BREAKING: A new Texas report shows that an armed Uvalde officer, the first to arrive at Robb Elementary School on May 24 asked for permission to shoot the gunman while he was outside the school, but never heard an answer from his supervisor.
Texas: a state that thumbs its nose at fed regulation by creating its own power grid but has filed (per FEMA data) more federal disaster declarations than any other state in the nation after natural disasters and outages.
Within three minutes after the gunman entered, he had fired 100 rounds and 11 officers were in the hallway outside the classrooms, all wearing body armor and all appeared to be armed. Read all the new details here:
Cheering on my fellow
#Texas
#journos
from Nashville (where I've got a delayed flite to
@DallasLoveField
). As a reader, I want a map with where the immigrant kids are, name of contractor, how much paid so far this year by fed taxpayers, how many kids detained.
#makeithappen
@DallasLoveField
I want to know EVERYTHING re these contractors. What kind of license they possess or last inspection to care for kids. I want to know who their CEOs are, what lawmakers take their money. If they apply restraints on kids.
#makeithappen
#Texas
#journos
.
@DallasLoveField
#TXjournos
: I want to know what capacity is for each center. I want to know which
#Texas
, fed agency certified them. I want to SEE every PDF that details all protocols of feeding, caring for these kids. I want staffer/doctor/kid ratios. Names of all subcontractors.
#MakeItHappen
Also,
#txjournos
, as a reader, I’d love to know more about all the different nonprofits, legal, medical groups on the ground trying to get access to immigrant kids. What court activity happening.
#MakeItHappen
Because I'm a selfish single person with time on my hands + no one over 65 in my house, dove into Texas govt vaccine websites tonight...to better understand all the outrage we're hearing from listeners. Walk with me,
#txlege
. 1/9
Federal border police to conduct a "crowd control exercise." In a Democratic politician's hometown. On Election Day. Nothing suspicious at all here. Border Patrol To Conduct ‘Crowd Control’ Exercise on Election Day
I am really hoping
#txjournos
break it down for me the difference between the 2014-era family detention centers and companies holding children taken from immigrant parents on the border. I see a time-lapse viz showing detention centers along border as they opened and closed 2/2
Other things to look at,
#txjournos
: contractors who are flying kids from state to state. If one detention center fills, up, the fed gov will be contracting transport companies. Start with TAGGS () ... 1/2
I will spend the last minutes of backup power via the hardfought tank of gas today in my car making public record requests over this. I have covered every major storm to hit Texas since 1990. Believe me when I say I have never seen anything like this, hope to never see it again.
Congressman Marc Veasey tells CNN an industry exec informed him that Texas was "minutes away from the entire grid crashing" before the state began its targeted blackouts
One place has done an amazing online messaging job. They ditched all the weedy text but they're not able to provide vaccines everywhere. However, their website game is solid. No surprise here. It's
@HEB
. 7/9
We have a new addition to The
#19thRepresents
virtual summit — Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex.
The Duchess will join us on our final day of programming, Friday, Aug. 14, for a conversation with our co-founder and CEO,
@eramshaw
.
Register to attend:
Some personal news. In June, I will join the talented staff at the nonprofit news org: Honolulu Civil Beat (). I'll be reporting on criminal justice and legal affairs.
#Texas
#Hawaii
. Tips, story ideas? Email terri.langford
@gmail
.com.
Even if you had no cash, state of Texas (and I know you do) to hire a weather team, you got these two. *Everyone* in Houston reads them. And I mean, *everyone.* So if you look at their forecasts beginning last week () this storm was no freaking surprise.
Facing my older neighbor's teary eyes this morning after I brought her more firewood and told her sheepishly I may decamp for a place with power has me completely undone. For now, I'm staying. But my god, Texas.
Some job news. Excited to announce I’m returning to reporting, focusing on health care
@TexasTribune
joining the terrific
@eklib
,
@Steve55Simpson
. More details to come but send those tips y’all to terri.langford
@texastribune
.org, text 713.876.0854.
