Civic engagement organizers serving Texas immigrant communities are turning their attention to encrypted messaging apps as a platform for sharing critical information. University of Texas researchers found that misinformation on encrypted messaging apps like WhatsApp, Telegram and Signal uniquely affect diasporic communities because the apps are favored platforms among them. Organizers say countering misinformation and […]
The U.S. reached a grim milestone in April 2021: more than 100,000 Americans died of drug overdoses in a single year. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention press release on this statistic said that opioids, especially the synthetic opioid fentanyl, drove the rise. U.S. Rep. Beth Van Duyne, R-Irving, tweeted Aug. 19: “Fentanyl is the […]
Gov. Greg Abbott has focused on border security as a top policy issue since President Joe Biden took office and has made it a central issue in his reelection campaign. While border security is historically a federal responsibility, Abbott has poured nearly $4 billion into Texas border enforcement, bused migrants to Washington and New York City […]
The Texas Republican Convention on June 18 called for the state Legislature to approve a measure asking voters whether they favor “Texas Independence.” That is, a referendum on secession. The GOP platform committee wrote, “We urge the Texas Legislature to pass (a) bill in its next session requiring a referendum in the 2023 general election for the people […]
Since the tragedy in Uvalde, there have been other incidents of gun violence across the country in which a gunman shot multiple people. Among those incidents: Four people were killed in a Tulsa, Oklahoma, medical center on June 1. One person was killed and seven were injured at an Oklahoma Memorial Day festival on May 29. Three people were killed and […]
In response to President Joe Biden’s decision to lift a Trump-era policy that reduced the number of migrants entering the U.S., Gov. Greg Abbott recently launched new initiatives that he said would address border security. The federal policy, Title 42, allows U.S. border agents to expel immigrants arriving at the border, including asylum seekers, to Mexico […]
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, took to Twitter during President Joe Biden’s first State of the Union address to critique the speech. Inflation and the economy were a big focus of the tweets, but there were also tweets on Ukraine, the border, and more. Cruz called his commentary “The Real State of the Union.” We took a look […]
As experts sprinted to learn more about the omicron variant first identified in South Africa, the U.S. set travel restrictions on South Africa and other countries in the region to curb the spread of the variant. President Joe Biden restricted travel on Nov. 26 from South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Eswatini, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia and Zimbabwe. Those restrictions were in effect until […]