Greg Abbott Gives Support To Bathroom Bill: Your Texas Roundup

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“It actually ended up being a cheese ball container you buy at Sam’s.”

—Fort Worth Animal Control Officer Randal Mize to WFAA. Residents in Fort Worth worked together to free a dog roaming their neighborhood from his cheese ball container death-trap—somehow the pooch got his entire head stuck inside the plastic jar and couldn’t breathe very well. The dog, now known as Pickle, had likely been without water and food for four days while his head was encased in a clear plastic, but he’s currently undergoing treatment and rehab. He’ll hopefully be available for adoption soon.

BIG NEWS

Flush With Support
Governor Greg Abbott finally gave his support to a bathroom bill on Tuesday. It wasn’t the bathroom bill—Senate Bill 6, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick’s comprehensive bathroom legislation has yet to receive Abbott’s approval. Instead, the governor supported what’s being called an “alternative” bathroom bill, House Bill 2899, proposed by state Representative Ron Simmons, a Republican from Carrollton. Patrick’s bill proposes enforcing restrictions on who can use public restrooms based on the gender listed on their birth certificate, but Simmons’s legislation would take a broader approach by prohibiting cities, counties, and public school districts from implementing and enforcing non-discrimination ordinances, according to the Dallas Morning News. Abbott stayed mum on Patrick’s proposal all throughout this legislative session, but he seems to favor Simmons’s bill instead. “I applaud the House and Senate for tackling an issue that is of growing concern to parents and communities across Texas who are now looking to the Legislature for solutions,” Abbott said in a statement Tuesday, according to the Texas Tribune. “Representative Simmons is offering a thoughtful proposal to make sure our children maintain privacy in our school bathrooms and locker rooms.” The bill will have a public hearing before the House State Affairs Committee.

MEANWHILE, IN TEXAS

New Era
Baylor University formally announced its new president on Tuesday, and she’s the first woman president in the school’s 172 years, according to the Waco Tribune-Herald. Linda A. Livingstone will replace interim President David Garland, who had filled the role since Ken Starr left last summer amid the school’s sexual assault scandal. Livingstone comes to Waco from George Washington University, where she served as dean of the business school for the past two years. She’s no stranger to Baylor, having held assistant and associate professor positions in the university’s department of management from 1991 to 2002. “Baylor holds such a unique and significant place in higher education,” Livingstone said Tuesday, according to the Tribune. “To be a university that’s committed to high-quality scholarship, excellence in academics, while maintaining the commitment and engagement with its Christian mission and its Christian roots, is unusual and something that is very significant. It was an important factor in me making this decision to come back to Baylor.”

Survey Says
A new poll released on Tuesday asked Texans for their thoughts on a variety of issues regarding immigration, with one of the more notable results revealing the majority of the Texans surveyed do not want a wall separating Texas and Mexico. The poll, conducted by the Texas Lyceum, found only 35 percent of respondents approved of a wall, while 61 percent disapproved. Likewise, 62 percent responded that immigration helps the U.S. more than it hurts. The pool was pretty much split on sanctuary policies, with 49 percent opposing them and 45 percent supporting them, but then an overwhelming 93 percent responded that local law enforcement should be able to look into a person’s immigration status when making an arrest. Judging by the survey’s results, Texans do seem pretty solidly in support of providing a legal path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, so long as they paid taxes and a penalty, passed a criminal background check, and learned English, with 63 percent strongly supporting such a pathway, 27 percent somewhat supporting it, and 9 percent opposing. The survey polled 1,000 Texans.