The high-tech world is frequently (and rightfully) seen as antithetical to democracy - but it doesn't have to be that way. We're proud to welcome Jeremy Smith, an Army veteran and Austin-based information technology innovator who has led the way on a growing array of digital platforms and products that are designed to increase and enhance our connection to the democratic process - NOT to isolate us from it, as is all too often the case. Learn more about Jeremy Smith and Civitech at https://civit...
Aug 13, 2024•47 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Over the weekend, new details about the 2022 Robb Elementary mass shooting were revealed as the City of Uvalde released its records on the incident: https://www.propublica.org/article/uvalde-city-officials-release-school-shooting-records ...Meanwhile the demolition of the old church building in Sutherland Springs where our state's most deadly mass shooting occurred in 2017 began on Saturday: https://www.tpr.org/news/2024-08-10/demolition-be...
Aug 12, 2024•8 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: We were proud to be included in yesterday's celebration of the Texas Rangers' 2023 World Series victory with President Joe Biden at the White House: https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/40784277/biden-hosts-world-series-champion-rangers-white-house Governor Abbott has signed an executive order demanding information on undocumented people who seek medical care at Texas hospitals: https://abc13.com/post/texas-hospitals-ordered-inquire-patients...
Aug 09, 2024•8 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Texas Trump types are throwing everything they can at Tim Walz - is any of it sticking? https://www.chron.com/politics/article/tim-walz-texas-communist-19625695.php ...Our Jackie Rogers compares Walz to his VP opponent, the eminently gross J.D. Vance: https://progresstexas.org/blog/everything-you-need-know-about-vp-candidates-tim-walz-and-jd-vance After considering complicating matters, the Lockhart City Council has voted to put a simple, d...
Aug 08, 2024•7 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Texas progressive politicos are jazzed about the pick of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as Vice President Kamala Harris' pick as her running mate: https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/texas-democrats-praise-harris-walz-presidential-ticket/ ...Governor Abbott is somewhat less enthusiastic: https://www.star-telegram.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article290795974.html ...Petroleum polluting billionaires are alarmed by the Walz pick: h...
Aug 07, 2024•8 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: About 12 percent of Texas voters - over two million of us - are on an official "voter suspense list" due to uncertainty that our addresses match our voter registration: https://www.dallasnews.com/news/elections/2024/08/05/texas-voter-suspense-list-tops-21-million-heres-what-to-do-if-youre-on-it/ A Texas Ranger targeted for termination earlier this year due to failure to execute his job properly during the Uvalde school shooting has been rei...
Aug 06, 2024•8 min
Everyone is focused on the Presidential race, for obvious reasons - and most Texans who take an even slightly broader view of the election might get as far as unseating Ted Cruz. There's a LOT more at play and at stake this November, and our ideological foes in the Republican Party are certainly engaged at the school board level - where control over the funding, educational policies and curriculum content of our public schools primarily lies. We have five terrific Democratic nominees for the Tex...
Aug 05, 2024•42 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Texas representatives of the Trump party have led the way in a misguided assault on Algerian Olympic boxer Imane Khelif, whom they have incorrectly characterized as transgender, and thus an example of "keeping men out of women's sports": https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/article/greg-abbott-texas-imane-khelif-19616272.php ...As usual, conservative politicians don't let pesky facts interfere with serving up cruelty for their vo...
Aug 05, 2024•7 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: A three-year investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice reveals endemic and pervasive abuse against kids in the Texas juvenile justice system: https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/texas-youth-lockups-beset-abuse-mistreatment-children-justice-112492737 A committee of UT Austin professors has determined that the university's leadership broke its own rules in the crackdown on pro-Palestinian protestors back in April: https://www.kut.org/ed...
Aug 02, 2024•7 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Vice President Harris continues spending precious campaign time in Texas - she will speak at U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee's funeral today: https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/harris-eulogize-longtime-us-rep-sheila-jackson-lee-112465451 ...Harris responds from Texas to Donald Trump's ridiculous attacks on her racial heritage: https://www.texastribune.org/2024/07/31/kamala-harris-houston-sorority-speech/ An East Texas man has been arrested an...
