MEANWHILE, IN TEXAS…

Marriage Fight

The city of Houston is trying to get the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on a same-sex marriage benefits fight, according to the Texas Tribune. Houston filed a petition on Friday requesting SCOTUS look at a decision by the Texas Supreme Court, made in June, that tossed a lower court’s ruling that said the same-sex spouses of public employees are entitled to government marriage benefits. The state Supreme Court ordered a trial court to reconsider the case, but Houston is trying to kick it to SCOTUS instead. According to the Tribune, the issue stems from a lawsuit by two taxpaying citizens represented by conservative gay marriage opponents, challenging Houston’s policy of granting marriage benefits to same-sex spouses, which was implemented after SCOTUS legalized same-sex marriage nationwide in the Obergefell v. Hodges case. Lawyers for the taxpayers in the lawsuit against Houston argued that the interpretation of the Obergefell decision was too broad, and that granting same-sex couples the right to marry does not make them eligible for taxpayer-funded benefits. It’s unclear if SCOTUS will decide whether to take the case.

Lasting Effects

Hurricane Harvey made landfall along the Texas coast almost four weeks ago, but refineries as far inland as Montana are still feeling the aftereffects of the storm. According to Bloomberg, at least thirteen refineries with a combined 3.27 million barrels a day have had to delay maintenance for weeks or months. Many are experiencing personnel shortages, because workers were dispatched to help fix and restart facilities along the Gulf of Mexico that were damaged by the storm. And there’s still plenty of work to do. According to Bloomberg, Valero, Citgo, and Flint Hills Resources were able to quickly restart their plants in the Corpus Christi area shortly after Harvey hit, but refineries owned by Motiva and Total SA in Port Arthur and Exxon in Beaumont are some of the refineries still trying to get back to normal operations. Exxon said it’s delaying turnarounds at facilities from Louisiana to Montana, as HollyFrontier Corp. moved a turnaround at a plant in Oklahoma planned for September to the first quarter of next year, and delayed work planned for October at its site in Salt Lake City. Citgo also pushed back maintenance scheduled for September at its plant near Chicago.

New Faces

Greg Abbott’s office will look a little different after the governor announced big staffing changes on Monday, according to the Texas Tribune. Daniel Hodge, Abbott’s chief of staff, is out after assuming the role when Abbott was elected in 2015. Hodge has worked for Abbott since his 2002 campaign for attorney general. Luis Saenz, Abbott’s former appointments director in the governor’s office, is now in as chief of staff. Other new faces include Tommy Williams, a former Republican state senator from The Woodlands, who is joining Abbott’s team as a senior adviser for fiscal affairs; Sarah Hicks, assistant vice chancellor for government relations at the Texas A&M System, who is now Abbott’s budget director; John Colyandro, who was convicted in 2012 of accepting illegal political contributions as executive director of a PAC during the 2002 state legislative elections, now returns to Abbott’s side as a senior adviser and policy director after serving as his adviser once before; ex-Senate Parliamentarian Walter Fisher, who will serve as Abbott’s legislative director; and Peggy Venable, a senior visiting fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, who will be Abbott’s appointments director.

MEANWHILE, IN TEXAS…

Hard Time

Shannon Miles, the man who killed Harris County Sheriff’s Deputy Darren Goforth in a gas station parking lot two years ago, pleaded guilty to capital murder on Wednesday and was sentenced to life without parole, according to the Houston Press. The sentencing seemingly puts a cap on the long legal saga that began when the 47-year-old Goforth was ambushed and shot to death while, in broad day light, he filled up his patrol car at a Chevron in November 2015. Miles suffers from schizophrenia, which played a large factor in his sentencing. According to the Press, Miles’s attorney said that Miles couldn’t remember the day he killed Goforth, but that he accepted responsibility for the shooting after looking at the evidence, which including video footage from the gas station. The special prosecutor in charge of the case, Brett Ligon, talked the deal over with Goforth’s family, who agreed life without parole was an adequate punishment. “When nobody gives a good goddamn about you and die in a pauper’s grave, that is the beat down that’s life without parole,” Ligon told the Press. “I’ve executed people, and I’ve put ’em on life without parole, and I will tell you, neither one of those are good options. Neither one of them. They both suck. And that’s what I want, is the ultimate suck—and he got the ultimate suck.”

