KTBB News, Weather, Talk

AUSTIN – The Texas Tribune reports that a week after death row inmate Robert Roberson was set to die, the extraordinary quest to save his life has morphed into a deepening political battle between Texas House lawmakers and the state’s leading Republicans as they trade bitter accusations and push conflicting narratives around his guilt — or likely innocence. Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday condemned the bipartisan Texas House committee that forced a delay of Roberson’s execution, saying it “stepped out of line.” Attorney General Ken Paxton, in a graphic press release Wednesday, insisted on Roberson’s guilt and accused the committee of pursuing “eleventh-hour, one-sided, extrajudicial stunts that attempt to obscure the facts and rewrite his past.” Lawmakers, in return, blasted Paxton for publishing a “misleading and in large part simply untrue” summation of Roberson’s case.

State Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, along with Reps. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, Rhetta Andrews Bowers, D-Rowlett, and Lacey Hull, R-Houston, issued a 16-page, point-by-point rebuttal on Thursday to Paxton’s release, including citations and exhibits shown at trial and since recovered during the appeals process. The Office of the Attorney General attached the autopsy report of Roberson’s 2-year-old daughter, Nikki Curtis, whom he was convicted of killing, and a statement from the medical examiner who performed it. But Paxton otherwise referred broadly to the trial record and did not acknowledge any of the new evidence presented in Roberson’s appeals. “There are no new facts in the OAG’s statement, only a collection of exaggerations, misrepresentations and full-on untruths completely divorced from fact and context,” Moody wrote on social media Thursday. The political fight over Roberson’s execution came as a result of the unusual transfer in venue for debate over his case from the courtroom to the broader public discourse — a shift wrought when the courts shut down all of Roberson’s appeals and lawmakers, convinced of his likely innocence or at least of a failure by the courts, turned to their bully pulpit to intervene.

HOUSTON (AP) – Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is seeking to protect his personal social media accounts from being sold in the upcoming auction of his Infowars media platform to pay more than $1 billion he owes relatives of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, claiming selling those accounts would violate his privacy and deny him a chance to make a fresh start after bankruptcy.

The trustee overseeing the liquidation and selloff of the assets of Infowars and its parent company Free Speech Systems, asked a federal judge on Friday to include the social media accounts as part of the auctions scheduled for November and December. The judge delayed a decision on the matter for at least a week.

Jones’ lawyers argue the personal media accounts that use his real name are not owned by Infowars or FSS, but are controlled by him personally, and should be considered part of his “persona” that cannot be owned by someone other than himself.

They argue that trustee Christopher Murray does not have a right to the social media accounts as property that can be sold, and warned that a purchaser could face lawsuits as to whether they were rightfully obtained.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez in Houston said a proposed order regarding the potential sale of the social media accounts that preserved Jones’ right to sue over ownership later was unclear, and tentatively scheduled another hearing in a week.

“We should have great clarity and everybody agrees that something can be sold before it can be sold,” Lopez said. “I want a purchaser or a bidder to know exactly what they think they can buy. I don’t want to create litigation risk for a potential purchaser.”

The trustee is also seeking to be allowed to sell off the rights to royalties from Jones’ book “The Great Reset: And the War for the World” published in August 2022, and his video game “Alex Jones NWO Wars” released in 2023, that features Jones as the hero in a shooting game.

Despite the pending loss of his company, Jones has vowed to continue his talk shows through other means, possibly including a new website and his personal social media accounts. He also has suggested that Infowars’ assets could be bought by his supporters, allowing him to continue hosting his show as an employee under the Infowars brand in the company’s home city of Austin, Texas.

In seeking the rights to the social media accounts, the legal team for the trustee argued in court filings that Jones’ X account, and others on Telegram, Gab, Parler and other platforms, “are frequently used to promote and post Infowars content, and in some cases, have a significant number of followers.” Jones’ X account has nearly 3 million followers.

The trustee argued that social media accounts of influencers, celebrities and political personalities have become valuable assets, and that Jones’ accounts have drawn particular interest from multiple parties in buying them.

If sold, Jones’ attorneys said litigation would depend on who purchased them.

“We got comfortable with the trustee that if certain parties were the successful bidder, there would be litigation later, but if certain parties were the successful bidder, there wouldn’t be litigation later,” Vickie Driver, one of Jones’ attorneys, told the judge.

