Schaefer Edwards
Charlotte
Currently comms @UNCCharlotte, formerly @RiceUniversity & @HoustonPress staff writer. Proud Uvaldean, adopted Houstonian and expat Spurs fan. Views my own.
Articles by Schaefer Edwards
Rice’s Houston Jewish History Archive to become Joan and Stanford Alexander South Texas Jewish Archives
The Houston Jewish History Archive, a joint project of Rice University’s Program in Jewish Studies in the School of Humanities and the Woodson Research Center in Fondren Library, will be renamed the Joan and Stanford Alexander South Texas Jewish Archives, thanks to a generous gift from the Alexander family of Houston. While the formal name change will take effect Jan.
COVID Metrics Improve Across Texas As U.S. Coronavirus Deaths Pass Grim Milestone
The United States finally hit the tragic milestone of over 700,000 COVID-19 fatalities over the weekend, solidifying the coronavirus pandemic as the most deadly pandemic in the history of our country. But thankfully, key COVID-19 metrics across the country, Texas and in the greater Houston area continue to trend downward as the Delta variant wave appears to be petering out — at least for now.
Texas House Speaker Phelan Rebukes Abbott and Patrick On Illegal Voting And Winter Storm Response
In a series of tweets Thursday night, Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan (R-Beaumont) publicly broke with Gov. Greg Abbott over Abbott's insistence that Texas lawmakers should increase penalties for voting illegally, and disagreed with Gov. Dan Patrick’s assertion that retiring state Rep. Chris Paddie (R-Marshall) couldn’t be trusted based on his approach to winter storm response.
Proposed Texas House District Maps Would Protect GOP Advantage Statewide
That advantage would come at the expense of minority representation and left-leaning Texans, as even more House districts would be drawn to have mostly white voters and Trump supporters inhabiting them. While the new proposed House maps would pit multiple current house members across the state against each other if they want to stay in office, none of them are from the Harris County delegation.
Trump Tells Texas Four County Audit Isn't Good Enough
In a statement to the Texas Tribune Wednesday, Trump said the four county audit wasn’t nearly comprehensive enough to meet his demand, and that it would be “a big mistake for Texas” if the Legislature didn’t pass House Bill 16 proposed by state Rep. Steve Toth (R-The Woodlands), which would allow state and county political party chairs to request recounts of state election results for the 2020 election and beyond.
Over 1.2 Million Marriage Licenses Added To Harris County's Website
All Harris County marriage licenses issued since 2008 were already available online; The 1.2 million-plus licenses that were added to the county’s clerk’s website represent all of the licenses issued from 1944 through 2007, a project that closed “a gap of about 64 years” in the county’s digital marriage records. Plain and certified copies of all of those marriage licenses can now be bought with just a few clicks through the office’s online sales portal.
Abbott Tells Fox News A Rape and Incest Exception To New Abortion Ban Won't Happen
During the same Sunday interview, Abbott also claimed the controversial audits of the 2020 election in Harris, Dallas, Tarrant and Collin Counties announced last week by the Texas Secretary of State’s office “actually began months ago” and had nothing at all to do with former President Donald Trump’s public request that Abbott authorize an audit. Before beginning his line of questioning about Texas’ abortion law, Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace played a clip of Abbott from earlier this month.
GOP-Drawn Texas Congressional Map Gives Wesley Hunt A New Red Seat For The Taking
When the GOP Texas Senate on Monday unveiled its proposed new district maps for Texas’ seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, the likely impact on greater Houston’s slate of congressmen and women was pretty clear. Local red districts would get redder and blue districts would get bluer under the new plan, meaning incumbent Republican House Reps. Dan Crenshaw and Troy Nehls and Democrats Al Green, Sheila Jackson Lee and Sylvia Garcia would likely face easy paths to reelection in 2022.
Texas COVID Deaths Surge While Hospitalizations Fall As Delta Wave Continues
As public health experts predicted all along, the quick rise in Texas COVID-19 cases from the summer’s Delta surge has finally been followed by a dramatic uptick in deaths from the virus. While there are now thousands fewer Texas hospital beds occupied by COVID-19 patients than there were a few short weeks ago, deaths are still climbing, intensive care units remain in low supply across the state and hospitals are still struggling under weight of mostly unvaccinated coronavirus victims.
