Seven Hospitalized After Fracking Pipelines Explode

The incidents occurred in a region that “is crisscrossed by oil and gas pipelines” and where fossil fuel production is “booming.”

Jessica Corbett
By Jessica Corbett
fracking pipelines explode

A series of natural gas pipeline explosions in Midland County, Texas on Wednesday hospitalized seven people with injuries and highlighted the risks of transporting fossil fuels. Dr. Sandra Steingraber, a New York-based scientist who advocates against hydraulic fracturing—a fossil fuel extraction method also called fracking—tweeted that her

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FEMA’s Work Following Harvey vs. Maria: Disaster Relief Difficult but Effort Counts

In addition to the disappointingly sluggish nature of federal relief efforts in general, it is clear that the timeline for recovery on the mainland is markedly different from that of a U.S. territory. At this point there is no concealing the double standard.

Emma Fiala
By Emma Fiala
With photographs of hurricane damage on Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands below them, Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, left, Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., attend a Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources hearing on hurricane recovery, Nov. 14, 2017, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP/Jacquelyn Martin)

Three months after Hurricane Harvey hit Texas, more than 47,000 flood victims continue to live in hotels. Tens of thousands more are living with relatives, in barely habitable homes, or scraping by with other arrangements. Local Houston officials estimate that Harvey destroyed or damaged more than 311,000 individual housing units -- a whopping

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Texas Sheriff Receives Backlash After Threatening Charges Over ‘Fuck Trump’ Sticker

Sheriff Troy E. Nehls of Fort Bend County, Texas, posted a picture of the back of a truck asking members of the community to help him find the ‘offender.’

Carey Wedler
By Carey Wedler
Fuck Trump Sticker Texas

A Texas sheriff is under fire for making a Facebook post about his intention to take punitive measures against a truck driver displaying a bumper sticker declaring “FUCK TRUMP AND FUCK YOU FOR VOTING FOR HIM.” On Wednesday morning, Sheriff Troy E. Nehls of Fort Bend County, Texas, posted a picture of the back of a truck asking members of the

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Right And Left Take Political Potshots At Cause Of Latest Mass Shooting

With very little actually known about the motives and plan of the latest U.S. mass shooter, both the Right and the Left have rushed in to cast the small-town Texas tragedy as evidence for their respective political agendas — paying little attention to the deeper cultural roots of this species of violence.

MintPress News Desk
By MintPress News Desk
Law enforcement officials works at the scene of a fatal shooting at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, on Sunday, Nov. 5, 2017. (Nick Wagner/Austin American-Statesman via AP)

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS – With little more than a month having passed since the Las Vegas massacre, the United States has suffered yet another mass shooting, this time in Texas when the First Baptist Church in the small town of Sutherland Springs was attacked during a Sunday morning service, claiming the lives of at least 26 and injuring at least 20

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Texas Police, Looking for More Military Hardware, Tout Its Use In Harvey Relief

With military-grade equipment available for the cost of pick-up, police forces have been stocking up. While some of that equipment appears actually to have been used in post-hurricane relief work, most of it is better suited for SWAT raids, intimidating protesters, and killing people.

Whitney Webb
By Whitney Webb

In the wake of Hurricane Harvey, local Texas police are using the recovery efforts to justify the continued existence of a controversial program that critics argue strongly contributes to a dangerous trend of police militarization. According to the Houston Chronicle, local police agencies are arguing that excess military equipment they had received

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How Renting Furniture In Texas Can Land You In Jail

While other businesses have to use civil remedies when customers don’t pay their debts, the rent-to-own industry has a special tool in Texas law that lets them file criminal charges.

Shannon Najmabadi
Jay Root
By Shannon Najmabadi
And Jay Root
A rent-to-company threatened to file criminal charges against Austin resident Melinda Sandlin after she stopped making payments. Sandlin looks through her rental purchase agreement and other related documents at her Austin home on August 30, 2017. (Charlie Pearce/The Texas Tribune)

When Melinda Sandlin walked out of Discount Furniture in Austin in late 2014, she was sure the store had put her on a payment plan to buy a new bedroom suite worth $2,750. A year later, after realizing she had sent in more than $3,000 for her seven-piece set, she figured she was done. So Sandlin told the store clerk she wasn’t going to be making

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