Jennifer Austin

Texas starts building massive new state park near Austin A rugged Texas ranch is becoming the state’s newest park

Construction begins on massive new Texas state park near Austin www.mysanantonio.com/lifestyle/ou...

I’m not sure we’ve properly addressed how profoundly disturbing it is that America can largely shrug at the stashing of human beings in giant warehouses.

Menefee defeats Edwards in special election for Congress The former Harris County attorney defeated Amanda Edwards in Texas’ 18th Congressional District. The two will face off again in the March 3 primary for a redrawn version of the district.

Houston Democrat Christian Menefee wins special election to complete Sylvester Turner’s term in Congress.

Democrat wins special election for red Texas Senate seat With ballots tallied from all but a handful of voting centers, Rehmet had 57% of the vote, besting the 43% for his GOP opponent, Leigh Wambsganss, who had a massive spending advantage.

Breaking: Democrat Taylor Rehmet wins solidly red Texas Senate seat in stunning special election upset.

Democrat Christian Menefee will win special US House runoff in Texas, CNN projects, shrinking GOP majority even further | CNN Politics Former Harris County Attorney Democrat Christian Menefee will win the special election runoff in Texas’ 18th Congressional District, according to a projection from CNN’s Decision Desk, ending a long v...

Democrat Christian Menefee will win special US House runoff in Texas, CNN projects, shrinking GOP majority even further https://cnn.it/4aqDRVV

Democrat Taylor Rehmet flips a Texas state Senate seat Trump won by 17 points, CNN projects | CNN Politics Democrats notched another victory Saturday in special elections during President Donald Trump’s second term, flipping a seat in the Texas Senate that Trump won by 17 points in 2024.

Democrats notched another victory in special elections, flipping a seat in the Texas state Senate that President Trump won by 17 points in 2024. Taylor Rehmet will defeat Trump-backed Leigh Wambsganss in a runoff for the Fort Worth-area 9th District, CNN projects: https://cnn.it/4apv06V

"Appalachia" - the New Album from Emily Scott Robinson! Get a signed copy of "Appalachia" + special, handcrafted merch and help me raise money for my 2026 album release tour!

I just backed "Appalachia" - the New Album from Emily Scott Robinson! on @kickstarter.com www.kickstarter.com/projects/emi...

Large pink orchid in center of book cover with text: How Flowers Made Our World. The story of nature's revolutionaries. David George Haskell

Coming in March 2026: Flowers! When flowers appeared, nothing was ever the same. They are the world’s great collaborators and creators. Writing this book transformed how I see life’s history and future. Cooperation, beauty, and illusion transform the world. Can't wait to share these stories

Every activated Guardsman has a family, a job, school, or something that they are leaving to do their duty.

It’s one thing when it’s a war… or a real mass civil disturbance, which those only last a few days.

But to rip these people from their lives for a show… is awful.

Submit Online Public Comments on TX Congressional Redistricting · MOVE Texas Texas already redrew its congressional maps in 2021, but now Donald Trump and national Republicans are demanding a second redraw, not because of new Census data, but to protect their grip on power as ...

I took action with MOVE Texas. Will you join me? Use this link to sign up: www.mobilize.us/movetexas/ev...

BREAKING: Scientists are staging a “science fair” in the lobby of a Congressional building to tell elected officials about the critical knowledge the US will lose because their research grants have been canceled.

Illustration titled "Backyard Sounds" featuring a Cardinal, Goldfinch, Blue Jay, Mourning Dove, and Red-bellied woodpecker. Various, very subjective interpretations of bird calls form an abstract timeline composed of simple color shapes and loops.

House Policy Bill Would Add $3.4 Trillion to Debt, Swamping Economic Gains

NEW: Even factoring in economic growth, the House tax bill would still add to the debt -- more than $3 trillion if you factor in the costs of Republicans' agenda and the fact that the debt itself would become more expensive to service.

The latest number crunching: www.nytimes.com/2025/06/17/u...

Choking back tears, Sen. Alex Padilla details his LA handcuffing California Sen. Alex Padilla said Americans have a right to protest policies they disagree with in describing his tussle with federal law enforcement

"If that is what the administration is willing to do to a United States senator for having the authority to simply ask a question,” said Sen. @padilla.senate.gov, “imagine what they'll do to any American who dares to speak up”: www.usatoday.com/story/news/p...

WATCH: “You’re a U.S. senator and you don’t know anything about the country you want to topple.”

Tucker Carlson embarrasses @sentedcruz as he pushes for war with Iran

This is BEFORE #TrumpsTrillionsTransfer

When is enough enough, @MarshaBlackburn @SenatorHagerty ?

Trump-allied company wins $309 million contract to build border wall across San Rafael Valley Fisher Sand & Gravel was awarded a $309 million contract to build nearly 27 miles of border wall across the San Rafael Valley.

Trump-allied company wins $309M contract to build border wall across San Rafael Valley - Kristi Noem waived environmental laws for project

Fisher Sand & Gravel worked on Steve Bannon's 2019 'We Build the Wall' project that resulted in criminal convictions

www.tucsonsentinel.com/local/report...