Aug 01, 2024•8 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Texas progressives should continue to heed warnings issued by both President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris from Texas stages lately about Project 2025, despite Donald Trump's distancing and the Heritage Foundation's claims that they're winding it down: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/07/30/project-2025-director-paul-dans-leaves-heritage-foundation/ ...The planning phase is ending, but the preparations for implement...
Jul 31, 2024•8 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: At yesterday's ceremony at the LBJ Library in Austin, President Biden called for sweeping reforms designed to reign in a rogue conservative U.S. Supreme Court: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/29/us/politics/biden-supreme-court-austin-texas.html ...Several Democrats - but no Republicans - met Biden on the ABIA tarmac yesterday: https://x.com/willdupreetv/status/1818015413437087814?t=QDYKCZ-xFe677e13D6rz0Q&s=03 ...Those same Democrats wei...
Jul 30, 2024•8 min
President Biden gave remarks at the commemoration ceremony honoring the 60th anniversary of President Lyndon Baines Johnson's signing of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 today at the LBJ Presidential Library on the University of Texas campus in Austin. This podcast features his full, unedited remarks. Huge thanks to the LBJ Library staff for a super-smooth event! More on today's visit by the President: https://www.texastribune.org/2024/07/29/joe-biden-supreme-court-supreme-court/ Thanks for listenin...
Jul 30, 2024•29 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Postponed after the Trump assassination, President Joe Biden's visit to Austin and the LBJ Presidential Library to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act will commence at 3pm today: https://www.statesman.com/story/news/state/2024/07/29/president-joe-biden-speech-lbj-library-austin-texas-how-to-watch-livestream-kamala-harris/74377745007/ ...The President will also pay his respects to U.S. Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee to...
Jul 29, 2024•8 min
Our ongoing series of conversations on the trampling of reproductive freedom in Texas - and what it's going to take to regain those rights - continues. In this fourth installment, we're proud to welcome Texas State Senator Molly Cook who has made history as our state's first openly LGBTQ Senator, Austin City Council Member Vanessa Fuentes who makes her first appearance on our podcast feed, and Democratic State House nominee and former Miss Texas Averie Bishop, running against a GOP incumbent - a...
Jul 28, 2024•40 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Vice President Kamala Harris' address to the American Federation of Teachers' national convention in Houston yesterday is a rare high point for our state's embattled public school educators: https://www.texastribune.org/2024/07/25/texas-teachers-kamala-harris-houston/ ...VP Harris' full remarks yesterday: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/special-pod-vp-kamala-harris-live-from-houston/id1552998795?i=1000663345746 ...Progress Texas' Tatu...
Jul 26, 2024•8 min
In case you missed it - here's a full, unedited capture of remarks given this morning in Houston at the national convention of the American Federation of Teachers by Vice President Kamala Harris. Enjoy! Thanks for listening! Learn all about Progress Texas and how you can support our important work at https://progresstexas.org/ .
Jul 25, 2024•23 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: The voter registration site Vote.org reports a massive spike in registrations since President Biden stepped out of the race: https://x.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/1816088296583209122?t=sv_uB_VvIGtnW5Zh2AkL7w&s=03 ...While we're also hearing about mysterious suspensions of registration here in Texas - we must ALL confirm we're good to go in November: https://govotetexas.org/ Vice President Harris speaks this morning at 10 in Houston at th...
Jul 25, 2024•9 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: After a unanimous decision by our board, all of us at Progress Texas are very proud to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris in her bid for the presidency: https://progresstexas.org/blog/statement-progress-texas-endorses-kamala-harris-president ...VP Harris is scheduled to speak in Houston tomorrow: https://www.statesman.com/story/news/politics/2024/07/23/kamala-harris-houston-texas-visit-national-convention-american-federation-of-teachers-u...
Jul 24, 2024•7 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Texas' delegation to the Democratic National Convention - the nation's 3rd-largest - voted overwhelmingly to support Vice President Kamala Harris in a call last night: https://www.texastribune.org/2024/07/21/joe-biden-texas-delegates-nomination-process/ ...Meanwhile Team Harris is raising record-setting amounts of campaign donations: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/kamala-harris-fundraising-81-million-biden-drops-out/ ...An ActBlue heat map sh...
