The State of Texas: June 23, 2015

Image of the Day

Some people are really unhappy about the photo below, taken while presidential candidate Ted Cruz was speaking before a pro-gun event in Iowa.

Daily Roundup

After the Flood – Without jinxing anything, it seems as if Texas might be past the season of flooding. And now, the reality of rebuilding is really hitting home—and pocketbooks. “In Grapevine, rebuilding may take three to four months and cost tens of millions of dollars. About $13 million in damage was caused by flooding during the record May rainfall that preceded Bill by just a couple of weeks,” according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. City officials haven’t even begun to put a price tag on the damage caused by Bill—except to say that “it appears to be even worse.” In Wimberely, where flooding took the lives of nine people, “emergency management officials say more than 1,000 homes” were destroyed. Along with the financial toll, there’s also the human one. A month after the disaster, the search continues for at least two children who were swept away in flood waters.

Rebel Wimpers – A day after his maybe-oops regarding the accident/incident in South Carolina, Rick Perry sorta supported removing the Confederate flag. “Without outright agreeing the flag should come down, the presidential candidate offered warm words for South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s call earlier Monday to remove it from the statehouse grounds in Columbia,” calling such an action “an act of healing and unity,” according the Texas Tribune. Who would have expected this from the same man who endorsed the idea of Texas suceeding? Less surprising is seeing more Republican politicians trying to avoid any toxic association with white supremacy groups. Yesterday, Governor Greg Abbott joined an uncomfortably long list of people wanting to give back money from hate groups. In his case, Abbott “received $1,000 in the past two years from the head of a white supremacist group” and his office announced that “he is donating those contributions to the Salvation Army in Austin.” And who is this sanitized grand wizard? Why, he’s a man living in Longview, as the News-Journal points out in a profile, that does as best it can with what it has (“Earl P. Holt III on Monday adamantly refused to speak” to the publication).

Kick the Tires, Light the Fires – Officials are being very mum about the details of the Waco shootout, and it seems those caught in the mix are beginning to have enough of the silence. The Bandidos want video of the incident shared. “In a statement, Stephen Stubbs, an attorney representing the club, accused the Waco Police Department of repeatedly misleading the press and public with false information and withholding evidence from the deadly shooting at Twin Peaks,” according to NBC5. “‘The release of the video and/or autopsy reports would simply clear up rampant misinformation,’ Stubbs’ statement read. ‘If the Waco Police Department didn’t want to interfere with the investigation or influence a potential jury pool, it should not have released its false narrative in the first place and instead should have stayed silent during the entirety of the investigation.’” The bikers aren’t entirely a unified front. As the Houston Chronicle reports, “a former member of the Cossacks, who was at Twin Peaks during the fight, [said] that the violence was started not by the Bandidos, but by a member of a smaller gang known as a support group.” In addition, the now-former Cossacks member said there was a planned meeting between his group and the Bandidos, while the Bandidos “said in their statement that they had no such meeting scheduled.”