Trump-Backed Audit, a Hasty Senate and a Sleepy House Mark Week One of Texas' Third Special Session
Looming over both chambers is the prospect of further additions to the session’s agenda by Gov.
Pro-Choice Groups Beg U.S. Supreme Court To Hurry Up And Rule On Texas Abortion Ban
Senate Bill 8, the so-called Texas “heartbeat bill” has placed $10,000 bounties on the heads of anyone who performs or helps someone get an abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected (which is typically six weeks after conception, and is truly just electrical flickering in pre-viable fetal cells). The new law went into effect on September 1, and remains in place because the Supreme Court refused a previous request to block its enforcement earlier this month.
Trump Pressures Abbott To Add 2020 Texas Election Audit To Special Session Agenda
But the highest-profile pressure campaign Abbot has faced so far this summer is the one launched by former President Donald Trump Thursday afternoon, who urged Abbott to add a full-on audit of the 2020 election in Texas to the third special session’s to-do list.
Texas AG Paxton Says Since He's Elected, the Whistleblower Act Doesn't Apply to Him
that Paxton shouldn’t be considered a “public employee,” and therefore should be immune to a whistleblower lawsuit filed against him by former colleagues he fired after they accused their old boss of corruption. Meanwhile, Paxton’s been filing a number of lawsuits against Texas school districts who told their students and staff to wear face masks during a pandemic (and, strangely, some that haven’t).
Lawsuits Follow After Texas Doctor Breaks Abortion Law, Just Not From Who You'd Expect
In the days since San Antonio Dr. Alan Braid’s announcement in the Washington Post that he’d performed an illegal abortion flouting Texas’ controversial “heartbeat bill,” the first two lawsuits filed against him came from pro-choice advocates hoping to block the law, not anti-abortion activists. Meanwhile, Texas’ most ardent abortion foes have so far stayed on the sidelines, warning their members to hang back and not take Dr. Braid’s bait.
Trial Shows Pfizer Vaccine Safe For Kids As FDA Panel Breaks With Biden On Booster Plan
While full authorization for Pfizer’s vaccine in kids five to 11 could still be weeks or months away depending on how swiftly the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves Pfizer’s trial data, the news that a vaccine for kids is entering the official approval process couldn’t have come at a better time. Children now make up more than 20 percent of daily new coronavirus cases in the United States, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Texas Redistricting When Republicans Seem to Hold All the Cards
It doesn't matter that 95 percent of the state’s population growth since 2010 (according to the latest census results) has come from Texans of color who traditionally lean toward Democrats when voting. Not when Republicans control the Senate and House. State Democrats and progressive advocacy groups are already convinced the GOP will use its power to draw new state legislative and U.S. Congressional maps that will give Republicans an even greater electoral advantage than they already enjoy.
DOJ Asks Judge To Block Texas' Abortion Law, While Women Seeking Abortions Are Driven Out of State
One sexual assault victim had to travel to Oklahoma to get the abortion now forbidden to her by the new draconian Texas abortion law that went into effect September 1. “I provided an abortion to [a] woman from Texas who had been raped and could not get an abortion in Texas because of SB 8,” Dr. Joshua Yap from Planned Parenthood of Arkansas and Eastern Oklahoma wrote in a filing supporting the Justice's Department challenge to the Texas action.
Over 14,000 Harris County Residents Are Overdue For Second Vaccine Dose
More than 14,000 people in Harris County are overdue for getting their crucial second COVID-19 vaccine shot, despite public health officials’ attempts to persuade folks who’ve received their first shot of a two-dose coronavirus vaccine how important shot No. 2 is in granting maximum coronavirus protection.
Nicholas Exits Stage Right, But Plenty of Residents Remain Powerless
click to enlarge Lots of fallen branches littered the streets of greater Houston Tuesday thanks to Nicholas. Photo by Reggie Mathalone Tropical Storm Nicholas continued its eastward path out of the Houston area throughout Tuesday, leaving most of inland Harris County relatively dry but still struggling with widespread power outages and scattered debris.
