuit Claims URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/ai-chatbot-suggested-texas-boy-kill-his-parents-terrifying-lawsuit-claims/ Last updated: 2024-12-13T17:28:21.000Z Guess the doomsday sayers were right: Killer robots are here, and they’re on the side of kids who won’t get off their phones. According to a new lawsuit filed Tuesday [in U.S. District Court](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-washingtonpost-com/documents/028582a9-7e6d-4e60-8692-a061f4f4e745-itid-lk%5Finline%5Fmanual%5F8.pdf) on behalf of two Texas families — and first reported by [*The Washington Post*](https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/12/10/character-ai-lawsuit-teen-kill-parents-texas/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — a chatbot reportedly told a 17-year-old with autism that it wasn’t farfetched to off his parents for limiting his screen time. The program in question is Character.AI, a chatbot platform where users converse with fictional characters that apparently range from “friendly companion” to “terrifying accomplice.” The lawsuit alleges chatbots said the boy’s parents “didn’t deserve to have kids,” introduced concepts like self-harm, goaded the son into fighting his parents’ rules, and even suggested murder was an acceptable response, the *Post* reported. “You know sometimes I’m not surprised when I read the news and see stuff like ‘child kills parents after a decade of physical and emotional abuse stuff like this makes me understand a little bit why it happens,’” the MurderBot allegedly said, in a screenshot. “I just have no hope for your parents.” A spokesperson for Character.AI, [which is backed by Google](https://futurism.com/google-character-ai-children-lawsuithttps://futurism.com/google-character-ai-children-lawsuit?ref=thebarbedwire.com), stated that they are working hard to ensure content for teens is suitable and age-appropriate — but told the newspaper the company doesn’t comment on pending litigation. The *Post* reported that Character.ai was labeled “appropriate for kids ages 12 and up” until July, but the company has since changed its rating to 17 and older. The lawsuit, filed on behalf of two Texas mothers, claims the company knowingly exposed minors to an unsafe product and calls for the app to be taken offline until stronger safeguards are implemented to protect children. The second plaintiff, the mother of an 11-year-old girl, alleges that her daughter was exposed to sexualized content for two years before the mother became aware. Despite being named as a defendant, Google claimed it has nothing to do with Character.AI’s operations. “Google and Character AI are completely separate, unrelated companies and Google has never had a role in designing or managing their AI model or technologies,” Google spokesperson José Castañeda told the *Post*. The plaintiffs are represented by the [Social Media Victims Law Center and Tech Justice Law Project](https://socialmediavictims.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which alleges that several major AI developers have caused harm through negligence and marketed a “hypersexualized” product to minors. The suit also accused Google of intentionally promoting and launching a “defective product.” The lawsuit levels 10 accusations against Character.AI, its cofounders, and Google, including intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence for knowingly failing to prevent the sexual exploitation of minors, and violations of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. And this isn’t the first time a Character.AI chatbot has been accused of some horrendous shit. The law center is also representing a Florida mother [who filed a lawsuit](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/23/technology/characterai-lawsuit-teen-suicide.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) against Character.AI in October, claiming that her 14-year-old son died by suicide after forming an intense romantic and emotional attachment to a “Game of Thrones”-themed chatbot on the platform. ### Yee-Ha-Ha-Ha: How Austin Made Texas a Comedy Powerhouse URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/yee-ha-ha-ha-how-austin-made-texas-a-comedy-powerhouse/ Last updated: 2024-12-13T10:00:00.000Z On a mild September Friday night in Spicewood, hundreds of Hill Country residents flocked to Angel’s Icehouse’s first-ever comedy night. Headliner Darius Bennett stepped onto the outdoor stage of the venue, which is known for its spectacular views, live music, and, on this night, lots of kids. Much to his surprise, Bennett, a regular at Joe Rogan’s Comedy Mothership, was joined on stage by children oblivious to the imaginary boundary between his performance space and the nearby playscape. Bennett did his best to self-censor but found himself defenseless against a lively cricket population providing unwanted backing vocals. This is not the Comedy Cellar in New York City or Los Angeles’ Comedy Store. This is comedy in Texas, 2024 edition. **How Austin Became Comedy’s Third Coast** Over the last five years, the business of comedy in Texas has changed dramatically. Before the pandemic, comics in Texas dreamed of getting a late-night spot on Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, or Conan O’Brien. If you were ready to leave Austin for more national exposure, you were asked, “Are you moving to Los Angeles or New York?” These days, the question is more likely to be, “Have you done Kill Tony?” Los Angeles and New York comics facing strict lockdowns in 2020 started eyeing Texas for its low taxes, ample outdoor space, affordable real estate, lax COVID restrictions, and business-friendly policies. The siren call came when Joe Rogan moved from California to Austin in 2020 and announced plans to open a comedy club modeled after LA’s Comedy Store. Soon after, Tony Hinchcliffe brought his wildly successful Kill Tony live show (an elaborate open mic with celebrity guests and backing band) to 6th Street’s Vulcan Gas Company before moving to Rogan’s new Texas-based playground. The influx of comics between 2020 and 2022 created a boom so undeniable I labeled Austin as the “[third coast of comedy”](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2023-06-12/comedians-explain-why-austin-stand-up-scene-is-blowing-up?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in the [*Los Angeles Times*](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2023-06-12/comedians-explain-why-austin-stand-up-scene-is-blowing-up?ref=thebarbedwire.com) last June. Austin still may not be LA or New York, but, as we approach 2025, there’s more buzz than ever. **The Mothership Has Landed** When Comedy Mothership opened last year at the historic downtown Ritz Theater, comedy became *the* reason for fans from all over the world to visit Austin. Shows sold out months in advance. Ron White, Whitney Cummings, Roseanne Barr, and other nationally recognized comics flocked to perform on its two stages: Fat Man and Little Boy. This translates to about [340 comedy fans](https://comedyf.art/comedy-clubs/texas/comedy-mothership/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=Fat%20Boy%20is%20the%20larger,in%20rows%20facing%20the%20stage.) every night of the week spending money to see their favorite comic — or in hopes of a big name drop-in. The famous comics who drop in might have their own [headlining shows at the nearby Paramount Theatre](https://www.austinchronicle.com/arts/2023-12-15/top-10-local-comedy-stories-of-2023/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), meaning the economic impact to Austin extends beyond the Mothership. Meanwhile, aspiring comics dream of getting their name pulled from the “Bucket of Destiny” to perform a 60-second set for Kill Tony’s regular live audience, which includes not only those at Comedy Mothership but the two to three million viewers who watch the recorded live stream on Youtube. Performers say they appreciate the lengths Rogan went to create a training ground for comics. “Every detail of the show rooms from the seating to acoustics has been designed with comedians in mind,” said frequent Mothership performer and LA transplant Sam Lopez “It’s the hottest club in America so audiences travel from everywhere to be there.” Does it work? After moving from Idaho, Casey Rocket, a Mothership door guy, combined his work ethic with a willingness to perform on any stage in Austin and has accumulated a rabid fandom along the way. He now headlines clubs all over the country. **When Comedy Worlds Collide** Still, the opening of Mothership has not been without controversy. Austin has found itself at the center of the woke vs anti-woke comedy debate. In 2021, during a performance at the height of the pandemic, Hinchcliffe was recorded using a racial slur toward an Asian comic. For a time, you were either with or against Tony. The comic bounced back, but during a now-infamous Trump presidential rally at Madison Square Garden, Hinchcliffe disparaged underrepresented communities, including Puerto Ricans, whose home [he referred to](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-racist-trump-rally-comic-is-even-worse-than-you-think/) as a “floating island of garbage.” Because the rally occurred mere days before an historically contentious election, Hinchcliffe was the subject of pundit analysis, reporting, and opinion content at nearly every news outlet and website on the planet. Austin’s role in encouraging or even celebrating Hinchcliffe’s brand of punch-down comedy is one we continue to grapple with. Rogan’s new club came to town while Austin was in a bit of a comedy vacuum. During the height of the pandemic, established comics and long-standing venues like Cap City Comedy Club and The Velveeta Room took sheltering seriously to limit the spread of COVID. Cap eventually closed and would reopen under new management in a different location. With limited understanding that Austin was politically a blue dot in a red state, newcomers flocking to Austin figured Gov. Greg Abbott and his anti-mask, anti-safety [measures](https://www.texastribune.org/2023/06/06/texas-legislature-covid-greg-abbott/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) represented the city. The disconnect created a [culture](https://www.politico.com/newsletters/digital-future-daily/2024/03/12/the-culture-war-fishbowl-at-sxsw-00146595?ref=thebarbedwire.com) war that took time to resolve. Hints of it [remain](https://slate.com/culture/2024/09/english-teacher-fx-tv-show-brian-jordan-alvarez.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). **A Rising Tide** The boom in Austin meant the opening of several new comedy clubs, and the city now has as many as [100 comedy shows per week](https://comedywham.com/events?city=Austin&ref=thebarbedwire.com). The ripple effect reverberated across the state. Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio had long-established comedy bona fides, and the abundance of comics in Austin now meant savvy venues in those cities could lure Austin comics to perform on their stages. Brian Gendron, founder of Houston’s The Riot Comedy Club and Riot Fest Comedy Festival has observed that “the careers of some Houston comedians get a boost from making trips to Austin venues, making our (Houston) talent pool better,” he told *The Barbed Wire.* Comedian Bridget Tooley, of McKinney, added, “The growth of the Austin scene has definitely impacted the DFW scene in both good and bad ways. It has been good for us because it brought a lot of great talent and attention to comedy in Texas, and as they say, a rising tide lifts all boats.” The downside, however, is that a talent vacuum occurs when a city’s best comics pack their bags for Austin. **Tales from Across the State** Other cities are trying with varying degrees of success to mimic the Austin formula. Despite its steady [population growth](https://worldpopulationreview.com/us-cities/texas/waco?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Waco’s comedy scene has struggled to gain a foothold. In 2021, two comedy clubs closed within a few months of each other, effectively ending the typical pipeline from an open mic to a comedy club. On the other hand, in Killeen, a tight-knit group of comics has succeeded in keeping comedy thriving even in the face of club closures. As for the rest of the state, Texas added a Big Laugh Comedy Club in downtown Fort Worth this year, and the ChucoTown Comedy Festival launched in El Paso. Both have roots in Austin. Big Laugh’s first club was in Austin, and ChucoTown Festival’s founder spent ten years in Austin learning about comedy by going to Cap City and the Moontower Comedy Festival. **The Texas Comedy Brand** It’s not just the rapid growth of comedy that sets Texas apart, but the diversity of voices finding success in our state. From Ralph Barbosa’s slow, deliberate wording to Casey Rocket’s high-energy hilarity, to Vanessa Gonzalez’s tales of family and growing up in Laredo, Texas comedy is as diverse as our geography. Could it be that, nowadays, everything’s funnier in Texas, too? ### Why Are Texas Lawmakers So Obsessed with Dildos? URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/why-are-texas-lawmakers-so-obsessed-with-dildos/ Last updated: 2024-12-12T20:41:43.000Z Texas is the worst in the nation [for quality of life](https://www.cnbc.com/2024/07/13/10-states-worst-quality-of-life-america.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [mental health care access](https://spectrumlocalnews.com/tx/south-texas-el-paso/news/2024/05/13/texas-again-ranked-the-worst-state-for-mental-health-care-?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [insurance](https://www.axios.com/2024/08/06/uninsured-americans-texas-map?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [ and food insecurity](https://www.texasaft.org/features/texas-ranks-first-in-nation-for-food-insecurity/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=In%20a%20new%20report%20from,free%20meals%20at%20their%20schools.) — *and* we’ve seen a [63% increase in gun deaths](https://giffords.org/analysis/texas-gun-deaths-surged-63-under-greg-abbott/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) since Gov. Greg Abbott took office. But it’d be *absurd* for our elected officials to consider action on those issues, so instead, newly-elected state Rep. Hillary Hickland, from Temple, has filed a bill banning sex toys from pharmacies and drugstores. The lawmaker filed [HB 1549](https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/89R/billtext/html/HB01549I.htm?ref=thebarbedwire.com) this week ahead of the 2025 Texas Legislative session, where it would be lucky to face the gauntlet of committee hearings, both chambers, and a trip to the governor’s desk. If approved, starting September 1, 2025, the sale of “obscene devices” would be banned anywhere that is not a sexually oriented business. According to [*Chron.com*](https://www.chron.com/culture/article/sex-toy-sales-texas-illegal-19971679.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com), retail stores like Target, Walmart, and CVS would have to stop selling sex toys — or face legal action. For a group so apparently opposed to the use of pleasure devices, Texas Republicans certainly talk about them a *lot*. The local outlet reported that Hickland called the bill “an important safeguard for Texas families,” adding that “parents do not consent to their children being exposed to obscene devices while shopping for toothpaste.” (To be clear, sex toys are in the family planning and reproductive care aisle, not the oral healthcare aisle.) Given that Texas lawmakers are so good at prioritizing what their constituents actually need, this is not the first time they’ve targeted sexual health and wellness. (Let’s not even talk about [abortion](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/think-abortion-isnt-on-the-ballot-in-texas-think-again/) or sex education here.) Fun fact: Texans are already banned from possessing more than six “obscene devices,” which are legally defined as anything “designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs,” per the penile [code](https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/docs/pe/htm/pe.43.htm?ref=thebarbedwire.com), “including a dildo or artificial vagina.” It’s hard to imagine police having any means of enforcing this strange, draconian law without somehow surveilling Texas nightstands or [sex rooms](https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/how-to-build-a-sex-room-trailer-release-date?ref=thebarbedwire.com), but you’ve got to commend our state leaders for trying… *right?* Texas has a number of strange laws on this subject, according to [KXAN](https://www.kxan.com/news/texas/the-texas-law-that-dictates-adult-toys/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The state even dictates how adult toys can be marketed for sale: In 2004, Joanne Webb, a former elementary school teacher from Burleson who hosted Tupperware-style parties at which she hawked sex toys, was charged after selling a vibrator to two undercover police officers. “I saw this as a great opportunity to help educate women, help encourage them to open up the lines of communication between them and their partners, and be able to enhance their relationships,” Webb told [*ABC News* in 2004](https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=128066&page=1&ref=thebarbedwire.com). (Lol, nice try Joanne.) The charges were eventually dismissed, but that law is still on the books. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to take up another case two years later, which challenged the constitutionality of the law. [NBC News reported](https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna15104529?ref=thebarbedwire.com) an adult bookstore employee in El Paso, [sued the state](https://www.scotusblog.com/archives/Reasonable/05-1574.pdf?ref=thebarbedwire.com) after his arrest. He had allegedly showed two undercover officers a device shaped like a penis and told a female officer the device would arouse and gratify her. (Sounds like a hero to us!) The next year, in 2007, a Lubbock lingerie shop was raided for having items “deemed to be illegal by the Texas Penal Code.” [KCBD reported then](https://www.kcbd.com/story/6554592/lingerie-store-accused-of-violating-state-obscenity-laws/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that Lubbock police arrested the store clerk at Somethin’ Sexy for having more than six “obscene devices.” Those charges were also dropped. And even though the Texas Attorney General’s Office and a judge both agreed in 2008, per [*Chron.com*](https://www.chron.com/culture/article/sex-toy-sales-texas-illegal-19971679.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com), that the statute is “[facially unconstitutional and unenforceable,](https://www.scribd.com/document/322594597/2008-11-13-Texas-Western-Court-Order-Obscenity-Law?ref=thebarbedwire.com)” it’s still on the books. Read more at [*Chron.com*](https://www.chron.com/culture/article/sex-toy-sales-texas-illegal-19971679.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). ### How to Find the Perfect Pair of Cowboy Boots URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/how-to-buy-the-absolute-perfect-pair-of-cowboy-boots/ Last updated: 2024-12-12T10:04:00.000Z Whether you were born and raised here or you just touched down yesterday, it’s a fact that every Texan should have a good pair of cowboy boots. Finding the right ones, though, can be a bit of a challenge. The sheer number of customizations can be overwhelming, and every factor, from the leather to the toe-shape to the color can signal the difference between a pair of work boots fit for the ranch or a pair of dress boots fit for a wedding. In order to help break things down, I’ve rounded up some advice from a few of Texas’ boot purveyors to help you gift yourself (or your loved ones) the perfect pair. ## Finding the Right Fit Having bought my first two pairs of cowboy boots second-hand, I was shocked to find out, earlier this year, that the brand new pair I’d just spent minutes wrestling onto my feet were exactly my size. I also learned that this struggle was a standard part of the boot-buying process. “Start with your regular shoe size first. Once you’re in, your heel should be able to slide up just slightly. There should be some movement, because if you can’t move at all, then that’s just the wrong size. It’s not so much about how hard it is to put them on, but about how firmly they keep your heel in place.” — Angela Thomise at Lucchese “You’re looking for that hug. You want the boot to hug your foot, because as you’re wearing it, you’re gonna break it in and it’ll eventually stretch to your foot. You also want some slip in your heel, because you don’t want it to be so stuck that you’re going to get blisters and be uncomfortable.” — Maggie Dreyer at Allens Boots If you feel that slight movement, but you’re still a bit uncomfortable, Thomise also noted that most boot sellers offer boot stretching services, which should help with minor adjustments and improve overall comfort. https://www.instagram.com/p/C\_jX8Psuthi/?img\_index=1 ## Choosing the Right Leather When it comes to the material your boots are made of, your options can be grouped into two basic categories: traditional leathers and exotics. Cowhide leather is far and away the most common choice for a traditional cowboy boot, thanks to its durability and affordable price point. You can’t go wrong with it, but it’s also not your only choice. “Calf is the go-to, because it’s super soft, and pretty strong, but goat leather is typically a little more rigid, more durable, and still around the same price point. They can both be for a high-quality boot, but they’re not as flashy as the exotics.” — Kyle Collins at Allens Boots Exotic leathers include everything from ostrich (the most popular luxury leather) to snakeskin, alligator, caiman, and even elephant leather. “Ostrich is durable, but more expensive, so it’s more for those fancy occasions where you’re going out and you want to dress up. You can get full quill ostrich, where you see more of those bumps, the smooth-quill ostrich boots, which are a bit more subtle, or ostrich leg leather, which has its own pattern to it. Of all the exotics, I would say ostrich is known to be the most comfortable boot leather.” — K.C. https://www.instagram.com/p/DDN5XIks8VH/ ## Picking a Toe Style Toe styles are where things can get a little crazy. We’ll start with the most self-explanatory: 1. Pointed-toes are the traditional choice for a classic cowboy boot. Whether you’re planning on riding horses or going out on the town, you can’t go wrong with a classic. 1. Round-toes are a timeless, comfortable choice. Depending on the material they’re made from, they can easily be dressed up or down. 1. Square-toes are often a popular choice for everyday work boots. Because of the added room to the toe box, they’re seen as a bit more comfortable and are typically more casual. There are, however, tons of variations on these standard shapes, and some brands have their own specific names for these styles. “We [have](https://www.lucchese.com/pages/boot-toe-heel-options?srsltid=AfmBOopLudA4ZltRB9JCbAPR3YFjj9g0Blr%5FzBByqNXBCXgu4-z1DXmg&ref=thebarbedwire.com) Q-toes, W-toes, Snip-toes, Roper-toes, and right now, our seven-toe is the most popular. It’s somewhere between a pointed toe and a square toe.” — A.T. “Cutter-toes are a cool in-between, where you get the room from a square-toe and the style of a pointed toe. You can also dress it up or keep it more relaxed.” — K.C. https://www.instagram.com/p/DDYBk1ksjzT/ ## A Few Pointers for the Newbies “Your super nice ostrich boots are *not* for the farm. That’s a pair you want to really take care of.” — A.T. “Don’t tuck your pants into your boots unless you’re riding a horse.” — K.C. “Just stay true to your style. There are plenty of ‘rules’ out there, but it all comes down to preference.” — A.T. “Get some [Scout leather cleaner and conditioner](https://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/aclk?sa=L&ai=DChcSEwiYspHt3JuKAxUS1BYFHZFbLOUYABAXGgJ0bA&co=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiAx9q6BhCDARIsACwUxu4IFK012Uq1CFu3XElKCwa5Tu5RKcmLH8gOSvLLsYc1swEEpxL8I5caAqnAEALw%5FwcB&ei=sm1XZ8irOKS2wN4P6MC6iQM&ohost=www.google.com&cid=CAESV-D2liJM6GWGzkao2cmgp7KbOsBSXRlQhDCPrMhbyuOwzJHEdZAh7uXXW2KRYDUFl1YIijYXT4dchykN4pNquTePZgv6shRJ1he7TjQqhA90QMcZC9JNgw&sig=AOD64%5F10jeKKKREuFSuhsr8LFa13e6Qotw&ctype=5&q=&sqi=2&ved=2ahUKEwjIzP3s3JuKAxUkG9AFHWigLjEQ9aACKAB6BAgLEDs&adurl=&ref=thebarbedwire.com). They make it for [exotics](https://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/aclk?sa=L&ai=DChcSEwiYspHt3JuKAxUS1BYFHZFbLOUYABARGgJ0bA&co=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiAx9q6BhCDARIsACwUxu5JMiqOxHLC4G%5FYzUIk4sYA2hnI4MBq2qlmFIoWuLcwG157I7bz%5FloaAtMwEALw%5FwcB&ei=sm1XZ8irOKS2wN4P6MC6iQM&ohost=www.google.com&cid=CAESV-D2liJM6GWGzkao2cmgp7KbOsBSXRlQhDCPrMhbyuOwzJHEdZAh7uXXW2KRYDUFl1YIijYXT4dchykN4pNquTePZgv6shRJ1he7TjQqhA90QMcZC9JNgw&sig=AOD64%5F1i0PUGvA25vMTDNm3Udhvt6P%5FRDA&ctype=5&q=&sqi=2&ved=2ahUKEwjIzP3s3JuKAxUkG9AFHWigLjEQ9aACKAB6BAgLEBE&adurl=&ref=thebarbedwire.com) too. Some people will tell you to use it every four wears, but if you’re not wearing your boots out every day, maybe use it every three months to keep that leather soft and supple and keep it from drying out and cracking. Also, think about a pair of sole savers. They can add some grip and extend the life of your sole.” — K.C. https://www.instagram.com/p/DDN4Ooaxm9m/ ## Highlighted Pairs For someone looking to make a statement: - [Lucchese Priscilla](https://www.lucchese.com/products/priscilla-suede-garnet?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — ”Far and away our best-selling boots. They’re more trend-forward because they come in fashion colors like Garnet and Emerald.” — A.T. - [Miron Crosby Sophie](https://mironcrosby.com/collections/womens/products/sophie-metallic-navy?ref=thebarbedwire.com) - [Azulado Boots in Garnet](https://www.allensboots.com/products/womens-azulado-granada-garnet-snip-toe-laz-1005-4?%5Fpos=3&%5Fsid=459f5c374&%5Fss=r&ref=thebarbedwire.com) - [Allens Boots Athena](https://www.allensboots.com/products/al10049-pf?%5Fpos=6&%5Fsid=4be4b2449&%5Fss=r&ref=thebarbedwire.com) — “These just have a bit of character to them. They’re a boot that not everyone’s gonna have.” — K.C. - [Allens Boots Carson in Black Cherry](https://www.allensboots.com/products/mens-allens-brand-carson-caiman-cutter-toe-black-cherry-al20070-cw?%5Fpos=2&%5Fsid=29189a61c&%5Fss=r&ref=thebarbedwire.com) - [Tecovas The Emmitt](https://www.tecovas.com/products/the-emmitt?color=pecan-ostrich&ref=thebarbedwire.com) - [Tecovas The Abby](https://www.tecovas.com/products/the-abby?color=navy-cowhide&ref=thebarbedwire.com) For someone with classic style: - [Lucchese Summer](https://www.lucchese.com/products/summer-tan?%5Fpos=2&%5Fsid=95145032e&%5Fss=r&ref=thebarbedwire.com) — “These are classic cowgirl boots.” — A.T. - [Miron Crosby Kirstin](https://mironcrosby.com/collections/womens/products/kirstin-black?ref=thebarbedwire.com) - [Miron Crosby Maggie](https://mironcrosby.com/collections/womens/products/maggie-pecan-suede?ref=thebarbedwire.com) - [Allens Boots Peanut](https://www.allensboots.com/products/mens-allens-brand-mad-dog-r-toe-peanut-brittle-fr102cb-3?%5Fpos=1&%5Fsid=4a8b73078&%5Fss=r&ref=thebarbedwire.com) — “This is what most people come in looking for. It’s not an exotic, so it’s more affordable, but it still has those traditional elements like the piping and embroidery.” — K.C. - [Allens Boots Janel](https://www.allensboots.com/products/womens-allens-brand-janel-tan-mad-dog-snip-toe-laz-1026-9?%5Fpos=41&%5Fsid=4a8b73078&%5Fss=r&ref=thebarbedwire.com) - [Tecovas The Cartwright](https://www.tecovas.com/products/the-cartwright?color=scotch-goat&ref=thebarbedwire.com) - [Tecovas The Annie](https://www.tecovas.com/products/the-annie?color=cafe-goat&ref=thebarbedwire.com) https://www.instagram.com/p/C\_6MSSuvY-v/?img\_index=1 ### National Republican Morons Are Mad About the Texas House Speaker Race URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/national-republican-morons-are-mad-about-the-texas-house-speaker-race/ Last updated: 2024-12-11T17:08:46.000Z The race for speaker of the Texas House continues to get stupider as one candidate has dubbed himself [“speaker-elect”](https://texasscorecard.com/state/dustin-burrows-faces-scrutiny-over-speaker-elect-designation/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) (which is not a real thing) and national Republicans weighed in this week. To catch you up, there’s been a scramble for the top state House post after the current speaker, state Rep. Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, [announced last week](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-house-speaker-bows-out-under-pressure-from-fellow-republicans/) he was bowing out of the race. House Republicans met on Saturday to endorse a new Speaker. The top vote-getter among the caucus was [state Rep. David Cook, R-Mansfield](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/12/07/texas-house-speaker-david-cook-dustin-burrows/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). But he didn’t have 76 votes, which is the grand total one needs in the 150-member House to win the Speaker’s race. Enter state Rep. Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, an ally of Phelan, [who claimed that *he* had a winning coalition — and released as proof a list of 76 supportive lawmakers](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/12/07/texas-house-speaker-david-cook-dustin-burrows/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), evenly split between Republicans and Democrats. So … game over? Not really. Burrows’ proclamation almost immediately started to backfire, as several members requested their names be removed. This led to questions of whether Burrows was engaging in the time-honored political practice of “making shit up.” And others on the right apparently disliked that Burrows is backed by some Democrats. Famous failson Donald Trump Jr. weighed in on Monday, criticizing Republicans who support Burrows. “It’s unbelievable what is happening in Texas right now,” [Trump Jr. wrote on X](https://x.com/DonaldJTrumpJr/status/1866154810837246069?ref=thebarbedwire.com). There is a group of so-called Republicans cutting a deal with liberal Democrats to elect a speaker instead of uniting behind the Republican nominee, @DavidCookTexas! Unbelievable! Republicans have a mandate!” Oh and [right-wing filmmaker](https://www.npr.org/2024/12/02/g-s1-36527/dinesh-dsouza-2000-mules-apology?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [convicted felon Dinesh D'Souza](https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/dinesh-d-souza-pleads-guilty-manhattan-federal-court-campaign-finance-fraud?ref=thebarbedwire.com) jumped in, too, because why not. D’Souza called Burrows “a disgrace,” [adding on X](https://x.com/DineshDSouza/status/1866515877618983005?ref=thebarbedwire.com): “He’s the Liz Cheney of Texas, a nominal Republican who is so crazed for power that he will ally with Democrats giving them de facto control of the Texas House. Any Republican who goes along with this treachery should be exposed and primaried.” Cook’s bid has gotten endorsements from high-profile Texas Republicans, including [Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick](https://x.com/DanPatrick/status/1865570226043056216?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and Attorney General Ken Paxton, [who blasted Burrows on social media as “cutting deals with Democrats](https://x.com/KenPaxtonTX/status/1865061353339101211?ref=thebarbedwire.com).” But an undaunted Burrows continued calling himself “speaker-elect” and even posted a campaign flyer with a [picture of himself and Gov. Greg Abbott](https://x.com/earl%5Fkubin/status/1866675513638707672?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which seemed to imply an endorsement. [Abbott, though, shot that down Tuesday](https://x.com/GregAbbott%5FTX/status/1866701019452670419?ref=thebarbedwire.com), writing “that text with my picture was issued without my authorization or even knowing about it.” Ouch! Abbott [added on](https://x.com/GregAbbott%5FTX/status/1866701019452670419?ref=thebarbedwire.com) X: “My focus is singular: work with both House & Senate leaders to pass the conservative agenda that I campaigned on & that voters expect.” The actual vote on who’ll be the next Speaker will take place next month when the full House is in session. ### Who Owns the Dead? Inside a Texas Family’s Fight to Honor Its Ancestors URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/who-owns-the-dead-inside-a-texas-familys-fight-to-honor-its-ancestors/ Last updated: 2026-07-18T17:37:30.000Z ***EXCLUSIVE*** For most of her life, Lulu Francois believed her family history was a mystery lost to time. That changed when, during a Christmas gathering seven years ago, an aunt revealed she sometimes visited a small, unkempt cemetery in Comal County. There, migrants of Mexican descent are buried on a German ranch — including Francois’ great-grandmother, Paula Ribera, and her infant grandson, Marcello. Francois was shocked: She grew up in a tight-knit family in San Antonio. “My aunts and uncles were always very close,” Francois told *The Barbed Wire,* tucking her short dark hair behind her ear. As a child, she visited her grandparents’ house every Sunday in the country near Boerne, where she and her cousins chased grasshoppers in the fields. “We always grew up saying ‘There are 14 kids in my mom’s family,’ nine girls and five boys, and then you're telling me there was another child that was born?” Francois recalled. “We actually had another uncle who died as a baby?” The discovery sparked a sense of duty to find out what happened to them — and to preserve their memories. “I don't want them thinking that we've forgotten them,” Francois said. “All these years that they were there, and we didn't know about them.” The successful 63-year-old tech marketing expert started with a Google search. She found her great-grandmother’s burial site on [Find A Grave](https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/191706235/paula%5Fribera?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which had photos of her headstone and an excerpt from a local history book indicating Paula Ribera had drowned in 1918 after falling from a wagon while crossing a river. Francois’ family believed she was actually *run over* by a wagon. The site also mentioned her infant grandson, Marcello, but had no cause of death for the baby. Francois wanted more information. And she wanted to see their graves for herself. She didn’t expect that desire to devolve into a battle over the right to remember her own family, suspicions of bulldozed graves, or a quagmire of latent accountability. In fact, as she looked at each new detail of her family history, her experience raised more questions than it answered: Who gets to honor their ancestors on their own time — and who must ask for permission to visit their family burial lands? Who should be held accountable if graves are destroyed? And who gets to decide what people’s history is memorialized and whose is erased? \*\*\* Francois soon got some answers. Her ancestors are buried on a site called “Mexican Cemetery #2,” and it’s on land that is privately owned. Instead of being able to pay respect any time she wants, or even during set hours, the cemetery’s location means that in order for Francois to visit, she must ask the landowners for permission. All cemeteries — including a single grave — are protected under the [Texas Health and Safety Code](https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/HS/htm/HS.711.htm?ref=thebarbedwire.com). And, under the [law](https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/HS/htm/HS.711.htm?ref=thebarbedwire.com), any person who wants to visit a cemetery on private land must be granted access as long as the two parties agree to “reasonable” times and the visiting party gives at least a 14-day notice. However, no state agency enforces the access portion of the law. Until 2019, the Texas Funeral Service Commission oversaw access issues. But the Sunset Advisory Commission, which periodically evaluates state agencies to determine if funding is well spent, recommended in a [2018 report](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-sunset-texas-gov/public/uploads/files/reports/texas-funeral-service-commission-staff-report-with-commission-decisions.pdf) that the regulation was “an unusual and unwarranted use of state resources,” and the Legislature voted to eliminate it. The Texas Historical Commission fired back on its website: “Unfortunately, this will put the burden (and cost, if not worked out civilly) directly on the descendants.” Denying access can constitute a [Class C misdemeanor](https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/HS/htm/HS.711.htm?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=September%201%2C%202019.-,Sec.,the%20decedent's%20surviving%20adult%20children;) punishable by up to a $500 fee, though it’s up to individuals to report violations. The Texas Historic Commission, which keeps track of cemeteries in the state, provides guidance for families seeking permission to visit. “Access now falls into the hands of descendants and landowners, solely,” the commission website states. “If the two parties cannot come to an agreement, legal counsel will be necessary.” In 2018, Francois contacted the property owners, but after failed attempts to schedule a visit, she almost gave up. Time passed, there was a global pandemic, and she decided to reach back out again in the summer of 2023\. She had no luck, again. By the fall, Francois started a process the historic commission provided for her. Surveyors who documented the cemetery in the 1980s called it “Unnamed Mexican Cemetery.” It’s unclear how it became #2, though public records show it rests on land owned by Dr. Craig Elbel and Dr. Leslie Degen, who run a [1,240-acre ranch](https://valleyventana.org/9303/showcase/senior-shines-away-senior-year/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [Bulverde Bexar Veterinary Clinic](https://www.bulverdebexarvet.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) off Highway 46 in the 250-person town of Spring Branch, about 40 miles due north of San Antonio. The Elbel family has [reportedly](https://valleyventana.org/9303/showcase/senior-shines-away-senior-year/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) lived on the land since the mid-1800s. Neither Elbel nor Degen responded to multiple requests for comment — via email, phone, or social media — by *The Barbed Wire* for this story. At first, Francois tried showing up at the Elbel family vet clinic, five miles away from their ranch. But she said she was told by Dr. Degen, there was no one available to escort her to where her family is buried. Then, she wrote a few official letters to the Elbel family. She didn’t hear back. But, armed with the knowledge she had a legal right to visit the cemetery, she told *The Barbed Wire*: “I wasn’t giving up.” Francois’ case isn’t rare: The Texas Historical Commission acknowledges 14,000 cemeteries on private lands, and that number is growing. And because Texas has a history of segregation, Black or Latino people were often [buried separately from white people](https://www.latinousa.org/2017/07/19/segregation-texas-cemeteries-proves-hard-undo/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Even 70 years after the official end of segregation, that means Black and Latino Texans are more likely to be cut off from their ancestors and left to fight for access to their own history. In fact, it’s become a common fight for preservationists, historians, and descendants to make sure that Black and Latino Texans’ existence on these lands is [preserved accurately.](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/slavery-what-slavery-texas-leaders-want-new-problematic-curriculum/) “This is the fight that I fight with every site,” Diana Hernández, a researcher at the University of Texas at Austin who founded the [(Re)claiming Memories lab,](https://reclaimingmemoriestx.wordpress.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) told *The Barbed Wire*. Hernández is currently working on similar cases regarding at least four other burial sites in Texas involving similar dynamics, she said. Through her lab, Hernández helps connect Black, Indigenous and People of Color, Queer and other marginalized communities to their ancestry. The lab’s efforts restore “missing and forgotten histories,” but it also advocates for the historic preservation of communities, sacred spaces, and sites of significance, according to its website. When the Elbels didn’t respond to her letters, Francois contacted the Comal County Sheriff’s Office as a last resort. Before she filed a formal report, she finally got an email from Dr. Degen. > *Greetings from the Elbel Ranch,* > > *This is Dr. Degen and I manage the trusts for the Elbel Ranch in Spring Branch, Texas. I understand you would like to visit Mexican Cemetery No. 2\. I believe I was the one that escorted your party the last several times you visited. Since a member of your party fell down during your last visit, I would need a hold harmless agreement signed and notarized by those wanting to visit our property. If you will send me the names, addresses, and date of birth of each member of your party who would like to visit, I can get the hold harmless agreement drawn up and send it to you to start getting it notarized. I am available to take you to the cemetery on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 4 pm until dark. I am not available on Friday, Saturday, Sunday or Monday. If it is raining, the roads leading toward the cemetery become muddy and require a 4-wheel drive vehicle. In an effort to avoid some of the problems we had on your last visit, we ask all members of your party to abide by some simple rules this time including, wearing proper attire (long pants and closed toed shoes), no firearms, no defacing, scraping or modifying the headstones, and no trash or other objects can be left behind, Just as a reminder, this area of the ranch is very primitive. The cemetery is located on a gravely hillside with vegetation including mesquite with thorns, cedar, and prickly pear cactus. It is outside so it is not really handicap accessible. No bathrooms are available. Those wanting to visit should be able to walk approximately 50 feet on uneven land to see the graves. I look forward to hearing from you.* > > *Sincerely,* > *Dr. Leslie Degen* > *Elbel Ranch Managing Partner* Francois responded that there must be some confusion, since she’d never met the Elbels or visited the site before. Francois asked her aunts about the fall and the guns, but they told her they didn’t even own guns. She did acknowledge the previous visits her aunt had made, as she’d been informed at that Christmas seven years ago — but no one seemed to know what fall Dr. Degen was referring to. Still, Francois obliged Degen’s request and sent a list of people who’d be visiting along with their addresses and dates of birth. Six years after learning about her grandmother’s burial site, following repeated efforts and a nudge from local law enforcement to the Elbel family on her behalf, Francois finally made the trip to visit her ancestors. It was the day after Thanksgiving in 2023, Nov. 24, when she got her first view of “Mexican Cemetery #2” with her dad, her aunt, her brother, and her sister-in-law. That day, the Elbel family were “as nice as they could be,” said Francois — despite the fact that “they had basically ignored me or given me a hard time prior to that.” The family had a “nice, long visit” with Elbel, Degen, and their two boys, said Francois. (Though neither Degen nor Elbel replied to multiple requests for comment from *The Barbed Wire*, their eldest adult son acknowledged receipt, thanked us for our interest, and forwarded our inquiry to the property’s managing partner.) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/updated-francois-and-elbel-cemetery-visit-courtesy-lulu-francois.png) Credit: Lulu Francois You wouldn’t know the cemetery was there unless you stumbled upon it. It’s tucked near the banks of the Guadalupe River. A handful of gray, discolored headstones peek out from fallen trees, and oaks hover above the green grass where spotted deer roam. “The headstones are not in good shape,” Francois told *The Barbed Wire*. “They need to be cleaned.” But when she asked if she could clean them, Francois said the Elbels told her she could only touch her great-grandmothers’ headstone — none of the others. “They view that cemetery as their cemetery,” said Francois. “That’s why they felt that they could tell me that, ‘You can clean your grandmother's headstone, but you can't clean any of the other headstones.’” There was a slight breeze, and the air cooled as the sun set around 5:30 p.m. that day. Before it was time to leave, they took a group picture. Her aunt looked over at the graves one more time, towards the other side of the Elbel ranch, past some loose barbed wire denoting the property line. Across that barbed wire was River Park, part of a neighborhood that began development in the late 1990s on the property adjacent to the Elbel’s. Francois’ aunt looked at her and said it appeared as if some headstones were missing from the other side of the property line. “‘I remember that there were more. I don't know what happened, but there were more,’” she said. The cemetery sits right on the property line. Today, no gravestones or burial markers exist on the River Park side — but Francois said even Dr. Elbel’s son mentioned there “were additional headstones” there in years past. It was yet another thread that led to more questions. “If this is cemetery number two, where's cemetery number one?” Francois asked. \*\*\* It turns out, it *was* on the other side of the property line. After that first visit, Francois was left to wonder: Could she have more family buried in the area? What about her great-grandfather? “Maybe we could find a name on one of the other headstones,” Francois said. Could the answers lie on the other side of the fence in “Mexican Cemetery #1”? Francois knew she would need help from experts, so she contacted Hernández, the historic preservationist and doctoral student, in early November 2023\. By this point, Francois still wanted to know what happened to her own family members in Cemetery #2, but she also wanted to find out what happened to those now-gone gravestones across the property line: “I would like to identify where those bodies are and do something” to memorialize them — maybe even find and notify their descendants. It was Hernández who told Francois that stories like hers — in which primarily Black and Brown Texans must piece together clues at the whims of private property owners who have not made an effort to preserve burial sites — are common. Hernández has been working with families like Francois' to battle private property owners for more than a decade, she told her. There’s a direct line between Texas’ history of segregation and what families like Francois’ experience. Hernández’ research — and stories like Francois’ — show that, while segregation was overturned in 1954, there’s still a divide some 70 years later between which Texas families can and cannot protect their own ancestors’ burial sites, let alone learn their family histories. “They’re indifferent,” Hernández said, of the — mostly white — property owners. “They're indifferent to the people that are buried there. They're indifferent to the history. They're indifferent to the community that that history belongs to because they don't see it as theirs. It's an us-and-them mentality.” Property owners “do understand that cemeteries are historic,” said Hernández, adding: “They may not see them as sacred, but they have to accept that they deserve some degree of respect. Because they're cemeteries.” It’s hard to document “histories that are associated with trauma in racism and historical racial violence,” said Hernández. “It never gets easier.” Tracing the history of “Mexican Cemetery #1” and “Mexican Cemetery #2,” why they were separated, and who is responsible for their upkeep — or desecration — is a fraught exercise. It’s also one that’s indicative of the many barriers Black and Brown Texans may face in the course of simply trying to visit the remains of their ancestors. The land we know as Texas today originally belonged to Mexicans who won their independence from Spain in 1821\. In an 1846 [Land Grant Map](https://historictexasmaps.com/collection/search-results/83601-land-grant-map-of-comal-county-general-map-collection?