Free Republic

SAN ANTONIO – Over the past month, KSAT 12 has been investigating the relationship between the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office and the Wren Collective, a criminal justice reform group based out of Austin. KSAT 12 originally unearthed hundreds of pages of text messages between Gonzales, his staff and the founder of the Wren Collective, Jessica Brand, through a public information request. Now, we’ve obtained more than 400 pages of emails between Brand and Gonzales’ personal email that suggest Brand played a larger role at the DA’s office than Gonzales has admitted. Since our first report on Jan. 30, Gonzales...

Austin’s progressive district attorney is facing criticism in the community after a man who allegedly killed two while committing his 7th DUI is walking the streets after his charges and bond were reduced. Roberto Rangel, 52, was arrested last year in Travis County, Texas, for his 7th DUI that resulted in the deaths of 22-year-old Kate Garcia and 23-year-old Mark Narvaez, Fox 7 Austin reported. Rangel, who has been sentenced to over 14 years in prison for DUIs dating to 1989, reportedly pulled out of a Chick-fil-A parking lot in Austin at 2:45 a.m. and parked his car sideways in...

The Austin Police Association is pointing the finger at Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza after a homeless man – who was let back out on the street, despite violent assault charges – was arrested once again for allegedly stabbing another homeless man to death. The case concerns Hilario Adrian, a 56-year-old homeless man who was arrested in April after he was involved in a violent altercation with another homeless man. Court documents say Adrian attacked the other homeless man with a golf club, and threatened him with a hatchet. He was arrested for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon...

AUSTIN, Texas — Prominent voices blamed liberal, anti-cop policies for chaos in the city over the weekend after street racers took over city intersections, attacking law enforcement and setting people on fire in wild scenes which were caught on video. “Austin voters wanted a Mayor, City Council, and [George] Soros [funded] DA who treat cops as criminals and criminals as victims,” tweeted the National Police Association, referring to the left wing billionaire, who is said to have funded Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza. “This was not only predictable, it was predicted ... The public statement from the law enforcement...

TRAVIS COUNTY, Texas (KXAN) — Of the more than 1,200 people who have died of COVID-19 in Austin-Travis County since the beginning of the pandemic, most had at least one underlying medical condition, health leaders reported Tuesday. Many of those conditions were long-term or chronic. Hypertension, diabetes and cardiac disease were the most frequent comorbidities listed, according to Austin Public Health (APH) data. Nearly half of the people who have died of COVID-19 in Travis County reportedly had hypertension, the medical term for high blood pressure, that data shows. Only 5% of the people who have died of COVID-19 in...

Election officials in the Texas county that includes the state capital, Austin, have rejected about half of applications for mail-in ballots, following new voting restrictions brought in by Republicans. The voter identification rules have led to the rejection of about half of the 700 mail-in ballots requested in Travis county for primary elections in March, according to the county’s clerk. The denied ballots in Travis county follow a similar trend across Texas, with officials in Harris county, which includes the city of Houston, and Bexar county, which includes San Antonio, also turning down a substantial number of mail-in ballot applications....

The Texas House on Monday fell just short of having enough members to begin conducting official business and voted overwhelmingly in favor of a procedural move that locked the doors of the chamber to prevent members from leaving in an effort to retain a quorum. The move, known as a “call of the House,” signals the continuation of a weekslong impasse between Democrats and Republicans in the chamber over a GOP elections bill as the second special session gets underway. This is the second time in recent weeks the majority Republican House has voted to issue a call of the...

A Democrat judge out of Travis County, Texas, sided Sunday with Democrat lawmakers, pejoratively called “fleebaggers,” who fled the state in protest of new election integrity laws. State District Judge Brad Urrutia granted a temporary restraining order “blocking the arrest of House Democrats who have broken quorum by leaving the state, paving the way for those who remain outside of Texas to return home without threat of arrest,” KWTX reported. More than 50 House Democrats fled the Lone Star State to Washington, DC, in early July to block the passage of an elections bill they said would restrict voting access....

Meanwhile in the Democrat hell hole of Travis County… Sgt. Daniel Perry, an army soldier who shot and killed an armed BLM-Antifa protester in Austin last July was indicted on a murder charge on Thursday. Perry’s lawyer, Clint Broden, argued his client, who was driving Uber when rioters mobbed his car, was acting in self-defense after the BLM activist, Garrett Foster pointed a gun at him.

A vote Tuesday by Travis County Commissioners will allow county staff to fly the the LGBTQIA+ Pride Flag at any Travis County government building annually during Pride month. Travis County Judge Andy Brown, LGBTQIA+ leaders and commissioners held a Pride flag-raising ceremony at the Travis County Government Administration building in downtown Austin to commemorate the moment Tuesday.

