#attorney office in houston

[immigrationattorney110]

Affordable Immigration Lawyer in Houston

Whether you want to get your family to the USA or employ a non-resident, Zaheer Zaidi of Zaidi Law Firm is a Houston immigration attorney who can help you know what you need to make it happen.

Phone # 001-713.777.2902 | Email Id: info@immigrationsavior.com

[socialistexan]

If anyone needs reasons to do anything to keep Republicans out of office, look at Texas.

Right now, our Attorney General, Ken Paxton, is compiling lists on trans people in the state for unknown purposes and have official erased trans people legally in the state. He and his cronies have raided Democratic offices and left-leaning election and community organizers as an intimidation tactic. He's attempted to shut down religious organization that provide shelter and care for migrants and the unhoused.

Texas was on track to be purple if not lean-blue state as recently as 2018, but the conservative Republican legislature and executive teamed up to limit the voting power in deeply blue places Harris, Travis, and Bexar counties. In some places in Houston (the 4th largest city in the US) there is only one voting location. The majority of those polling places also aren't ADA compliant.

There's been a push to import conservative (and whiter) Californians, New Yorkers, and Coloradians to combat what was an increasingly younger, less white, and more progressive population. It's worked so far. If you look at exit polls come election time, people who were born in Texas tend to lean left, while people who moved from a different state lean heavily to the right.

This is a state Democrats came within just 2 points of winning this decade. We've had Democratic governors in my lifetime (RIP, Ann Richards). The second Republicans took over our state they started restricting our rights and putting their boot on our necks and haven't let up for a second.

It is much harder to do anything vaguely left of center in Texas now, from voting to mutual aid. You have to do everything in your power to prevent that from happening.

[marxism-transgenderism]

As the key witness for the prosecution, the Houston rapper, real name Megan Pete, described her account of night of July 12, 2020, saying on record that the assault was the result of an argument she had with Lanez, real name Daystar Peterson, and Kelsey Harris, her former best friend and assistant, while driving home from a Hollywood Hills pool party in the early morning hours.

Wearing a purple suit, red-bottom, black stilettos and a black bob hairstyle, Pete, 27, testified that the shooting and its aftermath have impacted her health, both physically and mentally. "I can't even be happy," she said, her voice breaking during her afternoon testimony. "I can't hold conversations with people for a long time. I don't feel like I want to be on this earth. I wish he would have just shot and killed me, if I knew I would have to go through this torture."

The Grammy winner recounted that she and Peterson had an intimate but not exclusive relationship in 2020, one that Harris did not know about at the time. Pete knew Harris had a "crush on" Tory, so she hid the relationship. (When asked specifically why she had not previously revealed the nature of her relationship with Peterson, Pete said she was embarrassed, "because it's disgusting at this point. How could I share my body with someone who could do this to me?")

The fight in the vehicle started when Peterson hinted at the relationship to Harris and then tried to pit the two women against each other, calling them "bitches and hoes" in the car.

Pete testified that, after exiting the vehicle for a second time on the drive home, Peterson shouted at her, "Dance, bitch," then fired five shots at her from the passenger side, striking her in the feet. "I felt shocked. I felt hurt. I wasn't sure if this was really happening. I looked at my feet, I saw the blood and I fell to the ground," the "WAP" star testified.

When expressly asked about changing her story to police the night of the shooting — from stepping in glass to allegedly being shot by Peterson — Pete gave context for her choice in the moment, starting with her distrust of the police.

"I don't feel safe in the car. I don't feel safe with the police," Pete said between tears as she described the aftermath of the incident, when responding officers had her, Peterson, Harris and Jaquan Smith, Peterson's bodyguard, step out of the vehicle they were stopped in.

Pete, who shared that she's grown up deeply suspicious of cops, said that wariness was further stoked by the 2020 climate, George Floyd's murder and subsequent Black Lives Matter protests: "In the Black community — in my community — it's not really acceptable to be cooperating with police officers."

Pete then spoke briefly about how "women aren't believed when they speak out." George Mgdesyan, Peterson's attorney, objected on the grounds that the comment was tangential to the case.

Beyond fear of the police and questions surrounding survivor credibility, Pete also shared the concern that implicating Peterson could negatively impact her career in hip-hop.

"This situation has only been worse for me and it has only made him more famous," Pete said during morning testimony. "Because I was shot, I've been turned into some kind of villain, and he's the victim. This has messed up my whole life ... This whole situation in the industry is like a big boy's club ... I'm telling on one of y'all friends, now you're all about to hate me."

(link)

[ausetkmt]

Three young Black girls were strangled and left in a pond last summer in east Texas, and no arrests have been made in a case that advocates and experts believe has been severely mishandled by local authorities.

Nine-year old Zi’Ariel Robinson-Oliver, 8-year-old A’Miyah Hughes, and 5-year-old Te’Mari Robinson-Oliver, known as the Oliver 3, were reported missing on July 28, 2022, in Atlanta, Texas. The girls’ cousin, Paris Propps, who was watching the three sisters and their siblings while their mother was at work, reported the girls missing around 9 p.m. Hours later, on July 29, all three bodies were found in a nearby pond.

Initially, authorities said it was a drowning. But in March, nearly eight months after the girls were last seen alive, the Cass County District Attorney’s Office said in a statement that a homicide investigation is underway.

“Autopsy reports concluded the manner of death for all three girls was homicide, indicating evidence of strangulation. The girls also suffered lacerations to their faces,” the press release obtained by Yahoo News from the Cass County District Attorney’s Office said.

Now advocates are stepping in to demand answers. On April 3, Minister Quanell X, the leader of the New Black Panther Nation, traveled four hours from Houston to hold a press conference in Cass County and demanded that the FBI and Department of Justice step in to investigate. The FBI has not responded to a request for comment from Yahoo News.

Quanell X stood beside the mother of the Oliver sisters during the press conference. “She was told that they drowned, but she always had a suspicious feeling that the girls did not drown. Well, her suspicions were confirmed by the autopsies,” Quanell told Yahoo News.

The Cass County District Attorney’s Office is currently working with the Texas Rangers and the sheriff’s office to investigate the murders. “Multiple witness statements have been obtained, DNA testing is ongoing, and the investigation will continue,” according to a statement obtained by Yahoo News from the district attorney’s office. Yahoo News contacted the office for additional information but a spokesperson declined to provide more details.

According to U.S. Census data from 2022, Cass County has a population of 28,539 people, and advocates say the town does not have enough resources to investigate three homicides.

“They were presumed drowned because of a sham investigation, a lazy investigation by investigators who obviously didn't have the resources, the training that was necessary to properly address an investigative crime scene,” Quanell said.

Investigators are still searching for suspects, but experts say the months-long time lapse could have been avoided.

“The usual time frame [for autopsies] depends, I would say within two weeks,” David Thomas, professor of forensic studies at Florida Gulf Coast University, told Yahoo News.

But for small towns, “they send those autopsies off to a whole different county, hours away from that county to do the autopsy,” Quanell said.

However, the autopsy reports are just one piece of the puzzle. Thomas says more could have been done at the time investigators found the girls in the pond.

“They sat and they made an assumption that they had drowned, which would be unusual for three people to drown at the same place, at roughly the same time — [it] doesn’t make any sense,” Thomas told Yahoo News. “If it was Gabby Petito, the world would have come to a stop.”

Revolt Black News weekly recently reported that authorities were aware that a crime had occurred soon after the incident, but just recently released the information to the public last month. “However, they didn’t say why they delayed sharing the info,” the article stated.

“At the end of the day, any seasoned investigators when they retrieved the bodies from the [pond] would have been able to see that this was more than some accidental drowning by the bruising on the faces and the necks of the girls,” Quanell said.

Quanell believes the investigation is not a priority because the young girls are all Black. “I think Cass County is doing what Cass County historically does when it comes to investigating injustice and murder involving Black people as victims. They’re not taking this case seriously in my eyes, because it’s not three young white children,” he said.

“National statistics tell us that over 60,000 Black women are missing, and Black women are twice as likely than they appear to be victims of homicide,” Brittany Lewis, co-founder of Research in Action, told Yahoo News in March.

Now experts say the investigation will be much harder because of the lengthy time lapse. “That eight month time gap is devastating,” David Carter, professor of criminal justice at Michigan State University and a former Kansas City, Mo., police officer, told Yahoo News.

“The longer time between when the bodies are found and the investigation begins, the harder it is. It’s harder to find suspects, certainly harder to find witnesses, and harder to find evidence,” Carter said.

Carter says that as a former member of the law enforcement, there’s no excuse for the delay in the investigation. “I’m really at a loss of why a criminal investigation wasn’t started immediately,” Carter said.

As authorities continue to investigate, advocates emphasize that whoever committed these crimes is still at large.

“They could be anywhere,” Thomas said. “But I would say the likelihood that they knew that pond was there would probably give you an indication that it might be somebody local or somebody that's very familiar with the area.”

“This sounds like a very, very targeted personal crime,” Carter added.

There have been no arrests in the nearly year-old case, but more people are pushing for justice. Recently, civil rights attorney Ben Crump and celebrities like Viola Davis and Niecy Nash shared a montage video on social media of the Oliver 3. The video was created by Black Girl Gone, a true crime podcast that sheds light on Black girls and women who are missing.

“A child killer. A serial killer is on the loose. One who was not afraid to murder three children. And if you kill three you will kill more. Especially when you believe you will get away with it like this perpetrator has,” Quanell said.

On April 26, Quanell and the New Black Panther Nation plan to host a town hall in Cass County, as they continue to seek justice for the Oliver sisters.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Alyssa Tirrell at MMFA:

Dr. Eithan Haim, a former medical resident at Texas Children's Hospital, was indicted in May for allegedly illegally accessing trans patients’ records, which he subsequently shared with Manhattan Institute senior fellow Chris Rufo.  Right-wing media figures have since defended Haim and brought him in for interviews, often equating the care allegedly provided at Texas Children's Hospital — such as the prescription of "puberty blockers" — with harm or mutilation and alleging that Haim is the target of political persecution.  The campaign has successfully raised both Haim's profile and at least $888,865, which he claims will be used for both his legal defense and “offensive legal action against those who have abused their professional responsibility in service of radical transgender ideology.” 

Haim allegedly illegally accessed trans patients’ records

On February 18, 2022, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton issued an opinion that qualified youth gender-affirming care as "child abuse", prompting Texas Children's Hospital to announce that it would stop proving such care. Although the opinion was not legally binding, the hospital released a statement announcing that it would stop prescribing gender-affirming hormone therapies. The statement, which also alluded to recent measures that Gov. Greg Abbott had taken against families of children receiving gender-affirming care, added that “this step was taken to safeguard our healthcare professionals and impacted families from potential legal ramifications.” [Office of the Attorney General of Texas, 2/18/22; American Civil Liberties Union, 2/23/22; The Washington Post, 3/8/22]

In late spring 2023, Dr. Eithan Haim allegedly accessed the records of trans patients at Texas Children's Hospital and shared them with Manhattan Institute senior fellow Chris Rufo. Haim, a resident at Baylor College of Medicine who had previously conducted rotations at Texas Children's Hospital, shared redacted files with Rufo that allegedly demonstrated that the hospital was continuing to provide gender-affirming services to minors. [Houston Public Media, 6/10/24; U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of Texas, 6/17/24; United States District Court of the Southern District of Texas, 5/29/24]

On June 2, 2023, a Texas bill restricting gender-affirming care for children was signed into law. S.B. 14 prohibited “the provision to certain children of procedures and treatments for gender transitioning, gender reassignment, or gender dysphoria” as well as “the use of public money or public assistance to provide those procedures and treatments.” The law went into effect on September 1 of that year. [Texas legislature, 6/2/23]

[...]

Right-wing media figures platformed Haim in solo interviews, where he defended himself 

Since January 2024, with the revelation of his identity, Eithan Haim has appeared as a guest alongside many prominent right-wing media figures. In these interviews Haim neither claimed to have worked directly with trans patients nor disputed sharing the documents with Chris Rufo. Instead, Haim often alleged that he was being unfairly targeted and defended his case on the grounds that the care allegedly provided at Texas Children's Hospital was harmful to pediatric patients. 

Right-wing media defend Dr. Eithan Haim’s HIPAA-violating ways of illegally accessing trans patients’ records while at Texas Children’s Hospital in which he shared those records with far-right anti-LGBTQ+ agitator Christopher Rufo.

[maxellminidisc]

This fucking guy legitimately stole the information of presumably trans children who are patients at this children's hospital in Houston and posted it all on twitter. And now he's ranting that he did it to "expose" some horshit transphobic conspiracy about the hospital running a "secret sex change" program.

Like imagine having your head so far up your ass you think legitimately endangering the lives of CHILDREN and exposing CHILDREN to harassment by violently transphobic adults is the real act of social justice here. You are more of a fucking danger to children than the doctors willing to give trans kids the medical help they need to live their lives in peace could ever be. I hope this cunt chokes!!!

[cartermagazine]

Today In History

Thurgood Marshall was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Lyndon Johnson on this date June 13, 1967. Marshall became the Supreme Court’s first African American Associate Justice.

After graduating from Howard University, Marshall became a staff lawyer under Houston for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP); in 1938 he became the lead chair in the legal office of the NAACP, and two years later he was named chief of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

As an attorney, he successfully argued before the Court the case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954), which declared unconstitutional racial segregation in American public schools.

CARTER™️ Magazine 

[beardedmrbean]

A Houston teen who admitted to randomly punching people at a local park for likes on social media has been awarded a bond by the judge presiding over his case.

Alford Lasean Lewis was charged with assault with bodily injury and aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon for the incidents involving two persons on Thursday, Oct. 26.

“We take these cases extremely seriously at the district attorney’s office, and in this case, the facts were particularly troubling; these boys were out at a park where people enjoy the outdoors and are exercising and shouldn’t expect to run into any kind of trouble,” said prosecutor Ashlea Sheridan, according to KHOU 11.

Lewis now says that he regrets terrorizing people at Wortham Park on that day, particularly since he did it to receive clout on social media.

The Harris County Sheriff’s Office reported that Lewis assaulted two individuals, one of whom he punched in the back of the head. In a separate incident preceding the first one, Lewis approached another man and tapped him on the shoulder with a firearm.

According to court documents, after shocking the man with the weapon, Lewis proceeded to point it at him and demanded that the man give up his phone. When the victim refused to hand over his phone, Lewis threatened to shoot him in the foot. The victim relinquished his phone to the teen.

“This man was out there doing what any citizen in Harris County would do when he was approached by these two males and attempted to be robbed at gunpoint,” Sheridan said.

WATCH THE VIDEO HERE

Despite the prosecution pushing for a high bond, the judge awarded him a more reasonable bond than suggested, setting Lewis’ bond at $30,000 with the caveat he must wear a GPS ankle monitor and be placed under house arrest once he is released from jail.

Originally, the judge set the bond at $10,000. Both bonds set by the bench are substantially lower than the prosecution wanted Lewis to receive a bond of $75,000.

The change in the bond came at the request of the Harris County District Attorney’s Office. They successfully argued that Lewis admitted to the crime, which should mandate a raise.

The incidents were exacerbated by one of Lewis’ friends, 18-year-old Kingston Miker, videotaping it, and he and his friend laughed during each incident. One of the videos was uploaded on social media, and authorities identified Lewis as the suspect after some people named him in the comments.

Miker has since been arrested and faces the same charges as Lewis.

“They did this for fun and posted it on social media, which is simply unacceptable, and I felt, given the circumstances, that the bond needed to be raised,” said Sheridan, explaining why she pushed for the $20,000 spike in the bond award.

Before turning himself in, Lewis talked about the day and said, “I just made a mistake, and everybody makes mistakes,” according to KHOU 11.

“I really didn’t expect for it to go so left, you know. I know from the video all you see is the bad part about it. But what people don’t see is that I shook his hand after and gave the man a hug,” he said in an effort to mitigate the severity of his actions, actions he committed as a way to get likes and views on YouTube and TikTok.

Now, he hopes that others learn from his mistakes.

“Before you go out and do anything you feel is bad, or that could look bad, make sure, like, people know – or just don’t do it at all,” Lewis advised.

[coochiequeens]

An 11 year old girl is dead because her family allowed a man with a history of crimes involving minors on their property.

CNN — 

The man suspected in the death of 11-year-old Audrii Cunningham is a family friend who was entrusted with taking her to the school bus on the morning she vanished – and later participated in the massive search for the girl before her body was found in an east Texas river, authorities said.

Audrii’s family thought the suspect, Don Steven McDougal, was just taking the girl down the street when the pair left her home Thursday morning, Polk County officials said. But she never made it onto the school bus or into her classroom, and a bag resembling her bright red Hello Kitty backpack was later found near a local dam.

Prosecutors are preparing an arrest warrant for McDougal, 42, and believe the evidence supports a capital murder charge, Polk County District Attorney Shelly Sitton said Tuesday.

Audrii’s body was found Tuesday in the Trinity River, downstream from the reservoir near where the backpack was found. It was one of several locations McDougal told investigators he had gone around the time of her disappearance, Sheriff Byron Lyons said.

Investigators located Audrii’s remains using cell phone records, video analysis and information from McDougal, Lyons said.

The condition of Audrii’s remains is not being released, the sheriff said, and the Harris County Medical Examiner’s Office will determine her cause of death.

To help uncover the body, Lyons said, water management authorities slowed the flow of water from the Lake Livingston reservoir – one of the largest reservoirs in the state, with 83,000 surface acres – allowing the river level to recede enough to reveal the remains.

“I express my deepest sympathies and condolences to everyone who knew, who cared for and loved Audrii,” the sheriff said. “We will continue to process the evidence that has been gathered to ensure justice for Audrii.”

The suspect is already in custody after being arrested Friday night on an unrelated aggravated assault charge, the sheriff’s office said.

CNN has been unable to determine if McDougal has obtained legal representation and has reached out to his family for comment on the accusations against him.

McDougal, a friend of Audrii’s father, lived in a trailer on the family’s property and sometimes took the girl to catch her school bus in the neighborhood, the sheriff said. He has been the main person of interest in her disappearance as authorities frantically scoured the rural east Texas town of Livingston – about 70 miles northeast of Houston, he said.

McDougal joined the search efforts and was seen knocking on neighborhood doors and asking if anyone had seen Audrii, the sheriff told CNN. But Lyons doesn’t believe his efforts were genuine.

“To me, it simply tells me is that he’s trying to give the appearances that he has no play or he’s not at fault in her disappearance and that (he’s) part of the concerned parties who were trying to locate her,” Lyons said Tuesday.

In the days after Audrii vanished, McDougal claimed in several social media comments that he was not guilty in her disappearance and has “done nothing wrong,” according to activity on a Facebook account appearing to belong to the suspect.

“I’m not guilty,” reads a comment from the account under a post on the Facebook page “True Crime Society” the day after Audrii was reported missing.

“I was there and was questioned. I am not running or hiding,” McDougal wrote before commenting again and saying, “I have done everything I can to help find her. I have done nothing wrong.”

CNN has sought comment from investigators about the Facebook comments.

Suspect has decadeslong criminal history

McDougal has a lengthy criminal history dating back to at least 2003, with convictions for violent crimes and one for enticing a child, according to court records in several Texas counties.

In 2007, he was convicted of enticing a child in Brazoria County, Texas. Court records show he pleaded no contest and was sentenced to two years in prison but was given credit for 527 days.

Online records do not detail the specific allegations in the child enticement case. But the offense is defined by the state as “the intent to interfere with the lawful custody of a child younger than 18 years” when a person “entices, persuades, or takes the child from the custody of the parent or guardian.”

McDougal was also convicted in 2010 and 2019 for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

The victim in the first aggravated assault case said McDougal, his former coworker, attacked him after being thrown out of his house.

“He showed up with some other friends that I had,” Elic Bryan told CNN on Tuesday.

[rjzimmerman]

New rules will slash air, water and climate pollution from U.S. power plants. (Washington Post)

The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday finalized an ambitiousset of rules aimed at slashing air pollution, water pollution and planet-warming emissions spewing from the nation’s power plants.

If fully implemented, the rules will have enormous consequences for U.S. climate goals, the air Americans breathe and the ways they get their electricity. The power sector ranks as the nation’s second-largest contributor to climate change, and it is a major source of toxic air pollutants tied to various health problems.

Before the restrictions take effect, however, they will have to survive near-certain legal challenges from Republican attorneys general, who have been emboldened by the Supreme Court’s skepticism of expansive environmental regulations.

Another wild card is the November election, which could hand the White House back to former president Donald Trump, who has pledged to scrap dozens of President Biden’s green policies if he returns to office.

One of the most significant rules will limit greenhouse gas emissions from new natural gas-fired power plants and existing coal-fired power plants. It will push all existing coal plants by 2039 to either close orcapture 90 percent of their carbon dioxide emissions at the smokestack.

A second regulation will reduce releases of mercury and other toxic air pollutants from the smokestacks of coal plants nationwide. Exposure to mercury, a powerful neurotoxin, can cause serious health effects, especially for developing fetuses and children.

A third rule will expand federal oversight of coal ash, the waste from coal plants that often contains a mix of chemicals linked to increased cancer risk. A fourth will limit the levels of toxic metals in the wastewater that coal plants candischarge into rivers, lakes, streams and other waterways.

Each rule will yield huge benefits for public health and the planet, according to the EPA. The greenhouse gas standards alone will prevent up to 1,200 premature deaths, 870 hospital visits and 1,900 asthma cases in 2035, the agency said. They will also reduce carbon emissions through 2047 by 1.38 billion tons — equivalent to the annual emissions of 328 million gasoline-powered cars.

Together, the rules represent the culmination of an aggressive plan that EPA Administrator Michael Regan first outlined in 2022. Speaking to an energy industry conference in Houston that year, Regan promised an array of regulatory actions to tackle pollution from power plants, which he said often hits poor and minority neighborhoods the hardest.

Jody Freeman, who directs the Environmental and Energy Law Program at Harvard Law School, said she thinks the rule is on solid legal ground, because EPA lawyers crafted it to comply with the 2022 decision and the Clean Air Act. But it is difficult to predict what the conservative justices will decide, she said.

“The Supreme Court will do what it wants, and it’s shown a particular hostility to EPA rules,” Freeman said.

[immigrationattorney110]

Affordable Immigration Lawyer in Houston

Whether you want to get your family to the USA or employ a non-resident, Zaheer Zaidi of Zaidi Law Firm is a Houston immigration attorney who can help you know what you need to make it happen.

Phone # 001-713.777.2902 | Email Id: info@immigrationsavior.com

[darkmaga-retard]

The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced in a press release on Aug. 6 that it had charged a Pakistani national with alleged connections to the Iranian government over an alleged plot to assassinate political figures on U.S. soil, possibly including former President Donald Trump.

Asif Merchant, also known as Asif Raza Merchant, 46, was arrested on July 12 while preparing to leave the United States. The arrest was initiated after he allegedly told a confidential source of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that he had an "opportunity" for him.

"For years, the Justice Department has been working aggressively to counter Iran's brazen and unrelenting efforts to retaliate against American public officials for the killing of Iranian General Soleimani," said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. "The Justice Department will spare no resource to disrupt and hold accountable those who would seek to carry out Iran's lethal plotting against American citizens and will not tolerate attempts by an authoritarian regime to target American public officials and endanger America's national security."

According to reports, Merchant met with undercover New York law enforcement officers posing as "hitmen" back in June, requesting the following: "theft of documents, arranging protests at political rallies, and for them to kill a 'political person.'" He claimed that he had spoken with an unidentified "party" back home in Pakistan and was instructed to "finalize" their plans to kill the person either late August or September after he left the country.