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of Comal County are two crosses on a property under the name Elias Flint. It’s unclear what Flint’s relationship was to the Elbels, but in [current tax records](https://esearch.co.comal.tx.us/bill?owner%5Fid=963743&property%5Fid=74777&tax%5Fyear=2021&ref=thebarbedwire.com), the name E. Flint still shows up in the legal property descriptions. The crosses indicate one cemetery on the banks of the river. The other is the Elbel family’s, named the Beierle Family Cemetery. Incidentally, 1846 is the same year that the [Mexican War](https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/mexican-war?ref=thebarbedwire.com) was in full swing. Two years later, the United States acquired Texas, including Comal County. This area is one of several where Mexican Americans say the [border crossed *them*](https://www.history.com/news/texas-mexico-border-history-laws?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The Comal County Historical Commission has surveyed and mapped the area, but Cindy Coers, chair of the commission, told *The Barbed Wire* she’s not sure when or why Mexican Cemetery #1 and #2 were split — or if they were always separate. Hernández found an old copy of a Comal County Texas State Highway Department map that shows the cemetery split by a road that’s no longer there, leading her to theorize the cemeteries were divided as early as 1964\. Amy Goldstein, an archeologist who’s worked with Hernández for the past three years, found two aerial photographs of the area taken in 1963 and 1973, she told *The Barbed Wire*. And though there are only four headstones in Mexican Cemetery # 2 today, and none left across the property line on Mexican Cemetery #1, Goldstein believes there could be up to 30 people buried on both sites based on the size of the area and the patterns of the vegetation. “You have this pretty well defined rectangle,” Goldstein said. The aerial photos seem like a blur of trees to the untrained eye, but Goldstein said, combined with the context and Hernández’s research, the fence lines in both images show a “tailored landscape” and are “a really obvious indicator” for the presence of a cemetery, its size — and the number of likely occupants. That same number offered by Goldstein was separately posited by Hernández: “I wouldn't be surprised if we were looking at 30 to 50 (graves) on each side. The property is pretty big,” she estimated. Today, one side of the cemetery, #2, is on the Elbel family ranch and the other side, #1, is part of the River Crossing Property Owner’s Association. The association’s [community website](https://damc11007.eunify.net/TemplateDisplay.asp?pkid=11238&tid=2247&ams=2&ami=AccItem3&ref=thebarbedwire.com) contends the land was “directly the result of the hard-working, resourceful, and sturdy settlers who arrived in Texas soil from Germany in the mid-1800s.” Dates detailing the various families that owned the land go back at least 200 years ago to 1824, according to the website. Cindy Coers, the Comal County Historical Commission chair, told Francois that “when they built that park, the developer bulldozed a bunch of headstones on that side of the fence.” Francois said, “I didn't think you could do that.” And she’s right: It’s illegal to damage graves. Remains can’t be removed without approval from district courts. If headstones were bulldozed to make way for a park, it could be a violation of [Texas Penal Code Section 42.08](https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PE/htm/PE.42.htm?ref=thebarbedwire.com) (Abuse of Corpse), which is a Class A misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of up to $4,000 and no more than a year in jail. If “damage or destruction is inflicted on a place of worship or human burial” it could also be a violation of Texas Penal Code [Section 28.03](https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PE/htm/PE.28.htm?ref=thebarbedwire.com#28.03) (Criminal Mischief), a [state jail felony](https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/docs/pe/htm/pe.12.htm?ref=thebarbedwire.com#12.32) punishable by up to 99 years or less than 5 years in prison and a fine up to $10,000\. The Texas Historical Commission recommends developers locate “all graves prior to the planning of any new construction or earthmoving as it is very common for graves to extend beyond a fence and/or beyond the visible grave markers.” Coers, who’s been with the commission for 11 years, told *The Barbed Wire* she believed what she told Francois — and said she’d heard about the missing headstones from a historical group who’d conducted a survey of the area in the ‘80s. But Coers said she hadn’t “really been able to verify” the claim. “They were told that there had been some stones there, but it had disappeared, or you know, could it have possibly been, maybe dirt put over it at such time?” Coers said. Goldstein told *The Barbed Wire* that there's no law on Texas books that would require anyone to do an archeological survey before development unless they meet [certain criteria](https://thc.texas.gov/review/consultation-process/regulatory-archeology-texas?ref=thebarbedwire.com), like getting funding from the state for the project, federal funding, or if the government owns the land. The Council of Texas Archeologists has a [list of guidelines](https://counciloftexasarcheologists.org/Standards-and-Guidelines?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that must be followed specifically for historic cemeteries and unmarked historic graves. “It should be assumed that unmarked graves may be present in every historic cemetery, both within and beyond its known boundaries,” the council’s [guidelines say](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/counciloftexasarcheologists-org/resources/Documents/guidelines-for-identification-of-historic-cemeteries-and-unmarked-historic-graves.pdf). According to state documents, in January 2000, the River Crossing Property Owner’s Association assumed ownership and management of the common areas at River Crossing, including the parks where Mexican Cemetery #1 lies. A deed was filed in 2004 for Sutherland RCR Venture LTD, the developer behind the neighborhood, which was owned by the late Charles Patterson and his son Jay, who is now the owner and a partner at the company. When reached by phone, Jay Patterson told *The Barbed Wire* the company started the subdivision in 1998 when he was still in sales, so he wasn’t privy to what happened to those missing gravestones. “I don't have any recollection of the cemetery being on the property,” Patterson said. When asked if he’d be surprised to learn there was a cemetery on his property, Patterson said, “Yes, because I'm not aware of one,” he told *The Barbed Wire.* “Or have ever been aware of one.” When asked if *anyone* with Sutherland Communities would have known that there was a cemetery on the property, he responded: “I can assure you not.” When asked who *would* have known, Patterson pointed to The River Crossing Property Owner's Association. The board president, Brad Candia, told *The Barbed Wire* via email that until we inquired, he only knew about one cemetery on the Elbel family ranch; he was not familiar with the cemetery in their park “and have not seen anything myself out there.” However, Rod Young, who lives in the neighborhood, said in an email to *The Barbed Wire* that Mexican Cemetery #1, as it’s known today, was described in a 1989 Comal County Genealogy Society booklet called “Lest We Forget” — a full ten years before River Crossing started its build out. Young said it’s listed on page 127 as ‘Un-Named Mexican Cemetery.’ The page indicated that “up to about 10 graves once existed here, although only three or four were obvious and inventoried in the 1980s,” Young wrote. By 2024, there were only four remaining gravestones in Mexican Cemetery #2 and none left across the property line. The book, according to Young, also mentions the location as “being on a terrace of the Guadalupe River,” which is “subject to flooding.” He added: “Some grave markers had been washed away.” But even if the river caused some damage to the site, part of the area was cleared to make way for River Park, which is a private amenity exclusively for the people who live at River Crossing. Candia told *The Barbed Wire* he didn’t know what year the park was built. It may never be clear whether gravestones were bulldozed by developers, inadvertently destroyed, or simply washed away by the river. But, now that Hernández and Goldstein had become involved, it might be possible to learn *how many* had once been present. “In a situation like this one where the property owners are not the descendants of the people buried,” Hernández continued, “They may or may not take care of it, and they may or may not care what happens to it.” \*\*\* Hernández began what she calls “death work” in 2013 after she noticed a cemetery in her neighborhood in Missouri City was demolished and built over. It piqued her curiosity. “An elder that lived nearby informed me that it was an enslaved people’s cemetery,” Hernandez told *The Barbed Wire* via text. “The utter disrespect for the site and the souls buried there lit a fire in me to start to document other cemeteries that were unmarked like this one.” She tried learning more about that site, but came up empty handed, she said. Most of the history was preserved only through word of mouth. “Death work” became a hobby that consumed her outside of work hours. Hernández visited the burial grounds at Mexican Cemetery #1 with Francois in March, thanks to a neighbor who let them into the park, where Hernández said signs pointed to far more than 10 original graves. “There's odd placement of stones, odd placement of trees,” she said. “During my time working with cemeteries, I've come to learn about specific markers of burials.” There’s also evidence of “ground depressions” that could indicate additional graves, she added, but ground-penetrating radar — or other evidence — would be necessary to know for sure. “It would be great if we could help identify who those people are as well and maybe identify their descendants, because I'm sure their descendants don't know they're there,” Francois said. In fact, Hernández has a team ready to start light surface excavations and use ground penetrating radar to see the size and scope of the burial site. *(Editor’s note: After this story published, Candia — the board president of the property owner’s association — wrote a statement seeking to clarify that Francois only requested access to the park in order to visit Cemetery #2 and never specified that she was investigating “the claim of a cemetery on our land.” He added that her request was declined, and “it was recommended to Ms. Francois that she work with the land owner to obtain access to their land from the public side of the road” for that purpose, since Francois is not a resident and the property owner’s association is an “uninvolved third party” in the dispute over access to Cemetery #2\. Candia wrote that, when reached by* The Barbed Wire, *he “provided as much information” as he could find about the park’s history and helped connect us to a resident with more knowledge.* *He added, in reference to Cemetery #1, that he frequently is out on the property with his dogs and reiterated that he was “unaware of any cemetery.” Candia wrote: “The River Park is a natural piece of land that is mostly unimproved land. The only area that has been built on is the upper portion where a pavilion and restroom are placed. The majority of the park, to include the location near where the purported cemetery is located, is natural and when compared to old aerial photos can be seen to have the same trees and no evidence of bulldozing. If anyone presents the POA with more solid information proving the existence of a cemetery on POA property, we are more than happy to work the the appropriate parties to provide access and ensure the proper attention can be paid to any such location on our land.”)* Until the Elbels, or the River Crossing Property Owner’s Association, allow greater access, Hernández’s search for records and survey of the land will have to suffice. Based on multiple accounts of missing headstones — from Francois’ aunt, the Elbels’ son, the entry in Young’s pamphlet, and Coers — and what she herself observed, Hernández estimated there could be dozens of bodies buried underneath the grounds. Without Francois’ persistence and Hernández’s research, those dozens of potential lives would have remained undiscovered. For now, they still remain unconfirmed. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/full-highway-map-1964-courtesy-diana-hernandez.jpg) Courtesy: Diana Hernández ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/close-up-comal-county-highway-map.png) Photo Illustration by Leslie Rangel / Photo Diana Hernández “We know that (the Elbels) had Mexican migrants working for them, and that they were being buried there whenever they died on their site,” Hernández said. “We'd have to see more documents to see how many workers they were having at a time back when it was a working farm and they had a full workforce.” In the meantime, Hernández has continued to dig through what she does have available to her through libraries and state and national archives. Hernández has, so far, found several legal documents that might have belonged to Francois’ ancestors. An El Paso border crossing identification card issued by the Holly Sugar Company in Colorado, dated June 21, 1917, matches Francois’ great-grandmother’s married name, “Paula Valdez,” and is consistent with the years she would have been married, alive, and living in Texas. Hernández said the sugar company had a production facility in Texas and they heavily recruited Mexican laborers from Texas. The woman photographed in the document, Paula Valdez, has dark hair, thick lips, and a strong nose. The ID listed her height at 5’2” and, under “physical peculiarities,” it said the woman had a “pit scar” on the left side of her face. Valdez is listed as a citizen of Mexico, like Ribera was. The card describes Valdez as an “alien” and grants her permission to temporarily enter the United States “solely for the purpose of engaging in agricultural pursuits.” The back notes that “engagement in labor of any other character” would deem Valdez “liable to deportation.” Hernández also found several border crossing cards with the name “Paula Valdez,” which showed she moved back and forth between Central Texas and the Mexican state of Coahuila. Francois’ great-grandmother would have been born around 1866, making her 51 years old in 1917\. Though there is no age listed on the border crossing identification card, it’s certainly feasible that the woman in the photograph is 51\. Hernández has tried multiple times to find a death certificate for Francois’ great-grandmother, but she has come up empty. A lack of death documentation is not uncommon for poor, transient Mexican migrant workers, Hernández told *The Barbed Wire*. The documents are consistent with the facts that Francois and her family know of their great-grandmother’s life, but they had never seen an image of her and so cannot be entirely certain of the match. Hernández also found a death certificate for two of Paula’s sons, including Ciriaco Valdez, who was born August 8, 1887 and died June 20, 1973 at 85 years old from septic shock, with hepatitis listed as a significant condition contributing to the death. Valdez was a laborer on a farm, and his race was listed as “white.” Hernández said she found paperwork that showed Ciriaco enlisted in both World Wars, but, as of press time, she wasn’t yet sure if he served abroad. Another son, Pedro Valdez, was born January 21, 1897\. He was about 10 years younger than Ciriaco, and he died in San Antonio just a month before his 51st birthday. His cause of death was listed as an “accidental death, shot by a falling gun,” according to the records found by Hernández. His trade was listed as a “watchman.” He was listed as a son of Teodoro Valdez and Paula Ribero, like his brother. (There are differences in the surname spellings, which researchers say was not uncommon given language barriers and different levels of literacy, as well as the literacy of whomever was recording the data.) Francois told *The Barbed Wire* that she believes her great-grandmother’s spirit has kept her called to this research. And though she’s learned a lot about her ancestors in the past few years, she still hopes to be allowed to maintain her great-grandmother’s cemetery. In fact, she’d like to rename it to something less — in her words — degrading. “There are *people* here, and you can't really tell who they are because they haven't been taken care of,” she said. “Instead of calling it Mexican Cemetery #2, maybe we can call it Paula’s Cemetery.” \*\*\* Since she learned about the graves seven years ago, Francois has only visited Mexican Cemetery #2 twice. “I literally have five aunts and uncles left, and they're all in their late 70s,” Francois said. Another aunt died as *The Barbed Wire* was working on the story in late October. “It was just another poignant reminder that we need to get as much information from the people that remember anything as much as possible before they're all gone.” Francois felt hopeful after the Elbels suggested, six months ago, building a fence so her family could access her great-grandmother’s cemetery without having to get permission to go through the ranch. They could get a code to access the land through the adjacent private neighborhood park, the Elbels had suggested. But then the property owner’s association told Francois that it would be a liability. No gate has been built. Francois’ hope was to continue researching the reports of missing headstones and determine if there were more people buried alongside her great grandmother and uncle. But that research can’t happen without access. When *The Barbed Wire* reached out to the Texas Historical Commission’s cemetery preservation programto learn how families like Francois’ can manage this system, program’s coordinator, Jenny McWilliams, provided guidance — in the form of a copy of the legal statutes — and disputed the characterization of the cemeteries as having been lost to time or ignored. “Mexican Cemetery #2 is not forgotten,” McWilliams wrote in an email. “The landowner and the County Historical Commission are aware of the cemetery. I understand that it is physically difficult to access due to ranch roads, but the landowners do provide access.” “Forgotten” or not, Mexican Cemetery #1 and #2 were unnamed for a long time. In contrast, the Elbel’s family German cemetery is well documented. The Beierle Family Cemetery has 17 graves with burial dates between 1894 - 2003\. And Coers said she’s seen this with other cemeteries in Comal County, where “Mexican workers” were buried on the property. The Elbel’s family cemetery on the same property is neatly fenced under a giant oak tree. [Colorful flowers adorn the graves, which appear to have tidy headstones large enough for personal inscriptions](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/images-findagrave-com/photos/2011/363/cem2311%5F132525904168.jpg?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The contrasting treatment stings for Francois, whose own family’s headstones are leaning sideways, decaying, and discolored. They’re plain, with just a name, date of birth, and date of death. And, according to Francois, that “access” from the Elbels hasn’t actually followed state law: Even with 14 days notice at a “reasonable” time, she’s been unable to visit her family’s burial site for myriad reasons. Last year, Francois planned to bring her great-grandmother poinsettias for Christmas — to adorn her own family plots with the same honor given to the family members buried in The Beierle Family Cemetery. But the Elbels asked her to wait until Dec. 30\. When they discussed January dates, the Elbels said there were hunters on the property for white-tail deer hunting season, which runs through the end of the month. Then Francois suggested February, but emails reviewed by *The Barbed Wire* show that the property owners said that would fall under axis deer hunting season. Then another delay was blamed on the property being used for horse training. Ultimately, Francois wasn’t able to visit her family’s side of the cemetery again until July 4, 2024, more than 6 months after her first visit. “It's gotten to the point where it's unreasonable,” she said. “You try to be reasonable, but it's ridiculous.” Just a few weeks ago, Francois sent an email request to Leslie Degen on Nov. 18, hoping to schedule a time to deliver Christmas poinsettias to her great-grandmother for the first time. She has family in town for the holidays who are also eager to pay their respects to their ancestors. She’s yet to receive a response. *Correction: When first published, this story incorrectly referred to Marcello as Paula Ribera’s son, when in fact he was her grandson; referred to Francois’ first attempted visit to the cemetery as happening at the ranch, when in fact she went to the veterinary clinic; and incorrectly referenced the time when the Elbels suggested the gate solution as in the fall of 2023, when in fact it was six months ago.* The Barbed Wire *regrets the errors.* ### Texas Dance Company F*cked Around, Now Must Pay $560,000 to Fired Black Dancers URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-dance-company-fcked-around-now-must-pay-560000-to-fired-black-dancers/ Last updated: 2024-12-10T18:13:45.000Z Six months after the prestigious Dallas Black Dance Theatre chose to f\*ck around — by wrongfully firing all of its dancers just days before the season was set to start — they’re now finding out the hard way that worker’s rights are protected by law. The theater reached a $560,000 settlement with the National Labor Relations Board on Sunday to compensate the 10 fired dancers as well as another three dancers whose offers of employment were rescinded, according to [*The Dallas Morning News.*](https://www.dallasnews.com/arts-entertainment/2024/12/09/dallas-black-dance-theatre-to-pay-over-560000-to-dancers-in-settlement-with-nlrb/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) The money makes up for back pay, front pay, and compensation for damages after the dancers were fired. This past May, the dancers voted to unionize with the American Guild of Musical Artists for the usual reasons — because they wanted better working conditions. Terrell Rogers, one of the fired dancers, told [KERA](https://www.keranews.org/arts-culture/2024-09-20/how-dallas-black-dance-theatre-fired-dancers-in-the-clash-of-old-and-new-school?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that everything they did was being controlled, and he felt they were being asked to [“look more aligned with the white supremacist culture of America.”](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/dallas-wont-fund-theater-that-fired-all-its-black-dancers/) “These ten dancers have taught a master class in courage and unity,” said Jeffrey Boyd, the national executive director of the American Guild of Musical Artists, in a [press release.](https://www.musicalartists.org/we-got-your-back/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) “Their fight is a testament to the power of collective action, and their resilience has set a precedent for artists everywhere.” In addition to the settlement money, the dance company management must also write each dancer a letter of apology, as well as fund and place a full seven-page National Labor Relations Board notice detailing the company’s misconduct in *The Dallas Morning News.* The Company must also negotiate with the union for future worker protections, as well as work with the board to engage in labor rights training for all managers, supervisors, and employees. The dancers at the center of the fight are hosting a [two-night benefit concert ](https://www.musicalartists.org/the-real-dancers-of-dbdt-announce-benefit-concert/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)at the Latino Cultural Center in Dallas on December 18 and 19 at 7:30 p.m. CST. Read more at [*The Dallas Morning News*](https://www.dallasnews.com/arts-entertainment/2024/12/09/dallas-black-dance-theatre-to-pay-over-560000-to-dancers-in-settlement-with-nlrb/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). ### How Austin City Limits Changed Music History — And Helped Launch Willie Nelson’s Career URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/how-austin-city-limits-changed-music-history-and-helped-launch-willie-nelsons-career/ Last updated: 2024-12-10T11:29:00.000Z In the fall of 1974, something was brewing in Austin. Willie Nelson wasn’t yet a country legend. At 41 years old, he was still a year away from his first number one hit as a singer (“Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain”), considered something of a commercial failure as a solo artist, and burned out by the conservative ideals and stuffy attitudes he’d been surrounded by in Nashville. In fact, he’d moved to Austin just two years earlier, in 1972, with the intention of retiring from country music altogether. But the city had other plans for him. At the time, the eclectic mix of hippies, rednecks, and other Nashville outsiders like Nelson had given rise to a growing music scene full of “cosmic cowboys” and “redneck rockers.” It had reinvigorated Nelson, who returned to the stage at venues like the [Armadillo World Headquarters](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/armadillo-forever-brings-austins-revolutionary-music-venue-into-a-new-era/) and released his seminal album, “Shotgun Willie,” to great acclaim. It was hard to ignore the energy buzzing across the city, and at Austin’s PBS affiliate, KLRN-TV (now KLRU), a few Texans had the idea to try and document it. Program director Bill Arhos, producer Paul Bosner, and director Bruce Scafe dreamed up *Austin City Limits*, a live music program that could capture the lightning in a bottle feeling of 1974 Austin and broadcast it across the country. In hindsight, it might seem like Nelson would’ve been the obvious choice for a first guest. Instead, the trio tapped “My Maria” singer B.W. Stevenson, but when the recording quality from his performance was deemed unusable, it was Nelson who wound up making history. Recorded in-studio at the University of Texas at Austin’s communication building, Willie Nelson & Family got up in front of a bare bones set and performed to a small crowd, kicking things off with “Whiskey River.” Nelson’s ruddy hair is cropped just above his denim shirt, and though he was notoriously camera-shy at the time, his wide, gap-toothed grin betrays nothing but pure excitement. By the time he geared up for his last song, every frame in the recording was practically vibrating with the motion of an audience up on their feet, clapping, and dancing along to “Rollin’ In My Sweet Baby’s Arms.” Fifty years later, the magic of that performance not only guaranteed that the show would go on, but it transformed the city of Austin forever. What began as a simple showcase for Austin’s talent also cemented the city as a worthy cultural rival to Nashville and helped earn its nickname as the “Live Music Capital of the World.” There’ve been a few changes — the show moved to the Moody Theater in 2011; a few dozen theme songs have taken turns leading the production over the years; and producers added the now-iconic backdrop of the Austin skyline in 1982\. But overall, the spirit of the show has remained largely the same, featuring a lineup of artists just as varied as the music scene Arhos, Bosner, and Scafe first set out to capture. In the years since that pilot, Joan Baez, Björk, Phoebe Bridgers, Johnny Cash, Coldplay, Fats Domino, Emmylou Harris, Etta James, Kendrick Lamar, Paul McCartney, Olivia Rodrigo, George Strait, and Taylor Swift are just a handful of the performers who have recorded tapings. (With 18 performances, Nelson holds the record for most appearances.) Today, *Austin City Limits* is the longest-running music show in TV history, and it’s the only television program to have ever received the National Medal of Arts. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the pilot, the show has been pulling out all the stops in 2024\. There was a birthday bash in October, where Willie Nelson & Family performed at the Long Center, opening with “Whiskey River” once again before continuing into a slew of hits Nelson went onto record in the years after that first performance. More recently, there was also a special 50th anniversary taping, which is set to air in April 2025\. *The Barbed Wire* attended the recording on Nov. 21, and the concert was a beautiful blend of old and new, as well as a hopeful look toward the future. It brought together different flavors of country and folk with performances by Lyle Lovett, Billy Strings, Shawn Colvin, and The Mavericks; introduced newer voices like música Mexicana singer Ángela Aguilar, who made her ACL debut alongside the legendary Latin American trio Los Panchos; brought back an old format, the songwriter’s showcase, with Brandy Clark, Cam, and the Indigo Girls; and capped things off with two of Texas’ brightest stars: Leon Bridges and Gary Clark Jr. It was a lineup you’d be hard pressed to find not just elsewhere in Austin, but in most other venues across the country. It would be easy to look at the fuzzy footage and the minimal production from the first few episodes of *Austin City Limits* and see only the ways the city has changed, which historic venues featured in the opening credits are long gone, or how much harder it’s gotten to survive here as a musician. But at November’s ACL taping, the magic was certainly still there. In 2024, it’s one of the only places you can see an artist without a sea of phones recording every song, and there’s a rush at watching the professional cameras scan the crowd, at feeling like you’re a small part of history. In fact, it feels like the artists know it too. They were looser, more relaxed, and took on a different energy. It was an intangible feeling, but it was undeniably there. After a decade in Austin, and more than a few ACL tapings under my belt, being at the Moody Theater that night was special. Attendees in fringe jackets, all-denim looks, and cowboy hats sat in a kind of reverent silence as Lyle Lovett and Shawn Colvin’s voices blended together, swayed in their seats as the Indigo Girls invited them to sing along to “Closer to Fine,” and watched in amazement as Gary Clark Jr. and his childhood friend and longtime collaborator Eve Monsees demonstrated what three decades of finely-tuned musical chemistry sounds like. Between each set, the lights came up and the anticipation of the energy the next act would bring could be felt in the air. The skyline may have changed, and the faces in the crowd might be different, but at its best, *Austin City Limits* serves as a reminder of one core truth: If you know where to look, you’ll find a city that still cares about the music. ### Texas Takes Gold in the Stolen Package Olympics URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-takes-gold-in-the-stolen-package-olympics/ Last updated: 2024-12-09T19:47:41.000Z It’s official: Texans get their packages stolen more than residents of any other state. Happy Monday! Yes, we’re the undisputed champion of porch piracy, [according to a report](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xN1cUv2rBRCFJ%5Fibeq%5F9DIQvZEVVFi6Yen7JcCVhdOA/edit?gid=576029533&ref=thebarbedwire.com#gid=576029533) from the sports betting site [Action Network](https://www.actionnetwork.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). With a whopping 29.8% chance of your holiday presents going MIA, Texans might as well start installing conveyor belts straight to our local pawn shops. The study, which was published last month and [first reported by *The Dallas Morning News*](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/2024/12/09/texas-leads-nation-in-riskiest-states-for-porch-piracy-report-finds/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on Monday, comes soon after something called [National Package Protection Day](https://www.kxan.com/business/press-releases/ein-presswire/763949604/national-package-protection-day-over-120-million-packages-stolen-in-new-report/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) highlighted a troubling trend: 5% of Texans reported stolen packages in *the last three months alone*. And while Amazon boxes are the second-favorite target, mail leads the pack, proving thieves are kinda charmingly old school. North Carolina came in second place in the Grinch Olympics, with a 14.4% chance of porch piracy, while Florida secured third, with more than 3,270 reported residential thefts last year. Researchers used Google search data for terms like “stolen packages” and “porch pirates” to narrow down their findings. Porch pirates had a banner year in 2024, swiping more than 120 million packages, which racked up a staggering $16 billion in losses, according to the [home security company SafeWise](https://www.safewise.com/blog/metro-areas-porch-theft/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). To safeguard your packages, the company suggests setting up visible security cameras, choosing secure delivery spots, and timing deliveries for when someone will be home. The report also highlights the importance of package tracking — and teaming up with neighbors — as the most popular theft deterrents behind cameras. “Package Protection Day is an opportunity to empower homeowners with tools and knowledge to keep their deliveries safe,” said Rebecca Edwards, lead safety expert at SafeWise, in a press release. “Simple actions like installing a security camera or tracking packages can make a big difference in preventing theft.” ### Paige Bueckers Could Make Texas the Center of the Women’s Basketball Universe URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/paige-bueckers-could-make-texas-the-center-of-the-womens-basketball-universe/ Last updated: 2024-12-09T15:08:45.000Z There’s nothing earned about luck. But in professional sports, there is a type of luck that has long been honored as a route to relevance, success and, in some cases, dynastic dominance. These are the moments when basketball fans tune in to learn which team will be allowed to draft Lebron James. Or Victor Wembanyama. Or Caitlin Clark. In a draft lottery, teams have as much control over who gets awarded the first pick in the upcoming draft as they would in a game of roulette, but win/loss records, ticket sales, even [small economies](https://www.wrtv.com/sports/the-caitlin-clark-effect-is-expected-to-boost-indys-economy?ref=thebarbedwire.com) are affected by the outcome. Enter University of Connecticut senior Paige Bueckers and the 2025 WNBA Draft, in which the Dallas Wings, the only WNBA team in Texas, have won the number one overall pick. There are years when a consensus number one pick is the result of a weak draft class. That is not the case with Bueckers and this draft. “It’s going to be a good field \[of players\],” [said *The Athletic*’s](https://hoffmanwsports.buzzsprout.com/2397875/episodes/16136031-wnba-show-wings-win-paige-bueckers-lottery-or-do-they-feat-sabreen-merchant?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Sabreena Merchant. “But the gap between her and the rest of the class is sizable.” Bueckers is a star basketball player; charismatic on and off the court, unafraid to speak her mind and cerebral with the ball in her hands. She is, by any reasonable predictive measure, a franchise savior. “I do feel like she’s a player who could win an MVP, who will lead her team to championships,” ESPN’s Alexa Philippou, who has covered Bueckers over her entire college career, told *The Barbed Wire*. “There’s no doubt in my mind that she will make a professional team better, even as a rookie.” The Wings, as much as any franchise, need her. The team moved from Tulsa to North Texas in 2016\. Eight years and six coaches later, their win-loss record stand at 123-183\. But building on a still-nascent-but-loyal fan base and the sudden growth of women’s basketball, the team has committed to moving into a new stadium in downtown Dallas in 2026. There’s plenty of reason to believe that November 17, the day the Wings won the first pick in next season’s WNBA draft, will be as significant to Dallas basketball as the day the Mavericks traded up to select All-NBA star Luka Doncic in 2018. “Paige is a huge name and a huge talent,” Justin Carter, who covers the Wings for *D Magazine*, told *The Barbed Wire.* “Getting her in Dallas, coupled with the team’s upcoming move downtown, has a really good chance to shift the direction of a franchise that has felt rudderless over the last few years.” There is one potential problem with the plan for Bueckers to come to Texas and bring women’s basketball glory with her: She can simply choose not to. There are rumblings that Bueckers, or perhaps someone in her camp, was not thrilled that the “rudderless” Wings received the first pick. Thanks to a medical redshirt season after knee surgery in 2022, and a rule allowing athletes an extra season of eligibility for NCAA athletes due to COVID-19, she technically would be eligible to return for another year at UConn following this current season. She currently makes more than $500,000 per year through endorsements, considerably more than she will make in her rookie season in the WNBA. The Wings will not hold her draft rights in perpetuity, meaning a standoff could be possible. Or, given her leverage, Dallas might be convinced to trade the pick to the Sparks, who hold the number two pick and play in the bigger celebrity market of Los Angeles. [The IX Sports](https://www.theixsports.com/features/in-2025-wnba-draft-dallas-wings-hold-top-pick-but-paige-bueckers-holds-all-the-cards/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) reported that of eight anonymous “WNBA talent evaluators” asked about the idea, all of them assumed it was more than likely Bueckers would try to avoid playing for the Wings. Without any direct intel into her future plans, it goes without saying that the Wings will want to make their franchise look appealing to Bueckers. With a history of mostly losing, that has required bringing in an outsider. Less than two weeks before winning the draft lottery, Dallas hired Curt Miller as their new general manager. A longtime WNBA veteran, Miller has won WNBA Coach of the Year (twice), WNBA Executive of the Year, and coached the Connecticut Sun to two WNBA Finals. He was brought on to bring credibility to the franchise, and you can just about guarantee that Plan A, B, C, all the way to at least Y, start with drafting Paige Bueckers. Why is the 6’0 Bueckers such a coveted prospect? “She always feels one step ahead,” said Mark Schindler, a women’s basketball scout and analyst. “Part of what makes her game feel older than it is in some ways is that she just has counters for everything.No matter how you play her, she has a counter. It makes it so difficult to play against her and also makes her so efficient.” A point guard who can score at above average rates and percentages driving to the basket, shooting in the mid-range, and from behind the three-point line, Bueckers was a freshman the same year as Caitlin Clark. Both were understood to be future stars and faced off in a rare ABC televised regular season matchup. Bueckers’ UConn Huskies secured a 20-point victory and the point guard tallied 18 points, nine rebounds, and eight assists. “She was the better player (than Clark) four years ago,” Carter said. Indeed, Bueckers became the first freshman in women’s basketball history to win the Naismith, AP, and Wooden player of the year awards. But since that game, the two have taken different paths. Clark has turned into a player unseen in basketball since Steph Curry, and Bueckers has been fighting off injuries, including two knee surgeries. But she has never failed to impress on the court, and she is currently healthy leading a UConn team that’s expected to compete for a national championship. “In terms of players who can consistently be all-WNBA talents in their primes and who can elevate a franchise, I think that’s how I view Paige,” Schindler said. “I think right away she’s going to bring impact. Caitlin had a pretty special rookie year. I think Paige will have one in her own right.” Unlike Clark, who has mostly stayed away from using her massive platform for political influence, Bueckers seems determined to use her voice to “share the spotlight,” as Philippou puts it, with marginalized groups. Upon being named the best collegiate athlete in women’s sports at the [2021 ESPYs](https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/11/us/paige-bueckers-espys-speech/index.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), she took the stage to shift the focus onto the Black women who have done the legwork of building up women’s basketball while dealing with the greatest amount of discrimination, stating, “to all the incredible Black women in my life and on my teams. To Breonna Taylor and all the lives lost, and to those names who are not yet learned but I hope to share, I stand behind you, and I continue to follow you.” “Being drafted to Dallas would put her in a really interesting position just because of the political, social, and cultural context of Texas in general,” Philippou said. “I don’t think she’s going to veer away from that. That is part of her DNA.” She could be joining the Wings’ most versatile player, Satou Sabally, a dynamic “unicorn” on the basketball court who was raised in both Gambia and Germany and has [made it a point in her career](https://www.dmagazine.com/sports/2021/09/satou-sabally-is-here-to-speak-her-mind/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to speak on racism and reproductive rights. Sabally, whose shoulder injury is the biggest reason the Wings had enough losses to qualify for the first overall pick, was a top-five MVP candidate in 2023\. A duo of her and Bueckers could prove a force on the court and off it. The best case scenarios for the Wings’ future are compelling. Sabally and Bueckers paired with guard Arike Ogunbuwale, who last season broke the WNBA All-Star scoring record, would have a chance at instantly transforming from an eight-win team to a potential title contender. The worst case scenario lingers just as prominently, though. Sabally is technically a free agent and has already endured a number of frustrating seasons with the Wings. Miller has still not hired a head coach to replace Latricia Trammell, who was fired at the end of last season. Finding a candidate who intrigues both Bueckers and Sabally will be crucial. Don’t expect Bueckers to offer many insights into her future anytime soon. While her time at the most accomplished program in women’s basketball history has been full of accolades, there is one thing that she does not share with all the greats who came before her at UConn (Breanna Stewart, Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi, Maya Moore, Napheesa Collier, etc): a national championship. Carter argued that returning to UConn seems unlikely, “because what happens if the Wings just get the number one pick again next year?” We’ve all seen the results of the “Caitlin Clark Effect.” The “Paige” effect might be the next big thing in professional sports — wherever she ends up. “She combines the off-court, cultural relevance with her clear on-the-court talent,” Philippou said. “That combination can bring a lot of eyeballs to Dallas and make them more relevant than they’ve ever been as a franchise.” ### SEC Grinches Say Bevo Must Stay Home URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/sec-grinches-say-bevo-must-stay-home/ Last updated: 2024-12-06T17:25:01.000Z While the rest of the Longhorn football entourage makes the trip to Atlanta for the SEC championship game, Bevo will stay home in Texas. Why? The SEC said the sidelines didn’t have room for Bevo XV’s 1,700 pounds and 58-inch horn span. “With the narrow sidelines, location of multiple sets for television and camera carts, there is not enough space. While we want to honor tradition across the conference, the space limitation is a reality,” SEC officials told [ESPN](https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/%5F/id/42801237/sec-keeps-texas-mascot-bevo-title-game-vs-georgia?ref=thebarbedwire.com). With so much activity on the sidelines, it will be interesting to see where they’re going to fit Uga XI (Georgia’s bulldog mascot) who *will* be allowed at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. If you ask us, we’re sick of this pro-Georgia bias. Fans have been waiting for a rematch between Bevo and Uga after the 2019 incident at the Sugar Bowl where Bevo charged the dog. (Texas won that game, by the way.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jyFNKxH3xg&embeds\_referring\_euri=https%3A%2F%2Flonghornswire.usatoday.com%2F&source\_ve\_path=MjM4NTE The good news is, if you’re superstitious, Bevo was in attendance for this season’s Georgia win over the Longhorns and Uga sat that game out back in Georgia. So if the team without the mascot wins, it may be a good sign for the Horns. The 2024 SEC Championship Game kicks off at 3 p.m. Central Saturday on ABC. Read more at [ESPN.com](http://espn.