We need to end *now* the reporting practice of throwing entry-level journalists on the police beat. Thankfully, there was video. But
@StarTribune
was fortunate to have veteran police reporter
@StribJany
on the story from the get-go who had sources telling him *this* was bullshit.
I get asked a lot about what I wish I had known before my parents got older to prepare for their health declines and death. Made this list this morning for a millennial friend and am passing along:
Pls not 1 more Austin “press release” asking the public to be patient when you knew this was coming for a week. Are you sending out stagecoaches and carrier pigeons to “assess” damage or what? That sound isn’t ice. Everyone’s nerves are snapping after paying property taxes/rent.
Now imagine you’re 75 years old. Or disabled. Or about to run out of minutes on your cell phone plan. Or have no internet. Or trying to hold down a job while calling for your elderly parents. Lordy, Texas, you can do better than this.
#txlege
6/9
Did I just sleep through a statewide emergency prep PR campaign last week that advised Texans to gas up, stock up ahead of this storm. Oh, that's right, there wasn't one. But
#ifthiswereahurricane
, we'd have flashing TxDOT signs, alerts, because Texas does *do* that.
It’s another busy morning
@TexasTribune
. At 9 a.m. CDT
@TxDPS
Director Steve McCraw will be testifying in the Texas Senate about the police response to the Uvalde school shooting. We will be livestreaming and info on how to watch go up in a few hours.
“Of the top 10 big wave women in the world, there’s three getting paid,” Alms said. “The top 10 male big wave surfers own homes, travel year-round and bring their families with them.”
Nothing like a layoff to have your phone and email blow up. Thanks for all the tips, leads, funny messages and omg, the venmo-funded drinks;) Y'all are amazing.
FWIW, neither of the accused gunmen in two of the biggest mass shootings in recent years - the El Paso Walmart shooting in 2019 or the Santa Fe High School shooting in 2018 have trial dates.
If you read one story today, make it this one by the
@eklib
about the amazing Miranda Michel, who was told her twin sons wouldn’t survive. Texas law made her give birth anyway. via
@TexasTribune
Here's my lousy two cents. Tell people what to do in no more than 3 steps. Eliminate confusing language. Should people call/register for both hub/private providers? Then say that. Use big graphics vs all this text. Gimme some flow charts, better FAQs in BOLD in a colored block.
Video from
#SandraBland
's own phone reveals just how escalated her 2015 traffic stop really was.
@WFAA
piece splices it with previously released dashcam, start at 4:40:
Now, sure, it's not like Texas is going to hire away web designers of *this* century from
@HEB
. And of course, the website communication shouldn't be the only entry point. I'm not hearing radio ads, which would reach more people. I'm not seeing billboards with a 800-number. 8/9
Breaking: An arrest warrant filed in Travis County reveals Todd Smith, political consultant for Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller is suspected of selling access to hemp licenses.
FWIW, problems at CPS, not new. Neither are
#txlege
's promises to fix them. My entire 30+ journo career...
#txlege
swears it's going to fix CPS. And yet, here we are, 30+ years later.
That sonic boom you hear? The collective flashback every Texas woman had today to the time grandpa made fun of our appearance/friends during Thanksgiving. John Whitmire calls Lina Hidalgo's fiancé 'a nerd' in deleted Facebook comment via
@houstonchron
If it seems like
@GovAbbott
's move in an election year to *secure* the border seems familiar, you have a good memory...Great read. Texas has spent billions of dollars on border security. But what taxpayers got in return is a mystery. via
@TexasTribune
Got a call — an honest to God call — from a human in open records at a state agency today to just talk through what I wanted. No temper, no whininess. So pleasant. I cannot remember the last time I talked to a human in open records. Which one of y’all are punking me?
For those who have followed my woeful house hunting journey, woke up under contract for a SE ATX house. Great feeling but it really shouldn't be so hard for single homeowners. NYT/WaPo/WSJ/LAT et al may not write about you all but I see you. It is Hunger Games out there for us.
Again. Eight months to come up with this current vaccine messaging system in a state with one of the largest social service bureacracies in the country.