Law Enforcement Today reported that the "terrorist" paid the undercover officers $5,000 in advance and confirmed that the plan was a "go" when the operatives allegedly asked if they were moving forward with it. This was when Merchant made arrangements to leave the U.S., but he was intercepted before he could make his flight. He told authorities that he has a wife and children in Iran as well as a wife and children in Pakistan.

"Fortunately, the assassins Merchant allegedly tried to hire were undercover FBI agents," said Acting Assistant Director Christie Curtis of the FBI New York Field Office. "This case underscores the dedication and formidable efforts of our agents, analysts and prosecutors in New York, Houston, and Dallas. Their success in neutralizing this threat not only prevented a tragic outcome but also reaffirms the FBI's commitment to protecting our nation and its citizens from both domestic and international threats."

[zersk]

A Georgia middle school teacher was arrested last week after multiple witnesses told authorities he threatened to behead a 13-year-old Muslim student who said the Israeli flag hanging in his classroom offended her. Benjamin Reese, a 51-year-old seventh grade teacher at Warner Robins Middle School, was arrested on charges of making terroristic threats and cruelty to children in the third degree, according to an incident report from the Houston County Sheriff’s Office, which lists more than 20 witnesses. Reese was arrested on December 8 and records show he has since bonded out of jail. CNN has been unable to determine if he has an attorney who would comment on his behalf. In a statement, the Houston County School District said all employees are required to adhere to an educator’s code of ethics, and a violation or accusation of one would prompt an investigation. “While we are not able to discuss specific personnel matters, we can share that Mr. Reese has not been on the campus of Warner Robins Middle School since December 7, 2023,” the statement said. “Safety and the well-being of our students and staff is our number one priority.” The incident report – written by a sheriff’s deputy who was on duty at the school when the incident occurred – cites several witnesses who said they heard Reese shouting profane threats at three female students in the seventh-grade hallway on December 7, including, “You motherf****ing piece of s**t! I’ll kick your a**! I should cut your motherf****ing head off!”

what the fuck

[alwaysbewoke]

A Houston man who spent six years behind bars for a crime he didn’t commit had his conviction overturned Thursday. A judge granted the DA’s request to dismiss the methamphetamine possession case against Frederick Jeffery. “I’m glad we were able to fix a wrong,” Judge Danilo Locayo told Jeffrey in court. “I’m so sorry this happened to you.” Frederick Jeffery’s 2018 conviction was based solely on the testimony of former HPD officer Gerald Goines who was later charged with murder and tampering with a government record in a separate case. Jeffery was sentenced to 25 years in prison. He was freed on bond in July after the district attorney’s office reviewed dozens of cases linked to Goines.

x

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Eleanor Klibanoff at Texas Tribune:

The Texas Supreme Court has unanimously rejected the most significant challenge to Texas’ new abortion laws yet, ruling Friday that the medical exceptions in the law were broad enough to withstand constitutional challenge.

The case, Zurawski v. Texas, started with five women arguing the state’s near-total abortion laws stopped them from getting medical care for their complicated pregnancies. In the year plus it took to move through the court system, the case has grown to include 20 women and two doctors. In August, a Travis County judge issued a temporary injunction that allowed Texans with complicated pregnancies to get an abortion if their doctor made a “good faith judgment” that it was necessary. The Texas Office of the Attorney General appealed. The Texas Supreme Court overturned that ruling Friday, saying it “departed from the law as written without constitutional justification.” While the opinion was unanimous, Justice Brett Busby issued a concurring opinion that left the door open to a broader challenge to the law.

Zurawski v. Texas was a pioneering case in post-Roe America, the first challenge to a state’s abortion bans on behalf of women with complicated pregnancies. At least three other states have followed suit, and it led to a related case, in which Kate Cox, an actively pregnant woman in Dallas sued to be allowed to terminate her pregnancy. The Texas Supreme Court rejected Cox’s plea in December, which many saw as a likely foreshadow of how the court might rule in Zurawski v. Texas. On Friday, those suspicions were confirmed when the court offered a ruling very similar in nature to the Cox case. “A physician who tells a patient, ‘Your life is threatened by a complication that has arisen during your pregnancy, and you may die, or there is a serious risk you will suffer substantial physical impairment unless an abortion is performed,’ and in the same breath states ‘but the law won’t allow me to provide an abortion in these circumstances’ is simply wrong in that legal assessment,” the court wrote.

