Matt Tedrow, Ph.D.

This Texas Town Is an Energy Powerhouse. It’s Running Out of Water. A severe drought has Corpus Christi scrambling to meet growing demand from companies like Exxon and Tesla that have invested billions of dollars in the region.

Corpus Christi made it into the WSJ this weekend:

Excerpt from article reads: Though more than half of Keller’s students are from racially diverse backgrounds, the district in 2023 nixed a plan to buy copies of a biography of Black poet Amanda Gorman after a teacher at a religious private school who had no children in the district complained about this passage: “Amanda realized that all the books she had read before were written by white men. Discovering a book written by people who look like her helped Amanda find her own voice.” The passage, the woman wrote, “makes it sound like it’s okay to judge a book by the authors skin color rather than the content of the book.”

In Texas districts that used at-large voting systems, well-funded and culture-war-driven movements helped elect school board members who have moved aggressively to ban or remove educational materials that teach children about diversity.

Read more: https://propub.li/4mBfKH0

Trump Won by Turning Out Voters and Building a Diverse Coalition, Report Finds A new Pew Research Center study found that 85 percent of President Trump’s 2020 supporters came out to vote for him again, a better rate than Democrats pulled off.

A new Pew Research Center study solidified what pre-election surveys suggested, that President Trump was able to build a far more diverse Republican coalition in the 2024 election than ever before. Here's what else the research showed.

A Pew analysis shows that Trump would have won by an even bigger margin if voter turnout increased.

ICE seeks proprietary data and tech to monitor up to a million people The DHS component published an RFI seeking the services of a company to scour data sources and help identify “potentially criminal and fraudulent behavior before crime and fraud can materialize.”

“When we think about ICE, we have to recognize it’s not just sworn officers anymore, but a network of private intelligence contractors who get paid to probe a vast array of data,” EFF’s @maassive.bsky.social told @fedscoop.bsky.social - possibly with political motivations.

Surprising no one, from the @sacurrent.bsky.social:

I've been working with prospective teachers for years. Every semester, we have conversations about work conditions and turnover in Texas. It's ugly out there. Many of my students will have to go through alternative certification programs. Mass firings like this don't exactly instill hope.

HISD cuts 406 uncertified teachers Teachers will not return to their Houston ISD roles after failing to progress toward certification.

From @houstonchronicle.com: Houston ISD cut 406 uncertified teachers for failing to make progress toward their certifications. This is a school district where about 1 in 5 teachers are uncertified.

Who is the new Pope Leo XIV and what are his views? Pope Leo XIV was born and raised in Chicago. He is of French, Italian and Spanish descent. He spent years working as a missionary in Peru.

Pope Leo XIV was born and raised in Chicago. He is of French, Italian and Spanish descent. He spent years working as a missionary in Peru.

On Teacher Appreciation Week, union leaders say teachers are underpaid and under attack The presidents of the National Education Association and American Federation of Teachers say the political climate has added to age-old money problems for teachers, such as underfunded schools.

The presidents of the National Education Association and American Federation of Teachers say the political climate has added to age-old money problems for teachers, such as underfunded schools.

No Postal Service Data Sharing to Deport Immigrants The law enforcement arm of the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) recently joined a U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) task force geared towards finding and deporting immigrants, according to a report...

The U.S. mail is a vital system of communication and commerce that should not be distorted into infrastructure for dragnet surveillance.

Alarming:

THREAD: Last year, ProPublica started receiving tips from an unusual kind of source: flight attendants. They said they'd worked on deportation flights for ICE, and they could tell us what it was really like on board. 1/

France's Le Pen sentenced to jail, banned from public office Le Pen may still appeal the four-year sentence, two years of it suspended, and five-year political ban, which came after she was found guilty of misusing $3 million to pay party staff.

Le Pen sentenced to prison and banned from running for office in 2027. Good.

Republican Abortion Laws Are 'Torturing Women.' Can the GOP Fix Its Own Crisis? Too late for many pregnant Texans, lawmakers might finally clarify exceptions to the state’s deadly bans—but advocates fear the current bills could also pose a new threat.

“It feels like they are playing a semantics game that is ultimately not going to help people. The GOP is looking for a deflection from the crisis they’ve caused. I urge Democrats not to settle for crumbs this session—we really deserve better, our state deserves better.”

This is a huge loss. I met Bob McChesney several years ago, when I interviewed him for Austin Indymedia. His research on the political economy U.S. mass media, as well as decades of policy activism, left a huge impression on me and many other radical media makers.

Rest in power, Bob.

You can't make this stuff up:

Trump Administration Attempts to Deport, Bar Entry to Scholars As the administration continues its crackdown on noncitizens in higher ed, international academics face ICE raids, deportation and challenges at the border.

Trump’s Latest Target: Foreign Scholars

As the administration continues its crackdown on noncitizens in higher ed, international academics face ICE raids, deportation and challenges at the border. #HigherEd #EDUSky #AcademicSky bit.ly/4iuYmmg

Well, this is awful.

CNN Poll: Democratic Party’s favorability drops to a record low | CNN Politics The Democratic Party’s favorability rating among Americans stands at a record low, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS, fueled in part by dimming views from its own frustrated supporters.

The Democrats' approval rating has now hit a record low. This is what happens when you spend decades steadfastly refusing to pursue real alternatives to the GOP.

ProPublica is naming names:

Trump threatens new tariffs on Canada and warns he will shut down its auto industry | CNN Business President Donald Trump on Tuesday threatened a sharp escalation in the budding trade war with Canada in retaliation for Ontario’s export surcharge on US electricity.

Trump is a comically inept businessperson.

Bean, rice, avocado, and salsa.

Pictured: a bean, rice, and avocado taco on a flour tortilla.

Corpus tacos are the best tacos.

US added to the global human rights watchlist due to declining civil liberties.

David Wood, Set for Execution, Says He Was Never the 'Desert Killer' Wood’s attorneys have requested that more than 100 additional pieces of evidence be tested for DNA, but the state has opposed the request for over a decade.

Jailhouse snitch testimony is considered a red flag by many legal experts. According to the National Registry of Exonerations, 256 people who have been exonerated of felonies in the United States since 1989 were convicted in a case using jailhouse informant testimony. Sixteen were from Texas.

As Trump Goes After Universities, Students Are Now on the Chopping Block Uncertainty about how much money colleges and universities stand to lose has led some schools to reduce the number of doctoral students, in some cases reneging on offers.

The @nytimes.com also reports on universities rescinding offers for students: