The State of Texas: April 4, 2016

Quote of the Day

“When I first started, all I could do was 25.”

-David “Popeye” Escojido, 55, to the Victoria Advocate. Popeye shattered the world record for most pushups in an hour this weekend, pounding out 2,315 at a gym in Victoria.

Daily Roundup

Root, Root, Root for the…— Baseball is back, and Texas is suddenly home to one of the most competitive rivalries around, with the Houston Astros and Texas Rangers both vying for the American League West crown. Writes ESPN’s Jim Bowden: “The rivalry is already being called the Lone Star Series and the SilverBoot Series, and the pride of Texas is on the line with every pitch. What’s exciting about this relatively new rivalry is that both teams are pretty evenly matched and both are capable of representing the American League in the World Series this year. Their 19 games against each other should be fun to watch.” Baseball-loving Texans couldn’t even wait for the season to start before going at each other’s throats. Some cyber-savvy Rangers fans hacked the Astros’s sub-Reddit on April Fool’s, plastering the page with Rangers logos and team colors. But Houston may have the last laugh come October. The Astros are stocked with young talent set to take another leap forward, and the team was even featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated‘s recent baseball preview issue. They’re apparently a media darling expected to make a deep playoff run (provided the cover curse doesn’t get them first).

Dog Fight— When a German shepherd named Monte Carlo ran away from his Houston home in 2013, no one could have guessed he’d end up in the Texas Supreme Court three years later. But according to the Texas Tribune, the Texas’s highest court finally wrapped up the three-year legal battle over Monte Carlo, ruling unanimously that the Houston family that lost him “did not forfeit their ownership claims over their dog even though he had been picked up by local animal control and transferred to a foster home.” The saga began on New Year’s Day 2013, when Monte Carlo bolted from an open garage door. When his owners eventually found him, he was up for adoption at a private shelter and had been fostered by a volunteer, who refused to give Monte Carlo back, and the private shelter said that the owners forfeited their ownership when they didn’t pick him up during the first three days he was in the pound. The court disagreed and ordered Monte Carlo returned to his original owners. According to the Tribune, the court wrote in an unsigned opinion that “A beloved companion dog is not a fungible, inanimate object like, say, a toaster.” Good to know.

Rising Tensions—Two groups of armed protesters converged outside a mosque in South Dallas on Saturday, according to the Dallas Morning News. Members of an anti-Islam organization, clad in camouflage and heavily armed, planned a demonstration outside the mosque. There, they were met by New Black Panthers, dressed in all-black and also heavily armed. It was a tense interaction to say the least, but the anti-Islam protesters apparently dissipated pretty quickly, and no one was hurt. Meanwhile, in Sugar Land, the Houston Chronicle reported that a middle school teacher was placed on leave for calling a twelve-year-old student a “terrorist.” According to the Chronicle, seventh grader Waleed Abushaaban said the teacher directed the comment toward him after he started giggling during an in-class movie: “I was just laughing, and the teacher was like, ‘I wouldn’t be laughing if I was you.’ So I said ‘Why?’ And she said, ‘Because we all think you’re a terrorist.'” It’s the latest in a long line of Islamophobic incidents in Texas. In September, Irving ninth grader Ahmed Mohamed was handcuffed and arrested for bringing a “bomb” (actually a clock) to school, and a few weeks ago Ted Cruz called for police to “patrol and secure” American Muslim neighborhoods.