The State of Texas: February 24, 2015

Victory Tuesday

Getting your second triple-double of the season is one thing. But Houston Rockets’s hardest working hipster, James Harden, really gave the fans something to cheer about. During the Rockets’s 113-102 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves last night, Harden flat-out shamed point guard Ricky Rubio. The owning went a little viral (Deadspin had a short obituary for Rubio) and it’s pretty obvious why:

Daily Roundup

Come and Raid It – Texas secessionists aren’t as popular as they once were. Just minutes into a meeting of the Republic of Texas, in Bryan, “an armed and armored force of the Bryan Police Department, the Brazos County Sheriff’s Office, the Kerr County Sheriff’s Office, Agents of the Texas District Attorney, the Texas Rangers, and the FBI,” raided the place, according to a fascinating Houston Chronicle article. “In the end, at least 20 officers corralled, searched, and fingerprinted all 60 meeting attendees, before seizing all cellphones and recording equipment in a Valentine’s Day 2015 raid on the Texas separatist group.” The raid came after the group sent a “legal summons” to a local judge and a bank employee. That is illegal, according to The Man, and Kerr County sheriff Rusty Hierholzer, who led the operation, admittedly used a “show of force” when breaking up the group over a misdeamnor. The whole raid is odd since “no arrests were made in the raid,” and the group’s leaders “acknowledged that legislation and court summons issues by the Republic have no real effect.”

Fourth Time Around – Rick Perry’s all-star legal team is at it again, requesting for a fourth time that the felony abuse of office and coercion of power charges against the former governor be dropped. This time, their main contention is that prosecutor Michael McCrum basically introduced new facts when clarifying the charges, and they called the indictment “woefully deficient.” For those keeping track, the fourth dismissal motion comes before the third has even been decided. Hedging their bets, “the filing contends that if the case proceeds, one of the two felony counts against the former governor should be converted to a misdemeanor since Perry received no monetary gain by withholding the money,” according to the Austin American-Statesman. According to the thirty-page response, Perry’s lawyers also stated that the governor had “absolute legislative immunity in vetoing the money.”

Staying or Going? – It’s not easy being an undocumented immigrant these days. This is particularly true since their status in the U.S. seems to be permantently in flux. In the latest back-and-forth, the Obama administration has appealed a Texas judge’s decision to halt the President’s immigration order allowing a number of undocumented immigrants (many of whom have been here for years) to remain in the country. “The administration is alleging that last week’s ruling in Brownsville by U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen was without merit because immigration policies fall under the federal government’s purview. It also argues that the state failed to prove its case,” according to the Texas Tribune. “The U.S. government also requested that a federal judge let the program continue as the appeals process plays out.” The Texas-led lawsuit includes 26 states, all of which are expected to go all-in for the fight. Notes Fox News, “Republicans, who say Obama has overstepped his authority, are blocking funding for the Department of Homeland Security unless Democrats agree to cancel Obama’s order.”

Ugh, Austin – What does a super-hip mecca for upwardly mobile Millenials look like? A throwback to preindustrial times, apparently. After making the lists of fast-growing cities and best cities for young people and all of the other nice lists, Austin is now the most economically segregated major metropolitan area in the entire country and the “third-most segregated among metros of all sizes,” writes the Statesman. “Other metro areas in Texas didn’t fare much better than Austin did: San Antonio ranked third, Houston fourth, and Dallas seventh among the 10 most economically segregated large metros in the country, according to the report.” The news should come to no surprise to those who’ve been living in the capital or anyone paying any attention. On top of the economic segregation, Austin is looking super white too. Just last year, a report noted that “among large, fast-growing cities, Austin is the only one with a shrinking African-American population,” according to the Texas Tribune. “As Austin’s population grew 20.4 percent from 2000 to 2010, its African-American population declined 5.4 percent.”