Caught Juicing

The Houston Texans had a rough start to the 2017 NFL season when their home opener last week ended in a disappointing loss. Things got a little worse on Wednesday, when starting linebacker Brian Cushing was suspended for ten games for violating the NFL’s policy on performance enhancing drugs, according to ESPN. The suspension literally adds insult to injury—Cushing was already ruled out of this Sunday’s game after he was concussed last week. Cushing won’t appeal the suspension. “It is with the deepest remorse that he humbly apologizes to his fans, teammates, and coaches,” Cushing’s attorney said in a statement. He was suspended once before, losing four games in 2010 after testing positive for HCG, a fertility drug banned by the NFL. Cushing was a first-round draft pick by the Texans and made the Pro Bowl as a rookie in 2009, though his career has tapered off a bit since then. Still, according to the Houston Chronicle, Texans coach Bill O’Brien has often called the 30-year-old veteran the “heart and soul” of the Texans’s defense, so his suspension is a big blow for the team.

Water Beds

Port Arthur was one of the cities hit hardest by flooding from Harvey, with thousands of homes destroyed. Now the city plans to house hundreds of displaced residents on two large floating barges, according to the Beaumont Enterprise. About 200 people are still living in a shelter at a middle school, as others brave moldy homes due to a shortage of available hotel rooms and apartments. Mayor Derrick Freeman announced in a Facebook post that about 600 people will be housed on the barges, and that the city will provide them three meals per day and laundry services. “Port Arthur has never had the capacity to shelter thousands of people within our city limits,” Freeman told the Enterprise. “But I felt we needed to keep our folks close to their home and property.” It remains unclear who will be eligible to stay on the barges, and a city spokesperson told the Enterprise that they’re still waiting for more information and the official “thumbs-up” from FEMA, though the federal agency has apparently made a verbal commitment to provide the barges.

MEANWHILE, IN TEXAS…

Number One

New census data shows that Texas once again leads the nation in the rate of people who are uninsured, according to the Dallas Morning News. One in six Texans—16.6 percent of the state—didn’t have any health coverage in 2016, the American Community Survey found in data released on Tuesday. Texas was joined by Alaska as the only states with uninsured rates that topped 14 percent of the respective populations. However, there is a small bright spot: Less and less Americans are going uninsured nationwide and in Texas. The national rate of uninsured folks fell to 8.8 percent during the last year of the Obama administration, while in Texas that number dropped from 5.7 million in 2013 to 4.5 million in 2016. Still, Texas is way behind other states here. Massachusetts, for example, has the nation’s lowest rate of uninsured in the U.S. at about 2.5 percent, or one out of every forty people.

New Face

President Donald Trump nominated Austin attorney Trey Trainor for an appointment to the Federal Election Commission on Tuesday, according to the Texas Tribune. Trainor still needs to be confirmed by the Senate, but if that happens he’ll serve the rest of a six-year term that expires in April 2021, though it’s unclear right now which seat he would fill on the six-member commission. Trainor worked for the Trump administration once before, pitching in with the leadership transition at the Pentagon. He specializes in election law, campaign finance and ethics, and has served as the attorney for the conservative group Empower Texans, representing it during its many legal battles with the Texas Ethics Commission.

The Price is Wrong

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against three businesses on Tuesday, alleging they price gouged customers during Harvey, according to the Austin American-Statesman. The lawsuit alleges Robstown Enterprises, the owner of the Best Western Plus Tropic Inn in Robstown; Bains Brothers, owner of two Texaco gas stations in the Dallas-Fort Worth area; and Encinal Fuel Stop, a Chevron station near Laredo, all jacked up their prices during Harvey, breaking a state law that prohibits businesses from charging exceedingly high prices for drinking water, food, clothing, and fuel during a governor-declared disaster. The penalty is a fine of up to $20,000, rising to $250,000 for violations targeting the elderly. The lawsuit also seeks to make the businesses fork over the money they made due to price gouging, to be repaid to the affected customers who can be identified. “It’s unconscionable that any business would take advantage of Texans at their most vulnerable—those who are displaced from their homes, have limited resources and are in desperate need of fuel, shelter and the basic necessities of life,” Paxton said in a statement.

