Daily Dispatch 7/8/24: Abbott Absent As Beryl Slams Houston, and More

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Hurricane Beryl has made landfall at Matagorda and is currently slamming the Houston metro area: https://www.khou.com/article/weather/weather-impact/hurricane-beryl-texas-gulf-coast-landfall/285-c5815723-a9d2-440b-9b15-93341665e0c0 ...While Governor Abbott is out of the country on an economic excursion to Taiwan: https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/texas/texas-lt-governor-dan-patrick-is-acting-governor-where-is-greg-abbott/287-76ddfe70-4c04-4453-a0ec-95654dc0207b ...California Congressman Eric Swalwell has noticed: https://x.com/RepSwalwell/status/1810137695009542498?t=qdMmC4qhbRGiAlNUR6pSzQ&s=03 Austin Congressman Lloyd Doggett is catching hell from Texas progressives for recommending that President Biden abandon his race for re-election: https://www.statesman.com/story/opinion/letters/2024/07/04/lloyd-doggett-joe-biden-withdraw-stunt-act-of-disloyalty-letters/74293475007/ ...But, others are praising the move: https://www.statesman.com/story/opinion/letters/2024/07/06/lloyd-doggett-deserves-praise-openly-calling-president-biden-to-quit-presidential-race/74310790007/ ...While Doggett affirms that he'll support the President, or whomever the Democratic nominee is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uXL_OPO4_A ...President Biden will speak at UT Austin's LBJ Presidential Library next Monday: https://www.texastribune.org/2024/07/07/texas-joe-biden-lbj-library/ Media Matters finds that mainstream national media essentially ignored the massive infant mortality spike in Texas related to our near-complete ban on abortion: https://www.mediamatters.org/broadcast-networks/national-news-media-barely-covered-infant-mortality-spike-followed-texas-anti Lavish gifts to Supreme Court justices like Clarence Thomas are paying off big time for billionaires like Texas' Harlan Crow: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/columnists/tomlinson/article/chevron-supreme-court-texas-crow-thomas-19549205.php The City of Fort Worth has intervened and is forcing the Fort Worth Botanic Garden to host a hateful conference being held by the extremist True Texas Project next weekend: https://fortworthreport.org/2024/07/04/fort-worths-ban-on-discriminatory-events-on-city-property-very-likely-to-be-removed/ Former USC and NFL QB Matt Leinart is the target of online backlash over a smiling photo he posted on July 4 with Ted Cruz: https://thespun.com/nfl/heisman-trophy-winner-is-getting-crushed-for-photo-with-ted-cruz ALL progressives should learn all they can about Project 2025, in order to resist its becoming actual U.S. policy: https://www.mediamatters.org/heritage-foundation/guide-project-2025-extreme-right-wing-agenda-next-republican-administration Thanks for listening! Find our web store and other ways to support our important work this election year at https://progresstexas.org/.