Over 80,000 in the Houston Area Still Lack Electricity Post-Nicholas
CenterPoint Energy reported that 83,878 of its customers still didn’t have electricity as of just before 8 a.m. Wednesday. That’s down from the 182,822 powerless residents CenterPoint reported at 4 p.m. Tuesday, but it’s clear that the pace of power restorations has slowed significantly given that the utility said at 9:21 p.m. Tuesday its crews “are working overnight to restore the remaining 100K customers.” click to enlarge Over 83,000 Houston area residents still lacked power Wednesday morning.
Power Outages From Nicholas Likely To Last As It's Still Too Windy For Crews To Start Work
click to enlarge A downed stop sign on Washington Ave. showed how strong last night's winds were gusting. Photo by Schaefer Edwards In brief remarks updating the public on Harris County’s response to Tropical Storm Nicholas, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo on Tuesday warned residents without power that they may not have their electricity restored any time soon, as CenterPoint crews will not be sent out into the field until the strong winds brought by the storm subside.
Hidalgo Asks Harris County Residents To Stay Put Monday Night Due To Nicholas
“We could get 10 to 15 inches of rain over the next 24 hours or so, and that would be very very concerning for whatever areas of our community receive that much rain,” Hidalgo said. “We could have rain two to three inches an hour, which many of our bayous and channels are not able to withstand.” Harris County’s emergency management office is currently at alert level 2, the second highest level, according to Hidalgo.
Abbott Calls Third Straight Special Session of Legislative OT For September 20
click to enlarge Gov. Greg Abbott is giving the Lege a couple weeks off before calling them back to work. Screenshot On Tuesday evening, Gov. Greg Abbott called yet another special session of the Texas Legislature, ordering state lawmakers to head back to Austin for one more round of legislating starting September 20. Abbott’s announcement came hours after he signed Senate Bill 1 into law, the controversial set of GOP election reforms.
Abbott Signs Controversial GOP "Election Integrity" Bill Into Law
click to enlarge State Sen. Bryan Hughes and Gov. Greg Abbott were all smiles in East Texas Tuesday. Screenshot After Labor Day weekend, Gov. Greg Abbott got right back to work by signing into law Senate Bill 1, the Republican-backed slate of election changes that he and his supporters proclaim as a defense against voter fraud and critics say is nothing but a way to make it harder for minorities, the disabled and Democrats to vote.
U.S. Supreme Court Refuses To Block Texas’ New Abortion Law From Being Enforced
click to enlarge Pro-choice advocates protested in Houston Wednesday over Texas' new restrictive abortion law. Screenshot Late Wednesday just before midnight, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a brief 5-4 decision rejecting an emergency request from abortion advocates for the court to block Texas’ newly enacted “heartbeat bill” abortion law.
Election Bill Hits Abbott's Desk While Fights Over Other GOP Priorities Heat Up
click to enlarge Gov. Greg Abbott is glad the "election integrity" bill is on his desk, but other conservative priorities have stalled in the Lege. Screenshot With less than a week left in the Texas Legislature’s second straight overtime round of lawmaking this summer, state Republicans have finally delivered Gov.
Pro-Abortion Groups File Last-Ditch Request Asking U.S. Supreme Court To Block TX Heartbeat Bill
click to enlarge Pro-choice protesters gathered in Austin in May after the Legislature passed its "heartbeat" abortion bill. Screenshot Texas abortion advocates hoped a legal challenge to Senate Bill 8 — the state’s new “heartbeat” abortion law that would effectively ban all abortions in the state after a fetal heartbeat is detected — could lead a federal district court to block the law from going into effect later this week.
Abbot Pens New Order Banning Government COVID Vaccine Mandates
click to enlarge Gov. Greg Abbott still doesn't want any vaccine mandates in Texas, even for fully FDA approved shots. Screenshot As the latest wave of the perpetual pandemic rages on, Texas and the greater Houston area in particular continue to be COVID-19 hotbeds.
Texas House Passes Controversial GOP Election Bill In the Dead of Night
click to enlarge Impressively mustachioed State Rep. Andrew Murr (R-Kerrville), author of the GOP's latest election bill, defended it Thursday. Screenshot After lacking enough members to do business for almost six weeks, the Texas House finally passed the state GOP’s controversial election bill on the House floor after a 12-hour debate late Thursday night.