MEANWHILE, IN TEXAS…

Football’s Back

The NFL had its first full slate of games this Sunday to kick off the new season, and the season openers for Texas’s two teams went in very different directions. The Houston Texans played the Jacksonville Jaguars at home, in what looked like a relatively soft matchup. But Houston lost 29-7 with a weak performance. Starting quarterback Tom Savage was benched after completing just seven of thirteen passes for 62 yards and getting sacked six times, forcing the Texans to insert 2017 first-round draft pick Deshaun Watson, who played a little better but was sacked four times himself. The Cowboys, meanwhile, had a primetime matchup against the New York Giants on Sunday night, and with a federal judge ruling on Friday to halt the six-game suspension facing star running back Ezekiel Elliott, things were already looking up before kick off. Elliott ran for 104 yards in a solid 19-3 win, while quarterback Dak Prescott impressed in the first game of his second season, throwing for 268 yards and a touchdown without any interceptions. Veteran Cowboys tight end Jason Witten also made seven catches for 59 yards, breaking Michael Irvin’s franchise record for all-time receiving yards.

Tragic Shooting

At least seven people are dead and two wounded after a mass shooting inside a Plano home on Sunday night. Police haven’t released many details as of early Monday morning, but here’s what we know so far, according to the Dallas Morning News: Police were called to the home at about 8 p.m. after reports of gunshots, and a responding officer heard more gunfire as he was arriving. When the officer got inside the house, he saw several victims and “engaged the suspect,” fatally shooting the gunman, Plano Police Department spokesman David Tilley told the Morning News.”I’ve been here all my life,” Tilley added, “I’ve never heard of anything like this.” The victims were apparently watching the Dallas Cowboys game when the shooting happened. Police have not released their identities but the victims were all adults. The two wounded victims were hospitalized, but their conditions were unclear.

Ted’s in Town

U.S. Senator Ted Cruz visited over the weekend some of the cities in Southeast Texas and along the Coastal Bend that were hit hardest by Harvey, stopping by Beaumont, Refugio, Port Aransas, and Victoria, prompting the New York Times to declare the evolution of Ted Cruz. As the Times writes, Cruz’s presidential election defeat “has spawned a kinder, gentler ‘Cruz 2.0,’” and that was apparently on full display as he visited storm victims and volunteers. Cruz seemed impressed with what he saw, and the Times was likewise pretty impressed with Cruz: “He has toured flood zones with local officials (‘We saw an alligator swimming across Clay Road’), removed drywall from a damaged home with his family (‘Caroline, the nine-year-old, we discovered, can wield a mean hammer’), greeted Coast Guard heroes with dazzling torsos. ‘Almost every one of them ripped,’ he marveled on the Senate floor, holding for dramatic pauses pregnant enough to require bed rest. ‘These are guys that know their way around a weight room.’ He has served chili to the suddenly homeless inside a Houston convention center, wearing a hairnet that aides quickly insisted he cover with a baseball cap. He has embraced congregants at a black church in Port Arthur. He has hugged liberally.” It remains to be seen if Cruz will continue with the liberal hugging after his return to Washington.

MEANWHILE, IN TEXAS…

Monument Men

A day after issuing a temporary injunction, favoring a group suing to save a Robert E. Lee monument from being torn down in Dallas, a federal judge has given the city the green light to remove the Confederate monument, according to the Dallas Morning News. After Dallas City Council voted nearly unanimously on Wednesday to remove the statue, work crews had the 14-foot, 81-year-old sculpture of Lee and an unnamed soldier wrapped in a harness, trying to figure out the best way to get rid of it, when U.S. District Judge Sidney Fitzwater issued a temporary restraining order blocking its removal. But Dallas resident Hiram Patterson and the Texas chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans—the group who filed the initial complaint to stop the removal—didn’t have long to savor their legal victory. Fitzwater dissolved the temporary restraining order the next day. City officials told the Morning News the statue will be removed sometime soon, probably within the next few days.

