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Today's stories
SCOTX yesterday morning freed Shelley Luther, the Dallas salon owner jailed for defying Governor Abbott's executive order shuttering businesses. She'd been in jail since Tuesday.
Before the court's ruling dropped, Abbott rewrote his executive order (forcing business to close) to remove incarceration as a punishment, he made the changes retroactive, but that didn't free Luther.
The timing of it all was fascinating.
9:30 - Abbott removes the possibility of jail time from his executive order
10:30 - Supreme Court frees Luther
11:00 - Abbott meets with President Trump
I'm sure it's just a coincidence that the timing worked out this way.
So, this mess is kinda sorta cleaned up before Mother's Day (reminder) and not with a pardon, even though issuing one would have been simpler and cleaner for Abbott.
GUN CONTROL groups are targeting Texas this election cycle. The Michael Bloomberg-backed Everytown for Gun Safety has said it will drop $8 million in Texas this year, we'll see, Bloomberg calls audibles.
To start, the group is launching $250,000 in digital ads hitting Republicans in a handful of districts.
Everytown, joined by a coalition of groups similarly aimed at limiting the second amendment, will focus on suburban seats around Houston and Dallas. In Houston, they want to flip eight Texas House and three U.S. House seats.
DEMOCRATS have run back to the Democrat Austin judge, who issued a predictably partisan ruling allowing for universal mail-in balloting.
This time, the party is trying to stop Attorney General Paxton from enforcing a state law that runs contrary to the judge's ruling. An appeal of the initial ruling is pending. Anticipate continued and escalating legal maneuvering.
ICYMI, there's another non-study-study about how hydroxychloroquine doesn't work. This one is out of New York, it isn't a study, the patients given the drug were sicker, and it wasn't given in combination with zinc and azithromycin.
The jury is still out on all treatments. There's no panacea, but the obsession with running down hydroxychloroquine is peak orange man bad.
Look for hydroxychloroquine given in combination with zinc and azithromycin to patients before they are "sicker" in reporting of future studies or non-study-studies.
Hit the links
Senate Committee Advances Nomination of Texas Attorney
Mueller prosecutor withdraws from Flynn case
Bullet wins appeals court ruling declaring it a railroad (eminent domain)
Man hit, killed by Southwest plane landing in Austin
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Tracking
South Korea not seeing increases in cases
Recovery and hydroxychloroquine
Public Policy Polling: April 2020
COVID19 Links
Texas HHS Chinese Coronavirus Dashboard
Hostage-at-Home Compliance Tracker
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