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). ### Texas House Speaker Bows Out, Under Pressure From Fellow Republicans URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-house-speaker-bows-out-under-pressure-from-fellow-republicans/ Last updated: 2024-12-06T16:28:11.000Z After months of pressure from his own party, Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan announced Friday that he’s abandoning his bid for a third term in the leadership post. His move comes after criticism from fellow Republicans for being insufficiently right-wing, despite the fact that Phelan helped to [ban abortion](https://www.texastribune.org/2022/07/26/texas-abortion-ban-dobbs/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [DEI initiatives at state universities](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/04/19/texas-colleges-dei-ban/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and [medical care for transgender kids](https://www.texastribune.org/2023/06/02/texas-gender-affirming-care-ban/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). That’s how messed up our state is, right now. [In a statement, the Beaumont Republican said](https://x.com/bradj%5FTX/status/1865034450456735821/photo/1?ref=thebarbedwire.com): “Out of deep respect for this institution and its members, and after careful consideration and private consultation with colleagues, I have made the difficult decision to withdraw from the race for Speaker of the Texas House.” Phelan added: “By stepping aside, I believe we create the best opportunity for our members to rally around a new candidate who will uphold the principles that make our House one of the most exceptional, deliberative legislative bodies in the country — a place where honor, integrity, and the right of every member to vote their district takes utmost precedent.” Phelan’s departure comes after he ran afoul of his own party. That was partly due to his [support for the impeachment](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/02/06/dade-phelan-primary-ken-paxton-impeachment/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of state Attorney General Ken Paxton, who was ultimately acquitted in the Texas Senate. Phelan also was criticized by pro-voucher Republicans after rural [House Republicans teamed up with Democrats last session to strip vouchers from the school funding bill](https://www.texasobserver.org/hb-1-vouchers-omnibus-special-session/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Vouchers are a pet issue of Gov. Greg Abbott’s and he’s vowed to pass them this upcoming session. Between Paxton’s impeachment and the voucher issue, Phelan was a marked man. During the last election cycle, [Abbott invested millions to unseat Republicans](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/12/05/texas-house-speaker-dade-phelan/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) opposed to school vouchers. While Phelan barely held onto his seat ([despite future president Donald Trump endorsing his opponent](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/01/30/donald-trump-texas-house-dade-phelan-2024/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)), 15 other House Republicans, many of whom supported Phelan, were defeated by challengers who pledged to oppose Phelan as speaker. To sum up, Phelan was out of allies – which is why he isn’t running for speaker again. Still, he managed to get a ton of right-wing stuff done in his two terms as speaker, despite being tarred as a dreaded “Republican In Name Only” by some in the GOP. That didn't stop lots of [state Democrats from supporting Phelan’s speaker bids](https://www.star-telegram.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article270873882.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Last session, he rankled his own party by [appointing nine Dems as committee chairs](https://www.kut.org/politics/2023-02-08/texas-house-speaker-dade-phelan-bucks-his-own-party-by-appointing-democratic-committee-chairs?ref=thebarbedwire.com). As for the next speaker, Republicans are set to pick their nominee on Saturday. The front runner on the right is state Rep. David Cook of Mansfield. Democrats appeared to be looking for someone else to support, now that Phelan is out. On Friday morning, the [Texas House Democratic Caucus said in a statement](https://x.com/TexasHDC/status/1865037571497095307?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that “For any Speaker candidate interested in serving the House, the Democratic Caucus is available to listen, and hear their plans to finally give Texans a legislative session that puts people over politics.” One option could be state Rep. Dustin Burrows, a Lubbock Republican and an ally of Phelan, who has filed to run for speaker. *The* [*Texas Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/12/05/texas-house-speaker-dade-phelan/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) reported that on Thursday evening, Burrows was courting Democratic support. Not all Democrats are in agreement on Burrows, though. State Representative Ana-María Ramos, a Richardson Democrat who is also running for speaker, firmly opposed Burrows' bid for the gavel. “Working Texans deserve a leader in the House who will stand up for them, and not do the bidding of corporate donors,” Ramos [posted on](https://twitter.com/Ramos4Texas/status/1864895159948685622?ref=thebarbedwire.com) X. She also [reposted a post on BlueSky](https://bsky.app/profile/lonestarleft.com/post/3lcncv7yikc2z?ref=thebarbedwire.com) which called Burrows a “fascist.” Meanwhile Texas GOP chairman Abraham George appeared to warn any Republicans who worked with Democrats that they could face primary challengers. He [posted on X](https://x.com/abrahamgeorge/status/1865038810397970932?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that “It's time for every Republican representative who has yet to back a reformer to answer a straightforward question: Will you stand with your constituents and @texasgop or will you continue to enable Democrats to hold power? Keep in mind, the primary is just 452 days away!” For his part, Paxton savaged both Phelan and Burrows as a possible replacement speaker. [In a statement on X, he wrote](https://x.com/KenPaxtonTX/status/1865061353339101211?ref=thebarbedwire.com): "Phelan's legacy is one of betrayal: prioritizing Democrat interests over his own caucus, leaving Republican members exposed, attempting a shameful impeachment stunt and consistently failing to deliver for the voters who sent him to Austin. His so-called 'leadership' disqualified him long before this moment." He called Burrows "a politician handpicked by Phelan and the Austin Establishment to continue their reign of weak leadership and backroom deals." Paxton said "Burrows is Dade 2.0 and can only become Speaker by being elected by more Democrats than Republicans." ### The Best Gifts for Texans Who Love the Outdoors URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-best-gifts-for-texans-who-love-the-outdoors/ Last updated: 2024-12-06T11:28:00.000Z For 18 years, the closest I ever came to camping was pitching my pop-up Barbie tent in the living room. Since then, I’m proud to say that I’ve (kind of) learned the ropes. I’ve camped under the stars; hiked the Lost Mine Trail at Big Bend National Park; survived a torrential downpour out at Caddo Lake State Park; and made untold trips to Pace Bend, Lost Maples, and Inks Lake. I wouldn’t call myself a true “outdoorswoman,” but I’ve got plenty of aficionados in my life whose expertise has qualified me to dole out gift recommendations for nature newbies and veterans alike. https://www.instagram.com/p/C8zPO2hhVu6/?utm\_source=ig\_embed&%3Butm\_campaign=loading [**Texas Bushcraft Fire Starter Survival Kit**](https://www.texasbushcraft.com/collections/frontpage/products/texas-bushcraft-fire-starter-kit-with-fire-steel-tinder-pouch-and-paracord-bracelet?ref=thebarbedwire.com) An essential piece of gear for any budding survivalist, this kit has all the basics: a fire starter and striker that work even when wet, a cinchable leather pouch to store tinder, and paracord, which can be used for everything from tying down equipment to fashioning a splint. https://www.instagram.com/p/DCM3AgvSKlG/?utm\_source=ig\_embed&%3Butm\_campaign=loading [**Chama Vaquero Chair**](https://chamachairs.com/products/vaquero-chair?srsltid=AfmBOoofoPrlp5luRLm7fHHAKL7ZNl9DEI2Ud7l0B5GYSEPpQYeqqVAw&ref=thebarbedwire.com) This one’s a bit of a splurge at $219, but one thing I can guarantee about being in nature is that comfortable seating options are usually few and far between. Made from washable canvas and weather-resistant wood, this luxurious folding chair will look great poolside, on a patio, or posted up at your campsite. https://www.instagram.com/p/DB7D0FtRx\_D/?utm\_source=ig\_embed&%3Butm\_campaign=loading [**Sendero Provisions Snapback**](https://senderopc.com/collections/hats/mens?ref=thebarbedwire.com) While some might prefer a cowboy hat or a beanie, you can never go wrong with a classic baseball cap. Waco-based Sendero Provisions has become a go-to of mine thanks to their fun, vintage-inspired designs like their “[Snake Farm](https://senderopc.com/collections/hats/products/snake-farm-hat?ref=thebarbedwire.com)” hat or the [“Cowboys Don’t Cry”](https://senderopc.com/collections/hats/products/cowboys-dont-cry-hat?ref=thebarbedwire.com) cap. https://www.instagram.com/p/CywqWHjsJck/?utm\_source=ig\_embed&%3Butm\_campaign=loading [**Slim Pickins Outfitters’ AO Tee**](https://slimpickinsoutfitters.com/collections/slimpickins-outfitters/products/the-ao-tee-2?variant=44238968848558&ref=thebarbedwire.com) The first Black-owned outdoor retailer in the country, Stephenville’s Slim Pickins Outfitters stocks plenty of essential hiking, climbing, fishing, and camping gear, along with a curated collection of vintage clothing — and their own line of merch. https://www.instagram.com/p/DC0C8eSME\_g/?utm\_source=ig\_embed&%3Butm\_campaign=loading [**Pecos Paloma Magnetic Cutting Board**](https://pecosoutdoor.com/products/paloma?variant=47963035009229&ref=thebarbedwire.com) The perfect gift for the camp chef, Pecos’ magnetic cutting board is designed to grip onto your cooler or tailgate (or any other metallic surface), so you can clean and descale your catch, or prep your meal, no matter where your next adventure takes you. https://www.instagram.com/p/DCedOx3K\_gQ/?utm\_source=ig\_embed&%3Butm\_campaign=loading [**Texas State Parks Pass**](https://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/park-information/passes/park-passes/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#texas-state-parks-pass) Texas doesn’t get nearly enough credit for the variety of landscapes we have to offer. We have canyons, mountains, forests, deserts, and beaches to explore, and too many of us rarely take advantage of what’s out there! One way to start is with a Texas State Parks pass. At just $70 this card grants you and your guests access to 88 state parks. (Note: you technically can’t purchase a pass for someone else, but you *can* get someone a [gift card](https://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/park-information/passes/gift-cards?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to purchase their own instead.) Personally, I’d recommend pairing this gift with [Wildsam’s Texas field guide](https://shop.wildsam.com/collections/all/products/texas?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which is full of tons of road trip wisdom, from restaurants, offbeat finds, and detailed itineraries. https://www.instagram.com/p/DCFvI8hxXJy/?utm\_source=ig\_embed&%3Butm\_campaign=loading [**Bexar Goods Gorilla Keeper Keychain**](https://www.bexargoods.com/collections/dry-goods/products/gorilla-keeper?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Available in a variety of colors, and featuring Bexar Goods’ flying cactus logo, this keychain is the perfect stocking stuffer. With their range of high-quality leather offerings, you can also find a matching [wallet](https://www.bexargoods.com/collections/wallets?ref=thebarbedwire.com) or [watch strap](https://www.bexargoods.com/collections/watch-straps?ref=thebarbedwire.com). https://www.instagram.com/p/DDIqn-xOy6A/?img\_index=1 [**Tecovas Trucker Jacket**](https://www.tecovas.com/products/mens-buckaroo-duck-canvas-trucker?color=cumin-cotton-blend&ref=thebarbedwire.com) If you’ve been paying attention to the latest trend forecasts, workwear is *back* (did it ever really go anywhere?). With plenty of functional pockets, and a stylish leather collar, this canvas trucker jacket isn’t just fashionably functional, it’s a great wardrobe staple. https://www.instagram.com/p/DABmkd7CLWU/?hl=en [**King Ranch Soft Cooler Tote Bag**](https://www.krsaddleshop.com/collections/outdoors-field-gear-and-gun-cases/products/soft-cooler-tote-bag?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Is it a little bougie to have a King Ranch monogrammed cooler tote? Sure. But loving the outdoors *and* being a little over the top aren’t mutually exclusive. This insulated tote is great for all kinds of outings, from the beach, to the river, to the park. https://www.instagram.com/hipcamp/p/CzUhQpetwXd/?img\_index=5 [**Hipcamp Gift Card**](https://www.hipcamp.com/en-US/gift?ref=thebarbedwire.com) As someone who loves gifting experiences, Hipcamp is a great way to let a friend or loved one literally choose their own adventure. The AirBnb-style outdoor stay company has something for everyone, whether you want to book a [rustic winery retreat](https://www.hipcamp.com/en-US/land/texas-4r-ranch-winery-campsite-wz6h78vw?adults=1&children=0&srid=2a660932-cdaf-4a23-8fec-68a26d81fc82&ref=thebarbedwire.com), find a [desert escape](https://www.hipcamp.com/en-US/land/texas-good-guad-land-co-2ejh5ky7?adults=1&children=0&srid=f3189a15-630f-401b-8072-6e891305faf3&ref=thebarbedwire.com) out in West Texas, or go [glamping in a Hill Country yurt](https://www.hipcamp.com/en-US/land/texas-johnny-yurts-nelhjvxo?adults=1&children=0&srid=11918965-6d06-4c27-8ce3-bde9df6a5628&ref=thebarbedwire.com). ### The Most Powerful Man in Texas Really Wants to Ban THC URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-most-powerful-man-in-texas-really-wants-to-ban-thc/ Last updated: 2024-12-05T21:32:47.000Z Texas’ days of legal THC might be over soon. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the [most powerful](https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/the-power-behind-the-throne-dan-patrick/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) man in state government, said he’s making it a priority to ban “all forms of consumable THC from being sold in Texas.” The Texas Senate’s head honcho announced Wednesday evening that the THC ban will be introduced as Senate Bill 3 — a low-number designation signaling its high priority in the upcoming session. The Republican-controlled Legislature has been widely anticipated to target Texas’ thriving hemp industry, which has seen a surge in cannabis dispensaries since the state legalized the sale of consumable hemp in 2019. According to Patrick, the 2019 law’s been treated like an all-you-can-eat loophole buffet, with retailers whipping up THC-laden treats that he says are too strong and too easy for kids to get their hands on. Though the [*Texas Tribune* has noted](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/12/04/texas-thc-ban-dan-patrick-delta-8-9-hemp/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that Texas hasn’t legalized marijuana in any form for broad use, to Patrick’s point, *Texas Monthly* [reported](https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/texas-legalized-marijuana-thc-delta-9/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) earlier this year that, despite lawmakers’ best efforts to the contrary, the sale of marijuana had basically — however inadvertently — become legalized. As such, Patrick’s ready to play fun police. [In a statement](https://www.ltgov.texas.gov/2024/12/04/lt-gov-dan-patrick-launches-major-legislative-initiative-to-ban-all-thc/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Patrick said that “retailers exploited the agriculture law to sell life-threatening, unregulated forms of THC to the public and made them easily accessible. These stores not only sold to adults, but they targeted Texas children and exposed them to dangerous levels of THC.” (Actually, studies show that even complete legalization of marijuana [does not result in increased use among minors](https://medicine.washu.edu/news/decriminalizing-pot-doesnt-lead-to-increased-use-by-young-people/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=Now%2C%20researchers%20at%20Washington%20University,marijuana%2Drelated%20arrests%20declined%20significantly.).) Under current law, consumable hemp products must contain no more than 0.3% THC — the psychoactive component of cannabis found in forms like Delta-8, Delta-9, and THCA. However, Patrick claims, that many products on Texas shelves significantly exceed this limit. Consumable hemp products include vapes, oils, creams, edibles, drinks, and gummies. Made from industrial hemp or hemp-derived cannabinoids like non-intoxicating CBD, they must stay below 0.3% THC. The difference between hemp and marijuana is that hemp has low THC, while marijuana plants pack a higher punch. Still, Patrick claimed there are “thousands of stores selling hazardous THC products” in Texas now, “and many sell products, including beverages, that have three to four times the THC content which might be found in marijuana purchased from a drug dealer.” He went on to harrumph: “We are not going to allow these retailers to circumvent the law and put Texans’ lives in danger.” Despite Patrick predicting that the bill would get bipartisan support, not everyone was a fan of his announcement — even some Republicans. Sara Fields, who described herself as president of the conservative activist group Texas Freedom Coalition, posted on X that banning THC is a “mistake.” [She added](https://x.com/SarahisCensored/status/1864507254159937943?ref=thebarbedwire.com): “I know hundreds of veterans who benefit and can finally function with the help of micro-dosing THC for pain and PTSD. “ Right wing radio host Dana Loesch [also ripped the bill](https://x.com/DLoesch/status/1864518329278320860?ref=thebarbedwire.com), writing: “I’m no Tommy Chong but ‘life threatening levels of THC’ seems like a lot of hyperbole to justify big government overreach. I thought Republicans are supposed to be the small gov party. This is Democrat silliness.” As columnist Steven Monacelli [reported](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-republicans-are-the-new-big-government-establishment/) this week, the blazing fight over cannabis consumption is just the latest example of Texas Republicans becoming what they allegedly are against: big government. ### Texas Republicans Are the New Big Government Establishment URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-republicans-are-the-new-big-government-establishment/ Last updated: 2024-12-05T12:00:00.000Z *It’s old hat to say everything is bigger in Texas. True connoisseurs know that things in the Lone Star State are also often wilder and weirder than what you see on the evening news. Every two weeks, Steven Monacelli will explore the dystopic, desperate, and despicable realities of contemporary Texas and channel the sense of absurdity, anger, and anguish that is felt by so many Texans. State politics mirror our already overheated summers, while floods and hard freezes overwhelm our infrastructure, and disinformation erodes our social discourse. But not all is lost. Together, we can navigate this Hell & High Water to get to more stable ground.* Last month, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton [filed a lawsuit](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/11/21/texas-cities-marijuana-ken-paxton-lawsuits/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) aimed at preventing the decriminalization of the possession of cannabis in the city of Dallas, where 67% voters approved Proposition R, a city charter amendment that prohibits the city’s police department from making arrests or issuing citations for cannabis possession of four ounces or less. It’s the *sixth* city Paxton has sued over decriminalization measures, including Austin, Denton, Elgin, Killeen, and San Marcos. His office argues that such local measures conflict with state laws that criminalize cannabis. It’s also the latest example of a budding trend in Texas, where Republicans are using state power to crack down on local government, or the will of voters, in an ironic reversal for the body long known as the “party of local control.” Currently, the non-medical use of cannabis is legalized in 24 states and decriminalized in seven states across the nation. Dallas is seeking to join those states in the decriminalization of a plant that a May study found [more Americans smoke daily than drink alcohol](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/05/23/daily-marijuana-drinking-study-united-states/73812981007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Advocates for cannabis decriminalization argue it’s a safer substance than booze, and the American Civil Liberties Union says the enforcement of criminalization [disproportionately impacts](https://www.aclu.org/news/criminal-law-reform/marijuana-legalization-racial-justice-issue?ref=thebarbedwire.com) the poor and people of color. Studies also show that legalization [does not result in increased use among minors,](https://medicine.washu.edu/news/decriminalizing-pot-doesnt-lead-to-increased-use-by-young-people/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=Now%2C%20researchers%20at%20Washington%20University,marijuana%2Drelated%20arrests%20declined%20significantly.) and while there are some public health risks around mental health and addiction, [evidence of significant harm is either inconsistent or inconclusive](https://www.healthaffairs.org/content/briefs/cannabis-legalization-us-population-health-impacts?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Aside from the typical appeals to law and order, the arguments against decriminalization are hazy at best. Two of Paxton’s buzzkill lawsuits against cities that have decriminalized cannabis have already been dismissed for lack of standing, namely [Austin](https://www.keranews.org/news/2024-06-18/what-does-it-mean-for-denton-that-ken-paxtons-case-against-austin-decriminalizing-weed-was-dismissed?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [San Marcos](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/kdhnews-com/news/local/paxton-has-no-standing-to-sue-killeen-on-marijuana-says-city-defense/article%5Fb97a73e4-dd9b-11ee-8432-33d53966ed29.html), and he has agreed to temporarily halt a lawsuit against [Killeen](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/kdhnews-com/news/local/ag-paxton-s-office-agrees-to-temporarily-halt-marijuana-lawsuit-against-killeen/article%5Fa3092a18-9701-11ef-91ca-477a16438bf0.html). But high on state power, Paxton is [appealing those dismissals](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2024/11/21/ag-ken-paxton-sues-dallas-over-decriminalizing-marijuana/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). If Paxton’s latest effort succeeds in blazing up local control, Dallas police will again be required to arrest and cite individuals for cannabis possession, and daily smokers in Dallas will continue to have a reason to be paranoid. But even if Paxton’s latest lawsuit goes up in smoke, there is another potential avenue for rolling back cannabis decriminalization in Dallas: [Proposition S](https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/politics/elections/election-results-dallas-ballot-proposition-s/287-b80f4cda-2aea-4e49-9e0f-72355db6b24b?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a recently passed [Republican-backed ballot measure](https://www.texasobserver.org/dallas-hero-initiative-monty-bennett-crowds-on-demand/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that gives “standing to any resident of Dallas to bring a lawsuit against the city to require the city to comply with provisions of the city charter, city ordinances, and state law.” This means Proposition S could be used to force Dallas to comply with state laws that criminalize cannabis — an outcome that may disappoint voters who jointly voted yes on Propositions R and S. It’s not just pot that has made state Republican lawmakers eager to preempt Democrat home rule. Examples are constant, and they grow like weeds: Education is also an issue where Republican lawmakers have flexed state power to roll back local district policies, such as [mask mandates](https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/16/us/texas-supreme-court-block-mask-mandates-greg-abbott/index.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) at schools during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Last year, the state engaged in a [controversial takeover of Houston ISD](https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/education-news/hisd/2024/05/30/489163/houston-area-officials-call-for-end-of-texas-education-agencys-takeover-of-houston-isd/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that replaced the locally elected board of trustees and superintendent with a *new* superintendent and board of managers hand-picked by the Texas Education Agency. Critics have decried the move as an attack on the district orchestrated by Republicans — and said it has [driven away teachers and failed students](https://www.texasobserver.org/houston-isd-takeover-racism-education/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). But supporters have touted it as a success, and state lawmakers are looking at newly established policies in the district as [inspiration for statewide legislation](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/07/03/houston-isd-takeover-schools/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The results of the recent election indicate local voters are unhappy, with the failure of a recent Houston ISD bond measure serving as an [unofficial referendum of the state takeover](https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/education-news/hisd/2024/11/05/504770/houston-isd-bond-rejected-in-large-margin-by-voters-an-unofficial-referendum-of-state-takeover/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Then there's the Texas Regulatory Consistency Act, dubbed by critics as the “Death Star” bill, which was passed in 2023 by the Republican-dominated state Legislature along partisan lines. The bill scrapped a wide variety of local laws that go above and beyond those passed at the state level — such as ones requiring construction companies to provide [10-minute water breaks for every four hours of work](https://www.eenews.net/articles/death-star-law-will-end-water-breaks-for-texas-workers/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=Opponents%20have%20dubbed%20it%20%E2%80%9Cthe,temperature%20records%20around%20the%20world.). At the end of last August, the District Court for Travis County ruled that the bill was unconstitutional, but its fate is not yet sealed: The Texas Attorney General’s Office filed an appeal that is still making its way through the courts. Meanwhile, a lesser discussed preemption bill that bans [local governments from regulating greenhouse emissions](https://environmentamerica.org/texas/articles/how-the-environment-fared-at-the-texas-legislature-88th-regular-session/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) has gone unchallenged. Republicans have dominated all three branches of government in Texas for decades. But they’ve failed to establish control in major cities and urban counties, [except for Fort Worth](https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4936444-democrats-aim-to-flip-tarrant-county/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in Tarrant County. Local government is the level of governance people tend to interact with the most, meaning that the majority of Texans are most often interfacing with Democrats. In recent years, Republicans have puffed their chests, seeking to force these local entities to hew toward Republican policies and values — while simultaneously using the power of the state government to resist some [federal laws and regulations](https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=88R&Bill=HB33&ref=thebarbedwire.com). There are certainly arguments to be made regarding the proper distribution of powers under the Constitution, but we’re long overdue to dispose of all pretense that the Republican Party of Texas is somehow the champion of “local control” or “small government,” at least in its current incarnation. Correlative with the rise of Trump’s [idiosyncratic style](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/10/25/trump-words-speeches-campaign-president/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [neo-fusionist](https://www.bunkhistory.org/resources/trumps-neo-fusionism?ref=thebarbedwire.com) politics that “abandons old conservative reliance on ‘intermediary institutions’ like local government, congress, and the courts in favor of an embrace of executive power” and eschews ideological consistency, Texas Republicans have made it clear they are keen to wield state power to run roughshod over local government whenever their policies are at odds with certain material or political interests. And in Texas, the [oil](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/05/07/texas-oil-gas-political-donations-august-pfluger/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [real estate](https://therealdeal.com/texas/2024/11/06/ted-cruz-wins-senate-race-with-support-from-real-estate/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) industries are reliably the largest donors to Texas Republicans. As detailed in a [*Fort Worth Report* article](https://fortworthreport.org/2024/09/09/how-fort-worths-gas-drilling-boom-sparked-a-movement-to-limit-local-control-in-texas/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) from this past September, “gas drilling boom sparked a movement to limit local control in Texas” after [Denton banned fracking in 2014](https://www.texastribune.org/2014/12/15/dissecting-denton-how-texas-city-baned-fracking/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) over environmental concerns. That same year, the city of Austin passed an ordinance banning discrimination against renters who seek to use housing vouchers, only for the Republican state legislature to [pass a law the next year preempting such bans](https://www.naahq.org/new-texas-law-preempts-local-section-8-mandates?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The last decade has shown us that the Republican Party has sacrificed their commitment to the general conservative philosophy of local and limited government in favor of a more muscular approach to politics that aims to wield power as a means to an end. But perhaps that’s a more honest approach. After all, conservative calls for local control and “states rights” were at their peak during the battle over education desegregation, and in retrospect, it is quite clear that the argument was a mere fig leaf for their real goals. ### 10 Perfect Gifts for the Single, Childless Women in Your Life URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/10-perfect-gifts-for-the-single-childless-women-in-your-life/ Last updated: 2024-12-05T10:00:00.000Z The holidays are here, which means the single, childless women in your life are baking cookies, hosting dinner parties, and snuggling on their couches [with a chic, on-brand blanket](https://www.texascapitolgiftshop.com/800326/first-flag-of-the-republic-of-texas-cotton-jacquard-throw.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). These gifts — for your ambitious loved ones who’ve just deleted Hinge *again* — are thoughtful and specific. Many of them are also made by *good folks.* I love supporting kind people, and I’ll be honest: I also like *things*. So sue me! Or — hop in and join me. The water’s fine. The following are gift ideas for that sister who takes ceramics classes, daughter who volunteers at a community garden, or ex-girlfriend (please don’t text her!!!) who has one of those Bonne Maman advent calendars for jam. She can use them while she’s holding space for [the lyrics of defying gravity](https://www.forbes.com/sites/danidiplacido/2024/11/26/wicked-ariana-grande-and-cynthia-erivos-holding-space-meme-explained/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), taking care of her pets, babysitting her nieces and nephews, and trying to save the world. It’s been a tough year for the archetype our soon-to-be vice president has [repeatedly called](https://19thnews.org/2024/08/unmarried-women-republicans-vance/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) “miserable” and “psychotic.” To be fair, my Spotify wrapped (Apple, actually, but you get it—) *did* have a truly psychotic number of songs from Taylor Swift’s most emotional, wordy, and rage-filled album, so I think I’m an expert on this particular subject. Anyway, these might help. [Undiagnosed But I’m Pretty Sure Baseball Cap](https://www.etsy.com/listing/1761172158/undiagnosed-but-im-pretty-sure-baseball?click%5Fkey=3c71da8ce6ffd5800c184ca98ed107cf3807062b%3A1761172158&click%5Fsum=89e26590&ref=shop%5Fhome%5Factive%5F14&pro=1) [![>Undiagnosed But Im Pretty Sure Baseball Hat](https://i.etsystatic.com/9118262/r/il/61ba81/6209020076/il_794xN.6209020076_s8s4.jpg)](https://www.etsy.com/listing/1761172158/undiagnosed-but-im-pretty-sure-baseball?click%5Fkey=3c71da8ce6ffd5800c184ca98ed107cf3807062b%3A1761172158&click%5Fsum=89e26590&ref=shop%5Fhome%5Factive%5F14&pro=1) [](https://www.etsy.com/listing/1761172158/undiagnosed-but-im-pretty-sure-baseball?click%5Fkey=3c71da8ce6ffd5800c184ca98ed107cf3807062b%3A1761172158&click%5Fsum=89e26590&ref=shop%5Fhome%5Factive%5F14&pro=1) ### [Buy on Etsy](https://www.etsy.com/listing/1761172158/undiagnosed-but-im-pretty-sure-baseball?click%5Fkey=3c71da8ce6ffd5800c184ca98ed107cf3807062b%3A1761172158&click%5Fsum=89e26590&ref=shop%5Fhome%5Factive%5F14&pro=1) I love a good baseball cap *and* a good therapy joke. I bought a [“pro-roe”](https://www.etsy.com/listing/1766415481/womens-rights-pro-roe-1973-baseball-hat?click%5Fkey=9f83f59efdd881d9bc7642161453b3fc740bce5f%3A1766415481&click%5Fsum=00fe16e4&ref=shop%5Fhome%5Frecs%5F4&pro=1) hat from this Denison-based business last year, and I get compliments on it *constantly.* Another favorite? [“Aspiring retiree.”](https://www.etsy.com/listing/1752878231/aspiring-retiree-embroidered-baseball?click%5Fkey=757f90aeba4a7ccabe4bfd457e5ef0756c62d750%3A1752878231&click%5Fsum=77ae86b1&ref=shop%5Fhome%5Factive%5F16&pro=1) [Homemade Coffee Table](https://www.etsy.com/listing/1179496969/pink-table-wavy-coffee-table-squiggle?click%5Fkey=15ab8bb723961ec8e75a8456d894ac01d8e17514%3A1179496969&click%5Fsum=4959270a&ref=shop%5Fhome%5Factive%5F14&pro=1&frs=1&sts=1) [![>PINK Table](https://i.etsystatic.com/21934973/r/il/3f07ef/4029682060/il_794xN.4029682060_qtn9.jpg)](https://www.etsy.com/listing/1179496969/pink-table-wavy-coffee-table-squiggle?click%5Fkey=15ab8bb723961ec8e75a8456d894ac01d8e17514%3A1179496969&click%5Fsum=4959270a&ref=shop%5Fhome%5Factive%5F14&pro=1&frs=1&sts=1) [](https://www.etsy.com/listing/1179496969/pink-table-wavy-coffee-table-squiggle?click%5Fkey=15ab8bb723961ec8e75a8456d894ac01d8e17514%3A1179496969&click%5Fsum=4959270a&ref=shop%5Fhome%5Factive%5F14&pro=1&frs=1&sts=1) ### [Buy on Etsy](https://www.etsy.com/listing/1179496969/pink-table-wavy-coffee-table-squiggle?click%5Fkey=15ab8bb723961ec8e75a8456d894ac01d8e17514%3A1179496969&click%5Fsum=4959270a&ref=shop%5Fhome%5Factive%5F14&pro=1&frs=1&sts=1) Millennial pink would have already gone out of style, but after the Barbie movie came Galinda — and *thank goodness*. This interchangeable, space-friendly furniture purveyor uses recycled materials and is based in Dallas. I have one of their desks. It’s easy to put together, and it’s chic. If you can’t splurge on their serious furniture, they also make side tables and even coasters. [Matching Pet Owner Sweater Set](https://www.etsy.com/listing/876426591/matching-pet-owner-set-for-pets-cat-dog?click%5Fkey=03199270e54d58de36ab8c97b8e595f642049241%3A876426591&click%5Fsum=40358816&ref=search2%5Ftop%5Fnarrowing%5Fintent%5Fmodules%5Fetsys%5Fpick-4&frs=1&sts=1) [![Matching Pet Owner Set](https://i.etsystatic.com/17669446/r/il/7390ce/2863592876/il_794xN.2863592876_tcs6.jpg)](https://www.etsy.com/listing/876426591/matching-pet-owner-set-for-pets-cat-dog?click%5Fkey=03199270e54d58de36ab8c97b8e595f642049241%3A876426591&click%5Fsum=40358816&ref=search2%5Ftop%5Fnarrowing%5Fintent%5Fmodules%5Fetsys%5Fpick-4&frs=1&sts=1) [](https://www.etsy.com/listing/876426591/matching-pet-owner-set-for-pets-cat-dog?click%5Fkey=03199270e54d58de36ab8c97b8e595f642049241%3A876426591&click%5Fsum=40358816&ref=search2%5Ftop%5Fnarrowing%5Fintent%5Fmodules%5Fetsys%5Fpick-4&frs=1&sts=1) ### [Buy on Etsy](https://www.etsy.com/listing/876426591/matching-pet-owner-set-for-pets-cat-dog?click%5Fkey=03199270e54d58de36ab8c97b8e595f642049241%3A876426591&click%5Fsum=40358816&ref=search2%5Ftop%5Fnarrowing%5Fintent%5Fmodules%5Fetsys%5Fpick-4&frs=1&sts=1) I don’t have a cat, which I know makes me an outlier among our subsect of the population. That said, I do love my small dog. Her name is Edith, and even though she hates wearing sweaters, she hates being cold even more. These are perfect for your friend who sends out holiday cards featuring a family portrait of herself and her pet. [DRINKBOMB® GIFT BOXES](https://www.etsy.com/listing/1668149007/drinkbomb-gift-boxes?click%5Fkey=f8b90f8de5b7c13b1e8aeaf31e3cb94a6518e96a%3A1668149007&click%5Fsum=815e7840&ref=shop%5Fhome%5Factive%5F2) [![>DRINKBOMB® GIFT BOXES](https://i.etsystatic.com/23237907/r/il/a1557f/5764584229/il_794xN.5764584229_fxsg.jpg)](https://www.etsy.com/listing/1668149007/drinkbomb-gift-boxes?click%5Fkey=f8b90f8de5b7c13b1e8aeaf31e3cb94a6518e96a%3A1668149007&click%5Fsum=815e7840&ref=shop%5Fhome%5Factive%5F2) [](https://www.etsy.com/listing/1668149007/drinkbomb-gift-boxes?click%5Fkey=f8b90f8de5b7c13b1e8aeaf31e3cb94a6518e96a%3A1668149007&click%5Fsum=815e7840&ref=shop%5Fhome%5Factive%5F2) ### [Buy on Etsy](https://www.etsy.com/listing/1668149007/drinkbomb-gift-boxes?click%5Fkey=f8b90f8de5b7c13b1e8aeaf31e3cb94a6518e96a%3A1668149007&click%5Fsum=815e7840&ref=shop%5Fhome%5Factive%5F2) I love a cocktail, but I don’t like keeping 18 different kinds of juice, soda, and sweetener in stock at home. These drink bombs are fun, single-use little treats. If she’s the kind of person who likes a bath bomb, she will very likely enjoy these. Using them feels like an *occasion.* Simply drop one into a glass of Prosecco or Champagne, then watch the magic unfold. They make perfect stocking stuffers. Bulk sets are also great for holiday parties! [Seashell Pipe](https://www.etsy.com/listing/1778806660/the-phantom-shell-pipe-mermaid-smoking?click%5Fkey=14668a1c7c5e2b0c82c8a16b3dc66e718f7cfd10%3A1778806660&click%5Fsum=8ecaa9d1&ref=shop%5Fhome%5Frecs%5F1&pro=1) [![>The Phantom Shell Pipe Mermaid Smoking Pipe](https://i.etsystatic.com/9878338/r/il/d6c4ad/6315156791/il_794xN.6315156791_7p5n.jpg)](https://www.etsy.com/listing/1778806660/the-phantom-shell-pipe-mermaid-smoking?click%5Fkey=14668a1c7c5e2b0c82c8a16b3dc66e718f7cfd10%3A1778806660&click%5Fsum=8ecaa9d1&ref=shop%5Fhome%5Frecs%5F1&pro=1) ```

Buy on Etsy

``` For the stoners in your life, consider a gorgeous, handmade pipe. It’s 2024, and Seth Rogen has a gorgeous company selling home goods tailored to weed consumers, vinyl records, flower, and furniture. If you imagine that adult marijuana smokers are only using those glass pipes sold in seedy shops where synthetic drugs get pawned, think again. Some are glass, ceramic, or made from crystals. But this Texas-based seller steps it up a notch with authentic, biologically natural seashells she hand crafts into “smooth-hitting” smoking devices. As a bonus, it’s mermaid-themed without being too kitschy, which is tough to accomplish. https://www.instagram.com/p/C8rnyQjOXT1/?img\_index=1 Dallas artist Courtney Collier runs [WildKind Prints](https://www.instagram.com/wildkindprints/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), where she sells t-shirts, posters, stickers, [totes](https://www.instagram.com/p/C9NtG0gP5d%5F/?img%5Findex=1&ref=thebarbedwire.com), and more based on the weirdest and wildest things in the west. I’m a pop girlie, so I appreciate that her shop is littered with references to Sabrina Carpenter, [Chappell Roan](https://www.instagram.com/p/C8rnyQjOXT1/?img%5Findex=1&ref=thebarbedwire.com), and Kacey Musgraves. But I think everyone likes sapphic cowgirl art. ...No? https://www.instagram.com/p/C0MfQfPLjcc/ I may not be a parent, but I am an aunt. And I buy stupidly expensive toys for the spare room at my house — where my nephew sleeps once a week — almost as often as I post videos of him to my Close Friends stories. Johnny Was makes teal and cobalt [embroidered toy bears](https://www.johnnywas.com/juni-embroidered-bear/196521617244.html?utm%5Fsource=facebook&utm%5Fmedium=cpc&utm%5Fcampaign=PDM+-+RT+%2B+PC+-+C+-+Purchase+-+Advantage%2B+-+Promo+-+BFCM+2024+-+November%2FDecember+2024+Campaign&utm%5Fcontent=%5BPDM%5D+November+2024+-+DPA+Frame+-+BFCM+2024+-+25%25+Off+Sitewide+and+Up+to+30P+Off+-+NOV123&utm%5Fterm=PDM+-+RT+%2B+PC+-+C+-+Purchase+-+Advantage%2B+-+Promo+-+BFCM+2024+-+November%2FDecember+2024+Ad+set&utm%5Fid=6630497202981%5Fv2%5Fs00&fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0BMABhZGlkAAAGB8i2XiUBplZt71QEyhAoClcra5iSvGf1g7r%5FfnewmrUZGwldG079a0K5urX6dMJZ4Q%5Faem%5FZDtOlEa%5F1%5FtfMl3Thj-A1A) with beautiful details of the night sky. Proceeds from the sales of their bears last year were donated to the Los Angeles-based nonprofit [Five Acres](https://www.instagram.com/fiveacresorg/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which connects children to safe, permanent, and loving families. Kids love playing with them, *and you’ll like looking at* *them*. Also very cute [floral blankets](https://www.instagram.com/p/C2kj03Zx0ls/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [dog beds](https://www.instagram.com/p/C5OW8iLx9Ox/?img%5Findex=1&ref=thebarbedwire.com), [pajamas](https://www.instagram.com/p/DAofkqfSlv5/?img%5Findex=1&ref=thebarbedwire.com) and robes. ![a black candle and a candle box with the words “LIBRARY”](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/library-candle-with-box-mockup.png) I like a good candle, obviously. But I *love* an absurdly specific scent even more. Get out of here with your basic one- or two-scent lavender or mint. I want “an earthy, spicy fragrance imbued with the alchemy of the ancient desert” that its creators call “primordial and alluring,” like this one from [Little Torch](https://littletorch.co/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). I’m also a real fan of the candles made by Strange Gent, like “[Library](https://www.strangegentcandles.com/strange-candles/library?ref=thebarbedwire.com),” which smells like leather, tobacco, and “musty pages” — or “[Winona,](https://www.strangegentcandles.com/strange-candles/winona?ref=thebarbedwire.com)” which smells like eucalyptus, rosemary, juniper berry, and an “old love letter.” https://www.instagram.com/p/DCzPuHoRBcp/?img\_index=2 [Sage Studio](https://www.sagestudioatx.com/shop?ref=thebarbedwire.com) is a non-profit art studio & gallery for artists with intellectual & developmental disabilities based in Austin. They have *really* awesome merch, [wall art](https://www.instagram.com/p/C6oed%5FmLDkL/?img%5Findex=1&ref=thebarbedwire.com), and even some small sculptures. Personally, I love the “Rick’s Goals” [sweatshirt](https://www.sagestudioatx.com/product-page/rick-s-goals-adult-sweatshirt-by-rick-fleming?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and the “my other car is a limo” [sticker](https://www.sagestudioatx.com/product-page/my-other-car-is-a-limo-bumper-sticker-by-woodley-white?ref=thebarbedwire.com). https://www.instagram.com/p/DDDctGUpnNV/?img\_index=1 Your girl has sore knees, and she is *tired.* She’s also kind of witchy. Those things may seem unrelated, but a few years ago, my sister-in-law gave me a gift card for a massage at a place that *also reads tarot*. Austin-based [Ace of Cups](https://www.aceofcupsaustin.com/?gclid=CjwKCAiAmMC6BhA6EiwAdN5iLbpDR8UrYU-mJZhT%5Fih82kGpgRShAbG2HzbGVs1FeiUtv4Qc2fWsnxoCUEgQAvD%5FBwE&ref=thebarbedwire.com) is that place. They also sell spell candles and crystals. Tell me the single woman you’re shopping for hasn’t *at least* had her cards read at a bachelorette party. On her latest album, Sabrina Carpenter properly identified that we’re all “the girl outside the strip club getting her tarot cards read.” Hitting two interests at once is a special gifting skill, and as a bonus, it makes the gift-recipient feel *seen.* ### Texas Officials Say Extreme Cold May Be Coming. It’ll Test Our Crappy Power Grid (Again). URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-officials-say-extreme-cold-may-be-coming-itll-test-our-crappy-power-grid-again/ Last updated: 2024-12-04T18:11:16.000Z Get ready for our power grid to once again have issues this winter. Texas’ grid operator, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), [has warned about a “greater-than-average” potential](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/12/03/texas-power-grid-ercot-winter-forecast-extreme-cold/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for extreme cold this winter. This is bad because our grid doesn’t exactly do well when it’s cold (or when it’s hot, honestly). During an ERCOT board meeting on Tuesday, the agency’s chief meteorologist, Chris Coleman, highlighted the growing frequency of cold extremes, emphasizing that patterns this year mirror those of 2021, when a winter storm unofficially named Uri devastated the state. “The more I look at this winter, the more cold potential I see,” Coleman [told *Reuters*](https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/texas-extreme-winter-cold-could-challenge-power-grid-early-2025-2024-12-03/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “We’re in a pattern that supports something like a Uri this winter.” While he clarified that another catastrophic storm isn’t guaranteed, the conditions are reminiscent of the deadly storm that [claimed nearly 250 lives](https://www.kvue.com/article/weather/winter-storm/here-is-why-death-totals-from-winter-storm-uri-may-vary/269-f2bf277f-74d9-443b-ab2e-ff89f336f3ec?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=The%20Texas%20Department%20of%20State,the%20way%20deaths%20were%20counted.