Bad Blood

Arkema is facing a lawsuit from seven first responders who allege the company owes them $1 million in damages after they were injured following exposure to chemicals in the company’s flooded chemical plant in Crosby. The suit, filed on Thursday in Harris County, accuses Arkema of gross negligence after parts of the plant ignited and spewed toxic fumes on August 31, following fooding from Harvey. According to the Houston Chronicle, the suit alleges that, despite having knowledge of what flooding does to the plant and knowing that Harvey was coming, Arkema “ignored the foreseeable consequences of failing to prepare,” leaving trailers of volatile chemicals vulnerable to explosion after flooding took out the plant’s electricity and ability to cool the heat-sensitive chemicals. “Immediately upon being exposed to the fumes from the explosions, and one by one, the police officers and first responders began to fall ill in the middle of the road,” the lawsuit claims. “The scene was nothing less than chaos. Police officers were doubled over vomiting, unable to breathe.” According to the New York Times, a total of 21 first responders have been treated at hospitals for smoke inhalation and nausea.

Hometown Homeland

U.S. Representative Michael McCaul, a Republican from Austin, is the leading candidate to take over as the head of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, according to Politico. This isn’t the first time a Texan has been floated as a candidate for that role—Rick Perry was thought to be in the running after the job was vacated following John Kelly’s role shift from DHS head to White House chief of staff—and McCaul himself was in the mix when President Donald Trump initially searched for someone to fill the role. The job’s been vacant since July, but according to Politico, Hurricane Harvey and the upcoming Hurricane Irma have given the White House increased urgency in filling the opening. McCaul worked closely with the White House as it responded to Harvey, and was on the ground in Texas to greet the president on the tarmac when he touched down here last week. “People familiar with his thinking” told Politico that McCaul is “eager to serve” in the Trump administration.

MEANWHILE, IN TEXAS…

Helping Hand

The U.S. House voted nearly unanimously in favor of a $7.8 billion aid package for Hurricane Harvey, according to the Houston Chronicle. “The message is very simple,” U.S. Representative John Culberson, a Republican representing Houston, said after the package passed. “Help is on the way.” The House passed the measure on its own with a 419-3 vote, but now it heads to the Senate, which is expected to bundle the funding into a vote to raise the debt ceiling, according to CNBC. There’s been some disagreement between Democrat and Republican leaders on how long the debt limit should be extended, with some Democrats supporting a short-term debt ceiling extension, a plan also backed by President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. But House Speaker Paul Ryan said a three-month debt limit increase was “ridiculous” and “unworkable.” If the aid package passes the Senate, it’ll head back to the House later this week for a final vote.

All in the Family

Angela Paxton is throwing her hat in the ring for a state Senate race, according to the Texas Tribune. Paxton, of course, is married to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. A former guidance counselor at Legacy Christian Academy in Frisco, she’s gunning for the seat in Senate District 8, soon to be vacated by Plano Republican Van Taylor, who is running for Congress. Her main obstacle in the race is Phillip Huffines, chairman of the Dallas County GOP and the twin brother of Republican state Senator Don Huffines. “After much prayer I’m excited to step forward with overwhelming support and encouragement from my family, long-time friends, district, regional and statewide buy flagyl 250 mg conservative leaders, elected officials, precinct chairs and citizens from all across Senate District 8,” Paxton said on a campaign website that launched on Wednesday. In the announcement of her campaign, Paxton claimed she has been endorsed by more than a thousand people, and she has the support of a dozen state representatives from the area, including Representatives Jeff Leach and Matt Shaheen and state Senator Donna Campbell.

Ready to Rebuild

Governor Greg Abbott has named Texas A&M Chancellor John Sharp as the leader of the effort to rebuild in communities impacted by Hurricane Harvey, according to the Wall Street Journal. Abbott will announce Sharp’s appointment as chairman of the newly-founded Governor’s Commission to Rebuild Texas at a news conference news conference Thursday at the state Capitol. As the Journal notes, this is a bipartisan move by Abbott. Sharp, who Texas Monthly‘s Michael Hardy profiled in July, has served as chancellor of the A&M system since 2011, and before that he was a longtime Democratic elected official, serving as the comptroller, in both houses of the state Legislature and on the Railroad Commission, according to the Texas Tribune. In the 1980s, he served in the state Senate representing a district including Victoria, one of the areas Harvey hit hardest when it made landfall. Sharp will be tasked with expediting the response and making sure local mayors and county officials get what they need quickly and effectively. “We are very cognizant of the fact that this money will come from taxes paid by hardworking Americans and we will treat it with the kind of respect and accountability that they deserve and expect,” Sharp said in a statement to the Journal.

