Time now for the week that was in Texas politics with Juan Pablo Garnham, urban affairs reporter for the Texas Tribune.
State Releases Preliminary Death Toll From Winter Storm
“At least 57 people died in Texas last month because of this winter storm,” Garnham told Texas Standard. “The largest number of deaths was in Harris County where it was reported that of the 25 people [who] died, the majority of these deaths were associated with hypothermia. But there could also be other reasons like car crashes, carbon monoxide poisoning, problems with medical equipment and other issues. But it is really important to say that this number could increase with time because it seems that some large counties and many counties, in general, haven’t reported any data yet. For example, there are no numbers in Travis, Tarrant, Dallas [counties], which are all, of course, huge counties.”
Abbott Says He’s Focusing On Human Trafficking At Border
“On Wednesday, he said he was expanding that effort, that it’s called Operation Lone Star, and he put an emphasis on combating human trafficking. So the governor is saying that as part of this operation, the state troopers and Texas Rangers will be conducting interviews with unaccompanied minors that cross the border to identify victims of human trafficking and try to gain intelligence about this. But also, he’s asking the federal government to have access to migrant children that are staying in the convention center here in Dallas so that they can interview with minors and identify possible cases.”
Bill Aims To Make It Easier To Remove Racist Clauses From Deeds
“It’s a really interesting story because it comes from the 1920s, 1960s, where many homeowners added clauses to property that ban[s] Black people from owning or living in homes in specific areas throughout the United States. And that this bill would make it easier to delete, erase or remove this language that although … it’s not legally binding today, it’s still there, and it still means a lot for a lot of people.”