&text=The%20State's%20report%20shows%20how%20it%20measured%20the%20amount.) and left millions without power. Although cold weather spikes are becoming more frequent in Texas, average winter temperatures are generally rising, Coleman noted, per *Reuters*. According to data collected since 1895, last winter ranked as the 11th warmest on record. ERCOT officials, however, insist that the grid is more reliable now. Over 10,000 megawatts of new power generation — ranging from solar and wind to natural gas and electricity storage — have been added since November. This new capacity, especially in solar and storage, is greater than what many states have in total, [ERCOT CEO Pablo Vegas said](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/12/03/texas-power-grid-ercot-winter-forecast-extreme-cold/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). But demand for electricity during winter is climbing, with January 2023 marking a record peak of 78,349 megawatts in Texas. And Vegas noted that demand for power increases in the cold, while solar and wind sources produce less power in the winter, [the *Texas Tribune* reported](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/12/03/texas-power-grid-ercot-winter-forecast-extreme-cold/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Still, Gov. Greg Abbott claimed he’s not worried about Texas’ power needs — despite all the weather warnings. Texas is “fully prepared as a state to keep the power on through whatever storm arises,” he [said during a news conference on Tuesday](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/12/03/texas-power-grid-ercot-winter-forecast-extreme-cold/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), according to the *Tribune*. Despite these assurances, Coleman noted a troubling trend in the *Reuters* report: Five of the last eight Texas winters have experienced severe cold spells, compared to just three over the previous 25 years. Scientists attribute this increase in extreme weather to climate change, though the topic was notably absent from ERCOT’s discussions. Because why talk about the real issues? ### Gifts for the Discerning, Handsome Millennial in Your Life URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/gifts-for-the-discerning-handsome-millennial-in-your-life/ Last updated: 2024-12-04T15:03:09.000Z I’m an expert gift giver. The secret here is to just be a great listener and remember the things people tell you about themselves and what they want. Don’t be the person waiting for your turn to talk, which happens to the best of us. (This is why I can never remember anybody’s name — I’m too worried about *my* performance, trying not to look stupid, during this ritual.) Which brings me to the second best thing you can do as a gift giver: Just think about yourself, what you want, and where interests may collide. So that’s what we’ll do here. I’m plucking my bookmarks for awesome Texas brands and items that are on my wishlist. [Get in loser](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKUlOEHu7Uc&ref=thebarbedwire.com), we're going shopping! https://www.instagram.com/wythenewyork/p/C0JwZXcLpRS/?img\_index=3 [**Velvet Pearlsnap Shirt from Wythe**](https://wythenewyork.com/products/velvet-pearlsnap-shirt-plum?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Founded by Peter Middleton, Wythe is a fascinating brand because it’s exactly what you think you’d get from an Austin-raised, New York-dwelling dude who did fabric research for Ralph Lauren. Wythe’s threads are steeped in Americana with a concrete jungle sensibility and outrageously great quality. I originally wanted to put this gorgeous [Mustang Fringe Leather Jacket](https://wythenewyork.com/products/mustang-fringe-leather-jacket-green?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on this list, but I opted for sensibility instead. What’s the likelihood that anyone is going to wear *leather* for more than a week in Texas? Their beautiful Velvet Pearlsnap will suffice though. It can be dressed up or down, as an overshirt or by its lonesome, and can get a bit more mileage throughout the year. https://www.instagram.com/p/CspKqtWv5aC/?img\_index=1 [**Membership Card from the Texas Theatre**](https://thetexastheatre.com/product/membership-card/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) The Texas Theatre is a Dallas landmark, and its biggest claim to infamy is as the place Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested on November 22, 1963 for assassinating John F. Kennedy. You can walk in the theatre and see one-sheets from the films that played that day too. However, that’s just history — the distant past. Today, The Texas Theatre is one of the most exciting places to catch a movie I’ve ever been to. When people flood the lobby bar after a showing, sometimes it feels like you’re actually in a dive that just happens to [host a film festival](https://2024.oakclifffilmfestival.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), play first showings, screen classic films, and occasionally feature filmmakers for Q&As. The best of the theatre’s programming is CinéWilde (who claim to be America's longest-running monthly LGBTQ film series), which has recently screened “The Matrix,” “Pink Flamingos,” and “Paris is Burning.” [**Rye Whiskey from Balcones**](https://www.balconesdistilling.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Texas is known for its whiskey drinkers, *not* its whiskey. However, since Waco-based Balcones started distilling the spirit in 2009, the Lone Star State has been pumping out barrels of high-quality juice. A lot of the offerings from Balcones are young with minimal aging — as it's a young company — which lets a lot of the ingredients in the whiskey shine. The best bang for your buck here is the rye, made with an 100% rye mashbill. This stuff tastes like chocolate. I kid you not. So delicious, it’s a little dangerous. https://www.instagram.com/p/DCuyhFHSw2m/?hl=en&img\_index=5 [**Tickets to an Event at COSM**](https://www.cosm.com/dallas?ref=thebarbedwire.com) I’m not a suburbs guy. I find them and the very concept of them boring, but out in the Dallas suburb The Colony, something very exciting is happening. COSM is a [65,000-square-foot venue](https://dallasinnovates.com/cosms-shared-reality-dome-opens-at-grandscape-aug-31-with-college-football-kickoff/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that screens events on an 87-foot diameter, 12K-plus LED dome. The idea is that the space is so immersive it feels like you’re there in the flesh — maybe even better. For the time being, COSM plays mostly sports and has a few Cirque du Soleil showings on the docket, but the possibilities are endless. Ticketmaster, you better watch your back. https://www.instagram.com/p/C9fYZ7KuqKJ/ [**Malin + Goetz Cannabis Candle from Stag**](https://stagprovisions.com/collections/home-fragrance/products/malin-goetz-candle-cannabis-1?ref=thebarbedwire.com) There’s no weed in it, and it doesn’t actually smell like weed. The Cannabis namesake just comes from the deep earthy sillage, so thankfully it won't make anybody’s house smell like Wiz Khalifa, Snoop Dogg, and Willie Nelson did a world tour in their living room. Pricey, yes, but this is the best candle ever made. And the thick glass containers make for great recycled drinking glasses. It’s basically a two-for-one deal. https://www.instagram.com/p/CoTH5t-uaRV/?hl=en [**Cuero from Boyds of Texas**](https://boydsoftexas.com/collections/cuero/products/cuero-eau-de-parfum?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Be weary of perfumes from fancy designers who rip the runway at fashion weeks around the globe. Those scents aren’t all that interesting, and the trick is to get you to buy them just because they say Givenchy, Gucci, or YSL on them. Not everybody can afford Margiela Tabis, but a bottle of cologne is much more feasible. The exception to this rule is of course anything from the most stylish Texan of all time Tom Ford — and specifically Chanel Bleu De Chanel. Otherwise niche houses are the way to go. Boyds of Texas, based in San Antonio, sells high quality natural fragrances that speak to the Texas terrain. My favorite is Cuero, which has notes of citrus, leather, smoke and vetiver. (While we’re talking about Tom Ford, I just want to bring up the fact that I don’t think his [accent is real](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpTvfYC71d8&ab%5Fchannel=Vogue&ref=thebarbedwire.com). I think he made it up, nobody sounds like that! Okay, now let’s move on.) https://www.instagram.com/p/DAJKlLbOnUK/ [**Infinity Ring from Mondo Mondo**](https://mondo-mondo.com/products/infinity-ring-sterling-silver?srsltid=AfmBOoq4tD8Oa2GCNpdsMm2MH6TARgTj07nXHQps8-5qsgd8329nRZIf&ref=thebarbedwire.com) Houston-born and bred designer Natasha Ghosn’s Mondo Mondo is a haven for bold designs inspired by her Mexican heritage and the art her grandfather made and collected. The company sells earrings, necklaces, bracelets, and fine jewelry crafted from precious metals. The rings, in my opinion, are the best place to start, and the Infinity Ring is the perfect mix of out-there and traditional style that would impress just about anybody. https://www.instagram.com/deadlypreygallery/p/DDGyl8JxYup/ **‘**[**Selena’ Print from Dead Prey Gallery**](https://deadly-prey-gallery.myshopify.com/products/selena-high-quality-print-c-a-wisely?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Chicago company Dead Prey Gallery commissions movie poster art from Ghanaian artists, and the results are the most bizarre and surreal pieces of art you’ll ever lay your eyes on. I’ll recommend “Selena,” the [biopic about the Tejano legend](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-texas-voyager-well-always-do-anything-for-selena/), which makes it look like a campy 80s action flick, a common theme in the interpretations the artists make. But they get much, much weirder. And quite frankly pretty horny. Only for the boldest movie buffs. Look up the one for “Boogie Nights” with caution. https://www.instagram.com/p/DCPGsz2JnS1/?hl=en&img\_index=1 [**A Book from Black Pearl Books**](https://shop.blackpearlbookstore.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) It’s hard to point out a *single* book, so the suggestion here is to get any book from Black Pearl Books, a Black-owned store based in Austin. They’ve got everything from Percival Everett’s new novel from the perspective of Huckleberry's friend, Jim, to an autobiography written by Angela Davis, to the works of our state’s hottest mystery and thriller writer, Attica Locke. https://www.instagram.com/p/DBTn5EgRZp2/ [**Giftcard from Barbs B Q**](https://www.toasttab.com/barbs-b-q-102-east-market-street/giftcards?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Barbs B Q has garnered the attention of [*Eater*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKKyefvk3rw&ab%5Fchannel=Eater&ref=thebarbedwire.com), [*Bon App*é*tit*](https://www.bonappetit.com/story/barbs-b-q-chuck-charnichart?srsltid=AfmBOooz-rfduxzyzti8qPP%5FjqtY1qxni2ETqUVkEoY1l4P1w3w3gvcb&ref=thebarbedwire.com), and even the [Michelin Guide](https://guide.michelin.com/us/en/texas/lockhart%5F2958209/restaurant/barbs-b-q?ref=thebarbedwire.com). It’s for good reason: The female-owned joint is shaking things up in the Hill Country’s barbecue capitol, Lockhart. I have a rule that you shouldn’t judge one of these places by the meat — everyone except Dickey’s is doing just fine with the meat. Chuck Charnichart, Barbs B Q’s pitmaster knows her way around a smoker for sure. But what separates the good barbecue spots from the great ones are the fixins, and Barbs B Q’s green spaghetti, a creamy poblano-based pasta, is already becoming a thing of legend. https://www.instagram.com/stetsonusa/p/DBW0GVqSAsY/?img\_index=2 [**Stetson Open Road from Maufrais**](https://maufrais.shop/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Can anybody call themselves a Texan if they don’t have a big ass hat? Not fully. A Texan without a big ass hat is at most a 9.9/10 Texan. There are plenty of options all over the state, but the Open Road is a classic for good reason. Head to Maufrais for dozens of customization options, including bands to throw on for flair. https://www.instagram.com/p/CvdnT8orS34/?hl=en [**Cowboy Boots from Full Circle Vintage**](https://www.instagram.com/fullcirclevntg/?hl=en&ref=thebarbedwire.com) You also can’t fully be a Texan without some boots. Listen, I would work for any company or person that would give me the privilege to order custom boots from [Graham Ebner](https://www.grahamebner.com/cowboy-boots?ref=thebarbedwire.com) (without blinking… on the condition that the work won’t send me to prison). Halliburton? Let’s do it. My email is open. Donald Trump? Nah, *remember my condition*. However, since boots are sturdy and made to last a lifetime if cared for, vintage is never a bad option. Full Circle Vintage, which has a showroom in Lockhart and pops up on South Congress on the weekends has a wide array of options, from flashy to classy. https://www.instagram.com/p/DC9TbC3tVfk/?hl=en&img\_index=1 [**Cursive Sweatshort from A Ma Maniére**](https://www.instagram.com/p/C6wtOoNxXJZ/?hl=en&ref=thebarbedwire.com) Luxury streetwear brand A Ma Maniére became a sensation due to its [Jordan collaborations](https://stockx.com/air-jordan-1-retro-high-og-a-ma-maniere?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which exude clean comfort and style. The sweatshorts do too. They’re a perfect gift for anyone who knows that casual doesn’t necessarily mean frumpy. https://www.instagram.com/p/C6U5kGModPQ/ [**Grill & Smoker from Nomad**](https://nomadgrills.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Another two-for-one here. The Dallas-based company Nomad sells highly portable grills that double as smokers. For apartment dwellers, it can be thrown in the closet when not in use. Home renters and owners can have it proudly displayed in the backyard. It can easily be thrown in the trunk for trips to the outdoors. And listen, with the dual die-cast aluminum and baby blue accents, this is just about the coolest looking grill on the market. https://www.instagram.com/p/DCz-D-0xjgH/?hl=en&img\_index=1 **A Pet from Your Local Shelter** Adopt, don’t shop! Though don’t surprise your loved one. You don’t want them to return the puppy *and* you too. ### 20-Year-Old Texas Woman Sues Catholic Hospital Over Surprise Sterilization URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/20-year-old-texas-woman-sues-catholic-hospital-over-surprise-sterilization/ Last updated: 2024-12-03T18:19:57.000Z What was supposed to be a postpartum checkup turned into immeasurable grief for a 20-year-old Texas woman, when she learned that doctors had sterilized her without her knowledge in September 2023. Rachel Richnow is suing Christus St. Michael Hospital in Texarkana, she told [*The Dallas Morning News*](https://www.dallasnews.com/business/health-care/2024/12/03/it-made-me-feel-helpless-20-year-old-texas-woman-mistakenly-sterilized-during-c-section/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), after the hospital removed her fallopian tubes during what she believed was a routine C-section. “It came as a shock. It made me feel helpless, like my body wasn’t my own, like they can just put you under and do whatever they want to,” Richnow told the newspaper*.* Richnow’s attorney, Houston-based lawyer Tommy Hastings, said the procedure, a salpingectomy, was added to Richnow’s chart sometime before her C-section. Richnow signed the consent document before she delivered her baby, but they told *The Dallas Morning News* that “no one at the facility actually explained the procedure to her or doublechecked that she understood what was about to happen.” Richnow is suing in hopes that hospitals will add more measures to ensure patients fully understand what is happening to their bodies. Read more at [*The Dallas Morning News.*](https://www.dallasnews.com/business/health-care/2024/12/03/it-made-me-feel-helpless-20-year-old-texas-woman-mistakenly-sterilized-during-c-section/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) ### This Holiday Season, Give Yourself Some Peace of Mind URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/this-holiday-season-give-yourself-some-peace-of-mind/ Last updated: 2024-12-03T14:39:24.000Z Hey there listeners, and welcome back. It’s that fallow period between Thanksgiving, Christmas (Hanukkah!), and New Year’s. Time barely counts, calories sure as shit don’t, and your bank account is full of Monopoly money. I am not the man to tell you what to do with all that cash burning a hole in your pocket. In college, I wore jeans and a white t-shirt every day for seven months straight. My iPhone is 3 generations out of date. I drive an ugly, dorky car because it fits my budget and gets great gas mileage. My consumer interests are niche at best. But I do love spending money on *time*. It’s the only thing in the world none of us get more of. A finite resource, but how we use it is up to us. Most of us have agency, even with the responsibilities of work, kids, pets, romantic partners, and navigating the sadness and stress and chaos that is life in an uncertain world. We have some choices in where we go, what we eat, and how we relax when the opportunity presents itself. Here are a few of mine, rolled up into a perfect recent weekend. ***Get Outside*** I’m a middle aged, middling talent rock climber. But since my first foray into the German Alps in 7th grade (an upside to life as an Army brat), I’ve loved the combination of elevation and physical exertion. Today I live in Austin, with an elevation of basically sea level. The “mount” in Mount Bonnell is a load-bearing stretch of the term. But Austin loves parks. It’s one of the few things our city leadership did well a generation ago (meet the [new boss](https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2024-11-22/with-election-results-made-official-kirk-watson-narrowly-reelected-as-mayor-without-runoff/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), same as the [old boss](https://theaustinbulldog.org/what-kind-of-mayor-was-watson/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)), so we’re blessed with ample green space. We’ve got Zilker, the Greenbelt, McKinney Falls , and the underrated Bull Creek. I started off my dream weekend with a quick climbing session at Bull Creek. The air was clean, the rock cool to the touch, and I had the place to myself. I didn’t think about work, or groceries, or my elderly grandmother’s poor health, or Matt-fucking-Gaetz for 90 entire minutes. Priceless. You may not live in Austin, and you’re probably not a rock-climber. But I bet there’s a small park within walking distance of where you live. You probably drive by all the time, thinking “I should go to the park someday.” But then YouTube shorts call your name, or the kids need dinner, or you realize you forgot to send that client email. The park waits for another day. Let that day be today. Get outside! ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/img_4480.jpg) And if you’re up for something more challenging: For the [many](https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-southwest/why-texass-power-grid-still-hasnt-been-fixed?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [many](https://www.texastribune.org/2023/05/11/texas-house-raise-the-age-vote/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [many](https://www.kens5.com/article/news/education/texas-teacher-raises-legislature-school-districts-san-antonio/273-c660013b-28ce-4166-b508-bd055bf888db?ref=thebarbedwire.com) things politicians in Austin have done to let us down, one of the few they didn’t completely eff up is the creation and maintenance of our state parks. Whether it is Big Bend State Park, Dinosaur Valley, or Mustang Island — Texans are surrounded by access to natural beauty. For me, that means a two-hour drive from Austin, up the ever-expanding Hwy 183, to Colorado Bend State Park, located near Bend, between Lampasas and San Saba. The jewel of Colorado Bend is Gorman Falls. Even for a fit hiker, expect 35-45 minutes to and from the parking lot to the river and falls. (And I know from personal experience, call it 90 minutes each direction if you’re marching with two kids under the age of 10.) Towards the end of your hike, you’ll encounter some steep, slick limestone, protected with an installed handrail. Just spicy enough to make for an adventure, but never unsafe enough to make you doubt your choice to visit. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/img_4520-1.jpg) If you’ve been to Hawaii or the Pacific Northwest, Gorman Falls might leave you underwhelmed. But you’ll lose cell coverage the minute you enter the park — maybe even on the drive in — and that means no scrolling, no calls, no texts, no goddamned Twitter. Just nature. You might even forget how gray your beard has become over the years. Cost: $0 *or* $5 state park day pass, $20 in gas, $7 in trail mix and Gushers at the Lampasas H-E-B ***Free Community Events*** Did you know the Downtown Austin Alliance hosts outdoor movies at Republic Square? I didn’t! Turns out it’s among the many ways the good people at the DAA work to make the city I call home a great place to live. I joined a few hundred strangers for a viewing of [The Last Dragon](https://www.instagram.com/p/DCotBbBq6LM/?igsh=MWNic2RiMHhiZDR3cA==&ref=thebarbedwire.com) on a recent Friday night. Sho-nuff, a night of joy under the canopy of Austin’s downtown construction boom, was just what I needed. You haven’t lived until you and 250 strangers have hooted and hollered at Leroy Green kicking some henchmen's ass. In Dallas, check out [Visit Dallas](https://www.visitdallas.com/events/free-events/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for free community events; in Houston, Do 713 [tracks the same](https://do713.com/free-events-in-houston?ref=thebarbedwire.com); and the San Antonio Current keeps their own [running list](https://www.sacurrent.com/sanantonio/EventSearch?eventCategory=7759623&v=d&ref=thebarbedwire.com). Get outside and enjoy some art, a film, or some music. You won’t regret it. Cost: $0 ***And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Lights*** In years past, my family, out of town guests, and friends have all enjoyed an evening at Austin’s Trail of Lights. And while I’m old enough to remember the event “before it got so corporate and so big,” the truth is that even those of us who have sometimes bristled at our city’s wealth-fueled growth should admit that Trail of Lights pretty much frickin’ rules. It’s a communal experience for thousands of our neighbors each night, powered by hot cocoa, mulled cider, elotes, corn dogs, and maybe a cold beer or three. If you can get to Austin – especially if you’ve got kids or out of towners in tow – make the trip to Zilker Park and enjoy the lights. Eat a funnel cake, take your kids on the ferris wheel, and make sure to spin yourself dizzy under the moontower-turned-Christmas tree when you’re done with the trail. Just like a local! Dallasites can hit up [your own trail of lights](https://es.visitdallas.com/events/dallas-trail-of-lights/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and ditto our friends in [Fort Bend County](https://magicalwinterlights.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [San Antonio](https://www.thesanantonioriverwalk.com/events/holiday-lights-on-the-river-walk-free/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). ***Quick Trip to a “Real” Schitt’s Creek*** One can’t work across industries and regions in Texas as long as I have without developing a well-earned appreciation for hotel culture. I’ve laid my head at the Ritz, countless La Quintas, multiple boutique (meaning small, I guess?) downtown hotels in Dallas, and one time a roach motel in Houston was so bad I left and *bought my own sheets* before I could fall asleep. The big hole in my hotel resume is in the area of the long-maligned roadside motels. That began to change with a quick, recent stay at the [Stonewall Motor Lodge](https://www.stonewallmotorlodge.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) outside of Fredericksburg. After a mini-road trip to Colorado Bend, followed by a few hours of trail scampering, I was ready to look out at the stars and recharge. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/img_4535.jpg) Stonewall was remodeled a few years ago, and you can feel the love and care her owners put into the place. The vibe is retro, and the rooms are well-maintained. On the Stonewall’s observation deck, I met a fellow traveler named Morgan who was traveling west (I was returning east to Austin). We split an eleven dollar bottle of wine I’d picked up at the Fredericksburg H-E-B, to pair with some sushi of the same vintage. (The Stonewall’s cabins come with a microwave, and their standalone rooms get only a mini fridge; buyer beware.) Morgan and I didn’t say a word to one another about Donald Trump, Joe Rogan, Elon Musk, or fluoride in the water. Instead, we used an app on our phones to find Saturn, Jupiter, and Venus in the night sky as the sun set over the Hill Country. I lamented that it’d been too long since my last trip to the dark skies of Fort Davis and Alpine. Next time, hopefully soon, I’ll close my laptop, gas up the car, and head west. Driving further, again towards peace. Maybe I’ll see you on the road. Cost: $150 + taxes & fees for the Stonewall; $25 for wine and sushi at the Fredericksburg H-E-B ### Robert Roberson Judge Is Stepping Aside After Impartiality Concerns URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/robert-roberson-judge-is-stepping-aside-after-impartiality-concerns/ Last updated: 2024-12-02T18:40:56.000Z The judge who ordered Robert Roberson to be executed is stepping down. Deborah Oakes Evans, a retired state district judge who issued the execution warrant for Roberson earlier this year, is recusing herself from the case, [*The Dallas Morning News*](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/courts/2024/12/01/state-judge-overseeing-robert-roberson-shaken-baby-case-steps-aside/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) reported. According to a court filing, Evans signed the recusal order last week, on Nov. 25\. We don’t know why she voluntarily decided to step aside from the case, which has drawn attention from around the world. Roberson has spent 22 years on death row [for the death of his 2-year-old daughter, Nikki Curtis](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/short-of-a-miracle-robert-roberson-will-die-in-hours-legislators-are-trying-to-stop-it/). At the time, doctors in Palestine and at the Dallas County medical examiner’s office decided that Roberson had abused his daughter because she exhibited symptoms linked to so-called shaken baby syndrome, which was long ago discredited. But in the years since the trial, Roberson’s attorneys — and various independent experts — have called that a misdiagnosis, a conclusion that experts say should have triggered a new trial under the state’s so-called “junk science” law. Last month, the Texas Supreme Court [lifted Roberson’s](https://www.txcourts.gov/supreme/orders-opinions/2024/november/november-15-2024/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) stay of execution, allowing the state of Texas to move forward with the execution. No new execution date for Roberson had been set as of press time on Monday. Evans’ connection to Roberson’s case began in 2016 when she presided over a post-conviction proceeding initiated that year, court records indicate. Although she retired in 2022, she was reassigned to the case earlier this year. She oversaw the post-conviction hearings on "junk science" after the first execution was stayed but ultimately ruled against Roberson. In February 2022, Evans rejected arguments from Roberson's lawyers, concluding that they failed to demonstrate shaken baby syndrome was "discredited and no longer an accepted medical diagnosis." Though the exact reason for her recusal is unknown, it follows concerns raised by attorneys about her impartiality, who cited her alleged friendships with jurists connected to the case and her ruling to overturn another, nearly identical "shaken baby syndrome" case, which involved testimony from the exact same forensic expert featured in Roberson's trial. Gretchen Sween, one of Roberson's attorneys who previously requested Evans’ recusal, was surprised at the decision. "I do not know what prompted Judge Evans to voluntarily recuse herself at this time when no matter is currently pending," Sween told *The Dallas Morning News* on Sunday. “But I hope District Attorney Allyson Mitchell will now avoid rushing to obtain a new execution date and will instead agree to meet with Mr. Roberson’s legal team to discuss the overwhelming evidence that no crime occurred and that Mr. Roberson is thus innocent.” ### Ten Texas Gifts for People Who Miss Texas URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/ten-texas-gifts-for-people-who-miss-texas/ Last updated: 2024-12-02T10:00:00.000Z The holidays are approaching and many of us have friends or loved ones who’ve moved away from Texas. It sucks, right? Feels like they’re a million miles away? They probably miss you, too, buddy. For those who’ve had to trade the Lone Star State’s natural beauty for places where strangers don’t hold doors or say “fixin’ to,” the holidays can be a cruel reminder of all they’re missing. Don’t fret. We’ve whipped up a gift guide that’ll bring a taste of home to your far-flung kinfolk, including the most iconic Texas brands that will bring a smile to their traitorous faces. https://www.instagram.com/p/CtHOobgsknr/ [**Whataburger Spicy Ketchup**](https://shop.whataburger.com/collections/groceries?srsltid=AfmBOoqznIZB395M8KKmuhGLiPHMDIpoDiqOGi2G3XxPbVXN5y95v6Qy&ref=thebarbedwire.com) This one’s a no-brainer. Whataburger's Spicy Ketchup isn’t just a condiment — it’s a cultural phenomenon. We swear by its tangy heat that elevates everything from fries to breakfast taquitos. It’s the kind of sauce that’s worth smuggling across state lines. And maybe [pick up a tumbler](https://shop.whataburger.com/collections/drinkware?ref=thebarbedwire.com) too, which sports the famous Whataburger design. https://www.instagram.com/p/CSDZIA2sm24/?hl=en&img\_index=1 [**H-E-B Butter Tortilla Scented Candle**](https://www.heb.com/product-detail/h-e-b-flavor-favorites-bakery-butter-tortilla-scented-candle/3829006?ref=thebarbedwire.com) The H-E-B grocery chain is our true pride and joy, and it’s impossible to think about stepping inside a store without imagining the wafting goodness of their tortillas. Luckily, you can drive your out-of-town friends and loved ones crazy with a candle that recreates that mouth-watering scent. Go ahead, be cruel. https://www.instagram.com/wildseedfarms/p/CpBJwlDpi7V/?img\_index=1 [**Bluebonnet Seeds**](https://www.wildseedfarms.com/products/texas-bluebonnet/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Texas is full of icons, and the bluebonnet is right up there in our Mount Rushmore. Nothing says “Springtime” quite like driving by a highway median festooned with those colorful indigo blooms. Pick up some seeds from the Hill Country’s Wildseed Farms and let your loved ones have a little dash of Texas color in their lives. https://www.instagram.com/p/C-8qXSISe\_3/?hl=en [**Gourmet Soda from Dublin Bottling Works**](https://www.dublinbottlingworks.com/product-category/soda/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) The historic Dublin Bottling Works is a Texas legend, in all the best ways. The town in Erath County housed the first facility to bottle Dr Pepper, as well as the first bottling plant in Texas, period. They still sell a fantastic variety of sodas, including the original recipe from 1891. https://www.instagram.com/p/CdGg2lLuNoQ/ [**Beef Jerky from Prasek’s Family Smokehouse**](https://www.praseks.com/product-category/craft-jerky/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) This being Texas, we had to put some meat in here, and beef jerky from the beloved Prasek’s Family Smokehouse in Sealy fits the bill perfectly. They’ve been dishing out barbecue since the 70s, and the business is still run by the Prasek family. You can order jerky made from aged beef, turkey, New Zealand venison, or American Bison. Nothing beats a good piece of jerky, and your friends will immediately miss how good they used to have it. https://www.instagram.com/p/Ch8VIdEjBnd/ [**Candy from Alamo Candy Company**](https://www.alamocandy.com/store/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Who doesn’t like candy? Nobody we want to be associated with, that’s who. San Antonio’s renowned Alamo Candy Company has a fantastic assortment of American, Mexican, and Chinese candies. These are perfect for reminding your loved ones how awesomely diverse Texas is. https://www.instagram.com/p/C9fU\_EUJ4Z2/ [**NASA Merchandise**](https://www.shopnasa.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Houston is known as Space City for a reason — the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center is a major NASA facility. And a rock-solid gift idea is some merch from NASA’s online store, reminding your friends that in Texas, we are good at science stuff, too. https://www.instagram.com/p/CKKSbTsnm6s/ [**Don’t Mess With Texas Apparel**](https://shop.texashighways.com/dont-mess-with-texas?ref=thebarbedwire.com) You probably knew this, but “Don’t Mess With Texas” was an anti-littering slogan from the 80s that quickly took the state (and everywhere else) by storm. The campaign [saved our state](https://www.lubbockonline.com/story/opinion/columns/2016/05/07/columnist-dont-mess-texas-reaches-30-years-success/14917486007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) millions of dollars in annual litter clean-up costs — and it was good for the environment. Nothing exemplifies our attitude more than these four words. Get your friend some socks or a t-shirt, and let them show their irascible state pride everywhere. https://www.instagram.com/p/ClpgJaxJi9t/?hl=en&img\_index=1 [**An Ornament from the Texas Capitol**](https://www.texascapitolgiftshop.com/ornaments/texas-capitol-collection.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Say what you will about the clownery in our state government, but we sell some really lovely ornaments. And they have a new one every year, which means you can be lazy and give one every year to that mid-tier friend (or family member)! Just kidding, they’re worth it, and they’re a good symbol of the state we call home. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/hwkcy6qg.jpg) [***The Barbed Wire* Brisket-Scented Bumper Sticker**](https://thebarbedwire.com/product/brisket-scented-bumper-sticker/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Ok, we had to throw in something from our own store. Does this sticker *actually* smell like brisket? No, we’re not that rich. But do us a solid and get one anyway. ### Texas-Based Brand Dickies Flees for California, Where ‘Creativity’ Can Actually ‘Thrive’ URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-based-brand-dickies-flees-for-california-where-creativity-can-actually-thrive/ Last updated: 2024-11-29T18:27:27.000Z During a time where California-based companies like Tesla and SpaceX have made Texas their playground, the $10 billion Texas brand Dickies is running the other way. Dickies was founded 102 years ago in Fort Worth for the “American Worker.” Now, it’s leaving to “revitalize” its brand. The move is quick and sudden. City leaders were “blindsided by the announcement” with “no opportunity to try to change the company’s mind,” according to the [*Fort Worth Star-Telegram*](https://www.star-telegram.com/news/business/fort-worth/article296016789.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Per [*The Orange County Register*](https://www.ocregister.com/2024/11/25/dickies-102-year-old-texas-workwear-company-moving-its-hq-to-costa-mesa/?share=pdtcia0maptacqyoiart&ref=thebarbedwire.com), Dickies will share headquarters space with Vans, also owned by VF Corp, and move into the company’s Orange County offices by May 2025. While Dickies officials say the biggest reason for the move is to save money, VF spokeswoman Ashley McCormack also emphasized executives are looking to create a campus oasis where “creativity and best practice sharing can thrive through great collaboration and connections,” McCormack told *The Orange County Register.* VF Corp’s website lists its multiple recognitions as a progressive company, including a 2024 honor from [Ethisphere](https://www.vfc.com/news/press-release/1832/ethisphere-names-vf-corporation-as-one-of-the-2024?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=DENVER%20%E2%80%93%20March%204%2C%202024%20%E2%80%93,standards%20of%20ethical%20business%20practices.) for being one of the World's Most Ethical Companies and a 2023 recognition by [Seramount](https://www.vfc.com/investors/news-events-presentations/press-releases/detail/1815/vf-corporation-named-by-seramount-as-one-of-the-2023-best?ref=thebarbedwire.com) as the Best Companies for Multicultural Women. In the company’s [2023 Environmental and Social Responsibility Report](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/d1io3yog0oux5-cloudfront-net/%5F8976ca631b4350ebfb8ce74b4ebdc137/vfc/files/documents/Sustainability/Resources/vf%5Ffy2023%5Fenvironmental%5Fsocial%5Fresponsibility%5Freport%5Ffinal.pdf), CEO Bracken Darrell described inclusion, diversity, equity, and action as a “strategic business priority globally and an essential element of our success” touting the company’s increased percentage of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color in VF leadership. Those values are in direct contrast to what Texas’ elected leaders deem important: Officials have [banned DEI at public universities in the state](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/university-of-north-texas-is-on-a-campaign-of-censorship/), offered up land to help [inhumanely deport](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-happily-offers-up-land-for-trumps-mass-deportations/) people of color, [stripped away](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-ob-gyns-beg-politicians-to-do-something-after-deaths-of-pregnant-women/) women’s rights, and continuously imposed [policies](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-bans-transgender-people-from-changing-sex-on-birth-certificates/) hostile to trans and LGBTQ Texans. Read more at [*The Orange County Register*.](https://www.ocregister.com/2024/11/25/dickies-102-year-old-texas-workwear-company-moving-its-hq-to-costa-mesa/?share=pdtcia0maptacqyoiart&ref=thebarbedwire.com) ### F*ck Amazon. This Year, Give Your Holiday Money to Texas Businesses of Color. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/fck-amazon-this-year-give-your-holiday-money-to-texas-businesses-of-color/ Last updated: 2024-11-29T10:03:00.000Z This holiday season, instead of pouring your hard-earned money into the pockets of a Disney villain who’s [destroying the Fourth Estate](https://www.npr.org/2024/10/28/nx-s1-5168416/washington-post-bezos-endorsement-president-cancellations-resignations?ref=thebarbedwire.com), let us help you cross items off your shopping list *while* helping you support small businesses owned by Black and Brown Texans. At *The Barbed Wire*, we cover all things Texas for *all* Texans. We’re kicking off seven days of gift guides featuring our staff’s favorite Texas-based stores that make everything from clothes and accessories to puzzles and candles. First up, we’ve hand-picked items celebrating communities of color. When I’m out in the community, it’s so fun seeing all of the beautiful creations — art, fashion, and events — made by folks in the global majority. Here are some of my favorites. ## Clothes [![](https://thebarbedwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Screenshot-2024-11-29-at-11.02.56%E2%80%AFAM-1.png)](https://www.cadenacollective.com/collections/clothing/products/puebla-embroidered-corset?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Courtesy: Cadena Collective [**Puebla Embroidered Corset from Cadena Collective**](https://www.cadenacollective.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Dallas sisters Mabel and Alejandra Aguirre Jiménez (source and) design their own fashion with influences from Mexico and other Latin American countries as a love letter to their bicultural upbringing. “Somos de aquí, y somos de allá — we are from here, and we are from there, a testament to the depth and richness of our cultural heritage,” the sisters wrote on social media. “Every purchase represents a piece of your story, a part of your identity, and a reflection of your values” Their signature bustiers have been on my list for a long time! But you can’t go wrong with anything on their site. [**Sweatshirt from Lake and Prosper**](https://www.lakeandprosper.com/shop-all?page=2&ref=thebarbedwire.com) In December 2017, 41-year-old Kaleb Elijah lost his mother to Multiple Myeloma. He started Lake and Prosper as a way to deal with the grief. Elijah “champions the rights and visibility of Black LGBTQ and marginalized individuals,” according to his Instagram. The Houston-based brand is known for its sweatshirts and tees with bold lettering. They’re a small and mighty team (as are many locally-owned businesses), but there’s nothing little about their iconic looks. I have one of their signature sweatshirts that says “Family Celebrity,” which we’ll call it vintage because they’re no longer making it. But there’s *plenty* to choose from to keep you warm this holiday season. [**Grow at Your Own Pace Sweatpants from JZD** ](https://shopjzd.com/collections/loungewear-sets/products/grow-at-your-own-pace-sweatpants?ref=thebarbedwire.com) This shop started in 2016 in the Rio Grande Valley. It’s owned by wifey duo Jen and Vero, who’ve embraced a mission to remind Latinas of their power. Jen moved to the United States from Mexico at seven years old and Vero is a first generation Mexican-American. Their first successful product was an uber-popular Pink Latina Power Tee. Right now, during such challenging times, I’m loving their new collections filled with little reminders telling us it’s ok to not be ok — like their “[grow at your own pace”](https://shopjzd.com/collections/loungewear-sets/products/grow-at-your-own-pace-sweatpants?ref=thebarbedwire.com) sweatpants. [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/image1-1.jpg)](https://cuidateatx.com/products/classic-crewneck?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Courtesy: Cuídate [**Cuídate Sweatshirt from Cuídate**](https://cuidateatx.com/products/classic-crewneck?ref=thebarbedwire.com) The name of this brand means “take care” in Spanish. The Austin-based small business was created by two first gen sisters and is dedicated to their grandmother, who lived thousands of miles away and would always end their phone calls with “cuídate.” Now, the sisters want to share that message with their community. My fave is the signature [Cuídate sweatshirt](https://cuidateatx.com/products/classic-crewneck?ref=thebarbedwire.com), but of course you can’t go wrong with an extra [“Support Latina Owned” tote](https://cuidateatx.com/products/support-latina-owned-tote-bag?ref=thebarbedwire.com). ## Accessories [![](https://thebarbedwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Screenshot-2024-11-28-at-11.51.48%E2%80%AFPM.png)](https://shoplasofrendas.com/products/acrylic-eye-crossbody-clutch?%5Fpos=7&%5Fsid=d0d183e8a&%5Fss=r&ref=thebarbedwire.com) Courtesy: Las Ofrendas [**Acrylic Eye Crossbody Clutch from Las Ofrendas**](https://shoplasofrendas.com/products/acrylic-eye-crossbody-clutch?%5Fpos=7&%5Fsid=5d7832b62&%5Fss=r&ref=thebarbedwire.com) This Austin-based company is run by TK Tunchez. It’s a Latina & Queer-owned retail lifestyle brand that also hosts cultural events across the state. Their signature products are their flower crowns and earrings. I have so many pairs of their earrings, I’ve lost count! My favorites are the [brown sun snakes](https://shoplasofrendas.com/products/brown-sun-snake-earrings-1?ref=thebarbedwire.com), but this season, I also love the Acrylic Eye Crossbody Clutch. After the year we’ve had, we need all the evil eyes we can get to help ward off those folks who are just *not your people*. ![](https://thebarbedwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Screenshot-2024-11-29-at-11.06.34%E2%80%AFAM.png) Courtesy: Juveli [**Eraya Earrings from Juveli**](https://juveli.co/collections/all/products/eraya?variant=49339455602985&ref=thebarbedwire.com) Houston-based jewelry company Juveli is more than just a purveyor of accessories, it’s also an embodiment of the “celebration of the divine artistry within us all,” according to its website. The company is run by Tosin Tee, a 24-year-old Black woman. My fitness trainer wears her jewelry all the time and of course, I had to include her on my list! Check out the gorgeous [Eraya earrings](https://juveli.co/collections/all/products/eraya?variant=49339455602985&ref=thebarbedwire.com)! ![](https://thebarbedwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Screenshot-2024-11-29-at-11.08.10%E2%80%AFAM.png) Courtesy: Morpho Style Boutique [**Blue Morpho Butterfly Earrings from Morpho Style Boutique** ](https://www.morphostyleboutique.com/product/blue-morpho-butterfly-earrings/605?cp=true&sa=false&sbp=false&q=false&category%5Fid=11&ref=thebarbedwire.com) This shop is the cutest, and I also have too many of their items to count. Check out their signature [blue morpho butterfly earrings](https://www.morphostyleboutique.com/product/blue-morpho-butterfly-earrings/605?cp=true&sa=false&sbp=false&q=false&category%5Fid=11&ref=thebarbedwire.com). The San Antonio-based owner, Natalia Chaves Larkin, works with artisans and butterfly sanctuaries in Colombia to create the amazing jewelry. [**Monster Bob Set from Solemate Socks** ](https://solematesox.com/products/monster-bob-bundle?ref=thebarbedwire.com) This one is for the moms who are tired of losing socks to the washer and dryer. Catenya McHenry, a single mom of three, turned a problem into a solution and invented socks that will never lose their pair — thanks to a tiny magnet that keeps them together. The missing sock company, as she lovingly calls it, features fun designs for adults, but more importantly for kids! The [dinosaur pair](https://solematesox.com/products/copy-of-dinosoar?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and the [monster bob set](https://solematesox.com/products/monster-bob-bundle?ref=thebarbedwire.com) are definitely on my list for the nephews. *(Really, it’s for my sister!)* [**Morning Affirmation Cards from NOTIQ**](https://notiq.com/products/morning-affirmation-cards-box-of-30?ref=thebarbedwire.com) This beautiful brand started as a way to overcome low self-esteem. Houston-based Vivian Jokotade Adeniyi grew up in Lagos, Nigeria and was often told she was “too much” or that her dreams were unrealistic. Despite the naysayers, she ended up with a 15-year career in the world of paper as an artist, designer, and planner. Adeniyi started NOTIQ, for which she designs luxury agendas and planners. Today, her shop features beautiful [handbags](https://notiq.com/collections/handbags?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [luggage](https://notiq.com/collections/organize-your-travel?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and even hosts classes on [elevating your worth](https://www.theladyschool.com/start?aff=vj&ref=thebarbedwire.com). Her planners are also now available at [Target](https://www.instagram.com/p/DBcjI0IsVWI/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). This holiday season, however, I’m looking at gifting these beautiful [morning affirmation cards](https://notiq.com/products/morning-affirmation-cards-box-of-30?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which are a nod to the reason VJ founded her company. ## Beauty & Skincare [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/img_2062-1.jpg)](https://loudbeautybrand.com/products/stopping-traffic?