A massive multi-agency manhunt including the FBI and U.S. Marshals was launched in Austin on Sunday for an armed former sheriff's detective wanted for killing at least three people near an apartment complex.Austin police said that the three lifeless bodies were all adults, including two Hispanic females, and one Black male. They said they believe the suspect is Stephen Nicholas Broderick, who is a former Travis County Sheriff's Office detective that was charged with raping a 16-year-old girl last summer. The Austin Police Department said the suspect was still on the run Sunday evening and is considered armed and dangerous.

The suspect in the Texas shooting that left three dead Sunday is a former sheriff’s office detective who had been charged with sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl, according to a report. Stephen Nicholas Broderick, 41 — who is still being sought in the deadly shooting spree in Austin — retired from the Travis County Sheriff’s Office last year after being charged and jailed for allegedly molesting the girl ... Broderick was arrested by US Marshals on June 6, three days after the teenager reported that he assaulted her in a home in Elgin, Texas ... Broderick was ordered held on...

<p>AUSTIN (KXAN) — A Texas District Court judge refused to grant the State of Texas an emergency, temporary injunction on Friday, meaning the mask mandate from Austin and Travis County will stay in place for at least two more weeks.</p>

Make room, Austin. Tesla is coming to town. The electric automaker will build a $1.1 billion assembly plant in Travis County, according to a press release from Gov. Greg Abbott. The factory – to be built on 2,100 acres off Texas 130 and Harold Green Road in southeastern Travis County – will employ 5,000 people with wages starting at $35,000 annually.

Bernie Sanders is throwing his weight behind Kim Foxx, the Cook County state’s attorney who is facing several primary challengers after a first term that has been simultaneously celebrated by progressives and come under fire nationally for her handling of actor Jussie Smollett’s case. Sanders’ campaign told POLITICO he is also endorsing Kane County, Ill. state’s attorney candidate Junaid Afeef, Travis County, Texas, district attorney candidate Jose Garza, and Harris County, Texas, district attorney candidate Audia Jones. The endorsements are in keeping with the Vermont senator’s attempts to position himself as the most progressive presidential candidate on criminal justice policy,...

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Austin and Travis County are expected to issue orders Tuesday telling people to stay at home to help prevent the further spread of the coronavirus, Mayor Steve Adler told KXAN Monday. “I would anticipate that probably tomorrow the county judge and I will enter new orders,” he said. City and county lawyers are discussing Monday night when it would take effect. While Austin says it’s still working on the details of the order, it may look something like Dallas County’s rules. During the stay-at-home order time in Dallas, only “essential” businesses will be allowed to continue operating....

A Democratic judge in Texas apologized for saying Republican Gov. Greg Abbott “hates trees because one fell on him.” Abbott, 61, was paralyzed when he was 26 years old after an oak tree fell on him while he was jogging in Houston in July 1984. The incident paralyzed him from the waist down, and he has since used a wheelchair. The crowd reportedly laughed at Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt’s comment made Friday at the Texas Tribune Festival. The remark was made in the context of the Texas Legislature overriding local ordinances like Austin’s tree ordinance. In her apology later...

A Texas sheriff refused to sign a letter agreeing to hold arrested illegal immigrants for ICE. ​Austin, TX – Travis County Sheriff’s Office (TCSO) deputies lost the opportunity to receive lifesaving ballistic vests, after the department’s sheriff decided it was more important to shield illegal immigrants from federal agents. The vests were made available through a unanimously approved state Senate bill in 2017, which allocated $25 million to help Texas law enforcement agencies to purchase the gear for their officers in the wake of the July 7, 2016 police ambush in Dallas that left five officers dead, KXAN reported. In...

A 49-year-old man from Pflugerville is the first person in Travis County to die of swine flu and the 14th known death in Texas, health authorities said Monday.

Full title: Judicial Watch Obtains Copies of 204 ICE Illegal Alien ‘Detainer Requests’ Denied by Travis County, Texas Sheriff Illegal Aliens Protected by Sheriff’s Department Included Inmates Convicted of 34 Acts of Violence, 14 Thefts/Burglaries (Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch today announced that it obtained 204 illegal alien Detainer Requests denied to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) by the Travis County, Texas, Sheriff’s Office. The illegal aliens protected by the Sheriff’s Office were charged or convicted of 31 acts of violence, 14 thefts or burglaries, and three acts or threats of terrorism. Forty-four of the denied requests were for...