Blanton Museum s New Installation Will Immerse Visitors In The Secret Sounds Of Texas texasstandard.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from texasstandard.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
For observers in Oregon, Texas Democratic lawmakers walkout to prevent a quorum in the state House must seem familiar, but in a slightly warped way. Oregon has seen members of its legislature walk out in protest too, but instead of Democrats, those lawmakers were Republicans.
Dirk VanderHart covers politics and government for Oregon Public Broadcasting. He told Texas Standard that legislative walkouts have happened occasionally in Oregon, but 2019 marked a turning point. In that year in the Senate, Republicans walked away twice, VanderHart said. In both cases, they returned after deals were cut.
VanderHart says Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (a Democrat) sent state troopers after the missing senators, as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (a Republican) has threatened to do in Texas.
AP
Empty seats in the House Chamber at the Texas Capitol on Tuesday. Texas Democrats left the state to block sweeping new election laws, while Republican Gov. Greg Abbott threatened them with arrest the moment they return.
Texas already has some of the strictest voting laws in the country, and the state s Republicans are trying to make them even tougher. Most of the state s Democratic lawmakers have flown to Washington, D.C., to prevent a vote on legislation they call voter suppression.
The center of the battle is Harris County, where Houston is located. The county is home to more than 4.7 million people, a larger population than the state of Louisiana. Last year, Harris County introduced an array of voting innovations to make it easier and safer to vote during the presidential elections. They included drive-thru voting, expanded voting hours – with one day of 24-hour voting – and sending out mail-in ballot applications to all eligible voters.
During this year s regular session of the Texas Legislature, members of the casino industry lobbied lawmakers to loosen the state s rules on gambling. Casino gambling is only legal in Texas at a few casinos owned by Native American tribes. Lobbyists say a lot of the money is going outside of Texas to states like Oklahoma, where casino gambling is legal.
The lobbying effort didn t do much to change the rules in Texas. And it looks like Oklahoma could be setting itself up to gain even more.
Dallas Morning News business reporter Alexandra Skores told Texas Standard that a major expansion to the Choctaw Casino in Durant, Oklahoma is aimed squarely at attracting North Texans. The facility includes a new sky tower with 1,000 new hotel rooms, six restaurants and 3,300 slot machines.
Texas Voting Legislation Worries Some In Harris County texasstandard.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from texasstandard.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.