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Courtesy: Loud Beauty by Tashara [**Stopping Traffic Liquid Lipstick from Loud Beauty by Tashara** ](https://loudbeautybrand.com/products/stopping-traffic?ref=thebarbedwire.com) This is my ***favorite*** brand on this list for the holidays. It was founded in 2024 by Tashara Parker, a fellow ex-TV journalist who wanted to pivot out of a journalism career “against a world that wasn’t always ready for women who looked like her,” she said in an email to *The Barbed Wire*. Parker spent years working at WFAA in Dallas and was instrumental in the state’s passage of the [Crown Act](https://www.wfaa.com/article/opinion/perspectives-the-crown-act-tashara-parker-texas-legislature-hearing-testify/287-02ade2a5-c68c-4a7d-80d3-6d0d780cf1a9?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which is supposed to ban race-based hair discrimination in Texas workplaces, schools and housing policies. (though this is Texas and [still happens despite the law](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/02/22/texas-crown-act-judge-barbers-hill/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)) Her pivot into the beauty industry shows she continues to be a force for women who want to be unapologetically loud! [**Revitalizing Moisturizing Creme from AKINYI** ](https://www.akinyiskin.com/shop/p/revitalizing-moisturizing-creme-with-jojoba-oil-and-collagen?ref=thebarbedwire.com) This brand was started by the sweetest husband and wife duo based in Austin. They wanted a product that would combine all skincare routines into one and cut down on time — but not on luxury. (I’m a busy woman, so I need all the time and beauty hacks I can get!) Their [Revitalizing Moisturizing Creme](https://www.akinyiskin.com/shop/p/revitalizing-moisturizing-creme-with-jojoba-oil-and-collagen?ref=thebarbedwire.com) is definitely on my list this holiday season. [![](https://thebarbedwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Screenshot-2024-11-29-at-12.06.19%E2%80%AFAM.png)](https://www.kissedbyabee.com/CHARCOAL-BEARD-AND-BALLS-WASH-p107836118?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Courtesy: Kissed By a Bee Organics [**Charcoal Beard and Balls Wash from Kissed By a Bee Organics** ](https://www.kissedbyabee.com/CHARCOAL-BEARD-AND-BALLS-WASH-p107836118?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Akilah Scott-Amos, owner of Kissed By A Bee Organics, is a 3rd Generation Herbalist and an “urban farmer.” Her company is based in Manvel on her family farm just outside of Houston. Scott-Amos learned about the healing powers of plants from her Grandmother LeDora and her father, William. On my list of things to get immediately? The [Honey Dew body oil](https://www.kissedbyabee.com/Honey-Dew-Body-Oil-p45046134?ref=thebarbedwire.com). For my husband, I’m grabbing the [Beard and Balls wash](https://www.kissedbyabee.com/CHARCOAL-BEARD-AND-BALLS-WASH-p107836118?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and I love a good [natural deodorant](https://www.kissedbyabee.com/WhiskBee-Deodorant-p115812136?ref=thebarbedwire.com)! ## For the Home [![](https://thebarbedwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Screenshot-2024-11-29-at-12.14.37%E2%80%AFAM.png)](https://dopecrochet.com/products/crochet-plant-pot-covers?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Courtesy: Dope Crochet [**Plant Pot Covers from Dope Crochet:** ](https://dopecrochet.com/products/crochet-plant-pot-covers?ref=thebarbedwire.com) If “dope” is in the name, please sign me up! This Austin-based brand was created by Ericka Barnes, who crochets accessories and home decor. You can get anything from earrings to festival tops, bikinis, pants, or art. This holiday season, my eyes are especially on their adorable [plant pot covers](https://dopecrochet.com/products/crochet-plant-pot-covers?ref=thebarbedwire.com) because every plant parent needs to remember their babies this holiday season. But don’t forget to check out her amazing tufted art, too! [![](https://thebarbedwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Screenshot-2024-11-29-at-11.21.17%E2%80%AFAM.png)](https://www.alilscribble.com/store/p/print-to-order/easy-lines-f29ep?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Courtesy: Alilscribble [**Primary Girl Art Print from Alilscribble** ](https://www.alilscribble.com/store/p/print-to-order/easy-lines-f29ep?ref=thebarbedwire.com) This beautiful San Antonio-based art company is run by Alannah Tiller. Her scribble-art is featured on [murals](https://www.alilscribble.com/about/murals?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and it’s even on the can art for a [Pinthouse beer](https://www.alilscribble.com/about/pint-house?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Luckily, you can own some of her prints yourself — and gift them to your loved ones. This one titled [Primary Girl](https://www.alilscribble.com/store/p/print-to-order/easy-lines-f29ep?ref=thebarbedwire.com) is my favorite on the site. It features a Brown woman with a hand on her hip: To me, it represents belonging, no matter your shape. We can all use help smashing through western beauty standards. [![](https://thebarbedwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Screenshot-2024-11-29-at-11.12.43%E2%80%AFAM.png)](https://www.clayhousecandles.com/products/cookies-for-santa-container-candle?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Courtesy: Clayhouse Candles [**Cookies for Santa Candle from Clayhouse Candles** ](https://www.clayhousecandles.com/products/cookies-for-santa-container-candle?ref=thebarbedwire.com) These candles are more like artwork. The company is Austin-based and prides itself on being playful and creating magic in a candle jar. The owner, Tai Clay, used to be a pastry chef and started working with candles during the pandemic. These candles smell *delicious*. On my list are the [cookies for Santa candle](https://www.clayhousecandles.com/products/cookies-for-santa-container-candle?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and the [coffee date candle](https://www.clayhousecandles.com/products/coffee-date-container-candle?ref=thebarbedwire.com). ## For the Littles (and Littles at Heart) [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/photo-aug-10-2022-2-27-40-pm-1.jpg)](https://www.blacktothelab.com/products/activity-kit?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Courtesy: Black to the Lab [**Cosmetic Chemistry Activity Set from Black to the Lab** ](https://www.blacktothelab.com/products/activity-kit?ref=thebarbedwire.com) If you’re seeking a gift for a little one in your life, look no further than Kristen Wells-Collins’ cosmetic [chemistry activity set](https://www.blacktothelab.com/products/activity-kit?ref=thebarbedwire.com). This kit was specifically created to help young girls stay interested in science, technology, engineering, and math. Wells-Collins is a chemist herself. She was born and raised in Beaumont and is a graduate of Prairie View A&M University. She’s on a mission to make sure little girls like her can see themselves in the industry in which she made a career. The cosmetic chemistry activity set helps children create their own lip gloss and body scrub. [**Serape Santa Hats from Chasing Camilla**](https://chasingcamilla.com/collections/christmas/products/serape-santa-hat?ref=thebarbedwire.com) The story is in the name, a busy mom chasing her daughter and running a business all at the same time. Melissa Rojas started her brand in 2017 with one single item: her signature serape Santa hat. Since then, she’s grown her business selling beautiful clothing online (my favorites are the [guayabera crops](https://chasingcamilla.com/collections/clothing?ref=thebarbedwire.com)) and has space at two brick and mortar shops in [San Antonio](https://www.instagram.com/chasingcamilla/p/CuJ9-5JglSq/?img%5Findex=1&ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [Austin](https://www.instagram.com/chasingcamilla/reel/C5TlrmVgFCA/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). My favorites are her [IG live sales](https://www.instagram.com/chasingcamilla/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which often have surprise appearances and fun commentary from Cami, Melissa’s daughter. For the littles in your life, you can’t go wrong with the [signature serape santa hats](https://chasingcamilla.com/collections/christmas/products/serape-santa-hat?ref=thebarbedwire.com) or the [sueña grande kids tee.](https://chasingcamilla.com/collections/kids-clothing-1/products/suena-grande-kids-tee?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/pachanga-familiar-lifestyle.jpg)](https://www.puzzlesofcolor.com/products/pachanga-familiar-by-mariell-guzman?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Courtesy: Puzzles of Color [**500 Piece Puzzle from Puzzles of Color** ](https://www.puzzlesofcolor.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Who doesn’t love a fun activity to do with the family after all the food and celebrating? Puzzles of Color is one of my favorite brands. It’s a Black-owned family business based in North Texas and is run by sibling duo Ericka Chambers and William Jones, who are looking to “solve the issue of diversity in puzzles.” Texas-featured artists include Mariell Guzman, who is a mixed media painter, muralist, illustrator and installation artist based in Fort Worth, Texas. She was born in Michoacán, Mexico. Check out her beautiful “[Pachanga Familiar,”](https://www.puzzlesofcolor.com/products/pachanga-familiar-by-mariell-guzman?ref=thebarbedwire.com) which features the most extraordinary colors. Artist Craig Carter, who is Houston-based, has more mature artwork that could be beautifully framed and hung on your living room wall once you’ve finished the puzzle. Carter’s 500 piece puzzle called [“Black Plum”](https://www.puzzlesofcolor.com/products/black-plum-by-craig?%5Fpos=1&%5Fsid=cb1eacc28&%5Fss=r&ref=thebarbedwire.com) portrays the joy, intensity, comfort, and security in partnered connection. [**Stickers from HEYPANDA DESIGNS**](https://heypandadesigns.com/products/asian-street-food-individual-stickers?ref=thebarbedwire.com) I love this creative design brand that brings me back to my inner child. Christine Wong is the Denton-based creator of HEYPANDA DESIGNS. Her style of art is very Kawaii which she describes as the Japanese culture of cuteness. Really it’s anything related to being lovely, loveable, cute, or adorable! Gah, I’m gushing at how cute her designs are like this [adorable mushroom notepad](https://heypandadesigns.com/products/mushroom-pad-notepad?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the precious [Asian street food stickers](https://heypandadesigns.com/products/asian-street-food-individual-stickers?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and you have to love a good pun(ny) [thank you card](https://heypandadesigns.com/products/frankfurter-greeting-card?ref=thebarbedwire.com)! ## Ornaments ![](https://thebarbedwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Screenshot-2024-11-29-at-12.28.36%E2%80%AFAM.png) Courtesy: NLD Creative Co [**Personalized Ornaments from NLD Creative Co**](https://nldcreative.com/ornaments/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Swapna Gardner is a former high school English teacher who loves “escaping into books” and “capturing the magic of literature,” she told *The Barbed Wire*. This lettering artist, based in Frisco, started her business after she learned calligraphy. She commissions custom projects, but she also has some [incredible stickers](https://www.etsy.com/shop/nerdladydesigns/?etsrc=sdt&ref=thebarbedwire.com). My favorite are her [personalized ornaments](https://nldcreative.com/ornaments/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). [**Tejas and Cactus Ornaments from Honeywood ATX** ](https://www.honeywoodatx.com/product-page/tejas-christmas-ornament?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Kaliegh Benck followed her dream of becoming a full-time artist in March 2022\. This Latina uses recycled and reclaimed materials to make one-of-a-kind art pieces in order to help reduce product waste. My favorite this season are the handcrafted ornaments made from upcycled wood scraps. Check out the classic [Tejas Ornament](https://www.honeywoodatx.com/product-page/tejas-christmas-ornament?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and the [bota](https://www.honeywoodatx.com/product-page/la-bota-christmas-ornament?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [cactus](https://www.honeywoodatx.com/product-page/cactus-ornament?ref=thebarbedwire.com) ones. [**Snowflake Ornaments from Awkward Auntie** ](https://awkward-auntie.myshopify.com/products/large-snowflake-ornament-set?variant=40418461778033&ref=thebarbedwire.com) Sarah Miller dove into creating beautiful hand-made concrete art in 2018\. Miller originally had a career in marketing and social media but she found moulding concrete into beautiful pieces and sharing it with loved ones was what brought her soul joy. She’s known for her amazing [planters](https://awkward-auntie.myshopify.com/products/ribbed-concrete-succulent-garden-container-various-colors-tops?variant=41222179815537&ref=thebarbedwire.com), but don’t sleep on her beautiful [snowflake ornaments](https://awkward-auntie.myshopify.com/products/large-snowflake-ornament-set?variant=40418461778033&ref=thebarbedwire.com). Each one is hand-dyed and perfectly symmetrical. And don’t forget to check out the [beautiful swirl trees](https://awkward-auntie.myshopify.com/products/pre-order-swirl-christmas-tree?variant=40379323613297&ref=thebarbedwire.com) for your mantle. Miller splits her time between Austin and New England. If you’re looking to pick up something in person, you can find her wares at Austin’s [Blue Genie Bazaar](https://bluegenieartbazaar.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) through Dec. 24. Happy Gifting! ### Comic Book Villain Ken Paxton Sues to Shut Homeless Shelter Days Before Thanksgiving URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/comic-book-villain-ken-paxton-sues-to-shut-homeless-shelter-days-before-thanksgiving/ Last updated: 2024-11-27T17:20:28.000Z Texas Attorney General and Scrooge-for-life Ken Paxton is back at it again — and by that we mean he’s going after another group that’s trying to help other people. This time, the MAGA Grinch is targeting a South Austin nonprofit that dares to provide care and compassion to people experiencing homelessness. Yes, in a bold move to protect Texas from the terrifying scourge of charity, Paxton set his sights on [Sunrise Homeless Navigation Center](https://sunrisenavigationcenter.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), an Austin-based organization whose primary crime is trying to help people. Paxton [announced](https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/news/releases/attorney-general-ken-paxton-sues-austin-taxpayer-funded-homeless-navigation-center-facilitating?ref=thebarbedwire.com) *two days before Thanksgiving* that he wants the center shut down for one year. It has been operating out of Sunrise Community Church since 2015 and offers a bunch of services to unhoused individuals. From food and cold weather gear to medication storage, health care assistance, and help with housing applications, the center is basically a one-stop shop for keeping people alive and giving them hope. So clearly the answer, if you’re Texas, is to sue the shit out of them. In his [lawsuit](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-texasattorneygeneral-gov/sites/default/files/images/press/sunrise-center-lawsuit-filed-utm%5Fcontent-amp-utm%5Fmedium-email-amp-utm%5Fname-amp-utm%5Fsource-govdelivery-amp-utm%5Fterm.pdf), Paxton accuses the center of being a “common nuisance” and wants it shut down for a year — or at least banned from operating within 1,000 feet of anything remotely kid-related, like schools or playgrounds. Why? Because, according to Paxton, Sunrise’s clients have engaged in “inappropriate and threatening behavior,” which he claims is traumatizing the local neighborhood, especially the kids and staff at nearby Joslin Elementary. “This organization is threatening students’ health and safety and unjustly worsening daily life for every single resident of the neighborhood,” [Paxton declared](https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/news/releases/attorney-general-ken-paxton-sues-austin-taxpayer-funded-homeless-navigation-center-facilitating?ref=thebarbedwire.com), presumably while frowning at a picture of a homeless person receiving help. He alleged in the filing that students and staff at Joslin “bear witness to the homeless walking around naked, fornicating, relieving themselves in public, and engaging in open drug use.” The suit also claims that people “receiving services from Sunrise have repeatedly broken into the school or otherwise forced the school to enter into ‘lockdown’ due to violent behavior.” The City of Austin, Paxton huffed, has given more than $1 million to Sunrise. (Wait, real quick: Does anybody remember what [an attorney general](https://www.naag.org/attorneys-general/what-attorneys-general-do/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)’s job is?) To be fair, there have been issues with Sunrise’s proximity to an elementary school, and Austin City Council Member Ryan Alter [told KXAN this year](https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/concerns-grow-over-homeless-activity-near-south-austin-elementary-school/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that his office does get complaints about homeless activity in the neighborhood. But considering the group’s successes, the answer could always include working with them to deal with those challenges instead of outright shutting them down. Sunrise Executive Director Mark Hilbelink wondered why Paxton decided to pull this stunt on Thanksgiving week (same, Mark). Calling the lawsuit "regrettable," Hilbelink reminded everyone that Sunrise is not just a nonprofit but a faith-based ministry protected by the First Amendment and other laws shielding religious institutions. “Sunrise intends to keep offering services to people in our community who need them,” [Hilbelink said](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/static1-squarespace-com/static/6431c38f38460b3d589f0dcf/t/67463bf5c5d0e15696fcafd2/1732656117392/sunrise-ag-press-release-november-2024.pdf) in a statement. “We are committed to being a good neighbor. We will continue to work, every day, to support Joslin Elementary School, our neighborhood, and our entire community.” For a center accused of being a menace, Sunrise sure has some impressive stats. [In 2023 alone](https://www.kut.org/austin/2024-11-26/texas-attorney-general-ken-paxton-sues-nonprofit-that-serves-homeless-in-south-austin?ref=thebarbedwire.com), it served over 10,800 clients, helped 803 people connect to housing, and fielded more than 23,000 calls through its hotline, which just expanded to triple its hours. In a sane state, this would be celebrated (and ideally copied elsewhere). But Paxton, ever the watchdog of public decency, is apparently more concerned about *how* these services are being delivered. As Jesus said: “Feed the hungry. *No, not like that.*” Sunrise isn’t backing down, though. Hilbelink said his group “is one of the strongest leaders in the Austin community at bringing innovative, low-barrier, and smart solutions to issues that have been difficult to address in homeless services for years.” Translation: *We’re trying to fix problems, not sue them into oblivion.* Paxton regularly pulls bullshit like this. At least [five times this year](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/09/26/texas-ken-paxton-las-americas-investigation-lawsuit-immigrants/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), his office launched investigations into immigration-focused nonprofits in Texas — one of the most recent was an El Paso group that offers legal services. Anyway, we look forward to Paxton suing Santa Claus next month for being a socialist, because not *every* kid should get a present. ### ‘The Disdain is Palpable’: Longhorn-Aggie Game Reignites an Ancient Feud URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-disdain-is-palpable-longhorn-aggie-game-reignites-an-ancient-feud/ Last updated: 2024-11-27T10:00:00.000Z After 13 long years, the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University are back where they belong: doing battle on Saturday. Yes, the Longhorns and Aggies are playing football again. The ancient in-state enemies are set to play, finally, at Kyle Field this weekend in College Station. It’s an important game. Texas is ranked No. 3 in the country, and A&M is coming off a heartbreaking [overtime loss to Auburn University.](https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5943246/2024/11/24/sec-title-game-scenarios-georgia-texas-texas-am/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) They’re clearly [itching to spoil the Longhorns’ championship hopes](https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5943246/2024/11/24/sec-title-game-scenarios-georgia-texas-texas-am/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “The disdain is palpable,” said Matt Guzman, an Aggies columnist for *Sports Illustrated*. Needless to say, interest is high. By Monday, tickets had hit [historic highs](https://x.com/TickPick/status/1861101521145856251?ref=thebarbedwire.com), making it the most expensive regular season football ticket in the history of college football or the NFL. At one point, a group of up to eight tickets was listed for resale at $7,428 each on SeatGeek. Over the weekend, the median ticket price on StubHub had [exceeded $2,000](https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5943982/2024/11/25/texas-am-longhorns-aggies-football-ticket-prices/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). This points to an immutable truth of athletics: Hatred is big bucks. “Rivalries are the lifeblood of sports,” said legendary Texas sportswriter Kirk Bohls of the *Houston Chronicle*, who called UT vs. A&M one of the top 10 rivalries in college football. It’s a much-anticipated return for fans on both sides who have missed the annual game, which began in 1894 and was held [every year consecutively from 1915 to 2011](https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2024/11/24/am-texas-rivalry-is-back-where-it-belongs/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). And the lack of a game in recent years was a noticeable void, considering both schools’ long-standing hatred of the other. “Each school has each other mentioned in their fight songs; it's a bit awkward that they haven’t played each other,” said Leah Vann, a sports culture reporter for *Chron.com.* Here’s the beef in a nutshell: The two schools are natural opposites, with Texas representing Austin’s liberalism versus A&M’s cherished rural and military roots. “It's arguable that the Aggies concern themselves over the Longhorns much more than the Longhorns do the Aggies, but there isn't any denying that it's a true-blood rivalry,” Guzman said. “In its heyday, it was what decided control, who got to wear the King of Texas hat for the year and gave both sides something to look forward to.” I grew up in A&M-friendly Wichita Falls. My dog’s veterinarian had a sign in his office: “No Aggie joaks.” UT was viewed as Sodom and Gomorrah on a good day. Here’s how I see it: Aggies and Longhorns are like brothers. One voted for Trump and would instantly have your back in a fight. The other sat out the election and really wants to move to New York. “It's both a family affair and a clash of vastly different cultures in the state,” Vann said. “To use an analogy, it's oil & gas vs. renewable energy — the two have this common ground to power our state or nation, but are coming at it from different angles.” And, after all, what fun is college football without an enemy? “A lot of the Aggies' culture has revolved around the idea of trumping Texas, but without that game being played every year, it's made the rivalry seem more like an old tale,” Guzman told *The Barbed Wire*. The last time the two played was Nov. 24, 2011; UT won 27–25 on a last-second field goal. After that, A&M left the Big 12 Conference for the more illustrious Southeastern Conference, and the rivalry was put on hold. Since then, there have been attempts to rekindle things. In 2013, state Rep. Ryan Guillen filed a bill[ to force the two schools to play a game](https://www.usatoday.com/story/gameon/2013/01/29/texas-texas-am-legislator-bill-renew-rivalry/1873713/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) every year. But it went nowhere. The subject “became a bipartisan issue in the Texas Legislature, as multiple lawmakers have tried their own ways of bringing it back — because, if you think about it, unlike Texas-Oklahoma, it brings a lot of revenue to the state’s top institutions,” Vann said. Polls taken at both schools over the past decade showed [overwhelming support on both sides](https://www.dallasnews.com/sports/2019/02/23/student-polls-show-overwhelming-support-to-bring-back-texas-am-texas-football-game/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to restart the series. Now that the ceasefire is over, Texans of all stripes have rushed to enlist. In College Station, people began camping out in droves once student tickets became available. “Even in the rain,” Guzman said. Each school has had its ups and downs over the last 13 years. Texas dominated the mid-to-late 2000s, with a national championship in 2005 and another title game appearance in 2009\. Since then, it’s been a bumpy ride. But the last few years have seen the Longhorns return to prominence, with an appearance in last season’s College Football Playoff and another strong season this year. A&M, meanwhile, enjoyed a high around 2013, thanks to its Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Johnny Manziel. But things were rough the last several years under head coach Jimbo Fisher, who A&M fired last year despite the fact that it cost the school more than $75 million [to buy out his contract](https://www.texastribune.org/2023/11/12/jimbo-fisher-buyout/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). There were also some school politics involved in Texas joining the SEC — a move that A&M leaders were decidedly against. In 2021, as speculation brewed that Texas and the University of Oklahoma were preparing to jump ship from the Big 12 Conference, A&M athletic director Ross Bjork was not amused. “We want to be the only SEC program in the state of Texas,” [Bjork said](https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/%5F/id/31857539/texas-ad-ross-bjork-speaks-report-texas-oklahoma-want-join-sec?ref=thebarbedwire.com) at the time. “There’s a reason why Texas A&M left the Big 12 — to be standalone, to have our own identity.” But you can’t stop money in college football. A&M ultimately (and probably reluctantly) [joined other SEC schools in approving the new members](https://www.si.com/college/texas/news/sec-officially-adds-texas-and-oklahoma-into-sec-with-unanimous-vote?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Gleeful [Texas fans poked fun at A&M’s sullenness](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcU3%5FCok3CI&ab%5Fchannel=bigquesoaustin&ref=thebarbedwire.com) in a parody video. So while the rivalry is back, there may be some sore feelings. Naturally. “I think A&M also wanted to be the only SEC program in the state, but either way you point fingers, I still think the two schools know it's better to play the rivalry than to not,” Vann said And football-wise, it’s an interesting matchup. “There's potential for the game between the Aggies and Longhorns to decide who will punch their ticket to the SEC Championship game, so there are major implications there that elevate the matchup,” Guzman said. “Beyond that, there's perhaps a sense that Texas A&M wants to prove that it's been in the SEC the longest, and therefore has rights to it.” He added: “The Longhorns, on the other hand, have had a stellar season in the new conference, and would certainly like to give their rivals another ‘punch in the mouth’ by beating them on their own turf.” The fact that the game occurs during Thanksgiving weekend is a big part of the dynamic, too. It’s a time when families get together and loyalties may be divided. (If you think getting together with your Trump-loving relatives will be awkward this week, that’s *nothing* compared to a mixed UT/A&M household.) “Historically the only teams that have played on Thanksgiving in the state are Texas, Texas A&M and the Dallas Cowboys,” Vann said. “So, Thanksgiving in Texas revolves around football.” Above all, the game is about something more important than championships: bragging rights. “They're separated by 100 miles and a century of hate,” Bohls said. “Children grow up in Texas loving one side and hating the other. It's their birthright.” I thought about the upcoming game a few days ago, while visiting Austin’s downtown library. Getting off the elevator, I saw a guy in his 20s wearing an A&M polo, jeans, and worn-out boots. He was slouched in a chair, one leg dangling over the arm. He seemed out of place. Probably his first time in a library. (Boom! Take that Aggies!) See y’all Saturday. ### Rejoice! Some Texans May Wake Up to Snowflakes on Thanksgiving URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/rejoice-some-texans-may-wake-up-to-snowflakes-on-thanksgiving/ Last updated: 2024-11-26T19:11:06.000Z Texas weather is always chaotic, but this year meteorologists are certain it’ll be a jacket and gloves kind of holiday on Thursday. *Thank God* because if we can’t even wear sweaters at Thanksgiving, they might as well stay in the closet all year. The National Weather Service forecasts a strong cold front will surge through the Great Plains region on Wednesday afternoon. Areas like Lubbock will see wind gusts up to 40 miles per hour and wake up to the possibility of snow flurries and sprinkles on Thursday, according to [KLBK meteorologists](https://www.everythinglubbock.com/weather/colder-by-thanksgiving-snow-flurries-for-some/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). (Wait, should we all move to Lubbock??) The front will bring the coldest air of the season to North Texas, per [WFAA](https://www.wfaa.com/article/weather/dfw-weather-cold-fronts-cooler-temperatures-thanksgiving-day-plans/287-fe68028a-03c5-450f-93af-67733d53e517?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Temperatures are forecast to dramatically drop from a high of 79 degrees on Wednesday to lows of 39 degrees in some parts of the DFW area on Thursday. (Sorry folks, no snow there, but expect a frigid morning for those of us who thought it was a good idea to run the Turkey Trot.) [Central Texas](https://www.kxan.com/weather/forecast/todays-forecast/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [Houston](https://www.khou.com/article/weather/forecast/houston-weather-forecast-outlook-today/285-dcbc1c6b-3ff3-4218-a3f7-a935ead9e9b4?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [El Paso](https://kvia.com/weather/2024/11/26/abc-7-stormtrack-weather-warm-and-comfortable-cooler-thanksgiving-expected/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and the [Rio Grande Valley](https://www.krgv.com/weather/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) will all see pretty mediocre weather — and some areas could see [record heat](https://forecast.weather.gov/product.php?site=NWS&issuedby=EPZ&product=AFD&format=CI&version=1&glossary=1&ref=thebarbedwire.com). But the bottom half of the state will still see temperatures staying in the low 60s on Thursday. That’s plenty low enough for what northerners call a “summer cashmere.” Hope y’all are ready for sweater weather! Read [more at *MYSA*](https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/weather/article/cold-front-snow-texas-19941338.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). ### ‘Armadillo Forever’ Brings Austin’s Revolutionary Music Venue into a New Era URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/armadillo-forever-brings-austins-revolutionary-music-venue-into-a-new-era/ Last updated: 2024-11-26T10:00:00.000Z For a decade, a concert hall housed inside an old National Guard Armory ruled the city of Austin. Located on South First Street, the Armadillo World Headquarters welcomed hippies and cowboys alike, all of whom came for the Lone Star beer and the legendary shows. Inside, you could catch emerging stars and major acts like Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Frank Zappa, ZZ Top, AC/DC, and Bruce Springsteen. Though the physical location may be long gone — it was demolished in 1981 to make way for a high-rise office building — it’s now getting a second life. At the South Congress Hotel, less than a mile away from the ‘Dillo’s original location, sits “Armadillo Forever,” an immersive pop-up experience that will run through the end of the year. Created in partnership with several of the venue’s founders, including Eddie Wilson and Jim Franklin (best-known for his armadillo illustrations and poster designs), Armadillo World is more than just a revival of the venue’s spirit, it’s a way to introduce a new generation of Austinites to the Armadillo, while supporting the city’s artists and musicians. The brand first teased their return in February with their first collaboration: [Austin FC’s “Armadillo Kit,” ](https://www.austinfc.com/news/austin-fc-releases-clubs-new-secondary-jersey?ref=thebarbedwire.com)a secondary jersey that featured nods to the storied institution like its original address on the neckline and an armadillo illustration on the jock tag. “Armadillo Forever” is meant to be something more concrete — an immersive experience that can bring together people who remember the Armadillo and those who have never heard of it. Inside the two-story space, vintage-inspired T-shirts, tote bags, hats, and posters line the walls**.** Above the lounge area, a TV screen plays rotating footage from shows at the Armadillo, and near the spiral staircase, there’s a photobooth for guests to capture their visit to the shop. For the next few months, [the space will also play host](https://armadilloworld.com/armadillo-headquarters/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#Lineup) to live musicians, listening parties, film screenings, and art installations. “The Armadillo was one of the reasons that Austin became known as the ‘Live Music Capital of the World,’” brand spokesperson Nick Shuley told *The Barbed Wire*. “It set the stage for so much of what we have now, from South by Southwest to the Austin City Limits Festival.” An Austin native, Shuley grew up going to shows downtown at Liberty Lunch and hearing from his parents, whom he calls “classic Austin hippies,” about their days at the Armadillo. For the last ten years, he's worked with philanthropist Gary Keller, the co-founder, chairman and CEO of Keller Williams, as the president of [Austin Music Movement](https://austinmusicmovement.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), an advocacy group dedicated to supporting and growing the city’s music industry. When he got involved with Armadillo World, Shuley didn’t want it to be a “nostalgia play,” something that would reduce the venue’s history to a name slapped onto a building with no context or meaning. “That’s what happens all the time,” he said. “You see people take these legacy institutions and try to recreate them, and it never works, because you can’t just recreate a cultural moment again. It just doesn’t happen.” Instead, the idea was to imagine what the Armadillo might look like today. ![merchandie on top of a white table, including books and orange socks](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/241105_armadillo_embed1.jpg) Back in 1970, the Austinites behind the Armadillo didn’t have a long-term plan for the venue, and the location they’d chosen might’ve been convenient and cheap, but it was far from suited to host concerts. Still, the place became a cultural hub in the heart of the city, helping to incubate a class of rising talent in Austin. In today’s landscape, Shuley said South Congress felt like the perfect place to recapture a bit of that energy. While the pop-up is open, 100% of their gross merchandise proceeds will go toward the music education nonprofit All ATX. “We’re taking over a space in a major area that most musicians and artists wouldn’t be able to take over themselves,” Shuley says. “That felt like the best way to draw people's attention back to the music and give back.” As visitors have entered the space, old memories have come flooding back. While working at the store, Mage Buse told *The Barbed Wire* she has heard from a number of guests about their experiences at the Armadillo. “People have told me about how they used to waitress there, or that their parents met there,” she said. “When Eddie Wilson was here, he told me people always tell him they were conceived there.” ![hardwood floors, a white table in the center of the room with merch on it, and an iron staircase inside the armadillo world pop-up](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/241105_armadillo_embed2.jpg) For Shuley, the goal is to share the Armadillo with a younger audience, and through that, help reinvigorate the culture around Austin’s much-touted-but-also-much-corporatized music scene. “Now that we have all of these amazing venues and festivals like ACL and the Moody Center, which are great, I think people forget about places like the Continental Club, Saxon Pub, or C-Boys,” he said. “Those were the places where you can develop as an artist. Those are the places that are going to keep us a music town.” Already, they’ve hosted a watch party for Austin City Limits’ 50th anniversary, and hosted their first few “South Congress Sessions,” welcoming musicians like Alexi 8Bit, Forever Redbud, The Irons, and Motenko. “If you actually spend time going to local shows, the depth of the scene is still here,” Shuley said. “The musicians are still here. You can go out and you can still stumble upon something phenomenal.” This is just step one. Shuley is hoping the pop-up will lay the groundwork for a documentary, more merch collaborations, and vinyl releases. “We’re not going to be in this space forever, but I think if we do things right, we’ll make it to where if you go out and see an armadillo logo somewhere, you’ll know that’s a place that cares about supporting music,” he said. “This doesn’t need to be a sedentary brand. This can be so many things, like an Armadillo night at the Moody Center. Who knows? In the end, it’s all about bringing people together, which is exactly what the original did.” ### Trump Taps Texas Nobodies Over Fan Boys Greg Abbott, Ken Paxton URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/trump-taps-texas-nobodies-over-fan-boys-greg-abbott-ken-paxton/ Last updated: 2024-11-25T21:07:00.000Z We almost feel bad for Gov. Greg Abbott and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Both Republicans have been desperately vying for the attention of President-elect Donald Trump, with Abbott yapping about [protecting Texas from the evil influence of communists](https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/business/2024/11/22/506928/gov-abbott-orders-texas-state-agencies-to-divest-from-china/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) (Chinese, not Russian — *it’s not the 1980s*) and Paxton boldly standing up for Elon Musk’s God-given right [to force advertisers to remain on X.](https://techcrunch.com/2024/11/21/texas-ag-opens-investigation-into-advertising-group-that-elon-musk-sued-for-boycotting-x/?guccounter=1&guce%5Freferrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce%5Freferrer%5Fsig=AQAAAIlSXoYGqJq18vlsWGdAR3yFxuaY7i%5FUYe%5F0wP-X7f07U0baAJSINaQBjcMLqQslwjfUnpiqw2pz6VRKZAymMtIZCowDNzBvoc4rYHdTNW3D2UiCtVipIESSHuqOegxOO4XV4uj2NXnkl76hwNr4u3MnsHgBIWWgfSZ2blQCx5bj&ref=thebarbedwire.com) Let’s recap. Last week, Abbott ordered [state agencies to cut financial ties with China,](https://gov.texas.gov/news/post/governor-abbott-directs-state-agencies-to-divest-portfolios-from-china?ref=thebarbedwire.com) calling the Chinese Communist Party a “foreign adversary.” He also [has declared Texas a no-fox zone,](https://apnews.com/us-news/china-government-texas-greg-abbott-china-executive-orders-03cec156e1b73a8f1754bb2ff709c6ce?ref=thebarbedwire.com) ordering state police to hunt down operatives working for China’s “Operation Fox Hunt.” While the initiative claims to fight corruption, it’s better known for bullying pro-democracy activists, intimidating ex-pats, and dragging dissidents back to China, [according to reporting from *ProPublica*](https://www.propublica.org/article/operation-fox-hunt-how-china-exports-repression-using-a-network-of-spies-hidden-in-plain-sight?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Meanwhile Paxton proudly [declared he was investigating](https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/news/releases/attorney-general-ken-paxton-opens-investigation-possible-conspiracy-advertising-companies-boycott?ref=thebarbedwire.com) the World Federation of Advertisers for allegedly plotting ad boycotts against social media platforms. Though unnamed, it likely includes Elon Musk’s X, which in August sued the federation over claims of an “illegal boycott.” Paxton, the King of Frivolous Lawsuits, was apparently in the running for U.S. Attorney General. In addition to his loyal 2020 election denialism, Paxton has shown himself to be a valuable advocate for the right by filing [more than 100 lawsuits](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/congrats-ken-paxton-celebrates-100th-stupid-lawsuit-against-nation/) against the federal government on everything from tiny lizards to anti-trans nonsense. It's all sad behavior by two fan boys to get a cabinet spot in Trump’s administration. And what did Trump do? He hilariously passed over both. Instead, Trump went with two Lone Star no-names: longtime ally Brooke Rollins for secretary of agriculture and former state Rep. Scott Turner to oversee housing and urban development. If you don’t know who either of these people are, honestly, that’s not on you. Headlines in national outlets from *USA Today* and the *Associated Press* to *The New York Times* have reporters addressing: “[Who Is Brooke Rollins?](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/11/23/trump-brooke-rollins-agriculture-secretary/76200293007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)” and “[What to Know About Brooke Rollins, Trump’s Choice for Agriculture Secretary](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/24/us/politics/brooke-rollins-trump-agriculture.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com).” Rollins previously worked for former Gov. Rick Perry and has been a prominent Trump ally for many years. She serves as the [co-founder and president of the America First Policy Institute, a pro-Trump conservative think tank](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c629vn5j836o?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Before today, I’d never seen that woman in my life, whereas Paxton’s face is etched on the back of my eyelids when I fall asleep at night. During Trump’s first administration, she was a White House aide, holding roles as the director of the Office of American Innovation and acting director of the Domestic Policy Council. Turner, a former NFL player, served in the Texas House of Representatives from 2013 to 2017\. He now chairs the Center for Education Opportunity at the he same think tank run by Rollins. In 2019, Trump appointed Turner to lead a council focused on revitalizing distressed communities through so-called Opportunity Zones, an initiative that directed private investment into struggling areas. While the program received bipartisan praise, [critics argued that wealthy investors benefited more than local residents](https://www.npr.org/2024/11/22/nx-s1-5189473/hud-trump-nomination-administration-scott-turner-carson?ref=thebarbedwire.com). *No way!* Despite these resumes, both Rollins and Turner are way, way, lower on the Texas politics pecking order than Abbott and Paxton. But thanks to their years of Trump obsequiousness, they are now much more important, nationally at least. It just goes to show: Desperation is never a good look, fellas. ### An Ode to an Ode: Memories of the Texas Pledge URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/an-ode-to-an-ode-memories-of-the-texas-pledge/ Last updated: 2024-11-25T20:05:06.000Z We all grew up pledging allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. And to the Republic, for which it stands… you know the rest. But here in Texas, we go one step further and recite [our own pledge](https://www.tsl.texas.gov/ref/abouttx/flagpledge?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which routinely surprises outsiders. “Did you know that the Lone Star State has its own Pledge of Allegiance? I didn’t. But it does. Of course it does!” wrote Hendrik Hertzberg in [*The New Yorker* in 2012](https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/hendrik-hertzberg?ref=thebarbedwire.com). *Of course* we do. But it came as a shock to me, too, when my family moved to Texas (from the apparently less Godly state of Louisiana) in the 80s and I learned — at the age of 9 — that I now had twice the number of pledges to recite. Little did I know that generations of Texas kids have had to recite: “Honor the Texas flag; I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible." (Not to mention, Texas has its own history class, too!) I was curious if other people shared my feelings, so I asked on social media about others’ experiences of the Texas pledge. And I quickly learned that I wasn’t alone in both my shock and amusement at our great state’s tradition. Dallas-based journalist [Sasha Richie recalled](https://x.com/sashabella%5Fr/status/1837197987891613867?ref=thebarbedwire.com): “I moved around a lot as a kid but lived most of my life in Texas, and when I told kids in other states that in Texas we had our own state pledge, they looked at me like I had three heads.” Horror writer D. Williams [remembered](https://x.com/da%5F%5Fwilliams/status/1837156920265674939?ref=thebarbedwire.com) saying the Texas pledge every day from 1996 until she moved away 12 years later. “It's only now that you mention it that it occurs to me that that was a weird thing to do,” she said. (If that isn’t the Texas experience in a nutshell, I don’t know what is.) Teacher [Becky Luna said](https://x.com/madredelluna/status/1836898505895424183?ref=thebarbedwire.com) her elementary students recited it “for years” in San Antonio. [Ethan Hayes remembered saying it](https://x.com/hayesem0/status/1836810367978107247?ref=thebarbedwire.com) all the way through high school. Dallas minister Roy Atwood [said his Ilinois-native parents](https://x.com/RoyGAtwood/status/1836951104644423819?ref=thebarbedwire.com) were flummoxed by the tradition: “When they found out we had a Texas pledge that we recited every day they were completely dumbfounded,” he said. And it’s not just schools! Texas resident Brett Spalding said his local Realtor association currently includes it at the beginning of every *monthly luncheon*. (Editor’s note: Maybe we should be doing this on all our editorial meetings at *The Barbed Wire*??) “But they put their hand over their heart, where I distinctly remember that as kids it was hand out, palm up?” [Spalding said](https://x.com/brettspalding/status/1837284667776549108?ref=thebarbedwire.com). For those readers who aren’t blessed to live in Texas, we’ve had our own pledge for a long time. We [established a pledge to our flag in 1933](https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Why-do-public-school-students-say-the-Texas-1823148.