MEANWHILE, IN TEXAS…

Water Logged

As Houston and southeast Texas slowly recovers from the damage caused by Tropical Storm Harvey, one group of Houston homeowners and businesses is already looking to hold someone accountable for their flood-damaged properties. According to the Houston Chronicle, the group sued the federal government on Tuesday, alleging the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers knowingly condemned their properties when it released water from the Barker and Addicks reservoirs in West Houston. Civil attorney Bryant Banes, whose home flooded even after the waters from Harvey started to recede, is looking for billions of dollars in compensation in what he hopes will turn into a massive class-action lawsuit for homeowners, building managers, and business owners in the area affected by the controlled release from the reservoirs. Banes told the Chronicle that he’s not accusing the government of doing anything wrong when it opened up the dams as a flood control measure, but he said he does believe the government should reimburse residents for the damage it caused by flooding their previously dry homes and businesses. “When they make a choice to flood one area to save another, it’s their responsibility to pay for the consequences,” Banes told the Chronicle.

Long Absence

The NFL upheld its original six-game suspension for Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott on Tuesday. Last month, the NFL announced it had suspended Elliott for six games, stemming from domestic abuse allegations made against the star running back. The NFL said it had “persuasive” evidence that Elliott committed physical abuse against his ex-girlfriend Tiffany Thompson at least three times in July 2016, violating the league’s personal conduct policy, according to ESPN. No criminal charges have been filed against Elliott. The second-year pro appealed the decision immediately. A hearing in New York last week went on for three days, with lengthy testimony from Elliott and multiple experts and witnesses, not including Thompson. Despite the decision to uphold Elliott’s suspension, he’ll still be eligible to play in the team’s season opener this Sunday. Elliott led the league in rushing last season with 1,631 yards.

ID OK

A federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday that Texas can keep its voter ID law in place for the upcoming November elections, Politico first reported Tuesdaynight. Last month, a different federal judge scrapped Senate Bill 5—the Texas Legislature’s attempt to soften the original voter ID law—writing that the state still failed to fix what the judge said was an intentionally discriminatory ID law. But the U.S. Department of Justice appealed that ruling, and while the appellate court’s three-judge panel split in the 2-1 ruling, it decided to at least let the state use the revised ID law until the courts can completely sort out the appeals process. Judges Jerry Smith and Jennifer Elrod wrote that Texas “has made a strong showing that it is likely to succeed on the merits,” adding that Texas also “made a strong showing that this reasonable-impediment procedure remedies plaintiffs’ alleged harm and thus forecloses plaintiffs’ injunctive relief.” According to Politico, this could prompt civil rights groups involved in the lawsuit to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to block the revised voter ID law through November’s elections.

MEANWHILE, IN TEXAS…

Rest in Peace

Even as the floodwaters recede, the death toll from Harvey is rising. Houston Chronicle reported on Monday that the number of deaths has reached sixty, and the number is expected to rise. Medical examiners are still working to confirm which deaths are related to the storm as authorities continue to search for people who went missing during Harvey. So far, Harris County has confirmed thirty storm-related deaths, all but one of them accidental drownings. At least six people have died in Galveston County as a result of flooding, officials said Tuesday, with one more death that could be storm-related. That total includes two confirmed deaths in Dickinson and one in League City. Montgomery, Aransas, Jefferson, Orange, Jasper, San Jacinto, and Walker Counties also reported deaths.

Water, Water Everywhere

The city of Beaumont is still struggling to provide its residents with running water after the city’s pumps were wiped out by flooding on Thursday. According to PBS News Hour, the latest update from Beaumont is that most of the people now have running water, though it’s only a trickle in some places, and a citywide boil notice remains in effect. The city was able to rig up a temporary pump from the Neches River to the city’s water system over the weekend, and that’s expected to last long enough to fix the permanent pumps, according to the Beaumont Enterprise. Exxon Mobil engineers volunteered to work with two engineering companies, Echo and Tiger Industrial, to help get the temporary pumps working. As of Saturday, the city’s main water pump remained underwater after the Neches flooded. That pump provides about 70 percent of the city’s supply, with the other 30 percent coming from wells in Hardin County, which was also hammered by torrential rain from Harvey. According to the Austin American-Statesman, it could take up to two more weeks to fix the pumps.