Only one thing to do when a
@pamelacolloff
story drops. Pull up a chair, make a cup of a coffee and dig in because this is a master at work. Been waiting for this one all year. The DA Says He’s Innocent. He Might Spend Life in Prison Anyway.
I interrupt your doomscrolling to say, sellers' signed, keys are now mine...and while, no, it's not a mansion it's giving me the Laura Dern vibes right now.
Starting my new health care reporting gig next week
@TexasTribune
. Talk to me about about health care access, cost, programs, etc in Texas. Email: terri.langford
@texastribune
.org.
Yep. I talked to a man yesterday who drove from El Paso to Pecos for a vaccine. 230 miles. He'll do it again in two weeks. In search of COVID-19 vaccines, some rural Texans are driving hundreds of miles across the state via
@TexasTribune
Pretty awesome,
#Hawaii
. Today is the first time the Aloha State offers same day voter registration. I just did.
#mindblown
. With a voting process this easy there is no excuse for low voter turnout.
One postscript. Better messaging on FB would also help. This vaccine info vacuum is producing some of the most panicky messages on neighborhood FB pages because the
@TexasDSHS
FB page sends you back to the dense website.
And it tells you to click to two other places. Let's click hub provider page. First, you notice only 53 of the state 254 counties have a hub. So I've got some Qs. What if I live in a smaller town or a county not listed? Do I have to drive to these places? No answer here. 4/9
Texas DPS tells
@TexasTribune
Uvalde PD/CISD officers are cooperating with Texas Rangers but Uvalde CISD Chief Pete Arredondo has not responded to
@TxDPS
Texas Rangers’ requests for a follow-up interview.
My best journo layoff tips to those today in
#Texas
.
1. Breathe.
2. Have a drink.Have another.
4. Call
@TXworkforce
800-939-6631 and create your acct and pin. Takes up to 4 weeks for 1st check. People answering phones are VEHRY nice. (Yeah, I complimented Texas agency).
Next week I join
@TexasTribune
as their health and education editor. But I've been a financial supporter of the Trib since the *night* it went live on the web in 2009. You too, can donate here: . And keep those health and education story ideas coming.
So...it was enough to go to a grand jury in February but after you charge her and paste her mugshot across the internet, you figure out now it's not a criminal matter? So many questions...
BREAKING: The District Attorney who charged
#LizelleHerrera
with murder for a "self-induced abortion" is dropping the charges.
"The issues surrounding this matter are clearly contentious, however based on Texas law and the facts presented, it is not a criminal matter."
Want to give a shout out to Texas reporters this morning. Try to take a moment for yourself when you can. Having covered Killeen, Waco, Jasper, 9/11 know how devastating this assignment has been. You are doing great work and the information you demand from officials, vital.
Wow. Not one report to the Uvalde school system of behavior issues with the shooter before May 24. Juxtaposition that with interviews done with friends, family. So many stories of the gunman’s history of cruelty to animals, treatment of girls.
@mindfulomnivore
@EmilyRPeck
No. Paid parental leave is the clearest sign your employer is a decent one who will accommodate you when you are sick or have an emergency to tend to. We should all be for it whether we have kids or not.
So let me get this straight. A university that wants a woman with a storied professional career to restore your collapsed program with no guarantee of job security. Hard pass.
Texas A&M watered down an offer it had made to a UT professor it had recruited to revive its journalism program after conservative backlash. Not even being an alumna could save the recruited professor. via
@TexasTribune
So at least five nursing homes in Texas have had to evacuate the residents because of power outages, per
@TexasHHSC
. I have no other details and have been trying to get the facilities’ names this week. So Texas reporters: worth asking about in your regions.
Interesting that the Uvalde County DA is married to Uvalde’s former assistant chief of police and a program manager for the Texas Municipal Police Association.
BREAKING
#UVALDE
NEWS: Days ago I requested a full report for what happened in the school hallway. DPS Director has informed me DA Christina Busbee ordered reports not be sent to me.
There are people that want this go to away. We are not going to let that happen
#JusticeForUvalde