TEXAS
Meet the 4 chefs who won the State Fair of Texas’ Big Tex Award
| August 27, 2025
big tex award | Community | CULTURE | DFW | ENTERTAINMENT | food and drink | HARDGATE | LIFESTYLE | state fair of texas | TEXAS
The 2025 State Fair of Texas’ Big Tex Choice Award winners were just announced. Find out more about what they do outside of the fair and what previous winners are up to now. Everyone going to the State Fair of Texas in the fall has one question: What food should I order? The fair is known for […]
WATCH: Wendy Davis reflects on 4 years of Texas reproduction rights restrictions
| August 26, 2025
ABORTION | EXCO-Player | local politics | old texas | reproduction rights | TEXAS | TEXAS LEGISLATURE
It’s been nearly four years since Texas enacted the statewide ban, and former state senator and reproductive rights activist Wendy Davis is reminding Texans what’s at stake.
WATCH: Beto O’Rourke: Texans don’t bend the knee to Trump
| August 26, 2025
Beto | EXCO-Player | FORT WORTH | local politics | old texas | protests | redistricting | TEXAS | trump
Former US Rep. Beto O’Rourke rallied with hundreds of people in Fort Worth on Saturday against the GOP’s redistricting plan that would flip five congressional seats currently held by Democrats.
O’Rourke’s rally comes after Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against Powered by People, O’Rourke’s political group, for helping fund the expenses of lawmakers while they break quorum and remain out of the state to block the House from voting on the plans. On Friday, a Tarrant County district court judge granted Paxton’s request to temporarily stop the funding.
“ In Texas, our knees do not bend, that doesn't work here,” O’Rourke told the crowd. “We're gonna fight these motherf*ckers for as long as it takes with everything we've got. We're never giving in, we're never giving up, and we're never bending the knee.”
WATCH: Houston pastor reflects on Hurricane Katrina
| August 26, 2025
Two decades after Hurricane Katrina, Houston pastor Shannon Verrett reflected on the devastating storm, the choas of evacuating and the heartbreak of personal loss.
“Most of the time when you're going through traumatic experiences in your life, you don't even know how strong your faith is. But when you weather the storm—when you're on the other side of through you begin to see: He had me back then. I was stronger than I knew,” Verrett, a pastor at Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in Houston, told COURIER Texas.
Katrina struck Louisiana on Aug. 29, 2005, killing 1,392 people and causing $125 billion in damages. Tens of thousands of New Orleans residents, like Verrett, evacuated to Houston.
WATCH: Texas Republicans are trying to ‘cheat in the middle of the game’ with gerrymandering maps
| August 26, 2025
Congress | EXCO-Player | Gerrymandering | local politics | old texas | redistricting | Republicans | TEXAS
US Rep. Marc Veasey (D-Fort Worth) spoke at Greater Saint Stephen First Church, which currently sits in the diverse congressional district he has represented since 2012, on the 60th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act.
He warned his constituents about the GOP’s redistricting plans, which President Donald Trump urged Gov. Greg Abbott to add to his special session agenda. The new maps redraw five US House districts currently held by Democrats to try and flip them to Republicans in the 2026 midterm elections. Veasey would be drawn out of his own district under the plan.
“ The one thing that keeps Donald Trump up at night, the one thing, it's not protests, it's not anything else that you see, the one thing that keeps him up at night is losing that majority in the House, and it all starts right here in Texas,” Veasey told the crowd.