Hot Seat

It was a wild (and pretty disappointing) opening weekend for some of Texas’s biggest college football teams, with University of Texas at Austin losing to Maryland, Baylor losing to Liberty, and Texas A&M dropping a thriller to UCLA. A&M coach Kevin Sumlin entered the season with his job in jeopardy, so the road loss to the Bruins didn’t help his cause, especially considering the Aggies blew a 34-point lead by allowing 35 unanswered points beginning late in the third quarter on Sunday. The frustrating loss prompted Tony Buzbee, a prominent Houston attorney who sits on the board of regents at A&M, to post a public rant about Sumlin to Facebook. “Our players were better tonight,” Buzbee wrote in the Facebook post, according to the Bryan Eagle. “Our players were more talented tonight. But coaches were dominated on national TV, yet again. I’m only one vote on the Board of Regents but when the time comes my vote will be that Kevin Sumlin needs to GO. In my view he should go now. We owe it to our school and our players. We can do better.” Literally adding injury to insult, the Aggies also lost two starters during Sunday’s loss: quarterback Nick Starkel and defensive back Donovan Wilson. Both are expected to undergo surgeries, and Sumlin told reporters the pair will “be out for a long time,” according to the Austin American-Statesman.

MEANWHILE, IN TEXAS…

Rising Toll

As flood waters continue to rise in Houston, so does Hurricane Harvey’s death toll, but it’s unclear exactly how many have perished. Texas officials told the Washington Post on Monday that nine people have died. Meanwhile, the Austin American-Statesman and Fox News put the total at fourteen, and ABC news reports that seven have died. Although the official count remains unclear, there is consensus that the single deadliest incident occurred on Sunday afternoon, when a family of six drowned after their van hit high water in Houston. The driver of the van, Samuel Saldivar, was able to escape after the van was swept into the current of the rising Greens Bayou, but four children and their great-grandparents were still in the van when it sank. As of Mondaynight, the bodies of the elderly couple, aged 84 and 81, and the four children, ranging between six- and sixteen-years old, have not been recovered.

Shelter From the Storm

KHOU’s Mia Gradney reported early Tuesday that Houston’s George R. Brown Convention Center is sheltering nearly 9,000 people displaced by Hurricane Harvey, taking in nearly 1,600 people in a matter of two hours. KHOU reported that the convention center’s original capacity for evacuees was set at 5,000, but with 9,000 people and counting, no one was being turned away. The Red Cross told the station that though they were still accepting evacuees, there is no guarantee that everyone will be have a cot to sleep on, and incoming supplies were delayed by flooding. After registering at the center, evacuees receive towels, dry clothes, blankets, and meals. The Red Cross is still seeking volunteers and donations, and encourages bringing any donations—cots, blankets, and towels, specifically—directly to the convention center if conditions are safe.

Home Team

As their home field sits amid flood waters, the Houston Astros will take on the Texas Rangers at the Tampa Bay Ray’s Tropicana Field on Tuesday, according to CBS Sports. Major League Baseball made the announcement on Mondaythat the two Texas teams would relocate their upcoming series to Florida, prompting questions about why the games didn’t move to the Rangers’ Arlington ballpark. But the answer from the various camps is a bit of a he-said-he-said situation. “We went to the Rangers and said, ‘Hey let’s switch series. You guys have our home series,’” Astros President Reid Ryan told Houston reporters. “‘We’ll take your home series.’ They rejected that and didn’t want to do that. The Rangers wanted us to play the next three days at their place, but they did not want to trade series with us. They wanted all six of our games at their park.” According to ESPN, the Rangers offered to play this week’s series in Arlington and provide revenue to the Astros, but that the Rangers didn’t want to switch series out of concerns for ticket holders. The first game of the series is on Tuesday evening.

