curated citations to news sources
Democracy Docket: Advocates File Immediate Legal Challenge to Texas Gerrymander
Hours after Texas lawmakers approved a new gerrymandered congressional map Saturday morning, Texans asked a court to block it.
The plaintiffs*, a group of Black and Latino Texans, filed an amended complaint in an ongoing challenge to the electoral districts Texas drew in 2021. The amended complaint alleges that the new map violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and the 14th Amendment by diluting the voting power of Black and Latino communities.
It also argues that the redistricting violates the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause “because it unnecessarily and unjustifiably considers racial and partisan demographics as part of a voluntary, mid-cycle redistricting,” and because it is “malapportioned” in violation of the principle of one person, one vote.
In addition, the plaintiffs argue that the new redistricting “intentionally destroy[ed] majority-minority districts and replac[ed] them with majority-Anglo districts.” This was done, the plaintiffs charge, “explicitly because of the racial composition of those districts.”
(Democracy Docket more…)
Texas Tribune: Fresh off Texas Senate’s approval, new congressional map is target of lawsuit
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of 13 Texas residents, states that the redrawn districts in the new map — which Gov. Greg Abbott says he’ll “swiftly” sign into law — are racially discriminatory and violate voter protection laws.
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“Even if racial and partisan considerations are an unavoidable part of redistricting, there is no need for legislatures to take those considerations into account a second time in a single decade,” the complaint reads.
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Conversation: Why wind farms attract so much misinformation and conspiracy theory
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Like 19th century fears that telephones would spread diseases, wind farm conspiracy theories reflect deeper anxieties about change. They combine distrust of government, nostalgia for the fossil fuel era, and a resistance to confronting the complexities of the modern world.
(Conversation more…)
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KHOU*11: Homeowner shoots, kills 2 men in ski masks claiming to be officers, HPD says
“It was just two people and they’re masked up and no police cars, no lights or anything like that,” said Lt. Khan with HPD.
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Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – August 23, 2025
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It is wild to see Republicans cheering on a president who publicly threatened a CEO and stated openly that he shook the man down for a major share in his company.It is even wilder to see Republicans, who since 1980 have held so fervently to the idea of free markets that they have denounced even the most basic regulations as socialism, celebrate the government takeover of a private company.
The story of that shift is a larger story about how the Republicans came to put party over country and, now, how they have put power over everything.
It was not always this way.
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)Reuters: Did Trump save Intel? Not really
Donald Trump is injecting nearly $9 billion into Intel(INTC.O), opens new tab in exchange for a 9.9% equity stake. But the money – which the struggling chipmaker was slated to receive anyway under a federal funding act – will not be enough for its contract-chipmaking business to flourish, analysts said.
- Intel needs external customers for its 14A manufacturing process
- Analysts doubt government investment will save Intel’s foundry arm
- Intel faces challenges with yield and competition from TSMC and Nvidia
- Government stake raises concerns about governance, analysts say
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TNR: Fed Chair Warns the Economy Is Even Worse Than We Realized
Jerome Powell revealed the jobs market is suffering from a “much larger” slowdown than initially reported.
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Newsroom Panama: In Mexico a New Era Begins: The Interoceanic Corridor is LIVE!
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The trains are the largest and fastest in the world. These are special flat-bed train cars that can carry an “ultra large container ship” (ULCS) across the 186 miles (300 km) from Salina Cruz to Coatzacoalcos, and vice versa. They are 220 feet (67 meters) wide and 1400 feet (427 meters) long. Each car has 420 wheels and runs on a special gauge of track, with rails 200 feet (61 meters) apart. The tunnels and bridges are 500 feet (152 meters) wide so they can handle trains going both directions at the same time. The locomotives are solar-powered and can generate 220,000 horsepower (164,000 kilowatts) of power and can reach top speeds of over 200 miles per hour (322 kilometers per hour). They are the fastest and most powerful locomotives in the world and can travel from Salina Cruz to Coatzacoalcos (or vice versa) in less than an hour. With waiting times, it can take days to transit the Panama Canal. Some folk speculate that a train that can carry ships, with cargo and crew, across in less than an hour will make the Panama Canal obsolete.
Remember, this is not to compete with the Panama Canal, it is just another alternative. One ship can carry as many or more containers than the train in Mexico … But sometimes the wait takes weeks to do so (Panama Canal) that’s where the Mexican Inter-Ocean will be an option … not a direct competitor.
(Newsroom Panama more…)
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Quanta Magazine: Researchers Uncover Hidden Ingredients Behind AI Creativity
Image generators are designed to mimic their training data, so where does their apparent creativity come from? A recent study suggests that it’s an inevitable by-product of their architecture.
(Quanta Magazine more…)Fortune: ‘It’s almost tragic’: Bubble or not, the AI backlash is validating what one researcher and critic has been saying for years
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NPR: Smithsonian artists and scholars respond to White House list of objectionable art
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Thom Hartmann: Saving the American Dream for Zoomers and the rest of us
Timeline: Tracking the Trump Justice Department’s Anti-Voting Shift
Tracking the Lawsuits Against Trump’s Agenda
Trump Pardons Database
Project 2025 Tracker
DOGE Tracker
ProPublica: Elon Musk’s Demolition Crew
Wired: 6 Tools for Tracking the Trump Administration’s Attacks on Civil Liberties
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