Local Criminal Court Backlog Likely To Keep Growing As Pandemic Surges
click to enlarge Judge Kelli Johnson demonstrated how she uses Zoom in her courtroom to allow for social distancing. Photo by Schaefer Edwards When asked about how the massive slowdown in the local court system and the resulting backlog of tens of thousands of criminal cases has affected the men and women whom he defends on a daily basis, Joseph Vinas, local defense attorney and president of the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association, brought up one client in particular.
Houston ISD School Year Begins Amid Mask Mandate Battles And FDA Approval For Pfizer's Vaccine
click to enlarge Houston ISD Superintendent Millard House II touted his district's COVID safety protocols at several campuses Monday. Screenshot As Houston ISD’s 196,000-plus students headed back to their classrooms Monday with the start of the fall semester began, local parents crossed their fingers that the district can avoid widespread COVID-19 outbreaks like those that have befallen other school districts who started in-person classes earlier this month.
Delta Surge Leads Rice To Retreat From In-Person Classes For At Least Two Weeks
click to enlarge Rice University announced Thursday a retreat from its plans to start semester with in-person classes. Screenshot In a recent message to Rice University students, faculty and staff, the school’s Provost Reginald DesRoches said that the rapid spread of COVID-19’s Delta variant has caused Rice to retreat from its plans to kick off the new school year with in-person classes, mere days before the semester was set to begin on August 23.
Abbott And Dems Go At It In Legal Fights Over Masking As GOP Lawmakers Ignore Delta
click to enlarge Gov. Greg Abbott is hell-bent on fighting local mask orders.
Abbott Announces He Has COVID Hours After Hidalgo Offers $100 Vaccine Incentive
click to enlarge Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo hopes offering up a few thousand Benjamins will spur folks to get vaccinated. Screenshot Will Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo's offer of a $100 bonus be enough to persuade more of the area's unvaccinated to get inoculated against COVID-19? And will Tuesday's announcement from Gov.
Houston ISD Formally Issues Mask Mandate As County Legal Fights Over Masks Heat Up
click to enlarge Millard House II announced Wednesday he had the HISD board's blessing to flout Gov. Greg Abbott on requiring masks. Screenshot The rise of the Delta variant of COVID-19 throughout Texas and the resulting surge of sick coronavirus patients filling up state hospitals ahead of the upcoming school year has caused local leaders in Texas’ largest counties and school districts to push back against Gov.
TX House Speaker Phelan Signs Arrest Warrants For 52 Democrats Still Missing From Austin
click to enlarge Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan wants to lay the hammer of the law on absentee Democrats. Screenshot Tuesday night, Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan officially signed 52 civil arrest warrants for 52 House Democrats who have yet to report to the House floor for the second special session which began Saturday in an attempt to finally give his chamber the 100 members needed to pass new laws.
Texas Children's Confirms It Has Some COVID Kids On Ventilators
^ I Support Local Community Journalism Support the independent voice of Houston and help keep the future of Houston Press free. It’s not just unvaccinated adults who’ve ditched their face masks who are being hit hard by the Delta COVID-19 variant’s rapid spread. Houston’s Texas Children’s Hospital has also seen a disconcerting uptick in the number of sick kids laid low by Delta in recent weeks.
HISD Superintendent House Says Delta's Rapid Spread Hasn't Yet Altered Plans For In-Person Classes
As the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus silently swarms throughout the Lone Star State, the pandemic in Texas has taken an undeniable turn for the worse in recent weeks. With hospitalizations for the deadly disease rising to heights not seen in months and new daily case counts rapidly increasing, a new surge is clearly underway propelled largely by younger, unvaccinated residents falling ill to the virus.
The Woodlands' State Rep. Steve Toth Thinks Texas Needs Its Own 2020 Election Audit
^ I Support Local Community Journalism Support the independent voice of Houston and help keep the future of Houston Press free. If state Rep. Steve Toth (R-The Woodlands) has his way, Texas will be the next red state that reevaluates the 2020 presidential election through a top-to-bottom “forensic audit” of the state’s elections results in Texas' biggest counties.
Patrick's Texas Senate Keeps Cranking Out Bills That With No House To Pass Them Will Never Get to The Governor
^ I Support Local Community Journalism Support the independent voice of Houston and help keep the future of Houston Press free. Texas House Democrats’ dramatic fly-out to Washington, D.C. last week left the state House at a standstill. But across the hall in Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s Senate, Republican lawmakers were undaunted, rapidly passing a conservative laundry list of legislation that's all but assured to die at the special session's end.