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com), but it took 70 years before the state legislature mandated that kids in school recite it along with the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance. And over the years, the Texas pledge has also been amended a few times. [The initial pledge, adopted in 1933](https://www.tsl.texas.gov/ref/abouttx/flagpledge?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=According%20to%20The%20Handbook%20of,referred%20to%20the%201836%20national), read: “Honor the Texas Flag of 1836; I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one and indivisible.” But the flag referenced was not the current version but rather [David G. Burnet's “first” national flag](https://store.bullockmuseum.org/982970/framed-first-flag-of-republic-of-texas.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=Description,blue%20symbolized%20defiance%20and%20independence.): azure blue with a large golden star in the center. The reference to 1836 was [reportedly](https://www.newyorker.com/news/hendrik-hertzberg/pledge-allegiance-podner?ref=thebarbedwire.com) removed after people reasonably noted that, since Texas didn’t join the Union until 1846, honoring the Texas Flag “of 1836” was kind of weird. Finally, our legislature amended the pledge in 1965, nixing the year. (Nobody tell the [10 new Republicans](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-secessionists-thrilled-hopeful-for-revolution-after-2024-election/) elected to the statehouse this month who’ve already signed a pledge promising to further the cause of Texas Secession.) Oh, and about 20 years ago, Republican legislators passed a law to add “one state under God” to the state pledge. Of course. *Of course*. Lest our detractors fear that we’re a state under someone else, Lt. Gov. Dan “Stand with Christ” Patrick has taken credit for [most of these efforts](https://www.danpatrick.org/standforchrist/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) since he took office, adding “under God” to the wall of the Texas Senate, the pledge, and anywhere else that will let him. And after all these years, the Texas pledge is still going strong, and by “strong” I mean, “confusing new arrivals to the state.” Importantly, believe it or not, Texas isn’t the only state with its own creepy (or patriotic, depending on who you voted for) pledge. At least a dozen other states also have homages to their flags. Alaskans [put theirs to song](https://alaska.gov/kids/learn/statesong.htm?ref=thebarbedwire.com): “Eight stars on a field of blue; Alaska's flag. May it mean to you; The blue of the sea, the evening sky; The mountain lakes, and the flowers nearby.” In Michigan, they shout out [both their state and its flag](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-michigan-gov/media/Project/Websites/MiCRC/MISC3/micr%5Fmi%5Fpledge%5Fand%5Fland%5Facknowledgments-rev-a48b05358ee2459cb2e7518a739c8059.pdf): “Two beautiful peninsulas united by a bridge of steel.” Kinda sounds like Bruce Springsteen wrote it. Like me, Matt Johnson moved to Texas as a kid. In his case, he came from Georgia. “We moved to Texas in 5th grade and the first day I sat down after the regular pledge,” [he said](https://x.com/GMattJ/status/1836928895431434562?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “Everyone else, still standing, looked right at me. I hopped back up real quick, super confused. Then I did it every day until graduating high school.” Same. Like most things Texas, there’s a bit of an adjustment. Then you can’t imagine things any other way. ### Texas Passes Jesus-Heavy, Slavery-Ignoring Curriculum URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-passes-jesus-heavy-slavery-ignoring-curriculum/ Last updated: 2024-11-22T20:12:01.000Z As expected, [Texas has approved a new elementary school](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/11/19/texas-sboe-bible-christianity-curriculum/?utm%5Fcampaign=trib-social&utm%5Fcontent=1732300739&utm%5Fmedium=social&utm%5Fsource=twitter) curriculum Friday that’s heavy on Jesus and light on uncomfortable parts of history — like slavery. The proposal will bring the Bible-infused content to classrooms starting next year, making Texas the [first state to implement such a program in this manner](https://apnews.com/article/texas-bible-religion-schools-52b74577982b34ce2607b693bd51cae7?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Eight out of the 15 Texas State Board of Education members voted in favor of approving [Bluebonnet Learning](https://tea.texas.gov/academics/instructional-materials/bluebonnet-learning?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the elementary school curriculum proposed by the Texas Education Agency earlier this year. “Had it not been for the Christian bias in this content, I do really find value in how a lot of these lessons were laid out. So it’s unfortunate,” Marisa Pérez-Díaz, a state board member who voted against Bluebonnet, told *[The Dallas Morning News](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/education/2024/11/22/bible-infused-lessons-for-texas-public-schools-narrowly-approved/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)*. The materials, created in response to a law passed by the GOP-controlled state legislature in 2023, aim to integrate Bible stories into reading and language arts lessons for kindergarten through fifth grade. While the curriculum is optional for schools, those who adopt it will receive additional funding ($60 per student). The new [curriculum](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/slavery-what-slavery-texas-leaders-want-new-problematic-curriculum/) introduces kindergartners to the “Golden Rule,” with a strong emphasis on Jesus. First-graders will learn about the architectural achievements of Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, though the troubling history of slavery at the plantation is left out. By fifth grade, students will study Leonardo da Vinci’s painting *The Last Supper*, accompanied by excerpts from the Gospel of Matthew. The curriculum also seriously simplifies major historical complexities. Figures like Jefferson and George Washington are portrayed as courageous leaders who fought for freedom, while their ownership of enslaved people is omitted from the narrative. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has publicly supported the new curriculum, and the board’s decision has been seen as a victory for those pushing to expand religious influence in public education. However, experts have raised concerns about the potential constitutional implications of the decision, particularly regarding the establishment clause of the First Amendment. Proponents of the Bible-based curriculum also argue that it will help students gain a deeper understanding of literature and enhance their academic development. Supporters point to the long history of biblical influence on Western culture and suggest that the Bible’s moral teachings can provide a useful framework for character education. “The Bible has had a colossal impact on the Western world in art, history and literature that cannot be ignored,” Mary Elizabeth Castle, with the conservative Texas Values organization, told *[The Dallas Morning News](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/education/2024/11/22/bible-infused-lessons-for-texas-public-schools-narrowly-approved/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)*. However, the proposal has faced significant opposition, particularly from those who argue that it [violates the principle](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/inside-the-battle-to-keep-religion-out-of-texas-schools/) of separation of church and state. Critics contend that the curriculum, which is heavily centered on Christianity, could alienate students from diverse religious backgrounds and infringe on their constitutional rights. “This curriculum is not age-appropriate or subject matter appropriate in the way that it presents these Bible stories," [Amanda Tyler](https://apnews.com/article/texas-bible-religion-schools-52b74577982b34ce2607b693bd51cae7?ref=thebarbedwire.com), executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, told the Associated Press. In a press release, outgoing Texas Democratic Party Chair [Gilberto Hinojosa](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-democratic-party-chair-quits-after-devastating-defeats/) said that, “In a state as diverse as Texas, home to millions of people from countless faiths and beliefs, the Texas Republicans on the State Board of Education voted to incorporate Biblical teachings into the state curriculum — completely undermining religious freedom. He added: “The teaching of religious doctrine should stay in our places of worship where it belongs.” ### The Texas Voyager: Winning at All Costs and ‘Hell or High Water’ URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-texas-voyager-winning-at-all-costs-and-hell-or-high-water/ Last updated: 2024-11-22T14:40:48.000Z *Texas hasn’t gotten its due as a major piece in the complex puzzle of American art. We’re here to rectify that. Every two weeks, H. Drew Blackburn will conduct a thoroughly scientific analysis of the 254 integral (one for every county) books, movies, tv shows, albums, podcasts, songs, and magazine articles — you name it — that best exemplify the Texas spirit. These texts, products of immense talent, dig into the marrow of our being. When it’s all said and done and we’ve built The Texas Voyager collection, we’ll (figuratively) head to the Johnson Space Center in Houston and shoot it beyond the atmosphere, into the cosmos. A wise person once posed the question: “What if the aliens are hot?” Hold onto that hope — this is our chance to impress ‘em.* “Winning isn’t everything. It’s the only thing.” UCLA Bruins coach Red Sanders invented the phrase, but legendary Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi gave it a mythical status. This adage dishes out the type of machismo that gives the dismissive expression, “sportsball,” life. But sports, like all games, contains morsels of wisdom and truth that allow us to excavate human nature and all of our complexities. For one, Lombardi, as nasty as he was as a coach, was by all accounts a decent man. He was a [queer ally](https://www.jsonline.com/story/sports/nfl/packers/2024/06/04/vince-lombardi-remembered-as-an-lgbtq-ally-during-pride-month/73975869007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and an anti-racist. [He also regretted popularizing the aforementioned phrase and even eventually walked it back](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/sports/2010/09/07/still-in-a-league-of-his-own/4a21efc0-ba16-11df-b2a1-1bf320ce3354/?ref=thebarbedwire.com): “I wished I’d never said the thing. I meant the effort. I meant having a goal. I sure didn’t mean for people to crush human values and morality.” But, who are we kidding? This is America. As advertised, this place is a beacon of hope, when we are merely a great contradiction. The idea that winning is the sole purpose of life is woven into the fabric of the United States — in every red thread you see on an American flag. 2016’s “Hell or High Water” coalesces our nation’s contradictions. It’s a film about winners and losers, capital, violence, gray morality, self-preservation, and greed. It’s honest. It’s also really, really good. The film, directed by David Mackenzie, puts you squarely at the edge of your seat, making it the greatest thriller of the 2010s, and one that found its way onto dozens of year-end lists after its release. “Hell or High Water” nabbed four Academy Awards nominations (including Best Picture), and earned the five spot on [*Variety*’s list of the decade’s best films](https://variety.com/feature/best-movies-decade-2010-2019-1203433606/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The West Texas neo-western is about two brothers, Toby and Tanner Howard (Chris Pine and Ben Foster), who rob Texas Midlands Bank branches. Toby, a divorced father of two, is the brains of the operation. He’s the quiet stoic one, and he devises the plan to save his mother’s ranch after she dies. If Texas Midlands Bank doesn’t receive $40,000, the property goes into foreclosure, but there’s more to it than just the loss of a piece of land and his mother’s memory. Black gold has been discovered in the soil. The scheme, if executed without any hiccups, is a smart one. Stealing from the bank that’s responsible for bringing stress into your life and handing that money right back to them? That’s a beautiful way to stick it to the man. More importantly, the Fosters have an opportunity to never go hungry — or need for anything — another day of their lives. But of course, there are a couple of setbacks. Tanner is the hot-head ex-con brother, who acts on impulse. And if there are robbers, there’s gotta be cops too. Texas Rangers Marcus Hamilton (Jeff Bridges) and his partner Alberto Parker (Gil Birmingham) are on the hunt waiting for the brothers to make a mistake. On the surface, it’s a simple story told many times before. The film has the very bones of what makes a western great, down to its handsome leading man and climactic shootouts. There’s no high-minded deconstruction of the genre here, but the script, penned by Fort Worth-raised screenwriter Taylor Sheridan (“Sicario,” “Yellowstone,” “Landman”), opts for perfecting well-worn tropes. He built a world dominated by economic anxieties, the vestiges of a crumbling empire all around. Obviously, this is the crux of the entire plot, but it’s also found in the subtle things you’ll miss if you catch yourself doom-scrolling, like billboard signs advertising debt relief passing by in establishing shots. (*Editor’s Note: Bridges* [*worked with the real life*](https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-sheriff-who-taught-jeff-bridges-how-to-be-a-texas-lawman/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) *sheriff of McLennan County, Parnell McNamara, to prepare for the role of a Texas lawman, as our editor-in-chief Olivia Messer reported in January 2017 for* The Daily Beast*. At least according to McNamara, that’s one of the reasons that Bridges’ character felt so realistic down to the details of his .45-caliber automatic weapon, Dodge pickup truck, and creased jeans: “He wanted to get everything right.”*) Another thing that strikes me is Hamilton and Parker’s relationship as partners is a brotherhood bound by the badge. Hamilton represents an archetype of whiteness. Parker, who is Mexican and Native American, is the source of constant racist jokes by way of Hamilton. His jest does not absolve the fact that he is a racist person, but he is the most common type of racist, or at least the traditional one we’ve seen for most of our lives. Broadly speaking, he does not see people of color as his equal, and he does not like Mexicans, although he may love a *singular* Mexican. In his mind, this is cover for the evil within. He may not see himself as a racist because he loves his partner, but the truth is, he’s a racist man with a badge. At the film’s end, after all the bloodshed and spent shell casings, Hamilton and Toby meet face-to-face at the Howard ranch. Their chat considers if it was all worth it, if winning was the only thing that mattered at the expense of human values and morality. In the background, oil gets pumped from the land. Toby looks a now-retired Hamilton square in the eye and says, “I've been poor my whole life, like a disease passing from generation to generation. But not my boys, not anymore.” ### Hell Yeah: The UT System Just Expanded Free Tuition for So Many Texans URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/hell-yeah-the-ut-system-just-expanded-free-tuition-for-so-many-texans/ Last updated: 2024-11-21T21:45:50.000Z Any undergraduate student who lives in Texas full time — and whose families have an adjusted gross income of $100,000 or less — will get their tuition covered completely at University of Texas schools. (Boy, I wish that program was in place 16 years ago.) The board formally voted to approve the financial aid on Thursday morning. “We want hard-working Texas families and students to know that we will do everything in our power to support their higher education aspirations today and always,” Kevin P. Eltife, chairman of the Board of Regents, said in a [press release](https://www.utsystem.edu/news/2024/11/20/ut-system-regents-greatly-expand-affordability-and-access-texans-through-promise-plus-program?ref=thebarbedwire.com). According to the [Texas Comptroller’s Office](https://comptroller.texas.gov/economy/economic-data/regions/2022/texas.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com), in 2019, only 29% of households in the state earned more than $100,000 per year. That’s a *lot* of eligible Texans in a state with roughly 30 million people. In addition to the financial aid help in Fall 2025, the board also directed additional money into its endowments to support future free tuition, “ensuring the commitment of tuition relief in perpetuity,” meaning this program will continue indefinitely. Oddly, Texas state Rep. Brian Harrison of Midlothian responded poorly to this obviously great news, telling *The Dallas Morning News* he believed the move was an “outrageous abuse of power” and a “liberal, regressive, and possibly unconstitutional proposal.” To be clear, the entire board was appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott (a Republican and staunch supporter of [conservative values](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyMH-2Ddj2o&ref=thebarbedwire.com)). Eltife also formerly represented Tyler in the state senate as a *Republican*. Read more at [*The Dallas Morning News.*](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/education/2024/11/20/a-game-changer-ut-system-announces-free-tuition-for-qualifying-texas-families/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) ### Texas Is the New Center of American Politics. Just Look at Trump’s Appointees. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-is-the-new-center-of-american-politics-just-look-at-trumps-appointees/ Last updated: 2024-11-21T10:00:00.000Z *It’s old hat to say everything is bigger in Texas. True connoisseurs know that things in the Lone Star State are also often wilder and weirder than what you see on the evening news. Every two weeks, Steven Monacelli will explore the dystopic, desperate, and despicable realities of contemporary Texas and channel the sense of absurdity, anger, and anguish that is felt by so many Texans. State politics mirror our already overheated summers, while floods and hard freezes overwhelm our infrastructure, and disinformation erodes our social discourse. But not all is lost. Together, we can navigate this Hell & High Water to get to more stable ground.* As liberals and progressives reflect on their shocking electoral defeat — and fight to assign blame for the loss — former and future President Donald Trump has been busy making cabinet nominations and urging Congress to allow his administration to push through recess appointments. The nominees include an [anti-vaccination and anti-fluoridation activist](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/11/14/trump-appoints-rfk-jr-health-human-services/76201219007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) as the head of the Department of Health and Human Services, a TV news commentator with [Christian nationalist tattoos](https://www.thebulwark.com/p/whats-the-deal-with-pete-hegseth-crusader-tattoos?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for the head of the Department of Defense, a [fracking company CEO](https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/16/politics/chris-wright-energy-secretary-trump/index.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for the head of the Department of Energy, and a congressman who is [facing an ethics probe](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/senators-want-details-matt-gaetz-ethics-probe-vote-attorney-general-rcna180164?ref=thebarbedwire.com) (regarding sex trafficking) for the United States Attorney General. Among the most telling announcements was also the most unusual: Trump appointed Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead the Department of Government Efficiency, a newly created group whose name belies the fact that it is [not an official government department](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/elon-musk-trump-doge-government-job-how-to-apply/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) but shares an acronym with a cryptocurrency of which Musk [owns a large amount](https://news.bitcoin.com/elon-musk-still-owns-a-bunch-of-dogecoin-spacex-owns-a-bunch-of-bitcoin/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — and which has [spiked in price](https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2024/11/13/doge-price-dogecoin-cyrpto-value-after-donald-trump-elon-musk-news/76257832007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) since the announcement of the organization. (Anyone heard from the Office of Government Ethics lately?) Following Musk’s lead in moving his business(es) to Texas, Ramaswamy [recently announced the relocation](https://dallasinnovates.com/vivek-ramaswamys-strive-enterprises-relocates-to-dallas-launches-bitcoin-focused-wealth-management-business/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of his “anti-woke” financial services and wealth management firm Strive to Dallas. Their nomination to lead the Department of Government Efficiency provides new evidence to support my pet political theory: The center of political gravity in the United States is closer to Dallas than Washington, D.C. or Silicon Valley. The source of funding and the exact scope of powers bestowed upon the Department of Government Efficiency are unclear. There are more questions than answers about how it will operate. As outside advisers, it is uncertain whether Musk and Ramaswamy will be subject to the same financial disclosures and transparency requirements as public sector employees. But it is clear that the two billionaires will lead an organization with a sweeping mandate to cut costs across the federal government, [work that could directly impact their business interests](https://abcnews.go.com/US/ethics-experts-raise-concerns-musk-ramaswamys-department-government/story?id=115838961&ref=thebarbedwire.com). An oligarchy is a power structure in which the few dominate the many. [Several](https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-27074746?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [scholars](https://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/is-america-an-oligarchy?ref=thebarbedwire.com) have argued that the U.S., nominally a representative democracy, is oligarchic in nature and [has become more](https://www.thenation.com/article/society/cbo-american-wealth-inequality/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) so with the legalization of unlimited political donations following the 2010 Citizens United v. FEC Supreme Court decision. One definition of an oligarch is “a very rich business leader with a great deal of political influence.” Under that framework, Trump has empowered two oligarchs whose businesses are headquartered in Texas. It’s important, too, to note that Trump hasn’t just empowered Musk: There isn’t even [“a close second”](https://nypost.com/2024/11/20/us-news/elon-musk-emerges-as-trumps-closest-confidant-not-even-a-close-second/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in the president-elect’s inner circle. Trump has put Musk — dubbed by [*Axios*](https://www.axios.com/2024/11/07/elon-musk-trump-election?ref=thebarbedwire.com) as “the most powerful (unelected) man ever” — on calls with [heads of state](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/08/us/politics/trump-musk-zelensky.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [diplomats](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/14/world/middleeast/elon-musk-iran-trump.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and spent nearly every waking moment with the man since Election Day. Trump even traveled down with Musk to watch a test flight at SpaceX in the Rio Grande Valley on Wednesday. Of course, Musk and Ramaswamy aren’t the only Texas-adjacent moguls whose support of Trump could translate to profit under Trump’s policy platform, which includes [proposed tax cuts for the wealthy](https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/trump-tax-cuts-billionaires-second-term-musk-1235158894/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). According to Open Secrets, 60 of the top 100 political donors at the federal level in 2024 donated primarily to Republicans. Nine of the top 100 donors are from Texas, and they all give almost exclusively to Republican candidates and conservative causes, making up more than $215 million in contributions — including $133 million from Musk and $35 million from [Christian nationalist kingmaker Tim Dunn](https://www.propublica.org/article/tim-dunn-farris-wilks-texas-christian-nationalism-dominionism-elections-voting?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Only one state, Illinois, was a greater source of conservative megadonor cash than Texas. And that’s not including Texas-adjacent billionaire MAGA megadonors donors like Las Vegas casino mogul and now Dallas Mavericks majority stakeholder Miriam Adelson, who spent more than $136 million to bolster Trump, Sen. Ted Cruz, and other Republican candidates — and whose impact on Texas [politics is already being felt](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/05/21/dade-phelan-miriam-adelson-casino-runoff-primary/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Then there’s the quieter influence of Harlan Crow, the Dallas real estate magnate who [secretly lavished favors](https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-scotus-undisclosed-luxury-travel-gifts-crow?ref=thebarbedwire.com) upon Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas while [having a stake in cases](https://truthout.org/articles/report-harlan-crow-has-a-stake-in-4-scotus-cases-and-thomas-hasnt-recused/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that went before the court. It’s not just that Texas is home to influential advisors who stand to profit off their advice and Republican megadonors who helped secure Trump’s electoral victory. Texas carries 40 electoral college votes and 38 seats in the House — and it [stands to gain even more](https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/11/democrat-states-population-stagnation/680641/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) after the 2030 census, if California keeps losing residents. It is the largest Republican dominated state in the nation, the second largest state in terms of economy and population, the eighth largest economy in the world, and is on [the bleeding edge of far-right politics](https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/texas-far-right-attacks-democracy/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). When it comes to some of Trump’s key priorities like [mass deportation](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/trump-says-no-price-tag-mass-deportation-plan-rcna179178?ref=thebarbedwire.com); “[drill, baby, drill](https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidblackmon/2024/11/11/drill-baby-drill-is-a-political-slogan-not-a-business-plan/?ref=thebarbedwire.com);” [dismantling public education in favor of school privatization](https://www.newsnationnow.com/us-news/education/texas-school-choice-plans-trump/?ref=thebarbedwire.com); or [abortion rights](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/think-abortion-isnt-on-the-ballot-in-texas-think-again/), Texas will play a central role or serve as a role model. This week, Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham [offered the incoming](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-happily-offers-up-land-for-trumps-mass-deportations/) Trump administration a 1400-acre plot of land “to construct deportation facilities.” Nobody’s courting Trump like Texas officials. To that end, other state-level political happenings may help predict what’s to come nationally: the [deployment of the Texas National Guard](https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/trump-mass-deportation-texas-greg-abbott/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) as a border enforcement force; our [loose environmental protections](https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/texas-oil-regulator-under-scrutiny-zombie-wells-gush-back-life-2024-08-14/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) around oil drilling sites; and the potentially largest [school voucher program](https://www.propublica.org/article/school-vouchers-2024-election-trump?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in the country. Our [ethically challenged attorney general](https://prospect.org/politics/2023-09-19-gop-party-corrupt-oligarchy-paxton/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Ken Paxton, has set an example that the United States Attorney General may follow. Paxton may not have been nominated for the top law job in the country — for which he [had apparently been auditioning](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/05/20/donald-trump-ken-paxton-attorney-general/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — but Trump picked another ethically embroiled candidate: Florida congressman and [alleged sex trafficker](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/11/14/matt-gaetz-allegations-ag/76292091007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Matt Gaetz. Even if Paxton is out of the running, it doesn’t mean Gaetz or whomever is confirmed will not take a page out of his book and [weaponize the office against political opponents](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/05/30/ken-paxton-texas-ag-political-targets-health-care-lgbtq/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — and few are as prolific as Paxton, who has sued the Biden-Harris administration [more than 100 times](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/congrats-ken-paxton-celebrates-100th-stupid-lawsuit-against-nation/), over everything from lizards to children. As one *Texas Monthly* [headline](https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/donald-trump-promoting-texas-style-policies/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) put it: Under a second Trump administration, America could look a lot like Texas. For people to understand American politics, they will need to understand Texas politics. This makes it all the more imperative that we continue to shine a light in dark places. ### Texas Happily Offers Up Land For Trump’s Mass Deportations URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-happily-offers-up-land-for-trumps-mass-deportations/ Last updated: 2024-11-20T18:56:31.000Z Texas has decided to play real estate agent for the incoming Trump administration, offering up 1,400 acres near the border for the historic mass deportations. Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham [wrote](https://www.glo.texas.gov/the-glo/news/press-releases/2024/files/11-19-24%5Ftrump-donald-starr-county-offer.pdf?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday, pitching the idea of turning the former ranch into shiny new “deportation facilities” — nothing says Texas hospitality like a one-way ticket out of the country. In the letter, Buckingham proudly declared, “My office is fully prepared to enter into an agreement with the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or the United States Border Patrol to build a facility for processing, detention, and coordinating the largest deportation of violent criminals in the nation’s history.” What a sales pitch. The state snagged the land last month to construct a 1.5-mile border wall segment about 35 miles west of McAllen. According to Buckingham, the previous ranch owner wasn’t a fan of the wall and “actively blocked law enforcement from accessing the property.” (Honestly, respect.) Anyway, it’s all for Trump’s use, now. “We’re happy to make this offer and hope they take us up on it,” Buckingham [told Fox News](https://www.foxnews.com/politics/border-state-offers-trump-massive-plot-land-aid-mass-deportation-operation?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Currently, the land is a farm growing onions, sunflowers, cotton, and other crops, and a [press release boasted](https://www.glo.texas.gov/the-glo/news/press-releases/2024/october/texas-land-commissioner-buckingham-acquires-ranch-in-starr-county-to-build-border-wall.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that it has thus far helped generate revenue for Texas schools. National eyes have been on Texas leaders as they’ve courted Trump, [auditioning for cabinet positions](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/11/18/greg-abbott-chinese-government-dissidents-operation-fox-hunt/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) while the incoming presidential administration is shopping for ways to expand its deportation empire. [NBC News reported](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/incoming-trump-admin-eyeing-new-immigrant-detention-centers-major-us-c-rcna179843?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that the federal government plans to double the 41,000 detention beds ICE currently uses, because apparently, beds are the bottleneck in deporting people. Trump, who reportedly visited [the Rio Grande Valley on Wednesday](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/11/20/donald-trump-elon-musk-rio-grande-valley/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to witness a SpaceX test flight, has also confirmed that he intends to declare a national emergency and use the U.S. military to aid in the deportations starting on the first day of his new tenure. Armando Sanchez, a 77-year-old Brownsville resident and naturalized citizen (who gained amnesty under the Reagan administration), told the [*Texas Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/11/20/donald-trump-elon-musk-rio-grande-valley/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) this week he wasn’t sold on the incoming president’s plan: “If you throw those people out, who’s going to work?” Sanchez said. “You don’t see a white man laboring out in the sun. On the other hand, Mexicans, foreigners, people from other countries — that’s why they come here, to work.” Stephen Miller, Trump’s top immigration policy adviser — whose previous work involved separating thousands of parents from their children at the border to deter illegal crossings — envisions “vast holding facilities” for immigrants. [He told the *New York Times*](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/18/us/politics/trump-military-mass-deportation.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) these would serve as staging centers for immigrants waiting for flights out of the country. As of May, more than 1,400 children were [still separated](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/05/07/immigration-family-separation/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) from their families following the use of a ruthless policy that inflicted trauma and fear on children as young as [four months old](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/16/us/baby-constantine-romania-migrants.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Trump, who recently nominated the [policy’s original architect](https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/trump-taps-tom-homan-as-border-czar-fac81082?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to the position of “border czar,” previously boasted [to CNN](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/05/07/immigration-family-separation/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) about the effects of family separation: “It stopped people from coming by the hundreds of thousands,” he said, “because when they hear ‘family separation,’ they say, ‘Well, we better not go.’ And they didn’t go.” It appears leaders in Texas are all too ready to trade onions for detention centers, all in the name of making deportation history. ### ‘We Should Be Paying Attention’: These Are the Faces of 38 Trans Texans Killed by Violence Since 2013 URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/40-texans-honored-for-trans-day-of-remembrance-amid-concerns-of-more-violence/ Last updated: 2024-11-20T10:00:00.000Z *Editor’s note: This story mentions threats of violence against the LGBTQIA+ community.* For 25 years, a growing number of people have honored Trans Day of Remembrance on Nov. 20 as an annual memorial to the lives of transgender and gender nonconforming people lost to violence. The 38 trans and gender nonconforming Texans who have died by violence in the state since 2013 were honored this year with new portraits, thanks to Gordy Carmona, a community engagement and advocacy strategist for the Dallas-Fort Worth region at [Equality Texas](https://www.equalitytexas.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “Lost Faces,” an art installation in Adolphus Tower gallery in downtown Dallas, features an ofrenda and original works commemorating slain Texans. “Anti trans violence affects us all, and it’s something that we should be paying attention to, and none of these people should have been forgotten,” Carmona told *The Barbed Wire*. This year’s Trans Day of Remembrance comes at a frightening time for the transgender community, in Texas and nationwide, amid fears of future violence and losses of their rights. President-elect Donald Trump’s second inauguration looms like a dark cloud, according to several who spoke with *The Barbed Wire*, after watching [millions of dollars](https://abcnews.go.com/US/trump-spends-millions-anti-trans-ads-despite-polls/story?id=115001816&ref=thebarbedwire.com) worth of anti-trans attack ads and seeing threats against trans & LGBTQ+ folks in the Heritage Foundation's [Project 2025](https://www.advocate.com/politics/project-2025-anti-lgbtq?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Just over two weeks after the first openly transgender person in Congress was elected, a Republican congresswoman from South Carolina introduced a [resolution for a transgender bathroom ban](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/nancy-mace-defends-anti-trans-bathroom-bill-says-absolutely-targets-sa-rcna180805?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that some lawmakers say is just plain [“bullying” and “cruelty.”](https://www.axios.com/2024/11/19/nancy-mace-sarah-mcbride-transgender-bathroom?ref=thebarbedwire.com) “It feels so daunting,” acknowledged Carmona. “We were making progress.” Now, they feel the incoming Trump administration is threatening to drag us “backwards” when it comes to the rights of transgender people and many others. Trans Texans are also looking fearfully toward the upcoming 89th session of the Texas Legislature. Republicans have already [filed 32 bills targeting](https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/republicans-file-32-anti-trans-bills?ref=thebarbedwire.com) trans rights, as well as a [pre-filed bill](https://legiscan.com/TX/text/HB1123/2025?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that would potentially require genetic testing as part of a ban on athletes competing on teams that don’t match their sex assigned at birth. Research suggests such bills in state legislatures, even when they don't pass, can encourage [increased violence and other hate incidents](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/thereve-been-93-anti-lgbtq-hate-crimes-in-texas-since-2022-data-shows/), as well as an increase in suicide attempts among trans people. Other bills already prefiled for next year's session of the Texas Legislature would prevent trans people from updating their identity documents to match their gender or ban them from accessing certain forms of health care as both trans adults and children. (In September, Texas already banned trans folks from [changing their sex on birth certificates](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-bans-transgender-people-from-changing-sex-on-birth-certificates/) and [driver’s licenses](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-agency-spammed-by-bee-movie-scripts-gay-porn-over-anti-trans-policies/).) House Bill 1075 would allow people to sue a drag performer who “fails to take reasonable steps to restrict access to the performance by minors.” The bill's definition of drag is so broad it would likely mean that transgender artists and educators performing in public could be liable for $5,000 in damages. Many are repeats or variations of failed bills from previous sessions. Advocates like Carmona and others like them who watch the Legislature are now waiting to see which bills, if any, will gain hearings during the session. “We don’t know what’s happening, what can happen, because things are just in this really bizarre frame right now where we are expecting to see more legislation attacking us,” they said. Carmona walked me through the gallery on a quiet Friday afternoon. Visitors first see an ofrenda, a traditional Day of the Dead altar, with portraits of the 38 individuals who died from violence in the U.S. since the last Trans Day of Remembrance. The photos are arranged with LED candles and [marigolds](https://www.npr.org/2021/10/30/1050726374/why-marigolds-or-cempasuchil-are-the-iconic-flower-of-dia-de-los-muertos?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in white, blue and pink, the colors of the transgender pride flag. ![](https://thebarbedwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Screenshot-2024-11-19-at-6.42.39%E2%80%AFPM-1.png) Credit: Equality Texas Certain patterns stood out as we looked at their faces. “We’ve seen year after year, the majority of the folks that are identified on our Trans Day of Remembrance lists are Black women and Hispanic women,” Carmona noted. “They always appear at a disproportionate rate compared to white, trans and gender nonconforming folks.” Carmona pointed out another disturbing statistic illustrated by this year’s altar: the presence of multiple teenagers, including [Pauly Likens](https://www.pghlesbian.com/2024/07/pauly-likens-was-a-14-year-old-trans-girl-when-she-was-brutally-murdered-in-sharon-pa/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a murdered 14-year-old trans girl from Pennsylvania, and [Nex Benedict](https://www.npr.org/2024/03/15/1238780699/nex-benedict-nonbinary-oklahoma-death-bullying?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a nonbinary Oklahoma 16-year-old who died one day after being attacked in a girl's restroom. “They had a whole life ahead of them and they're just taken away,” Carmona lamented. Past the ofrenda is a wall of 38 black and white portraits, representing each of the trans or gender nonconforming Texans who died between Nov. 1, 2013 and Oct. 31, 2023\. Carmona explained that they commissioned original artwork because of the often poor quality of available images. “They were usually Facebook photos that were kind of like grainy, and some of them were even mug shots, because that's the only photos that were pushed in publications \[reporting on their deaths\], and we didn't want to remember them in that light,” Carmona said. The portraits were created by Dallas artist [Gabriel Mendez](https://www.instagram.com/GCM.Sketches?ref=thebarbedwire.com), whose work often focuses on queer people and LGBTQ+ themes. He described the challenge of representing each of the dead as they would have wanted to be seen. In one case, the only available image showed just their lips and nose with the rest covered up. “Each person I drew, I would take a moment to really look at and guess what they were showcasing,” Mendez told *The Barbed Wire* in an email. “I did my best to accent that as much as I could without it looking like a parody or cartoon. It was my responsibility to help them get their personality across to a world that will never meet them.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/241119_transdayrememberence_embed.jpg) Portraits of Martina Caldera and Gwynevere River Song; Courtesy Gabriel Mendez Finally, in an alcove past the portrait wall, is a shrine. Surrounded by the faces of other murdered transgender people rests a full-length mirror decorated with flowers intended to honor [Live Oak Doe](https://dnadoeproject.org/case/live-oak-doe-1986/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Found unresponsive in Houston in 1986, the woman died soon after, without being identified. Although her name still hasn't been released to the public, she was finally identified in January 2021 through volunteer DNA analysis and research. Carmona explained that her death, and the decades-long search for her identity, inspired the “Lost Faces” project. “I created this installation piece as an opportunity for people to reflect that any of these individuals could easily have been us,” Carmona said. Inconsistent or incorrect reporting and news coverage, they continued, has left the identities of slain trans people forgotten as well. “I hope people will be enraged by this epidemic that's being ignored by many people.” Some, [Democrats among them](https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-politics-and-policy/democrats-blame-partys-position-transgender-rights-part-harris-loss-rcna179370?ref=thebarbedwire.com), have [blamed a focus on transgender people](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/17/opinion/america-trump-tolerance.html?unlocked%5Farticle%5Fcode=1.ak4.aB%5FI.YutmBmj3w59Q&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&ref=thebarbedwire.com) and LGBTQ+ rights for Vice President Kamala Harris' loss in the presidential election and the nation's rightward shift. In Texas, the chair of the Democrats [stepped down for his own comments](https://www.kut.org/politics/2024-11-07/texas-democrats-party-chairman-apologizes-transgender-trans-lgbtq?ref=thebarbedwire.com) about the trans community. Yet, Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of GLAAD, the national LGBTQ+ advocacy organization which cosponsored the “Lost Faces” Gallery, argued that it's more important than ever to stand with trans folks. “In the wake of the election and a country reckoning with a return to an administration with a hostile record against LGBTQ people and especially transgender Americans, there is an imperative opportunity to center trans people in the conversation as people and as examples of freedom in the truest sense,” she wrote in an emailed statement to *The Barbed Wire.