Good friends in Texas are experiencing difficult times. :(

Their air conditioning failed, and temperatures are rising fast. They have a young kid.

If you feel moved to, here's where you could chip in a few bucks: https://www.gofundme.com/f/jenn-needs-your-help-ac-for-health-relief

#texas #heat #broken-air-conditioning #hvac #gofundme #lgbtq #family #healthproblems

“People are scared to go out because they go out with their kids, and they don’t want to go to a place where (people are) going to show up with guns to check whether they’re a U.S. citizen or not. That was very upsetting for a lot of people.” https://www.texasobserver.org/ice-raids-abbys-bakery-valley-los-fresnos/

The Cathedral of Saint Mary in Austin, Texas

https://nickoprints.com/featured/the-cathedral-of-saint-mary-in-austin-texas-digital-painting-with-vintage-look-nicko-prints.html

"People are fleeing Austin, #Texas in droves. The city lost -13,500 ppl to outbound migration in 2024.

The biggest drop the city has ever experienced.

This outmigration has now caused Austin's #housing market to collapse. With home prices down 19.5% over the last two+ years.

Some of these ppl leaving Austin head to the suburbs like Williamson & Hays County, others are going back to CA & NY."
-N Gerli

It's hell living in TX -many ppl are fleeing the fascist state.
#Fascism #RedStates #USPol

A #midwife & an associate have been arrested & charged w/illegally performing abortions in greater #Houston, acc/to court records & the #Texas AG, apparently the first #criminal arrests of #abortion providers since #SCOTUS overturned #RoeVWade in 2022.

#law #ReproductiveRights #health #WomensHealth #MaleSupremacy #BackAlleyAbortions
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/17/us/politics/abortion-arrest.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=p&pvid=69B9A807-AD57-4712-B295-54FF457D615B

“ #Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced on Monday that a 48-year-old woman has been arrested for allegedly illegally providing an #abortion in Houston.”

https://abcnews.link/TOX20pq

“Now what we’re seeing is a full-on assault on our state’s immunization program. Activists felt like they could take advantage of the [COVID-19 pandemic] and exploit it and start going after laws that have been on the books for decades.” https://www.texasobserver.org/measles-outbreak-anti-vax-legislation/

“It’s more government, more bureaucracy, more money, and there’s no oversight. And it’s taxation without representation,. The taxpayers don’t get to pick who these private companies are that our tax dollars are going into. So that is not a free market.” https://www.texasobserver.org/school-vouchers-vendors-millions-legislature/

Goddamn humans are stupid:
#texas #oil company rolls out 42-mile conveyor belt to transport sand (for #fracking, of course).

"And so castles made of sand, fall in the sea, eventually..."
https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2025/mar/16/texas-oil-company-rolls-out-42-mile-conveyor-belt/

Houston has a new measles case. Travel case (infant) not connected to the outbreak in Texas.

The Houston Health Department confirms travel-associated measles case in infant

March 16, 2025

HOUSTON - The Houston Health Department (HHD) has confirmed the city’s third measles case of 2025. The case involves an unvaccinated infant who was exposed to measles during international travel. The infant was hospitalized and has since been discharged and is recovering at home.

This case is not connected to the measles outbreak in West Texas. This case is not related to the two earlier cases of measles reported in Houston in January 2025.

(more...)
https://www.houstonhealth.org/news/news-releases/houston-health-department-confirms-travel-associated-measles-case-infant

Dispatch from the inside: A prisoner in solitary watches as guards use Tasers on a naked, mentally-ill woman in a shower, and reflects on their increasingly brutal use in the #Texas correctional system. https://www.texasobserver.org/an-inside-look-at-taser-use-in-texas-prison/

Our top story: If the voucher bill were to pass, select private companies could soon be reeling in tens and even hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars per year. We took a closer look at who stands to gain the most. https://www.texasobserver.org/school-vouchers-vendors-millions-legislature/

Yikes

NBC News: Newborn babies exposed to measles in Texas hospital

"On Wednesday, a woman gave birth in a Lubbock, Texas, hospital in the middle of a deadly and fast-growing measles outbreak. Doctors didn’t realize until the young mother had been admitted and in labor that she was infected with the measles.

By that time, other new moms, newborn babies and their families at University Medical Center Children’s Hospital in Lubbock had unknowingly been exposed to the virus, considered one of the most contagious in the world. ..."

h/t @exador23

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/texas-measles-outbreak-hospital-newborn-babies-exposed-rcna196519

Newborn babies have been exposed to measles at a Texas hospital and are receiving antibodies to protect them, NBC reports. The virus was brought into the University Medical Center Children's Hospital by a mother in labor — doctors didn't realize until after her admission that she was infected, and it's unclear when she tested positive. The immunoglobulin injections have been given to babies as young as three days old. A 2021 study found this therapy is highly effective in protecting exposed newborns who are too young to be vaccinated. Emergency masking procedures have also been implemented.

https://flip.it/0.ZRbx

“This is the Trump administration desperate to meet the goals that it’s set to carry out its mass deportation agenda. But he’s having trouble reaching those numbers, because he doesn’t have the manpower and the infrastructure to actually rip away people who have years and years of life in our communities and are deeply entwined.” https://www.texasobserver.org/local-state-police-ice-287g-task-force/