Early voting begins next week

Early voting for the Nov. 5 general election begins Monday, Oct. 21 and ends on Nov. 1. Texas voters will be choosing from a full slate of candidates, from president to U.S. senator to various county positions.

The deadline to register to vote was Oct. 7. Voters are reminded to bring one of seven approved forms of photo IDs to the polls. Among the options are a Texas driver’s license, U.S. passport, or handgun license. A complete list of acceptable IDs can be found at vote.texas.gov. Voters can also make sure they are registered by going to that site.

A recent Texas Standard story notes that under a little-known Texas elections law, convicted felons in prison are eligible to register and vote if they are actively appealing their convictions. It is unknown, however, how many of the 134,000 people currently held in state prisons actually register and vote, since the state doesn’t track that data. 

“Nobody’s asking to do this because they have no idea that they can,” Jennifer Toon of the Lioness Justice Impacted Women’s Alliance, a nonprofit for incarcerated women.

Under state law, a conviction is not considered “final” as long as it is under appeal. Convicted felons who never appealed their case, or who lost their appeal, are not eligible to vote. 

Surge in school threats prompts dozens of arrests

At least 40 Texas students were arrested in September in connection with making threats against schools, The Dallas Morning News reported. The surge came after a 14-year-old fatally shot two fellow students and two teachers at Georgia’s Apalachee High School. Those arrested face an assortment of charges ranging from generating a false alarm to making terroristic threats, or threatening to use a firearm.

“My concern is these threats are going to desensitize people,” said Shane Wallace, director of the Texas Association of School Resource Officers. “It’s an abundance every day. The one that’s not reported may be the one.”

While most of the threats turn out to be non-credible, law enforcement officials are obligated to investigate every threat, some of which turn out to be legitimate. For example, a 12-year-old student was arrested Sept. 10 in Bexar County after allegedly threatening to shoot another student. When his home was searched, deputies seized a pistol, ammunition and body armor. The child was charged with making a terroristic threat.

Dallas ISD Police Chief Albert Martinez said his officers were devoting nearly all of their time dealing with reported threats made by students.

$50 million 

allocated for debris removal after storms

Gov. Greg Abbott and other state leaders have approved $50 million in emergency funding to help communities in Southeast Texas with debris removal after Hurricane Beryl in June and a derecho storm in May, the Houston Chronicle reported.

While Abbott cited a shortage and delay of funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, that agency said it has enough funds to meet recovery needs – even though two more major hurricanes have struck the United States since then.

“FEMA has the necessary resources to meet the immediate needs associated with Hurricane Helene and other disasters,” a statement from the Department of Homeland Security said.

Beryl left behind approximately 4.1 million cubic yards of debris, enough to fill Houston’s NRG stadium, the Chronicle reported. That figure only includes storm debris such as broken and scattered vegetation. It does not include debris from damaged homes, buildings and roads.

Comptroller Glen Hegar supported the funding move because it will provide quicker assistance where needed.

“In the aftermath of storms like these, questions about funding can lead to significant delays in recovery efforts and timelines,” he said. “These delays can have disastrous long-term ramifications for local and regional economies.”

Allred 

outraises Cruz in third quarter

Democratic challenger U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, D-Dallas, raised $30.3 million during this year’s third quarter, far outpacing incumbent U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz in their high-profile matchup, according to The Tribune. Cruz raised $21 million during the same time period. 

The two have collectively raised at least $132 million since the race began, far outpacing the amount raised in Cruz’s successful reelection campaign in 2018, when he beat challenger Beto O’ Rourke by less than 3 percentage points.

Polls indicate a tight race, with Allred trailing slightly but within the margin of error.

High court to hear nuclear waste challenge

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a challenge to plans to store nuclear waste in West Texas, according to U.S. News & World Report. That comes after the state appealed a decision by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to grant a license to a private company to store spent nuclear fuel at a dump in Andrews County. 

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals previously found that the NRC has exceeded its authority under federal law. Abbott has said that Texas “will not become America’s nuclear waste dumping ground.”

The state of New Mexico is closely watching the case, since it is fighting plans to build a similar facility just across the line from the proposed site in Andrews County. Approximately 100,000 tons of spent fuel, some of dating back to the 1980s, is stockpiled at current and former nuclear plants while the legal battles ensue. A proposal to build a national storage facility at Yucca Mountain in Nevada has been abandoned because of widespread opposition in that state.

Monarch 

migration not looking promising

Millions of monarch butterflies are making their way through Texas to their winter vacation site in Mexico, but conservationists say the migration this year features far fewer than hoped, kut.org reported. 

The butterflies started the spring in Mexico with the second-smallest population ever recorded. Poor weather conditions in the upper Midwest, where many of the beautiful creatures spend summers, hurt monarch reproduction before the southern migration.

“It’s not looking as promising as we had hoped,” said Kristen Baum, director of the nonprofit research group Monarch Watch. 

Researchers won’t know the full picture until butterfly census takers head to the mountain forests of Central Mexico this winter. That is where the monarchs spend the cooler months.

Gary Borders is a veteran award-winning Texas journalist. He published a number of community newspapers in Texas during a 30-year span, including in Longview, Fort Stockton, Nacogdoches, Lufkin and Cedar Park. Email: gborders@texaspress.com