* “This moment demands we all recognize the importance of trans people in our lives, as family, friends, neighbors, classmates, colleagues, and fellow Americans who are as essential to a future that is more free, more just, and more equitable for all.” Rather than despair, Carmona told me they hope the “Lost Faces” inspire anger and action on behalf of trans folks. “We desperately need allies to be more than just allies, we need them to be accomplices working day in and day out to ensure that the human rights of trans and gender nonconforming folks are upheld. Our lives depend on it.” *‘Lost Faces’ can be viewed until November 23, when a memorial ceremony will be held at the gallery. It's open to the public on Thursday and Friday from 4-7pm, or by appointment. To schedule a tour, contact field@equalitytexas.org.* *Editor’s Note: If you’re seeking mental health support for LGBTQIA+ youth, call or text* [*the Trevor Project’s 24/7 support line*](https://www.thetrevorproject.org/get-help/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) *at 866-488-7386\. For peer support run by and for trans people, call the* [*Trans Lifeline*](https://translifeline.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) *at 877-565-8860\. You can also call or text 988 to reach the* [*988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline*](https://988lifeline.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)*.* *Correction: This story incorrectly referred to the art installation as “Lost Voices,” when it is actually called “Lost Faces.” Previous reporting also indicated that there were 40 portraits as part of the exhibit. In fact, there were 38\.* The Barbed Wire *regrets the errors.* ### University of North Texas Is on a ‘Campaign of Censorship,’ Professors Say URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/university-of-north-texas-is-on-a-campaign-of-censorship/ Last updated: 2024-11-19T18:00:55.000Z The University of North Texas has changed course descriptions that mentioned race, gender, and equity in the College of Education graduate program, according to *The Texas Tribune*. Emails obtained by the outlet show administrators claiming the move would “protect faculty” from being targeted. *Tribune* reporters spoke with faculty who say the university has made at least 78 edits and that the sweeping changes are an “overreaction” to [Senate Bill 17](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/texas-universities-slashed-hundreds-jobs-programs-states-dei-ban-rcna152393?ref=thebarbedwire.com) which bans diversity, equity and inclusion programs at public universities. “Regardless of their intent, the UNT administration conducted a campaign of censorship of content in more than 200 courses,” said Brian Evans, president of the Texas conference of the American Association of University Professors. Katherine Mansfield told the newspaper she was scheduled to teach a Spring semester graduate level class called “Race, Class, and Gender Issues in Education” but was told via email it would now be called “Critical Inquiry in Education.” The course description and discussion of topics was also changed from students learning about being “culturally responsive,” how to “debunk stereotypes and negative views” and understanding students going to school in places where “race, class, and gender inequalities exist” to say students will “critically examine current topics related to providing leadership for various student groups.” The campus newspaper, [*North Texas Daily*](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/content/files/www-ntdaily-com/news/college-of-education-makes-78-changes-to-course-titles-and-descriptions/article%5F7e0b28c6-a12c-11ef-b44b-2fc24540db89.html) reported Brian McFarlin, an associate dean for undergraduate studies and research in the College of Education, made the changes directed by administrators after Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick told state lawmakers to take a look at programs and certificates at public universities with DEI policies and “expose how these programs and their curriculum are damaging and not aligned with state workforce demands.” With a little over 50 days until the 2025 legislative session begins, some Texas lawmakers like Sen. Brandon Creighton, a Republican from Conroe who authored Senate Bill 17, are looking at expanding it into college classrooms, according to [KUT](https://www.kut.org/education/2024-11-18/texas-lawmakers-signal-plans-to-expand-dei-ban-into-college-classrooms?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “While DEI-related curriculum and course content does not explicitly violate the letter of the law, it indeed contradicts its spirit,” Creighton said during a Texas Senate Higher Education Subcommittee hearing last week. In addition to the graduate program, the *Tribune* said around 130 edits were made to undergraduate courses in the same college. Administrators told faculty in an email that they have until fall 2025 to adjust their courses to “comply with the new course descriptions.” Buckle up Texans, these Republican lawmakers are coming for your education next. Read more at [*The Texas Tribune.*](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/11/19/texas-unt-dei-ban/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) ### Slavery? What Slavery? Texas Leaders Want New Terrible Curriculum URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/slavery-what-slavery-texas-leaders-want-new-problematic-curriculum/ Last updated: 2024-11-18T17:07:25.000Z UPDATE, Nov. 19, 3:38 p.m.: On Tuesday, most members of the Texas State Board of Education expressed their support for the new curriculum, the [*Texas Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/11/19/texas-sboe-bible-christianity-curriculum/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) reported. With an official vote scheduled for Friday, eight out of the 15 board members gave their initial approval to [Bluebonnet Learning](https://tea.texas.gov/academics/instructional-materials/bluebonnet-learning?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the elementary school curriculum proposed by the Texas Education Agency earlier this year. PREVIOUS STORY BELOW: The Texas State Board of Education is set to vote on an elementary school curriculum that critics say would focus on Christianity over other religions and glosses over slavery and racism. The curriculum is optional for schools, but there’s a financial incentive: $60 per student, making it a lucrative proposition for budget-strapped districts. However, critics say the lessons prioritize Christianity, oversimplify American history, and occasionally veer into the bizarre. The Texas Education Agency, which oversees public education in the state, [released the new curriculum in the spring](https://tea.texas.gov/node/2041111?ref=thebarbedwire.com) after the state enacted a law directing the agency to develop its own free textbooks. In the new curriculum, kindergartners will learn about the "Golden Rule," focusing heavily on Jesus, natch. Meanwhile, first-graders will explore the architectural wonders of Founding Father Thomas Jefferson’s plantation Monticello — but without all that pesky slavery stuff. By fifth grade, students will study Leonardo da Vinci’s painting “The Last Supper” — presented with excerpts from the Gospel of Matthew. One of the standout features of the curriculum is its tendency to gloss over the complexities of history. Founding fathers like George Washington and Jefferson are depicted as men who bravely fought for freedom (but don’t mention the enslaved people they owned). In a lesson on the Civil War, Confederate general Robert E. Lee is described as a man of “excellent abilities” who wanted to peacefully resolve differences. If you’re waiting for the part where he fought to preserve slavery and harbored racist beliefs, keep waiting — it’s not in the curriculum. As for Martin Luther King Jr., the curriculum emphasizes his “nonviolent advocacy” but conveniently skips his critiques of systemic racism and white complacency. But the weirdest part is how selectively detailed the curriculum can be. A fifth-grade lesson on the Holocaust describes it as “the systematic persecution and murder of six million Jewish people.” Yet, when it comes to American slavery, the curriculum barely scratches the surface, calling it a “practice common throughout history” and skipping over the race-based brutality that defined it in the U.S. A fifth-grade lesson on World War II explains how Nazi Germany’s Nuremberg Laws “were created to dehumanize and target Jewish people.” However, it omits any discussion of how those laws were influenced by Jim Crow policies and the dehumanization of Black people in America. One early draft of the curriculum even included a dice game for second-graders based on the story of Esther. In the biblical story, a high-ranking official in the Persian Empire cast lots to determine the date for a planned annihilation of all Jews in the land, but Esther intervened to prevent the massacre. Students were asked to roll dice to simulate casting lots—much like the biblical villain Haman did when plotting to kill all the Jews. Parents were not amused. “Do we ask kids to play ‘Pretend to Be Hitler’ next?” Sharyn Vane, a Jewish parent, told the [*New York Times*](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/18/us/texas-bible-school-curriculum.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The dice game has since been removed. Critics argue the curriculum’s heavy Christian emphasis risks alienating non-Christian students and blurs the line between education and evangelism. Democratic State Rep. James Talarico, a Christian seminarian himself, told the *Times* that the plan is a “testing ground for extreme ideas.” Republican Governor Greg Abbott and other proponents of the new program assert that the Bible is a cornerstone of American history. They argue that a classical education, enriched by a strong understanding of Bible stories, is essential for students to gain a complete perspective on the world. But even those values come with selective memory. The curriculum highlights abolitionists' Christian faith while ignoring how the same religion was used to justify slavery. Historians worry about the long-term impact of teaching a whitewashed, oversimplified version of history. Mark Chancey, a religious studies professor, described the curriculum as working against the goal of educating a citizenry prepared to function in a pluralistic democracy. “Public schools are educating for civic purposes. We're developing our citizenry. We're preparing students to function in a pluralistic democracy and to deliberate about different ideas,” Chancey told the [*Texas Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/11/18/texas-curriculum-history-social-studies-slavery-racism/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “Students need to have an accurate understanding of history to do that, and many of these lessons work against that goal by oversimplifying American history to the point of distortion.” ### Texas Medical School Told to Stop Turning Bodies Into Drain Juice URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-medical-school-told-to-stop-turning-bodies-into-drain-juice/ Last updated: 2024-11-15T16:14:47.000Z State regulators have slammed the brakes on a Texas medical school’s eyebrow-raising habit of liquefying bodies after research. Yes, *liquefying*. [NBC News](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/university-north-texas-alkaline-hydrolysis-water-cremation-bodies-rcna179946?ref=thebarbedwire.com) dug up (sorry) a recent [cease-and-desist letter](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25293722-unt-cease-and-desist-letter-final-11124?ref=thebarbedwire.com) from the Texas Funeral Service Commission, which informed the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth that its use of “alkaline hydrolysis” — aka water cremation — to dispose of remains was *very* illegal. The practice, which is touted as being eco-friendly, involves turning a body into liquid and leftover ashes. The liquid is then poured down the drain. Classy! “This practice is not authorized under Texas state law and constitutes a serious violation of the standards governing the lawful disposition of human remains,” the commission wrote, basically telling the school, “Stop flushing people.” UNT Health Science Center claims a state administrative code allowed water cremation for research bodies, but the Funeral Commission wasn’t buying it. According to the commission, Texas law only permits burial or traditional cremation. NBC News did note, though, that water cremation is legal in more than 25 other states. The school preemptively stopped the practice on Sept. 16 — the same day an [NBC News exposé revealed](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/university-north-texas-corpses-dissected-unclaimed-bodies-rcna170478?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that the center had been dissecting unclaimed bodies for research without consent from families. A significant number of the bodies were dissected and rented out to other schools, medical tech companies, and even the Army for training purposes. Following the investigation, the center shut down its body donation program and dismissed the officials in charge. As for liquefying bodies, Eli Shupe, a bioethicist at UT Arlington, summed it up this way: “This is a huge ethical issue. It doesn’t seem as if they took the wishes of the families very seriously.” Translation: Maybe ask before you dissolve Grandma and pour her down the drain. ### Latino Men Put Machismo First When They Voted For Trump. Latinas Are Angry. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/latino-men-put-machismo-first-when-they-voted-for-trump-latinas-are-angry/ Last updated: 2024-11-15T10:00:00.000Z Days after election night, I still have Latina women in my DMs telling me they’re shocked but not surprised the men they love voted for President-Elect Donald Trump. They’re very angry about it. “They want a better economy,” one friend told me. “Lots of Chicanos, especially,” another friend said. “They have a good-paying job, and all of a sudden they are middle-class Trumpers,” still another said. “They forgot that their mothers crossed the river to get here and their dads were deported three times.” And, more sharply: “Shout out to the ‘anchor babies’ that voted for Trump. F\*ck them,” one of my best friends told me over text. “I’m angry and heartbroken.” “It’s really disheartening. It’s like your own people sometimes, it’s your own people and I feel so beat up and betrayed by my own kind,” another told me. Political analysts and (mostly white) journalists have since pored over [exit polls like NBC’s](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-elections/exit-polls?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that show 55% of Latino men voted for Trump — pushing the total among Hispanic voters to 45%, a record high for a Republican candidate. In Texas, [64% of Latino men](https://www.cnn.com/election/2024/exit-polls/texas/general/president/0?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that were polled voted for Trump (although *The Barbed Wire’s* Cat Cardenas makes a compelling argument to why [that number may be flawed](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/why-were-democrats-so-wrong-about-latino-voters/)). As headlines proclaimed Trump the unexpected victor of Latino voters, I saw a different analysis in my community that noted it was the men that Trump won, not the women (60% voted for Vice President Kamala Harris). That portion was not, actually, a surprise — as was made clear by the conversations I was having with Latinas in my life about our collective dismay. Many [Latino Trump supporters](https://apnews.com/article/young-black-latino-men-trump-economy-jobs-9184ca85b1651f06fd555ab2df7982b5?ref=thebarbedwire.com) have said they voted for the former president because they believe he will [improve the economy](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/trump-economy-latino-vote-2024-election-rcna178951?ref=thebarbedwire.com). And, to be sure, economic concerns were a dominant issue that swayed the election. But saying it’s all about the economy is reductive, and to some of us, feels insulting. The women I spoke with are single mothers, have multiple children, student loans, mortgages, wives, businesses and all want a better economy, too. Latinas in my life know that the economy is not the full story. Latinos are not a monolith. And some facets, including *some* of the men in our lives, aren’t immune to appeals for traditional gender roles. They may not all have cheered when Trump implied Harris [wasn’t intelligent enough](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/05/us/politics/trump-nancy-pelosi-liz-cheney-women.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to become president. But they may have agreed the White House is no place for a woman, let alone a Black one. If you dig slightly deeper, it’s clear. A 31-year-old small business owner from Belton, north of Austin, told the [*Associated Press*](https://apnews.com/article/young-black-latino-men-trump-economy-jobs-9184ca85b1651f06fd555ab2df7982b5?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that he wanted tax cuts. He was not surprised Latino men in his generation voted for Trump. “I am a blue-collar worker, so tax breaks for small businesses are ideal for what I do,” Brian Leija told the *AP*. In interviews with the[ *Austin American-Statesman*](https://www.statesman.com/story/news/politics/elections/state/2024/11/07/austin-latino-immigrant-men-donald-trump-2024-united-states-presidential-election-appeal-economy/76092640007/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Latino men (both registered voters and nonvoting undocumented immigrants who shared their political opinions) said the draw was the economy but also social policy. One man said he was alarmed by nonbinary gender education in schools and Democrats’ focus on access to abortion. Like segments of straight white men (and women) — who say they voted on the economy but also weren’t turned off by a candidate found liable for sexual assault and defamation — Latinos have their own deeply embedded misogyny, an aggressive reflection of masculinity and a desperate grasping to white proximity to assert the dominance. “Es el pinche machismo!” one of my friends said. “It’s the damn machismo!” We collectively talked about how machismo is woven into our cultures. And how it informs views on dominance — namely, that dominance is an admirable trait — along with the ways machismo contributes to violence and discrimination against both women and the LGBTQIA+ community. We talked about how machismo goes hand-in-hand with the idea of the “American Dream,” to come to this country and be *accepted at all costs*. Sometimes that means forgetting where you came from. We spoke about our close family and (sometimes former) friends who desperately grasp at the illusion of assimilation at the expense of erasing their indigenous roots. Some have been clinging onto that “French ancestor” or the “Grandma who came from Spain” or the “uncle with the green eyes.” \*\*\* So what is machismo? [Journalist Ixa Sotelo](https://www.verywellmind.com/what-does-the-term-machismo-mean-6748458?ref=thebarbedwire.com) describes it as “a social construction of masculinity common across Latin American and Spanish culture that maps out how men should engage with their gender based on virility, courage, strength, and power.” The Spanish word [macho](https://www.dictionary.com/browse/macho?ref=thebarbedwire.com) means “having a strong or exaggerated sense of power or the right to dominate.” Machismo may have [roots in the Christian colonizatio](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5102330/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)n of Latin America. And certainly involves a Biblical worldview. I first learned about machismo when I was a little girl. “Donde esta la cena, mujer?” my male family members would say. It means “where’s my dinner, woman?” in Spanish. My aunts would laugh it off or sometimes hit back with a sarcastic remark if they were brave enough, but most of the time they would grin and bear it. I could see the exhaustion in my aunts’ faces. Their eyes were red from waking up at 4 a.m. to clean the house, make breakfast, take the kids to school, come back home, start cooking for lunch, clean again, do laundry, go pick up the kids, visit the bodega or mercado for dinner ingredients, and then do it all over the next day. Some of them managed to have jobs outside the home. Their hands were calloused hand-washing laundry late at night on a washboard — some of them didn’t have a washing machine — and then hanging it up to dry. I can see the same veils of machismo very thinly and aesthetically layered over the pretty [trad wife videos](https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/06/trad-wife-wives-nara-smith-estee-williams-dobbs-roe-escapism/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) touting servitude to husbands that are a topic of endless debate on social media. Meanwhile, I know what it looks like when women don’t have the right or luxury to choose to spend their time baking the perfect pie or making tortillas and buñuelos from scratch. Growing up, I visited Mexico during my summers, where I witnessed many women who had no equity or control over their own lives. There was no choice on when to rest, take a day off, pick what *they* wanted for dinner, what city *they* wanted to live in, take birth control, or even use tampons versus pads. One of my aunts had to wear heels every day because my uncle liked it. They had to do as their husbands said because it was “lo que Dios manda,” or “what God orders.” Even as a child, the men in my family tried to train me to always have my dad’s plate ready in service to him, or to remind me that the men had to eat before the women. Our place was always in the kitchen to “chismear,” meaning to gossip, and to clean. It felt weird. My mom and I would swap awkward looks about it, but we were women (and guests), so we would oblige. Looking back, it eerily echoes the countless comments Trump has made about [women doing dishes](https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/news/story/trumps-comment-wife-dishes-puts-spotlight-domestic-burden-70766958?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Or the time he [told Howard Stern](https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/trumps-backwards-views-on-parenting-are-dangerous-af%5Fn%5F57717819e4b017b379f6d602?ref=thebarbedwire.com), “I like kids. I mean, I won’t do anything to take care of them. I’ll supply funds and she’ll take care of the kids.” Same goes for his close proximity to JD Vance, our soon-to-be vice president, whose harmful rhetoric about [women who don’t have children](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/09/18/trump-sanders-harris-childless-cat-ladies/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) helped spur refrains from his [staunch supporters](https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/11/business/your-body-my-choice-movement-election/index.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) like “your body, my choice” and “get back to the kitchen.” \*\*\* At its worst, machismo and its vein of aggressive dominance normalize and even glorify violence toward women and those who aren’t straight, cisgendered males. It’s the idea of “putting women in their place.” [Studies show](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10953983/?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=In%20fact%2C%20about%2023.4%25%20of,many%20patriarchal%20communities%20%5B5%5D) that 23.4% of Latina females experience intimate partner violence in their lifetime, and 48% of Latinas report an increase after they immigrated to the United States. That’s true for my family. My mom has memories of her father coming home to beat her mom. After the beatings, my mom tells me that my grandmother would clean her bloody face and fix dinner. For her, it was a normal part of life. My dad, too, grew up with intimate partner violence as a child. He would show me scars where he’d been beaten by people who were supposed to care for him. My aunts whispered about intimate violence in their marriages and sometimes about cheating husbands. At one point, my sisters, mom, and I were homeless and living in a shelter for survivors of intimate partner violence. All of us experienced the worst of machismo. Watching the exit polls, and seeing the increase in Latino men who voted for Trump, wasn’t a surprise to me. It was an actualization of a complicated and ugly history that Latinos don’t want to talk about. It’s no wonder many men find refuge in the Trump camp, where calls to point a rifle at Republican former congresswoman Liz Cheney’s face are not just tolerated — but welcomed and *celebrated*. That language is obviously triggering to survivors of intimate partner violence and sexual violence, who recognize it as part of an abusive pattern. For those who’ve never experienced abuse, the [power and control wheel](https://www.un.org/en/coronavirus/what-is-domestic-abuse?ref=thebarbedwire.com) is a tool that shows tactics abusive partners use to [keep survivors in a relationship](https://www.thehotline.org/identify-abuse/power-and-control/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Among them are minimizing, denying, blaming, and asserting male privilege. Veteran journalist Bob Woodward wrote in his book “Fear: Trump in the White House” about Trump’s approach to the accusations of sexual misconduct against him. “You’ve got to deny, deny, deny, and push back on these women,” [Woodward wrote](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-women-bob-woodward-deny-sexual-assault-stormy-daniels-book-fear-a8534061.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “You’ve got to be strong. You’ve got to be aggressive. You’ve got to push back hard. You’ve got to deny anything that’s said about you. Never admit.” That response aligns with a term coined by Jennifer J. Freyd, professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Oregon: DARVO. It stands for [“Deny, Attack, and Reverse Victim and Offender.”](https://dynamic.uoregon.edu/jjf/defineDARVO.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) DARVO “aids in understanding how perpetrators are able to enforce victims’ silence through the mechanism of self-blame,” Freyd found in a 2017 study. There’s evidence to show that Trump’s behavior, rhetoric, and policies have had a chilling effect on women reporting intimate partner and sexual violence. During the last Trump presidency, advocates warned that Latinas were less likely to report intimate partner violence because of a fear of death, family separation, or worry that something would happen to their partner. In 2018, the [*New York Times* found](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/03/us/immigrants-houston-domestic-violence.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) a 38-year-old woman from Houston didn’t report that her husband punched her at six months pregnant — which caused her to lose her baby — for those exact reasons. “With the laws now, a lot of women like me are too afraid to come forward,” she told the *Times.* And it keeps coming. This week, Trump appointed Florida-based U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz to be the next attorney general of the United States — even though he’s been at the center of [allegations ranging from sexual misconduct](https://apnews.com/article/house-ethics-committee-matt-gaetz-mccarthy-935a5ec46816f8310586a2a3d545f8f2?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to the trafficking of [underage children](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/30/us/politics/matt-gaetz-sex-trafficking-investigation.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Gaetz denies the allegations and has not been charged. The Department of Justice ended a sex trafficking investigation last year; a House Ethics Committee investigative report has not been released. Still, even some Republicans called the decision an “[absolute gut punch](https://www.politico.com/news/2024/11/13/trump-cabinet-picks-appointments-matt-gaetz-00189395?ref=thebarbedwire.com).” \*\*\* There’s another side to being a strong Latino man. The morning after the election, I spoke to my husband, who’s a first-generation son of immigrants from Michoacan, Mexico. We talked about what trying to conceive might look like under a different type of Republican Party — not that the GOP has ever been great at recognizing women’s bodily autonomy. But the world was different before Trump ensured that Roe v. Wade was overturned. “Maybe we should look at freezing eggs, in case we have issues in this place,” my husband said, his voice trembling. The weekend before, we’d watched “Zurawski v Texas,” a documentary detailing some of the stories of Texas women who nearly died because of the state’s strict abortion laws. “You think it’s your pregnancy, but it’s not your pregnancy, it’s the state’s pregnancy,” Amanda Zurawski [said in the film](https://reproductiverights.org/zurawski-v-texas/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). My sister’s [terrifying experience with miscarriage](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/she-voted-for-trump-then-she-had-two-terrifying-miscarriages-in-texas/) was fresh on our minds. “I’m bleeding uncontrollably, I can’t stop it, and no one can help me because everyone’s afraid of what will happen,” she told me last month. She had two miscarriages after Texas’ strict abortion bans began, and the terrifying experience shook her faith in Trump. After the election, my husband told me: “I love you so much, I’d die trying to save you.” In him, I witnessed a brave man who carries his family with honor. It left me, and other women in my life, asking: Is a lower interest rate really worth voting against my rights, your wife’s rights, your sister’s rights, or your daughter’s rights? A lot of Latino/a/x voters are staying quiet — or preaching about “not getting lost in division” and “being kind to one another.” But who is that mindset really for? It’s not about which political party you picked: Trump could have stayed a [Democrat](https://www.ussc.edu.au/donald-trump-was-once-a-registered-democrat-and-party-donor-so-why-did-he-jump-ship?ref=thebarbedwire.com). This is about placing power in the hands of a convicted felon and abuser who is absolutely willing to take away women’s rights. He’s [*proud*](https://www.cbsnews.com/video/trump-says-hes-proud-of-role-in-overturning-roe-v-wade/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) of it. As the writer [Robert Jones Jr.](https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/fact-check-truth-supposed-james-110000844.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) said in 2015: “We can disagree and still love each other unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist.” It seems history likes to repeat itself. ### Y’all, It Sounds Like This Texas Dog Solved a Murder URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/yall-it-sounds-like-this-texas-dog-solved-a-murder/ Last updated: 2024-11-15T00:45:17.000Z Y’all, I think a Texas dog named Titan just solved a murder. The McLennan County District Attorney’s Office announced last week that a white labradoodle held the “keys” to the case after a woman was killed in Robinson, near Waco. On April 5, 2023, police in Robinson responded to what they thought was a brush fire but turned out to be a burning body inside a plastic container. Titan barked “frantically at officers and refused to leave the area,” according to a [press release](https://www.facebook.com/mclennancountydistrictattorney/posts/pfbid02vdKnhmjwVYnmfkmh9JgBJPkQ9jNT6F5xUBx2YwjPB2qrnvgULnTbgJ1A42iGUwLwl). Titan ran off before police could grab him, but the next morning, he came back to the same location where his owner was found. Once authorities scanned his microchip, they identified the victim as 26-year-old Mandy Rose Reynolds, from San Marcos. “The keys to this case were a heroic and loyal dog named Titan and extraordinary cooperation between law enforcement agencies in multiple jurisdictions and states,” said officials. “That combination has delivered justice for Mandy and safety from a violent and dangerous criminal.” Three days after police found Reynolds’ body, her car was tracked to Wichita, Kansas, according to the [*San Antonio Express*\-*News*](https://www.expressnews.com/news/texas/article/texas-labradoodle-solve-owner-murder-19906838.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The driver led police on a chase before crashing into another car and running inside a grocery store, where he hid behind some canned goods, reported the newspaper. The man, 29-year-old Derek Daigneault, was Reynolds’ cousin, said police. Last month, Daigneault was sentenced to life in prison in Reynolds’ murder. Read more [at KWTX](https://www.kwtx.com/2024/11/06/officers-three-agencies-testify-about-amanda-reynolds-murder-investigation/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). ### We’re Fucking Delighted The Onion Bought Infowars URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/were-fucking-delighted-the-onion-bought-infowars/ Last updated: 2024-11-14T22:51:59.000Z First, the good news: [The Onion bought Infowars](https://theonion.com/heres-why-i-decided-to-buy-infowars/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). We’re fucking *thrilled* about this. Congrats to our pals over there, who will do magnificent things with a nascent right-wing media empire that peddled harmful conspiracy theories at the expense of grieving parents. And gang, I’ve never been more happy to lose. (Please shut up with any jokes about my past career in Texas Democratic politics. TOO SOON.) When we launched *The Barbed Wire* in August, we didn’t think we’d be picking a fight with Alex Jones in *September*. But when the opportunity to bid on Infowars arrived, we had to [jump into the fight](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/tell-alex-jones-to-eat-shit-lets-buy-infowars/). We raised a few thousand dollars from hundreds of generous supporters. However it became very clear, very soon, that we were going to be outbid by a *large* margin, and we couldn’t be happier to lose out to our friends at The Onion. Thankfully, we made space for this! In the event that we didn’t raise enough, we said we’d use whatever we *did* receive for mockery and progressive journalism. Like we promised, that money has been earmarked for exclusive reporting on far right extremism and disinformation in Texas. Now that the world is even more unhinged, we hope you’ll continue [supporting us](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/become-a-member/). Stick around for the ride. It’s gonna be a blast. ### Dallas Influencer Wants Her Pet Monkey Back: Report URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/dallas-influencer-wants-her-pet-monkey-back-report/ Last updated: 2024-11-13T21:04:54.000Z An influencer is very upset after her pet spider monkey was confiscated by police, according to *The Dallas Morning News*. Brandi Botello said 3-year-old “Jorgie Boy” was seized by Dallas police following a car accident over the weekend. And she is not taking it well. “He’s my little boy. We do everything together,” Botello told [the newspaper](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/2024/11/12/free-jorgie-boy-dallas-influencer-pleads-for-her-pet-monkey-back/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “I can’t stop crying.” The 29-year-old Irving woman said she dresses her monkey in pajamas, feeds him Tex-Mex, and sleeps next to him. She posted about her plight on (where else) Instagram, where her 42,000 followers rallied around the hashtag #FreeJorgieBoy. https://www.instagram.com/p/DB-dlS1s5Oq/?img\_index=1 Dallas police transferred him to another city, where it was confirmed he’d been relocated to a wildlife sanctuary — aka a place with no pajamas and actual monkey companions. Botello, meanwhile, was taken to the hospital after the crash and told she’d been charged with DWI in the single-car crash, according to the report. She apparently insisted she wasn’t the one driving — and pointed out that Jorgie Boy was peacefully napping, blissfully unaware of any human drama. In Texas, one can legally own an exotic animal with the proper documentation, but owning a “dangerous wild animal,” [as defined by law](https://texas.public.law/statutes/tex.%5Fhealth%5Fand%5Fsafety%5Fcode%5Fsection%5F822.101?ref=thebarbedwire.com), is typically prohibited. It’s not clear where spider monkeys fall on that spectrum but you can get an exception by [submitting an application](https://www.dshs.texas.gov/sites/default/files/IDCU/health/zoonosis/laws/Wild/application.pdf?ref=thebarbedwire.com) for a Certificate of Registration for Dangerous Wild Animals. And, outside of state and federal laws, ownership of wild animals in the city of Irving involves its own restrictions. Add to that: *Texas Monthly* [reported last year](https://www.texasmonthly.com/travel/exotic-wildlife-trade-smugglers-texas/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that the spider monkey is one of the most profitable and popular animals trafficked today — and a lot of people are buying them on the black market after the monkeys were smuggled into the country illegally. It’s also [not uncommon](https://www.texasmonthly.com/travel/exotic-wildlife-trade-smugglers-texas/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), even with the proper paperwork, for such monkeys to end up the subject of YouTube videos or other social media content. Botello told the newspaper she didn’t know she needed any permits — unfortunately, that legal defense hasn’t historically proved very effective, but you never know. She told the *Morning News* that she got Jorgie Boy as a gift at just 2 months old, and the two have been inseparable ever since — sharing picnics, Cowboys games, and even dressing up together for Halloween. It does genuinely suck that she lost her pet but also … maybe owning wild animals is legally thorny for a reason? ### Congrats! Ken Paxton Celebrates 100th Stupid Lawsuit Against Nation URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/congrats-ken-paxton-celebrates-100th-stupid-lawsuit-against-nation/ Last updated: 2024-11-13T19:47:48.000Z Say what you will about Ken Paxton, but he keeps himself busy. The Texas attorney general cranks out lawsuits (and press releases about those lawsuits) in a truly impressive fashion, as he continues to audition for a position in president-elect Donald Trump’s administration. And this week Paxton hit a milestone: his [100th legal complaint](https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/news/releases/attorney-general-ken-paxton-files-100th-lawsuit-against-biden-harris-administration?ref=thebarbedwire.com) against the Biden-Harris Administration. Paxton claims this legal frenzy shows the shocking depth of federal “abuses of power,” and who better to point it out than the guy who’s made filing lawsuits his personal calling? (To be clear, his actual mandate as attorney general is to defend and enforce already-existing Texas laws.) Speaking of “abuse” — Paxton used one of [those lawsuits](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/paxton-enemy-of-state-fair-and-tiny-lizard-files-suit-against-child-safety/) *to stop* a new Biden administration rule that protects kids from harassment and abuse. Cool! “For the past four years, the Biden-Harris Administration routinely violated the Constitution to implement an agenda that harmed our Nation,” Paxton said, presumably while staring patriotically into the distance. “From unlawfully orchestrating the border invasion to attacking our oil and gas industries and illegally abusing taxpayer money to censor our own citizens, the federal government has been ruthlessly weaponized against the American people.” Fascinating that Paxton would invoke the state’s Constitution, considering he was an [election denier](https://www.texastribune.org/2022/10/19/ken-paxton-texas-election-denial/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in 2020 and a few weeks ago was the only state attorney general in the whole country who didn’t promise to help ensure a peaceful transition of power [before the results came down in Trump’s favor](https://www.kut.org/politics/2024-11-05/texas-attorney-general-ken-paxton-indiana-montana-absent-condemn-election-violence-naag-letter?ref=thebarbedwire.com). And lest we forget, Paxton hasn’t been great at *following* laws either, [personally](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/06/27/ken-paxton-federal-investigation/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) or professionally. For starters, a federal judge ruled that Paxton’s “voter fraud” raids [were](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/federal-judge-law-behind-bullsht-voter-fraud-raids-is-unconstitutional/) unconstitutional. Oh, and under the guise of removing non-citizens from the voter rolls, he mistakenly removed actual citizens during said purge — [including at least one Trump voter in Texas](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/10/29/texas-noncitizen-voter-roll-removal-mary-howard-elley/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Texas’s least-favorite lawyer wasn’t trying to hear that, though. “We proudly led the Nation’s fight to uphold the rule of law and restore Constitutional rights when they were under attack,” Paxton said. Paxton hit his big 100 by going after the Federal Communications Commission for daring to put a cap on phone and video call rates for prisoners. On November 1, Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi teamed up to sue the FCC, claiming that this rule not only steps on their states’ toes but is also “arbitrary” and “capricious” (that’s legal code for “we just don’t like it).” According to them, the FCC’s rule violates the Administrative Procedure Act, which is the federal government’s manual for following the rules while making new rules. Though Paxton sues *everybody* — including Austin, Bexar County, doctors, and the State Fair of Texas — he has been hard at work trolling the Biden administration for years. Back in January 2021, Paxton said he was the first state attorney general to file a lawsuit against the Biden Administration, suing over a deportation pause just two days into the new presidency. Since then, he said he’s managed to get rulings in his favor more than 75% of the time. Recently, he [celebrated his victory over federal plans to reallocate border wall funds.](https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/news/releases/attorney-general-ken-paxton-secures-final-victory-forcing-biden-continue-border-wall-construction?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Meanwhile, the very same day Paxton celebrated his 100th lawsuit, he put out another release announcing another one. Good for him! In suit No. 101, [Paxton said he sued](https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/news/releases/attorney-general-ken-paxton-sues-biden-harris-doj-prevent-destruction-jack-smiths-records-detailing?ref=thebarbedwire.com) U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and the U.S. Department of Justice to prevent “potential destruction of any records from Jack Smith’s corrupt investigation into President Donald Trump.” We’re glad Paxton is so hard at work invoking Texas’ name and power for things that don’t really impact the lives of everyday Texans. Imagine if he used that energy responding to press inquiries! Fun fact: KXAN’s Ryan Chandler [reported in October](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxuZUdGr1-w&ref=thebarbedwire.com) that Paxton’s office has responded to eight of 2700 emails from the press in the last 6 months — despite the fact that his communications director makes more than $213,000 per year (that’s more the White House press secretary). Those are expensive press releases! No wonder he sends out so many. Anyway, his impeachment attorney [told the news station](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxuZUdGr1-w&ref=thebarbedwire.com) that Paxton’s press office, which — again, is accountable to the public, and paid for by the public — has probably stopped engaging with the media because he’s tired of seeing headlines about his various indictments. President Trump, you don’t have any reason to listen to us, but please, give this guy a cabinet position, relocate him to Washington, D.C., and take him off our hands. We’re begging you. (Minutes after this story published, because nothing good ever happens, Trump [announced](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/trump-announces-matt-gaetz-pick-attorney-general-rcna180042?ref=thebarbedwire.com) he’d chosen Rep. Matt Gaetz as the 87th attorney general of the United States. Gaetz has been criminally charged with four federal felonies related to his efforts to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss and [civilly accused](https://abcnews.go.com/US/rep-matt-gaetz-subpoenaed-defamation-suit-woman-allegedly/story?id=108098265&ref=thebarbedwire.com) of sexual misconduct.) ### Why Were Democrats So Wrong About Latino Voters? URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/why-were-democrats-so-wrong-about-latino-voters/ Last updated: 2024-11-13T10:00:00.000Z It’s [2016](https://www.npr.org/2016/12/22/506347254/latinos-will-never-vote-for-a-republican-and-other-myths-about-hispanics-from-20?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and I’m listening as pundits, analysts, and armchair experts make assumptions about the “Latino vote.” It’s [2020](https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/09/politics/latino-voters-florida-texas-arizona/index.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and I’m listening as pundits, analysts, and armchair experts make assumptions about the “Latino vote.” It’s 2024, and I’m — you get the point. With every passing election, the “Latino vote” has become an almost mythical monolithic entity to pick apart and make predictions about rather than a massive voting block of roughly 36 million eligible voters with *vastly* different lived experiences. I understand why eyes are on us. Roughly [1.4 million Latinos](https://www.morningstar.com/news/business-wire/20241028794869/the-power-to-swing-elections-new-data-from-ldc-confirms-us-latinos-account-for-50-of-new-eligible-voters-since-2020-expanding-to-estimated-362-million-in-2024-with-determinative-influence-in-key-battleground-states?ref=thebarbedwire.com) become eligible to vote each year, making us the [second-fastest growing voting demographic](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/01/10/key-facts-about-hispanic-eligible-voters-in-2024/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) behind Asian Americans. We make up nearly 40% of the population in California and Texas, the states with the largest number of electoral votes, and we account for about 30% of the population in battleground states like [Arizona](https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/AZ/PST045223?