“There is value to some folks in buying these assets and using them in one way, and value to other folks to use them in another way,” Driver said.

Jones and his company both filed for bankruptcy protection in 2022 — the same year Sandy Hook families won nearly $1.5 billion in defamation and emotional distress lawsuits against Jones for his repeatedly calling the 2012 school shooting a hoax staged by “crisis actors” to get more gun control legislation passed. Twenty first-graders and six educators were killed in the Newtown, Connecticut, shooting.

During two civil trials in Texas and Connecticut, parents and children of many of the victims testified that they were traumatized by Jones’ hoax conspiracies and his followers’ actions. They said they were harassed and threatened by Jones’ believers, some of whom confronted the grieving families in person saying the shooting never happened and their children never existed. One parent said someone threatened to dig up his dead son’s grave.

Jones is appealing the civil jury verdicts, citing free speech rights and questioning whether the families proved any connection between his comments and the people who harassed and threatened the relatives. He has since acknowledged that the shooting did happen.

AUSTIN – Since joining Texas Monthly in 2019 as the country’s first taco editor, José R. Ralat has visited thousands of taquerias, restaurants, and taco trucks across Texas. He’s highlighted the delicious food he’s come across, shared the stories of the people behind the dishes, and taken readers on a journey through the state’s wide variety of Mexican food, capturing the cultural complexity and fascinating history behind one of the most influential culinary traditions in the world. Now Ralat, the state’s preeminent taco expert, has released his first definitive list of the best tacos and taquerias in the Lone Star State.

To compile the rankings, Ralat traveled roughly 14,000 miles, visiting more than 400 taquerias in about six months. He looked for tacos that met a certain level of craft, quality, creativity, and flavor. As he took notes, he observed a new movement among taquerias—one that has created a new type of cuisine. Ralat calls this movement New Tejano, which describes dishes that marry nostalgic Mexican or Mexican American food with native Texan ingredients. Ralat’s comprehensive list features multiple examples of New Tejano cuisine.

The list’s No. 1 spot is Ana Liz Taqueria, in Mission, and the chile relleno as its standout taco. The restaurant, run by James Beard Award-winning chef Ana Liz Pulido, specializes in nixtamalization, the ancient Mexican process through which corn kernels are cooked and steeped in an alkaline solution to loosen the outer shell and release vital nutrients, and then made into corn tortillas.

Elemi, just outside El Paso, came in second for its New Tejano dishes that use local ingredients and are a nod to the Mexican roots of owners Emiliano and Kristal Marentes. Elemi’s conejito pibil is its tortilla-wrapped standout.

The third spot went to Azteca Taco House, in Houston. Ralat identifies the taqueria’s costillas en salsa verde as the taco of choice. Azteca, run by co-owner Carlos Gallegos and his family, ranked high not only for its delicious food but also because it makes customers feel at home.

Rounding out the Top 10 are:

No. 4 Revolver Taco Lounge, in Dallas

No. 5 Taqueria El Tiger, in El Paso

No. 6 Taconeta, in El Paso

No. 7 Papalo Taqueria, in Houston

No. 8 Stixs & Stone, in San Antonio

No. 9 Maskaras Mexican Grill, in Dallas

No. 10 Nixta Taqueria, in Austin

“There has never been a more exciting time for tacos and those who love them,” says Ralat. “Variety, tradition, and boundary pushing exist simultaneously. There are tacos for everyone everywhere. We are on the verge of a new age of tacos.”

HOUSTON (AP) – Kamala Harris and Donald Trump will center their attention on Texas on Friday with both presidential candidates holding events in the staunchly Republican state. The vice president will team up with Beyoncé for a rally aimed at highlighting the perilous medical fallout from the state’s strict abortion ban and putting the blame squarely on Trump.

Meanwhile, the former president will hold a news conference in Austin before sitting down with podcaster Joe Rogan later on.

President Joe Biden will visit a reservation in Arizona, a long-promised trip to Indian Country that Democrats hope could boost Harris’ turnout effort in a key battleground state.

Follow the AP’s Election 2024 coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024.

