Texas Matters: The players are now set for the Texas governors race in 2014, and the players seem to be digging even deeper trenches in Washington, D.C. Who will be victorious in these battles of political wit (and values)? Also on this show: Gun rights advocates are holding an (armed) rally at the Alamo this weekend, and a high school senior in Amarillo shocks her entire school in the name of journalism.
Davis highlights education as she begins governor's campaign
There was no suspense but plenty of excitement on Thursday when state Sen. Wendy Davis of Fort Worth made it official that she was running for governor.
Davis’ advisors say it’s important for the Democratic contender to combat the "liberal" label opponents want to pin on her so she is running as a pro-business uniter of Texans, and not a polarizing figure.
KERA’s Shelley Kofler says she defined her values as she announced her candidacy in her home town of Haltom City.
Whose fault is it? Depends on who you ask
In Washington D.C. the lack of a continuing resolution passing congress and getting signed by President Obama means the federal government’s shutdown continues.
The reason we don’t have a continuing resolution is because Republican lawmakers -- led by freshman Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas -- are demanding that the Affordable Care Act be defunded, delayed or seriously altered.
Democrats are just not willing to do that, which leaves us with a standoff where no one is budging and both sides are pointing blame on the other.
Federal employees deemed “non-essential” were told not to come to work and many government services have been temporarily switched off -- disrupting lives and operations.
Congressman Blake Farenthold of Corpus Christi says the government shutdown would be over quickly if only the Democrats would give in.
"We started out with the complete defunding of Obamacare and basically have negotiated with ourselves all the way down to, 'Alright, we'll go ahead and fund Obamacare,' but we want it to be fair. We don't want people to have to go out and buy insurance, the individual mandate, when President Obama's big donors in the companies and unions have been delayed a year because it's not ready. We've already seen that the websites for individuals buying insurance aren't ready either so let's be fair and lets not treat the Obama donors and the Obama supporters better than the man on the street."
Also on this edition of Texas Matters:
There will be a bunch of people with guns downtown, but don't be alarmed
The Alamo -- the cradle of Texas liberty -- is frequently the site for political demonstrations and free speech and on Saturday, Oct. 19, it’s going to be the scene of a mass political protest in favor of gun rights in Texas.
The event is called Come and Take It San Antonio and there will be a peaceful but armed march of about a thousand participants. CJ Grisham is the President/Founder of Open Carry Texas.
"We had a couple guys that were arrested a little over a month ago at Starbucks while exercising their rights within the law. [They] weren't doing anything wrong, somebody called the police and claimed to be alarmed. The police showed up and charged them with disorderly conduct for basically doing nothing wrong, just sitting down enjoying a cup of coffee. The guns weren't even in their hand, they were just sitting next to them. So as a response to that action, which we completely believe to be a false arrest or false charges, we organized Come And Take It San Antonio on Oct. 19 as a way to educate the public about our right to carry firearms and also to protest the actions of the police officers that cited our guys."
Watch the video:
This high school hoax isn't what anyone in Amarillo expected
At Randal High School in Amarillo senior Kelli Bashill was the center of a scandal. She is one of the more high profile and popular girls in school, considered a go-getter with a super bright future until she showed up to school pregnant.
She found herself shunned, ridiculed and the target of parents who did not approve. Then Kelli again shocked the school by revealing she wasn’t a teenage unwed mom to be – it was faked to see what would happen.
Kelli then wrote about the experience in her high school paper.
- Click this link to read the article "Reactions, rumors, consequences: Senior experiences life as a pregnant teenager"