MEANWHILE, IN TEXAS…

Harvey’s Heroes

Texans responded in heroic ways as Harvey wreaked havoc. In Houston, more than 6,000 people called 911 for high-water rescues, according to the Houston Press, and an estimated 1,500 to 2,000 water rescues have taken place there as of late Sunday night. The images and videos of rescue attempts are dramatic. The Coast Guard airlifted dozens of people to safety from their boats on the churning waters outside Port Aransas. Fifteen senior citizens were saved from a nursing home in Dickinson after a viral photo showing elderly women nearly submerged in rising floodwater circulated on social media, according to the Galveston Daily News. A reporter for Houston’s CBS affiliate KHOU broadcasted live as she helped first responders save a stranded truck driver before floodwater filled his cabin. And as rescue workers struggled to reach affected areas, volunteers all over Texas took their own personal boats out over the rising waters to save their neighbors. More help is on the way. First responders are heading toward Harvey-afflicted areas from all across the state, and even as far away as California and New York.

Trump’s Take

As Harvey barreled toward Texas and pummeled our cities, President Donald Trump tweeted a lot. In multiple tweets, he urged Texans to be safe and showed he was keeping tabs on the situation. But he also made several major non-storm related moves, such as pardoning former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio and signing a ban on transgender military members, both of which drew criticism for supposedly using the storm to shield potential blowback. In between cheerful Twitter updates praising the federal, state, and local responses to Harvey, Trump also took time to tweet praise for a newly released book authored by controversial Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke, once again called for the construction of a border wall, and threatened to terminate NAFTA. He also announced a trip to Texas. “I will be going to Texas as soon as that trip can be made without causing disruption. The focus must be life and safety,” Trump wrote on Sunday morning, before following up with a second tweet: “I will also be going to a wonderful state, Missouri, that I won by a lot in ’16. Dem C.M. is opposed to big tax cuts. Republican will win S!” Trump is scheduled to arrive in Texas on Tuesday. His last tweet about Harvey came on Sunday night. “HISTORIC rainfall in Houston, and all over Texas. Floods are unprecedented, and more rain coming. Spirit of the people is incredible.Thanks!”

Helping Hand

You don’t need a boat to help out with the rescue and recovery efforts—though if you do have one, your assistance is sorely needed. The Harris County Sheriff’s Office announced over the weekend that it’s looking for volunteer help with water rescues. If you have a “high-water, safe boat or vehicle,” the agency asks that you please help out (call the Harris County Fire Marshall’s Office at 713-881-3100 to coordinate ways you can help with rescues). Texas Monthly‘s Dan Solomon has compiled a list of reputable aid organizations you should donate to if you can, covering everything from dog food to diapers. Houston Texans star J.J. Watt has already raised nearly $300,000 on a fundraising website he set up during the storm. The Huffington Post has a solid list of ways to give money, give blood, or provide services and housing. Also, definitely read this ProPublica article about how to give to the right aid organizations after a disaster.

MEANWHILE, IN TEXAS…

Dynamic Duo

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s wife, Angela, is considering a run for Texas Senate, according to the Texas Tribune. Paxton, a guidance counselor at Legacy Christian Academy in Frisco, is eying the seat in Senate District 8, which is currently held by Plano Republican Van Taylor, who’s probably going to give up his seat to run for Congress in 2018. Paxton, who has been active in state Republican politics, frequently appears at political events with her husband and on her own. She’s certainly got the charisma and showmanship of a politician—at Republican party gatherings, according to the Tribune, she often strums a guitar and sings, “I’m a pistol-packin’ mama, and my husband sues Obama.” Phillip Huffines, the chairman of the Dallas County GOP, is the current frontrunner for the Senate seat, but Paxton already has the support of four state representatives in the area, so she could shake things up significantly if she does decide to run.