How the case unfolded

The initial lawsuit was filed in March 2023, and unlike previous wholesale, pre-enforcement challenges to abortion bans, this case focused on a very narrow argument — women with complicated pregnancies were being denied medically necessary abortions because doctors were unclear on how and when they could act.

After the overturn of Roe v. Wade in summer 2022, Texas banned all abortions except to save the life of the pregnant patient. Almost immediately, women began to come forward with stories of difficult pregnancies worsened by doctors’ hesitations and uncertainty. Amanda Zurawski, the named plaintiff in the suit, was 18 weeks pregnant with a daughter they’d named Willow when she experienced preterm prelabor rupture of membranes. Despite the condition being fatal to the fetus and posing significant risks to the pregnant patient, her doctors refused to terminate the pregnancy because there was still fetal cardiac activity. Eventually, Zurawski went into sepsis and spent three days in the intensive care unit. While she survived, the infection has made it difficult for her and her husband to conceive again.

[...]

Friday’s ruling

In Friday’s ruling, the court ruled that only one of the 22 plaintiffs in the Zurawski suit had standing to sue — Karsan, the Houston OB/GYN who had agreed to perform Cox’s abortion. “We conclude that the Attorney General directly threatened enforcement against Dr. Karsan in response to her stated intent to engage in what she contends is constitutionally protected activity,” the justices wrote. “A state official’s letter threatening enforcement of a specific law against a plaintiff seeking relief from such enforcement is a sufficient showing of a threat of enforcement to establish standing to sue.” The trial court ruled in the injunction that a doctor should be allowed to perform an abortion when they deemed it necessary in their “good faith judgment.” Friday’s ruling found the trial judge overstepped, and said the way the law is written — allowing abortions based on a doctor’s “reasonable medical judgment” — is clear enough.

The all-GOP Texas Supreme Court hate women full stop, as the court rejected the Zurawski v. Texas lawsuit challenging the Lone Star State’s harsh abortion bans.

[jamesonxcarter]

WITH: @calliemontgomery LOCATION: callie's office

After leaving Covington, maybe subconsciously, every single place that Jameson found himself was a major city, each time getting progressively further and further away. Almost as if he desperately wished to be unknown and unrecognizable, he clung to populous cities that afforded him complete anonymity. First Atlanta, which was still close enough to home and attracted enough Covingtonians ( including his own family ) that he got a slight taste of freedom but nothing to satisfy him fully. Durham to Chicago to Houston, each subsequent move pulled him further away from the grip of the Carter family and closer towards that coveted namelessness. And he basked in walking around the streets of each of these cities, not running into either a family member, a friend, or someone else who could immediately report his whereabouts back to his parents. It wasn’t as if either Cassidy or Emmett Carter kept tabs on him, but word had a way of traveling back to them through the extensive grapevine, an inevitable byproduct of a massive extended family residing in a very small town.

It was for this reason that returning back home after years of running into absolutely no one he knew, Jameson expected to see familiar faces. Callie, however, was one face that he did not expect to run into after so many years. Many of his childhood friends and certainly his entire family had either never left or promptly returned to Covington. But she was not from here. She was from the glamorous shores of California, a place that he’d pestered her with questions about when he was younger and more of a dreamer. As he walked through the corridors of the now familiar office, he stopped at the door of their well respected and highly successful district attorney, the door ajar. “Knock, knock,” he said as he rapped on the wooden perimeter lining the glass insert. “I figured going out for lunch wasn’t possible, given that your assistant told me, and I quote ‘she has about fifteen seconds to spare at 12:39 p.m., if you want to try your luck.’” Leaning against the doorframe, he held up the bags of takeout. “So hopefully, you’re a fan of Lucille’s sandwiches.”