Here’s the latest:

Biden heads to Indian Country as Harris steps up appeal to Native American voters

President Joe Biden is at last making his way to Indian Country, paying a long-promised visit to a reservation in Arizona that Democrats hope could provide a boost to Vice President Kamala Harris’ turnout effort in a key battleground state.

Biden’s visit to the Gila River Indian Community’s land on the outskirts of metro Phoenix will be his first to Indian Country as president — something he promised tribal leaders he would do nearly two years ago.

During the visit, Biden intends to formally apologize to Native Americans for the U.S. government’s role in the abuse and neglect of Native children sent to federal boarding schools to assimilate them into white society, according to the White House.

Read more here.

Allies hope a Trump win changes the system for mortgages. Some warn it will make them pricier

If Donald Trump wins the presidential election, Republicans hope he will fulfill a longstanding GOP goal of privatizing the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which have been under government control since the Great Recession.

But Democrats and some economists warn that, especially in this time of high mortgage rates, doing so will make buying a home even more expensive.

Read more here.

Like Biden, Harris puts focus on Trump as Election Day draws near

With the end of her abbreviated presidential campaign in sight, Kamala Harris is trying to put the focus squarely on Donald Trump and his threat to democratic institutions, echoing the strategy used by Joe Biden before he ended his reelection bid.

It’s a bet that fear of the former Republican president can rally Harris supporters and nudge undecided voters to her side in the final days. Harris’ challenge will be connecting philosophical questions about American democracy with the everyday concerns of individual Americans.

The effort will be on full display Tuesday, when Harris delivers what her team describes as her closing argument from the Ellipse, the grassy space adjacent to the National Mall in Washington. It’s the same place where Trump stood when he urged his supporters to march on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in what became a bloody attempt to prevent the certification of Biden’s election victory.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats backing Rep. Colin Allred’s bid to defeat Texas Sen. Ted Cruz are investing $5 million in an ad campaign focused on abortion, making a late-campaign play for what’s seen as a safely Republican seat.

The announcement by Senate Majority PAC comes as Democrats face a challenging set of races nationwide to maintain control of Congress’ upper chamber. Several Democrats are running in states favored to go for Republican nominee Donald Trump next month.

Texas has not elected a Democrat statewide since 1994. That streak has held even as several races over the years have drawn national attention — perhaps notably Cruz’s last reelection fight against Rep. Beto O’Rourke, who became a sensation among liberals and raised huge amounts of money. Cruz beat O’Rourke by just over 2 percentage points.

Senate Majority PAC said its ad would focus on reproductive rights and highlight the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to strike down a nationally guaranteed right to abortion. Texas has since banned all abortions.

The ad will start running in major state media markets Friday — the same day that both parties’ presidential nominees will visit the state.

Trump will sit for a taping with podcaster Joe Rogan and hold a press conference in Austin focused on immigration issues. Vice President Kamala Harris, meanwhile, goes to Houston for a large rally featuring Beyoncé, the star singer who grew up in the nation’s fourth-largest city.

FORT WORTH – The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports Tarrant County’s voting machines are incapable of changing voters’ ballots, according to the manufacturer. “Tarrant County’s voting devices are among the most secure in the nation and do not ‘flip votes,’” said a spokesperson for Hart InterCivic in an emailed statement. “The devices are tested and certified at the state and federal level and were successfully tested locally in Tarrant County prior to the start of Early Voting.” The company is aware of reports of a Tarrant County man who said a voting machine changed his choice for president at the White Settlement Library on Monday, Oct. 21, and it is taking the allegation seriously, the spokesperson said. “Hart voting machines cannot and do not ‘flip’ votes,” the statement read.

After video of Tony Carpenter talking about his experience went viral, Tarrant County Elections Administrator Clint Ludwig said in a statement posted to X that the machine was working correctly. “What we believe to have occurred is the individual did make a selection on the machine and that selection was printed on their ballot,” Ludwig said on Tuesday, Oct. 22. “When they went to cast their ballot, they checked it and realized that was not the vote that they wanted.” But Carpenter isn’t buying it. “He’s full of [expletive],” he said in an interview on Wednesday, Oct. 23. “I’ll tell him that to his face. He needs to call me. No, he needs to come see me.” Ludwig did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Carpenter checked his full ballot twice and his choice for president three times, he said. His vote might have gone to Vice President Kamala Harris had he been as carefree as others he said he saw voting.