Day 5 in Exile: Phelan Hires a Jet to Haul AWOL Dems Back From D.C. But Has No Takers
^ I Support Local Community Journalism Support the independent voice of Houston and help keep the future of Houston Press free. The saga of Texas House Democrats in exile got even more entertaining on Day 5 with Willie Nelson in fund-raising mode for the AWOL Dems and Republican Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan announcing Thursday afternoon he had a private plane standing by in Washington, D.C. ready to whisk the AWOL group back to Austin. It was clear, however, that he wasn't getting any takers.
Pro-Choice Advocates File Lawsuit Hoping To Block Texas’ New Six-Week Abortion Ban
^ I Support Local Community Journalism Support the independent voice of Houston and help keep the future of Houston Press free. A broad group of abortion providers and pro-choice advocates joined forces Tuesday by filing a federal lawsuit they hope will block Texas’ recently passed law — that would ban abortions as early as six weeks — from going into effect later this year.
Defiant Texas Dems in D.C. Tell Abbott to Quit Holding Lege Hostage, Demand Congress Act on Voting Bills
^ I Support Local Community Journalism Support the independent voice of Dallas and help keep the future of Dallas Observer free. To begin their first full-day of self-imposed exile in Washington, D.C., the Texas House Democrats who fled the state Monday afternoon spoke in front of the U.S. Capitol Tuesday to explain why they felt they had no choice but to skip town to prevent Texas Republicans from forcing through new election restrictions.
Texas Dems Plan to Flee Texas for D.C. Monday to Block GOP Election Bills a Second Time
^ I Support Local Community Journalism Support the independent voice of Dallas and help keep the future of Dallas Observer free. Democratic members of the Texas House of Representatives are planning to fly to Washington, D.C. Monday in an attempt to halt the state Legislature from advancing controversial Republican-backed election bills during the ongoing special legislative session, sources close to state Democrats told to NBC News and The New York Times Monday afternoon.
Texas GOP Jumps Into Round Two Of Election Reform Fight As Special Session Kicks Off
^ I Support Local Community Journalism Support the independent voice of Houston and help keep the future of Houston Press free. The special session of the Texas Legislature ordered by Gov. Greg Abbott is well underway, and lawmakers worked through the weekend filing and debating new laws that fit within Abbott’s narrowly-tailored list of conservative priority items, the only topics lawmakers are allowed to legislate on in the weeks ahead.
Abbott Sets A Red-Meat Menu For Special Legislature Session Starting Thursday
^ I Support Local Community Journalism Support the independent voice of Houston and help keep the future of Houston Press free. Ending weeks of speculation, Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday morning finally unveiled the full list of items Texas lawmakers will be allowed to focus on during the upcoming special legislative session set to begin Thursday morning.
FBI Investigating Claims That Harris County Constables Molested Female Deputies In Drunken Undercover Party Stings
^ I Support Local Community Journalism Support the independent voice of Houston and help keep the future of Houston Press free.
Abbott Faces Fire From Left and Right On Legislative Funding Veto As New Opponent Enters the Fray
^ I Support Local Community Journalism Support the independent voice of Houston and help keep the future of Houston Press free. Gov.
COVID-19 Under "Community Control" in Greater Houston, but Delta Variant and Other Questions Remain
^ I Support Local Community Journalism Support the independent voice of Houston and help keep the future of Houston Press free. It feels like the COVID-19 pandemic has finally gotten to a somewhat manageable state in the greater Houston area and much of the United States where life-saving coronavirus vaccines are free, widely available and remarkably successful at preventing hospitalizations, sickness and death from the virus that’s been a daily part of our lives for well over 18 months now.
After Multiple Houston Kids Killed In Two Days, Turner and Chief Finner Say Hands Off Our Children
^ I Support Local Community Journalism Support the independent voice of Houston and help keep the future of Houston Press free. Ahead of the Fourth of July weekend, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner and Houston Police Department Chief Troy Finner swore to the public they are doing everything in their power to put an end to a local wave of shootings that has left multiple Houstonians dead over the past week.
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