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [Nevada](https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/NV,AZ/PST045223?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The problem is that we’re [largely absent](https://latinodonorcollaborative.org/reports/2023-ldc-nahj-u-s-latinos-in-journalism-report/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) from many of the newsrooms ceaselessly covering our community before, during, and after these elections. So when the numbers start trickling in, the story gets away from us, and misconceptions run rampant. This year, the main takeaway is loud and clear: Donald Trump [“won”](https://www.cjr.org/kicker/how-trump-won-the-latino-vote-a-deep-dive-with-cjr-contributor-jack-herrera.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Latino voters. He actually didn’t. According to [exit polls](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-elections/exit-polls?ref=thebarbedwire.com), Latinos nationally favored Vice President Kamala Harris 52% to 46% for Trump, with Harris capturing 60% of Latinas’ votes compared to 43% of Latino men. Still, those figures point to historic gains for a Republican candidate and have stumped much of the pundit class, especially as they took in the results from parts of West and South Texas, where [Trump won 14 of the 18 counties within 20 miles of the border](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/11/06/donald-trump-near-sweep-texas-border-counties/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) — a predominantly Latino, and historically blue, region. But while everyone is focused on this year’s “red shift” among Latinos, I’d like to quickly travel back in time to the [2022 midterms](https://www.npr.org/2022/10/24/1130451390/midterms-biden-democrats-republicans-latino-voters?ref=thebarbedwire.com), when experts were convinced that the minimal gains Trump had made with us in 2020 would help Republicans secure a massive “red wave” that would sweep the nation. Spoiler: [It never made landfall](https://equisresearch.medium.com/2022-post-mortem-latino-voters-the-case-of-the-missing-red-wave-b76f19d6304c?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Instead, Latino support for Democrats remained consistent and played [a significant role](https://www.brookings.edu/articles/latinos-support-democrats-over-republicans-2-1-in-house-and-senate-elections/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in allowing the party to maintain a majority in the Senate. So why were so many experts wrong about 2022? And surprised again in 2024? And what can we all learn from it? **When It Comes to Latinos, National Exit Polls Are Flawed** This should come as a shock to absolutely no one who’s lived through the last three elections, but polling is an inexact science. And when it comes to representing the views of a community as large and varied as Latinos, traditional polling methods often miss the mark. A fact that speaks volumes: Most national surveys are not even offered in Spanish. [Gabriel R. Sanchez](https://www.brookings.edu/people/gabriel-r-sanchez/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a researcher focused on the Latino electorate and professor at the University of New Mexico, [has argued](https://www.brookings.edu/articles/latino-voting-behavior-bad-polling-leads-to-bad-assumptions/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that the exclusion of this demographic leads to skewed data on Latinos as a whole. In August, a [poll from UnidosUS](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/harris-trump-race-tighter-english-speaking-latinos-poll-shows-rcna169457?ref=thebarbedwire.com), the largest national Latino civil rights and advocacy organization in the country, showed that support for Harris was 64% in Spanish-dominant households compared to 51% in English-dominant households. Clarissa Martínez De Castro, vice president of the Latino Vote Initiative at UnidosUS, told *The Barbed Wire* she believes the accuracy of the more recent exit polls will be challenged, especially in regard to Trump’s gains with Latino men. “Folks are already making pronouncements about Latinos not wanting immigrants, or wanting to be white, and that’s why they’re voting for Trump, but you could argue that there’s a dissonance between those conclusions and the results elsewhere on the ballot,” she said. “There are issues that are aligned with the Democrats who are performing better among Latinos than the Democratic candidate for president, and that’s something they should be looking at. But by then, the stories will have already been written.” That isn’t to say that there isn’t a real trend here. Republicans *have* been making headway with Latinos, and we’re seeing that play out in South Texas as well as in [Florida](https://www.sun-sentinel.com/2024/11/08/why-south-floridas-hispanic-voters-backed-trump-were-very-traditional-were-very-conservative/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). The problem is that not only does the polling data paint an incomplete picture, it’s also misleading. **The Messiness of Latino Identity** To understand what’s happening requires a level of nuance and understanding about what “Latino” even means. I’ll spare everyone the centuries of fraught history and jump to the fact that the term includes people from 33 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean. In practice, it’s a label that groups together people who speak different languages (Spanish, English, Portuguese, and Indigenous languages like Quechua or Nahuatl) and who practice different religions; people who have been in the U.S. for five generations, as well as newly arrived immigrants; and, most importantly, because it’s an ethnicity, it includes people of all races. Trying to spin narratives about a category of people that broad is bound to be imprecise. How helpful can it be to pull insights from a dataset that groups together a fourth-generation Mexican American in Texas with a first-generation Cuban American in Florida?And indeed, exit poll data from [Americas Society/Council of the Americas](https://www.as-coa.org/articles/poll-tracker-latino-vote-2024-us-presidential-election?ref=thebarbedwire.com) (nonprofits focused on free trade), which broke down Latino voters by place of origin and heritage, told a different story: that 62% of Mexican Americans voted for Harris, compared to 40% of Cuban Americans. Even still, the analysis leaves a lot to be desired, given that it lumps together voters from South America, as well as voters from Central America. Looking toward South Texas, many have scratched their heads about what would drive Latinos to vote for Trump — who promised [mass deportations](https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/11/us/closed-border-trump-immigration-deportation/index.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and [called Mexicans criminals and rapists](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/06/16/theyre-rapists-presidents-trump-campaign-launch-speech-two-years-later-annotated/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in his 2016 campaign launch. That rhetoric may have been unpopular among many Latinos in cities or states farther away from the border, but for some closer to the “frontlines,” there’s been a building resentment for newly arrived immigrants. Earlier this year, a study from [Public Opinion Quarterly](https://academic.oup.com/poq/article-abstract/88/1/51/7633268?redirectedFrom=fulltext&ref=thebarbedwire.com) found that a rise in anti-immigrant sentiment has *bolstered* support for Trump among some Latinos. They “feel like they’re suffering because they’re lumped in with immigrant Latinos, who are not highly valued in American society,” one of the study’s authors, Flavio Rogerio Hickel Jr., [told *Axios*](https://www.axios.com/2024/04/18/latino-immigrants-election-policy-deportation-discrimination?ref=thebarbedwire.com). It’s impossible and irresponsible to disentangle these findings from the issue of race. While the U.S. has a long history of Latino discrimination, racism is also deeply embedded in Latino culture, and it contributes to the tensions we see driving support for xenophobic and restrictive immigration policies. In recent years, migration patterns at the border have shifted [away from predominantly Mexican and Central American immigrants](https://www.migrationpolicy.org/news/border-numbers-fy2023?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to growing numbers of [Venezuelan, Cuban](https://sanantonioreport.org/venezuelans-cubans-arriving-texas-record-numbers-heres-why/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), [Haitian](https://www.elpasotimes.com/story/news/2021/11/30/del-rio-texas-haitian-migrant-crisis-acuna-timeline-news-coverage/8639273002/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and [Chinese](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/24/us/politics/china-migrants-us-border.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) arrivals. People often respond to data about Latinos voting for Trump by pointing out how his policies and rhetoric will negatively impact them, since he’s already driven up anti-Latino sentiments, plans to weaken the economy through deportations, and just chose [a border czar who fathered family separation](https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/trump-taps-tom-homan-as-border-czar-fac81082?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in Trump’s first term. It might seem contradictory, but the fact is in areas like South Texas, many Latino immigrants see themselves as “one of the good ones,” not the dangerous, criminal “other” that Trump is talking about. And as the majority of the population, many American-born Latinos in South Texas do not see themselves as Mexicans. They’re simply “Americans” or “Texans,” and any campaigning around identity doesn’t register the same way it might in other areas where Latinos are in the minority. It’s a dynamic summed up by Texas Politics Project research director Joshua Blank in an interview with [*The Texas Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/11/06/donald-trump-near-sweep-texas-border-counties/?ref=thebarbedwire.com): Many Latinos “think of themselves as multiracial,” and live in areas where race and ethnicity “are not top of mind.” In places like Starr County and Maverick County, where the population is 97% Latino, Trump won roughly 58% of the vote, marking a sizable shift in counties that favored Biden by 52% and 54% respectively [in 2020](https://abcnews.go.com/Elections/texas-county-presidential-election-results-2020?ref=thebarbedwire.com). **Working Class Messaging Resonates with Latino Voters** Martínez De Castro told *The Barbed Wire* that over the past several years, [UnidosUS’ polling](https://unidosus.org/press-releases/unidosus-voter-poll-pocketbook-issues-still-top-texas-latino-priorities/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) has repeatedly emphasized one clear narrative: “The No. 1, 2, and 3 issues we’ve seen Latinos concerned with all relate to the pocketbook: housing, cost of living, and health care.” This isn’t to say Latinos are single-issue voters, but it does mean economic issues consistently rank higher within the demographic compared to immigration, gun control, or abortion access. “When people are unhappy with the economy, the party in power is usually the one who bears the brunt of that in the voting booth,” she said. One of the prevailing narratives coming out of this year’s election has been the Dems’ [struggle to connect with the working class](https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/democrats-working-class-message/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and that includes a large share of Latinos. “Democrats can argue the facts of how they’ve positively impacted that segment of the population, but that doesn’t change the fact that they’re struggling to connect,” she said. “At the same time, the Republicans have been very successful at building the perception that if you’re concerned about the economy, they’re the horse you should bet on.” Jose Colon-Uvalles, a community organizer and activist in Brownsville, has seen that line of thinking take root in Cameron County, where Trump won 52% of the vote. One factor, he told *The Barbed Wire*, is the [changing demographics of the area](https://www.valleycentral.com/spacex/brownsville-residents-express-concern-about-gentrification-caused-by-spacex/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), where Elon Musk’s SpaceX has brought more jobs but also an influx of people from outside of the region. “Because we’re such a disenfranchised community, a lot of our opportunities come in the form of jobs with Border Patrol, the government, or now SpaceX,” he said. “Folks see \[SpaceX\] as an opportunity to make good for themselves and their families, but that alignment with Elon and his politics played into why Cameron County turned red.” **Lack of Democratic Engagement** Back in 2020, I spent some time in Laredo [covering the race](https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/henry-cuellars-constituents-ready-aoc-ally-jessica-cisneros/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) between U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar and his primary challenger, Jessica Cisneros. Though Cuellar won the Democratic primary, it was a narrow victory for an incumbent who had been serving the district since 2005\. Talking to voters in the area, I heard repeated complaints about Cuellar not having much of a presence in the district and being difficult to get a hold of. It’s a critique I’ve heard about Democrats in South Texas more broadly, particularly in areas that have recently turned red like Webb County, part of Cuellar’s district, which [flipped last week for the first time in more than 100 years](https://www.kgns.tv/2024/11/07/webb-county-flips-red-first-time-100-years-trump-wins-majority-vote/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Colon-Uvalles said that any conclusions drawn from the election results should take into account how “abysmal” voter turnout was — and is — in South Texas. “It’s indicative of larger issues with the Democratic Party at the state and national level,” he said. Both Colon-Uvalles and Martínez De Castro point to the fact that, after Democrats avoided a loss in 2022, they headed into 2024 with a business as usual approach. “Folks \[in the Democratic Party\] didn’t take the time to look at what was actually happening,” Colon-Uvalles said. “Republicans were building a community here for more centrist Democrats to engage with them. The Valley didn’t turn red in 2022, but the seeds were there for what we ended up seeing this year.” Astead Herndon, in a now-viral clip from the *New York Times* podcast “The Daily,” spoke to this last week: “We’ve actually had a lot of evidence to say that the demographic destiny undertone is one that is a faulty premise. The fact that they are holding on to the Obama era is a racist assumption.” He added, “It’s lowercase racist. I would say there’s an assumption — there was a failure of imagination, that that couldn’t be true.” For the unfamiliar, Dr. James J. Zogby of the [Arab American Institute](https://www.aaiusa.org/library/democrats-are-learning-demographics-arent-destiny?ref=thebarbedwire.com) laid out the problem with “demographic destiny” in May: “After Barack Obama’s decisive victory in 2008, Democratic Party strategists fell under the sway of the notion that the future of their party’s dominance was \[ensured\] because, as they put it, ‘demographics are destiny.’” He added, “By viewing Black, Latino, and Asian American voters as monoliths, Democrats may be ignoring the complex composition of these groups.” A tepid and late outreach from Democrats only solidified the disconnect and created more opportunities for Republicans to step in. “It just cemented this idea that folks in the party can just rely on us, but not actually engage with us,” he says. “There weren’t materials put out in Spanish, there was nothing about the platform, it was all very minimal.” In response to their historic losses, Texas Democratic Party Chair Gilberto Hinojosa [told *The Texas Newsroom*](https://www.kut.org/2024-11-06/donald-trump-texas-election-future-gop-republican-party?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that their poor performance came down to which issues the party prioritized. “You have a choice as a party,” he said. “For example, you can support transgender rights up and down all the categories where the issue comes up, or you can understand that there’s certain things that we just go too far on, that a big bulk of our population does not support.” The comments immediately sparked a backlash, and on Friday, Hinojosa [announced](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/11/08/texas-democrat-party-resigns-gilberto-hinojosa/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) that he would step down. There is undoubtedly a culture of homophobia and transphobia among Latino communities, but, according to a [2022 Gallup poll](https://www.axios.com/2022/03/15/latinos-lgbt-poll-gen-z?ref=thebarbedwire.com), LGBTQ+ identification is also higher among Latinos compared to other groups. Colon-Uvalles, who is also known as drag performer “Kween Beatrix,” called Hinojosa’s comments inaccurate. In 2019, Colon-Uvalles helped create an LGBTQ Task Force in Brownsville, in part to address discrimination facing the community. Recently, the group unanimously passed [a nondiscrimination ordinance](https://www.krgv.com/news/new-ordinance-in-brownsville-to-protect-lgbtq-community/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “You can’t say that people here don’t care about those issues, because it’s not true for Brownsville, and it’s not true for Cameron County,” Colon-Uvalles told *The Barbed Wire*. “These people say they care about us and our community, but we don’t see them at all until it’s time for elections. Now, they didn’t get the results they wanted, and instead of reflecting, they want to use queer and trans people as a scapegoat. It’s embarrassing and it just shows that the Democratic leadership is out of touch.” ### Michelin Finally Gives Stars to 15 Incredible Texas Restaurants URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/michelin-finally-gives-stars-to-15-incredible-texas-restaurants/ Last updated: 2024-11-12T20:46:00.000Z Well, well, well, if it isn’t the rest of the world finally admitting what Texans knew all along: We have some of the best food in the world. We [told you in September](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/michelin-picks-houston-to-announce-which-texas-restaurants-are-good/) that the French tire company (which also reviews restaurants) has finally deigned to come judge our state’s tacos and barbecue — and 24 other kinds of cuisine. We didn’t need the French to tell us how great we are. But they did! Please come again, anonymous Michelin inspectors. Monday night in Houston, we learned who got the coveted stars, along with the separate (but also valuable) Michelin Green stars for the eco-friendly eateries, and the Bib Gourmand awards for the more affordable spots. The state received a total of [117 recognitions](https://guide.michelin.com/us/en/texas/restaurants?ref=thebarbedwire.com) spanning 26 different cuisine types. For Michelin Stars, Austin got the most of any city, which is notable since Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio are all larger by population. San Antonio, Dallas, and Fort Worth each got one star. Of course, Houston’s cuisine was the most diverse. Restaurants in the country’s fourth-largest city included those serving Mexican, Indian, Mediterranean, and Spanish foods. For the eco- and wallet- friendly acknowledgements, it’s worth mentioning that in the great [Texas taco debate](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/the-taco-wars-forgot-the-most-important-player-the-rio-grande-valley/), Austin had six taquerias recognized — far more than any other Texas city. The infamous Cuantos Tacos, La Santa Barbacha, and Nixta Taqueria were each granted Bib Gourmand awards. Con Todo, Discada, and Veracruz Fonda & Bar (which started as a taqueria and still prominently features tacos on their menu), all were recommended Michelin restaurants. Here’s the full breakdown: ## Austin **One Star:** Barley Swine (Contemporary cuisine) Craft Omakase (Japanese cuisine) Hestia (American cuisine) InterStellar BBQ (Barbecue cuisine) la Barbecue (Barbecue cuisine) Leroy and Lewis Barbecue (Barbecue cuisine) Olamaie (American cuisine) **Michelin Green Star:** Dai Due (American cuisine) Emmer & Rye (American cuisine) **Bib Gourmand:** Barbs B Q(Barbecue cuisine) Briscuits (Barbecue cuisine) Cuantos Tacos (Mexican cuisine - Taqueria) Dai Due (American cuisine) Distant Relatives (Barbecue cuisine) Emmer & Rye (American cuisine) Franklin Barbecue (Barbecue cuisine) Kemuri Tatsu-ya (Japanese cuisine) KG BBQ (Barbecue cuisine) La Santa Barbacha (Mexican cuisine - Taqueria) Micklethwait Craft Meats (Barbecue cuisine) Nixta Taqueria (Mexican cuisine - Taqueria) Odd Duck (New American cuisine) Ramen del Barrio (Japanese Mexican cuisine) Veracruz Fonda & Bar (Mexican cuisine) **Recommended:** Apt 115 (Wine bar) Birdie’s (New American cuisine) Comedor (Mexican cuisine) Con Todo (Mexican cuisine - Taqueria) Dipdipdip Tatsu-Ya (Japanese cuisine) Discada (Mexican cuisine - Taqueria) Este (Mexican and seafood cuisine) Esov (Mediterranean cuisine) Garrison (New American cuisine) Jeffrey’s (French-American cuisine) Joe’s Bakery & Coffee Shop (Mexican/Tex-Mex diner cuisine) La Condesa (Mexican cuisine) Launderette (New American cuisine) Lenoir (New American cuisine) Ling Kitchen (Chinese cuisine) Lutie’s (Farm-to-table cuisine) Maie Day (Steakhouse cuisine) Mexta (Mexican cuisine) Mum Foods Smokehouse & Delicatessen (Barbecue and delicatessen cuisine) Suerte (Mexican cuisine) Tare (Japanese cuisine) Terry Black’s BBQ (Barbecue cuisine) Toshokan (Japanese cuisine) ## Dallas **One Star:** Tatsu Dallas (Japanese cuisine) **Bib Gourmand:** Cattleack (Barbecue cuisine) Gemma (Bistro cuisine) Lucia (Italian cuisine) Một Hai Ba (Vietnamese cuisine) Ngon Vietnamese Kitchen (Vietnamese cuisine) Nonna (Italian cuisine) **Recommended:** Barsotti’s (Italian cuisine) The Charles (Italian cuisine) Crown Block (Steakhouse and sushi) El Carlos Elegante (Mexican cuisine) Fearing’s (Southwestern cuisine) Georgie (New American cuisine) Harvest (American cuisine) Knox Bistro (French cuisine) Mercat Bistro (French cuisine) Monarch (Italian cuisine) Quarter Acre (Global cuisine) Rye (Modern American cuisine) Sachet (Mediterranean cuisine) Stillwell’s (Steakhouse) Stock & Barrel (American cuisine) Tei-An (Japanese cuisine) Written by the Seasons (Global cuisine) ## Fort Worth **Bib Gourmand:** Goldee’s (Barbecue cuisine) **Recommended:** Birrieria y Taqueria Cortez (Mexican cuisine) Panther City BBQ (Barbecue cuisine) Smoke’N Ash BBQ (Barbecue cuisine) ## Houston **One Star:** BCN Taste & Tradition (Spanish cuisine) CorkScrew BBQ (Spring; Barbecue cuisine) Le Jardinier Houston (French cuisine) March (Creative/Mediterranean cuisine) Musaafer (Indian cuisine) Tatemó (Mexican cuisine) **Bib Gourmand:** Belly of the Beast (Mexican cuisine) Blood Bros BBQ (Barbecue cuisine) Ema (Mexican cuisine) Kau Ba (Viet-Cajun cuisine) Killen’s (Southern cuisine) Killen’s BBQ (Barbecue cuisine) Mala Sichuan Bistro (Chinese cuisine) Nam Giao (Vietnamese cuisine) Nancy’s Hustle (American bistro cuisine) Nobie’s (New American cuisine) Pinkerton’s BBQ (Barbecue cuisine) The Pit Room (Barbecue cuisine) Rosemeyer Bar-B-Q (Barbecue cuisine) Rosie Cannonball (Modern European cuisine) St. to Kitchen (Thai cuisine) Tejas Chocolate (Barbecue and chocolate cuisine) Theodore Rex (New American cuisine) Truth BBQ (Barbecue cuisine) **Recommended:** Baso (Basque cuisine) Bludorn (New American cuisine) Brisket & Rice (Barbecue cuisine) Candente (Tex-Mex cuisine) Hidden Omakase (Japanese cuisine) Late August (New American cuisine) Pappas Bros. Steakhouse (Steakhouse cuisine) ## San Antonio **One Star:** Mixtli (Mexican cuisine) **Bib Gourmand:** Burnt Bean Co. (Barbecue cuisine) Cullum’s Attaboy (French cuisine) The Jerk Shack (Caribbean cuisine) Ladino (Mediterranean cuisine) Southerleigh Fine Food & Brewery (Texas cuisine) **Recommended:** 2M Smokehouse (Barbecue cuisine) Barbecue Station (Barbecue cuisine) Garcia’s Mexican Food (Tex-Mex cuisine) Leche de Tigre (Peruvian cuisine) Little Em’s Oystery Bar (Seafood cuisine) Nicosi (Dessert cuisine) Signature Restaurant (Contemporary cuisine) ### Austin Could Get a WNBA Team. A Texas Basketball Legend Is Prepping a Bid. URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/austin-could-get-a-wnba-team-a-texas-basketball-legend-is-prepping-a-bid/ Last updated: 2024-11-12T18:16:27.000Z Austin could finally be getting a professional basketball team — and a Texas basketball legend named Fran Harris is doing her part to make it happen. The former Longhorn champion, WNBA champion, and South Oak Cliff High School graduate is raising money and gathering supporters to bid for a WNBA Austin team. The league currently has 12 teams, and in April, WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert told [ESPN](https://www.espn.com/wnba/story/%5F/id/39951099/wnba-engelbert-confident-expansion-16-teams-possible-2028?ref=thebarbedwire.com) she was “pretty confident” the league would have 16 by 2028\. Austin is one of at least [15 other cities](https://www.axios.com/local/austin/2024/11/12/wnba-austin-expansion-fran-harris?ref=thebarbedwire.com) under consideration for those additional teams, which will be decided in 2027. “I’m not shy about spreading the gospel of whatever I’m doing,” Harris told [SBNation.com](https://www.sbnation.com/wnba/2024/11/12/24289611/wnba-expansion-fran-harris-austin-texas-houston-comets-cathy-engelbert?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on Tuesday. “That’s the way we’re going to approach it in Austin.” Harris is clearly no stranger to women’s basketball. She was part of the 1986 Longhorn’s undefeated season that led the team to its only NCAA championship to date. But Harris also played in the WNBA and led Houston’s team to its first-ever WNBA championship, according to SBNation.com. (Houston has not had a team since it was dissolved in 2008.) “I’ve lived this,” Harris told SBNation.com. “In order to market your product, you have to know what your product is.” Austin has no men’s professional basketball team, despite the (awkward) San Antonio Spurs [expansion to the city](https://www.si.com/nba/spurs/news/san-antonio-spurs-austin-expansion-new-market-reach-growth?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Relatedly: Rumor has it that [Kevin Durant may also be on board](https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Articles/2024/11/12/kevin-durant-austin-wnba-expansion-team?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to help Harris pull together support and funding for the women’s Austin team. Read more at [SBNation.com](https://www.sbnation.com/wnba/2024/11/12/24289611/wnba-expansion-fran-harris-austin-texas-houston-comets-cathy-engelbert?ref=thebarbedwire.com). ### That Sucked. Now What? URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/that-sucked-now-what/ Last updated: 2024-11-11T20:41:03.000Z Last week, Americans voted to reelect Donald Trump, a man who was found legally liable for sexual assault and ran an historically racist campaign — all while threatening a large-scale mass deportation and a whole host of [homophobic and anti-trans policies](https://www.them.us/story/donald-trump-worst-lgbtq-attacks?ref=thebarbedwire.com). A [*New York Times* analysis](https://thebarbedwire.acemlna.com/lt.php?x=3DZy~GDKU6bN5pN90A65W.Wg2HEgkAEjkug4ZHLKVaTK5HOv-ky.zOFs2o2niO~wnuYzYnf&ref=thebarbedwire.com) showed the former (and now future) president improved on his 2020 margin in more than 2,000 counties. A lot of us have been feeling despair and nausea, fear and pain. America chose *that man* again? In this economy? During cuffing season? In the [hottest year on record](https://wmo.int/news/media-centre/2024-track-be-hottest-year-record-warming-temporarily-hits-15degc?ref=thebarbedwire.com#:~:text=Baku%2C%20Azerbaijan%20%28WMO%29%20%2D,World%20Meteorological%20Organization%20%28WMO%29.)? This isn’t the time for silver linings — and finger-pointing only takes you so far. At *The Barbed Wire*, we’ve come up with a list of free events organized by community members who are not afraid (or *are afraid* *and are bravely doing it anyway*) to speak up and show up. Here are ways you can donate to reproductive rights, be part of the conversation around race or LGBTQ+ issues, or simply listen to what others have to say. **Con Cariño** **Austin, Texas** **Monday 11/11** This community gathering was planned by Austin community leader TK Tunchez. It’s a free post-election meeting that will center BIPOC & LGBTQIA+ communities, according to the event page. The event will feature breathwork from local yoga instructors, a somatic workshop from local therapists of color, and support from the Black Trans Leadership of Austin. “As a Queer, Latina, migrant-owned business, this week has been tough. It’s made me question what the possibilities are for moving forward and left me feeling isolated,” Tunchez wrote in her community newsletter. “It was an easy decision to gather with friends and create some meaningful opportunities for connection.” [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/thebarbedwire-com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/img_5673.jpg)](https://www.instagram.com/p/DCPJHjJJnJU/?img%5Findex=1&ref=thebarbedwire.com) **Where Do We Go From Here?:** **Austin, Texas** **Thursday, November 21** “This isn't a conversation for those looking for comfort—it's a call to action for those ready to fight for a new path forward,” according to the event page. Chas Moore, founder of the Austin Justice Coalition, wrote on Instagram that “this was never about just one night or one ballot.” He added, “The real work begins NOW.” The coalition works toward “economic and racial equity for Austin’s people of color by developing, organizing, and providing robust programs and events,” according to its website, noting that the group celebrates Black culture and mobilizes “people to boldly fight racist systems through a Black, queer, feminist, abolitionist lens.” To that end, [“Where Do We Go From Here?”](https://secure.everyaction.com/Jwn6XPzM7EaMwsC1uPPX3A2?ref=thebarbedwire.com) is a community gathering to help people move forward using calls to action. “This is for those who understand that our hope must be fierce, our resilience unbreakable, and our commitment to each other unwavering,” the event’s page said. “Join us as we chart our way forward—not bound by systems that want to contain us but led by our own vision for freedom, justice, and love.” **Speak Up, Stand Out: Using Your Visibility to Step Into Your Power** **Virtual Event** **Thursday, Nov 14** Christina Olivarez, founder of Hustle and Socialize, [planned this virtual event](https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYtd-CgqTovGNXGXxf4XYpobm5jw0coc%5FQi?ref=thebarbedwire.com#/registration) after the election’s results rolled in. She told *The* *Barbed Wire* that “now more than ever, Black and Brown and marginalized community voices need to be amplified.” Olivarez hopes this event will help folks “harness visibility to stand against oppression, amplify our voices, and drive impactful change.” Hustle and Socialize helps women of color break barriers and elevate their voices in the business world. **We’re Not Going Anywhere** **Virtual Fundraiser** **Ongoing Now** In light of the devastating impacts last week’s election are bound to have on reproductive rights — and the loss of what could have been a federal protection of abortion rights, from either the White House or Congress — there’s never been a better time to support abortion care. Frontera Fund RGV fosters reproductive rights and helps people access reproductive care in the Rio Grande Valley and border communities. “We know this election has been difficult, but we want y'all to know, we're not going anywhere,” the organization posted on its Instagram. “ 👊Feeling helpless? Help us fund some abortions!” The organization’s goal is to raise $10,000 by the end of the year. So far, it has [raised](https://secure.everyaction.com/DYc7zkJtEk6snzevSmFLAg2?ref=thebarbedwire.com) $1,400. **Funding Texas Futures** **Virtual Fundraiser** **Ongoing Now** Buckle Bunnies is an organization that works as a mutual aid collective to help Texans with abortion resources. They wrote on Instagram, “No matter what, we continue our commitment to Texans seeking reproductive and sexual healthcare. Our organization needs support ALL the time — not just during elections.” They offer monthly [donation memberships](https://www.patreon.com/bucklebunniesfund?ref=thebarbedwire.com) or accept [Venmo donations](https://account.venmo.com/u/Buckle-Bunnies?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Have an event that we missed? Send Leslie an email at [Leslie@TheBarbedWire.com](mailto:Leslie@TheBarbedWire.com) ### Texas Secessionists Thrilled, Hopeful for ‘Revolution’ After 2024 Election URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-secessionists-thrilled-hopeful-for-revolution-after-2024-election/ Last updated: 2024-11-11T19:28:19.000Z Folks who want Texas to be its own country (again) are thrilled after last week's election brought 10 new Republicans to the state legislature who’ve all committed to backing the secessionist movement. This is somehow the least weird thing that’s happened in the last seven days: The Texas Nationalist Movement, [which bills itself](https://www.facebook.com/texasnatmov/posts/pfbid0mrxEeozKCinhwNvcqbtECP8Lt2aawWjcXVxxfbtYayHqkp1U2DLufuab6Xsxpfahl) as “the largest organization promoting Texas independence,” trumpeted to its 209,000 Facebook followers last Wednesday that the 10 incoming legislators, who all won seats in the state House of Representatives, had signed its “Texas First Pledge.” By signing, they apparently promised to “vote for legislation and resolutions to call for a vote on Texas reasserting its status as an independent nation” and to “work toward a fair and expedient separation of Texas from the federal government.” Texas nationalists aim to withdraw the Lone Star State from the union to establish a fully independent nation. Texas previously existed as the independent Republic of Texas from 1836 to 1846, prior to joining the United States — something your uncle will never shut up about. Seceding is one of those things that some Texans like to joke about, with a little dash of state pride — but it’s a little messed up that several incoming lawmakers have actually signed a pledge to make that happen, considering *that one, extremely bloody time the U.S. entered a Civil War over states trying to secede*. It would also make [a](https://www.houstonpress.com/news/opinion-texas-seceding-would-destroy-immigration-control-17485814?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [lot](https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/politics/yall-itics/why-texas-secession-highly-problematic/287-157d88be-4088-480e-bf01-f07fb1479bc8?ref=thebarbedwire.com) [of our problems](https://www.businessinsider.com/texas-secession-movement-rising-experts-say-would-harm-great-economy-2024-2?ref=thebarbedwire.com) *a lot worse* really quickly. A day after the election, the Texas National Movement [posted on Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/texasnatmov/posts/pfbid0mrxEeozKCinhwNvcqbtECP8Lt2aawWjcXVxxfbtYayHqkp1U2DLufuab6Xsxpfahl): “The voice of Texas independence just got a whole lot louder. From the halls of the Legislature to local courthouses, supporters of the Texas First Pledge secured victories that will reshape our state’s political landscape.” “This isn’t just a victory — it’s a revolution in Texas politics,” they added. “The old guard’s lies about supporting a TEXIT vote making a candidate ‘unelectable’ were shattered last night.” The group said that the incoming pro-secession legislators were: David Lowe in House District 91 in the Fort Worth area; Shelley Luther in District 62, which includes Sherman; Keresa Richardson in District 61, which includes parts of McKinney; Brent Money in District 2, which includes areas east of DFW; A.J. Louderback in District 30, which includes Victoria and parts of the Gulf coast; Wesley Virdell in District 53, aka a big chunk of Central and West Texas; Janis Holt in District 18 in Southeast Texas; Andy Hopper in District 64, which includes Denton; Steve Toth in District 15, aka The Woodlands near Houston; and Mitch Little in District 65, which is the suburbs north of DFW. If you’re wondering, no, Texas can’t legally decide to up and leave the United States. There was that thing called the Civil War, which pretty definitively established that states could not legally secede. “The legality of seceding is problematic,” Eric McDaniel, an associate professor of government at the University of Texas at Austin, [told the *Texas Tribune*](https://www.texastribune.org/2021/01/29/texas-secession/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). “The Civil War played a very big role in establishing the power of the federal government and cementing that the federal government has the final say in these issues.” But that hasn’t stopped people from filing pointless secession bills. Last year, state Rep. Bryan Slayton (who has since been [formally expelled](https://www.texastribune.org/2023/05/09/bryan-slaton-expel-house-vote/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) from the Legislature over alleged sexual misconduct) introduced the [Texas Independence Referendum Act](https://www.kltv.com/2023/03/07/mineola-state-rep-bryan-slanton-introduces-bill-discuss-texas-secession/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) to the Texas House, which would have place a referendum on the 2024 election ballot to decide “whether or not the State should investigate the possibility of Texas independence, and present potential plans to the Legislature.” It failed to get out of committee. But secessionists were undeterred. In an interview with [*Newsweek*](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/texas-secessionists-declare-revolution-after-election-results/ar-AA1tJvNV?ref=thebarbedwire.com), TNM President Daniel Miller said he expects that one of the lawmakers elected on Tuesday who signed the Texas First Pledge would introduce similar legislation. “This next session will likely see the Texas Independence Referendum Act filed again,” he said. “However, we’ll be advocating for and working with legislators on a whole host of policy initiatives involving the border, currency and more. All of this is because the closer we can move Texas to structurally and operationally functioning like an independent nation, the easier separation becomes once we get and win the TEXIT referendum.” We want to make a joke at this point, but given that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Elon Musk will probably have prominent positions in the next presidential administration, who the fuck knows what will happen anymore. ### Texas State Condemns ‘Disgusting’ Demonstrators Who Claim ‘Women are Property’ URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-state-condemns-disgusting-demonstrators-who-claim-women-are-property/ Last updated: 2024-11-08T17:54:28.000Z If you’re already tired of the racism, homophobia, and misogyny Americans voted for on Election Day, it looks like this is just the beginning. Demonstrators at Texas State University’s campus on Wednesday carried signs that said “Women are property,” “homo sex is sin,” and “types of property: women, slaves, animals, cars, land etc.” The demonstration, carried out by a group of men who were unaffiliated with the school, happened fewer than 24 hours after former President Donald Trump was reelected to the Oval Office. Texas State University President Kelly Damphousse condemned the hate rhetoric in a [letter](https://www.president.txst.edu/communications/email-addressing-nov-6-incident.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on Thursday: “While TXST is legally committed to protecting free speech on our campuses, we understand that words can negatively impact members of our community. I condemn the hateful words these two men wrote and spoke while they were on our campus. That kind of hate is not welcome here.” One of the signs cited the website of Official Street Preachers, an organization that encourages Christians to demonstrate and preach in public spaces, according to the [*San Antonio Express-News*](https://www.expressnews.com/news/education/article/texas-state-university-san-marcos-demonstration-19899774.php?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Public universities like Texas State are required to [allow “expressive activities”](https://studentinvolvement.txst.edu/freedomofexpression.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in public, outdoor spaces on campus as long as the speech is protected by the First Amendment, per the newspaper. But parents, students, and community members were outraged that more was not being done. After the university posted a portion of the letter on Instagram, more than 400 comments flooded the page. One user wrote, “Hate speech is not the same as freedom of speech. Pls learn this.” Another user wrote, “These weren’t protests, these men literally said gays should be killed, and people enslaved — a public university shouldn’t draw the line of free speech after the safety expense of women, gays, and poc — any speech that implies violence or illegal acts is unacceptable and already against the code of conduct.” Damphouse said the university is looking into “potential legal responses as we learn more.” In the hours since Wednesday’s demonstration, students on campus have been reporting acts of kindness from their community. One [photographer posted images](https://www.instagram.com/p/DCFXZKmzO4%5F/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on Instagram, of women handing out flowers and people holding signs saying “Free Hugs”, “You are loved” and “Hate is not welcome here.” The photographer wrote it was “an opportunity for unity that is far stronger than the hate seen.” Read more at [KXAN.](https://www.kxan.com/news/local/san-marcos/homophobic-and-misogynistic-texas-state-university-president-condemns-campus-demonstration/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) ### Texas Democratic Party Chair Quits After ‘Devastating Defeats’ URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/texas-democratic-party-chair-quits-after-devastating-defeats/ Last updated: 2024-11-08T17:39:52.000Z When you get trounced as badly as Texas Democrats did on Tuesday, it’s time for new leadership. And the state party chairman acknowledged that on Friday, saying he’s stepping down in the wake of “devastating defeats up and down the ballot in Texas and across the country.” In a statement, Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa said he will resign after the party’s spring meeting in March. “On Tuesday, the Democratic Party suffered devastating defeats up and down the ballot in Texas and across the country,” Hinojosa wrote. “In the days and weeks to come, it is imperative that our Democratic leaders across the country reevaluate what is best for our party and embrace the next generation of leaders to take us through the next four years of Trump and win back seats up and down the ballot.” Hinojosa said he’ll be “passing the torch to the next generation” to whoever wants to lead the five remaining elected Democrats in Texas. (Kidding, but only slightly.) Leading up to the election, Hinojosa and other party leaders tried to cast Texas as a battleground, continuing Democrats’ perpetual dream of turning the state blue. But, once again, that didn’t happen. Former (and future) president Donald Trump carried Texas [by nearly 14 points](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/11/05/us/elections/results-texas-president.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com), and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz crushed his Democratic challenger, U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, by about 9 points. Democrats also lost three seats in the Texas Legislature and nearly every contested state appellate court race. They also watched Republicans sweep up 10 countywide judicial seats in traditionally blue Harris County. Hinojosa’s response was to blame this on trans people, which was not a great look. The morning after the election, in an interview with [*The Texas Newsroom*](https://www.kut.org/politics/2024-11-07/texas-democrats-party-chairman-apologizes-transgender-trans-lgbtq?ref=thebarbedwire.com), he said: “You have a choice as a party. You could, for example, you can support transgender rights up and down all the categories where the issue comes up, or you can understand that there's certain things that we just go too far on, that a big bulk of our population does not support.” LGBTQ+ rights groups condemned Hinojosa’s remarks and accused him of blaming the party’s most vulnerable supporters for its failures. [He later apologized](https://x.com/HinojosaTX/status/1854348058110132706?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Hinojosa has led the party since 2012 and has previously faced challenges to his leadership. After Democrats suffered significant losses in the prior midterm elections, two women ran against him in 2022 at the state party’s convention, but Hinojosa ultimately retained his position. Hinojosa called his resignation “a hard decision” but the best one “for our party,” adding: “I encourage our national leaders and party leaders at all levels to join me in lifting up the next generation in order to unite our party as we take on Donald Trump.” As you might imagine, the Republican Party of Texas wasted no time in rubbing their victory in. Party Chairman Abraham George [claimed that](https://x.com/TexasGOP/status/1854922422010462247?ref=thebarbedwire.com) “left-wing activists” forced Hinojosa out after his transgender comments, adding: “My encouragement to Democrats: find a chairman even more radical and liberal to succeed him.” “In the meantime, the Republican Party of Texas will continue working with President Donald Trump, Governor Greg Abbott, and our Republican lawmakers to pass conservative policies and secure even bigger wins in 2026.” _Includes the latest 500 public posts. Use `/sitemap.xml` for the complete archive of public content._