Exclusive: US Marines carry out first known detention of civilian in Los Angeles, video shows Marines deployed to Los Angeles carried out the detention of a civilian on Friday, the U.S. military confirmed after being presented with Reuters images, in the first known detention by active-duty troops deployed there by President Donald Trump.

The Department of Defense has confirmed that U.S. Marines detained a civilian—reportedly an Army veteran who crossed a yellow tape boundary on his way to an office of the Department of Veterans Affairs. This is an apparent violation of the Posse Comitatus Act. 1/16 www.reuters.com/world/us/us-...

Republicans Silent as Trump Refuses to Commit to Upholding Constitution Republicans have been silent after Donald Trump responded to a question about whether he needs to uphold the Constitution by saying, "I don't know."

Republicans have largely avoided the issue. Rolling Stone reached out to all 53 Republican senators asking for comment, and didn’t receive a response from a single one of them.

Here is a selection of four recent images from the Hubble Space Telescope. Upper left: Mars, the red planet, with its polar ice caps well visible. Upper right: planetary nebula NGC 2899 with its bipolar structure, shaped by powerful outflows of gas coming from a hot white dwarf. Gaseous pillars point back toward the source of radiation and stellar winds. The vivid colors (red-orange, purple, green) come from glowing hydrogen and oxygen. Lower left: a small section of the Rosette Nebula, a 4-light-year-wide slice, revealing dark hydrogen clouds laced with dust. Lower right: a detailed face-on view of the bluish barred spiral galaxy NGC 5335. It lacks well-defined arms and features a prominent bar stretching across its center.

🧵
On 23 Apr 2025, NASA released this selection of splendid images, recently taken by #Hubble, for celebrating the space telescope’s 35 years in Earth orbit.

Enjoy!

➡️ science.nasa.gov/missions/hub...

Image: NASA, ESA, STScI; Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

🔭 🧪 ⚛️

Bar chart titled “NASA Cut Proposals” set against a starry background. Four bars show proposed budget cut percentages for different NASA programs: 68% for Astrophysics, 43% for Heliophysics, 30% for Planetary Science, and 53% for Earth Science. The chart highlights significant funding reductions across scientific fields.

NASA’s science programs are facing what experts are calling an “extinction-level event” under Trump’s proposed budget.
From climate monitoring to planetary research, entire fields of discovery are on the chopping block.

eos.org/research-and...

Exclusive: a Nature analysis signals the beginnings of a US science brain drain A trawl of job views and application data suggests jobseekers are looking abroad as the Trump administration’s cuts to science take hold.

Researchers in the US are seeking career opportunities abroad as President Donald Trump’s administration slashes science funding and workforce numbers, finds an analysis of Nature’s jobs-board data. #Academicsky 🧪

📢 ATTENTION: NSF GRANT RECIPIENTS 🧪

Day by day, how Trump is roiling science and health STAT is tracking, day by day, what's happened in the words of science and health during the first months of the Trump administration.

I made a timeline of all the actions in Trump's (almost) first 100 days that have upended science and health. It was staggering to me to see it all in one place, even though I reported on many on these events. www.statnews.com/2025/04/24/t...

💥 🍂 🧪

Doctor Behind Award-Winning Parkinson’s Research Among Scientists Purged From NIH Leading scientists at the National Institutes of Health, the US’s leading medical research agency, were swept up Tuesday in the Trump administration's latest firing blitz.

NEW: The doctor behind breakthrough Parkinson’s research was among the scientists purged from the National Institutes of Health, the US’s leading medical research agency. www.wired.com/story/doctor...

‘One of the darkest days’: NIH purges agency leadership amid mass layoffs In shock move, four institute directors at the US biomedical agency are removed from their posts.

“This will go down as one of the darkest days in modern scientific history in my 50 years in the business,” says Michael Osterholm, an infectious-diseases epidemiologist at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. “These are going to be huge losses to the research community.”

Federal Health Workers Make Up Less Than 1% of Agency Spending (Gift Article) Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suggests that laying off thousands of federal workers would tame a massive budget. But nearly all of the agency’s money goes to hospitals, doctors and nursing ho...

HHS doctors, scientists and tobacco control staff, rare disease experts, cancer drug wizards -- all fired today or leaving in recent weeks.

Yet.

🚨 At HHS, staff make up less than one percent of the overall agency budget. 🚨

www.nytimes.com/2025/04/01/h...

If you’re in Sydney, Australia tomorrow, I’ll be giving a public lecture for Pi Day, details at events.humanitix.com/artistic-mat...

Sabetta Matsumoto and I will also be doing some events at the Chau Chak Wing Museum over the weekend, details at www.sydney.edu.au/museum/whats...

U.S. citizen child recovering from brain cancer deported to Mexico with undocumented parents The Texas family was on their way to an emergency medical checkup, they said, when they were detained at an immigration checkpoint.

The Trump administration has deported a 10-year-old girl to Mexico who is a US citizen and is recovering from brain cancer.

Her family was on their way to an emergency medical checkup when they were detained.