Lost at Sea

One of the ten sailors who went missing after the Navy destroyer U.S.S. John McCain collided with a merchant vessel off the coast of Singapore on Mondayis a Texan, according to the Houston Chronicle. The Navy has announced the identification of the remains of three sailors, but John “C.J.” Hoagland, from Tarkington, is still unaccounted for. “The first time John said he wanted to serve his country, he was five,” Hoagland’s mother, Cynthia Kimball, told KTRK. “It’s the only thing he’s ever wanted to do. He loves the military, but he loves his family. He is really a good person. He would do anything for anyone.” The accident was the second such incident at sea for the Navy in recent months. Noe Hernandez, of Weslaco, was killed along with six other sailors in June, when the U.S.S. Fitzgerald collided with a cargo ship off the coast of Japan. According to the New York Times, the Navy issued a rare suspension of ship operations worldwide following the McCain crash, and it relieved Vice Admiral Joseph P. Aucoin after his fleet sustained a total of four collisions since January, including the fatal crashes of the Fitzgerald and the McCain.

Wet Weekend

The remnants of Tropical Storm Harvey could bring some serious rain to the Texas coast this weekend. The National Weather Service says details of the tropical storm’s exact landfall location are “still very uncertain,” but it could end up along the lower to middle Texas coast around Friday, according to the Houston Chronicle. Houston, Galveston, and Southeast Texas could be in for around four to eight inches of rain, with the possibility of ten to sixteen inches in some areas, according to the National Weather Service. KTRK‘s weather team predicts the storm could bring rains similar to the amount that seriously flooded Houston sixteen years ago, when Hurricane Allison hit the city and dropped more than three feet of rain, leaving 23 dead across Texas and causing billions of dollars in damage. “We’re most likely going to see a tropical storm form late tomorrow night,” Patrick Blood, a meteorologist with the Houston/Galveston branch of the National Weather Service, told the Houston Press. “The biggest threat for Houston is rainfall.” As we wrote in May, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has predicted a rough storm season for Texas this summer.

MEANWHILE, IN TEXAS…

Top 25

College football is almost here, so that means it’s time to rank stuff! The Associated Press released its Top 25 poll on Monday, and one Texas team managed to squeak into the rankings. The University of Texas at Austin is number 23 in the poll. The Longhorns held down the same spot in the Coaches Poll, released in early August. Although it’s a little disappointing to see just one Texas team make it in the first AP poll of the season, UT fans must be pretty excited about the high expectations for their team, considering the Longhorns finished last season with a disappointing 5-7 record before firing former head coach Charlie Strong. In fact, the last time UT made it into the final top 25 poll was in 2012, and they’ve been 16-21 in the last three seasons. But with new coach Tom Herman taking the reigns and breathing new life into the storied program, things are looking up in Austin. TCU, Herman’s old stopping ground the University of Houston, and Texas A&M weren’t far behind UT—all three schools received votes in the poll but landed outside the Top 25.

State Takeover

The state might have to shut down four Dallas ISD campuses or take over the entire district if the city can’t turn things around in struggling schools, according to the Dallas Morning News. Four historically low-performing schools must do better on state assessments to get rid of the “improvement required” label, or else the state will have to act. Three DISD schools have been on the state’s failing list for the past five years—Carr and Titche elementary schools and Edison Middle Learning Center. Another elementary campus, J.W. Ray Learning Center, has fallen short on its report cards for four straight years. As the Morning News notes, other districts in North Texas are facing similar challenges. Fort Worth ISD has three campuses in danger of facing a state takeover. Houston, meanwhile, has a whopping thirteen struggling schools. In 2015, the Texas Lege put further scrutiny on schools that have been in “improvement required” status for five or more years, as of the 2018 to 2019 school year.

Bad News Bears

Just as the fall semester begins at Baylor University, the school has been hit with yet another Title IX lawsuit, according to the Waco Tribune-Herald. In this lawsuit—the eighth Title IX case to be filed against Baylor and the fifth suit the university is currently fighting—the plaintiff, “Jane Doe 11,” alleges she was assaulted by another student in April 2017, then was questioned by university officials in a way that shifted the blame away from the alleged attacker. Attorneys representing the woman pointed out to the Tribune that the allegations come after Baylor’s “media tour patting itself on the back for ‘complete’ and ‘full’ implementation” of 105 recommendations. The recommendations, made by an independent firm, aimed at improving the university’s response to sexual assault in the wake of a scandal that led to a personnel shake-up for the president, head football coach, and athletics director. “I think that, unfortunately, it’s an example of how things still have not changed,” one of the woman’s attorneys told the Tribune. “Hopefully, they will.”