Jul 23, 2024•7 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: In mere hours, following the announcement of President Joe Biden that he was standing down from the election and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris to run in his place, the fundraising platform ActBlue reported over $50 million in donations: https://x.com/mattmfm/status/1815199349737205860?s=46 President Biden's under-appreciated administration will be remembered well by history: https://apnews.com/article/biden-political-legacy-preside...
Jul 22, 2024•7 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: The 2024 Republican National Convention wrapped with a fiery celebration of our country's cultural lowest common denominator and an endless, snoozy Trump diatribe: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/19/takeaways-rnc-day-4-trump-speech ...While a speech featuring VP pick J.D. Vance extolling the virtues of Alex Jones surfaces: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/vance-alex-jones-oligarchs-speech-report-12350...
Jul 19, 2024•7 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Governor Abbott left Texas amidst hurricane recovery for a second time to speak at the Republican National Convention's third night: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/article/greg-abbott-rnc-speech-takeaways-19580598.php ...Badly-needed fact checking of Abbott's RNC remarks: https://www.cbsnews.com/video/fact-checking-texas-gov-abbotts-immigration-claims-in-rnc-speech/ The Pennsylvania billionaire who gave Abbott $6 million to...
Jul 18, 2024•8 min
Since he was first elected to the Austin City Council ten years ago in 2014, Houston native Greg Casar has emerged as one of our state's most respected progressive leaders, and since 2022 has been pushing hard for progress in Texas in the U.S. House, where he's currently the second-youngest member of that entire esteemed body. Join us for a great conversation on his experience so far in D.C., how it has inspired him to keep fighting for his folks back home, and how Texas progressives should both...
Jul 17, 2024•30 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Governor Abbott remains defiant in the face of criticism over his abandoning Texas during Hurricane Beryl: https://www.texastribune.org/2024/07/16/greg-abbott-asia-hurricane-beryl/ ...Abbott's attacks notwithstanding, Centerpoint Energy has donated heavily to Republicans for years - thus the lack of regulation, likely leading to Houston's vulnerability: https://www.kxan.com/news/centerpoint-has-contributed-at-least-1-4m-to-texas-lawmakers-s...
Jul 17, 2024•9 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Texas formed a visible component of the garish display that was Monday night's Republican National Convention: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/article/trump-rnc-cruz-biden-19575121.php Colin Allred has outraised Ted Cruz in the second quarter of 2024: https://www.texastribune.org/2024/07/15/colin-allred-ted-cruz-senate-race-texas/ A Texas YouTuber, whose channel has generated billions of views of videos glorifying guns and m...
Jul 16, 2024•8 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Texas connections to the Trump assassination attempt: ...The Pennsylvania man who allegedly tried to kill Donald Trump on Saturday was wearing merchandise from a Texas-based gun fanatic YouTube channel at the time: https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/what-is-demolition-ranch-19573090.php ...Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller was standing near Trump when the shooting began: https://www.khou.com/article/news/national/sid-miller-t...
Jul 15, 2024•8 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Centerpoint Energy predicts that hundreds of thousands of Southeast Texans still without power will remain that way into next week: https://apnews.com/article/houston-beryl-hurricane-power-outages-7f624c7e14f41284449009295e69ac12 ...The utility is actually outpacing itself compared to prior weather-related outages: https://www.texastribune.org/2024/07/11/centerpoint-power-restore-texas-houston-when-why-timeline/ ...Dan Patrick continues cli...
Jul 12, 2024•9 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Over 1 million Houston area Centerpoint and Entergy power customers remain without power or AC amidst sweltering heat this morning: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-weather/hurricanes/article/hurricane-beryl-power-updates-houston-heat-19563819.php ...Centerpoint's outage map shows that as of now, about half of the affected area has not yet seen actual repair work begin: https://abc13.com/post/centerpoint-energy-outage-map-when-...
Jul 11, 2024•7 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Millions of Texans are beginning their third day without power - or AC - amidst a summer Texas heat wave: https://www.texastribune.org/2024/07/09/beryl-texas-houston-power-outages/ ...Massive infrastructure failures after significant weather events has become a highly unfortunate routine reality in Texas: https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2024-07-09/hurricane-beryl-makes-a-mockery-of-texas-climate-deniers ...This time, we can add a...
Jul 10, 2024•9 min
