Good morning,

Here is today's Texas Minute.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Wednesday, August 12, 2020
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• Hair salon owner-turned-activist Shelley Luther could soon be turning her sights to the political realm, hinting this week that she may be considering a run for the Texas Senate. Brandon Waltens has the details.
     
• You’ll remember Shelley Luther; she made headlines earlier this year by opening her Dallas salon despite government mandates from Gov. Greg Abbott and local officials prohibiting so-called “non-essential” businesses from operating.  A Democrat judge in Dallas sentenced Luther to seven days in jail and $7,000 in fines for contempt of court for violating a temporary restraining order, resulting in a wave of grassroots support for Luther. Ultimately, the Texas Supreme Court intervened, ordering Luther’s release after two nights. Only after that did Gov. Abbott rewrite his executive order to remove jail-time provisions.
   
• Luther’s opening for the Texas Legislature comes as a result of State Sen. Pat Fallon securing the GOP nomination in the heavily Republican Congressional District 4. This means a special election will be necessary in Senate District 30 to deal with the vacancy created by Fallon’s assured November election –  or sooner if he resigns early.

• Withdrawals from Texas public schools are up ahead of the new academic year, compared to last year. Stephen Howsley explains that the Texas Home School Coalition processed 201 withdrawals in July 2019. In July of 2020, however, the organization processed 3,114 withdrawals, a 15-fold increase.
         
• “With the landslide of families moving to homeschooling, it is clear that many families don’t feel comfortable sending their children back to public school in the current environment. The health concerns raised by the global pandemic and the substantial uncertainty and inconvenience involved with new back-to-school requirements is simply more than many families feel comfortable accepting.” – Tim Lambert, president of the Texas Home School Coalition

• Like the rest of the dinosaur establishment media, the Dallas Morning News has been slowly collapsing under the weight of its leftist ideology and ever-more-out-of-touch staff. Simply, no one is buying the drivel they are selling. Now, the DMN’s leftist employees are seeking to hasten the paper’s demise with the added burden of unionization. 
        
• Good! Kill it faster! Go union! 

• An online petition has been created by Harris County residents seeking to remove their left-wing county judge – Lina Hildalgo – from office. The “county judge” is the title given to the senior, county-wide administrative executive in each of Texas’ 254 counties, and is not a judicial judge except in certain cases.
   
• It should be noted that the Texas Constitution does not provide for a “recall” election of county judges. 
   
• Speaking of Harris County, our friends at Urban Reform noted a couple weeks ago that nearly 40 percent of Houstonians cannot pay their rent or mortgage.  This sorry situation results from the decades of bad public policy decisions by the Democrat-dominated political class making the city highly unaffordable, coupled with the shuttering of the economy by Gov. Greg Abbott. 

• Texas Right to Life reports that Planned Parenthood will soon be opening an abortion facility in Lubbock. The pro-abortion group received a $9 million donation in 2018 to construct two such facilities in west Texas.
     
• “Any attempt to reopen the baby killing industry in Lubbock or other locations in West Texas will be met with strong opposition. Unborn children should have the right to live and Planned Parenthood profits off the ending of their lives.” – State Sen. Charles Perry (R-Lubbock)

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